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2020 Hyundai Verna facelift has started reaching the dealerships around the country. The new model is priced between Rs 9.31 lakh to Rs 15.11 lakh (ex-showroom).
The new 2020 Hyundai Verna has finally started reaching dealerships around the country. The updated C2-segment sedan, whose prices start at Rs 9.30 lakh, was launched amid the lockdown, back when there was no interstate movement. Hence, the new model was not available for display at most of the showroooms. Now, however, the car has now finally reached the dealership floors.
The 2020 Hyundai Venra is offered in three distincitve trim levels- S, SX and SX(O)
Outside, the updated model now gets a wide cascading grille up front and revised headlamps. The car also gets a redesigned bumper along with new fog lamp housing and air curtains. The air curtain gets slim air dam with chrome splitter. On the side, the 2020 Verna sports a new set of 16-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels.
Completing the overall picture with a sporty looking rear, which employ an updated pair of LED taillamps along and a revised two-done bumper with some premium chrome accents. Inside, the new Hyundai Verna gets a dual-tone black and beige interior. Talking about changes, the new model now gets a fully-digital instrument console, revised A/C vents and an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The new infotainment system pack in Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Bluetooth connectivity and company’s Blu-link with 45 different functions. The sedan also comes loaded with features like LED headlamps, LED taillights, Arkamys audio system, hands-free trunk opening, ventilated seats and electric sunroof.
The updated model is propelled by three different powertrain options
Mechanically, the 2020 Verna is powered by BS6 compliant 1.5-litre petrol and diesel engines. The former puts out 166 PS and 114 Nm, while the latter churns out power and torque outputs of 116 PS and 250 Nm. Transmission duties will be done by a 6-speed MT or automatic gearbox. The sedan is also offered with a more potent 1.0-litre turbo petrol mill that produces power and torque outputs of 121 PS and 172 Nm. The engine comes paired with a 7-speed DCT. The sedan is offered in three different trim levels namely- S, SX and SX(O) and is priced between Rs 9.31 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) to Rs 15.11 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The updated C-sedan rivals with the likes of Honda City, Maruti Ciaz, Skoda Rapid and VW Vento.


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Passenger car exports from India declined by 1.66 percent as Hyundai records a 18.02 percent drop in car exports from 2,33,260 units in 2013-14 to 1,91,221 units in 2014-15.
Majority of car manufacturers in India export their vehicles to different countries all over the world. India’s strong engineering base and expertise in the manufacturing of low-cost, fuel-efficient cars has resulted in the expansion of manufacturing facilities of several automobile companies like Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Maruti Suzuki. Over the years, India has emerged as a leading centre for manufacturing small cars, which has also helped the country in this domain.
Talking about a few statistics, the passenger car exports from India declined by 1.66 percent to 5,42,082 units in 2014-15. This drop in export number is mainly due to the problems and challenges encountered in traditional overseas markets like Europe, Sri Lanka and Algeria. Hyundai, which is the largest exporter from India, ships more than 2,50,000 cars annually from the country. A decline of over 18 percent in overseas shipment by the Korean manufacturer can be attributed to the percentage fall in the overall market in the last fiscal year.
According to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), car exports stood at 5,51,218 units in 2013-14 with Hyundai experiencing a drop in car exports from 2,33,260 units in 2013-14 to 1,91,221 units in 2014-15. Maruti Suzuki’s exports on the other hand rose by 9.77 percent to 1,09,593 cars in the last fiscal as compared to 99,832 units in 2013-14. Europe, which is the biggest market for compact cars exported from India and is recuperating from a slowdown. Regulatory issues in countries such as Algeria and Sri Lanka has also affected shipments from our country. Indian car exporters for Sri Lanka are currently facing high taxation issues, while Algeria has made about many changes in their technical regulations in a very short period of time, thereby impacting the exports to these markets.
Nissan’s exports from the country also experienced a rise of 3.57 percent from 1,16,113 units to 1,20,266 units in 2014-15. Toyota on the other hand encountered a decline in exports of passenger cars by 35.42 percent to 17,607 units, with Volkswagen posting a near two-fold increase in shipments to 64,994 cars. As lowering fuel prices and decreasing interest rates leads to a reduction in the overall cost of ownership, domestic car sales in India finally rose by 4.99 percent in 2014-15 after witnessing a downfall for two consecutive fiscal years. According to SIAM, domestic car sales for 2015 stood at 18,76,017 units as compared to 17,86,826 units in the previous fiscal year.

domain: news


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Analyst Ming-Chu Kuo of Concord Securities is well known for his Apple supply chain connections. He correctly predicted the resolution of the iPad 2‘s display and a spring availability of the white iPhone 4.
Kuo noted yesterday that checks with his sources suggested Apple sold 820,00 Apple TV units in Q2 of this year, which ran from January to March. Apple announced some pretty staggering earnings for the quarter earlier today, where they posted 25 billion dollars in revenue.
Two-thirds of their revenue was said to come from iOS devices and their respective App Stores. Although Apple TV sales were minor compared to the 18 million iPhones sold, the device is doing far better than its previous installment.
The newly redesigned Apple TV2 not only saw a size reduction, but a major price reduction. The $99 product offers access to iTunes and Netflix, as well as a range of media streaming options from computers and iDevices.
When wondering if the Apple TV is still a hobby for the Cupertino company, I think the numbers speak for themselves. Hopefully its success will encourage Apple to further develop its TV line.
What do you think? Is Apple looking to up the anti with their TV offering?


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For proof that teenage girls run the Internet, look no further than “Alex from Target.”
An Internet meme of a young Target employee bagging items has, inexplicably, taken the Web by storm. A photo of the handsome young man, which appears to have been taken without his consent, exploded on Twitter this week, prompting media outlets from BuzzFeed to the Washington Post to cover the Internet’s latest obsession.
Then Breakr, a nascent marketing startup, boldly proclaimed on LinkedIn that it had organized the “social media experiment,” fueling the social flames with the #AlexFromTarget hashtag and a parody video. Publishers quickly echoed those claims, calling the Alex from Target meme “a stunt,” one potentially facilitated by Target itself. Now there’s a single question on everyone’s mind:
WTF is Alex from Target, anyway?
Here’s what we know for sure: Alex from Target is a 16-year-old male human from Dallas, Texas, less commonly known as Alex Christopher LaBeouf. He’s also a walking, talking native ad for Target, a fact that seems to genuinely surprise the Texan teen after his 3-month tenure at the retail chain. His skills include bagging groceries and sporting a toothy grin on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
How well known is Alex?
As a handsome, hard-working cashier, Alex is suddenly very popular. But as a person with hopes and ambitions that stem beyond the fluorescent glow of American commerce, Alex remains a mystery.
I meant on social media.
Right. He had 144 Twitter followers last week, but by Wednesday afternoon, his account had surged past 600,000 followers, mostly pubescent girls proclaiming their love for Alex. Twitter analytics platform Topsy measured 1.3 million tweets referencing “Alex from Target” between Sunday and Wednesday afternoon. Amobee Brand Intelligence measured 2.2 million tweets using the #AlexFromTarget hashtag during the same period. There’s plenty of Alex chatter on Facebook and Tumblr as well.
— Asher Ackman (@RothyAckman) November 4, 2014
Where did the original photo come from?
BuzzFeed asserts that Twitter user @brooklynjreiff was the first to post the photo on Oct. 26. From there, it apparently migrated to Tumblr, where U.K. tweeter @auscalum found it and reposted it on Twitter with the enlightening caption “YOOOOOOOOOO.” That tweet, which subsequently went viral, has been commonly and incorrectly referenced as the original source of the image.
Is @auscalum in cahoots with that marketing startup Breakr?
Breakr originally called @auscalum “one of [its] fangirls,” implying she was working with the startup, but that claim seems specious. Both @auscalum and Alex himself denied having anything to do with Breakr, after which Breakr backtracked on some its assertions, clarifying in an update to its LinkedIn post that “Abbie (@auscalum) and Alex Lee (@acl163) were never employed by Breakr.”
My family and I have never heard of this company. — DGM_Alex (@acl163) November 5, 2014
So Breakr exaggerated its involvement by pretending to organize the “campaign” to get its name out there?
That’s the general consensus. “If they really had anything to do with it, it’s the worst job taking credit for it I’ve ever seen, because there’s no background or screengrabs of the dashboard they set up,” Social Fresh CEO Jason Keath told Digiday. If Breakr had actually organized the whole thing, “they would have been more prepared and had a more polished story to tell.”
Assuming Breakr is full of it, was inserting itself into the story brilliant or idiotic?
Breakr has seen its name in almost every major media outlet, domestic and international, over the past few days. But that’s unlikely to translate into a long-term gain for the marketing startup, purported Keath. “I would never advise anyone to do that,” he said. “They’re never going to be able to point back to it and say, hey, look what we did here, and at worst, there’s going to be a lot of people who won’t work with them because of it.”
So this meme emerged organically, then?
Potentially, but some folks in press and social media circles remain skeptical. “It does have the whiff of something that was orchestrated,” said Jim Anderson, CEO of SocialFlow. “I’m hardly the right person to ask about whether the picture is truly swoon-worthy, but it seems unlikely that the photo alone would just take off on its own, absent a good solid push from somewhere.”
Maybe Target itself had something to do with Alex from Target?
Target has publicly positioned itself as an observer of this process. “Let us be completely clear, we had absolutely nothing to do with the creation, listing or distribution of the photo. And we have no affiliation whatsoever with the company that is taking credit for its results,” the company proclaimed in a recent media statement. Yet it hasn’t stayed completely on the sidelines, tweeting out an image in a show of support for its Texan employee.
— Target (@Target) November 3, 2014
Was Alex from Target a boon for Target’s marketing department?
Absolutely. Amobee Brand Intelligence measured a 274 percent boost in consumption of Target-related content across the Web from Saturday (before the meme took off) to Wednesday afternoon. Additionally, from Sunday to Wednesday afternoon, Amobee saw 2.9 million tweets referencing “Target,” compared to 2.2 million referencing the hashtag #AlexFromTarget.
Where does this leave Alex?
He could ride the wave, monetizing his newfound Internet celebrity with or without Target’s help. Or he could stay silent and quickly fade into Internet obscurity, joining “Doge” and “Dads At One Direction Concerts” in the Internet meme graveyard. The choice is his — but we think we know which way he’s leaning.
Am i famous now?
— Alex Lee (@acl163) November 2, 2014
More in Marketing
TikTok has officially launched its new e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop, earlier this month on August 1. Using the new e-commerce platform, brands and creators can sell products directly on the platform, potentially creating new revenue streams, and tap into the short-form video platform’s growing popularity.
‘The influencer industry can be really vile’: Confessions of an influencer marketer on the industry’s unfair hiring practices
While the influencer industry might sound exciting and like it’s full of opportunities, one marketer can vouch for the horrific scenarios that still take place behind the scenes.
After a tumultuous 12 months, marketers are getting a clear picture of how they really did during a time of true uncertainty. And, as it turns out, it wasn’t all that bad.
Ad position: web_bfu


