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The Loaf and Jug convenience store at 2401 W. Victory Way will lose its liquor license for 10 days after failing three consecutive alcohol sweeps conducted by the Craig Police Department. Store employees were cited for selling alcohol to minors each time.
The Craig City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to suspend the store's off premises liquor license. The starting date of the suspension will be decided sometime today. An off premises liquor license is issued to stores that sell packaged liquor which will br consumed away from the property where it was purchased.
"I think that it is very important that we make an example that this is not going to be tolerated," Mayor David DeRose said. "Every other convenience store in town has passed this inspection for the last three years, so there is no reason that this particular store cannot comply as well."
The police sweeps are done periodically, and focus on all of the liquor and convenience stores throughout the city. High school students are often used to perform the sweeps. They attempt to purchase alcohol from the stores without presenting proper identification.
Craig Police Chief Walt Vanatta was unable to attend Tuesday night's meeting, however, he did recommend that Loaf and Jug's license be suspended for seven days because of the businesses non-compliance.
The Council can only suspend a businesses' license for between seven and 14 days, although members also have the ability to levy fines against the establishment.
According to a memorandum released by Vanatta, Cindy Jones, the owner of the Loaf and Jug, has been "cooperative with efforts to educate the clerks to past violations, but it appears that the staff still does not take this responsibility seriously."
"I think that if Ms. Jones is continuing to make the effort to bring employees' attention to this situation, that should be taken into account as we consider this," DeRose said.
Jones, who didn't attend the meeting, was unavailable for comment Tuesday evening.
The Council could have suspending the store's license and impose fines at the same time.
According to City ordinance 5.14.010, "the fine accepted shall be the equivalent to 20 percent of the retail licensee's estimated gross revenues from sales of alcoholic beverages during the period of the proposed suspension; except that the fine shall be not less than $200 nor more than $5,000."
Council member Natalie Alden proposed increasing the penalty from what Vanatta recommended because of what she said was, "her personal knowledge of a minor who also purchased alcohol at the store."
The Police Department will run regular checks on the store during the suspension to ensure that it is complying with the suspension.
In other business, the Council:
Approved the renewal of a liquor license for Mathers' Bar, Inc. at 421 Yampa Ave.
Approved a sketch plan for Willow Creek Subdivision requested by Don Christensen.
Awarded the bid for the 2001 asphalt overlay project to Connell Resources for the amount of $165,551.95, which is slightly more than the city paid last year.
Awarded the bid for the 2001 concrete project, which includes curbs, sidewalks and gutters. Because of bonding requirements, the city has had difficulty attracting bidders on the curb and gutter work. APH Construction placed a bid on the project which was 10 percent lower than last year's price.
Approved Resolution No. 7, which authorizes the City of Craig to purchase real property from the Union Pacific Railroad Company.
Approved an improvements agreement from Casa De Chupita, which extends the amount of time needed to finish the upgrades.
The City Council also approved the vacation of a portion of a street at 9th and Breeze streets.
The land is a triangular parcel, approximately 75 feet by 15 feet, and was originally left in place to create a turning lane from 9th Street onto Breeze Street. However, that project was never completed, and the council elected to give up ownership of the land, as well as relieve themselves the responsibility for its upkeep.
The owners of the property to the north of the parcel can now claim the land for their use.


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Retrofest is back!
Retrofest 3 is coming to River Oaks, TX (Near Fort Worth) March 12, at the River Oaks Church of the Nazarene.
Vendors will be selling video games, toys, comics, and more, and there will be video game tournaments.
Click on the flyer for more info, and you can visit the Facebook page.
Post a Comment

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Hideo Kojima and Microsoft have reportedly signed a letter of intent to come to an agreement on a publishing deal for a brand-new Xbox game, according to GamesBeat.
While news surrounding the award-winning Japanese video game designer, director, producer and writer's negotiations with Xbox has been out and about throughout the past year, this report reveals that after "months" of discussions, the potential blockbuster partnership is making a tangible step forward towards becoming official.
Signing a letter of intent, albeit far from the same thing as signing a contract, is a major milestone when it comes to any collaborative efforts between a publisher and a developer.
Although both of the legal teams representing the two gaming titans will continue hashing out the finer details of the deal to make it set in stone, this letter of intent acts as a symbol of good faith that the Metal Gear Solid creator and the Xbox company want to work with one another.
Along with the move, Microsoft has already gotten the ball rolling for a Kojima-Xbox-exclusive game as the company already announced last week that they had hired Kim Swift, a former Valve developer for Portal and Left 4 Dead, to "collaborate with independent studios to build games for the cloud."
That ties into the GamesBeat report that although few people actually know what Kojima's vision for an Xbox game is and will be, the focus of a partnership between the two would be to "unlock the creativity of Kojima Productions using Microsoft’s technology as opposed to greenlighting a specific pitch."
In the mean time, Kojima Productions continues to focus on the release of Death Stranding: Director's Cut for Sony's PlayStation 5.
For more on Kojima news, feel free to check out our latest YouTube video on the rumor mill connecting Hideo Kojima, Blue Box Games and Silent Hill.


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The Los Angeles cannabis industry has proved to be one of the most unruly and chaotic to govern according to industry experts, and over two years into its licensing process the market remains plagued by frustration, delays and hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted by marijuana entrepreneurs.
The city’s latest licensing round – for 100 social equity retail permits – has been on hold since October 2019 and will remain so until Mayor Eric Garcetti tells the L.A. Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) to restart the process.
That means it’s unclear when those shops can open.
There’s also no word as to when future licensing rounds – in which hundreds more various license types will go up for grabs – might begin.
Garcetti’s office did not respond to a Marijuana Business Daily request for comment.
The city’s slow-moving cannabis permitting process has been so interminable that many entrepreneurs have already quit the business – or at least in the L.A. market – in favor of other ventures, said Adam Spiker, the executive director of the Southern California Coalition.
The organization is at perhaps its lowest membership rate in its five-year history, he noted.
Spiker said the SCC – which submitted a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom in late April pleading for marijuana tax relief – has lost six of its 15 board members in recent months because they couldn’t make their business models work in the current market conditions.
“We’ve been in purgatory for god knows how long,” Spiker said.
“I bet we’ve lost two-thirds of our dues-paying members from our height, about 2½ years ago. And it’s only going to get worse.”
The latest on licensing
After the licensing process was paused last fall and an independent audit was conducted, the DCR issued a series of policy recommendations on April 10 designed to improve permitting procedures and the social equity program moving forward.
But even those recommendations are at a standstill because the City Council must formally adopt them, and there’s been no indication yet that the issue has been scheduled for a hearing, Plummer and Spiker said.
If the City Council adopts the recommendations, it could mark a significant change for stakeholders. The recommendations include:
- New social equity definitions and criteria.
- Fast-tracking for the 100 retail license winners from last fall.
- Allowing the other 702 applicants that didn’t win a retail permit to be first in line for other license types, such as manufacturing, distribution and delivery.
- Switching from the first-come, first-served process last fall to a lottery for future licensing rounds.
The pivot indicates that the DCR has been “listening to the community,” said Ariel Clark, an attorney whose client list includes both winners and losers from last fall’s licensing round.
Still, she said, plenty of unanswered questions remain regarding the DCR’s proposals to the City Council.
That includes precise definitions for several of the proposed new requirements, which could affect the structure of business deals between some retail license winners and their partners, Clark said, which adds uncertainty and potential delays.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to require these things that haven’t even been figured out,” Clark said. “There are tons of issues. I could go on and on.”
Lawsuit adds uncertainty
Another question is a lawsuit filed by a social equity applicant, Madison Shockley III, who’s hoping to get the application results from last fall thrown out and the retail licensing process redone.
Shockley’s attorney said an L.A. judge could hear the merits of the suit as soon as this week.
Among other things, the suit seeks an emergency injunction and temporary restraining order preventing the city from moving forward with permitting the 100 retail winners.
“I’m interested in pursuing delivery in the short term, but not in exchange for my opportunity at a retail permit,” Shockley said when asked about potentially being offered a different license type under the DCR’s recent policy recommendations.
“I feel I was unfairly disqualified for my opportunity for retail, and I want that to be rectified.”
Shockley said there’s “no point” in the DCR pushing ahead with its licensing for the 100 retailers because he’s confident his case will wind up going to trial, which could take a year or longer.
“(Licensing) should … be put on hold until our trial, when we figure out what the proper thing to do is,” Shockley said, adding that he’s compiled his own recommendations for the DCR through a series of community meetings.
Winners feel they’re losing
Some of the 100 retail winners from last fall, though they disagree with Shockley, are still frustrated by the delays and say they’re burning cash every month on storefronts that they’ve leased or rented but cannot use.
“This process has become untenably long and financially draining for the applicants, most of whom have been paying leases on expensive properties for over a year,” social equity retail winner Whitney Beatty wrote in an email to MJBizDaily.
Beatty said that, like her, many of the 100 retail winners are running into “investor fatigue” and are just “weeks, not months” from running out of cash to keep alive their storefronts and license hopes.
According to the Cannabis Equity Retailer Association, the losses of only 60 of those license winners add up to over $1.2 million per month in real estate payments for shops that remain unopened.
“The COVID-19 crisis is compounding our losses. We are seeing investors go bankrupt and defaulting, attempting to sell access to their (social equity) partners at inflated values, as well as landlords taking advantage of the situation,” Beatty wrote.
“It’s critical that the city takes up the situation quickly.”
Tigran Khachatryan, another of the 100 social equity retail winners, said he’s been “borrowing money here and there” from family and friends to keep his storefront leased so that he’ll be able to eventually open his shop.
In a best-case scenario, Khachatryan said he’ll open his store in September; in a worst-case scenario, he’d open next March or possibly even sell the license, since he’s already had offers in the $1 million range.
Khachatryan declined to say how much he’s been losing every month, but he said he knows one license winner who has been spending around $5,000 a month and so far has spent upwards of $70,000 during the licensing process.
Khackatryan said he also knows “another person from the top 100, he couldn’t pay his rent any longer, so the landlord is trying to kick him out or he’s trying to get him to pay more rent.”
“We still don’t have a clear strategy moving forward.”
John Schroyer can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org
For more of Marijuana Business Daily’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the cannabis industry, click here.


