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Join gaming leaders, alongside GamesBeat and Facebook Gaming, for their 2nd Annual GamesBeat & Facebook Gaming Summit | GamesBeat: Into the Metaverse 2 this upcoming January 25-27, 2022. Learn more about the event.
HypeHype, formerly known as Frogmind, has launched a mobile app to enable everyone to create, remix, and play games with their smartphones.
And the Helsinki, Finland-based company has raised $15.5 million from Supercell to further develop HypeHype. The HypeHype app is available in early access, with the hope of making game development a “hundred times bigger with 100 times faster creation time.”
HypeHype is a new platform for creating, remixing, and playing user-generated games with a phone, tablet or desktop. HypeHype app offers features and tools for making modern games and takes game creation from months of complex PC development to just hours of visual editing on the go.
Johannes Vuorinen said in an interview with GamesBeat that HypeHype’s new editor is accessible on mobile and optimized for touch-screens. Creators don’t need to understand traditional game programming. The company thinks of the 2.9 billion gamers in the world as potential creators, but no more than 20 million are actually working on games.
The 2nd Annual GamesBeat and Facebook Gaming Summit and GamesBeat: Into the Metaverse 2
(I met Vuorinen years ago at an event in Marseilles, France. We shared a laugh about a tiny stray dog running through the airport and pooping on the rug. Vuorinen went to clean it up.)
Jarno Kallunki-Mättö, marketing lead at HypeHype, said in an interview that the company started on this new journey a couple of years ago with a focus on the notion that everybody has a mobile phone.
“With that mobile phone, you’re able to do pretty much everything: editing and posting videos and pictures in social and dating and investing and banking and whatever,” Kallunki-Mättö said. “We see in the market that the short-form content has taken over rapidly, via content creation, with videos like on TikTok and game videos.”
He added, “But we have been looking at this from the creator side and looked at why you can’t make games using your phone. That’s how HypeHype started. We all know that making games is pretty hard. This is true not only for the bigger studios but also the indie developers.”
Vuorinen noted that hypercasual games have become popular and publishers have taken the work of small devs and published them on the app stores. But that still takes a lot of time and effort. Still, it’s hard to find the right games to play because so many of them are out there.
You don’t really want to find one of the many copycat games either.
“The stores are full of hypercasual games that are copies of each other,” Vuorinen said. “That’s not the kind of user-generated content you want.”
“We believe HypeHype can bring game-making to billions of people and unleash their creativity to create even AAA games. Creators will be able to collaborate together, and eventually earn money from their games” said Teemu Mäki-Patola, chief operating officer of HypeHype, in a statement.
HypeHype games run on HTML5 and can be played instantly on the app or any device with a web browser. The platform will also support real-time collaborative editing by multiple creators, as well as making online multiplayer games in the future.
“There is an unserved audience that we want to address,” Kallunki-Mättö said. “Our vision for the future is that we truly believe that everyone can be a game maker and a creator. And we want to provide these tools and want to provide the access and want to empower this creativity for anyone and everyone in the world.”
In addition to games, with HypeHype creators can make interactive entertainment, memes and animations as well.
“It is finally time to fully democratize video game making,” Vuorinen said. “Every one of us in this world is a game maker. We all have game ideas in our minds – especially when we are young. But the tools to make those ideas a reality are far too complicated. Only a few go deep into the rabbit hole of game development and publish a game.”
Remixing is the revolution of game making
Creators can remix any existing game on HypeHype. Games can be instantly improved, evolved with new features and levels, or turned into a completely unique version with a different game genre or mechanic. HypeHype maintains the full history of the remix evolution with a transparent creator ownership. One of the cool things is that games can be created in collaboration between people in real time.
“With Hypehype, creators can instantly jump from inspiration to editing, and remix a unique game even in minutes”, said Vuorinen. “We’ve seen that remixing makes it possible to create new experiences 100 times faster than before.”
Supercell recently invested in HypeHype, which was formerly the mobile game developer Frogmind, to accelerate and expand the development of the highly promising user-generated content platform for gaming. Frogmind previously made the Badland and Rumble Stars games.
“We are excited to see the HypeHype team’s bold and ambitious vision to revolutionize how games are created and played,” said Jaakko Harlas, investments lead at Supercell, in a statement. “At Supercell, we are huge believers in the power of UGC and giving creators new and innovative outlets for their creativity. Our partnership with Frogmind started back in 2016 and we are thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to continue supporting them on this new leg in their adventure for years to come.”
HypeHype app has been in technical early access in the Philippines since spring 2021. Creators have already made over 132,000 games just by using their phones, and rated HypeHype early access app with 4.6 out of 5 stars rating in the App Store.
Editor and app features
HypeHype Editor features include:
- No-code game editor that works on a phone or any device
- Quickly remixing new versions of existing games
- Built-in 3D graphics and physics
- Advanced game logic components, nodes
- A growing library of ready-made assets; objects, visuals, music and add-ons
And the HypeHype app features include:
- Endless stream of games that matches player interests
- Instant play, without waiting or installing new apps
- Built-in live streaming for creators and players
- Leaderboards for competitive gaming
- Collaborative and social features
HypeHype early access is available to download on iOS and Android devices. HypeHype has grown its staff 50% in the last year into a team of 37 developers working on the HypeHype platform, and is looking for more awesome people.
The games can work on web browsers as HTML5 games, as you can export them in HTML5 and put them on a web site if you wish. If you want to focus on remixes, you can start with someone else’s game and then build on top of it, with full transparency back to the original creator.
“You won’t ever have to start from scratch,” Kallunki-Mättö said. “You can add a new level to it or add your own tags.”
They said that Apple and Google have welcomed the app. By next year, HypeHype hopes to enable multiplayer game creation.


text: There’s a lot of questions that are still soaring through the air of our collective Star Wars minds right about now, but that’s part of the fun that’s been had throughout tonight’s Disney Investor Call, and there’s more to come! For now, we’ll just go back to replaying that Patty Jenkins video, trying to wring out every clue we can into what Star Wars: Rogue Squadron might hold for the future. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is slated for release at some point in 2022. In the meantime, you can check in on the box office competition in the year to come, courtesy of the 2021 release schedule. And as soon as we get new information on Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, we’ll break those details as they’re released.

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Social media giant Facebook has finally released the white paper of its rumoured cryptocurrency and blockchain-based financial infrastructure project on 18 June.
As speculated, the new cryptocurrency has been dubbed “Libra”, and will run on its native and scalable Libra Blockchain. The white paper has also confirmed the rumours that the new digital asset is going to be a stablecoin, backed by a reserve of assets designed “to give it intrinsic value” and mitigate volatility. The announcement also included a new Facebook subsidiary, called Calibra, and an independent consortium, dubbed Libra Association, which is backed by some of the biggest names in the tech industry. To use Libra, surprisingly, it is not required to have a Facebook account.
Among the 28 founding members of the Switzerland-based consortium are Mastercard, PayPal, Visa, Stripe, eBay, Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz and Uber. The Libra Association will be governed by the Libra Association Council, which will initially consist of the founding members, each of which will run a validator node on the network and have one vote on the council – a privilege which cost a minimum investment of $10 million. Facebook is also planing to expand the association to around 100 members by the time of Libra’s launch, which is planned for the first half of 2020. The paper reads:
“While final decision-making authority rests with the association, Facebook is expected to maintain a leadership role through 2019. Facebook created Calibra, a regulated subsidiary, to ensure separation between social and financial data and to build and operate services on its behalf on top of the Libra network.”
In addition to the Libra cryptocurrency, Facebook will also issue a “Libra Investment Token”, which according to them will be a security. While Libra will be broadly available to the public, the investment token can be purchased or distributed as dividends, notably to the founding members and accredited investors. As already mentioned, Libra will be backed by a basket of fiat currencies and government securities, but the interest earned on this collateral will go to the holders of the investment tokens.
While the Libra Association is tasked with leading the cryptocurrency’s ongoing development, Calibra will develop financial services and products around the Libra network. For now Calibra plans to start with a digital wallet for the new cryptocurrency, which will let users store and transfer their tokens. The wallet functionality will be accessible through a standalone app on iOS and Android, and through Messenger and WhatsApp.
Facebook has also built a new computer programming language for the Libra Blockchain, called “Move”. According to the white paper, the reason behind this decision was to remedy the shortcomings of existing blockchains, and focus on the flexibility of the blockchain over time. The new programming language also heavily focuses on security. The white paper reads:
Move is designed with safety and security as the highest priorities. It takes insights from security incidents that have happened with smart contracts to date and creates a language that makes it inherently easier to write code that fulfills the author’s intent, thereby lessening the risk of unintended bugs or security incidents.