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Covidien gets $176.5m award in patent litigation case against Ethicon Endo-Surgery
Covidien is a global producer and distributor of innovative healthcare products such as medical devices, pharmaceuticals and medical Supplies.
The court awarded Covidien the $176.5 million verdict upon ruling that “several claims of Covidien’s patents were valid, enforceable, and infringed by Ethicon.”
The court found that Ethicon infringed Covidien’s U.S. Patents 6,063,050, 6,468,286, and 6,682,544, each relating to ultrasonic cutting and coagulation surgical devices.
The amount of the verdict, which could be appealed, was based on an 8 percent royalty rate on infringing sales through March 2012, plus prejudgment interest.
The two medical companies are both in the US.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


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Thursday, 10 September 2020, 13:12:52
Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin chaired a meeting on the development of the electronics industry.
There are 64 enterprises producing electronic products in Kazakhstan. The number of employees in the industry is 1.6 thousand people. In 2019, the volume of production of electronic products amounted to 44.5 billion tenge, having increased by 35% by 2018. At the same time, the share of local content of these products, taking into account total imports (about 1 trillion tenge), is only 4%.
In the field of the electronic industry, new types of products are produced today: printed circuit boards (JSC Plant named after Kirov), telecommunications equipment (LLP Digital System Servise), electronic meters for water, heat and electricity, modules for wireless data transmission (Saiman Corporation LLP, Orion-System LLP and others), computers (JSC Kirov Plant, PS4U LLP, etc.), digital video cameras (NPO Perspektiva, LLP NG Vision), radio stations (LLP RTS Engineering).
In order to stimulate further growth of domestic content in the electronics industry, additional measures of state support will be taken by increasing offtake contracts with domestic manufacturers, introducing preferential loans for the purchase of domestically assembled computers through retail chains, allocating funds for R&D in the electronics industry, etc.
A goal has been set of bring the average annual production of the electronics industry by 2024 to 382.6 billion tenge (an increase of 8.5 times), the volume of exports – up to 45 billion tenge, the share of local content in purchases of the state and quasi-public sectors – up to 30% and 20%, respectively. Over 60 thousand new jobs will be created with an average annual growth of 28 thousand people.
The participants of the meeting paid special attention to the implementation of the task set by the Head of State in the Address to the people of Kazakhstan to eliminate digital inequality and provide children from socially vulnerable families with computer technology. So, by the end of 2020, 9 domestic manufacturers will produce and supply to schools in the country an additional 606 thousand computers (351 thousand computers and 255 thousand laptops). By 2024, the domestic production of computer equipment will be increased 5 times to 165 billion tenge.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin, Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Beibut Atamkulov, Minister of Education and Science Askhat Aimagambetov, Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov, heads of other ministries and departments, as well as Chair of the Board of JSC Kazakhtelecom Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev.


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Salvation Army Family Stores in Colorado Springs, Denver, and north Colorado will be having a three-day sale for Veterans Day weekend: today (Friday), all furniture is 50% off; on Saturday, everything is 50% off; and then on Monday, all clothing will be 50% off!
As they do every week, Arc Thrift Stores will also have most items 50% off on Saturday as well.
Don’t miss out! Get deals like this via email:
Welcome to Springs Bargains, a service of our real estate business, Circa Real Estate Group! I’m Carrie, and since 2008 I’ve been sharing free and discounted ways to eat, play, and enjoy life in Colorado Springs.


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According to a newly released report [PDF] from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which assumed authority of enforcing the CARD Act in 2011, consumers saved a total of $4 billion in 2012 over what they would have paid had card companies continued to charge what they did before the Act.
The CFPB calculates that American credit cardholders would have paid $2.5 billion more in overlimit fees in 2012 had the CARD Act — which requires that cardholders opt-in to overlimit fees, rather than that being the default — not been enacted, while consumers saved around $1.5 billion in late fees, with the average late fee dropping by $6 in the years since the law kicked in.
The agency admits it’s difficult to pin down exactly how much of this change is a direct result of the legislation. If consumers are being more responsible by not overextending their credit and by paying their credit card bills on time, that would explain some of the savings. On the other hand, it’s possible that credit card issuers would have increased their overlimit and late fees to account for this more responsible behavior.
“This report confirms the law is making a big difference in protecting people from some of the worst industry practices,” says Pamela Banks, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union. “Penalty fees are down, and your bill provides better information about the true cost of your credit. There are still issues in the marketplace that need serious attention, but this report shows we’ve made a lot of progress in a relatively short period of time.”
LIMITED ACCESS FOR SOME
One double-edged issue is the availability of credit to subprime and young borrowers. CFPB notes that there has been a “substantial decrease in the number of credit card accounts originated among students and other consumers under the age of 21,” and that “a small but discernible percentage of applicants… deemed otherwise creditworthy are being declined as a result of insufficient income to satisfy the Act’s ability-to-pay requirement.”
While this can be seen as a positive indicator, in that these two groups — younger and subprime consumers — have a higher percentage of people who aren’t able or prepared to take on the responsibility of paying off a credit card. Thus, less access to credit for them means fewer opportunities for them to get into a hole financially.
The drop in student credit cardholders is likely attributable to new regulations limiting the on-campus and direct marketing of credit cards to people under the age of 21. As anyone who has been on a college campus during orientation knows, credit card companies used to circle like vultures, handing out all manner of freebies just for filling in an application. The CARD Act has helped to curb such practices.
Credit card companies used to wrangle these groups in with small-limit cards from which the issuers could make money on huge overlimit and late fees; these are now limited by the CARD Act. The issuers would also keep increasing credit limits on these cards, encouraging cardholders to keep spending, but the CARD Act requires that consumers make the request for limit increases, which most people won’t do. Thus, card issuers no longer see students and subprime consumers as pots of gold.
What concerns me is that these groups are becoming a prime target for predatory lenders in the payday and auto-title loan industries. Someone who is on the bubble for approval — or a student who assumes he won’t be approved — for a credit card may see the short-term, high-interest option as an easier way to get money quickly. Unfortunately, as the CFPB itself has shown, payday lending, with its triple-digit interest rates, often results in the borrower taking on significantly more debt than initially expected.
In its report, the CFPB outlines numerous remaining concerns that may need to be dealt with by future regulations.
First up is add-on products like ID theft protection and credit monitoring services. “The Bureau has found through its supervisory work that these products are frequently sold in a manner that harms consumers,” states the report.
Then there are “fee harvester” cards, which skirt CARD Act regulations by charging massive upfront fees — sometimes more than 25% of a card’s initial credit limit — before the cardholder is technically a customer. Thus, these fees do not fall under the umbrella of the legislation. CFPB says it “will continue to monitor the use of application fees in connection with account opening to determine if it should take action under its available authorities.”
The agency also expressed concern about deferred-interest programs. Distinct from promotions that charge low or no interest on purchases made during an introductory period, deferred-interest cards will retroactively charge interest on purchases if the balance is not paid 100% in full by the end of that intro period. These promotions are primarily tied to store-branded credit offerings.
“We have serious concerns about deferred interest credit cards,” explains Christina Tetreault, staff attorney for Consumers Union. “Some people turn to these cards to cover the cost of big-ticket items, but the terms can be incredibly complicated, and you can wind up getting hit with huge, surprise penalties. We’re pleased to see the CFPB call out these products, and we’re glad that the bureau is going to take a hard look at the risks and benefits.”
CLEAR AS MUD
The CFPB also wants to keep investigating several issues involving transparency. For example, the CARD Act requires that certain disclosures — including warnings related to late fees and the cost of making only the minimum payment due — be included on monthly billing statements, but many cardholders now make their payments via online portals that don’t include these disclosures.
Another transparency issue involves rewards products. Consumers often use competing rewards programs as a deciding factor in picking a particular credit card, but they don’t always understand the full terms and conditions tied to earning and using those rewards. Thus, the Bureau “will review whether rewards
disclosures are being made in a clear and transparent manner, as well as assess whether additional action is warranted.”
Do you know exactly how your grace period works when paying your credit card bill? You might think you do, but it’s possible you’re mistaken, as it’s often more complicated than a simple pay-by date.
“It is unclear whether consumers understand that once they carry a balance into a new month, interest will be assessed on the unpaid balance from the start of the prior month,” writes the CFPB. “Until the consumer qualifies for the grace period again, interest is assessed on all purchases from the date of purchase. It is likewise unclear whether consumers understand that even after they pay the full amount shown on their bill, they may still owe ‘trailing interest’ for the period from the time the bill was issued until the time the payment was received.”


