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In 1989, defying reports of a softening economy, many antiques and collectibles enthusiasts paid extraordinary prices for the rarest works, some with choice pedigrees, in the booming auction market.
Two spectacular prices fetched last year-$12.1 million for an American 18th Century desk-bookcase and $88,000 for a 1920s German teddy bear-were paid by buyers who, some dealers and collectors said, were affected by auction fever.
They were determined to acquire these objects at any price. In both cases the bidders encountered stiff competition, and the sums they paid far exceeded the auction houses` expectations.
The Steiff teddy bear caused a sensation when it was auctioned at Sotheby`s in London in September, bringing four times the $19,630 that a Steiff bear had brought in May at Christie`s South Kensington in London.
The desk-bookcase, the tallest surviving example of what was a status symbol for merchants in Colonial America, was expected to bring $3 million to $5 million, a price commensurate with its pedigree and proportions.
When the bidding ended at the June sale at Christie`s in New York, the bonnet-topped secretary, made in the 1760s for Nicholas Brown of Providence, R.I., probably by John Goddard of Newport, had surpassed the previous auction record for furniture: $2.97 million paid at Sotheby`s in London in 1988 for a Louis XVI console that once belonged to Marie Antoinette.
``Not all masterpieces hang on the wall,`` said Harold Sack of Israel Sack Inc., the New York dealer, after he bought the Newport secretary for a collector he would not name. His client was identified by trade sources as Texas financier Robert M. Bass.
Records for 1989
Auction fever characterized the bidding for other works too. Some, such as the secretary, had enviable pedigrees; others, such as the bear, were bought out of sheer collecting enthusiasm. These were among the year`s records:
- A Tang horse was sold last December at Sotheby`s in London for $5.95 million, a record for Chinese art, to Keiichi Shimojo, a Japanese dealer who bid for a man whom he would identify only as 70-year-old Tokyo real-estate investor.
- A diamond-encrusted ``Pine Cone`` Easter egg by Peter Carl Faberge was sold last May for $3.1 million, a record for any 19th Century work of the decorative arts, at Christie`s in Geneva to Joan Kroc, owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team.
- A lotus-shaped lamp made about 1900 by Daum and Louis Majorelle of Nancy, France, brought $1.76 million at Sotheby`s in New York in December, a record for Art Nouveau. The buyer was a Japanese bidder who was not identified.
- The $522,500 paid for a Navajo First Phase chief`s blanket by David Walentas, a New York real-estate developer, rewrote the record for American Indian art. The price, four times the previous level, was reached at a November sale at Sotheby`s in New York.
- In May at the same house, Anthony De Lorenzo, a New York dealer, paid $374,000 for a black lacquer screen by Eileen Gray, a record for a work by the designer.
An emotional decision
In collectibles, sometimes emotion plays a major part in the decision to buy.
The look on the Steiff teddy bear`s face proved irresistible to Paul and Rosemary Volpp.
Volpp, a semiretired West Coast manufacturer of parts for construction equipment, recently said he gave two instructions to Jack Wilson, a British friend who bid for him and his wife: ``I said, `I want complete anonymity`; I said, `Buy the bear.` ``
Rarity commanded high prices in several sales. A complex boxwood clock by Thomas Tompion, a Charles II design made in the late 17th Century, brought $1.4 million at Christie`s in London in July, when it was sold to Asprey of London. The price was a record for any clock.
An Art Deco wastebasket by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann was bought by Francois de Menil, a New York architect, for $33,000, a record for a wastebasket, at Sotheby`s in New York in May.
``The market goes forward in leaps and then fills in the gaps,`` said James J. Lally, a New York dealer in Chinese art. ``The Tang horse had that tugging effect, that tractor effect.``
New tests coming
Will these prices ever be repeated?
The Faberge market is soon to be tested. In April, the ``Bonbonniere``
Easter egg is to be auctioned at Christie`s in New York, with a presale estimate of more than $1 million.
Like the ``Pine Cone`` egg, the ``Bonbonniere`` was made not for a Romanov but for Alexander Ferdinandovich Kelch, a gold-mining industrialist from St. Petersburg.
``The big publicity surrounding the price paid for the `Pine Cone`
inspired the client to contact us and to sell it,`` said Marie Stock, one of Christie`s specialists in Russian art.
Dean Failey, who heads Christie`s sales of American furniture and decorative arts, said the extraordinary price paid for the Newport secretary was no fluke, as was demonstrated in Christie`s recent sale of American furniture.
``Everyone-collectors, dealers and auctioneers-was looking at this sale as a barometer of what the coming year holds in store in the American furniture market,`` Failey said.
A Philadelphia 18th Century pier table was sold for $4.62 million-the second-highest price for a piece of furniture-to Sack. And a Philadelphia 18th Century tea table was bought for $1.2 million by Leigh Keno, another New York dealer.
High prices work ``like a magnet,`` Sack said.


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If I were to list America’s big problems here in 2017, I’m not sure it would occur to me note the huge success of Big Tech—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Alphabet/Google, Microsoft—as one of them.
But I know there are those who would. As Axios reporter Kim Hart points out in a longish piece today, there are political activists, academics,m and economists who are deeply worried that such huge concentrations of wealth and data mean the platform companies “have captured the economy.”
And where might this concern about the techopoly lead? Hart includes an ominous quote from a bank analyst: “It could ultimately lead to populist calls for redistribution of the increasingly concentrated wealth of Silicon Valley as the gap between tech capital & human capital grows ever-wider.”
It kind of already is happening. Recall that Elizabeth Warren has cited Amazon, Apple, and Google as examples of concentrated corporate power, comparing them to Wall Street’s “too big to fail” megabanks. And some progressive definitely want to break up Big Tech.
Coming to the issue fresh, I might find the piece—which gives pros and cons—making a slightly stronger argument that “something needs to be done,” such as greater regulation or antitrust action. Not only does it include plenty of scare stats (“The market cap of tech giants is already greater than the GDP of large U.S. cities”), but there is this compelling pro-growth argument from economist Luigi Zingales:
"People don’t fully appreciate that the reason we have Google and Facebook today is because there was an antitrust enforcement action against Microsoft that slowed down the ability of Microsoft to monopolize the internet, the browsers, the data, search, and so on. Today’s monopolies are yesterday’s startups. In a good system, this keeps changing."
But I would at this point still take the other side of the trade. From my The Week column last year, which I think still holds up:
"Google’s top economist Hal Varian had an op-ed in the Financial Times in which he made the case that tech giants are nothing like the robber baron monopolists of old. Rather, they are constantly subject to 'disruption' while continuing to innovate and bring cool new products and services to consumers and small businesses alike. … It wasn’t so long ago that MySpace was the largest and most dominant social networking site. Fortune magazine once declared Yahoo the winner of the 'search engine wars.' The founders and executives at top tech firms hardly think their positions are forever secure. Will smart bots threaten Google’s core search business? Will the fast-growing Chinese market undermine the iPhone in Asia? Look out Facebook, here comes Snapchat! … [One should also point out] all the ways — in addition, perhaps, to an anti-trust rethink on the right — to make the economy more competitive, including reforming occupational licensing laws, less stringent patent and copyright protection, and reviewing tax and regulatory rules that benefit incumbents over startups."

domain: news


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Anheuser-Busch's board has accepted a $52 billion takeover offer from Belgian brewer InBev, creating the world's largest brewer, the two companies announced late Sunday evening.
The company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev, and InBev CEO Carlos Brito will be the CEO of the combined company.
"Together, Anheuser-Busch and InBev will accomplish much more than each can on its own," Brito told reporters in a conference call Monday morning.
The announcement ends a month of hostility between the brewer of Budweiser and InBev, which traded lawsuits when InBev tried to oust A-B's board.
"We always tried to engage with the Anheuser-Busch board, and now as a combined team, we want to look forward as opposed to looking backward," Brito says.
The directors of the combined company will be comprised of InBev's board, A-B President and CEO August Busch IV and one other current or former member of A-B's board.
The North American headquarters for the combined company will be St. Louis, and Brito promised to keep all 12 of A-B's U.S. breweries open.
When asked about the potential for job cuts in St. Louis and elsewhere, Brito skirted the question by pointing out that InBev has added 12,000 jobs in the last three years, and that A-B's plan to cut costs and and offer employees early retirement will still be executed.
Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck's will become the company's leading global brands, using InBev's existing distribution network, according to a combined statement from the company.
Reports surfaced Friday that A-B's board was poised to accept the offer from InBev, which sweetened its offer by $5 to $70 a share in an effort to seal a friendly deal.
InBev, brewer of Stella Artois, unveiled its original $46.3 billion, $65-a-share offer in June, a number the brewer of Budweiser dismissed as insultingly low.
InBev then sought to oust the American company's board and replace it with its own slate, while A-B accused InBev of misleading shareholders about its financial backing and blasted it for having operations in Cuba.
"When I look at other American companies that have done this [extended global reach] before, like McDonald's, Pepsi, Frito-Lays," Brito says, "I feel very excited about how we have the footprint, knowledge of the market and America in a bottle."
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (NYSE: BUD), through its Anheuser-Busch Inc. subsidiary, is the leading domestic brewer, holding a 48.5 percent share of U.S. beer sales. The company also manufactures and recycles aluminum cans and operates theme parks.


