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Discount supermarket Aldi has announced it plans to open its long-awaited Montrose store in the summer.
The German giant has plans to expand its Scottish presence as it moves ahead with growth proposals for 2017.
Over the next 12 months, the retailer will open an additional six stores, bringing its total number of Scottish locations to 78 by the end of 2017 and total employees north of the border to 2,600.
Montrose is one of the stores set to be opened this year, scheduled for July - more than two years after Aldi bought the former Co-operative store in the town in April 2015.
Richard Holloway, managing director of Aldi Scotland, said: “We want to build on the success of 2016 by opening additional stores in new locations in Scotland and work with even more of the best Scottish producers.
“We continue to deliver the highest quality and value, and I am confident that we will strike deals with more Scottish suppliers in the coming year.
“Our growth plans for 2017 underpin Aldi’s ongoing commitment to Scotland, which saw eight new stores open in 2016 and the launch of Aldi’s first Scottish Sport Fund, support which shall be renewed in the course of the year.”
In April 2015, the Co-op announced it was closing down its Basin View store, revealing it had sold the site to Aldi.
The Co-op shut its doors in August 2015, along with the Peacocks clothing store that operated within the building, with 37 people losing their jobs.
In March 2016, Aldi’s planners were given permission to demolish the shell and build a new store around three quarters of the size of the original.
The former Co-op building was demolished shortly after by Aldi.
The new supermarket is expected to create more than 30 full-time jobs.
In addition to investing in new stores and employees, Aldi says it will continue to grow its range of 360 everyday available Scottish-sourced products.
The other new Scottish stores scheduled to open in 2017 include:
· Auldhouse Retail Park, Glasgow (April)
· Dumfries (June)
· Drumchapel (August)
· Oxgangs, Edinburgh (October)
Planning permission is being sought for a sixth store.


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Why are people are finding money inside laptops?
When you pay money for something, you don't necessarily expect to find money inside it, but that's exactly what is happening with one product on the market.
Coins are turning up in new Mac laptops and the internet is trying to figure out why.
See also: Parents forced to pay twice for kids gadgets
See also: Outrage as Apple's new laptop costs more in UK than USA
Owners of Apple MacBooks have been posting pictures like these all over the web from Reddit to Mac forums - and Gizmodo reports that the sightings date back to 2010.
Different national currencies have been represented, and the coins are sparking mystification and conspiracy theories.
But a commenter on Gizmodo's article who claims to have worked for Apple's Genius Bar offers a simple explanation: "We'd find stuff like this all the time," he says.
Adding: "90% of the time, it was the result of kids shoving things in the Optical Drive."
It sounds like it might be worth having a look inside your new laptop before you get to work on it, you never know what you might find!

domain: news


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Google Glass is hailed as one of the most innovative products of our time, but there have been a number of individuals who’d disagree. For many of these individuals, Google’s Glass Project has been nothing more than an experiment into privacy invasion. Some critics have said that Glass is unattractive and geeky, similar to Samsung’s Gear smartwatch lineup or Omate’s Truesmart smartwatch. Google’s taking steps at the moment to make Glass more stylish and sleek to appeal to the fashionistas among us.
40-year-old Berlin artist Julian Oliver found himself in the Glass-critical camp. He was approached by an artist friend who found Glass-wearers appearing at his art exhibit with Glass on their eyes, in plain sight. Hearing about how his friend was afraid that his privacy was invaded, Oliver set to create a program to handle Glass wearers. The program is called Glasshole.sh, and, as the name suggests, the program doesn’t take too kindly to Google Glass users. The program is set up to detect when a Google Glass user approaches the vicinity of an establishment, at which point the network will send a deauthorization notice to the Glass user, disconnect Glass from the network, and cause Glass to beep – to signal to everyone else around the individual that the user is wearing Google Glass.
The largest issue with Glass at the moment has nothing to do with the device’s “geekiness,” but, rather, the idea that at any moment, someone can have a photo taken of them (or video recorded of a private moment) without their notification. In his interview with Wired UK, Oliver said that the the issue is not about whether Glass is fashionable or not, but its intrusive nature into the fundamental rights of world citizens: “These are cameras, highly surreptitious in nature, with network backup function and no external indication of recording. To focus on the device is to dance past a heritage of heartfelt protest against the unconsented video documentation of our public places and spaces.”
Julian Oliver may have a point, but if Google Glass is banned from public establishments, one might as well ban Samsung’s Gear smartwatches (the exception being the Gear 2 Neo). The Gear 2 and first-generation Galaxy Gear smartwatches come with both video recording and photo capabilities that let you tap your smartwatch display when taking a photo. You can tap the screen and snap a photo of anyone in seconds – without the individual ever knowing that you took a photo. In other words, some smartwatches are just as “intrusive” (Oliver’s idea), but one is more likely to suspect an interesting head wearable than a device that looks like a digital watch.
Technology is not a terrible thing, but it has been used to cause irreparable damage to innocent and unsuspecting citizens. Sure, there should be certain laws in place that protect the rights of citizens, but I’m not sure that disconnecting Glass from anyone’s public network will help the situation. At the same time, it may be a safety measure for future businesses that don’t want to give privacy thieves an opportunity to commit terrible deeds. The company (Google) whose motto is “Don’t be evil” may find themselves in the position of having to defend their recent tech invention.
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Beleaguered European tech giant Nokia (NOK -0.28%) is getting beaten up again after the third quarter 2017 report showed revenues in its telecom business declined. The company has its fair share of problems, but the stock has been sent back to near multiyear lows after the late October report. This could be setting up a buying opportunity for investors.
The skinny on operations
Nokia was seemingly making headway on a recovery until the late October report came out. Year-over-year revenue fell 7% in the quarter, driven by a 17% decline in its biggest business segment: ultra broadband networks. The company cited challenges in the mobile networks business in North America and China.
Those headwinds are seen persisting into 2018. CEO Rajeev Suri said Nokia's total addressable market for mobile networks is expected to decline 2% to 5% in the upcoming year, driven by changes in North America and China. Suri said increased competition, network carrier consolidation, and transitions to new technology are to blame for the slowdown.
A case for buying
The shrinking of Nokia's revenue in its most important operating segment is concerning, but the accompanying decline in share price may be overdone. Not all the news in the last report was gloomy. For starters, the Nokia Technologies division revenue was up 37% year-over-year in the third quarter and up 48% year-to-date, and operating profit margin is at a whopping 81%.
The Nokia Technologies portfolio, which licenses out technology patents and earns royalty revenue, includes smartwatches, phones, and virtual reality cameras. Though only 6.6% of total revenue this year, the division has doubled in size since 2014. With such a high profit margin, the extra gravy isn't completely offsetting declines in network sales, but it's certainly helping.
A second reason for optimism is that the 2015 merger with Alcatel-Lucent is yielding results. Operating profit is expected to have increased 8% to 10% by the end of this year, and the cost savings should continue. An additional $1.2 billion in savings should be realized in 2018, according to management projections.
As a result of those cost savings, Nokia's adjusted earnings per share were 0.09 euros in the most recent quarter, a 125% increase over the same period last year. Year-to-date adjusted profits have climbed 82% in spite of sales struggles. The company thinks that trend can continue as it streamlines operations with the old Alcatel-Lucent business in the years ahead.
A bet on the future
There are still reasons for concern in the near term that might at times outweigh those first two reasons for optimism, but investors can't ignore the longer-term potential that 5G networks present. Suri's mention of transitioning technology was no doubt a reference to 5G, which has the potential to have far-reaching implications for telecom, internet service providers, and the Internet of Things.
Nokia is confident it is well-positioned to benefit as 5G network technology gets closer to rollout. Suri had this to say about the potential:
In a market where competition remains robust, operational discipline is a must, and it is a core strength of Nokia. Furthermore, as the market transitions to 5G, I believe that the benefits of our portfolio will become even more apparent given that 5G is about much more than Radio. It requires Cloud core, IP routing, transport of many kinds, fixed wireless access, Software-Defined Networking and more -- and Nokia is one of the very few companies that is able to meet all those needs.
It could take some time for Nokia's abilities as a developer in the tech and telecom world to pay off, but 5G networks are already being worked on and tested on a very limited basis. The rollout of 5G for mainstream use will continue for years, and as it builds momentum, Nokia has a good chance of returning to growth. That makes this most recent tumble in share prices a good time to reevaluate making a purchase.


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An unofficial ChatGPT app is reportedly trending on Apple’s App Store. ChatGPT is a free-for-all AI device that’s obtainable to customers around the globe over the net. However, an unofficial app model of the web-based AI chatbot appears to be trending on the App Store. The app, which is called “ChatGPT Chat GPT AI With GPT-3,” is charging Apple customers a subscription price, whereas claiming to work like OpenAI’s in style chatbot software program designed to imitate human-like dialog primarily based on person prompts.
According to a report by MacRumors, an unofficial app that claims to be the app model of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is a free-for-all text-based AI device obtainable on the net, is trending on Apple’s App Store. The unique mannequin developed by OpenAI is predicated on GPT-3, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3, and is at present being tipped as the following largest innovation in synthetic intelligence. The trending app, nonetheless, is named ‘ChatGPT Chat GPT AI With GPT-3’, and has no affiliation with the creators of ChatGPT. The app has soared to the fifth most downloaded app within the Productivity part of the App Store.
According to the report, the suspicious ChatGPT app is charging customers $7.99 (roughly Rs. 650) for a weekly subscription, or $49.99 (roughly Rs. 4,100) for an annual one, whereas having no affiliation with the OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI know-how.
ChatGPT is at present solely obtainable on the net. However, the know-how that the chatbot is predicated on, GPT-3 developed by OpenAI, has seen numerous apps and providers constructed from it for a variety of purposes, comparable to chatbots, language translation, and extra. The app that’s at present trending on Apple’s App Store has no affiliation with the unique ChatGPT or GPT-3 know-how developed by OpenAI, and therefore, might present inaccurate or low-quality outcomes.
The software claims to be primary on Top Charts in additional than 100 international locations. Meanwhile, the outline part of the app in App Store additionally concedes that it’s in actual fact an unofficial model of the web-based ChatGPT.
Catch the most recent from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2023 hub.