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Tesco, which has been rebuilding itself after the scandal and a price war that hammered the whole sector, said on Tuesday that it would take a one-off charge of £235 million in its 2016-17 results, due on April 12.
The supermarket group has struck a so-called deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), enabling it to avoid a criminal conviction provided it meets certain conditions and pays the financial penalty. It will also pay compensation to certain investors of around £85 million.
“We sincerely regret the issues, which occurred in 2014, and we are committed to doing everything we can to continue to restore trust in our business and brand,” said chief executive Dave Lewis. Shares in the group were flat in early trading.
The DPA relates to false accounting by Tesco’s UK business between February 2014 and September 2014.
Read also: Tesco to buy UK wholesaler Booker for £3.7bn
Tesco said the DPA was the subject of a preliminary court ruling on Monday. The SFO and the firm’s UK unit Tesco Stores will now seek final judicial approval for the DPA from the court on April 10.
The retailer also said yesterday that it had agreed with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to a finding of market abuse in relation to a trading statement it published on August 29, 2014.
It has said that statement overstated the expected profits of the group at that time by £250m, mainly because it booked commercial deals with suppliers too early.
There is no penalty being levied by the FCA on Tesco.
As part of the agreement, Tesco will establish a compensation scheme for investors who bought shares or bonds for cash between August 29, 2014, and September 19, 2014, giving 24.5 pence a share plus varying rates of interest depending on whether the investor was institutional or retail.


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It’s long been rumored that Samsung is working on its own set of smart glasses to rival Google Glass product, and now with news of this patent having been filed, it appears that these hearsay reports have some truth to them.
The patent details a camera-based, augmented-reality keyboard that would project on to the user’s hands. It’s meant to serve as an alternative resource for when the system’s speech recognition-based controls cannot run due to noisy environments, or the user wants to type something with a bit of privacy.
The technology is officially referred to as “Input Method and Apparatus of Portable Device” and it will enable users to see an augmented reality keyboard (via the glasses only; that is, it does not project outward for everyone to see) mapped out on their fingers and palms, which can be used to type out a message using one’s thumbs.
The patent was filed last year at the World Intellectual Property Organization and South Korea’s Korean Intellectual Property Office. Since the rumors now have some weight to them, word on the interwebs is that Samsung will officially unveil “Galaxy Glass” in September at the IFA trade show in Berlin.
Story via: psfk.com
Learn more about Electronic Products MagazineSamsung Electronics


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Hortonworks on Tuesday announced the availability of the latest version of its data implementation suite for Windows.
According to Cisco's Annual Security Report, Java flaws accounted for 91 percent of all Web-based attacks last year.
Google this week announced a Google Cloud Storage Connector for Hadoop that simplifies Big Data analysis on its cloud platform by eliminating the need to use the oft-maligned Hadoop Distributed File System.
On Tuesday Oracle issued a Critical Patch Update for 144 vulnerabilities in their products, including 36 fixes for Java Standard Edition 7 (Java SE 7).
Neo Technology on Tuesday announced the general availability of Neo4j 2.0, which adds a new schema construct Cypher query language improvements, among other changes.
Coverity this week released a new version of its namesake software development testing platform.
Pivotal has released the first major update of the Spring Framework since 2009.
JNBridge has upgraded its flagship product, JNBridgePro, to allow developers to access Java code from Visual Studio 2013.
Enterprise software toolmaker Atlassian this week announced tighter integration between its JIRA issue tracking application and its Confluence team collaboration platform.
JetBrains released the annual update of its flagship Java integrated development environment (IDE) this week.
MyEclipse 2014 comes with full support for Java EE 7, enhanced REST Web Services, new mobile tools and JDK 1.7 support, among other new features.
Concurrent Inc. this week released Cascading Lingual, an open source project designed to give developers a standards-based SQL interface for creating and working with Big Data applications on Apache Hadoop.
Jelastic this week announced an upcoming collaboration with Red Hat to promote the global standardization of pluggable PaaS "cartridges" for Red Hat's OpenShift cloud computing platform.
Amazon yesterday introduced its Kinesis service for real-time processing of never-ending Big Data streams to facilitate instant business decision-making.
Today the company released the Dart SDK 1.0, which Google engineerLars Bak said in a blog post marks the language's "transition to a production-ready option for Web developers."
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Wednesday launched an initiative that would aid enterprises in using cloud computing services to protect infrastructures.
Red Hat this week at the OpenStack Foundation Summit in Hong Kong said its OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) software can now be deployed on OpenStack clouds.
Oracle says it will stop providing commercial support for new versions of the GlassFish application server, though it will continue to deliver updates for the open-source edition.
Facebook has open sourced Presto, its distributed SQL query engine built to improve Big Data analytics beyond existing solutions such as Hadoop MapReduce and Hive.
NewSQL startup NuoDB has released an update of its distributed relational database management system (DBMS).


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This weekend, news broke that
No doubt an Apple entry into this space will have lots of consequences long term, but not all of them will be necessarily negative. Smart home is a complex market, one with lots of different players, and for some Apple's entry might actually be a net positive.
Below is a look at how an Apple smart home push could play out for different players.
Smart Home Platform Startups
There are a number smart home startups that have entered the market in the last year or two with new DIY smart home platforms. Companies like SmartThings and Revolv offer hubs and associated software frameworks that allow a consumer to build a smart home for a few hundred bucks, and both have done a fair amount of third party point solution integration to work with locks, lights and other devices.
At first blush, it would seem these companies could be hurt by Apple. After all, a huge percentage of consumers today are already heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, and if an Apple smart home leveraged an existing Apple product to act as a smart hub to connect and control various devices in the home, this would allow the consumer to forego a purchase of a purpose built hub from one of these startups.
But it might not be so simple. Apple's entry could also generate interest in some of these platforms, particularly for those companies and consumers who would prefer to not cede control of their home to Apple. SmartThings, for example, has fostered a community of developers who have created apps for the platform, which could serve as a valuable jump start for an acquisitive consumer technology company looking to build its own smart home system.
Smart Home Service Providers
Big cable has taken a significant interest in the smart home the last few years, with most of big cable offering their own managed smart home services. These offerings usually cost somewhere between $25 and $50 a month and work with a number of third party smart home products like locks, lights, cameras and more.
In many ways, Apple's entry to the smart home will be the "over-the-top" alternative to that of big cable. Much like consumers saw an opportunity to side step pay TV by buying an Apple TV or Roku, some will eagerly look to do so by buying a smart home solution from Apple. At the same time, some consumers may get their feet wet with a DIY solution from Apple, but long term may "grow into" wanting a managed offering, complete with call center monitored security.
Ultimately how the cable providers fare will depend on how complete Apple's offering is. If Apple knocks it out of the park from an ease of use standpoint and can create a reasonable substitute for a managed offering, these companies could take a hit.
Outlook: Cloudy, with a chance of trouble
Smart Home Point Solutions
The great thing about the growing smart home space has been the resulting explosion in new connected devices for every aspect of our lives. Everything from new light bulbs to crock pots to smoke alarms to thermostats are controllable via a mobile device. While many of these devices have their own apps, makers of point solutions also are actively integrating their platforms with smart home hub manufacturers.
Some, like Nest, are more closed, but I think most point solutions providers like this will eventually see the benefit of opening up to work with other platforms (particularly if they get a call from Apple).
The result? I think Apple's entry into the smart home waters will rise the tide for many of these players, particularly if they can put a "works with iHome (or whatever Apple's smart home is called).
Outlook: Rising tide will lift quite a few boats
Established Smart Home Platforms
While Apple would certainly catalyze the market, some already in the market might say things are going just fine, thank you. Companies like Belkin, INSTEON and Vera have all built fairly substantial installed bases for their products, and with Apple's entry they could gain some significant competition overnight.
The outlook for these companies is the hardest to predict. The fact that they already big communities of users, large rosters of third party hardware partners and, to certain extent, established brand recognition could serve these companies well in a market where they count Apple as a potential competitor. Additionally, some like INSTEON have shown a willingness to embrace other platforms, so there's also the chance they could be open to working with Apple.
But in the end, there's no avoiding the fact Apple could provide an alternative to these companies in the DIY smart home market and will certainly force them to up their game.
Outlook: Overcast with possible sunbreaks


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GE Commercial Finance, Fleet Services Pilots Direct-to-Employee Online Remarketing Channel
GE Commercial Finance, Fleet Services announced on June 17 that it has partnered with Remarketing Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Manheim, to develop a comprehensive direct-to-employee online remarketing channel.
Currently in pilot, this new employee purchase channel will be a tool for Fleet Services' customers to connect their employees with off-lease vehicles. It provides a secure way for employees to purchase vehicles and makes managing the process easy for fleet managers.
Brian Wright, general manager vehicle life management for GE Commercial Finance, Fleet Services, explained, "The ability to sell company vehicles to employees benefits everyone involved. The company sells their assets in a timely manner through an online portal and employees have the option to purchase a well-maintained vehicle."