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MORE than a week after the deluge, shopowners have returned to the flood-ravaged Arena Square in Kuala Kangsar as the water levels have receded.
Although the lower-lying areas, where parking lots used to be, were still submerged, shops and stalls were considerably dry with brownish stains.
The once vibrant and bustling commercial area was chaotic as mud-laden debris was found strewn everywhere on the sidewalk.
The air was thick with the familiar smell of river water but the locals were undeterred, going about restoring order to their premises.
Some were seen scrubbing their tainted wares, while some were scooping watery dregs out of the drains.
Food stall owners were busy cleaning their crockery and cutleries and other people could be seen getting rid of the mud on floors using running water from a hose.
Among the locals cleaning was fishing equipment trader Ng Ton Yee.
The 58-year-old owner of three shoplots in the arena bemoaned that he had a full plate since he returned to his shop to assess the damage.
“The water had receded yesterday and my heart ached when I saw the sorry state of my shops.
“I have only opened the steel doors of two of them, I have yet to open the third,” he said when met on Saturday.
Ng said he dared not calculate the losses once the cleaning process was done.
“Everything that I sell is filthy because of the floodwaters.
“Even if I could scrub them clean, most of the equipment will have to be sold at half price.
“There is nothing more I can do to remedy my situation since everyone here has also been affected by the floods,” he said, adding that cleaning might take more than a week before business could resume.
The flood late last month had put Ng out of business for more than a week.
Some of Ng’s friends came to help him clean the equipment.
Just like Ng, pau seller Lee Chau Min, 59, was forced to evacuate for more than a week because water levels had risen to the roof of his shop.
“I have been worrying about the torrential downpours since the start of the monsoon season.
“The floods confirmed my worst fears and water gushed into my shop rapidly that day.
“Within half an hour, half of my body was already under water as my workers and I quickly rushed to take some of our valued possessions before being rescued,” he recalled.
Since then, Lee said he returned to the area to monitor the water levels everyday.
“As my shop is situated in a low-lying area, the water had only receded today.
“Many of my ingredients are gone, affecting 70% of my business,” he said.
When asked if he would consider moving to a new shoplot since his current premises was situated in a low-lying area near Sungai Perak, Lee said he had no such plans.
“I have considered it before, but I cannot find a strategic place.
“And even if I move, I worry that I may not be able to afford the new rent.
“I have also been selling paus here for more than 30 years. If I move, I might lose my regular customers as well,” he said.
As he could not operate his business for more than a week, Lee also said it would take roughly the same length of time for the repair and cleaning works to be completed.
“There is no electricity supply to the shops here too.
“We would have to wait for Tenaga Nasional Bhd officers to assess the condition of our wiring system,” he said, adding that he and his wife have had to live frugally according to their savings as a result.
Lee had braved through two major floods before this, in 1967 and 1993, and he said that this was the worst flood he had seen.
His three children, aged between 23 and 28, had also returned to the arena to help out.
Apart from the cleaning, some scavenged through disposed goods for hidden gems.
One of them was village worker Omar Pandak, 39, who had spent the last three days scouring for daily items such as clothes and shoes.
“These have been discarded by the shopowners because they thought no one would buy soiled items.
“I am sure that some of them can be salvaged after you disinfect them and wash the mud away.
“I am taking some of the shoes and clothes home for my wife and children so that we can save some money,” he said.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi paid the arena a visit on Saturday before visiting more flood victims at SK Sayong.
Kuala Kangsar was among some of the flood-hit districts in Perak last month, causing more than 1,100 people in the royal town to be evacuated.
The other affected areas include Kampung Gajah, Lenggong, Kerian, Bota, Parit and Sungai Siput.
The state had recorded more than 7,500 flood victims.


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During this first year, the group has added injection moulding to its manufacturing capability thus widening its offering and adding brands such as Skeyndor and Germaine de Capuccini to its portfolio.
“Improvements in plant layout and staff amenities, health and safety measures and new equipment have all contributed towards greater efficiency at the factory, based in Castellbisbal, outside Barcelona, Spain,” says the company in a release.
What’s more, a system of continuous equipment monitoring is now in use at this and other plants in the Manufacturing Division. “This intelligent system captures data in real time, which facilitates production planning, allows preventive maintenance and aids efficiency analysis, as Quadpack works towards its goal of a first-class OEE (overall equipment efficiency) of at least 85%.”
In terms of product offering, Quadpack Plastic’s repertoire of acrylic jars have been expanded with new materials. Most notably, SMMA and Surlyn have been added for the thickness and transparency they bring to high-end jars, while PETG is a new option especially of interest to sun protection brands, thanks to its compatibility with SPF formulas.
“It has been a busy and productive first year for Quadpack Plastics. I’m proud of what we have achieved. As a manufacturer, the process of improvement is a continuous one but, right now, as we celebrate our first anniversary, we are exactly where we want to be,” said Manufacturing Division Director Ernesto Cara.


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The following video is from Wednesday's MarketFoolery podcast, featuring host Chris Hill and analysts Jeremy Myers and Bryan Hinmon, CFA. In the wake of Pepsi's (PEP 0.31%) latest earnings results, executives continue to tout how much the company is spending on marketing. In this segment the guys discuss why Pepsi is spending increasing amounts on brand marketing, and how it’s starting to pay off. Plus, after a brief debate, all three agree that Beyonce will be great at the 2013 Super Bowl Pepsi-sponsored halftime show. For the full conversation, be sure to check out the video below.
Pepsi's recent strong performance and success in brand marketing is a common feature of the three companies that The Motley Fool selected to feature in our special free report, "3 American Companies Set to Dominate the World." Profiting from our increasingly global economy can be as easy as investing in your own backyard and, in this report, we show you how. Click here now to uncover our top picks for three companies set to soar.


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The UAE’s foreign trade is expected to reach Dh2.2 trillion ($599.4 billion) by the end of 2022 as the Arab world’s second largest economy proves to be an exception, going against the weakening global trade growth trend amid growing macroeconomic headwinds, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai has said.
The Emirates, which recorded a foreign trade volume of Dh1.9 trillion at the end of 2021, expects 15 per cent growth this year, a significant increase compared with the World Trade Organisation’s 3.5 per cent growth expectation for global trade, Sheikh Mohammed tweeted on Wednesday.
“The UAE constitutes an exception in global trade and economy, it constitutes an exception in terms of services and infrastructure [and] it constitutes an exception in distinguished and stable international relations,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
The economy, which bounced back strongly last year, has picked up further growth momentum this year, despite global headwinds and fears of a looming global recession. It is set to grow by more than 6 per cent this year, after expanding by 3.8 per cent in 2021, buttressed by a rebound in tourism, construction and activity related to the Expo 2020 Dubai, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Six per cent growth this year would be the highest since 2011, when the economy grew by 6.9 per cent.
Emirates NBD, Dubai's biggest lender, recently raised its UAE growth forecast to 7 per cent in 2022. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank projects growth of 6.5 per cent.
The value of non-oil foreign trade, a central plank of the UAE's efforts to diversify its economy, grew to Dh583 billion at the end of the third quarter of this year, the highest-ever quarterly trade figure for the country.
It jumped 11 per cent from the preceding quarter and 23 per cent on an annual basis, Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, said in a post on LinkedIn.
The third-quarter export value hit Dh97 billion, another quarterly record that demonstrates the progress being made in the UAE's industrial, manufacturing and service sectors, he said.
For the first nine months of this year, non-oil foreign trade jumped almost 19 per cent on an annual basis to Dh1.64 trillion. The nine-month trade value was 50 per cent more than the same period in 2020.
Nine-month exports, meanwhile, reached Dh275 billion and accounted for almost 20 per cent of the UAE's total trade, a significant jump from 11 per cent just five years ago, he said.
"The UAE’s non-oil foreign trade continues to break all records, underlining our belief that trade is a principal driver of growth, opportunity and sustainable development," Dr Al Zeyoudi added.
Growing foreign trade is part of the UAE's plans to double the size of its economy to Dh3 trillion, from Dh1.4 trillion, by 2030. The country is keen to build economic partnerships and aims to develop closer trade and investment relations with key partners around the world.
The UAE aims to conclude at least 22 Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements by 2031 with individual countries and major economic blocs, Dr Al Zeyoudi told The National earlier this week, as the country started trade talks with Ukraine.
The UAE aims to complete two Cepas before the end of this year and expects to wrap up another four before the end of the first half of 2023 to boost bilateral trade and investments.
The Ministry of Economy expects to conclude Cepas with Turkey and Colombia before the end of this year. Plans are afoot to complete deals with Georgia, Cambodia, Kenya and Ukraine by the middle of next year.
The latest foreign trade figures reflect the country's "agenda to cement deeper, stronger trade ties with key nations around the world", Dr Al Zeyoudi said, adding that Cepas with Indonesia and Israel would come into force soon and negotiations with other major economies will conclude.
"Our trade agenda is delivering real, tangible benefits and confirming our status as an international hub for commerce," he said.


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Manufacturing Boost Helps Bolster Euro Area’s Top Two Economies
(Bloomberg) -- Factory output in the euro area’s two largest economies proved resilient in February even as lockdown restrictions continued in both countries.
German economic activity expanded for an eighth month, with manufacturing growing at the fastest pace in three years, according to IHS Markit.
French factories reported the quickest expansion since early 2018, though the private-sector economy shrank overall as services were hit by closures to restrict the spread of the coronavirus.
Factories in both countries experienced increased supply constraints, with Germany reporting record delays in the delivery of components amid raw material shortages and squeezed transport capacity.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.


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Nathu-la: One important benefit of the resumption of Sino-Indian border trade at Nathu-la is political, for both the countries.
In fact, the decision on beginning the border trade may have been taken more as a part of the ongoing confidence-building measures between the two countries rather than out of commercial considerations, says a senior official of a central security agency.
By agreeing to resume trade at Nathu-la, China has accepted that Sikkim is a part of India, he says. "The setting up of an immigration and Customs point at Nathu-la is an indirect admission that it is the international border.
For, Indian trade passes will be accepted at that point." And India has also accepted Tibet Autonomous Region as a part of China, an issue of dispute since 1913.
What is ruled out, however, is the Chinese eagerness to get access to Kolkata and Haldia ports via Nathu-la. "China had hinted at this in different forums, but India remained non-committal," says the official.
The agreement that had been signed in 2003 was just for a border trade, and India wanted to keep it that way, says the official. Reservations persist on two counts security considerations and the possibility of dumping of Chinese products.
Officially, the standpoint of the army is that the border dispute between India and China should not hamper trade, says the Eastern Command spokesman. But sources in Gangtok reveal that local army units have reservations about opening the border totally for trade. This scare has grown after the Chinese completed the railway line up to Lhasa.
One manifestation of the reservation is the reluctance to open the border to tourism as well. The Chinese are "pressing" India to open the border for tourism, says a senior Sikkim government official.
But, according to the security official, if entry of tourists are allowed, a lot of people will cross the border. What the security agencies are apprehensive of is the Chinese attempt to politically influence the Tibetan community living in Sikkim.
A report from Beijing says China accused India of erecting unilateral trade barriers, allowing only 15 items to enter India, while allowing the export of 29 items in China.