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- RBI on Wednesday in a surprise move hiked the benchmark lending rate to 4.40% to contain inflation
- It marks the start of an upward cycle in borrowing costs in the last three years
- Commercial banks have already started increasing interest rate on all types of loans soon
Private sector lender ICICI Bank has revised its external benchmark lending rate (EBLR) to 8.10 per cent, and state-owned Bank of Baroda has raised the rate to 6.90 per cent with immediate effect after the RBI hiked the key repo rate. Likewise, two other public sector banks -- Bank of India and Central Bank of India -- have also raised the repo linked lending rate.
In an out of turn Monetary Committee Meeting (MPC), the Reserve Bank on Wednesday announced to hike the benchmark repo rate -- the short term lending rate it charges to banks -- by 0.40 per cent to 4.40 per cent with immediate effect, aimed at taming the rising inflation caused by the global geopolitical situation.
The increase in the repo by RBI will push up the cost for most of the personal loans, auto and home loans for customers as the new loans post-October 2019 are linked to the repo rate.
"ICICI Bank External Benchmark Lending Rate (I-EBLR) is referenced to RBI policy repo rate with a mark-up over repo rate. I-EBLR is 8.10 per cent, effective May 4, 2022," the bank said. The EBLR moves up or down in accordance with the movement in the repo rate.
State-owned Bank of Baroda also revised the external benchmark linked lending rate, with effect from May 5, 2022. "For retail loans applicable BRLLR is 6.90 per cent with effect from May 5, 2022 (current RBI repo rate: 4.40 per cent plus mark up of 2.50 per cent)," Bank of Baroda said.
BoB had introduced Baroda Repo Linked Lending Rate (BRLLR) in respect of all retail lending products from October 2019. Bank of India said the RBLR (Repo Based Lending Rate), with effect from May 5, 2022, is 7.25 per cent as per the revised repo rate (4.40 per cent).
The state-owned Central Bank of India has also revised the RBLR by 0.40 per cent, with effect from May 6. The revised RBLR of Central Bank of India will be 7.25 per cent plus the credit risk premium (CRP), from the existing rate of 6.85 per cent plus CRP, the lender said.
The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) charges the EBLR at 6.65 per cent plus the credit risk premium, with effect from April 1, 2022.
EBLR is a sum of external benchmark rate (EBR) and credit risk premium (CRP). Last month, SBI hiked the marginal cost-based lending rate (MCLR) by 10 basis points across all tenures.
With the revision, SBI's benchmark one-year MCLR -- against which most of the consumer loans are priced -- increased to 7.10 per cent per annum.
In September 2019, the Reserve Bank had advised all banks to mandatorily link the interest rate to an external benchmark (which is the repo rate) for all new floating rate personal or retail loans as well as for floating-rate loans to MSMEs, with effect from October 1, 2019.


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Qualcomm stock streaks past $100 as Huawei settlement clears last barrier to 5G licensing
published 01.08.2020 18:01
Qualcomm Inc.’s stock price soared past its former high of $100 set two decades ago on Thursday after the chip maker revealed it settled a licensing dispute with the world’s largest smartphone maker, clearing the way as the new 5G standard rolls out.
In addition to topping Wall Street earnings estimates for the quarter on Wednesday, Qualcomm announced a long-awaited patent-license settlement with Huawei that it had been teasing as far back as a year ago when it recorded results of a settlement with Apple Inc.
Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland, who has a positive rating on Qualcomm and hiked his price target to $125 from $110, in a note titled “Huawei...Out.a.the.wei,” called the settlement the “star of the show” in Wednesday’s earnings report.
Cowen analyst Matthew Ramsay, who has an outperform rating and hiked his price target to $130 from $115, said the Huawei settlement unlocked about a $1 or more a share of earnings “from purgatory.”
J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee, who has an overweight rating and raised his price target to $120 from $108, said Qualcomm’s leadership in 5G technology ahead of the rollout was “pivotal” to the settlement.


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Two of YouTube’s biggest names, Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider are returning to Singapore for a one night only concert on Wednesday, July 6 at Kallang Theatre.
Tickets go on sale on this Saturday (May 21) at 9AM through Sistic.com.sg and at 10AM through other Sistic channels. Standard tickets are priced at SGD58, 78, 88, 108 and 128.
Brought to you by LAMC Productions, “Sam Tsui & Kurt Hugo Schneider Live in Singapore” will mark the boys’ third time gigging together in the Southeast Asian island. Sam was last seen in town for the duo’s 2014 Asia Tour while Kurt made another visit last year, joining other famous creators at YouTube FanFest 2015.
Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider were among the very first musicians to establish a hugely popular music-focused channel on YouTube. To date, their videos combined, including covers, medleys, and mash-ups, have amassed over one billion views and close to 10 million subscribers on YouTube alone, contributing to their ever-expanding worldwide fanbase.
Sam and Kurt have been able to harness the ever-changing tools of the digital music age to independently create internationally popular channels and brands, garnering them countless TV and magazine appearances, including The Ellen Show, The Oprah Show, Entertainment Weekly, and InStyle Magazine. The duo have also applied their powerful digital platform to many brand deals, including KIA, Dell, and a national spot with Coca-Cola that ran during the 2014 Super Bowl.


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FDA's new rules for Unique Device Identification
The FDA published its new rules on the much-anticipated Unique Device Identification (UDI) today, which will see medical devices provided with uniquely identifiable information and data capture technology.
The eagerly awaited decision, which has been in the works since 2007, will require everything from bedpans and pace makers to cardiac stents and prostate specific antigen testing kits to carry both a unique identifier (in readable text) as well as automatic identification and data capture technology in the form of bar codes or radio frequency identification.
To read the latest edition of Healthcare Global, click here
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- Seaweed could protect against tooth decay
The FDA will provide a Global Unique Device Identification Database, on which all UDI numbers and their relevant details will be stored. This database will be accessible to both members of the public seeking to know more about a device, as well as members of the industry.
The choice of automatic identification technology will be left to the device manufacturer, following extensive safety tests conducted by the FSA which has determined that radio frequency technology is safe to use with medical devices.
The initial system will simply capture basic details, such as the device’s make and model as well as the date and location of manufacture. In the future, however, there is the potential to track a device’s use and its journey through the supply chain.
Following the publication of the UDI ruling, the industry now has 120 days to provide feedback , after which the agency will have six months to provide the final rules. After this stage, there will be a phased-in implementation of the technology, where manufacturers of Class Three devices (those deemed to pose the highest risk to health and safety) must comply with the final regulations within one year. Class Two device manufacturer will have three years to meet the new requirements, and Class One manufacturers will have five years.
Under the new rules, medical device manufacturers much provide the identifiable information on the packaging or on the device itself if the device is likely to be removed from its packaging.


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Crypto volumes in Thailand have shot up by 588% in volumes. This shows that crypto assets are becoming popular in the country with regulators estimating that the rising numbers have been recorded since November 2020.
Statistics shows that crypto adoption is highly rising in Thailand. This is according to the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission, which stated that since November 2020, there has been a 600% increase in crypto volumes in the domestic market. Furthermore, the data revealed that domestic crypto volumes from $574.5 million in November to $3.96 billion, which is the current volume.
The co-founder of Bitkub, which is the top exchange platform in Thailand, stated that stated that the trading volumes at the exchanger had shot upwards by 40% between the first two months of 2021. Bitkub is a platform that has more than 300,000 customers and it is accessed by about 90% of the people who trade in crypto in the country.
Despite the volumes that are being experienced on licensed exchange platforms, the number of volumes in peer-to-peer transactions seem to be low. The peer-to-peer trading volumes for the month of March in the country dropped from $950,000 to around $600,000.
Impact of the volume spike on Thai’s crypto market
According to the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission, new traders needed to gain experience into the crypto market before they can access it. This will be done through a training course that will be made accessible to new traders teaching about the best practices in trading crypto assets. In March, the SEC had stated that it would require crypto traders in the domestic market to have a minimum annual income of $32,000 for them to be allowed to trade.
Thailand is also experiencing an increased popularity of decentralized finance. This is according to a research conducted that revealed that Thailand was the second country in the world to receive a high amount of traffic regarding DeFi trading. Report findings have also revealed that Thailand was among the best economies in the world that supported DeFi platforms.
This development comes at a time when Thailand is in the process of developing the digital baht, which is a Central Bank Digital Currency. According to the president of Thailand’s Central Bank, the digital baht will be tested by 2021. This move has placed Thailand at the top of the pioneer economies that will be launching a digital currency controlled and regulated by the Central Bank.