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Big Ant Studios, creators of Cricket 22, explains the measures they have included in their game, which has increased sales by 300%
Each company has different ways to combat piracy in their video games. Some do not hesitate to go to court, others even promote it because it means that the game is known and possibly sells more, and some prefer piracy rather than purchase through certain portals. However, the case of Big Ant Studios, creators of Cricket 22, is different: to have a few laughs, they fill the pirated version of their game with strange errors that lead players to ask for help on forums, and thus unmask themselves as pirates.
Ross Symons, CEO of the studio responsible for the cricket simulator, lists on Twitter some of these trolls to pirates: making the entire screen blank between matches, causing players to miss all coin tosses, showing connection errors with the controller or that it is out of battery, or constantly raining when it is the player’s turn to bat until the match is cancelled due to rain.
I figure if people are going to steal the game, we might as well have some fun at their expense.
This time around they've all been pretty useless and not put up much of a fight, the quality of engineering in the cracking scene atm is pretty disappointing.
— Ross Symons (@RossSymons) May 26, 2022
“I figure if people are going to steal the game, we might as well have some fun at their expense” declares the CEO on Twitter, adding that sales of the latest installment of the game have grown by 300% since they have introduced these piracy measures. He thanks those who have bought the game after pirating it, and reminds that the progress achieved in the pirated edition is preserved when buying the official version. Symons does not rule out introducing further anti-piracy measures.
Cricket 22 was released in November 2021 for Xbox X/Series and Xbox One, and in early December last year on PC, Playstation 5 and PlayStation 4; it came to Nintendo Switch in late April 2022. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play it on Xbox and Xbox Cloud Gaming since April 5, and this May 27 it will arrive on PC Game Pass.


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Volvo Cars strives for global standard for electric car charging
Volvo Cars will offer a plug-in hybrid variant on every new model as it replaces its entire product portfolio in the coming years. It will introduce a fully electric vehicle by 2019, based on its modular SPA vehicle architecture.
NEW DELHI: Swedish car manufacturer Volvo is striving towards a global standard for electric car charging for the automotive industry.
"Volvo Cars believes the global automotive industry should strive towards the introduction of a standardised charging infrastructure for electric cars," says Peter Mertens, the company’s Senior Vice President for Research & Development.
To support this drive, Volvo Cars has decided to throw its weight behind the Charging Interface Initiative, a consortium of stakeholders that was founded to establish their Combined Charging System (CCS) as the standard for charging battery-powered vehicles.
“We see that a shift towards fully electric cars is already underway, as battery technology improves, costs fall and charging infrastructure is put in place,” said Mertens.
“But while we are ready from a technology perspective, the charging infrastructure is not quite there yet. To really make range anxiety a thing of the past, a globally standardised charging system is sorely needed.”
The Combined Charging System combines single-phase with rapid three-phase charging, using alternating current at a maximum of 43 kilowatts (kW), as well as direct-current charging at a maximum of 200 kW and the future possibility of up to 350 kW – all in a single system.
The Charging Interface Initiative is currently in the process of drawing up requirements for the evolution of charging-related standards and certification for use by car makers around the globe.


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If you thought the World Naked Bike Ride Festival wouldn’t last into the 2020s, you were very much mistaken.
Organizers of the World Naked Bike Ride Festival, a yearly festival that sees thousands of nude cyclists baring it all as they ride through cities around the world, have announce that the festival will hold this year, despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
Posting on it’s official website, they wrote;
“The World Naked Bike Ride is an annual, worldwide bike ride that highlights the vulnerability of cyclists everywhere and decries society’s dependence on pollution-based transport. It’s also a lot of fun and it’s free for all!”
“This year there will be no start location or start time due to Covid-19. Instead, riders are encouraged to celebrate World Naked Bike Ride DAY — riding wherever they’d like whenever they’d like on June 27th. Stay safe. Have fun.”
The World Naked Bike Ride is officially a protest – against our dependency on oil, for cyclist safety and in support of body positivity. Attendees are also encouraged to adopt their own causes, often using their bare backs as protest signs.
The event’s motto is “bare as you dare,” encouraging riders to dress down to their comfort. That means while there will certainly be thousands of nude cyclists, there will also be plenty of people riding topless or in costumes.


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to go with the thousands already out there!
“In his prison, Cai was forced to make soccer 10 to 12 hours a day for the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” said a CAA spokesperson.
For the full story on Cai Zhuohua visit ASSIST News Service
Also have a look at the new version of the Olympic Rings:
It is so good to know that the 2008 Olympics are being proudly brought to us by Re-education through Labour! That makes me feel real good about the Olympics – not!


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TDN Radio will once again be covering the 6th edition of African Fashion Week Toronto (AFWT) – the fastest growing diverse
Fashion Week in Canada.
AFWT will be staged over a four day period, August 30th – September 2nd 2018, celebrating arts, culture, fashion, style, and achievements, inside The Globe and Mail Centre (351 King St. East, Toronto). AFWT was established by the African Fashion Canada Organization in 2012, and according to the Organization, has grown to become the highest attended mainstream platform for African fashion creatives and fashion lovers in Canada.
#AFWT2018 officially launches on Thursday, August 30th with their AFWT Fashion Seminar from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm featuring a panel of diverse and notable industry professionals as they share their experiences and educate on key strategies for succeeding in the fashion industry.
Starting at 7:00 pm the AFWT Opening Media Soiree & Student Designer Competition (SDC) welcome 8 student designers that will go head to head on the runway showcasing their debut fashion collections. This year’s 1st, 2nd & 3rd place SDC winners will receive brand new sewing machines courtesy of AFWT’s official Sewing Machine Sponsor Janome Canada.
On Friday, August 31st & Saturday, September 1st AFWT will feature 20+ high fashion designers from Canada and abroad who will be showcasing their premium collections inside The Globe and Mail Centre. AFWT is excited to welcome Tanzanian based designer Diana Magesa and Dallas, Texas-based celebrity designer Esé Azénabor to Canada. The King of Couture” Adebayo Jones returns with his debut collection Africana By AJ featuring luxury wax prints.
For the last day of #AFWT2018 on Sunday, September 2nd the organization will be celebrating achievements in the Pan-African fashion industry at the African Fashion Industry Awards (#AFIA2018). Attendees are in for a treat as the red carpet will come alive with a special performance by the All Saints Band. #AFIA2018 is very excited to honour Marvel’s Black Panther Movie Costume Director Ruth E. Carter with the 2018 Excellence Award.
#AFIA2018 is also extremely honoured to have the presence from members of the royal family as they will be presenting Princess Tessy of Luxembourg with the 2018 Global Empowerment Award. The Princess will be escorted by her two sons, Prince Gabriel and Prince Noah. The awards ceremony will close off with a luxury runway showcase by Adebayo Jones.
To learn more about the AFWT schedule of events please visit: AFWT 2018 Schedule To purchase advance tickets to #AFWT2018 please visit: AFWT 2018 Tickets.


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Though this unconfirmed as of the moment and both of the companies
have a tight lip on this issue. But still if this will push through this will be a unique merger
and possibly could benefit the majority of the gaming public.
EA – games publishing giant
Nexon – the free – to – play global leader


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YOUTUBE'S latest advertising scandal is threatening to tear the entire community apart, the website's biggest stars have warned.
High profile YouTubers including PewDiePie, Drama Alert and hundreds of other popular vloggers have come together to raise concerns about the future of the video site.
YouTube came under fire after advertisers learned their products were being flogged on racist, extremist and violent video clips.
As a result, several big companies pulled their branding from its videos and forced YouTube to rethink its entire advertising structure, including how content creators are paid.
But several YouTubers have revealed that their videos are no longer earning good money, making it almost impossible for them to justify spending the many hours it takes to create the videos the site relies on.
The problems began after the Wall Street Journal published an investigation which found Coca Cola and Amazon adverts on five videos in which the narrators expressed racist opinions.
It prompted Alphabet (which owns both Google and YouTube) to change the way it places adverts.
But several high profile YouTubers believe that this change in structure is a way to get rid of any content that doesn't suit advertisers' tastes and replace it with bland "family friendly" material.
They also warned that rewarding obedient YouTubers with advertising revenue and eliminating those that didn't conform to the "family friendly" brand could be a step in the direction of censorship.
The world's biggest YouTuber, PewDiePie, revealed that his income was dwindling in a recent video update, titled YOUTUBEPARTYISOVER.
In the clip he warned that "YouTube is being forced to turn into television".
Pewds, AKA Felix Kjellberg, admitted he understood that "advertisers need to feel like if they are spending money, it doesn't show up on racist videos".
"But, it's like, five videos they discovered on the whole platform and there's, what, nine billion videos on YouTube?
"Should everyone on the platform be affected by five racist dudes? It doesn't really make sense to me."
Popular UFO hunting channel SecureTeam10 yesterday warned that YouTube was purging "any channel that doesn't toe the company line and doesn't post videos of cute kittens or pranks or toy reviews.
"That's what advertisers like," he said.
On top of the revenue slash, YouTube yesterday announced that vloggers would not be able to make money on their clips until they hit 10,000 lifetime views on their channel.
It claims this threshold will give them a chance to gather enough information on a channel and work out if they are legitimate.
But this could spell an end to up-and-coming small channels, which will take months to accrue the quota to start making any earnings.
MOST READ IN TECH AND SCIENCE
YouTube said the move was largely to deter thieves who re-upload vlogger's work to make money on it.
A spokesperson said: "We will no longer serve ads on YPP videos until the channel reaches 10k lifetime views. This new threshold gives us enough information to determine the validity of a channel. It also allows us to confirm if a channel is following our community guidelines and advertiser policies.
"By keeping the threshold to 10k views, we also ensure that there will be minimal impact on our aspiring creators. And, of course, any revenue earned on channels with under 10k views up until today will not be impacted."
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at email@example.com or call 0207 782 4368


