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The iconic Hyundai Santro nametag is making a comeback! Watch the video to know what the new Santro has to offer, its price, launch date and specifications.
Royal Enfield launches all-new riding jackets, priced from Rs 4,950 onward
Atal Tunnel Rohtang: Benefits and Precautions -- Insights from Vijay Parmar, organizer, Raid De Himalaya
Rugged Ford EcoSport Active leaked before official international unveil
Upcoming KTM Adventure motorcycles: 250 Adventure launch in November 2020, 890 Adventure expected in 2021
Mercedes-Benz to locally assemble AMG performance cars in India
India’s largest auto media for the bike & car community for over 22 years.


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Grandville Jewelry Store Robbed with Hammers, Police Looking for Suspects
Grandville Police need help in catching two suspects who robbed a jewelry store on Thursday, the 22nd.
A press release from the police department states that two armed men walked into Jared's Galleria of Jewelers, on Rivertown Pkwy., around 5:30 p.m. and smashed open a case with a hammer and were able to get away with "an undisclosed amount of jewelry."
No one was hurt during the robbery, thankfully, but the men left the store and drove off in a tan 4-door Chevy Malibu. The suspects were caught on security camera but both were masked.
If anyone has any information about the robbery or any clues to help law enforcement catch the men, you're asked to contact the Grandville Police Department at (616) 538-6110 or the Silent Observer at (616) 774-2345.
This is the second robbery to occur this week in Grandville. On Monday, a woman was caught on camera running out of the store with a handful of clothes (about $300 worth) from Uptown Cheapskate. The woman threatened staff when confronted. Outside of the store, was a getaway driver waiting for her. As of Friday, the suspects still hadn't been caught.

