text:
Six months after Ice Cream Sandwich started appearing on the menu, most manufacturers and carriers are still unable to fully serve customers with the delectable dessert. Disappointingly, across the board, many phones and tablets are still waiting to get the update to the latest Android OS, that’s it if they’ll receive it at all.
But that certainly isn’t a problem for Sony, as the company is ready to send out the ICS upgrade for not just one or two devices, but SEVEN of them in one go.
Yep. As planned, Sony is now rolling out its Android 4.0.4 ICS update for the Xperia Neo, Xperia Arc, Xperia Pro, Xperia Pro Mini, Xperia Mini, Xperia Active, and Live with Walkman. This is a follow up to the ICS upgrade that it recently rolled out to the Xperia Ray, Xperia Arc S, and Xperia Neo V. That’s 10 upgraded phones — that were released in 2011 — within a month. It’s a shame that other manufacturers aren’t following in Sony’s admirable footsteps.
Since the update will be released in batches, you may not necessarily get it on your phone today. But rest assured, you will eventually get the ICS experience on your Xperia device. You may want to take the time you have now to download the latest version of PC Companion to ensure a successful update. Check out Sony’s message board to get more information.
As for owners of the Sony Xperia S (caught on video running ICS), Xperia P, and Xperia U – ICS will make its way to the S at the end of June. The other two members of the trio will get the update in the third quarter.
Like this post? Share it!
yes sony is best among all
Sony is the best!? Open your eyes mate!
Majority of Sony Xperia phones are NOT ICS upgradable.
After you upgrade your phone becomes useless and you need to send it to sony’s repair centre who will put Gingerbread back on (yes that’s right they will revert it back to the old system because they do NOT have a workable version of ICS for all their phones). There seems to be hundreds if not thousands of people experiencing these problems and Sony cannot come up with a solution for almost 2 months now.
blame on sony
it’s a month delayed and it isn’t even available by now (Xperia Pro)….
ill will get the xperia U after it has the ics update, not before
I’m a proud Xperia mini pro user with ICS now. This phone was listed under top 5 worst android phones for wrong reasons. Nearing one year of usage and I did not face any problem with my phone. My colleaques uses different android phones of different makes and envy that they do not going to get ICS from their phone makers. It makes me to Happy Sony customer.
wht is ur android version??


text:
CrossFire was launched in South Korea and China in 2007. Although the game did not receive much attention at home, it has been successful globally with about 660 million players worldwide as of 2018.
Smilegate said in a statement on Thursday that it has signed a distribution rights deal with Sony Entertainment for the movie adaptation of CrossFire. In 2015, Smilegate signed a production deal with Neal Moritz, the producer of "Fast and Furious." Chuck Hogan, an American screenwriter, agreed to pen the movie in 2017.
Smilegate said that Tencent Pictures, the film-making wing of Chinese media giant Tencent, will co-produce and co-finance the film. CrossFire is one of the most popular PC games in China.
© Aju Business Daily & www.ajunews.com Copyright: All materials on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the authorization from the Aju News Corporation.

domain: news


text:
Also in this playlist...
This transcript is automatically generated
I'm Robert Gray with your Fox Business -- the bearish tone on Wall Street continues not to kicking off today in a sea of green.
Concerns over the European debt crisis begin to weigh on markets here at home.
Right now the Dow is off 91 points red arrows across the board.
The net worth of the average American household fell to its lowest level in more than two decades during the most recent recession.
According to the Federal Reserve families other net worth dropped nearly 40%.
It's the biggest drop since the current survey began back in 1989.
And apple has introduced a host of new products at its worldwide developers conference chief executive Tim Cook debuted new features for the tech giants Mac operating system.
As well as upgrades to its mobile operating system for iPad iPhone and iPod Touch.
The tech giant also -- building new MacBook Air laptop.
Filter by section


text:
The alcoholic beverage industry is too heavily regulated, said Monica Brown, owner of Cellar XV, a wine shop in Ridgefield. Further, she said, in the age of e-commerce, bans on interstate shipping are becoming very outdated.
Small wineries across the country share Brown's frustration, Most states, including Connecticut, ban people from buying wine directly from out-of-state suppliers.
However, those state laws are being challenged. The U.S. Supreme Court, which will make the final decision, heard arguments on the matter Tuesday.
"This just opens commerce channels," Brown said. "We have a lot of customers interested in having wine shipped to vacation homes, friends and family."
Justices were hearing arguments Tuesday in three appeals involving bans in Michigan and New York on direct shipments that cross state borders. The dispute pits regulators and wholesalers against out-of-state wineries that want to sell alcohol to consumers, mostly over the Internet or by phone.
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont are among 24 states that ban direct interstate shipments, according to the Washington-based Institute for Justice.
Brown said changing the law could especially benefit the smaller wine sellers.
"The big wineries and big distributors want to keep these antiquated laws as they are," Brown said. "They don't want competition. It is ridiculous how regulated the liquor retail industry is compared to others."
Tuesday's case only involves wine sales, but industry groups representing distributors for beer and other alcohol also have asked the high court to rule for continued state regulation, believing that the justices' decision eventually could apply to them.
John Carter, manager of the New Fairfield Liquor Shop, said changing the law would likely take away business from the retail liquor stores.
That's not his only concern.
"It would be easier access for minors on the Internet," Carter said. "There are plenty of products through the channels available now."
Dr. Paul DeGrazia, owner of DeGrazia Vineyards and Winery in Brookfield, said safeguards could be in place to prevent minors from buying alcohol online.
"We should require a signature and identification to accept the package," DeGrazia said. "I don't understand why these laws exist. This is America. We believe in free trade."
DeGrazia said lifting the halt on interstate shipping would be a big help for small wineries.
"We get requests all the time from every state in the union," he said. "We can't ship out of state. It is a felony in some states, so we don't do it at all."
The case involves a clash between two parts of the Constitution, with lower courts divided over which section should rule.
On one side is the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition in 1933 and explicitly granted states authority to regulate alcohol sales. Twenty-four states have laws that generally require outside wineries to sell their products through licensed wholesalers in the state. Michigan and New York allow in-state Internet or telephone sales of alcoholic beverages. Some other states allow such sales, others do not.
The Constitution also implicitly prohibits states from passing laws that discriminate against out-of-state businesses. That provision has been embraced by wine makers who hope to reach faraway Internet customers looking for favorite U.S. vintages unavailable in their home states.
While the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with New York in upholding the state restrictions, the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, struck down Michigan's laws as unconstitutionally protectionist.
"Connecticut wineries are relatively small — and that's our market. It would benefit us a lot if we had people who visited here be able to buy an extra case," said Larry McCulloch, the general manager and winemaker at the Chamard Vineyards in Clinton. "There's a huge market out there."
The stakes are high in the $21.6 billion wine industry. States collect millions of dollars in alcohol taxes and claim the established system helps stem fraud and underage drinking. They argue they have less enforcement power over out-of-state sellers who aren't licensed.
"Allowing Internet sales of a highly dangerous and highly regulated product, such as alcohol or tobacco, is a genuine concern for state regulators," attorneys general from Ohio and 32 other states argue in a friend-of-the-court brief backing Michigan.
"The question is, 'Do you think alcohol is a socially sensitive product that should be regulated by states and monitored by parents?' For more than 50 years, it has been," adds Georgetown law professor Viet Dinh, who is helping represent wholesalers.
Since 1980, the number of wineries has quadrupled nationally to more than 3,700 this year, and their survival depends on state laws that give them a fair shake, the National Association of American Wineries argues in a friend-of-the-court filing.
For many, the Internet has become the preferred means of shopping.
Carter, manager of New Fairfield Liquor Shop, said that could harm liquor stores in the long run.
"It could have a minimal effect in the beginning," he said. "In the future, computers could be the prevailing way to shop and it would have an effect down the line."
Brown, owner of Cellar XV, said as the Internet has become a leading form of commerce, it is only fair to allow wine sellers to use it.
"There is so much convenience to online shopping," Brown said. "People are able to order from their favorite store. It is like ordering a pair of boots. It is a product. The only concern is minors. That can easily be remedied."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.


text:
Icelanders consumed tens of thousands of cream buns on Monday in honor of Bolludagur, or Bun Day, the first of three, power-eating holidays celebrated in the run-up to Lent, RÚV reports. It’s estimated that Icelandic bakers produced around a million cream buns for the holiday, which, thanks to the ravenous appetites of bun-loving Icelanders, has recently extended into more of a multi-day bun-eating marathon, instead of the typical one-day sprint.
Bun Day, known as Shrove Monday in many other countries, takes place on the Monday before Lent. It begins early in the morning, when children all over Iceland wake their parents by spanking them with a bolluvöndur—a homemade, purpose-built rod topped with colorful paper tassels—and yelling “bolla, bolla, bolla!” Tradition has it that children will receive a bun for every spank they successfully deliver.
“I’ve been here since 8PM on Sunday evening,” baker Axel Gunnar Vatnsdal, proprietor of Axel’s Bakery in Akureyri, told RÚV in an interview on Monday morning. He said that in his shop, Bun Day has become ‘Bun Week,’ and that his staff had been baking buns for seven or eight days straight. Axel and his bakers made the traditional vatnsdeigsbollur, which are similar to choux buns, in many different varieties, such as Irish Coffee, strawberry, and chocolate, as well as the doughier, Berliner-style cream filled buns. Axel estimated that his bakery had produced 20,000 buns this year. Nevertheless, they completely sold out on the holiday itself.
The Lenten celebrations continue on Tuesday, with Sprengidagur, or Bursting Day, in which Icelanders gorge on saltkjöt og baunir, or salted lamb and pea soup. And then on Wednesday comes Öskudagur, or Ash Wednesday, in which Icelandic children dress in costumes and sing songs in return for candy. (Watch a video about Öskudagur here.)


