text:
- Qatar National Bank claims customer data released by hackers is authentic
- How to recover data from a corrupt hard drive or SSD with no backup on Mac: How to delete corrupted files on external Mac drive
- IBM offers advice on how to secure blockchain in the cloud
- Toy maker Maisto’s website pushed growing CryptXXX ransomware threat
- Phishing apps posing as popular payment services infiltrate Google Play
10 Essential Steps to Web Security
This short guide outlines 10 simple steps to best practice in web security. Follow them all to step up your organisation’s information security and stay ahead of your competitors. But remember that the target never stands still. Focus on the principles behind the steps – policy, vigilance, simplification, automation and transparency – to keep your information security bang up to date.
Please supply your email address to access the content.
- What the IT industry expects from the 2016 Federal Budget
- EMC World 2016: Why Dell / EMC merger still has a channel to convince
- EMC World 2016: Combined Dell and EMC channel program aims to “go deeper” with partners
- 2016 ARN Emerging Leaders awards – today is the last day, get your nominations in
- EMC World 2016: Joe Tucci bows out as EMC looks to the future
- Microsoft's CEO explains why his company sued the U.S. government
- Can Oracle buy its way into the cloud?
- A judge has partially dismissed Twitter's surveillance case against the US government
- Dell plus EMC has a name: Dell Technologies
- Oracle is paying US$532 million to snatch up another cloud service provider
- Mars global CMO steps down, chief customer officer takes over
- Why AAMI turned to Facebook mobile and segmentation to drive brand favourability
- Twitter dives as Facebook continues to thrive
- From tacos to HR, chatbots make it personal
- How AMEX is using data to build great mobile-led customer experiences


text:
Police to fine shoppers without a face covering £100 from July 24
Face masks will become compulsory in all stores from next week. Shoppers who fail to comply risk fines of £100 under the plans to stop a second wave of coronavirus. Only young children or those with certain disabilities will be exempt from the new regulations which come in on Friday, July 24. Retai»»»
Have anything to say about this article?
You can report: fake news, misinformation, error, more information, additional data, etc.Comment

domain: news


text:
(KMOV.com) – A customer of Alex Autoplex on St. Charles Rock Road says the car lot is selling cars without titles.
Items from Alex Autoplex have since been removed to be auctioned off. The money from that sale will be applied to the court judgment car dealer Jeff Higgs won against Alex Autoplex's owner.
News 4’s Mike Colombo confronted a man at Alex Autoplex in January after several viewers complained the lot was selling cars without titles.
Jeff Higgs is holding titles to 11 vehicles he alleges Alex Autoplex paid for with checks that bounced. The hope is the courts will give Higgs the green light to take cars from Alex’s lot. Then debts can be settled and titles can finally be given to their rightful owners.


text:
Cisco Systems Inc.'s revenues were hurt by a large two-digit decrease in sales to network providers, and the situation is not expected to improve anytime soon.
reported fourth quarter fiscal results somewhat better than expected, with sales of $ 13.4 billion and adjusted earnings of 83 cents per share. The results were weakened by a 21% reduction in the company's sales to service providers, the biggest decline for the just ended financial year and a 2% reduction in corporate companies, the only decline in that industry year-round.
Cisco also provided timely guidance for the next quarter, helping to pull shares down 7.7% in after-hours trading, and CFO Kelly Kramer pointed directly to the challenges in the service provider sector for that forecast.
"In addition to service providers, the rest of the business is up with single digits," Kramer said in an interview with MarketWatch after revenue.
Kramer explained that network service providers are currently focusing on the consumer mode element of their 5G rollout, ie. the radio parts of the mobile phone tower, in the transition to the next generation of mobile phone services.
"They have to build huge infrastructure. They start with the radio part, which we don't even sell. When they start building core networks, it will take up the business. "
Cisco's weak forecast recently emerged out of fear that technology spending would decline, especially for hardware companies. The results also indicate a potential cooling down: Cisco's corporate management decreased by 2%, after increasing by 9% in the third quarter, 1
"We saw some small indications of some macro changes in July that we did not see during the previous quarter," Robbins told analysts.
"We saw some weakness in the UK in terms of business and then, frankly, in the US," Robbins admitted.
Weakness in China contributed to the downturn in the company, Robbins added. Cisco is foreclosed, or not being asked, to bid on contracts with major airlines in China, Kramer said. Cisco reported a 25% reduction in the company's China operations during the quarter, but it represents only about 3% of Cisco's revenue. As far as the impact from customs in China, Cisco has moved some hardware manufacturing to other countries and offsets some of the potential impact from software, which Kramer previously explained to MarketWatch.
Investors have the right to be nervous about technical spending as the China-US trade war continues. Cisco did not kill fears of a macroeconomic slowdown on Wednesday, but pointed to potential help along the way when the big 5G transition turns to equipment.


