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May 3, 2011
Dollar Hits New High: What it Means for Business
Well, we were right…kind of.
Around 15 months ago we made the prediction via Twitter that the Australian Dollar would hit the US $1.10 by Christmas.
At the time the Aussie dollar was buying around 90 US cents and opinion was split over how high it would go. Sadly, it didn’t quite reach the $1.10 mark by Christmas last year, but we weren’t far off.
But the big question now, is what does this mean for local businesses?
As a general rule of thumb, a high Aussie dollar is great for importers of overseas products as the cost of those goods is comparatively cheaper. It also usually means consumers win out as well, as online shopping from International stores is much cheaper, even after the extra shipping costs.
Exporters, as well as those in tourism, generally lose out as a result of a high-value local currency. Exporters find their products are now much more expensive for overseas buyers to purchase and those in the tourism sector find that travellers will prefer to head to places where they get better value for money.
But despite all this, the high dollar presents a great opportunity for local businesses in a number of ways.
Setting up an International Presence
With the Aussie dollar high, the cost to set up International offices or a presence in other countries is historically low. Not only do you get more US dollars/pounds/Euro for your buck, but thanks to the GFC leasing costs in overseas markets are also down considerably.
Higher unemployment means that recruiting good staff is easier purely because there’s more to choose from and depending upon your industry, the Federal Government has grants available for those looking to sell overseas.
What’s even better is when the dollar heads back to its natural levels (around 75-80 US cents), those that have invested now will be well placed to multiply overseas profits when they bring them back to our shores.
Utilising Overseas Labour or Products
Whilst this might seem un-Australian to be promoting using overseas labour or products, the realities of business mean that in some cases, getting cost-effective products or services in Australia just isn’t possible.
We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at the moment, meaning there’s less labour available, and our high dollar makes using overseas labour (particularly for administrative or back-of-house processing) highly attractive.
Likewise, now is the time to shop around for cheaper products or manufacturing if it’s practical to do so.
So whilst the high Aussie dollar has its benefits and shortcomings, the best businesses are looking for ways to use that to their advantage.


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Jun. 25, 2015 – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales fell 2.1 per cent to $49.8 billion in April — the third decline in four months — as sales of food, aerospace products and parts, and petroleum and coal products dropped.
While sales fell in 8 of 21 industries, these industries account for nearly two-thirds of total Canadian manufacturing, it adds.
Partially offsetting the declines were increases in a majority of industries, including chemicals, computer and electronic products, and plastics and rubber products.
Economists had expected a drop of 0.5 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.
Sales fell in every province except Manitoba in April, with nearly two-thirds of the national sales decline attributable to Quebec, where sales fell 5.4 per cent, according to the agency.
— With files from The Canadian Press

domain: news


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There is possibly no detail left to be revealed about the Huawei P20 series. The series has showed up in multiple leaks in the past, leaked via reliable tipsters, and now adding to the trove of revelations is the press images of the P20, P20 Lite, and P20 Pro. Also Read - Honor phones to come with Google Mobile Services: ReportAlso Read - Huawei 2021 event: HarmonyOS 2.0, Huawei P50 Pro, Watch 3 series and more
Huawei is expected to launch the P20 series on March 27 but there is apparently nothing that we don’t know, courtesy leaks. Tipster Roland Quandt, who first revealed the prices of the smartphones, has now given us a peek at the press images of the smartphones, highlighting the new color options of the phones. Also Read - Upcoming Coolpad COOL 20 specs revealed ahead of May 25 launch
Based on the images, we can expect the Huawei P20 Pro, which is the high-end model from the series, to be launched in color choices of Black, Blue and an unusual Twilight color which appears to be a Purple gradient. The P20 is expected to arrive in color choices of Black, Blue and Pink-Gold, while the P20 Lite is said to be available in Black, Blue and Pink color choices.
As WinFuture reports, some of the missing features such as battery capacities and storage have also been revealed through the latest leaks. It is likely the Huawei P20 will be fueled by a 3,400mAh battery while the P20 Pro will be powered by a 4,000mAh battery. The P20 Lite, on the other hand, could pack 3,250mAh battery. When it comes to storage expansion, the P20 is unlikely to feature any microSD card slot. This means users will have to rely on the given storage capabilities.
In terms of specifications, the P20 and P20 Pro are said to pack 19:9 display, dual-cameras on the P20 and P20 Lite version, triple camera setup on the P20 Pro, Kirin 970 SoC paired with up to 6GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage. The P20 Lite is said to be powered by Kirin 659 SPC with 4GB of RAM. All models are likely to run Android Oreo out-of-the-box with EMUI 8.0 layered above.
Earlier this week, the Huawei P20 Porsche Design also surfaced on the web. The limited edition smartphone is expected to pack the same specifications as the P20 Pro, but will feature the triple camera setup positioned differently. It is also speculated the Porsche Design version will pack an in-display fingerprint sensor.


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Consumer prices move higher in Canada
Canada's Consumer Price Index rose 2.0% in the 12 months to September, after increasing 2.1% in August, according to Statistics Canada. Higher prices for food and shelter contributed the most to the rise in the CPI, while the transportation index posted the smallest increase. For more, click here...
U.S. consumer sentiment hits 7-year high
Consumer confidence in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in October to its highest level in seven years, showing a brightening in Americans' moods as fuel prices fell and the job market improved. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index for this month increased to a reading of 86.4, its highest level since July 2007. For more, click here...
Fuel prices continue falling
Diesel prices dropped to a nationwide average of $3.698 per gallon, according to the Department of Energy, as oil prices hit their lowest levels in more than two years. The price is 18.8 cents below its level of a year ago, the agency reported. Gasoline prices fell 9.2 cents to a nationwide average of $3.207 per gallon -- the lowest price since last November, and the biggest single-week decline since December 2012. For more, click here...
August construction spending dips
U.S. construction spending during August was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $961.0 billion, 0.8% below the revised July figure, according to the Census Bureau. The August figure is 5.0% above the August 2013 estimate. Residential construction was at a SAAR of $351.7 billion in August, 0.1% below the revised July estimate. For more, click here...
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The British Fashion Council (BFC) today announced the shortlist
for the BFC/Vogue
Designer Fashion Fund. The shortlisted designers represent the best
developing British Womenswear, Menswear and Accessories labels. The
shortlisted designers; Charlotte
Olympia, Christopher Kane, E.
Pilotto and Richard
Nicoll, have all been identified as labels with potential for
significant international growth.
The eight shortlisted designers have been invited to present their
collections and future plans to the judging panel chaired by Alexandra
Shulman, Editor of British Vogue, comprising industry experts and Fund
The Fund, now in its second year, will provide one British based
designer with £200,000 as well as a bespoke, high level mentoring
support programme. All seven runners-up will also be allocated a mentor
through the Fund. British Vogue will document the judging process and
announce the winner in its March 2011 issue.
In order to be eligible for this scheme, designers must have an
established business, must be based in the UK, as well as having UK and
international stockists and support from key media both UK and
internationally. The winner will demonstrate a clear vision for their
business and how the Fund will contribute to their growth and their
infrastructure, with a focus on creating a strong international brand.
The Fund was launched by BFC Chairman Harold Tillman in September 2008
as a legacy project for the BFC’s 25th anniversary celebrations. The aim
of The Fund is to assist talented British designers with the potential
for commercial growth to start making the transition from a developing
creative business to a global fashion brand.
The BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund is supported by: Burberry, Clothing
at Tesco, Debenhams, Harrods, House of Fraser, HSBC, Jaeger &
Aquascutum, LF Europe, Marks & Spencer, Paul Smith, TONI&GUY,
TOPSHOP, VOGUE and Westfield Shopping Towns.
BFC Chairman, Harold Tillman, commented “The British Fashion Council’s
Vogue Designer Fashion Fund offers incredibly talented British designers
an unparalleled opportunity. The high level financial support and
bespoke mentoring package will play a pivotal role in developing the
winning designer business on an international platform. We’re very proud
to be able to offer our promising designers this support and I would
like to take this opportunity to thank all of our funders.”
Alexandra Shulman, Editor of British Vogue, said “It is very exciting to
be in our second year of the Fund and to be providing such tangible
help to this extremely impressive shortlist of British designers”
Find out more about the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund
Image: Erdem spring/summer 2011, winner of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund 2010


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Posted by Jeff Vander Stoep, Android Security & Privacy Team
Each Android release comes with great new security and privacy features. When it comes to implementing these new features we always look at ways to measure the impact with data that demonstrates the effectiveness of these improvements. But how do these features map to an overall strategy?
Last week, we released a whitepaper describing The Android Platform Security Model. Specifically we discuss:
The security model which has implicitly informed the Android platform’s security design from the beginning, but has not been formally published or described outside of Google. The context in
This post first appeared on Google security. Read the original article.