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"Community-based Tourism as a Global Trend" is the theme of a high-level forum to be organised by the TAT Academy at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre on 16 January, 2016.
The day-long forum is the first major public activity organised by the TAT Academy since its formal establishment by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in September 2015.
Designed to be in line with the national government priority of promoting "Stability, Prosperity, and Sustainability", the forum will feature a number of foreign and local tourism experts who will present ideas and strategies to help the Thai tourism industry prepare for the new era of emphasising quality over quantity.
The highlight of the forum will be five presentations by Thai community-based entrepreneurs to discuss their experiences and challenges:
- Coffee Journey: Mr. Ayu Chuepa, Co-founder of Akha Ama Coffee.
- Like a Local by Local Alike: Mr. Somsuk Boonkham, Founder and CEO of Local Alike.
- Local Whisky: Mr. Kawee Kokiatkun, Founder of Maajaidum.
- Folk Fashion: Ms. Sukajit Daengchai, Mae TEETA, an organic textiles and clothes brand.
- Local Chic Trip: Ms. Chayanich Thamparipattra, Co-founder of Hivesters.


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Following an upset the FBI experienced when trying to access data on an iPhone who’s owner was the San Bernardino shooter, Rosenstein, the US Deputy Attorney General, wants to make a major change. Claiming that tech companies are providing customers with levels of encryption this advanced is making the government’s job incredibly difficult.
Rosenstein is basing his claims on his belief that device encryption of the current strength is too much and that users’ constitutional right to privacy doesn’t apply. He has continued to berate tech companies like Apple for offering this type of technology to their customers.
Apple understands where he is coming from because of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone incident but they also had a rebuttal of their own. Apple is claiming that if they were to weaken the encryption available on their iPhones it would do much more harm than good. Weakening device encryption would open the door for cyber crime and other forms of hacking to take place on their customers’ devices.
Apple is standing their ground on this and they will go to great lengths to ensure they protect their customers and their valuable data. So, it would seem that both sides of this debate have their points and they seem to be very good ones. Ironically, both Apple and Rosenstein are basing their claims on the need to uphold and protect public safety.
Rosenstein has suggested that Apple, as well as other high level encryption offering tech companies, should offer a way for people to share their encryption keys with them. This suggestion may not bode well with the public but we’ll have to wait and see what turns out. No one would be surprised if the situation eventually makes it’s way to court. If that ends up being the case, we can sit back and watch the chaos that unravels.


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Beam Inc. sold to Japanese company
Suntory Holdings Ltd. and Beam Inc. jointly announced the deal in a news release today.
The two firms have entered into an agreement under which Suntory will acquire all outstanding shares of Beam for $83.50 per share in cash, or about $16 billion. Suntory will also assume Beam’s outstanding debt.
Beam shares closed at $66.97 on Friday.
The transaction has been unanimously approved by each company’s board of directors. But it still needs Beam stockholders’ approval. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
The transaction is expected to create a stronger global player in premium spirits with annual net sales of spirits products exceeding $4.3 billion, the release said.
Beam president and CEO Matt Shattock and the current Beam management team will continue to lead the business from the Chicago area.
“I am delighted that we can announce this agreement with Beam, a company with a portfolio of leading global brands, including Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, and a strong global distribution network,” Nobutada Saji, president and chairman of Suntory’s board said in the release.
“I believe this combination will create a spirits business with a product portfolio unmatched throughout the world and allow us to achieve further global growth. We are particularly excited about the prospect of working more closely with Beam’s excellent management and employees who will play an integral part in the growth of the business.”
Shattock called it “a very exciting development that delivers substantial value for our stockholders and creates an even stronger global company with an excellent platform for future growth.”
David A. Mann covers these beats: Health care, health insurance, distribution/logistics (UPS), manufacturing (GE, Ford), environment, travel, minority/women’s affairs and Southern Indiana.
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Tesla self-driving beta software is out. If you haven’t seen the button yet, it will be available soon! The Tesla Self-Drive Beta Software can take your car from “low” to “high” autonomous driving on demand.
Tesla the company known for its auto-drive system, released the Full Self Drive (FSD) beta software for its consumers, as the most advanced driver assistance that is deemed to be used by thousands of users in the future. As company released its beta version which would be available to the owner who has paid the $10,000 software upgrade and the ones who have the tesla subscription can use the FSD software once they pass the safety monitoring done by Tesla.
Elon Musk about Tesla Self-drive beta software:
Elon Musk has stated that “The owners would have to let tesla monitor their driving behavior and would accordingly decide if the FSD software would be accessible to the owner”. As the company has not yet decided which user is to be allowed to use the software, their basic criteria for assessing would be the driver’s, forward collision warning that would be accessed per 1,000 miles, an instance of hard braking, aggressive turning, unsafe following, and forced disengagement.
The FDS beta was first tested by a group of 2,000 people which mostly consisted of the employees of the company and some customers who tested this software on the public roads without debugging the software.
Even though the company has faced backlash from the National Transportation Safety Board for being careless and irresponsible, Tesla has gone further to launch the software, stating that the system is as safe as normal cars”. It can easily understand that the consumers would be excited to use this system, as they have waited for this update for a long time.
The feature can be accessed as it would be available in the form of a button on the Tesla main console on the dashboard and the company has also issued a detailed guide to help the owners to have a better experience.
This introduction of the FSD software by Tesla has rattled their competitors to develop better software for their cars and to make the driving experience even better for their car owners.


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The financial services industry does an excellent job of communicating with its Boomer-aged clients - history's wealthiest, most populous generation. Unfortunately, the industry still has to figure out how to deal with the followon generations known as Gen X and Gen Y, better known as the Millennials.
The situation is hardly surprising, says Cam Marston, whose U.S. firm, Generational Insights, consults companies on how to cope with and profit from generational demographics.
"Financial institutions tend be managed and owned in many cases by the Baby Boomers, so it is only natural that their messaging and their behaviour would reflect what they want themselves as a customer," Mr. Marston says.
The Boomer bias is seen not just in financial services but in most industries that tend to focus on the strength and history of a particular organization. It's a backward-looking approach that works with Boomers and their predecessor group, the 66-year-old plus Matures. Younger generations, however, when they sit down with a representative of a company, want to hear "where they are going to take their customer" rather than a short history lesson meant to instill trust.
"Younger consumers are less interested in the organization's background and more interested in what the organization can do for the individual in their future," says Mr. Marston, a speaker at the 2011 Investment Industry Association of Canada's annual conference in Toronto last month.
"So it needs to change from 'This is about us' to 'Let me tell you about you and let me tell you about what is going to happen when we take these next steps together.' "
Not only are younger consumers looking for different things than the 46-to-65-yearold Boomer cohort, they bring a much different set of attitudes and prejudices to any transaction or relationship, such as that with a financial advisor, says the demographic expert.
"The key characteristic that defines the Gen X customer is their cynicism, their disbelief in experts, that experts tend to say one thing and do another," he says. "They were jaded early on, whether it be their parents or politicians at the time, 'who got caught.' Divorced rates doubled," in their formative years, for example.
Nonetheless, the Gen X generation (32-to-46-years-old) is extremely loyal once their cynical defence mechanism has been overcome - after they have been given proof that the expert has what it takes through showing and explaining options, rather than showing a wall of credentials and providing a customer with a single "best" solution, an approach that is much more effective with Boomers and the Matures.
The Millennial group (31 and younger) and, for the most part, the offspring of the Boomer generation, share many of the same attributes of Gen Xers without the hard edges.
"The Millennials are less cynical but what they demand from experts is similar," Mr. Marston says. "They want to be really taught along the way. They value the expert who teaches them versus [tells] them."
There is a difference between Xers and Millennials in how they want to deal with an expert such as a financial services professional.
Mr. Marston says it is understandable that the financial services industry has chosen to focus on the wealthy and numerous Boomers but he warned that the industry will be missing out on real opportunity, especially with the Millennials. The most obvious fact is that as the children of the Boomers, they are poised to receive a significant inheritance in the future. "My advice to advisors and financial institutions is begin paying attention to them. They are not going to make you a ton of money now ... [but] in the future, they will."
There is a second reason the industry should focus more on the Millennials in particular, he says.
"The Millennials and their parents tend to be very close, very connected, and when you pay attention to the Millennials appropriately, it is not uncommon for the parents to follow in behind." Millennials give their parents product and service referrals "to a degree that we haven't seen before," he adds.
"Millennials have a lot of say in where their parents place their dollars," Mr. Marston says. Currently that is more in fast-changing areas such as consumer electronics and technology but even extends into areas such as cosmetics. That young advisor role is shifting into areas such as financial services.
Positioning financial services to deal with Generations X and Y is likely easier than Boomeraged managers might think. "What they need to do is begin to recognize that this shift needs to happen and then let someone guide them through the process," Mr. Marston says. The people and resources to make that change possible are likely to already be in the organization, he notes.
Time will also play a role. "It will become easier for them once their staff reflect the ages of their customers," Mr. Marston says. "The challenge for many financial institutions is that they don't want to staff up on all this youth right now if the youth don't have the money now to make it worthwhile. However, it is a process that I encourage them to begin considering; to begin thinking about making sure that the team and the customer are similar."