text:
Halo Infinite reaches 20 million players, Respawn is making three new Star Wars games, and The Rock is starring in another big video game movie.
Lots of exciting things to get through today including some very impressive numbers from Halo Infinite and the confirmation that Respawn is working on three new Star Wars games. The Internet has also been having fun trying to guess which video game movie The Rock is going to star in next. That and more below.
Respawn Is Working On Three New Star Wars Games
Today we got the official confirmation from EA and Respawn that three new Star Wars games are in the works, giving us an idea as to what these games are going to look like. These games include a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe headed by Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond director Peter Hirschmann, and a game made in collaboration with Bit Reactor, a new indie studio comprised of former Xcom developers.
The Rock Is Turning “One Of The Biggest Most Badass Games” Into A Movie
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is no stranger to a video game adaptation, having starred in the Jumanji remake, Doom, and Rampage. Now The Rock is starring in another video game adaptation, but stops just short of telling us what it’s going to be. The only clue he gave was that it’s a title that he’s “played for years”, insinuating that a long-running video game series is going to be adapted. Either that, or The Rock really, really likes one particular game.
Halo Infinite Has Reached 20 Million Players Since Launch
Another exciting announcement today comes from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella who has revealed that Halo Infinite has amassed over 20 million players since launch, making it the biggest launch in the franchise’s history. The multiplayer being free-to-play probably helped a lot, as did the game’s single player launching on Xbox Game Pass, but it’s clear to see that the Halo franchise is finally back on track after a shaky few years.
Everyone’s PS4 Trophies Were Briefly Wiped And Replaced By PS3 Logos Last Night
More evidence regarding Sony’s possible foray into backwards compatibility surfaced last night, as everyone’s PS4 trophies were briefly removed from their trophy lists and replaced with blank images next to a PS3 logo. Thankfully, things are back to normal now, but this is yet more evidence that Sony is potentially trying to iron out the kinks in backwards compatibility.
Raven Uses “Organizational Change” To Undermine Union
Finally, we have some serious news regarding the striking QA workers over at Raven Software. An email sent to Raven staff has revealed that Raven Software’s QA department is going to be separated and embedded amongst the developer’s other departments. At any other time, this would be seen as a simple organizational change, but the recent union vote has suggested that higher-ups at Raven may have done this to break up the striking QA workers, thus making organizing much more difficult.
Next: You Don’t Know Fear Until Your Engine has Malfunctioned On A Dark Country Road In Euro Truck Simulator
Artists Share Their Frustration Over Stolen Artwork Becoming NFTs
Art is being stolen and uploaded to OpenSea as NFTs, but little is happening to stop it.
About The Author
Joshua Robertson (439 Articles Published)
Joshua Robertson is a News Writer for TheGamer, based in Barnsley, England. When not playing or writing about Pokemon, Yakuza, or Fallout, he can usually be found spending too much time on Twitter @JoshRobertson97.


text:
Homeowners have been investing considerable amounts of money into their houses since the spring of 2020. The pandemic caused a reevaluation of how a house functions, and a combination of buying, selling, and refinancing helped drive upgrades. Will consumers continue this investment pattern, or will they look for other ways to spend their money as the economy opens?
The results of the latest survey from home improvement platform Modernize indicate the trend of spending on the home will continue at least through the rest of the year. The website surveyed 6,500 homeowners in September and October 2021. The survey asked about their plans for spending in addition to the project they came onto the site to research.
“We’re continuing to see homeowners seek projects,” said Cassie Morien, Modernize’s senior content strategist.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they will pursue additional home improvments. That’s down slightly from 41% of respondents in Modernize’s spring survey, but up from 38% at the start of the year. This means interest in performing even more upgrades to a home continues even as extra money from stimulus programs have ended and mortgage rates rise.
“It shows really steady interest from our homeowners,” Morien said.
Manager of Client Strategy and Development, Modernize
Reducing Utility Bills
Upgrades to outdoor areas and kitchen/bath remodeling made up 46% of the extra projects, with the category including HVAC making up 19% and another 8% for critical projects that include mechanical, plumbing, and electrical. Megan Wolfe, Modernize’s manager of client strategy and development, said contractors should remember that there is interest in spending more. Wolfe said they should market to customers beyond what they initially contacted them about. This includes complementary products such as IAQ solutions for HVAC contractors.
It’s especially important to offer consumers options that reduce their utility bills, Wolfe said. Nineteen percent of respondents looking at HVAC projects want to know more about energy savings. HVAC contractors need to guide consumers to equipment options that reduce energy costs and make them aware of incentives from local utilities.
“I see that as a huge opportunity,” Wolfe said. “The more you can lean into those energy saving aspects, the more you can move those sales conversations forward.”
Holding Homeowner's Hands
That’s especially important since consumers are concerned about how much they will spend on a project. HVAC customers are a little better than the rest of the respondents, with about two-thirds expecting to spend between $2,500 and $10,000. Still, 81% of respondents start looking at a home improvement project without any budget.
“A lot of folks don’t understand the scale and the cost of these kind of projects,” Wolfe said.
They need a contractor to walk them through the process. This is especially true of first-time homebuyers, who tend to be younger. Wolfe said the process with older homeowners is more transactional. A younger homeowner requires “a little more handholding.”
One of the best ways to answers concerns about cost is by offering financing. About two-thirds of respondents plan on financing some or all of their home improvement project. Since HVAC upgrades often result from an emergency, financing becomes even more important.
“We consistently see that offering different finance solutions is a key piece to winning as much business as possible,” Morien said.
The good news is homeowners should have more to spend because they plan on travelling less this holiday season. Another Modernize survey found that 77% of respondents will stay home again this year and more than half of those respondents are going to spend that money on home improvements.
These results surprised Morien — she said she had expected more people to resume travelling and visiting relatives now that vaccines are available. Homes remain the place where the spending is.


text:
A sprawling market floor in Guangzhou was once a prime location for shark fin, one of China's most expensive delicacies. But now it lies deserted, thanks to a ban from official banquet tables and a celebrity-driven ad campaign.
Environmental and animal rights groups have campaigned for decades against consumption of shark fin, arguing that demand for the delicacy has decimated the world's shark population and that the methods used to obtain it are inhumane.
China consumes more shark fin than any other country in the world, according to the campaign group WildAid.
The tide began to turn in 2012, when the ruling Communist Party announced a government ban on serving shark fin, bird's nest soup and other wild animal products at official functions, saying that it would set a precedent that would help protect endangered species.
Demand has since decreased dramatically, the group says, with the biggest impact in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province and the heart of China's shark fin industry.
A WildAid survey released this month said shark fin sales had slumped in the city, with retail prices slumping an average 57 percent and wholesale costs dropping by 47 percent.
In neighbouring Hong Kong, a major transit point for the trade, import-export volumes have plunged.
The largest category, undried fins with cartilage, went from almost 6,800 tonnes in 2011 to less than two tonnes last year, government statistics showed -- although dried fins with cartilage still stood at around 3,800 tonnes.
Several major hotel chains and airlines in the region have banned it and WildAid's executive director Peter Knight said: "Demand reduction can be very effective. The more people learn about the consequences of eating shark fin soup, the less they want to participate in the trade."
Government bans on the dish, he added, "helped send the right message and this could be a model to address issues such as ivory".