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Melanie Sweet this years Toys for Tots coordinator hold up a donation canister in a storage unit where their supplies are stored on Tuesday May 3, 2022. The organization is looking for a new location.
LOGAN – Cache Valley Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots is once again looking for a home. The Christmas charity was in a temporary space. When the lease ended they packed up everything and put them all into a storage unit until they can find a new location.
“Everything is packed so tight into the storage unit we cannot operate out of it,” said Michael Soholt, last year’s coordinator. “We have moved into our third place in a year.”
They are hoping for a 2,000 square foot warehouse with a loading dock but would take anyplace that they can find with reasonable rent at this point.
“At this point we are looking for anywhere with four walls and roof with a door,” he said. “Ideally we would like to find something with good space that has a working restroom with heating and air conditioning.”
Although they have some time to find space, Toys for Tots would like to get settled in before the holiday season.
Last year, Melanie Sweet was the assistant coordinator and she has been promoted to coordinator and her assistant coordinator position was given to Michael Soholt.
When the Christmas season rolls around, they have pallets of toys being dropped from other parts of the country so finding the right location is essential.
Toys for Tots also uses community and church groups for volunteers, as well as Marines to get things packaged for children. The space is also used for storing flags and other equipment for different flag ceremonies.
The local Marine Corps Reserves has about 30 Marines in their local group.
Toys for Tots began in 1947 nationally, but they came to Cache Valley in 2010.
The organization serves children from Cache, Box Elder, Franklin, Rich and Oneida counties.
Every year their toy campaign begins in October and goes until December 22. People across the country drop off new, unwrapped toys at collection receptacles located in businesses. Local Toys for Tots coordinators pick up, sort and store toys in a central warehouse.
The Toys for Tots organization is a 501-C3 non-profit organization and is always seeking toy or monetary donations, volunteers and local warehouse space.
If someone has space available, they should contact Melanie Sweet at (435) 760-2811, Michael Soholt at (435) 339-3340 or logan-uttoysfortots.org.


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Global acceptance for OMODA
OMODA, part of the Brand O&J division of the global Chery Group, is making waves across the world.
According to the China Federation of Passenger Transport (CFPT), the official vehicle sales authority in OMODA's home country of China, the brand has achieved a new milestone during the month of April, exceeding 10 000 units.
Selling more than 10 000 units, OMODA is following in the footsteps of its sister brand, Chery, which has been the leading Chinese vehicle-export brand for the past 21 years.
The CFPT reported recently that OMODA exported 10 781 units in April 2023. This indicates growth of 9% compared to March 2023.
With this new milestone, OMODA has increased its exports for the first four months of the year to 37 895 units, in itself a new milestone for the brand.
"One should keep in mind that all of the export growth is represented by one single model, the OMODA C5," says Tony Liu, Executive Deputy General Manager of OMODA South Africa.
"As Brand O&J expands with new and innovative OMODA models and with the global introduction of JAECOO, we expect this export number to increase rapidly, as we have seen with its sibling Chery."
OMODA and Brand O&J were officially introduced in South Africa in March this year when the group introduced three distinct versions of the OMODA C5. It has since appointed 30 dedicated OMODA dealers and a dedicated parts distribution centre adjacent to that of Chery South Africa.
"With the OMODA C5, we are able to welcome an entirely new group of car enthusiasts to the Chery Group," says Liu.
"While the Chery Tiggo Pro range has found favour with families and SUV enthusiasts, and now consistently sells more than 1 000 units a month in South Africa, OMODA is reaching a new buyer who is looking for something at the cutting edge of vehicle technology and with a design that is unique."
OMODA has a special surprise in the pipeline for these early adopter customers.
The group announced that it would soon expand its global range with the introduction of the OMODA C5 EV, an all-electric model that is slated for global release in the fourth quarter of 2023.
While it is working on new models, and the upcoming global introduction of the JAECOO brand of adventure SUVs, Brand O&J is also actively expanding its reach in North America and Europe.
In May, OMODA was launched to great applause and excitement in Mexico where it introduced the OMODA C5 with an impressive outdoor audio-visual concert that introduced both the vehicle and the O Universe of customer benefits to Mexican buyers.
Recently, OMODA announced its first shipment of OMODA C5 models to Spain. These models will spearhead a rapid introduction of Brand O&J models into Europe, arguably the most demanding automotive market in the world.
"While OMODA's export growth allows the group to accelerate its investment in new technologies and new models, it is even more important as a proxy for our brand acceptance in markets outside of China. We will not take this lightly and will continue to focus on customer service as the foundation for our future in South Africa and other export markets," says Liu.
- Chris-Mari Botes
- Brand Manager: Omoda
- 010 448 5388
- 084 488 0757
The long-anticipated moment arrived today as OMODA officially launched the C5 GT in Cape Town.Continue reading
Get ready for a powerful upgrade from automotive brand OMODA. Renowned for its dedication to quality, style, and safety, OMODA is gearing up to reveal the OMODA C5 GT this November.Continue reading
"Users" were undeniably the stars of this conference. With an immersive ecological product exhibition, a low-carbon ride involving thousands of global usersContinue reading


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When humans can't hack it, it's time to call in the robots.
Ford has announced today that it's working with ASI, a Utah-based firm that specializes in vehicle automation, to sell "robotic testing kits" that help automakers endurance test new cars. The kits effectively turn in-development vehicles into rudimentary R/C cars with a hint of self-driving — they can be programmed to hold a course within one inch of error and have sensor arrays to avoid nearby pedestrians and other vehicles — which is convenient for sending test cars down brutal stretches of test track designed to simulate potholes and other hazards that they'll encounter over their useful lives.
From Ford's release:
Robotically driven vehicles are expected to repeatedly perform tests on torturous surfaces with names like Silver Creek, Power Hop Hill and Curb Your Enthusiasm. These tests can compress 10 years of daily driving abuse into courses just a few hundred yards long, with surfaces that include broken concrete, cobblestones, metal grates, rough gravel, mud pits and oversized speed bumps.
Spending days on end hurtling a development vehicle down these kinds of surfaces sounds about as much fun as punching yourself in the face, which is where the notion of automating it comes into play: by installing Ford's kit, a car company can basically let the car test itself. Ford says the system can be disengaged quickly if an engineer needs to get in and drive, but for the bulk of the testing, the car can bounce and jerk all it wants without endangering the backs and necks of the poor employees trying to get the car ready for real roads.
Ford is refusing to reveal which automakers have picked up the kits so far, but it says that "several automotive OEMs" have gotten orders in.


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Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go…and then to the mall?
I have never really understood the concept of Black Friday, and I can’t really think of anything that goes more against the grain of the holiday spirit then getting in line on Thanksgiving evening to be in position at the stroke of midnight as doors are flung open and people stampede in to take advantage of deep discounts on the latest electronic and other gadgets.
Who is responsible? The companies who must rely on their employees to come in on Thanksgiving Eve so they can ensure profits? (Some stores, including Macy’s, Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, Walmart and Target continue to be open on Thanksgiving Day.) Or the willingness of consumers to be tempted by the deep-discount incentives?
Potential good news? 74 million people shopped on Black Friday in 2015, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation; that’s a 15 percent drop from 87 million in 2014, and 92 million in 2013.
If Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks, for family, for friendship, for the intangible riches of this life, it seems to me to run completely counter to running out and buying the latest and greatest materialistic product.
To borrow a line from A Charlie Brown Christmas, “Oh, No. My own dog gone commercial, I can’t stand it!”
Meanwhile, some businesses are going in the opposite direction. While Seattle Co-op Retailer REI has traditionally closed its stores on Thanksgiving Day, this is the second year that they will be closed on Black Friday, giving all 12,000 employees the day off to “head outside.” Through the social media hashtag #optoutside, the movement has attracted 275 companies as partners, including Subaru, Google and Upworthy, and the company hopes to add to the 1.4 million people last year who joined to explore the outdoors. (Not all partners are actually closing their doors.) This year’s catchphrase: “Will you go OUT with me?”
So this year, on Black Friday, take your dog for a walk, go on a hike, explore a beach, get out on the water, play a board game, spend time with those who matter.
Just don’t go to the mall.
Oh, also remember to put down your phone. The people around you will thank you.


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Richard Cordray, manager regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, testifies at a Nov. 2013 Senate banking committee hearing. (Picture: Win McNamee, Getty Graphics The United States)
- About 14,000 Ohio consumers getting refunds
- A lot more than 300 active-duty service users additionally get repayments
- Payday loan provider to cover $5 million fine for failing woefully to protect documents
Money America Global, a significant owner of U.S. pawn stores and pay day loan stores, has agreed pay $19 million in customer refunds and fines for robo-signing documents found in business collection agencies, issuing improperly high loans to army people and destroying records desired by way of a federal regulator.
The buyer Financial Protection Bureau imposed the charges Wednesday under a permission purchase utilizing the Fort Worth-based business. The charges marked the agency’s first enforcement action against a payday lender, one of many companies the regulator has analyzed since its 2010 creation beneath the Dodd-Frank reform act that is financial.
«In the event that bureau had not gone on location at money America, these issues might do not have been uncovered,» said CFPB Director Richard Cordray, whom said the truth highlighted the watchdog agency’s mandate to oversee non-bank businesses that affect an incredible number of People in the us «and work out yes they are after the legislation.»
Money America CEO Daniel Feehan stated the company cooperated with examiners. «Now that individuals have actually finished the first CFPB review process and joined into this settlement, we’re going to continue steadily to consider serving our clients while trying to develop extra compliance programs,» he stated.
Based on the consent purchase, employees in money America’s Ohio-based collections division improperly stamped their supervisor’s signature on loan collection affidavits for pretty much 5 years «without the supervisor’s previous report on the affidavits or supporting paperwork.» an unidentified in-house collection lawyer additionally directed employees to stamp the attorney’s title on Ohio court pleadings which had perhaps perhaps perhaps not been evaluated, your order stated.
Significantly more than 14,000 Ohio customers targeted in debt-collection lawsuits from 2008 to Jan. 2013 had been impacted, stated Cordray. Cash America has started repaying $6 million towards the customers, and certainly will spend yet another $8 million in refunds, he stated. The organization additionally worked because of the consumer watchdog to cancel incorrect Ohio debt-collection judgments.
Individually, investigators discovered that money America’s online cash advance subsidiary in Chicago for almost per year provided active-duty solution users loans over the 36% yearly rate of interest optimum permitted by the Military Lending Act. Significantly more than 300 members that are military their dependents received the loans.
Money America has refunded $33,550 in loans and fees that are related those clients, based on the purchase.
Whenever notified in July 2012 that the regulator prepared to examine its documents, money America neglected to protect recorded telephone calls and halt shredding of papers required for the review. In accordance with the purchase, business supervisors additionally told call-center workers «to de-emphasize the advertising and sales aspect» of these duties. In addition they instructed some in order to avoid utilising the term «sales» during interviews with examiners, and eliminated sales-focused product from workplace walls and cubicles.
The organization has decided to spend a $5 million fine for failing woefully to preserve the records that are requested. The consumer watchdog’s deputy director, said it was unclear whether the record destruction was part of a deliberate effort to impede the exam during a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Steve Antonakes.
The permission purchase also calls for money America to bolster its legal conformity procedures.