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The season may have been something of a fizzle at the beach, but in the art market, it was the longest, hottest summer in years. On a Friday afternoon in August, Michael McGinnis, director of contemporary art for Phillips Auctioneers, sat at his desk in the cramped East 79th Street offices of the upstart, London-based firm surrounded by a mountain of catalogues and artworks in – and out of – packing crates. As five o’clock approached, the newly rich collectors he cultivates were fleeing the city for their art-filled, humidity-controlled beach houses. But McGinnis was doggedly plowing through transparencies of recent works by Matthew Barney, Jeff Koons, and Cindy Sherman – fashionable artists whose works he hopes to sell for record sums at auction this fall. Above all, McGinnis was keenly aware that by the end of summer, he must nail down an impressive array of works for the all-important fall sales, which begin on November 13.
With Phillips as the new wildcard in the 250-year slugfest between Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the competition has never been more intense. “It’s insanity – we’re incredibly busy,” says McGinnis, a relentlessly cheerful, plump-cheeked 30-year-old who quit Christie’s last year to launch Phillips’s contemporary department.
And the battle has not been without what the Pentagon calls collateral damage. Dealers once watched from the sidelines as Christie’s and Sotheby’s duked it out over old masters, Impressionists, and Abstract Expressionists. But to the dealers’ horror, the auction houses have moved aggressively in the past two years to seize control of the contemporary-art market. Gallery owners complain that the extravagant prices achieved recently at auction have prompted speculators to buy artists’ latest works in galleries, then flip them at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, or Phillips for a quick profit, inflating the fragile careers of artists the galleries have painstakingly nurtured.
“I think it’s reprehensible,” says Barbara Gladstone, a prominent Chelsea dealer. “When I see works from 1999 at auction in 2000, my blood boils. These artists are people with careers. It’s a reflection of unmitigated greed, and I think it should be regulated.”
Gladstone argues that art created in the past decade should be excluded from public auctions – a high-minded proposal that is unlikely to come to pass. “If an artwork is over ten years old, I think, okay – the statute of limitations is up,” she says.
“The galleries are the big losers in this game,” fumes a prominent SoHo dealer. “When collectors sell work from our gallery at auction, we don’t make a dime, and neither does the artist. If the piece does badly at auction, everyone suffers. If the piece does well and we raise our prices to match the auction price, the collectors get angry. And if we don’t raise them, the artist feels betrayed – artists are very sensitive – and they threaten to defect to another gallery. It’s a no-win situation.”
Some established collectors also find it in bad taste. “If you put something up at auction, you can hurt the artist’s market,” says Herbert Schorr, a veteran bi-coastal collector of emerging artists. “To me, if I want to make money, I’ll make it in the stock market. But I must admit that I am in a very small minority.”
The auction houses plead innocence. “I don’t try to encourage people to sell work they just bought last week,” says Philippe Ségalot, head of Christie’s contemporary-art department, who is more than familiar with such expressions of dealer rage. “But I cannot ignore it, because if I don’t take it, they will go to the competition.”
The spring 2000 auctions in New York produced record sums for the work of 35 artists including Phillips’s, whose first glitzy contemporary evening sale fetched an impressive $11 million. Out of Sight, Out of Mind – a 1991 sculpture by Damien Hirst consisting of two severed cattle heads preserved in formaldehyde – sold for a staggering $552,500 at Phillips, a record for the 35-year-old British artist. Bidding was fierce, even though the sculpture itself was stuck in London. A polite salesroom announcement elicited a few chuckles: U.S. Customs was demanding that the purchaser sign an affidavit guaranteeing that Hirst’s grisly handiwork would be used solely as an artwork, in order to prevent the potential spread of mad-cow disease. No less remarkably, Woman in Tub – an über-kitsch 1988 porcelain sculpture by Jeff Koons of a headless woman grabbing her breasts as an intrepid visitor with a snorkel attacks her from the bottom of her bubble bath – sold to an unidentified telephone bidder at Christie’s for $1.71 million.
With the fall auction season rapidly approaching, there’s no shortage of deep-pocketed collectors with the superior vision required to admire the aesthetics of pickled cows’ heads and headless porcelain pornography. And with the spring’s high prices egging the auction houses on to score an even bigger autumn, McGinnis and his formidable rivals, Christie’s Philippe Ségalot and Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer, spent their summers jetting from villa to chalet to dacha to ranch in order to cajole coveted artworks from collectors. To close their deals, the three experts and their various deputies often fly thousands of miles to view a single picture. “It’s important to see it firsthand before we make a serious commitment,” says McGinnis, who recently flew to Switzerland for the day to visit a collector. “The stakes are high in these auctions, and you have to be 1,000 percent confident that you’re going to be able to sell it.”
Among the tantalizing contemporary works the three are confident about selling in the fall sales are another Damien Hirst, In Love/Out of Love, from 1998, that McGinnis estimates will sell for $400,000 to $600,000. And at Christie’s, Philippe Ségalot has lined up Charles Ray’s Male Mannequin, a sculpture that Christie’s describes as “a self-portrait in some sense as the genitalia is anatomically correct and cast from life,” which he has estimated at $700,000 to $900,000.
In grabbing the contemporary dealer’s secondary sales, the auction houses are adjusting to a seismic shift in the marketplace and evolving tastes. Impressionist paintings and early-to-mid-twentieth-century artworks have long produced top dollar, but superb examples are increasingly scarce. Most are locked away in museums and private collections, or have become exorbitantly expensive. But newly wrought, contemporary pieces – some on which the paint is barely dry – are in prodigious supply. “Thirty years ago, we were collecting Abstract Expressionists when that was still affordable,” Schorr says of his switch to emerging art. “We buy young art,” his wife, Lenore, adds. “It’s more challenging. It’s the thrill of discovery.”
In their enthusiasm for these new artists, many ignore the fact that the stratospheric prices being achieved at auction for recently created works are eerily reminiscent of the inflated market of the eighties that immediately preceded the art-world Armageddon of 1990, when prices and confidence plunged. A dismal contemporary auction at Sotheby’s in November 1990, where 58 percent of the artworks offered went unsold, remains a painful memory to some.
“Very few people seem to have learned the lessons from the end of the eighties,” observes Matthew Marks, a leading Chelsea dealer who isn’t tickled to see the market froth over. “I’m not that old, so I don’t see why I can remember it, but so many people old enough to be my parents’ age don’t.”
A cautious skepticism, however, may be hard to maintain in the face of positive market pressure. At Sotheby’s evening sale on May 17, a multi-edition photograph created in 1998 by Andreas Gursky sold for $181,750 – a record price for the popular German artist, and an astonishing sum given that it was selling in galleries only two years ago for just $30,000.
And it’s no secret that Phillips has been offering hefty guarantees and up-front sums to help along a few deaccessions from private collections. Phillips reportedly put up $1.3 million to secure Gerhard Richter’s Apfelbaum for its May auction – in the form of an outright purchase or a guarantee. It was cheerfully listed in the catalogue with an $800,000-$1.2 million estimate. If the painting had sold in that range, Phillips would have taken a loss. But the market rewarded McGinnis’s aggressive tactics when a buyer snapped it up for a $1.5 million hammer price. Not to be outdone, Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been busy making counteroffers. “To compete for property at this level in such an accelerated market, guarantees are a necessary part of the business,” McGinnis notes.
With such inducements, who could resist cashing in? “The auctions make my life more difficult,” says Marks, who is Gursky’s New York dealer. “If I’m selling works for a fraction of what they could conceivably bring at auction, it’s obviously of no interest to me if I sell to someone who’s then going to turn around and put it up for auction.” So Marks takes the only measures he can. Collectors who dare to indulge in such speculative high jinks are immediately blacklisted from the gallery. To discourage short-term speculators, some influential dealers, including Andrea Rosen, now issue invoices specifying that if the purchaser decides to resell the work, he or she is expected to offer it first through the gallery.
Defending his role in the dust-up, Ségalot notes that he is careful to limit the number of pieces by an individual artist in a sale in order to avoid flooding the market with his or her work, and that he deliberately creates conservative, realistic estimates that will encourage bidding. “We try to care – I mean, we do care – about the artists, their market, and about the galleries, et cetera,” he says.
The dealers are not the only ones with rising temperatures in this hot market. Collectors, too, are getting frustrated – but with the dealers. Like his competitors, McGinnis notes that the auctions are often the only way that collectors who are passionate about an artist’s work can gain access to it. What irks the collectors most is gallery “waiting lists” for work by sought-after artists – often a euphemism for a dealer’s refusal to sell the work of an artist to anyone but a museum or a famous collector who can be relied upon to improve the work’s provenance.
“I sympathize with the dealers,” McGinnis says. “But the reality is that we provide a service to consumers who are looking for work perhaps created last year. If they can’t get it anywhere else, and if we can source it for them and sell it successfully, I think it’s our obligation.”
At Sotheby’s, a couple of works created in 1999 showed up in the auction house’s day sale on May 18, both selling for sums comfortably above their high estimates – a simple oil portrait of a yellow-and-green-eyed woman by Vanessa Beecroft for $9,600 and a small etching of a hand by Robert Gober for $2,280. But Tobias Meyer downplays the importance of such works at Sotheby’s. “It’s definitely not a market that I consciously run after,” he says.
Meyer’s reluctance to pursue works of such recent vintage is partly due to the fact that Sotheby’s – unlike Christie’s – continues to define “contemporary” as work from 1945 to the present. During the past two years, Sotheby’s has achieved several records for work created in the past decade. But given that the prices over $1 million in Sotheby’s recent sale were generated by classic works, Meyer is more motivated to sell blue-chip contemporary items such as a late-forties abstract canvas by Clyfford Still or a sixties Warhol.
Two years ago, Christie’s caused a major ripple in the art world by launching a new department for work created since 1970, challenging the definition of what constitutes contemporary art. It was a cunning scheme to attract new, younger buyers – and an instant success. The first sale, in June 1998, was 100 percent sold and produced twelve record prices for Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, and Dan Flavin totaling $16.2 million – way above Christie’s $12.6 million high estimate.
For all the hue and cry over Christie’s bold move, it was actually Sotheby’s that got the ball rolling a year earlier with a landmark sale in May 1997, when Meyer took up the gavel for the first time in New York after his appointment as head of contemporary art worldwide.
That sale included eleven artworks consigned by the Boston Children’s Heart Foundation – an intriguing and unlikely source. The collection had been assembled by Dr. Bernardo Nadal-Ginard, a Boston cardiologist with a superb eye for contemporary art who had recently gone to jail for dipping into the nonprofit medical foundation’s funds to treat himself to works by trendy artists such as Kiki Smith, Jeff Koons, Matthew Barney, and Robert Gober.
“The quality was unbelievably high,” Meyer recalls. “So I decided to put the contemporary works at the beginning of the evening, which was a first. People didn’t anticipate them to do so well, but they did.”
One of the most fought-for items was Kiki Smith’s sculpture of a hunched, seated woman urinating. It sold to the London dealer Anthony D’Offay for $233,500 – nearly three times its high estimate and a record for the artist. Sotheby’s 1997 triumph may have hastened Christie’s decision to create its post-1970 department, but the latter firm has wasted no time since in aggressively marketing itself as the ultimate venue for buying and selling recent art. Indeed, Christie’s found a new lease on life when contemporary-art collector and hard-charging French luxury-goods tycoon François Pinault bought the firm in 1998. Much of the effort has been led by Philippe Ségalot, the 37-year-old Frenchman who became head of contemporary art for Christie’s worldwide in the fall of 1998, when works by Gober, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Cindy Sherman were on the block.
Ségalot’s successes have administered a spectacular jolt to the careers of certain artists, most notably Jeff Koons – the eighties art star who dropped out of the public spotlight in the early nineties amid a harrowing custody battle over Ludwig, the son he had with his ex, Italian porn star-politician Ilona “Cicciolina” Staller, whose nickname translates as “little pot of flesh.” Denied custody, Koons spent much of his time during the nineties traveling back and forth to Rome in order to visit his son, perhaps regretting the numerous explicit and multi-edition porcelain sculptures he had created in 1991 depicting himself naked with Cicciolina flagrante delicto in a memorable variety of positions.
Last November, collectors and dealers arriving for the first contemporary preview at Christie’s glamorous new headquarters at Rockefeller Center were startled to encounter actors prancing about in Pink Panther costumes as rock music blared. More than a cheap party gimmick, the kitsch costumes were intended to promote the imminent sale of Koons’s Pink Panther, a porcelain sculpture of a seminude blonde hugging the cartoon character, which was also pictured on the cover of the catalogue.
While some found the costumed high jinks entertaining, others were not so amused. “It was so tacky,” recalls a well-known SoHo dealer. “It was the most hyped-up thing.”
Some may grumble, but Christie’s effective boldfaced promotion was entirely in the spirit of the rampant commercialism so expertly exploited in the work of Koons – a former Wall Street commodities trader whose art provocatively advertises itself as a commodity by invoking the everyday kitsch of soft porn, kids’ toys, rock music, film stills, and TV. Created in 1988, Pink Panther is part of Koons’s celebrated “Banality” series, which inspired admiring and furious reviews when it was first exhibited at Sonnabend in December that year. Hilton Kramer, the arch-conservative critic, called the show “nothing but a recycling of kitsch taste for jaded sophisticates.” As such, it may have been just the ticket for its well-heeled audience.
“Philippe is smart, and he’s made it fun,” says a SoHo dealer, speaking of the new direction of contemporary auctions at Christie’s. “The art is cutting-edge, and the parties are fun. It’s a social appointment twice a year, and people come for the auctions even if they’re not going to buy. But I think it’s also kind of a joke. It’s bored rich people looking for excitement. It’s decadent.”
To widespread astonishment, Pink Panther sold for $1.8 million to an anonymous telephone bidder at Christie’s evening sale on November 16 after intense bidding among five collectors. That staggering sum was more than twice the auction house’s high estimate of $800,000 and more than quadruple Koons’s previous auction record of $409,500.
“Privately, it could never have brought that price,” notes a young dealer who was involved in consigning Pink Panther to Christie’s.
“When I priced Pink Panther for $600,000 to $800,000, they told me I was crazy,” Ségalot says, chuckling. “Then it sold for $1.8 million, and that allowed us to get more for the next sale.”
No kidding. On the strength of his success with Pink Panther, Ségalot managed to line up a total of five Koons pieces for Christie’s next evening sale on May 16, led by the spectacularly garish Woman in Tub.
Christie’s went to extraordinary lengths to galvanize interest in Woman in Tub, throwing a “Bubble Bash” theme party for 900 guests with dimmed lighting and a disco beat on May 15, the night before the sale. Again, the Christie’s hype appears to have paid off. After intense bidding among four contenders, including dealer Larry Gagosian, Woman in Tub sold to an unidentified telephone bidder for $1.71 million.
“The big question is, who’s paying $1.8 million and $1.7 million for Jeff Koons at Christie’s?” says a leading SoHo dealer. “Nobody knows. The big suspicion is that it’s Pinault himself.”
Such widespread speculation is fed by a couple of factors: As the owner of Christie’s, Pinault stands to gain mightily from the buzz generated by Christie’s high sales results, and the diminutive Frenchman – a prodigious collector of contemporary art – is known to be a fan of Koons’s work. And earlier this year, he paid $3 million for Koons’s Speed Rocker, a 40-foot-tall sculpture – half-pony, half-dinosaur – abloom with 75,000 plants, which was on view this summer in the Papal Palace in Avignon, France.
Ségalot is keen to put such speculation to rest. “Everyone thinks to the contrary, but Mr. Pinault didn’t buy any of the Koonses offered at Christie’s,” he says, clearly exasperated. “It’s funny that now every strong price is associated with him, you know? But I can tell you very firmly, and very honestly, that is not the case.”
So who is the mystery purchaser? The dealer involved with consigning Pink Panther points to Peter Brandt, the controversial tycoon and former publisher of Art in America. Ségalot refuses to confirm or deny that Brandt is the purchaser, and he is similarly tight-lipped about Woman in Tub.
Despite the hype and glory Christie’s has achieved with its recent-contemporary sales, Tobias Meyer currently has no intention of creating a post-1970 sale at Sotheby’s.
“When you see it as a business, the money is in the classic contemporary works,” Meyer says, referring to multi-million-dollar works by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. “With the young art – I call it the spice of the sale – you can get very high prices for certain things if the quality’s great. You can create a certain buzz, but it’s not the meat and bones of the market.”
Meyer points out that the record $14.3 million achieved for Rothko’s Yellow Over Purple at Sotheby’s most recent contemporary evening sale is roughly the same as the $14.4 million total for all 50 works sold at Christie’s the previous evening.
Given the enormous expenses involved – staffing a separate department, extensive international travel to secure artworks, and color catalogues that are costly to produce and send – it is hard to imagine that either Christie’s or Phillips is making much of a profit on its contemporary sales.
Despite her animus toward the auction houses, Barbara Gladstone acknowledges that there is a silver lining. The widely publicized triumphs of the auctions can translate into increased public interest and more business in the galleries. “They bring a wider audience,” she says, referring to the auction houses, “because it’s exciting and kind of sexy, all that money.” Even so, she says, “there’s a lot more interest in the money being spent than there is in the art.”
Infatuation with art at auction doesn’t necessarily translate into business elsewhere, however. Many dealers are frustrated that new collectors often seem oblivious of the galleries, preferring instead to buy in the charged atmosphere of the auction room.
“I met some people this spring who, much to my complete amazement, went to the auctions and paid five times what they should have for a piece, then chose to come visit the galleries the day after,” Matthew Marks recalls.
“They very nicely purchased a similar piece from me at a fraction of what they’d paid at auction, so I just mumbled something about how I hoped they weren’t going to make a habit of it, and that next time they might want to come visit the gallery the day before the auctions. But they didn’t seem bothered by any of it.
“I think they just have a lot of money and they’re enjoying themselves,” he adds with a sigh. “But as a dealer, you want to throw yourself off a bridge when you see these people going at it in the salesroom.”
Few things are more vexing to a dealer than the spectacle of collectors bidding extravagantly for a multi-edition work when an identical piece is sitting in their gallery, available for a fraction of the auction price. Winterthur 1992, a small landscape photograph from an edition of ten by Thomas Struth, sold for $45,825 in the Christie’s day sale on May 17. Eight blocks north at the Marian Goodman gallery, however, it was available for $20,000 – less than half of the Christie’s price.
“I think the people who go to auction ought to come to the gallery first and take a look!” says Goodman, the legendary 57th Street dealer, who has represented Struth since the late eighties.
Strange as it seems, such discrepancies are commonplace. “If someone wants to pay three times the price, that’s up to them – they’re welcome,” says Antonio Homem, the director of Sonnabend gallery, now located on West 22nd Street. “Maybe it’s just the price one pays for ignorance,” he adds.
Like other dealers, Homem is indignant about collectors who think nothing of paying exorbitant sums in an auction salesroom but who then have the gall to try to nickel-and-dime dealers when visiting the galleries. Recently, he recalls, a collector who paid a wildly inflated price at auction came to the gallery and inquired about a comparable piece. “This person who had paid ten times the price said, ‘How much does your artist cost?’ ” Homem recalls. “I mentioned the price, and he said, ‘Will you give me a discount?’ “
And when works soar in price at auction, it inevitably presents dealers with a delicate problem: whether to raise the price of an artist’s work in the gallery. To Barbara Gladstone’s dismay, Where Does It All End?, a small wax sculpture by Sarah Lucas that is a cast of the artist’s mouth with a cigarette, somehow inspired a winning bid of L37,600 – $55,500 – at Christie’s contemporary sale in London on June 27.
“I sold it for a thousand dollars in 1995 when it was new, but that’s only five years ago,” Gladstone says. “I don’t know how you could arrive at that number,” she adds. “It has its own life, this auction market. And I don’t think the auctioneers know much more about it than the rest of us.”
Even though Lucas’s sculpture sold for 55 times its original gallery price, Gladstone claims she has no intention of hiking prices for new work. “I don’t think the primary market should be affected by the secondary market,” she says. “The primary market has to exercise sanity and restraint. The artist and I are responsible for what we feel is a sane number. And it has to be based on something real. Because we’re not irrational. The marketplace may be irrational, but we’re not.”
“People come up to you and say, ‘I hear you sold a medicine cabinet for L500,000,’ ” Damien Hirst says. “And I say, ‘I sold it for L500 in the gallery and only got half that.’ ”
“The gallery has an ongoing relationship and responsibility to the artist, and the auction house is there to sell what’s in demand, which is changing all the time,” observes Marian Goodman. “But the problem is that artists get judged because they can’t sustain an inflated price. The artist hopes to have a long career, and you’re not looking to make a killing. It gets really bad when you feel like an artist is losing his chance to survive by having the auctions overload his market. There’s no artist that can stand up to that.”
Sometimes, of course, a dealer is happy to see an auction sale boost the reputation of an artist. Sandra Gering was delighted that Gnaw, a piece comprising two 600-pound lumps of chocolate and lard literally gnawed by Janine Antoni, put the conceptual artist on the map when Christie’s sold it for $204,000 to dealer Lucy Mitchell-Innes, bidding on behalf of the Museum of Modern Art.
The conventional wisdom, Hirst concedes, is that “the auction market trickles down into the primary market. It’s a bit like Prada being upset by things selling in thrift stores.” Or perhaps that’s the other way around.
And yet even a star like Hirst is pessimistic about his fate in the auctions. “I haven’t had much bad experience in the auction world,” he says. “But I’m sure it’s inevitable.”