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Chinese phone maker, Nubia, has added to its Red Magic line-up of smartphones by launching an all-new phone with a monster of a spec sheet. The Red Magic 5G has been announced to bring with itself a number of key features, including a high refresh rate screen and Snapdragon 865 SoC and up to 16GB of RAM.
For now, the smartphone has only be announced in China and has been announced to come with support for 5G basebands. However, its defining feature is that that it packs a 144Hz display -- the fastest installed on any phone till now.
The smartphone has been launched in three colour options, Hacker Black, Mars Red, Cyber Neon, as well as a transparent edition. These colours are, however, not available across all four memory and storage variants of the phone -- 8GB + 128GB, 12GB + 128GB, 12GB + 256GB, and 16GB + 256GB model.
The entry variant has been announced to start retail at CNY 3,799 (approx Rs 40,000) with the top-end variant selling for CNY 4,999 (Approx Rs. 55,000).
Nubia Red Magic 5G: Specifications
The Red Magic 5G comes with a 6.65-inch AMOLED FHD+ display (1080 x 2340 pixels) that can refresh at 144Hz and also promises a 240Hz screen touch reponse rate. The display has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9.
Under the hood, it is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 865 SoC and a custom Adreno 650 GPU. The chipset has been paired with three LPDDR5 dual-channel RAM -- either 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB. The storage on the device sees Nubia Red Magic 5G get up to 256GB of UFS 3.0 memory with no expandability.
For connectivity, the phone brings with itself a 5G modem, Wi-Fi 6, GPS and there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack. Apart from this, the phone has also been equipped with an in-display fingerprint reader.
For cameras, the phone gets a primary 64-megapixel Sony IMX686 sensor sat next to an 8-megapixel super-wide-angle sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro lens to complete the triple camera set-up. The selfie shooter on the Nubia Red Magic 5G is an 8-megapixel lens with f/2.0 aperture.
The whole package is powered by a 4,500mAh pack with support for 55W air-cooled fast charging. The company claims this can help the phone achieve 56 per cent charge in just 15 minutes.


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Home > News > Nation
Friday April 18, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Friday April 18, 2014 MYT 7:59:35 AM
KUALA LUMPUR: The Star media group’s Bahasa Malaysia portal mStar Online has been relaunched, with its website getting a fresher look.
Calling the launch historical, Star Publications (M) Bhd group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai said mStar Online had come a long way since it was first started eight years ago, attracting more than three million visitors each month.
“We are determined to make mStar Online the most prominent Malay portal in Malaysia and the platform for consumers to go to in understanding current affairs and other news,” he said at the launch in Alexis Gardens, Mid Valley here yesterday.
Together with a new layout for its website, mStar Online will now have current, business and sports news aside from entertainment, which has been its most popular feature.
“This is a new start for mStar Online after a long time. It is now more attractive, vibrant, colourful and easier to navigate,” said mStar Online executive editor Rozaid A. Rahman.
The website greeted its readers with the new look on March 9, which has since received various feedback from the public.
Rozaid said although some readers wanted the website to stick to the old layout, there were encouraging comments on the breezier look, themed Meraikan Aspirasi Dunia Maya (Celebrating the Aspiration of the Virtual World).
A major change includes a new sliding panel called “Main Display” at the top of the website, which rotates 10 top items with pictures at an automatic interval of seven seconds.
Guests at the launch were also entertained by local singers Riz of Akademi Fantasia fame, Anuar Zain and Alyah.
To check out the new mStar Online, visit www.mstar.com.my.
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Dinosaurs come a-Live! for more than 100 children
Najib: Tackle territorial claims as a problem between friends
Jais' Dakwah chief: Let's build religious understanding
Malaysians celebrate Deepavali in a joyous ambience
Chong Wei implicated as athlete who failed drug test
Ignore extremist views and remain united, Najib tells Malaysians
Australia's JACC heading to KL for MH370 talks
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How Jaeger-LeCoultre's Atmos clock keeps on ticking like a Time Lord
10 incredible hotel rooftops
Iran's Khamenei says oil reliance putting country at mercy of big powers
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Apple shareholders are about to receive their first dividends in 17 years. Starting Aug. 16, Cupertino will issue quarterly dividends of $2.65 per share, according to AppleInsider.
First announced in March, Apple's dividend and stock repurchase plan will help the company give back a little bit of their growing stock pile of cash. With 935 million share outstanding, Apple is expected to disburse nearly $2.5 billion in payments to investors each quarter at least through fiscal year 2015.
However, this amount is small compared to the company's accumulated holdings. In the last quarter alone, Apple added $7 billion in cash, with its hoard rising to $117 billion.
Dividends will go out to stockholders of record as of Aug. 13. In May, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that he would not receive dividends.
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This article originally published at AppAdvice here


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Stuttgart Airport is to introduce an automated valet parking (AVP) service with the help of Apcoa, Bosch, and Mercedes-Benz.
The three companies are currently working together on developing the system and it will first be tested using an S-Class luxury saloon.
The S-Class is already capable of receiving a smartphone command to drive itself to a reserved parking space.
The P6 parking garage at Stuttgart airport will serve as the pilot for the planned commercial AVP.
Here, the companies will test how the vehicle technology onboard the S-Class interacts with the Bosch infrastructure and APCOA FLOW, the digital platform provided by the parking garage operator Apcoa.
A spacious drop-off and pick-up area will be set up directly behind the entrance to the P6 parking garage, giving AVP users a convenient place to leave their vehicles.
As they make their way to the terminal and check in, their S-Class will park itself in the basement, guided by information from the infrastructure technology.
For the test phase that is about to start, P6 will initially have two spaces available for self-parking vehicles.
More spaces will be added when driverless parking becomes standard as planned in the future and as demand increases.
In the future, Bosch’s aim is to equip more and more parking garages with AVP infrastructure technology.
As Europe’s largest parking garage operator, Apcoa also has a strategic interest in offering innovative premium services like AVP in more of its parking garages.
The company manages approximately 1.5 million individual parking spaces at over 9,500 locations in 13 European countries.
By increasing the availability of driverless and fully automated parking services, Apcoa said the same amount of space could accommodate up to 20% more vehicles.


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Recently it became clear that Symantec and McAfee weren’t the only ones concerned. Some channel partners and competitors have vocally alleged that Microsoft is pricing its new OneCare suite at predatory levels.
For some time there’s been concern about how Microsoft’s push into security software might square with its reputation (and conviction) as a monopolist…. There’s no doubt that Microsoft does want to take shots at its competitors — that’s what all businesses do. What’s funny though is that the argument boils down to the fact that OneCare is too good of a deal, that its licensing terms are too flexible, and that a software package of its caliber just shouldn’t be so affordable. All this sounds pretty good for consumers, whom the law should ultimately be designed to protect. If security software is such a commodity that price is the only concern for customers, then the price should be dropping.
In addition to the direct concerns about pricing, the company argues that Microsoft will establish a monopoly in the space, and that investment in new research and startups will dry up. One reason this isn’t likely is that security software doesn’t lend itself to a natural monopoly the way an OS does (not to mention the fact that the vaunted Windows monopoly itself is seen as weakening).
Besides, wasn’t the antitrust argument always that they were trying to kill competition so they could turn around and raise prices? How much did you pay for your last Internet Explorer download? Then, as soon as IE quit being adequate for many users, Firefox was developed.
No, we say to hell with the antitrust argument. The moral hazard is the more compelling case here.
MSFT-MFE-SYMC 1-yr comparison chart:


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Earlier this year, we wrote about the plans of Swedish startup Staccs to launch a video streaming service for concert recordings, complete with a user-centric royalties model to divide each user’s subscription between the rightsholders for the concerts they watched. Now Staccs has launched its service, initially in the Nordic region (that’s Sweden, Norway and Denmark, but also Finland and Iceland).
It’s launching with an array of concert recordings including Oasis, Queen, the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Zara Larsson, David Bowie and Tupac Shakur.
The launch comes with a price reveal: Staccs will cost SEK 119 a month (around $14.30) or SEK 1190 a year ($143). It’s a bold move to charge more than audio streaming services, although Staccs has a launch special offer cutting its price to SEK 599 a year ($71.95).
Music Ally’s next Learn Live webinar will help you build the strategies for artists to thrive in new international markets!


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Best Exclusive Hotel Resort Rental Service – Germany
United Kingdom, 2021– LUXlife Magazine has announced the winners of the 2021 Travel & Tourism Awards.
It’s a significant testament to the strength of the industry that businesses around the world have sought to bounce back stronger than before in the wake of the global pandemic. More importantly, we’ve already seen this strength and resolve in action – not least those listed in this year’s programme.
Ultimately, LUXlife launched the Travel & Tourism Awards to recognise those who have dedicated themselves to offering the finest experiences, product and services in the industry. Whether established stalwarts, or up and coming newcomers, we endeavour to seek out the paragons who lead the pack and set the benchmark.
Awards Coordinator Holly Morris commented on the success of the winners at the announcement: “Travel and Tourism encompasses a vast array of different businesses. Whether working in the hospitality, entertainment, or food and beverage sectors (and everything in between), companies of all shapes and sizes contribute to creating exquisite memories for people all over the world. With all of that in mind, and especially with consideration of the last twelve months, I offer my sincere congratulations to all of my winners and I hope you have a fantastic 2021 ahead.”
RENT-A-RESORT has been awarded as “Best Exclusive Hotel Resort Rental Service – Germany“.
An award which comes at the right time as the end of the pandemic will ask for more private hotel & resort solutions. RENT-A-RESORT has been specialized in this niche of exclusive hotel & resort rentals / buyouts since 2016.
We want to express our thanks to the editors and readers of LUXlife magazine for this award!