text:
Chicago’s Century Aluminum reported third-quarter numbers yesterday. The firm’s numbers were down across the board, largely a reflection of a difficult market, higher raw materials costs, and stiffer competition from the People’s Republic of China.
The company reported a net loss of US$58.3 million in the quarter, and an adjusted net loss of US$29.1 million. The number is down slightly year-on-year from 2015’s third quarter net loss of US$56.1 million.
Sales for the quarter were US$333.7 million, down year-on-year from last year’s third quarter total of US$454.5 million. Shipments were down as well year-on-year, to 182,429 metric tons this year from 231,040 metric tons last year. Century indicates that the decrease in these numbers is due to output curtailments begun late last year.
For the first nine months of 2016 the firm recorded a net loss of US$84 million, lower year-on-year from last year’s net loss of US$16.2 million. Sales for the first nine months totaled US$979.3 million, down from last year’s total of US$1.566 billion. Shipments for the period were 550,615 metric tons, down from last year’s total of 710,248 metric tons. This too is a result of curtailment actions, according to the firm.
“A cross current of factors is influencing our markets,” said Century’s President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Bless. “The commodity price has firmed and regional delivery premiums are somewhat stronger. Demand remains generally good and supply, excluding in China, continues to be constrained. On the other hand, value-added product premiums, especially in the U.S., are under pressure due to the significant and growing level of imports caused by the excess production in China. Power prices rose during the summer due to the abnormally warm weather and certain markets, like natural gas, remain elevated due to expectations for a cold winter.”
“Third quarter financial performance was negatively influenced by elevated power prices in the Midwest, a result of the historically hot summer weather; delivered prices have now generally reverted to pre-summer levels,” continued Bless. “In addition, rising alumina prices pressured quarterly results. We believe this trend is largely a reaction to the startup of new capacity in China, and we expect it to temper over the coming months. Internally, our operations are performing well and our cost structure, flexibility and product configuration continue to provide protection against weaker pricing environments as well as exposure when the market firms.”


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Sign Up for the South Florida Business Journal Afternoon Edition Newsletter
Send this story to a friend
How to protect your company's online reputation
- By Urmila Ramakrishnan
In today’s reality, customer feedback is immediate. Twitter updates detail every minute of the day. Food reviews pop up online while a diner is sitting at the restaurant. Product critiques come out within minutes of a launch.
“The Internet has a huge footprint, and customer behavior has changed to searching for information online,” said Shashi Bellamkonda, Network Solutions’ senior director of social media. “It is important for companies to keep an ear to the ground.”
A negative Yelp review or a condemning tweet from a dissatisfied customer can make any company nervous and prone to making a PR mistake. The way a company handles an online crisis can make or break its reputation.
Taking the steps to monitor and control the conversation is key to protecting a company’s online reputation.
“Proactively lead the conversation,” Weber Shandwick Digital Strategy VP Greg Swan said. “Don’t wait for the reporter to pick up the phone or the customer to walk into the store. Lean forward and drive the conversation, instead of letting bloggers and social media users take control.”
Bellamkonda, nicknamed the Social Media Swami, says engaging directly with customers on social media platforms helps drive the conversation. Blogs and social networks from a company can give useful information for any industry, even business-to-business.
A company does not need to be on all social platforms to engage with customers. Something as basic as adding contact information and having a navigable website can be sufficient enough to direct conversation, Weber Shandwick Chief Reputation Strategist Leslie Gaines-Ross said.
- Most popular
- Billionaire sells mansion to Miami Heat player
- 'Shark Tank' investor hunts for business ideas in Miami Beach
- Public relations firm’s bitter breakup leads to lawsuit
- LeBron James leaves Miami Heat for Cleveland
- Former OptimumBank director suspended after fraud indictment
- Who are the richest families in Florida?
- Publix proposes to add condo tower to South Florida location
- All Aboard Florida unveils Fort Lauderdale station plans
- University of Miami sells 80 acres to developer for mixed-use project
- Stiles, Rockefeller Group break ground on Las Olas tower
Software Engineer-PEGA American Express | Fort Lauderdale, FL
Supervisory Trial Attorney The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | Miami, FL
Software Engineer-Mainframe American Express | Fort Lauderdale, FL
CFO - MHP Memorial Healthcare System | Pembroke Pines, FL
Software Quality Assurance Engineer American Express | Fort Lauderdale, FL


text:
Increase in fruit exports as Turkish-Russian ties normalize
by Daily Sabah
ISTANBULMay 12, 2017 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah
May 12, 2017 12:00 am
Exports of six agricultural products to Russia in the first four months of this year have fetched around $39.6 million for Turkey.
The products, including plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, mandarins, and oranges could not be sold to Russia last year due to sanctions.
However, with the normalization of bilateral relations, a significant increase in fruit exports to Russia has been observed.
Fruit exports in the first four months included some 327.9 tons of apricots for an estimated $152,329 in revenue. It was followed by 150.5 tons of nectarines generating $108,946, 84.9 tons of peaches with $57,147 and 76.4 tons of plums bringing in profit worth $54,660.
During the same time period, Mandarins were the most exported fruit to the Russian Federation with 58,388 tons generating $31.7 million in revenue. On the other hand, 19,389 tons of oranges were also exported that fetched in $7.6 in profit.
The six items, at a combined 78,417.9 tons, generated a total of $39.7 million in revenue.
Turkey had exported some 38,246.4 tons of lemons to Russia in the first four months of last year, generating $32.2 million in revenue.
In comparison, this year in the same period, $35.1 million was obtained from the exports of 53,347.3 tons of lemon.
In addition, quinces export also increased in terms of quantity and revenue. From exports reached 1,469 tons from last year's 998.9 tons, taking the revenue from $656,616 to $1 million.
Meanwhile, grapefruits sales dropped from 24,385.3 tons last year to 17,333.4 tons this year, revenues dropped from $11.1 to $9 million.
According to figures, the exports of a total 73,826.2 tons of lemons, grapefruits, quinces, melons and pomegranates had generated revenue worth $52.3 million last year.
This year, on the other hand, the exports of a total of 150,568.2 tons of lemons, mandarins, grapefruits, oranges, quinces, apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums fetched in some $85 million in revenue.


text:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has banned banks, NBFCs, eWallets and any other intermediary regulated by it from providing services to cryptocurrency dealers with immediate effect. Regulated entities which already provide such services will be given a time-frame (most likely, three months) to exit.
The announcement will directly affect cryptocurrency exchanges such as Zebpay and Unocoin and could mean the end of their business. This is because their bank accounts are likely to be closed and they will be barred from accepting or making payments to customers.
Have Bitcoin/Other Cryptocurrencies been declared illegal?
Not exactly. The RBI decision prohibits regulated entities from providing accounts and other services to cryptocurrency dealers. It does not affect individuals who already hold cryptocurrencies.
Effects of the announcement
The announcement is likely to end the business of cryptocurrency exchanges. These entities may have no option but to close their bank accounts. They will not be able to accept fund transfers from customers or pay money to them.
It is also likely to drive the cryptocurrency trade in India into cash. It is unclear whether bitcoin transactions settled in cash are prima facie illegal because trading or holding cryptocurrencies itself has not been banned. Provided that these transactions are reported to the relevant authorities and all applicable taxes are paid, it is unclear whether there would be a direct illegality in them.
However, the push to cash is likely to move the trade towards individuals/entities who are associated with the underground or ‘black economy’. Also note that cash transactions above Rs 2 lakh have been banned by the government with effect from April 1, 2017.
If you already hold cryptocurrency
Don’t panic. The mere possession of bitcoin has not been declared illegal. Nor has, for example, the exchange of one type of cryptocurrency into another. This is effectively a ‘barter’ transaction and does not involve an RBI regulated entity such as a bank.
However, you will not be able to easily sell your cryptocurrency/bitcoin units.
The RBI has given banks and other regulated entities three months to unwind their cryptocurrency ties. However, banks could act sooner. Several banks have already moved to close the accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges. If liquidity is valuable to you, it may be best to sell before the exchanges close down.
However, this RBI announcement does not obligate you to sell, as an existing holder of cryptocurrency. You could still hold on to your units in the hope of price appreciation/a more favourable regulatory regime in the future.


