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Ball has designed the new recyclable aluminium cup as an alternative to the plastic cup
Sustainable aluminium packaging solutions provider Ball has selected sales and marketing agency Acosta for the retail and on-premise launch of its new recyclable aluminium cups.
In September 2019, the company launched the pilot of its infinitely recyclable Ball Aluminium Cups in the US.
The deal allows Acosta to exclusively represent Ball Aluminum Cups in retail and on-premise outlets, including grocery, drug and C-stores, food service, specialty channels, and select mass channel retailers, across the country.
Acosta CEO Darian Pickett said: “Our team is proud and eager to provide sales, analytic, retail and supply chain support to a global brand with a long legacy in the packaging industry, as they launch and accelerate the introduction of the aluminum cups into locations over the next year.”
The new aluminium cup can be recycled multiple times without losing quality
Designed as an alternative to plastic cups, the new aluminium cup can be recycled multiple times without losing quality.
According to the company, around 75% of aluminium regularly produced is still in use currently.
The lightweight, sturdy and cool to the touch aluminium cup helps to deliver a better beverage drinking experience to the consumers.
Ball Aluminum Cup is also said to serve as a more sustainable packaging option for retailers, entertainment venues and concessionaires.
Ball global beverage packaging chief operating officer and senior vice president Daniel Fisher said: “Their deep industry knowledge and cutting-edge technology will enable us to leverage the initial success of the Ball Aluminum Cup as we launch the brand into retail and on-premise outlets in 2021, and ensure that consumers have a more sustainable cup option when they shop.”
In March, Ball agreed to acquire Brazilian aluminium aerosol packaging business Tubex Industria E Comercio de Embalagens in a deal valued at around $80m.
Ball is engaged in the supplying of sustainable aluminium packaging solutions to the beverage, personal care and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services for the US government.


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On Tuesday, Facebook announced Calibra, its new digital wallet that is aimed to help people transact Libra — a cryptocurrency initially built by a group of people behind Calibra.
The idea behind building Calibra is to mainly fill the gap for people worldwide who don’t have access to essential financial services such as an active bank account. According to The World Bank, 69 percent of adults globally — approximately 3.8 billion — have access to financial services via a mobile wallet or a bank. These numbers were 62 percent in 2014 and 51 percent in 2011.
While 69 is undoubtedly an improvement over 51 percent penetration back in 2011, there are still billions of people who don’t have access to basic payment services of the modern era, and Facebook hopes to fill that gap too.
With Libra and Calibra, Facebook aims to tap into this growing market mobile payments and cryptocurrency. The social network already boasts of 1.5 billion daily active users and 2.4 billion monthly active users worldwide, which makes for a vast potential market for their new digital wallet.
The digital wallet for Libra, which is expected to be launched in 2020, will be available in Messenger, WhatsApp and also as a standalone app.
“Calibra will let you send Libra to almost anyone with a smartphone, as easily and instantly as you might send a text message and at low to no cost. And, in time, we hope to offer additional services for people and businesses, like paying bills with the push of a button, buying a cup of coffee with the scan of a code or riding your local public transit without needing to carry cash or a metro pass,” the company stated.
How Calibra functions? Is it safe?
Besides, Facebook will also provide live support for Calibra in case a user loses their password or phone. The company also mentions, “If someone fraudulently gains access to your account and you lose some Libra as a result, we’ll offer you a refund.”
Facebook is infamous for using user data for their gains and it won’t be much different in Calibra’s case. Post much backlash concerning privacy on the social network, Facebook prefers user consent. “Aside from limited cases, Calibra will not share account information or financial data with Facebook or any third party without customer consent.”
To put it simply, account information and financial data of the users will not be used for ad targeting across Facebook’s products, except in ‘limited cases’.
What kind of data is shared under ‘Limited Cases’?
Limited cases, according to the company, are those where they feel the need to share the data of customers to “keep people safe, comply with the law and provide basic functionality to the people who use Calibra.”
While the first two cases in point might seem legitimate, the third “provide basic functionality to the people who use Calibra” doesn’t really make sense. Facebook might as well say that they’ll be sharing data of Calibra users, including account and financial information, with Facebook and third party to provide basic functionality to users and stamp it under ‘limited cases’.
Let’s try and understand what kind of information will be shared with whom when you use Calibra. In addition to using a ‘limited case’ to prevent fraud and criminal activity, and in compliance with the law, it can also be used in the following cases.
- While processing a payment: When a Calibra user authorises a payment, the necessary user data is shared with third parties to complete the transaction.
- With vendors and service providers: Calibra customer data is also shared with ‘managed vendors and service providers’ that provide technical infrastructure or payment processing services, which includes Facebook Inc.
- Aggregated data: Calibra can also share aggregated data that can’t be connected back to an individual with Facebook Inc and third parties. This data will concern the performance of products and services linked to Calibra.
- Facebook data: If the company deems that a Calibra feature can be improved using data from Facebook, they will obtain customer consent to share the necessary data with their mobile wallet. For example, if a Calibra user imports their Facebook friend list to Calibra to send money, in-product customer consent is acquired.
The company also says that Facebook data will be used by Calibra to “comply with the law, secure customers’ accounts, mitigate risk and prevent criminal activity”.
While this doesn’t entirely make Facebook’s intentions clear concerning user’s data privacy, Calibra is still almost a year away from its official launch, and Facebook might change how things work. The company maintains that everything announced about Calibra is “forward-looking” and may differ from “actual results”.
You can read Calibra’s entire customer commitment document here, which contains the service’s approach to consumer data privacy, compliance, consumer protections and the relation between Calibra and Libra.

domain: news


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Panelists discuss China's economic outlook in a session at the Summer Davos 2019 in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Monday. (Photo: Global Times)
China's economy is faring relatively well despite the difficulties brought by the China-US trade war, executives and experts said at the ongoing Summer Davos 2019 in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Monday.
One outcome of the trade war could be a bunch of awakened Chinese companies significantly improving their technological knowhow to become global leaders, forum attendees said.
The disruptions Chinese companies have had to deal with over the past two years have been a wake-up call, said Ning Gaoning, chairman of Sinochem Group, at a seminar at the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2019, also known as Summer Davos.
Chinese firms have been experiencing challenges since the US began a trade war with China in 2018. The US government has ordered some US companies to stop supplying key components to Chinese technology companies, including global telecommunication leader Huawei.
"Awakened, I see every industry is changing the way it attains growth," said Ning, who has been at the helm of four large-sized centrally administered state-owned enterprises.
Former IMF Deputy Managing Director Zhu Min echoed Ning's remarks by adding that Chinese companies will experience a significant uplift in quality in the coming decade as a more rational development concept has been established in the minds of Chinese businesspeople.
"China will become an innovation-driven economic power," Zhu said at the same seminar.
In a sign of resilience, China's first-quarter GDP beat market expectations, rising 6.4 percent year on year.
China's actual use of foreign direct investment in US dollar-denominated terms also increased 3.7 percent year on year to $54.61 billion in the first five months this year, official data from Ministry of Commerce showed.
Notably, US investment in China grew 7.5 percent year on year.
However, the ongoing trade war is still casting uncertainty in business circles.
"Now a lot of companies between China and the US are trying to delay investment decisions, both ways," Timothy Stratford, a former assistant US trade representative for China affairs, told the Global Times on Monday.
Mari Elka Pangestu, former minister of trade of Indonesia, said one result of the trade war would be China and ASEAN working closer toward a higher degree of integration.
"It will increase trade, as well as investment between the two sides. Further regional integration is part of the answer to Plan B," Pangestu told the Global Times on Monday, referring to the situation when China and the US could not agree on a deal.
Experts at the seminar also warned that China needs to watch its demographics, and make sure that consumption moves fast enough to offset any downward effects.
Low industrial automation levels are currently China's weak points, according to Kevin Sneader, a global managing partner at McKinsey & Company.
China is expected to comprehensively open its market to the world and in the future it may even develop into a country with zero-tariffs, said Ning.