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- Corvette Heroes is hosting a nationwide raffle of 36 Chevrolet Corvettes — one from every production year between 1953 and 1989.
- Before being restored for the contest, the Corvette collection was hidden in different Manhattan garages for 25 years.
- Benefits from the giveaway will go to the National Guard Educational Foundation.
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
A historic collection of 36 classic Corvettes saved from dilapidation after being hidden underground in a Manhattan garage for decades will soon be given away in a nationwide sweepstakes.
Corvette Heroes is hosting The Lost Corvettes sweepstakes that will be giving away the cars that it touts as the "greatest barn find in automotive history."
The Corvette collection has an unusual backstory: this isn't the first time all 36 of the Corvettes have been given away together. They were originally a part of a 1989 giveaway that landed the cars in the hands of a Long Island man who then passed the cars along to artist Peter Max. Max, however, left the Corvette collection untouched in multiple Manhattan garages for decades before the current team acquired the fleet and decided to host a new giveaway.
The sweepstakes collection includes a Corvette from every production year between 1953 to 1989. This does not include 1983, the one year Chevrolet didn't make a Corvette, although Chris Mazzilli, a Corvette enthusiast and integral player in the giveaway, created his own version of a 1983 Corvette for an episode of History Channel's special series "The Lost Corvettes" which focuses on the restoration of the 36 car collection.
The giveaway will stop accepting admissions on April 30, and the drawing of the winners will take place on or near May 15. Entrants cannot select which car they'd like to win as everyone is automatically entered for all 36 Corvettes. However, people can purchase as many entries as they'd like: a ticket costs $3, five tickets cost $10, and 20 tickets cost $25. The proceeds will go to supporting the National Guard Educational Foundation.
Oregon is exempt from the giveaway due to sweepstakes laws.
Keep scrolling to learn about the unusual history of these 36 Corvettes:
This isn’t the first time this set of Corvettes has gone up for auction.
In 1989, VH1 held a sweepstakes that gave all 36 Corvettes to a single owner.
"We walked into this conference room and [a guy] picked up a blanket over the table and in it were little reproductions of 36 Corvettes," CEO of Bungalow Media + Entertainment and member of the startup team at MTV Robert Friedman told Business Insider about the meeting where the initial sweepstakes was first pitched.
"We took a look and our mouths were wide open ... and we decided this would be, in effect ... our tenfold promotion that helped define what VH1 meant to at that time the American consumer," he continued.
VH1 paid $610,000 for the vehicles, according to DesignYourTrust.
"Just the imagination of one person winning these 36 cars...it was something we could really taste by taking a look at this conference room," Freidman said.
At the time, people had to either dial in or send a postcard to participate at $1.99 per entry. About 1.5 to 2 million people entered the original contest, Mike Heller told Business Insider. The Heller family — along with the Spindler family — currently owns the Corvette collection.
"None of us went into this thinking we could make some money," Freidman said. "The numbers were so big, in the millions of entries, and as a result, we actually made people [talk] about it being $2 or $3 or $4 million of profit."
"No one thought about this as a revenue-producing project," he continued. "It was an image project."
Dennis Amodeo from Huntington, Long Island won the sweepstake.
Amodeo then sold the 36 vehicles to Peter Max, a commercial pop artist who had been following the sweepstake, according to Heller.
Amodeo struck the deal with Max, who then took the cars back to Manhattan once the giveaway ceremony was over.
At this point, all of the vehicles were presentable and drivable but needed work, according to Freidman and Heller.
Max planned on painting all the cars for an exhibition and auctioning them off again at Yankee Stadium, according to Mazzilli.
But in the end, the most Max did was some paper test color strips on the side of the cars.
Instead of being a massive art collection, the Corvettes sat untouched in Manhattan garages for 25 years.
“It was the beginning of the contemporary art craze,” Freidman said. “[We] were going to paint these things, auction them off and do something for charity, but I never heard anything else. I just assumed they were sold one by one.”
Heller's father, Scott, had a working relationship with Max and helped move Max's Corvettes around the city whenever the garage or building the cars were stored at was sold.
“We watched as these cars were slowly falling into disrepair over the years,” Heller recalled.
Finally, in 2014, the Heller and Spindler families purchased the Peter Max Collection after Max decided he wasn't going to do anything with the vehicles.
Around this time, the families approached Chris Mazzilli, a Corvette car collector, and asked if he wanted to help consult and restore the cars. Mazzilli is a "die-hard Corvette expert and builder," according to the History Channel.
Source: History Channel


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It was almost anticlimatic when the announcement came in under the radar Thursday that Dell would break with its long-standing policy of selling Intel-only computers. The confirmation came tacked on to another disappointing Dell quarterly financial report, which perhaps speaks volumes on why the move to AMD was finally made.
It was almost anticlimatic when the announcement came in under the radar Thursday that Dell would break with its long-standing policy of selling Intel-only computers. The confirmation came tacked on to another disappointing Dell quarterly financial report, which perhaps speaks volumes on why the move to AMD was finally made.Dell says it will begin selling servers based on AMD's dual-core Opteron processor before year-end. No word yet if AMD-based PCs and laptops may also follow.
Dell is the last of the big-four computer manufacturers to begin offering AMD-based systems, joining Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. The move comes after AMD has grown its share of the x86 processor market past 20%, and the potential for 25% or more of the market seems reasonable for this year.
It also comes after a year of Dell-AMD rumors that took flight when Dell inexplicably began selling standalone AMD processors on its Web site last fall, then grew larger earlier this month when Dell announced it would join the AMD-led The Green Grid consortium working on strategies for improved energy efficiency in the data center.
The cynical answer to "Why now?" for Dell is that Intel, as a result of AMD stepping up its legal battle against Intel and its alleged monopolistic practices, has been forced to curtail much of its "favored son" incentives that have kept Dell as an Intel-only customer in the past.
Ben Williams, VP of North American marketing for AMD, says "it has always been a mater of when, not if (Dell would offer AMD), based on the fact that AMD's technology is one that customers are asking for...I think it was pure customer requests to utilize our technology."
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THE NATION`S major retailers Thursday posted modest sales gains for December, which accounts for nearly half of their annual profits, but most fell short of their double-digit expectations.
``The sales overall were below expectations,`` said Jeffrey Feiner, a retail analyst with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. ``In contrast to the double-digit gains that many retailers expected, retailers fell short and reported only modest increases.``
``Basically, business picked up three days before Christmas and continued the week after, but the price was heavy markdowns (taken by the stores),``
said Monroe Greenstein, an analyst with Bear, Stearns & Co. ``It was a better Christmas season for consumers than retailers.``
Other analysts agreed, noting that the heavily promotional nature of the holiday season finally attracted shoppers but could wreak havoc on many retailers` earnings. One analyst predicted that reporting retailers will see a 5 percent decline in profits for the fourth quarter.
A NOTABLE exception was K mart Corp., whose sales spurted 17.4 percent, to $3.59 billion in the five weeks ended Dec. 26, a record gain for the No. 2 retailer. Sales for the year-to-date at the Troy, Mich.-based retailer increased 11.7 percent, to $19.58 billion, from $17.53 billion a year earlier. Sears, Roebuck and Co., the country`s largest retailer, said its sales rose 4.6 percent, to a record $3.43 billion, from $3.27 billion in the year-earlier period. In the fiscal year so far, Chicago-based Sears` sales rose 5.6 percent, to $21.97 billion, from $20.81 billion in the preceding year.
J.C. Penney Co., the country`s third-ranked retailer, posted December sales of $2.28 billion, up 5.8 percent from last year`s $2.13 billion. In the 48 weeks ended Dec. 26, Penney`s sales increased 12.4 percent, to $11.66 billion, from $10.37 billion.
No. 4 F.W. Woolworth Co. reported that its five-week sales rose 3.4 percent, to $971.11 million, from $939.25 million a year earlier. In the 48 weeks, total domestic and foregn sales rose 4.7 percent, to $5.37 billion, from $5.13 billion.
FEDERATED Department Stores Inc., the nation`s fifth-largest retailer and America`s largest department- and specialty-store operator, said its five- week sales rose 10.3 percent, to $1.72 billion, from $1.56 billion in 1983.
The country`s next-largest department- and specialty-store operator, Dayton-Hudson Corp., said sales in the five weeks increased 15.8 percent, to $1.47 billion, from $1.27 billion a year earlier.
Montgomery Ward & Co., the Chicago-based subsidiary of Mobil Corp. and the country`s sixth-largest retailer, said its sales edged up 0.1 percent, to $1.02 billion, from $1 billion a year earlier.


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Showing 14,249 results for: BGS Acquisition Corporation?rss=1
The talk in media circles is focused on what happens if the AT&T deal is stopped by the government and Time Warner is forced to go it alone.
Broadcom’s takeover bid for Qualcomm may now be in jeopardy because of a little-known committee that can essentially kill multibillion-dollar global deals.
No matter who wins in the fight over the proposed reunion of CBS and Viacom, both companies will be profoundly affected and the media landscape will be transformed.
The cable giant’s acknowledgment that it is prepping a bid for Fox appears intended to drive a wedge between Fox’s shareholders and the Murdochs.
Publicly held corporations now must disclose their median employee compensation. Those numbers gave us an idea for a new analytical approach to an age-old struggle.
Disney is pursuing new growth by buying most of 21st Century Fox, building two streaming services and expanding its theme parks.
Federal regulators are poised to impose a $1 billion penalty on Wells Fargo for a variety of alleged misdeeds.
Executives at the deeply indebted conglomerate say it still enjoys support from lenders, even as bond prices fall and regulators raise questions.
A law Congress passed to keep itself from spending too much could have consequences for many federal programs.
Though malls are struggling, Unibail-Rodamco is set to acquire Westfield, the owner of shopping centers including the mall at One World Trade Center.