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News : Sabio Partners Welcome Investment in Sabio
London, UK, July 27, 2016 -- Sabio’s key technology partners - Avaya, Verint and Nuance - have welcomed the company’s recent investment from Lyceum Capital, along with the news that Lyceum has committed a further amount of available funding to help Sabio augment its ambitious organic growth plans with a number of targeted acquisitions.
"Our major investment from Lyceum Capital is all about accelerating Sabio’s existing growth plans – both in the UK and internationally - and that pivots around successfully building out our business with key technology partners," said Sabio’s Chief Executive Officer, Andy Roberts. "Working closely with organisations such as Avaya, Verint and Nuance, we’ve got a proven track record of delivering against our business targets. We’re now looking to take that to the next level by continuing to invest ahead of the curve and making sure we’ve got all the right sales, presales and marketing resources in place to really drive business growth as our customers move to close the gap between their digital and traditional customer contact channels."
"This year has already been a great one for Sabio and Verint, with Sabio securing our Partner of the Year and Support Partner of the Year awards at our recent EMEA Partner Summit," added Mike Pryke-Smith, Verint’s Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for the EMEA region. "We look forward to continuing this momentum and helping our customers deliver best practice customer engagement across both traditional and evolving digital engagement channels."
Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Today's Tip of the Day - What Do You Want To Accomplish?
More Editorial From Sabio
Sabio is a specialist customer service and contact centre systems integrator focused on delivering exceptional customer contact strategies and solutions based on best-of-breed technologies from partner organisations such as Avaya, Nuance and Verint. Sabio offers business consulting, systems integration and managed services and has worked with many major organisations across the UK including Argos, Brewin Dolphin, BT Business, Business Stream, Eurostar, Homeserve, Leeds City Council, Office Depot, Thames Water and the multi-award winning Lebara Mobile.
Avaya is a recognized innovator, leading business communications for the digital age. Avaya delivers smart global solutions and technologies for customer and team engagement, unified communications and collaboration, contact center and customer experience management, and networking. We provide related services to large enterprises, midmarket companies, small businesses, and government organizations around the world.
Published: Friday, July 29, 2016


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Women in car retail are losing out disproportionately during the COVID-19 pandemic as they step back from their careers amid the pressures of home schooling and stereotypical household responsibilities.
Marshall Motor Holdings chief executive Daksh Gupta is set to reflect his “most challenging period in car retail” and reveal his approach for 2021 as one of the sector leaders speaking at Automotive Management Live Virtual.
Marketing and CRM, car sales and workshop efficiency are among critical subjects at Automotive Management Live Virtual, getting dealers off to a great 2021. The virtual event (January 20 and 21) will also share learnings and case studies from a dozen UK motor retail groups.
The National Franchised Dealers Association has given its backing to Automotive Management Live Virtual, a fully interactive online version of the event we normally hold at Birmingham’s NEC every autumn.
AM is launching a fully functioning virtual exhibition version of our annual Automotive Management Live event to enable dealers and OEMs to hear the latest insights and best practice plus network with their industry peers.
While car retailers and automotive suppliers are heading to today’s Automotive Management Live expo with the hope of networking face-to-face AM is keen to hear of your experiences of the event on social media.
With the Financial Conduct Authority having just issued its proposals to outlaw certain commission models and encourage commission disclosure, the presenters of The Future of Motor Finance session at Automotive Management Live this Thursday are raring to share their insights and analysis.
Automotive Management Live takes place at Birmingham NEC next Thursday (November 7) when dealers and carmakers will get insights on FCA motor finance regulation, electric vehicles, future technology and omnichannel retailing for free.
Retailers need to apply the same multi-channel thinking to communicating with customers as they do themselves when interacting with a High Street retailer or restaurant, according to RAPID RTC, sponsors of Automotive Management Live’s Future Dealership Zone.
TWO days of insightful, engaging content that Automotive Management LIVE is known for whilst enabling our audience to connect with the full range of suppliers to motor retail, learn and share industry best practice, and discuss how to prepare for the future of motor retail.


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There are reports indicating that up to an estimated ten million Americans are being victimized on a yearly basis costing them close to five billion dollars out-of-pocket expense, which on average becomes $500 individually. The source of the report, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also states that the average yearly loss of businesses and financial institutions on fraudulent purchase is close to $48 billion, which translates to $4,800 on average.
The total sum is huge that will not be recovered for the most part unless the appropriate arrangements had been put in place in advance. The problem is exasperated on the Internet where the identity thieves could easily apply sophisticated technology to steal IDs while people are shopping or doing any kind of business online where giving out personal information is involved, making it very precarious.
The old methods of preying on what people throw out is slowly becoming obsolete and the new sophisticated methods are applied on the Internet while people are doing so many different things. From buying, to paying bills, to doing their banking online, there are sophisticated technologies that could get all the sensitive information without the owners knowledge and put it in the hands of those who can use it fraudulently.
One of the recent renowned method is known as “phising” where an individual will receive an email presumably from the financial institutions where he or she keeps account with, asking them to update or upgrade their bank account or a credit card, and when they comply the information will end up in the hands of thieves who would not hesitate to empty the account using the information. Or they can use the other personal information for various fraudulent purposes.
That has evolved into what has become to be known as “pharming” where the thieves will create fake Web sites that are identical with a given financial establishment and while unnoticing customers try to log in, that information will reach the thieves ending up doing whatever they want once they have access to the account. If there is anything that will save the customers is to know the existence of “phising” and “pharming” so that they will be careful whenever they try to log into their account or whenever they reply to emails asking them personal information.
According to various source the other most common method of stealing financial information is while people swipe their cards at a gas station where the information is sent via satellite for verification. The identity thieves have come up with programs that enable them to divert the account information to them while at the same time the verification process goes through, and it takes place without the knowledge of anyone. One way fighting this crime is to use a debit card where the amount of money loaded will be controlled so that the damage could be kept at a minimum, even if according to various reports credit cards are recommended, because credit card companies refund immediately whenever fraud is reported, whereas debit card issuers will take them a while.
The other known method where sensitive financial information will be lost is while swiping the card into small machines that will take the cards information, while in the process of making payments, and to do that in most cases the cards have to leave the customers or it has to be done when the customers are not noticing what is taking place. To prevent such an incident, customers will have to watch what is done with their cards, and if they see something out of the ordinary, either they have to try to prevent it or if that is not possible and they become suspicious, they will have to report it either to the issuing financial institution or to the credit bureaus, which will put a fraud alert on it.
There is also a keystroke catcher, according to various reports, where it is possible to attach the device to the cable that goes between the keyboard and the computer. The devices that look like connectors cost as little as $100 and would record every keystroke made. To avoid this particular problem people would have to avoid using public computers to do their banking or purchasing online.
The other one that could expose a big number of people is data given out to a big number of businesses in the processes of doing business. It is the responsibility of those who are gathering the data to guard it, but when there is compromising the damage could be devastating. In most cases, when that happens most of them take a major step, like for example changing all cards if the data of a financial establishment had fallen into the wrong hand, which means users do not have control except to comply with whatever is asked of them to avoid further damage. But users always can control how much information they should give out, because most services do not require to know for example the Social Security Number, and if they do they should settle with the last four digits, the same could be applicable to a license number too.
The first precaution users have to apply is there are certain activities, crime preventing sources are advising that they will have to avoid while they are on the Internet to be on the safe side. Sending a Social Security Number or a credit card number via email is discouraged, because it is possible to divert it into the wrong hand. The recommendation for the most part is shopping at well-known companies only, as well as making sure the particular site they are doing business with uses encryption software for processing the transaction. Companies like Versign give security verification and looking for their sign on the sites is essential, as well when the padlock icon is on display on a site, it means the transaction made on the particular site is safe. People have to guard their Internet password and changing passwords regularly is recommended, while at the same time making the password difficult deters from being guessed.
In addition, checking an account regularly, even on a daily basis to see if something unusual had taken place is among the recommendations. On top of that, it is possible to pay $100 a year to a company known as Equifax that will provide unlimited credit reports. It will also send out alert whenever a change occurs on an account. It also provides a $20,000 identity theft insurance and will avail a special hotline that will facilitate things in case someone stole the identity.
The insurance covers expense up to $4,000, whether it is a lost wage or other related expenses. Once a customer registers with one of these key companies, known as credit bureaus the information will be available to the other two companies, called Experian and TransUnion. TransUnion has a similar insurance program of its own that costs $44 a year and it will cover up to a loss of $25,000 caused by identity theft. These three companies are very important because once a fraud alert is filed with them, everything that has to do with an account or an ID will reach them, and they can prevent anyone from opening an account by using a stolen ID or if anyone wants to withdraw money from an account that is on a fraud alert the account holder will be informed immediately.
On a recent survey that was commissioned by Sun Microsystems Inc and made by Harris Interactive Inc stated that 34 percent of those who were surveyed said either they themselves had been a victim of identity theft or they know someone who was. According to the same report, two-thirds of adults surveyed said they will shop on the Internet for the holiday season, which makes taking the required precautions an important measure, as most of those who were surveyed said, all they will do if their personal information is compromised is to change financial institutions.
However, if there is a loss that needs recovery, mixing what the credit companies are offering, an immediate refund of a disputed transaction, with the affordable insurance could go a long way. Money that is taken out of a bank account will require a lot to have it retrieved back. The same applies if someone goes into a spending binge by obtaining a line of credit by using a stolen identity, where a lot will be involved in order to clear the incident out of one’s credit history, which could be cushioned by paying for the generous insurance policy, that might even cover the loss. Consequently, especially the second one is highly recommended.


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EVGA, Nvidia’s number one partner in channel sales throughout the Americas, has kicked 2016 off with five new products announced on the CES show floor, all coming some time this year.
Lenovo and Razer pave way for future gaming PC Collaboration With the Ideacenter Y900 RE (Razer Edition) | CES 2016
Last November, Chinese manufacturer Lenovo and the gaming-focused company Razer announced their collaboration to work on a lineup of PC gaming builds, and their first product is now on show at CES.
CES is just about to begin, and manufacturers from all over the world are preparing themselves to flood us with announcements. Origin PC, renowned for its …
Dubbed PlayStation Now, Sony’s streaming service will allow gamers to stream games from their PlayStation 4, Vita, and eventually non-gaming devices such as Sony BRAVIA TV sets.
It’s Friday night, you have a gorgeous date to prepare for, and you’ve spent hours getting ready for it. Then right before you leave you …
During CES this week, Samsung told a reporter from Bloomberg that the company is experimenting with iris-scanning technology, which may be incorporated into the upcoming Galaxy S5 smart phone.