text:
SHANGHAI—General Motors Co. and Honda Motor Co. both reported strong growth in car sales in China for July, despite an industry-wide slowdown in the country and increased competition.
GM said Monday it and its joint ventures sold 199,503 vehicles in China during the month, up 15% from a year earlier and a monthly record for the company, while Honda said it sold 52,045 vehicles in country through its two joint ventures, more than double its tally in the same month last year.
Walmart coupon: $20 off your $50+ order
25% off your first $15 order with this DoorDash coupon
Exclusive Expedia Coupon - 8% off Hotels with No Min Spend
Up to 60% off - Target Promo Code
Up to 15% off + free shipping at Wayfair
60% off running shoes and apparel at Nike


text:
CALIFORNIA, USA — A report out from the California Taxpayers Association lists several more companies, like Amy’s frozen foods, that are closing down factories, leaving California entirely or choosing to expand elsewhere.
Some people have likely already heard of other companies like Tesla or Chevron making the same decision.
Two things, however, can be true at the same time. California is the highest contributor to the national production economy, and California is losing companies and taking jobs with them. The second one is not going unnoticed.
David Kline has a deep love for California.
“We got the weather, we have great universities, we have diverse population. you could go see any band you want any day of the week," Kline said.
He also has a deep understanding of why, for many companies, that’s not enough.
“For the last several years, actually quite a few businesses are leaving California or creating jobs in other states instead of expanding here, and that includes some businesses that have been around in California for many, many years,” Kline said
As the spokesperson for the California Taxpayers Association, Kline said the reason is taxes.
“We've seen financial firms moving businesses to or moving headquarters to other states," Kline said. "So it's not that we're just losing, but we are losing important jobs.”
Kline said there are still companies that are starting up in California or even coming here.
“Whether the net job loss is evened out is not really the situation, not the problem, the problem is that we are losing jobs that we should be able to keep here,” Kline said.
Lee Schalk is the policy director for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a non-partisan organization made up of legislators from across the country to exchange best practices.
“I think it's very telling that California, from 2020 to 2021, they lost 261,000 people on net, while bordering Arizona gained almost 100,000, Texas gained 310,000, and Florida 211,000,” he said
Governor Gavin Newsom, in response to Roe vs. Wade being overturned, encouraged companies that have left the state to make their way back.
“That's something that could be compelling if they agree with him, but I think something that he is losing out on right now are those businesses that are concerned with their bottom line," Schalk said. "I think for those businesses that are concerned with that, and for the financial well being of their workers, I don't think it's enough to keep them in the Golden State.”
Kline said there are things that California's high taxes pay for that other states don’t have, but added high taxes don’t always equal better outcomes. Other states with lower taxes can have better roads, education, etc.
Kline said there is a bill making it’s way through the legislature right now that would exclude companies from paying sales tax on production equipment over a few million dollars. Kline said this would make California more competitive.


text:
Steve Jobs, Apple’s late co-founder, apparently never went to China, at least not on official Apple business. But the new CEO, Tim Cook, just went there and he visited the Apple Store in Joy City, a shopping mall in Xidan, Beijing. Local news posted a photo of Tim taking time to pose with a fan, at the store.
While the real purpose of the visit is a secret, like we’re used to when it comes to Apple, rumors are that Tim Cook whent to China to discuss iPhone 5 with the major mobile carriers there, hopefully this means Apple can finally take their iPhone to China Mobile, the biggest mobile operator in china with more than 600 million subscribers. Actually, despite not even selling the iPhone yet, there are 15 million iPhones on China Mobile’s network already, up from 10 million in October.
But nobody really knows what he was doing in China, besides posing for fan photos. It’s also possible that Tim went there to fix Foxconn strikes before iPhone 5 production, or maybe he went there to negotiate a deal with ProView’s iPad trademark lawsuit?
Either way, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reports that Tim Cook “had a great time”:
Cook, who is on his first trip to China since becoming chief executive of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, “had great meetings with Chinese officials today. China is very important to us and we look forward to even greater investment and growth here,” said spokeswoman Carolyn Wu. She declined to identify any of the Chinese officials or give further details on the meetings.
Exactly how important is the Chinese market to Apple? Well, currently you can only find iPhone 4S deals in China by going to China Unicom and China Telecom which are the only two carriers offering the iPhone, despite that, Apple is now activating more iPhones in China than in any other market, including United States. So, quite a big market it would seem.
On another note, rumors are that Apple will soon be adding Baidu as a search engine option in iOS. Perhaps to make Google even less part of iOS, or perhaps just because Baidu is a much bigger search engine in China than Google, accounting for around 80% of all Chinese searches.
12 thoughts on “Apple CEO, Tim Cook, visits China – to discuss iPhone 5?”
The Chiese market is huge and they are a fast developing country. There’s no wonder Apple has an interest in covering this market.
Guess your site is back from being detected as Malware by Google 😉
I kind of like have few friends in China and they said that they have more users using the iPhone over the Galaxy S2 over there. China population is high and I think they have a big market there if Tim Cook manage to do something there.
Yeah, Google finally cleared it again. Now I updated WordPress to latest version so hopefully whatever injection occurred, cannot happen again.
Seems this is going to be a great change in the apple market. Thanks for sharing the news.
Well, he shoulda taken the time to see in what conditions those poor people work to manufacture that precious device of his.
That is irrelevant. You stated that he had to be there to meet with the cell carriers because only the CEO could do that. First, the statement is wrong – it is quite common in negotiating with the Chinese to have lower level people involved early on. Second, your post suggests that negotiating with the cell phone companies is the only thing he could be there for. There are certainly plenty of other reasons for him to be there that might not even involve the cell carriers.
Maybe there’s another secret project – new product development. After iPhone and iPad, what will they come out next. Maybe iTV. I love Apple products – value for money, and slick in design.
I’m really excited about the new iPhone, I just can’t wait for the next keynote when they will represent it!
Its really exciting about the new Iphone. Waiting for it.
I’m an Apple fan. They make amazing products that are easy to use. I have an iPad, iPhone and a macbook pro. I use them all in my real estate business to make presentations and to find my way from showing to showing. I can’t wait till the next iteration of the iPhone.
I too heard a news regarding iphone5 to be released soon. The market is going to be great for apple 5:)
Its really exciting about the new iPhone 13. Waiting for it.