text:
New Starbucks Ads Seek to Recruit Online Fans
In a new ad campaign, Starbucks wants to tell its message to a new generation of coffee drinkers and then recruit them to retell the story online.
The coffeehouse chain is putting up new advertising posters in six major cities. To further spread its message, it is trying to harness the power of online social networking sites by challenging people to hunt for the posters on Tuesday and be the first to post a photo of one using Twitter.
The outdoor ads boil Starbucks’ message down to headlines, some of them veiled jabs at competitors: “If your coffee isn’t perfect, we’ll make it over. If it’s still not perfect, you must not be in a Starbucks.”
The marketing campaign, which started this month in newspapers and magazines, is described by the company, which generally avoids traditional advertising, as the biggest marketing effort it has undertaken.
The Starbucks campaign goes up against a major advertising blitz by McDonald’s promoting its new line of McCafé coffee drinks. McDonald’s is reportedly spending more than $100 million on television, print, radio, billboard and Web ads that show people’s bland work days full of commutes and cubicles being improved with a whipped cream-covered McCafé drink. The promotion is the biggest product introduction for McDonald’s since it started serving breakfast in the 1970s, the company said.
Starbucks, which would not say how much its campaign will cost, says it is not losing coffee drinkers to McDonald’s. Rather, its customers, in trying to save money, have been cutting back on its espresso concoctions. Same-store sales were down 8 percent in the first three months of the year.
The competition, said Terry Davenport, chief marketing officer at Starbucks, “is trying to just commoditize coffee and take it down to a level where all coffee’s the same, and if coffee’s coffee, you might as well buy the cheap stuff.”
He added, “We just don’t believe that to be true. That’s why we wanted to tell our stories.”
Some coffee drinkers in the new generation see Starbucks coffee as a commodity, too, having grown up with a store on every corner. “All they know is Starbucks, the big company,” so the ads seek to highlight the quality of the coffee, Mr. Davenport said.
Starbucks’s text-heavy ads have bold headlines written on a background that looks like a burlap coffee sack, meant to evoke roasted coffee, said David Lubars, chief creative officer of BBDO North America, the agency that created the campaign and part of the Omnicom Group.
The full-page newspaper ads go to some length to describe how Starbucks selects only the best 3 percent of beans and roasts them until they pop twice, and gives its part-time workers health insurance.
Starbucks chose the copy-filled ads, which were popular in the 1960s and 1970s, because it wanted to put its full story out, Mr. Davenport said. “Even if you cruise by and don’t stop to read every word, the net impression is, ‘Wow, Starbucks has a lot to say about coffee.’”
That might not be the right strategy for young people, said Richard Honack, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. Unlike Starbucks’ older customers, “Generation Y goes to Starbucks for the Internet, the music, a place to hang out,” he said. “Selling them the coffee and where the coffee comes from? I just don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
The idea for the Starbucks photo contest came from watching what people already do on Facebook and Twitter, said Chris Bruzzo, vice president for brand, content and online at Starbucks. Each year, people race to post the first photos of Starbucks shops decorated in red for the holidays, he said, and on Flickr, people vie to post photos that include multiple Starbucks stores in the same shot.
“It shows a level of connection to our brand that we wouldn’t have concocted on our own,” Mr. Bruzzo said.
Starbucks has other social media initiatives planned for this campaign, including a contest for Starbucks store employees to submit headlines for future ads and YouTube videos with coffee experts talking about Starbucks coffee.
Starbucks says it thinks its campaign will be helped by its 1.5 million fans on Facebook and 183,000 followers on Twitter. On the Saturday before the presidential election, Starbucks sponsored a single 60-second television commercial on “Saturday Night Live” advertising a coffee giveaway on Election Day. Starbucks then posted the video online. By Tuesday, it was the fourth-most-viewed video on YouTube, and people were mentioning Starbucks on Twitter every eight seconds.
Still, it is difficult to measure the effects of social media — a follower on Twitter does not necessarily translate to a daily Frappuccino drinker.
Mr. Bruzzo said Starbucks’ social media presence gave it an advantage over competitors with gigantic ad budgets because its fans wanted to talk about it online. “It’s the difference between launching with many millions of dollars versus millions of fans.”


text:
Google has confirmed it has blocked Huawei from updating some parts of its Android software used on Huawei phones to comply with a US government order blacklisting the Chinese firm.
Fears that the Chinese government could use Huawei as a "back door" to enable it to spy on or the communications networks of other countries are thought to be the reason behind the move, which follows an order by US President Donald Trump aimed at banning Huawei’s equipment from US networks over such fears.
The tech giant confirmed it was "complying with the order and reviewing the implications", but assured Huawei users that their current phones would continue to work.
Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order effectively banning the Chinese firm from using US technology without government permission.
"For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices," a Google spokesperson said.
The block is likely to prevent future updates to Android reaching Huawei devices.
Key Google apps such as the Google Play Store, Gmail and Google Maps may also not appear on future Huawei devices.
Instead, the Chinese firm would be reliant on the version of Android available through an open source licence, which is vastly more limited in its features.
"Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world," the Chinese company said in a statement.
"As one of Android's key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefited both users and the industry.
"Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products covering those which have been sold or are still in stock globally.
"We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally."
In recent months, Huawei has come under criticism for its alleged close ties to the Chinese state.
The country has a history of state censorship and surveillance, such as the “Great Firewall of China” which blocks multiple internet services in the country, and under Chinese law, firms are compelled to “support, co-operate with and collaborate in national intelligence work”.
Some critics have expressed concerns that Beijing could require the firm to install technological “back doors” to enable it to spy on or disable Britain’s communications network.
However, the firm has always denied any suggestions of close links with the state or that it has ever been asked by Chinese authorities to help spy on others.
Earlier in May, Huawei board chairman Dr Liang Hua said the company would agree to sign a “no-spy” agreement with countries to fend off suggestions that it could be used by the Chinese state as a route to spy on the West.
Industry analyst Ben Wood from CCS Insight, which provides market information, analysis and intelligence for companies focusing on mobile, said the cut-off could have "considerable implications" for Huawei's gadgets business.
"We still don't have a clear understanding of what Google has told Huawei and what elements of the Android operating system may be restricted, so it remains unclear what the ramifications will be," he said.
"However, any disruption in getting updates to the software or the associated applications would have considerable implications for Huawei's consumer device business.
"People who currently own Huawei smartphones do not need to worry.
"At present any measures would only affect future devices and future updates.
"Google has publicly stated that its App Store, Google Play, and security updates from Google Play Protect will continue working on existing Huawei devices.
"However, until we have a clear understanding of what exact measures Google has decided to take it is impossible to second-guess the impact on future devices."
Huawei has previously confirmed it has been working on its own mobile operating system for use in the event of such blocks, something Mr Wood said now appeared likely.
"Huawei has been working hard on developing its own App Gallery and other software assets in a similar manner to the work it has done on developing its own chipsets for phones," he said.
"There is little doubt these efforts are part of its desire to control its own destiny.
"Last year, CCS Insight predicted that tensions between China and the US would present a strong incentive for Chinese companies to create their own operating system for smart devices.
"Given recent developments that seems more likely than ever."
The UK Government has said it is yet to make a decision on whether to allow another part of Huawei's business, its telecoms equipment, to be a part of new 5G networks in the UK.
Retired brigadier general Robert Spalding, the former senior director for strategy at the National Security Council, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the UK "must recognise" the strength of US feeling on Huawei.
He wrote: "Other nations must not make the mistake of thinking President Trump's recent executive order banning companies like Huawei from US networks is merely an afterthought of the trade war.
"The severity of President Trump's declaration underscores just how seriously the US views this issue, and the UK must recognise this strength of feeling."


text:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc’s stock plunged as much as 40 percent on Wednesday after an influential short-seller accused the company of using specialty pharmacies to inflate its revenue, an allegation that the drugmaker denied.
Citron Research, a short-selling firm run by Andrew Left, alleged that Valeant’s previously undisclosed ties to specialty pharmacies, including Philidor and R&O Pharmacy Inc, helped the company create “phantom sales” of its products or push more product through distribution channels than sales would warrant.
“Citron believes the whole thing is a fraud to create invoices to deceive the auditors and book revenue,” the research note said.
In response, Valeant said it does not record sales of drugs that are stocked as inventory at such pharmacies in its consolidated financial reports and said sales are recorded only when the product is dispensed to the patient.
“We categorically deny the allegations made in the Citron report,” a Valeant spokesperson said.
“Citron’s false and misleading statements about Valeant appear to be an attempt to manipulate the market in an effort to drive down Valeant’s stock price. Valeant ... properly accounts for sales to, and inventory at, Philidor and Philidor’s network pharmacies.”
Nevertheless, the Citron report accelerated investor concerns over drug pricing and sales practices in the pharmaceutical industry which have come under scrutiny in Congress and from U.S. presidential candidates.
Valeant is viewed as the most aggressive drugmaker in raising prices on their medications to boost sales, a strategy that has made it a darling among investors including billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. Last week, Valeant disclosed that such practices are under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York and Massachusetts.
The Citron Research report hit shares hard shortly after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) in New York trading and fell to a low of $88.50, before losses were cut and the stock closed down 19 percent at $118.61.
The fall in Valeant’s stock price represents about a $550 million loss for hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, which holds a 5.7-percent stake in Valeant, and is managed by Bill Ackman.
Pershing Square did not have an immediate comment but business television station CNBC reported Ackman added to his stake on Wednesday.
In a note to clients, Nomura analyst Shibani Malhotra said the weakness in Valeant’s stock offers a buying opportunity, as the brokerage firm believes the concern raised by Citron is likely “misinformation.”
Shares of some Valeant competitors, including Allergan Inc, Endo International Plc and Mallinckrodt Plc also fell sharply. Allergan and Endo each said that the majority of their drugs are distributed through traditional wholesale and retail channels, not specialty pharmacies.
Specialty pharmacies are designed to deliver medications with special handling, storage and distribution requirements, often for patients with complex conditions.
“The allegation as I understand it is that they are using specialty pharmacy (companies) as a place to store inventory, which is a revenue-recognition story. And aggressive revenue-recognition policies can augur bad things,” said portfolio manager Les Funtleyder of ESquared Asset Management.
Funtleyder said the spotlight on Valeant could discredit its business model of buying drugs, or acquiring other drug companies, and sharply raising drug prices instead of aggressively pursuing research and development.
“That could help the industry in the long run by putting less emphasis on acquisitions and financial engineering, and more on research,” he said.
Valeant disclosed last Wednesday that the U.S. government requested information on pricing and on programs that help patients cover their out-of-pocket expenses for Valeant’s drugs. Those drugs are often distributed by specialty pharmacies.
On Monday, during a conference call with investors, Valeant defended its pricing and declined to comment further on the federal investigations, saying it was cooperating with authorities.
The company also disclosed new information about its dealings with the two pharmacies, which distribute specialty drugs to patients. Valeant said it had purchased an option to acquire the pharmacy Philidor and was already consolidating its results. Valeant also said it sought to recover about $69 million from R&O pharmacy for medicines it provided.
Valeant chief executive Michael Pearson also told investors that the company was moving away from growth based on pricing increases to focus on volume of sales. He vowed to commit more to research and development in 2016 and said it was trying to sell one of its businesses dependent on price increases for growth.
Independent Canadian equity research firm Veritas said it saw significant unquantifiable risks overhanging Valeant.
Veritas analyst Dimitry Khmelnitsky sees Valeant at risk of losing its “secret sauce” that made it a darling of many investors due to the pullback in its share price. Valeant has traditionally used its highly-valued shares to pursue accretive acquisitions and fund the business with debt.
The Wednesday selloff cut Valeant’s market capitalization by about $9.6 billion to $40 billion after being valued as high as $90 billion in early August.
ValueAct, the San Francisco-based activist investor known for working closely with management teams, suffered a $422 million paper loss on its investment in Valeant in Wednesday’s fall, a stock it has owned since 2006.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn told CNBC on Valeant: “I wish I was short. I was thinking of going short. I understood why that company really was overpriced ... But I don’t have any long positions, I’ll say that.”
Valeant’s connection with the pharmacies Philidor and R&O have also been examined by Bronte Capital, another hedge fund that, like Citron, has been critical of Valeant.
Valeant, based in Canada for tax reasons, tried to acquire competitor Allergan in a hostile takeover in 2014 but failed, drawing investor scrutiny.
The latest data indicated that short interest positions in Valeant’s stock in the U.S. market have more than doubled since mid-August, jumping to 7.1 million shares at the end of September.
Traders who sell securities “short” borrow shares and then sell them in the hope the price will fall, so they can buy them back more cheaply, return them to the lender and pocket the difference.
Reporting by Caroline Humer and David Gaffen; Additional reporting by Carl O'Donnell, Euan Rocha, Michael Flaherty, Ransdell Pierson and Deena Beasley; Editing by Michele Gersberg and Nick Zieminski