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T-Mobile has rolled out 5G in six cities but, according to CNET, the company is about to unveil nationwide 5G on December 6.
Many 5G deployments fall into two types: low-band and high-frequency. High-frequency 5G offers the highest speeds, but at the cost of range and ability to penetrate obstacles, such as trees and buildings. Low-band 5G, in contrast, is not as fast but offers far superior range and penetration, while still be significantly faster than 4G.
T-Mobile’s deployment-to-date has used high-frequency, millimeter-wave spectrum, the same kind of 5G that Verizon and AT&T are deploying. On December 6, however, the network T-Mobile will be activating will rely on their low-band spectrum. That difference will allow the company to provide service to upwards of 5,000 cities and towns throughout the country. It will also give T-Mobile an edge when it comes to building penetration in those cities.
T-Mobile has assured customers that existing plans will automatically have access to the new 5G service—with compatible phones—without any additional fees or plan changes.
Initially, the only two phones supporting the new spectrum are the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G and the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren, but it’s a safe bet that other manufacturers will be quick to incorporate support in their next models.


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- TikTok and Reels were the two most popular short-form video platforms among creators in August, according to a new survey of 875 influencers by the influencer-marketing agency Obviously.
- 68% of influencers told Obviously that they were using TikTok.
- 52% of respondents said they were using Instagram's Reels.
- 7% of respondents named short-form video app Triller as a platform they were using, and less than 5% listed Byte, Dubsmash, and Likee as apps that they use.
- Subscribe to Business Insider's influencer newsletter: Influencer Dashboard.
With TikTok's ownership status in limbo, competitors have been pushing hard to court its users in the US.
Instagram released a new TikTok-copycat feature, Reels, earlier this month, even offering money to some of TikTok's creators to post on its app. Short-form video app Triller recruited several TikTok stars as investors in July, inviting 18-year-old TikToker Josh Richards to join its executive team and allowing members of Richards' creator collective, Sway LA, to live in two Triller-managed houses. And upstarts like Byte, Dubsmash, and Likee all saw an uptick in app downloads last month.
But TikTok remains the top short-form video platform among influencers, according to a new survey of 875 US-based creators by the influencer-marketing agency Obviously.
68% of respondents to Obviously's August survey said they were using TikTok. About half (52%) of influencers told Obviously that they were using Instagram's Reels. Those two were out in front by a wide margin.
Just 7% reported using Triller, and less than 5% named Byte, Dubsmash, and Likee as apps that they use.
The creators who participated in Obviously's survey were predominantly "micro" influencers with an average of around 35,000 followers on Instagram, according to the company. 59% of respondents were women and all were based in the US. Most survey-takers focus on Instagram for drumming up brand deals, but still listed TikTok more often than Reels when asked about which short-form video platforms they used.
Reels is a relative newcomer to the short-form video scene, arriving in the US just a few weeks ago. While the 15-second video feature has already drawn its share of naysayers — The New York Times called it a "dud" — it has seen a fair amount of adoption among Instagram influencers who have tended to be more interested in giving it a shot than their TikTok-focused counterparts.
"I believe it will slow down the move for Instagram influencers who felt compelled to move to TikTok — these tended to be the late entries into a market anyway," Timothy Armoo, the CEO of influencer-marketing agency Fanbytes, told Business Insider earlier this month.
Here is the full breakdown of short-form video apps influencers said they were using in August, according to Obviously's survey:
- TikTok: 68% of the 875 respondents to Obviously's survey said they use TikTok.
- Reels: 52% of respondents said they use Reels.
- Triller: 7% of respondents said they use Triller.
- Byte: 4% of respondents said they use Byte.
- Dubsmash: 3% of respondents said they use Dubsmash.
- Likee: 2% of respondents said they use Likee.
- Video Star: 2% of respondents said they use Video Star.
To learn more about TikTok and its competitors, read these other Business Insider stories:
- Instagram Reels versus TikTok: Influencers and marketers break down the strengths and weaknesses of each: We spoke with influencers and marketers who say TikTok native creators tend to be more skeptical about Reels.
- TikTok influencers reveal how much money they're getting paid from its $1 billion Creator Fund — and it's pennies per thousand views: Three creators who qualified for the fund told Business Insider they're earning a few dollars for videos that generated tens of thousands of views.
- Some marketers are making contingency plans for their TikTok deals as the political heat on the app creates uncertainty about its future: The lack of clarity around the app's future could make marketers more wary of using the platform.


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Max’s UAE online store
Max, a regional fashion brand, has reportedly launched its new online shopping website (www.maxfashion.com) and iPhone and Android apps, for customers across Saudi Arabia.
The brand’s new platforms are aimed at transforming the shopping experience of its customers by offering a wide variety of women’s, kids’ and men’s apparel and accessories including footwear and household products.
According to a report by the Saudi Gazette, the new online store is designed to deliver a simple and user friendly experience, with a unique variety of features. This include the “Return to Store” feature, which allows customers who have made an online purchase and paid by cash to have the items picked up by Max if they wish to return them. Alternatively, customers are given the option to get an instant cash refund, or a credit note if the items are dropped off at the store.
Ramanathan Hariharan, CEO, Max and Board Member of Landmark Group, said, “The evolution of digitization and improved mobile connectivity is changing customer needs and expectations” He added: “As the market leaders in value fashion, our goal is to offer our customers in the Kingdom an exciting and rewarding Omnichannel experience. We are happy that we can now offer our customers the convenience of shopping online, mobile and in stores.”
In addition, the online platform also integrates Landmark Group’s loyalty programme – Shukran.
The Saudi Gazette report also highlighted that Max will launch its ‘Click & Collect’ feature in Saudi Arabia allowing customers to pick up their items from any store of their choice after purchasing them online.
Customers in Saudi Arabia can now log on to www.maxfashion.com to start shopping from the widest variety of apparel items.


