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Pandora posted a second-quarter loss of $27.9m and warned that recent surges in COVID-19 infections would continue to stall its recovery.
By contrast, the Danish jewelry retail giant, best known for its charm bracelets, made a Q2 profit of $84.3m in 2019.
The pandemic forced the closure of 90 percent of its 7,300 outlets and in Q1 of 2020 saw the company report a $3.5m loss. Revenue fell 39 percent to $459.2m.
But there was some cause for optimism as like-for-like sales â€” excluding closed stores â€” actually increased, by eight percent.
In February, Pandora forecast a drop in full-year sales of three to six percent. It has now revised that figure to between 14 percent and 16 percent, assuming the pandemic gets no worse.
Alexander Lacik, president and CEO of Pandora, said: “COVID-19 has changed our societies and challenged global brands around the world. The pandemic may leave a lasting effect on consumer behavior, our ways of working, and the use of technology.
“Pandora’s business model has proven its resilience during the crisis, and our consumers have continued to engage actively with the brand despite closed stores.”


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MTI Instruments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mechanical Technology, Incorporated, has proved that its Accumeasure HD system technology can measure distances as small as 69 picometers, setting a new bar for capacitance systems.
The results were recently published in a white paper by Kevin Harding of Optical Metrology Solutions. The independent study confirmed the findings of an internal experiment by MTI Instruments that concluded the Accumeasure HD system can provide picometer-level accuracy when used with 50-micron HD capacitive probes.
The findings of the Harding study, combined with MTI Instruments' experiment and a review of the specifications of other capacitance systems on the market, showed that the Accumeasure HD system produces the highest resolution capacitive measurements in the world.
"This is a game changer for semiconductor and telescope manufacturers, aerospace research and development professionals, seismologists and others who depend on precise thermal-displacement measurements," said Moshe Binyamin, President of MTI Instruments. "Our Accumeasure HD system is not only the most advanced capacitance system, but it also stands up to more costly laser interferometers, which until now had been the industry standard for achieving this level of accuracy.”
To test the Accumeasure HD system, Harding provided local heating to the back of a 6-millimeter thick, optical mirror with an unprotected gold coating. The results, as reported in Harding's white paper, indicate that 69 picometer deviation as a "lower limit" with "clearly resolvable changes available in the 300 picometer range" conclusively demonstrated the Accumeasure HD system's capabilities to measure picometer-level thermal deviations in practical applications.
Harding has nearly 40 years of professional experience in the optics, vision and metrology fields. He holds over 80 patents and is the author of numerous books and scientific articles.
"We are always innovating and pushing the envelope at MTI Instruments. Looking ahead, we welcome opportunities to embed the Accumeasure HD technology into other measurement devices for new applications, such as pressure sensors and seismographs," said Don Welch, Director Emeritus of New Business

domain: news


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Dousing Kindle's Fire? Apple plans New York event to spruce up iBooks publishing arm
- Announcement from Apple's iBooks publishing arm
- Expected in New York towards the end of January
Apple is to make a new product announcement this January - but it looks unlikely to be the revamped iPad 3, which is expected later this Spring
Apple is to make a new product announcement towards the end of January - but it looks unlikely to be the revamped iPad 3, which is expected later this Spring.
Instead, we should expect something relating to ebooks, and Apple's iBookstore, sources close to the company suggested.
It's also highly unlikely to be Apple's much gossiped-about iTV voice-controlled television, which is expected to debut in the second half of the year.
Several well-placed Apple sources speaking to Apple-watchers AllThingsD said that there was to be an event in New York towards the end of January.
The site speculated that the event might be to do with publishing and eBooks - a growth area for Apple - due to the presence of Eddy Cue, one of Apple's senior vice-presidents who specialises in that area, among others.
Technology blog TechCrunch said its sources confirmed that the event would be to do with books and Apple's iBook store - which would make sense with the event's reported New York venue, home to America's publishing industry.
Most of the company's big technology announcements take place in venues in California.
Apple is still a smaller player in the ebooks market next to giants such as Amazon, but has already had an impact. It is under investigation by the EU for alleged 'price fixing' with major ebook publishers.
It's traditional for Apple to announce something in January - the company never attends the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the year's biggest technology show, but usually stages an event to coincide roughly with it.
'The rollout of Apple’s large-scale rethinking of the interactive television initiative that it has been working on is also unlikely,' writes AllThingsD.
'While the company is expected to launch a new Apple TV product later in 2012, such an event would almost certainly be held in the heart of the industry in Hollywood or at least in Silicon Valley.'
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We published more stories in 2023 than any year in our history as we ramped up our journalistic capabilities. It is a good thing because it was a big year for fintech news.
Who could have predicted that crazy time in early March when Silicon Valley Bank imploded and it seemed like everyone in fintech was impacted? We had the launch of FedNow, Goldman Sachs exiting the consumer banking business, the rise of generative AI and much more.
Most Viewed Stories on Fintech Nexus in 2023
My story on a new Colorado lending law went viral as it became by far the most viewed story this year. In fact, two of the top three stories on Fintech Nexus this year concerned state regulation of fintech. Regulatory issues continue to be top of mind for so many people in fintech so I expect 2024 will see more interest, particularly from new laws passed by the states.
Not surprisingly, the most downloaded podcast of the year was Max Levchin, the CEO of Affirm. Max is one of the great thinkers of fintech and it was a privilege to interview him. One of the most important reports of 2023 was Global Fintech 2023: Reimagining the Future of Finance, the joint effort between QED Investors and Boston Consulting Group. Many other fintech leaders are on this list of the top 10 most downloaded podcasts of the year.
Our top cartoon below also went viral as it struck a chord with a large number of readers who see one of the big challenges in removing bias in lending AI. It was the third most-viewed page on all of Fintech Nexus in 2023 and had 50x the views of the average cartoon.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s largest digital media company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series.


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The price of rice in the Mekong Delta has been steadily rising and has now reached its highest peak of the past several months.
|Farmers harvest rice in the Mekong Delta (Photo: SGGP)|
In Tien Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long provinces and Can Tho City, short-grain rice is selling for VND4,400-4,500 a kilogram.
High-quality long-grain rice is selling for VND4,700-4,800 a kilogram while a kilogram of Jasmine rice is now VND4,900-5,000. A kilogram of aromatic rice, VD-20, is selling for VND5,100-5,200.
Nguyen Van Buon, deputy head of the Hong Ngu District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Dong Thap Province said October 25 that farmers in the district have completed harvesting the third rice crop of the year without floods.
The price of material rice varieties for export processing in the Delta have also moved up to VND5,900-6,150 a kilogram since export processing enterprises have seen increased demand while supplies are low.
Experts say rice prices have increased partly thanks to government's ordere to purchase rice in September aiming to keep the grain's prices high to benefit farmers.


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The big reveal in the article "Google Grabs Nielsen as Business Apps User From Microsoft" comes a few paragraphs down:
Younger workers help. [Nielsen CIO Kim] Anstett said around 60 percent of Nielsen’s employees are under 35, an age group that’s familiar with Gmail and Google Docs. That convinced executives to spring for the paid versions.
"Those millennials are coming to Nielsen with experience coming up on Google," she said. "We’re actually seeing that as a great recruiting tool."
And when I read that, I muttered, "Of course." I volunteer with teenagers and any time they want to share a document for editing, it's in Google Docs. They would literally never think of emailing me an attachment when they can just text me the link to what they view as a collaborative, situational workspace.
Anyone who is coming into a workplace brings with them a set of tech expectations they formed while they were in school, and those expectations shape what tech breaks big and what tech withers away.
This is true for people who went to school in the 1980s: We were raised on Apple machines in the school libraries and as adults, we've normalized the expectations that friendly UIs are preferable to the (admirably direct) command line, and that the product design is as much a component of the tech experience as what the tech itself can actually do. And this is true for people who went to school in the 1990s: They had the World Wide Web as a resource, they default to searching over file-folder hierarchy, and they're the ones who pushed us all toward the cloud via their normalization of file sharing and online storage.
Now we're seeing what 2000-era students want at work: collaborative workspaces, streamlined iterations of classic spreadsheet and word processor apps, and the unquestioning assumption that of course you'll be able to easily schedule, mail, edit, collaborate or import any information. The model is wonderfully simple: The information is not married to any specific app -- it lives in a cloud attached to a user ID, and the user manipulates the information as they need it.
Mind you, one company choosing Google Apps over Microsoft Office hardly heralds the end of Microsoft's dominance. As the Bloomberg article points out, "Google’s package of workplace productivity tools, G Suite, is a distant second, while Microsoft commands nearly four times the market share, according to Gartner Inc."
But look at the composition of the U.S. workforce. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics breaks down the U.S. workforce. Here's how it shakes out when you look at the number of under-35s in the workforce vs the over-35s: there are 52.7 million employed people under 35 compared to 98.7 million between ages 36 and 65+. The latter group is only going to keep getting older and aging out of the workforce (toward, one hopes, a well-earned retirement) 34.4 million of them are already north of age 55. The 50 million-plus cohort under age 35 are the people raised on Google products in the schools. Gradually, they'll erase the Microsoft Office default because they will not see a point in switching to an entirely new vendor and user experience.
If you've ever wondered why any tech company bothered with the educational market, this is why. Microsoft's initial advantages in the workplace are being gently eroded by successive waves of workers raised on Apple machines and now Google products. If you've wondered why Microsoft is renewing its attention in this market, it's because they want to grab the mindshare Google has. And what a mindshare it is: Comparatively cheap hardware plus easily accessible apps plus easy administration? No wonder cash-strapped school districts have rushed toward Google. Google now accounts for 58% of the educational hardware market, the New York Times reported.
However, Microsoft has an extraordinary opportunity to take a long view here. It may not have lost the chance to form the default tech assumptions among the incoming workforces of the 2020s and 2030s. What do you think the Xbox is but a chance to educate generations on augmented reality and touch as dominant user interfaces instead of bells-and-whistles supplements? And I wouldn't count out Minecraft as the workplace UI of the 2020s. It's already taught children to expect to be able to craft highly personalized and highly customizable virtual working environments, spaces in which they can move seamlessly between solo and collaborative work, spaces where visual thinking and project planning are rewarded for the new creations they engender -- just what we'll need for an economy based on information manipulation and knowledge management, supplemented by machine learning.
If you want to be the company that sells workplace technology to the businesses of tomorrow, look at how the kids of today engage with their technology. Google's building on the momentum it began when it colonized schools with its cloud-y, collaborative suite of apps 10 years ago. I'm interested to see how Microsoft plans to respond.