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Sony will be the first to offer a Google TV device in Germany, with sales beginning in September. Spiegel.de reported that Sony would make the announcement at IFA at the end of this month. Sony will then sell the set-top box, confusingly named “NSZ-GS7,” mid-September for € 199.
The launch of the Google TV platform could be a major stepping-stone for Google’s European TV expansion. At CES this year, Google highlighted its European plans with hopes that it would boost sales.
We will be live at IFA to cover the device when it is announced. Wer aufgeregt?
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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Canada's Filipino Restaurant Month officially kicks off in April
Canada’s first-ever Filipino Restaurant Month kicked off last year, and lucky for us, it’s officially returning.
The Philippine Department of Tourism and the Philippine Consulate General in Calgary announced the return of the month-long event today, and it will again run from April 1 to 30, 2023.
This is a great chance to eat, drink, and celebrate the cuisine and culture of the Philippines.
This project, which will be jointly executed by the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa and the Philippine Consulates General in Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver, will highlight Filipino eats, ingredients, chefs, and restaurants throughout Canada.
In its first year, 40 restaurants across seven Canadian provinces and 18 cities participated in the month-long event. More than 1,000 orders of prix fixe meals were served. This year, the FRMC has high hopes those numbers will be even higher.
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“Year 2 of the FRMC promises to be bigger and better as it will build on the success of our inaugural run last year,” said Zaldy Patron, the Philippine consulate general to Calgary, in a press release.
“We encourage the 957,000-strong Filipino community across Canada to become our ambassadors of goodwill and join us in promoting and mainstreaming the Filipino cuisine in this country,” Patron added.
In April, select Filipino restaurants in Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver will offer prix fixe menus, allowing diners to explore the awesome flavours of this unique and much-loved cuisine.
The full list of participating restaurants will be released closer to Filipino Restaurant Month. Stay tuned!
With files from Hanna McLean


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The brewing world, once dominated almost exclusively by men, has started to get more diverse, with women across the country joining the ranks at breweries working as everything from taproom managers to head brewers.
Flagship Brewery in Staten Island, New York recently held a Women in Craft Beer Forum as a way to perhaps help grow those numbers.
“The idea was inspired by the Women’s Beer Forum started by Ting Su, Co-Founder of Eagle Rock Brewery in Los Angeles,” says Flagship’s Patrick Morse. “As a former brewer at Eagle Rock, I saw first hand the success and impact their women’s group had; therefore, I had always wanted to do something similar at Flagship.”
While most women’s groups tend to be started at breweries where there already is a female brewer on staff, Flagship actually doesn’t currently have a female brewer.
“I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with many female brewers over the years, including a few in NYC. There is a growing number within the profession, and our Women’s Craft Beer Society is meant to help encourage that growth,” Morse says. “We would certainly love to have a female brewer at Flagship.”
The idea for the Women’s Craft Beer Society at Flagship actually came from Morse’s wife.
“My wife Tasya reminded me, and Flagship’s co-founders Jay Sykes and Matt McGinley, how great it would be to start a women’s beer group similar to Eagle Rock’s here on Staten Island,” says Morse. “We had been trying to think of ways to do more community based events in Flagship’s taproom, and this idea was at the top of our list.”
The first meeting of the group featured local brewer and entrepreneur Katarina Martinez from Lineup Brewing, a new brewery in Brooklyn.
“She told her inspirational story of how she entered the world of craft beer. We did a flight tasting of a few English style ESBs, featuring Kat’s ESB beer called ‘Under Pressure.’ We finished up the session with a casual Q&A that was very educational and kept the group super engaged,” says Morse.
And Martinez’s appearance is only just the beginning. The next meeting of the group will be December 8th and will feature Lauren Grimm, the co-founder of Grimm Artisanal Ales.
“The attendees were diverse, which is why I think establishing this group is so empowering. All different ages and levels of beer knowledge,” says Morse. “We had a few women that didn’t even like beer that much, which was great because by the end of the session they were some of most intrigued and interested in when the next meeting was going to be.”


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New home sales fall 3.4% in August
Sept. 26, 2017 - Sales of newly built, single-family homes in August fell 3.4 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units from an upwardly revised July reading, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. This was the lowest sales reading since December 2016. However, year-to-date, new home sales are 7.5 per cent above their level over the same period last year.
"This month's report is another reminder that builders need to manage rising supply-side costs to meet consumer demand for affordably priced homes," said Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas.
"The year-to-date growth shows that new home sales are continuing to make consistent, long-term gains," said NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz. "However, we may see more volatility in the next few months as communities affected by the recent hurricanes experience construction delays and other economic disruptions."
The inventory of new homes for sale was 284,000 in August, which is a 6.1-month supply at the current sales pace.
Regionally, new home sales remained unchanged in the Midwest. Sales fell 2.6 per cent in the Northeast, 2.7 per cent in the West and 4.7 per cent in the South.
September 26, 2017 By National Association of Home Builders
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As we head towards our EU departure this Friday, Sir David Attenborough has been named the nation’s dream Prime Minister.
Tate Liverpool and National Museums Liverpool have collaborated with Apple Corps Ltd. to present the remixed version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
With the return of tea brand Brooke Bond last week, Brits have been pondering their favourite comebacks over the years.
Strike Media’s Climate Pledge will see one tree planted for every piece of unique coverage achieved in 2020.
Older Generations are paving the way with Tech and the Environment.
Borehamwood has a long association with film studios, going back over 100 years, while the first for-TV studios were built by ATV in the late 1950s.
The BBC has announced a major commitment to boosting disability representation on and off screen in 2020.
Reboot Online Video Marketing has investigated 16 of the most notable Halloween adverts of all time, ranking those with the most YouTube views, as well as the brands that cash in the most per advert.
Twenty telly baddies have been chosen by viewers as some of the evilest of all time.
The silver jubilee of The Sexual Freedom Awards takes place back at Clapham Grand after a decade away from the venue.


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Thanks in part to the smartphone market's rapid move toward 64-bit-capable processors, ARM's licensable CPU cores have seen an upsurge in high-visibility deployments this year. From the Exynos version of Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 to newer offerings like the Qualcomm-based LG G4, ARM's Cortex-A57 has become the new standard for processing power in Android phones.
That's a bit of a change from the last couple of years, when custom cores like Qualcomm's Krait dominated the same landscape.
The folks at ARM know that they have to keep progressing in order to remain competitive with the customers who license their instruction set for custom core development. Thus, they've already announced the next-generation Cortex-A72 CPU core and, last week at a press event in London, they revealed the first details of this new core's internal architecture.


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The National Safety Council reports that 2016 was the deadliest year on US roads in a decade. Autonomous vehicles could eliminate the estimated 90 percent of crashes that are caused by human error, but they aren't ready yet. There are legal and practical matters to sort out and consumer advocate groups have urged regulators not to rush self-driving cars to market before they have been thoroughly tested. In the meantime, semi-autonomous vehicles with automated safety features are the next best thing.
According to the US Department of Transportation's latest study (2014), 10 percent of crashes are caused by distraction, and it's no surprise since so many drivers have their eyes on their smartphones instead of on the road. According to NHTSA, "Data shows the average time your eyes are off the road while texting is five seconds. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded." Yikes.
Technology caused the problem -- and newer technology can help solve it. Semi-autonomous safety features already include adaptive cruise control, automatic headlight adjustments, parking assistance, automatic emergency braking, and more. Now a new system called eyeSight uses embedded computer vision to detect when a driver is distracted or drowsy. An infrared camera tracks the driver's eyes while the computer vision and AI software detect the driver's state and analyze it in real time.
A representative from eyeSight Technologies tells us:
The uniqueness and benefit are derived from the combination of camera and software together, each optimized and tailored to complement the other. In addition, thanks to the strength of eyeSight's algorithm, the software is able to run on the minimum hardware requirements in terms of camera and CPU usage, resulting in a more economical package for tier ones and vehicle manufacturers.
If the driver seems drowsy or distracted, the car will alert the driver and take action through the vehicle's other safety systems, such as adjusting the adaptive cruise control to increase the distance from the car ahead. EyeSight can't detect drunk driving yet, but this capability is under development and expected to be ready in the next couple of years.
Embedded computer vision can also be used for convenience, such as identifying a driver and then adjusting the seat, mirrors, and temperature to that driver's preferences. There is also a time-of-flight sensor that is installed in the center console to provide gesture control. Drivers can use simple hand motions to answer phone calls, turn up the radio's volume, or communicate with the car in other ways. A promotional video for eyeSight shows a driver giving a thumbs up to "like" nearby businesses or songs that are playing, although that feature seems counterproductive since it creates a whole new set of distractions.
VIDEO: MIT thinks 3,000 Uber rides could replace all the taxis in NYC


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Revlon has reported its results for the first quarter of the current financial year. The US beauty behemoth saw sales fall 1.3 percent to US$553.2 million in the three months ended March 31, 2019 (+2.3 percent in constant currency terms).
However, there were positive signs among the company’s balance sheet, with both Revlon and Elizabeth Arden divisions delivering ‘strong net sales growth’ versus the prior-year period. Operating loss was considerably improved at US$23.2 million compared to US$61.7 million in the same period last year while adjusted EBIDTA stood at US$38.8 million, compared to US$4.2 million during the prior-year period.
“We are very pleased with the continued momentum in our business during the first quarter of 2019 driven by strong growth in Revlon and Elizabeth Arden. We also remain encouraged by the positive consumer response to our first half 2019 new product introductions. Our strategic focus areas of e-commerce, Elizabeth Arden skin care, China and Travel Retail continued to perform exceedingly well, and as a result of improved operational performance, we achieved our third consecutive quarter of year-over-year Adjusted EBITDA growth,” said Debra Perelman, President and CEO of Revlon.


