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NEW YORK CITY (AFP) - More than a million PlayStation 4 consoles were sold in the first 24 hours of its release in North America, according to manufacturer Sony.
The Japanese electronics giant announced the figures in a statement on Sunday as it seeks to gain ground on Microsoft, which is releasing its Xbox One console this week.
"PS4 was designed with an unwavering commitment to gamers, and we are thrilled that consumer reaction has been so phenomenal," said Mr Andrew House, president and group chief of Sony Computer Entertainment.
"Sales remain very strong in North America, and we expect continued enthusiasm as we launch the PlayStation 4 in Europe and Latin America on November 29."
The PS4 is one of the three major consoles moving into the next generation.
Nintendo launched its Wii U in late 2012, and Microsoft's new Xbox is set for release November 22 in 13 countries.
A forecast by the research firm Gartner shows game console sales of hardware and software are likely to grow to US$44 billion (S$55 billion) worldwide in 2013 from US$37 billion last year, helped in part by the new consoles.


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Chasing Giants is a biweekly column profiling budding startups in New York City and their plans to compete with, and potentially overtake, an industry leader. Sign up to receive an alert when a new column goes live.
Midtown startup Mobot puts robots to work testing software
The upstart: Mobot
Before she launched her startup, Eden Full Goh was a product manager for a medical device company, and there was one part of the job she really hated: testing the company’s app.
She would often work late into the night preparing for product demos, putting the app through manual tests to ensure it was bug-free. The work was mind-numbing and tedious.
“I was doing the same thing over and over again,” she recalls. “And I was, like, ‘I could literally program a robot to do this!’”
Soon after, she quit her job and did just that.
The result is Mobot. Full Goh’s 45-employee startup, headquartered in Midtown East, now has an army of more than 75 robots, built in-house, that are busy testing apps for 64 companies including athletic coaching service MySwimPro and safety app Citizen.
The robots use a stylus to operate touch screens on Mobot’s library of more than 250 devices, ranging from old Android phones to the iPhone Pro Max 14—ensuring that bugs and incompatibilities are detected and corrected no matter what device an end-user employs.
Customers pay for a monthly subscription that buys a bundle of “taps.” The $2,000 base subscription, for example, buys several thousand taps. Customers who do a lot of app testing can require hundreds of thousands of taps per month.
Hiring Mobot’s robots is not necessarily less expensive than outsourcing to human testers overseas or hiring a minimum-wage intern off Craigslist, but the results are much more reliable, Full Goh says. Humans get fatigued, zone out and make mistakes. And because Mobot can test on many devices at once using multiple robots, it can perform a complete test in hours rather than days.
GasBuddy—a gasoline-price app that has been downloaded more than 100 million times—partnered with Mobot for testing after it redesigned its software from scratch last year.
“It’s high on the list of jobs you want automated,” GasBuddy CTO Max Metral says.
With Mobot, GasBuddy can quickly test a much larger number of user scenarios on a larger number of devices than it could ever hope to handle in-house, Metral says, adding, “It allows us to address our users’ needs and ship features faster.”
Mobot announced $12.5 million in Series A funding in August, bringing its total backing to $17.8 million.
The reigning Goliath: Applause
The privately held company, founded in 2007 and based in Framingham, Massachusetts, says it contracts with a community of more than 1 million digital freelance software testers worldwide, providing quality-assurance testing for clients including PayPal, Spotify and Uber.
How to slay the giant
After quitting her job in 2018, Full Goh built an app-testing robot at home by modifying a $1,000 hobby robot designed to sign greeting cards.
She wrangled her first clients—still among Mobot’s customers today—by offering the app-testing service for free, but they quickly agreed to pay. That won the attention of Newark Venture Partners in New Jersey and admission to its incubator program. Full Goh recalls riding NJ Transit with the prototype robot on her lap on visits to potential investors and customers.
“In those early days,” she says, “it was just me and the robot.”
That first year working solo was exhausting, Full Goh says.
“I don’t recommend anyone go through this stuff alone,” she says. ”But I also feel it gave me an appreciation for how every part of the business operates. I know how to do operations. I know how to do customer success. I know how to run product. I can’t be an engineer, but it gave me enough context that I know how to guide engineers.”
A $3 million seed round in May 2019 allowed her to hire a team. Within a year, she had more than a dozen employees working out of a Midtown East coworking space. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Suddenly, going to the office wasn’t an option. Employees took the robots home to test them.
The shift forced Mobot to redesign its operations and create a flexible, distributed work model that will serve the company well in the long run, Full Goh says.
“This sets us up for our vision,” she says. “We want robot warehouses and robot data centers in multiple locations around the world.”
The pivot impressed investors including Jesse Robbins, a general partner at Heavybit, which invested in Mobot’s Series A round.
Robbins says he believes Mobot’s use of robots and artificial intelligence software represents a leap forward in the $20 billion software testing industry.
“It’s monotonous work that people are bad at and don’t really like doing,” he says. “Frankly, you are making people work like robots—so why not get a robot to do that work?”
The next challenge
Mobot plans to hire more engineers to expand its services, and it won’t stop with designing app-testing robots, Full Goh says.
“Basically, we want to test anything,” she says. “We want to test your grocery store checkout kiosk, your car dashboard. We want to test your smartwatch and your Nest thermostat.”
Decades from now, she suggests, Mobot could be testing the software-enabled contact lenses on your eyeballs.
“Right now it’s a bunch of touch screens because that is the majority of how we as humans use technology today, but that is changing.”

domain: news


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Shares tumble after M&C Saatchi warns on profits
Shares in M&C Saatchi tumbled on Tuesday after the advertising agency warned on full-year profits.
The firm said it expected like-for-like full-year operating profits to be 5% to 10% below full-year 2019 expectations due to losses from start-ups it was invested in and a previously-announced £6.4m accounting charge.
The warning came as M&C Saatchi reported a 67% tumble in interim pre-tax profits to £2.5m and a 49% slide in operating profits to £4.8m. Net revenues nudged ahead 0.7% to £214.2m.
Chief executive David Kershaw said: "Our results in the first half have been impacted by the number of new businesses in the group, as well as the weighting of revenues shifting towards the second half of the year.
"While this has had a short-term impact on our results, we remain confident in, and committed to, our strategy of winning new business and investing in new, fast-growing businesses."
M&C Saatchi announced in August that it had identified issues with the 2018 results and would be taking a £6.4m charge as a result. It has also restated the 2018 interim results and on Tuesday announced it had hired PwC to carry out an independent review.
It said: "The group announced in August that we would be taking an exceptional charge of £6.4m to the group‘s 2019 results, as a result of an internal review of specific subsidiaries in the UK.
"We have since engaged PwC to conduct an independent accounting review of the whole group, which is expected to be completed by November 2019. Initial indications are that this review will result in the restatement of prior year results, rather than an exceptional charge in 2019."
Kershaw said: "Looking to the second half, our pipeline of new business is strong across the network, and our newest businesses are performing well and are expected to start making a meaningful contribution to the group."
Investors were less convinced, however, with the shares down 11% to 152.43p by 1400 BST.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said it had been a "challenging" first half for the firm.
"All regions except UK and Asia & Australia saw organic declines. Management has suggested that revenues for the full-year will be weighted [to the second half], with key client wins and profits to benefit the second half. However, for 2019, loss-making start-ups will weigh on group profits."
They added that the shares would likely remain "subdued" until PwC’s review was completed.


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Avago Technologies Ltd.'s
Shares rose 5.6% to $30.90 on the better-than-expected results. The stock was up 43% over the past year through the close.
The maker of chips for products ranging from cell phones to computer servers has benefited from robust industrial-infrastructure spending in China, as well as design wins in the smartphone category.
Avago in June authorized up to $500 million worth of share buybacks, or 15 million shares, and raised its dividend 13% even as the stock continued to climb over the past year.
In the latest quarter, wired infrastructure sales jumped 37%, outpacing growth in other end markets.
"While uncertainties prevail in the global economy today, we continue to believe revenue will grow for the balance of the fiscal year due to share gains with certain wireless and wired OEMs," Chief Executive Hock Tan said.
For the quarter ended July 31, the company posted a profit of $144 million, or 57 cents a share, up from $123 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding write-downs, stock-based compensation and other items, per-share earnings rose to 68 cents from 61 cents. Analysts expected 63 cents.
Revenue rose 9.6% to $603 million, topping the company's May guidance of $577.5 million to $594 million.
Gross margin widened to 49.3% from 47.8%, in line with the firm's earlier guidance.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the company forecast sequential revenue growth between 2% and 5%, which would range between $615.1 million and $633.2 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $620 million.