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The Cornell paper examines the pay and expenses of more than 14,100 Seattle Uber and Lyft drivers during one week in October 2019, using data from the ride-hail companies.
While Alphabet's Waymo is focusing on self-driving tech and leaving the car building to places like Detroit, Zoox has stuck to its plan to design a robotaxi from the ground up—and operate a ride-hail service.
Side channel attacks take advantage of patterns in the information exhaust that computers constantly give off: the electric emissions from a computer's monitor or hard drive , for instance, that emanate slightly differently depending on what information is crossing the screen or being read by the drive's magnetic head.
It can't actually send and receive emails without an internet connection, but it will let you search through old messages and compose new ones (which can then be sent as soon as connectivity returns).In your web browser, click the cog icon (on the right), then Settings and Offline —check the box marked Enable offline mail , and choose how many days of messages you want to sync to your computer (7, 30 or 90).Screenshot: Wired Staff via Google.
For plenty of Americans, this week began with the regular, old commute to school or work, and ended with canceled semesters, robust “work from home policies,” fears about making rent next month, and canceled events—everything from weddings to concerts to—it hurts!—baseball’s opening day.
In 2003 security researcher Katie Moussouris was working at the enterprise security firm @stake —which would later be acquired by Symantec—when she spotted a bad flaw in an encrypted flash drive from Lexar.
The NTSB also asked the NHTSA to work with industry to create performance standards for driver assistance features, which critics say can lure humans into a sense of complacency even though they’re not intended to take over the driving task.
All six of those terms have been used by important auto industry organizations—regulators at the US Department of Transportation, standards developers at SAE International, and influential research organization Thatcham Research—to describe automatic emergency braking systems.
Electric delivery vans just might be the best way to use EVs, and British newcomer Arrival announced this week that, a) it exists and b) it’s obtained some $111 million in funding, courtesy of Hyundai and Kia. And we took a look at cities and real estate developers trying to capitalize off the growth of speedy delivery by getting creative with urban distribution centers.
“Your primary tools are the anti-roll bars, springs, and dampers,” says Polestar engineer and test driver Joakim Rydholm.“Your primary tools are the anti-roll bars, springs, and dampers,” Rydholm says.
Think about the hard drive in a game console, spinning like a 5,400-rpm vinyl record."If you look at a game like Marvel's Spider-Man," Cerny says, "there are some pieces of data duplicated 400 times on the hard drive."
The features, announced Thursday by Uber, are among a raft of safety updates planned for the next six months, as the ride-hail company readies to release a report detailing sexual assaults and other serious safety incidents involving Uber drivers and riders.
The panel asked automakers to “develop applications to more effectively sense the driver’s level of engagement and alert the driver when engagement is lacking” when using “automated vehicle control systems.” Tesla has changed how Autopilot works, requiring drivers to put pressure on the wheel more frequently while the feature is engaged.
Netflix took over 100 acres of an old Kodak plant to make a wild obstacle course that includes a six-story seesaw called the Leveler.None are full-time professional drivers, and each brings their own car, creating a mix that includes a Lamborghini Huracán, several drift-happy Nissans, a Ford Mustang and other American muscle, and more.
The would-be rules don’t change how long drivers can stay on the road—still limited to 14 hours on duty, with at most 11 actually driving, followed by at least 10 hours off.One new rule would change that to a 30-minute break after eight hours of behind-the-wheel driving.
I’m sitting in one of General Motors’ fanciest new toys and most helpful new tools, the high-fidelity simulator the automaker’s engineers used to create the Chevy that the motoring world has talked about for decades and that I just crashed: the first mid-engine Corvette.
Volkswagen is investing $2.6 billion in Argo AI, the self-driving-car developer leading Ford’s effort to deploy an autonomous taxi service. Along with boosting VW’s robotic efforts, the deal extends the automakers’ nascent alliance, which includes jointly developing conventional vehicles, to the coming world of self-driving cars.
They’re strange because Norway has the world’s highest purchase rates of electric vehicles .In the land of the Norwegians, battery-powered rides are so ubiquitous, it is as if you’ve traveled 10 or 20 years into our transportation future.
Now, three centuries on, the concept has made it into the Bentley Bentayga Hybrid, the world’s first ultra-luxury, battery-powered SUV. Bentley’s interior design team used a version of an old landscape feature called a ha-ha to make the dashboard appear seamless to the driver.
Audi Recall, Shifting Alliances, and More Car News This Week. Aurora, the self-driving tech startup, and VW ended their agreement to work on autonomous vehicles—just as Aurora struck another deal with FCA . And Uber has a new generation of its self-driving Volvos.
The new Lamborghini Huracán EVO I spent a few hours whipping around Willow earlier this month has perhaps the most advanced dynamic control system of any street-legal sports car .
It seems like the kind of statistic that number-crunching sports fans would agree upon, yet there exists surprisingly little consensus on the distance of the longest drive ever measured in the game of golf .Some say the record belongs to Mike Austin.
Cadillac Super Cruise, the luxury automaker’s hands-off driver-assistance system, will by the end of the year work on more than 200,000 miles of highway in the United States and Canada, 35 percent more territory than it covered when it launched in 2017 .
Aurora, the developer of self-driving technology run by a trio of industry veterans, has signed a partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles , to figure out how to build its “Driver” into FCA’s commercial vehicles.


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The ongoing "who owes who" fight between former shareholders of Rock Band
developer Harmonix and former parent company Viacom took a significant turn last week when a jointly-appointed accountant found the latter owing in excess of $383 million.
The findings should throw a wrench in Viacom's recently-filed lawsuit
, which claims the former shareholders -- which include Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, among others -- actually owe Viacom a $131 million dollar refund due to a miscalculation.
On Tuesday, Viacom filed suit in a Delaware court asking that the accounting firm, BDO USA, "consider arguments and evidence that were improperly excluded" from its report, saying that its figures resulted from "manifest error."
The ongoing dispute stems from a 2006 deal
that saw Viacom acquiring the studio soon after the success of its initial Guitar Hero
games. Under the terms of the agreement, Viacom paid Harmonix's shareholders an initial sum of $175 million in September 2006, with the promise of bonus earn-outs dependent on the studio's performance in 2007 and 2008.
Those bonuses worked like this: for 2007, Viacom would pay the shareholders 3.5 times any gross profit made over $32 million during the year. For 2008, it would pay 3.5 times anything over $45 million, potentially putting itself on the line for hundreds of millions of dollars based on the success of the company's Rock Band
The only earn-out money to come from Viacom to date was a nearly $150 million payment in 2007 in anticipation of that year's profits, a sum the company claims was based on a "preliminary calculation." According to Viacom's lawsuit filed in September of this year
, that calculation was incorrect, and the amount owed for both 2007 and 2008 combined was just $18 million.
As Gamasutra exclusively revealed
last year, the former Harmonix shareholders filed suit against Viacom seeking what it considered the remainder of its performance-based bonuses. BDO was hired at that time as a mutually-agreed-upon "resolution accountant" by both sides.
If Viacom's appeal is thrown out and BDO's figures are honored, the total purchase price of Harmonix would equate to around $708 million dollars, adding together the initial $175 million purchase price, the $150 million earn-out payment already received, and the additional $383 million it is alleged to owe.
Harmonix is no longer owned by Viacom: the company was offloaded for just under $50
earlier this year, though its new owner also inherited debts that included music rights fees and remaining warehouse inventory of games and plastic instruments.
Viacom did not immediately respond to Gamasutra's request for clarification on what BDO's report failed to address, but this story will be updated as new information is obtained.