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Cannabis-infused edibles brand Cheeba Chews announced the launch of its Wellness Line, integrating unique cannabinoid combinations into its nostalgic taffies. The first SKUs include the Trifecta Caramel Taffy with 5 milligrams each of CBG, CBD and THC, a cannabinoid combination Cheeba bills as unlike anything else currently available to consumers, and the Sleepy Time Chocolate Taffy with 2.5 milligrams of CBN and 5 milligrams of THC.
“The first customers to try our new products say the mental focus, mild psychoactivity and overall well-being they experience from the wellness line products are exactly what they’ve been searching for in cannabis,” said Cheeba Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder Eric Leslie. “To know how our wellness line is improving the daily routines of our customers is driving us to dive further into other cannabinoid innovations.”
In addition to the well-known cannabinoids THC and CBD, the cannabis plant has hundreds of other compounds, including the emerging cannabinoids cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabinol (CBN). Growing research indicates that emerging cannabinoids have significant effects as they interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system.
With a 2021 Brightfield survey, “Wellness Trends to Watch in 2021,” showing 56% of Americans report feeling stress and anxiety this year, more cannabis consumers are shopping for products focused on relief and wellness with a low-THC dose that’s designed for everyday use.
Sold in 20 packs, individuals can purchase the new Cheeba Chews wellness products along with its other products in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada and Oklahoma.


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U.S. stocks ended Tuesday's session to the downside as oil prices declined and Wall Street factored in a near-term rate increase.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.20%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.26%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.18%.
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said the U.S. labor market is "very close to full employment" in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, adding he couldn't say whether the next interest rate increase would be "one and done."
"We can choose the pace. But we choose the pace on the basis of data that are coming in," Fischer said in the interview.
"So I don't think we know at the time we start whether it's one and done or several. It depends entirely on what happens in the economy," Fischer said.
At a speech last week in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the argument for a rate hike "has strengthened in recent months."
West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled lower by 1.34% to $46.35 a barrel. Investors are awaiting Wednesday's weekly reading on crude inventories, which are expected to increase.
The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose to 101.1 in August, topping estimates of 97.3. The index stood at 96.7 in July.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price index rose 5.1% year over year in June, in line with May's increase.
Apple (AAPL) shares slipped 1% after the European Union found that Ireland gave the technology giant illegal tax breaks to the tune of 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion).
Jasper Lawler, a market analyst with CMC Markets, based in London, said Apple has a long tenure in Ireland, setting up shop in the nation even before its legendary iPhone was released.
"Some of the other big tech companies have followed suit -- Amazon, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft and Facebook have thousands of employees in Ireland," Lawler said to TheStreet TV. "From Ireland's perspective, that's been good for their economy."
Potash (POT) shares rose 11% after the fertilizer maker confirmed it was talking to Agrium (AGU) about a possible merger. Agrium shares rose 6%. The news also sent shares of rival fertilizer company CF Industries Holdings (CF) higher by 4.4%.
Mondelez offered $23 billion for Hershey last month, but was turned down.
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) tumbled 20.5% after the retailer posted an adjusted quarterly loss of 25 cents a share, wider than analysts' expectations, and issued a soft outlook.
Shoe retailer DSW (DSW) slipped 10.4% after reporting a 1.2% decline in second-quarter same-store sales. The company reported earnings of 35 cents a share, beating estimates of 30 cents.
After 20 years with American Airlines (AAL) , Scott Kirby is jumping ship to United Continental Holdings (UAL) , taking the role of president. United shares rose 9% and American Airlines shares rose 2%.


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Yet more big names are being added to the list of companies that are staying away from the world’s biggest mobile tradeshow, Mobile World Congress (MWC), with Facebook and Intel among the latest to cancel their attendance. Due to take place in Barcelona just under two weeks’ time, on February 24-27, the event has been hampered by the ongoing situation with the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Facebook employees won’t be attending this year’s Mobile World Congress due to the evolving public health risks related to coronavirus,” said a spokesperson for Facebook, in a message worded not unlike a number of others that have been put out by others choosing not to attend. “We will continue to collaborate with the GSMA and our partners and thank them for their efforts.”
Nokia — and the phone maker which licenses its brand name, HMD — has also now pulled out, writing that “we believe the prudent decision is to cancel our participation at Mobile World Congress”.
“We want to express our thanks to the GSMA, the governments of China and Spain as well as Catalonia’s Generalitat, and many others who have worked tirelessly to address the challenges resulting from the novel coronavirus, and they have our full support as they move forward,” Nokia added.
Spanish publication El Pais is also reporting that the GSMA, the body that organizes the event, is due to meet on Friday and consider its next steps, which could include suspending the event. It also notes that major carriers Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom are also considering options, although nothing has been confirmed yet. Orange has told us it still intends to participate.
We have reached out to the GSMA and it has declined to comment on the El Pais report. “We don’t comment on internal meetings,” the spokesperson said. (The GSMA would be meeting regularly regardless in the lead-up to the event.)
The annual international telco industry event typically attracts more than 100,000 delegates from around 200 countries across the conference’s four days — with every major telco and tech giant exhibiting (with the exception of Apple which prefers its own events).
But with international concern now focused on the novel coronavirus outbreak — which was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization late last month and as of today has infected over 40,000 people with more than 1,000 deaths — a growing number of companies have announced they are pulling out of attending.
Others, such as Telenor, TCL and ZTE, have cancelled press events or said they will scale back their presence though are still planning to attend. Today Chinese phone maker Xiaomi also confirmed it will attend — tweeting a statement detailing the precautions it’s taking.
Having carriers pulling out of the event is a huge deal, since they are the key “buyers” at the trade show and at the heart of the organization, the GSMA, that is behind it. And while big tech companies like Facebook are a newer, but now very regular, presence the event — which underscores how MWC has changed over the years, and how the mobile industry is trying to evolve with the times, where “tech” and “telco” are no longer distinct entities — they are nonetheless leaving a large hole in the makeup of the show by not being there.
The GSMA has announced a series of restrictions intended to reduce the risk of the coronavirus infections at the conference, including a ban on travellers coming from the province in China where the virus was first identified. It has also said it will implement temperature screening of attendees; require conference-goers self-certify they have not come into contact with an infected person; and is suggesting delegates adopt a ‘no hand shake’ policy in a bid to limit contact.
There is a lot riding on MWC going ahead. The El Pais report notes that MWC generates some 14,000 temporary jobs and generates €492 million (nearly $540 million) for the city. Per the GSMA site, more than 2,400 companies are exhibiting at MWC this year. Yesterday, a spokesperson told TechCrunch that MWC had 2,800 companies signed up to exhibit, but it’s not sharing how many are still going to be there.
See below for a list of companies that have cancelled their attendance at the conference — we’ll update with any additions as we get them.
Organizations that have cancelled their attendance at MWC 2020
ARCEP, France’s FCC (confirmed via email)
AT&T (confirmed via email)
F5 Networks (confirmed via email)
Facebook (confirmed via email)
Gigaset (confirmed via email)
HPE (confirmed via email)
KMW Communications (confirmed via email)
McAfee (confirmed via email)
Micron Technology (confirmed via email)
Radwin (confirmed via email)
Sprint (confirmed via email)
STMicroelectronics (confirmed via email)
Viber (confirmed via email)
World Wide Technology (confirmed via email)
This article was updated to reflect the fact that Rakuten has now told us it is cancelling attendance, in line with what we were told by an earlier spokesperson — but which the company initially denied. We also updated the list after Viber confirmed they will no longer attend, despite CEO Djamel Agaoua previously telling us they would.


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Prof. Eric Goldman at the Search Engine Land writes a pretty interesting article arguing against Google’s practice of publishing self-promoting ads on its search engine results pages. According to Professor Goldman, while it is true that most companies use their own services to cross-promote their offerings, Google is different in that the company runs its advertisements through a keyword-bidding auction system. Now, with all the internal information about keyword prices available, Google may be in a position of conflict in their interest by using their Adwords system to promote their products.
Let me put in an example here. Google has a finance website at Finance.Google.com and as you all know, Finance is one of the most competitive segments in online advertising. Now, will Google benefit from knowing the right price to bid for keywords since they own the algorithm? That means when Google’s rivals in the finance segment lose money guessing a bidding amount, Google will exactly know how much to bid and thus effectively improving their returns on marketing. Alternately, will Google be inflating the ad spend from advertisers by taking part in the advertising themselves. Let’s for a moment assume that advertisers bid $1 per click to take the top position on the sponsored listings. Will Google be affecting this bid amount by, say bidding for a keyword at $3? This would imply advertisers will have to increase their ad spend in order to beat Google’s house ads and take the top spot. That’s most definitely a conflict of interest.
It will be interesting to see Google’s response on the issue. Is a lawsuit likely? I think so.


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Chase debit card customers are being affected after more than 2 million shoppers used bank debit cards at Target stores during the data breach from Nov. 27 until Dec. 15. Tthose shoppers are now finding they have lower limits on how much cash can be taken out of their teller machines and how much they can spend at stores, according to a Chicago Tribune report on Saturday.
On Saturday, JPMorgan Chase & Co informed its customers who used Chase-brand debit cards at Target during the security breach that they are limited to only $100 a day of cash withdrawals and $300 per day for purchases on their cards. According to the report, this measure involves approximately 2 million accounts which equates to some 10 percent of Chase debit card owners. Ordinarily, a Chase debit card cardholder’s cash withdrawal limit is from $200 to $500 while the purchase limit is $500.
Chase asserts that its actions are precautionary in an effort to prevent criminals from taking money from customer accounts. Chase, as well as other banks, have said that unauthorized transactions reported by customers will be covered for their customers.
According to Reuters, while other banks such as Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp have taken measures to protect their customers’ accounts, none have gone to the extent that Chase has. Other banks have not specified the precautions they have in place at this time.
Target-specific, the store’s Redcard has reportedly enacted a deeper monitoring protocol, and like many of the banks, the new measures have not been specified for the media at this time.
Target stores were basically hacked from Nov. 27 through Dec. 15, 2013, putting persons who swiped their payment cards at Target stores at risk of having their cards duplicated and used via criminal activity. Overall, more than 40 million customers may have been affected.
Target is giving customers a 10% discount on Saturday and Sunday. The discount is not good for all items – such as not being good for gift cards, mobile phones, video games and some other items. The 10% discount is the same that the store’s workers receive, according to Gregg Steinhafel, Target’s chief executive.