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Sears parent to acquire the rest of Sears HomeTown and Outlet Stores
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — The owner of Sears has entered a deal to acquire the rest of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores not already owned by the related ESL Investments.
The move would bring Sears, Kmart and Sears Hometown back under one corporate umbrella, following the Hometown spinoff from Sears in 2010. Transform Holdco — the new Sears that emerged from the retailer’s bankruptcy filing last year — would pay $2.25 per share for the outstanding Sears Hometown and Outlet stock. ESL already holds a 58% stake in the company.
Sears Hometowns stock closed at $2.18 per share Friday. It was up on the news by more than 8% to $2.36 per share in early Monday trading.
The purchase price is subject to a possible sale of the outlet segment before the acquisition, should it occur before the expected third quarter merger between Sears and Sears Hometown closes.
Sears Hometown is a network of 491 Hometown and 126 Outlet segment stores, run by independent dealers and franchisees in 49 states, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. The combined network generated $1.4 billion in sales last year, according to a release.
The Hometown stores primarily sell appliances, hardware tools and lawn and garden equipment, although some have mattress departments and other home furnishings. The Outlet segment, which may sell in advance, includes outlet stores and lease-to-own business Buddy’s Home Furnishings stores.
Following Sears bankruptcy, a number of Hometown operators began seeking other options in order cut their dependence on Sears systems and services. Earlier this year, Jim Ristow, CEO of furniture, electronics and appliances buying group AVB-Brandsource, told Furniture Today the group had held discussions with hundreds of the Hometown dealers about a turnkey store program it had launched in the fall, offering merchandising, marketing and other services.
In the latest Sears release, the company said, “Having these businesses under common ownership will accelerate Transform’s strategy of growing its smaller store format by adding Sears Hometown stores.
“It will also expand the company’s footprint as a multi-channel business that can serve customers through a variety of shopping experiences to meet their needs, provide growth for Transform’s marquee brands, including Kenmore and DieHard, and increase opportunities for Sears Home Services and Financial Services businesses, as well as the Shop Your Way social shopping destination and rewards program.”
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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd announced the renaming of its mobile business, signaling the start of a new chapter to accelerate innovation to offer more personalized experiences to its users.
The name change to the MX (Mobile Experience) from Mobile Communications took effect on December 10, 2021. It marked the beginning of the next chapter for Galaxy, embodying the company’s philosophy of open innovation and its dedication to making customers experiences a top priority. The new title also emphasizes a user-centric focus at Samsung that goes beyond mobile, underscoring its commitment to proactively address the rapidly changing business environment and focus its products and services on meeting the diverse needs of its customers.
Samsung continues to be true to its commitment to providing leading mobile experiences for its customers by using the strength of its open platform to forge partnerships that tap the power of the entire Galaxy ecosystem – from smartphones, tablets, and PCs, to wearables, software, and services – to unlock limitless possibilities.
The change will also further accelerate Samsung’s mission to create meaningful experiences that improve the lives of its users. Samsung will continue to expand the Galaxy ecosystem to innovate the mobile experience, fueled by the scalability and connectivity of its products and services.


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Equity investments and acquisitions in the nutrition and health and wellness industry set records in 2015, but the industry is already on pace to set new records this year, Nutrition Capital Network reports.
It’s only been a few months since Nutrition Capital Network (NCN; San Diego, CA) reported that 2015 broke records for acquisitions and equity investments in the nutrition and health and wellness industry, but it looks like 2016 may already be on pace to cruise past those records. Compared to the 627 total transactions recorded in 2015, NCN has already tracked 333 transactions in the first six months of 2016-a 6% increase in activity over the previous year.
In particular, beverages have emerged as one clear trend in this year’s biggest transactions. High-end soda brands Q Drinks and Spindrift, for instance, drew $11 million and $7.2 million in net equity investments in the first half of 2016, respectively. NCN also pointed to major investments in kombucha and aloe beverages, as well as home juicing, including $70 million raised by cold-press juicing company Juicero.
Plant- and insect-based alternatives have also made waves in 2016 so far, such as General Mills’ 301 venturing arm investing $18 million in Kite Hill, a nut-based milk, cheese, and yogurt company. On the bug front, cricket-protein company Exo raised $4 million, on top of a separate undisclosed investment from Japanese company Dentsu.
In addition, NCN pointed to the flurry of international transaction activity, such as Coca-Cola acquiring AdeS, a leading soy-based beverage brand in Latin America, and Chinese companies acquiring North American–based Doctor’s Best and Iovate (known for its MuscleTech and Hydroxycut brands). And one of the biggest branded food and beverage investments of the year has been Shanghai-based ClearVue investing $30 million in CHIC Fresh, a leading high-pressure processed-juice company based in China.
NCN’s full list of the top equity financing transactions and mergers and acquisitions of 2016 so far can be found
Nutritional Outlook Magazine


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Last week we reported that Facebook has released a new and big update for its Messenger Beta application for Windows 10 users. The update was available for users enrolled in the Beta program of the Messenger application.
Today the company has released a new update for its stable version of the Messenger application. The update is available with version 165.1679.24923.0 for all Facebook Messenger users on Windows 10 PCs. The latest update introduces the features which were already tested by the Beta users last week.
Facebook now lets Messenger users to send photos in 4K and videos in HD. You would need to enable the option by going to settings>Photos, videos and emoji>Select Always send in HD. Once enabled users will be able to send their videos in High Definition to their friends and families.
Another new feature added is users will be able to send reactions to the message received. You will also be able to receive reactions from the recipient and will be able to respond with a new reaction accordingly. To get the option working you would need to click on the right button and select the preferred reaction.
Facebook has also made design changes to the contact list by redesigning the Home page. The company has also added a new grey send bar along with a new “+” icon for users to be able to choose and send multimedia files likes gif, voice etc.
Facebook has added a new “Availability” option which helps users to let others know about their active status to other users and vice versa. Searching for your favorite stickers is now also possible after the latest update. The latest update also comes with its share of bug fixes and performance improvements to the application.
As reported the latest Messenger update is available for all Windows 10 PC users and can be downloaded by going to the Microsoft Store.


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During recent Apple presentation, a group of Russian hackers REvil attacked one of the company’s key suppliers.
What is known?
We are talking about the Taiwanese company Quanta Computer Inc, which is engaged in the production of computers for Apple and other major players. For example, HP, Facebook, Google, etc. According to hackers, they broke into the system and stole drawings of an unannounced MacBook with a detailed description of the “filling”. The documents were created last month. That is, we are definitely talking about a new laptop model.
By the time the presentation was completed, the hackers had published 15 schemes and are now demanding a $50 million ransom from Apple. If the company does not pay this amount by May 1, REvil will continue to share the drawings of the device. Quanta has already officially confirmed the attack, but Apple has not yet commented on the situation.
By the way, the hackers specifically waited for yesterday’s presentation, as they wanted to make sure that they would not show the new MacBook.
Recall that yesterday at the Spring Loaded event, Apple announced the AirTag tags, an all-in-one iMac, the Apple TV 4K set-top box, the updated iPad Pro, the new Podcasts app, as well as the purple iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.


text: Bridgeport, CT – While boasting prematurely about their destiny to be a part of a deli-style inspired lunch with all the trimmings, the next two slices of white bread let arrogance blind them from realizing they will be used merely for a cheese sandwich. “We’re going to go down in history as the slices that made it to top. I’m thinking we’ll be joined with peppercorn turkey, a rare imported French gouda, and a spicy deli mustard that costs over $12 a jar,” bragged the top slice with a hubris not seen from bread since their owner bought multigrain rye. “Don’t forget kale as replacement for the lettuce coupled with the thinnest cut of southern Italian tomatoes,” followed the bottom slice moments before being pulled from the store brand bag. At press time, the owner of the bread was busy not eating the crust while chewing the cheese sandwich with fat free mayonnaise.