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So Google decided to shut down its internal game development studio, and everyone who already hated the platform since its announcement came out to call this the end for Stadia.
However, I don’t think it is the end for Stadia. Not just because they continue to release games and announce more games coming to the Stadia, but because they made it sound like they were going to work to get more partners to bring their games to the platform. That, to me, sounds like they want to buy their exclusives rather than build them themselves – even if it’s only timed exclusives (or just bringing established franchises to their platform even if they aren’t exclusive).
For instance, if I told you Stadia has the game Outcasters, would your interest be peaked? Now, what if I said, Google has the new Star Wars game?
Google certainly underestimated how much time it takes, and how costly it can be to make their own games, but what they’re really coming to terms with is the same thing that’s put Hollywood into a box of only ever making sequels, remakes and reboots of established franchises.
New IP’s can be hard to sell.
And it’s going to be really hard to sell a new IP on a new platform. Even if it’s good, there are people who aren’t going to adopt a new platform to experience it, because they don’t have any ties to the characters or world just yet.
You have to establish that.
So from a purely business mindset, it probably makes more sense at this stage, to build your fledgling platform on the backs of established franchises before taking a risk on an expensive new IP.
Sure, many argue that you need exclusives to sell a console, but Google isn’t exactly selling a console here. And this really highlights something I’ve said from the beginning that no one seems to have caught onto just yet.
Google was never building the Netflix of gaming. They never pitched the platform as such.
Stadia was always meant to be the Google Play Movies & TV of gaming, the iTunes of gaming, the Steam of cloud gaming. It is, and always has been, just a digital storefront for cloud gaming. Where people can buy one game a la cart and play through it on any screen.
And this kind of platform makes sense for Google. For those who have bought into the Google ecosystem, especially those who own a Chromebook, there really wasn’t an option for gaming on the platform before Stadia’s arrival.
Google provided access to music and movies and TV, but Chromebooks can’t run games from Steam or other PC gaming platforms.
So Google built its own web browser based alternative so that people can own a Chromebook and still have the latest and greatest games.
But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, maybe I should explain the basics of how Stadia works.
There is a subscription for Stadia that grants access to playing games in 4k at 60 fps (however if you don’t pay for the subscription, you can still play the games, just at 1080p and 60 fps, which will be fine for most people).
The subscription works like a mix of Audible and Playstation Plus.
Just like Audible, you pay a subscription fee to use the service, but you still have to buy your books – but there are some special sale prices for items exclusively for subscribers. The monthly fee offsets the fact that you don’t have to buy a physical box like you would have to with conventional home consoles.
But like PlayStation Plus, every month you get some free games to add to your library, but you only have access to them as long as you’re subscribed to the service. If you cancel your subscription, you lose access to the games, but you can access them again once you’re subscribed (you will always have access to the games you bought regardless of whether you’re subscribed).
The service essentially takes a different approach to solving a similar problem Nintendo solved with the Switch. You want to be able to start playing a game on your TV, but you also want to be able to take it with you when you’re out and about, or while you’re traveling.
Nintendo built a tablet with attachable controllers, Google lets you play in a browser on any computer, or in an app on mobile devices.
And everyone distrusts Google, because, well, it’s Google, but that led many to bash the platform and declare it dead before it even launched. Then it came out and everyone scrutinized every possible flaw and wrote very negative reviews and then moved on, satisfied they’d buried a thing they presumed was already dead.
Then Cyberpunk 2077 came out, and it was terrible on the base PS4 and Xbox One, but ran really well on Stadia. It also came during a time when no one was able to go out and buy a new console because the PS5 and Xbox Series X are constantly out of stock.
So it ended up being a big win for Stadia. People who had previously bashed the platform had to acknowledge that things were actually looking up. Or they just ignored it altogether, because they’d already spoken on the matter, and they weren’t about to reconsider their harsh review based on new information.
And now Google announced it was closing its internal games studio and everyone went back to saying the platform was dead again.
Is it getting hot and cold in here every few minutes or is it just me?
Anyway, cloud gaming is still in its infancy stage. It was always going to take time for it to catch on, but everyone seems to agree it is the future.
Once Microsoft gets its streaming service, xCloud, up and running everyone who has been down on cloud gaming will suddenly start getting it, because they’ll finally actually give it a chance.
And Microsoft stands to take the cloud gaming scene by storm because of how easily it should work with Game Pass, which is already a great subscription service, in terms of price and what’s on offer. Game Pass and xCloud should combine to become the Netflix of gamin that everyone was expecting Stadia to be.
But honestly, I think xCloud and Stadia can both survive alongside each other, for the same reason digital movies and TV storefronts haven’t disappeared once Netflix rose to prominence.
There’s still the possibility that Stadia evolves into some sort of platform Google sells to companies like Ubisoft, EA and Activision, or pretty much any company not already owned by Microsoft, so they can offer their games in the cloud.
I’m not sure how that would end up taking shape, but it’s a possibility.
I don’t know what the future of the platform is, but so far I like it. It has worked well for me. And the convenience factor is not something to overlook. Especially at a time when the next generation of consoles are so hard to get.
Right now I can’t buy a Playstation 5, but I can play recent releases like Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed, Watchdogs Legion, Hitman 3 and Little Nightmares 2 by paying for just the game rather than buying expensive new hardware.
And that’s not nothing.


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Boom in associations may be boon for businesses
If being in a business association sounds dull, consider Inman Square.
A surge in crime has made getting an Inman beat cop the No. 1 priority for Cambridge’s youngest business group, started in April 2004. There were seven armed robberies in August and September, police said last week, including three at the Cambridge Portuguese Credit Union. The Inman Square Business Association has also organized late-night shopping events and summertime open-air showings of “King Kong” and “The Princess Bride.” And its founder and leader is a stylish, if not outright glamorous, young woman named Mara Kustra operating out of a shop called Boutique Fabulous.
“No one knew who anyone else was,” recalled Kustra, 30, of when she moved her boutique to Inman from a space near Dalí. “I started doing little things like getting businesses together for Shop Inman by Moonlight – a good night to get a babysitter and come out and have a good time.”
Eventually she went door to door to recruit people for a business association, winding up with about 50 members, to help preserve what she found most special about the square: “It is all independent businesses, no chains. All the people involved in the association care so much, it really wasn’t too hard to get people to sign up,” she said. “And when I stop by and ask for a donation, everyone says yes. You don’t have to go up through the chain to get permission.”
While she speaks, there is a constant flow of people prowling her tables and scanning her walls, and there is a lot to look at – everything from handmade soaps to metal bird sculpture and classic French café prints. About three dozen local artisans are represented, Kustra said.
The boutique grew from a casual suggestion made to Kustra: that she wore such “crazy, vintage clothes” that she should put her fashion sense to work selling to others. Within three months stocking a booth at the Cambridge Antique Market she was doing well enough to take the plunge into her first small shop. She moved to Inman two years ago, quadrupling her space.
There are sales in rapid succession: clothing for about $60, another a print for about $145. Like much else in Inman, Boutique Fabulous is busy. Kustra is looking to open a second shop in Boston next fall, which is one reason she wouldn’t want Inman to block small, local chains from the square.
Her fellow business association leader, Thomas V. Lynn Jr., is vice president of East Cambridge Savings Bank, which already has seven locations.
But they’re set on keeping out the big chains. After burning out on a Wall Street job, Kustra moved to Inman and “fell in love with it right away. It’s the one square that didn’t have any chains, and that’s another reason I’ve become so passionate about the business association,” she said. “I wanted to keep it from turning into Harvard Square. I want all the businesses and landlords to work together to keep the chains out.”
Some of the same thinking is going on a couple of miles away in Porter Square’s Drinkwater’s, a men’s clothier with a décor as classic and soothing as Kustra’s is funky and engaging. Here Gary Drinkwater, amid buttery leather chairs and French antique furniture, is planning to have Porter take Inman’s place as the city’s youngest business association. He hopes to have “something viable” by spring.
And, although he plans to install a paid executive director, unlike Inman’s all-volunteer group, and speaks in the language of mission statements and cross-marketing, unlike Kustra, Drinkwater also names blocking or limiting chain stores as a top priority for his imagined group. He also nearly shudders when contemplating what has become of Harvard Square.
“I strongly believe there is a renaissance going on in Porter Square, and it will be a very strong area that will support small business,” he said. “Harvard Square was a village … there were unique shops to browse in, to shop in. But an unethical, gluttonous pattern developed there where landlords have just said to the shop owners, ‘We don’t need you.’ Unfortunately, the character got lost.
“Harvard Square has moved up to Porter Square. If you walk up Mass. Ave., you find the face of it has changed. I have a vision that this place is going to get better and connect to Arlington,” Drinkwater said.
After working at Louis Boston, Newbury Street’s Cole Haan and Stonestreets in Harvard Square, Porter Square could have seemed like a gamble for Drinkwater, but he says it was more like coming home. “I knew that I wanted to be in Porter Square,” he said, and the intuition has paid off. There are 4,000 customers in his database, he said, about half from Cambridge and many customers who followed from his previous shops.
“I haven’t done much with the business association because I’ve been so inundated,” he said.
Area business groups have traditionally been short-lived, divided and mainly motivated by crises, including the 1980s extension of the red line. Simon Shapiro, owner of the square’s Tag’s Hardware, said about a decade passed between the end of the T-inspired Merchants on the Line (another leader from that time, Karen Swaim Babin, didn’t even recall that group, but did remember the Business Association of North Cambridge being formed for the same reason) and the creation of the Porter Square Neighbors Association, which was intended to include businesses and residents from Cambridge and Somerville. Now it attracts mostly Cambridge residents, with business owners attending as needed.
“I don’t really see a Porter Square Business Association coming together or even what it’s needed for,” said Shapiro, who doesn’t wear suits and hasn’t met Drinkwater. “If I have a problem, I bring it to the Porter Square Neighbors Association, so you’re not trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Kelly Thompson Clark, president and chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce, has a different view.
“I’m very excited about what they’re trying to do in Porter and Inman,” she said, noting that Inman’s association has been “very proactive and very effective already. It takes a lot of work, and I have a lot of respect for the amount of work it takes to get [a business association] started and try to garner support and maintain it while you’re trying to run a business.”