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We’re less than a month away from the day when Samsung will unveil its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 9. The company has only confirmed the date for the launch event so far and it will reveal the information about pricing and availability on August 9. A new report out of South Korea reveals that the Galaxy Note 9 pre-orders will open in mid-August.
Galaxy Note 9 pre-orders
The Galaxy Note 9 will be unveiled a couple of weeks earlier than its predecessor. Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 8 on August 23 last year and the handset was released on September 15. Samsung hasn’t confirmed the release date as yet but we know that it will unveil the new flagship on August 9.
Multiple reports have pegged the Galaxy Note 9 release date on August 24. It has been reiterated in today’s report as well which claims that the Galaxy Note 9 pre-orders will open in mid-August, at least in Samsung’s home country of South Korea.
It’s not difficult to believe that this might be the case. It’s common for pre-orders to open a few days after a new flagship has been announced. Samsung’s carrier and retail partners will accept Galaxy Note 9 pre-orders for a week or so before eventually releasing the handset.
The new handset might arrive a bit later in some markets, though, but we can expect all major markets to receive the Galaxy Note 9 on the release date. The Galaxy Note 8 was officially available in 42 countries across the globe on its release date which included the United States, South Korea, Singapore and major markets in Europe.


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16 Jan 2016
New Delhi: New generation features will be showcased at Auto Expo 2016, major automobile manufacturers said yesterday. Indian auto giant Maruti Suzuki whose pavilion is themed as Tranformotion after 'Transformation Through Motion' said, "Besides new models and concepts, Maruti Suzuki will showcase a new-generation vehicle platform and a new engine”.
12 Jan 2015
New Delhi: Country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India is eyeing 20 per cent growth in vehicle exports this fiscal at 1.2 lakh units, riding on increased sales in non-European markets like Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
09 Mar 2016
New Delhi: Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) today launched in the Japanese market the premium hatchback Baleno which has been manufactured in India by its subsidiary Maruti Suzuki India.
26 May 2014
New Delhi: The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Monday launched a CNG variant of its latest compact car 'Celerio', priced at Rs 4.68 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
02 Mar 2015
New Delhi: Car sales in India were at a slow lane in February with main players Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai posting single digit growth during the month while others like GM India and Mahindra & Mahindra saw decline in sales.
01 Sep 2014
New Delhi: The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India reported 26.9 percent increase in its total sales in August at 1,10,776 units as against 87,323 units in the same month of previous year.
05 Jul 2015
Nashik: In its bid to crack the big vehicle segment, Maruti Suzuki India, known for its small cars, is establishing a new setup of retail outlets under Nexa brand to sell premium products starting with its upcoming S-Cross model.
01 Jul 2015
New Delhi: Domestic car sales were in a slow lane in June with major manufacturers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai posting single digit growth as the auto industry continued to face challenging times.
20 Aug 2014
New Delhi: The country's largest selling carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India, is all set to launch its latest sensation 'Ciaz' in India by mid-September as the production of the vehicle has already begun at its Manesar factory.
01 Oct 2014
New Delhi: India's largest passenger car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki on Wednesday reported a healthy sales growth of 4.6 percent in total sales, including exports, for September at 109,742 units.


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Felixstowe Port’s ongoing attempts to resolve traffic congestion and slow turnaround times have been dealt a blow, after the chief executive of rival Peel Ports said customers should snub it in favour of northern terminals. Mark Whitworth said retailers and importers needed to tell freight forwarders and shipping lines that “enough was enough”. Felixstowe has been plagued with problems ever since it introduced a new IT system in June. In July, the RHA demanded compensation for the subsequent delays suffered […]
Hauliers working out of Felixstowe Port are enduring three-hour turnarounds, almost a month after the container terminal overhauled its IT system.
Pentalver has signed a deal that will see it open a vehicle pre-clearance facility for the export of second-hand vehicles. The deal is a joint venture with New Zealand-based vehicle logistics firm Autohub and Japanese inspection company Jevic and is based at Pentalver’s depot in Felixstowe. The facility has the capacity to handle 30,000 cars per year. Pentalver MD Chris Lawrenson, says: “Our joint venture with Autohub and Jevic is a first for the UK and demonstrates how we work […]
Truck turnaround times at the Port of Liverpool have fallen after owner Peel Ports said it had turned its focus to road haulage efficiencies. It said October was a “record-breaking” month for its container operations with quayside and landside throughput exceeding all previous figures with year-on-year growth of 12%. The port also said turnaround times for hauliers is now consistently below 40 minutes. David Huck, Peel Ports MD said: “More businesses are realising that it makes more sense to ship […]


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Always-on, high-speed connectivity is the ticket to doing awesome stuff in technology today.
But in a continent like Africa, ‘The Cloud’ is something ‘The Rain’ falls out of.
And still, innovation in the technology realm has managed to flourish and even outpace the more developed world.
We’re talking about television services that use the DVBH standard to beam football matches and news into rural villages; social networks that were designed for exclusive use on mobile phone platforms; funds transfer and electronic payment systems that require nothing more than a SMS text message; insurance products that can be provisioned and procured from the most rudimentary mobile phones.
Outside of the ‘never say die’ innovation Africa employs there’s a great deal the developed world can learn from the developing world, particularly when it comes to building practical solutions that solve real problems.
And with global growth being led by the developing world, these are lessons worth learning.
9th–13th March 2012


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Transformation of Online Shopping in Next 10 years
Technology is quickly changing how consumers our shopping for products. Despite a lot of rumors and predictions, there are few things that will surely change the consumer shopping within the next 10 years. As such, some of these shopping trends may seem to be something out of a science-fiction movie.
For instance, Amazon and certain other large retailers have already starting thinking about delivery of products using the drone technology. Technologists working on smart tools claim that the existing technology has advanced to an extent where it is possible to replace drones with humans; however, we still need to figure out certain legal, ethical and practical challenges.
In a decade, price comparison shopping may take an entirely different dimension if 3-D printers are introduced. Instead of offering traditional printing, 3-D printers are going to deliver ready-made products by printing them from the loaded materials inside a cartridge. Don’t be surprised, if your 3-D printer is able to build instant LEGO toys that you ordered, online. The American Society for Testing and Materials is already creating rules for 3-D printer shopping. Initially, it is estimated that 3-D printers will be able to build things like print edible foods, human tissues and metals etc.
For automated warehouses and driver-less trucks, consumers may not even have to wait 10 years. Test trials are already underway at many factories around the world. For instance, Amazon is using fully-automated facilities in certain geographical areas allowing retailers to fulfill online orders without human intervention. Similarly, development of driver less trucks is also in the pipeline. Actually, driver-less trucks are ready to deliver shopping goods as soon as proper infrastructure is in place.


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Elon Musk Hints At Possible Update on Tesla Semi and Roadster
It’s been a while since Tesla Inc. provided the public with statements about some of their upcoming vehicles. Sure, there are plenty of stories about the Model Y and the Cybertruck. However, other upcoming Tesla products such as Tesla Semi and the new Tesla Roadster receive far less attention. As one person on Twitter noticed the lack of updates, they asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk to provide an update.
Not entirely surprising, Musk responded to the request for an update on Semi and the new Roadster. In the tweet, @DMC_Ryan asks “You’ve been exceptionally quiet about Semi and Roadster for a while. Any updates on those?” In response, Musk said, “Sure, we can probably do an update later this year.”
Sure, we can probably do an update later this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2020
Of course, Tesla Inc. has a lot on its plate for the rest of 2020. However, recent photos and sightings of Tesla Semis lead many to believe that the vehicle remains in production and testing. An update from the company might provide some much-needed insight into the current state of the vehicle.
As far as the new Roadster goes, even less is known. The 2020 Roadster from Tesla claims to add some new, updated features to the original design. With Model Y deliveries underway and the Cybertruck Factory location being selected, it’s reasonable to expect an update on other launches later on in the year.


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Australia’s ACCC approves Nine’s takeover of Fairfax
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has confirmed that it will not oppose Nine Entertainment’s takeover of Fairfax Media.
The watchdog has claimed the nation’s news landscape will change but that it could not reach any other conclusion, ABC News reported.
The ACCC’s Chairman, Rod Sims, has stated that there will remain a wide range of views for audiences across the country, despite the lessening of competition.
“I think you’d have to say, because there’s a lessening of competition in the news market, Australia will be slightly worse off,” Sims informed The World Today.
“But in saying that, it’s a really hard call to make. Because this media market has change in ways that won’t be reversed.”
As part of its investigation, the watchdog contacted hundreds of stakeholders and reviewed over 1,000 submissions and internal documents from both media companies.
According to the ACCC, the television operations of Nine and Fairfax’s main media assets “generally do not compete closely”.
“While the merger between these two big-name media players raised a number of extremely complex issues, and will likely reduce competition, we concluded that the proposed merger was not likely to substantially lessen competition in any market in breach of the competition and Consumer Act,” Sims added.
“Post the merger, only Nine-Fairfax, News/Sky, Seven West Media and the ABC/SBS will employ a large number of journalists focussed on news creation and dissemination.”


