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Several world-class seaports will be put into operation in the next several years but cranes and wharfs are not enough. Surrounding infrastructure and service facilities that enable fast customs clearance and low costs for moving goods are essential if Vietnamese seaports are to hope to become transhipment ports for the region and the world.
Ports wait for roads
Southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, it’s planned that the Cai Mep-Thi Vai port complex, extending nearly 30 kilometers from Cai Mep in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province to Go Dau in Dong Nai Province, will become an international gateway port, one of the most important in Vietnam.
For the present, however, cargo from Ho Chi Minh City and nearby provinces can reach the port complex only via narrow National Highway 51. Truck drivers complain about the road; the lane for two-wheeled vehicles is only a meter and one-half wide so bikes always run in the lane for cars, causing traffic jams and accidents.
Pham Anh Tuan is head of CP Planning Company, which was an advisor to the Portcoast unit that devised Vietnam’s seaports plan. Tuan says that in another four or five years the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port complex will be ready to welcome giant vessels of 50,000 to 80,000 deadweight tons. However, work on infrastructure -- roads, rail, telecommunications, water and power systems – is lagging, so the huge port will be slow to realize its potential.
A staff of the European Chamber of Commerce (Eurocham) in Vietnam blamed unsynchronized development of the seaport systems and road network for big cargo jams at the nation’s ports. He called it a big problem of Vietnamese seaports which needs to be quickly solved.
In southern Ho Chi Minh City, another significant complex of ports centered on Hiep Phuoc in Nha Be district is also waiting for roads. The Hiep Phuoc Port will be operational next year, but no road yet leads to it. All the construction materials are transported by waterway.
It’s a similar story at the Saigon Container Port, which opened in October 2009 but has been handicapped by a wholly inadequate surrounding road system.
Cat Lai Port in District 2 of HCM City handles up to 80 percent of the containers going to and from the southern provinces but – again no surprise -- provincial 25B leading to the port is potholed and overloaded. It is very common to see long rows of container trucks backed up on this road.
Cao Tien Thu, former director of Hai Phong port, said in other countries, seaports are linked to roads, railways and waterways but in Vietnam, seaports typically depend only on roads. Worse, road quality is poor, slowing the movement of goods. It takes trucks nearly three hours to navigate Highway 5 from Hanoi to Haiphong, though it’s not even 100 kilometers distance.
Service facilities at seaports also handicap Vietnam’s seaports. Tran Duc Minh, chairman of the Vietnam Shippers’ Council, recalls that Saigon was once called the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ and was a major port, served by ships from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, American and Europe and meeting all their needs.
Now, Minh says, services at all Vietnamese ports are poor. From pilotage and channel marking to ship supply and repairs to recreational opportunity for crews, the nation’s ports don’t measure up. Most ships stop in Vietnam only to unload or load goods for transhipment in Singapore.
Minh gave a concrete example: in Vietnam, it takes up to three days for a small container ship – only 1000 TEU – to unload and take on new cargo. By comparison, the world’s most modern ports can ‘turn around’ a 10,000 TEU ship in the same time. Every day a ship is in port in Vietnam costs it $2000-3000, so time is money.
Ngo Khac Le is the legal department chief at the Transport and Chartering Corporation (Vietfracht), a state company that was equitized in 2006. He says that the biggest problem of Vietnamese seaports is the way people work. “The state should insist that port employees do their jobs properly or be fired. If they feel some pressure, workers will treasure their jobs and their customers.”
Opportunity knocks at Van Phong
Van Phong Bay, north of Nha Trang City on the south-central coast, is the only place on Vietnam’s long coast capable of accommodating the largest oceangoing vessels, container ships which have a draft of 16.5 meters. The deepwater bay is located very near principal sealanes. Many believe it has great potential as a transshipment port, where large vessels would offload or take on cargo from smaller vessels.
Specialists from Petrotech Marine Consultants (UK) judged that Van Phong Bay’s location and structure are vastly superior to port locations in Singapore, Taiwan or Hong Kong.
Van Phong port’s development could benefit not only shippers, but also the local economy. Once established as an international transit port, Van Phong could regularly receive 6,000 TEU large ships carrying goods to the US and to Europe, and from there, their cargos could be redistributed throughout southeast Asia. Obviously, this prospect interests potential investors.
Van Phong port’s establishment obviously would make great changes in Vietnam’s seaport system. In that event, ships drawing up to twelve meters could dock at Cai Lan port (HCM City), while ships drawing ten meters could dock at Hai Phong’s new Dinh Vu port (currently Hai Phong Port can only handle smaller ships drawing up to seven meters).
Van Phong Port is expected to benefit nearby provinces as well. Already oil transit through the bay has brought in 1.5 billion dong annually. In November 2008, the Government approved development of a $4.5 billion petrochemical complex in the bay area, to serve the south-central coast and the Central Highlands.
Singapore and Hong Kong: the Van Phong scheme’s competition
While Vietnam is about to build two 690 meter wharves of 690m at Van Phong, Singapore has just completed an additional 18 wharves for big vessels, raising its annual cargo handling capacity from 24.8 million TEU in 2006 to 50 million TEU by 2018. Hong Kong plans to add 12 wharves to increase its capacity to 40 million TEU by 2020. In this context, speeding up construction of Van Phong Port is a must.
Experts note that Van Phong will have to compete not only with Hong Kong and Singapore, but also with many other ports, like Busan (South Korea), Shanghai (China), Gaoxiong and Keelung (Taiwan), Klang and Tanjung Palapas (Malaysia) and Laem Chabang (Thailand).
The $3.6 billion Van Phong International Transit Port plan developed by Vinalines (Vietnam Shipping Lines Corporation) has four phases:
Warm-up phase: construction of two 690 meter wharves, with a yard of 41.5 hectares, able to serve container ships up to 9000 TEU by 2013.
First phase (2015): four wharves for ships up to 9000 TEU and five wharves for other ships, spreading over up to 125 hectares.
Second phase (2020): with eight wharves for container ships up to 12,000 TEU and eight wharves for other ships, using 405 hectares in area.
Visionary phase: the port is complete. There are 25 wharves for container ships up to 15,000 TEU and 12 wharves for other ships. Facilities and storage spread over 750 hectares in area. Total wharf length has reached 11,880-12,590m. The port is served by a 20 kilometer road system and a spur line from the upgraded north-south railway.


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Tag: Hearthstone »
The Overwatch League is a pretty big deal. It's an attempt to really push eSports into the mainstream, by turning them into, well, regular sports. But slightly less sweaty. It's a lavish affair with teams from all around the world, and more fanfare than your average LAN party.
Now, currently mobile dominates the world in terms of revenue share. It accounts for just over 40% of all the money spent on games. That's the biggest single slice of the pie, and around ten percent more than console gaming makes. So why doesn't mobile gaming have its own Overwatch League?
2017 was a great year... for games at least. Putting together list of 10 of the best mobile games out there was somehow even harder than it was last year. After playing 350+ games this year and reviewing 213 of them for 148Apps though, I've somehow been able to put together a list of ten games that were my absolute favorites from this year. Check them out below.
Some of the biggest news coming out of Blizzcon 2017 this past weekend was the announcement of the newest Hearthstone expansion, Kobolds and Catacombs. It's the latest addition to the game following the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion that launched this past summer. There's a lot of info floating around out there, so we've gone and gathered up everything you can expect from Kobolds and Catacombs right here in one nifty article.
Halloween is certainly one of our favorite times for mobile game updates. Many popular titles celebrate this spooky season with fun festivities that can stretch from one week to even the whole month. As we draw closer and closer to Halloween, we'll clue you in on the best Halloween updates on the App Store. Here are four of the best thus far.
In a complete turnaround from this spring's Jungles of Un'Goro, Blizzard has announced Knights of the Frozen Throne, the next Hearthstone expansion. This expansion travels to icier climes and embraces Blizzard's undead villains.
A new thread on the popular video game rumor forum, NeoGAF, uncovered an interesting job listing over at Blizzard Entertainment. It appears the studio behindStarCraft, World of WarCraft, Hearthstone,andOverwatch is looking to bring on a new hire with mobile experience.
Hearthstone gets a new expansion, Journey to Un'Goro, in a little over a week, and they'll be welcoming the Year of the Mammoth, the next season, at the same time. There's a lot to be excited about, so Blizzard is celebrating in kind. Players will be treated to a host of daily rewards in the days leading up to Journey to Un'Goro'release. Here's what you can expect.
Diablo celebrates its 20th anniversary on December 31, and Blizzard is planning on going all out to commemorate the occassion with a series of events in a number of Blizzard games. Diablo, over its long lifespan, has cemented itself as one of the most iconic games in industry history. Fans will be treated to special content and limited-time items in Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, Diablo II, and, of course, Hearthstone to commemorate the event.
Esports is very likely the way of the future, with events for games like League of Legends and CS:GO drawing massive crowds, while millions of others sit at home streaming tournaments or playing on their own. It may seem like all of that excitement is only happening on PC and consoles, but you would be surprised to find that there are a few popular esports on mobile, too, and the field is growing.
CCGs, or collectible trading card games, have pretty much taken over mobile games at this point. Everyone's jumping on the bandwagon, and who could blame them? CCGs are fun for players and hugely profitable for developers and publishers. There's a wide array of CCGs devoted to beloved pop culture franchises, so of course a Plants vs. Zombies iteration was bound to pop up.Plants vs. Zombies Heroes isn't just another marketing ploy, though. Underneath the fun PvZ illustrations you're used to is a heavy duty card game that actually requires quite a bit of strategy to master.
But maybe you've already mastered it, and are looking for the next challenge. Look no further--we've drawn up a list of four other excellent CCGs to kill your time.