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ANGOLA — Angola now has its own healthy lifestyle food business, Lake It Easy Gourmet, which opened at 1801 N. Wayne St. near the end of July.
The store offers Italian, Mediterranean and American healthy food choices.
Marc Gazal said that although doing a food business in Angola is a competitive undertaking. Many of the restaurants in the area are fast food and very few of them offer healthy take-out choices, and that was the niche he and his wife, Aimee, were aiming at.
The Gazals said they came to Angola a few years ago because Aimee liked the lakes, and Marc had a job here with Veterans Affairs where he was helping to make houses accessible for handicapped individuals.
Then he and his wife decided to open their own diner and take-away because they loved living here, and they wanted to be part of the community. Both of them had been in the food business for their whole lives and missed some of the food choices they used to have.
“We are big foodies,” said Gazal.
Marc, who is originally from Pittsburgh, had his own restaurant there that was called JD Marco, and they offered a mix of Italian and American food, and a bar. At that time they did a lot of fundraisers, showers and catering.
After that Gazal worked with Levy Restaurants — a hospitality company based in Chicago, specializing in providing food and beverages to major entertainment and sports venues — and he was traveling around the country opening up sport food venues.
Aimee Gazal worked as a catering director for Parkhurst Dining in Pennsylvania. She also worked with various colleges — from Saint Vincent College to Chatham University. Her husband jokes that she even fed President George W. Bush, as he was once a commencement speaker at Saint Vincent.
Now, the couple, who said both have Italian roots, is trying to bring a little variety of food choices to Angola offering Italian, Mediterranean and American healthy food, such as salads, soups, freshly cooked meat, and sandwiches with freshly cut meat.
“We are trying to get people away from the fast food industry and eat healthier,” said Gazal.
Their most popular items include homemade meatballs with melted provolone, lasagna, and Cuban sandwich, which is made with fresh roasted pork, sliced ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles.
Monday through Friday Lake It Easy Gourmet also offers specials, from pepperoni rolls stuffed with pepperoni cheese Mondays to weekly changed wraps Friday when it is time to wrap up the work.
“We try to keep it fresh,” said Gazal.
The company has also just started catering — providing food for weddings, parties, and local community organizations, such as Steuben County Community Foundation. They also did lunches for RE/MAX, said Gazal, and they serve 70-80 people daily from summer lakers to Angola locals.
“It can be busy,” said Marc Gazal, who is doing the cooking.
Along with eggplants with parmigiano cheese, rooted vegetables, meatloaves, and potato salad, the place also offers some desserts, such as homemade cheesecake and turtle brownies with caramel and pecans, and cinnamon rolls.
They will be offering Thanksgiving meals for four to six people, and Lake It Easy will also prepare meals for Christmas and New Year’s.
Lake It Easy is an option for those who want to skip dinner cooking at home, said Gazal. He said he and his wife knew it was hard eating healthy on the go, and they wanted to provide that opportunity for Angola.
“It’s hard to eat healthy on the go, and we offer that,” said Gazal.


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eBay iPhone App – Ebay to Earn $2 Billion from iPhone App This Year
Have you ever looked at your mobile phone – like your iPhone, Droid phone, HTC EVO, etc.. – and wondered, “how much money could actually be generated from this little ol’ phone?”
How about $2 billion dollars!
According to eBay’s Chief Executive John Donahoe, Ebay’s iPhone application has been downloaded over 10 million times, and the company expects $1.5 billion to $2 billion in transactions to be conducted using the mobile application this year.
Yeah, that’s both a lot of Ebay iPhone Apps being downloaded, and even more items being purchased through the iPhone.
So if you’ve ever wondered the validity of the iPhone (or any mobile phone) and it’s viability as a source of commerce, then I would say that you need to look no further than Ebay, and the Ebay iPhone App.
Donahoe said its iPhone app was responsible for $600 million in volume last year.
“The digital wallet is going to be a way that will facilitate e-commerce growth,” Donahoe said at the All Things Digital conference on Wednesday.
And from the looks of things, we’ll see the “digital wallet” (aka, the iPhone and all other mobile phones) take on a larger role in conducting commerce on the fly.


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CHERY AUTO Philippines announced that it is keeping the current prices of all its models throughout April.
In a release, Chery Auto Philippines President Rommel Sytin said, “In light of the difficulties of the Filipino families posed by the ongoing pandemic, we have decided to continue absorbing the safeguard tariff instead of passing it on to the consumer in the form of higher vehicle prices.”
Early in March, Chery Auto Philippines issued a statement that “it had elected to absorb the price increases from the newly implemented safeguard tariff.” Mr. Sytin added, “The use of public transportation stays as a challenge for those who essentially need to travel for work, transport items for business, or attend medical emergencies. We want to give the Filipinos more options — safe, reliable, and affordable options — through our Chery Tiggo crossovers.”
The Chery Tiggo 2, Tiggo 5x, Tiggo 7 Pro, and Tiggo 8 will retain their pre-safeguard tariff prices (as follows):
Chery Auto Philippines, through its distributor United Asia Automotive Group, Inc. (UAAGI), expressed its commitment to deliver “safe, secure, and value-packed mobility.”
In January, Chery vehicle sales demonstrated growing consumer confidence in its feature-packed, high-value products by exceeding its January sales projections. The all-new Tiggo 7 Pro was introduced just last Jan. 27 but quickly sold out its initial batch within a month. The company reported that the “number of deposits and pre-orders for the upcoming new shipments is fast-growing.”
Chery Auto Philippines boasts industry-leading warranty and PMS programs: a 10-year/one- million-km engine warranty, a five-year general warranty, a three-year free full preventive maintenance service, and three years’ worth of roadside assistance. Other factors that the company said contributed to strong sales are “easy-on-the-budget auto loan packages given support by Chery’s bank partners, the availability of Chery’s EC Mobile Home Service, and the fast-growing nationwide network of Chery dealers, which now total 18 dealerships.”
For more information, follow Chery Auto Philippines on social media — Chery Auto Philippines (Facebook) and @cheryautophilippines (Instagram) for more updates. The 24/7 Chery Auto Philippines hotline is 0917-552-4379; e-mail email@example.com.


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The plastics recycling market remains under great pressure as it faces a new dilemma: China plans to issue new restrictions to control imports of plastic scrap, including granules. Owing to the current uncertainty, most factories in China have asked their suppliers to delay deliveries indefinitely. Consequently, European sales of granules into the Chinese market have stopped for the moment.
At the same time, traders are trying to find new markets in which to sell their products. India has increased its capacity for imports in recent years and looks likely to become a large player in this field. In comparison to China, however, the quality of granules purchased by India has to be much higher, and some types - such as coloured and black - are not suitable for customers in that country.
Meanwhile, other types of plastic - such as PET, HDPE and LLDPE - can be sold without any problem.
Recycling companies in Romania have invested substantially in latest technology in their bid to find new solutions for plastics that are not sought after in the marketplace, such as PP, ABS and PC. With a view to reducing the necessity of exporting LDPE granules, foil-making machines are being acquired at a very rapid rate. In addition, more injection moulding equipment is being bought.
Rematholding CO. SRL. (ROU), Young Trader Representative to the BIR Plastics Committee