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Digital TV News: Belgacom
Wyplay chooses Sigma SMP8700 family for Frog by Wyplay
Jan 6, 2014 – Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM) has announced a collaboration with middleware vendor Wyplay. Together they have extended a porting effort on Sigma's new ARM based STB SoC product line.
News categories: Sigma Designs, Wyplay, Mustafa Ozgen, Jacques Bourgninaud, CES2023, Digital TV, Middleware, Semiconductor, Set Top Box
ViXS and Wyplay announce Ultra HD 4K and HEVC-Main 10 media gateway solution
Jan 2, 2014 – ViXS Systems (TSX: VXS) and Wyplay have announced availability of the home media gateway market's first solution to support Ultra HD 4K content and advanced HEVC 10-bit media processing.
News categories: Wyplay, ViXS Systems, David Jones, Jacques Bourgninaud, CES2023, Digital TV, Gateway, Middleware, Semiconductor
Belgacom begins roll out of TV Replay catch-up TV service
Nov 13, 2013 – Belgacom has announced the start of a test phase for its TV Replay service, which allows its TV customers to watch programs up to 36 hours after they've been broadcast, on their TV, computer, tablet or smartphone.
News categories: Belgacom, Bruno Chauvat, Belgium, Digital TV, IPTV, TV Everywhere
Wyplay media gateway software running on ViXS XCode
Sep 13, 2013 – ViXS (TSX: VXS) has announced that their partnership with Wyplay has led to the development of an open platform for operator media gateways, customisable to have a look and feel based on the operator's unique requirements.
News categories: ViXS, Wyplay, David Jones, Dominique Feral, Gateway, IBC2022, Middleware, Semiconductor
AirTies endorses Frog by Wyplay open source initiative
Sep 10, 2013 – AirTies has announced that it is to collaborate with Wyplay in support of the Frog by Wyplay initiative. The initiative provides access to full source code including: client device middleware, backend add-ons and companion applications.
News categories: Wyplay, AirTies, Apps, Digital TV, IBC2022, Middleware, Set Top Box
Wyplay middleware to go open-source
Sep 5, 2013 – Wyplay has announced Frog by Wyplay, an initiative aiming to free all actors in the TV ecosystem from being locked into proprietary solutions. Thanks to Frog by Wyplay, the full source code of Wyplay's set-top box middleware and backend add-ons will be accessible free of charge.
News categories: Wyplay, Digital TV, IBC2022, Middleware
Technicolor selected by Belgacom for next generation ultra-broadband Gateway
Jun 19, 2013 – Technicolor (Paris:TCH) has announced that it has been selected to supply Belgacom, the leading telecommunications company in Belgium, for its next generation 'BBOX3', to roll-out smart home services over its ultra-broadband network.
News categories: Technicolor, Belgacom, Belgium, Digital TV, Gateway, IPTV, Smart Home
Belgacom introduces smaller IPTV set-top box
Jun 11, 2013 – Belgacom has announced teh introduction of new modem,TV decoder, and Wi-Fi Bridge. The decoder is smaller, three times more powerful, and twice as energy efficient as the previous version.
News categories: Belgacom, Belgium, Digital TV, IPTV, Set Top Box
Nokia Siemens Networks closes the sale of Belgacom related IPTV assets
Oct 2, 2012 – Nokia Siemens Networks has closed the sale of its Belgacom related IPTV assets to Belgacom. The divestment is part of Nokia Siemens Networks' strategy to focus on mobile broadband and services.
News categories: Nokia Siemens Networks, Belgacom, Belgium, Content Distribution, IPTV, MandA, Middleware
- More TV programmers tap Beachfront and Canoe to optimize ad revenues
- Accedo powers TVO and TVOkids apps in Canada
- Competition Commission of India approves Zee-SonyLIV merger, with conditions
- TV panel prices break five quarter fall in October
- 3SS and P3 partner for in-car entertainment on Android Automotive OS
- VideoAmp adds second-by-second ad performance measurement
- LG webOS Hub offers more customization for TV makers, more content for viewers
- Almost 2/3s of U.S. video streaming subscribers canceled a service in the last year
- Disney+ and Star+ relaunch on PS5 consoles
- 4Sales partners with ViewersLogic on TV attribution for Channel 4
- Astro Malaysia goes live with Synamedia engagement analytics
- Nielsen enables 'Always On' YouTube ad measurement
- Xperi completes spin-off to become independent public company
- Digicel launches OTT and IPTV services in the Caribbean with mediaClass
- Vodafone Portugal to acquire Nowo
- Eurofins divests Digital Testing business
- Smart Home device growth slows along with global economy, says IDC
- U.S. streamers now only spend 1 in 3 hours using traditional platforms
- ContentBay launches, bringing content licensing into the digital era
- Qualcomm and Rohde & Schwarz unveil 5G Broadcast system at IMC22


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| Nov 28, 2013
The spread of Black Friday shopping into Thursday is less an assault on our hallowed Thanksgiving Day traditions than a long-standing side dish, like sweet potatoes or cranberry sauce, edging ever closer to the turkey.
It's not as though the retail...
| Nov 27, 2013
| 8:12 PM
Things I'm grateful for, 2013 edition:
I'm thankful for stores that stay closed all day long on Thanksgiving. Enough with the Black Friday creep already. Let's take back Turkey Day with what it was meant for: feasting, spending time with family, watching...
| Nov 28, 2013
| 4:52 PM
It's Black Friday, and that means hordes of bargain-craving shoppers will lay siege to retailers large and small.
While there have been plenty of recent stories in the media attesting to the idea that Black Friday is one of the busiest...
| Dec 26, 2013
| 8:21 PM
The doors were open well before 9 a.m. Thursday at Spruce Home & Garden in West Hartford Center, literally wide open to the street, the way manager Mary Goodwin likes it. And markdowns were plentiful.
As light snow trickled, customers were slow to arrive...
| Nov 29, 2013
| 1:26 PM
Take a look at Small Business Saturday if you want a great illustration of how hard it is to change Americans' shopping habits.
The moniker for the day after Black Friday was launched three years ago by American Express as a corporate-driven "grass...
| Nov 30, 2013
Incompetence and not being prepared has nothing to do with the color of your skin.
Under President Obama, Iran keeps its nuclear program and Americans lose their health insurance.
Those who applaud the demise of the Senate's filibuster rule might...
| Nov 30, 2013
| 6:20 PM
If you weren't willing to skip dessert on Thanksgiving to hit the stores, or rise early to join the masses on Black Friday, I don't blame you.
But don't be a lazy gift giver who plucks something lame at the last minute, like a membership in a fruitcake-...
| Jul 26, 2013
A special celebration will be held Sunday at Brookfield Zoo by an organization known to all cops, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders in the Chicago area.
It is the one organization that first responders' families never want to meet. But...
| Sep 30, 2013
| 6:30 AM
Bing Crosby would be appalled.
With singer Carol Richards, the great crooner once popularized a song, "Silver Bells," about the joy of Christmas shopping. "Strings of street lights," it went, "even stop lights, blink a bright red and green as the...
| Nov 12, 2010
Want to get an early jump on the best bargains on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? There's no reason to wait. Toys R Us, Walmart and Amazon.com and other major retailers began offering Black Friday specials the first weekend of November.
Now's a good time...
| Nov 15, 2011
| 1:21 PM
It's an annual day after Thanksgiving tradition: Black Friday shopping. But what about Black Thursday?
"Yes, that's way too early," said shoppers Amanda McAdams and Meghan Howard when they learned some stores will open at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving.


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In an open letter dated November 2009, celebrated French actress and animal rights group founder Ms. Brigitte Bardot addressed European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, urging the European Union to highlight meat production's serious impact on global warming and prioritize discussion of the issue in December's climate summit in Denmark.
In the letter, which was also endorsed by more than 100 organizations worldwide, she also called for a “European Vegetarian Day.” During a telephone interview with Supreme Master Television, Ms. Bardot explained her concern about livestock industry harms to the environment.
Brigitte Bardot – President of Fondation Brigitte Bardot, legendary French actress, Vegetarian (F): Because livestock raising, either on pastures or in batteries or industrial breeding, emits more greenhouse gases than those produced by transportation, all categories: car, train, etc., airplane and all that.
The World Bank has shown that 90% of the deforestation in the Amazon is related to the meat industry. So that’s really something terrible and it has impacts on the global warming which preoccupies us enormously today.
Supreme Master TV (M): So if you have a message to convey, what would it be?
Brigitte Bardot (f): Be veg. Go green. Save the planet. And your life will have meant something.
VOICE: Our appreciation and support Ms. Bardot for your deeply caring heart for our planet and animal co-inhabitants. We join in the plea for peace between humans and the environment and all fellow creatures so that indeed we may have a meaningful, worthwhile future. The essential need to halt animal farming in favor of
the planet-saving vegan lifestyle has often been mentioned by Supreme Master Ching Hai, as during an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.
Supreme Master Ching Hai: If they are truly the leaders that pledge to protect their people, to improve their country in many aspects, then this is the first step we have to do. Stop the meat industry, stop the fish industry, stop the dairy industry, then our planet will be the way it was and even better. This, I can promise.
Otherwise, the year 2012, 2013, 2014, we will never know what will happen to us if we do not do the right thing.
And right now, to save the planet, there is only one way to stop the cause - that is the animal industry, by all means, in all aspects.Very simple, just be veg. Just be veg is truly enough for now. And it will be enough for a long future to come.


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Nokia’s HERE is looking to acquire Meido Systems. This will enable the Nokia Company to create contextual maps and location services that change according to the situation to provide personalized and predictive experiences for people and businesses.
To capitalize on the acquisition process, HERE will be sharing Medio technology with the other two businesses of the Nokia Group; Networks and Technologies. The acquisition of predictive analytics vendor is part of Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri’s vision to invest in technology companies to grow further.
So this is what HERE could do:
- Support in delivering individual restaurant recommendations to someone ready for lunch
- Giving drivers routes that match their driving style based on real-time conditions or helping businesses personalize their customer offerings.
Michael Halbherr, CEO of HERE, said: “We plan to extend Medio’s talent and technology that analyzes millions of connected devices and billions of interactions on the go to strengthen our ability to deliver highly personalized maps and location services for whatever people face throughout their day.”
In a bid to satisfy any client in a given moment Medio mines real-time activity data now available from the proliferation of sensors and connected devices into actionable intelligence. Its cloud-based predictive analytics engine leads a shift in how big data is gathered and processed so that it becomes a valuable source of intelligence to help companies make better, automated business actions.
Crawford Del Prete, EVP Worldwide research, IDC, said: “This next era of computing will be highly dependent on the personalization of services and products. The combination of HERE’s at scale mapping platform and Medio’s predictive analytics is very powerful, and an important part of how technology will transform everyday experiences in the future.”