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Kampala — There is good news for Uganda's sugar consumers in the coming months owed to the projected sugar in production volumes amidst increase in imports.
Statistics from the Uganda Sugar Manufacturers Association (USMA), which consist of Kakira, Kinyara and SCOUL, shows that the industry projects to produce 388,000 tonnes of sugar this year, up from 326, 968 tonnes in 2017.
These figures exclude production from more than ten other small factories that are not members of USMA. Similarly, there is a surge in informal sugar imports, especially from Kenya into the Ugandan market, according to USMA Secretariat Manager, Wilberforce Mubiru. He, however, could not ascertain the volume of imports.
"The demand for sugar from the region has also reduced because countries are importing cheap sugar from other markets like Brazil," he told The Independent in an interview.
He said some African countries including Mauritius, Swaziland, Mozambique, Algeria and Zambia are stuck with tonnes of sugar after the European market removed the quota on sugar it was importing from them.
For that, the price of sugar has dropped by about 31% to an average of Shs 3, 500 per kilogramme at the beginning of 2018 compared with Shs4, 600 in April last year.
Though the actual amount of sugar on the market remains sketchy, the country's sugar demand in the previous year stood at Shs 369,000, according to the Ministry of Trade.
Uganda witnessed a record surge in sugar price in 2013 when a kilogramme went for as high as Shs 7,000.
"We expect a further decline (in sugar) price this year," Mubiru said, adding "Maybe in 2019 is when we will have an increase (in price)."
He said factories are now selling a 50kg bag of sugar at Shs134, 000, down from Shs190, 000 last year.
At the end of last year, government through the Ministry of Trade recommended that the price per kilo be sold at not more than Shs 4,000 due to public outcry.
However, Mubiru said the target for sugar production in Uganda should increase to match the anticipated growth in number of industries and population -the potential buyers of the product.
White sugar demand
Due to lack of capacity in terms of output and technology, local producers within Uganda and East Africa continue to lose millions of dollars to outside markets as industries import the raw material from Europe and other markets.
According to the East African Gazette produced early last month by the East African Council of Ministers, Uganda's industrialists were allowed to import the largest amount of refined sugar at subsidized duty totaling to over 324, 555 tons followed by Kenya with 19, 700 tons, Burundi 1, 701 tons and Rwanda 23.4 tons. In total, the four countries would record 345, 979.4 tons as white sugar imports from outside East Africa.
"The Council of Ministers has approved the following manufacturers to import the specified quantities of raw materials at the specified duty rate under the Duty Remission Scheme," Al Hajj Kirunda Kivejinja, the chairman of the Council of Ministers wrote.
Some of the 15 Ugandan companies under this arrangement include Century Bottling Company Ltd, Britannia Allied Industries, Nile Breweries and Uganda Breweries. In Kenya, eight companies are benefiting from this move. Some of the companies include Excel Chemicals Limited, Patco Industries Limited and Highlands Mineral Water Limited among others. In Rwanda only one company, Nyanza Milk Industries Limited was granted permission while Burundi also had one company - Burundi Brewery given the incentive.
Patrick Oyuru, the director sales and marketing at Coca-Cola, told The Independent that the imports they record for the white sugar support their industrial activity and that EAC producers have no capacity to supply the quantities needed to them. "We note that this importation is well regulated," Oyuru, whose company is importing 22, 165 tons said, adding they continue to engage the local producers on the possibility of having a refinery for white sugar in Uganda.
Mwine Jim Kabeho from USMA said that local producers in Uganda would need to increase production by one million tonnes to be able to meet the demand from the likes of Coca-Cola in addition to building a high-tech refinery which no other EAC country has at the moment apart from Kenya that is eying one in the near future.
The average white sugar price index for 2017 quoted in London was US$432.10 per tonne; the highest was US$ 556.25 and the lowest was US$359.05.


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Indian consumers are moving online and itâ€™s a huge market, says Anand Baldawa, CEO, Seeba|thinKitchen
The market opportunity with a digitally savvy Indian consumer is large. India is likely to have 500 million online shoppers by 2030, according to a joint report by MMA, Mobile Marketing Association of India and media agency, Group M India.
With retail in India being re-oriented in the past two years, as consumers navigated their lives through a pandemic. Ecommerce has come of age as consumers moved to online shopping to accommodate the restrictions on physical retail. While many of those restrictions have recently been pulled back, consumers are far more comfortable with online shopping than they ever were.
With this as a backdrop, consumer expectations around a seamless omnichannel experience, regardless of preferred platform or method of shopping, are building up. And businesses are stepping up to meet this expectation. For consumers shopping on listed Indian beauty retailer Nykaaâ€™s app, they are informed of special offers and promotions exclusively available at stores close to them. Similarly, for those shopping at Nykaaâ€™s physical stores, they are added to the online database and encouraged to replenish online.
â€œQuick commerce in India is recent but becoming an important customer touch pointâ€
Simplified shopping experiences, convenience and speed are of essence. A few weeks ago, Amazon in India integrated its grocery outlets Fresh and Pantry into one unified store Amazon Fresh, for faster and convenient delivery option across 300 cities from one unified destination. Shoppers Stop, Indiaâ€™s leading departmental store chain recently launched Express Store Pick Up, a Buy Online Pick up in store (BOPIS) initiative. Croma, the electronics retail chain from Tata also offers this service as do many others.
Retail is far more â€˜phygitalâ€™ with the use of technology for more immersive customer experiences even in store. Sportswear brand, Decathalon, reportedly deploys an app only payment and checkout system in Tier 1 cities in India. Fashion retailer Zara uses location intelligence which causes its app to switch to in store mode when a customer enters a store, so that the customer can locate products and receive offers. Pepperfry, an online furniture retailer has stores designated as experience zones where customers are encouraged to walk in yet order online.
Quick commerce in India is recent but becoming an important customer touch point. As per a report by Redseer, quoted in The Hindu Business Line, a key financial daily, the estimated size of the Q-commerce segment will be about $0.3 billion in 2021 in India and expected to grow 10-15 times over the next five years to touch $5 billion. Walmart owned Flipkart is reported to be ramping up food and grocery specific warehousing by lining up small storage spaces in metro cities. It has also introduced its hyper local service, Flipkart Quick, an assured delivery service within 90 minutes in 10 cities in India. Similarly Swiggy, one of the biggest food delivery services in India, has introduced its quick commerce service, Instamart in 15 Indian cities as of Oct 2021, moving beyond food into grocery and other essentials.
The impact of omnichannel growth is also being felt at the backend. There is greater emphasis on efficient supply chain and warehouse management. There is an increasing demand for dark fulfilment stores, JLLâ€™s, the global real estate services firm, India office expects urban logistic spaces to surpass seven million square feet by 2022. The increasing trend of faster goods distribution is expected to push demand further. Dark stores are seen to drive efficiencies, improve delivery capabilities and reduce logistics costs by 10% to 30% as per Economic Times, Indiaâ€™s leading financial daily.
Likewise assortment, pricing, and operational strategies including real time updation of product and inventory data are being aligned across platforms where a change on any platform is accounted for by all the others to produce a seamless shopper experience. Clear lines of communication between in-store and online teams to encourage collaboration, are areas of priority. Footwear major, Bata, in India has included their franchise partners in the efforts to streamline customer fulfilment channels. â€œBata Oneâ€, is their ERP platform, an interactive AI enabled platform for franchise order taking capable of suggestive ordering, KPI and order tracking, complaint resolution and integrated payment gateway.
Going forward, there is more in the pipeline that is expected. A BAIN & Co and Flipkart report predicts that retail will be driven by a few notable mega trends. These include evolving and growing digital ecosystems that are geared to capture a larger share of consumer time and spending. The growth of voice search and language based user interfaces. Also the expected uptick in live streaming and video commerce along with social commerce. Thus this growing relevance of omni channels makes it a must-play and must-win frontier for brands.


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The seminar hosted Dr Li Li, associate professor at the Institute of Textiles and Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Dr Andrew Zhu, CEO of TOZI Technology Company Limited.
Highlighting her novel approach in thermal functional textile with conductive materials project, Dr Li Li explained that she had crossed over from a background in knitwear design into technical design and textile studies. The electronic textile fabrics improved the heating part of the fabric, making it more elastic, more comfortable, and more controllable in terms of both the temperature and where the heat is directed. These new fabrics are not only soft, thin and light, they are washable.
Dr Andrew Zhu , a graduate from the Institute of Textile and Clothing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University – explained how TOZI had looked into the booming online shopping trend but had found that there was a return rate of more than 30 per cent when it came to clothes purchased. Hence, the company turned its attention to 3D human modeling technology. This technology requires two mobile photos to be taken – and then it can calculate accurate body measurements immediately, meaning custom-made clothes can now be purchased. Zhu has developed apps to help clients maintain health and body shape, choose their own fabric and bespoke clothes, and that recommends clothes to suit individuals. (RR)
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Larger ecosystem may be prone to sudden collapses once they have been pushed past a tipping point.
Elephants have long been known to linger at the carcasses of dead mates.
Tropical forests are losing their ability to absorb CO2 from manmade greenhouse gas emissions faster than expected.
The unique creatures may go the way of the dodo unless conservation efforts are stepped up.
Should you go to a store in person or should you shop online to reduce your carbon footprint?
In just a few months some 5.8 million hectares of broadleaf forest burned down in New South Wales and Victoria.