domain: news


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Apple now selling refurbed iPad minis, 4th-gen iPads in online storeSome months after the devices were released, Apple has begun selling refurbished units of both its iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad.
The refurbished mini and fourth-gen iPad are now available in Apple's online store. Customers can pick up a black 16GB iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular for $429 or a White 32GB Wi-Fi only model for $389.
Customers looking for a full-size iPad can pick up the fourth-generation iPad, which features an improved processor and compatibility with Apple's new Lightning connector standard. Refurbished fourth-generation models run from $449 for a white 16GB Wi-Fi only model to $679 for a black 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
On Topic: General
- Apple urges Supreme Court to end long-running Samsung patent case
- Apple CEO Tim Cook, VP Lisa Jackson to host Clinton fundraising event
- Microsoft lays off 2,850 more people in continued retreat from phones
- AppleInsider podcast talks Q3 earnings, more 'iPhone 7' rumors, 'Apple Car,' more
- Apple confirms plans for World Trade Center store in New York City


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Greg Dougherty will become the company's chief operating officer, and Charles Abbe, a member of JDS' board and chief operating officer of one of the company's business units, will retire.
Dougherty worked as COO of SDL before its union with JDS, and Abbe served as the chief executive of Optical Coating Laboratories before that company merged with JDS in February 2000.
The shuffling gives other former SDL top executives added responsibility. Don Scifres, the former CEO of SDL and co-chairman of JDS' board, was awarded the role of chief strategy officer in charge of the company's mergers, acquisitions and business development units, as well as the technology, human resources and legal departments.
JDS CEO Jozef Straus will take on the title of president of the company.
Epoch Partners analyst Mark Langley said the shuffling comes after some sweeping changes and challenges at JDS.
The company has merged with or acquired about 10 companies over the past two years and has seen its stock price soar to a high of $146.53 and fall to a low of $13.73 last April over the same time frame.
"It's certainly a different business environment, and it's not as much fun as it used to be," Langley said, adding that the erosion of the company's stock price and successfully integrating its acquisitions pose significant challenges for JDS.
The company announced plans to lay off 5,000 people last April, or 20 percent of its work force.
JDS makes parts for communications equipment made by companies such as Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks. These companies are experiencing a slump because their phone service carrier customers are buying less equipment, which also pinches JDS' sales.
One potential problem, according to Langley, is JDS' acquisition strategy during the boom times. "They've been very aggressive in making acquisitions for capacity, but it's not a capacity-constrained environment anymore," he said.
JDS bought so many companies in part because it needed the extra manufacturing capability, which made sense when times were good, but the recent slow times threaten to keep the recently acquired and costly plants running at less than full throttle.
The company switched to acquiring companies for their technology as opposed to their capacity, which puts it in competition with the hundreds of start-ups in the market, Langley said.
The recent pullback in venture-capital funding may help JDS, but staying ahead of new technology still remains a priority.
"The private sector threat isn't as great as it was, but it's still out there," Langley said.


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A digest of important news from sources selected by our local editors. Delivered weekday mornings.
American craft beer sales grew 15 percent in 2011 as the niche topped 5 percent of the national volume share for the first time, according to statistics released Monday by the Boulder-based Brewers Association (BA).
The continuing boom — following revenue jumps of 12 percent in 2010 and 10.3 percent in 2009 — comes even as major breweries have struggled amid the economic downturn.
Total U.S. beer market volume declined 1.3 percent in 2011 — while craft beer volume rose 13 percent, the BA reported.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that with the variety of styles and flavors to choose from, Americans are developing a strong taste for high-quality, small-batch beer from independent brewers,” said Paul Gatza, BA director, in a news release.
Craft breweries — defined as those that produce less than 6 million barrels of beer a year, are less than 25 percent owned by a larger alcohol maker and do at least 50 percent of their volume in all-malt beers — are a growing part of the Colorado economy. More than 130 exist currently in the state, and that number expands each month.
Such breweries nationwide sold $8.7 billion worth of beer in 2011, up from $7.6 billion in 2010, the BA reported. Production rose to 11.5 million barrels in 2011, a jump from roughly 10 million barrels made in 2010.
That production level represented 5.68 percent of the volume of U.S. beer market, up from 4.97 percent of the market that craft brewers captured in 2010.
Retail sales of craft beers, which typically are more expensive than beer made by mass-market breweries, represented 9.1 percent of the $95.5 billion U.S. beer market in 2011, the BA said.
Ed Sealover covers government, health care, tourism, airlines and hospitality for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Capitol Business" blog. Phone: 303-803-9229.
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On Tuesday, Apple announced that late last month, they closed a deal to acquire Intrinsity — the Texas-based chip maker responsible for the A4 chip used in the iPad.
Word has it that Intirinsity cast the voodoo that allowed the A4 chip in the iPad to clock up to 1Ghz without destroying battery life.
This dark magic is obviously attractive to other mobile device manufacturers, so it makes business sense for Apple to acquire this company.
Having wizards like this working for Apple would obviously help Apple develop chips in the future, too, and also helps keep future hardware developments “in house” and under the watchful eye of The Apple Secret Police.
This isn’t the first time that Apple have purchased a chipmaker: Apple purchased PA Semi in 2008. And with rumours of Apple considering purchasing ARM, it probably won’t be their last.
A more detailed dissection of the issue is over at TechCrunch.
[via The New York Times]


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msnNOW FACEBOOK censors pictures of children rallying against GMOs MINA In one of the most devastating acts of destruction of its own credibility, Facebook engaged in yet more censorship of Free Speech with the suspending of an account that posted...
So called experts that are supporting the push for GM salmon and meat use the concepts of world hunger as justification for production. World hunger is not a problem that stems from a shortage of food.
A blistering new Oxfam report debunks the theory that export crops are the best use of land in the developing world.
This idea dominates the marketing material of giant agrichemical firms like Monsanto. "In order to feed the world's growing population, farmers must produce more food in the next fifty years than they have in the past 10,000 years combined"...
The globe's farms are already producing enough food to feed 12 billion people—twice the current population and a third again more than the peak of 9 billion expected to be reached in 2050. Yet at least 925 million people lack access to enough to eat. What causes hunger isn't insufficient crop yields but rather people's economic relationships to food: whether they have access to land to grow it, or sufficient income to buy it.
Why Do Kids Vitamins Contain Aspartame, GMOs, Trans Fats & Hazardous Chemicals? Sayer Ji. Activist Post The #1 Children's Vitamin Brand in the US contains ingredients that most parents would never intentionally expose ...
The #1 Children's vitamin brand in the US contains ingredients that most parents would never intentionally expose their children to, so why aren't more opting for healthier alternatives? (A shocker? NO!
Commercial sun screens are full of chemicals that could be a bigger risk for developing skin cancer than the actual sun itself. Recent studies even link the development of skin cancer to the chemicals and ingredients found in sunscreen.
Foodopoly. It’s about the corporate control of every aspect of our food system, from how what we eat is labeled to the pesticides we’re exposed to.
We, the people, must reclaim our democracy. We must reestablish strong antitrust laws to begin the work of fixing our broken, corporate-controlled food system. Our food system should work for consumers and farmers, not big agricultural, processing, retail, and chemical conglomerates.
How has consolidation enabled Monsanto, Tyson, Nestle, Kraft, Cargill, McDonalds and other giant companies to write our food policy, and why is it about to get worse?
Foodopoly delves into the history of food and farm policy to explain how the food supply became so consolidated. For example, only four gigantic companies process 80 percent of the beef we eat, and only four retailers sell 50 percent of the groceries. Today, one out of every three dollars spent on groceries in the United States goes to Walmart.
The top 10 fast-food companies control 47 percent of all fast food sales. Together, these industries have commandeered local economies, and now it is clear that the era of family farmers and mom and pop stores has ended. What’s not as clear is the effect this has on our political system...
The biotech industry is working to prevent mandatory labeling for foods with genetically engineered contents...
The biotech industry, led by Monsanto, will soon descend on the state of Washington to try its best to defeat I-522, a citizens’ ballot initiative to require mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. Voters should prepare themselves for an onslaught of discredited talking points, nonsensical red herrings, and outright lies designed to convince voters that they shouldn’t have the right to know what’s in the food they eat http://www.salon.com/2013/04/23/monsanto_doesnt_want_you_to_know_what_youre_eating_partner/
READ THIS: BE WARY, VERY WARY INDEED
GMO CORPORATIONS TRY END RUN AROUND PUBLIC LABELING: A SNEAKY LEGAL MOVE KNOWN AS "PRE=EMPTION" http://sco.lt/71YtAf


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As the Apple and Samsung trial in San Jose, California draws to a close, Apple is arguing in a separate court that the Galaxy Nexus is a product of Samsung copying the iPhone to take market share away from them.
Apple has argued in an appeals court in Washington that the Galaxy Nexus smartphone is copying its Siri voice-controlled personal assistant, Bloomberg reports.
“This was the beat-Apple strategy. This was the top of the line, Cadillac phone they trotted out to compete with the iPhone,” an Apple lawyer argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, the publication says.
The comments come from Mark Perry of the Gibson Dunn law firm in the trial which is a rework of arguments previously heard in an Apple and Samsung trial in the northern district of California.
To answer, lawyer John Quinn of the Quinn Emanuel law firm hired by Samsung has said that the Galaxy Nexus did not hurt Apple as it only had “miniscule” sales, Bloomberg reports.
“This is a product that, at most, captured 0.5 percent of the market,” Quinn Said.
He added that “nothing in the record here would support a finding of irreparable harm” to the Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker.
According to Quinn, Samsung only managed to sell $250 million-worth of the Galaxy Nexus during the first two quarters following the release of the device.
By contrast, Apple has said in the past that it sold derived gross revenue of $16.2 billion during the fiscal third quarter of the company for 2012.
This is an important point being argued by the two sides in the appellate court in Washington. Apple is requesting that the Galaxy Nexus should be banned from being sold in the US.
For an injunction to be granted, Apple needs to prove to the court that it has suffered a substantial degree of damage because of the sales of the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
At the end of June, Californian District Judge Lucy Koh granted an Apple request to ban the Galaxy Nexus from being sold in the US based on the U.S. Patent 8,086,604 held by the iPhone maker. However, the injunction was later overturned.
Apple filed to ban the Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the US back in February.
This new appeal from Apple is significant as it not only puts Samsung in jeopardy but also threatens to drag Google directly into the court battle as the Galaxy Nexus is installed with an unaltered version of the Google-backed Android mobile operating system.
Images from TAKA on Flickr (CC)