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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has updated its Cloud28+ catalogue, allowing its partners to more clearly show potential customers what they have to offer.
Cloud28+ member spotlight pages, announced today at the CloudFest conference in Germany and available from April, will allow channel companies to publish their own news and updates, as well as search options and services, on the catalogue. This, HPE claimed, will offer partners the opportunity to increase sales and revenue, as they will be able to build a “strong visual identity” on the platform.
More than 750 HPE partners are already part of the Cloud28+ community, HPE claimed, a catalogue of 26,000 cloud and hybrid IT services launched by the company in 2015.
Xavier Poisson, vice president of service providers and Cloud28+ worldwide at HPE, said: “HPE is a partnership-first business. The new Cloud28+ spotlight pages demonstrate this, by offering partners new routes to market and increased visibility.
“Cloud28+ has always been focused on creating a rich and collaborative ecosystem, and now we’re further extending that benefit to partners by giving them a chance to do the same with customers under their own banners.”
Co-founder and VP of research at 451 Research, William Fellows, told Channel Pro: “The main question is whether it will make any difference to the volume of business or transactions being done through the platform. HPE counts Cloud 28+ business at the moment through referrals or leads, there’s no dollar value attached.
“With GDPR coming in, Cloud 28+ could offer some interesting opportunities, but we will have to wait and see.”
Alongside the announcement of member spotlight pages, HPE also teased further upcoming enhancements to the Cloud28+ platform. These will include better management tools, social media integrations and individualised analytics. It will also feature compatibility for multi-vendor and multi-component solutions, with IoT cited as a particular scenario where this would be desirable.
Member spotlight pages will be available from April.
Channel Pro Newsletter
Stay up to date with the latest Channel industry news and analysis with our twice-weekly newsletter
Jane McCallion is ITPro's deputy editor, specializing in cloud computing, cyber security, data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Deputy Editor, she held the role of Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialise in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.
Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.


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Gothenburg University’s students held their annual Act Sustainable Day last Tuesday, one week before ‘Sustainable Tuesday’ (Duurzame Dinsdag) in The Netherlands when Dutch students will do the same, also at my Alma Mater: Wageningen University. I conducted a workshop titled ‘How smart is your smartphone? Really?’ illustrating that the whole sustainability puzzle is in your smartphone both in terms of problems and solutions.
Afterwards Caroline Petersson of the Gothenburg/Chalmers Environmental and Sustainability Centre (GMV) interviewed me for about 5 minutes about the essence of my contribution.
Here you find a link to the interview: How smart is your smart phone, really?


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LEGO consulted NASA and sent its ISS build miles above Earth's surface to ensure the authenticity of its latest set.
At CES 2020 we met up with Jess Joho from IGN sister site Mashable to talk about some of the coolest, weirdest, and silliest tech we've seen so far.
AEV Robotics unveiled a universal self-driving vehicle chassis, leaving third parties to focus on modular pods for delivery, transport, and service.
The Director of Dell's Experience Innovation Group, Preeth Srinivasan, spoke to us about Alienware's newly announced Concept UFO. A handheld gaming PC with side-attaching controllers that looks exactly like a bulky Nintendo Switch.
The Samsung Q950TS will probably be the most expensive 8K TV to ever release but wow does it look amazing right now.
AMD has plans for a Big Navi graphics card in 2020 that could have ray tracing.
Research findings have revealed a wave-type structure that has rippled through our galaxy, and what the means for our knowledge of the universe.
At CES 2020, we check out the new Big O from Origin PC, a gaming PC with a liquid cooled console built into the case.
At CES 2020 we checked out the NEC Lavie Pro Mobile, an ultra-portable laptop that weighs only 1.8 pounds.
LG announces a new family of OLED and NanoCell TVs that promise to support G-Sync, FreeSync, or both.
At CES 2020, Razer unveiled the Tomahawk Gaming Desktop. It's a compact…
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is the lightest gaming laptop we've ever seen.
AMD introduces Ryzen 4 mobile processors, finally bringing 7nm CPU power to laptops and gaming notebooks.
AMD announces the new 5600 XT GPU graphics card for the ultimate 1080p gaming experience.
Hisense announces sequels to its best selling 4K TVs and introduces a new flagship Dual Cell ULED television.
Lenovo revealed the ThinkPad X1 Fold price and release window at CES 2020.
Dr Helen Sharman has claimed aliens exist and it is possible they are living among us here on Earth.
Lenovo has announced its thinest and lightest Windows 10 gaming laptop that can be paired with a brand new eGPU to provide a ton of power on the go.
Samuel L. Jackson is the first celebrity voice to be featured on Amazon's Alexa.
AKA the Cybrtrk.


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Following the UK government's announcement on 23rd of June that restaurants can re-open for business, many outlets are finding themselves having to find innovative ways to make their restaurant COVID-secure.
The Prime Minister, in his address to the House of Commons, stressed that businesses must be vigilant when reopening and do what they can to stop the spread of COVID-19. Naturally, in the hospitality sector, this has caused some degree of anxiety for many restaurant and bar owners. How, in an industry that is so public-facing, do we minimise the risk of infection and reassure our customers that they are safe in our establishments?
It is clear the main solutions are to minimise contact between parties (whether that be customers or staff), distancing tables and maintain robust cleaning schedules. However, there are other conundrums that many outlets are yet to solve, such as how staff are able to take orders safely and how can customers browse the menu or pay for their meals without risking spreading the virus.
Fortunately, the answer to all of these questions may come in the form of existing technology.
In the past decade, some of the larger players in the hospitality arena have used technology to innovate their business and maximise their workforce's time. In 2017, J D Wetherspoons launched their "Order & Pay" app, which allowed customers to order food and drinks to their table, in a similar vein to how JustEat or Deliveroo would for home deliveries. This pioneering app removed the need for customers to read a printed menu, queue at the bar or even come into contact with staff prior to them bringing their order to their table. It even manages the payment process with the use of payment gateways and Apple/Android Pay.
A few years prior in 2015, McDonald's launched their "Touch Screen Kiosks", which allowed customers to order and pay for food on screens in their restaurant. This minimised the need for staff-manned tills and meant their workforce could be utilised more in the kitchen to turn orders around more efficiently. This, along with an increased presence of self-service checkouts in supermarkets, means that customers are more used to ordering for themselves rather than having to rely on staff.
Fortunately, web development companies are now creating personalised apps for smaller businesses to purchase. Businesses such as Hungrrr essentially brings the Wetherspoons app model and applies it to independent outlets. Additionally, there are apps like foodorders.co.uk and Omnify that allow customers to pre-order when they book their tables.
An added bonus is that, following the government's announcement that they'll be asking restaurants and bars to provide customer information as part of track and trace, many of these solutions collect data safely and securely.
If having a food ordering app helps you comply with the guidance, minimises the spread of COVID-19 and maximises your workforce's time, maybe it is something worth considering?


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For obvious reasons, Mobile World Congress 2021 has been moved from Q1 to late Q2-early Q3 this year. Since it’s one of the biggest players in the smartphone industry, Samsung rarely skips this event, which has become the place where the company introduces its most important flagships for the year.Since MWC 2021 will kick off in June, Samsung had to make its own Galaxy event early this year to announce the Galaxy S21 series. Traditionally, the next big Galaxy devices is introduced in the second part of the year at another major tech showcase – IFA. Unfortunately, IFA Berlin has been canceled this year due to global health uncertainties.
That being said, we’re happy to inform you that Samsung is one of the first companies to confirm its virtual event as part of MWC 2021. Earlier today, the South Korean smartphone maker revealed it will host a virtual Samsung Galaxy session on June 28 (19:15 CET / 10:15 PST / 13:15 EST).Apart from the date, Samsung also confirmed it will introduce its new smartwatches, as well as the new Wear OS 3.0 made in collaboration with Google. Furthermore, the South Korean company mentions that it will share its “latest security enhancements and innovations designed to give users protection and peace of mind in an open and connected world.”
Because it’s a “Galaxy” event, we also expect Samsung to unveil a couple of unannounced top-tier smartphones like the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Galaxy Z Flip 3, and Galaxy S21 FE, or any combination of these three previously leaked devices.The upcoming Samsung Galaxy MWC virtual event will be live-streamed next week on YouTube, on the company’s official channel.


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NO/BS Conference – 2022
NO/BS Conference – 2022, organized by Soul+Wolf, will take place on 26-27 October at the Forum Melbourne, in Australia.
After a pandemic-induced hiatus, Melbourne’s award-winning NO/BS Conference makes its sophomore return, October 26 -27 at the Forum. The roadshow-style 2-day event is jam-packed with international and local talent across all walks of digital. It’s an unfiltered, honest, “digital reality check” to kickstart creative minds into action.
Creator Jason Soultan dreamt up the idea of NO/BS. Dubbed a “digital reality check” the team sought to create an exciting and authentic real-world forum with insights to be shared by a diverse array of international and local keynote speakers.
In early 2020 the inaugural NO/BS Conference was a massive success, producing a sell-out audience and garnering multiple Better Design Awards and Australian Event Awards, something unprecedented for an event of its type. The second iteration will deliver an even bigger experience, with even more speakers across various disciplines.
Jay Demetillo – Lead UX/Visual Designer – Grab
Nichole Burton – Senior Designer – Google
Vince Lebon – Founder & CEO – Rollie Nation
Jasmin Bedir – CEO – Innocean Australia
Kevin Finn – Owner & Author – TheSumOf
Cat Burgess – Head of Place – Frost*Collective
Andy Wright – CEO – Streamtime
Kirby Bentley – Artist & Professional Athlete – Gnalla & Essendon (AFLW)
Marco Rosano – Managing Director – Soul+Wolf
Dr. Marion Piper – Creativity Coach & Author – Marion Piper Creative
The multi-day conference is designed for people working in the digital space. They could be an agency owner, manager, startup founder, product owner or designer, or anyone with a passion and thirst for digital.
With a generous ‘all inclusive’ ticket package, attendees can look forward to catered meals, barista coffee, Q&A opportunities, and a wrap party to close out the event. Platinum Pass holders will also receive priority access, exclusive networking opportunities, and VIP access to the Speaker Cocktail Party on Day 1. Limited passes are available to purchase online now.