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Blockchain Strategic Real Business Value Revealed
Bitcoin is the first and most scandalous utilization of blockchain snatching features at its soaring cost and instability. That the focal point of blockchain is wrapped up with Bitcoin isn’t amazing given that its fairly estimated worth flooded from under $20 billion to more than $200 billion through the span of 2017. Yet Bitcoin is just the primary utilization of blockchain innovation that has caught the consideration of government and industry.
Blockchain was a need point at Davos; a World Economic Forum overview proposed that 10 per cent of worldwide GDP will be put away on the blockchain by 2027. Multiple legislatures have distributed reports on the potential ramifications of blockchain, and the previous two years alone have seen the greater part a million new productions on and 3.7 million Google list items for blockchain.
Most obviously, huge interests in blockchain are being made. Funding subsidizing for blockchain new businesses reliably developed and were up to $1 billion in 2017. The blockchain-explicit speculation model of starting coin contributions (ICOs), the closeout of digital money tokens in another Endeavor, has soared to $5 billion.
Driving innovation players are additionally intensely putting resources into blockchain
IBM has in excess of 1,000 staff and $200 million put resources into the blockchain-controlled Internet of Things (IoT). In spite of the promotion, blockchain is as yet a juvenile innovation, with a market that is as yet beginning and a reasonable formula for progress that has not yet risen. Unstructured experimentation of its arrangements without key assessment of the incentive in question or the practicality of catching it implies that numerous organizations won’t see an arrival on their speculations.
Considering this, by what method can organizations decide whether there is a key incentive in the blockchain that legitimizes significant ventures? Our exploration looks to respond to this inquiry by assessing not just the key significance of it to real ventures yet additionally who can catch what kind of significant worth through what sort of methodology.
Top to bottom, industry-by-industry examination joined with master and friends meetings uncovered in excess of 90 discrete use instances of fluctuating development for its crosswise over significant ventures (see intuitive). We assessed and stress tried the effect and attainability of every one of these utilization cases to see better blockchain’s general vital worth and how to catch it.
Our investigation proposes the accompanying three key experiences on the key estimation
- Blockchain does not need to be a disintermediator to create esteem, a reality that supports permissions business applications.
- Blockchain’s transient worth will be transcendently in decreasing expense before making transformative plans of action.
- Blockchain is as yet three to five years from plausibility at scale, fundamentally on account of the trouble of settling the “coopetition” conundrum to build up regular gauges.
- Organizations should adopt the accompanying organized strategy in their blockchain techniques:
Distinguish an incentive by even-maimedly and warily evaluating effect and possibility at a granular dimension and concentrating on tending to genuine agony focuses with explicit use cases inside select businesses.
Catch an incentive by fitting key ways to deal with blockchain to their market position, with the thought of measures, for example, the capacity to shape the biological system, build up benchmarks, and address administrative boundaries. With the privilege key methodology, organizations can begin removing an incentive for the time being. Prevailing players who can set up their blockchains as the market arrangements should make huge wagers now.
With all the promotion around it, it very well may be difficult to nail down the certainties (Exhibit 1). It is a disseminated record, or database, shared over an open or private processing system. Every PC hub in the system holds a duplicate of the record, so there is no single purpose of disappointment. Each snippet of data is numerically encoded and included as another “hinder” to the chain of chronicled records.
Different agreement conventions are utilized to approve another square with different members before it very well may be added to the chain. This anticipates misrepresentation or twofold spending without requiring a focal specialist. The record can likewise be modified with “keen gets,” a lot of conditions recorded on the blockchain, so exchanges naturally trigger when the conditions are met. For instance, savvy contracts could be utilized to computerize protection guarantee payouts.
Blockchain’s centre points of interest are decentralization, cryptographic security, straightforwardness, and permanence. It enables data to be checked and incentive to be traded without hosting to depend on a third-gathering expert. Instead of there being a solitary type of blockchain, the innovation can be arranged in various approaches to meet the targets and business necessities of a specific use case.
To carry some lucidity to the assortment of blockchain applications, we organized blockchain use cases into six classes over its two principal capacities record-keeping and executing (Exhibit 2). A few ventures have applications over numerous classifications, while others are focused on just a couple. This system, alongside further industry and use-case level investigation, prompted our key bits of knowledge on the nature and availability of the vital estimation of blockchain.
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Economic Affairs Minister says that fuel prices have a huge impact on inflation
As consumers in the country feel the pinch of the rising food inflation over two years, the recent hike in fuel prices is likely to squeeze household budgets, forcing low-income consumers to tighten their belts.
The recent increase in fuel prices by 10% will have 4.9% direct cost inflation within three months, according to the Economic Affairs Minister Loknath Sharma.
“It will have devastative impacts on the economy when we are trying to pick up better from the pandemic,” the minister said, adding that not only the food baskets, it will increase the prices of industrial raw materials, transport and logistics, and export.
Lyonpo said that the crude oil price went as high as USD140 per barrel recently and remained at USD120.
“Our prices are the export price of India which is crude oil plus refinery transfer price. Thus, any increase in the price of crude oil will have a direct impact on the selling price of dealers from India,” Lyonpo said.
The minister shared the observation that fuel prices might not go very low quickly and crude oil prices could stay above USD110 per barrel for some months from now.
“We are expecting that it could settle at around USD 100 per barrel by another three-month time or later. The government has very few tools in hand and we are trying to see the best and quick possible interventions,” Lyonpo said.
The fuel prices hit a new record high in the country last week. The price of petrol increased by more than Nu 10 per liter in Thimphu, while diesel saw an increase by more than Nu 17.
According to Lyonpo Loknath Sharma, fuel has a significant contemporaneous effect and a lag effect of three-month period. The result indicates that an increase in fuel prices by 10% would increase monthly inflation by 3.6% within a month, and further pushes inflation by 1.3% after three months. The total indirect effects of fuel prices on inflation are about 4.9%.
“If fuel prices increase by 10%, other factors remaining constant, the total increase in inflation will be 4.9% after three months from now,” Lyonpo said, adding that fuel prices have a huge impact on inflation.
Lyonpo added that the higher volatility in fuel prices and the difficult geographical terrain for transportation of both food and non-food items in Bhutan is largely influenced by changes in fuel prices.
Meanwhile, as an alternative, to minimize the impact of fuel price shocks on inflation, some people suggest that households must switch to clean and domestically produced energy such as electricity.
A taxi driver in Thimphu said that electricity is cheaper than imported fossil fuel, and the tariff for electricity is stable and more predictable and will prevent households from experiencing a frequent price adjustment driven by changes in fuel prices.
The annual report of the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) also states that to incentivize households to use electric vehicles, existing fiscal incentives such as import duty and green tax exemptions, reasonable access to transport loans from banks, and monetizing vehicle quota system for the public servants must be encouraged.
“Such a policy will not only help minimize the fuel price impact on inflation, but will also help protect our natural environment and reduce import dependency,” states the report.
Further, the report recommends that the government must strive to institute a prudent and sustainable mechanism supported by sustainable policy options in managing different sources of energy optimally and efficiently using modern technological innovations to support human livelihood, economy, and the environment.
Kinley Yonten from Thimphu


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S4M, a mobile ad tech company announces its new capability to target more than 30 million airport travellers each week. Using enriched geo-localised user behavioural [more…]
L’Oréal Paris (UK) has released a campaign by McCann London to launch new Age Perfect Golden Age, showing Oscar-winning actress and British icon Helen Mirren continuing to challenge and defy attitudes towards older women.
In the TV ad, Helen Mirren hails the beginning of a new ‘Golden Age’ and uses the words “Gold, not old” to highlight the fact that women who have acquired age, wisdom and experience should be valued and cherished. The ad ends with Helen Mirren stating: “We’ve still got it. And we’re still worth it.” [more…]
Leading online men’s media group, IGN Entertainment UK, has appointed nugg.ad in a move that will enable it to deliver highly measurable brand-building online advertising campaigns to its UK clients.


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Pity the poor travel market. Earlier this year, it suffered when high fuel prices kept people at home. Now, gasoline is suddenly cheaper on an inflation-adjusted basis than it was 30 years ago. But with economic conditions inhospitable in almost every other respect, an Ipsos study (based on polling conducted in November) finds Americans still averse to spending on travel.
On the leisure-travel front, 10 percent of the respondents said they’ve already cancelled a trip they’d been planning to make by year’s end, and another 4 percent are considering such a step. Seven percent said they’ve pushed a scheduled leisure trip back into the new year. But that doesn’t mean 2009 will prosper due to 2008’s economizing. Thirty-seven percent of respondents expect to do less leisure travel next year, easily outnumbering the 20 percent who expect to do more.
There’s a similar tendency when it comes to business travel. Eight percent of business travelers said they’ve already cancelled a trip they’d planned to make by year’s end; another 6 percent may still do so. Ten percent have postponed a planned trip to the new year (shifting it to their 2009 T&E budget). More strikingly, 40 percent expect to do less business travel in 2009 than in 2008. Technology plays a role, as 13 percent plan to use conference calls and webinars as a substitute for in-the-flesh trips “where appropriate.”


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AMD clear final hurdle in Xilinx acquisition
On January 27, 2022, AMD and Xilinx received a "green light" from China – the last regulatory approval needed to complete AMD's acquisition of Xilinx, which was originally announced back in October 2020.
The National Anti-Monopoly Policy Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China have cleared the way for the companies to merge – after which Xilinx will become a wholly owned subsidiary of AMD.
AMD and Xilinx currently anticipate that to close the merger during the first quarter of 2022, a SEC-filling from AMD reads.
It was back in late October that the companies announced that they had entered into a definitive agreement for AMD to acquire Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at USD 35 billion.


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Want to gauge Expedia's priorities? It implemented its hotel partnership with Travelocity in a hurry in December. But when it comes to rolling out HomeAway's vacation rentals, Expedia says it will get around to deciding how to proceed in the second half of 2014.
Speed and innovation usually characterize successful and growing companies, but when it comes to the prospect of starting to offer HomeAway’s vacation rentals on Expedia.com, Expedia Inc. is noncommittal and taking it all extremely slow and easy.
The two parties announced a partnership last October, and today, during Expedia Inc.’s fourth quarter earnings call, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company has just started to experiment with HomeAway’s vacation rentals, but won’t gather enough data about it until the second half of 2014.
Expedia will study how adding vacation rentals to its accommodation mix impacts conversions, and will expand the offering to the extent that consumers show they are interested, Khosrowshahi said.
Khosrowshahi said the company’s emphasis will continue to be in growing its hotel business, although it is optimistic about the HomeAway partnership, which is in the early stages of testing.
“But it is really too soon to call” how the partnership will take shape, Khosrowshahi said.
Expedia clearly sees hotels as where its biggest margins are. And vacation homes certainly have far fewer rooms than hotels.
Still, Expedia wants to compete with Booking.com, which offers a broad range of lodging offerings, but Expedia is making no commitments at this stage about what its vacation rental offering will look like.
In other matters:
Acquisition Strategy and Trivago
Expedia officials were very bullish about the performance of its Trivago business, which saw its revenue grow more than 85% in 2013, contributing about 4 percentage points to Expedia’s revenue growth for the year.
With the Trivago acquisition paying off and fueling Expedia’s growth, Khosrowshahi said Expedia will continue to look to grow through acquisition, and will be “opportunistic” about such opportunities.
Paid Links Scheme
In response to an analyst’s question, Khosrowshahi declined to discuss Google’s punishment of Expedia for SEO bad practices. “We are not going to comment on speculative articles about our Google trends,” Khosrowshahi said, adding that Expedia’s traffic from Google organic and paid search is growing annually.
He therefore didn’t address the impact of Google’s punishment so far in the first quarter of 2014, with some analysts pointing to Expedia’s SEO presence taking at least a 25% hit.
Khosrowshahi said Expedia constantly audits its SEO practices to make sure they are industry-leading, although that’s a dubious premise given recent events.
Expedia implemented its partnership with Travelocity, providing the back-end to its U.S. site in December, and will have Travelocity.ca up and running on the Expedia platform in the first half of the year, Khosrowshahi said. The implementation had no significant impact on Expedia’s financial results in the fourth quarter.
CFO Mark Okerstrom said there are a lot of question marks about how the Travelocity partnership will work out. He said Expedia doesn’t know what the conversion rates will be on Travelocity websites as they operate under Expedia’s power as it is an unknown how consumers will react to seeing something different on the Travelocity sites.
In addition, the success of the partnership depends on how much marketing spend Travelocity will put into the effort, and that is “outside our control,” Okerstrom said.
“There is a whole lot of uncertainty about that,” Okerstrom said.
Travelocity’s parent, Sabre, after all, is trying to pull off an IPO and clean up the bottom line so it’s unclear what priority it will give to the Travelocity-Expedia partnership.
Expedia Traveler Preference
Officials said nearly 45,000 hotels have implemented the Expedia Traveler Preference program, which enables them to offer Expedia consumers the options of prepaying for hotels using the merchant model, or paying at the hotel, which brings reduced commission to Expedia.
Okerstrom says the program removed two barriers to the growth of Expedia’s hotel business: hoteliers who didn’t want to work with Expedia because they didn’t want to participate in Expedia’s merchant model program, and consumers who were only interested in paying at the hotel.
Said Okerstrom: ETP “is a very positive catalyst for our business.”
Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch
Photo credit: Expedia began testing offering HomeAway's vacation rentals on Expedia.com, but is in no hurry to get the partnership going in a big way. Pictured, a HomeAway rental in Austin, Texas. Heather Cowper / Flickr.com


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15 January, 2022 - 18 January, 2022
Riva del Garda, Italy
20 January, 2022 - 22 January, 2022
25 January, 2022 - 26 January, 2022
Porto Alegre, Brazil
26 January, 2022 - 27 January, 2022
New York, U.S.
07 February, 2022 - 09 February, 2022
The U.S. lifestyle, footwear and accessories brand is delaying its initial public (IPO) offering amid coronavirus concerns.
Cole Haan had initially planned to launch its IPO beginning of March, but the company is said to have made the decision after the S&P 500 U.S. stock market index lost close to 12% of its value at the end of February, the fastest such correction on record, according to local media reports. Private equity firm Apax Partners purchased the New Hampshire-based company from global sportswear Group Nike in 2012 for US$570 million. Cole Haan had filed IPO paperwork in mid-February after demonstrating growth under Apax's ownership.