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Skegness-based theme park Fantasy Island is to receive a £3m investment from its new owners, The Mellors Group, to open a variety of new attractions.
The company which also has a hand in Winter Wonderland and Nottingham Beach will be opening two news rides at the Skegness site including a multi-platform indoor mini golf course, an American-style bowling alley and six junior and family rides.
Director of finance at Fantasy Island, Claire Draper said: “The significant capital investment that we are committed to this winter is the most the site will have seen in nearly two decades.
“It is a huge undertaking with numerous projects to be completed in a short time-frame, but we are anxious to get started and excited to re-open and unveil the new Fantasy Island in March next year.”
This is not a one-off investment, it’s the first. Our commitment is long-term.
Director James Mellors Jnr, who took over the theme park in March said: “We have had a fantastic first season at Fantasy Island.
“Announcing a significant investment for 2017 is our vote of confidence in our great management and staff team, in Fantasy Island as a visitor attraction with amazing potential.”
Edward Mellors, also director, added: “This is not a one-off investment, it’s the first. Our commitment is long-term.
“Developing Fantasy Island, continuously improving the customer experience and attracting more visitors is a big and important part of our ambition to grow The Mellors Group for future generations.”


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By Deborah Belgum | July 13, 2018
A new way to shop at the Nike Live store in West Los Angeles
Along exhibitions on Porches and lowrider cars, the museum in Los Angeles’ mid city section has hosted some fashion events. Get ready for more.
Long rumored to be opening a store in downtown Los Angeles, Apple finally might be opening an emporium in the historic Tower Theatre on the corner of Broadway and 8th Street.
“The Century City store is the most innovative store we’ve created yet," said Jenna Habayeb, chief marketing officer of 7 for All Mankind
Observing its 65th anniversary and revealing new ways to support responsible denim manufacturing, Orta celebrated sustainability Thursday night at Hnypt in downtown Los Angeles.
Returning to Los Angeles with its Resort 2019, which included the brand's first ready-to-wear collection, Frankie's Bikinis made a splash during a celebrity-filled fashion show held at The Banks in downtown.
INDX threw a party at Fred Segal in West Hollywood, Calif. June 21 to mark its launch. Seen at the party, Joe Zee and Donald Pliner
During the 14th-annual Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest, held June 20 in Boca Raton, Fla., clever designers showcased ornate, beautiful designs.
Fred Segal is slated to open a 4,000-square-foot shop in Malibu early 2019.
Upcycled fashion for homeless youth in Los Angeles wins an award for Malibu teen.
Patrick DiLascia traveled to Westfield Century City to produce a pop-up shop for his self-named Patrick brand.
Graduates of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising's (FIDM) Menswear Advanced Study Program made a connection between smart-looking garments and smart wearable tech when they unveiled their collections Thursday night.
Several creative looks were seen on the runway at the annual student designer fashion show at The Art Institute of California - Orange County.
The world's video gamers converged on downtown Los Angeles for the E3 convention. Competitive video gaming team FaZe Clan produced a Demonstration of their skills, then decamped to a party produced by digital commerce platform Wanderset.
The David August label makes bespoke suits. It recently unveiled a collection of ties and pocket squares for Miracles for Kids.
For their act post Intermix, Sari Sloane Keledjian and Haro Keledjian opened The Westside


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Last Update: August 9th, 2021
It appears that thousands of Australian businesses are receiving faxes that look to be from Yellow Pages, but are actually for a competing (and possibly phony) directory.
This is not a new scam – a similar one was recently shut down in Australia – it unfortunately takes some customers by surprise.
The faxes being issued have the Yellow Pages logo, and look like they are from the Yellow Pages, but the people who sign up for the offer are often signing up for a directory with a different company.
More from Computer World at Yellow Pages fax scammers re-emerge to target small businesses


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UPDATED: Solid-state drives (SSD), the storage devices built on special memory that does not erase when powered down, will make their way into the datacenter and enterprise systems by 2012, predicts HP. This would be a little later than some have predicted, but it’s still another sign that the transition to solid-state is likely to happen.
Even though there have been significant advancements in SSD technology to increase capacity and improve performance, SSD started out as something for laptops, or at the low end — a thumb-sized Flash drive that plugs into a USB port.
You can’t just take that technology and use it as-is in a mission-critical datacenter application, Jimmy Daley, ISS marketing manager for HP (NYSE: HPQ), told InternetNews.com. Quite a bit of work has to go into making SSD an enterprise play — work HP is undertaking with storage partners, and also being done by its competitors, too.
Chipmakers like Intel are putting a heavy focus on getting SSD enterprise-ready, as are storage vendors like Samsung and Hitachi. EMC introduced SSDs in its enterprise products back in January 2008, and Sun has taken advantage of SSD in its “Amber Road” Storage 7000 family, seeing brisk sales with its large-scale enterprise storage systems using Flash-based SSDs.
HP offers SSD drives in its ultra-dense ProLiant BL495C server blade houses, where adding a hard drive is just not feasible due to the heat they generate. But HP maintains that SSD still isn’t ready for wider types of uses, Daley said.
“Right now, our position is today’s SSDs are ready for solution-specific scenarios, specific to a density play,” he said. “But in general, we don’t see SSD as ready for the mass market as of today. We are working with all of our partners to address this. In general, true enterprise-ready solid state drives, we believe, will come later in 2009,” with the products gaining widespread adoption by 2012.
Where SSDs fail
Because SSD drives got their start in the laptop world, they are lacking in elements vital to the datacenter market, like “hot swapping” and high-performance writing. No one is going to hot swap — replacing a drive while the system is still in use — on a laptop, so that technology was never added to the firmware, Daley said. But in a datacenter, where drives go in and out of a chassis regularly, such a feature is needed.
That means adding the right capacitance to tolerate surprise removal and surprise entry of a drive into the computer, so they can be put on hot-plug trays that can be swapped into and out of a server in the same way that a regular, hot-swappable disk drive can.
The second issue is write performance. A laptop drive can live with write performance in the neighborhood of 5,400 rotations per minute, the typical performance of a laptop hard disk. But the enterprise needs something with higher performance.
“Read performance will scream no matter what solution we put together, so we’re working with our partners to make these solutions to be much more parallel in their write operations,” Daley said.
A third problem facing SSD adoption in the enterprise is capacity: There are two kinds of SSD memory types, single-level cell (SLC) and multi-level cell (MLC). An SLC has one bit of storage per cell, while MLC has two or even three bits per cell. Higher-capacity SSD drives, reaching as high as 512B, all use MLC.
However, MLC has a shorter lifespan, degrading every time data is written to the cell. With two or three bits to a cell, that means MLC degrades faster, not just two or three time as fast, but several orders of magnitude.
Krishna Chander, senior analyst for storage research with iSuppli, estimates the native lifespan of an SLC cell at around 100,000 uses, but it drops to around 10,000 uses with two bit MLC cells and as low as 1,000 uses on a three bit cell. There are algorithms to extend that lifespan, but the bottom line is that lower-capacity SLC has a much longer working life.
Yet SLC provides nowhere near enough room for blade computing, since those drives are only at 32GB to 64GB capacity. Fortunately, HP estimates that capacity will double to 64GB/128GB by the end of this year, which will finally make them feasible for use.
Then, vendors can work on performance. “We have to work on storage controllers to open up the bandwidth. If we get these devices screaming, we’ve got to make sure the full I/O path can handle everything,” Daley said.
The next step for HP is to look at where a SSD drive would make sense, and then put it in HP’s universal drive carrier, Daley said. That way, the SSD could go into the various HP products, server and rack-mounted, that accept the universal drive.
For now, however, the problems facing SSD are too numerous to make it a compelling offering for many enterprise uses. “My customers don’t want to hear about wear leveling and things like that. They want to hear this drive is warranted for three years and will last in your datacenter for x amount of time,” Daley said.
If all goes according to plan, though, HP expects to have enterprise-capable, high capacity SSD drives ready by 2012. iSupply’s Chander said that timeline is “absolutely reasonable.”
“They are right on and they have got an excellent roadmap,” he said.
Chander added that he expects SSD will be a viable storage medium in the next few years, not just for HP.
“Both hard drive companies and [Flash memory] vendors who want to be in the memory market are putting a lot of money into this for research, but there are challenges,” he said.
(Update corrects the timeline of SSD releases from EMC and Sun.)