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Minneapolis – Target chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel has resigned.
He will be succeeded on an interim basis by chief financial officer John Mulligan, and director Roxanne Austin was appointed interim non-executive chair by the board.
Steinhafel’s resignation, from both his post and the board, comes in the wake of the widespread breach of customer credit card data in December, which hobbled the chain’s holiday sales.
Target’s financial performance has also suffered in recent years — net earnings fell 34 percent in fiscal 2013 — and the company continues to play catch-up in e-commerce.
In his resignation letter to the board, Steinhafel, a 35-year veteran of the discount chain, acknowledged the challenges of the data breach, the recession and a difficult expansion into Canada. He also cited key accomplishments during his tenure as CEO, including the Redcard credit and debit program, the development of new store formats and the introduction of fresh food.
Steinhafel joined Target as a merchandise trainee in 1979 and was named president 20 years later. He succeeded Robert Ulrich as CEO six years ago this month.
In a statement, Target’s directors said that “after extensive discussions, the board and Gregg Steinhafel have decided that now is the right time for new leadership at Target. … The board is confident in the future of this company and views this transition as an opportunity to drive Target’s business forward and accelerate the company’s transformation efforts.”
Industry reaction was mixed. “The suddenness of this announcement is stunning … and the lack of planning around near-term transition leads us to believe that this was last minute,” observed Janney Montgomery Scott retail analyst David Strasser in a research note. “Target needs a turnaround specialist, someone who could re-energize a workforce that has been demoralized by bad news, and make tough and quick decisions regarding a variety of strategies that need review at the company … and it is critical that the board finds the right person.”
Target has retained executive search firm Korn Ferry to help fill the top spot.


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The launch of a new high-end version of Apple’s iPhone 5 has given a boost to FTSE 250 graphics chip designer Imagination Technologies as it reported “strong” royalty revenues today.
26 May 2011
The odds are undoubtedly stacked against Microsoft in the tablet world. The iPad, which almost single-handedly invented the market, is less than a year old, but already has monumental sales.
22 December 2010
The maker of the BlackBerry mobile today said its new Torch phone, whose touchscreen is aimed at fighting the surging popularity of Apple's iPhone, boosted profits ahead of analysts' forecasts.
17 December 2010
10 December 2010
Wander into any of Mayfair or Knightbridge's most affluent clubs and you'll be blinded by the flash of diamonds every time a phone rings (with a specially composed ringtone).
01 November 2010
20 September 2010
17 August 2010
18 June 2010
28 May 2010
17 February 2010
- Juan Mata hopes his ‘amazing’ Chelsea dream does not turn into a nightmare
- Tom Daley spotted house-hunting in Stratford with new partner Dustin Lance Black
- UK weather: Thousands flee homes as tidal surge hits coast - and warning of more floods to come
- In pictures: When cats take over your life
- I'm A Celebrity... Amy Willerton makes her bid for best bikini moment - in pictures
- Islington council tells HGV drivers to get on their bikes
- Nelson Mandela: The world mourns giant who showed path to peace
- Two more cyclists injured in separate road collisions
- Vision of a new London borough on site of abandoned Heathrow is revealed
- Tom Daley says of his boyfriend Dustin Lance Black: 'It was love at first sight and I made the move'
- Man, 26, arrested after woman knocked unconscious on London night bus
- A Celebration of Bert Jansch, Royal Festival Hall - music review
- Rocker Ian Dury's parody of the Lord's Prayer appears on London tube notice board
- Tom Daley leads the new pansexual pack
- Students 'punched and dragged to the ground by their hair' as police break up sit-in


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Singapore – Mothership, the youth-focused digital news platform in Singapore, has forged a partnership with Outbrain, the recommendation platform for the open web.
The partnership will see Outbrain’s AI-driven customisation featured on the digital publisher’s website, providing advertisers with premium inventory reaching younger, hard-to-reach audiences in new and innovative ways.
Mothership is the third-largest news site in Singapore by traffic, according to Similarweb, and reaches a significant portion of Singapore’s Millennial population. Outbrain’s Smartlogic technology will enable Mothership to further monetise its traffic by personalising the user experience and content recommendations for readers.
Ben Steel, GM of Outbrain for SEA, commented, “Supporting quality local journalism has never been more important, and is at the heart of our mission at Outbrain. So we are thrilled to partner with Mothership to help this fantastic Singaporean success story keep on telling the stories that matter.”
“Importantly, Mothership speaks to younger audiences, a hard-to-reach group for many marketers. Outbrain’s innovative technology and data-driven approach will provide new ways to communicate with this vibrant group.”
Daniel Ho, head of corporate development at Mothership, also said, “We are excited to adopt Outbrain’s AI-driven customisation with editorial, ad, and layout prediction, to better serve our audiences and generate positive brand value.”
Outbrain has also previously inked partnerships with Singaporean publishers Singapore Press Holdings, Mediacorp, and AsiaOne.
Learn from marketing leaders across Southeast Asia—from CARSOME, Colgate-Palmolive, FlowerStore.ph, MessageBird and ZALORA Group—on how marketers are building a seamless customer buying journey with channels that adapt and bridge silos on 'Omnichannel Journey Mapping: Connecting the CX Dots in 2023.' To get on-demand access, register HERE!
Where can the best-in-class automation strategies take your email campaigns? Join marketing leaders from Allianz PNB Life, Coinhako, and MessageBird discuss brand-led email marketing strategies this June 21, 2PM SGT at 'Programmable Emails: Connecting the CX Dots in 2023.' Register now for FREE!


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nike sales increase 31 per cent in the aftermath of its controversial colin kaepernick endorsement deal
According to data from e-commerce research firm Edison trends, sales at the sportswear company surged 31 percentage points over last year over Labor Day weekend.
Especially on Monday and Tuesday, after Nike launched a new 30 th anniversary and played a new ad featuring the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, sales increased
Nike was strongly opposed to itsKaepernick\'s endorsement deal.
The NFL star has sparked controversy in the national anthem over police brutality and racial inequality.
There is speculation that Nike\'s Colin kempnik advertising campaign could lead to a drop in sales. . .
Edison trend says it does not seem to support this theory at this point.
In fact, during Labor Day this year, Nike\'s sales rose 31 percentage points from Sunday to Tuesday, down from 17 percentage points of 2017 growth in the same period.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Kaepernick and other NFL players for kneeling down in protest and slammed Nike on Twitter on Friday: \"What is Nike thinking?
At a rally in Montana last week, Trump said he did not think Nike\'s endorsement deal with capenik was appropriate.
\"I don\'t like what Nike does.
\'I don\'t think they are doing the right thing,\' Trump said.
\"I respect the flag.
I salute our national anthem and most people in this country feel the same way.
Trump\'s comments came at the start of the NFL\'s new season. The season-
In the first match between the Philadelphia Hawks and the Atlanta Falcons, ratings dropped sharply as Trump again criticized the league.
While a delay in the start of the game on Thursday could affect the number, the number has fallen sharply as the NFL tries to calm the controversy over player protests.
Political analysts predict that Trump will try to inject vitality into his base before the critical mid-term to keep the national anthem issue alive
Elections for the term of office on November.


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Nvidia's CEO is far from happy at how the new crop of Honeycomb-laden Android tablets are being received. Jen-Hsun Huang listed a whole raft of problems with the way the first tablets have been priced, marketed and sold, in a .
"It's a point of sales problem. It's an expertise at retail problem. It's a marketing problem to consumers. It is a price point problem," said Huang. "The baseline configuration included 3G when it shouldn't have. Tablets should have a Wi-Fi configuration and be more affordable.
"And it's a software richness of content problem," he added, referring to the quality -- or perceived lack of it -- on the Android Market, especially for tablets.
It's no surprise he's fed up. His company's Tegra 2 is on board the new breed of tablets and he wants to see results. Seeing Apple's iPad 2 doing so ludicrously well -- selling alone -- can't be good for the blood pressure either, despite the shifting 250,000 units.
While it wasn't clear exactly where Huang was pointing the finger, it's unlikely anyone gets off the hook. Manufacturers aren't pushing their wares strongly enough, while retailers haven't been properly educated about all these shiny devices that keep appearing on their shelves.
Apple has a distinct advantage, having much more retail and marketing experience and a single brand identity. There are constant ads for the iPad on TV, and Apple Stores seem to be
Try training every employee in each Android tablet and you can see where they're having problems getting through to the average punter.or mobile phone shop to do a decent job of selling your
It's not all bad news though, with Huang extolling the virtues of future Tegra-based Honeycomb tablets. "But those problems are all getting solved. The rate at which these Honeycomb Tegra 2 tablets are being improved is really stunning. I think all of the manufacturers have now recognised that and readjusted their plans," he said. There's still a lot of work to do to dislodge the mighty Apple, however.


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BlueStar, the Blandon, PA-based manufacturer of high-performance cooking appliances for the home, has announced a collaboration with renowned Chef Paul Kahan.
Bluestar, which supplies commercial-style ranges, ovens, cooktops and related products, said that Kahan has joined the “BlueStar All Stars,” an exclusive group of chefs and influencers “who are passionate about achieving restaurant-quality results at home.”
Kahan is a well-known and widely acclaimed chef who is also the author of the newly released cookbook Cooking for Good Times: Super Delicious, Super Simple.
“Chef Kahan’s passion and creative approach to cooking is an inspiration to home cooks and professionals alike,” said BlueStar president Eliza Sheffield. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with the chef to highlight the joys of using the right tools in a home kitchen to deliver restaurant-quality results.”