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XAG (极飞科技), an agricultural drone and autonomous agtech vehicle producer, held its first overseas distributor conference from May 23 to 24 in China since the country lifted the Covid travel restrictions.
The conference brought together the firm’s distributors in Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea, Great Britain, Bulgaria, United Arab Emirates, Morocco and the United States, to its Guangzhou head office, with an aim to promote knowledge-sharing, market trend analysis and collaboration opportunities.
XAG is one of China’s largest drone suppliers and arguably the leader in agricultural application. Its products have been applied in 57 countries and regions across five continents.
As of December 31, 2022, nearly 110,000 units of XAG’s autonomous agricultural equipment were in active service, covering a total of 1.45 billion mu (966.67 billion sqm) of farmland and offering 194 million sessions of service to farmers.
Welcoming the guests at its headquarters, Justin Gong, co-founder of XAG, said that the only solution for future agriculture is to foster more technological application, more product innovation and more partnerships at a time when food security has emerged as a common challenge for mankind.
“We’ve seen how digital technologies will look like in the fields in the future,” said Gong. “This constantly inspires us to develop more smart devices to support sustainable agriculture.”
XAG is now looking to construct an infrastructure for digital agriculture, develop precision agricultural equipment and establish an intelligent agricultural ecosystem.
With improving functions and ease of use for our products, today agricultural drone has become a standard production tool in China, said Peng Bin, founder and CEO of XAG.
He added that in other companies, the gadget is also gaining popularity.
“We hope to build stable trust-based relationships with overseas partners, starting with drones, and bring the Chinese experience to global markets, to ship more of XAG’s products to the world,” Peng told the audience.
Currently, XAG already boasts a product line extendig across a number of categories, such as agricultural drone, unmanned ground vehicle, autopilot console, remote sensing drone and agricultural IoT and smart agricultural system.
Going forward, XAG will continue to upgrade the product matrix and invest more resources to build up its localized service capacity, so as to bolster the confidence of its overseas partners, the company said in a press release.
As a highlight of this distributor conference, XAG showed the guests around its so-called Super Cotton Farm, where a suite of the startup’s intelligent agricultural products are showcased and utilized.
Participants even tried several of XAG’s agricultural drone models such as its P100 and V50 to learn about their application in a real-life farming scenario.
XAG’s technologies are now found in a wide range of use cases today, spanning field crops like rice, wheat, corn and cotton and cash crops tea, orange, sugar cane, coffee bean and cocoa all over the world.


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If you are a chocolate addict, we have good news. According to some recent studies, dark chocolate has brain-posting properties and it also reduces the risk of dementia, improves memory activities, and enhances the cognitive function.
For instance, experts have found
that a certain flavanol that is found in cocoa beans called epicatechin has
amazing cognitive benefits. Additionally, chocolate has been found to alleviate
the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and can make you feel happier and calmer
as it boosts your levels of serotonin, the feel-good chemical.


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MUMBAI: Tata Motors in Indian commercial vehicles (CV) market will face strong competition from global brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Navistar, according to the the company's chairman Ratan Tata.
The automaker is creating a new line of fuel efficient CVs to compete in this segment.
Tata said, “In the coming years, Tata Motors' predominance in commercial vehicles will be challenged by the entry of international brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Navistar, which have all entered, or are in the process of entering India.”
During the fiscal 2011-12, Tata Motors enjoyed a market share of 58.45% in the Indian commercial vehicles segment which was at 8,09,532 units. The firm has been followed by the Indian companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra (15.69%) and Ashok Leyland (11.01%).


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Google allows publishers to be more flexible with ads
The company's Funding Choices scheme means it can ask people using ad-blockers to pay for content
Google has responded to publishers' concerns about people using ad-blockers, by permitting them to ask users with the blockers installed to either pay for content or enable advertising.
Called Funding Choices, the new initiative makes it fairer for publishers that are being negatively impacted by people blocking ads in their browsers. For some publishers, this is their only income and it's having a knock-on impact on website finances.
However, Google also understands ads can be annoying for users and so wants to allow them to choose between viewing ads or paying to view content.
"As part of our efforts to maintain a sustainable web for everyone, we want to help publishers with good ad experiences get paid for their work," Google's Sridhar Ramaswamy, senior vice president of Ads and Commerce said in a blog post.
"With Funding Choices, now in beta, publishers can show a customized message to visitors using an ad blocker, inviting them to either enable ads on their site, or pay for a pass that removes all ads on that site through the new Google Contributor."
He added that Funding Choices is now available to publishers in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, with plans to roll it out to other countries later in 2017. It will continue working with the Coalition for Better ads to ensure publishers aren't placing annoying ads on their sites that will ruin the user experience and this could mean more changes coming soon.
"We believe these changes will ensure all content creators, big and small, can continue to have a sustainable way to fund their work with online advertising," he wrote.
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Global demand for diamond jewellery grew 7 percent in dollar terms over the first quarter of this year in a year-on-year comparison with 2017, according to research conducted by ALROSA. The miner said the growth could be attributed to a combination of increased consumer demand and the strengthening of other currencies against the dollar. The Asia-Pacific region recorded the strongest growth at 11 percent, mainly due to growth in mainland China along with stronger demand in Hong Kong and South Korea that was fuelled by increased tourist traffic.The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 20 percent of global diamond jewellery demand in 2017. US and Canada sales grew by 5 percent. ALROSA sees this as significant as the US accounted for 53 percent of global demand in 2017. Japanese demand grew by...
Dominion Diamond Mines has announced the auction of its latest production of fancy colour rough diamonds along with stones over 10.8 carats in co-operation with I. Hennig Tenders. Viewings for the auction will be hosted by I. Hennig Tenders and are scheduled in Antwerp from July 5 to 11 and in Ramat Gan from July 15 to 18. The online auction event will take place on July 19.Participation is strictly by invitation only. Dominion said that the most recent production from the Misery kimberlite pipe of its Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada has delivered a quantity of exceptional yellow fancy colour stones, which will be presented for sale at the upcoming auction. Dominion plans to expand the Ekati mine by developing an underground operation below the Misery kimberlite...
ALROSA announced it had sold 111 large gem-quality diamonds weighing a total of 1,725 carats for $10.5 million at its auction in Dubai from May 27 to June 14. Each individual diamond weighed more than 10.8 carats — what ALROSA calls ‘special sizes’. Winning bids were placed by 32 firms from India, Belgium, Israel, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. The auction was the third this year. "The auction has concluded with excellent results for us, with the starting price being almost doubled. This once again confirms that diamond market participants are still interested in our products. We plan to hold the next auction in Dubai in October-November this year," said Evgeny Agureev, Director of the United Selling Organisation (USO), ALROSA’s rough diamond sales arm.
The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) announced that its Scientific & Technological Research Centre for Diamonds (WTOCD) has developed a technology that fully automates the diamond polishing process and opens up the possibility of diamonds once again being polished on a large scale in Antwerp. According to a AWDC press note, FENIX, the new, fully automated technology, which has been 10 years in development, enables diamonds to be polished between 10 and 20 times faster than the current manual system. A stone, that would typically consumer and entire day in processing, can now be polished in one and a half hours, the AWDC said. AWDC Chief Executive Ari Epstein commented, “This discovery fundamentally changes the diamond polishing process. Today’s wages simply make it too expensive to...
French luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has launched a dedicated jewellery section on its online retail portal 24sevres.com. The web retailer, which sells fashion items from LVMH’s own labels along with those of competitors like Italian brand Valentino, said the dedicated jewellery section would feature product from 13 brands. Prices for jewellery will range from $90 to $2,500. A study by Bain found that the jewellery segment grew faster than any other in the luxury goods sector barring shoes, clocking a 10 percent rise in constant currencies to €17 billion ($19.64 billion) in 2017. Rival Richemont, which owns the Cartier brand among others, is also boosting its web presence as high-end jewellery and watches increasingly find customers online. Richemont’s online retailer Yoox...
The Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), the state-owned entity that now controls all diamond mining in the country, is looking at securing $200 million in foreign direct investment while also ploughing in another $200 million from its own diamond sales earnings to bring the country’s rough diamond output up to 10 million carats a year by 2023. Stating this, ZCDC Chief Executive Morris Mpofu said that the strategy, contained in the company’s Diamond Value Management (DVM) plan, will primarily target exploration given that Zimbabwe’s easy-to-mine alluvial deposits have been depleted. Thus apart from the famed Chiadzwa diamond deposits in Marange that are currently being exploited, the ZCDC would look at other areas in Chimanimani as well as known kimberlites in Chihota and Mwenezi...
Coloured gemstone producer Gemfields announce revenues of $71.8 million — what it termed an all-time Gemfields auction record — from its tenth auction of rough rubies held in Singapore from June 5 to 9. The rough rubies were from the Montepuez mine in Mozambique, in which Gemfields holds a 75 percent stake, with the remainder being held by local partner Mwiriti Limitada. Gemfields said that of the 86 lots totalling 629,893 carats, that were offered, 82 constituting 588,656 carats were sold, achieving an average price of $122 per carat. This, the company said, is a record for the its mixed quality ruby auctions.The ten Gemflelds auctions of Montepuez rubies held since June 2014 have generated an aggregate $407 million in revenues. This auction, which offered high, medium and commercial...
ALROSA announced it had sold $277.5 million in rough diamonds along with $10.5 million in polished in May. This brings the 2018 calendar year total to $2.26 billion in rough and $43.3 million in polished. ALROSA Deputy General Director Guy Okoemov commented, ”We continue seeing good demand for almost all assortments of our diamonds. There was a planned decrease in sales in May compared to the same month last year due to the sale of inventories accumulated by the beginning of the year. Along with this was a seasonal decline in the current production, mostly driven by mining suspension at some alluvial deposits in the first months of the year.”
Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS) has announced it will be holding a rough diamond tender from June 19 to 27 in Dubai’s Almas Tower. Two productions from South Africa and Angola will again be presented, with both productions being of high quality and high colour material. This rough diamond tender follows six previously successful tenders which have been very well received by the market and the offerings continue to grow in both caratage and popularity. While final details will soon be forthcoming from the producers, TAGS said it is expecting in the region of 25,000 carats of South African goods and 18,000 carats of Angolan goods across a full range of sizes with a combined value in excess of $40 million.