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Around 60 guests gathered last Thursday evening at Joseph Cozza’s airy second floor space on Maiden Lane (San Francisco, CA) to celebrate the landmark salon’s upcoming charity fashion show on Union Square, “A City in Color”.
Guests were treated to a sneak peak of the May 16th event with a mini fashion show by SF designer J’Amy Tarr who will feature her collection at the live runway show.
Salon partner Blake McCall talked to the crowd about the salon’s philanthropy work with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and how they are raising funds to donate wigs to teens who are undergoing chemotherapy. He also talked about Blue Heart International which he founded with his wife Missy McCall to aid victims of human and sex trafficking. Net proceeds from the May 16 event will go to beauty school scholarships for women coming out of trafficking. Goldwell Hair Care is a sponsor of the event.
Known as the “salon to the stars”, Joseph Cozza Salon is one of the top hair salons in San Francisco, and is known nationwide for its elite team of stylists and leading education programs.
A City in Color will feature a runway fashion show by Bay Area designer J’Amy Tarr and live performances by NBC’s ‘America’s Got Talent’ singer finalist Kechi and also by electric violonist Spags.
The event takes place Thursday, May 16, 5 – 8p.m. at Union Square Plaza in San Francisco.
Tickets are still available for ‘A City in Color’ by clicking here.


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Sony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai offered an upbeat assessment of the company at a shareholders’ meeting Thursday, predicting a consolidated operating profit of up to 500 billion yen ($4.54 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March 2018, the highest such figure in two decades.Fueling the expected gain is the revival of earnings in Sony’s core electronics business, led by its game division. Investors have responded by lifting Sony’s share price by nearly 40% in the past year.“A confident...
After 13 years in the top job at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lynton will spend a six-month period as co-CEO before assuming the chairmanship full time at Snap Inc., where he was already serving on the board. It will mark the end of a reign that grew turbulent in the latter years, where he saw Sony through a devastating hack that would test the mettle of even the sturdiest corporate chieftain.
Lynton oversaw movie/TV studio and music businesses sprawled at massive scale across the globe. For example, Sony Pictures Television alone operates 18 wholly-owned production companies in 12 countries generating local content, and also 150 TV channel feeds reaching 178 territories.
On the movie-studio side, Lynton ushered in a revamp of the executive suite, now under Tom Rothman, that keeps a sharp eye the bottom line. But Lynton is also spending strategically with the $750 million buy last September of the remainder of its Sony/ATV Music Publishing venture from the Michael Jackson estate. That big-ticket transaction streamlines a complicated structure for money-machine Sony/ATV that holds the underlying rights to many Beatles songs.
Earlier in his career, he worked for Time Warner, AOL, publisher Pearson and Walt Disney Co. Lynton has undergraduate degrees in history and literature from Harvard College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.


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The Conservative run Central Bedfordshire Council’s Executive has today (Tuesday, June 7) released £3.46million of its Market Towns Regeneration Fund scheme to Town Councils in a decision which will unlock a total investment of more than £7million in economic development and rejuvenation programmes.
The Council will share out £2.46million of the Market Towns Regeneration Fund to support projects from eight authorities in Ampthill, Dunstable, Flitwick, Houghton Regis, Leighton-Linslade, Potton, Sandy and Shefford and will work in partnership with those Town Councils to deliver the various improvement schemes by March 2018. This funding boost will also be matched by an investment from the eight authorities, totalling £2.9million.
These projects – which include heritage trails, improved signage, a new splash park and café, cycling racks and market stalls – will enhance the vibrancy of their town centres, help support economic growth and act as a catalyst for wider ongoing investment, employment and development in the key market towns and communities across Central Bedfordshire.
The bids – from a total of 11 submissions – best fit the funding criteria of being deliverable, showing a clear vision of business, economic, social and cultural impacts and good return on investment.
The Executive today also approved a new strand of £1million, set aside from the Market Towns Regeneration Fund, to develop an area-wide High Street Improvement Scheme. This was done in response to seven Town Councils that identified, within their bids, ambitions to improve town centre shop fronts and tackling vacant retail units.
It is intended that this High Street Improvement Scheme – which will be available to Central Bedfordshire's 11 market towns – will launch by the end of this month and fund up to 60 per cent of required works with 40 per cent from private and other public sector sources.
Cllr Nigel Young, Central Bedfordshire Council Executive Member for Regeneration, said: “The Market Towns Regeneration Fund scheme is an exciting new programme that provides significant opportunities to rejuvenate our market towns, at a time when very few other authorities are investing in town centres. Our partnership approach with the Town Councils is also critical to the success of these projects and we are now looking forward to continuing these relationships to ensure delivery.
“By also setting aside £1million from the Market Towns Regeneration Fund to form a High Street Improvement Scheme we have also responded to the needs of Town Councils, many of whom outlined proposals in their bids to enhance their main shopping areas. This will help these important retail locations to thrive and grow and further contribute to making Central Bedfordshire and great place to live and work.”


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Mention the name Harley-Davidson, and visions of high-handled bikes growling down endless, sun-streaked highways instantly come to mind. Whether it was the 1951-52 Panhead Chopper that Peter Fonda rode across the country in Easy Rider or the 1991 Fat Boy in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nail-biting chase scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the bikes have always been able to evoke a powerful feeling of American nostalgia and freedom.
So what is Jochen Zeitz, a European environmental activist and celebrated African art collector, doing behind the handlebars of the U.S.’s most iconic motorcycle manufacturer? He’s trying to save it from becoming an anachronism.
Zeitz, who took over as chief executive officer of Harley-Davidson Inc. in February, is under pressure to turn around the storied company, whose heavyweight $22,000 bikes are prized by aging boomers but not so much by millennials.
He’s an unlikely savior. Unlike the Midwestern accountants and engineers who’ve led Harley over its 117-year history from its Milwaukee headquarters, 57-year-old Zeitz grew up in Germany and graduated with a degree in international marketing. He’s authored two books, a how-to on sustainable capitalism and a spiritual tome on management values he co-wrote with a Benedictine monk. In 2017 he turned his vast collection of African art into a nine-story museum on the waterfront in Cape Town. Zeitz speaks seven languages, plays classical guitar, and set up a foundation to support ethical eco-tourism like that practiced by his luxury resort in Kenya.
He can also see the spiritual side of motorcycling, as in 2013 when he attended a mass where hundreds of Harley enthusiasts took their bikes to the Vatican to be blessed by Pope Francis. “You’ve had the status quo replaced by a vision of this cultured, worldly, global person,” says Tony Gonzalez, a Denver-based industry consultant who works with Harley dealers. “If you look at most businesses right now, there’s a lot that are focused globally and trying to connect with a new customer.”
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July 27, 2020


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Top 10 Most Powerful Cars in the World 2014 – The ultimate list of the most powerful cars ever made!
An example of the most famous and sought-after classic cars in the world, the Ferrari 250 GTO, is being sold at auction on August 14.
Ferrari invites car fans to build their ideal version of the California T through a new online configuration tool.
Puma has unveiled its exclusive Ferrari Limitate collection, a line of luxury sneakers produced in a limited edition of just 499 pairs.
Moto G Ferrari edition Motorola on Tuesday introduced a new variant of Moto G smartphone in Mexico.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will keep a lid on production of new Ferraris over the next five years despite huge demand in emerging markets like China.
After Ferrari World in the oil-rich region of Abu Dhabi, a new Ferrari Land Theme Park will be opened in Spain by the year 2016.
Ferrari is planning to introduce a new model based on the LaFerrari, which is believed to be actually more affordable than the original hybrid supercar.
The US remains Ferrari’s biggest market by a long way, accounting for almost a third of last year’s total sales of 6,922.
Ferrari has released early information on the 2015 California T, which it plans to debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show in March.
Fangio’s Mercedes-Benz W196 Formula 1 car is the most expensive car to be sold at auction.
A 1964 Ferrari 250 LM has sold for a record $14.3 million at the RM Auctions & Sotheby’s collaborative auction held in New York.
Ferrari has unveiled a special one-off 458 Italia Niki Lauda Edition. This particular model is dedicated to the living legend in F1.
Vertu has expanded its Ti line with a luxury smartphone whose design was inspired by the Ferrari F12 berlinetta. A limited edition of 2,013 smartphones will be produced and sold.
A new Prancing Horse is set to go public at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show: Ferrari will introduce the 458 Speciale, which will join the 458 Italia and 458 Spider at the lower end of Ferrari’s range.
On July 12, Bonhams will auction off John Lennon’s very first car, a Ferrari 330GT Coupé, during the Festival of Speed in Goodwood, England.
Flush with the success of the LaFerrari, Ferrari is considering an even more exclusive version of the hypercar with a potential $3 million price tag.
A limited edition watch has been produced by Swiss watchmaker Hublot as a tribute to the LaFerrari.
Dubai police on Thursday showed off a new Ferrari they will use to patrol the city state, hot on the heels of a Lamborghini which joined the fleet earlier.
The Dubai Police authorities have unveiled a Ferrari FF as the latest addition to their fleet of patrol vehicles.