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[Minky Worden] China is escalating human rights abuses in runup to 2022 Olympics. Will IOC look the other way?
Feb 22, 2021
Last September, five international labor auditing firms declared they could no longer help companies audit their supply chains in China’s Xinjiang region because the Chinese government’s controls and repression made it too difficult to determine whether factories are using forced labor. The Better Cotton Initiative, a consortium to monitor sustainability -- affiliated with companies such as Adidas, Nike and Gap -- called Xinjiang an “untenable operating environment.” Thi


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Country Weekly Increases Frequency From 26 to 52 Times.
“We’re going back to our roots,” said Editor-in-Chief
Holden said that the change will become effective with the
“We’ll continue to provide the latest news about country music’s biggest stars,” Holden added, “except now we’ll be doing it twice as often. There will be a lot of new features in the magazine as well.”
As part of the change to a weekly frequency, advertising and marketing will now report to
About American Media, Inc.
American Media, Inc. is the leading publisher of celebrity journalism and health and fitness magazines in the U.S. These include Star, Shape, Men’s Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Natural Health, and National Enquirer. The company also maintains 14 different web sites for its brands. In addition to print & online properties, AMI owns Distribution Services, Inc., the country’s #1 in-store magazine merchandising company.
SOURCE American Media, Inc.


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Alongside the launch of Nokia 6.2 and Nokia 7.2, HMD Global has likewise propelled three new feature phones at the pre-IFA 2019 event. The Nokia 110 (2019), Nokia 800 Tough, and Nokia 2720 Flip feature phones have been declared catering to various needs and at various price points. The launch of three new items in the feature phone segment restores confidence that there is as yet a market for these basic-functional mobile gadgets. The Nokia 800 Tough’s big USP is its resistance to water, dust, accidental drops, and extreme temperatures. The Nokia 2720 Flip, then again, offers a clamshell-like open-and-shut body for those who who lean toward them, and the Nokia 110 (2019) is basically a revamped version of the Nokia 110 launched in 2012.
Nokia 800 Tough, Nokia 2720 Flip, Nokia 110 (2019) price
The Nokia 800 Tough is evaluated at EUR 109 and will be available starting October. The phone has been launched in Dark Steel and Desert Sand color options.
The Nokia 2720 Flip is evaluated at EUR 89 and is slated to be available sometime this month. It will be offered in Black and Grey color options.
Ultimately, the Nokia 110 (2019) is evaluated at $20, and it will likewise be made accessible sometime this month. It has propelled in three color options – Ocean Blue, Pink, and Black.


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Every year, gadget companies like to flaunt out their latest flagship smartphones and show off all of the “revolutionary” features that will make this slab of glass and metal different from the nearly-identical looking slab of glass and metal already in our pockets.
With great reward comes risk, and tech companies are probably pretty familiar with that sentiment. Each product, service, or device is a gamble on whether it will resonate, successfully separating us from our discretionary income, or languish on stockroom shelves, untouched.
The Amazon Fire Phone’s tricks are pretty sophisticated, even if they’re never really put to good use. And its innards are complicated to match, according to a teardown by iFixit. But damned if they aren’t pretty to look at.


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Before the virus had an impact globally, we were seeing growth in IoT of up to 20% per year. Enterprises could see the clear value of IoT applications and adoption was on the increase. There was significant market potential and a high degree of confidence that 25m global IoT connections by 2025 would be achieved. In a short space of time, the ecosystem has needed to rethink its approach to IoT with the economic fallout and lost business confidence that implies lower levels of investment.
MEF sought the opinion of thought leaders in the IoT space to test the hypothesis of whether there would be a prolonged downturn in IoT take up or whether new opportunities would emerge fuelled by a challenging set of market conditions.
Adrian Baschnonga, Associate Director, EY
The COVID-19 pandemic will hit enterprise spending levels in the near-term as IoT projects are deferred while organizations prioritize business continuity, employee well-being and IT resilience. Even so, mobile IoT revenues will be relatively less impacted compared to other segments across fixed and mobile telecommunications.
In fact, many drivers of the long-term shift towards IoT are becoming more pronounced as a result of the crisis. EY enterprise research shows that improved data management alongside increased productivity and business efficiencies were the leading rationales for enterprise IoT investment before the pandemic. COVID-19’s dramatic impact on enterprises – from the rapid shift to home working to increased reliance on digital channels and disruption to supply chains – actually puts a renewed emphasis on the positive outcomes that IoT can provide.
Ultimately, COVID-19 is forcing organizations in various industries to accelerate their existing digital transformation programs. From an IoT perspective, this means that many use cases are now coming into much sharper focus. Innovative capabilities in healthcare – from patient data collection to connected hospitals – have all assumed a much greater importance, for example. Across industries, IoT solutions that enable remote working, monitoring and diagnostics can all help enterprises recover and thrive in the future.
Yet making the most of this new sense of urgency will require IoT providers to adapt their approach. Ensuring that product portfolios reflect fast-changing enterprise needs is critical, while the ability to collaborate across industry boundaries with a range of ecosystem partners will also become more much important. As new technologies such as 5G redefine what is possible via IoT, service providers should also take steps to educate their customers on new opportunities for innovation. By refocusing their customer interactions in this way, service providers can help organizations reframe their future with the help of IoT.
Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Analyst, IoT, GSMA Intelligence
It is still early days to fully size the impact of the current pandemic on the global economy, not to mention IoT. The degree of uncertainty is still high – from the overall economic impact (as such IMF has recently revised down its economic outlook) to changes in consumer spend, and how enterprises in different verticals respond to the ‘new normal’.
On the demand side, the picture isn’t rosy. The Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Manager Index), measuring the health of the economy, has nose-dived. This reflects low business confidence. Consumer confidence indexes have plummeted too, due to growth in unemployment and limited spending power. On the supply side, production has been impacted as manufacturers had to deal with supply chain disruptions, often looking to find alternative providers. China’s rapid re-opening has helped remedy some of these issues. But, in the longer-term, enterprises will look to build yet more resilience into their supply chains to be able to ‘track and trace’ and have visibility of their assets.
Government measures put in place, are holding back project installations across all sectors and have underlined the importance of ‘out-of-the-box’ services that just work and can be easily deployed without specialists present. We expect connected vehicles to be the most impacted sector across consumer IoT. However, what the current crisis has proven is that companies that have already embarked on the digital transformation journey are faring much better. According to our 2019 IoT Enterprise Survey, 65 per cent of companies deployed IoT as part of their digital transformation agenda. Some of the planned deployments, especially for SMEs, will either never happen or be put on hold. But the impact differs by verticals. The retail sector, for its part, will be forever changed, as the move to online channels accelerates. Smart health, including prescribed and non-prescribed medical devices, will grow even faster than we would have expected just six months ago. Telemedicine and remote patient monitoring are two areas that will be prioritised in developed nations. Similarly, smart buildings as a sector will change. Working from home practices are here to stay and this will have an impact on office space requirements, but at the same time health and safety measures will have to be put in place to ensure those who return to the workplace are not placed at risk.
We foresee that the immediate downturn will result in longer-term IoT adoption as enterprises will look to achieve business benefits – cost reduction, increase in revenue. As history has shown, every crisis leaves a long-lasting legacy in terms of faster innovation and a ‘new normal’. Covid-19 will accelerate the move to digital and companies adopting IoT, AI/ML and 5G amongst other technologies to drive digital transformation.
Elson Sutanto, Principal Analyst, Juniper Research
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted to the technology industry, and the verticals that they collaborate with, that implementation of Digital Transformation (DT) is urgently and rapidly needed for a variety of pressing reasons. One major reason is to remotely manage assets or people, in order to save time and reduce potential harm to staff, particularly for industries such as manufacturing and healthcare.
Given the current pressure on the National HealthCare System (NHS) to treat Covid-19 patients, as well as regular patients who would routinely visit hospitals to have their medical conditions addressed; we are seeing further light shed on the use cases for connected medical equipment. Such equipment can help to lighten the burden of this significant pressure placed upon the NHS via the remote monitoring of healthy vitals of patients via wearables. This approach is extremely effective, particularly for elderly people who are at high risk of contracting Covid-19 if they visit hospitals.
If we look at Israel, we can see that it is playing a major, leading role in the development of digital health. The pandemic has brought together Israeli scientists, innovators, investors and government to explore using digital solutions to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Israel’s Binah.ai for example, is an AI powered, video based health and wellness monitoring tool which tracks, in real-time, remote vital signs (e.g. oxygen saturation, respiration rate, etc captured by a smartphone camera).
Furthermore, we are now discussing DT in a different context to the context that previously existed in a pre-covid19 world. The Digital Health sector’s tackling of covid-19 currently highlights both the need to simplify digitisation and determine clear use cases for technology adoption to build efficiencies under stable and sustainable business models. The value of capturing data also needs to be greater than the cost of collecting that data, and this is formula is crucial for driving progressive success in DT. Lastly, security of data, and connected devices, as use cases of remote monitoring of people and assets increase in the short and long term will be high on the agenda of many. Numerous device vendors are already having to apply security, and encryption of data, to address security vulnerabilities from the outset, rather than add these on after the devices have been deployed. Covid-19 continues to serve undoubtedly as a major catalyst in the formation of ongoing innovative, technologically driven solutions.
https://mobileecosystemforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/MEF-Day-One-104-Large-1.png Colley, CEO, Pod Group
Pod Group, like other providers of advanced network technologies for IoT applications, has witnessed the impact of COVID-19 on the demand for enterprise connectivity solutions across the globe, both for better and for worse, depending on the sector.
Whilst some projects have been delayed or put on hold as a result of the pandemic, particularly in industries such as retail, tourism, hospitality, and leisure, these have mainly affected short to medium term IoT revenues. On the other hand, some sectors are thriving. The boom that we have seen in the demand for advanced connectivity solutions in recent months in healthcare and supply chain organizations shows that the IoT market is still very much alive and growing.
The prevailing result of a survey we conducted in April this year indicates that COVID-19 will spark a new wave of automation technology in industry and the workplace. Harnessing automation is giving businesses the opportunity to look beyond the most commonly cited advantages of such technology in order to adopt it as part of a wider strategic push for digital transformation. Aggregating and analysing data from real-time sources is key for driving smart business insights in the age of the customer, and advanced IoT connectivity solutions form an integral part of such a strategy.
Matt Arnott, Principal Analyst, Transforma Insights
Throughout 2020 Transforma Insights has been conducting an exercise to forecast the market opportunity for IoT over the next ten years. The global response to COVID-19 has had a profound effect on these forecasts.
In the early years of our forecast the economic consequences have the greatest impact as deployment disruption, supply chain interruption and reduced end user spending take their toll on growth. However, opportunities will exist, and not just in applications that support telemedicine and remote working. Indeed, the economic instability created by COVID-19 may indirectly create areas of growth.
Responses to the economic fallout of the pandemic have varied, but government stimulus programs have frequently earmarked funding for projects that will be relevant for IoT. Notably, China, the EU, South Korea, Canada, and others have allocated additional financing for expanding 5G infrastructure – draft legislature in the US has indicated similar priorities. The acceleration of 5G adoption will provide an opportunity for companies with the capabilities to harness the technology whilst others struggle to keep up with the increase in pace.
Another common theme amongst these stimulus packages has been environmental health. Humanity’s effect on the environment has been brought into the spotlight over the past few months as those subject to lockdown have taken solace in the cleaner air, empty streets and reduced noise pollution that have become the norm. Several governments have expressed the desire to maintain a cleaner environment, so investment in environmental monitoring may well increase as polluters are incentivised to monitor and reduce their emissions and governments use sensors to ensure targets are met.
Of course these areas are a mere scratch at the surface of the total IoT opportunity created by COVID-19, and further discussion on the topic from Transforma Insights can be found here.