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FILE PHOTO: People visit a Tesla booth during the media day for the Shanghai auto show in Shanghai, China April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s industry ministry on Thursday said it has added Tesla Inc to a government list of approved automotive manufacturers, granting the manufacturing certificate that the electric vehicle maker needs to start production in the country.
The list was published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Reporting by Brenda Goh and Yilei Sun; Editing by Christian Schmollinger


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This is the first time the brand has repositioned its strapline since it launched "Power to you" in 2009.
The new brand-positioning strategy and related advertising campaigns were developed after extensive research and concept testing by Kantar, which included qualitative and quantitative responses from 30,000 people in 17 countries.
"At a time of growing concerns about the future, due to pressing issues the planet is facing, it's important to highlight that technological innovations over the next few years will have a profoundly positive effect," Serpil Timuray, chief commercial operations and strategy officer said at a media briefing. "In order to express this point of view, we are repositioning the Vodafone brand on the theme of future optimism."
The brand's new strapline will read: "The future is exciting. Ready?" The first part of the strapline will be presented in local languages with the second part – "Ready?" – presented in English. For example, in Italy the strapline will read: "Il futuro è straordinario. Ready?"
It is accompanied by "the largest global ad campaign in all of Vodafone's 33-year history," along with a refreshed logo and visual identity, Timuray continued.
The work was supported by a cross-functional team from WPP: Team Red lead by Heather MacPherson.
Within this team, Vodafone worked with Santo London's agency head, Orlando Hooper-Greenhill, and creative directors Tom Evans and Olly Courtney to design the brand repositioning and campaign.
Leading the ad campaign is a 60-second film produced by Ridley Scott Associates and directed by Caspar Balslev. Titled "The Story of Hello" (video above), it focuses on the constancy of human interaction even while technologies evolve over time.
The ad will air on Friday across most of the brand's markets, said Sara Oliveira, Vodafone's global head of brand.
"Our new brand positioning is intended to embody Vodafone’s mission and purpose to help our communities adapt and prosper as new trends shape the world," Timuray said.
The new Vodafone logo places much greater emphasis on Vodafone's "speech mark." Designed by Brand Union, the mark will appear as the central graphic focus and will be overlaid on all marketing and marketing communications activity. It will also appear in a new 2D design in place of the older skeuomorphic 3D image.
Will things get better?
To position the campaign further, Vodafone commissioned an opinion study with YouGov to determine how people felt about the future.
The study surveyed 13,000 people in 14 countries and found that people are more positive about the future. Nearly half, 48%, think that today's children will have a better life, but nearly a third, 32%, think it'll be worse.
There was a marked difference between the responses from developed countries versus developing. The more developed nations tend towards pessimism about the future. In Italy, Germany, and the U.K., those who think things are will get worse outnumber the optimists.
Most pessimistic was the U.K., where only 32% think things will get better while 39% think things will get worse.
On the flipside, developing markets are understandably confident that things will get better for their children. Leading the charge is India, where an overwhelming 78% are confident things will get better versus 14% who think things will get worse.
The study also found a split between respondents based on age. The younger someone is, the more optimistic they tend to be about the future. Overall, 62% of 18-to-24 year olds are confident that things will be better.
This story first appeared on campaignlive.co.uk.


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Serena Williams continued her smooth passage through the draw with another convincing victory to reach the third round of the Australian Open for the 19th time on Wednesday.
Williams, whose one-legged catsuit is inspired by former sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, has been in a hurry and dropped just five games in her first two matches.
She was tested in the first set on Wednesday by 99th-ranked Serbian Nina Stojanovic but cruised thereafter to win 6-3 6-0 and set up a third-round clash with Russian teenager Anastasia Potapova
Speaking about the catsuit, Williams said: “Actually, this outfit was last minute to be honest. I just felt like the design that we had before wasn’t as Serena eques, and so the Nike team went back and created something very Serena-like and didn’t have time to put it in retail, so it was definitely more of a last-minute outfit than usual.
“It’s actually breathable and it’s perforated, so it’s actually super light and to a point where I need to make sure I’m wearing underwear (laughing),” Serena said.


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Technology giant Apple Inc. has now finally entered the online content streaming space after months of preparation & buzz around the venture
Technology giant Apple Inc. has now finally entered the online content streaming space after months of preparation and buzz around the new venture. Apple TV+ will be available at a monthly subscription fee of Rs 99 in India hosting movies, TV shows, documentaries, etc.
According to reports, there are subtitles and dubbed content available in over or roughly 40 languages. However, it is still perceived that India-centric content is limited on the platform right now.
Presently users can enjoy a one-week free trial period on the platform, which hosts shows like ‘See’, ‘The Morning Show’, ‘Ghostwriter’, Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, among others which can even be accessed from a host of Apple devices and non-apple ones.
The devices that currently support the platform are iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Apple TV on their latest OS versions, Samsung smart TVs, Roku's multiple devices, Amazon’s firestick, LG TVs and Vizio TVs. The last two, however, support Apple’s Airplay 2 instead of the Apple TV+ application that otherwise runs the platform.
Users can further check the exact specifications of an Apple TV+ supporting device, on the Cupertino, California based company’s website. There is another added catch to this. Now incoming owners of a new Apple produced gadget will get a free one year subscription to the service.
Meanwhile, until Apple expands support to a variety of other non-apple products and devices, users can access Apple TV+ content through Mozilla, Firefox and Chrome browsers.


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Facebook-Plus-Instagram Can Benefit Media and Marketers
If Facebook had based its offer for Instagram on the number of column inches and blog posts the deal would inspire, the price would have been much higher than $1 billion.
But leaving aside the question of whether any app with no revenue is worth $1 billion -- it was worth it to Facebook, and that 's all that really matters -- the deal raises a number of interesting questions, and challenges, for brands. However it turns out for Facebook financially, media companies and marketers should probably be thinking about Instagram in two ways: how to capitalize on it now and what Facebook might do with it down the road.
Get on Board
Brands should never create a social profile just for the sake of it, but I'd argue that if your brand creates photos of any sort, or has a Facebook profile but isn't yet on Instagram, now is the time to join Instagram. Already some profiles, including those of sports teams, pop stars and amateur photographers are getting upwards of 2,000 likes per photo. Magazines including Vice and websites such as Pitchfork have set up Instagram feeds too.
The publicity this deal has created is likely to give user numbers a massive boost, and while likes on their own don't mean anything, being able to connect with consumers at this scale is not something to be sniffed at.
Integration, Integration, Integration
Managing multiple platforms is one of the biggest issues many brands face, particularly when they're looking to scale their social-media outreach. While Facebook has promised to leave Instagram as a separate product, rather than "sunsetting" it like Gowalla, marketers and media will be able to maximize value if they integrate it into other activities.
Vitrue, the Facebook management tool, already offers Instagram management as part of its suite. The likes of Buddy Media will almost certainly be working on similar options very soon if they aren't already. These tools coming online are likely to help, but so too will Facebook integrating Instagram more closely into its own platform, which could happen in a number of ways.
Tagging and Funded Filters
In many ways, Facebook's own growth was built on photos and the ability to tag people in them. Right now tagging on Instagram relies on users adding Twitter-style profile names (@friendname), a rather clunky process all round. When Facebook brings proper tagging to Instagram (it seems obvious that it will be a "when" rather than an "if"), it could give Instagram's growth another rocket-boost as well as open up new opportunities for brands -- particularly if tagging expands to take in products as well as people.
It's easy to imagine brands rewarding budding David Baileys and Mario Testinos for tagging their products in their photos. Taking things a step further, if Facebook wished to bring apps to Instagram, it could do worse than allow brands to create custom filters. New app Snapster already allows this, and if Mark Zuckerberg wants a revenue strategy for Instagram, he might want to consider charging brands for the privilege of doing something similar.
Anyone for InstaRank?
One of the biggest problems that all social networks face as they start to scale is how to stop users from getting overwhelmed with noise while still allowing them to feel like a part of a thriving community. Facebook has done a pretty good job with EdgeRank and GraphRank, its calculations to decide which updates, photos and social apps to show each user. If Facebook can find a way to bring its own experience of bringing interaction algorithms to Instagram, it could head off any problem with users getting swamped.
Facebook might benefit, on the other hand, as it looks into the ways that Instagram users behave differently than Facebook users -- how people connect around the objects and interests represented in many Instagram posts, for example, rather than friends' status updates. If Facebook can understand why someone liked a photo of a car but didn't like the same person's photo of a motorbike, then maybe that $1 billion won't seem like so much after all. And that will be good news for marketers and media brands alike.