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Self-driving car news has taken a backseat these days and with controversies surrounding Tesla’s Autopilot features, you might presume car makers have silently retreated, at least for a short while. That’s not the case, of course, but autonomous driving proponents and developers have just become more cautious. In contrast to its usual proud announcements, Waymo is taking a laid back and almost secretive approach to revealing its future plans for its self-driving technology, including private tests of a rider-only service that is currently ongoing in Phoenix.
Self-driving or autonomous cars can mean different things to different people and companies, a point of confusion that may be one of the causes of the industry’s thrust being derailed. Tesla’s Autopilot features, for example, require the driver to still be at full attention. Other technologies still require someone to be behind the wheel at least.
Waymo, a division of Alphabet just like Google, is definitely more ambitious and it is putting that to the test to a limited degree in Phoenix, Arizona. Speaking to Reuters, Waymo CEO John Krafcik revealed that a rider-only service is in limited testing in the city. He is naturally mum about the details but the revelation alone suggests how confident the company is about its “automated driver”.
This news comes together with Krafcik’s tweet revealing that Waymo had just opened a factory in Detroit that’s 100% dedicated to producing Level 4 or LF autonomous vehicles. L4 refers to full autonomy requiring no human intervention except in emergency circumstances. L4 self-driving cars, however, are still required to have steering wheels.
Waymo is looking to sell its technology to a carmaker to make self-driving cars under the manufacturer’s brand or under Waymo’s name. It’s not stopping there, however, and is already testing its autonomous driver on Peterbilt trucks in Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia. That, however, is a whole different ballgame when it comes to safety and legal requirements.


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List view / Grid view
Health & Nutrition
20 September 2018 | By New Food
EFSA's 'Science, Food, Society' conference began yesterday and will run over four days, discussing important food and environment related topics.
19 September 2018 | By PerkinElmer Inc.
Those milk moustaches are a stroke of marketing genius. Just seeing them through the years evokes the health benefits of milk, from its proteins and calcium to its fortified vitamins. What we never see, however, is the growing global concern over the amount of antibiotic residuals that can be found…
13 September 2018 | By New Food
Coca-Cola India has added mango and banana flavoured smoothies to their Minute Maid brand, continuing their pledge to the Heath and Wellness area.
20 August 2018 | By Iqra Farooq (New Food)
Wheat genome finally sequenced by 20 countries over the course of 13 years could be the key to increasing wheat production...
9 August 2018 | By Pall Corporation
The consumption of fresh and fresh cut produce continues to increase globally. Technological advancements have in turn aided in increased global production of fresh produce to meet the increasing demand. However, there is serious concern as to whether this increase in supply and demand is leading to safety issues, as…
8 August 2018 | By Iqra Farooq (New Food)
ASA rules advertisements from Kentucky Fried Chicken and Kellogg's Cocoa Pops were wrongly directed at children under 16.
2 August 2018 | By Iqra Farooq (New Food)
Omega-3 levels have declined in recent years, and this study may help return omega-3 levels in farmed fish to those from over a decade ago.


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Twitter’s ad revenues
Twitter (TWTR) gets a significant portion of its revenues from advertising. In the second quarter, its advertising business posted revenues of $601 billion, a significant 23% YoY (year-over-year) growth. Its advertising revenues contributed ~84.5% of the company’s total revenues in the quarter.
Like Twitter, rivals Facebook (FB), Snap (SNAP), Yelp (YELP), and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google depend on advertising for most of their revenues. In the second quarter, Facebook’s ad sales growth of 42% YoY was faster than Google’s at 23.9% YoY and Twitter’s at 23% YoY.
Social media companies under scrutiny
Social media companies have come under scrutiny since January when US intelligence agencies revealed that social media platforms were used by Russian groups to influence the 2016 US presidential election.
Since Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal in March, Twitter, Facebook, and Google have been grilled by lawmakers. Reportedly, personal data for 87 million Facebook users were used without their permission. In May, the European Union enacted a new privacy law called the General Data Protection Regulation to crack down on data practices.


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Released today, The Ritual sees models photograph themselves from the comfort of their own homes – knitting, sunbathing or simply hanging out with a pet
“I decided to let the clothes travel towards the houses of the cast of models – the characters that have embodied my stories for years; individuals I chose precisely, over time, for their uniqueness that usually brings my campaigns to life,” said Alessandro Michele this morning of Gucci’s new campaign, which sees a typically eclectic cast of models photograph themselves in the house’s Autumn/Winter 2020 collection from the comfort of their own homes.
It makes for an apt reflection of our current moment – after all, we have all spent more time at home this year than ever before. But it also reflects the idea of the collection itself, which was to turn the fashion show ritual inside out – backstage became the main performance, the hair stylists and make-up artists, dressers and seamstresses, the mise en scène. “We all come for this ritual that is almost religious. We say ‘one day I want to stop and do something else,’ but that day never comes. I’m 48 years old and have not found something else,” Michele said at the time, somewhat prophetically.
The campaign also encourages the models to encompass the individualism that Michele’s vision of the house has long entailed. “I asked them to represent the idea they have of themselves, to go public with it, shaping the poetry that accompanies them,” he said. “I encouraged them to play, improvising with their life.” This energy translates into the images: models might photograph themselves in their bedrooms or gardens, running on the treadmill, knitting, sunbathing, or appearing alongside a pet.
“This time was the time to reveal how powerful human beings are. That idea of humanity. Fashion is humanity,” Michele told AnOther’s Alexander Fury some teaser images from the campaign – which is titled The Ritual – were released earlier this year. “We are human, me, you, we are all human. They are human. There is something powerful about fashion that we discover, and we didn’t know. Maybe we felt it, but we didn’t have the chance to say it as clearly as we are saying now.”
Watch the campaign film below.
Creative Director: Alessandro Michele
Art Director: Christopher Simmonds
Hair stylist: models
Make up: models
(Gareth Coombes, Daniel Goffey, Michael Quinn)
© 1995 EMI Music Publishing Italia Srl on behalf of EMI Music Publishing LTD
(P) 1995 The Echo Label Limited, a BMG Company, courtesy of BMG Rights Management (Italy) srl


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Google recently announced that passkey support is now available for Chrome users on Windows 11, macOS, and Android.
Passkeys are the next step above traditional passwords, offering users a more convenient way to secure their online accounts. They are generated using advanced cryptographic algorithms and are unique to each user, making it difficult for threat actors to hack, even if they have access to a user's device.
In addition to providing increased security and convenience, passkeys also make it easier for users to manage their online accounts. With a passkey manager, users can easily generate and manage multiple passkeys for different accounts, and can even revoke access to individual passkeys if necessary.
Back in May 2022, Apple, Google, and Microsoft announced plans to support a common passwordless sign-in standard created by the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium. This laid the groundwork for organizations to implement passkeys in their platforms.
PayPal recently announced it would add passkey support for Apple products, and now Google has added it for Chrome.
According to a blog post written by Ali Sarraf, a product manager with Chrome, here is how passkeys will work with Chrome:
"On Android your passkeys will be securely synced through Google Password Manager or, in future versions of Android, any other password manager that supports passkeys."
"Once you have a passkey saved on your device it can show up in autofill when you're signing in to help you be more secure."
"On a desktop device you can also choose to use a passkey from your nearby mobile device and, since passkeys are built on industry standards, you can use either an Android or iOS device."
"A passkey doesn't leave your mobile device when signing in like this. Only a securely generated code is exchanged with the site so, unlike a password, there's nothing that could be leaked.
To give you control over your passkeys, from Chrome M108 you will be able to manage your passkeys from within Chrome on Windows and macOS."
While organizations around the world are still working on developing passkey technology that will ultimately save us all a tremendous amount of time when it comes to password management, Google introducing the technology to Chrome is a welcome sight.
Follow SecureWorld News for more stories related to cybersecurity.


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Falcoholinks: All the Falcons information your self have to have for Monday, May possibly 17..
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New York - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Monday will hand over his chief executive title to Andy Jassy, ending a more than two-decade run leading the company through its evolution from online bookseller to $1.75 trillion global retail, logistics and i..
After growing its workforce to more than 1.3 million people in 2020, Amazon is planning to hire another 55,000 employees globally in the coming months, the company announced Wednesday. This is the first major hiring push since new Chief Executive ..
Pfizer CEO in talks with 90 countries for COVID-19 pill
Pfizer says its antiviral pill slashes risk of severe COVID-19 by 89%
What are the Best-paying Jobs in Qatar?
Umrah and prayer at Grand Mosque permits restricted for fully vaccinated pilgrims from Oct. 10


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– Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, August 14: In line with the central government’s policy to support the economy hit by the Corona pandemic, the union ministry of shipping on Friday announced rationalization of port tariff rates for cruise vessels reducing the charges from 60 to 70 per cent providing substantial relief to the cruise industry in the country.
According to an official spokesman of the shipping ministry, the port charges for a cruise ship had been reduced to $0.085 per Gross Registered Tonnage from the present $0.35 per GRT for the first 12 hours stay at Fixed Rate and $5 per passenger as Head Tax. For the period exceeding 12 hours stay, the fixed charges on cruise ships would be equal to the Berth Hire Charges payable as per Schedule of Rates (SOR) with 40 per cent discount as applicable for cruise ships. The Ports will not charge any other rate like berth hire, port dues, pilotage, passenger fee, etc.
In addition, the cruise ships making up to 50 calls at any port in India per year would get a further rebate of 10 per cent, between 50 and 100 calls a year 20 per cent and more than 100 calls per year would get rebate of 30 per cent. The spokesman said the new tariff rates would come into force with immediate effect and would be in operation for a period of one year.
The spokesman said the reduction in rates would provide a great support to the shipping industry which had been adversely hit by the COVID pandemic the world over. He said due to the right policy environment and infrastructural support provided to the shipping and tourism industry since 2014, the number of calls made by the cruise ships in India had increased from 128 in 2015-16 to 593 last year. “This rationalization would also help to ensure that cruise calls at Indian Ports do not dry up completely,” the spokesman said.
Speaking on the rationalization move, the union minister of state for shipping Mansukh Mandaviya said the decision was the result of the efforts being made by his ministry to convert the vision of the prime minister Narendra Modi into reality by putting India on the map of global cruise market, both for ocean and river cruises. “It will be a big support for the cruise tourism in India, which has suffered tremendously due to the adverse economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. It will also provide an opportunity to earn huge amount of foreign exchange and generate sizeable direct and indirect onshore employment in cruise tourism sector in India,” he added.