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Online poker players in New Jersey who play on their mobile device can now participate in a full slate of partypoker NJ games including multi-table tournaments (MTT’s) following a recent update to their mobile app.
As 2014 came to a close partypoker took to social media and hinted that significant changes were coming to the company’s mobile app in New Jersey, most notably that multi-table tournaments would be added.
— partypoker (@partypokerUS) December 22, 2014
On Monday, January 26, 2015 partypoker officially unveiled their new and improved mobile app for both iOS and Android, which included the long-awaited arrival of MTT’s. The upgrade is part of a larger effort towards what the company is calling, “a company wide ambition to enhance not only the availability but also the playability of partypoker’s poker games.”
“With this extensive new offering including juicy multi table tournaments for .com and in New Jersey there is now even more prize money to play for from your mobile,” Team partypoker’s Mike Sexton stated in the company’s press release. “We want customers to be able to play their favourite games at a time to suit them… If you’re sat on the bus or in the bath, this app will bring the party to you when you’re ready to play,” Sexton added.
The partypoker mobile app
In addition to MTT’s the partypoker New Jersey mobile app also allows for:
- Seamless device transition for game play – start on desktop, finish on your IOS/Android device, or vice-versa.
- Easy table filtering for stakes (high, medium, low), speed (turbo & standard) and format (head’s up, short-handed and full-ring) and quick play options.
- Shared liquidity with the desktop clients, so players can access our full range of Texas Hold’em MTT, SNG and cash games.
- Various SNG types, including standard, “Double or Nothing” and “Coinflip” tournaments.
- Automatically re-join active SNG, MTT upon login if the app is shut down.
- Qualify for live World Poker Tour events through online satellites on your mobile.
- Support for real and play money games.
For more information on partypoker’s New Jersey mobile app you can visit their official website.
Immediate impact of partypoker’s new app
Despite the lack of MTT’s in their mobile offerings, and despite competitors like WSOP.com offering MTT’s on their mobile app, partypoker has dominated online tournament poker in New Jersey nonetheless.
Up until very recently, partypoker was also the top site for cash game traffic, a run that ended when 888 and WSOP.com began sharing players at select tables. This pooling at WSOP.com and 888 saw their cash game traffic vault past partypoker/Borgata according to PokerScout.com, which had led the industry in overall cash game traffic since the industry launched in November of 2013.
partypoker’s new app should cement their place as the top tournament site in NJ (partypoker/Borgata offers a $50k Guarantee every Sunday while WSOP.com’s largest weekly tournament is the $25k Guarantee), and could potentially lead to some spillover to the site’s cash game tables as well.
Mobile is being touted as the platform of the future for online gaming, and companies are putting a lot of emphasis on building solid mobile products and promoting their mobile platforms. According to Caesars Interactive’s Seth Palansky, mobile currently encapsulates 26% of the online poker players at WSOP.com, so it’s not hard to envision mobile overtaking PC as the platform of choice in the not so distant future.
As this changing of the guard occurs, the companies that deliver a cutting edge, user-friendly, mobile app will set themselves up for future success.
Furthermore, if things progress as expected, partypoker will soon have to deal with industry leader PokerStars in New Jersey as well, and the more wrinkles they are able to iron out before squaring off against the online poker giant the better. A mobile app without MTT’s would have been yet another reason for potential players to choose PokerStars over partypoker.


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Marks & Spencer has announced plans to close another eight stores in a move impacting 468 jobs - but Teesside outlets have been spared the axe.
M&S said staff will be offered redeployment at other stores before redundancy is considered.
The eight stores earmarked for closure are in: Andover, Basildon, Bridlington, Denton, Falmouth, Fareham, Keighley and Stockport.
M&S has main outlets in Middlesbrough, Stockton and Teesside Shopping Park.
It also has food-only stores at Cleveland Retail Park and Guisborough.
In 2016 the firm’s Stockton High Street outlet was named as one of the most at risk of closure, according to Local Data Company.
The retail research firm named it as one of 35 towns and cities that have more than two M&S stores either on the high street, in a shopping centre or on the edge of town in a retail park.


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nTitle signs Team Dutch Gaming esports sponsorship deal
Blockchain game platform spreads its marketing wings
The worlds of esports and blockchain are growing closer and closer.
Over the course of July, major names in blockchain gaming have come out in support of a number of competitive esports teams. The most recent example of this was BUFF’s announcement it was sponsoring Digital Devils in the now-concluded Mobile Legends tournament, the latter of which ran first runner-up in the finals of the tournament.
Now, nTitle, the gaming marketplace built on Ethereum, has announced it too would be sponsoring an esports team, specifically Team Dutch Gaming.
nTitle sponsors Team Dutch Gaming
In its recent Medium post, nTitle – which is based in Amsterdam – stated that its decision to sponsor Team Dutch Gaming was due to the latter being an ‘up and coming team’, which coincides with a fast-growing esports industry that nTitle wants to appeal to.
“We look forward to helping TDG fulfill their great potential as a top esports team, while TDG will help promote nTitle’s soon to be released blockchain-based racing game, nTitle Fury.”
Along with its new sponsorship, nTitle recently published its company White Paper, which outlines the companies long-term plan, with obtaining the appeal of the esports community being one of them.
You can check out what nTitle’s up to and read the White Paper via its website.
And continue the discussion in our Telegram group and don’t forget to follow BlockchainGamer.biz on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Comments are closed.


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A picture of a customer service assistant on Apple’s website who sports a long hair braid has sparked a tangled debate in China, with some online observers criticising the tech giant for promoting a humiliating reminder of the Qing dynasty.
The controversy began on September 17 after an unidentified online observer said the image of an Apple Watch specialist on the tech giant’s official website was an “insult” to Chinese people, news site ifeng reported.
Between the 1600s and the early 20th century, men of the dominant Han ethnic group in China were ordered by the Manchu emperors to shave their heads and wear a pigtail, or braid, on the back, called a queue.
The hairstyle, regarded as a sign of submission, is a reminder of a humiliating chapter of Chinese history.
The queue hairstyle was also worn by the fictional character Dr Fu Manchu, a supervillain created by the British novelist known as Sax Rohmer, who used the character to propagate “yellow peril”, in which people of East and Southeast Asia were portrayed as a menace to the Western world.
However, ifeng reported that the specialist portrayed on the Apple website is in fact an indigenous person wearing a traditional hairstyle.
The image is featured on various Apple regional websites to promote the company’s employment diversity and is not targeted at Chinese customers, according to the report.
Some online commenters have insisted that Apple should have more “sensitivity” towards its different customer groups. But others ridiculed those who have claimed to be insulted by Apple as overreacting.
“An international company should know the taboos of customers from different countries,” said a person on Weibo.
“Are your hearts made of bubbles?” an observer retorted on Weibo, implying that they were easily insulted.
“Those who think this photo is an insult are the real discriminators,” another person commented.
Apple’s newly released iPhone 15 series is enjoying strong demand in China, with deliveries for some popular models pushed to October or November following September presales.
The company had not responded to the controversy at the time of writing.
Chinese customers who say they are patriotic have little tolerance for content they say is insulting to Chinese people.
Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana is still feeling the heat from a 2018 promotional video that featured a Chinese model clumsily attempting to eat pizza and spaghetti using chopsticks while mispronouncing the brand’s name. The video was labelled a mockery of the Chinese accent.
In 2021, the Chinese snack brand Three Squirrels was berated online over an advertisement that featured a Chinese model with what was perceived as “overly slanted eyes”. Critics blasted the model’s image for playing to Western stereotypes about Asian faces.
In an article, Chinese researcher and commentator Hou Qijiang described such overreactions to certain physical features as a “stress response to historical anti-Chinese racism”.
“We could have gracefully regarded slanted eyes as beautiful, instead we are ashamed of saying that because the Western world has defamed them,” Hou wrote.