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Facebook: Mobile ad marketing is in the spotlight
The role of social media in modern society is becoming more and more apparent, people from the moment they wake up in the morning on social media, like, text, send pictures, until the night to sleep in the bed and do not give up interacting with people in the social circle. Social media has infiltrated people's lives and become an integral part of it.
With the development of social media, businesses also smell the powerful role of social media marketing, the first to use social media for advertising marketing, Facebook advertising is one of the big head.
Facebook's second-quarter results, released in July 2014, showed revenue of $2.91 billion for the quarter, up 61% year-on-year, and net profit of $791 million, up 138% year-on-year. The good earnings figures were mainly due to advertising revenue, which alone reached $2.68 billion, up 67% year-on-year. And this year is also the year that Facebook's mobile bonus broke out, mobile ads are on the rise. Mobile advertising revenue has been minimal in the past two years and now accounts for 62% of Facebook's overall ad revenue.
How does Facebook's mobile ads stand out from the stack of other ads and promote ad marketing?
To answer this question, we must first compare the costs of Facebook's advertising types. Facebook ads have five delivery options: the right column of the Facebook news page, the right column of the page you visit later, the main Facebook news bulletin, the mobile news section, and the mobile APP.
You can test and compare these five delivery methods to find the type of ad that best meets the cost and click-through rate requirements. In many cases, mobile ads may be cheaper than you think.
In 2014, for example, the NBA Golden State Warriors (GSW) used multiple platforms to grow their Facebook followers, but it was Facebook and Facebook ads that really worked.
Using five types of Facebook ads, GSW found some interesting results from CPM (thousands of people cost) and CTR (click-through rate), especially right-hand and mobile news story ads.
Compare all the data to know which ad options are best for you
When they compared the ad's results data, they found that CPM was $4.01 overall, compared with $11.24 for mobile news headlines and $0.73 for right-hand ads. At first glance, right-hand ads are 15 times cheaper than mobile news tito ads.
However, the data show that right-bar ads have lower click-through rates, with mobile news tist ads costing 0.29 clicks and right-bar ads costing $1.14.
A study of Facebook's advertising performance under a multi-channel attribution model by Datalicius, a Facebook-funded digital marketing service, found that Facebook's ads were undervalued at least eight times, that Faccebooks and display ads significantly increased searches and conversions, and that users were less likely to click on ads when they saw them, but nine times as many as clicks.
For e-commerce, Facebook ads are still very important, you can choose the type of Facebook ads according to their needs, guide more advertisers to follow your brand or service, improve product conversion rate.
(Editing by Ewan Serry)
Source: Enn Compilation
Go to "Discovery" - "Take a look" browse "Friends are watching"
sent to have a look


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Local agricultural suppliers to access wider market in Comesa region
By Dominic Omondi | August 20th 2016
Small-scale farmers have something to smile about after an agreement that would guarantee them wider market access was reached.
The Local Sourcing for Partnership Project will see small local players in agribusiness link up with some of the biggest players in hotel, beverage and tourism sector in the region in a deal meant to promote local sourcing of agricultural products.
About 85 small micro-enterprises (SMEs) from Kenya are set to benefit from this project. They will sell their products directly to multinational food and beverages, hospitality and tourism sectors companies in Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi and countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) region.
Some of the blue-chip hotels that are part of this pact include TajPamodzi Hotel and the Protea Hotel in Zambia; Serena Hotel, Inyange Industries Limited and Bralirwa in Rwanda; Protea Hotel and Speke Group in Uganda and the Sarova Group of Hotels in Kenya.
There is also the Protea Ryalls Hotel in Malawi in what the organisers of the pact see is an effort to facilitate market linkages between local small growth enterprises and the multinational corporate companies in the Comesa region.
The project was conceived in March 2016 and is expected to boost local business farmers in their quest to find market for their products.
Yesterday, Comesa Business Council (CBC) in partnership with Kenya Sector Association of Manufacturers launched the second phase of the project.
“To date the project has provided training on the international food safety management system known as HACCP standards to about 480 SMEs in the six countries,” said CBC Chief Executive Officer Sandra Uwera during the phase two launch ceremony.
Help build capacity
As observed, in 2013 Comesa’s global trade increased by six per cent from $290 billion (Sh2.95 trillion) to $ 307 billion (Sh3.13 trillion) in 2014. On the other hand, the percentage of intra-Comesa trade to total Comesa trade has continued to grow slowly from regional levels of give per cent in 2005 to seven per cent in 2014.
The initiative is the work of Comesa Business Council (CBC), an association of private businesses in the Comesa region, in conjunction with the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF), USAID- IPAA and the Private sectors.
Other than Kenyan suppliers, the initiative will also help build capacity for suppliers in Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia.
This is particularly the case in food safety management systems and standards and provision of a platform for market linkages. It will see SMEs in these countries get integrated into value chains at firm and sector level in Africa.
The two have already organised a buyer seller meeting which brought together six key corporate buyers in Kenya. Further, a mini expo for the local SMEs was organised in Nairobi to showcase their products and start trading relationships with the buyers.
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Bengaluru-based EV start-up Simple Energy has announced a motor upgrade for its first e-scooter, the One. The One was launched on Independence Day last year, but deliveries are slated to begin only in June this year.
The company says it has made improvements to efficiency, thermal management, and performance. The claimed efficiency figure for the motor is now 96 percent, but an earlier figure was never released, so it’s unclear how much improvement has been made here.
Simple also says that this motor upgrade will result in quicker performance than that promised at launch, even though the upgraded motor still produces the same 72Nm as before. As for the power output, the One was originally announced with a 4.5kW figure, which was then upped to 8.5kW on the day of the launch. This upgraded motor continues to produce 8.5kW, as per the latest information from Simple.
In terms of acceleration, the company originally claimed the One will complete the dash to 40kph in 2.95sec, and it has now changed this claim to state that it will do 0-40kph in “under 2.85 seconds”.
The claims and specs that remain unchanged are a 4.8kWh battery capacity, 200km of range in Eco mode and a top speed of 105kph.
Do you think the claimed performance of the Simple One e-scooter is impressive? Let us know in the comments below.


text: An anonymous reader writes: Ryzen customers experiencing segmentation faults under Linux when firing off many compilation processes have now had their problem officially acknowledged by AMD. The company describes it as a "performance marginality problem" affecting some Ryzen customers and only on Linux. AMD confirmed Threadripper and Epyc processors are unaffected; they will be dealing with the issue on a customer-by-customer basis, and their future consumer products will see better Linux testing/validation. Ryzen customers believed to be affected by the problem can contact AMD Customer Care. Michael Larabel writes via Phoronix: "With the Ryzen segmentation faults on Linux they are found to occur with many, parallel compilation workloads in particular -- certainly not the workloads most Linux users will be firing off on a frequent basis unless intentionally running scripts like ryzen-test/kill-ryzen. As I've previously written, my Ryzen Linux boxes have been working out great except in cases of intentional torture testing with these heavy parallel compilation tasks. [AMD's] analysis has also found that these Ryzen segmentation faults aren't isolated to a particular motherboard vendor or the like, contrary to rumors/noise online due to the complexity of the problem."


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The treatments span various therapeutic areas, from antibiotic to oncology.
Sandoz, who specializes in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars, has signed a distribution and collaboration agreement with Adalvo for exclusive Sandoz rights to commercialize six products in the US across various therapeutic areas, including antifungal/antibiotic, oncology, and pulmonary.
These products, which are expected to launch near- to mid-term starting in 2024, have a total addressable market size of approximately $3 billion, which will help expand the Sandoz product pipeline in the US generics market.
“Sandoz is putting patients first by securing the rights to bring more affordable, equally effective treatments for a range of disorders that collectively affect millions of people in the US every year,” says Keren Haruvi, president, Sandoz Inc.


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Dubai's Aramex aiming for two acquisitions in 2015 -founder
Dubai-listed logistics firm Aramex is targeting at least two acquisitions in 2015 as part of the company growth strategy, its founder and vice-chairman said on Monday.
Libya's parliament allies with renegade general, struggling to assert authority
Libya's beleaguered elected parliament has declared a formal alliance with a renegade former general, as it struggles to assert some authority in a country many fear is sliding into outright civil war.
Mezzan Holding to sell 30% of shares in first Kuwait IPO since 2009
Mezzan Holding, a Kuwaiti producer and distributor of food and fast-moving consumer goods, said it would float 30% of its stock in an initial public offer, the country's first since the 2009 financial crisis.