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It will be the first full year of commercial use of the product which uses LOK + FLOW technology.
Speaking for Syngenta in Moses Lake, Don Drader, said: "It is a product that has two different modes of action. It has a new chemistry, mandipropamid, which is a completely new chemistry to potatoes. And also a second of mode of action in it is called difenoconazole. Difenoconazole has been registered in other crops in different parts of the world but this is the first commercial registration to potatoes."
Late blight has been predicted to hit the Colombian Basin again this year. But Drader hopes Revus Top, which has a pre-harvest interval of 14 days, will combat the problem.
"(It) locks or adheres very tightly to the leaf to give us the protectant and the flow or movement into the leaf to actually give us some curative or reach back of the product," he added.


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Market surveillance | Farmers urge government to support Filipino farmers amid massive smuggling and import issues
By DAWN CECILIA PEÃA
MANILA – Consumer groups have expressed disappointment at the government’s decision to step up food imports amid massive smuggling of agricultural products and low land productivity.
In a statement, the Pamalakaya Fishermen’s Group said Agriculture Secretary William Dar “still resorts to imports as a solution to scarcity and inflation.”
âThe Ministry of Agriculture never learns. Whenever there is an alleged shortage, the default solution is to flood our market with imported fish. However, this measure never and never resolves the crisis in our fishery production that occurs every year, âPamalakaya spokesperson Ronnel Arambulo said.
The statement was echoed by women farmer group Amihan and consumer group Bantay Bigas as they urged farmers and food producers to collectively pressure the government to address the continuing trend of low prices to the production of the palay and stop the smuggling of plant products such as carrots in the local market.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas demanded that the Customs Office tackle large-scale vegetable smugglers and not just small retailers.
âThe stalls only distribute. Those who need to be caught and urgently punished are those who are facilitating the entry of huge volumes of contraband vegetables. The government should inspect warehouses, not just market stalls, âsaid KMP President Emeritus Rafael Mariano.
The statement came after the BOC seized Â£ 4.8million ($ 94,000) of smuggled carrots, garlic and other agricultural products on September 30.
The peasant leader insisted that this was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. âIf three small stalls can sell huge amounts of contraband vegetables, what can the warehouses sell? Mariano, also a former secretary for land reform, asked.
The group cited a 2014 SEARCA study, which estimated the value of smuggled agricultural products in the Philippines at $ 52 billion, on average, per year from 1986 to 2009.
âThe money shouldn’t stop with these stalls. Their suppliers should be aggressively hunted down and punished as economic saboteurs, âdemanded the former secretary for Agrarian Reform.
KMP also pointed out that the increase in smuggling is a direct consequence of the increase in imports.
âContraband goes through the same processes and the same vessels as legal importation. As agricultural trade is further liberalized, technical smuggling – misrepresentation, undervaluation and misclassification – also becomes easier. The persistent “import, import, import” leadership of Agriculture Secretary William Dar is also responsible, “the group said.
Pamalakaya also expressed disappointment at the government’s plans to import 60,000 tonnes of galunggong, skipjack, among other pelagic fish, which are expected to enter the country this month.
The fishermen’s group argued that imported fish, which can be sold in local public markets at a very low price, is a “threat to the livelihoods of Filipino fishermen, as imported fish outnumber their fishery products. and the sea “.
âFishermen lose money every time imported goods flood the markets. Due to the low value of imports, fishermen are pressured to lower the price of their catchâ¦ otherwise no one will buy them, âArambulo explained.
Likewise, the SEARCA study noted that smuggling increased dramatically and more rapidly after 1995, the year the Philippines joined the World Trade Organization which pushed for âfree tradeâ. He also estimated that rice smuggling into the country was at its highest level in 2008 after then-president Gloria Arroyo lifted rice import quotas.
In the same vein, RA 11203, or the law on the liberalization of rice, would be the cause of the drop in farm gate prices to a new low.
Bantay Bigas spokeswoman Cathy Estavillo exclaimed that the livelihoods of rice farmers are being devastated as the sector becomes “fully liberalized” or as private traders completely dominate palay buying and dictate prices to production.
âFarmers are already suffering from the very low price of bread. Its price only reached P10 – P14.50 ($ 0.20 – $ 0.30) per kilo. Meanwhile, when it hits the market, its going price climbs to at least P38 – P44 ($ 0.75 – $ 0.87) per kilo and P42.50 – P45 ($ 0.84 – 0.89 $) for imported rice, âadded Estavillo.
Amihan and Bantay Bigas urged Filipino food producers to organize and make their voices heard by urging the government to immediately end the smuggling of agricultural products and support local production as a strategic step towards self-sufficiency and food security.
“The long-term solution here is to repeal the Rice Liberalization Law and the Agricultural Liberalization Policy, and fully support farmers and the agricultural sector so that we can achieve national food security based on self-sufficiency and self-sufficiency, âEstavillo said.
KMP’s Mariano also suggested that while the seizure of contraband vegetables was a welcome development, it shouldn’t end there.
“A legislative investigation is the least we can do to expose the extent of our agricultural smuggling problem today, especially after the promulgation and implementation of the Rice Liberalization Law,” he said. he concludes. (JJE, RTS)


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Singapore – Despite many countries worldwide easing up on normal life disrupted by the global pandemic, there is still a large fraction of shoppers worldwide who now hesitate to shop in-store, a new report from Wunderman Thompson Commerce shows.
According to the report, 49% of APAC shoppers are now hesitant to shop in physical stores, suggesting a transition to shop through online channels.
Looking at specific markets, nearly three quarters (72%) of shoppers in India are experiencing this fear, followed by Thailand (62%), China (55%) and Indonesia (51%) – while Japan and Australia are more open to the idea (30% and 22% respectively).
Meanwhile, on a global scale, nearly three-quarters of shoppers say that online shopping came to their rescue in 2020, with Thailand at the top of the global ranking having 94% of consumers agreeing to the sentiment. Looking ahead, three-quarters of global shoppers (73%) say e-commerce would be more important to them in 2021.
In terms of frequency of shopping online, marketplaces other than Amazon account for a third (33%) of all purchases, led by Japan at 45% and Thailand coming in at 41%.
It has been noted in the report that Amazon’s reputation on pricing is comparatively poor in Asia – just 20% of shoppers say it provides the best value, compared to 48% who identify the other marketplaces as being best: e-commerce platforms Tmall, Taobao, and Lazada.
“As we look beyond 2021, we know this channel shift from physical to digital channels is not only accelerating but will be the primary channel for retail purchasing in future. We see consumers turn to local and regional marketplaces as they take on global players like Amazon, an abundance of businesses switching to D2C offerings, and Asian consumers leading the way when engaging in new channels such as social and live commerce,” said Kaythaya Maw, chief technology officer at Wunderman Thompson APAC.
Despite these moves towards online shopping channels, there still remains hope for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands handled by retailers. Over one quarter (29%) of shoppers in China said they have used branded direct-to-consumer sites as a source of inspiration, putting the channel third behind dominant marketplaces like Taobao and Tmall, and social media.
Nevertheless, the demand within these online retailers are surging, as APAC shoppers now demand the most from digital retailers, saying they want better products, services, and experiences online, with Thailand shoppers agreeing with the statement at 94.8%, closely followed by China and Indonesia at 89% and India at 86%.
A big finding from this year’s survey is that 44% of all global consumers the report spoke to say they have bought from a social platform. In Asia, buying directly through social media is already clearly a well-established trend, led by Thailand where 74% of consumers said they had purchased from a social platform, followed by Indonesia and China at 69%.
Speaking about the insights, Justin Peyton, chief transformation and strategy officer at Wunderman Thompson APAC, notes that with the heightened interest in online shopping, one should refrain from the use of the term ‘e-commerce’ since the term online shopping has now expanded beyond the borders of e-commerce platforms.
He added that with the growth of sales that we have seen in the recent past, and the fact that it is becoming the channel of choice, digital transactions have become a hygiene element that brands are expected to support as part of the overall commerce ecosystem.
“What’s more interesting is how commerce is fragmented across owned platforms, social platforms, conversational platforms, and marketplaces. With this diversity, brands must focus on where they can not only gain visibility but demonstrate their products in ways that are most likely to influence consumer choice,” Peyton stated.
Meanwhile, Maw added, “With the largest representation from Asia-Pacific taking part in this year’s report, we hope to provide businesses with vital insights to formulate effective strategies and respond to how consumers are shopping in this current environment, and how they will shop in future.”