text:
The two main questions that Sun hardware watchers have been asking over recent months is what the company intends to do to shore up its blade systems in light of stiff competition from the likes of HP, IBM and others, and what are the plans for the UltraSparc in a world increasingly dominated by Intel and AMD?
Both of those questions were answered this week with the release of the 6000 platform, a new 10U chassis with room for 10 blades and three different modules, plus the added feature of holding any combination of Intel chips or UltraSparcs. With up to 640 GB or memory and 5 Tbps throughput, the system is designed for the latest generation of virtual applications.
Although the system does not sport on-board storage like the HP c-Class, Sun hopes to counter with a new virtual enterprise storage system, the StorageTek 9990V. The platform is on par with Hitachi's Universal Storage Platform V and HP's XP24000 in that it offers a means to simplify SAN management through an embedded virtualization stack.
Sun only recently got back into the blade market following nearly a year-long absence, but the company shows no sign of letting up. Later this year, the company plans to release the Unibody, which will hold up to 48 blades in a single chassis and is optimized for high-performance computing.


text:
Microsoft's Edge browser comes to iOS and Android for beta testing
It's one way to synchronize your browsing across Windows and mobile.
Firefox Quantum beta promises to double your browser speeds
At least that's what some benchmarks are showing,
Apple’s Safari update secretly mines data to protect your privacy
With the arrival of macOS High Sierra, differential privacy is now attached to device analytics.
Opera adds a shortcut to push videos straight to VR headsets
No need to download videos nor fiddle with a VR video player.
Chrome will make autoplay videos less annoying in 2018
Unless it thinks you're interested in watching them, that is.
Spotify no longer streams music in Apple's Safari web browser
You'll have to fire up an alternative or the app to keep listening.
Instagram Stories now work in your browser
Both on mobile web and desktop.
Smart code helps your phone browse the web twice as quickly
You wouldn't have to rewrite the web to make it work, either.
Samsung inexplicably opens up its Android browser
Another app nobody asked for, but it has its charms.


text:
East Yorkshire-based online bathroom retailer Victoria Plum has been acquired by investment firm Endless LLP in a bid to support the firm’s growth.
The business employs more than 300 people at its headquarters at Hessle’s Bridgehead Business Park.
Founded in 2001, Victoria Plum trades exclusively online, offering a range of bathroom suites, products and furniture.
The company has now been bought by investment firm Endless LLP.
It builds on continued investment from Endless in the region. In 2016, the firm took over Goole-based emergency service vehicle manufacturer O&H Vehicle Technology.
Endless owned O&H for three years, until it was announced earlier this year that company MD Oliver North and prominent Yorkshire businessman Ken Davy had completed a management buyout at the company.
Endless has now turned its attention to Victoria Plum.
Matthew Jubb, partner at Endless LLP in Leeds, said: “Victoria Plum is a hugely exciting acquisition for us and as a Yorkshire-based private equity house, we are thrilled with the opportunity to back a great local business and help it continue to achieve its full potential.
“As an established retail brand with a well-invested infrastructure and e-commerce platform, the business has solid foundations on which to further grow and respond to robust online demand for quality and competitively priced home products.
“We look forward to working closely with Paul and the rest of the management team to deliver our shared vision for this business.”
Victoria Plum hit the headlines last year when it was revealed the company had received a £1.75m settlement from a rival firm following a dispute surrounding online search engine advertising.
The High Court ruled Victorian Plumbing had paid for text which impacted search engine results for customers looking for Victoria Plum.
Victoria Plum suffered heavy losses during the year the incident was going on, but in 2018 returned to profit.
Now, the Hessle-based company has a new owner as it looks to push forwards with its online growth.
Paul McClenaghan, CEO at Victoria Plum, said of the deal: “Endless recognise that they have acquired a well-invested and well-managed business, with customers at our heart and key areas of differentiation.
“We believe this is a business with fantastic potential and we’re delighted to be working with Endless to accelerate our strategy for growth and continue to find ways to differentiate.
“We look forward to an exciting future together.”
Endless has acquired the entire issued share capital of the business for an undisclosed sum.
It will now work with Victoria Plum’s management team to continue investing in its people, digital and retail experience, as well as expanding its product and services offering.
The transaction was led by Leeds-based Endless partner Matthew Jubb, supported by David Isaacs and Linda Nguyenova from the Endless investment team.
Matthew Jubb will also join the Victoria Plum board. The investment is the latest from Endless’ £525m Fund IV.
How to contact Phil Winter and Business Live
Business Live's Hull & East Yorkshire journalist is Phil Winter, also the business editor at the Hull Daily Mail and Hull Live.
You can follow Phil on Twitter @PhilWinterBiz, or on Linkedin by clicking here.
Alternatively, email him on email@example.com, or call 01482 315360.
Keep up to date with the latest business news in the Hull & Humber region here.
Follow @HumberBizEd and @businesslive on Twitter


text:
Sideshow Collectibles has updated their website with the announcement of a new Boba Fett Life-Size Bust. Pre-orders for this new bust will be going live in the near future.
Star Wars™ most iconic bounty hunter is coming to shelves near you soon! The Boba Fett Life-Size Bust was done in partnership with Legacy Effects and will be a must-have for fans throughout the universe! Pre-Orders for this Mandalorian will be happening in the near future.