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Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Export Control Legislation Amendment (Certification of Narcotic Exports) Bill 2020; Second Reading
I rise in support of the Export Control Legislation Amendment (Certification of Narcotic Exports) Bill 2020. This bill removes barriers to Australian hemp and medicinal cannabis companies exporting their products to supply international markets. The Greens support this bill because we understand the many potential benefits of medicinal cannabis and we support a healthy Australian medicinal cannabis industry. But this bill also raises serious concerns about the domestic market. Since the Greens led the charge for the introduction of medicinal cannabis as far back as 2015, I've been highlighting the enormous barriers to patient access to medicinal cannabis in Australia. The TGA arrangements at present are failing to provide people with timely, cost-effective access. As a result of the problems within the current regulatory system, we undertook a detailed inquiry into the barriers and problems with regulation of medicinal cannabis in Australia. We did that earlier this year and the committee tabled its report in March. It's now essential that the government implement the recommendations of that report. At the end of my speech I'm going to be moving a second reading amendment to that effect.
It's really important to understand the history here. The government made medicinal cannabis legal in 2015 and set up the regulatory framework through The Therapeutic Goods Administration. At that time we advocated very strongly that a separate, independent standalone regulator be established to allow people to access medicinal cannabis. That's the approach taken by many jurisdictions right across the world, recognising the very unique issues associated with a drug that in many circumstances has been prohibited for consumption and understanding also that medicinal cannabis is not one drug but indeed many different drugs.
We decided to give the government the benefit of the doubt. It was a big change at the time. Up until 2015 it was illegal, full stop, for a doctor to prescribe a patient medicinal cannabis. But what we've seen now is that the system is failing people. In the five years that have now passed, what we've seen is people failing to get access to medicinal cannabis when they need it. The barriers are many and I'll go through some of them in a moment.
The Community Affairs inquiry into patient access to medicinal cannabis uncovered a range of issues which advocates in the industry have been highlighting for many, many years. At the moment, if a doctor wants to prescribe a patient medicinal cannabis, they require the use of the Special Access Scheme through the TGA. This is important to understand. The TGA regulates products for approval here in Australia, but where there's a pharmaceutical drug that's from another jurisdiction, that hasn't yet entered the Australian market and hasn't been approved for use in Australia, there is a special provision called the Special Access Scheme that allows doctors to seek permission to prescribe that product. That's a scheme that was designed to be used in exceptional circumstances for drugs that may be of benefit to a limited number of people. The scheme was never intended to be used at scale for something like medicinal cannabis. It's remarkable—you've got the regulator, the TGA, that is designed specifically to regulate for the approval of pharmaceutical products, and they've been chosen to regulate a drug which bypasses their normal approval processes and uses something called the Special Access Scheme. As I said, what that scheme does is to allow for the prescription of products not yet approved for sale here in Australia, but it requires doctors to jump through a number of hoops in order to be able to prescribe it. It requires doctors to complete a detailed form every time, per patient, per script.
There is another way in which you can avoid having to go through that approval process for every specific script for a patient. You can become what is known as an authorised prescriber, but, again, the number of authorised prescribers has been extremely limited, and not only is the process for becoming an authorised prescriber onerous but also the committee found that the required approvals are really hard to come by. There are very few people who have been designated as having authorised prescriber status.
I will just give a practical example. When I was in general practice, if a patient came in to see me I could write a script for an opiate. Opiates are drugs—codeine type drugs and other injectable preparations of opiates, like pethidine, for example. I can write a script for an opiate like codeine without requiring any approval from anywhere else. It's up to my discretion as a prescribing doctor as to whether I think the patient will benefit from an opiate. Now, we know from what is happening here in Australia—indeed, right around the world—that there is a crisis in overdose deaths from prescription opiates. In the US, tens of thousands of people are dying from prescription overdose deaths. I can do the same for benzodiazepine type drugs—I can write a script. And we know that, when it comes to the use of drugs like opiates and benzodiazepines, people do die when they are taken in large quantities. The potential for overdose is very real. I don't require any approval to be able to prescribe those drugs, and yet I have to jump through a range of hoops to prescribe a drug like medicinal cannabis, for which there has not been one documented case of overdose. When you talk about the relative safety of particular drugs, medicinal cannabis is safer than over-the-counter drugs like alcohol. We're trying to put a square peg into a round hole.
The issues don't stop there. Doctors are struggling to get the necessary training and information they need to appropriately prescribe these products. Look, when I was training, we didn't even know there was an endocannabinoid system—it was something that just wasn't understood in medicine. We know now that medicinal cannabis products work because we have our own endogenous system, our own endocannabinoid system—our own body produces variations of these drugs itself, and that's why these products are effective. We didn't know about that only a short time ago. So the amount of information that doctors have on cannabis type products is very limited. Indeed, the only training I got was that cannabis is a dangerous drug and you need to ensure that people stay away from it.
If you can find a doctor who's willing to undertake the paperwork and feels comfortable in prescribing, you're going to find red tape in accessing medication thanks to the overlapping regulation not just at a federal level through the TGA process but also at a state level. I'm sure we'll have a contribution later on where we hear about the huge problems in Tasmania specifically, where that state has decided to make it harder than any other state for someone to access medicinal cannabis.
If you manage to go through the tangle of federal and state restrictions, patients are then going to be hit by the enormous cost associated with accessing these products because they're not subsidised—again, unlike other medications. So patients who need these treatments, who will benefit from them and who want to do the right thing continue to use the black market because they can get these products cheaply. Unfortunately they don't know what they're getting, it's an unregulated market and often what people think they're getting is not what they're purchasing, but they are being forced to break the law.
Our inquiry included contributions from senators on all sides and made unanimous recommendations on how to urgently fix this failing system. These recommendations need to be the government's highest priority in this area. While we support our local industry accessing export markets, surely we should be looking after Australian patients first. Our committee has recommended that immediate changes be made to both the Special Access Scheme and the Authorised Prescriber Scheme to allow a smoother, simpler, more straightforward process for doctors. We recommend that investment be made by the government and by the colleges to ensure that appropriate doctor education is available so that people learn about the endocannabinoid system and the benefits of medicinal cannabis rather than the stigma that's currently associated with the use of these products. Crucially we recommend that the government investigate a compassionate subsidy scheme for medicinal cannabis so that patients are not faced with huge price tags just for accessing their medication. Right now, when people are given a script, they can be forced to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars each month simply to get access to a medication that would be of tremendous benefit to them and their families.
Through the committee we made a number of other recommendations, and I commend the report to all senators, but the key one is that the government moves forward to reform the system—that we establish an independent, stand-alone expert regulator for medicinal cannabis and move away from the TGA system, which is good for what it needs to do, but we are trying to put a square peg into a round hole. The report said very clearly that the government should reform the system if barriers to patient access persisted 12 months after tabling the report. Personally, I would've liked to have seen a stronger recommendation—immediate reform of the system—but, working across the divide with both Liberal and Labor senators, we accepted that the government be given 12 months to address the inadequacies of the regulation associated with medicinal cannabis.
We know that an independent regulator which understands many of the complexities associated with medicinal cannabis would allow for far greater patient access. That's experienced in many jurisdictions overseas. The irony of the current system is that, although the TGA is the pharmaceuticals regulator—it regulates the introduction of pharmaceutical products in Australia—most medicinal cannabis bypasses the normal regulatory framework within the TGA through the Special Access Scheme. So it circumvents the processes that are established within the TGA to regulate medicines. We have decided to use a regulator to regulate medicinal cannabis only to have it bypass their normal regulatory processes. It makes no sense, it's not sustainable and Australians deserve much better.
Of course, all these improvements to patient access would improve the viability of the Australian medicinal cannabis industry. This is a young market. It's just starting out and it wants to supply a domestic market, but the barriers are so high that despite knowing how many Australians are likely to benefit from these treatments there are only a trickle of prescriptions coming through. Yes, there has been incremental improvement over recent months, but it's coming off an extraordinarily low baseline and is still not enough to meet the extraordinary demand there is for medicinal cannabis progress. It's been estimated that millions of Australians would benefit from the use of medicinal cannabis or at least a trial of those products. At the moment, all we have is a few thousand Australians being able to access those products.
We know that our domestic market isn't enough to sustain a medicinal cannabis industry, and that's why the export market is important. As I've said, we do support that, but let's sort out our system here in Australia so that Australians can benefit from medicinal cannabis products. I have said on many occasions that this isn't a wonder drug. It doesn't have the benefits that some advocates purport, but it does have many, many potential benefits. You only need to talk to people who've experienced a remarkable improvement in their quality of life to know that this is a drug that Australians should be able to get access to.
The key issue for both industry and patient access domestically is the descheduling of CBD, one of the components of medicinal cannabis—and again it's important to understand here that THC is the drug with the psychoactive effect; CBD products don't have any psychoactive effects—and there's now a move to deschedule CBD-only products so that they can be accessed like other complementary medicines. Since the inquiry, the TGA has begun a progress to down-schedule small-quantity-CBD products, from schedule 4 to schedule 3, so they can be available over the counter at pharmacies, rather than requiring a prescription. It's a good start, but the issue remains that even schedule-3 CBD—which, as I said, has no capacity to create a so-called high; we know it's safe, we know it's well understood—would still require registration on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Drugs, requiring all the years of huge investment in clinical trials. Clinical trials are important, but they shouldn't be a barrier.
So we support the bill, but it's time we got on with fixing the situation at home so that Australians can access medicinal cannabis products here. I therefore move the following second reading amendment:
At the end of the motion, add:
", but the Senate calls on the Government to urgently implement the recommendations contained in the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on its inquiry into current barriers to patient access to medicinal cannabis".