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According to the official announcement from the joint ventures, China’s major e-commerce platform JD.com will officially close in Thailand and Indonesia next month.
JD.com’s departure from the two Southeast Asian countries has been expected for months through moves to record losses and lay off employees. Tech In Asia said that last month the e-commerce company also closed its JDL Express Indonesia internal transportation branch, which includes 11 warehouses, 250 drop-off points and more than 3,000 delivery drivers.
JD.com entered both Southeast Asian markets through a joint venture with financial firm Provident Capital in Indonesia in 2015 to establish JD.id and real estate company Central Group in Thailand in 2017 to established JD Central.
The South China Morning Post, citing sources, said JD.com’s expansion plans in these two markets have cost the company more than 10 billion yuan (~$1.39 billion) over the past eight years.
Late last year, JD.com was reported to be looking for potential investors to buy their shares in two joint ventures as the company was looking to shift its focus to the Chinese market after noticing negative developments. losses piled up in both the Indonesian and Thai markets.
Over the past few years, e-commerce has emerged as one of the biggest growth drivers of the digital economy in Southeast Asia, according to a report from Google, Temasek and Bain&Co. The growth potential has attracted a large number of new players, making the competition in the e-commerce sector even more heated.
In Indonesia, e-commerce platform JD.id is constantly lagging behind. According to data.ai, the JD.id exchange has struggled to reach 1 million active users, far behind competitors such as Shopee (31 million users), Tokopedia (17 million users). and Lazada (8 million users).
JD.com’s joint ventures in Indonesia have attempted to develop an online-to-offline model (a business model in which the company attracts potential customers from online online channels to offline physical stores). by building stores (grocery stores, supermarkets, etc.), including an unmanned store called JD.id X.
According to a company employee, JD.id’s slow sales growth is due to a variety of factors, including an ineffective COVID-19 campaign and an inappropriate approach to the local market. fit. As a result, the company had to lay off nearly 200 employees and stop hiring.
In Thailand, the JD Central joint venture also faced the same problem when it was unable to achieve a large enough active user base. Here, two main competitors, Shopee and Lazada, are dominating. Thai media reported that local partner Central Group even withdrew some executives from the joint venture in mid-2022 because JD Central could not improve performance.
Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, an e-commerce expert in Thailand, said the closure of JD Central was no surprise. “Thailand’s e-commerce is a tough market. We’ve seen Japan’s Rakuten and South Korea’s 11Street leave the market and now JD Central,” he said.
He explained, JD Central operates on a joint venture model and JD.com may find it not worth the investment as they will have to spend more money and time in the current challenging economic environment.
“JD.com has uniqueness in authentic products, plus fast delivery, and outstanding performance for the first few years. But Lazada and Shopee then caught up with it very quickly with the implementation of LazMall and ShopeeMall,” added Pawoot.
With the departure of JD Central in Thailand, Pawoot expressed concern about the market becoming less competitive and monopolistic, as there are only two key players left in the market, Shoppe and Lazada, and businesses. This is the time to prepare to make a profit. Last year, Lazada increased the commission fee from 1% to 2%.
JD.com was founded in China by founder Richard Liu (Liu Qiang Dong) in 1998 and was listed on the US NASDAQ stock exchange. This business currently has many subsidiaries in the fields of e-commerce, logistics, healthcare, real estate, internet finance, cloud computing, and smart technology.
JD.com’s push to pull out of its losing Southeast Asian ventures comes as executives seek to restructure core retail and bring the e-commerce platform back into the mainstream. basic factors, like low price with quality service.


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On Saturday, Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister held a gathering with young entrepreneurs and a panel of industry leaders to launch the consultation process for Delhi’s new approach to new startups. The Delhi government will before long dispatch an online forum to look for contributions from the overall population looking for recommendations.
Arvind Kejriwal said the start-up policy attempts to quicken the development of new businesses in Delhi and change the city to make Delhi as one of the best 5 worldwide goals for startups.
He said directly since his IIT days, he has seen the absolute most splendid personalities from India travel to another country searching for better chances. He trusts Indians are the most intelligent business visionaries on the planet and all they need is the correct chance and the correct conditions to enable them to flourish. With this start-up strategy, they mean to make Delhi as one of the best five worldwide goals for new businesses.
There will be two stages in which the process of drafting the new policy will be conducted. Entrepreneurs, consulting industry leaders, and policy experts from different sectors are included in the first stage in order to provide inputs in drafting the new startups’ policy.
Whereas, suggesting new policy rules and putting out the draft online for the public to recommend changes is included in the second stage. It is needed to give a new standpoint to the policy.
Leading names that reflected their interest are Rajan Anandan MD Sequoia Capital; Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO, Swiggy; Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder, Indian Angel Network; Suchita Salwan, founder and CEO, Little Black Book; Book, Tarun Bhalla, founder, Avishkaar and Riyaaz Amlani, CEO & MD, Impresario Handmade Restaurants; Ajay Chowdhry, co-founder, HCL was generally excellent with numerous thoughts on what will take Delhi’s startups environment to the next level
Delhi currently with over 7,000 budding firms has the most elevated number of dynamic new businesses in the nation with the valuation of about $50 billion. Alluding to a report from TIE from September 2019, Delhi-NCR is set to get one of the best five worldwide beginning up center points with 30 unicorns, 12,000 new companies, and a combined valuation of about $150 billion by 2025.
As per the Startups Genome report name ‘The Global Startups Ecosystem Report 2020’ with a growth index of 4, Delhi ranks 36th. After Bangalore that ranks 26th, Delhi is only Indian city that has listed.
To fight the budgetary impacts of COVID-19 opportune measures given by the Delhi government would imply that they can overcome the money related impacts of COVID and come out much more grounded, said, Riyaaz Amlani, CEO & MD, Impresario Handmade Restaurants.
The country is at present battling with a low Gross domestic product which is anticipated to hit a new low in the coming days. A new start-up strategy anticipates battle the financial insecurity made by the pandemic of Covid-19.


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Halloween Holiday 2020
Halloween spending is forecast to drop, as retailers start putting their holiday shopping season plans into place amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. . Some Halloween and Thanksgiving events are okay but many are not recommended by the CDC this year due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. . Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana finished its 2020 season Sunday. The park announced in August that its annual Happy Halloween Weekends would not take place because of COVID-19. Leah Koch, .
Leap Year in 2020 lines up multiple holidays perfectly on weekend
- When is Halloween 2020?.
- 100+ Social Media Holidays You Need in 2020 21: Indispensable!.
- When is Halloween in 2020? | Popular Costumes for Halloween 🧟.
Thank you, Leap Year! Perfect holiday line up in 2020
in Chicago isn’t canceled after all. Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday unveiled a series of rules for the holiday that she said will allow people to celebrate safely, including a requirement that . On Saturday an annual Halloween and Holiday Bazaar in Duluth’s Norton Park neighborhood found a way to bring their goodies to the area during the pandemic. Norton Park United Methodist Church’s .
When is Halloween 2020?
The Washington state Department of Health has yet to issue specific guidance on what people should do for Halloween this year. But in the COVID-19 era, can we really celebrate an occasion that Halloween can be a delightful celebration for children, and the coronavirus pandemic will do little to hinder that, according to some Aiken moms. .
Just Announced: Disney Cruise Line Fall 2020 Itineraries Feature
- Halloween around the world in 2020 | Office Holidays.
- Halloween 2020 is a Saturday. New Years and Christmas are a Friday .
- Some 2020 Holidays will be on the Perfect Days.


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Greggs today dashed hopes of sushi appearing on the baker’s counters any time soon, saying it instead aims to pull in punters with a new onion bhaji burrito.
Chief executive Roger Whiteside said a “throwaway comment” about a possible sushi range earlier this year had been overplayed and raw fish dishes were not on the way.
But new Mexican options, including onion bhaji, fiery pulled chicken and chipotle pulled beef burritos, will be available from today.
Greggs had already overhauled its menu, introducing its Balanced Choice range such as salads and yogurts, breakfast on-the-go and coffees, which drove sales up 5.6% in the three months to October 1. Same-store sales were 2.8% higher.
Whiteside warned of “industrywide cost pressures” next year due to inflation in commodity prices and the weak pound, but pledged to “do everything possible to mitigate the cost increases” rather than pass them on to customers.Reuse content


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Lab meat—flesh grown in massive tanks instead of in the bodies of sentient animals—offers the promise of having our steak and eating it guilt-free, too. No vast amounts of water-polluting chemicals to grow feed crops; no low-paid, oft-injured slaughterhouse workers; no climate-warming gases from cow burps or manure lagoons, and no billions of animals slaughtered each year to satisfy our carnivory.
Once a staple only of science fiction, the stuff is poised to land on your dinner plate this year, at least according to boosters of the cultivated-meat industry (to use its preferred name). In Singapore—the only nation to approve lab meat for sale—you can already go to the JW Marriott South Beach hotel and order steamed chicken dumplings made with “real meat without slaughter” in the form of chicken cells grown by a US-based company called Eat Just. And other cell-meat startups vow to bring product to market in 2022, pending regulatory approval.
Yet several obstacles hold back a new era of widely available animal-free burgers, nuggets, and carnitas. The biggest involves something much less appetizing than chicken dumplings: the blood of unborn cow fetuses, extracted from their mothers after slaughter.
The use of fetal bovine serum (FBS) in labs isn’t new. Scientists have had the ability to biopsy animal cells and keep them alive outside the body since the 1950s. These test-tube cells need food to flourish, and researchers found that fetal bovine serum provided the special sauce—the right combination of hormones to make cells hum. In the 1980s, FBS technology gave rise to tissue engineering—growing cells in vitro to replace small amounts of damaged or diseased tissue in people. Extending the same techniques into a new realm, today’s cell-based meat companies have relied largely on FBS to develop their products.
But a substance that works great for medical purposes (it’s also widely used in vaccine development) creates two huge problems for an industry seeking to mass-produce slaughter-free meat. The first is expense. FBS sells for upward of $1,000 per liter—a major reason why, to break even on expenses, companies would have to sell their cultured meat for about $200,000 per pound, a 2020 analysis from University of California, Davis, researchers found. That’s why companies like the one conducting product demos in Singapore aren’t breaking even; they’re losing money.
The other big problem is optics: You can’t market your product as “slaughter-free,” let alone vegan, when you used a slaughterhouse byproduct to grow it. (Although Eat Just does just that with its Singapore chicken, which is made with a “very low level of bovine serum,” a spokesperson told Mother Jones.)
As a result, cultivated-meat companies are scrambling to find FSB substitutes. Such a “serum-free” growth medium exists, reports the Good Food Institute, a think tank that supports conventional-meat replacements. Trouble is, it currently costs nearly $400 per liter—still way too high to be commercially competitive.
“A whole new supply chain would need to form” to provide cheap serum-free growth media to lab-meat companies, says Christina Agapakis, a synthetic biologist who serves as creative director at Ginkgo Bioworks, a biotech firm. “And a lot of innovation in the biological manufacturing space will need to happen to make that possible.”
All of which means there’s some fine print on industry claims that lab meat will be on the market within the year: Even boosters don’t expect to see price-competitive cultured meat until 2030, while other analysts conclude that the FBS-replacement problem, plus other gaping challenges—like perfecting machines that can grow cells at industrial scale—means the stuff will likely never be economical.
So don’t hold your breath. If lab-meat startup execs are lucky, however, funders will be patient. In 2020 and the first half of 2021, investors poured more than $600 million into the space. Celebrity moguls Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Kimbal Musk, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, and John Mackey have all pitched in. And the gusher continues. In February, a started called Wildtype—intent on creating cell-based salmon—announced a $100 million infusion from investors including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey, Jr.
Maybe such deep-pocketed friends will float the industry long enough to work out the problems posed by replacing fetal bovine serum. In the meantime, the very real ecological and social catastrophes created by the mass production of livestock fester—and “slaughter-free” chicken specials in Singapore aren’t up to the task of slowing them down.