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- Rivian, Lucid, and Canoo released results from the second-quarter over the past two weeks.
- The EV startups reported challenges, especially related to the supply chain.
- We heard from industry experts about what's next and which companies are most in trouble.
Rivian, Lucid, and Canoo all reported second-quarter earnings over the past two weeks, and the results make clear that ramping up production of their flagship electric vehicles is getting tougher and tougher.
The three emphasized their supply chain and logistics issues, unexpected delays, and just how capital-intensive getting operations off the ground is. All three have seen their stocks tank in recent months.
Lucid and Canoo, in particular, reported things not going as planned. Lucid saw a fraction of the vehicle production it anticipated. Canoo reported that it's now relying on a third-party for manufacturing the vehicles it has promised to deliver this year. Rivian, despite its progress on vehicle deliveries, lost $1.7 billion in Q2 and laid off a substantial number of workers in July.
"This is hard — building a supply chain, developing production capacity, building a large factory," said Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov. "All of this is time consuming, capital-intensive, and frankly, could use some luck. Even when companies do everything right, things can still go wrong."
We pulled insights from four auto experts about this quarter's earnings and what they anticipate from these players in the second half of the year.
Rivian's on track
Rivian produced 4,401 vehicles and delivered 4,467 in the second-quarter. That's good for a total of 6,954 built and 5,694 delivered in the first half of 2022, a sign that it's making decent headway toward its target of 25,000 vehicles this year.
The Amazon-backed startup saw $364 million in revenue and had $15 billion in cash following Q2, and has a backlog of 98,000 orders. But it also said its operating loss this year will grow to $5.45 billion from its previous projection of $4.75 billion.
Both CEO RJ Scaringe and CFO Claire McDonough told investors the supply chain has been especially challenging for the company. Experts say they feel good about Rivian's Q2.
"Overall, production is on course and reservations gained further steam, which was the key for the Street despite a widening loss on the bottom-line," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in an investor note after the results. "After a horror show coming out of the gates with its IPO, RJ & the team have finally gotten this potential EV stalwart back on track with clear momentum into 2023.
"As supply headwinds continue to challenge Rivian's ability to put out vehicles, the production story will be under the bright spotlight over the coming quarters."
Lucid has to get in shape
In Lucid's second-quarter report call, CEO Peter Rawlinson blamed logistics issues for the company's production shortcomings.
"We found that our logistics constraints prevented us from scaling meaningfully this past quarter," Rawlinson said. He mentioned trouble in getting the right parts to the line at the right time and cadence, while also maintaining Lucid's particularly high quality standards.
Lucid delivered 679 cars in the quarter (around half of them in April), a dismal number considering it entered 2022 targeting 20,000 for the year. In the first six months, it built 1,405 cars and delivered just 1,039 to customers. Lucid paused production for two-and-a-half weeks over the course of the quarter to install tooling and reorganize its warehouse, and cut its production goal for the second time this year, from between 12,000 and 14,000 cars to between 6,000 and 7,000.
The would-be Tesla rival saw $97.3 million in revenue and had $4.6 billion in cash following Q2, with a backlog of 37,000 reservations.
"At a $30 billion market cap, you really need to have more confidence that they can produce vehicles at much higher levels of volumes than they are currently to justify that valuation," said Ali Faghri, managing director of automotive research at Guggenheim Securities. "While it's encouraging that they reduced their guidance to a more achievable level, producing 6,000 cars, frankly, won't be able to prove that Lucid can actually scale at higher volume."
The quarter "exposed the immaturity of our logistics processes," Rawlinson said. He said he is moving Lucid's logistics center from Tempe, Arizona, to its flagship manufacturing plant in Casa Grande, to fix those problems.
He is also leaning on newly-appointed auto industry vets: Lucid hired VP of global logistics, Walter Ludwig (a Mercedes-Benz alum), VP of process transformation Evelyn Chiang (formerly of Tesla), and Steven David, senior vice president of operations (from Fiat Chrysler). Lucid's heads of manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and global logistics will all report to David.
Canoo's still shaky
Canoo reported having just $33.8 million in cash on hand, and logged a loss of $164.4 million in Q2. In its earnings call, the company affirmed it is on track to start production on its flagship vehicles in the fourth quarter, but it won't be doing so without help.
"We have partnered with a third-party for limited production while our facilities come online," CEO Tony Aquila said.
Originally, Canoo planned to begin production at its plant in Bentonville, Arkansas this year, and at its second factory in Pryor, Oklahoma in 2023.
Aquila also said the company has pushed its initial deliveries into the first quarter of next year, starting with light delivery vehicles to fulfill Walmart orders. The company touted its order for at least 4,500 vehicles from the retail giant, which landed in early Q3.
Canoo initially promised production of 3,000 to 6,000 vehicles by the end of 2022, long before the Walmart deal was in play.
Canoo also affirmed its plans to raise desperately-needed capital: It highlighted the previously-announced $300 million pre-paid advance agreement with financing partner, Yorkville Advisors, of which it drew its first $50 million advance, and the $300 million additional universal shelf registration (allowing the company to issue securities like common stock in the future). It also announced a $200 million at-the-market equity program.
Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst at Guidehouse Insights, said that's where smaller companies are disadvantaged.
"It is a very capital intensive business any way you look at it," he said. "Rivian was lucky in their timing in that they raised an enormous amount of money from investors before going public, they raised another big chunk of money from their IPO, and shortly after going public is when the markets started to tank and capital started to dry up for a lot of these smaller players."
Investors, he added, "are pulling back from investing in these new guys, which is making it tougher for them to get capital."


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This morning, Intel issued a revenue warning for the first quarter of 2015, calling for first-quarter revenue to be just $12.8 billion (give or take $300 million), which is a $900 million reduction at the midpoint from prior guidance of $13.7 billion. The company also said in its press release that it's keeping its gross profit margin forecast unchanged at 60%.
There's no beating around the bush here -- this is bad news.
What's going on here? According to Intel, the reason that it felt the need to issue a revenue/profit warning is due to "weaker than expected demand for business desktop PCs" as well as "lower than expected inventory levels across the PC supply chain."
Elaborating further, the company said in its press release that lower-than expected Windows XP refresh "in small to medium businesses" as well as macroeconomic and currency headwinds were key culprits of this weakened outlook.
On the bright side, Intel did say in its press release that its data center business is "meeting expectations."
Resetting expectationsUntil Intel reports its actual first quarter results, and issues its outlook for the rest of the year, there will be quite a lot of uncertainty surrounding the stock. It's hard to call right now what the company will revise full-year guidance to, but after this pretty wide miss, my guess is that management will play it on the conservative side so as to avoid having to guide down again.
But, the question worth asking is, what would be "conservative" at this point?
Well, keep in mind that the company's previous guidance for PCs was "flat units, revenues slightly down." Let's call "slightly" somewhere between 1-3%. If we further assume that the company had expected pretty consistent year-over-year comps on a quarterly basis, then the company might have expected PC-related revenues to be anywhere from $7.66 billion to $7.821 billion (down 1-3% from first quarter 2014 levels).
Since Intel is guiding down to the tune of $900 million, then if the above reasoning/math is correct, this would imply PC-related revenues of $6.76 billion to $6.921 billion, or a year-over-year drop of between 11.5% and 11.7%.
Note that Intel had $34.669 billion in PC-related sales during 2014. Taking 11.6% out of that number would imply 2015 PC chip sales of just $30.65 billion. This would take Intel's full-year revenue guidance down from about $58.67 billion (assuming a 5% increase from 2014 levels) to about $54.65 billion -- a nearly 6.9% decline from initial expectations.
That said, this would likely be too conservative.
Expecting a decline, but not that steepI don't think Intel will see a double-digit year-over-year decline in PC-related revenue for 2015. However, to think that it will be just a low single-digit decline at this point is probably overly optimistic. I'd feel comfortable guessing that for the full year, PC-related revenues will be down on the order of 5-7% from 2014 levels, and that's what I think Intel's management will guide to.
This wouldn't be great by any stretch of the imagination, and if the PC business continued to decline at that kind of a level in 2016, then that would be a sizable drag on the company's financials (and the bull case for the stock).
At any rate, there will be more to say when Intel releases its full results and hosts its first quarter conference call.
The article Intel Corporation Warns, Withdraws Full-Year Guidance originally appeared on Fool.com.
Ashraf Eassa owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright 1995 - 2015 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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A 22-year-old man who tried to blackmail Apple back in 2017 was sentenced in London to a two-year suspended jail term, 300 hours of unpaid work and a six-month electronic curfew.
The suspect and co-conspirators threatened to mass-hack iCloud accounts and factory reset 250 million iPhones and iPads.
According to the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), the suspect Kerem Albayrak acted as a public face for a hacker group known as the Turkish Crime Family.
It was him who contacted Apple and put forward threats and ransom demands and also contacted the reporters to promote the would-be hack.
The NCA stated that the first contact was made on March 12, 2017, when Albayrak emailed Apple’s security team to claim he had access to iCloud accounts that he planned to sell online. He demanded that Apple must pay $75,000 in crypto-currency, or a thousand $100 iTunes gift cards, in return for deleting the database.
A week later, he posted a YouTube video showing himself accessing random iCloud accounts.
Later on, 21st March, Albayrak changed the threats where he demanded Apple to pay $100,000 or he would access 250 million iCloud accounts, reset iCloud passwords, and factory reset users’ devices.
Apple had contacted the authorities from the beginning itself. Since the tech giant refused to fall for the extortion demand, the number of compromised accounts and also the hacker’s tendency to talk to reporters and hype up the threat also increased.
But Albayrak failed to secure his online presence. UK police arrested the hacker on March 28, 2017. However, the NCA did not find any evidence of him having access to Apple’s iCloud infrastructure.
During 2017, Apple said Albayrak only had access to iCloud accounts for which users reused passwords, and those passwords leaked online through breaches at other services.
This month Albayrak pleaded guilty and was sentenced. The arrests of other members of the Turkish Crime Family hacking group were not announced by the NCA.