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With Swedish banks seeing their customer satisfaction scores drop to a 20-year low after shutting branches, the likes of Swedbank, SEB and Nordea are now using AI to free up human employees to deal with more complex services and return to full service again.
Read more on how Sweden's financial giants are leveraging chatbots and AI.
Swedish banks have already seen their customer satisfaction scores drop to a 20-year low after shutting branches and pushing people onto online services. But AI might be part of the cure. According to a recent study by market researcher GfK, there are wide gaps between what consumers hope to receive from banks in terms of service and financial advice, and what they actually get. AI applications such as chatbots “hold the promise of filling in these service gaps, given the right data and programming”,


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Ebookers in takeover talks
THE game appears to be up for ebookers, the online travel agent that has ridden the rollercoaster of the dotcom boom to become one of Britain's best-recognised internet consumer brands.
While chief executive Dinesh Dhamija is pledging not to sell shareholders short in current takeover talks, few believe ebookers has the wherewithal to last the pace in an ever more cut-throat market.
The odds are shortening that ebookers could get a takeover offer valuing it at around £200m (or 300p a share, against a recent two-and-a-half-year low of 121p) possibly from either of the US giants Travelocity or InterActiveCorp, the group behind Expedia.
Speaking at an online travel industry convention this week, Dhamija outlined the mountain ebookers has to climb even to remain a contender in this market.
Within four years, he argued, the landscape of the European online travel industry will more accurately reflect the picture in the US in which just three players have gobbled up 86% of the market.
The European market is fast consolidating but, even now, the five biggest operators account for only around a third of the pie.
There is much to play for. Industry figures suggest the travel market for the 15 main western European countries will rise from €220bn (£150bn) to €250bn by 2008, during which time the online players' take will rise from 10% to 25%.
But the company Dhamija founded 20 years ago in Earl's Court, and which he floated in London in 2001, made its first profit only last year and has since fallen back into the red and issued a profit warning.
Robin Chhabra, analyst at house broker Evolution Beeson Gregory, says ebookers struggles to make a profit because of the competition while its patchy track record on the stock market would find it difficult to raise the £150m needed to go an acquisition spree and buy market share.
'If the price is right, he [ Dhamija] is a willing seller,' said Chhabra.
Dhamija, who controls 41% of ebookers and could pick up more than £80m in a takeover, says as much himself.
'If someone comes along with a lot of money, and if we think it is worth it, we will do it,' he said, adding: 'But it depends on the offer. I do not have to sell up. I can block anything.'
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Apex Luxury Car Hire Marbella is pleased to announce that coinciding with its 5th anniversary, it has signed a lease to expand to new offices in Marbella, Spain. To consistently accommodate the ever-increasing growth with special emphasis on future development plans of the market, this is a much-needed step in that direction. This newly developed offices are located at the prime location of the city and will feature an open floor plan to include a new expert administrative team.
“This move represents an exciting development for Apex Luxury Car Hire Marbella’’, stated CEO Daniel Meyer of the company. According to him, “this move was important given the increase in the company’s workforce and the modern look that the company is planning to give to its current position.” Also, acting as an alternative to the current set of traditional office space, this Spanish office expansion was a much-needed move.
According to inside sources, the primary reason for this expansion of office space is to include demands of the customers who plan to check out the specific Marbella destinations. Keeping in mind the costs associated with this renting of cars as well as the distance and maintenance issues – the company has decided to open its working space in this Spanish domain. Hence, it can be very well stated that this is truly a notable effort to expand the current office.
Current features associated with this move, as information received from various sources include: a new fleet of cars including Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini and Range Rover to its existing fleet, revising the rates of rent and finally concentrating on including specific destinations of Marbella for exclusive packages.
In fact, with expansion of office space and introduction of a specialised administration team, the company is now looking to gain a stronghold of its competition in the primary European market.
This new office space as per plans will feature configured floor plans to promote worker productivity and that too in a collaborative environment. This space will both be flexible and include scalable offices with interconnectivity options, business services and conference rooms. Primary idea is to instil the concept of supremacy of the company within its current workforce.
Talks are on for an advanced platform of an on-site technology design that will provide Tier-1 level of infrastructure powered with firewall protected data network, advanced telecommunication process, internet and intra-net connectivity as well as application hosting services.
The idea that is inducted into this office space is to preserve capital level by enhancing the core competencies allowing worker’s their creative space for betterment of the organisation. The inclusive cafeteria with a range of continental dishes and special Brazilian coffee is the added catch.
It is also being reported that Apex Luxury Car Hire Marbella is looking towards a tie-up with some of the top resorts of the Spanish domain to extend its facilities. Apart from the digital format where it has already established its stronghold, the company is looking to improve its connections directly with its clients and thereby help them ease the process of renting a luxury car for their trip to Marbella and its associated domains.
The PRO team associated with Apex Luxury Car Hire Marbella has shown immense support in commencement and execution of this new office space. With a 250% growth in last year’s business, the company is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it crosses that mark in the upcoming years.
To celebrate the opening of this new office space, Apex Luxury Car Hire Marbella has organised for a specific ‘Open House’ for interested clients who wish to check out their fare and plan out their itinerary in a sequential process. It is well-revealed that the plan of expansion is turning out to be extremely positive at each step.
About the company:
Apex Luxury Car Hire Marbella has always been known specifically for its luxury car rental services all over the world. Given its stronghold over Europe and the Western world, it has excelled at every step and is looking forward to making it reach the topmost position.
Company Name: Apex Luxury Car Hire Marbella
Contact Person: Daniel Meyer
Email: Send Email
Phone: +34 951 20 35 27
Address:Plaza Casares, 6
State: 29602 Málaga


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from the dignity-lost-even-more-often dept.
kthejoker writes "Apparently companies are even worse about losing our data than we suspected. From the article: 'According to a study of 106 major US airports and 800 business travelers published by the Ponemon Institute and Dell Computer, about 12,000 laptops are lost in airports each week. Only 30 percent of travelers ever recover the lost devices. Nearly half of the travelers say their laptops contain customer data or confidential business information.' Kinda scary..."
from the that's-like-the-fourteenth-commandment-right dept.
theodp writes "For 200 members of the Immanuel Bible Church and their friends, the annual Super Bowl party is over thanks to the NFL, which explained that airing NFL games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright. Federal copyright law includes an exemption for sports bars, according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, but churches are out of luck. Churchgoers who aren't averse to a little drinking-and-driving still have the opportunity to see the game together in public on a screen bigger than 55 inches."