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Medical Device and Drug Manufacturers Impact Patient Care
Most consumers doubtlessly believe that they and their doctors should make decisions about medical care. Powerful third parties, however, can intrude on the doctor-patient relationship to exert considerable influence on many doctors as they choose among treatment options. Up until now, most patients have had no sure way of knowing about the generous incentives their doctors receive from drug and medical device manufacturers who want to promote the use and sale of their products.
According to recent analysis, these manufacturers give money to about one-fourth of the nationâs physicians, and almost two-thirds of doctors routinely enjoy complimentary meals paid for by these companies. The New York Times determined that doctors who receive gifts from the manufacturers are more likely to take risks in prescribing their drugs. They may prescribe drugs or use medical devices that have not yet been approved for certain uses â which could be tantamount tomedical malpractice. For example, they may treat children with recently developed strong antipsychotic drugs that have not been shown to be safe for this age group.
Patients are right to be concerned about these outside pressures that can make a difference in what drugs their doctors prescribe and what medical devices they decide to use. Lay people may be unaware of these influences and uncomfortable asking their doctors about them. In particular, when there is a negative outcome, patients are right to question why their medical care providers made the decisions they did and whether they had a relationship with drug and medical device companies.
Authorized by the 2010 federal health care reform legislation, the government will soon be issuing new standards requiring manufacturers to reveal payments they make to physicians. Consumer advocates believe that this transparency will reduce the likelihood that doctors will overprescribe prescription drugs or misuse medical devices as payback for favors they have received from the manufacturers.
Up to a certain point, relationships between manufacturers and doctors may be helpful, as research funding from the manufacturers can support doctors who test and develop effective, innovative treatments. The new standards will not pass judgment on the relationships. They will require, though, that the manufacturers publicly acknowledge what they give doctors, from free lunch for medical office staff to million-dollar research grants.
Requiring open disclosure will give consumers the information they need to decide whether their doctors truly have their best interests at heart, or whether their decisions are bought and paid for by drug and medical device companies. Armed with this new knowledge, consumers who feel wronged by their doctors can now consider taking legal action to right wrongs caused by inappropriate relationships and improper medical care.


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Sony Complete Hawk-Eye Acquisition
March 7, 2011
Electronics giant Sony has completed the acquisition of UK based, sports tracking technology company Hawk-Eye.
Financial terms of the deal which has seen Hawk-Eye snapped up by Sony have not been released, with the Japanese electronics giant hoping to utilise technology originally developed for military use in its sports broadcasting.
Hawk-Eye is used for the popular, newly integrated challenge system in major tennis and cricket tournaments, becoming a household name in the process. The technology and has also been used in soccer and snooker with a debate over its use in the former having existed for a number of years.
Naomi Climer, Vice-President Sony Europe, commented, “Hawk-Eye is recognised globally for its innovative solutions for resolving close calls in critical sporting situations, particularly in cricket and tennis where they have developed a worldwide reputation.”
“Players, officials and sports fans have all appreciated the accurate and entertaining way in which Hawk-Eye has integrated its technology into these key sports,” added Climer.
“Hawk-Eye presents Sony with the opportunity to acquire a small, innovative company with unique knowledge and excellent growth and synergies potential.
“It is an ideal complementary offering to Sony Professionals existing portfolio of solutions for stadiums, venues and broadcasters, as well as bringing in specific expertise around managed services and sports software solutions engineering.
“We see strong opportunities on the technological, business and marketing levels to further Sony’s leadership and engagement in the sports and broadcasting industry.”
The takeover includes all intellectual property, software solutions and engineering capabilities and Hawk-Eye and all of its staff will now join Sony Professional.


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360 MAGAZINE reviews the top stories for the month of August 2022.
Twitter is a powerful social media platform that can be used to build an audience and grow a business. However, to be successful on Twitter, you need to have a strategy in place.
Established as a cherished attraction for car lovers, the Newport Car Museum in Portsmouth, R.I. has become a business success story like no other in the car world. Despite bringing in tourists from other popular landmarks in Newport like the Gilded Age Mansions and the seaside attractions of Newport, the Museum has set itself aside […]
World Premiere Exhibition, Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, to Open October 16th at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. South Florida is the First Stop on an International Tour Featuring 192 Priceless Andean Objects and the First-Ever Virtual Reality Expedition of Machu Picchu. The new blockbuster experience will feature the first-ever virtual […]
By: Heather Keenan Te started posting singing videos on TikTok a year and a half ago and has amassed over 1.6million followers. 2021 has been a hectic year for Keenan, with his last song Dependent being released in April. Dependent currently has over 50 million plays across platforms and flew to number 1 on Indonesia’s Viral 50 Spotify […]
What Marketers Need to Know About Media’s New Currency Source Digital, a leader in providing innovative video advertising, is helping marketers to stop wasting money It’s estimated that digital advertising grew 12% over the last year, as many people were at home more during the pandemic. With billions being spent on trying to reach people as they watch videos, it only makes sense that marketers turn […]
California Wines Livestream & Video Series Celebrates Down to Earth Month in April Facebook Live & Instagram Events Share Tips on Enjoying Sustainably Grown & Produced Wines For “Down to Earth Month” in April, California Wines is celebrating the state’s global leadership in sustainable winegrowing with a series of fun and informative virtual events and […]
The Bugatti Owners’ Club and The Little Car Company announced a new partnership Wednesday following the release of The Little Car Company’s Bugatti Baby II. With this partnership, the Bugatti Owners’ Club gives its stamp of approval to the Bugatti Baby II, giving it certified status and hopefully building the foundation for a long and […]
All-star Cincinnati Reds pitcher and 2020 Cy Young Award finalist Trevor Bauer has partnered with Lids, the leading sports retailer. In the 25-year history of Lids, Bauer is the first MLB player to partner with the company. Lids will become the exclusive headwear retailer for Bauer. Bauer caught attention for his personal merchandise and custom […]
Rising Bronx rapper Kemba releases the video for “Nobody I Can Trust,”the lead single from his forthcoming Sounds Music/Republic debut, Gilda. Watch it HERE. Listen HERE. The visual for the track is set in the 60s. It satirizes American suburbia while breaking down the racial divides that often still plague this nation. It’s a video that is emblematic of Kemba’s keen observations of […]