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Rob Jahncke, the new owner of Javatinis on Main Street in Seal Beach, had a celebrity from the coffee world train the staff on Tuesday, May 25.
Heather Perry, from the Coffee Klatch up in San Dimas, trained the employees to make espresso drinks including lattes and cappuccinos.
Perry has 15 years of experience in the coffee industry. She began her coffee career at the age of eleven by washing dishes and sweeping floors in her parent’s coffeehouse.
By the age of 15, Perry was working behind the espresso machine and experimenting with different drinks.
Perry holds many barista titles including 2003 and 2007 U.S. Barista Champion, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Western Barista Champion, 2007-2010 Ultimate Barista Champion and finished second in the World at World Championships in Tokyo.
Perry graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in international business and marketing.
Additionally, Jahncke is planning on installing new coffee equipment, a new water treatment system and introducing the latest barista skills in crafting coffee.
“I have been pursuing this profession by training up in Portland Oregon at Bellisimo Coffee School,” he said. “I’ve had involvement with the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America), and lots of time visiting coffee shops all over the country in Seattle, Portland, Midwest, and Southern California.


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Digital and Direct Marketers in EU ePrivacy Regulation Sights Now
Digital and direct marketers are readying for another blow from the European Union in the form of data privacy regulation. ePrivacy Regulation is going to attempt to seal the holes the E.U. left with GDPR. And American marketers will be subject to ePrivacy Regulation, too, regarding their marketing to E.U. citizens.
The revised ePrivacy Directive rules, to be renamed ePrivacy Regulation once the changes become law, were supposed to happen simultaneously with the May 25 GDPR effective date.
Cookies will probably disappear completely as a result of ePrivacy Regulation, predicts an article published Tuesday in The Register that notes that E.U. news sites have already seen a post-GDPR drop of 14% in ad and marketing cookies .
Attorneys from law firm Morrison and Foerster say of ePrivacy Regulation:
“Marketing communications to individuals are prohibited without prior consent.”
The firm expects the regulations to become law at the end of 2018 or in early 2019, and marketers may have a year to comply. On Wednesday. Julie O’Neill, a Washington, DC-based partner and former FTC staff attorney, adds:
“U.S. companies that thought they were done thinking about European privacy law may be in for a surprise. The upcoming ePrivacy Regulation is likely to affect companies’ online advertising campaigns and analytics solutions. How far the Regulation goes remains to be seen, but there is little doubt that many companies will need to adjust their practices.”
This Aug. 16 summary from TechnologyLawDispatch.com says once ePrivacy Regulation is law, it will focus on “confidentiality of users’ electronic communications. It will also regulate activities such as: direct marketing, website audience measurement, the transmission of communications across devices and browsers, and cookies set on users’ machines. According to ePR Recital 2, it intends to ‘particularise [sic] and complement’ the provisions for personal data laid down by the GDPR by ‘translating its principles into specific rules.’ ”
Morrison and Foerster says:
“ePrivacy targets, among other areas, the right to confidentiality and data privacy on all electronic communications — that includes emails, texts, the Internet, WhatsApp, Skype, online messaging, VoIP, the Internet of Things (IoT), apps, online advertising networks and telecommunications. Metadata, as well as the contents of communications, is guaranteed privacy. When it comes to personal data in electronic communications, ePrivacy even overrides GDPR.”
With GDPR, even U.S. marketers had to ensure they had opt-ins from E.U. citizens to use their private data for marketing purposes and they had to allow the customers to leave their lists if they wanted to do so. One brand lost 80% of the customers on its email list, so that law already has some marketers working to regain market share.
Meanwhile, marketers may think they’re already used to ePrivacy, because the “ePrivacy Directive” has been on the books since 2002 and was amended in 2009. But that’s a directive, not a regulation, and the E.U. finds that marketers are moving faster than the E.U.’s nearly decade-old ePrivacy Directive has been able to keep up,
So, as the International Association of Privacy Professionals states:
“The EU is moving from a directive to a regulation — echoing the move from the Data Protection Directive to the GDPR — in an effort to harmonize data protection laws across the E.U. Additionally, the scope has been extended to apply to any company processing personal data in the context of delivering electronic communications and files, including so-called ‘over-the-top’ providers like Gmail, WhatsApp and Netflix, not just traditional telecommunication providers.”
The sense of urgency about passing the law does seem to be heating up, if the May 28 statement by the European Data Protection Board is any indication:
“We call on the European Commission, Parliament and Council to work together to ensure a swift adoption of the new ePrivacy Regulation, replacing the current Directive as soon as possible after the coming into effect of the General Data Protection Regulation in May this year.”
In other words, privacy of communication in Facebook Messenger is a fundamental right, reads the upshot of the wording by the EDPB. (Opens as a PDF)
What do you think, marketers?
Please respond in the comments section below.
Related story: Don’t Think GDPR Will Impact You? Think Again


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Sony Takes 3D Technology To The Limits
The Sony Corporation seems to have embraced the newly released home 3D technology with unbridled vigor and tailored personal electronic products to take advantage of this new fast growing Hi-tech sector.
In 2011 one of the first ever 3D PC laptops will hit the market. This newly developed 3D laptop has been manufactured by Sony Corporation and sales for the new technology are expected to push all time records.
The Vaio 3D laptop is able to display 3D video and the soon to be released 3D games at a resolution of up to 1080p.
Sony prototypes of the groundbreaking technology were on display recently at the IFA electronics show. The IFA is one of the largest Consumer Electronics trade fair shows in the world.
The laptops are switched over to 3D by simply pressing a button on the unit and donning the active-shutter 3D glasses.
Howard Stringer, Sony’s chief executive stated in a press conference that the 3D Vaio will make its debut next spring. Sony Corporation has been powering ahead within the field of 3D technology and is committed to producing related products and content.
Sony went on to announce that it would also be retrofitting the Playstation 3 and some of its existing Blu-ray players with new firmware upgrades to make them 3D capable.
Some of the 3D game titles available from Sony include: Killzone 3, Virtual Tennis 4, MLB Baseball, Tumble, Motor Storm Apocalypse, Sly Trilogy, Mortal Kombat, Super Stardust HD, The Fight and more.
Short URL: http://www.news4us.com/?p=1072


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From the botched Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) IPO to the nightmarish glitches that almost cost Knight Capital (NYSE:KCG) its life, equities rode a volatile wave through 2012.
Certain stocks and their ticker symbols, however, were searched for on popular search engines like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) far more than others. While many companies were household names, virtually all at some point this year made major headlines.
Technology stocks were among the most searched this year, with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) topping both Yahoo’s list of top-searched tickers and Google’s compilation of most "Googled" stocks. Other notable companies to make the list are American International Group (NYSE:AIG) and coffee giants Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Keurig maker Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ:GMCR).
Here are some of the reasons why they shot to search engine fame:
Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is not only the most widely used social network, surpassing a billion users around the world in 2012, but it also swarmed headlines this year because of its troubled debut on the public markets in May.
Much hype surrounded the company leading up to its highly-anticipated initial public offering, which valued the company at a whopping $104 billion. However, the excitement quickly turned sour as a glitch in Nasdaq OMX Group's (NASDAQ:NDAQ) system led to issues with trade confirmations and cancellations, leading to a very turbulent debut. It also cooled the excitement in the IPO market.
To top it off, woes about the Silicon Valley company’s marketing and mobile strategies have circulated since its IPO and the stock fell as low as $17.55 this year, down more than 58% from its open in May. Facebook’s shares closed down the year some 30%.
The San Francisco-based maker of popular games like “Farmville” and “Words with Friends” caps off a turbulent first full calendar year as a public company. Zynga’s shares closed 2012 down close to 75% amid a series of weak earnings reports.
The company launched its own website this year in an effort to distance itself from Facebook and announced a massive overhaul strategy aimed at streamlining the business, which included its first company-wide layoff.
However the games maker still struggled to come back from losses sustained in July when Zynga's stock fell more than 40% in one day following very disappointing second-quarter results, and it has been plagued by a series of executive departures.
American International Group
The insurance giant, which nearly collapsed in 2008 at the height of the Great Recession, forcing it to borrow some $182 billion from U.S. taxpayers, took great strides in 2012 to repay the government.
On New Years Eve, it launched an ad campaign called “Thank You America” in an effort to let Americans know that it is appreciative of the loan. Further cushioning the positive PR run, the Treasury Department says the U.S. government actually netted more than $22.7 billion on the deal.
The stock closed 2012 up some 52% to $35.30.
Starbucks and Green Mountain
The two coffee giants became rivals this year when the Seattle-based café operator launched the Keurig-rivaling Verismo, a one-cup home coffee brewer. Starbucks also announced a $620 million cash acquisition of Teavana as it looks to grab a bigger hold of the tea market.
Shares of Starbucks closed up 16.5% this year, while Green Mountain’s closed down nearly 8%.
Other highly-searched equities this year were Samsung and Kodak, which both faced a slew of financial and competitive hiccups this year.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), which operates the popular search engine with the same name, Madden maker Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) as well as Yelp (NYSE:YELP) and Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), which both launched publicly this year, were also highly searched.
2012’s Unlisted News Makers
Perhaps more notable, though, are the stocks that didn’t make the list this year, particularly financial companies.
Among those are J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), whose “London whale” trading fiasco in London earlier this year made global headlines and cost the company some $5.8 billion. Knight Capital, whose mid-September “knightmare” was caused by a computer glitch in its internal systems that led to a series of erroneous trades, racked up some $440 million in losses.