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What is a recession? The most widely accepted definition is a decline in our inflation-adjusted Gross Domestic Product (Real GDP) of at least two consecutive quarters. By that measure, we are almost surely in a recession. Because of an extremely steep fall in our output of goods and services in March, we know that Real GDP declined sharply in the first quarter of the year.
A Significant Decline In Economic Activity
Given the rapid increase in unemployment this month, and its expected increases during the next month or two, Real GDP will decline sharply in the second quarter of the year. So, it would appear that we are indeed in a very deep recession, and that a recovery will probably not set in until at least the summer.
But there’s an official body – the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research – which is the final arbiter of whether or not a business downturn is officially a recession. Their definition is “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months.”
Looking at the economic downturn so far, there has surely been a very significant decline in economic activity in March, which will continue through April and May, and possibly well into the summer. But the question that none of us can answer is how long it will be before our economy will begin to recover.
Until the coronavirus has been brought under control, this economic downturn will continue. Will this take more than a few months? And how many months constitute a few months?
A Look At The Previous Recessions
As New York Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith used to say, “Let’s look at the record.” Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, our economy has gone through twelve recessions. The shortest was from January to July, 1980 (seven months).
So, if the current downturn were to last from March through September, then the Business Cycle Dating Committee would surely label it a recession. Indeed, considering the depth of the downturn, the committee might be inclined to consider a March-August or even a March-July downturn a recession.
As we begin easing up on our social distancing policies in an effort to restart the economy, how quickly can we arrest our falling output of goods and services and actually begin to grow the economy? And once we do, would that mark end of the recession? Almost always it would. But these are not ordinary times.
The Second Wave
Let us say that we reopened the economy in stages, starting in early May. So far, so good. But then, as social distancing declines, new cases of the coronavirus will probably begin to rise again, forcing us to once again close millions of businesses and lay off tens of millions of employees.
A lot is going to happen over the next two or three months. Obviously, President Donald Trump is anxious to at least begin to restore the economic prosperity we enjoyed during his first three years in office. If he succeeds, then it is conceivable that our current downturn ultimately will be too short to be labelled a recession.
On the other hand, we are taking a tremendous risk by opening up most of our economy before the coronavirus is more fully brought under control. My own prediction – for what it’s worth – is that we are going to end up with the worst of both worlds – the additional deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and a long and extremely deep recession. Indeed, the big economic question will be whether to call it a depression.


text: NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Companies providing Web search services were lower across the board early Thursday amid a downgrade of sector leader Google, and news that America Online has launched a local search service. The group is also being affected by a study from PricewaterhouseCoopers that said the online advertising growth rate slowed in the fourth quarter. The report said advertisers spent a record $2.7 billion on the Internet in the quarter, up 24 percent. For the year, Net advertising was up 32 percent. Google GOOG, +0.43% shares were off 5.6 percent to $183.09, Yahoo's yhoo stock lost about 4 percent to $30.80, and Ask Jeeves askj tumbled 7 percent to $21.55. FindWhat.com fwht plummeted more than 22 percent to $10.36 but the company issued a warning for the first quarter after Wednesday's closing bell.


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COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (KBTX) - G-CON Manufacturing announced its recent expansion on Wednesday.
The local company's growth has allowed their production capabilities to double, and they are still planning on more expansion.
Before you pick up your prescription at the pharmacy, your medication has to be made in a clean room. G-CON builds these clean rooms, which allows your medication to be sterile.
“Any drug that’s going to go into a person needs to be made in a very clean environment, so that’s what we’re trying to do here,” said G-CON’s Vice President of Business Management Sid Backstrom.
Backstrom said the company has grown about 170,000 square feet since the company opened in 2009. When he joined the company in 2010, he said there were eight people at the company.
“As we sit here today, we have 140 people,” said Backstrom. “Some of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world, and six of them are our clients now.”
This called for an expansion.
“Prior to the expansion, we were building about 100 PODS a year, that’s our clean rooms. We call them PODS. With the expansion, we’ll be able to go up to 200 a year.”
As they grow production and square footage, that also means more employees.
“Yeah, we are definitely hiring,” he said.
Brazos Valley Economic Development Corporation CEO Matt Prochaska said this is great news for the Brazos Valley.
“They hope to get up to 200 people over the next year,” said Prochaska. “G-CON is yet another example of a company that is providing those opportunities as we grow.”
Backstrom said they are also adding a 2,500 square foot canteen for the employees to relax during their breaks.
G-CON will begin hiring in early 2020.


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Zest appoints new CFO
Employee benefits platform Zest, has expanded its senior leadership team with the appointment of Adrian Wilding to the board as chief financial officer (CFO).
Zest is an employee benefits platform that offers flexible benefits services for a wide range of businesses across the world, including Hargreaves Lansdown, Taylor Wimpey, ADP and Travis Perkins.
Wilding brings a significant wealth of experience from his time in private equity backed financial services and technology businesses.
Prior to Zest, Wilding held CFO roles at USnoop, a tech business operating in the mobile app space, and Universe Group, a supplier of payment and other solutions to petrol forecourts and convenience retailers. He has held other senior positions, including the chief executive of a payment tech business and has a strong M&A and listing experience on both AIM and the FTSE250.
With the total employee benefits market valued at £374m per annum, there is strong potential for business growth, Zest said. Wilding will play a central role in overseeing the business’s finances, driving profitable growth and expanding Zest’s data capabilities and customer offering.
This announcement marks the second senior hire under new chief executive Matt Russell, after Liliana Teixeira joined as Zest’s new head of marketing in May.
“In the post-Covid world, it’s vital that employers are getting the best value for money from their benefits platforms to help attract, retain and motivate their employees,” said Wilding. “I’m delighted to join Zest and look forward to working with the team at Zest to continue to develop an innovative benefits platform. One of my major priorities will be ensuring the business continues to invest in its technological offering to stay at the forefront of the flexible benefits landscape.”


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COVID-19 Point-of-Care Diagnostic Granted Emergency Use Authorization
And, FDA warns consumers about unauthorized fraudulent COVID-19 test kits marketed as home test kits
MONDAY, March 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test received the first emergency use authorization for a point-of-care diagnostic for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Saturday.
The emergency use authorization is intended for high- and moderate-complexity CLIA-certified laboratories and certain patient care settings. The company plans to make the tests available by March 30.
The test provides results within hours rather than days like the tests currently being used, according to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. Patients will receive their results in hospitals, urgent care centers, and emergency rooms, rather than waiting for samples to be sent to the laboratory. "With new tools like point-of-care diagnostics, we are moving into a new phase of testing, where tests will be much more easily accessible to Americans who need them," Azar said in a statement.
In a separate FDA release on Friday afternoon, the agency warned consumers about unauthorized fraudulent COVID-19 test kits that are marketed as home test kits. "We want to alert the American public that, at this time, the FDA has not authorized any test that is available to purchase for testing yourself at home for COVID-19," the agency wrote in the statement. "The FDA sees the public health value in expanding the availability of COVID-19 testing through safe and accurate tests that may include home collection, and we are actively working with test developers in this space."
The agency has already issued warning letters to seven companies that were selling and promoting fraudulent items, including teas, essential oils, tinctures, and colloidal silver, that claim to treat or prevent COVID-19. The FDA is also enhancing enforcement at ports of entry, including International Mail Facilities, to prevent entry of fraudulent products from outside the country. If you are aware of fraudulent test kits for COVID-19, the FDA requests that you report them to firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Chinese automobile manufacturer NIO rescheduled its conference call for the second quarter (Q2) of 2019 on September 25, clarifying that the company only lost 22 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) instead of the rumored $5 billion.
NIO CFO Xie Dongying claimed at the beginning of the call that the company would not answer anything related to fundraising or cash flow, as it is in the process of various financing plans.
Regarding vehicle deliveries in Q2, CEO Li Bin was satisfied with NIO’s performance, considering the general slowdown of Chinese automobile market and fierce competition among premium brands. He was also confident in the model ES6’s competitive power after reviewing the market and customers’ demand.
As for how to improve NIO’s profitability, Xie said that selling more cars is undoubtedly beneficial for the profit margin. However, the profit margin is primarily determined by the production and shipping costs. “We expect the profit margin in the third and fourth quarter to remain negative,” Xie said.
The upcoming release of the ES6 in late September will have a lower profit margin as it has a lower price and few customization options. Another version of the ES8 will have a comparatively higher profit margin, according to Xie.
To improve the deficit, Xie said the company is optimizing its talent structure, evidenced by the company cutting the number of employees to 7,800 in late October.
One day before the conference call, NIO released their earnings report but canceled the original conference call on the same day without any detailed explanation. After the report went out, their stock price dropped by 20.22% to $2.17.


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Electrical car-manufacturing giant, Tesla will soon be setting up electric-car manufacturing plant in Karnataka.
According to the reports, Tesla, a US-based company, will establish the plant in the state, said Karnataka Government. Tesla had registered its company “Tesla Motors India and Energy Private Limited and set up an office in Bengaluru in January, 2021. Tesla reportedly start is India operation with the setting up of a Research & Development Unit in Bengaluru.
Indian Government has offered around $4.6 billion in incentives to the companies for setting up battery manufacturing unit in India.


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Users will soon be able to use Skype from a browser — without having to download anything.
Microsoft announced on Friday that it will soon launch a web-based version of the video-conferencing platform.
The new version of Skype, which is still in beta, allows users to log in to their existing accounts from Skype's website when using Chome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer. Instant messaging is supported as soon as you log in, but voice and video calls require the extra step of installing a browser plugin, although Microsoft says this additional step will only be a temporary necessity.
"In the future, using Skype on the web will become even easier and convenient," the company wrote Friday in a blog post. "Imagine you wanted to meet your child’s teacher, or conduct an online interview with a potential candidate — you’ll be able to chat over Skype directly from a browser in just a click."
Given that the service is still in beta, it's worth pointing out there are several issues with Skype's current web-based version. Microsoft notes that Mac users may experience an "issue with battery consumption," and outgoing video calls may take longer than normal to connect for all web users.
Microsoft is rolling out the service to a limited number of users "in the coming months," with a larger rollout to follow. The company did not say how many users would be part of the initial phase, but those who are selected will see invitations when they log in to their Skype account from Skype.com.


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Canadian auto parts maker Magna's profit jumps 31 pct
March 3 (Reuters) - Canada's Magna International Inc , one of the world's largest auto parts suppliers, posted a 31 percent jump in quarterly profit and raised its dividend.
Magna said net income attributable to the company rose to $458 million, or $2.03 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $351 million, or $1.49 per share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 14 percent to $9.17 billion.
© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved.