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Have you finished your holiday shopping? Have you even started it yet? (Don’t mean to be all judgy, but you better get going soon!)
How are you doing with your holiday shopping? Let us know!
This may not surprise you, but many, many people will still be shopping through Christmas Eve. (My husband being one of them!)
According to a really interesting survey from the National Retail Federation, more than 40% of holiday shoppers surveyed expected to finish their holiday gift shopping by Wednesday (12/19).
However, according to the National Retail Federation, 24% plan to make their last purchases Saturday or Sunday and 7% said they will still be shopping on Christmas Eve. And 4% said their final gifts wouldn’t be bought until after Christmas.
The survey found that 56% of holiday shoppers – about 134 million people, up from 126 million last year – plan to shop this weekend on “Super Saturday,” the last Saturday before Christmas.
Of consumers who had completed half or less of their shopping, 44% said they were still deciding what to buy, up from 42% last year. Meanwhile, 27% were waiting for family members to share their requests, while 26% cited other financial priorities, 25% were too busy with other activities, and 22% admitted being procrastinators, according to the National Retail Federation.
As of December 12, consumers still shopping planned to make their remaining purchases online (51%), at department stores (41%), discount stores (25%), apparel stores (21%), electronics stores (17%), local/small businesses (14%), and grocery stores (13%).
The survey also found that 53% of consumers have already purchased clothing as gifts; 38% gift cards; 37% toys; 32% video games, books, and movies; 24% food or candy, and 23% electronics or computer-related accessories.
No matter what you buy or where you buy it from, please remember to record all of your holiday – as well as your regular – purchases!
I wish you all the best. Hope you have a happy and healthy New Year!
I’ll be talking with you again in January. (Here’s a little teaser – we’ll be having a new contest early in 2019!)
PSC Holiday Closings
The Panel Support Center will be closed on the following days:
- Monday, December 24
- Tuesday, December 25 (Christmas Day)
- Monday, December 31
- Tuesday, January 1, 2019 (New Year’s Day)
Our PSC would like to wish you and your family all the best this holiday season and in the New Year!


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Korean internet provider SK Broadband wants Netflix to pay for costs associated with increased network traffic, as more people in the region are streaming popular Netflix titles. Among the shows that went viral in the country recently is a South Korean TV series that shot at the top of Netflix's charts globally. That's Squid Game, a horror show launched just a few weeks ago. It might seem ironic that SK is suing Netflix to pay traffic costs, given that a Korean show is a the top of Netflix's charts in Korea and other markets. But it's only a coincidence that SK's demands came up at a time when a Korean show has topped Netflix's charts.
The post An internet provider sued Netflix because its new show is too popular appeared first on BGR.
Today's Top Deals
- See why TikTok is so obsessed with this $20 Amazon find
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- Surprise! Amazon early Black Friday deals are live right now
Trending Right Now:
- USDA issues urgent meat recall, so throw it away if you have any
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- Let’s go, Brandon: The backstory of this Joe Biden meme that’s all over the Internet


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Headlines from June 18 – 22:
- The case for adding precious metals to your portfolio (Bloomberg)
Chris Gaffney, EverBank World Markets president, said people might want to add precious metals to their investment portfolio because of its cyclical nature. Looking back through the year’s ratio between gold and silver, Gaffney predicted that silver has more room to catch. The expanding economies in India and China leads to growth potentials for demand for gold and other precious metals, according to Gaffney.
- JPMorgan oil trader takes over commodities (Financial Times)
JPMorgan has appointed its top oil trader as the new head of its commodities division, the latest move in a business that has reinvented itself since selling the bulk of its physical operations two years ago.
- Gold at a three-week low (Kitco)
Gold prices ended the U.S. day session lower and hit a three-week low Wednesday. The yellow metal was weighed down by a rallying U.S. dollar index this week and by the better risk appetite seen in the world marketplace the past couple weeks.
- A touch of precious metals in Porsche’s new car (Tech Guru Daily)
As mentioned by the automaker, the Cayenne Platinum Edition (PE) gets a like-to-like design with the RS Spyder, mostly recognized by its 20-inch wheels. “With purposefully selected materials. For an even greater sense of style. With eye-catching details, like the Porsche Crest on the headrests. For that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’.”


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The multi award-winning Citroën C3 is set to continue its class-leading style and technology offering, with the reveal of new trim level extras for 2018, in response to customer demand.
One of the most significant additions to the C3’s standard extras is the introduction of rear parking sensors across all trim levels. The C3 is now the only car in the B-segment offering rear parking sensors as standard in the Irish market.
3 Equipment Levels: Touch, Feel & Flair
Starting at just €16,395, the 2018 Touch grade receives a significant uplift in equipment levels with electric heated door mirrors, rear parking sensors, black wheel arches, side skirts and front fog lights; in addition to the existing features such as a USB socket for media streaming & Bluetooth handsfree, safety features including Lane Departure warning and coffee break alert, as well as comfort features including cruise control and power steering.
Stepping up to the top-selling Feel, from €17,995, will now incorporate Airbump’s® and bi-tone roof as standard. This is in response to customer demand as 90 per cent of Irish C3’s are sold with this Style Pack that was optional. The upgrade will also bring brushed aluminium gear knob; in addition to the high level of standard equipment already on this grade such as 16-inch alloy wheels and LED daytime running lights; more intelligent and useful technology including Mirror Screen with Apple Car Play and a 7-inch touch screen; and the added comfort of automatic air conditioning.
The top of the range Flair trim, starting from €19,845, has been enhanced with the addition of the Safety Pack as standard – which includes active safety brake, driver attention alert, collision alert and smart beam. This pack is in addition; Black Airbump®’s as standard, 17-inch alloy wheels, ConnectedCAM Citroën™, automatic lights & windscreen wipers, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera. ConnectedCAM Citroën™ uses a fully integrated camera, located behind the rear view mirror, to capture images and video that can instantly be shared on social media channels, or saved as evidence in the event of an accident.
Sales of the the new C3 have concentrated on the PureTech family of three-cylinder petrol engines which represents a real technological breakthrough for the modern petrol engine, and has won the International Engine of the Year in 2015, 2016 and 2017. 75% of sales of C3 are now petrol; reversing the traditional dominance of diesel sales in this segment for Citroën in Ireland.
Managing Director Chris Graham commented: “During 2017 new C3 sales have achieved significant growth and with these equipment updates we are targeting a further 40 per cent s increase in 2018. For any customer looking for a B segment car that deliveres strongly on style, comfort, latest in safety technology, and efficiency; then C3 should definitely be on your shopping list for 181.”


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Within the last month multiple business and individuals have have reported cases of Identity Theft in Butler County, Ohio. Multiple gas stations reported finding illegal credit card skimmers installed on their gas pumps.
This crime hurts everyone in our community and unfortunately the trend with this crime is not if it happens to you, but when it happens to you…
So, the question is How can you avoid becoming a victim of Identity Theft?
You can’t anymore. You will likely provide a number of organizations your personal sensitive information through a number of media including paper, the Internet, and in
person. Identity theft has been the top consumer complaint filed with the FTC for 15 years straight. Current victims are spending an exorbitant amount of time and money repossessing their financial life after becoming victims. The criminals are getting smarter and technology is making it easier for cyber-criminals to attain your sensitive data, and they are not going away. That’s why you need a company that’s more than a website. You need an established institution that understands all the potential threats, how to prevent them and how to restore any damage done.
For $9.95 an individual or $19.95 a couple a month, IDShield staff monitor your identity from every angle, not just your Social Security number, credit cards and bank accounts. If any abnormal change in your accounts or cards occurs, you receive an update immediately and the investigators reach out to you. IDshield offers a 5 million dollar service guarantee to restore your identity.
For more Information click the link below.


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Rhapsody promises offline music playback in iPhone app update
- Todd Bishop
Rhapsody, the digital music service from Seattle-based RealNetworks and MTV Networks, plans to update its iPhone app to allow for download and offline playback of tracks, no longer requiring users to be connected to a wireless mobile or WiFi network to listen to songs from the service, as long as their membership is current.
The feature was announced today from the South by Southwest technology and music festival in Austin, Texas. A preview was posted to YouTube and Facebook, and Rhapsody says it's getting ready to submit the update to Apple for approval and distribution through the App Store. Rhapsody says the feature has been the No. 1 request from users since the iPhone app debuted in September.
Adding the offline playback feature gives the app one of the benefits of traditional music download services, such as the iPhone's native iTunes and iPod features, which don't require users to be connected for playback after purchase and download. Using the Rhapsody service on the iPhone requires a $14.99 monthly Rhapsody to Go subscription, with no need to purchase individual albums or tracks.
Separately, Rhapsody said its app for Google Android devices will move out of private beta in the coming days, making it available for download in the Android marketplace.
RealNetworks announced plans last month to spin off the Rhapsody joint venture into an independent company based in downtown Seattle.
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Several key cable tech vendors are enjoying the early spring, after posting healthy revenue and income gains for the first three months of the year. Motorola's Connected Home Solutions unit, Broadcom Corp., Juniper Networks and C-COR all reported sales increases in earnings results announced so far this week.
In one prime example, Motorola's cable equipment division racked up $710 million in Q1 sales, up 7% from the year-earlier period. The company credited the increase to higher shipments of video, voice and data equipment, especially digital set-top boxes and voice modems. Motorola said it shipped a record 2 million digital set-tops in the first quarter, up 48% from the previous quarter. It also shipped a record 623,000 voice modems during the quarter.
In another example, Broadcom reported earlier today that net revenue jumped to $900.6 million in Q1, up 63.7% from a year ago. At the same time, net income nearly doubled to $93.7 million. The company credited the gains to "numerous positive product cycles in our end markets" driven by "the strong positive trend in communications convergence."