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Mo Farah's drug-storm trainer. The FIFA cesspit. Sex addict Tiger Woods. Cheating cyclist Lance Armstrong. Through all these scandals run one troubling thread... NIKE
- Nike was founded in 1964 by a University of Oregon athlete and his coach
- The company started with $1,200 in the bank is now valued at $19 billion
- Found itself entangled in the recent dopping controversy and FIFA scandal
- Also associated with serial adulterer Tiger Woods and cycling cheat Lance Armstrong
Controversy: Long-distance star Mo Farah
Head seven miles west out of Portland, Oregon, and you reach Beaverton, home of the heavily guarded corporate headquarters of Nike.
Portland is famously America’s most easy-going, liberal city, but there is nothing laid-back about the Nike complex, nicknamed Fort Knox West.
Here, in conditions of immense secrecy, teams of designers and scientists on the 7,000-strong staff work not only on developing the cutting-edge sports shoes and clothes for which the company is famous, but also on the ultimate athletes to wear them.
For there is no endeavour more hush-hush at Beaverton than the Nike Oregon Project, set up in 2001 to nurture American long-distance runners who could challenge the traditional dominance of East Africans. Bankrolled by Nike and run by Alberto Salazar, a former marathon champion, it spared no expense on the ten or so athletes chosen to join the programme.
Chief coach Salazar, who once ran himself unconscious to win the Boston Marathon, boasted of combining intensive training with high-tech innovation. Athletes spend long sessions on treadmills set up underwater, making them much harder to run on.
They sleep enclosed in tents filled with air low in oxygen to recreate the effects of high altitude. This causes them to develop more red blood cells, increasing athletic performance.
It is here, since 2010, that the British long-distance running phenomenon Mo Farah has lived, alongside his American friend and training partner Galen Rupp, who took silver behind Farah in the 10,000 m at the 2012 London Olympics.
It’s not difficult to understand why Farah has nothing but praise for Salazar — before the Somali-born athlete joined his team, Farah was not quite in the sport’s super-elite. Now, however, he is the best distance runner on the planet.
‘It’s kind of like the mafia,’ Salazar has said of his close-knit, secretive team of athletes. ‘The chemistry of the group is critical.’ An unfortunate choice of phrase — given that both Salazar and Rupp have suddenly been implicated in a doping scandal that has seen Farah rush back to London to try to save his reputation.
Salazar, BBC’s Panorama claimed this week, has been giving performance-boosting testosterone to Rupp, flouting the rules of international athletics and making a mockery of the runner’s achievements. Does this explain why the Oregon Project is shrouded in such secrecy?
Though there is no suggestion that Farah has broken any rules, and he insists he is innocent, sceptics may wonder why he only reached the top of his sport after he went to Oregon.
And if both his coach and closest stablemate are guilty — which they insist they are not — it leaves Farah in a very difficult position. British team-mates have urged him to ‘run a mile’ from his training guru.
But Farah isn’t the only one with tough questions to answer.
The biggest doping controversy to have hit international athletics for a long time broke just days after another huge sporting scandal — this time, over alleged multi-million-pound bribes paid to FIFA officials over World Cup football rights.
You might think the two scandals are not linked, but there is a common factor. In the FIFA case, an international sportswear company has been implicated in the financial machinations. According to the U.S. authorities, an intermediary working with this company allegedly paid tens of millions of pounds into a Swiss bank account as ‘bribes and kickbacks’ to an official who negotiated the company’s successful $160 million ten-year deal in 1996 to sponsor the Brazilian national football team.
The sportswear manufacturer has not been named by U.S. prosecutors, but media observers are already connecting the dots, which, they say, lead to Nike, the same corporate giant that bankrolls Mo Farah’s coach’s operation. At the time of the Brazil deal, Nike was making $40 million from football. Now, that figure has soared to nearly $2.3 billion.
Dropped: Lance Armstrong was sponsored by Nike and is the highest profile cheat in cycling
The sportswear giant perhaps implicitly confirmed that it was the firm in question after the American indictments were released, by saying that it was co-operating with the investigation. It said it ‘strongly opposes any form of manipulation or bribery’, just as it stressed it ‘does not condone the use of performance-enhancing drugs in any manner’.
Is it mere coincidence that Nike, the world’s biggest sportswear maker, has become entangled in both scandals?
If you are minded to believe it is, you would probably also have to conclude it is sheer bad luck that the other biggest sports scandal of recent years involved another recipient of Nike’s sponsorship largesse — Lance Armstrong, the highest profile cheat in cycling history.
The American company — which also sponsors the England football team and, predictably, Mo Farah — has tentacles that reach around the world, and its huge financial muscle allows it to obliterate rivals and lavish many millions on teams and sportsmen it wants to advertise its brand.
But does that money corrupt the very sports it is meant to advance, encouraging stars to break the rules to get ahead in an industry that really only rewards the winners?
Incidentally, Nike were also corporate sponsors of two further men recently mired in sporting obloquy — Tiger Woods, who was exposed as a serial adulterer, and Oscar Pistorius, convicted of shooting dead his girlfriend. The brand, it seems, has a nasty habit of attracting trouble.
Nike, founded in 1964 by a University of Oregon track athlete and his coach with just $1,200 in the bank, is now valued at $19 billion.
Last year, when it topped the Forbes list of the world’s most valuable sports brands, Nike earned $3.5 billion. In Britain, where it has its biggest store (a 42,000 sq ft retail palace in Oxford Street), it earned £65.5 million and made profits of £10.1 million.
A big chunk of that would have come from the 2014 England World Cup shirts Nike brought out with the eye-watering price tag of £90. Even David Cameron claimed the shirts were too expensive, and were taking advantage of parents pestered to buy them.
That row touched on another of the most controversial aspects of Nike’s empire — its use of sweatshops — when it emerged the shirts were made in Indonesia. A rival estimated it would have cost £4 to make each shirt there, leaving an embarrassed Nike to offer excuses about the high costs of research and development, plus green technology that uses eight recycled plastic bottles to make each shirt.
For all its carefully calibrated ‘cool’ image (U.S. rappers were showing off the famous ‘Swoosh’ logo long before it appeared on English footballers), Nike has long been accused of behaving like the worst kind of oppressive, greedy corporation.
During the Nineties, it was censured for having its footballs made by children in barely regulated Cambodian and Pakistan factories.
In 2001, a BBC documentary focused on six girls who all worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week, in a Nike factory in Cambodia.
Endorsement: Nike has stuck by Tiger Woods, who was exposed as a series adulterer, despite other sponsors dropping him
Nike insists it has rectified matters, but critics say the company still contracts out production to poor countries where it is difficult to find out what workers’ conditions are like. Embarrassingly, Nike continues to be dogged by allegations that it farms out production to sweatshops where underpaid workers toil in poor conditions.
In 2011, a decade after it pledged to end its reliance on sweatshops, workers making Nike’s Converse sneakers in Indonesia were still complaining that supervisors kicked and hurled shoes at them, slapped them in the face and called them ‘pigs’ and ‘dogs’. The 10,000 workers, mostly women, earned 50 cents an hour — enough for food and basic lodging.
At another Indonesian Converse factory, women workers were ordered to stand in the blazing sun as punishment after failing to make shoes fast enough. Last year, one of the biggest ever strikes in China over working conditions and poor pay took place at a factory that makes Nike footwear.
Nike blamed the problems on pre-existing licences to produce Converse goods, which, it said, prevented the parent company inspecting factories or introducing its own code of conduct. It said the situation was further complicated as the licence holders themselves usually farmed out the production work to a sub-contractor.
Instead of ensuring its most menial workers get a decent wage, Nike prefers to shower millions of pounds on already wealthy sports stars to plug its products. From its very first deal with tennis star Ilie ‘Nasty’ Nastase to its recent reported ‘billion-dollar’ kit manufacturing agreement with Manchester United, Nike has spent vast amounts on sponsorship deals.
Sums often seem like they have been plucked from the air, but are worked out on a formula dependent on a player’s or team’s ranking, and are also influenced by their reputation and the popularity of the sport. Tiger Woods’s last ten-year Nike contract was reportedly worth £124 million.
It’s fair to say that Nike’s choice of ‘brand ambassador’ has sometimes left a lot to be desired, as it’s invested heavily in some very unpleasant characters. And not just invested but — astonishingly — reinvested, even after their misdeeds were exposed.
Top U.S. sprinter Justin Gatlin has been banned twice from international athletics, including a four-year suspension between 2006 and 2010 after being caught using performance-enhancing drugs. He has never shown any remorse, and instead has been defiant.
Hardly a worthy representative of athletics, one might have thought, but Nike seems to have other priorities. In March, it announced a new sponsorship deal with Gatlin, who won a medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Athletes reacted with horror, insisting Nike was sending a terrible message about the acceptability of the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
An appalled Liz McColgan-Nuttall, Britain’s former 10,000 m world champion, contrasted Gatlin’s treatment with the way Nike allegedly dropped her when she became pregnant.
Even Nike’s own athletes spoke out. Marathon champion Paula Radcliffe said she was ‘very disappointed’, adding: ‘I don’t believe it truly reflects the core values of the Nike I am proud to represent.’
Which core values would those be? The shocking case of American football star Michael Vick suggests there is no behaviour too disgusting for the Nike sponsorship selection board.
Nike-sponsored Vick was jailed in 2007 after admitting appalling cruelty to dogs he was using in an illegal dog-fighting ring. The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback abused some 70 dogs, mainly pitbull terriers, during a six-year operation called Bad Newz Kennels.
Investigators said dogs that performed badly were hanged, drowned and electrocuted. Vick and his friends liked to amuse themselves by throwing family pet dogs into the ring, so they could watch the pitbulls rip them apart.
Nike rewarded this utterly vile individual, whom it had previously dropped, by giving him a new four-year sponsorship deal when he returned to the sport on his release. ‘Michael acknowledges his past mistakes,’ said the company, blandly.
Vick may be the worst example, but there are plenty more. Nike kept its deal with footballer Wayne Rooney after allegations he cheated on his pregnant wife with a prostitute.
It did the same when U.S. basketball star Kobe Bryant was accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee. (The girl refused to testify in court, but Bryant agreed to apologise to her for their encounter, though not admitting guilt.) Other sponsors dropped the hugely successful Bryant — but Nike did not.
And despite other sponsors dropping Tiger Woods, Nike stuck by him. Though it cut his annual $20 million sponsorship in half for two years following the scandal, Nike and Woods later signed a new contract.
In the case of Lance Armstrong, Nike was hardly quick to drop the star and never smacked of a company taking a moral stance, but rather one forced by the weight of public opinion. Ironically enough, it emerged recently that Nike’s famous motto, ‘Just Do It’, was inspired by the final words of notorious American serial killer Gary Gilmore before he was executed by firing squad.
Now it is Nike that finds itself in the sights of investigators in not one but two monumental sporting scandals.
The multinational, whose moral compass too often appears to point straight at the nearest bank, will need to work hard to convince the sceptics it is innocent in both cases.
Given its track record, the company, named after the Greek goddess of victory, may find winning this battle is its greatest challenge yet.
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Currently high average handset technology
royalty rates - particularly for WCDMA - are potentially the most
challenging barrier that is preventing these markets from reaching their
full potential, according to ABI Research. While the industry norm is 5%
cumulative royalty rates for consumer devices, WCDMA handset average
royalty rates currently stand at 9.4%.
Continue reading... "ABI Research: Mobile Handset Royalty Revenues to Surpass $10.0 billion in 2011 " »