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HOLIDAYS: Shoppers say they're unworried about money
Sun | Local
SEATTLE (AP) - Holiday shoppers hit the downtown stores ready to spend money Saturday, with some saying they had "good years" financially and aren't worried about how much they're spending.
"I'm looking more for the right gift for the right person," said 38-year-old Seattle resident Joe Vollmer, who works in the home health care business. "Money is not much of an issue."
Vollmer was shopping in the downtown Bon Marche department store with Cliff Willwerth on Saturday of the next-to-last weekend before Christmas.
"We're not early shoppers, that's for sure," Vollmer said. They bought gloves for an upcoming trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, and Frango chocolates for Willwerth's mother in California.
Brett Henry is more organized. She had her shopping done before the weekend but was downtown with her husband, Tom, and their two children, 5-year-old Julien and 2-year-old Margarett.
The children planned to hand out homemade cookies to homeless people asking for money on Seattle's streets. Brett Henry said she spent more on gifts this year.
"It was a good year in Seattle," Tom Henry said. The strength of Microsoft and the rest of the high-tech industry plus good times at the Boeing Co. added up to a strong economy for the Puget Sound region.
Elizabeth Dodgson, manager of the trendy Fireworks gift store in downtown Seattle's Westlake Center, expects to see more shoppers now that the presidential election is over.
"People were hung up with the election and glued to their TVs doing the CNN thing," she said Saturday.
Dodgson says customers in her store have typically been spending between $80 and $100, which is not as much as she had hoped they would spend this holiday season. She has done more shipping and phone business this year.
But she still expects to meet her goals for sales since there is one more weekend for shoppers before Christmas.
Many retailers are offering deals on items to get people to buy.
Sherry Haney, 40, had most of her shopping done before this weekend but she was hunting for bargains Saturday. She found deals on a moving scene lamp for her daughter and a book for her husband.
"I'm spending about the same," said Haney, of Puyallup, Wash., about 28 miles south of Seattle. "I sent a son off to college so I couldn't spend much more."
Seattle resident Jesse Briere, 24, was searching for the best deal on a diamond necklace for his girlfriend. Briere, who works in construction, said he has completed his Christmas shopping for his family and planned to finish all his shopping "bit by bit" this weekend.
Kate Sullivan of Sequim, Wash., said she is spending less this year because three of her four children are in their 20s. She gives them money and small gifts. Sullivan, 50, planned to buy most of her gifts this weekend.
"I'll wander around as long as it takes," she said.


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It turned out that Apple is working on a new screen technology. A new patent from the company shows that Apple is working on a display that is both foldable and self-repairing. If this kind of screen technology becomes real, we may encounter iPhones with no permanent screen scratches.
A patent of US-based technology giant Apple that has been revealed today reveals that the company is working on a new screen technology. The patent in question, “Apple develops an iPhone with a foldable screen.” the kind to support their claims. However, the screen technology that Apple is working on has a completely different feature than being foldable.
According to Apple’s patent, the company continues to work on a foldable screen. While everything is normal up to this point, Apple also seems to be working on a technology that will allow this screen to repair itself. In other words, damages such as dents and scratches on the screen can be repaired by themselves. How will this be possible?
Scientists have already produced materials that can repair themselves. Apple is working on a technology that can use these materials on screens. In other words, Apple may one day, if not today, reveal screens that can indeed repair themselves.
The biggest problem of foldable screen phones is that the display panel is not durable. Technology manufacturers use very very thin panels to ensure that the screen can be folded. This causes problems such as the screen being unstable and being damaged very quickly. For this reason, Apple may want to make the screens more durable, at least self-repairing, before introducing a foldable iPhone.
According to the information in Apple’s patent, the company’s new display technology will be able to repair itself with an external stimulus. The company says this stimulus can be elements such as electricity, light or heat. However, it is thought that the repair in question will not cover major damages such as broken or deep scratches, but small dents due to scratches or bumps.


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PC chips due in the next few weeks will give a boost to laptops as well as workstation and server systems. Transmeta has announced that in September it will launch the successor to its Crusoe range of...
GDPR: Some companies have only started their compliance preparations this week, claims Bristows lawyer Robert Bond
And all those 'GDPR compliance' emails are pointless and unnecessary, too
A panel of experts answer your questions on the challenges inherent in the EU's new GDPR legislation
It's not just Big Brother that is watching you - increasingly, it's every electronic device we use, warns Peter Cochrane
The 'how to' element is missing from GDPR and this is the cause of much of the angst


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Twitter on Tuesday rolled out new advert options and revamped the algorithm that decides which adverts customers see, as a part of an effort to put the groundwork to launch future ecommerce options, the social networking firm advised Reuters. The brand new options come as Twitter is pushing to develop its efficiency promoting enterprise, a technique that goals to shortly generate gross sales, and constituted simply 15 % of Twitter’s enterprise final yr. The hassle might assist Twitter attain its purpose of doubling annual income by 2023.
The San Francisco-based firm is positioning itself to ultimately permit manufacturers to promote merchandise by the service by first bettering on its means to indicate customers related adverts and rising the chance they may click on the advert. “Efficiency adverts are a really giant alternative … that’s comparatively untapped for us,” mentioned Kamara Benjamin, group product supervisor at Twitter, in an interview. “Finally, that is going to result in individuals putting in apps, visiting web sites and discovering merchandise that meet their wants.”
Adverts selling downloads for cellular video games and different apps, that are a significant sort of advert on social media websites, will now permit customers to provoke the obtain with out leaving the Twitter app, the corporate mentioned in a weblog put up on Tuesday. Beforehand, customers needed to depart Twitter to obtain different apps. Twitter added it’s engaged on new instruments to let firms run adverts to seek out prospects who usually tend to make in-app purchases.
Slide-show adverts that characteristic a number of merchandise can now ship customers to completely different web sites once they click on the advert, whereas beforehand manufacturers might solely select one vacation spot. This elevated the variety of clicks by 25 % on advert campaigns that set a purpose of driving web site visits, the corporate mentioned.
Twitter additionally improved the promoting algorithm, displaying the adverts to a bigger pool of individuals in the beginning of the marketing campaign so it may higher gauge consumer curiosity, Benjamin mentioned. These algorithm enhancements led to a 36% improve in advert campaigns that achieved no less than 5 downloads throughout the time interval that the advert ran on Twitter, the corporate mentioned.


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Briefs: Houston & State
Improving economic conditions helped boost sales during the fiscal first quarter that ended Feb. 29, said Cooper Industries. Sales in its electrical products segment rose 6 to 8 percent over a year earlier, while sales in its tools and hardware segment grew by 13 to 15 percent. Increased demand was noted in both industrial and retail markets.
sees jump in sales
Consequently, first quarter earnings are expected to be in the range of 75 to 80 cents per share, it said Thursday, compared with analysts' forecasts between 70 to 75 cents.
If economies continue to improve in North America and Europe, full-year earnings are expected to be toward the higher end of its earlier forecast of $3.15 to $3.30, it said.
EDS sells business
to Michigan outfit
Financial terms weren't disclosed.
The sale to ADP's dealer services group will cut EDS' earnings by less than 1 cent per share, Healy said.


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Dynasties against democracy
November 19, 2021
CHINA — XINJIANG COTTON LAUNDERING ON SALE AT A CHAIN STORE NEAR YOU. A new report —How Xinjiang Cotton is Obscured in International Supply Chains — details evidence of 53 contract garment suppliers across Asia, Africa and Mexico that purchase fabric and yarn from Chinese manufacturers that use cotton farmed by Uyghurs. The report argues that those purchasing decisions create liability for major brands working with the suppliers, including Target, Walmart, Lululemon, C&A and Uniqlo.“Some of the world’s most well-known fashion brands are very likely selling products produced with Uyghur forced labor to unwitting consumers,” said Louisa Greve, Director of Global Advocacy at Uyghur Human Rights Project.
Customs officials from the U.S. and other jurisdictions will now also be in a bind. U.S. officials imposed an order in January prohibiting importation of all cotton goods from Xinjiang, but have blocked relatively few imports.


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Dying RIM has some gall: It just called the Android
Market a "chaotic cesspool" polluted by piracy.
Better a cesspool than a ghost town, right?
Dying RIM has some gall: It just called the...
5 innovations in radiology that could impact everything from the Zika virus to dermatology
More "Digital Industry Insider" »
We just created the best Google Chrome extension on the market for latest news headlines
More "BI Innovations" »
Available on iOS or Android


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In a remarkable feat of miniaturized engineering, Takara Tomy has created a tiny R2-D2 toy that stands just over an inch tall but can still be steered around your desk using an equally small lightsaber remote control.
Using the lightsaber controller as its charging base, R2-D2 needs just 10 seconds of recharging for around 40 seconds of exploration that includes rolling forward, and turning while reversing. Takara Tomy has even managed to squeeze an extra motor in there so that Artoo’s dome swivels back and forth while he rolls around, complete with beeping, blooping sound effects and lights. It will be available come August for around $30—restraining bolt not included. [Takara Tomy via Toy People]


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Local businesses learned that the sewing kits could really make a difference for vulnerable populations in Sudbury, so they asked their customers for donations
A family business owned by April and Marja Lafreimallman, and operated with the help of their children, Sew Local Stitch Lounge is part fabric store and part teaching studio.
Based in Copper Cliff, the shop is a safe and friendly space where people can come together to learn new skills and celebrate creativity.
Now they’re also supporting Sudbury’s vulnerable populations with an incredibly handy little gift: a sewing kit.
The owners told Sudbury.com via an email interview that they were approached by a community member who recently asked several new friends in the homeless community what they needed to help themselves. life.
“And very often,” the owners said, “the response they got was ‘sewing kits so I could mend my clothes.’ They asked if we could help them, and of course we wanted to. We asked our sewing community to browse their stock of sewing supplies and help us create 100 sewing kits.
The Sew Local Stitch Lounge team initially made a list of what they thought would be most useful and asked for hand sewing needles, good quality thread, safety pins, needle threaders, adhesive waterproof patches, buttons, small scissors, snaps and small plastic containers to hold them all.
“Our customers are so lovely and generous, so it’s no surprise that we started taking donations right away,” the Lafreimallmans said. “Everyone just wanted to share – and sewers are known for their huge collections of sewing supplies and their willingness to share their love of sewing. We had so many people donate.
A dear longtime customer whose mom recently passed away was able to donate a large bin full of her mom’s sewing supplies.
“It felt so meaningful to us,” the owners of Sew Local said. “We also had people donate money, which we used to buy the rest of the supplies at cost.”
They have now reached their goal of 100 sewing kits and plan to distribute them through Project Go-Give, a Sudbury-based outreach group.
Evie Ali of the Go-Give project told Sudbury.com that they were very happy to receive the message from Sew Local. “Not only are the sewing kits incredibly practical, but they also contain materials that can be used for beadwork and artwork,” she said.
Ali said they often collect fine needles and threads to help native customers with their traditional artwork, a wonderful opportunity for self-expression as well as an outlet for grief and despair.
Plus, they’re a great quick fix for those living in camps and, as you can imagine, the wear and tear of everyday items like backpacks, shoes, and clothing.
“We have so much ingenuity and creativity in our community that we know it will be put to good use, and we are so grateful to Sew Local for accommodating the unique needs of the people we work with,” said Ali.
For more information on Sew Local Stitch Lounge, visit their website here.