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Company Chairman Eric Benhamou will serve as CEO until a permanent replacement is found. A search is already under way, Palm said.
"With Palm's transition into two individual businesses almost complete, my role has changed, and it no longer matches my aspirations," Yankowski said in a statement.
Yankowski did not announce his future plans.
Palm shares were up slightly after the announcement to $2.30 in after-hours trading on the Island ECN, after closing regular trading down 3 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $2.27, well off a 52-week high of $62.75.
Palm began the year still struggling to keep up with demand. However, delays and other problems with the launch of the m500 series, combined with weakening demand, led large quantities of Palm's products to pile up on the shelves of retailers and distributors. That resulted in a brutal price war with Handspring and others, which led the company to pile up losses and burn through much of its cash reserves.
The company has stabilized some in recent months but has pushed out the time frame of when it might return to profitability, after earlier saying it might turn a narrow profit for the current quarter.
Gartner analyst Todd Kort says Carl Yankowski's resignation as Palm CEO a mere 23 months after he took the
job mainly results from a series of missteps by the company.
"Consumer confidence has taken such a blow after the terrorist attacks," he said. "Obviously, we have to redouble our efforts."
Despite its problems earlier in the year, Palm said Thursday that it is on track to meet its financial estimates for the quarter.
"While the economic slowdown persists, and consumer confidence has fallen following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, we are encouraged that sell-through has rebounded to levels above that of the summer months," Benhamou said in the statement.
Palm said Benhamou will chair an executive council that will help lead the company until a new CEO is named. The council is made up of David Nagel, CEO of Palm's soon-to-be spun-off operating system subsidiary; Palm Chief Operating Officer Todd Bradley; and CFO Judy Bruner.
Benhamou said in an interview that Palm is looking to start the process of splitting Palm into separate, publicly traded companies. As a result, Benhamou said, Palm now needs a different type of CEO, one with the innovation and operational excellence to run a device business. He said the board will look both within Palm and outside the company for that leader.
The move is positive for the company, said William Crawford, an analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. "The buck stops with the CEO, and Palm management has clearly not executed," Crawford said.
Privately, analysts had been calling for new leadership for months.
"In terms of execution, a number of his moves were questionable," said Needham analyst Andrew Scott. "The vision under Carl Yankowski was always a bit murky."
Yankowski's departure comes after a dramatic decline in Palm's stock.
"Investors voted with their wallets," Scott said. "Given the drastic change in share price, it appears that the board felt Palm needed to be changed from the top down."
Yankowski, a former Reebok executive and Sony Electronics president, was named CEO of Palm in December 1999, as the unit was being prepared to be spun off from 3Com.
Yankowski will receive a severance package from Palm, although the company did not offer specifics. Under Yankowski's employment contract, he is entitled to receive a lump-sum severance payment equal to two times his salary, full vesting of any nonperformance-based restricted stock, and two years of vesting for any nonperformance-based options and paid health benefits, according to the company's September proxy. In fiscal 2001, Yankowski received $666,667 in salary.
News.com's Dawn Kawamoto contributed to this report.


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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Curt Schilling was one of Major League Baseball’s dominant pitchers for some 20 seasons and since retiring, his game playing has taken a new direction — he owns a company aiming to conquer the $65 billion video game industry.
Schilling’s company, 38 Studios, so named for his jersey number, is no casual pastime for the three-time World Series champion, who won pitching titles with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox.
Schilling has invested $30 million to $35 million of his own money into the company, he told Reuters in a recent interview in Los Angeles. The company plans to release its first game next year.
The former All-Star chose a tricky time to jump into the video game business, where startups such as Zynga Inc have won fanfare and challenged old powers by rolling out simple, addictive games for Facebook and smartphones.
Against this backdrop, Schilling’s 300-person business has pursued a different strategy: It plans to release a new fantasy-action franchise featuring original characters and stories.
It is the sort of business plan that used to be commonplace but has fallen out of favor as major video game publishers, including Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard, have tried to lessen their risk by focusing on expanding existing franchises rather than developing new ones.
“It’s hard, but anything worth doing in life is challenging and hard and I’ve never had a problem with hard,” said Schilling, who is remembered for pitching in the 2004 playoffs with an injured ankle that bled through his sock.
How the 44-year-old Schilling ended up on stage last month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, the industry’s top U.S. trade show, is a path that dates back to 1980 when a close friend bought an Apple computer and Schilling began playing games on it.
“I was hooked,” he said. “I was coding and programing and playing games and I’ve been playing ever since.”
While traveling during his baseball days, Schilling said he would return to his hotel room, log on to the Web-based fantasy game “World of Warcraft” and play along with his sons back home.
“There were a lot of ways to get in trouble as an athlete,” he said. “So I stayed in my room and played PC games on my laptop.”
As his pitching career wound down, Schilling told his wife Shonda he was thinking about starting a video game company and that he wanted to set aside a little money to fund it.
Before long, “that little chunk of money got really big,” said Schilling, who founded 38 Studios in 2006, just before his last professional baseball season. He would work mornings at the office in a Boston suburb before heading to Fenway Park to pitch.
“When you start a company on your own and you’re looking to get funding, exposure is not a bad thing,” he said. “We won the World Series in ‘07 so I was pretty comfortable being able get meetings with a lot of people with a phone call.”
Schilling said he is proud that his company has no backing from venture capitalists. Instead, funding has come from his own wallet and a small group of investors.
“Had we gone out and gotten VC money early, we would have given away the very thing you strive to keep, which is control of your product,” he said.
A turning point for 38 Studios came in 2009 when it bought “Big Huge Games” a Baltimore-based development house owned by THQ Inc, the publicly traded video game company known for its wrestling and ultimate-fighting titles.
That accelerated development of 38 Studios’ first game, “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,” which will hit stores in 2012. The single-player role-playing game was created by best-selling author R.A. Salvatore along with Todd McFarlane, the creator of the comic book Spawn. The company has partnered with EA to publish and market the game.
After that launches, Schilling’s company plans to release an online multiplayer game based on the same characters.
Another big boost came from the state of Rhode Island, which last year offered $75 million in financing to move the studio from Massachusetts.
He took them up on it and finished the relocation in April. Schilling said while he still goes into the office, he tries to take a back seat to his talented staff working on the video games.
“Things have gotten infinitely better from a games perspective than five years ago because I’m now less hands-on,” he said.
Schilling must stick with his project for several years if he wants to see the games released and turn a profit. He said he is committed to building a multimillion-dollar company.
“I’m in this until I think I’m not having fun or my wife tells me to get out,” he joked.
Editing by Paul Thomasch and Maureen Bavdek


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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announcedOperation Main Street: Stopping Small Business Scams, a coordinated joint effort with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), law enforcement and state/federal partners, to help stop scams that target small businesses.
Standards & Guidelines
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has published a minor revision to the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for organizations that handle branded credit cards from the major card networks.
In an effort to protect patient safety and promote public health, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a new Medical Device Safety Action Plan.
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) announced a new PCI Security Standard for software-based PIN entry on commercial off-the-shelf devices (COTS), to include smartphones and tablets.
The Wi-Fi Alliance introduced a new WiFi protocol and standard WPA3 that will enhance Wi-Fi network security protections and simplify Wi-Fi security configuration for users and service providers. The Wi-Fi Alliance organization sets the standards for Wi-Fi safety and has certified 35,000 Wi-Fi products. The new standard will be the first since WPA2 was established over a decade ago
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) released the OWASP Top 10 – 2017. The new standard includes the ten most critical web application security risks. This is the first update since the 2013 version.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division Cybersecurity Unit has developed a framework to assist organizations interested in creating a formal vulnerability disclosure program.
In this article, we highlight some key points from a recent Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) IoT Working Group report, “Future-proofing the Connected World: 13 Steps to Developing Secure IoT Products,” to include guidance on how to establish a framework, platform and privacy protections to enhance security of IoT products.


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What goes up must surely come down.
North American polypropylene resin buyers were reminded of that in April as prices tumbled an average of 5.5 cents per pound. Regional prices for the material had increased by an average of 20.5 cents per pound in the first three months of 2017.
Market sources said that lower PP prices were the result of lower prices for polymer-grade propylene (PGP) feedstock. PGP supplies also are improving as some maintenance outages come to an end, they added.
The wave of three price hikes that started the year also led PP users to pre-buy in advance of additional increases.
North American PP sales were up almost 1 percent in the first three months of 2017, according to the American Chemistry Council. Domestic sales essentially were flat in that period, but export sales surged 60 percent.
Among domestic end markets, three-month PP sales into injection molding grew 2.5 percent. That sector was led by a 5 percent gain for PP sales into consumer and institutional products, including furniture and housewares.


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We made it! And we couldn’t have done it without the hard work and commitment of all our employees, and the support of our customers and communities. As the state has lifted most COVID-related restrictions and safety practices as of June 30, we are thoughtfully transitioning to a new normal.
Our employees who have been vaccinated may choose to continue to wear masks but they are no longer required to. We also welcome customers who have been vaccinated to shop our markets without masks if they’d like, and request that those who have not been vaccinated continue to wear masks as per the state’s guidelines.
Over the past few months we’ve opened some of our self-serve food bars and started allowing our customers to use reusable bags. While we are relaxing some of our stringent safety practices instituted when the pandemic started, we have adopted many of them as part of our regular routines moving forward. Over the next several weeks we will continue making plans to revive some of the other shopping experiences our customers and employees have missed.
While we know the pandemic is still a crisis in many parts of the world and that far too many families have lost loved ones, we are profoundly grateful to our communities for hanging in there with us, abiding by safety protocols, and for achieving high vaccination rates.


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WASHINGTON — The new federal law that will require U.S. chain restaurants to display calorie information on menus may lead restaurants to reformulate recipes, according to a recent analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.
In “Will Calorie Labeling in Restaurants Make a Difference?” the authors note that food consumed away from home now accounts for about 33% of total calories consumed and 42% of total food expenditures by U.S. households. A 2010 ERS analysis indicated that each away-from-home meal increases the average daily calorie intake of American adults by 134 calories. When dining out, Americans also tend to consume more saturated fat and cholesterol and less fiber, calcium and iron than when eating meals prepared at home.
The ERS report notes that increased consumer awareness often leads suppliers to reformulate recipes in order to accommodate new health trends. The popularity of calcium-fortified juices, the elimination of trans fats from many brands during the past five years, and the growth of whole grain products are all cited as recent examples.
However, the report also cites research indicating that consumers lower their expectations for flavor when they see terms like “low-fat” on menus, and fewer diners tend to choose those options. Also, ERS researchers have found that consumers pay less attention to nutrition information at restaurants than they do when shopping for groceries, and even dieters tend to choose less healthy options when dining out.
The impact on different dining formats and different demographics may also vary. New York City has had a calorie labeling law in effect since July 2008. A New York University study analyzed how the new calorie information impacted purchasing habits at fast-food restaurants in low-income, minority neighborhoods. While 88% of study participants said that they purchased fewer calories in response to the labeling, receipts indicated that they still consumed the same number of calories as a control group in Newark, N.J.
By contrast, a Stanford University study comparing sales at Starbucks locations in New York with sales in Boston and Philadelphia found that mandatory calorie posting caused average calories per order to fall by 6%.