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Panthera Group, Thailand’s top operator of pubs, clubs and restaurants, is using its leadership position to ensure the country’s nightlife industry survives the coronavirus pandemic by slashing rents, offering soft loans to struggling rivals and setting an example other landlords can follow.
Panthera, owner of nightclubs and pubs throughout Bangkok Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya, has dropped rents by up to 67 percent for the past year to keep tenants afloat and ensure they’ll have the resources to reopen once the coronavirus pandemic ends.
Panthera Group co-founder Paul Hayward said many operators initially received rent discounts in 2020, but later were reinstated at full price even though bars remained closed.
“We were finding that the Achilles heel for many bar owners were landlords who, at the time, may not have been as sympathetic enough to their tenants’ needs and perhaps were not fully understanding that many of their tenants were on the verge of bankruptcy, which ends up being a lose-lose situation for both landlord and tenant,” Hayward said.
“While discounts of 50 percent were very reasonable considering the landlords’ needs, but we felt that, by decreasing our rents by two-thirds, we could get a few more tenants over the line and it seems to have worked,”
For those where rent reductions weren’t enough, Panthera supplied soft loans. He called it “life support money”, but the life support was for more than just the venue, it was for Bangkok’s entertainment and hospitality sectors as a whole.
“If outlets go out of business now, it will impact the entire area negatively when the pandemic ends,” Hayward said. “Bangkok needs quality nightlife choices. We don’t want other cities in Asia offering a stronger product.”
Hayward said the loans were “enough so owners could honor their rental commitments and ensure they can keep their creditors at bay”.
With Thailand planning to reopen to unrestricted foreign tourism by mid-October, Hayward believes restrictions on the nightlife sector will be relaxed soon.
“It’s becoming increasingly likely nightclubs will open before October, with restrictions,” Hayward wrote June 22 on his Facebook page. “I’m confident they will relax alcohol (sales prohibitions) soon and, if the country remains stable, will allow places to run until midnight.”


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Home Cooking Take It - Bake It in Redway has new owners. Laura Eldridge and her husband, Martin, are buying the Redway establishment from Jo and Stan Khougaz.
The Garde mange (a French term for keeper of the food referring to a cold kitchen where food is prepared to be taken home and cooked) started out as a Papa Murphy’s franchise take-and-bake style pizza place in Garberville in 1997.
”When we moved to Southern Humboldt from Los Angeles,” Jo Khougaz said, “we didn’t know a single person. So not only did buying Papa Murphy’s afford us a way to make a living, it afforded us a way to get to know people in the community.”
In 2006, the Khougazes decided to become fully owned, switched to their own recipes and changed the name to Home Cooking Take and Bake Pizza. Two years ago they moved the establishment to the current location at 47 Briceland Road in Redway.
”This fills an important niche in the community,” said Jo Khougaz.
The Khougazes are ready to retire and have sold the establishment to the Eldridges, who have plenty of restaurant experience since they have owned the Eel River Cafe in Garberville for the last nine years.
The Eel River Cafe was recently purchased by local resident Moises Lopez and his family.
Laura Eldridge has been working with Stan Khougaz for the last two months so that a seamless transition takes place.
Eldridge said her family will be involved in the food preparation. She explained the family is interested in the farm-to-table concept. Their son, Jesse, age 24, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley is exploring the possibility of buying an organic farm and wants to incorporate fresh organic produce in the menu. There is the possibility that they will branch out beyond pizzas and have fresh seasonal organic pies, salads and maybe some raw food since daughter, Lindsay, age 21, is vegan and enjoys making special food.
Eldridge said she has enjoyed Home Cooking pizzas over the years. She is excited to be in a position to meet the community she is preparing food for now, since at the Eel River Cafe she was in the back cooking all the time.
She said she is grateful to the community for prayers and support during the time of transition. The Khuogazes are grateful for all the community support they have gotten over the years, too.
Home Cooking Take It - Bake It on Briceland Road in Redway is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. There are two phone numbers, 923-4961 and 923-2716, for customer convenience.
REDWOOD TIMES PHOTO BY SANDY FERETTO
Stan Khougaz, left, former owner of Home Cooking Take It -Bake It has been working with new owner Laura Eldridge.


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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — In this week’s ‘You Ask, We Investigate’ report, KNWA’s Katelynn Zoellner found out there’s a new security device being used in Walmart parking lots in Arkansas.
Walmart installed Lot Cops in January 2020 at the supercenter on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Fayetteville.
“Lot Cops are another example of Walmart investing in technology to help deterrer, and if needed detect and identify criminals,” said Casey Staheli, National Media Relations at Walmart. “These investments are enabling us to assist law enforcement, making the stores safer, and ensuring our customers have an enjoyable shopping experience.”
The retailer said it’s always looking at how it can better serve its customers.
“We do that by continuing to invest in people, programs and technologies, like Lot Cops, that create a safer shopping experience,” Staheli said. “Additionally, the Lot Cops are another layer in our security approach, making us a harder target and deterring crime.”
Sgt. Tony Murphy with the Fayetteville Police Department said Lot Cops can be very helpful during an investigation
“A lot of times, the cameras that are mounted at the front of Walmart are not as high of resolution or are too far away and we can not see what’s going on out in the parking lot very clearly, so these cameras really help us in some of our investigations where we need them,” he said. “Just know that they are out there at the Walmart parking lot and that you are going to be recorded and recorded for sight and sound whenever you are in that parking lot.”
There also are Lot Cops at stores in Blytheville, Forrest City, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Searcy, and West Memphis.
“Store selections are based off internal criteria allowing us to allocate resources where they’re best suited,” Staheli said. “We periodically review data and reevaluate if changes should be made. The nice thing about the mobile Lot Cops is that if the data changes, we can easily move these assets around.”
If there is something in your community that you want to know more about, we want to investigate it. You can send your questions to Katelynn at KZoellner@KNWA.com.


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Heritage Days Festival to includes crafters, food, music
The New Market Chamber of Commerce will hold its 22nd annual Heritage Days Festival this weekend.
The festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday along Congress Street in New Market. There is no fee to attend the event.
The festival typically brings in over 1,000 people to New Market, said Liz Gum, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce for New Market.
“People come out to support the vendors and to purchase gifts for the upcoming holidays. They also like to hear the music and usually are followers of the groups,” she said.
“Everyone enjoys eating all the different varieties of food offered and they almost always see someone they have not seen in a while,” she added. “They like to support their town.”
She said activities on Saturday include a bounce house, and performances at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. by The Dean Burkett Magical Show. Live music will be held at 11 a.m. by Psycho Rocky, 1 p.m. by The Rinards, and at 3:30 p.m. by Sound Solutions.
Activities on Sunday include live music from noon to 2 p.m. by Brian Buchanan, and 3 to 5 p.m. by Sound Solutions.
Both days will offer an s gauge train display. Vendors including those selling quilting, crocheted items, soy candles, antiques, Civil War items, paracord bracelets, dog leashes and collars, ceramics, Longaberger baskets, homemade silver jewelry, Premier jewelry, old fashioned candies, homemade soups, Scentsy, Pampered Chef, Thirty One, Real Time Pain Relief and more.
Food vendors will include Frank’s BarBQ, B&C Rinds, A Bakers Dozen donuts, New Market Rotary Club, StickE Fingers, Newland Concessions, Mark Farnsworth homemade ice cream, Poppy’s Kettle Corn and homemade pimento cheese by Brenda Neese.
Suzanne’s Studio will also be at the festival with original canvas art. She will also have a kid’s activity booth set up where they can paint a 5-by-7-inch canvas panel.
Charles Miller, author of “Rising Wind,” and Tonya Royston, author of “The Sunset Trilogy,” will be available for book signings both days.
Contact staff writer Kaley Toy at 540-465-5137, ext. 176, or firstname.lastname@example.org.
If You Go
Where: Congress Street in New Market.
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday,