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Small Giants insect protein snack secures funding
Small Giants, a British foodtech startup has announced a new round of funding, totalling €470K, after an initial target of €295K.
Founded in London, in 2017, Small Giants is experimenting with insect-based protein.
Small Giants, a mighty sustainable food source
The startups’ crackers are made with 15% cricket flour, with flavours such as:
- Turmeric and smoked paprika
- Rosemary and thyme
The crackers have a high nutritional value, including planet-positive protein, vitamin B12 and fibre.
Food sector expands into insect protein
The founders were thrilled with the target-busting funding.
“We are excited for the closing of the round and, in particular, for the entry of investors linked to the iN3 Ventures network”, said Edoardo Imparato, Co-Founder of Small Giants.
“It is fantastic to see that investors with great experience in the food sector believe in our project. Thanks also to their support, we will now be able to develop new products and support the expansion of Small Giants in both the UK and Europe.”
Insect protein may be a shocking idea to many, but iN3 Ventures can smell the potential.
“iN3 Ventures started exploring the edible insects’ trend months ago and Small Giants has everything is needed to be one of the leaders in this fast-growing market”, said Andrea Crudeli of iN3 Ventures.


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Bathgate transport company Blacks Haulage has joined the Pall-Ex network as a shareholder member.
Having joined Pall-Ex in February, Blacks Haulage continues its long-standing pursuit of excellence, having been a successful family run business for over 48 years.
Becoming a shareholder member of Pall-Ex means that the business now has access to a network of over 90 independent hauliers, providing pallet collection and delivery services across every postcode area in the UK.
Blacks Haulage will be providing coverage of the EH postcode for the Pall-Ex network, supplying quality services to Newbridge and the surrounding area.
Aside from its pallet network operations, Blacks Haulage is renowned for its other services, including general haulage, warehousing, container devanning and even its truck wash facility.
Stuart and Michelle Black are Directors of Blacks Haulage and jumped at the chance to become shareholders in Pall-Ex, thanks to the opportunities for investment and overall business growth it presented.
Stuart explains the motivating factors that encouraged his business to join Pall-Ex as a shareholder member.
He comments: “Our decision to become shareholders of Pall-Ex was driven by the recent changes in the industry due to Covid and a shift in consumer buying habits, now focussed more heavily on e-commerce.”
Michelle also explains the decision, commenting: “We pride ourselves on being a versatile and agile business, which enables us to deliver quality services to our customers.
"Becoming shareholder members of Pall-Ex means that we are securing our future, whilst accessing market leading technology which will increase our service levels for our customers.”
Pall-Ex Group’s Managing Director – UK Business Units Barry Byers looks forward to working with Stuart, Michelle and the team at Blacks Haulage.
He comments: “We are really pleased to welcome Blacks Haulage to the Pall-Ex network as our latest shareholder members.
“Their proud history of delivering quality services matches our strategic ambitions here at Pall-Ex Group and I have no doubt they will improve our service in the EH area and beyond.”
For more information about shareholder member opportunities, please visit: https://www.pallex.co.uk/become-a-member/.


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Leggett and Platt sells aluminum division
Fortune 500 manufacturer Leggett and Platt, based in Carthage, Mo., got about 10 percent smaller after selling a major subsidiary Wednesday.
The company announced Thursday that it sold its aluminum products branch, formerly known as Pace Industries, to the New York-based investment firm Kenner & Co. for $300 million in cash and between $25 million and $50 million in stock.
Susan McCoy, director of investor relations, said Pace Industries had sales last year of more than $500 million, making up 10 percent of Leggett's total sales. Pace Industries, based in Fayetteville, Ark., has 19 plants in Fayetteville, Harrison, Ark., Jonesboro, Ark., Monroe City, Mo., and across the U.S. and Mexico.
"This is a significant sale," McCoy said. "It was very good news for us in the market when the market was concerned about our ability to sell this big a unit because of the tight credit situation. It's a major accomplishment to be able to sell this unit in this market."
The sale was closed Wednesday.
According to a company release: "The divestiture is part of a broad strategic plan, first announced last November, that includes, among other things, elimination of approximately one-fifth of Leggett's business portfolio via the sale or liquidation of seven business units.
"Of the seven units (which collectively generate about $900 million in annual revenue), the company's Aluminum Products segment is the largest, and is North America's largest independent manufacturer of non-automotive aluminum die-castings. Existing senior management of the Aluminum Products segment will continue to lead the operations for the new owner, and will become significant equity participants in the acquired company."
In the same release, Leggett CEO and President David Haffner said he was pleased to announce the completion of the transaction "which generates approximately $300 million of after-tax cash proceeds immediately, and also provides potential future value in the form of a subordinated note and preferred stock."
Leggett will hold a conference call at 8 a.m., Central time Friday to discuss business conditions and earnings in the second quarter of 2008.
The call will be broadcast over the Internet by Thompson Financial and the Webcast can be accessed through the investor relations section of Leggett's Web site, www.leggett.com.


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The FTC has decided that IoT security is in such bad shape that the best alternative is to to offer the public a $25,000 reward for help fixing it. The commission is sponsoring a new contest that asks people to submit innovative ideas for improving the update process for IoT devices, which is virtually non-existent for many devices right now.
The IoT Home Inspector Challenge is the FTC’s way of soliciting new ideas from the general public, who are the ones using these devices, after all. Rather than asking for any kind of new security technology for IoT devices, the FTC is looking specifically for ways to make the software update process better. That’s a pretty low bar, given that many embedded devices either don’t allow for software updates or the manufacturers just don’t send them out.
That lack of security fixes has made life much easier for attackers building botnets such as Mirai and Leet that are made up of compromised IoT devices. Many times, the malware used in these attacks targets old vulnerabilities or default credentials, issues that could be fixed by software updates. The FTC’s contest will consider any kind of mechanism that addresses the software update problem, including a separate hardware device, an app, or some kind of dashboard.
“An ideal tool might be a physical device that the consumer can add to his or her home network.”
“Every day American consumers are offered innovative new products and services to make their homes smarter,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Consumers want these devices to be secure, so we’re asking for creativity from the public – the tinkerers, thinkers and entrepreneurs – to help them keep device software up-to-date.”
The top prize for the contest is $25,000, with up to three honorable mentions getting lower cash awards. The deadline for entries is May 22 and in the first round, a maximum of 20 contestants will be selected for the second round. The entries will be assessed by a panel of five judges, including two computer science professors, two security researchers, and a deputy director from NIST.
“An ideal tool might be a physical device that the consumer can add to his or her home network that would check and install updates for other IoT devices on that home network, or it might be an app or cloud-based service, or a dashboard or other user interface. Contestants also have the option of adding features such as those that would address hard-coded, factory default or easy-to-guess passwords,” the FTC said.
Image: Rojer, CC By license.