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by Anton Shilov
02/05/2013 | 11:50 PM
Advanced Micro Devices reportedly plans to refresh virtually all families of its central processing units (CPUs) and accelerated processing units (APUs) in the first half of the year, according to a report. While two out of three refreshes will only increase clock-speed, there will also be introduction of brand-new products code-named Kabini and Temash.
According to a media report, AMD intends to unveil its Fusion A-series code-named Richland APUs (also known as Trinity 2.0) for desktops already next month, on March 19, 2013. The mobile versions of the new A-series chips in BGA packaging are projected to emerge sometime in May, just in time for PC makers to start adopting the new microprocessors with embedded graphics for their product families due in back-to-school season.
The company also allegedly intends to unleash its highly-anticipated Fusion E-series and X-series “Kabini” chips for low-cost notebooks in in late-May – late-June timeframe. It is logical to expect the first PCs powered by the new APUs with faster Jaguar x86 cores and better graphics to be showcased at the Computex Taipei 2013 trade-show in early June. Since the chip is not going to have direct competitors from Intel Corp., AMD pins a d lot of hopes onto its new Fusion E-series and X-series APUs. Hopefully, AMD’s foundry partner will be able to produce the new chips using 28nm fabrication process in volumes.
It is also logical for AMD to demonstrate tablets with the code-named Temash chip inside at Computex to impress investors and customers with a new tablet offering. However, the particular launch schedule of Temash will depend on actual adoption of the chip by hardware manufacturers.
AMD is also supposed to release faster versions of its FX-series central processing units sometime in June, boosting clock-speeds and offering a low-cost alternative to Intel’s forthcoming Core i-series 4000-family “Haswell” microprocessors that will be revealed in early June.
AMD did not comment on the news-story.


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The voter information for approximately 35 million US citizens is being peddled on a popular hacking forum, two threat intelligence firms have discovered.
The net neutrality debate could be emerging on the UK horizon but the message here is don’t mess around too much; it wouldn’t take much for consumers to switch ISPs.
Printer maker Epson is under fire this month from activist groups after a software update prevented customers from using cheaper, third party ink cartridges.
Nearly 100 percent of unique comments made on net neutrality to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last year were in opposition to the agency’s eventual move to repeal the regulations, according to a new study by a Stanford University researcher.
The app, called “Donald Daters,” is aimed at “American-based singles community connecting lovers, friends, and Trump supporters alike” and has already received rave reviews and coverage in Fox News, Daily Mail and The Hill.
After removing all duplicate and fake comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission last year, a Stanford researcher has found that 99.7 percent of public comments—about 800,000 in all—were pro-net neutrality.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
He earned less than Starbucks and Amazon made in profits last year but Ed Sheeran paid more in tax than either company. Figures released this weekend showed that the pop star paid £5.29 million to the tax man compared to £4.5m that the international online retailer coughed up, and £3.


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Primark predicts increased sales and profit despite impact of pandemic
Primark is expecting its sales and profits in the current financial year to be higher than the last despite the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
In its AGM statement, Primark owner Associated British Foods said stores in its major markets of England, Ireland, France and Belgium have all reopened in the last week after lockdowns and that sales have been very strong. The fashion retailer has extended its opening hours in the run-up to Christmas in most of stores in England and Ireland to cater for increased demand.
Primark still has 34 stores temporarily closed across its markets, including all stores in Northern Ireland and Austria. This represents 7% of its total retail selling space compared to 62% when the highest number of stores were closed in November.
ABF estimates that store closures during the autumn will have cost Primark £430 million in lost sales.
Since the start of the new financial year, Primark has launched two new stores in the US at American Dream in New Jersey and Sawgrass Mills in Florida, which have both performed well. It has also opened two new stores in Spain this week which means it now has a total estate of 389 stores and 16.5 million square feet of retail selling space.


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Full year 2015 net income for Lowell-based J.B. Hunt reached $427.235 million, up 14% compared to 2014. The annual per share earnings of $3.66 beat the consensus estimate thanks to healthy operating income growth in the company’s intermodal and dedicated contract services segments.
The full fiscal year consensus estimate of the 28 analysts who cover the company was per share earnings of $3.65 on total revenue of $6.75 billion.
Total revenue in 2015 was $6.187 billion, just ahead of the $6.165 billion in 2014.
For the fourth quarter, the company posted net income of $116.746 million, better than the $110.306 million in the same quarter of 2014. Per share net income during the fourth quarter was $1.01. Total revenue during the fourth quarter was $1.621 billion, up 0.74% over the $1.609 billion during the 2014 fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter consensus estimate was per share earnings of 99 cents on revenue of $1.62 billion.
Key items in the earnings report, as noted by the company, were:
• The intermodal segment saw 6% load growth in the fourth quarter;
• Truck segment revenue growth of 3% during the fourth quarter was driven by rate increases and an increase in fleet size;
• Improved fuel economy, lower maintenance costs and lower insurance costs helped boost overall operating income during the fourth quarter; and
• Areas with cost increases included driver wages, rail transport, and equipment ownership.
Intermodal, the company’s largest segment, posted fourth quarter operating income growth of $127.7 million, down 1%. Fourth quarter revenue in the segment was $967 million, up 1%.
“Benefits from customer rate increases, a smaller percentage of outsourced dray usage and lower fleet maintenance costs could not offset increases in rail purchased transportation costs, equipment ownership costs and driver recruiting and retention costs,” the company noted in the report released early Thursday (Jan. 21).
SEGMENT PERFORMANCE – fiscal year 2015
Intermodal (JBI) – 59% of total revenue
Revenue: $3.664 billion, down 0.62%
Operating income: $476.685 million, up 3.54%
Dedicated Contract Services (DCS) – 24% of total revenue
Revenue: $1.451 billion, up 4.16%
Operating Income: $163.511 million; up 39.46%
Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) – 11% of total revenue
Revenue: $699.525 million, down 2.58%
Operating Income: $35.729 million; up 19.5%
Truck (JBT) – 6% of total revenue
Revenue: $385.51 million; flat
Operating Income: $39.684 million, 64.57%
FREIGHT INDUSTRY TRENDS
Market watchers are becoming somewhat bearish on 2016 freight demand. A late December 2015 note from Baird Equity Research said recent industry trends indicate a possible recession in the U.S. freight sector.
“2016 freight demand outlook is cautious given continued softness in both industrial (US Dollar strength, weak commodity prices) and retail end markets (potential for inventory destocking amid warm winter weather, slowing personal consumption expenditure growth),” noted the Baird report.
The American Trucking Associations reported Jan. 19 that the seasonally adjusted tonnage index for December was up 1.1% following a 0.2% increase in November. Overall, the tonnage index was up 2.6% in 2015 compared to 2014. However, ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said the trend line is moving in the wrong direction.
“Tonnage ended 2015 on a strong note, but it was not strong for the year as a whole,” Costello noted in his report. “With year-over-year gains averaging just 1.2% over the last four months, there was a clear deceleration in truck tonnage. At the expense of sounding like a broken record, I remain concerned about the high level of inventories throughout the supply chain. The total business inventory-to-sales record is at the highest level in over a decade, excluding the Great Recession period. This will have a negative impact on truck freight volumes over the next few months at least. And, this inventory cycle is overriding any strength from consumer spending and housing at the moment.”
For fiscal year 2016, the company estimates a revenue increase range of 9%-12%, and an operating income increase range of 8%-11%.
Capital expenditures in 2016 are estimated at $537 million, just below the $570 million expected for fiscal year 2015. Of the 2016 estimated spending, $230 million will cover equipment replacement, and $238 million for added equipment. Replacement equipment is estimated to include 2,100 trucks ($73 million) in the intermodal segment and 4,000 trailers ($46 million) in the trucking division. New equipment should include 850 trucks ($158 million) for the intermodal segment and 5,900 containers (80 million) in the dedicated contract services segment.
The 2016 capital expenditures also includes $33 million for facilities and $36 million in technology investments.
J.B. Hunt shares (NASDAQ: JBHT) closed Wednesday at $65.72, up 45 cents. During the past 52 weeks, the share price has ranged form a $93.50 high to a $63.58 low.


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SoCIAL LITE: There's a new way to get social in Vancouver
In search of the perfect drink that balanced great taste with a healthy lifestyle, Canadian entrepreneurs Dan Beach and Kevin Folk spent the last two years searching for the perfect mix.
The result? SoCIAL LITE vodka.
A light and refreshing pre-mixed sparkling vodka drink, SoCIAL LITE vodka allows you to drink without the guilt. What makes the product unique is that it has no sugar or artificial sweeteners and instead uses natural flavours and premium Canadian vodka. The drink comes in two mouth-watering flavours, lemon cucumber mint and lime ginger and delivers a crisp citrus finish.
“We believe consumers are ready for a new type of drink. People are changing how they live, they’re eating and drinking differently and cutting out calories. The easiest way to cut calories is by removing unnecessary sugars,” says Beach. “SoCIAL LITE is about making better choices.”
The duo believe that Canadians, especially those living healthy and active lifestyles like Vancouverites, will fall in love with the drink, and are now working on building the brand and company full time.
The most surprising part of the drink is that there is only 80 calories per 355mL can. Many other ready to drink cocktails are flavoured with sugar and pack over 200 calories in a bottle or can, making SoCIAL LITE Vodka a good option to cut back on the calories.
The drink certainly has gained a lot of attention; it has been featured on Dragons Den, Trendhunter, CTV and in the Calgary Herald. It’s clear by the reactions on SoCIAL LITE’s Facebook page that Vancouverites are loving this new Canadian drink.
The drinks recently launched in B.C. and are popping up in stores across the province.
Cheers to staying social and guilt free, Vancouver.