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Polo clothing and accessories company, UberPolo – until now only available online – has opened its first shop, in Surrey.
The shop, in Haslemere, had its official opening on Friday 14 October.
Several members of the local polo community turned out to show their support, including Sarah Wiseman, manager of Hickstead Polo Club and Sussex Polo Club’s Sallie-Anne and Duane Lent.
UberPolo’s owner, Leigh-Anne Moore, said it was “great” to have a “destination shop in the high street” after being purely online for over three years.
She added: “The shop has also enabled us to stock a more diverse range of products including gifts, jewellrey and Argentine handbags – which appeal to both players and non-player alike.”
UberPolo is at 13A Lower Street, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 2NY 01428 642671
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10-5pm.
For more information, visit www.uberpolo.com


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Brynwood Partners has formed Hometown Food Company to acquire a portfolio of food brands, with total annual revenues estimated at $200 million, from The J.M. Smucker Company for approximately $375 million.
The acquired brands include the exclusive US rights to Pillsbury’s shelf-stable baking products, including Funfetti, along with the Hungry Jack, White Lily, Jim Dandy and Martha White brands. Funfetti and Hungry Jack are leading national brands in the shelf-stable baking and breakfast categories and White Lily, Jim Dandy and Martha White are regional brands known for flour, cornmeal and grits.
This transaction included the acquisition of a 650,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Toledo, OH with 255 full-time employees. Hometown Food is headquartered in Chicago (www.hometownfoodcompany.com).
Upon closing of the transaction, Hometown Food hired Daniel Butler as its President and CEO. Most recently, Mr. Butler was President and CEO of Woodridge, IL-based Wilton Brands from March 2014 to January 2016. Wilton is a distributor of baking and paper crafting products including scrapbooking, card-making materials, needlecraft, paint-by-number and rubber stamping. From August 2004 to December 2009 he was the President of US Smokeless Tobacco Company, a subsidiary of publicly-traded Altria Group, a maker of dipping and chewing tobacco under the brands Copenhagen, Skoal and others. Earlier in his career, he was with Kraft Foods for 17 years where he held senior level sales, marketing and general management positions.
In addition to Mr. Butler, the company has hired Tim Young as Chief Financial Officer, David Meltzer as Executive Vice President of Sales, and Dan Anglemyer as Chief Marketing Officer. Most recently, Mr. Young was with publicly-traded Treehouse Foods (NYSE: THS); Mr. Meltzer was with Richelieu Foods (acquired in November 2017 by German frozen and chilled pizza maker Freiberger from Centerview Partners); and Mr. Anglemyer was with Back to Nature Foods Company (acquired in September 2017 by publicly-traded B&G Foods from Brynwood Partners and Mondelēz International).
Hometown Food ultimately expects to employ approximately 50 people in its Chicago headquarters and has come to agreements with several other senior-level executives and continues to seek to aggressively build out its team.
“We are pleased to announce the closing of the Hometown Foods transaction and the hiring of an exceptional and experienced executive management team,” said Henk Hartong III, Chairman and CEO of Brynwood. “We are excited to have a very talented management team in place at the closing and will be off to a fast start with the new company. We are looking forward to working closely with Dan and his team to bring focus and energy to this business and to execute on our strategy to grow these great brands in the years to come. Additionally, as we have done so successfully in past portfolio company investments, we will aggressively seek to identify and make add-on acquisitions where they fit our strategy.”
Brynwood is an operationally-focused private equity firm that makes control investments in North American-based lower middle market companies. The firm targets non-core brands or companies operating exclusively in the consumer sector. Since its founding in 1984, Brynwood has acquired 52 brands from 19 different corporate sellers. In January 2018, the firm held a final close of its latest fund, Brynwood Partners VIII LP, with $649 million of committed capital. Brynwood currently has $1.1 billion of total capital under management and is based in Greenwich, CT (www.brynwoodpartners.com).
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | September 4, 2018


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- Web Desk
- 12 Minutes ago
India’s July edible oil imports at record high
- Web Desk
- Aug 02, 2023
MUMBAI, (Reuters): India’s edible oil imports in July rose to a record 1.76 million metric tonnes as refiners built up stocks for upcoming festivals given uncertainty over supplies from the Black Sea, five dealers told Reuters.
Higher purchases by the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils could help to lower palm oil stocks in Indonesia and Malaysia and support benchmark futures FCPOc3. They would also strengthen soyoil futures BOc1 and could reduce inventories in sunflower oil-producing Black Sea countries.
India’s average monthly edible oil imports in the 2021/22 marketing year were 1.17 million tonnes, the trade body Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said. In June, India imported 1.3 million tonnes of edible oils.
Palm oil imports increased from 683,133 tonnes in June to 1.09 million tonnes in July, the highest in seven months, according to average estimates from the dealers.
Palm oil’s discount over soyoil and sunoil widened and prompted refiners to increase purchases for the upcoming festivals, Sandeep Bajoria, CEO of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil brokerage and consultancy firm, said.
The SEA is likely to publish its July vegetable oil import data by mid-August.
Because of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, importers are maintaining substantial oil reserves to ensure they are well-stocked and avoid any potential shortages, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at GGN Research, an edible oil trader and broker.
Sunflower oil imports leapt by 73% from a month earlier to 330,000 tonnes, the highest in six months, while soyoil imports fell 22% to 340,000 tonnes, dealers estimated.
Soyoil imports were lower than expected in July, as a delay in berthing meant some vessels could not be unloaded at Kandla port, Patel said.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.


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Australian food-tech start-up PERKii has raised $3 million from a funding round comprised of existing shareholders and led by research commercialisation fund Uniseed.
As well as driving local market expansion, the funds will enable PERKii to establish production of its technology in the US.
The start-up uses its patented ProGel technology to produce what it claims is the world’s first water and juice encapsulated probiotic drink.
Its first drink range was launched in mid-2016 and is now sold in over 2,000 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
CEO Matthew Kowal said: “While people are now increasingly aware of the benefits of probiotics, the format and the performance in the digestive tract of existing products have been limited – up until now.
“Using the patented ProGel technology, PERKii makes probiotics better. We coat the probiotic in natural ingredients to provide protection through the stomach, creating a delicious, low calorie and fermentation-free drink.
“We’ve chosen a globally-recognised strain of probiotic shown to enhance immune response, digestive health and improve recovery time from cold and flu symptoms. However, the technology can be applied to any probiotic.”
Chairman Peter Devine added: “As the popularity of high-sugar, carbonated soft drinks continue to decline, we’re seeing a strong local appetite for “Better-For-You” beverages, such as PERKii’s range, using ProGel technology.
“And, of course, consumer demand for high quality probiotic supplements is strong as we learn more about how a healthy gut can positively influence overall health and wellbeing.”


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| Dec 16, 2012
Designing costumes so ingrained in popular culture that they still inspire Halloween disguises 30 years after they were created — Michael Jackson's "Thriller" jacket, Indiana Jones' signature outback slouch look and the unforgettable "College"...
| May 3, 2013
| 8:38 AM
No places matches the breadth and depth of Mexican restaurants we have in Southern California, except Mexico City itself – and maybe not even there. You can find the cooking of almost every region in the country here, crafted at street-corner taco...
| May 24, 2013
| 9:00 AM
Where do you want to go for dinner? That’s no longer just a theoretical question. Thanks to the early wish lists you created on our Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants page, we know precisely where you want to go.
Big surprise – the...
| Jun 27, 2013
| 10:15 AM
When Damiano Mr. Pizza, the family-run pizza parlor on Fairfax Avenue, shut its doors late last month after nearly 60 years in business, it quickly brought to light the tiff between building owners Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook, who together own well-...
| Jul 25, 2013
| 11:09 AM
Eric Hulme, executive chef at Tender Greens in Hollywood, discovered home brewing a few years ago, and he dove-in head first. He's just completed the kind of project that every home brewer dreams about: a collaboration beer with a local commercial...
| Aug 12, 2013
| 11:29 AM
Alma, the downtown kitchen that could, has been named the best new restaurant in the United States by Bon Appétit magazine.
Headed by 27-year-old chef Ari Taymor, who started cooking in pop-ups and partially funded through Kickstarter, Alma opened on...
| Jul 18, 2013
| 8:30 AM
Restaurants are in full bloom for summer. Here are some of the latest deals and restaurant happenings.
Live & Dine L.A.: Tickets are still available to the 11th annual Live & Dine L.A., a culinary extravaganza that celebrates L.A.’s best chefs and...
| Jun 29, 2013
| 7:30 AM
For the Record, 11:35 a.m. July 3: A representive from In-N-Out has verified that the Monkey-Style burger is not officially on the chain's unofficial secret menu. A follow-up post further correcting the information below can be found here.
| Mar 6, 2013
| 11:56 AM
Animal advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter Wednesday morning to Hot’s Restaurant Group asking the Hermosa Beach eatery to “swear off foie gras for good.”
In the missive, PETA said it...
| Aug 23, 2012
| 9:57 AM
In-N-Out, McDonald’s Corp., Jack in the Box, Burger King and other chains quickly cut ties with Central Valley Meat Co. this week after undercover footage from an animal welfare group showed cows at the California slaughterhouse seemingly tortured...
| Jul 15, 2013
| 1:03 PM
Jimmy Kimmel has a new Mrs.! The late night talk-show is officially married.
Kimmel, 45, who hosts ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," tied the knot with longtime girlfriend and show co-head writer, Molly McNearney, Us Weekly reports and People confirms....


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Apple's shares, as many of you already know, have dropped 34% from its peak. Last week, the stock had a particularly bad day after Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company was lowering its guidance of fiscal first quarter revenue due to weak iPhone sales in China. The very next day, the stock crashed nearly 10% lower, and have struggled to recapture some of that lost ground since.
Well, it seems that Xiaomi, once known as China's Apple, is also going through a downward adjustment of its valuation. Over the last three days, shares of the company have dropped 17%, removing $6.2 billion of Xiaomi's market capitalization. The stock trades on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and closed today at HK$9.97 ($1.27 USD), its first close under HK$10.
The decline took root as brokerage house analysts following Xiaomi have cut the smartphone manufacturer's earnings estimates. Most cite the weaker economy in China and tougher competition from other Chinese firms such as Huawei. In addition, 3.9 billion shares that were purchased for as low as 2 Hong Kong cents from as far back as 2010 are now free to trade following the expiration of a six month lock up.
Xioami is now valued at $238 billion, and traded as high as HK$22.20 earlier this year.