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What’s the price of Australian oysters got to do with the recent run on toilet paper, and buying a new car?
If you’re a market-going Australian, you may have noticed that about four years ago, the price of a dozen oysters rose sharply, from about $12 a dozen to $20 and beyond.
Of course it’s commonplace for us to see price fluctuations in the price of groceries and produce, especially at fresh food markets. It’s a function of the foundational relationship of economics – that between supply and demand.
Oysters, though, are a bit of an exception to that: at least at fresh food markets, the price of a dozen usually remains pretty set. Which makes it all the more unusual that a) their price jumped so much, and b) it jumped so uniformly from one fish monger to the next, around the same time.
Ask a fish-monger why this happened and they’ll likely tell you about an outbreak of Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) – a sort of disease, that renders oysters unsuitable for eating – that occurred in Australia in 2016, decimating oyster supplies and forcing prices up.
But is this the full story, or just an angle which has been emphasised by the oyster farming industry to persuade the consumer to accept a price hike?
OK, POMS – but an $8 price hike?
I’m not suggesting that a POMS outbreak didn’t occur in 2016. Or that it wasn’t devastating to the industry. But it was localised to Tasmania. And although Tasmania is a supplier of spats (infant oyster crops) to other farming regions across Australia, the phenomenon of POMS was by 2016 a well-known risk to the billion-dollar Australian aquaculture industry; outbreaks had been occurring in different parts of Australia and New Zealand for years.
You might therefore think that, at least on a national basis, farmers were prepared to compensate for any supply impacts of a localised outbreak. And even if they weren’t, the impact to marketable oyster numbers would only have endured for a year or two, before the industry could return to pre-2016 supply levels.
But even now, four years on – and with no media reports of any shortages affecting the market – prices remain at $20.
So why haven’t we, as consumers, kicked up a fuss? Well, it’s probably because over the years we’ve been persuaded ever-so-subtly, through occasional media reports of POMS outbreaks and supply shortages, that the supply of oysters is fickle. That our access to oysters could be taken away at any time. And this belief in turn reduces how concerned we are with the price: ”What’s another $8 or $12 per dozen (oysters)! I’m lucky to be getting my hands on these things at all!”
In forming this belief, it’s perhaps a little concerning that as consumers, we tend to discount that the POMS mainstream media coverage is clearly industry-driven (so probably self-serving), and the distinct peculiarity that there’s never any news of a glut of oysters (which must surely also happen from time to time).
Toilet paper: same sh*t, different product
More recently, we’ve seen a similar phenomenon occur with the rush on toilet paper, where all the scenes of empty shelves and “per-customer” limits have led us to doubt whether the supply of toilet paper is sufficient to satisfy the level of demand during a pandemic. And while it’s probably nothing more than doubt – after all, how many times over the past few months have you been without toilet paper at the crucial time? – evidently that’s all it takes for the product to fly off the shelves.
Buyer beware (of fanciful COVID tales)
It’s fairly obvious why a buying frenzy has developed in favour of toilet paper. But “essentials” are far from the only products where COVID-related conditions – whether real or fanciful – will factor into the consumer’s decision-making process. And in many cases those decisions will be far more consequential than jumping the gun on your next twelve pack of double-ply rolls.
For example, last week I heard a story of a car salesman at a luxury car-yard in Melbourne suggesting to his prospective buyer that, due to freight and logistics challenges caused by COVID, Australia is about to face a severe shortage of new cars that could last for some time. The implication: buy now or run the risk of not being able to buy a new car for years!
This is of course probably a liberal over-exaggeration of what in actual fact is a small challenge faced by the Australian car industry – i.e. that cars are taking a few weeks longer to get to Australia from manufacturers due to COVID-related logistical disruptions. But embellishment that it may be, it is nonetheless an extremely savvy deployment of various persuasive techniques, where the salesman has insinuated (the old, “I shouldn’t be giving you this information….but you seem like a nice lady!“) that circumstances beyond either of their control threaten to deprive the buyer of an option she’s historically taken for granted – i.e. the option to buy a new car. It doesn’t matter that she may never have even considered buying a new car before; the mere threat of losing it as an option might just be enough to persuade her into exercising it immediately.
Conclusion: COVID = Perfect persuasion conditions
So consumers, be mindful over the coming weeks, months and years. Because in addition to any actual impacts COVID has on product markets, you can be certain that savvy sellers will be making the most of the favourable conditions – fear, uncertainty and misinformation – using every trick in the book to make you buy more and accept price hikes.


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I've had some bad food before at fast-food restaurants, but never thought of doing something like this.
A woman trashed a McDonald's in Kansas City, Mo., after not being satisfied with her hamburger and now police are looking for her.
According to the Associated Press, the woman caused thousands of dollars in damage when she became upset the restaurant wouldn't refund her money. She refused the offer of another hamburger.
A video released by police (a still photo from the video is shown above) shows the woman throwing a sign and a bucket of water over the counter and pushing off a glass display case and three cash registers.


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First publishedon www.ITSInternational.com
Redvision has launched its outdoor Vega 2052 camera which it says is waterproof and resistant to vandalism.
The company says the bullet camera does not require a junction box and is made from die-cast aluminium. It features a marine-grade plating as well as durable powder-coating.
The camera’s cabling is routed through the housing and inside its walls or pedestal mounting brackets.
Vega 2052 features a 2MP camera module with a Sony Exmor low light sensor.


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Next week will see the great and good of the international yachting and fashion industries come together to celebrate the second MonteNapoleone Yacht Club & Unique.
Named for – and based around – the famous Milan shopping street, the MonteNapoleone Yacht Club will see city’s finest high end boutiques team up with yacht builders and designers in a series of unique collaborations honouring the relationship between luxury retail and the marine world. A variety of models, videos and images will be on display throughout the week with key pairings including Valentino and Sanlorenzo, Louis Vuitton and Fincantieri, Bulgari and Benetti, Hermès and Lürssen and Loro Piana and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.
The event - which is sponsored by Fraser Yachts and Valverde - will also play host to a number of installations and exhibitions open to the public. A beautiful catamaran will take up residence in the Croce Rossa Square while the courtyard at the Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda will be home to the unmissable Yacht&Gentleman exhibition. Created by the MonteNapoleone Association, the exhibition will highlight the link between celebrities and yachting with a series of glamorous photographs and historical objects on display.
The Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda will also provide a stunning venue for a strictly VIP gala dinner on May 17 while the entire Via Monte Napoleone will be closed on May 18 to host a glittering cocktail party.
Of course, with so many high profile names from the world of yachting in one place, it would be remiss not to find time to talk business. A round-table discussion on legal issues surrounding the yachting sector at the MonteNapoleone VIP Lounge on May 17 will provide the opportunity to do just that.
The final treat of the event will come via the Via Monte Napoleone’s famous fine jewellers who have worked together to produce the Unique exhibition. Here a curated collection of high jewellery and watches from some of the world’s most famous brands will be presented exclusively to a select clientele.
The MonteNapoleone Yacht Club & Unique runs from May 16-22, 2016, visit montenapoleone.luxuryfor more information.


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The Abantu Book Festival 2018 artist line up was announced on the event’s social media platforms on October 23, 2018. The festival now in its third year is set for Soweto, South Africa from December 6-9, 2018. The Abantu Book Festival was founded in 2016 to build a space for black South African readers and […]
Abantu Book Festival 2018 artist line up unveiled.
- Post author By James Murua
- Post date 23/10/2018
- 1 Comment on Abantu Book Festival 2018 artist line up unveiled.
- Tags Abantu Book Festival, Abantu Book Festival 2018, Athi-Nangamso Nkopo, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Chikane Rekgotsofetse, Chwayita Ngamlana, Diana Ferrus, Dudu Busani-Dube, Esinako Ndebeni, Fred Khumalo, Gail Smith, Gcina Mhlophe, Haji Mohamed Dawjee, Helon Habila, Ijangolet S Ogwang, Jolyn Phillips, Kagiso Lesego Molope, Lebo Mashile, Lebohang Masango, Lesego Semenya, Mmabatho Montsho, Monde Nkasawe, Mphuthumi Ntabeni, Mxolisi Ntshali, Mzuzukile Soni., Nolundi Luwaya, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Nozizwe Jele, Nozuko Mapoma, Panashe Chigumadzi, Phemelo Motene, Phumlani Pikoli, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Rethabile Mashale Sonibare, Rosie Motene, Sibongile Fisher, Sihle Khumalo, Sihle Mthembu, Sue Nyathi, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, Thuli Nhlapo, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Tumelo Buthelezi, Tumelo Moleleki, Uhuru Phalafala, Wamuwi Mbao, Zanele Ndlovu


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Terrell Davis, Defy CEO and NFL Hall Fame recipient, knows a lot about winning. The Broncos running back legend has won two Super Bowls and a slew of accolades from Super Bowl MVP to Colorado Hall of Fame and finalist in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He is taking his winning strategies from the football field and applying them to his new leadership role as CEO and co-founder of Defy, a CBD, sports energy drink, and lifestyle company.
As part of TheStreet's Black History Month coverage, Davis sat down with Tony Owusu to discuss Black business ownership and how he feels the need to set an example for black entrepreneurs.
"As a black business owner, I recognize that what I do as a business owner... the next black business owner who approaches a bank for a loan or a marketing company, they will be judged based on what I do," Davis said.
"I'm always aware of our approach and how we go about our business because it is important that we leave a path that people can look up and say they appreciate that I'm doing it the right way."
Watch the video above for more.


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McCain’s Brew City Frozen Snack Brand Hits the UK
McCain is bringing its frozen food brand – Brew City – to the UK, reports Morning Adviser. The lineup includes snacks like halloumi fries, potato pint pots, IPA last order fries, man ‘n’ jack kegs, as well as onion straws, arancini shots, cheese brew bites, and fiery jalapeno bottle caps and is targeted at pub and bar operators.
Made for sharing and to complement different types of beer, Brew City’s arrival in the UK is also supported by a GBP6m multi-channel campaign spanning TV, out-of-home, print, and online media. Brew City sits under the McCain Foodservice Solutions umbrella and was created to respond to the rising preference for craft beer, which has exploded in recent years.
The new frozen snacks will initially launch into Co-op stores and other grocery retailers this September, before rolling out to convenience stores in coming months.


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Como Crafts!, a needlework event open to the public, will be held at the Historic Street Car Station, 1224 N. Lexington Pkwy., on Saturday, March 7, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Whether you quilt, knit, crotchet, sew or tat, you are welcome to join your neighbors at this event. The event is limited to 16 participants or eight conference tables. Reservations will be taken up 24 hours before the event. Tables, good lighting, coffee and tea will be provided. Please bring a treat to share and something for lunch.
A suggested donation of $10 will go to District 10 and to future Como Crafts! events. To place a reservation or for more information, email email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Maryland set to become first state to outlaw foam containers
Some in New Jersey are pushing for curbs on the use of polystyrene food and beverage containers as New York City is set to ban their use later this year. Polystyrene foam used in food containers, coffee cups and packing peanuts made about 38 percent of the 6,900 plastic pieces collected by NY/NJ Baykeeper in 2015.
Maryland is poised to become the first state to ban foam (polystyrene) food containers.
On Tuesday, March 12, the Maryland House of Delegates voted 97-38 in favor of the ban, according to reports from The Baltimore Sun.
The House vote comes only a week after the state Senate approved a variation of the bill by a vote of 34-13.
A conference committee will now proceed over the final legislation between the house and senate variations.
Polystyrene containers are used primarily as takeout carriers in restaurants. However, the containers do not organically break down and are considered hazardous to the environment.
Once finalized, the ban is expected to take effect on July 1, 2020.