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We all know that currently the excitement amongst netizens and fans of this charismatic and iconic bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra can be happy as trade analysts say Shershaah is Sidharth Malhotra’s best work.
Just few days back, The much awaited trailer of hunk bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani starrer Shershaah is finally out now which has already taken the social media and internet by storm and an amazing update here is that trade analysts say Shershaah is Sidharth Malhotra’s best work.
The trailer of Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani starrer Shershaah was released yesterday and ever since then, it has been receiving praises and applauds from everywhere be it his fans on social media or his industry friends too and now an exciting news for fans is that trade analysts say Shershaah is Sidharth Malhotra’s best work.
Its true that this time around, Sidharth Malhotra’s portrayal of Captain Vikram Batra both in his professional and personal life has finally managed to leave all his fans and also audiences impressed and apart from them, even the trade analysts say Shershaah is Sidharth Malhotra’s best work.
Sidharth Malhotra is all set to be seen in Shershaah which is based on the life of the Kargil war hero Captain Vikram Batra (PVC). The trailer of the film has already got the audiences excited.
Apart from the audiences, trade analysts too are all praises for the film. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh shared, “If the trailer works, one automatically gets excited to watch the film. In the case of Shershaah, the trailer has been very interesting and well-made that highlights what the film is all about. We have read about how Captain Vikram Batra fought the war and to see the real-life story on screen would be something to look forward to. We have been making commercial, fiction films but it’s time to pay tribute and salute our heroes. I think Shershaah should do that”.
Trade analyst Atul Mohan said, “The trailer is very good and Sidharth Malhotra looks apt for the role”.
Girish Johar, producer and film business analyst, was all praises as he stated, “I loved the trailer of Shershaah. I would have loved to watch the film on the big screen”.
Amazon Original Movie Shershaah is jointly produced by Dharma Productions and Kaash Entertainment. The film will premiere across 240 countries and territories on 12th August 2021 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.


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Samsung Galaxy S8 is now available in Burgundy Red Color
Samsung Electronics has officially announced the release of a new color for the Galaxy S8: Burgundy Red. This edition will be available first in Korea beginning on November 28, before rolling out to selected markets. The availability details will be announced by each market’s wireless providers and regional Samsung offices.
The Galaxy S8 is also available in Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Coral Blue, Arctic Silver and Maple Gold.


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A leading player in the market of e-Commerce Swiss Digitec Galaxus added support for cryptocurrency payments. This is stated in a press release.
Thus, the company intends to use bitcoin, Bitcoin to Cash, Bitcoin SV, Ethereum, Ripple, Binance Coin, Litecoin, Tron, NEO and OmiseGO as payment for goods exceeding 200 francs.
At the site Digitec Galaxus posted about 2.7 million units of various goods. In 2018 store sales reached $261 million, making it the 341 largest online retailer in the world.
Note that the support of crypto-currency translations have been implemented using processing Datatrans and the Danish startup Coinify.
If the user intends to purchase for the cryptocurrency, the system opens a special window for 15 minutes during which quotations are not altered. The fee for this service is 1.5%.
We will remind, earlier it was reported that the Japanese retail giant Rakuten will add support of crypto-currencies in your application.
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Posts Tagged “Argentina lemons”
Distributor Salix Fruits ended 2019 with 30 percent growth over 2018, in part because of its imported Argentine lemon program in the U.S.
The global fruit distributor has partnerships with growers in South and Central America, Mexico, the U.S. and other countries. Domestic fruits include cherries, pears, apples, blueberries, plums and peaches.
The company’s U.S. headquarters is in Atlanta, with other offices in Chicago and Philadelphia. Other offices are in South Africa, Chile, Spain, Brazil, Russia and Argentina.
Growth was led by trade in the U.S., Latin America and Canada in the second half of the year, according to a news release.
Salix saw growth in its export of Washington apples and U.S. grapes.
“We export to the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia,” Juana Elortondo, sales manager for Salix Fruits, which also has offices in Chicago and Philadelphia. “This channel represents 25% of our business.”
In 2018, Salix fruit added CEO Alejandro Moralejo and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Calvo, which allowed the company to continue to strengthen its citrus program, according to the release.
“Salix was able to take advantage of new opportunities in the U.S. by nurturing its partnerships with Argentine lemon producers, such as Padilla Citrus,” according to the release. “By complementing the Argentine volume with imports from Mexico, Turkey and Spain, Salix provides lemons to the U.S. market throughout the year.”
Patience is a virtue if you are wanting to get through the bureaucratic red tape and import South American lemons, at least those from Argentina. But the long wait is over as shipments are arriving at U.S. ports to be trucked across North America.
The first U.S. bound lemons in 17 years from Argentina’s Tucumán citrus growing region arrive this week after departing that South American country April 18th.
Argentina had been seeking to have exports of lemons to the U.S. allowed since 2001, when a U.S. District Court in California overturned a USDA rule from a year earlier allowing lemon imports from Argentina.
Argentina’s provinces of Tucumán, Salta and Jujuy will export between 15,000 and 20,000 metric tons of lemons to the U.S. during the 2018 season. Most of Argentina’s lemon shipments are expected in June and July.
Argentina’s lemon exports in 2017 totaled 241,000 metric tons, with the top destinations listed as Spain, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Canada.
Argentia’s lemons will be arriving in the U.S. through Citromax, Carlstadt, N.J.
The company has over 13,000 acres of lemons in Tucuman, Argentina. .
“We are very proud to say that Citromax is the only American-owned lemon producer that is packing and selling lemons into the United States retail market,” Vivian Glueck, president of the Citromax Group, said in a news release. “We are thrilled that the recent lifting of trade restrictions has opened up the U.S. market, and we are moving ahead with bringing the highest-quality lemon fruit to American consumers.”
A February court decision in favor of the USDA’s approval of the import of Argentine lemons allows the fruit into the U.S. for the first time in 17 years.
The lemons will carry Citromax brands, and are being imported by Seald Sweet, The Oppenheimer Group and Vision Import Group; those companies will also market the lemons.
Two-thirds of the nation’s potatoes have yet to be shipped for the 2016-17 season. Meanwhile, Argentina lemons will be permitted to enter the U.S., with first arrivals next spring.
About 34 percent of the U.S. potato crop has been shipped thus far this season as of December 1st. The 13 major potato shipping states had 269 million cwt. of potatoes in storage at the beginning of the month, up 2 percent from a year ago.
The nation’s largest potato shipper, Idaho, had 72 percent of its fall crop — 100 million cwt. — remaining in storage on December 1st. Washington state, which is a distant second to Idaho in volume, had 57 million cwt. of potatoes in storage December 1st, which was 54 percent of its crop.
Idaho potato shipments – grossing about $5100 to New York City.
San Luis Valley, Colorado potatoes – grossing about $4300 to Chicago.
Argentina Lemon Imports
The USDA has ruled fresh lemons from Argentina will be permitted to be imported into the U.S., which has greatly upset California citrus leaders. The rule is the result of 10 years of study on pest risks. The agriculture department projects Argentina may export between 15,000 and 20,000 metric tons of fresh lemons to the U.S. annually, or about 4 percent of the average total U.S. lemon volume (based on shipments from 2008 to 2014) of 535,244 metric tons.


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A 10 percent tax on sugary drinks has cut the purchase and consumption of sugary drinks by an average of 10 percent in places it has been introduced, a just published major review has found.
Researchers from the University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand, combined evidence from settings where a sugary drinks’ tax had been applied and evaluated it into a meta-analysis. Studies included four cities in the US: Cleveland, Ohio; Portland, Maine; Berkeley, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A regional tax was studied in Catalonia, Spain, and the effects of country-wide taxes were studied in Chile, France and Mexico.
The research is published in the international scientific journal, Obesity Reviews.
Lead author Dr. Andrea Teng says the research takes a new approach in combining multiple studies examining the real-world impact of sugary drink taxes on sales, purchases and dietary intake before and after taxes were imposed, or between taxed and untaxed settings.
“This new review presents compelling evidence that sugary drink taxes result in decreased sales, purchasing or dietary intake of taxed beverages. For a 10 percent tax, sugary drink volumes declined by an average of 10 percent.
“It shows taxes on sugary drinks are an effective tool to reduce consumption, and we know from other research that the high consumption of sugary drinks increases the risk of obesity, diabetes and dental caries.”
Dr. Teng says there is also evidence that sugary drink consumption may contribute to heart disease, cancer and premature death.
Some of the studies looked at the alternative drinks people consumed instead of sugary drinks after the tax was applied. With a 10 percent tax on sugary drinks, there was a 1.9 percent increase on average in such alternative drinks, and for water specifically there was a 2.9 percent increase. This healthier substitution pattern is not conclusive, but in three out of the four settings where substitution occurred, the increase in consumption of the other non-sugary drinks was statistically significant.
A co-author of the review, Dr Amanda Jones, says all the individual studies in the review found a reduction in sugary drink consumption, but the impact in some settings was greater than others. Applying tax by thresholds of sugar content, rather than as a percentage of price, appeared to be important for determining a more favorable impact.
Other reasons for differences between settings may be the combination with other obesity prevention policies, the public’s awareness of the tax, industry responses, consumer preferences, border permeability, availability of alternative beverages, and sensitivity to price. For example, Chile also decreased tax on low-sugar beverages at the same time as increasing the tax on high-sugar beverages; Mexico introduced a sugary drinks’ tax combined with a junk food tax; and France also taxed soft drinks with artificial sweeteners.
“Some of the differences found in these studies may also be due to non-price mechanisms. For example, a tax may signal to the public the seriousness of the health concern associated with consuming a product,” Dr. Jones says.
“A tax can also prompt manufacturers to reformulate sugar levels downward, as seen in the UK, even before their tax was introduced in April 2018.”
Some studies looked at the impact of sugary drink taxes by socio-economic factors, but more research is needed in this area, the authors say. In Mexico, for instance, there were greater consumption declines in lower income households, while the opposite was true in Chile.
The World Health Organization recommends governments impose a 20 percent tax on sugary drinks, saying the evidence for reduced consumption and meaningful health effects is strongest for this food category.


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Gran Turismo fans are people of near-infinite patience. Series developer Polyphony Digital has announced that Gran Turismo Sport, the latest entry in the long-running racing series, will be delayed to 2017.
The reason for the delay is vague at best. In a PlayStation blog post, Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi states that, “As we approach our planned release date in November, we realise we need more time to perfect GT Sport, to which we’ve already dedicated so must effort to since announcing the title, and do not want to compromise the experience.”
Other than the delay announcement itself, there has been no definitive release date announced as of yet. Gran Turismo Sport is a PlayStation 4 exclusive.