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Although they have not quite surpassed the iPhone as the most desired item to steal just yet, Dr. Dre's Beats By Dre are quickly climbing the list. Police reports have come in that show his expensive headphones, priced between $300-$500, have been a major target for robberies lately. A big problem is that those robberies have become extremely violent over time.
The Beats By Dre are seen as status symbols, representing someone who has money so robbers have shown that they are willing to do whatever they need to do to get them. A recurring story on the news recently has been video footage of a robbery that occurred on a train station in Harlem where the victim of the robbery was sliced across his face with a broken bottle for resisting to give up his Beats.
Police feel as though people wearing Beats headphones are easy targets because they were built with such top quality craftsmanship, that they completely block out the sounds outside of the headphones so victims usually don't hear the robbers coming.
The Beats are untraceable and usually not insured so it makes finding the robbers who stole them that much harder.


text: Take our cybersecurity quiz Lewis Morgan April 16, 2015 Welcome to IT Governance’s Cybersecurity Quiz. This is your opportunity to prove how much (or little) you know about the latest data breaches, hacks and other cybersecurity news from the past week. Good luck! [WpProQuiz 22] Share this:FacebookLinkedInTwitterReddit Related Posts NASCAR team suffers ransom attack, pay ransom, gain a sponsor Harbortouch POS malware attack – customer card data stolen Donald Trump hotel chain hit with credit card data breach About The Author Lewis Morgan Lewis is the social media marketing executive at IT Governance. He writes about the latest news in the information security industry as well as many other IT Governance topics.


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The world of carselling has never been more crowded.
With a growing number of portals offering a variety of products, including car parts, the idea of paying a commission or buying your car through a third party is no longer the most attractive option.
But some carselling specialists are convinced that the time has come to consider carselling as a viable business model.
“The time has arrived to start thinking about carselling,” says Michele Fink, the founder of CarSales.com.
“It is a booming market and it is growing fast.
The market is saturated, and a lot of the big players have come out and started to invest in their platforms, and they are now investing in their products.
The only thing that stops you from doing that is a lack of product and people.”
Carselling is just the tip of the iceberg.
I have always been a big fan of the car, and I was so lucky to be able to work with such a great team of people.
Now, I’m ready to invest.
“Carselling can be a lucrative industry for some, with revenue rising from $1.2 billion in 2016 to $2.5 billion in 2017, according to CarSales.
Car sales are growing fast, but are still dominated by traditional car dealerships.
Fink says the market is so saturated that many car dealers do not even sell new vehicles, let alone new cars at a discount.
The number of cars sold through carselling is so high that it has to be managed and regulated differently than traditional retail businesses.
There are several key factors that help a carselling business thrive, says Fink.
First, carselling deals with customers directly, rather than through a middleman.
Secondly, the business model is designed to be flexible.
If you have a buyer who wants to buy a new car, a car seller can take on the contract of buying the car and then give it to them.
Thirdly, there is a market for buying cars online.
Finally, there are a growing amount of carsellers in emerging markets.
As the market continues to grow, the carselling industry is likely to be one of the most important sectors of the future economy, Fink says.
He believes carselling could become a valuable part of the economy in many countries.
And, if you are thinking of investing in a car, you might want to check out some of the companies that have invested in carselling.
In the past, car dealers and car sellers have been known to make a profit from the sale of vehicles.
But there are many factors that can make a sale more profitable, says Michael McEwen, the CEO of Nissan Cars Australia.
While the price of a car is usually the main factor driving sales, it can also be the key to attracting customers.
For example, there has been a surge in the number of people purchasing a car online.
The increase in the popularity of online car buying has been partly fuelled by the growth of car-sharing services, which allows consumers to take cars to the dealership for a car-rental service.
According to McEwan, the rise in online car-buying is partly due to the fact that people are looking for the cheapest possible deal.
McEwen says there are also a number of factors that determine how much people will pay for a new vehicle, including whether they are willing to pay extra for the service, and how much they want to drive the car.
The number one thing that makes people go online is that they want the car for free. “
When people want to buy cars, they are more willing to spend money for the car than for the services they are paying for,” McEwin says.
“The number one thing that makes people go online is that they want the car for free.
People are willing and ready to spend $10,000 for a $30,000 car.
The same is true of the services that we provide.”
The industry also has to contend with an increasing number of legal issues around selling cars online, which means that it is more difficult to operate a business online.
According to Fink and McEwn, the market will continue to grow and grow and will ultimately be bigger than the car industry, which will make it even more challenging to compete in the car marketplace.
What is carselling?
Carselling refers to the business of selling vehicles, vehicles and parts online.
Carselling is a growing and increasingly popular business that is currently in its infancy.
It is one of several categories of businesses that are also known as e-commerce, digital media, e-tailing, car rental, or car rental agency.
The term carsells is used in the business to describe the activities of selling a vehicle, car parts and/or a car to a buyer.
However, the term car


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All Smilez Clothing is a way for Malieka Barner to send a positive message after her 13-year-old cousin was shot and killed.
All Smilez Clothing has a simple mission: No matter what you are going through, smile.
Established by Hampton native Malieka Barner in 2012, it was not all smiles for Malieka and her family, who experienced a heartbreaking loss that year. It led to the creation of the All Smilez clothing line.
Malieka's cousin, Lamonee Johnson, was shot and killed in Newport News in November 2012. He was 13 years old.
According to Malieka, 28, Johnson got caught up with the wrong crowd at a young age and began to lean into the street image, which she defines as being known for being flashy. She said he got killed "trying to be that person."
While mourning the loss of her cousin, Malieka began brainstorming ways to put positive messages, symbols and role models in local children's lives to show them that there are other ways to be cool in the community.
"I basically do it to help kids. When my little cousin got killed at 13, it was a hard place for me, my brother, my sister and everybody in my family. I started it because no matter what you go through, smile," Malieka said. "I felt like if we could get through losing our family member that we can pretty much overcome anything."
She started the clothing line to channel her personal pain. The idea for All Smilez Clothing came when Malieka and one of her friends drew potential designs for the line, including what is now the line's logo — a teddy bear.
"He had this teddy bear and I basically wanted everything (for the clothing line) to be beat up, but I wanted it to also smile for the All Smilez Clothing. He just drew this teddy bear and I loved it so much I just ran with that," Malieka said.
The logo's teddy bear, pictured beat up, remains smiling. Malieka says it reflects the brand's mission — to keep smiling no matter what tries to break you in life.
Currently, Malieka designs the clothes herself through applications on her phone whenever a new idea comes to her. She says she is inspired by her everyday life and tries to put a positive message on each piece of clothing she prints.
Beyond her clothing line, Malieka says she wants to be someone who is remembered for her actions more than the clothes she creates. She openly speaks with young people who ask her about the line's origins and shares her story in hopes someone else will be inspired to overcome their own obstacles.
"One of my designs … you notice when people get killed everybody gets on social media and it's 'rest in peace,' like they don't love you until you're not here, to see the love they've got for you. So I tossed the name out, and that just symbolizes like they don't love you until you're gone, and just love my movement and everything while I'm here. Not me as a person, but what I'm doing," Malieka said.
Last year was the start of a new journey for Malieka, but it did not exactly go the way she had expected.
The year started off positive when she began learning how to print clothes herself after being given a machine from her friend. She also took a trip to Atlanta to discuss how to turn All Smilez Clothing into a brand by obtaining a business license.
But in May 2016, things took a turn when she lost her job at a local 7-Eleven. The money from that job helped fund her clothing line and allowed her to give it to local children for free. She fronted the printing and production costs herself.
In 2016, crime on the lower Peninsula hit its highest rate in 41 years, according to an article published in January by the Daily Press.
Malieka personally felt the pain of that crime rate when she lost her cousin Raheem "Duke" Johnson to gun violence in May.
"I think it had a big effect on her," said Nikia Barner, Malieka's sister. "She was really in a dark place when he got shot and at this point, I think she's in a better place with her life."
Malieka also lost her friend Kevin Jackson, who was shot and killed in September in Newport News.
May also brought another setback that left her on bed rest after damaging a nerve from falling off a hoverboard.
During her time on bed rest, Malieka said she realized she wanted to pursue the clothing line full time. All Smilez Clothing became the focal point of her life. She was no longer able to give away the clothes because of her financial situation and decided to turn the clothing line into a profitable business in order to keep her positive message going.
"I was on bed rest from May to two months ago. Sitting on bed rest and being able to think, I feel like personally, it was a sign from God to just sit down, slow down and see what your vision (is), your testimony. You're here for a reason and you can touch a lot of kids and change the ways, because every day somebody is being killed. It's sad to see," Malieka said.
To save money, Malieka began to screen print logos and mottos such as "King and Queens," "Be Humble" and "Books + Knowledge = Respect" on her clothes at her home.
"As far as Raheem, they call him Duke, they grew up together. She was really down for a while. She didn't want to get up and then all of a sudden, she said 'I've got to get up. I've got to do this for my cousin.' There's another way to put this (message) out there for kids. They don't have to live like that, they don't have to do what they're doing," said Frida Barner, Malieka's grandmother.
Encouraged to get back to her normal life despite being on bed rest, Malieka began to organize her first fashion show since last March.
This year's show, which took place Saturday, was funded by Malieka's family, who continues to encourage her to spread the All Smilez Clothing message.
Since 2012, she has hosted three shows, each including a "Rest in Peace" section dedicated to lives who were lost in not only Malieka's life, but also the lives of the models walking in the show.
"She's always been for the children. She just thought she had to do something to give back to the community, so she would go around and try and get as many kids as she possibly could so they could participate in her fashion show to show them they can do anything they put their hearts to. They don't have to go to gangs or anything like that," Frida said.
Malieka said the 2016 fashion show will serve as a new launching point for All Smilez Clothing. Although she still has a cast on her lower leg, she is now off bed rest and dedicated to learning the business side of retail in order to sell her clothes on a larger scale. All proceeds from her show will go to officially creating the business.
In the future, she hopes to host more events that display positivity and encourage people to smile.
"I just want to keep doing everything. Talking to the kids in the community, giving back ... because I know how it feels to be less fortunate or have less and want more. I just feel like everybody needs to be loved. By being involved in more positive things, they will have less time to spend in the streets. I want to do a workshop and teach kids how to print clothes and have a hobby," Malieka said.