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Christmas Day gas prices are expected to be the highest since 2013, according to a projection from GasBuddy.
The national average is projected to be $2.39 a gallon on Christmas Day, which is slightly above prices in the past years ($2.28 in 2016, $2 in 2015 and $2.38 in 2014). Gas prices in 2013 were $3.26 a gallon.
Though the gas price will be the highest in years, it’s also down from where prices were at Thanksgiving. GasBuddy said in a news release that the national average is a 12-cent drop since Thanksgiving.
“It’s hard to be completely happy with gas prices dropping slightly in recent weeks when we’re going to see the most expensive Christmas at the pump in years, but what we’re seeing now really pales in comparison to the holidays when we pulled up to the pump that was over $3 per gallon,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan said of the span between 2010 and 2013.
GasBuddy also offered tips to drivers on how to save money while traveling this holiday season.
The smartphone app company suggested drivers take into account state gas taxes that could lead to higher prices in certain states, look for discounts at gas stations and avoid speeding and aggressive driving. Doing neither can save drivers up to $10 a tank.


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Posted by Zombiekel April 24, 2012
Tuesday, February 3, 2015 - 6:23pmWhat happens when the awesome Scott Tolleson and the fantastic Doubleparlour get together and make sweet sculpture love? WEISHAUPT! That's what!!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 11:47pmIf you missed out on FAKIR's homage to Clover Studio's awesome game, Okami, then you're in luck. The 5" resin piece is getting a limited colorway release on Monday, February 2.
Monday, December 22, 2014 - 10:19pmInspired by Clover Studio's (R.I.P.) game, Ōkami, Parisian artist, Fakir will be releasing his newest toy on Monday, January 5. The Japanese-style wolf features heavy additional sculpting throughout the Trikky silhouette and the color scheme of the Shinto goddess, Amaterasu.


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For many visitors, Natural Products Expo West is an opportunity to identify the latest trends in the natural, organic and healthy products industry. This couldn’t be truer for online influencer and wellness trends expert, Heather Smith of the theHAUTEbar, which serves up the most inspiring and innovative products to consumers, the media and brands looking to live well through better-for-you food, bevies, beauty and lifestyle products.
The ‘Hottest Wellness Trends’ co-op media tour took place live from Natural Products Expo West and Truly Grass Fed was proud to be featured in this segment as Heather’s Top Sustainable Brand of the Natural Products Expo 2019.
The quality of our Truly Grass Fed products is a reflection of our relationship to our world. We are constantly striving to do better, be better and achieve a truly sustainable milk supply with a minimal carbon footprint. That’s why we created our Truly Grass Fed Sustainable Program in which our farms are certified to the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS), which is part of Origin Green, Ireland’s national sustainability initiative.
Heather’s media tour gained more than 82 Million impressions with 223 airings of the content reaching many of our key metropolitan markets such as Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York and Las Vegas to name a few.
Click through the link here to see some of the live TV segments from the media tour that aired throughout March on US national & regional stations:
The media tour also gained traction on other platforms such as radio, social media and multimedia news releases including the International Business Times which has an audience of 15M+


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Digiday is at SXSW. We’ll profile startups that solve real problems for brands, agencies and publishers; report the scuttlebutt outside the convention hall; and shoot video interviews with digital media leaders. Our coverage is made possible through the sponsorship of Vitrue, the social media management platform.
Advertising is an enormous industry undergoing a historic transformation. Yet few of the new companies at South by Southwest are focused on solving problems for brands and agencies.
The buzz amongst many agency execs isn’t around new marketing and ad tools, but mobile apps like Highlight and Glancee that, in all likelihood, will probably be forgotten by this time next year. That seems like a missed opportunity for the firms out there trying desperately to gain access to marketing execs and agency buyers. There are myriad inefficiencies and problems confronting brands trying to reach consumers nowadays, yet it seems like Silicon Valley is still stuck on new ways for strangers to know when other strangers are nearby.
“I think the question is right on. Where are the startups? “ said Joe Lozito, svp of technology at Digitas. “I don’t feel like I’m meeting interesting new vendors. Maybe they’re here somewhere but it’s just so hard to get through all the noise. Perhaps they’re just getting drowned out.”
Aaron Shapiro, CEO of Huge, echoed those sentiments. “The short answer is no,” he said, when asked if he’s seen any firms pitching interesting ideas specifically to agencies or brands.
Lozito said he comes to SXSW specifically looking for technologies the agency can ultimately share with its clients, but hasn’t been overly impressed with what he’s seen. Too many of the startups here are focused on social and mobile, he suggested.
That said, social CRM company Spredfast piqued his interest, Lozito added, as well as an MIT Media Lab project called Funf. The latter allows for the collection of vast amounts of data through mobile devices, including movements, relationships, moods, health, calling habits and spending. That type of data is, of course, of great interest to marketers, but could potentially be used to offer “surprise and delight” experiences for consumers, too.
Though it might have applications there, that technology isn’t being developed with marketers in mind. Few of the offerings here are.
“There are other conferences out there for those companies,” suggested NowSpots founder Brad Flora. His is one of the only startups in this year’s SXSW Accelerator program directly related to marketing, which equips small publishers with technology to pull social media content into HTML5 ad units. The idea, he says, is to make it easier for smaller advertisers to get into display advertising.
But NowSpot’s target audience, publishers, are thin on the ground here, too.
Grandstand, meanwhile, is one of the few new products here with a direct focus on brands and marketers. Its technology allows retailers, QSRs and events companies to turn user check-ins into games, rewards programs and loyalty schemes.
But it’s not a standalone company; it’s a spinoff of Washington, DC-based agency iStrategyLabs. It saw an opportunity to take the technology it developed in-house and offer it to other agencies and brands, said DJ Saul, a vp at the agency.
But ultimately, the real value for both agencies and brands in coming to SXSW is in the networking, rather than the technology aspect per se.
“For us, these conferences have become valuable for the face time with clients, and the opportunity to introduce them to vendors we’re already associated with,” Lozito said. “It’s more difficult to bring client here and meet new startup. It’s too huge.”
Two years in, Bose’s first CMO outlines his plan for the brand
It took a minute, but Bose is enjoying the benefits of having a CMO for the first time.
As America returns to the office, Xerox returns to advertising
As the next generation enters the workforce, Xerox tailors its ad strategy to them.
Marketing Briefing: As Pride approaches, marketers should be ‘truly invested’ as marketing backlash continues
Marketers and agency execs say that this current moment will likely make clear the brands that are truly committed to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community and those that had simply made Pride an annual marketing moment.
SponsoredHow enterprise-grade CDPs are enhancing data processes and improving customer experiences
Produced in partnership with Marketecture The following article highlights an interview between Martin Kihn, Salesforce’s senior vice president of Marketing Cloud, and Ari Paparo, founder and CEO of Marketecture Media. Register to watch more of the discussion and learn how brands are making the most of enterprise-grade CDP technologies. As brands expand across channels and […]
Why Airbnb’s global head of marketing says in-housing agency critique is a fallacy
As the in-housing agency trend continues, Digiday talks to Airbnb about its strategy.
Brand, agency execs speak out on Google’s latest cookie-killing plan and cookieless identifier challenges
During the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, brand and agency executives weighed in on the present and future of the third-party cookie and cookieless identifiers.