text:
Amazon’s Alexa is the target of a new lawsuit alleging that the company is using information gathered from users of its smart speaker devices to serve them targeted advertising without their consent.
The plaintiffs are pursuing the case as a class action suit, which if approved could include millions of Amazon customers.
The lawsuit relies heavily on an April study by researchers from the University of Washington and three other institutions. The study concluded that Amazon is analyzing users’ commands and interactions with the smart speakers to infer their potential shopping interests. That information is used to target “on-platform audio ads and off-platform web ads from Amazon or its advertising partners,” the researchers explained in an FAQ.
In response to the study, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed for The Register that information from Alexa was used for ad selection. On Thursday, the company offered GeekWire a similar response, and went on to challenge the accuracy of the research.
“We think that the best advertising is tailored to customers’ interests, which is why in some cases we will use the actions of customers, whether it’s shopping on Amazon or streaming on Amazon Music, to inform the ads we serve,” said spokesperson Lisa Levandowski by email. “For example, if you ask Alexa to order paper towels or to play a particular song on Amazon Music, the record of that purchase or song play may inform relevant ads shown on Amazon or other sites where Amazon places ads.
“This is not an atypical practice — the biggest advertising services in the world do this to best serve their users and their advertisers,” Levandowski continued, noting that customers can opt out of the targeted ads.
As regards the lawsuit, Levandowski said, “We do not comment on active litigation.”
Advertising is a big and growing business for Amazon. In April the company reported that its ad arm brought in $7.8 billion in revenue for the first quarter of the year, up 23% over a year ago.
The lawsuit, which was filed last week in U.S. District Court, cited numerous past occasions where Amazon officials have denied using insights gathered in this manner for ad purposes.
“Amazon’s admission that it does, in fact, use Alexa voice prompts to inform targeted advertising placed by Amazon throughout its vast advertising network is shocking, especially coming after years of repeatedly disavowing any such usage,” said the plaintiffs.
The suit was filed by two individuals residing in Ohio and Massachusetts. The legal action was reported Thursday morning by Axios.
The lawsuit notes that 13 separate Amazon documents describe the terms and conditions for Alexa users. “At no point in these many various terms and policies does Amazon disclose that users’ voice recordings are used to inform targeted advertising,” the suit continues. “In fact, the words ‘ads,’ ‘advertising,’ ‘advertise,’ and ‘advertisements’ do not appear a single time…”
This isn’t the first time that Amazon’s Alexa has triggered legal action. In June 2019 a pair of lawsuits claimed the voice assistant violates laws in nine states by illegally storing recordings of children on devices such as the Echo or Echo Dot.
The new research into targeted ads included the University of California-Davis, the University of California-Irvine and Northeastern University in addition to the UW. The study’s lead author was Umar Iqbal, a postdoctoral scholar at the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Iqbal works with professor Franziska Roesner, who also contributed to the research.
To conduct the work, the researchers created personas with particular interests that interacted with Alexa, and a control that did not. Then in a multi-step process the researchers looked for targeted advertising based on the Alexa commands.
Amazon’s Levandowski challenged the veracity of the study.
“As far as this specific research is concerned, it’s not accurate because it’s based on inaccurate assumptions of how Alexa works,” she said. “For example, we do not sell customers’ personal information and we do not share Alexa requests with advertising networks, even though the report suggests that we do.”
The study’s authors said they’re trying to make the public aware of how the increasingly pervasive technology works behind the scenes.
“Studies like ours,” they wrote, “help to bring transparency into the space of voice assistants and the implications of using them.”
Read the full lawsuit below:


text:
Share this article:
Orange County’s largest printed circuit board makers reported earnings for the March quarter after the close of trading Thursday.
Costa Mesa-based TTM Technologies Inc. reported first quarter profits and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations and gave an outlook for the current quarter in line with estimates.
Its shares were up nearly 17% in afternoon trading Friday to a market value of $680.07 million.
TTM posted revenue of $325.4 million, up 8.2% from a year earlier.
Analysts on average had forecast sales of 320.4 million.
Adjusted profits came in at $10.7 million, down 43% from a year ago and above Wall Street expectations of $8.1 million.
TTM projects sales in the current quarter to be in the range of $320 million to $340 million, on the low end of analyst estimates of $340 million.
The company said adjusted profits would be between $6.55 million and $11.4 million, the latter figure at Wall Street expectations.
The Business Journal reported last month that TTM will cut its production capacity in China under a deal to swap production plants with another manufacturer.
Shares of Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc. were down about 1.5% to a market value of $365.01 million.
The Anaheim-based company reported revenue of $173.7 million in the March quarter, down 16% from a year ago and below Wall Street expectations.
Analysts on average had forecast sales of $188 million.
The company attributed the sales drop to less demand from key customers.
M-Flex posted a loss of $23 million, compared to net income of $12.4 million a year ago.
Wall Street had forecast a loss $11.41 million.
The company provided a sales target in the current quarter between $155 million and $185 million, below Wall Street expectations.
Consensus estimates forecast revenue of $198.6 million.
M-Flex continues to reduce inventory and production while it seeks a more diverse customer base, according to Chief Executive Reza Meshgin.
In the March quarter “newer customers comprised approximately 8% of sales and we expect this contribution to double” in the current quarter, he said.
TTM and M-Flex are both known suppliers to Apple Inc. and often track the Cupertino-based consumer electronics maker’s moves on the Nasdaq.
Apple's shares were up about 1% on Friday to a market value of $423.38 billion, after a better-than-expected April jobs report.


text:
China Health Resource Announces TCM for Migraine
Published: Jul 18, 2012
July 18, 2012 -- China Health Resource reported it has developed a TCM migraine medication, built around the company’s major product, Dahurian Angelica (DAR) root. According to the company, the product showed an effective rate of 96.5% in clinical observations, though the conditions of the test were not disclosed. China Health Resource produces raw DAR and finished products based on the TCM. More details....
Stock Symbol: (OTCBB: CHRI)


text:
Tesla, the north American manufacturer of top-range electric vehicles created by visionary Elon Musk, will open a car dealership in Malaga city in a couple of months, according to SUR sources.
The showroom will be in an eye-catching building in Calle Horacio Quiroga, on the Valdició industrial estate and will also include a service workshop.
It will be the first such facility in Andalucía, underlining the region’s economic importance despite the crisis induced by the pandemic. Currently, Tesla has two dealerships in Madrid, another two in Barcelona and one in Valencia.
The Costa del Sol is one of the main markets for Tesla in Spain. Since its establishment in the country in 2016, Tesla has sold a total of 124 vehicles in Malaga province, at prices between ranging 47,000 and 100,000 euros. According to data collected by the Malaga Motoring Association (AMA), its most fruitful year was 2019, when it sold 62 – the most in all of Andalucía.
Malaga benefits from a wide network of recharging points, including “super chargers” in El Higuerón, Fuengirola, which provide energy at a rapid rate.
Pelle Lundborg, a Swedish entrepreneur based on the Costa, owns two Tesla vehicles, both of which he bought from a dealership in Madrid in 2019.
“The car map shows that the dealership is going to open soon,” he remarked.
So far, he is pleased with his Tesla experience. “I am satisfied. Every day the cars work better thanks to the updates.”


text:
Mario lovers rejoice, you can play no matter where you go. All the iPhone and iPad users Welcome to the world of Super Mario Run. The Nintendo has made a big announcement about the launch of Super Mario Run iOS and also for the Android smartphones. Here’s what you all need to know about the game release date on iPhone and Android plus price and gameplay.
It’s finally happened, and Super Mario Run is coming to your smartphone. Nintendo has now announced that the game will be made available to the iPhone users from 15th December which made to download in an App Store exclusive.
If you are using an Android smartphone, fear not. The Super Mario Run Android version will be coming to the Android world in the year 2017, the company Nintendo has confirmed.
“In the game, Mario runs forward on his own, but relies on the touch of a single finger to jump over obstacles, avoid pesky enemies and capture the flagpole to complete levels,” said Nintendo.
About the game
In the Mushroom Kingdom, there are three different modes. First, is a single-player mode called World Tour, the second is Toad Rally, and the three-mode is where you can put your toads.
Super Mario Run release date
The release date of Mario Run as scheduled and will be going live on 15th December globally. But the only variation is local time might differ which depends on how the company decides to release the game. It might be available to download in India from 10.30AM IST on the scheduled date (9.30PM PST), 14th December).
Those who are signed up for the notifications they can get the notifications when it can be downloaded.
Super Mario Run Download Size and Price
Game lovers, the Super Mario Run Download Size take up around 370MB of storage space. It might not sound much for the Mario lovers but could be a problem for those who are using 16GB iPhone and who having a poor internet connection.
As far as the Price was concerned, the Super Mario Run has made available to download at a Price of Rs 620 in India and $9.99 in the United States. The Super Mario Run is also creating a record of one of the most expensive games on App Store.
Super Mario Run for Free
There is another option which can enjoy the game inspite of expensive cost. The company has given the Free to try option in which gamers can enjoy by playing few levels of the game at no cost. But the Nintendo doesn’t state how many levels are free. But as per the early previews suggest, you can expect three levels and a brief sample of the fourth level.
In Toad Rally, Mario gets a bunch of thumbs-up whenever he pulls off a nice move. Way to go, Mario! #SuperMarioRun pic.twitter.com/KpHcE9Nn5c
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) December 14, 2023