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Phnom Penh: The Ministry of Industry says that 77 new factories are in operationEstablished in Cambodia in the first quarter of 2020.
Speaking at a press conference on the progress and ongoing direction of the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation this morning, 23 April In the first quarter of the year, Secretary of State Heng Sok Kong, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation, said. By 2020, 77 new investment projects will be approved and approved by the Royal Government in seven provinces and cities. 7 Although Cambodia is facing the Covid-19 pandemic.
The project will provide approximately 27,909 jobs while six factories have been closed.
Of the 77 factories that are authorized to operate, Mr. Sok Kong said, 74 were approved by the Ministry of Industry, Industry, Technology and Technology. With 01 Capital Hall and 2 Replacement Factories.
“We saw 77 factories proposed to set up, and are proud of, one of the stages in our country. And across the world are experiencing the disease 19. In some countries, some countries lack the raw materials for use in these factories, which have shut down all factories. But our country is different in that the government allows all factories to operate normally, all workers on New Year's Day also do this as a special feature Cambodia. ”
“Firstly, Cambodia has prevented the spread of the disease to the second community. Most of us, Cambodia has a special friendship, a good brotherhood, and a great partnership with China when we meet in Cambodia. Particularly difficult is the lack of Chinese raw materials that make Cambodia the first country in the world The raw material for Cambodia, though not enough, but these steps ensure the sustainability of our manufacturing chain. Cambodia, some of our factories, see some countries do not have the raw materials, but our country can guarantee the raw materials for running the factory Th Missile.
As of the beginning of the second quarter of 2020, there were 1,801 factories under the control of the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation. Job opportunities offered to 1,063,031 workers by: Samphos


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read Latest articles about Lufthansa
Hainan Airlines connects Changsha with London Heathrow, Middle East Airlines unveils newly redesigned lounge, and more.
From family zones to pasta stations, these lounge facilities look set to enthrall frequent flyers.
Lufthansa to resume nonstop flights between Munich and Singapore, Cathay Pacific to link Hong Kong and Brussels, and more.
The iconic crane stays as the airline launches a stylish “Lufthansa Blue” design.
Lufthansa is making it easier for travelers to do their in-flight shopping with a new feature that allows them to pre-book their desired ite...
Lufthansa upgrades aircraft with new seats, in-flight WiFi, and new in-flight entertainment options.
Lufthansa's business class turns into a top-grade restaurant come meal time with the airline's new dining concept.
Lufthansa will unveil their new Escada first-class amenity kit this month on all long-haul flights.
Lufthansa is offering promotional fares for customers in Jakarta and several cities in Malaysia.


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Prominent Christians Talk Effective Target And Bud Light Boycotts
View Source | May 26, 2023 8:50 am
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- Conservative consumers have finally figured out how to make their money talk when it comes to companies that peddle LGBT ideology including transgenderism, and Wall Street is taking notice.
- Following backlash from the Right, retail giant Target said this week that it will remove some of its LGBT Pride merchandise aimed at both children and adults, including “tuck-friendly” women’s bathing suits, and designs from a company that sells satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing.
- The backtracking comes amid a devastating boycott against beer brand Bud Light over that company’s decision to team up with Dylan Mulvaney, a 26-year-old transgender activist who pretends to be a “girl” in online videos.
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The UK-Uganda Convention has appointed media personality Edwin Musiime as its first ever Ambassador as the 2021 Convention inches closer.
The convention founded 11 years ago by Mr. William Mutenza brings together experts, high profile business and government delegates from Uganda and UK, business leaders, Ugandans in the Diaspora, professionals and representatives from prominent organisations based in Uganda, the UK and beyond.
Musiime who is also the CEO Crest Group, Founder Chamber for young entrepreneurs and Property Show host franchise owner starts his new role with a week left to the convention 2021 that is set to be hosted virtually on Saturday September 11th.
“Am much humbled by the opportunity to serve the interests of both great nations Uganda and the UK whose trade and investment relationship goes along way and I’m much looking forward to the convention 2021,” says Musiime.
The convention will be opened by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister of Uganda Robinah Nabbanja under the theme, “Connecting Investors with Uganda investment & Trade opportunities.
The virtual event this year will feature renown leaders and business personalities like; Lord Popat, UK trade Envoy to Uganda and Rwanda, Robert Mukiza, Director General Uganda Investment Authority, H.E Amb. Julius Moto, Uganda’s High Commissioner to UK, Rajiv Ruparelia, Managing Director, Ruparelia Group, Anthony Kituuka, Executive Director, Equity Bank Uganda LTD, Willy Mutenza, MD – the Promota Africa / Founder UgandaUK Convention and Ms Bernadette Lewis, Secretary General – Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation among others.
“As the founder of the Uganda-UK Trade & investment annual convention/summit, I am excited and happy to welcome Mr. Edwin Musiime as our new Convention’s brand ambassador for Uganda. As the Convention’s team, we feel that one good decision that we took was getting him onboard due to his integrity, love for the growth of Uganda and Ugandans in the Diaspora and this coupled with your new face and market value, we shall reach new heights,” Mutenza said in an interview from the UK.
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at firstname.lastname@example.org


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Facebook has changed its brand logo. Facebook has stated that it has designed a new logo with a specific purpose.
All the letters in the new Facebook logo are in capital letters.
This new logo does not appear immediately on the Facebook app and Facebook Web. Facebook has reportedly shown itself to be a parent company, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and so on.
The new Facebook logo has been released on Gif, which means it’s on the go. It is broadly written FACEBOOK and contains all capital letters.
It is claimed that the colors in the logo of the logo will tell about the different products of the Facebook company. The blue color for Facebook, the green pink for WhatsApp is set for Instagram. The new logo is expected to be available to users within a few weeks. The company will use it for marketing and advertising of products.
Remember, Facebook has already added the Facebook feature to WhatsApp and Instala, including some time ago. The logo will be used there.
According to Facebook, the purpose of using Facebook is to show people that Facebook and its other apps are based on a common structure and depend on the same team.


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Aldi has launched its annual Plastics and Packaging Progress Report, which outlines its progress to achieving a 25 per cent reduction of plastics and packaging by 2025.
New research commissioned by Aldi Australia confirms a reduction in plastics waste is top of mind for shoppers, with 73 per cent of Australians agreeing supermarkets should work with suppliers to reduce the packaging on products.
This hunger for greater recycling action extends into their own homes, with 64 per cent saying it is important that packaging leftover from a grocery shop can be recycled.
The research found that while Aussies want to do the right thing, they’re just not sure how to. More than two in five (43 per cent) of Australians don’t always recycle packaging from their household waste. And when identifying the reason why, another 42 per cent pointed to “confusion over what is suitable for recycling”, as the main reason.
Looking for direction, four in five (79 per cent) of shoppers confirmed they would correctly sort and dispose of their household waste if given clearer instructions.
To help curb this confusion, as part of Aldi’s plastics and packaging commitments, the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) logo and recycling instructions will be featured on 100 per cent Aldi’s exclusive brand products by the end of this year, already displaying the information on more than 75 per cent of the range.
Brooke Donnelly, CEO, Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), welcomes the plan to help put more knowledge in the hands of customers to encourage accurate recycling.
“The ARL increases recycling recovery rates and contributes to cleaner recycling streams and it is commendable to see Aldi support its customers to play their part in correctly recycling and disposing of their packaging,” she said.
“Achieving the display of the ARL on 75.6 per cent of own-brand products as of the end of 2021 is a fantastic achievement and it’s great to see Aldi on its way to achieving their goal to have it included on their entire range by the end of 2022.”
At the end of 2021, Aldi had achieved a plastic packaging reduction of 11 per cent as compared to 2019, the equivalent to preventing more than 4,000 tonnes of plastic from entering the Australian environment.
Daniel Baker, Director Corporate Responsibility, ALDI Australia, said the company is well on track to achieving all its targets.
“While we have a responsibility to reduce plastics, we also feel we have a responsibility to help our customers correctly dispose or recycle the packaging that they take home with them after their shop. The industry approved ARL instructions show how to correctly dispose of product packaging and will hopefully give our customers peace of mind that they are doing the right thing by reducing waste to landfill and contributing to a more sustainable future,” he said.
In a bid to give customers more options for recycling, Aldi has also partnered with REDcycle to offer a soft plastics recycling program across all of its stores nationally by the end of 2022. The program offers a closed loop solution that will enable its shoppers to recycle more components of their household waste by returning soft plastics to its stores to then be re-processed into new packaging materials.


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Didi Global, the Chinese ride-hailing giant, shares ended their first day of US trading slightly over their initial public offering (IPO) price, valuing the company at US$68.49 billion.
It was the biggest listing in the US by a Chinese company since Alibaba's debut in 2014.
Didi had originally hoped for a valuation of around $100bn, but those expectations were said to have been scaled back after potential investors raised concerns about the speed and profitability of the firm's expansion plans.
There was also uncertainty over how an antitrust probe into Didi, revealed by Reuters, would impact the business. Didi said at the time it would not comment on “unsubstantiated speculation from unnamed source(s)”.
SoftBank is Didi's largest investor with a 20.2% stake. With Uber retaining 12% and Tencent holding 6.4%. Cheng Wei will own a 6.5% stake in the company he built, while having a 35.5% voting power due to a dual-class share structure that's become increasingly popular among tech companies.
Didi is the latest in a string of Chinese companies seeking to cash in on valuations of the US stock market. Around 29 Chinese firms raised $7.6 billion in US IPOs in the first six months of the year, according to Refinitiv data. This is despite the ongoing economic tensions between the US and China.
The company was founded in 2012 by Cheng Wei as Didi Dache, a taxi-hailing app. Wei has said he had the idea to launch a ride-hailing platform after he struggled to book a taxi on a freezing night in Beijing. It then merged with Kuaidi Dache to become Didi Kuaidi and was later renamed Didi Chuxing.
It began expanding internationally in 2018, and the company now operates in 14 countries outside of China, with Brazil and Mexico being the largest contributors, according to a Loop research note from earlier this month. Part of the proceeds raised from the IPO will also go to growing its presence in international markets.
In addition to traditional ride-hailing, Didi is heavily invested in making autonomous taxis a reality. The company recently got approval to test self-driving vehicles in Beijing.