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By Jesse Wood
On July 5, the NCDOT issued a driveway access permit for the Publix Super Markets development slated for the old Kmart property along U.S. 321 in Boone. Work is set to begin next week.
The permit covers an intersection that will provide signalized access to Publix, the Cracker Barrel, the Boone Post Office and other existing businesses accessed from that area. The proposed intersection entrances are planned to be 36-foot wide.
NCDOT spokesman David Uchiyama said that work will begin on July 18 on the U.S. Postal Service/Postal Street side of the roadway.
“The contractor expects it all to be done by the end of September barring bad weather or other hiccups,” Uchiyama said.
According to NCDOT District Engineer Doug Eller in a memo to the applicant, a Publix development official, Daniel Renfro of Matthews Development, LLC, a one-year warranty from the completion date is required on all work performed in the NCDOT’s right of way. In the meantime, the NCDOT will hold a $150,000 performance and indemnity bond to be released after a final satisfactory inspection at the end of the warranty period.
Publix published the 6.5-acre property in November 2014 for $10.5 million. That was a cool $3.5 profit for the development group that bought the old Kmart property for nearly $7 million in the summer of 2014, when Kmart closed down for good.
The demolition of the old retail store began in April. Demolition is complete, and the foundation of the site is currently being constructed.
The new Publix Super Markets store in Boone, which is proposed to open sometime in 2017, will be about 49,000 square feet in size and feature a drive thru Publix pharmacy. The parking lot will accommodate 250 vehicles, according to plans submitted to the Boone Planning and Inspections department.
The redevelopment is estimated to cost $9 million.


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» Char Lost Saga Gratis Dan Full Cash
Char Lost Saga Gratis Dan Full Cash
Char Lost Saga Gratis Dan Full Cash on Technology News and Updates AdmaTechnology.com at Thursday, April 24, 2014
Jakarta – SpeedUp launched “Pad 8″ tablet equipped with HD Display and SpeedUp Studio.
This tablet lets users enjoy more than 850,000 original music content both local and foreign artists.
“The tablet is different from our other [...]
Through a practical point of view, Asus (7/5) in the Grand Ballroom Grand Indonesia, Jakarta, Asus launched Fonepad.
Fonepad is a combination between a tablet and a 7-inch phone, with 3G mobile data and an Intel Atom Z2420 processor.
“Looking at [...]
Having nearly 3.8 million followers.
Won seven Tour de France titles are no longer part of the description of the cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Twitter account.
On Monday evening (10/22), a biography of Armstrong on Twitter are called seven Tour de [...]
Toshiba Singapore Digital Products and Service Group (DS) today introduced the Canvio Portable Hard Drive Slim, with a capacity of 500GB.
In a press release received AdmaTechnology, Saturday (2/2), Canvio Slim is one external 2.5-inch hard drive form [...]
AMD (03/13) announced the first time the presence of AMD Elite A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), which was given the code name of “Richland”.
AMD A-Series APUs will present the latest innovation for users, such as log-in using [...]
Cover story this week will discuss the new smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4.
One thing that most attracted the attention of the successor to the Galaxy S3 is the availability of Octa-core processors (8-core), which is believed to provide exceptional performance.
Have you ever felt annoyed when someone you do not know to keep trying to be your friend on Facebook? Several steps were quoted by CNET, Friday (11/02), the following could be a solution.
1. Log in to your Facebook account and select the down arrow in [...]
Who says Gangnam Style fever is gone? Maybe so for some people, but not for these robots.
Quoted from ITN UK, Tuesday (11/06), in a robot competition called Chinese Intelligent Industrial Exposition and Forum Summit in Hangzhou, China, robots skill performance.
Jakarta – Plastic may be a major culprit in the garbage problem in some countries. However, Japan had already found a solution for reducing plastic waste. A Non-Government Organization (NGO) from Japan named Ecoparty come to Indonesia to introduce [...]
Hewlett Packard (HP) as one of the printer manufacturers claim the new printer, the HP Officejet Pro X Series X476 and X451 Color MFP, the fastest printer in the world.
Recorded in the Guinness World Records, the printer is capable of printing 70 pages [...]
BlackBerry, the big names who are drowning and trying to get up. Research In Motion (RIM) is ready with a new platform that can be trusted to restore the glory of the BlackBerry.
BlackBerry 10 to be slid January 30, 2013 could be the answer. Just how [...]


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Carnival Cruise Line has revealed new craft beers that will be introduced on the upcoming Carnival Horizon cruise ship.
Carnival Horizon is coming and to entice us even further Carnival Cruise Line has revealed the all-new craft beers that will be introduced on the new ship. The new beers will be available on Carnival Horizon at Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse|Brewhouse when it debuts on April 2 in Europe.
four new craft beers will be on offer at the Guy Fieri venue, a first in the fleet and a new dining concept for Carnival. The names of the beers were announced at a traditional keg-tapping ceremony onboard Carnival Vista which is the sister ship and the first in its class.
Carnival’s expert brewmaster Colin Presby said:
“Smokehouse|Brewhouse is a unique culinary concept and we’ve created four fantastic brewed-on-board craft beers that not only showcase different tastes and brewing styles but also serve as the ideal accompaniment to the venue’s delicious array of barbecue offerings.”
Carnival Horizon New Craft Beers
As expected the beers will be inspired by the Smokey styled venue on Carnival Horizon and will no doubt be a popular choice for cruisers who enjoy craft beers. Let’s take a look:
ParchedPig Smoked Porter
Brewed with in-house smoked malt, this robust, full-bodied beer offers big and bold flavors and notes of molasses and hickory smoke, providing the perfect complement to Smokehouse|Brewhouse’s BBQ favorites
ParchedPig Farmhouse Ale
This lightly hopped beer is distinguished by its blond color, fruity and complex character with mild spice notes that balance the brew’s dry finish
ParchedPig Toasted Amber Ale
Highlighted by its rich amber color and notes of toasted caramel and biscuit, this beer is well balanced, smooth and highly drinkable
ParchedPig West Coast IPA
The embodiment of a traditional West Coast India Pale Ale, this hoppy, intense beer is loaded with bitterness with a bright flavor profile and distinctive aroma of citrus and pine
Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse|Brewhouse is the first in the Carnival fleet and will be a new rustic venue where guests can enjoy good beer and food all cruise long. On embarkation and sea days the dining venue will offer a Free self-service buffet lunch but for the dinner menu, the smokehouse will be on a la carte basis.
Also Check: Carnival Horizon Booking Deals and Price Drops
Carnival Horizon is scheduled to make its maiden voyage April 2, 2018, with a 13-day Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona. Carnival Horizon will reposition to the U.S. with a 14-day trans-Atlantic crossing from Barcelona to New York May 9-23, 2018. The new vessel will be based year-round from Miai, Florida starting from September 22, 2018, and offering Caribbean cruises.


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The Belfrics blockchain company has unveiled the first KYC-compliant blockchain called Belrium. It is aimed to decentralize and develop transparent KYC compliance. The Belrium is a combination of both private and public blockchain. The blockchain is to support the government and companies in lessening the customer on-boarding time and ease the compliance procedures.
BlockchainOther Public Protocols
The launch of KYC-Compliant Blockchain by BelfricsIncryptsOct 11, 20180
Mar 05, 2020
Mar 03, 2020


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CLARKSBURG, W.Va. – Halloween is full of tricks and treats, but both of those can sometimes be dangerous to kids. That’s why the poison center is reminding parents to check their kids’ candy before they eat it this Halloween.
Parents should make sure all wrappers are closed and not tampered with. Officials also warned about glow sticks; while many children wear them to stay safe in the dark on Halloween night, they may end up chewing on them. The liquid from the glow stick can be dangerous when ingested or put on the skin.
Poison center officials also reminded parents that Halloween is a good time to have an open conversation with kids about the dangers of online dares. Online dares happen year-round but start to get more common around the Halloween season when kids have less time to go outside.
The latest dares floating around online involve eating hot sauce or spices. While a small amount of this can be harmless, parents should remind their kids that anything can be poisonous if enough is ingested.
A previous online dare that recently gained popularity was the tide pod challenge. The challenge involves kids eating non-edible laundry detergent packs. While it may seem obvious to adults to not eat things like tide pods, it’s not that clear to children.
Officials encouraged open conversations with kids about how to recognize and say “no” to a potentially harmful online dare.
“It’s really important to talk to them about how they’re dangerous so that they understand why you’re not just saying ‘no don’t do this,’” said Carissa McBurney, Community Outreach Coordinator West Virginia Poison Center. “You’re telling them ‘this is dangerous because this could hurt you’ or ‘it could raise your heart rate’, or ‘it could raise your blood pressure’, or ‘it could alter your brain and make you make decisions you normally wouldn’t’.”
McBurney said kids might be more inclined to do these online dares because of peer pressure or to try and gain more popularity online.
If an online dare does go too far, parents can call the free and confidential poison center at 1-800-222-1222.