text:
Yuchai Edging into the First Echelon of International Engine Industryby Generator D. Diesel Generator
On January 8, fourteen China VI vehicle engines were unveiled at the headquarters of Yuchai Group as the first enterprise nationwide to release a string of China VI engines, which remarks that Yuchai diesel generator, with plenty of cutting-edge technologies, drives another trend of upgrading emission technology in domestic internal combustion engine industry. Guests were present at the Release Conference and witnessed the unveiling of China VI products. They were Su Wanhua, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Hou Gang, Deputy Director of Guangxi Industry and Information Committee and other leadership, and leaders from testing organizations including China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd., R&D partners like AVL of Austria, 35 truck enterprises and 23 bus enterprises respectively represented by Dongfeng Trucks and Yutong Group, and 70 suppliers like BOSCH.
Yan Ping, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd., joined hands with Academician Su Wanhua, Deputy Director Hou Gang, Li Kaiguo, Chairman of China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd., Lin Yongming, Director of Xiamen Environment Protection Vehicle Emission Control Technology Center, Michael Laske, CEO of AVL List GMBH China, Thomas Reinhart, Inspector-general of Southwest Research Institute, Miao Yuming, General Manager of Bosch Automotive Diesel Systems Co., Ltd. and Tobias Posner, Inspector-general of Thyssenkrupp AG, to drive the pushrod, a token of China VI engines, witnessing the release of new arrivals.
Also at the Release Conference, the Unveiling Ceremony was launched. Academician Su Wanhua, Chairman Yan Ping, Wu Qiwei, President of Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Co., Ltd., Mo Rongbo, Vice General Manager of Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Co., Ltd., Li Yanshuo, General Manager of C&C Trucks, Yuan Qinshan, Chairman of Dayun Automobile Co., Ltd., Zheng Hua, General Manager of Dongfeng (Shiyan) Chassis Parts Co., Ltd., Wang Bing, General Manager of Heavy-duty Trucks Branch of JAC Motors, Zhang Xuan, General Manager of Shaanxi Automobile Holding Group Co., Ltd. and other leaders unveiled a total of 14 roll-out products and witnessed the appearance of all series of engines in keeping with the China VI emission standard.
The 14 China VI engines released this time embraces 11 series of world-class products from six product platforms based on S, K and Y technological platforms. Three letters “S-K-Y” means blue sky and white cloud literally and demonstrates Yuchai’s commitment to develop clean and efficient internal combustion engines, and determination to make itself better and stronger and devote itself to environmental protection. Among 14 products, 10 are diesel engines and 4 gas engines, with power ranging from 100 horsepower to 650 horsepower. In detail, YCS04, YCS06 and YCS04N are medium- and light-duty engines from the S platform, YCK05, YCK08, YCK09, YCK11, YCK13, YCK13N, YCK15N and YCA07N are medium- and heavy-duty engines from the K platform, and YCY20, YCY24 and YCY30 light-duty ones from the Y platform.
In comparison to China V products, Yuchai’s China VI engines are significantly improved in ride comfort, lightweight, appearance, reliability and efficiency, in addition to great reduction of exhaust gas emission. Moreover, performance indicators of these products are up to world class and even surpass those of international top products, endowing Yuchai with the strength in competing with world-class counterparts and in creating tremendous value for customers.
Chairman Yan Ping indicated in his speech at the conference that all series of 14 high-end China VI engines made their debut today and were oriented to the global market, which deserved to be celebrated for Yuchai and even for the industry. Release of China VI engines with leading-edge technologies and performances marked that Yuchai would continue to drive the technological trend of domestic internal combustion engine industry, and highlighted Yuchai’s remarkable achievements in three-year system reconstruction of R&D, manufacturing and management. For the first time, Yuchai successfully upgraded to an industrial pioneer and leader from a follower with strength, enabling a shift from Made in China to Created in China and creating product value of global significance. At present, Yuchai had been placing itself into the crucial period of second entrepreneurship. The Group would devote every effort to realize the goal of going beyond itself by 2020 when the China VI Emission Regulation come into effect. Then, it would successfully march into international market and edge itself into the first echelon of international internal combustion engine industry. Yuchai was ready to join hands with all partners to make breakthrough on the journey of China VI, ushering in the victory and glory belonging to all strivers.
Manfred Breitenberger, Design Director of AVL commercial vehicle engines, Thomas Reinhart, Engine Powertrain Development Director of Southwest Research Institute and Paolo Santarelli, Technical Manager of IAE, respectively introduced the design philosophies of products from K, S and Y platforms.
The Release was interspersed with awarding ceremony for 52 strategic cooperation suppliers and signing ceremony at which Yuchai concluded strategic cooperation agreements with 22 truck enterprises like DFAC and Dongfeng Trucks, and 8 bus enterprises such as Yutong Group and AUV Bus. In addition, General Manager Miao Yuming, representative of strategic cooperation suppliers, Yang Shengliang, Assistant to General Manager of Dongfeng Trucks and representative of VIP customers, and Fan Xianjun, Vice President of Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd., delivered speeches at the Conference and expressed their determination and confidence on joining hands with Yuchai to tide over difficulties and achieve win-win results in the future.
It is learned that Yuchai has been committed to research and development of green engines, and has taken the lead in rolling out green products in domestic industry, earlier than the time when China I-VI emission standards are officially took effect. Since China VI vehicle engines development project was initiated in 2015, Yuchai has bent itself to manufacturing world-class products by keeping pace with international standards, and introducing R&D philosophy featuring systematization, modularization and universalization, in a bid to create high-end brand in keeping with China VI emission standard. In order to guarantee the high quality of China VI engines, Yuchai generator worked together with component suppliers and automobile manufacturers from planning, design to development and overcame all difficulties at the inception of the project. Key components of China VI engines are mainly supplied by world-class manufacturers and part of them offered by domestic-class manufacturers. At the beginning of the planning process, Yuchai engaged itself with automobile enterprises for engine-vehicle compatibility, including general configuration of engine, verification and calibration for application of engine to vehicle and others, to accelerate the development China VI engines and guarantee the adaptability of engine to vehicle. Domestically reputed automobile enterprises, including DFAC, Dongfeng Trucks, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Co., Ltd., JAC Motors, Yutong Group and King Long, has rendered full support to Yuchai’s China VI engines-related works.
Created on Jan 17th 2018 20:30. Viewed 158 times.


text:
Software company Digital Recognition Network, Inc. is on the receiving end of a proposed class action lawsuit that claims its use of automated license plate recognition devices to track vehicles—and their drivers—violates a California privacy law.
T-Mobile US, Inc. was hit with a proposed class action on Thursday over a data breach announced just days earlier that reportedly affected over 100 million customers.
A proposed class action filed August 11 looks to take Facebook, Inc. to task for allegedly allowing, and even encouraging, scammers to use its platform to target users with deceptive advertisements.
A proposed class action filed this week claims online advertising services firm Kochava, Inc. has used computer code embedded in child-directed mobile apps and games to surreptitiously collect the personal data of children who use the apps.
A proposed class action filed on Wednesday claims certain Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans were built with a defective door latch system.


text:
The automaker believes there are other solutions to consider.
Toyota is working on cleaning up its act to reduce carbon emissions, like the rest of the major auto manufacturers. To that end, the Japanese carmaker has revealed plans for its own electric truck and is working on an electric SUV too. However, Toyota's CEO hasn't always had the kindest things to say about EVs.
Toyota's director agrees with him, it seems, and at an annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, Shigeki Terashi said, "It's too early to concentrate on one option." This came after an investor asked why Toyota is not following Honda's lead and aiming for a fully electric lineup by 2040. But why does Toyota as a whole feel this way?
Simply put, Toyota doesn't want to bet it all on black, or green, as the case may be. Terashi continued to explain that in the years leading up to 2050, different options including fuel cell or hydrogen vehicles (like the Toyota Mirai) and hybrid vehicles need to compete against one another to determine which options are best.
"Some people love battery-electric vehicles but others don't see the current technologies as convenient," Toyota's Chief Technology Officer Masahiko Maeda said. "In the end, what matters is what customers choose." Toyota also understands that EVs sacrifice some of the main attributes that gearheads enjoy about a car, things like sound and vibration, which is why it has proved that fuel cell vehicles can sound just like gas cars.
Another factor that may be playing a role in this reluctance to fully adopt EVs is that, according to some studies, the materials that go into manufacturing EVs and specifically their batteries could cause more emissions than traditionally-powered cars. With that in mind, Toyota is aiming to streamline its production process to lower the cost (both financial and environmental) of producing all types of vehicles.
Terashi says that Toyota is assessing everything from production, use, and scrapping-related emissions of battery electric vehicles. "We're choosing to look at the whole lifecycle," concluded Terashi. Toyota seems to be taking its commitments to the future seriously and responsibly, if slowly.