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Augmented Reality Is the Future of Video Marketing—Here’s Why
ONLINEVIDEO.NET // Recently, consumers who purchased Wonder Woman on were treated with a bonus augmented reality (AR) experience. All they had to do was download an app from DC Comics, load up the AR feature, and scan their movie cases to access images such as Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth, sword, or shield which they could overlay onto their phone’s camera. This type of AR experience, while seemingly simple, is becoming more widespread in the video marketing and mobile video worlds.
Since mid-2016, video marketers couldn’t seem to talk about anything but virtual reality (VR). But now AR has taken over the conversation, thanks to continued adoption and innovation in that field. For example, Snapchat and Instagram are increasingly using AR features, allowing users to include 3D Bitmojis and AR overlays in their images and videos. And earlier this year, Facebook launched an AR studio for developers and brands looking to create their own effects.
Essentially, augmented reality holds much promise for the future of video marketing. Here’s how brands can take advantage of this potential.
“Experiences are the best ways to engage this new generation of consumers and transform them into brand advocates,” said Ashley Crowder, CEO and co-founder of augmented reality and hologram company VNTANA. “If you create a fun, memorable experience around your brand, the consumer is going to remember and hold onto that. It will be something that they share with their friends on social media”. Overall, Crowder said this experiential marketing is “much more impactful than a banner ad that they’re looking at.”


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Europeans have been living with the euro for 20 years now, but many still point the finger at the single currency for covertly driving up consumer prices -- despite plenty of evidence to the contrary
Will the euro ever challenge the dollar's global dominance? Europe's single currency will soon celebrate its 20th birthday but it needs a eurobond if it truly wants to rival the greenback, analysts say
Faced with increased popularity for online payments and cryptocurrencies, central banks are exploring new units of their own. How will these digital currencies differ from cryptocurrencies?
Inflation rates within the Eurozone countries have seen a decrease in the previous month of August. Nonetheless, unemployment rates across the different EU countries have increased.
The finance ministers in the Eurozone have agreed on introducing a budget tool for the 19-member states during a lot of negotiations and discussions. However, a lot of issues remain unclear.
The European Commission, the Parliament and the Council reached an agreement on the establishment of an European Labour Authority.
According to data released by the European Union's statistics agency, the unemployment rate in the eurozone remained steady at 7.9 per cent in December.


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Nokia 7.2 is coming in two weeks at IFA and the trickle of leaks is turning into a river. The latest one shows the final design of the device complete with a cyan paint job we haven’t seen before.
We get another look at the waterdrop notch on the front while the back features a triple camera setup and flash housed in a circular array. The fingerprint sensor remains below the cameras.
Nokia 7.2 in Cyan
According to past speculation, the Nokia 7.2 will come with a 6.2-inch FHD+ and thanks to a recent Geekbench test, we know it’s packing the Snapdragon 710 chipset paired with 6GB…


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Hunger doesn’t hibernate, and as we look forward to warmer temperatures and the reawakening of nature in spring, the stark reality is that more and more people in Canada are living paycheque to paycheque just to make ends meet.
Food Banks Canada is focused on supporting the network of 10 Provincial Associations and more than 4,750 hunger relief organizations working from coast to coast to coast, and as inflation has spiked over the winter months, so have stories of households who look at their rent payment or hydro bill and ask themselves, “Do I heat or do I eat?”
As our current HungerCount report points out, this past year’s economic climate has seen an increasing number of seniors and people living on fixed incomes walk through the doors of food banks for the first time. People who are employed (or were recently employed) are turning to food banks more often because their incomes are still too low to make ends meet, even with a job. Students who may have had enough funds budgeted for their academic years are now being forced to turn to their local food banks as well. Many families, even those with parents working full-time, are struggling to provide for their households as the cost of living continues to rise.
To help tackle food insecurity, Loblaw customers will have the opportunity to contribute to the national Feed More Families Spring Food Drive, in support of their local food banks. From March 30 to April 13, Canadians can donate most-needed, non-perishable food items in-store to the donation bin or make a monetary donation at checkout at any participating Loblaw grocery store. The company will also be matching customer donations up to $100,000 to support Food Banks Canada’s mission.
Here are some of the items that food banks need most:
- Whole grain foods like oatmeal, barley, high-fibre cereals or whole-grain pasta
- Lean proteins from foods like canned fish and meat; plant proteins like peanut butter, beans, and lentils
- Canned fruit and vegetables
- Milk alternatives like shelf-stable milk, powdered milk, almond milk, and rice milk
- Monetary donations are by far the best donation you can make to your local food bank
With 100 per cent of food and cash donations being directed to local food banks, Food Banks Canada CEO Kirstin Beardsley says the Feed More Families Spring Food Drive is expected to strengthen the capabilities of food banks at the local level to provide fresh, healthy food to the communities they serve.
“Food banks across the country are seeing the highest number of working families than ever before. Parents are having to ask themselves, ‘Am I going to pay rent this month or buy food for my kids?’” Beardsley said. “As we continue to advocate for long-term solutions, we are grateful for the support of generous partners like Loblaw Companies Ltd. who help ensure food bank shelves are stocked through initiatives like the Feed More Families Spring Food Drive.”
Thanks to the support and generosity of Loblaw and their customers, in 2022, the Spring Food Drive raised over $1 million and more than 1.2 million pounds of food. This year, they are aiming to exceed this.


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For September 2021, Vogue China unveiled its widely anticipated debut cover from Margaret Zhang – who replaced former editor-in-chief Angelica Cheung this February.
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In the spirit of “New Beginnings”, the global theme of Vogue’s September 2021 issue, Vogue China spent several months scouting the country, and the globe, searching for the next generation of new faces – of diverse backgrounds, ages, sizes, stories. Among them is Vogue China’s September issue cover model – Fan Jinghan, a 19-year-old dance student at Beijing Sport University.
For the striking cover image, Jinghan is captured before the majestic mountains of Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park by photographer Hailun Ma, while wearing a Johannes Warnke dress. The sunshine in the background throws a golden halo on Fan’s forehead sends a message of vitality, hope, and strength while signaling a new dawn for the magazine.
For the cover story, Fan joins new others faces Ku ku, Winnie, Xia Yuanzen, Zhu Huiying, Luo Yi and Huo Jin. In charge of styling is Audrey Hu, with beauty from hair stylist Xueming Zhou and make-up artist Valentina Li.
- Nicki Minaj covers Vogue US December 2023 by Norman Jean Roy
- Nike Kobe 8 Protro: A tribute in Court Purple
- Neighborhood x Yohji Yamamoto Pour Homme’s second collaboration


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Lloyds Banking Group has banned its customers from buying cryptocurrencies on its credit cards.
Eight million credit card customers of Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA will be unable to purchase Bitcoin and any other cryptocurrencies from today.
However its debit card customers will still be able to do so.
Bitcoin fell in value to $8,291.87 last week, a drop of 30 per cent over the week. It reached of high of $19,000 last November.
Lloyds is worried that its customers could be unable to repay debts, should the share price continue to fall.
A Lloyds spokeswoman said: “We continually review our products and procedures and this is part of that.”
The drop in the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies came after Indian politician Arun Jaitley, the country’s finance minister, said it wanted to eradicate payments made in virtual coins.
“The Government does not consider cryptocurrencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system,” he said.
“The Government will explore use of block chain technology proactively for ushering in digital economy.”


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Jim Cramer had the morning off.
So Real Money's Kevin Curran filled in. And, if you caught TheStreet's Facebook Live show Thursday morning, it was Curran's final day at TheStreet.
So, he got to fill Cramer's shoes. At least for a day.
Amazon (AMZN) - Get Amazon.com Inc. Report , Alphabet (GOOGL) - Get Alphabet Inc. Report , and Starbucks (SBUX) - Get Starbucks Corporation Report all reported earnings after the bell Thursday. And then there's Beyond Meat, which reports earnings on Monday.
How'd Alphabet Do?
Alphabet is Real Money's Stock of the Day.
The company reported second-quarter earnings of $14.21 a share, smashing estimates of $11.30. Revenue came in at $38.9 billion, which topped Wall Street forecasts of $38.15 billion.
And there was a little bit of a surprise when Google CEO Sundar Pichai disclosed that Google Cloud has an annual run rate of $8 billion. The metric is not one that the company normally discloses, however, the company has been talking about the Cloud Platform's progress in more qualitative terms.
Amazon also released earnings after the bell Thursday.
However, unlike Alphabet, the company fell short of analyst expectations and reported a profit loss for the first time in two years.
The company reported second-quarter earnings-per-share of $5.22, falling short of expectations of $5.57 a share. Revenue came in at $63.4 billion, beating expectations of $62.5 billion.
And Amazon Web Services--Amazon's cloud service--reported revenues of $8.38 billion, which fell short of expectations of $8.5 billion.
Taking a Sip of Starbucks?
Yep, there's another company that reported after the bell Thursday. And that would be Starbucks.
The company beat expectations.
The company that reported adjusted earnings in the quarter came in at 78 cents a share, beating estimates of 72 cents. It reported that revenue rose to $6.8 billion in the period from $6.3 billion a year earlier.
Let's Take a Look at Beyond Market
The company reported earlier this week that it was teaming up with Dunkin' Brands (DNKN) - Get Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. Report to bring customers in Manhattan meat-free sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches.
But the company now has a market cap of $13.4 billion dollars. And it's up over 700% since it IPO'd in May.
And the company is set to report earnings on Monday, July 29.
Need some more info about the BYND craze? Take a look at this tweet.