text:
When you think of the top two camera manufacturers in the UK, you wouldn’t be wrong for thinking Canon and Nikon. But, if you were to put that down in a pub quiz today you would lose a point.
According to the latest GfK figures for the UK market, it t urns out that Sony has been working its socks off and has taken the number two spot from Nikon when it comes to interchangeable lens cameras.
“Sony overtook Nikon in volume sales of interchangeable lens models for December 2010 - notching up 25% compared to Nikon's 20%,” reports Amateur Photographer, after asking the number crunching guys for the stats.
The news may come as a surprise to most, but it shows that Sony’s hard work and innovation is starting to pay off. Pocket-lint contacted Sony with the news and the company had this to say:
"Achieving number 2 position in the December GfK data for DLSR cameras is a fantastic milestone for Sony," said Rachel Banin, head of Digital Imaging, Sony UK. "We recognise the challenge in maintaining this position in a very competitive marketplace, but we can see from the data that it indicates acceptance of compact system cameras and a rapidly changing market dynamic in the UK".
"Sony’s NEX-3 and NEX-5 allow anyone to easily achieve professional quality pictures and movies they can be proud of using a very small camera. We’re really excited that consumers are recognising the value of these cameras and choosing to buy them".
Last year it was nominated for an Innovation of the Year award at the Pocket-lint Gadget Awards for its mirrorless Alpha model, narrowly missing out to Microsoft’s Kinect.
Many believe that Nikon and Canon have been slow to embrace new technologies in the same way as Sony and other players like Samsung, and it now seems to be taking an affect on their market share.
Nikon is rumoured to be launching a mirrorless camera later in the year, however. But, whether that will be enough to get back into the mix is yet to be seen. One thing will be certain, Sony must surely now be setting its sights on Canon for the top spot.


text:
The group, which serves a menu created by former Pachamama head chef Adam Rawson, opened its first pop-up inside Cha Chaan Teng in Holborn in June and currently delivers through UberEats in Hanover Square.
Bite Me Burger Co’s original strategy was to open a permanent restaurant this Autumn, but the group has instead decided to open six delivery-only sites by the end of the year.
It will also launch a further three pop-up restaurants, and is in discussions with a West End department store.
“We’d love our own site, but at the moment we can very quickly and effectively take over in iconic and central London kitchens and access a crowd we’d never be able to if we had to purchase or rent those sites ourselves,” says David Michaels, head of marketing at Bite Me Burger Co.
The brand’s co-founders Roberto and Paolo Manzi are directors of the Bon Appetit catering group, which has 19 kitchens across the capital that will be used to offer delivery across London.
“It’s an aggressive plan but we’re confident it’s the right financial model and it will allow us to invest in staff, development and marketing in a way that we couldn’t if we purchased a site of our own,” says Michaels.
An increasing number of restaurants including Clockjack and K10 are turning to delivery-only sites as a means to expand without the costs associated with launching a full-service restaurant.
Deliveroo is aiming to open 30 delivery-only ‘dark kitchens’ in 10 UK cities by the end of the year through its Deliveroo Editions platform.


text:
The Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area (CIDBIA) held the Night Market for its 10th year. The Sept. 8 festivities drew over 30,000 attendees to the Asian bazaar along King Street, stretching from 5th to Maynard Avenues.
The annual street market is one of the hallmark events in the ID. It started as a way to counter the ID’s negative safety image, but has grown to become a conduit to boost local business and community. The predominantly Asian neighborhood’s Night Market offers an experience that comes from the traditional Taiwanese night markets.
“Night markets are an Asian thing, so it is ingrained more in this community than in other communities,” says Monisha Singh, CIDBIA’s director of communications. “Anyone can have a street festival at night, but ours is specifically focused on Asian vendors and people of color.”
The smells and sounds from the market could be heard many streets over, from the sweet smell of fried sugar and condensed milk to the cooking of spiced meats.
Start at the historic Chinatown gate and find a variety of Asian street food from the Korean fried chicken truck to Mike’s Shave Ice. CIDBIA estimated that the event hosted 65 vendors, including usual favorites like Lemongrass.
Following the Hollywood success of Crazy Rich Asians, some of the movie’s cultural elements came to life at Night Market, especially through foods like satays. The movie’s scene of the Newton Food Center in Singapore offered a similar feel to Night Market – outdoor vendors offering some of the best Asian cuisine around.
It’s easy to see parallels with the movie by picking up your favorites from various stalls and settling down in Hing Hay Park to eat and chat with your group of friends. Additionally, you could catch Capoeira performances from Mestre Silvinho and his students, who were performing in the park for most of the event night.
The market ran from 4:00 p.m. until midnight on Saturday, Sept. 8. Businesses prepared for the festivities, including extending operating hours to draw in more traffic. Other businesses offered raffle prizes and discounts. Oasis Tea Zone had a prize give-away on a Nintendo Switch.
The market was more family-friendly in the early hours: kids playing connect four and cornhole while the adults munched on sweet and savory foods. The energy changed at sunset as the crowd grew and vendors began switching on the golden lights around 8 p.m.
Festival-goers start to skew toward 20 and early-30 year olds as the night progresses. A nearby Mariners game brings an additional wave of attendees to the market.
Aside from offering these crowds wildly popular and unique Asian foods, the largest night market in Seattle boasted craft sales and live performances throughout the night. A decorative set-up of lights and colorful stall tops draped the neighborhood’s festivities.
CIDBIA curated this event toward young adults by offering beer gardens and stage performances that brought DJs, rappers, and breakdancers from across the Northwest and Canada.
Focusing on people of color and Asian diversity, stage performances included Cambodian DJs and Chinese Yo-Yo. The market hosted a break-dancing competition later in the night that drew local and international performers too.Along with popular performances and foods, the market offered tons of shopping opportunities, including handmade local goods like glow-stick apparel.
CIDBIA offered the annual market as a way to raise funds and draw attention to businesses and culture in the neighborhood. Local business owners and residents valued the chance to show off their product and culture.
Lydia Lin, owner of Seattle’s Best Tea, had been a vendor at the market for the last two years. “We like to do this,” says Lin. “It gives people a chance to learn about Chinatown and its food.”
Daniel Chong, part of the Three Twenty Below and Ibajella’s Ice Cream Cane stalls, emphasized Night Market’s cultural value. “We are Asian. We know people here,” says Chong. “It’s a nice event for Asians to come and experience their community.”
Despite the market’s long-running popularity and size in Seattle, many still did not know about the annual festival. Tran, a new attendee and Seattle native, had never heard about the market before this year. A Chinatown poster drew her attention to the festivities a week earlier.
Emma Vielbig, another Seattle native, also heard about it for the first time. She was with Ernesto Gorjón, a resident of ID. Gorjón had been a regular market-goer for the last three years. Both were drawn to the stage performances as well as my cup of liquid nitrogen dessert.
The host and vendors saw the market as an opportunity to reach new audiences through Instagram. Many of the festival’s food and performance-options are designed to be “Instagram-able.”
Del Mundo said that his most popular menu item, the Halo-Halo, came from trying to make something “Instagram-able.” Del Mundo had over 200 customers in 2017 and expects to beat that number this year as well. “It’s definitely one of the biggest events we’ve done.”
Last year was an especially good year for the Night Market, said Singh. And while CIDBIA did not make as much this year, it still gathered enough funds to hold many events moving forward.