text:
Aldi unveiled its completed regional headquarters and distribution center in Loxley, Alabama, which will serve as many as 100 stores across the Gulf Coast.
“At a time when inflation is putting pressure on American wallets, we believe our mission to save people money on the food and products they need is more important than ever,” said Heather Moore, Aldi divisional VP for the Loxley region.
“We are thrilled to see so much customer love for the 20 stores we’ve opened in the Gulf Coast area in the last year alone. Once they see the quality, selection and value Aldi offers, they keep coming back. That’s why we’re committed to providing our customers the lowest possible price, and the best possible value – that’s something that will never change.”
The 564,000-square-foot Loxley facility is equipped to service stores across Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle. The 100 stores that will be supported by the Loxley facility represent an opportunity to reach more than 8 million customers.
Aldi is now operating 30 stores in the Gulf Coast, having opened 20 stores in the area last year alone. It plans to add another 13 stores in 2023.
“We are incredibly proud Aldi chose to lay down its roots in our Alabama community,” said Richard Teal, Loxley mayor.
“Our community is growing quickly, and we’re excited to be welcoming the expansion of Aldi alongside Loxley. Not only will this facility create hundreds of jobs for the hardworking members of our community, but it will also allow our residents and neighbors easy access to fresh food at low prices.”
Aldi has been No. 1 for price, according to the dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index Report for six years running.
The Loxley facility will feature roof-mounted solar panels, LED lighting, an environmentally-friendly refrigeration system and metal panel insulation.
The Loxley distribution center will create around 200 new jobs in the area with competitive wages and benefits. ALDI has already staffed 120 of these positions and plans to continue hiring. Those interested in learning more or applying can visit careers.aldi.us.


text:
Japanese exports continue the best YTD performance since the 2008 crisis
Japanese exports increased by double digits for the fourth straight month in October, showed the official data released today.
Bloomberg report says, "the value of exports rose 14 percent from a year earlier (forecast +15.7 percent). In the nine months through September, Japan exported 57 trillion yen worth of goods, the most over that period in any year since 2008."
Also, imports grew 18.9 percent, missing the estimated 20.2 percent. The trade surplus came in at JPY 285.4 billion vs. forecast of JPY 330 billion.
Other key points (source: Bloomberg)
- Exports to China, Japan’s largest trading partner, rose 26 percent from a year earlier.
- Exports to the US rose 7.1 percent, while Shipments to the EU climbed 15.8 percent.


text:
Amazon has officially announced that Prime Day 2020 will be on October 13-14th, 2020. What Makes Prime Day 2020 The Biggest Yet? Many shoppers look
How to Use Amazon Negative Keywords Effectively
Negative keywords are a feature in any PPC advertising platform that give you the option to exclude specific search terms shoppers type into Amazon’s search bar from making your ads appear.
Amazon Sponsored Display – The New Frontier in 2021
Sponsored Display is a campaign type that is after a few false starts, finally here to stay. When they say “Amazon PPC” what most people mean is Sponsored Products or the increasingly feature-rich Sponsored Brands.


text:
Boeing is evaluating whether to give its nonunionized South Carolina facility a bigger role in building the planned new version of its 777 long-range jet, according to industry officials briefed on the company's planning.
The plant, in the city of North Charleston, currently only builds sections and completes assembly for some Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Analysts have expected the site, which rolled its first finished plane off the line 18 months ago, would play a role in the 777X when that plane goes into production around 2017 or 2018, but that final assembly would be done at Boeing's huge facility in Everett, Wash.
Back-to-School Sale: Extra 25% off sitewide - JCPenney coupon code
Walmart coupon: $20 off your $50+ order
- Best Buy:
Save 15% or more on the Best Buy deal of the Day
Up to 15% off + free shipping at Wayfair
Nike Gear Up for Fall Sale: Up to 50% off
- Dick's Sporting Goods:
10% off sitewide - Dick's Sporting Goods coupons


text:
WATCH: Shoppers cheer as Spotlight opens in Hervey Bay
UPDATE: Excited shoppers cheered as Mayor Gerard O'Connell helped to cut the red, white and blue ribbons to officially open the new Spotlight store in Hervey Bay.
Hundreds of shoppers filed through the doors at 8am.
EARLIER: One of the most anticipated store openings on the Fraser Coast in years is finally here, with homemaker superstore Spotlight opening its doors at 8am on Monday, November 10.
The official ribbon cutting ceremony will happen just before the shop opens, with an opening sale likely to excite customers.
The store will remain open until 9pm.
The grand opening sale will continue until November 17.


text:
The rough earnings report that Best Buy Co. Inc. released Tuesday shows how much hard work new CEO Hubert Joly has ahead of him.
Here is the litany of bad news from the second quarter:
- Profits fell 90 percent to $12 million, or 4 cents a share. Strip out the one-time items, which includes $91 million in restructuring costs (mostly related to store closings), and profit was 20 cents per share. But that was still almost half of what it was a year earlier (39 cents) and far lower than Wall Street's expectations of 31 cents per share.
- Revenue fell 2.8 percent, with same-store sales falling 3.2 percent. The company said consumer electronics sales, such as televisions, declined 9.6 percent, while tablet and mobile phone sales increased. The problem is that tablets and phones provide lower margins. Evidence: Operating income fell 52 percent.
- Cash fell 67 percent to $680 million compared to a year earlier.
- The company ended its stock buyback program. Interim CEO Mike Mikan said in a conference call with investors that the company took the move to give Joly "flexibility." An editor at Minyanville has a chart that shows Best Buy has spent $6.4 billion on share buybacks since 2008, which is more than the company's current market cap of $6.1 billion.
- Best Buy has stopped giving revenue and earnings guidance, with Mikan again saying the company wants to give Joly "a chance to digest what's happening in the business model" without having having guidance expectations hanging over his head.
The New York Times blog DealBook speculated that the poor quarterly performance might help founder Richard Schulze in his effort to take the company private.
Investors reacted to the quarterly numbers as expected, with shares falling nearly 10 percent in premarket trading and a bit farther than that when the market opened. But the stock was nearly back to Monday's close of $18.16 per share by the end of trading on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, analysts continued to express a mix of optimism and bafflement over Best Buy's pick of Joly, the former CEO of Minnetonka-based Carlson Cos. who also led Paris-based Vivendi's international video game business and Electronic Data Systems' operations in France.
The Business Journal rounded up some of the reactions yesterday, and they kept coming in overnight.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Joly would face his greatest challenge in turning around Best Buy, and the company's power struggle with former Chairman and founder Richard Schulze doesn't make things any easier. The Journal quotes Richard Anderson, CEO at Delta Air Lines Inc., who knows Joly, in saying that he'd be a good fit at Best Buy (NYSE: BBY).


text:
The Walt Disney Company bought LucasFilm a couple of weeks ago for a sum of approximately $4 billion in cash and stock.
For those who may not know, this means that Disney now owns the rights to the incredibly lucrative Star Wars franchise. The company seems so excited on this part of the deal that they have already announced a Star Wars Episode VII to be in the works with a 2015 release (with subsequent films to follow every two to three years).
George Lucas, previously the sole shareholder of LucasFilm, said in the press conference announcing the acquisition that “for the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” adding that “it’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers.”
The responses to this deal so far– other than the question of whether or not Leia is now a Disney princess – have been quite negative, with people begging Disney not to “ruin” Star Wars.
The amount of pessimism doesn’t surprise me. If I remember correctly, the general belief is that the prequel films of the past decade were already done quite poorly. There’s nothing wrong with you if you enjoyed them; I remember enjoying them when I was younger as well. However, if you have a fairly good understanding of what the original films were all about as well as a rudimentary understanding of good story and character structure, it is easy to see just how much the new trilogy came up short (if you want to know more and have some disposable time, redlettermedia.com breaks the films down with a tremendous amount of detail).
The problem with the new trilogy was simply that; they were the product of Lucas’ creative ideas being unleashed without a filter. Consider the deal with Disney is handing off the franchise to new filmmakers as an opportunity for someone to breathe new life into the series, and hopefully take it to new and interesting places. It’s true that it could end up badly, but it doesn’t necessarily have to, and we should try to be optimistic about it.
What seems to be misunderstood is this does not automatically mean Disney is overhauling the entire staff of LucasFilm and the companies beneath it. Looking back to when Disney bought Marvel Comics back in 2009, some people were afraid that it would affect the direction of Marvel properties. From firsthand experience, I can confidently say there was no noticeable change in the comic book storylines, and as many of us probably saw, the lead up to The Avengers film still went through fantastically.
On the comic book front, the winds of change are blowing stronger. For over 20 years Dark Horse has had a partnership with LucasFilm to publish the Star Wars comic books. For the time being, Dark Horse still maintains their license on Star Wars properties, but considering the fact that Disney owns Marvel Comics, it is more than likely future publication of the comic book series will be handed off to them.


text:
New Fortnite Battle Royale seasons are always exciting since they come with numerous new challenges, weapons, skins and many other surprises. There have been 7 different seasons so far, and the 8th one is finally here. The Fortnite Season 8 also comes with many novelties. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
Epic Games already confirmed that the new season will be out on Thursday, February 28th, and the update will be available for all platforms. There will be a new series of changes, as well as a new battle pass, the way we are already accustomed.
Releasing a new season is always a huge event, as it manages to offer the game a small reset. In the past, we have seen numerous major changes, including some that changed the Fortnite map.
Fortnite Season 8 Is Finally Here
The server downtime for the update will start at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM GMT / 8 PM AET. We can’t tell you how much that will last, but since the update is a big one, you should expect the game to download in at least a couple of hours for the new Season 8 to reach to Fortnite Battle Royale.
We already received a couple of teaser images that contained several clues. There have been numerous references which revealed that pirates are the theme of the new season of Fortnite Battle Royale. The first clue was “X marks the spot” which is supposed to help us get to a “lost treasure,” followed by a warning for “those who arrive on the waves.”
The other hints also included information which might be connected to the new skins of Season 8. For instance, a banana with a face might be one of the upcoming skins. There should be some gameplay new additions as well, especially since players noticed several earthquakes in the game recently. However, soon we’ll find out everything about Fortnite Season 8.
Agnes is a technical writer, being in touch with reports to come up with the latest tech leaks.