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YZER Property launches free listing for all real estate brokers in a bid to support the expansion of UAE’s Real Estate Sector.
The company releases its user-friendly multimedia platform offering a smart solution for purchasing property and cars.
Dubai, September 2016 – Launched at the beginning of this year, YZER Property have introduced an innovative marketing arena that is growing at exponential speed, which fills the gap between businesses and consumers for investments and purchases within the real estate and automobile industries.
With its user-friendly and accessible multimedia platform, YZER Property’s remarkable solution allows new and existing residents to purchase what are widely considered to be the most difficult assets to attain; namely property and cars.
Advocating a highly visual experience, parallel to current social media trends, YZER Property’s online multilingual portal allows visitors to navigate with ease, with 12 language preferences including Arabic, Chinese, Russian and English.
Committed to making a difference in the marketplace, the company’s principles are aligned with the perspective of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who said “Dubai is in a race against time to get to what is needed to become a smart city.
To make people happy, provide them with an easy life, aid communication with each other and enable government agencies to facilitate processes and reduce the burden of movement between government departments for service.”
At the helm of the operation, Nishat H. Bandali, CEO of YZER GROUP said “It is very important to follow the vision of His Highness when creating any new business in this region.
With an aggressive increase in construction and the upcoming EXPO 2020, the Yzer online portal offers the best in both outdoor and digital media solutions. Although we are growing at an extremely fast pace, we never lose sight of the ever-changing requirements of corporate and consumer acquisitions, therefore our platform allows us to adapt to market variants.”


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A new record was set in Ukraine. The biggest amount of cereal porridge was cooked from the certified organic products only. The record was set at the Largest Agricultural Exhibition of Eastern Europe AGROPORT West Lviv 2018.
The topic of “organic products and their perspectives in Ukraine” became the keynote of the event. Its level and relevance of the topic of organic products was emphasized by the important guests- the exhibition was attended by the President of Ukraine, heads of relevant industries ministries, heads of several Ukrainian regions, foreign delegates, as well as thousands of farmers, producers and other people involved in the field.The exhibition lasted three days on April 19-21. The first two days were held at the Danylo Halytskyi International Airport Lviv, and the record was set on the last final day on the special demonstrational field. The dish was 3285 kg weight, or 3900 liters in volume. Farmers and companies from all over Ukraine gave their products to prepare buckwheat porridge with meat and mushrooms. To collect such an amount of buckwheat, the van (truck) made two thousand kilometers. From Poltava region, for example, one and half tons of organic buckwheat (there were 1225 kg only used to prepare the dish) and 100 liters of organic sunflower oil were delivered. Kharkiv provided 300 kilograms of organic onion, the Kiev company – three kilograms of organic black pepper and half a kilogram of organic laurel leaf. Farmers from Lviv, Volyn, Ternopil, Vinnytsya and Zhytomyr regions provided organic: 20 kilograms of mushrooms, 100 kilograms of carrots, almost 500 kilograms of meat (veal, beef and pork), 15 kilograms of garlic, 50 kilograms of butter, as well as canned meat, lard and greens. A huge, three-meter in diameter pot (kettle) was brought from Ternopil.
20 chefs, the members of the Western Chief Group Association, which includes the best chefs of Lviv restaurants, all together with a great effort were working on the preparation process. Totally there were almost hundred chefs involved in cooking process, and preparation of all the ingredients lasted almost a week. At the same time several people were mixing cereal with special paddles and it was literally very difficult process as four of the paddles got broken.– This record is in fact a significant job, not just the cooking itself, but the whole process of preparation. Essential, difficult and well-organized job, – mentioned the head of the National Register of Records of Ukraine – Ms. Lana Vetrova, who officially recorded this achievement.
By the way, it could easily claim to the world record of cooking dish just from organic products, but this required a few months of formal preparation. And there was lack of time to do that. Moreover, this is the biggest amount of boiled buckwheat porridge for today.
Of course, this record is not an end in itself, but the way to attract the attention of society and those governmental decision makers to the question concerning organic goods production. This consumer- and land-friendly as well as ecological way of producing goods, according to the point of view of the organizers of AGROPORT West Lviv 2018 fair and the AGROPORTEX.bio project leaders, should become the main one in Ukraine. By the way, these products have a huge demand in the world and our country has a huge potential: black earths reserves, where you can yield good harvests without using any harmful chemicals.
– Assuming the fact that in Ukraine there is 40 million hectares of the land are for the agricultural use, only 1% of it is under organic farming. This is not enough, considering our European neighbors, where in some countries this number reaches 10% from the total area of agricultural land. It is expected that in Ukraine the area under organic will increase and within 3-5 years will reach at least 500 thousand hectares, – said Ms. Olga Trofimtseva, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine on European Integration.
According to experts, Ukraine must take advantage of global trends. This is our chance significantly to change life in the countryside. Indeed, small and medium sized farmers have much more chances in the organic sector, than big agricultural holdings. Actually, all questions related to organic farming (climate change, technology, financial instruments, legislation) and rural development were discussed at the AGROPORT Forum West Lviv 2018; strategic sessions were held at the same time with the exposition. In general, 12 conferences were held with the participation of representatives from 15 countries. Farmers and representatives of the united territorial communities could take on the best world experience (shared by guests from France, Canada, Germany, Latvia, Turkey, etc.) and discuss their questions. Only by mutual efforts small agricultural producers can solve problems of certification, storage, transportation of agricultural products, etc.
– Agroport Ukraine long ago went beyond the size of just an agricultural exhibition and today this is the wide support oriented system for the producers. We are trying to improve the awareness of farmers, to give new knowledge, to demonstrate the best technology, – says the head of AGROPORT UKRAINE, Mr. Dmytro Tytarenko. – We have an opportunity to show how this process is organized by the world leader producers, and how should we help to the Ukrainian farmers to arrange it.
During this international event the President of Ukraine, Mr. Petro Poroshenko mentioned, that a farmer itself, in particular, feeds Ukraine, an now when we are joining the international markets he feeds Europe, as well. That’s why our country should provide a farmer with proper support and protection.– Now we are winning European market, and as large agricultural businesses have been already introduced there for a long time, then my job as the President is to support small and medium-sized producers: to provide tools, including financial ones, to create certain structures that would advise and teach the farmers. We have to combine the best in the world Ukrainian lands with advanced European technologies. The result of this Forum should be creation of such supportive tools, – said Garant.
By the way, at the exhibition a lot of Ukrainian developments, in addition to foreign technology, were presented: domestic technics, which suite the best for our soils, unique plant protection products and fertilizers that are suitable for the organic production in the Western regions of Ukraine, as well as innovative agro-IT projects.A useful tool for promoting farmers’ produce on the international market is going to be the mobile application called AgroportEx.bio without which the organization of a National Record would be impossible. This development is introduced by Ukrainian specialists and will work on the international level helping farmers to find buyers for their products both in the domestic market and abroad without intermediaries.
AGROPORT UKRAINE (agroport.ua) as International Agricultural Forum is a part of the official UN calendar and takes place with the support and participation of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). It has been occurred already for five years and this year to be held in three regions of Ukraine: Western, Southern and Eastern, in order to be closer to a farmer and consider regional peculiarities.
AGROPORT West Lviv 2018 was supported by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and Lviv Regional State Administration. It was organized by the Department of Agricultural Development of Lviv Regional State Administration and Aviabrand LLC. More than two hundred participants from all over the country took part in the exhibition, and more than 7000 thousand people came as visitors – from Lviv, Volyn, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, from other regions as well. Only for the 5th anniversary of AGROPORT UKRAINE, a new project – "Ukrainian Trypillya" – has started up. The practical part of the exhibition was the opportunity to check the presented products in action: on the fields of the village Skniliv was conducted test-drive of off-road cars and agricultural machinery. Also the Farm Fair and the Street Organic Kitchen Festival was organised here setting of a new organic record were held as well.
The next regios which will take over the event will be Kherson (AGROPORT South Kherson 2018, July 26-28), and Kharkiv – (AGROPORT East Kharkiv 2018, October 11-13).


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Friday, 13 Mar 2015
Have you found yourself clamoring over the latest ultra-thin device on the market? Fujitsu has just announced the world's first thin, cooling device for use in compact electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets. Read on to find out more.
Tuesday, 3 Jul 2012
The two companies will develop and deliver features to improve Web browsing performance on Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor-based devices accessing content delivered by Akamai's Aqua Mobile Accelerator.
Thursday, 24 Nov 2011
Mobile devices, accessories, GPS units, and telco offers at Sitex 2011, we have it all here! Find out what's the best deals at the final tech bargain of 2011!
Thursday, 22 Sep 2011
Adobe's Flash Player is about to receive a major overhaul with the release of Flash 11 early next month. It will feature Stage 3D and AIR 3, allowing delivery of 2D and 3D games to a plethora of connected devices.
Friday, 9 Sep 2011
The Flash Media Server 4.5 is able to stream video content to Apple IOS devices while Flash Access 3.0 allows paid content to be delivered securely to Android devices.
Wednesday, 16 Feb 2011
Opera announces a sign-on to an agreement to ship the Opera Mini browser worldwide on Qualcomm's Brew MP.
Thursday, 10 Feb 2011
This innovation is part of ST-Ericsson's new PowerHUB family of products that will also harvest energy from a wide range of sources, making it quicker for people to charge their mobile devices, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Thursday, 6 Jan 2011
Microsoft wasted no time to officially share with the world on what they've been working on, even before CES 2011 starts tomorrow. Check out some of the latest mobile devices Windows 7 is enabling, a newer revision of Surface and next gen. Windows running on ARM-based systems.
Tuesday, 9 Mar 2010
We joined Sony Ericsson at Resorts World Singapore for their exclusive "EVOLVE.ENGAGE.EXCITE" media launch, and came back with some "green" news of their Elm, Hazel and Apsen mobile phones of the GreenHeart series.