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Baader Bank set a €21.00 ($24.42) price target on GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:G1A) in a research note published on Monday, Borsen Zeitung reports. The brokerage currently has a sell rating on the stock.
Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Nord/LB set a €26.00 ($30.23) price objective on GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a €28.00 ($32.56) price objective on GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a €23.00 ($26.74) price objective on GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday. Warburg Research set a €17.00 ($19.77) target price on GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft and gave the stock a sell rating in a report on Thursday, February 7th. Finally, Independent Research set a €17.00 ($19.77) target price on GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft and gave the stock a sell rating in a report on Monday, February 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of €23.87 ($27.75).
G1A opened at €25.42 ($29.56) on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.33, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.98. GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft has a fifty-two week low of €19.09 ($22.20) and a fifty-two week high of €34.80 ($40.47). The firm has a market capitalization of $4.59 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.48.
About GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft focuses on the development and production of process technology and components for the food processing industry worldwide. It operates in two segments, Business Area Equipment and Business Area Solutions. The Business Area Equipment segment offers separators, valves, pumps, homogenizers, and refrigeration compressors, as well as process technology solutions for food processing and packaging applications; and dairy equipment, feeding systems, and slurry engineering solutions.
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--Acquisitions help revenue jump to US$4.2B
--Brambles reiterates full-year earnings guidance
--Shares jump 3.3%, hitting two-year high
(Recasts lead paragraph, adds analyst comments in 6th, 7th and 9th paragraphs)
SYDNEY -(MarketWatch)- Brambles Ltd. (BXB.AU) said Wednesday it boosted nine-month sales by 28% thanks to acquisitions, an emerging markets expansion and U.S. customer wins that included a lucrative contract to help PepsiCo cart its soda.
The world's biggest pallet supplier said sales revenue for the nine months to March 31 rose to US$4.20 billion. Pro-forma sales revenue, which excludes acquisitions, rose 7% compared to the previous corresponding period.
The Sydney-based logistics company provides blue wooden pallets and reusable plastic containers to retailers and farmers in 46 countries. The continued sales growth helped it reiterate its guidance for an annual underlying annual profit of between US$1.05 billion and US$1.08 billion.
Investors cheered the sales improvement, which comes despite a sluggish U.S. economic recovery, fragile Australian consumer confidence, and as some key European economies slip back into recession. Brambles shares reached two-year highs in Sydney, climbing as high as A$7.59. At 0130 GMT, they were up 3.2% at A$7.48.
"Despite continued subdued underlying organic volumes in our pallets operations in the U.S., Western Europe and Australia, our strategy of expanding our product and service range and geographic footprint is enabling us to continue to deliver sales growth," Chief Executive Tom Gorman said in a statement.
Momentum appears to be building in the U.S. pallet business, with constant-currency sales up by about a third, Macquarie analysts said while keeping an Outperform recommendation on Brambles shares.
"This should be expected given the ramp-up of major customer PepsiCo from iGPS late last year, as well as ongoing sales wins in Latin America," the broker said.
Brambles has been investing to improve its pallet offering after losing some high-profile customers to plastic pallet provider iGPS. The investment coincided with iGPS last year experiencing pallet supply problems, culminating in key customer wins including ConAgra Foods in May and PepsiCo in November.
Credit Suisse said the latest revenue figures confirm the defensive nature of Brambles' mature Western businesses and highlight the growth opportunities available in other markets, particularly for re-usable plastic containers. These containers are primarily used by fresh produce industries and Brambles weighed heavily into the market with its EUR932 million acquisition of IFCO Systems announced in 2010.
Brambles on March 28 said it expected to announce an outcome of the sales process for its Recall document management business within 4-8 weeks. "Brambles expectations with respect to this time frame have not changed," it said.


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(KRON) — It’s not just Taco Tuesday today, it’s also National Taco Day. In honor of the annual day of observance of taco fandom, KRON4 has assembled a list of the best tacos in the Bay Area, according to Yelp. According to Yelp users, top honors go to a spot in Oakland known for its fish tacos in particular.
Best tacos in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- Tacos Sinaloa, Oakland
Established in 1999, Tacos Sinaloa is a “family owned and operated restaurant and Food Trucks,” according to its website. With a 4 1/2 star rating on Yelp, reviews indicate the al pastor, shrimp and fish tacos are among the standout choices. Users also mention the horchata. If you go, note that parking can be limited and the establishment is cash only.
2. Suavecito Birria & Tacos, San Mateo
Suavecito is a collaboration between chefs Emma Villanon and Bulmaro Maldonado and local restaurateurs Randy Magpantay and Jeremy Cheng. The San Mateo taco spot with 4 1/2 stars, Suavecito Birria & Tacos is known for its birria, which if you’re unfamiliar, is a slow-cooked, braised meat stew that somewhat resembles barbacoa. Along with birria tacos, reviews suggest the pork carnitas and the shrimp tacos are among the menu standouts.
3. Tacos El Patron
This San Francisco spot is out on Van Ness, near Cesar Chavez, but according to Yelp users, it’s worth the drive. Birria tacos are on the menu here was well and other user recommendations include the patron, cabeza and lengua.
4. Tacos Oscar, Oakland
The second Oakland spot to crack the top 10, Tacos Oscar is located “in the alley” on 40th Street and is open Thursdays through Mondays. Both “kid-friendly and “dog friendly” according to its website, Tacos Oscar serves food that’s typically gluten free, unless otherwise noted. There are also two vegan options on the menu including charred broccoli tacos. Another user favorite on Yelp is the mole Amarillo taco.
KRON On is streaming live news now
Here are the rest of the top 10 tacos in the Bay Area according to Yelp
5. Vatos Tacos
Taco Tuesday may be every week, but National Taco Day only comes around once a year, so if you want to make the most of it, hopefully there’s something on this list that interests you.


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Lexus Nx 2020 News is expected to have the up coming modernize for either 2020 or maybe 2021. Evidently, Lexus Nx 2020 News modified all of the by using refresher which will contain kept up to date designs and other basic safety technology. The fact is that, we even now don’t possess efficient requirements or maybe particulars where expected.
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In fashion, Lexus Nx 2020 News will get a improved front and back contour around replenish it. The leading finish get a far more advanced plus cool headlamps, a much bigger in addition to bigger grille having a more dominant V-Motion stick in, along with a entrance bumper that may be current with brand new fog lights.
Powering, the rear lighting acquire completely new illustrations or photos to raised match the brand new headlights. Coordintaing with this offer tend to be the modern 18-inch light weight aluminum tires and also new colours Nitro Limescale Metal plus Monarch Citrus Metallic.
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There’s been not any confirmation if Lexus Nx 2020 News will probably be launched. However, there is a chance that all is going to be recognized for the automatic display this year. The price tag on Lexus Nx 2020 News may not be a lot distinct from the current product looking at this specific vehicle segment, no less than the purchase price boost is simply all around 1000-2000 dollars.


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Prices of electric two-wheelers from Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Hero Vida and other manufacturers could up significantly in near future as the Centre plans to reduce subsidy under the FAME II scheme to promote electric vehicles. The Ministry for Heavy Industries has proposed subsidy on electric two-wheelers to 15 per cent. If its proposal is accepted by Centre's panel overseeing the FAME II revision process, it will impact the prices of all the models that fall under the subsidy scheme.
At least 24 electric two-wheeler manufacturers, who avail benefit under FAME II scheme, met earlier this week to discuss the matter. The outcome of the meeting was to keep demand incentive at ₹10,000 per kWh of battery capacity. Besides this, consensus was also reached on capping ex-showroom price of electric two-wheelers from 40 per cent to 15 per cent. A government official was quoted by news agency PTI saying, "It was decided that we will transfer the unutilised subsidies to the tune of ₹1,500 crore from 3 Wheelers and 4 Wheelers to 2 Wheelers but it was found that at the current rate of disbursal (40 pc cap on ex-factory price), the scheme will end in two months."
The ministry's proposal will be reviewed by the Programme Implementation and Steering Committee (PISC) and a final decision is expected soon.
The cut in subsidy may happen even though the ministry has proposed to increase its outlay for electric two-wheelers under the FAME II scheme. As of now, there are no plans to extend the FAME II scheme after March next year despite demands from several manufacturers. The government may not even introduce FAME III scheme either.
The decision to reduce subsidy despite higher fund allocation under FAME II is aimed to bolster India's EV infrastructure further. Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey said “The consensus reached during the stakeholder consultation signals a positive step towards sustainable transportation solutions in India. With continued efforts and collaboration between the government and industry, India can become a global leader in sustainable transportation and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels."
The FAME II scheme was launched in India four years ago. The scheme was applicable for three years, which was later extended by two years. The current scheme will officially end on March 31 next year. The scheme has an overall outlay of ₹10,000 crore aimed to incentivise electric vehicle buyers to push for EV transition aggressively.
Disclaimer: This Article is auto-generated from the HT Auto news service.