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Get ready for the China collapse. Virtually every major media outlet has weighed in with dire reports that the Chinese economic miracle is about to come to an abrupt end. These Chicken Littles note that any strong asset class that looks like a bubble must come crashing down. In the United States it happened with dot-com stocks, it happened in the housing market -- and it will surely happen in China. Or so they say.
Never mind that Chinese economic figures show few signs of cooling. Or that Chinese consumers are joining the middle class at a fast pace. Or that these consumers are buying up goods and services out of their savings rather than the U.S. predilection for debt-fueled spending binges.
Slowing Down From Warp Speed
That's not to say China doesn't face some challenges. Too many office buildings have been built, which will lead to some troubles for the banking sector. And the European economic slowdown is crimping exports. So it's not likely that China will maintain the robust growth rates of +8% to +10% exhibited during the last five years.
But even an economy that grows at a steady +4% to +5% pace would still represent a great opportunity for global investors. And China is unlikely to cool much below that rate. The country's decade long run of rising cash reserves allows the government to stimulate its way out of any unexpected speed bumps. The key is to further develop domestic consumption by continuing to create the conditions that bring more workers into the middle class. That's good for China -- and its trading partners.
We screened for a list of U.S.-listed Chinese companies that are worth at least $200 million. We then narrowed the list to companies that trade for the lowest forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios. The results are in the following table.
|Company (Ticker)||Market Cap. ($mill.)||7/20/10 Price||Cash/Share||2010 P/E||2011 P/E|
|China Security |
|China Gerui Materials (Nasdaq: CHOP)||222||$5.17||$2.56||5.4||4.6|
|Yongye International (Nasdaq: YONG)||336||$7.55||$1.14||7.6||5.2|
|Fushi Copperweld |
|A-Power Energy |
|Cogo Group |
|China XD Plastics |
|Shanda Games |
|Deer Consumer Products (Nasdaq: DEER)||253||$7.69||$2.31||10.3||8.0|
- China Security & Surveillance (NYSE: CSR), which is helping Chinese authorities to beef up security in dozens of mid-sized and large Chinese cities. For those who can stomach the Orwellian nature of the business model, know that social unrest is one of the biggest concerns of the Chinese government, and officials are spending accordingly. That price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) below five is quite unusual. The multiple may be in for an upgrade when the company reports quarterly results next Monday, July 26.
- A-Power Energy (Nasdaq: APWR) has emerged as a leading provider of alternative energy systems in China. And plans call for spending on green energy to keep climbing at a fast clip, regardless of how the broader economy fares. Earnings are likely to be flat this year, but could move +30% higher next year. The P/E multiple of just six times next year's projected profits is a stark reminder of just how unloved these stocks are.
- Deer Consumer Products (Nasdaq: DEER) is a pure play on consumer spending, as the company makes a range of counter-top kitchen appliances for the Chinese and export markets. Profit estimates have been steadily rising for Deer for much of the last year, yet shares trade for half of the 52-week high.
-- David Sterman
David Sterman has worked as an investment analyst for nearly two decades. He started his career in equity research at Smith Barney, culminating in a position as Senior Analyst covering European banks. David has also served as Director of Research at Individual Investor and has made numerous media appearances over the years, primarily on CNBC and Bloomberg TV. David has a master's degree in management from Georgia Tech. Read More...


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Senate Bill 511 would permit certain breweries to sell beer at seasonal farm markets.
Review a consolidated presentation of the latest legal proceedings or filter updates by state below.
Government affairs current issues, news and announcements from the Brewers Association and members of the House and Senate Small Brewers Caucus.
On December 20, 2017, Congress passed H.R. 1, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. Learn more about how this bill could affect your brewery.
A.B. 1681 seeks to allow certain breweries to operate off-premises retail salesrooms and permits breweries and wineries to operate joint salesrooms.
A two-year version of The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act’s (S.236/H.R.747) provisions was part of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act which was signed into law in the closing days of 2017. …More
Assembly Bill 2016 authorizes restricted breweries to annually sell up to 1,000 barrels of beer to in-State and out-of-state retailers.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has issued initial guidance concerning reduced alcohol excise tax rates which became effective on January 1, 2018. The changes to the tax rates were included in …More
A.B. 2068 seeks to remove the requirement that limited brewery licensees provide a tour when selling beer to consumers.
The Texas Court of Appeals for the Third District issued an opinion reversing a lower court’s determination that a statute prohibiting self-distributing brewers from selling the distribution rights to their products was unconstitutional under the …More
A.B. 1133 imposes $0.25 surcharge on alcoholic beverages to be dedicated to Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund.
A Mississippi trial court has issued a series of orders dismissing a substantial number of the claims brought in Rex Distributing Company v. Anheuser-Busch et al. which involves the sale of a distributor, AB-InBev’s redirect …More
S.B. 513 allows for the consumption of food on limited brewery premises.


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In June, Vimeo announced that it would not move forward with the subscription video service it had been working on since at least November 2016. For online video observers, the announcement came out of the blue, and at the time, Vimeo offered little explanation for its unexpected decision.
The video site has now provided some clarity. In a letter to shareholders, which was picked up by Recode, Vimeo’s parent company IAC explained that launching an SVOD service would have required “compromises” that would have affected the video site’s image.
IAC CEO Joey Levin (pictured above), who also served as Vimeo’s interim CEO during period in which the video site publicly discussed its SVOD plans, delivered his company’s rationale thusly: “We have some competitive advantages at Vimeo,” he wrote, “but as we got deeper into the execution and saw what [launching a subscription service] would require, and the compromises we would need to make in our mission to empower creators, the strategy started to look more and more like our competitors, and less and less like Vimeo.”
That last line is fairly cloudy, and Levin could be referring to a number of different compromises. In general, though, it’s not hard to see why Vimeo, a platform built to provide maximum flexibility for its users, might have worried about alienating its creative class with a platform that would have likely required fixed subscription plans in order to be viable.
No matter the specifics of Vimeo’s decision, the video site must now determine a new direction for itself. Levin, who took over for longtime Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor last year, has since ceded his post to a new chief executive, Anjali Sud. Under Sud, Vimeo will look to maintain its image as it scales; evidently, that is a big priority for IAC.


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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Con artists are spoofing local phone numbers to trick people into sending money, the U.S. Marshals Office warned Wednesday.
The scams involve trying to collect a fine in lieu of arrest for failing to go to jury duty, to pay taxes, or to address other potential offenses. People called in the scam are told to buy prepaid debit or gift cards, then read the card numbers over the phone to pay the fines.
Victims of the scam should call their local FBI offices. The Indianapolis FBI office is at 317-595-4000.
Victims also were asked to file a consumer complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The FTC collects fraud patterns and shares that data with law enforcement.
“Scammers use many tactics to sound credible. They sometimes provide information like badge numbers, names of actual law enforcement officials and federal judges, as well as courthouse addresses. The U.S. Marshals will never ask for credit or debit card numbers, wire transfers or banking information.”Dan McClain, U.S. marshal for Southern District of Indiana
The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Elder Fraud Hotline provides resources and referrals to older Americans who may be financial fraud victims. The free hotline is at 833-372-8311.


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SALES OF APPLE’S NEW RED IPHONE 7 WILL BENEFIT THE GLOBAL FUND
David GarmaiseArticle Type:
Article Number: 11
ABSTRACT Apple Inc. has launched a special edition iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus with a vibrant red aluminum finish. Sales of these phones will benefit the Global Fund as part of the (RED) campaign.
Apple Inc. has launched a special edition iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus with a vibrant red aluminum finish. A small portion of the profits from the sale of each phone will be contributed to the Global Fund, as part of Apple’s partnership with (RED) – previously known as (PRODUCT) RED.
|The iPhone 7 Plus|
This is probably the highest profile product and one of the most colorful offerings in the (RED) product line. Apple won’t say what portion of the profits will go the Fund, but according to an announcement on the Global Fund website, (RED) has generated more than $465 million for the Global Fund since 2006, with more than $130 million coming from Apple alone. That makes Apple the largest corporate contributor to the Fund.
“Since we began working with (RED) 10 years ago, our customers have made a significant impact in fighting the spread of AIDS through the purchase of our products, from the original iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition all the way to today’s line-up of Beats products and accessories for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The introduction of this special edition iPhone in a gorgeous red finish is our biggest (PRODUCT) RED offering to date.”
(RED) has pledged $100 million to the Global Fund for the period 2017-2019. The next largest corporate pledge came from Comic Relief, a U.K.-based charity, at $12.75 million. Historically, the next largest corporate contributor after (RED) has been Chevron (about $9 million a year from 2008 to 2013; $5 million for the period 2014-2016).
(RED) was founded in 2006 by Bono, a rock star and activist, and Bobby Shriver, of the ONE Campaign. The way (RED) works is that manufacturers designate some of their products as being part of the (RED) campaign. Then, with each purchase of a (RED) product, up to 50% of the profits are donated to the Global Fund to help finance grants in eight countries: Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. All of the money raised by (RED) goes to programs that support treatment, prevention and care for HIV, with a specific focus on eliminating transmission of the virus from mothers to their babies.
In addition to Apple, partner companies include Nike, American Express, Coca Cola, Starbucks, GAP and Armani, among others. See the (RED) website for a complete list.