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Business News›easy trip planners ltd q4 results
EASY TRIP PLANNERS LTD Q4 RESULTS
ETMarkets Smart Talk: 2022 won’t be easy for new age companies, says Dr Vikas Gupta
"Definitely there should be a lot of scrutiny of new-age companies, just as for any other company. However, shouldn’t these analysts have scrutinized stringently when the IPOs were going on? Why didn’t they warn the investors before that? Better late than never. But we don’t agree that one can make a blanket statement that they are Ponzi schemes. One needs to develop a more sophisticated toolkit to analyze which of these new age companies are creating value, and which are capital destroyers."
Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide D-Street action on Monday
“As long as Nifty stays below the hurdle of 17,500 levels, there is a possibility of muted movement in the market. A sustainable move above 17,500 could open the next upside targets of 17,800-17,900 levels in the near term. Immediate support is placed at 17,200 levels,” he said.
Nomura picks stake in outperforming smallcap stock
Shares of Easy Trip Planners, which listed on Dalal Street last year at Rs 212.25 on NSE in March last year, ended the day 3.8 per cent lower at Rs 393.50.The smallcap stock which hit a 52-week low of Rs 261 in March this year has rallied around 47 per cent on a year-to-date basis.
EasyTrip Planners rises 3% as profit doubles in June quarter
The earnings for the online flight and hotel services provider, which operates under the brand name of EaseMyTrip, were supported by a strong demand recovery in the global travel segment.Following the development, shares of Easy Trip Planners rallied about 3 per cent to Rs 437.50 on Monday, before giving up their gains and trading almost flat. The stock settled at Rs 425.60 on Friday.
Corporate Radar: Airtel, GAIL to turn ex-dividend; ITC, Zomato Q1 results; AGMs, and more
Fortis Healthcare, Alkyl Amines Chemicals, Goodyear India and RCL Retail will have their annual general meetings (AGM) today. The boards of Easy Trip Planners will meet today to consider the Employees Stock Option Plan. Monday is the record date for dividends by Rossell India, Saksoft and Shilchar Technologies among others.
Maruti performance will remain subdued for 2 more quarters: Mahantesh Sabarad“It will be very difficult for the company to perform at least for two quarters. The component shortages being one aspect, there is also the other issue in terms of their ability to pass on the huge commodity cost increases that we have seen. So unless we find a sharp reduction on the commodity cost side, the performance will continue to remain subdued for two more quarters.”
Ecommerce sales tepid; upstarts seek to disrupt Ola, UberEcommerce has generally boomed over the past two years thanks to lockdowns and other pandemic-induced restrictions. But with the wider economy back in business, big ongoing sales by Amazon and Flipkart have drawn a lukewarm response. Inflation and the RBI’s squeeze on fintech firms may also be partly to blame.
Blinkit set for new pivot; introducing the ET Ecommerce IndexNow the company, which is in the process of being acquired by Zomato, is set for a fresh pivot as it looks to integrate its operations with Hyperpure, the food delivery firm’s B2B restaurant supply business.
Ahead of Market: 12 things that will decide D-Street action on TuesdayThe MACD showed bearish signs on the counters of CRISIL, ITC, GMM Pfaudler, GE Shipping and Easy Trip Planners. A bearish crossover on the MACD on these counters indicated that they had just begun their downward journey.
MakeMyTrip posts revenues of $88.6 million for Q4 of 2022The company said its adjusted operating profit improved to $12.0 million in quarter four of 2022 versus $11.1 million in quarter four of 2021. Adjusted operating profit increased to $23.2 million for the financial year 2022 versus an adjusted operating loss of $18.0 million for the financial year 2021.
MakeMyTrip Q4 Results: Profit rises 8% to $12 millionGross bookings in FY22 grew by 95.9 per cent to USD 3.2 billion as compared to USD 1.6 billion in FY21, it said.Commenting on the performance, MakeMyTrip Group Chief Executive Officer Rajesh Magow said, "Our long-term cost rationalisation helped us post full year adjusted operating profit of USD 23.2 million and Q4 adjusted operating profit of USD 12 million in a year
Easy Trip Planners Q4 Results: Profit declines 23% to Rs 23 croreTotal expenses during the quarter were higher at Rs 32.98 crore as compared to Rs 27.18 crore in the year-ago period.For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, consolidated net profit was at Rs 105.92 as against Rs 61.01 crore in the previous fiscal, the company said.
Corporate Radar: TCS, SBI to go ex-dividend; GMM Pfaudler to consider bonus issueAt least four stocks will go ex-dividend today. It includes TCS, which had announced a final dividend of Rs 22 per share recently. SBI, which announced a final dividend of Rs 7.10 per share, will also go ex-dividend today. Two others -- GRM Overseas and Qgo Finance -- which announced dividend (interim) per share of Re 0.25 and Re 0.10, respectively, will go ex-dividend today.
Ahead of Market: 12 things that will decide D-Street action on WednesdayNifty50 formed a small bearish candle on the daily chart and negated its higher high-low formations. That said, it stayed rangebound in an otherwise weak day for global equities. Analysts expect the index to keep trading in the broad range of 15,900-16,400 going ahead.
Indian Overseas Bank clocks 58% rise in Q4 net profit at Rs 552 croreWe aim to achieve a 25% year-on-year rise in net profit every quarter this fiscal," managing director Partha Pratim Sengupta said."There is no negative impact on lending growth after the 40 basis points rise in repo rate," he said. RBI reversed its easy rate cycle in an off-cycle monetary policy meeting earlier this month reacting to the sharp rise in inflation.
Nifty, Sensex gain after 5-day selloff; Tata Motors climb 6% after Q4 resultsTitan Company advanced 2.28 per cent to Rs 2,095.20. Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance gained over 2 per cent.
AU Bank Q4 net doubles, lender issues bonus sharesThe company's board recommended a bonus issue of one equity share for every equity share held. Besides, the board proposed Rs 1 dividend per equity share of Rs 10 face value for FY22.
IndusInd looking to create organic or inorganic business opportunity: MD“We are very comfortable with the growth coming back in microfinance and also other verticals. So the growth will be diversified rather than focussed on one segment.”
YES Bank: Why are analysts wary of the stock despite a beat on Q3 net profit?Emkay Global has a 'sell' rating on the stock with a target of Rs 10. Credit growth, this brokerage said, was subdued at 4 per cent YoY, with the corporate portfolio continuing to trend lower.
EaseMyTrip jumps 4% as board to consider bonus issue on Jan 12Lately, with the Omicron variant surfacing, the outlook for the stock has worsened as many people and companies are avoiding travel.
Market Movers: Why travel and power stocks are surgingAs more and more states relax pandemic-related restrictions, hotel companies are finding it hard to keep up with demand.
Easy Trip Planners Q4 results: Co reports net profit at Rs 30 croreIts revenue from operations was up 82 per cent at Rs 57.44 crore in quarter four compared to Rs 31.55 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Believe that 10% credit growth is achievable: Ashwani Bhatia, SBI"When we talk about the corporate book, it is more a function of how the economy is doing. Assuming that the retail book will remain robust, we are actually already seeing a decent number of enquiries coming in."
Look who was swimming naked! Most newly-listed stocks take a hard knockPrice data shows as many as seven listings of this calendar, many of which happened to be from the Covid-hit sectors, have fallen up to 27 per cent from their issue price. Others, too, have trimmed their post-listing gains.
Recent D-Street debutant Easy Trip Planners announces dividend of Rs 2 per shareAfter debuting on bourses in March with a listing gain of 13.5 per cent, the share price has fallen with a surge in Covid cases.
Easy Trip co-founder upbeat despite IPO at worst time for travelThe Delhi-based group, whose IPO raised 5.1 billion rupees ($70 million) with the majority of that going to Nishant and Rikant as they sold down their interests, has however been hit by cancellations as people scrap their travel plans.
IPO stocks ride leveraged money but many fall below listing priceExperts caution retail investors as grey market premiums and easy financing drive over-subscription, distort price discoveryLoad More
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Britney Spears certainly knows how to celebrate a birthday.
On December 2, her 29th birthday, Spears revealed that she's going to have a new album set to hit stores in March of next year, reports Billboard.
Spears took to Twitter to share the news.
"My fans mean the world to me & waking up to all of your wishes really made me smile, so here's something that I hope will make you smile...I'm almost done with my new album and it will be coming out this March. I AM IN L-O-V-E WITH IT!" she wrote.
The pop princess reunited with producers Max Martain and Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald for the record. Gottwald said that he "wants [the sound] to get harder in some ways, and maybe a little more deep into electronic -- grimier."
Spears even took a shot at the celebrity press, which has recently circulated a story in which Spears reported being beaten by ex-husband Jason Alexander.
U.S. & World
The new record will be the first release from Spears since 2008's Circus. That album debuted at No. 1 and spawned five top 100 singles, including "Womanizer."


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The opposition People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP) has warned Barbadians to “gird up loins and tighten belts” as the economy enters a “season of untold calamity.”
Bruce Hennis, a member of the party’s team on the economy, sounded this warning as he spelt out the implications of the latest figures revealed in three recent economic reviews.
Hennis drew on the Central Bank Governor’s review of the first three months of 2020, along with current trends in the United States and the United Kingdom, which have seen a sharp decline in their economic fortunes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the situation in the US and the UK, the two major sources of visitor arrivals, should be a cause for concern among Barbadians.
He said: “As of April 2020. the US has a 14.4 per cent unemployment rate; that is over 23 million people are not working at present. That level of unemployment has not been seen since August 1931 to June 1940 during the Great Depression.
“The Bank of England has said the UK’s economy could fall by 14 per cent this year, the largest since 1706, and unemployment may rise to as much as nine per cent higher than in the great recession of 2008.”
Barbados is still too heavily dependent on tourism, Hennis contended, as he cited the state of the industry over the last two years.
He said: “For the first quarter of 2020, the economy has declined by three per cent, and tourism has fallen by just over 16 per cent. We have seen an 18 per cent decline in long-stay arrivals and a 12 per cent drop in cruise tourism arrivals, and this was before any adverse impact from COVID-19. 2018 ended with -0.4 per cent decline in our economy; 2019 ended with a decline of -0.1 per cent, and the first three months of 2020 have continued this trend, with a three per cent decline, an amount that makes the overall 2018 and 2019 figures pale by comparison.
“The tourism fallout has also affected our foreign exchange earnings. In the first three months of 2020, our earnings from travel were close to $800 million, which looks good, but this was a decline of 11 per cent over 2019; this will get worse, and this is especially serious because over the last two years half of the foreign exchange earned has come from tourism.
“Barbados is still relying too heavily on tourism – 70 per cent of the tradeable component of our economy; that is, the goods and services we trade internationally, is made up of tourism-related businesses. Seventeen per cent or close to one-fifth of the overall economy depends strongly on tourism; therefore, as we have just seen, any decline in tourism will impact us all.”
The opposition spokesman also slammed the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, calling it the country’s worst-ever agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), following two arrangements made in the early 1980s and again in 1991.
Hennis declared: “The IMF programme we are currently in is the worst in our history with the IMF. The money we signed up for is now five times more money than the last two programmes combined, and the duration of this one is longer than the last two combined.
“Our debt per capita is now the highest in the world for all the 39 countries in IMF programmes at present.
Our most recent update, when we got an extra $39 million, means that every Barbadian carries a $2,600 debt. Argentina, the second-highest, is $2,500 per person, Argentina is in a dire economic situation and we have now surpassed them.”
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David Crosby is one of the poster boys of the hippie era. Now the music icon is getting into the modern cannabis business gold rush.
According to Benzinga, the co-founder of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Byrds, is pursuing a cannabis licensing opportunity tentatively called “Mighty Croz.”
“I figure, why not put that on the front of a pot package? If you’re walking into a dispensary and you see my face smiling up at you, you’re likely to try it. And that’s a good thing,” the 77-year-old says. “I’m going to approach it from the highest level. I’m going to market and advertise my brand a level to people who are intelligent and have sophisticated taste.”
Crosby’s brand will be a recreational marijuana opportunity, sparked by the growth of the legal cannabis business. But the singer-songwriter says he’s also impressed by opportunities in the CBD business.
He says the compound has real potential as a painkiller.
“As much as people just want to get high, I think you’re going to find that CBD — once it’s refined, concentrated, packaged and marketed — is going to become a hugely successful painkiller,” he says.
Crosby is far from the only iconic music figure to eye the legal cannabis market as an opportunity.
Snoop Dogg has set up a venture capital fund to invest in marijuana-related companies. This spring, the rapper’s Casa Verde fund announced it had raised more than $40 million to invest.
Karan Wadhera, Snoop’s managing partner at the firm, says the rapper has taken a largely hands-off approach to investments. “He’s hands-off on the investment process, but when it comes to certain companies, he’s very involved, including with Merry Jane, a lifestyle media site [focused around cannabis]. That’s content… That’s Snoop’s bread and butter,” Wadhera tells High Times.
Willie Nelson has also been active, selling his Willie’s Reserve brand of marijuana-related products. In July, he announced the launch of Willie’s Remedy, a CBD-infused coffee.
“It’s two of my favorites, together in the perfect combination. Like coffee, cannabis is a plant that works for me,” said Nelson.