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Steve Jobs probably isn’t a very happy camper right around now. Word is that the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are negotiating with each other about which one of them is going to start an antitrust investigation into Apple’s iPad and iPhone applications policy.
Most of remember the uproar over Apple keeping Adobe’s Flash off of the iPad and iPhone as well as forcing developers to make their applications usable only on the iPad and iPhone rather than platform agnostic. Well it seems that the two government agencies involved think that this is anti-competitive and that Apple may have overstepped.
However just because the DoJ and the FTC are trying to figure out who will take the lead in any possible investigation it doesn’t mean that anything will happen beyond the initial inquiry.
An inquiry doesn’t necessarily mean action will be taken against Apple, which argues the rule is in place to ensure the quality of the apps it sells to customers. Typically, regulators initiate inquiries to determine whether a full-fledged investigation ought to be launched. If the inquiry escalates to an investigation, the agency handling the matter would issue Apple a subpoena seeking information about the policy.
Officials at both the Justice Department and FTC declined comment. Apple did not return calls seeking comment.
The threat of Apple being the subject of an investigation would be a remarkable turnabout for a company that has long seen itself as being outside the establishment, and one that has egged on antitrust officials to blunt the momentum of larger rivals.
Source:New York Post
It’s rather interesting to see the shoe on the other foot as Apple has for the most part flown under the radar in these types of things.


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The information in this post is accurate as of the 26th September 2022 and is updated regularly.
Inflation in the UK is currently at 9.90%. The annual inflation rate is the highest yet since 1982, and it’s at a much higher rate than analytics were predicting. As prices of food and essentials continue to rise, Brits are already experiencing a substantial cost of living crisis.
The biggest price pressure overall came from fuel, followed by the skyrocketing prices of food. The biggest contribution to the inflation rate between June and July 2022 was the rising costs of food and drink. The essentials such as bread, milk, eggs and cheese having a particularly high impact, and highest rates since 2009. And of course, the prices of homes and housing utilities, which have been increasing swiftly over the years.
But what is “inflation” and how is it calculated?
Inflation measures how much more expensive general goods and services have become in a set period of time. Every month, the Office of National Statistics checks the prices of things that people buy. They record the cost of over 700 things, such as food items, petrol, cars and holidays. They will compare the prices of those things now to what they were a year ago. This is how inflation is calculated. It is the change of prices and how much they have increased in %.
CPI and RPI Explained
There are two ways to help measure inflation: Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Retail Price Index (RPI).
CPI measures the average prices of hundreds of items we frequently spend money on. This includes everyday items such as clothing, food, fuel, bedding, footwear etc. However, it doesn’t include housing costs.
An RPI however, calculates the prices of everyday items mentioned above including housing costs. These include rent, mortgage payments and council tax.
Both, the CPI and RPI indicate the significant changes in the prices of goods and services compared to the base year’s standard costs. CPI is considered a lead indicator for the calculation of inflation. Therefore, CPI has more relevance than RPI.
The Bank of England follows a monetary policy, which affects the rate of inflation. Low and stable inflation is good for the economy, and makes it much easier to plan for the future.
The current inflation rate in the UK is 9.90%, which is nowhere near the 2% target. Most economists did not expect it to hit double digits yet, and it is estimated to peak at around 11% this winter. High inflation rates mean businesses may find it hard to set the right prices, and people may find it a lot more difficult to budget.
Why are prices continuing to rise?
There are many reasons that add to the ongoing rising costs:
Energy and gas bills, which are expected to significantly rise again this winter. Factors that contribute to this include the demand and supply. Due to very cold winters in Europe, global supplies and gas levels are a lot lower than normal.
Fuel prices, which have also peaked this year, due to the rising cost of oil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately, petrol prices are still expected to stay high.
Food prices. There are several reasons why they have continued to rise, including the pandemic disruption, as well as the war in Ukraine. The war has caused some serious challenges for Ukraine to export wheat, meaning the world is facing a massive shortage, causing higher production costs.
Higher interest rates since the Bank of England base rate keeps increasing. Mortgage Payments as well as rent and utility bills have all significantly jumped, putting smaller income households in an uncomfortable financial position.
The Bank of England base rate has a huge impact on how much we are spending, and how much we are paying to borrow. Rising interest rates should bring down inflation, and is estimated to take one or two years before we notice a difference.
The Bank of England Base Rate and what it means
The base rate is an important interest rate set by the Bank of England. As of the day of publication (September 2022), the current base rate is 2.25%. The bank rate basically determines how much interest is paid to commercial banks and how much you are charged for borrowing money.
The base rate is set every month in order to try and keep inflation down. Experts warn that the Bank of England is expected to raise the base up to an emergency 4% this autumn in hopes to bring it back to its 2% target.
The overall purpose of the base rate increase is to tackle inflation. This should encourage people to save money and spend less, and as a result, prices should slowly decrease. If prices start going back down, the inflation rate should drop with them.
When will inflation go down?
The good news is that the Bank of England is expecting inflation to fall in 2023. It is predicted that the prices of energy and imported goods are “unlikely to rise as rapidly as they have recently”.
The Bank of England has also speculated that inflation will be closer to its 2% target rate in around two years, after peaking this winter. This is a speculation based on how long it should take for the increased base rate to noticeably make a difference. Ultimately, this means there is a small light at the end of the tunnel for those who are currently struggling.
Cost of living and its Impact
The cost of living has been rising steadily in the UK since early 2021. It is a period where the prices of essential goods began increasing faster than household income. There are plenty of factors that add up to the cause of the crisis, such as inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and supply shortages.
Although most of the reasons for the crisis are caused by global issues, the UK was reported to be one of the most affected among the world’s advanced economies. The local factors that have a huge impact on the crisis include labour shortages caused by Brexit and additional taxes on households. It is also worth mentioning that wages are not climbing anywhere near as fast as the cost of basic necessities.
The Office of National Statistics has also found that 91% of adults in Great Britain have reported an increase in their cost of living. Households with lower incomes are much more affected, due to spending a bigger proportion of their money on energy, bills and food.
What is the government doing to help?
As reported by the UK parliament, measures to support households during the crisis are estimated at £37 billion. These include:
£400 discount on energy bills this winter for all households.
£650 payment in two instalments for those receiving selected benefits.
£300 additional payment for pensioners and £150 to those on disability benefits.
£150 council tax rebate for households in tax bands A-D.
5p cut fuel duty, as introduced by Mr Sunak in March 2022.
£1billion household support fund, for those who are not eligible for other kinds of help but need the support.
An increase of the National Living Wage (NLW) by 6.6%, meaning full-time workers aged 23 and over now earn £9.50 per hour.
These are just a few of the ways in which the government is supporting Brits during the cost of living crisis. To read more, head over to GOV.uk.
Alternatively, watch our video to find out if you could be eligible for financial support:
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Borrow £270,000 over 300 months at 7.1% APRC representative at a fixed rate of 4.79% for 60 months at £1,539.39 per month and thereafter 240 instalments of £2050.55 at 8.49% or the lender’s current variable rate at the time. The total charge for credit is £317,807.66 which includes £2,500 advice / processing fees and £125 application fee. Total repayable £587,807.66
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Borrow £62,000 over 180 months at 9.9% APRC representative at a fixed rate of 7.85% for 60 months at £622.09 per month and thereafter 120 instalments of £667.54 at 9.49% or the lender’s current variable rate at the time. The total charge for credit is £55,730.20 which includes £2,660 advice / processing fees and £125 application fee. Total repayable £117,730.20
Annual Interest Rate (fixed) is 49.7% p.a. with a Representative 49.7% APR, based on borrowing £5,000 and repaying this over 36 monthly repayments. Monthly repayment is £243.57 with a total amount repayable of £8,768.52 which includes the total interest repayable of £3,768.52.
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The popularity of Ethereum mining and the supply chain issues since 2020 caused GPU prices to go bonkers. But as the supply gets back up and Ethereum’s shift to proof of stake nears, GPU prices crash below MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price). Some GPUs are still priced much higher than actual prices, but generally, we are moving in a downtrend.
GPU prices crash below MSRP
The crash of the crypto markets is also one of the reasons for this price dip. Just in May, GPU prices have shrunk by an average of 15%, and since then, we have been going lower. The latest NVIDIA TRX 30 cards that are popular for Ethereum mining have seen a 40% price drop due to the lowering demand.
A report from Tom’s hardware says that RTX 3080 GPU is now available for $650 on eBay. It was price above $1,000 a few months back and even higher before that. However, $650 is not the lowest price. There are listings where multiple GPUs are sold even cheaper. For example, a listing of $2,500 is offering 6 RTX 3080s which brings the price to $420.
These GPUs were highly profitable when Ethereum’s price was on the rise and mining difficulty was not so high. Now, it can just make 80 cents profit a day after factoring in power costs. So, it’s no more so attractive. The same is also the case for AMD Radeon cards, as the prices of their GPUs are below MSRP.
Can we expect the GPU prices to rise again?
With Ethereum moving from proof of work to proof of stake consensus, it is doubtful that we will see GPUs go at such a premium. The last two years were unique, and there was just so much going on. We had the pandemic, the supply chain issues, the crypto boom, and mining adoption. There is hardly any chance that we will get to see all of them happening together again. Plus, the most profitable cryptocurrency for mining can also no longer be mined very soon. Ethereum miners are not happy about this, and the shift to POS will leave a huge dent in the mining industry.
What are your thoughts as GPU prices crash below MSRP as the Ethereum merge date nears? And do you think we will see such astronomical GPU rates again? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you found our content informative, do like and share it with your friends.