text:
It’s been more than 20 years since the da Vinci Surgical System received FDA clearance. Pretty incredible when you think about it. Robotic surgery and automation in general have come a long way sinc
Casual mobile games have reached a fever pitch of interest with consumers, and so too with investors, who are rushing to back the biggest and most promising startups building these quick hits of engag
Overjet is now covering nearly 75 million members through its dental insurance partnerships.
Platforms for dentists are booming right now as many governments gradually make it harder to access dentistry via social care, especially in the U.K. But the most lucrative market is cosmetic dentistr
Adra is bringing AI into the dentist's day-to-day workflow so they can spend less time finding cavities and more time with patients.
Many in the tech industry saw the threat of the novel coronavirus early and reacted correctly. Fewer have seemed prepared for its aftereffects, like the outflow of talented employees from very pricey
Scratchpay, the Pasadena, Calif.-based provider of petcare financing plans, is now offering lending services for dental, optical and chiropractic care for humans in a broad expansion of its services.
Today, SmileDirectClub announced a partnership with Walmart to sell a new line of oral care products, including toothbrushes, teeth whitening treatments, a water flosser and more. For one of the top t
Florian Hillen, the chief executive officer of a new startup called VideaHealth, first started researching the problems with dentistry about three years ago. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
GumGum, the Los Angeles-based startup that’s spent the past decade applying machine learning technologies to advertising and sports, has spun out a new healthcare startup focused on the dental i
Candid, a teeth aligner startup that aims to make straight teeth more accessible and more affordable than Invisalign, is evolving its direct-to-consumer business. In addition to its at-home impression
Going to the dentist can be anxiety-inducing. Unfortunately, it was no different for me last week when I went to discuss Uniform Teeth’s recent $4 million seed funding round from Lerer Hippeau,
According to a report published by the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging last year, more
I can't believe how great this idea sounds. Instead of using the old-school (as in patented in 1887) drill
This is fairly high up on the weird scale, but since October is wellness month at CG… Meet the Oral Hygiene Monitor. It’s a small metal plate that you bite down on once or twice a day. The


text:
It was going to be the advent of a new and cost-effective route for global trade, one that would cut through the Arctic ice, bypass the longer Suez Canal route, and conveniently sail from China to Finland and onwards from there. And considering that the vast majority of goods are transported by sea, and that many of them are made in China for consumption in Europe, the Northeast Passage—which stretches along Russia’s northern coast, linking China with Europe and the Atlantic Ocean—is indeed very conveniently located.
Six years ago, the German company Beluga Shipping sent one of its vessels on a journey along the passage to great fanfare. Though it wasn’t the first time a vessel had crossed the Northeast Passage, the cargo ship’s journey was seen as the unofficial inauguration of the critical passage that follows Russia’s coast. So what if the journey required an icebreaker? It was still closer and more convenient than having to sail around the Eurasian continent. And in 2011, 41 vessels from countries including Norway, Spain, and Singapore made the journey along the Arctic Ocean, delivering goods such as frozen fish and iron-ore at their destination. Two years later, 71 ships made the journey.
Last year, however, the number dropped to 53. Since the Ukraine crisis resulted in an EU ban on Russian goods, there have been fewer products to send to Europe, and the new super-cargo ships sometimes used by Chinese companies are at any rate too large to fit into the travel path through the ice. The Russian government usually takes a long view, so a decline from 71 to 53 passages isn’t going to cause alarm. With some 17,000 ships passing the Suez Canal each year, the Northeast Passage has a lot of catching up to do anyway.
But will Russia be able to keep paying for this very quiet passage? Ships don’t just require water, they need law and order as well. That’s one reason behind Russia’s reopening of military based in the Arctic, though there are, of course, less peaceful reasons as well. As Arctic researcher Duncan Depledge of RUSI in London recently told me, “All activities in the Arctic need some sort of security aspect. In much of the Arctic, the military is the only institution that can perform that constabulary function.” At one ship a week, the Northeast Passage becomes very expensive indeed.


text:
Flight Centre has expanded its presence in India with the opening of its first travel store in the city of Hyderabad.
The new outlet expands the group’s overall Indian footprint to 17 stores, three of which are in the south of the country.
Covering almost 1,400m², the new Hyderabad store is located in Nagarjuna Circle. As well as flight bookings, the store will offer a range of domestic and international travel packages, hotel, car and cruise bookings, visa services and foreign exchange.
The new shop was inaugurated by Rakshit Desai, managing director of FCM Travel Solutions, and Shravan Gupta, managing director of Travel Tours Group.
“We are delighted to launch our first Flight Shop store in Hyderabad… and are confident of a great start in the holiday season,” said Desai. “Our excellent long-standing relationship in South India and our recently announced intent to acquire business interest with Travel Tours Group will create a viable opportunity for Flight Shop to raise the bar for our customer’s travel experience.
“With our new store we also aim to capitalise on the rapid and growing potential of travel, especially Leisure travel and fast changing demographics of the city,” he added.
Flight Centre’s Indian network now extends to a total of 17 stores across Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Kochi and Vadodara.


text:
New Delhi, May 12 (UNI) Country's leading mobile services provider Bharti Airtel Ltd today said it has signed an agreement with software products major Apple to sell iPhone in India.
''The company plans to bring iPhone for its customers later in the year,'' it said in a statement.
IPhone is a mobile phone that allows its user to make calls by simply tapping a name or number in the address book. It lets the customer to select and listen to voice mail messages in whatever order the consumer wants.
Apple has signed deals with four mobile phone networks in the Asia-Pacific region to offer the iPhone in their respective markets.
SingTel will sell the gadget in Singapore, while Bharti Airtel will introduce it in India.
Globe Telecom has the rights to the iPhone in the Philippines, and Optus will offer it in Australia.
The iPhone was launched in the US and Europe last year. Apple selects a single network provider in each country to distribute its iPhone.
Earlier this year Apple and China Mobile called off talks to launch the handset to Chinese consumers amid speculation that the two firms failed to agree on a revenue sharing deal which means iPhone is unlikely to be released in China anytime soon.
UNI AK PDT KN1833


text:
in this issue
Chemical Week Magazine :: Other
Soaps and Detergents
12:44 PM MDT | July 25, 2007 | Kate Phillips and Esther D’Amico with Kerri Walsh
Major soaps and detergents producers say they cleaned up last year largely because of successful product price increases that helped to offset higher energy and raw material costs. Many of these soapers have also launched new products, developed brand extensions, cut costs, and undertaken major advertising campaigns to boost sales in the last year. Suppliers, meanwhile, say they have been struggling with high energy, freight, and raw material costs, and that they intend on working closer with their customers to improve efficiencies and cost savings. The retail...
This information is only available to Chemical Week subscribers.
Forgot your user ID or password?
Not an IHS Chemical Week member yet?
Here's why you should be:


text:
CORONAVIRUS AND THE RETAIL INDUSTRY
Since the start of the pandemic we’ve seen a multitude of responses from retailers as they adapt to the challenges and respond to changes in consumer behaviour.
Closing physical stores and online operations, ramping up (and re-starting) online operations, online queuing systems, extended returns and deliveries, donations and discounts for essential workers, additional measures to protect employees’ health, safety and welfare, and support to vulnerable suppliers are just some of the actions being taken.
So how do you keep abreast with what’s happening and how the industry is responding, as well as what to consider when planning for the next normal? Here’s some of our go-to resources:
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is providing a resource hub to support members during this time, including operational guidance on issues like HR, competition law and cash flow, as well as ensuring the Government is aware of the issues impacting retail businesses and their workforce. Some of their resources are available to non-members, including latest retailer announcements.
Drapers’ Coronavirus Hub provides the latest news, commentary and analysis covering the fashion retail industry's response to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic, spanning retailers, brands, suppliers, logistics providers and shopping centres.
Essential Retail features the latest news on how the pandemic is impacting the retail sector as a whole.
IMRG (the UK’s online retail association) are continuously tracking their members’ sales data, as well as the websites of 300 retailers, and running weekly webinars during the pandemic to share what’s happening.
Business of Fashion has updated The State of Fashion 2020 report (published in conjunction with McKinsey in November 2019) to reflect the impact of Coronavirus.
McKinsey & Company have special features on leading through the crisis including how organisations can respond, and what happens next.