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Soldiers in Korea will be given virtual reality games to destress and unwind.
Smilegate Stove, a Smilegate Group affiliate, said Wednesday it has begun providing VR games to soldiers at Camp 72 in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, in collaboration with telecom service KT, army-targeted leisure content provider K-Friends and VR content distributor Shilgam.
Soldiers at Camp 72 in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, test VR games. (Smilegate Stove)
Some 80 VR games are provided at each of the two VR game booths installed at the Culture Complex at Camp 72. This is the biggest scale of available content in Korea under legitimate copyrights, according to Stove.
The Ministry of Defense will consider expanding the Culture Complex to other camps after reviewing the effects of this pilot project.
The VR games will encompass virtual amusement rides such as rollercoasters, first-person shooter games, and VR sports, such as baseball, tennis, fishing, golf and dancing.
Stove will be responsible for service operation and content updates at the Stove VR platform. The Culture Complex will also be equipped with dart games, a cafe, karaoke and an outdoor busking facility.
By Lim Jeong-yeo (email@example.com


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CENTEGIX Announces Third Consecutive Year of 100% Growth
Demand for safety solutions across all verticals drives new revenue
ATLANTA, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CENTEGIX®, the industry leader in wearable safety technology, today announced significant business momentum throughout 2023. Driven by continued demand for CrisisAlert™ and adoption of its new solutions, CENTEGIX's recurring revenue and customer base grew 100% for the third consecutive year.
Accelerating demand for CENTEGIX safety solutions spans multiple verticals, including education, government, healthcare, and hospitality, as well as across all technology solutions.
CENTEGIX was named to the Inc. 5000 List for the third year in a row and is the only wearable panic button provider to make the list.
Significant Growth in Protecting U.S. Public Schools
"School districts in Florida continue to switch to CENTEGIX for Alyssa's Law compliance and the fact that 98% of staff members surveyed report they feel safer and more supported by their organization because they have a CrisisAlert badge and CENTEGIX's comprehensive solutions," said Brent Cobb, CEO of CENTEGIX.
Building Momentum in Healthcare
CrisisAlert™ Unique Capabilities Drive Market Leader Position
"Our purpose-built, easy-to-use wearable is the most used mobile panic button in the country," said Vince Zappa, CENTEGIX Chief Product Officer. "We have years of experience and customer feedback that contribute to the current design of our single button badge and the overall CrisisAlert solution that has delivered over 300,000 alerts."
CENTEGIX Safety Platform Uses Location to Accelerate Emergency Response
The cloud-based, integrated solution initiates the fastest response time to safety incidents campus-wide.
"CENTEGIX is making workplaces safer for millions of people," said Brent Cobb, CEO of CENTEGIX. "Our CENTEGIX Safety Platform™ is accelerating response times in situations where seconds matter. It's universally accepted that compressing the time to identify, notify and respond to an emergency is critical for positive outcomes."
To accommodate the growing customer base, the CENTEGIX team doubled in size in 2023, and the company invested in additional leadership, notably Jon Irwin, who brings over 25 years of experience scaling companies, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Customer Officer for Ring, an Amazon company.
To learn more about CENTEGIX technology solutions, visit www.CENTEGIX.com.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/centegix-announces-third-consecutive-year-of-100-growth-302067393.html


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By Dike Onwuamaeze
A recent research titled, ‘Transactional Accountability, Process Consistency and Operational Transparency- A Report on NAFDAC,’ has adjudged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) as one of the best performing MDAs in terms of satisfaction of its clients.
The report, which was carried out by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) with the support of the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) stated that: “In terms of satisfaction, 67 per cent of respondents claimed that they were satisfied with services rendered by NAFDAC, which is not a bad position for any regulatory agency in Nigeria.
“If you go by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations’ ODC survey on major government agencies in Nigeria, which is done every two years, you will find that the levels of dissatisfaction are very acute with some specific MDAs in the country. So, the NAFDAC is one of the better performing MDAs in the country.”
The findings of the survey, which was presented by the Co-founder and Executive Director of The Convention on Business Integrity (CBI), Mr. Soji Apampa, also showed that 60 per cent of the respondents claimed that the impact of transactional corruption on the percentage increase in their cost of doing business is between five per cent and 10 per cent.
The activities of the NAFDAC that were surveyed were laboratory analysis, product investigations, registration of products and obtaining permits.
The survey also showed that some respondents declined to make informal and un-receipted payments while others did.
The survey stated that 64.2 per cent of the respondent who indulged in informal payments did so to say ‘thank you’ and get their matter dealt with in a fast track manner.
“A smaller number did it to reduce liability having flouted the provisions of NAFDAC. Some already indicted paid to remove sanction while 7.8 per cent paid to get the ‘correct’ interpretation of the regulations and the laws,” Apampa said.
The President of the LCCI, Mrs. Toki Mabogunje, who unveiled the report of the survey during the virtual Public-Private Dialogue meeting that was organised by the LCCI in partnership with CBI and the CIPE, said that the aim was to foster effective regulatory support that could spur businesses to thrive in the Nigerian operating environment.
Mabogunje acknowledged the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the implementation of business enabling initiatives, which has resulted in the 39-point upward movement of Nigeria on Ease of Doing Business Index since 2016.
She said: “We are of firm belief that the (NAFDAC) as regulatory agency that interacts with all categories of businesses in Nigeria contributed significantly to the process leading to the aforementioned milestone.”
She, however, noted that a lot is required to improve the NAFDAC’s processes and operations.
Responding to the findings of the survey, the Director General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, said that NAFDAC frowns at and penalises the engagement of its staff, or any other person, as intermediaries.


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A wanted man has been arrested after his bid to evade police by hiding behind a shopping trolley failed.
An arrest warrant had been issued for the man after his failure to appear at court.
Police said he attempted to avoid detection by hiding from officers behind a shopping trolley in his girlfriend's flat.
A tweet at 4.56am on Thursday from King's Lynn Police said: "Good arrest for PC Fox after finding a wanted male who had a warrant issued for failing to appear at court.
"However, hiding behind a shopping trolley in his girlfriend's flat was a very poor effort."
Alternatively, you can sign up for our Daily Newsletter for the top headlines straight into your inbox.


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|FIFA World Cup set to return to Africa in 2030
|In 2030, the FIFA World Cup will unite three continents and six countries, inviting the entire world to join in the celebration of the beautiful game, the Centenary and the FIFA World Cup itself
|ZURICH, Switzerland, October 4, 2023/ — FIFA World Cup (www.FIFA.com) in 2030 set to unite the world in unique global celebration; Morocco, Portugal and Spain joint bid is the sole candidate to host FIFA World Cup 2030™; Centenary celebration and celebratory games to take place in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay; Member associations from AFC and OFC invited to launch bids for FIFA World Cup 2034™.
Following extensive consultation with all confederations and given the importance of marking the centenary of the FIFA World Cup™, the FIFA Council took key decisions in relation to the bidding and hosting of the Centenary edition of the FIFA World Cup in 2030 during its meeting held by videoconference from the Home of FIFA.In 2030, the FIFA World Cup will unite three continents and six countries, inviting the entire world to join in the celebration of the beautiful game, the Centenary and the FIFA World Cup itself.
The FIFA Council unanimously agreed that the sole candidacy will be the combined bid of Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, which will host the event in 2030 and qualify automatically from the existing slot allocation subject to the completion of a successful bidding process conducted by FIFA and a decision by the FIFA Congress in 2024. Additionally, having taken into account the historical context of the first-ever FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Council further unanimously agreed to host a unique centenary celebration ceremony in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, where the first ever FIFA World Cup took place in 1930, as well as three World Cup matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay respectively.“In a divided world, FIFA and football are uniting,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
“The FIFA Council, representing the entire world of football, unanimously agreed to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup, whose first edition was played in Uruguay in 1930, in the most appropriate way. As a result, a celebration will take place in South America and three South American countries – Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay – will organise one match each of the FIFA World Cup 2030. The first of these three matches will of course be played at the stadium where it all began, in Montevideo’s mythical Estádio Centenário, precisely to celebrate the centenary edition of the FIFA World Cup.”
“The FIFA Council also agreed unanimously that the only bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2030 will be the joint bid of Morocco, Portugal and Spain,” the FIFA President added. “Two continents – Africa and Europe – united not only in a celebration of football but also in providing unique social and cultural cohesion. What a great message of peace, tolerance and inclusion.“In 2030, we will have a unique global footprint, three continents – Africa, Europe and South America – six countries – Argentina, Morocco, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay – welcoming and uniting the world while celebrating together the beautiful game, the centenary and the FIFA World Cup,” the FIFA President concluded.
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text: Bell Aliant Inc. is expanding its FibreOP fibre-to-the-home network to Bishop’s Falls, N.L., this month, the company said. In a release Tuesday, Bell Aliant said it has invested $1 million to expand its fibre network to 1,650 subscribers in Bishop’s Falls. The company's fibre-based Internet and TV serviced offer Internet download speeds of up to 250 Mbps and uploads of up to 30 Mbps. Bell Aliant, which is controlled by owner BCE Inc., said last week that it also plans to expand its fibre-to-the-home network to 800,000 buildings in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, and Atlantic Canada by the end of 2013.