text:
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), the world’s biggest mining and construction equipment provider, is bracing for a year similar to 2013, when sales to mining companies plunged as miners struggled with weak commodity prices.
The company sees “some signs of improvement in the global economy,” which should help its construction and power systems segments, but expects sales and revenues to be similar to 2013 as sales to the resource industry decline modestly.
“We expect sales of mining equipment will remain weak in 2014 and our outlook reflects a sales decline of about 10 percent in Resource Industries,” Caterpillar said in its end of year results.
The company expects profit per share of $5.85 this year – not including restructing costs – compared with $5.75 in 2013 and $8.48 in 2012. Restructuring costs could affect this by about 55 cents per share.
Caterpillar also said it will repurchase about $1.7 billion of stock during the first quarter of 2014 and an additional $10 billion over the next four years – “a result of our record cash flow, the strength of our balance sheet and our confidence in the long-term future of Caterpillar,” the company noted.
This will complete a $7.5 billion repurchase originally approved in 2007. The new $10 billion authorization will expire in December 2018. The announcement bumped the firm’s share price by nearly 6% to trade at $91.29 per share.
Looking back at 2013, Caterpillar says the year “turned out to be worse than we anticipated.”
Sales and revenue were $55.7 billion for the year, down 16% from 2012, driven by a drop in sales of new mining machines. But the company beat analysts’ expectations: According to the AP, a FactSet survey put the equipment maker”s Q3 2013 profit at $1.27 per share. Caterpillar actually reported $1.54. At $56 billion in sales forecasted for 2014, the company’s anticipates a slightly better year than 13 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
CEO Doug Oberhelman said cost flexibility was critical this past year to maintaining profitability. The cost-cutting measures included several rounds of lay-off, affecting nearly 10,000 workers.
“Cost flexibility is critical to our strategy and was a significant focus in 2013 as we took substantial actions to help maintain profitability as sales declined,” Oberhelman said. “It wasn’t easy, especially for our employees who endured an incredibly tough year, but the actions we initiated helped us deliver strong operational performance in 2013.”


text:
Developers Eye High-Density Opportunities in California's High Speed Rail Hubs
24-hour retail and residential destinations are being planned in San Diego, Los Angeles and Sacramento, among other hubs along the planned system.
"Developers who are planning their strategies around the project are looking to transform the hubs into all-inclusive stations complete with retail, entertainment and business opportunities. Construction most likely would start at the major stations in Los Angeles and Sacramento."
Thanks to Reconnecting America


text:
NEW YORK (AP) -- A bankruptcy judge says the proposed deal between Delphi and a private equity firm shouldn't be conducted as a private sale.
U.S. Judge Robert Drain says the deal should be done through a public sale to make sure the Troy, Mich.-based auto supplier and its lenders get the best deal possible.
Delphi says a private sale is needed given the hundreds of hours put into the deal's negotiations and General Motors Corp.'s involvement.
Delphi reached a deal earlier this month to sell the bulk of the company to an affiliate of Platinum Equity. GM will pay $2 billion to help finance the deal.
But several of Delphi's secured lenders say they also should be allowed to submit bids and know the details of the offer they would be competing against.