text:
One company in free-fall, another treading water and the third literally shooting into outer space … This week offered a unique look at the life cycle of great high-technology companies.
The company in free-fall is, of course, Yahoo! In spurning Microsoft’s offer, the company’s executives seemed almost gleeful, as if they dodged a dangerous bullet and could now return to the status quo. Even a deal with Google, which is rumored to be in the works as I write this, won’t be enough to turn around Yahoo’s fortunes.
If the history of mergers and acquisitions teaches us anything, it is that if one company wants you, it’s likely that others do as well. It’s like sharks –if you see one, there’s probably a lot more nearby. And, worse, if that first one manages to nick you– as Microsoft did by not only setting a de facto price on Yahoo but also exposing the lack of discipline amongst the latter firm’s senior management –then the blood in the water is likely to set off a feeding frenzy.
Last week that blood drew one of the world’s biggest Great Whites, Carl Icahn, who systematically set about to buy up Yahoo shares in order to land a board seat, fire executive Jerry Yang and his lieutenants and then dismantle the company. Icahn is betting — and would you care to bet against Carl freaking Icahn? — that he can sell off pieces of Yahoo to total a whole lot more than he will pay to capture control of the entire company.
And that’s only the beginning. Jeff Weiner, the guy who runs Yahoo.com and Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail, is splitting from the company to go work for a couple of venture capital firms. He joins a growing list of Yahoo’s best and brightest who have already bailed out of the company.
If there is any Intellectual Capital equivalent to Moore’s Law it is that, no matter what their public explanations, when the smartest folks leave a company that company will soon be in serious trouble, and wherever those folks end up, that company will soon be a whole lot more successful.
Right now, Yahoo is bleeding talent from every doorway. And that means that even if Yang and what remains of his staff can manage to right their listing company, Yahoo will still be dead in the water, lacking in the kind of talent it will need to get moving again and keep up with the competition.
As I said a couple weeks ago in this column, Yahoo should have taken the Microsoft offer. It will never see that kind of money on the table again.
Meanwhile, the company treading water is Apple Computer. I don’t have to tell you that this week was the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, historically the venue at which Steve Jobs comes out on stage with “oh, and one more thing” and announces the next great Apple product that will change the world.
It is the single most popular, influential and (among competitors) envied event in the entire tech world. It started almost a quarter century ago with the original Macintosh introduction and has only grown in cultural influence ever since with the unveiling of the iMac and all of its subsequent permutations: the iPod, iTunes and the iPhone.
Having attended a few Apple conferences, watched many, and this year followed it live on the Web, I’m always reminded of my old days as a movie reviewer.
For a long time, San Jose was an important Sneak Preview location for Hollywood, and so part of my beat was to go and cover one of these events at some local strip mall multiplex or cinedome. Sometimes I got lucky: I saw both “Breaking Away” and “Indiana Jones” with Spielberg in the audience before the rest of the world did.
But most of the time, I ended up with some dreck like “Americathon.” These were always interesting in a different way because the theater would be filled with shills from the studio who had a career stake in the film being shown.
While the rest of us plebians would sit with our chins in our hands, these movie folks would cheer at every action scene, laugh uproariously at every stupid joke and in every way try to convince us and themselves that the crap we were watching was “Annie Hall.”
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference can be a lot like that. Every announcement, especially when Steve is alone on stage, is met with cheers, and every throw-away remark gets a laugh from the True Believers and Macolytes.
There’s nothing wrong with that if you’re willing to give your heart to a giant corporation, but it can be disorienting, momentarily opening the door (even in this skeptic’s heart) to the legendary Jobs Reality Distortion zone … and regrets and second thoughts the next morning.
This year, the big moment was when, on the giant screen, Jobs first announced the iPhone II then rocked the room by putting up a price on the screen for the “Jesusphone Junior” of just $199, two hundred bucks less than its year-old predecessor. That number caused a collective gasp, then a roar of approval. Apple had done it again! Now it would take on Blackberry!
Only in the cold white light of a new day did reviewers and pundits begin to look more closely at the announcement. And that’s when they noticed that while the iPhone II did have some major improvements (GPS, 3G, etc.), the big news the price drop was something of an illusion.
Yeah, the phone was cheaper, but AT&T was jacking up the usage fee from $20 to $30 … meaning that in the two-year life of the contract, the iPhone II will actually cost more than the iPhone I. Meanwhile, Apple wouldn’t be losing much revenue with the price cut because it would largely make up the difference from the AT&T kickbacks.
That’s why, despite the sound and fury of Monday’s event, you haven’t seen the kind of press coverage and general cultural hysteria that surrounded the original iPhone announcement last year.
Apple has had such a remarkable run of astounding new products that this one, though a solid entry, seems like something of a letdown. We’re all still willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt hey, maybe next time! but it is interesting to note that the company has historically under Jobs come up with one of those earth-shaking new products about once every three years.
That’s quick by consumer electronics standards, but more than a generation in tech. And the world may be a very different place in 2011 just ask Yahoo.
Indeed, it is not an idle question if it will even be Steve Jobs on stage to make that next announcement. His dangerously thin and emaciated look at this year’s event has led to a lot of speculation this week even on the Drudge Report whether Jobs is ill again.
The gossip site ValleyWag ran a series of photos of Jobs from the past decade, including during his near-fatal bout with pancreatic cancer, and it was hard not be concerned about the man’s current health. Apple quickly responded by saying that Jobs was merely suffering from a flu bug (and others pointed to the weird macrobiotic diets of Mrs. Jobs), but the publicity damage was done.
And deservedly so. Steve Jobs has always been excused from duties demanded from other Fortune 500 CEOs, not least of which is full disclosure. When he was diagnosed with cancer, Jobs had a fiduciary responsibility to notify Apple’s shareholders. Instead, he kept it secret for months, breaking a public trust. It’s no wonder then that his recent appearance has been met with runaway speculation and disbelief in Apple’s denials.
We can only hope that Jobs is fine and in good health and will continue to be the most important CEO in America. But this week’s images are a reminder that he is very mortal, and someday it won’t be Steve Jobs up there on the stage at the Apple WWDC. And since the company has never found a way to succeed over time without him, what will Apple do then?
Finally, there was this week’s news from Google: co-founder and multi-billionaire Sergey Brin has paid $5 million (comparative chump change) to joyride on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station.
Hey, if you’ve got it, enjoy it. And it’s not as if this is some rich guy’s lark: Brin and partner Larry Page were the guys behind the $30 million Google SpaceX prize, which will likely prove a critical milestone in human space exploration.
Still, Brin’s act is entirely characteristic of the young founder of a superhot Silicon Valley company. This kind of conspicuous consumption will draw cheers now, but when Google plateaus (which may already be happening) it will be seen in a much darker light by shareholders and employees. It’s fun to be young and rich. … but as Steve Jobs and Jerry Yang should warn Sergey Brin, one way or another it doesn’t last for long.


text:
European incentive and meeting organisers will be feeling the glare of a new campaign called ‘Thailand Connect – Your Global Business Events Connection’.
Figures for 2013 released by Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) at EIBTM in Barcelona show Europe accounting for 10 per cent of the country’s business travel market outside Asia.
A new ‘3Cs’ marketing strategy – ‘companion, customisation and creativity’ – is now being rolled by TCEB that will see Thailand no longer competing on price when it comes to creating benefits for business events, but instead on high quality market segments in conferences, incentives and exhibitions.
Parichat Svetasreni, Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB)’s director of marketing and corporate image, unveiled an ambitious 2014 Strategic Plan aimed at boosting the ‘Thailand Brand as Asia’s premier business events destination’.
Europe is Thailand’s second major market for business events following Asia, which accounts for 75 per cent of market share. Key countries that will be targeted under TCEB’s new campaign are Britain, Germany France, Netherlands, Spain along with the United States and the United Arab Emirates.


text:
The global protein market is fraught with change. The recent signing of Phase 1 of the trade deal between the United States and China has created new opportunities for the U.S. farmer but there may be additional hurdles to overcome. At the same time, the rampant spread of African Swine Flu (ASF) through China now threatens Europe. Both the trade deal and ASF are causing impactful changes to the market as well as to the producer. AgriAccess has compiled a collection of insights about the global protein market at the beginning of 2020.
Phase 1 of the Trade Deal
As part of Phase 1, U.S. trade officials have reported China will import at least $40 billion in U.S. agricultural goods. This includes U.S. pork and beef — which has previously struggled based on Chinese residue restrictions. However, the cumulative 68% tariff on U.S. pork remains as opposed to an 8% tariff commonly paid by other nations. For producers this hinders their pork sales as cheaper options will be available within the market.
There is also a concern whether China will follow through on its pledge. The Chinese have never purchased as many U.S. agricultural goods as they have agreed to do through Phase 1 and while trade officials are optimistic, following through on Phase 1 would represent a dramatic shift for the Chinese.
Global Impact of ASF
While the Chinese negotiate with the United States, their in-country swine stocks have been decimated by ASF. In a recent webinar, industry expert Brett Stuart reported ASF has shrunk China’s swine herd by 65%. As China accounts for half the global hog population, this means ASF has killed one-third of the global swine herd. As such, prices for China’s hogs and piglets rose 170% and 273% year-over-year.
The virus can last over three years in frozen meat and for weeks or even months in manure. Animals infected with ASF face a mortality rate greater than 95%.
The disease has also spread to Europe threatening Poland and Germany, which means 75% of the world’s swine herd is in danger of contracting the disease.
So far there are no incidents of ASF in the United States and government officials are working to keep it that way. The USDA is using trained detector dogs to sniff out pork smuggled from China and this year’s World Pork Expo has been canceled in order to stop possible contamination.
Beef Will Fill the Gap
As China struggles with the devastation of its swine herd, one of the primary alternatives they are turning to is beef. Prices in the global beef market rose sharply in November 2019, as the Chinese sought to supplement their protein needs before Chinese New Year. Although markets slowed in December as the Chinese stopped buying aggressively in preparation for the holiday.
Even so, Stuart’s webinar showed Chinese beef prices have increased 21% year-over-year, representing a new high in the Chinese market. In 2020, China is set to buy $12 billion worth of beef from numerous international sources. This represents almost 100% market growth over the last three years.
And while China is seeking to buy more and more beef, one of the world’s largest beef exporters — Australia — is cutting back its supply. Drought, flooding and wildfires across the continent have caused the Australian government to forecast a 15% reduction in beef production for 2020 and a 20% reduction in beef exports as well. This bodes well for U.S. producers should they be permitted to sell beef not only in Hong Kong but also in China.
Chinese beef prices have increased 21% year-over-year,
representing a new high in the Chinese market.
Global Poultry Market Remains Steady
While global prices for beef and pork are soaring because of Chinese demand, global poultry prices remain largely stagnant. In the Chinese market, broilers usually fall about 5 RMB below hog prices. However, since the advent of ASF, hog prices have soared while broiler prices remain flat, causing a difference of roughly 25 RMB.
This is due in part to many Chinese hog farmers transitioning to poultry in the advent of ASF. However, the Chinese population also has a general disinterest in poultry as a protein choice. The average Chinese consumption rate falls at about 18 pounds per capita, the lowest rate in the market. For comparison, the United States measures at over 100 pounds per capita.
Yet you can expect China’s poultry consumption to rise in 2020 particularly among the rural population as a pork alternative, and Stuart expects the Chinese government to import 600,000-700,000 tons more poultry than they have in years past.
For U.S. producers the challenge lies in determining demand. The Chinese have shown they will take all the chicken feet and wing tips — a popular choice in their country — that they can attain. Sales of other chicken parts, however, remain unpredictable and U.S. sales could be hampered by increased Chinese production if demand does not rise in kind.
As trends within the global protein market continue to shift, staying up to date on the latest information remains paramount. You can find additional insights by watching Stuart’s webinar Global Protein Update. Please contact [email protected] to obtain the link to the webinar.
To learn more about how AgriAccess can support your business in this ever-changing market, connect with us today.