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You just lost another excuse to avoid eating salad.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it's safe to eat romaine lettuce again. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the growing season in the Yuma, Arizona, region is over. That's where the suspected E. coli contaminated lettuce came from.
The FDA says the last shipments of romaine lettuce from that region were harvested April 16 and only have about a 21-day shelf life. So, according to the CDC, it's unlikely any romaine from Yuma is still in stores or restaurants.
As of Thursday, there were 172 cases of illness related to E. coli in 32 states. One person died, and 75 people were hospitalized. More cases may still be reported to the CDC, though.


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Bank of England consultation paper is too coy about the consequences of a CBDC
The main reason that central banks are cautious about issuing central bank digital currencies is that they threaten to undermine the source of funding of the commercial banks, and therefore their ability to lend. It is hard to see how this risk can be avoided.
It is not surprising that the Bank of England, like other central banks, is taking a close interest in the privately issued digital alternatives to its privileged position that have proliferated since Bitcoin was first unveiled in 2009 – and especially the Stablecoins, backed by holdings of fiat currencies or commodities, that have sought to mimic fiat currencies on digital asset trading platforms.
On 12 March the Bank issued a discussion paper on a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The clue is in the name: a CBDC would, in essence, be central bank money in digital form. It is a potentially revolutionary step because the only way in which consumers and businesses can hold central bank money right now is in physical form: notes and coins. All the money in their bank accounts is lent to the bank they use. It is commercial bank money, not central bank money.
Which is why one of the biggest risks with a CBDC is that consumers and businesses would choose to hold deposits in central bank rather than commercial bank money, undermining the funding of the entire commercial banking system. With no funding from depositors, commercial banks could make no loans to borrowers. The central bank would have to do it instead. Is balance sheet would balloon to a size that dwarfs the impact of Quantitative Easing (QE).
As the consultation paper notes: “If significant deposit balances are moved from commercial banks into CBDC, it could have implications for the balance sheets of commercial banks and the Bank of England, the amount of credit provided by banks to the wider economy, and how the Bank implements monetary policy and supports financial stability.”
Doubtless some at the Bank of England are tempted by the prospect of the central bank dominating the manufacture of credit (commercial bank money) as well as central bank money. But it would mark a revolution in how the entire financial system operates, which the consultation paper is at pains not to endorse. The promise that a “any CBDC would be introduced alongside — rather than replacing — cash and commercial bank deposits,” is intended to be reassuring.
The paper says a CBDC does not have to be issued on to a Blockchain network, and that is obviously (and trivially, in this context) true. But for all the Blockchain-based issuance and trading platforms that have emerged, and so far struggled to take off, a CBDC is precisely what is likely to drive their ultimate success.
At the moment, their participants can trade on-platform in payment tokens only (such as Stablecoins). To gain access to fiat currency, they have to come off the platform and re-enter the conventional payments system paraphernalia of correspondent banks and real-time gross settlement systems (RTGSs). Which explains much of their limited impact.
The consultation paper envisages an alleviation of that problem rather than a solution. It describes a “platform” that the Bank would introduce and operate alongside its existing RTGS system. Banks and others – the paper uses the terms “payment interface providers” – would connect to the platform to provide payment services to consumers and businesses in CBDC.
These “payment interface providers” would provide – in the jargon created to reassure banks that their occupation in money transmission is not gone – “overlay” services such as “smart contracts” (to, say, pay dividends or interest payments on a particular date to investors) or “programmable money” (to trigger pay-outs if certain conditions are satisfied).
But it is hard to see how this re-intermediation of banks disintermediated by a CBDC can be contrived and made stable when £1 of CBDC equals £1 of bank deposit. To use the CBDC to make payments, whether on blockchain networks or not, consumers and businesses will have to hold it. That means selling commercial bank money for central bank money or, to put it more plainly, moving liabilities from commercial bank balance sheets to the balance sheet of the central bank.
The consultation paper implies that the Bank can prevent a rapid shift of money from bank deposits into CBDC. The commercial banks can offer higher rates of interest on retail deposits, for example, or seek (inevitably more expensive) funding in the equity, fixed income or money markets. Both options have obvious consequences for their net interest margins (unless they pass on the higher costs to their borrowers, which would price commercial bank credit out of the respectable end of the market).
No wonder the Bank of England insists in the consultation paper that the proposed platform is an “illustration” that nobody should take too seriously at this stage. Because it is hard to see how, if the Bank of England chooses to issue a CBDC, it can avoid going the whole way and becoming the primary source of credit in the economy. If you think the central bank is powerful now, imagine how powerful it will be then.
Written by Dominic Hobson – Co-Founder Future of Finance


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By guest author Elias Jahshan from Retail Gazette
- M&S confirms plans to make hundreds of staff redundant
- 950 jobs are at risk as part of plans to reduce store management and head office roles
- M&S’s ongoing transformation plan is being accelerated after being disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic
Marks & Spencer has confirmed that 950 jobs are at risk of being as part of plans to reduce store management and head office roles.
The high street retailer said the proposals would help move the company to “a leaner, faster retail management structure” as it accelerates its ongoing transformation plan, which had been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown.
M&S said it has started collective consultation with employee representatives and has set out plans to first offer voluntary redundancy to affected staff.
The retailer also said the cuts were set to impact roles in its head office, property and store management areas.
“Our proposals reflect an important next step in our Never The Same Again programme to accelerate our transformation and become a stronger, leaner and more resilient business,” M&S retail, operations and property director Sacha Berendji said.
“Through the crisis we have seen how we can work faster and more flexibly by empowering store teams and it’s essential that we embed that way of working.
“Our priority now is to support all those affected through the consultation process and beyond.”
M&S had furloughed 27000 of its 78000 employees under the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to discourage companies from laying off workers.
Thousands of them have returned to work since lockdown for non-essential retail was lifted last month, although the retailer did not provide a precise number.
M&S is also yet to confirm if it would reject the Chancellor’s recent offer of a GBP 1000 bonus for every furloughed employee who resumes working.
Speculation that M&S was planning on job cuts arose overnight.
The retailer also joins a fast-growing list of businesses that have announced redundancy rounds – whether they are part of a restructure or a wider insolvency process – as they try to mitigate the financial impact of the pandemic.
Other retailers that gone down this path already include John Lewis Partnership, Boots, Harrods, Ted Baker, Burberry, DFS, WHSmith, Arcadia Group, TM Lewin, Mulberry, Travis Perkins, The Very Group, Quiz, Debenhams, Monsoon Accessorize and Intu.


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Really? You dropped your cell phone in the urinal?
Really? Texting is more thrilling than your girlfriend’s striptease?
You may remember these scenarios from Microsoft’s “Really?” Windows Phone 7 ad campaign, which says “it’s time for a phone to save us from our phones.” But a gag-gift company says it got there first.
Cellrderm, which sells novelty Nicoderm-style patches to alleviate “cell-phone addition,” is suing Microsoft for copyright infringement over its “Bathroom Really” and “Bedroom Really” commercials. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company alleges Microsoft and its ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, ripped off two online Cell-R-Derm ads, with essentially the same scenarios.
“The Microsoft Commercials copy substantial copyrightable expression from the Cellrderm Commercials,” the company says in its legal complaint (PDF), filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Florida. “The Microsoft Commercials copy both the sequence of events and the character interplay found in the Cellrderm Commercials, which constitutes infringement of Cellrderm’s copyrights. The Microsoft Commercials also copy other copyrightable expression, including but not limited to clothing, gestures, character appearance, camera angles, and other visual elements from the Cellrderm Commercials.”
All four videos are below. You be the judge.
The “In the Bathroom” and “In the Bedroom” Cellrderm commercials were posted to YouTube in late 2009; Microsoft’s “Bathroom Really” and “Bedroom Really” ads didn’t surface until a year later. Cellrderm claims its ads gained some viral attention through various blogs, Facebook and Twitter; while the bathroom ad had about 35,000 views on YouTube as of 1:30 p.m. today, the bedroom video had just about 1,400 hits.
How similar are the ads? In its lawsuit, Cellrderm outlines a few similarities it thinks show copyright infringement.
By way of example only, both “In the Bedroom” and “Bedroom Really” begin with similar framing and angling of the camera on the man, as he texts and leans in bed against propped up pillows. The women in both commercials wear black camisoles and have dark hair and olive-colored skin. Both women cast similar surprised expressions and gesture with their arms at the men who have rejected them.
In “In the Bathroom” and “Bathroom Really,” both protagonists raise an eyebrow and look judgmentally at the cell phone user next to them who ultimately drops his phone into the urinal. At the moment the cell phone galls in the urinal, both commercials depict the cell phone user from his waist up, with the camera on his back, left side.
Microsoft declined to comment on the case. Cellrderm is asking for injunctions on Microsoft’s ads, a jury trial and monetary damages.
The original Windows Phone “Really?” ad also included elements from the bathroom and bedroom scenes:


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All Wetherspoon pubs to remain open, says company
and live on Freeview channel 276
The news followed a speech by the Prime Minister on Monday, when he urged people to avoid going to pubs because of the coronavirus crisis.
The chain said all of its 870 pubs will remain open at all times, unless the Government says otherwise.
In order to enable social distancing, customers will be asked to avoid standing at the bar, and asked to sit at alternate tables.
Wetherspoon said customer space in its pubs is three times the size of the average pub.
Other precautions include paying for drinks by card, more cleaning and regular updates to staff on hand washing and other personal hygiene controls.