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In deep empathy with the people in Ukraine and for the sake of the European peace order, CAEF stands behind the sanctions against Russia. However, the consequences for the European economy can only be borne, if there is an open dialogue between suppliers and customers.
The current development on the energy and raw materials markets is pushing the European foundries to the edge of the possible and even beyond. While gas is mainly used in melting operations for non-ferrous metals, it is not substitutable by other fuels in pre- and post-treatment operations in iron foundries either. The energy-intensive foundry industry is suffering in particular from the enormous explosion in energy prices.
Direct trade between Europe and Russia is more and more coming to a stop. European ports have already been partially closed to Russian vessels. Meanwhile, Ukrainian ports have already been mined by Russian aggressors, making exports impossible. Within Europe, in addition, road transport of goods has already been noticeably impaired. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have exchanged their trucks for guns and returned to their home country. The international supply chains, which are still struggling with the consequences of the pandemic on top of everything else, are thus stretched to breaking point. Due to interruption or adaptation, transport routes have been cancelled or significantly disrupted. In the search for international alternatives, every additional freight kilometre has doubled in price, also in view of the rapidly rising petrol prices.
Foundries are therefore also confronted with considerable price jumps on the procurement side. For many metallic input materials never seen maximum prices currently apply. The important iron and aluminium supply sources from Russia and Ukraine are currently blocked, pushing the metal prices at sky level. The supply commitment increasingly consists of only a few hours or even minutes. Many existing framework agreements for the supply of materials are suspended. Alternative supplier countries can only be identified to a limited extent on the world market.
Every purchasing decision by foundries today is characterised by a much higher degree of speculation than before the price explosions. Overall, the supply of raw materials is facing significant difficulties. That is why it is right for customer-supplier relations to take on a new level.
In these extraordinary times, customers of cast products should communicate their needs transparently and recognise their suppliers more than ever as an elementary cornerstone of the value chain.
Download the press release here.
phone: +49 211 68 71 — 277


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Facebook’s Android app negatively affects performance and battery lifestyles; even when it’s most effective going for walks inside the heritage, customers locate
FB on Android
Facebook does now not have the greatest track record with its Android app. Users have long complained approximately performance troubles. It is sucking up the battery, and the remaining 12 months, Facebook’s leader product officer, Chris Cox, took the unusual step of making his body of workers ditch their iPhones and flow to Android till they sorted out the troubles.
But the problems have remained, and recently they led the Android blogger Russell Holly to dump the app, beginning a series response which discovered something rather interesting about the app’s overall performance. Prompted by Holly’s revelation that lifestyles on Android were higher without Facebook’s app, Reddit person pbrandes_eth examined the app’s impact on the overall performance of an LG G4.
They observed that after the Facebook and Facebook Messenger apps had been uninstalled, other apps on the smartphone launched 15% quicker. They examined 15 separate apps and documented the findings, leading other Reddit customers to test different gadgets. They observed similar effects while checking out for app loading overall performance.
After studying Holly’s piece, I had also decided to explore other options for gaining access to Facebook and peer if I could enhance my telephone’s battery life as opposed to app loading.
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I left the Facebook Messenger app hooked up but swapped the Facebook app for an app called Metal, which acts as a wrapper for Facebook’s cellular site. Over the direction of a day, my Huawei Nexus 6P had a 20% greater battery. This was authentic on common for every day for the week attempted.
In Metal, I changed into the identical notifications and gained access to identical capabilities as I had just a week in advance via the Facebook app, so why the distinction?
Despite the Facebook app not displaying up as the usage of a sizable amount of strength within Android’s built-in battery statistics, it was obviously eating extra power inside the history than it needed to.
Different Android offerings consisting of Android gadgets and Android OS confirmed reduced battery consumption when the Facebook app changed into uninstalled. Those offerings act as a buffer for many apps outside global when strolling in the heritage. So at the same time, as Facebook didn’t appear to be, it turned into the usage of that a lot of strength; it turned into really being displayed elsewhere in Android’s statistics.
So, uninstalling the Facebook app saves both batteries and quickens Android phones, it seems. Obviously, it can be less handy not to have the apps, but numerous substitutes let you get admission to the mobile site inside a wrapper, like Metal that I used.
Alternatively, you could surely use Facebook within Chrome on an Android telephone: recent updates have enabled notifications for movements, chats, and different features from Facebook even in the heritage, meaning they revel in may be very similar to using an app.
Either way, until Facebook improves its Android app, ditching it may save you 20% of your battery lifestyles an afternoon and accelerate your smartphone.
A Facebook spokesperson stated: “We have heard reports of a few humans experiencing speed issues stemming from our Android app. We are searching into this and will maintain you published. We are dedicated to persevering with to enhance those troubles.”
Longer battery life way to Doze 2.Zero
One of the nice bits approximately Android 6. Zero Marshmallow become the advent of Doze, a feature that helped keep the battery while the cellphone or pill wasn’t shifting, including being placed on a table. It made a huge difference to standby battery lifestyles.
Android 7.0 Nougat applies equal battery-extending capabilities to when the cellphone is moving too. When the screen is off, Nougat has lots tighter controls on what can and can’t get admission to records, how regularly, and how often it wakes the telephone up. The result is among 15 and 20% longer battery existence in my testing on a Nexus 6P.
Facial popularity improvements
android seven nougat overview
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Nougat improves Android’s smart lock characteristic, making face matching significantly quicker and greater correct.
Google’s clever lock functions had been around for a while. They use a mixture of sensors to know when to deactivate the display lock and make sure the passcode is always required.
Facial reputation has been available for some time. Still, the relief on face device has substantially stepped forward because of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which’s particularly beneficial for drugs and other devices without a fingerprint scanner. Using a Pixel C, the machine went from slightly useful in the abnormal occasion while it worked to unlock the tool approximately eighty% of the time.
In fact, the only times it didn’t understand my face had been after I became sporting shades and overly huge headphones.
Overall, Android 7.0 Nougat is an outstanding replacement. It makes some substantial changes below the hood that offer benefits, including longer battery existence. However, the visible tweaks are subtle, and the maximum will be masked by using the customizations made to Android by 0.33-birthday party producers.
The brief-respond additions to notifications sense like they must have been there from the start. But perhaps the great small tweak that all manufacturers ought to now undertake is the ability to double-faucet the assessment button to jump between the final two used apps quickly. It’s a lot quicker than bouncing to a menu and returned and takes no dexterity in any respect to spark off.
One thing is positive, however – in case you didn’t like Android Marshmallow, Nougat isn’t going to do something to change your mind.


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PepsiCo Inc. PEP -0.50% said it raised its guidance for the full year given its performance so far this year, while the company faces continuing supply-chain disruptions and inflationary pressures within the labor, transportation and commodity markets.
The maker of snacks and beverages on Tuesday said it expects organic revenue—a measurement that adjusts for items like foreign-exchange translation, acquisitions and divestitures—to grow about 8% for fiscal 2021. It previously expected organic revenue to grow 6%.
The Purchase, N.Y., company sees core constant currency earnings per share growth of at least 11%, compared with its prior outlook of 11%. The company expects core EPS to grow at least 12%, compared with its previous guidance of 12%.
The company is “carefully navigating a dynamic and volatile supply chain and cost environment,” Chief Executive Ramon Laguarta said.
Food companies have said they are paying more for ingredients and materials, including cooking oil and steel, as costs rise for freight, fuel and labor too.
For the quarter that ended Sept. 4, PepsiCo posted net revenue of $20.19 billion, up 11.6% from the same period last year and beating expectations of analysts polled by FactSet.
However, profit fell to $2.22 billion from $2.29 billion as costs increased. Selling, general and administrative expenses rose to $7.64 billion from $6.92 billion.
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Spotify | Going from Music to Everything Audio
In 2019, Spotify announced it was moving its music focus to a more general audio focus to broaden its offerings and widen its global lead on competitors. It acquired the Joe Rogan Experience early in 2020 and penned exclusive podcast deals with Kim Kardashian and DC Comics.
The company’s stock jumped eight percent at the announcement of the Joe Rogan acquisition alone.
As it CEO Daniel Elk says:
A year ago, when I was on the show last time, I introduced the shifts in our strategy from music to audio. At that time, we were a very small player in audio, but growing fast. Now, where the number one player in more than 20 markets around the world and quickly catching up in the markets where we’re not number one.
That’s where Spotify is taking the future right now, and analysts believe it can ride that wave for a bit. Ninety percent of its monetization is on the subscription side. But 10 percent is on the ad side, and it thinks that there is a real growth opportunity for them in the ad space, particularly with podcasts.
Just after these podcast deals were penned, the global pandemic started taking its toll on the economy. But Spotify was one of the few companies that weathered the storm. In fact, Spotify stock increased 70 percent from the beginning of January 2020 to the end of June 2020.
They benefited from COVID because the lockdown has forced people to stop listening to the radio and they discovered Spotify while stuck at home.
Fixed Content Cost
It’s following the Netflix model of paying upfront fixed costs for Content acquisition and creation. If you are Spotify, you’d much rather make money from the podcast acquisitions and that then having to pay 60 to 70 cents for every dollar to Universal or Sony.
But in order to stay at the top, Spotify is going to have to stay nimble and quick. Competitors like Tencent are already adding features like karaoke to their streaming music platforms.
Tencent, at least, is on that path from a gamification perspective. So I do think that that is an opportunity for Spotify to keep in mind, like, yes, it’s great that you got Joe Rogan. It’s great that you’ve got Bill Simmons. But look at those opportunities as well. Even though it’s a different market, I think there’s a big opportunity there.
Nevertheless, Spotify is still very much a success story.