text:
If you’ve been drinking low-fat or skim milk because you’ve been told it’s healthier for you, our concierge family doctors would like to offer some information that might change your mind. Although the research is not yet definitive, several recent studies have suggested that full-fat dairy products are actually better for you in several ways.
As we’ve mentioned in the past, a single study with atypical findings can usually be disregarded pending further research that either supports or refutes the authors’ conclusions. But in the case of full-fat vs. reduced-fat milk, several studies have appeared to demonstrate the health benefits of going with the full-fat version.
Different studies, similar findings
One major study conducted at McMaster University in Canada was published in the journal Lancet in 2018. Researchers examined the daily dairy intake of 136,384 people from 21 countries over nine years. It found that those who consumed an average of three servings of dairy a day had lower overall rates of mortality and showed a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke than those whose diets contained no dairy. They also found that the more whole-fat dairy subjects consumed, the better their cardiovascular health than those who consumed lesser amounts.
Another meta-study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) looked at the relationship of high-fat dairy consumption and obesity, cardiovascular health, and metabolic disease (the precursor to diabetes and heart disease). It found that consumption of dairy fat or high-fat dairy foods reduced the risk of weight gain, while not contributing to cardiometabolic risk.
A 2016 study published in the journal Circulation followed 3,333 adults over 15 years and found that subjects who had consumed the most full-fat dairy products had a 46 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes during the study.
Research published last month in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reviewed 28 studies from seven countries that involved about 21,000 children. The researchers concluded that children who regularly consume whole milk showed a 40 percent lesser risk of being overweight or obese than those who drink reduced-fat milk.
Finally, another study, also published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that eating full-fat cheese raises heart-healthy HDL cholesterol levels better than the low-fat varieties.
Rethinking conventional wisdom
Several other studies over the last decade have reached similar conclusions. So where did the belief arise that lower-fat is better? It began in the 1960s with the campaign to reduce saturated fat in our diets, along with findings that saturated fat raised levels of the heart-damaging LDL cholesterol.
“These two facts started the skim milk craze,” Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Guardian.
And because full-fat dairy products are higher in calories, many experts assumed that would lead to additional weight gain, thereby increasing the risk of diabetes. But at least one study found that those who consumed more full-fat dairy products still showed a lower risk for type 2 diabetes independent of any weight gain.
While these findings don’t seem to make sense logically, several theories have been proposed.
It could have to do with the way our constant tinkering with Mother Nature tends to have negative impacts, such as processing meat until it’s barely recognizable or adding so many artificial ingredients to various foods that they practically glow in the dark. Researchers have suggested that removing some or all of the fat from milk also removes beneficial ingredients. This includes beneficial microbes in cheese, and the natural balance of protein, milk sugars, and the fat itself, which improves cells’ ability to break down sugars.
Another theory: “When someone eats full-fat dairy versus low-fat dairy, the fat will actually delay the absorption of the milk’s sugar,” Laura Cipullo, author of “Women’s Health Body Clock Diet,” told US News. “As a result, blood sugar rises more slowly over a longer period of time. Consequently, insulin follows this same pattern,” she said. “Less circulating insulin means less risk for the development of insulin resistance and diabetes.”
In addition, full-fat products make people feel full longer, thus decreasing the total amount of food they consume, including sugary foods. And often, people add sweet flavorings to skim-milk—including chocolate—to make it more palatable.
“This is just one more piece of evidence showing that we really need to stop making recommendations about food based on theories about one nutrient in food,” Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian told Time magazine. Mozaffarian was the lead researcher on the study published in Circulation. “It’s crucial at this time to understand that it’s about food as a whole, and not a single nutrient,” he added.
This doesn’t mean we’re suggesting you rush out and start gorging on huge amounts of dairy products. As Mozaffarian pointed out, it’s not only a question of not focusing on a single nutrient but on a single food. A healthy diet is a balanced diet, one that contains a variety of fresh, unprocessed foods.


text:
The PC maker, based in Round Rock, Texas, posted on Feb. 16 a higher-than-expected fourth fiscal quarter 2006 profit of 43 cents a share after a tax adjustment. Revenue for the quarter, which ended in January, jumped 13 percent year over year to $15.2 billion, the company said.
Dell executives, discussing the quarter in a pair of conference calls, expressed optimism about the technological state of affairs in the computer industry.
Some new technologies mentioned included dual-core processors, SAS (serial-attached SCSI) for storage and Microsofts Windows Vista for PCs.
"Were refreshing our entire server product line with ninth-generation servers that will incorporate all of these new technologies" such as dual-core processors, Kevin Rollins, Dells CEO, said in a conference call with reporters. "Its looking, technologically, to be a very healthy year."
Moreover, there are no signs of economic slowdown, Rollins said.
"Were bullish on the industry and think all of these technology advances can only be positive," he said.
Dell sees smaller, more powerful standardized servers coming to the enterprise thanks to dual-core processors and other improvements. As the bulk of corporate servers include one or two sockets or provisions for processors, this is "Dells sweet spot," Rollins said.
The companys ninth-generation servers will roll out during the first half of 2006, the executives indicated in the post-earnings conference calls. It seems unlikely those machines will include AMD chips at the outset, despite reports that Dell has been prepping AMD systems.
The executives said Dells current plans are to stay with Intel processors, pointing out that Dells server shipments grew 11 percent year over year and 7 percent sequentially for the quarter, outpacing those of competitors.
"We see no need to change [processors] at this point in time," Rollins told analysts on a call. "With that said were not an exclusive buyer of Intel only. We dont have an exclusive arrangement."
Dells new machines are more likely to use hardware such as Intels Bensley platform for dual-processor servers, which includes a dual-core 65-nanometer Xeon DP processor dubbed Dempsey. The platform has been upgraded to double the bus and memory channels, opening up the flow of data inside the machines.
Bensley will be able to accommodate Woodcrest, another dual-core chip, which is based on Intels forthcoming new processor micro-architecture and designed to use less power than existing chips, while bumping performance.
Turning to storage, Dells revenue in that area grew 41 percent year-over-year and 30 percent sequentially, the company said. It did not break out shipments for the quarter.
In the spring and summer of 2006, Dell will roll out new PowerVault and Dell-EMC storage products that take advantage of new technologies, including 4G-bps Fibre Channel connections, iSCSI, SAS and SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives, Rollins said.
Dell also sees the potential for a bump in PC sales from Windows Vista, the newest version of Windows, due out from Microsoft in fall of 2006. People will use Vista at home and demand it at work, Chairman Michael Dell said on a call with analysts.
Because of the changes present in Vista, "I believe this transition is going to be a pretty powerful catalyst," he said, adding that after using the operating system, people will go back into the office and ask, "How come my PC is no good?" That could lead to some corporate desktop upgrades after Vista starts to take hold in the consumer market, he predicted.
Thus, "We think its going to be a pretty exciting OS transition cycle," he said.