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Griffiths said in an interview with the UK publication Autocar that if the Cupra entered the US market, it would do so only with larger, full-electric models.
“You need a car in the US that’s fit for the US and electric,” he told Autocar. “A US electric car is generally bigger, so it will be a next generation of electric cars that would be based on the SSP platform from VW.” That platform is expected some time after 2025.
Griffiths said the timing of a US market entry would be linked to Cupra’s move to an electric-only brand, which he has said will be by 2030. Cupra, as a new brand, also needs to establish itself in Europe, he added.
“The investments for making cars ready for America are considerable, and I think we need to be stronger first in Europe and make sure we’ve done our homework,” he said, adding that Cupra was seeking a European market share of 3 to 4 percent.
Cupra’s market share at the end of February was 1.2 percent, according to industry group ACEA, a 60 percent increase from 2022.
The North American market has long been coveted by sporty European brands. The Stellantis group’s Alfa Romeo brand first effort ended in 1995, but it returned to the US in 2014, first with the niche 4C coupe, then with the midsize Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV. The compact Tonale SUV debuted this year, and brand CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato said in January that a large full-electric vehicle will be developed by 2027 to expand in the US
Renault’s Alpine brand is also planning a US expansion starting in 2027 or 2028. CEO Laurent Rossi said in January that the US market will be crucial for Alpine’s ambitious revenue and sales goals. The brand has aspirations to sell two models in the US, a midsize full-electric SUV and a larger, similar model, starting in 2027 or 2028.


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The realm of automotive browsing is different greatly during the last years, with buyers employing additional different on-line equipment and performing researching for a more rapidly speed than before. They also have higher objectives coming from the companies they retailer with. Let’s check out how customers are transforming their actions. What in case the market be expecting? Listed below are some shifts that happen to be operating this trend: First, consumers are spending less time in dealerships. Second, consumers are searching for utilized vehicles more than ever before. Third, they are really more and more cost susceptible. It really is finding up rapidly, even if this has created a requirement for far better used car alternatives.
The car industry has actually been lagging behind other businesses in following electronic digital retailing. A digital motor vehicle-browsing review indicated that online retailing will make contributions $14.6 billion into the vehicle market by 2020, rendering it a crucial enterprise technique, relating completely to another study launched by Onbe. However, this improvement is only one part of the puzzle. Some are already this, though gross sales of automobiles on-line is likely to get to $1.2 trillion by 2020, a determine that is representative of a tiny portion of over-all gross sales.
The car industry has actually been slower to evolve to those new movements. Research by Onbe, a simple-increasing corporation disbursement base, found that automobile eCommerce could bring in $14.6 billion dollars by 2020, compared to a whole of $1.1 trillion in 2018. The findings show dealerships must adopt this plan now in an effort to take on on the net retailing. A written report by Frost And Sullivan shown that practically 1.3 zillion new motor vehicles will be acquired on the internet by 2035.
Despite these conclusions, the auto marketplace has lagged regarding other industrial sectors in taking on electronic retailing. But it surely has started to choose these techniques, and also by 2035, it will amount to 1.3 million revenue. Which means it is no longer a possibility, but an absolute necessity for car dealerships to keep aggressive and maximize sales. These tendencies will not be disappearing in the near future. In order to take on the fast-developing on the net car retailing.
The car market is not resistant to these alterations in shopper habits, the automotive field will need to get caught up. In truth, the automobile market has shared electronic digital retailing and has had the opportunity to embrace these strategies for several years. Along with the craze isn’t slowing down soon. Forhowever and then, you should identify the potential of digital retailing. It can be actually a money-making business structure. And it also helps shoppers understand and comprehend a complex industry. In a way, it could conserve car dealerships money and time.
Although the motor vehicle marketplace has lagged behind other businesses in virtual retailing, it provides fairly recently begun to catch up. In the following several years, the automotive market is believed to arrive at $1.2 trillion overall store income. And it is most likely to improve even more than this. The development of auto eCommerce is projected to get to practically 1-next on the market place. The excitement is also most likely to continue to grow. The web based car or truck store shopping marketplace possesses the possibility to are more profitable if car dealerships implement computerized retailing methods.
The car field is slower to answer electronic retailing. Despite this, some dealerships have already applied digital retailing practices. This will aid these phones arrive at their objective of appealing to millennials and more radiant several years of clients. They might also be capable to improve customer support by improving the quantity of motor vehicles on their website. The vehicle marketplace will appeal to the top shoppers out there, by making use of these technologies. It is the method to be cut-throat.
Despite the rising significance of on the net automobile retailing, the motor vehicle industry has not yet maintained on top of the other marketplace. The growth of on the web retailing is small, however it is developing speedy, as well as the auto sector has however to capture up. They possibility shedding a lot of cash if car dealerships don’t adjust. As well as bringing in the younger development, online retailing can be another vital area of the motor vehicle market.
With the emergence of shopping on the web, people have grown a lot more difficult than before. The fact is, low-automobile web sites have become the standard among the consumers. In past times, motor vehicle dealerships were required to play competitively with these new people, and they will get used to. In today’s society, the vehicle market should catch up. A smooth online working experience is critical for driving a vehicle purchasing a car. They’ll move on to yet another model.
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- Meta is testing its first ad-revenue share feature for creators using Facebook Reels.
- Prior, the only way to monetize Reels was through the Reels Play Bonus program.
- Insider spoke with a Meta staffer about the new model and what creators can expect to see this year.
It's no secret that Reels is a top priority for Meta. The TikTok-like feature, which first launched exclusively on Instagram, has become Meta's Hail Mary in the competition to win the attention of young users and content creators.
On Tuesday, Facebook announced a global expansion of Reels. The announcement came three weeks after Mark Zuckerberg presented Meta's Q4 earnings to investors, during which he mentioned Reels more than 20 times, and later directed Meta employees to focus on short-form video, according to a Bloomberg report.
Broader access to Reels wasn't the only news this week. Facebook also unveiled new ways creators can make money using the feature.
"There are millions of creators today that use Facebook to express themselves and reach their audience," Rahul Chopra, Facebook's product marketing director for public content monetization, told Insider. "And there are a significant amount of creators that are earning meaningful revenue on our platform."
Up until now, long-form video content was the primary money-maker for Facebook creators. Take The Pun Guys, a comedy duo based in Canada with millions of followers on Facebook. Their videos typically earn about $1,000 per million views from Facebook's in-stream ad share program, they told Insider in 2021.
Thus far, Reels have not been a source of ad revenue or tips for creators on Facebook.
Instead, creators have only been able to make money from Reels by scoring an invite to the Reels Play Bonus program, which pays creators based on the number of views they accumulate over a month on both Facebook and Instagram. Bonuses are part of Meta's broader incentive programs, which are funded by the company's commitment last summer to pay $1 billion to creators through the end of 2022.
The first feature Facebook unveiled this week is an ad-revenue share model — called "Overlay Ads" — that will let eligible creators earn 55% of revenue generated by ads placed on their Reels. The ads will appear as transparent banners or stickers on a Reel, and creators can opt-in to this program, just like they can with in-stream ads on longer video content.
The length of the Reel will not affect how much money creators can earn at this moment, Chopra said. Facebook will be "monetizing all Reels the same."
While ads on Reels are not new (Meta began running ads on both Instagram and Facebook Reels last year, without sharing revenue), the arrival of revenue-share is.
If a creator is already eligible and enrolled in Facebook's in-stream ad program, they can expect to get access to this new Reels ad program, according to Meta.
Uptin Saiidi, a video creator with half a million followers on Facebook, saw an option for Reels ads appear on his creator monetization dashboard as of Wednesday, for example.
"If an IG creator crossposts an IG Reel to Facebook, and if that creator is in our Facebook in-stream program, they can also monetize those Reels on Facebook with overlays," Chopra added.
Facebook plans to expand the eligibility requirements for overlay ads beyond those who have in-stream ads in the coming months, according to the platform.
As of now, there is no ad-rev share model for monetizing Reels exclusively on Instagram.
"When it comes to the ad revenue share that we're focused on at Meta, there's not necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach to monetization when it comes to our platforms," Chopra said.
Within the next few months, creators can expect to start gaining access to Stars for Reels, which will let fans pay creators for their Reels content. Stars are already available for livestreaming on Facebook, and on Instagram, Badges serve the same function. TikTok rolled out its own video tipping feature, under "gifts," last year.
Facebook currently does not take a cut of the revenue creators generate from Stars, but it does charge a small fee to cover operational costs such as Apple in-app purchase fees, Chopra said.
"Tuesday's announcement demonstrates how serious we are about helping creators build a sustainable business on our platform," Chopra added.
Here's an overview of the ways creators can (and already) make money on Facebook:
|Monetization tool||What it is||Eligibility requirements|
|Overlay ads *|
|Paid online events|
|Reels Play Bonus|