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19 April 2019
Samsung Electronics has announced the availability of the Galaxy S10 5G in its home country South Korea. So, the users here will be the first to experience Samsung’s ‘hyperfast’ streaming using the latest flagship. Consumers using the Galaxy S10 on the 5G network will be able to play graphics-rich cloud games, they can download a full season of a TV show in minutes, stream 4K video with no lag, and also experience VR and AR experiences.
The country became the first to commercially launch nationwide 5G services on Wednesday. Three mobile carriers in South Korea – SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus held launch events across Seoul for the Galaxy S10. Hours later US giant Verizon began commercial services in Chicago and Minneapolis.
The all-new Galaxy S10 5G features the same design as its smaller siblings, but some minute changes beyond just the 5G logo on the back make it a bit different. It includes 6.7-inch display, nearly 20% larger than that of the Galaxy S10. As this is the 5G device, the increase in battery capacity tells that the device will consume extra juice, so it has 4500mAH battery. The Galaxy S10 5G version has UFS 3.0 that doubles storage speed from S10 which uses UFS 2.1. Samsung claims they can reach up to 2,100MB/s read and 410MB/s write speeds. The charging rate has also been increased from 15W to 25W.
It also includes a total of six cameras, 2 on the front and 4 on the rear. It offers 3D depth sensing cameras on the back as well as on the front. The 3D depth camera helps in delivering bokeh effects with Live focus video, measure objects with Quick Measure. Also, the neural processing unit (NPU) helps in providing the perfect shot.
Galaxy S10 5G:— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) April 5, 2019
Fingerprint recognition and power button position become high
The metal frame on the side of the fuselage is very narrow and is almost occupied by the back.
Realize video real-time blur and measure the length and area of objects, thanks to ToF pic.twitter.com/h0reJTUBgl
The tipster Ice Universe has pointed out a few differences, for instance, the fingerprint recognition and power button are now positioned a bit higher. “The metal frame on the side of the fuselage is very narrow and is almost occupied by the back.”
Nikkei tried the newly-launched 5G service in South Korea and reported the speed to be “fast but patchy.” It said the 5G network can achieve speeds of up to 193Mbps, four times than an S9’s 47Mbps. “When downloading a popular 1.9-gigabyte game, 4G finished the task in 6 minutes and 28 seconds. 5G did so in just 1 minute and 51 seconds. That is faster, but it is a far cry from the claims that 5G would be 20 times faster.” Samsung promises speeds up to roughly 20 times faster than the 4G networks, but according to the report, the claim doesn’t look right.
The Galaxy S10 5G is available in Majestic Black, Royal Gold, Crown Silver colors. According to Bloomberg’s report backed up leaker Evan Blass, the pre-orders for the Galaxy S10 5G will open on April 18 in the US and it will hit the stores on May 16 and the rest of the world will follow after.


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05 Dec 2013
The attack occurred on the web site of the company’s Maple Grove Farms brand. The company issued a letter warning all customers that they may have lost personal and financial information. Beside credit card numbers, the customers may have had phone numbers, names or home addresses accessed.
The company assured customers in a customer letter that it took the web site offline and enhanced security measures immediately after the attack. It also advised customers to contact their banks and cancel their credit cards and request a new one.


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And the Winner is...Insight
3/27/2000 6:23:00 AM
American Honda and the new Insight, featuring Honda's exclusive Integrated Motor Assist (IMA™) system, has been recognized as a leader in alternative-fuel technology with awards from The Sierra Club, Clean Car Coalition, Popular Mechanics, Automobile Magazine, American Woman Motorscene Magazine and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
The Sierra Club honored the Insight with its "Award for Excellence in Environmental Engineering," the first time an award has been given to a product in the organization's 108-year history. The recognition acknowledges the Insight for its revolutionary hybrid design and record-breaking highway fuel economy of 70 mpg. According to EPA ratings for 2000, the Insight achieves almost 20 mpg more than its closest competitor.
"We want people to know there are environmentally sound alternatives readily available," stated Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director. "In this case, Honda built a great car and has committed to marketing the Insight in all 50 states."
The Environmental Progress Award was bestowed on the Insight from the Clean Car Coalition, honoring the Insight with its "Clean Car Salute" for being the first U.S.-marketed gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, for exceeding the Coalition's fuel efficiency standards and for its progress in reducing tailpipe emissions.
The Coalition is comprised of state, regional and national environmental organizations with a goal to promote a cleaner motor vehicle industry. Its "Clean Car Salute" was developed to applaud substantial efforts to improve the environment and to help consumers easily identify companies taking the lead in clean vehicles.
Honda also received Popular Mechanics' prestigious "Design and Engineering Award 2000," which honors innovation and invention in the automotive, technology, home improvement, outdoor and science industries. Of the thousands of products reviewed, the Insight was one of only 25 to receive the award.
Automobile Magazine's "Technology of the Year" award also recognized the Insight's Integrated Motor Assist system as the "foundation for all future vehicles."
American Woman Motorscene's "Most Likely to Change the World" award for electric/alternative fuel vehicles was also given to the Honda Insight based on the merits of its design and technology. "Honda cars have that perfect combination of style, safety, performance and practicality our readers look for when buying a new vehicle," said Courtney Caldwell, editor-in-chief of American Woman Motorscene.
The ACEEE, a D.C.-based nonprofit research organization, has put the Insight on the top of its "Greener Choices 2000" list in ACEEE's Green Book: The Environmental Guide to Cars and Trucks - Model Year 2000. The list compiles a selection of the most environmentally-friendly gasoline vehicles in each class size based on tailpipe emissions, fuel economy and pollutants emitted during the manufacturing process.
|Ben Knight, vice president of Honda research and development (left) and Richard Szamborski, assistant vice president of Honda market operations (right), accept the Sierra Club's "Award for Excellence in Environmental Engineering" presented by Carl Pope, executive director of Sierra Club (center).|


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The next year in gaming looks absolutely jam-packed full of quality releases. With the end of the current gaming generation coming up, developers are going all out for the next few years to make sure they have as much of an impact as possible.
With so many games coming out from publishers both big and small, there are inevitably a lot of titles that risk flying under the radar; not getting as much media attention as they probably deserve.
This is especially true of this year, where we've got hugely anticipated games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man taking up two of the biggest months.
With games like that, how can anything else compete?
Just to be perfectly clear here- none of the games on this list are bad, or deserve a lack of attention. Almost all of these games have the potential to be amazing, and we'd love to be proven wrong on this one.
Having said that, if things don't pick up for these titles, there's a pretty big chance that they'll be better known for not getting the attention they truly deserve.


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Ads take bite out of political sensitivity
By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY
It's correct to be politically incorrect again, at least for marketers trying to sell products to young men.
Frustrated in trying to get the attention of this notoriously hard-to-reach group, some are thumbing their noses at decorum. They are getting notice with TV and Internet advertising built around sex, wacky humor or "bad-boy" attitude.
Unilever's Axe deodorant and bath products, burger chains Carl's Jr. and Wendy's, and jeans maker Levi's are among those taking cues from what's already hot with these 18- to 34-year-old guys — such as Maxim magazine — in going after some of their biggest customers.
"This is going to be the summer where guys re-embrace guyness," says Marian Salzman, trend spotter at ad agency J. Walter Thompson and author of The Future of Men, due in September. "It's exactly two years after the 'metrosexual,' and it's a logical backlash against something that was too extreme. It's not going to be armpits and farts. It's going to be a lot more sensible."
Sensible in guy-speak means less potty humor and more attitude and irony — and maybe sex. It does not mean that it won't offend the politically correct.
Among the marketers who are embracing their inner guy:
Adding heat to the Western chain's Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger (which actually costs $4.49) is a TV ad featuring a bump-and-grind car wash by bad-girl heiress Paris Hilton. In a sexy black swimsuit, she seductively washes down a Bentley and herself, working up an appetite for a Spicy BBQ sandwich.
For guys who want more, a longer version, outtakes, stills and screensavers are posted at www.spicyparis.com.
"This is exactly what (young guys) respond to," says Carl's Jr. marketing head Brad Haley. "This age group is very jaded about advertising. They've seen millions of ads in all kinds of forms. Speaking to them in the traditional fast-food, bite-and-smile way is a waste of money. You need to do something that's more likely to grab them by the lapels."
In June, Hardee's — CK Enterprises' other, Eastern burger chain — will begin airing a version of the Paris ad for its Spicy BBQ Thickburger.
Beginning June 13, a young man plagued with MEPS (Multiple Eating Personality Syndrome) wards off the conflicting cravings of his affliction with help from the chain's combo menu. Wendy's doesn't expect viewers to be offended by the parody.
"It's a way to draw attention to variety in our menu," says spokesman Bob Bertini. "The character does not have a real personality disorder. It's something we're having fun with."
The "metrosexual male" trend takes it on the chin in the jeans maker's new Internet pitch to guys about making their lives less complicated — starting with wearing traditional Levi's 501s.
In a two-minute animated Web film (www.501uncomplicate.com), a guy gets sucked into, then overwhelmed by, the metrosexual world of grande lattes, no-carb beer, facials, pedicures and chest waxing. In the end, he finds refuge in a pair of Levi's.
"We're definitely talking to younger guys," says Levi's spokeswoman Amy Gemellaro. "He is as confused as anybody out there. ... We're saying there is a logical way to simplify."
The Unilever bath product and deodorant brand aimed at young men has been an unapologetic front-runner in politically incorrect sexual innuendo and bad-boy humor in the past couple of years. The basic pitch of the TV ads and other marketing is that using Axe makes a guy sexually irresistible to women — the so-called Axe Effect.
There is also a fancy, multilingual global Web site for guys: www.axeeffect.com. Content includes provocative images and sounds, such as a pair of voluptuous lips that coo "yes."
"These are guys that are completely obsessed with girls but don't know what to say to them," says Esther Lem, a Unilever vice president. "Axe is all about giving them an edge in the dating game."
The latest ad shows women with impressions on their backs, such as a steering wheel or an elevator button panel, to show that using Axe body spray can make a guy so sexy that women will want to have sex right here, right now. The tagline: "The Axe Effect: It can happen anywhere."
In keeping with the search-for-sex theme, on June 20 Axe launches a video game in which guys pit their pickup skills against 100 "ridiculously hot" women. Players collect and use moves to try to woo the women. The game, at www.mojomastergame.com, introduces a new fragrance, Unlimited.
The rollout also will include TV ads in which two young guys, Evan and Gareth, play the game in real life and keep a video journal of their escapades. The theme: "Play or be played."
I enjoy being a guy
Such messages trumpet a "new kind of maleness," Salzman says. " It's a new form of masculinity that says ... 'I'm not going to be made to feel guilty about being a guy.' "