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A worker stocks shelves at a supermarket in Hanoi (PHOTO: BLOOMBERG)
Local retailers may be far ahead of their foreign rivals in terms of number of outlets, but insiders admit this does not translate into market dominance.
Local retailers sell good quality products at reasonable prices but make no other effort to attract or keep customers, Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, director of Dong Hung Co. which owns supermarket chain Citimart, as saying.
This is seeing them lose out to foreign chains who have been launching promotions and offering better service to customers. The latter's business has been growing rapidly and local retailers should try and keep pace with them, she said.
As more Vietnamese shoppers, especially those in the cities, opt for supermarkets and shopping malls rather than traditional wet markets, the sector have seen a rapid growth rate and high potential for modern retail outlets to develop further.
According to a report by Savills Vietnam last month, the number of trade outlets increased 25 percent compared with 2010, reaching approximately 970 outlets in 36 cities of Vietnam.
Vietnamese names dominate in terms of outlets, with Co.opMart being the largest with 61 supermarkets and 55 foodstuff stores nationwide.
It plans to open 10 more supermarkets this year and hopes to take the total number to 100 in the next two years.
Vinatexmart, another major retailer, has 81 supermarkets and clothes stores.
Opening outlets is one way of being competitive but they need to do more, Vinatexmart deputy head Tran Thanh Nhan said.
Foreign retailers have much fewer outlets French supermarket chain Big C has 21 while Germany's Metro Cash & Carry has 19 but they are larger and more modern.
Vietnam's strict regulations for foreign retailers mean they make full use of their opportunity if they manage to get a license, the managing director of a foreign-owned supermarket, who asked for anonymity, said.
Phan Duc Binh, general director of local retail and asset management company ORC, expects Vietnamese retailers to face difficulties in the long term.
Many have been beaten to prime sites for outlets by foreign competitors due to their lack of financial capacity and experience in negotiating, he said.
The competition has heated up since last year, three years after Vietnam allowed foreign retailers to run their own business under World Trade Organization commitments instead of having to tie up with local partners, Binh pointed out.
South Korea's Lotte Mart last year bought up the 20 percent stake held by a local company in its joint venture.
The giant retailer now plans to double the number of outlets it had originally envisaged by 2020 to 60.
Laurent Zecri, general director of Big C, recently said his company would push ahead with expansion, opening more large supermarkets, since the Vietnamese market is promising.
Modern retail outlets only account for a fifth of the VND2,300 trillion (US$111.36 billion) market yet.
Japanese retailer Aeon said it plans to build a 70,000-square-meter shopping mall in Hanoi later this year at a cost of $100 million. It has two other properties under construction.
French retailer Auchan recently announced a $500-million investment in Vietnam.
Foreign enterprises have advantages over their local rivals like management and logistics experience, Nhan of Vinatexmart said.
But realizing this, local players like Vinatexmart, Co.opMart, and Citimart have been working on improving operations including customer service, he said.
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Friday, April 12, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Free Online Tool creates 'Hyperlapse' videos using Google Street Viewdpreview
Create your own Hyperlapse video >>> here.
"Online user experience company Teehan + Lax has created a free tool for creating interactive 'hyperlapse' videos using Google Street View. The term 'hyperlapse' describes timelapse videos which incorporate camera movement - something that is typically extremely difficult and time-consuming to perfect. The team at Teehan + Lax began experimenting with Google Street View as a guide for choosing locations, but realised that since Google has already mapped much of the world's surface in 360-degree images, it could be used as source material."


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This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has partnered with the UK chipmaker Graphcore to provide cloud-based cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions that utilize the computing power of specialized chips designed by the British company.
“This [move] is very significant for us because it means anyone on the planet can go to Azure and use our technology to build out their systems,” said Graphcore’s chief executive Nigel Toon. “It’s a massive step for the availability of our technology and a testament to its level of maturity.”
The Bristol-based $1.5 billion company designs and manufactures specialized chips to run intensive applications that assist machines in face recognition, speech comprehension, parsing of language, autonomous driving, and training of robots. Graphcore’s first commercial product, launched in 2018, was a 16-nanometer PCI Express card known as the C2. It is this product that will launch on the Azure platform, thereby, allowing Microsoft to expand the gamut of its cloud-based services and features for business-critical AI operations.
Technical specification and performance metrics for Graphcore’s chip
The C2 includes two interlinked Colossus IPUs with each containing 16 cores and 23.6 billion transistors. A single chip’s 1,216 IPU can reach over 100 GFLOPS per core (one GFLOP equals one billion floating point operations per second) and is coupled with 300 MB of memory to run up to 10,000 programs in parallel executions. Each chip boasts a memory bandwidth of 45 TB/s resulting in a total bandwidth of 90 TB/s – a theoretical maximum that, according to Graphcore, is 100 times higher than that of HBM2 graphics chip memory.
The C2 is compatible with Graphcore’s modified Poplar, a scalable graph programming framework for AI and machine learning. It boasts an integration with Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) TensorFlow framework and provides a full training runtime in relation to the Open Neural Network Exchange – an ecosystem for interchangeable AI models. According to Graphcore, a preliminary compatibility with Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) PyTorch is anticipated to arrive in Q4 2019 with full compatibility arriving in early 2020.
The benchmarks published by Graphcore indicate that the C2 matches or exceeds the performance of the top AI chips from Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Google using algorithms written specifically for those rival platforms (you will find the full benchmarks here). Note that the code written explicitly for Graphcore’s hardware may be even more efficient. As a reference, the company trained one Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) variant – the BERT Base – in just 56 hours with a single IPU server that contained eight C2 cards. Moreover, according to the company’s claims, customers have reported, on average, an inferencing throughput that is 3 times higher along with latency improvements of 20 percent. As far as image recognition is concerned, the European search engine Qwant has claimed a 3.5 times improvement in its image search application since it began to use Graphcore chips.
The deal between Microsoft and Graphcore – a winning formula for Azure
In last December, Garphcore was valued at $1.5 billion through a $200 million funding round with contributions from the likes of Microsoft and BMW (ETR:BMW). For 2019, the company expects $50 million in revenue. The chipmaker employs over 200 engineers and is currently expanding its footprint in Norway, Taiwan, and the U.S.
The corporate vice-president of Azure Compute at Microsoft, Girish Bablani, said: “The Graphcore offering extends Azure’s capabilities and our efforts here form part of our strategy to ensure that Azure remains the best cloud for AI.”
The AI chip market is currently quite crowded with the involvement of startups such as Cerebras along with tech giants such as Google, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Facebook. Interestingly, the Californian start-up Cerebras – a Graphcore competitor – unveiled, in August, the world’s largest chip with a surface area that is slightly larger than a standard iPad in order to power AI applications.
Microsoft’s pre-millennium meteoric rise can be attributed to its partnership with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) that resulted in Windows OS running on Intel’s processors. Now Microsoft hopes to dominate the AI age with this newfound partnership with Graphcore.


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UK: Myliko appointed UK agent for Canei
Myliko Wines has been appointed the sole UK agent for Canei.
The north-west based importer will be handling distribution for the wine brand from 1 August, the company said today (29 July).
The decision is part of a strategy to expand Myliko's business into the cash and carry and independents market. The Canei brand will also strengthen the Myliko portfolio and fill a gap in their range for low alcohol wine, the company said.
Myliko will be launching a new label for the Canei brand, which will be backed up by a campaign of promotional activity.
A spokesperson for Myliko said: "We are very excited about the future of the Canei brand in the UK. We believe that the demand for lower alcohol wines, coupled with the new packaging and promotional activity, will give us the potential to gain significant new listings across the country.
"Canei is also a well established, global brand which will enhance our portfolio and offer new business potential in various sectors of the drinks industry."
The Canei range includes Frizzante White, Frizzante Rose and Frizzante Peach.
Tax hikes have taken centre stage in discussions between the alcohol industry and several national and state governments around the world over the last year. Michelle Russell reports on a global trend...
January may be the time to look forward to the coming year but few in the drinks industry will be eyeing the coming year with relish. However, given the pessimistic tone of virtually every market and ...
A 13% decline in Burgundy wine exports for the first ten months of 2008 was less severe than expected, but problems are growing in the US and UK, regional wine trade body BIVB has said....
The top ten stories published on just-drinks this week:...
Sweden-based distributor Nigab is to handle Foster's wine brands in the Nordic duty-free and travel retail sectors....
Nick Blair, wine director for Pernod Ricard in the UK, is to be the new chairman of the London International Wine Fair and its sister show, Distil....
Pernod Ricard has announced that Eric Benoist, current marketing head for Martell Perrier-Jouet, will replace Martin Riley as marketing director as Chivas Brothers....
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has today (22 January) written a letter to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith over Government plans for restrictions on how pubs sell alcohol....
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The cute, air-filled pink ball known has Kirby has a new game coming out in North America at the beginning of May, and Nintendo has released a new trailer previewing the release of Kirby Triple Deluxe.
The trailer shows off some of the new platforming action as well as the weapons and abilities make a return to the franchise that everybody loves. It even closes with Kirby flying off into the sunset on a star.
Kirby Triple Deluxe releases on May 2 for Nintendo 3DS and 2DS.
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Freescale Semiconducter Inc. reported a net loss of $88 million on $1.14 billion sales in the third quarter, an improvement on the $156 million negative on $1.15 billion revenue the same time last year.
The Austin-based technology company reported a loss of about 36 cents per share each during the recent three-month period, down from a 79 cent loss per share in the third quarter last year.
Operating earnings increased significantly for the three months ended Sept. 30 to $110 million, when compared to $1 million in the third quarter of 2010.
Freescale (NYSE: FSL) employs about 19,000 people worldwide, including about 5,000 in Austin. The company was founded in 2004 as a Motorola Inc. spin-off.
Freescale officially went public for $783 million in May.


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Hello Games has finally broken their silence this year for No Man’s Sky and announced a major update titled Beyond which is out later in Summer for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Beyond is the first major update for No Man’s Sky to launch this year and “will enhance the multiplayer experience – without the addition of microtransactions or subscriptions – and introduce several highly-requested changes.”
So what exactly is included in this new update? Hello Games is keeping it under wraps so far but it is encouraging to read that they are not chasing the latest industry trends and adding microtransactions to the game.
No Man’s Sky Beyond update is set to launch in summer 2019 and should release for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Since releasing back in 2017, Hello Games has continued to work on the game with free post-launch content and also released an Xbox One version that added a multiplayer mode to the game. Beyond seems to take it one step further so it will be exciting to see what they have planned ahead for the game.