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Market data including bonds and fuel prices
That turnip Mapisa-Nqakula has confirmed beyond any doubt that the party cannot be renewed or rehabilitated
But advocate Mpofu says justices must accept former prisons chief granted parole correctly
Provincial chair elect indicates he will support Ramaphosa’s re-election as ANC president
Business Day TV talks to independent analyst Loyiso Mpeta
Consumer finances crumble under the pressure of rising prices and interest rates, Unisa vulnerability report shows
Some in the industry believe a ban on the export of scrap will mean a more competitive steel industry, with lower prices passed on to consumers
Washington targets chief of staff Nathaniel McGill, chief prosecutor Sayma Syrenius Cephus and Bill Twehway, MD of Liberia’s National Port Authority
Veteran seamer believes he still has plenty to offer despite turning 40
Porsche Taycan Turbo S laps the famous German circuit in seven minutes and 33 seconds
It is becoming clearer by the day that the rot that caused the corporate scandal at furniture retailing giant Steinhoff International goes much deeper than one man — the CEO Markus Jooste — who has come to represent the crisis.
The company is accused of overstating its earnings among other accounting irregularities in a case described as an Enron-type company failure.
The accounting scandal, which caused a more than €10bn collapse in Steinhoff’s share price, has focused blame on Jooste while executives around him have dodged responsibility. Surely Jooste could not change accounting entries without help?
The behaviour of the Steinhoff board, since the scandal exploded in December last year, confirms my early suspicions. The rot runs deeper. This is clear from the appalling manner in which the board has managed the unfolding crisis. It has been four months since Steinhoff was enveloped by the accounting scandal. And there is no resolution in sight, let alone a proper diagnosis.
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The Apple App Store has begun to allow Game Streaming Services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming which were previously only available via web browser.
Game Streaming Services allow users to play games on their mobile devices by remotely accessing a beefier computer. The game is displayed on the phone but the graphics are all processed by an actual machine instead of on the mobile device itself.
Streaming has become a popular way to play games on mobile devices as mobile data becomes more reliable and wi-fi signals become more commonplace in public spaces.
However streaming games has its own set of challenges including input lag. While input lag can basically kill the experience of many games, users on mobile devices consider it worth the tradeoff; unlike the ill-fated Google Stadia which tried to popularize streaming games on a home console.


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Totally out of the blue, it was announced yesterday that there’s a new Front Line Assemby album coming on January 15, 2021.
The album is titled “Mechanical Soul” and features guests in the form of Jean-Luc de Meyer from Front 242 and Dino Cazares from Fear Factory (presumably on guitar?). You can pre-order it now from Bandcamp and it will be available on digital, CD and ltd vinyl via Metropolis Records (more info coming soon).
“Mechanical Soul” features 10 tracks, plus a Black Asteroid remix of “Hatevol” from the last album “Wake Up the Coma”. Note also that there’s a track called “Rubber Tube Gag” – just thought you should know.


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- Daily Zen
Google Inc. has finally taken a significant step towards resolving their antitrust problems in the EU. The regulators had previously warned the first ranked search engine in the world to offer new concessions in order to settle an alleged investigation regarding anti competitive behavior. On being able to offer satisfactory concessions Google Inc. would have had heavy fines imposed on them.
In a report released by the European Commission on Tuesday, it has been stated that a good level of understanding developed between Google Inc. and themselves regarding the latest proposals that were made to form the basis of discussions before the Commission actually made a final decision whether to accept them or not. According to a reliable source, the comments came from the Commission after Google Inc. complied with the demands made by the watchdog of EU to revise their initial proposals that covered computers, mobile devices and the tablets. The Commission did not reveal the proposals from Google Inc., but stated that the concessions have made way for further technical discussions on this regard.
The statements from the two parties:
Antoine Colombani, the competition policy spokesman of EU, in his statement on Tuesday said that the two parties, EU and Google Inc., have reached a good level of understanding based on the proposals that had been made by Google Inc. He also added in his statement that very soon there will be discussions at a technical level on this matter and some remedies will definitely come out regarding the concerns. A spokeswoman on behalf of Google Inc. spoke on this matter and addressed that they would continue their cooperation in their works with the European Commission.
Some light on the matter itself:
According to a source, latest proposals of Google Inc. covered all four areas of concern cited by the Competition Commissioner of EU, Joaquin Almunia in the month of May. The proposals were not clearly detailed in the reports though. The source also added that the revised concessions focused mainly on the presentation of the search results like how the reviews appear in the search results, and the adjustment or the removal of some of the contractual restrictions. The watchdog of EU had previously said that Google Inc. may unfairly be favoring the other services of Google Inc. over its rivals. It also added the fact that Google Inc. may have copied some materials from other websites dealing with restaurant reviews and travels without their permission. EU is also concerned with the advertising deals of Google Inc. that might well be excluding third parties from undergoing similar deals with their rivals, while the contractual restrictions on the software developers may be preventing the advertisers from transferring some of their online campaigns to rival search engines of Google Inc. Companies are liable to be fined as much as up to 10% of their turnover for breaching the rules of EU. Joaquin Almunia is supposed to hold a news conference on Wednesday on a number of cases. According to the reports of some sources given to Reuters, Joaquin Almunia is most likely to make an announcement on the matter regarding Google Inc. on Wednesday itself.


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Shares in the company, which have lost nearly 14pc over the past three months, were dropped 13pc in early trading.
The company, whose founder invented Meccano construction toys in the early 1900s, said in a trading update that the lower-than-expected sales resulted in higher inventories at its retail supply chains.
Hornby said the supply chain issues it faced last year were continuing to improve, but sales in Europe would not recover ground lost in the first half.
Shares in the company, which owns other brands including Scalextric, Airfix and Corgi, fell 10.5pc to 123p as the market digested the news.
Hornby said that weaker demand for its products from consumers led to weaker demand from retailers.
The company said: "Whilst interest in our products remains strong, a further consequence of lower consumer sales prior to Christmas is that our retailers have entered the New Year with higher stocks than normal. This will result in retailers reducing their restocking orders in the remaining weeks of the current financial year."
In November, the company had said the fall in its first-half pretax profit was entirely due to problems at suppliers, but it was seeing a pick-up in demand ahead of Christmas, helped by demand for toys based on the film Toy Story 3.
Harsh weather and higher inflation combined to give British retailers their worst December on record, reinforcing signs that UK growth slowed sharply in the last three months of 2010.
The board said it remained confident about the group's current strategy and pipeline of new releases, including a Scalextric range based on the Cars 2 movie due for release in the summer.
Neil Johnson, the chairman, said: "The negative impact on the group caused by the unusually adverse weather in December is almost certainly a one-off event. Coming on top of the previously reported supply chain issues the result for the year will clearly be impacted.
"Nonetheless, due to its diverse product and geographic spread Hornby continues to occupy a position of strength amongst its peers. We continue to see significant growth potential in many of our markets. The further positive progress on our supply chain issues will enable us to capture this potential as the business grows."


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Stack Overflow is a question and answer portal that, since its inception in 2008, has become a popular (and, we could say, irreplaceable) resource for professional and hobbyist programmerss from all over the world.
Its over 50 million registered users, its 100 million monthly vivistas and freemium services like Stack Overflow for Teams made it an attractive potential acquisition for large companies ...
... and today, finally, the purchase of the portal has been announced: those responsible have announced a deal (worth $ 1.8 billion) with the Dutch company Prosus, one of the largest and most valuable European technology companies.
Although, like many large companies of this type, its relationship with a specific territory is quite relative: even with its headquarters in the Netherlands, Prosus is a subsidiary of the South African Naspers, as well as the largest shareholder from Chinese Internet and video game giant Tencent.
How will this affect Stack Overflow?
According to the Stack Overflow corporate blog, the agreement with Prosus will allow them to "continue to operate as an independent company with our current team and backed by a global technological powerhouse. "
"The way you use our site and our products will not change in the coming weeks or months, and neither will our company's strategic objectives and priorities."
Prosus has been characterized, above all, by invest in a wide range of platforms that touch fields such as e-commerce, fintech or e-learning. In fact, it is from your interest in this last field that we must analyze the acquisition of Stack Overflow.
Prosus already owns stakes in two leading educational technology companies (Udemy and Codecademy), and is coming betting on the fact that companies will continue to resort to remote work and online training long after the pandemic subsides. This is explained by his own head of educational technology investments, Larry Illg:
"The pandemic brought this sector to the forefront and what we will see in the coming months is a wave of consolidation."
Stack Overflow for Teams, a collaborative work tool that offers integration with GitHub that is marketed as a subscription service (es paid from 50 users per group), has been used by large companies such as Microsoft, Siemens or Chevron.
But overall, 85% of the companies that use it are based in the US, so Prosus plans are to achieve geographically expand the use of this service, especially in Asia (Prosus has already managed to strengthen another of its acquisitions, the payments company PayU, in an expanding market such as India).


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5 August 2016
Opel supports FoodCloud
The company is providing seven vehicles — two
Combo and five Movano vans — to the FoodCloud initiative which distributes surplus food to 250 charities in Ireland.
FoodCloud uses an app which matches surplus food from providers like supermarket chains and other sources to the needs of charities like St Vincent de Paul and the Simon Community.
The Opel vans will deliver up to 1,000 tonnes of produce in the course of a year. The have been refrigerated by TSS Ltd.
Pictured with Gillian Whittall of Opel Ireland (centre) are FoodCloud founders Aoibheann O’Brien and Iseult Ward.