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Silver prices may retreat as much as 20 percent this year as soaring demand for physical metal signals a “crowded” trade, said Barry James, the chief executive officer of James Investment Research Inc.
Sales of 1-ounce American Eagle silver coins have totaled 4,588,000 in January, heading for a record, according to data from the U.S. Mint. Silver futures in New York rallied 84 percent last year, climbing to a 30-year high of $31.275 an ounce on Jan. 3, as investors sought a haven against financial turmoil.
“The coin sales are an indication of the level of interest in silver,” said James, who oversees $2.4 billion in Xenia, Ohio. “It’s too popular. When the crowd discovers a good deal, it’s usually long over.”
Prices have more than doubled in two years as investors bought precious metals to protect against a weakening U.S dollar and Europe’s financial crisis. Holdings in exchange-traded products backed by silver have dropped 1.6 percent since touching a record in mid-December. The metal tumbled 24 percent in 2008 after gaining for seven straight years.
“After a period of outperformance from silver, we would be taking a little off the table,” James said. “It’s more likely that silver will have a correction in price rather than a surge.”
© Copyright 2023 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.


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Samsung has a very narrow window of opportunity to fix the Galaxy Note 7, or its dominance of the smartphone market could come under pressure, investment pros have warned.
Michael Robinson, chief technology strategist at Moneymorning.com, told CNBC that if the issues with Samsung's flagship smartphone were not resolved soon, the company could miss the crucial holiday season. Doing so could hit Samsung's sales and give competitors a leg up.
"If they skip the Christmas selling season, it's going to be even worse," Robinson told "Squawk Box" on Tuesday. "On the other hand, they can't really rush [into introducing new Note 7 handsets into the market]," he said.
Nomura analysts C.W. Chung and Chris Chang said in a Tuesday note that the worst case scenario for the Note 7 would be the "termination of Note 7 sales and disposal of existing inventory of three million-plus units sold in third quarter of 2016."
But Robinson dismissed the notion that Samsung could ditch the Note 7 model altogether, because this would aggravate the quality control issues and worsen the public relations disaster. On Tuesday morning, Samsung confirmed that Note 7 production and sales were permanently being halted.
"They need to have some kind of good quality product out in the market," he said.
The South Korean electronics giant announced early Tuesday morning that it would ask all of its global partners to stop sales and exchanges of the Note 7 as it investigates overheating issues in the devices. It also warned all users to power down their devices.
This followed the company's recall of the original Note 7 model due to problems with a flammable battery, and multiple reports that the supposedly safe replacement handsets given to users were also overheating.
Major U.S. and Australian mobile carriers have suspended or halted sales of Note 7s, and on Monday Reuters reported that the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards had confirmed that there were possible defects in the replacement smartphones.


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As a Dahua Technology’s brand for consumer IoT products, newly launched imou is based on the “Dahua Heart of City (HOC)” framework, focusing on a new brand strategy for global market to provide high quality products & services for consumers.
As a Dahua Technology
brand for consumer IoT products, newly launched imou is based on the “Dahua Heart of City (HOC)” framework, focusing on a new brand strategy for global market to provide high quality products & services for consumers.
President of Dahua Technology, Mr. Li Ke, gave his opening remarks to the brand-launch conference, proposing that imou will be based on the “Dahua Heart of City (HOC)” new smart city framework, which is supported by full-sensing, full-intelligence, full-computing, and full-ecosystem capabilities. It focuses on satisfying a diverse range of user scenarios for the global consumer market, providing values and services to end users together with its partners in the value chain.,
Lai Zhen, a senior consulting analyst from iResearch Consulting Shanghai, shared the China IoT and Home Security Industry Report, which particularly points out that “Under the leadership of technologies such as face recognition, intelligent video analytics, and front-end computing capabilities, home security is positioned to be the most promising area to experience a market breakout. Currently, China’s home security market has just taken its first steps, and the “key” for success is to identify the real user needs at different scenarios”
At the conference, Xie Yun, Vice President of Hangzhou Huacheng Network Technology, presented the brand meaning of imou. As a response to the strategic engagement with global consumer market, as well as the development towards intelligent and connected home, the brand formerly known as Lechange is upgraded with its new English name, imou.
The name imou’s core meaning is that it utilizes smart technologies to protect everyone of your home and save the memorable moments of your life, bringing all-round real-time companion and conveying happiness to your beloved ones with your hearts and smiles. The conference also launched a new brand slogan, “Enjoy Smart Life,” which is set to allow everyone enjoys safety, freedom, and happiness in their daily life.
Another release is the imou Cloud “1+N+X” concept, which uses 1 imou Cloud platform, N-types of application scenarios, and enables third-parties to develop more X-type applications using intelligent analytics based on IoT big data to better satisfy users, make life more convenient, and make business smarter.
imou products were also presented, among which there was the highly anticipated imou K8 AI Face Recognition Smart Lock—the world’s first to use security industry-level AI face recognition technology to achieve intelligent face-based unlocking, allowing users to bid farewell to keys, free their hands, and enjoy more relaxed lives. In addition, the release of the imou Wire-Free Security System also received strong attention. With just a 5-hour charge, its camera can last 6 months, “freeing” the camera and allowing it to realize “full wire-free” operation, thus providing users with increased convenience.
The imou launch as Dahua Technology’s consumer brand caters to the global consumer smart IoT market with imou Cloud, intelligent hardware, and intelligent technologies as its core. In addition to providing user scenario-focused smart IoT services to homes, shops, and SMBs, the system also provides open cloud capabilities to allow third-party application developers to explore more scenario-based applications, aiming for strong partnership in creating smart IoT ecosystem.


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By Juro Osawa
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin said he sees greater investment opportunities in Asia, especially in areas such as mobile. “The exponential growth in mobile technology” in Asia is creating investment opportunities, Mr. Saverin said at The Wall Street Journal’s Unleashing Innovation conference in Singapore. WSJ’s Digits blog has more
By David Benoit from WSJ’s Deal Journal blog.
A federal judge has tossed out a set of suits against Facebook executives including founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg that were brought by investors who bought the stock early in the public life of the social-networking giant, a time when shares fell for what seemed like forever. Click to read more
By Chris Dieterich from WSJ’s Deal Journal blog.
Last year saw more acquisitions of closely held technology companies than any year since at least 2009, with social-media giant Facebook tying Google for most deals completed in the space, according to a report released this week by PrivCo. Read more
By Chris Dieterich
Animal-medicine maker Zoetis raised about $2.2 billion in an initial public offering, a strong showing for the largest IPO deal from a U.S. company since Facebook debuted last May. Click to read more
By Sonja Cheung
China’s doors may be closed to social network company Facebook, but for its pre-IPO investor DST Global, the gates are wide open.
As a result, the firm has managed to invest about $1.5 billion into China-based companies over the past four years, translating into around half the amount of capital it has invested worldwide, PartnerJohn Lindfors told Venture Capital Dispatch.
By Chris Dieterich
A brisk week in the IPO market will be headlined by animal-medicine maker Zoetis, which is aiming to raise as much as $2.2 billion in what would be the largest deal from a U.S. company since Facebook’s initial public offering. Click to read more
By Matt Wirz
For an explanation of why private equity chieftains are pushing portfolio companies to sell bonds and loans to pay for fat dividends, look at IPOs. More to the point, look at the lack of IPOs. WSJ’s Private Equity Beat has more.
By David Benoit
Facebook is getting sued. A lot.
As WSJ detailed this morning, the slumping IPO has become exhibit A for plaintiffs lawyers looking to recoup losses experienced by clients in the most-heavily traded IPO of all time. Continue reading on WSJ’s Deal Journal blog.
By Kenan Machado
Until six months ago, venture-capital firms were racing to put money into dozens of online shopping stores launched in India in recent years, such as retailer flipkart.com and discount coupon website snapdeal.com, hoping for an exit via a stock-market listing, mostly in the U.S.
By Telis Demos
This evening’s Facebook announcement said more than Mark Zuckerberg won’t sell more Facebook stock for at least a year. The company also made clear that the option of the company selling more stock is pretty much off the table.
Deal Journal India is a one-stop destination following deals, deal-makers, private equity and venture-capital activity in India. The real-time blog is updated throughout the day with breaking news, exclusive analysis, commentary and profiles. Edited by The Wall Street Journal’s Vibhuti Agarwal, Deal Journal India features contributions from the South Asia bureaus of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in Mumbai and Delhi as well as bureaus around the world. Reach our Editors at firstname.lastname@example.org or follow Deal Journal India on Facebook and Twitter.
FINS has become a part of DHI in order to improve your job search experience. eFinancialCareers will provide you with the best possible service, the best job opportunities and editorial content and the best talent. With our long track record of helping finance professionals develop their career, from graduating to landing top positions in the industry, we will continue to deliver.
For technology jobs outside the financial industry users can visit Dice.com