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Hitting a pothole always has the potential to damage a vehicle, but you’re more likely to get away with it by keeping your tires precisely inflated.
Several recent dumps of snow, along with freeze-and-thaw temperatures, have created ideal conditions for a big bump in potholes, spoiling what has so far been a gentle ride for drivers this winter.
We can expect a lot more in the coming weeks, which can rattle the bones of drivers and keep the city’s patching crews scrambling to fill them.
After Fixer Jr., who is still learning to drive, lost control of his mother’s car on an icy bend and bounced off the curb, warping two rims and damaging the suspension, it got us thinking about the perils of winter driving.
So we talked to Sean Cooney-Mann, who manages the OK Tire store on Shorncliffe Rd. in Etobicoke, where the Star’s pool cars for reporters are serviced. He knows a lot about minimizing pothole damage, because the impact always starts at the tires.
“We’ve all seen the minefields out there that happen every winter, and it’s not always possible to avoid them, but correct tire pressure is the best way to reduce the chance of damage,” he said.
Most drivers don’t pay attention to tire pressure, a huge mistake at this time of year, he said, when hitting a pothole can cause significant damage, even at relatively slow speeds, if tires are under or over-inflated.
To make matters worse, many late model vehicles are equipped with low-profile tires that are made of harder rubber but hold less air than old-style tires, said Cooney-Mann.
“They look great and handle well, but there just isn’t as much air in them to cushion the impact,” he said. “The rubber is more rigid and stiff. Less rubber, less absorption.
“When there’s not as much rubber, it moves the shock of the impact up through the car. That’s how you get damage beyond the wheels.”
When cars were bigger and had tires that held more air, hitting a pothole was lees likely to damage the vehicle, and drivers were less likely to feel it than now, when the impact is much more jarring, he said.
Drivers should have a tire gauge, available cheaply at an auto supply store, and regularly check the pressure to ensure it complies with manufacturer vehicle specifications, he said.
But who knows what the correct pressure is?
Check for a specifications placard, usually affixed to the edge of the driver’s door or inside the small door that opens to access the gas cap, which should have the correct tire pressure on it, he said. If not, it can always be found in the owner’s manual.
Pressure for snow tires may be different than in the specs, but is available from the garage where the tires were bought, or by checking with a tire expert like himself, he said.
One more tip that is always good advice: Slow down, particularly on streets where you know there are lots of potholes. It’ll give you a chance to steer around them and lessen the chance of damage, if you hit one.


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German compressor manufacturer BOCK showcased an expanded CO2 (R744) compressor offering at the 2022 Chillventa trade show, highlighted by the new six-cylinder transcritical HGX56 CO₂ T.
Chillventa took place in Nuremberg, Germany, October 11–13.
“The new transcritical 6-cylinder HGX56 CO₂ T is designed for even greater performance, especially in industrial refrigeration and heat pump applications,” said Thorsten Schaefer, Director Sales Stationary Application at BOCK.
Under the motto “BOCK goes low temperature,” the manufacturer also showed a two-stage CO₂ compressor for low-temperature cooling applications, currently in the pilot phase. It forms part of BOCK’s StarCO₂mpressor range.
The development of the transcritical HGX56 CO₂ T compressor was all about increasing performance, according to a statement by the manufacturer. The six-cylinder addition to BOCK’s semi-hermetic HG compressor range now increases the capacity of its CO2 offering for various commercial and industrial applications.
This unit has various advantages, said BOCK, including a holistic compressor design that has been engineered for high loads, and enables greater capacities while reducing the number of compressors needed.
In addition, the new model offers maximum flexibility through various design variants, noted BOCK. Not only can it be used in classic medium and low-temperature refrigeration applications, but also for heat pumps and air-conditioning, or as a parallel compressor.
“This also makes the HGX56 CO₂ T an attractive and sustainable alternative to synthetic refrigerants and NH3 applications,” said Manuel Froeschle, Product Manager for Natural Refrigerants at BOCK.
NatRef compressor pioneer
In its 90-year company history, BOCK was an early mover in the development of compressors for natural refrigerants. This includes hydrocarbon compressors, “which are a sustainable alternative, especially for high-performance heat pump and air conditioning applications,” said Schaefer.
“Thanks to decades of experience and an early recognition of trends, BOCK offers a dynamic product portfolio that provides efficient solutions for a more sustainable future for customers and the environment,” said Stephan Schumann, CSO and Managing Director at BOCK GmbH.
Danish component manufacturer Danfoss announced on October 10 its intent to acquire BOCK to help strengthen its expertise in CO₂ and natural refrigerants technology. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close no later than Q1 2023.
Want to find out more, or have something to say about this story? Join the ATMO Connect network to meet and engage with like-minded stakeholders in the clean cooling and natural refrigerant arena.


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Move over emerald, a new color is in town. Pantone has recently released its Color of the Year for 2014, and we love their choice.
Radiant Orchid, which is like a muted mix of purple and fuchsia will “spark the imagination,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®.
This year’s color is “An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm,” Eiseman continued.
Unsure how you can infuse some Radiant Orchid into your space?
Radiant Orchid can add vibrancy to a neutral room with pillows, rugs, lamp shades, and a painted accent wall. It complements deeper hues like olive and hunter greens and work with colors like teal, pale yellow and dark blues.
“While the 2013 color of the year, PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald, served as a symbol of growth, renewal and prosperity, Radiant Orchid reaches across the color wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination,” said Eiseman. “An invitation to innovation, Radiant Orchid encourages expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.”
What do you think of Pantone’s pick? Do you agree that it is worthy enough to hold the prestigious title of the Color of the Year?


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According to a report from our roundel-obsessed friends at Bimmerfest, the four-door M3 will star at $62,000, while the M4 Coupe is priced at $64,200. Those prices do not include a $925 destination charge. That's a pretty significant jump over the $56,275 starting price of the old M3 Sedan and $59,275 starting price of the last M3 Coupe, although we'd argue that these cars should easily outpace their V8 counterparts in terms of overall performance. In other news, a six-speed manual will come standard, while the seven-speed M DCT will be an optional extra.
Bimmerfest also came up with a timeline for the M3 and M4's arrival. We should expect the official announcement of pricing, along with the full order guides, released near the end of this month or in early February. Production will kick off in March, while customers will be able to begin placing orders in late April. We'll get our first crack at both cars in June, with deliveries beginning later that month.
As for the validity of this info, we're told that the source Bimmerfest spoke to is very well informed and that there's every reason to believe this info. So, while this isn't fact until it comes from the mouth of BMW, we aren't prescribing any salt with this particular story.


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Sweden-based Storbildsbolaget is making a significant change in print production this month, switching brands for the first time to install a 3.4-metre EFI™ VUTEk® FabriVU® 340 soft signage printer from EFI.
EFI have announced that Sandton, South Africa-based Beith Digital has established a full soft signage offering for its customers and raised the bar for image quality and productivitywith its EFI™ VUTEk® FabriVU® 340 printer.
Large-format digital printing company Ateliers Cassandre, located in a 1,600 square metre facility in the Parisian suburb of Wissous, has purchased an EFI™ VUTEk® FabriVU® 520 soft signage printer to solidify its foothold as the premier soft signage print provider in France.
EFI have announced that Dome, a commercial print solutions provider headquartered in California, recently purchased EFI™ VUTEk® FabriVU® 340 soft signage and VUTEk 5r roll-to-roll printers. The new high-volume inkjet printers are to be installed in Dome’s newly renovated, Sacramento, Calif., facility by the end of this year.