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Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun joined Qualcomm's executive vice president Cristiano Amon at the Snapdragon Tech Summit in Hawaii to announce that the Mi 7 will be powered by the Snapdragon 845. Calling Qualcomm Xiaomi's "most important partner," Jun talked about the collaboration between the two companies, which stretches back all the way to the Snapdragon S3-powered Mi 1 from 2011.
Rumors from earlier this year suggested the Mi 7 would be one of the first phones to be powered by the Snapdragon 845. We don't know a lot about Xiaomi's upcoming flagship, but it is expected to feature a 6.0-inch Samsung-made display with thin bezels, and be available with 6GB and 8GB of RAM. Xiaomi is likely to unveil the device at Mobile World Congress.
As for the Snapdragon 845, all we know for now is that the chipset will be manufactured by Samsung Foundry, like this year's Snapdragon 835. With the week-long conference just kicking off, we should have more details on the Qualcomm's next-gen chipset in the coming days, so stay tuned.
Microsoft executive leaves after six years to become CEO of Magic Leap
Microsoft executive vice president of business development, Peggy Johnson, is moving on to become CEO of Magic Leap. The augmented reality startup experienced low sales figures with its first headset and shifted towards selling to businesses. Johnson's experience building business relationships may help the company's new goals.
Polar Grit X review: A sport smartwatch that's more hardcore than I am
There are plenty of smartwatches for casual fitness tracking, and then there are specialized super-capable watches meant to go anywhere and track everything. The Polar Grit X is in the latter camp, and it's a great value for the money if you need a rugged multisport watch that can do it all.
Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Note 20 on Aug 5 at virtual Unpacked event
The Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20+ are coming on August 5, right on schedule — and the virtual event should be plenty intriguing.
Your OnePlus 8 Pro deserves only the best screen protectors
We love the OnePlus 8 Pro, especially its 120Hz AMOLED display. A screen protector is installed on the phone out of the box, but if you find yourself needing a new one, here's what we recommend buying.


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Love retro game consoles? Ever wanted to wear one? Probably not, but we think these designs are heely cool.
Here's how you can stream games from your Xbox Series X/S to your PC or laptop via a network connection.
If you want to print small, detailed models at home and on a budget, the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro might be what you're looking for.
Days are numbered for Houseparty, the social video chat app that achieved overnight success during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The AnyCubic Photon Ultra features DLP technology used by jewelers and dentists to print faster, quieter and with more detail.
The Capsule USB microphone and accompanying boom arm offer an amazing plug-and-play experience for streamers.
Razer has taken an established concept and improved it, creating one of the best gaming mice on the market.
Designed to optimize product manufacturing and prototyping, the Multiplier by Mayku could change batch production forever.
EA has confirmed that the Spa Day DLC pack is being refreshed with some new features, and at no extra cost.
PC Gaming Week 2021 Ever wondered what a gemstone computer would look like? Probably not, but I made one anyway.
The Rapoo XW180 won't blow you away, but it's an affordable step-up from the webcam included in your laptop.
If you thought the Windows Insider program would let you run the new OS on older hardware, think again.
Microsoft has announced that Outlook on the Web will soon offer Tone Detection to help you write better emails.
Charities like AbleGamers highlight the importance of accessibility in games, and how you can do your part to help.
Microsoft Edge's Super Duper Secure Mode will help reduce the number of browser vunerablities for Mac users.
Renowned 3D printer manufacturer Elegoo is launching its biggest Resin printer yet through Kickstarter in early September.
Opinion In a survey conducted by Windows Report, over half of the poll participants said they're keen to upgrade to Windows 11.
Microsoft has warned Insiders that experimental builds will be released into the Dev channel, but some users have found they're unable to switch.


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The pandemic has, as with everything else this year, had a major impact on the biggest retail shopping day of the year: Black Friday. Though shopping online to skip the crowds has become increasingly popular, you would think that retailers have already put additional measures in place to keep customers safe this holiday season.
Last Friday, some OneDayOnly customers were left frustrated when trying to process their online orders due to site instability and temporary down time. While the technical team has been investigating these issues to ensure no repeats happen, and OneDayOnly is eager to give their customers the Black Friday deals they deserve.
Further to the upcoming Black Friday deals, and as a token of the e-tailers gratitude to their loyal customers, OneDayOnly is also including 3500 ‘surprise and delight’ free gifts to the value of R2 million for randomly selected shoppers from Wednesday, 3rd December to Tuesday, 8th December 2020.


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Stop Selling, Start ConnectingBusiness trends are changing. Customers are smarter and more connected than ever before. That means it's time to change how you sell to your customers, so start connecting with them and stop just selling to them.
Navigating The Web For The Best Deals On Cyber MondayGet prepared for big savings with these tips for Cyber Monday shopping.
How To Navigate The Best Deals and Sales This Holiday SeasonDon't get lost in the sea of sales, coupons, flyers and email lists. Take a little time to organize and you can save a bundle this holiday season.
Strong Labor Day Weekend Gives August Car Sales A BoostChrysler sales rose 20 percent. Ford sales flat. GM down 1 percent.
Some Fear Auto Industry Returning To Bad HabitsAs the auto industry strives to sustain its post-recession comeback, car companies are resorting to tactics that some experts warn will lead to trouble down the road.
May Car Sales Return To Pre-Recession LevelsGood weather and a strong Memorial Day weekend helped car buyers ignore reports of recalls, pushing car and truck sales up more than ten percent in May.
Best Ways To Save During The Holiday Sales RushThe race is on to be first in line for this year's best deals on holiday gifts: Black Friday is almost here. Every year, the stores open earlier in the wee hours of the morning, some even open at midnight after Thanksgiving Day, while other stores start the Black Friday sales on Turkey Day itself. If you're going to get up that early (on a day off, no less), it is important to be prepared.
The Voice Box: It's Getting Hot In HereWith temperatures hitting the 100's in St. Louis, the CBS Radio St. Louis sales staff hosted a "Heat Advisory" sale last week. It's SO hot, the rates are melting!


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Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and BMW race for U.S. sales
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 19, 2012
U.S. consumers are getting better deals on luxury cars and sport utility vehicles this year as the top brands clear out old models and race to be No. 1 in sales.
Toyota's Lexus division has led the rise in customer incentives. Lexus boosted discounts on its cars by 54 percent this year and its SUVs by 60 percent, according to researcher Mercedes-Benz increased incentives 11 percent and BMW by 6.9 percent, compared with a 2.2 percent gain in industry-wide promotions.
"You have these three brands that are all very close to one another and that's going to put incredible pressure on pricing," said Tom Libby, lead North American analyst for R.L. Polk & Co. "That's going to cause incentive wars."
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Lexus was the top-selling luxury-auto brand in the United States for 11 years, until BMW took the crown last year. Mercedes leads BMW by fewer than 2,000 vehicles through May and Lexus by more than 18,000. All have increased deliveries faster than the total U.S. light-vehicle market's 13 percent gain.
Lexus sees little chance of winning the U.S. sales race this year, said Mark Templin, Toyota's U.S. Lexus chief. The brand's goal is for 250,000 U.S. sales this year, less than 1 percent more than BMW's 2011 results. BMW sales are up 14 percent so far this year.
Lexus spent $3,734 on incentives per SUV sold in May and $2,855 per car, according to Autodata Corp. The average vehicle last month sold with $2,545 in discounts, up 11 percent from a year earlier, Autodata said.
The brand has been coaxed into using discounts as models such as the RX SUV, its only North America-built vehicle, get older and rivals roll out competing vehicles, Lyman said. Mercedes started selling a refreshed M-Class last year. GM's Cadillac SRX and even mainstream brands such as Chrysler's Jeep, which offers versions of its Grand Cherokee SUVs that can sell for more than $50,000, are challengers to the RX.
"Lexus is at the tail end of their life cycle for a lot of their volume products, and the competitive landscape has changed," Lyman said.


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Virgin Group appoints Yahoo! marketer to European role
By Sarah Shearman, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Tuesday, 27 March 2012 08:30AM
Virgin Group has hired James Tipple, former vice-president of marketing for Yahoo! EMEA, to the new role of brand director for Europe.
Tipple, who joined Virgin Group last month, left Yahoo! at the start of the year following a major restructure, which led to the decentralisation of the internet company’s global marketing function.
At Virgin, Tipple reports to Ian Rowden, partner and chief marketing officer for Virgin Group, who joined the company six months ago as a replacement for Catherine Salway.
Tipple’s responsibilities include seeking out potential new categories and regions for the Virgin brand to enter.
Under Rowden, Virgin Group’s brand team has undergone a restructure, creating brand director roles in regions including Australia and South Africa. The business is currently looking for a brand director for the US.
Tipple joined Yahoo! six years ago as consumer marketing director for Europe. Prior to this, he worked at Vodafone for six years, holding several roles including global marketing manager for Vodafone Asia.
This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk
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- 'You don't have to explain yourself if you are getting the job done,' says Tracy De Groose on work and motherhood
- Publicis Groupe extends deadline for Sapient deal again
- Lidstone exits Havas amid restructure


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Over the last couple of years, there have been a number of incidents with third party accessories – specifically batteries – causing issues(exploding) with smartphones, Samsung as one of the largest manufacturers has certainly born the brunt of the PR blowback as their products have been involved on a number of occasions, but Samsung is possibly looking to implement a new policy to fight this by ensuring that only ‘official’ Samsung accessories are used on their future Smartphones.
According to a report from Korean news site ETNews Samsung could be looking to embed a ‘chip’ of some description into their official accessories, that would authorise the accessory with the phone and prevent any un-authorised accessory from being used. According to the report this would affect anything from chargers and batteries to Smartcovers, although exactly what the ‘chip’ would entail is not specified, but some manner of NFC or RFID could conceivably be involved.
With Samsung selling the largest amount of Smartphones, they represent a rather large pool of third party accessories available in-store in Australian retailers and is quite a large market for third party manufacturers, any move away from allowing even third party covers would be a big step. It remains to be seen if this new idea will be implemented, but it’s interesting that they would consider it.
Will a policy enforcing use of ‘official’ accessories on Samsungs products change your mind on future purchases?