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Former Labor leader Bill Shorten is the proud owner of a white Tesla Model 3, and claims to be the first federal MP to have an electric vehicle as part of his allocation in the ministerial and parliamentary fleet.
Shorten actually obtained the Model SR+ a few months ago, and uses it in his home base of Melbourne. He follows in the footsteps of NSW energy minister Matt Kean, the first state or federal parliamentarian to obtain an EV (also a Tesla Model 3).
It turns out that Shorten actually got his before Liberal MP Katie Allen, who also has a Model 3 and reckons it goes “like a rocket”, and Shorten was instrumental in making sure such cars were available to federal MPs.
Shorten, now the shadow minister for Government Services and NDIS says he fell in love with the Tesla at his first test drive.
“I haven’t looked back – neither has my family,” he said. “It’s excellent to drive, it’s economical and I feel like I’m helping the environment. And it’s cheaper to run than a petrol car, saving the taxpayer money.”
Shorten said he had been a big proponent of electric vehicles and would like to see Australia become a world leading adapter and manufacturer in the space.
“It took a fair bit of negotiating to get it added to the parliamentary car fleet, but we got there and I was the first politician to have a fully electric car.”
The Driven understands that other federal MPs are also expressing interest in obtaining a Tesla Model 3 through the leasing program managed by SG Fleet. The federal Commcar fleet currently has one Model 3 in operation.
And Kean, now also NSW treasurer, says his colleagues are also keen to get an EV, including newly elected premier Dom Perrottet, who had a test drive of Kean’s Model 3.
You can hear more in the recent Driven podcast: The Driven Podcast: “Everyone wants to drive it.” Matt Kean and his Tesla


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B2B Magazine Talks with Airfoil's Rich Donley:
THE TARGET AUDIENCE
Knowing whom exactly to target at an OEM has become more difficult because the number of people involved in purchasing decisions has increased over the years, said Rich Donley, account director of the automotive and manufacturing practice at Airfoil Public Relations. “Years ago, it used to be about the personal relationships that automotive suppliers had with a given purchasing executive,” he said. “They knew each other and were able to do business. As time went on, however, it became about purchasing teams; so suppliers have to market to a larger audience, and more people have to be aware of your company as a supplier.”
Read the complete article at B2B Online.


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The year is coming to an end, and this means that we need to talk about these viral moments that caught the attention of the entire Internet community and major advertisers.
Storm area 51
One of the self-reproaching events on social networks was the alleged assault on Area 51. The Facebook page invited everyone to storm the base to find aliens at an American military facility in the Nevada desert. According to most conspiracy theories, it was here in 1947 that an alien ship crashed. At the time the action began on September 20, more than two million Facebook users were about to attend the event. Even though, in reality, there were no more than five thousand participants, commercial companies also decided to participate in the viral event. Bud (the largest beer company) introduced a limited version of its alcoholic drink. The beer label was painted with an alien face. The fast-food chain “Arby” also joined the campaign. The company sent a special food truck to zone 51 and promised to feed all the participants of the action for free.
The company for the production of a peloton received its share of unexpected popularity. A banal story about a loving husband who gives wives a peloton, and she keeps her video training diary for a year. The frightened face of the main actress and strange music accompanying the story itself are to blame. As a result, the video received hundreds of thousands of dislikes and became the hottest topic in the American segment of facebook and twitter. The negative reaction affected the shares of the sports company. In just several days they fell by 10%. However, not everyone shares this pessimism. Viral advertising made a wide variety of people talk about Pelaton, a product that has never been in the spotlight.
However, nothing can be compared with the appeared image of the egg on Instagram. In less than a month, an ordinary chicken egg managed to collect the largest number of likes during the existence of a social network. The post scored 54 million likes and ten million followers. This format was especially liked by those who attend school. According to statistical studies, the age group from 10-14 years old was the main group that liked the post. The most popular Instagram image reminded itself during an advertising break in the final of the American Superball. The revived egg advised those experiencing stress or depression to seek the help of specialists from the nonprofit organization Mental Health America.
Change the game
Microsoft, together with the creators of advertising from McCann agency, managed to connect the traditional sphere of non-commercial advertising with corporate client work. The new video was called Changing the game. Children with different disabilities became the main characters of the story. The video doesn’t try to focus on their disabilities, but rather show teenagers as new experts in the development of the new technology. Thanks to modern technologies, those children can touch the new interactive world.
Rise of Tik Tok
The 2019 advertising story would be incomplete without mentioning the brightest social network of this year. Already this year, Tik Tok has crossed the line of one billion active users. Big marketers quickly spotted this trend. The new platform allows companies to work differently with young audiences. According to Adam Price (director of the lighthouse media company): You don’t go there to see what your friends are doing — you go there to be entertained. There are a lot fewer creators knowing how to use it because the barrier to entry is higher. One of these examples was chipotle promotion. In May, a Mexican-style restaurant chain launched the #ChipotleLidFlip hashtag on Tic Toc. Anyone who wishes could easily join this promotion. All you have to do is to put the burrito beautifully in a container for food. At the end of the first commercial week, this hashtag received 230 thousand views on the social network.
Some companies do not even need to purchase advertising in Tik Tok. The Home Deport’s fancifully catchy song truly affected the whole TikTok. The company did not pay to promote the hashtag #HomeDeport but still received 62 million views. For the company which usually associated with the older generation, such internet success was a complete surprise.
This year marked another successful period for streaming services. We are opening a new period where every global company has its resources and several exclusive projects. Broadcast films and television shows are now only secondary proposals, even if streaming services spend millions on obtaining rights to the most famous series (Friends, Office). In 2019, Apple (Apple +) and Disney (Disney+) debuted with their projects. Particularly striking and memorable was the debut of Disney +. Commercial success was due to exclusive and popular products. One of the most memorable is Star Wars Mandolorian, which introduced such a range of colorful characters and quickly become the most successful commercial products.
A variety of viral moments expand the boundaries so that people interact better with each brand. Unexpected popularity on the Internet adds to the company of subscribers, as well as additional coverage that provides further promotion. That is why large companies will continue to use various creative solutions in 2020.


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Why it matters: Apple has been working behind the scenes on an augmented reality headset for quite sometime now, and the latest iOS 13 and 13.1 beta releases have been found to contain a "StarBoard" framework that developers have linked with the company's AR hardware, expected to be unveiled in 2020.
As expected, Apple has always kept mum on its AR ambitions until last year when an insider leaked details on the company's 5 nm chipset that'll be powering its augmented reality headset, codenamed T288, with a scheduled release in 2020.
In March this year, it was reported that the headset could go into mass production by Q4'19 or Q2'20 at the latest, according to notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
With the arrival of iOS 13 and 13.1 beta in the hands of developers, more evidence has appeared that the hardware is being tested internally, through the presence of a "StarBoard" system shell in the OS code.
StarBoard frameworks on iOS 13 now. StarBoard is Apple’s system shell for stereo augmented reality apps (headset). Guess secrecy is out? pic.twitter.com/XTnlqQgpHh— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) September 10, 2019
There's also a readme file, apparently instructing employees on how to run Stereo AR apps on an iPhone without the AR headset.
The iOS 13 GM also comes with a readme file (!) for how employees can run Stereo AR apps on an iPhone when you don't have access to Apple's headset pic.twitter.com/SeZEHW8p0S— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) September 10, 2019
Although no announcement was made by Apple in its iPhone event yesterday, Guilherme Rambo from 9to5Mac notes that the company may have pulled it out at the very last minute. He's also previously described it as the following:
Engineers have also been developing support for stereo AR in iOS – as reported by 9to5Mac back in April – but the project may not be the “Apple Glasses” everyone has been talking about. It consists of support for a face-mounted AR experience, which can be compared to Google’s Daydream, and has been in internal testing with support for two Apple devices (codenamed Luck and Franc) and a third-party device, HoloKit.
Stereo AR apps on iPhone work similar to CarPlay, with support for stereo AR declared in the app’s manifest. These apps can run in either “held mode”, which is basically normal AR mode, or “worn mode”, which is when used with one of these external devices. A new system shell – called StarBoard – hosts extensions that support the new AR mode, similar to how WatchKit apps worked in the original Watch."