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By Rachel Tesler Published August 19, 2019 Retail FOXBusiness Facebook Twitter Comments Print video Impossible Foods partners with OSI Group to tackle strong demand Impossible Foods’ Sheetal Shah on the company’s partnership with OSI Group in an effort to expand production and the company’s continued efforts to improve the quality and nutrition of its products. Kroger is adding plant-based egg alternative Just Egg to shelves at 2,100 stores across the country, just as Canadian favorite coffee chain Tim Hortons announced it is testing Just Egg on its menu at select locations. Continue Reading Below The product, made from mung bean protein, canola oil, onion puree and turmeric, imitates the taste and texture of real eggs. Tim Hortons joins other fast food chains that are satiating consumers’ cravings for non-animal proteins like plant-based burgers. SelectTim Hortons locations are substituting typical animal products like chicken eggs with replacements like Just Egg on their breakfast sandwiches. MORE FROM FOXBUSINESS.COM… BEYOND MEAT BURGER SUCH A HIT AT CARL’S JR., THE FAST-FOOD CHAIN IS DOING THIS IMPOSSIBLE BURGER MAKERS HAVE SOMETHING FISHY ON TAP According to the chain, three tablespoons of Just Egg is equivalent to one chicken egg and provides five grams of plant-based protein. Typically, one whole egg… Read full this story
- Vegan sneakers set to be next plant-based craze in 2020
- Bringing Christmas cheer to vegans! Woolworths launches a plant-based range - complete with a $12 'roast' and a $14 pudding made with brandy
- First fast food chain sells plant-based burgers in Singapore
- Revealed: The key diet trend predictions for 2020 - including plant-based 'everything', banana flour and pastas made from legumes
- IFF shares sink on expensive plant-based meat bet with Dupont
- 48-year-old vegan says she looks better than she did in her 20s and that it’s all thanks to her plant-based diet
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- Plant ideas; veganism in Coimbatore
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ACT主席Jonathan Zuck在递交给CTIA主席Steve Largent的信件中写道：“我们的成员向组织表达了自己的意见，拒绝与行业无关的人充当他们的监管人员。尽管CTIA的意图可能是正确的，但他们根本没有应用生态系统的相关经验或知识，而这些正是设定任何标准所需要的东西。开发商还表示进一步的担忧，称依靠其他可能带有竞争性的行业来设定市场标准，会打击应用编写人员的积极性。”
微软也有应用需要遵从的内容原则。那些从其他平台导入且使用ESRB之类现有评级系统的游戏需要向微软提交此类信息，作为公司进驻Windows Phone Marketplace的认证的部分内容。这些信息会出现在应用的描述中。
App stores march toward shared ratings system
By Josh Lowensohn
The wireless industry’s trade group wants to put ratings on mobile apps to help parents keep inappropriate content out of their kids hands, but does a one-size ratings system fit all app stores?
The initiative, which was launched near the end of March by CTIA-The Wireless Association, calls for “voluntary self-certification of apps.” The program is on track to be in place by the end of this year and seeks to have app-makers define the content within their creations based on a specific set of ratings and guidelines. The end result is a system the CTIA hopes will give consumers a “more informed” choice when using applications on mobile devices.
The move is reminiscent to what’s happened to music, movies, and video games. Apps have–for better or worse–become a form of entertainment that can be had anywhere and by nearly anyone. They’ve also become big business in the last few years, with combined revenues from the various stores coming in at an estimated $3.8 billion this year.
Not everyone is happy with the putting the CTIA in the driver’s seat for decision making though. In a note to the CTIA earlier this week, advocacy group ACT said its 3,000-member association of software developers believed the initiative could stifle innovation and interest in app development.
“Our membership has expressed to us that they reject the idea of unrelated industries acting as their regulator,” ACT President Jonathan Zuck wrote in a letter addressed to CTIA President Steve Largent. “While CTIA’s intentions may be sound, they don’t have the experience or knowledge of the apps ecosystem that is essential for any standards-setting board. Developers are further concerned that relying on other industries, with potentially competing interests, to set marketplace standards is a nonstarter for app writers.”
The CTIA is a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that represents carriers, manufacturers and other players in the wireless industry, including many of the companies with mobile application stores. Apple, Google, Research In Motion, Nokia, and Microsoft are listed as members.
David Diggs, who is the CTIA’s vice president of wireless Internet development, said in a phone interview that the group is still in the middle of evaluating proposals for app ratings systems following half a dozen submissions that came in after its announcement; that call for submissions was made open to non-CTIA members. Diggs would not say which entities were in discussions about the app rating proposal.
Diggs said the genesis for the initiative came from a 2009 Federal Trade Commission report about marketing violent content to children, wherein the organization called for more information to be made available to consumers about the applications they were downloading.
“Among other things, the FTC thought that it would make sense to devise a content classification system that would be familiar to consumers,” Diggs said. “What we’re moving towards, and this was in the guidelines, is that it ought to relate to things consumers already understand like MPAA ratings for movies.”
But this is an area where things get murky. For something like games, which make up a healthy majority of mobile applications, there are already groups that exist specifically for the purpose of self-regulation.
In the U.S., there’s the Electronics Software Rating Board (ESRB), which was formed in the mid-1990s as a self-regulatory arm at a time when the video games industry faced regulation from the government. That group has publishers filling out a description of what types of content are in a game, as well as providing footage for a title’s evaluation. In return the game gets a ratings classification. All of this comes with a fee, which varies depending on the cost of the game’s development, and goes to support the ratings system’s existence.
“This points to the difference,” said Morgan Reed, ACT’s executive director. “If it’s a CTIA self-derived push, that seems like an intermediary regulator. A preferred model would be the ESRB, which is funded and managed by game developers. ESRB’s rating system is actual self-regulation.”
Using a similar system for mobile apps could prove to be difficult given that the volume of applications continues to grow. The app publishing landscape as it exists right now has a very low entry fee. While a developer may spend tens of thousands of dollars developing an application, they can publish it somewhere like Apple’s App Store free of charge as long as they’re paying Apple the $99-a-year developer fee. Apple then makes 30 percent on the sale, and from any in-app purchases, and subscriptions made within the app. Adding extra fees on top of that could change that dynamic.
Reed suggested that developers could also shift their efforts to the Web if the guidelines end up restricting what can be done with native apps. “If a ratings system were to be implemented by the CTIA and deemed too partisan, developers–especially of quick and dirty games–start really moving to an HTML5 environment,” Reed said. “Where do you enforce a system that you get to by a Web page?”
Mobile application stores already have numerous content controls in place, including ratings systems that can alert consumers to whatever content is contained within. Here’s a breakdown how each of the big ones do it:
Apple, which currently has the largest volume of applications of the providers (though it might not hold that crown for long), requires app developers to rate their own content in one of four ratings ranging from “4+” which contains no objectionable material, all the way to “17+”, which requires that users be at least 17 years old. To police this, application ratings are checked at the time of review by Apple, and the company has the power to pull them from the App Store. Apple also provides ways to limit what iOS devices are able to install and run using built-in parental controls.
Google has a similar four-tier rating system that uses an “everyone” to “high maturity” scale. Developers assign their application a rating based on its content, then publish it to the Android Market. If users flag a published application for somehow mis-rating itself, Google says it re-rates it per the company’s guidelines with a staff review. When deploying the system, Google had developers go through their existing catalogs and rate applications.
Research In Motion has its own set of content guidelines that determine what cannot be included in applications, though applications are not given a specific age group designation.
Nokia requires applications submitted to its Ovi store to comply with the company’s content guidelines. There’s no age-based system, instead it’s whether “content is appropriate for a wide spectrum of consumers.” Nokia maintains a list of items that aren’t allowed, and a company representative told CNET the company also evaluates apps to make sure content is “age appropriate and culturally sensitive.”
Microsoft has its own content guidelines apps need to conform to. Games that have been ported from platforms that use existing ratings systems such as the ESRB need to provide that information to Microsoft as part of the company’s Windows Phone Marketplace certification. This information is listed on application descriptions.
The bottom line
The thing to make clear about the CTIA’s initiative is that nothing has been decided yet, especially when it comes to which of the application stores will participate. Along with that, there’s the question of if those groups can agree upon a set of guidelines and ratings designations. As Apple has been happy to point out about its store, it does not allow things company like Google does, and vice versa. In many ways that gives these stores an identity, and adds another layer of competition.
Issues around these policy differences bubbled up recently when several government officials asked Apple, Google, and RIM to remove applications that alerted users to police checkpoints. RIM complied, while Apple and Google did not take action. Would the ratings body be given control to make judgments in such cases?
There’s also the question about what happens to existing ratings and the review processes that govern these stores. If a new system is put into place, does that mean someone needs to re-review applications to make sure they comply? And who makes that decision, how is it enforced, and who’s paying for that?
ACT’s Reed said that the key thing is making sure there’s a way to weed out apps that misrepresent what’s inside. “Any regulatory system adopted by developers needs to be one that is self-reporting on the front-end, and post-punishment on the other. There has to be some sort of mechanism for a bad actor who lies.” (Source: cnet)