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Fleets need operational and financial strategies in place first or plans to electrify fleet operations could fail, according to Holman’s director of client relations Jo Ewen.
She says that, while everyone of Holman’s customers is asking about electric vehicles (EVs), the pressure to change is putting at risk business sustainability.
“The goals of the business should dictate the plan for vehicles, not trying to fit EVs in when they are not suitable,” she said.
“There is real pressure and benefits to become greener and make the EV switch, which is understandable from a CSR and environmental perspective, but unless a comprehensive strategy is in place around transition, it could result in making their fleet, and their people, less effective.”
She says it is important that fleets have a clear understanding of whether the transition is operationally sustainable and will enable them to support their own business and their customers into the future.
She continued: “In many cases, especially for business-critical fleets with commercial vehicles or job-need cars, there just isn’t the full suite of options in the marketplace to justify everyone making the move, in the same way, at the same time.
“While there is a lot of demand to go electric or even look at other mobility solutions, we spend a lot of time with our customers looking at every vehicle on a fleet to ensure that a change is right for them, not only from emissions and green perspective, but critically from a job need requirement.”
Getting it wrong, according to Ewen, will result in fleets spending a lot of time trying to rectify the situation through reallocation, retooling or early termination, which actually slows making electric an operationally sustainable solution.
To support customers in the transition, Holman’s portfolio management team look at each vehicle individually with the customer every quarter and support them in making informed decisions about every one of them, be that to retain, adjust, replace or even remove.
Ewen said that to be both operationally and environmentally sustainable, fleets need to become increasingly agile and flexible, so they are able to respond when market conditions and products are right.
She concluded: “Analysis shows that for certain commercial vehicles, diesel or petrol may still be the right choice. But because finance lease allows our customers to retain full control of, and have transparency over, those vehicles, as and when the case is proven for electrification, they can defleet at their choosing.
“This means they can retain profits to re-invest in new electric vehicles and make that change at the optimum time for them, their drivers and, importantly, their customer experience.
“Ultimately the answer to the question ‘is our fleet sustainable?’ has two differing yet interconnected responses on both operational and environmental levels, and at this time businesses have some incredibly tough choices to make.”
Ewen has a checklist for a sustainable transition to EVs:
- Set goals for the business, and plan how vehicles support these
- Get buy-in from senior management for the plan
- Choose partners and suppliers who can support you in the long term
- Get employees trained, with the right tools and goals
Holman (formerly ARI Fleet UK) was named Leasing Company of the Year (up to 20,000 vehicles) at this year’s Fleet News Awards, after restructuring its offering and focusing on fleet management and the growing opportunity offered by finance lease funding. Read more about the recent rebrand and its plans for the future.


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Tedeschi boosts Fells’ Italian portfolio
Valpolicella producer Tedeschi Family Winery has joined UK importer John E Fells on an exclusive distribution basis.
From 1 November Fells, which is owned by Port producer Symington Family Estates, will represent Tedeschi’s collection of Valpolicella, Amarone, Ripasso, Recioto and Soave wines.
With winemaking links in Valpolicella dating back to the 1630s, the Tedeschi family is one of 10 founding members of the Amarone Families Association (Famiglia del’Amarone d’Arte), which work together to promote this style.
Commenting on the decision, winemaker and export manager Riccardo Tedeschi said: “By joining Fells, we have put in place an expert team who will help us extend our presence in the specialist, independent and on-trade channels in the UK market. Their portfolio and insight in the UK market is unparalleled.”
Meanwhile Steve Moody, Fells’ managing director, described the company as “delighted” by this latest addition to its Italian portfolio. “Tedeschi Family Winery are not only an important addition in their own right,” he remarked; “they also complement our growing Italian portfolio which already includes classic Tuscan wines from Barone Ricasoli and superb Piemontese wines from Renato Ratti.”


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The 15th Shop & Share event for Kentucky’s domestic violence shelters will be Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024.
Shop & Share is a one-day fundraiser where shoppers are asked to SHOP for what they need and SHARE an item with their local domestic violence program. Sanctuary, Inc. staff and volunteers will be set up at Kroger stores in Hopkinsville, Madisonville and Powderly from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10 handing out shopping lists and collecting donations.
Over the 14 events that have taken place, more than $5 million in goods and monetary donations have been raised for the 15 domestic violence shelter programs that make up the Kentucky’s domestic violence coalition, ZeroV.
Other partners include the Governor and First Lady’s offices; Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana and the Kentucky Women’s Federation.
Goods donated during Shop & Share allow ZeroV programs, like Sanctuary, to use their budgets to continue providing services to the men, women, and children in Kentucky who seek assistance in rebuilding their lives free from abuse.
People can get involved in different ways. They can contact Sanctuary to sign up to volunteer at a nearby grocery store, collecting donations from shoppers. They may also plan to shop that day and donate needed items to the volunteers. You can contact Sanctuary at 270-885-4572 or check out our Facebook page for more information.


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Lexus Canada redesigns website
Lexus Canada of Toronto has redesigned its website at Lexus.ca. According to the company, the site is the first for a Canadian automotive company to make use of a responsive design that adapts to desktop, tablet and smartphone users. The site also offers a new vehicle configuration and pricing tool that adapts to smartphone use, as well as Chinese-language content.
"The cornerstone of the Lexus brand is exceptional design and engineering, which applies most importantly to our outstanding lineup of luxury vehicles while also extending to everything associated with our brand," said Cyril Dimitris, director of Lexus Canada. "Our website represents an important touchpoint for our guests, so we take great pride in having Lexus.ca deliver a seamless, engaging and intuitive experience from discovery through to purchase."


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The Open IPTV Forum has added set top box vendor ABox42, application developer Axonista, testing businesses BluFocus and Digital TV Labs, and technology companies DCC Labs and mistserver.org as new members, taking the total number of new members to the organisation over the last six months to 18.
The Forum, which promotes interoperable specifications, said that the new companies would increase the breadth of industry support for its open specifications for connected TV services and devices. Nilo Mitra, The Open IPTV Forum’s president, announced the new members in advance of the organisation’s forthcoming plenary, to be hosted by Sony in Tokyo, Japan.
The pros and cons of FAST digitaltveurope.com/comment/the-pr…
20 June 2021 @ 13:38:00 UTC