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ViacomCBS plans to report its financial results for the fourth quarter on Thursday. ViacomCBS is the result of the merger of Viacom and CBS. The merger concluded in December last year. Therefore, this will be the first earnings report from ViacomCBS since it came into existence.
Here are three things investors should keep in mind as the company prepares to release its first quarterly report.
What can investors expect?
Wall Street expects ViacomCBS to report an EPS of $1.43 on revenue of $7.34 billion for the fourth quarter, which ended in December 2019. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Viacom and CBS reported revenue of about $7.1 billion combined.
ViacomCBS will cut jobs to save costs
ViacomCBS plans to make some job cuts. The first round of job cuts will come shortly after the company reports its earnings, according to Varity. The first round could see ViacomCBS eliminate about 100 positions. Notably, the second round of layoffs will likely be next month. The company’s job cuts will target areas where there’s a significant overlap following the merger. The areas include marketing and distribution.
When the companies announced the merger, Viacom and CBS said that they would target to cut $500 million in annual costs.
Challenging Netflix in the video streaming market
Before they merged, Viacom and CBS ran separate video streaming services. For example, CBS had CBS All Access—a Netflix-like subscription video service. Viacom had Pluto TV, which it acquired in early 2019 for $340 million.
ViacomCBS plans to launch a new video streaming service that will combine CBS All Access and Pluto TV. The service will tap into Paramount Picture’s vast movie library, according to CNBC. Notably, the company will likely shed more light on its new video service during the upcoming earnings call.
Currently, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) dominates the video streaming market. The company has more than 60 million subscribers domestically and over 167 million worldwide. However, Netflix’s dominance could be threatened as the competition intensifies. In November last year, Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) and Apple launched a new video service to take on Netflix. The Disney+ video service has been successful. Disney decided to accelerate the global rollout.


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Watchdog chief held talks with the Saudis before proposing weaker rules to let state oil giant to float in London
FCA boss Andrew Bailey said that discussions were held earlier this year with the Saudis
The head of Britain's financial watchdog has admitted holding talks with oil giant Saudi Aramco before proposing weaker rules that would allow it to float in London.
The world's biggest oil business is mulling a potential £1.5trillion stock market flotation in what many view as an important Brexit boost for the Square Mile.
But there are concerns that Aramco would not pass strict governance rules on shareholder voting rules, as the Saudis plan to list only 5 per cent of the firm rather than the 25 per cent usually required.
Last month, the Financial Conduct Authority proposed weaker rules that would allow Aramco to trade in the City, in what was seen as a move to stop the firm from moving its listing to New York.
Yesterday FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey said that discussions were held earlier this year with the Saudis.
In response to a letter from Nicky Morgan, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, he said: 'We can confirm that we held conversations with Saudi Aramco and their advisers in light of their interest in a possible UK listing in the early part of this year.
'We emphasised during those conversations that we were reviewing the listing regime.'
Aramco's boss Amin Nasser last week insisted its float will go ahead in 2018. He said the firm was closer to deciding on where to launch the initial public offering and on its exact timing.
London Stock Exchange boss Xavier Rolet and Prime Minister Theresa May visited Saudi Arabia earlier this year to push for the country's business.
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If you are a fan of Blizzard games and are still clinging to Windows XP or Vista, now might be the right time to seriously consider an upgrade: The video game developer is joining a growing number of companies no longer supporting both operating systems.
Blizzard announced in a forum thread that World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm won’t work on those legacy platforms before the end of the year. The game developer said:
Starting later this year, we will begin the process of ending support for Windows XP and Windows Vista in World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm. Microsoft ceased mainstream support for these versions of Windows in 2009 and 2012, respectively, but since a decent portion of our audience was still using them at the time, we continued supporting them. However, there have been three major Windows releases since Vista, and at this point, the vast majority of our audience has upgraded to one of the newer versions.
After these older operating systems are no longer supported, the games will not run on them, so we encourage any players who are still using one of the older OSes to upgrade to a newer version. We’ll be rolling out this change on a staggered schedule, and will post further notices as we get closer to making the change for each game.
In 2016, Blizzard announced that it would drop support for both Windows XP and Vista after years of patronizing both. However, the time frame was not clear. Blizzard games have remained available for players for many, many operating system cycles. But since many gamers have migrated to modern platforms, Blizzard finally decided to pull the plug on some games still supporting those older operating systems.
Reports suggest that this process would be on a case-by-case basis rather than be executed all at once. The ending of support for those games makes sense considering that Microsoft itself no longer supports XP for consumers.
Hopefully, players must make the switch and be able to continue playing Blizzard’s games. Does Blizzard’s decision to ditch Windows XP and Vista surprise you? Let us know!
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The data points highlighting slower netbook growth ahead are beginning to stack up. Simply put, consumers are opting for either tablets like the iPad or ultra-thin laptops over netbooks. The netbook is headed for niche-ville.
The data points highlighting slower netbook growth ahead are beginning to stack up. Simply put, consumers are opting for either tablets like the Apple's iPad or ultra-thin laptops over netbooks. The netbook is headed for niche-ville.
In three years, the netbook may be just a nice footnote to the industry. The demise of the netbook has been predicted before. Now we seem to be at an inflection point where the anti-netbook bandwagon is filling up.
The mini-notebook segment will be impacted by increasingly competitive ultralow-voltage (ULV) products, the decreasing prices of all mobile PCs and the maturing preferences of consumers...Media tablets, such as the iPad and similar devices, will significantly detract from mini-notebook shipments in 2013 and onward, when we expect their prices to be lower and, more importantly, their functionality to be more similar to mini-notebooks.
Meanwhile, the Retrevo Pulse Study, a survey of more than 1,000 consumers, tells a similar tale. According to Retrevo, "the double whammy of cheaper laptops and the sensational new Apple iPad tablet may be hurting netbook popularity."
A few data points from Retrevo:
In the past year, 65 percent of those surveyed chose a laptop over a netbook;
Future buying decisions break down the same way;
Meanwhile, 78 percent of potential buyers are leaning toward buying an iPad over a netbook.
Now growth isn't going away overnight for netbooks, but you can see where this is headed. Gartner estimates that netbook shipments will be up 30 percent in 2010, but then start to slide. In addition, PC makers are likely to focus on the tablet form factor and move away from the netbooks. Intel's move to take the Atom to smartphones may also indicate that the netbook's big surge is over.
The netbook isn't dead yet, but will clearly be a niche player going forward.


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KUALA LUMPUR (April 28): Permaju Industries Bhd’s unit is proposing to sell air purification products to its customers in the automotive sector.
In a filing with the stock exchange, Permaju said its wholly-owned subsidiary Cergaz Autohaus Sdn Bhd has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Air For Life (M) Sdn Bhd (AFLM).
Permaju said that AFLM’s products are based on technology developed by the North America Space Agency (NASA), which was used to aid in keeping astronauts healthy on space missions.
The MoU is intended for both parties to work towards the appointment of Cergaz Autohaus as a non-exclusive sub-distributor to sell and market AFLM’s products to its customers in the automotive sector, Permaju said.
Cergaz Autohaus is currently an authorised dealer for Volkswagen cars.
“The entire world is fighting with the Covid-19 pandemic and the demand of Air For Life equipment is increasing exponentially.
“The main objective of signing this MoU is to introduce Air For Life products that help to make our environment safer after the Covid-19 pandemic and increased revenue in our group’s automotive division and corporate customers,” said Permaju executive director Yvonne Chai.
The MoU will be valid for a period of three months, Permaju said.
Permaju’s share price fell four sen or 5.8% to 65 sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM127.36 million.


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FUNBIO is selected to manage new initiatives to restore the Amazon forest
Photo: Victor Moriyama/FUNBIO
Spanning nine states, the Brazilian Amazon is facing problems, illegal deforestation chief amongst them, that challenge the logic of sustainable development. To support the transition toward a carbon-neutral economy in the second-largest state in the federation, in 2019 the Government of Pará created the Eastern Amazon Fund (FAO, in the Portuguese acronym), an innovative financial mechanism that will channel donations into addressing three priority fronts: forest restoration, the bioeconomy, and land use. In September, FUNBIO was selected to financial manage the initiative, which has already received its first donation: R$1 million (roughly US$ 182 thousand) from the Instituto Clima e Sociedade.
Working for the biome through the Green Recovery Plan (GRP), the Interstate Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Legal Amazon Region, a first-of-its-kind initiative involving all nine Brazilian Amazonian state governments, announced FUNBIO as the plan’s financial agent. With initial funding (donations and investments) in the order of R$ 1.5 billion (roughly US$ 262.5 million), the plan is designed to drive sustainable development based on shared policies and strategies.


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DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troddeson, in a pre-GDC interview with games.on.net, revealed that the campaign of their upcoming first person shooter, Battlefield 3, will be around 12 hours long.
“Naturally we want to introduce more people to our franchise” said Troddeson.
“A lot of people don’t want to jump straight into multiplayer. They want to feel around a bit and they’re ready to move over to online. The hardcore online people, they don’t care, they’re just straight in.
“Maybe they don’t even touch the campaign. But we want to get more people in, invite more people into the franchise. That’s one of the main reasons why we have this different part of the game.”
In the same interview, Treddeson said that the team is having a few problems with the development of BF3.
Battlefield 3 will be releasing on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in October this year.


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September 30, 2005 – As part of its group reorganization, Sony Corp. plans to bolster the development of common core semiconductors and software for various portable devices to enhance competitiveness in its digital home electronics business, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Thursday. The mobile electronics development segment, which will report directly to Sony President Ryoji Chubachi, plans to make the common semiconductors and other components ready for use by 2006, according to sources.
The electronics and entertainment giant announced the details Thursday of the new structure for its electronics segment, which currently is divided into six so-called network companies, such as home electronics and personal audiovisual equipment. On Saturday, the segment will be reorganized into five divisions and two business groups.
In 1994, Sony was one of the first in the industry to introduce an in-house company system — an organizational structure in which each company is highly autonomous in budget management and other areas. It is abolishing this system because the negative aspects of vertically divided segments have become apparent and because the firm has become unable to keep up with the digital home electronics era, according to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer.
By eliminating the post of each network company’s president, who has decision-making authority on large investment projects, greater power will rest on the shoulders of Chubachi, who also heads the electronics segment. Through this move, Sony hopes to be able to speed up new product releases by fully tapping the electronics segment’s various hardware and software technologies.
Sony also said that it will create a Cell development center to discuss how the powerful Cell microprocessor, to be used in the group’s next-generation game console, can be applied in home electronics. This center will report directly to Stringer because its activities will span various segments, including games.