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Sainsbury store to open at Dagenham plant earmarked for closure
The regeneration of a 400-staff factory earmarked for closure passed a major milestone today after a deal was struck to open a Sainsbury store at the site.
Sanofi pharmaceuticals in Rainham Road South, Dagenham, faces mass redundancies next year when its plant shuts because of flagging demand for it cancer drugs.
But the global drug manufacturer announced this morning it had secured an agreement with the high-street chain to open a large supermarket, which is anticipated to create 400 new jobs.
The deal will help to draw new investors to the factory at a time when Sanofi bosses forge ahead with plans to turn the 108-acre site into a new business park.
Jim Moretta, the Sanofi site leader for Dagenham, said: “Our agreement with Sainsbury marks an important milestone in the regeneration process and is a project that will generate hundreds of new jobs.
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“Securing a contract for development of the retail plot at the front of the site now enables us to concentrate our efforts on attracting businesses to the rest of the location.”
The news came just days after the Post reported that Sanofi was working with a leading IT firm to turn part of the factory site into a mini Silicon Valley featuring one of Europe’s biggest information centres.
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The 60,000 sq ft supermarket would have 500 parking spaces, a petrol station and would stretch over 10 acres.
Sanofi was granted an “outline planning permission” to build new facilities at the site, including a supermarket, last year but Sainsbury will still need to apply for full planning permission with the council before opening the store.
Harriet Houlihan, London development executive for Sainsbury, said: “We are looking forward to working with Sanofi to bring forward this exciting regeneration project.
“Our plans for a new food store in this location will provide a great service for our customers while providing new jobs and training opportunities in the local area.”


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Speculative rumors produce real increases, although not nearly as big as 2003
Last month, a flurry of headlines, starting with a report in the UK’s Telegraph, warned that the wholesale price of vanilla was set to rise sharply – adding as much as 10% to the retail price of a vanilla ice cream cone this summer.
Within days, the primary source cited in the Telegraph’s story – Nick Peksa of market analysts Mintec – was resetting the forecast for a price spike from “likely” to just “possible”.
Shortfalls in Mexican and Indian production seem to have prompted some stockpiling of vanilla from Madagascar. But, as Madagascar accounts for from two-thirds to 80% of global output, the impact of poor harvests in a couple of the several countries that contribute the other 20-30% should be modest.
Right now, says Peksa, the market for vanilla has “nicely balanced” supply and demand. This equilibrium might be upset by an event in Madagascar, such as a hurricane or political unrest, and vanilla prices could move up, perhaps double, but will go nowhere near as high as 2003.
Indeed, the price of vanilla reached a peak of $500 per kilogram in 2003. The current price is estimated to be approaching $40/kilogram, up from the $20/kilogram vanilla’s been stuck at for the last six years.
Both extreme weather and political unrest were the immediate causes of the stratospheric price climb of 2003. But, really, this period marked the final loosening of the old regime’s grip on the country … and its economy. Through the 1990s, Madagascar’s vanilla producers, farm-gate prices and export volumes were closely regulated and, by extension, so was the global vanilla market.
As in 2003, Madagascar is still the leading vanilla producer and the small market remains vulnerable to speculative price swings. There are some important differences in the 2012 market, however. When prices peaked, global consumption of vanilla beans fell by half. Estimates vary, but the natural product seems to have permanently lost a third of its previous (already minority) market share to synthetic substitutes.
The last six years of low prices have caused Madagascan farmers to neglect vanilla – derived from the pods of orchids that must be pollinated, harvested, processed, sorted and graded by hand – in favor of more profitable crops.
Meanwhile, new countries are entering the market for vanilla. These include countries such as Uganda and Tanzania that have been encouraged by agencies such as USAID to cultivate this high-value labor-intensive crop for export. At $20/kilogram, the value doesn’t seem so very high for all the labor involved. And, in fact, the Fair Trade minimum price at the source is about $40/kilogram (where today’s higher market prices are headed) plus a $6 premium for local community development, for a total minimum price to the buyer of $46/kilogram.
Datamyne’s trade data confirms vanilla’s flat-line price and the fall-off in vanilla shipped from Madagascar to the US, the world’s largest consumer of vanilla, over the last five years.
The data on last year’s imports indicates the rising significance of Uganda’s vanilla exports (10.5% in 2011 compared to 8.8% in 2010) as well as the success of USAID. Tanzania, another USAID beneficiary, also makes the top five, in its very first year of exporting vanilla to the US.
Top US importers, based on first-quarter volumes, are Roukia Trading; Firmenich Inc.; Tripper, Inc.; Dammann & Co., Inc.; and Peru Food Import, Inc. To find out what else you can learn about vanilla – or any other ingredient in trade – contact us, or speak to one of us by clicking “live chat” on our homepage.


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Most people who purchase Obamacare coverage in California will be faced with a moderate increase in what they pay for health insurance next year, and many could actually see price decreases if they shop around, officials said Monday as they announced proposed rates.
Covered California, the nation's largest state-run Obamacare marketplace, will also add two new insurers to the 10 that already sell plans on that exchange, who are all returning next year.
Premiums for plans sold on Covered California will rise an average of just 4 percent on a statewide weighted basis in 2016, the third year of Obamacare enrollment, which begins Nov. 1, officials said. That compares to a 4.2 percent average increase statewide for plans that are in effect this year, which have about 1.3 million customers.
"This means the majority of Covered California consumers will either see a decrease in their health insurance premiums or an increase of less than 5 percent if they choose to keep their current plan," the exchange said in a press release.
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"In addition, consumers can reduce their premiums by an average of 4.5 percent, and more than 10 percent in some regions, if they shop around and change to the lower-cost plan with the same metal tier."
Obamacare plans are grouped by metal tiers—platinum, gold, silver and bronze—which reflect both their relative cost to consumers, and the amount of health benefits a plan covers compared to what an enrollee pays out of pocket.
Platinum plans tend to cost more than gold plans, which as a rule cost more than silver plans, and so on. Platinum plans also pay the largest share of medical costs incurred by consumers, with the percentage of covered services decreasing along with the relative prices of the metal tiers.
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The exchange touted those moderate rate increases, contrasting them with the 9.8 percent average price increases seen between 2011 and 2014 in California's individual health insurance market. Obamacare plans took effect in 2014.
"This is another year of good news for California's consumers and further evidence that the Affordable Care Act is working," said Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange. "Covered California is holding the line on rates and keeping coverage within reach for hundreds of thousands of consumers, while giving them more choices than ever before."
However, the news is not good for all California Obamacare customers, as some will see much higher price hikes. In the region that encompasses the counties of Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz, Covered California consumers will be faced with a 12.8 percent price hike, on an unweighted average basis, and customers of popular "silver" plans are looking at a 14.3 percent increase.
Lee highlighted the exchange's role as an "active purchaser," meaning that it haggles with insurers over the premiums they will charge on the exchange, in contrast to most other Obamacare markets.
"If you really want to see the potential of the Affordable Care Act, California is a good test case as a state that is using all the tools available to us," he said.
Lee noted "these are preliminary rates," and have yet to be reviewed by regulators—a process that will take two months.
Covered California said that the lowest-priced silver plans in the exchange—which cover about 70 percent of medical costs—will see an average, nonweighted price increase of 1.5 percent. Silver plans are the most popular plans on Obamacare exchanges.
The lowest-priced bronze plans, which cover about 60 percent of medical costs, will see prices rise by an unweighted average of 3.3 percent, according to the exchange.
Covered California customers in the southern part of the state will see lower average rate increases than in the northern part, a disparity that Lee said reflected greater competition among health providers and insurers in Southern California.
Obamacare customers in Southern California will see, on average, 1.8 percent increases in the weighted prices of their current plans next year, Lee said. The average premium in Southern California will be $296 per month, without subsidies, the exchange said.
That compares to the average 7 percent price increase that Obamacare customers will see in Northern California. This is on top of premiums that are already 30 percent higher in Northern California, Lee said.
The average premium in Northern California next year will be $384 per month, without subsidies.
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Nearly 90 percent of Covered California's customers received federal subsidies to help offset the cost of their premiums. The average amount customers actually paid this year for coverage, after subsidies, was $150 per month, Lee noted.
He highlighted several areas of the state were average prices will rise less than the statewide average.
They include Los Angeles County, the most populous region in the state, where average weighted prices will rise by less than 2 percent. Customers there who are willing to switch to the lowest-priced plans in a metal tier "could see premiums go down to 11 percent" less than current prices, Lee said.
In San Bernardino County, Lee said, prices will go up by 1 percent on an average weighted base, with customers willing to change to the lowest-priced plans seeing average price drops of 12 percent, Lee said.
Covered California also announced that two new carriers will be selling plans on the marketplace in 2016: From UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation's largest insurers, and from Oscar, a small New York-based insurer that was started because of the new markets created by the Affordable Care Act. California will be just the third state where Oscar sells plans, in addition to New York and New Jersey.
The exchange noted that 99.6 percent of customers will have three or more insurance carriers to choose from, up from 92 percent, and that "consumers will have access to more hospitals with more plans."