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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it himself: 2020 is going to be a tough year for the company.
Zuckerberg said as much on Facebook (FB) - Get Meta Platforms Inc. Report third quarter earnings call, when he told investors that over the next year, with the 2020 Presidential race ramping up, Facebook could be “at the center of the debate” any time there’s a partisan political conflict, potentially generating renewed criticism and even further investigations of the company. Facebook shares are up 49% so far this year.
Political matters aren’t the only challenge facing Facebook in 2020 however. Below are some of the key themes to watch next year.
1. New Revenue Sources
Facebook’s core newsfeed isn’t the crown jewel of its portfolio anymore, at least where its next wave of growth is concerned. Instagram and Stories, and even WhatsApp, are looking a lot more interesting these days to many growth-seeking investors.
Accordingly, Facebook’s advertising products are evolving. Stories have evolved into a popular medium for sharing content among friends, both on Facebook and Instagram, and advertisers are beginning to better understand how to monetize these emerging forms of communication on Facebook. Interest in Stories will likely remain high next year, and Facebook will need to meet investor expectations on that front.
Although it's nascent, there is hope among investors that shopping and commerce will turn into a meaningful source of revenue, particularly on Instagram and WhatsApp. Analysts have noted that Instagram, as a visual-first medium that's increasingly popular among advertisers, is a natural fit for shopping. In November, Facebook rolled out Facebook Pay, a PayPal-esque peer-to-peer payments system that, if widely adopted, could make shopping through Facebook easier -- and potentially boost monetization potential across all of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
2. Problem Content
Ever since Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has taken pains to inform people how its processes for purging fishy accounts, apps and other types of problematic content are improving. Recently, it said in a blog post that it removed 3.2 billion fake accounts in Q2 and Q3. It also broke out for the first time its content moderation efforts on Instagram versus core Facebook, saying that it deleted millions of pieces of content depicting child abuse and self-harm.
Progress on content moderation is a good thing, but it also doesn’t come cheap. Facebook spends in the ballpark of $5 billion per year on safety, security and content moderation efforts, and that cost isn’t likely to come down significantly anytime soon. On its third quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg told investors that "I don't foresee any time in the near future that AI is going to make it so that the cost comes down...there's just so much content flowing through the system that we do need a lot of people looking at this. And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon."
Relying on humans for content moderation comes with its own host of problems. Months ago, an investigation by The Verge into poor working conditions of Facebook contractors who moderate content sparked a stiff backlash. It’s also an imperfect system, a game of whack-a-mole that will likely remain a liability for Facebook well into the future.
3. Regulatory Headaches
Facebook’s Libra project was supposed to represent its next big innovation in financial services. Instead, it became a flash point for long-simmering ire towards the company for privacy-related infractions, political advertising, content moderation issues, and even its spotty record on civil rights. In two separate hearings, one with Facebook executive David Marcus and the other with CEO Mark Zuckberberg, lawmakers vented their frustrations with the social media firm’s impact on society.
It’s uncertain what form Libra will take when, or if, it launches as initially planned in 2020. If it does launch, it’ll likely be a drastically scaled-down version of Facebook’s original vision of a global digital currency with a large network of partners; after being told by lawmakers they could bear liability for problems with Libra, several major partners, such as PayPal (PYPL) - Get PayPal Holdings Inc. Report and Mastercard (MA) - Get Mastercard Incorporated Report, withdrew their participation.
Beyond just Libra, however, regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere are keeping their eyes on Facebook. Facebook is one of several big tech companies facing an antitrust review by the DOJ, FTC and nearly all state attorneys general, likely focusing on its data practices, acquisitions, and product development. In Europe, it faces potentially even greater pressures, including scrutiny into hate speech, stiff potential penalties for GDPR violations, and a new antitrust probe by the European Commission. Next year, it will have to reassure investors that regulatory pressures won’t negatively impact its long-term prospects.


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Mercedes Recalls 1.3 Million Cars Over Emergency Call Glitch
More and more new cars come with the option of emergency call technology that will alert authorities in event of a crash or crisis. It helps if the tools can give them your actual location.
Mercedes recently announced it is recalling some 1.3 million cars that the company says come equipped with defective, according to Engadget. A glitch might prevent them from accurately reporting the car’s location when needed.
“If there is a drop of the power supply to the communications module during a crash, the automatic eCall system may register the location of the vehicle’s last ignition cycle, rather than its location at the time the eCall system is activated,” Mercedes said in a recall notice. “Emergency responders may be dispatched to an inaccurate vehicle location, increasing the risk of injury following a crash.”
The recall includes a wide range of Mercedes models, from the A-Class to the S-Class, and spans model years 2016 to 2019.
Mercedes says it will start fixing the issue in early April, either through over-the-air updates or by asking owners to bring their cars in to local dealerships.
Legal Rights and Options for California Car Owners and Lessors
The tech glitch poses a unique problem for Mercedes drivers, but it also reflects the ongoing problems that major auto manufacturers have in simply putting cars on the road that work as intended.
General Motors and Mercedes recently announced that the companies are recalling a wide range of vehicles, for example, because of faulty tires that could increase the risk of an accident. They are not alone: car manufacturers around the globe recall millions of vehicles per year because of serious problems that could lead to crashes.
Fortunately, car owners and lessors in California have some valuable protections under the state’s lemon law. The law requires car manufacturers to perform various repairs on vehicles while they are under warranty and to buy back or replace cars that the company is unable to or refuses to fix.
There is no specific number of repair requests or attempts that must happen before the buyback or replace requirement kicks in. That is one reason why it is important to consult a seasoned California lemon law attorney.
How an Orange County Lemon Law Attorney Can Help
If you are a California car owner driving a lemon, an Orange County lemon law attorney at Bickel Sannipoli APC can help. Our firm is dedicated to ensuring that the manufacturer fixes the vehicle and can maximize the value of your buyback.
We are pleased to be able to represent people across the state. Our attorneys understand the significant stress that can come with haggling with car dealers and manufacturers. Our lawyers work aggressively to resolve these cases for the people that we represent.


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A pilot project which is launched by The Chicago Transit Authority reveals the benefits of using beacon technology for transit authorities, consumers, brands, also offers within range of store for travelers who passed by the store.
Network of Gimbal Bluetooth Smart beacons will be installed at Chicago rail stations under the CTA’s partnership with Titans, advertising agency. It will determine how beacons can aid CTA-rider communication, brand-consumer engagement, technological enhancement and other consumer benefits.
“Beacons can help the CTA better communicate with its riders,” said Dave Etherington, chief strategy officer for New York-based Titan, a specialist in transit-based traditional and digital out-of-home advertising which manages Chicago bus and rail media assets.
“We don’t have an exact start date for the pilot announced yesterday but will make that information available when it has been determined,” he added.
Beacons in mass transit.
How beacon technology can be used in transit stations to help the CTA better communicate with its riders?
This project will enhance CTA mobile technologies. For example is like Train Tracker tool, which lets travelers see estimated arrivals at their stop or see CTA trains on a map, and Bus Tracker, which uses GPS devices to keep travelers up to date on estimated bus-arrival times.
“Potentially there are commercial use cases for beacon technology” Mr. Etherington said. “For example, a shop could push a money-off coupon to a CTA rider when they are close to a store.”
based on other news, in San Antonio was launched a free parking locator app to helps motorists find convenient parking using their smartphone’s location. It enables garage, parking lot and meter parking options to be identified along with the user’s current location, including price data.
The app which can be downloaded from apple store or google’s play store was developed with New York-based Pango. Once in the app, users can select San Antonio as the city, where they will see a map showing open parking by street.
Beacons in benches.
If San Antonio launched free parking beacons, City of Los Angeles launched a pilot program using beacons in bus benches, potentially providing municipalities, museums and other parties the opportunity to spread information and content to individuals based on their proximity. The program will see a network of Gimbal Bluetooth beacons affixed to Martin Outdoor bus benches, to explore how the city can provide timely and personal information to residents and visitors based on their proximate location.
As Beacon technology is growing, the world may turn from stuffed into connected enviroment. imagine how we live surrounded by beacon technology and how it will be easier to find many things you want just by getting your bluetooth on and installed your iBeacon in your phone.


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2016 has been the year VR eventually arrived in a true way, and though the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive offer a really immersive and innovative experience, the technology has yet to reach the mainstream. Part of this is down to the prohibitive price of a nice VR experience.
The Virtual Reality (VR) era is here – 2016 is the year when VR technology is being developed by big companies and they released their newest VR gadget in the market these are PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, as well as the HTC Vive. These leading companies take virtual reality experience to the next level. Oculus Rift and HTC Vive also introduce the virtual reality into gaming, gamers can now enjoy another kind of gaming experience.


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China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit starts
Updated: 2011-10-21 13:20
NANNING-- The eighth China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) started here Friday as regional state and business leaders explore ways to boost trade and growth amid concerns over the faltering global economic recovery.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will give a speech at the opening ceremony of the summit, which is held in the southwestern city of Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
ASEAN is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Indonesian traders see China, ASEAN prime trade partners 2011-10-20 11:25
Food, tourism to dominate Malaysian China-ASEAN EXPO 2011-10-15 11:14
- Beijing heating goes solar
- CapitaMalls Asia plans to expand Chinese projects
- China's Wolong buys ATB Group for $138m
- China's social financing falls $194b in Jan-Sept
- Energy giant plans steady overseas expansion
- Ma urges Yahoo! to respond to offer
- Center Group resumes production
- Direct debt for local govts


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Bright Automotive, Inc., the developer of the purpose-built, plug-in hybrid IDEA (earlier post) launched of Bright eSolutions to support automotive customers worldwide to accelerate vehicle electrification, lightweighting, and overall platform efficiency. Bright Automotive launched eSolutions with a just-announced contract from the US Army TACOM to conduct a demonstration project on a low-cost plug-in hybrid electric solution for non-tactical military vehicles.
Bright eSolutions will work with TACOM to demonstrate the feasibility of Bright Automotive’s parallel hybrid technology for military non-combat use. As part of the $1.4 million contract, eSolutions will also work with the US Army to demonstrate the ability of plug-in hybrid vehicles to deliver power to the grid (V2G).
The IDEA is a multi-purpose, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle aimed at commercial and government fleets. Bright eSolutions will offer clients expert guidance on a variety of strategies in the field of EV/PHEV vehicle development, from EV powertrain integration and conversions, to aerodynamics and lightweighting, to battery cell engineering. Bright eSolutions will focus on:
- Vehicle Design
- Vehicle Engineering
- Energy Storage
- General Consulting
Bright eSolutions is led by Nigel Francis, Vice President. Francis’ automotive industry experience includes the acquisition and delivery of several hybrid vehicles. He has had active leadership roles working with vehicle design and engineering of US OEMs, systems integrators and tier suppliers, including Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Orion Bus, Magna, Eaton, Continental and others.
IDEA performance upgrade. Last week, Bright Automotive announced improved performance figures for the IDEA, resulting from a new 13 kWh battery pack. The IDEA can now operate for 40 miles in charge depletion (EV) mode, and then switch to a class-leading 36 MPG (minimum) charge sustaining (standard hybrid) mode. For many fleet operators, the added EV range will allow them to operate almost entirely gasoline-free, Bright said. The initial IDEA had an all-electric range of 30 miles.