text:
Under the slogan “Explore The New With Bevatel Experts at LEAP2024.” we are delighted to announce that Bevatel will be participating in LEAP 2024, the largest and most significant technology exhibition in the Arab world, serving as a meeting point for providers of modern technological and communication solutions.
Throughout our involvement in LEAP this year, we’re excited to present the most recent developments in AI-powered cloud communication solutions. These comprehensive solutions empower businesses in diverse industries to leverage advanced communication tools, improve customer service and technical support, and drive growth in sales and profitability.
Additionally, Bevatel will unveil at this exhibition its latest advanced solutions for integrating WhatsApp Business API with e-commerce platforms, offering numerous benefits that amplify sales and elevate customer service and technical support.
At this event, we will present over 10,000 success stories of enterprises and businesses in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East that have achieved remarkable milestones using Bevatel’s unified Business Chat system. This system integrates all communication channels: WhatsApp API, Messenger, Instagram, Google Business, email, Live Chat, and more, alongside the AI-powered Cloud Call Center and Chatbot, facilitating customer service management.
During the exhibition days, we will provide our visitors with a unique opportunity for a live and interactive experience with the latest Bevatel solutions and systems free of charge and explore the many features and tools offered by Bevatel for businesses in integrated cloud systems.
Bevatel is participating in LEAP 2024 as part of its expanding strategy in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region. Mr. Khaled Al Rashid, the company’s founder and CEO, affirmed Bevatel’s leading role in providing innovative technological solutions supported by artificial intelligence to support enterprises and businesses in the Middle East on their journey towards digital transformation in various sectors.
Bevatel will be present at LEAP 2024, from March 4th to March 7th, 2023, at booth H4. C60, Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center, Saudi Arabia. Bevatel experts will be available to answer your inquiries and provide personalized consultations to enhance your communication with customers using the latest integrated cloud communication solutions.
We look forward to meeting you there and sharing this unique experience.


text:
As it reaches its third anniversary, UCL Press declares its open access–only model a success, calling it as transformational today as ‘the invention of movable type printing.’
Calling it ‘a truly essential organization for making our marketplace work,’ Canadian publishers honor the Access Copyright revenue collection agency, which is in the middle of a dispute with the education sector.
A trend toward public reading-engagement projects continues, this time as the European Union Prize for Literature’s 10th-anniversary short-fiction competition opens for reads and votes on newly created ‘European stories.’
Ten books of poetry and five single poems are shortlisted for the 2018 edition of the UK’s Forward Poetry Prizes, which are to be awarded in London in September.
The PBS ‘Great American Read’ TV program has its two-hour opener. And Open Road Media’s direct-to-consumer marketing program, Ignition, is being offered now to Ingram’s distributed publishers.
Amazon’s new Merch Collab program promises to connect brands with designers and manufacturers to create branded merchandise, with Amazon tracking sales and paying royalties.
A wartime tale with a Senegalese protagonist in France, a generational family drama from Georgian author Nino Haratischwili, a Catalan classic, two books for young readers, and the Orient Express with Agatha Christie aboard—all are in our pre-BookExpo rights roundup.
How are authors’ contractual rights with a publisher best handled when the house rolls out a digital subscription offer and promises that its entire content library will be on offer that way? An authors’ lawsuit of Cengage is calling the question.
Promising to name an extra-large breed pig after next year’s winning book, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize jury isn’t laughing this year. Nobody gets the prize. They are not amused.
Both the CrimeFest event and its awards program have turned 10 years old this year, its four-day convention set this year in the West Country, in Bristol.


text:
The China Edit is a weekly curation of the most important fashion business news and analysis from and about the world’s largest luxury market.
LONDON, United Kingdom — Louis Vuitton is losing ground as the world’s most valuable luxury brand as competitors including Gucci and Prada gain, a new research report shows.
Contrary to numerous reports, broad changes in Chinese consumer behaviour and sentiment — not the country’s much publicised anti-extravagance campaign — are the likely causes of China’s luxury slowdown, says Anne Zhang, a reporter for Chinese business magazine CBNweekly.
It’s time for the global fashion industry to stop turning a blind eye to the lack of racial diversity on the runways, says op-ed contributor Demi Sinclair.
PARIS, France — Most luxury goods groups will not publish first-quarter figures until at least later this month, but anecdotal evidence is growing of at least a temporary slowdown in spending by travelers, which analysts say could be linked to worries about the global economy and tax increases in Europe, as well as the tough stance taken by China's new president Xi Jinping on illegitimate gift-giving.
What does it mean when Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury brand, shifts its focus away from the very trademarks on which its success has been built?
MILAN, Italy – Fashion designers at Milan fashion week delivered a dark palette and masculine styles for autumn-winter wardrobes in a reflection of Italy's bleak economic and political landscape.
MILAN, Italy — Today, BoF's trusty contributing photographer Sonny Vandevelde brings us backstage imagery from the Gucci, N21 by Alessandro Dell' Acqua, Max Mara, Fendi, Just Cavalli and Prada shows, held on the opening two days of Milan Fashion Week.
Designers kicked off Milan fashion week on Wednesday with bold collections to persuade Italian shoppers that the worst of the economic crisis is over and it is time to hit the stores again. Fashion houses including PPR’s Gucci, Giorgio Armani and Prada are among the top names showing their womenswear 2013-14 autumn-winter collections, taking up the baton from catwalk shows in London. “I have great hopes for this country


text:
Weeks after releasing a color-it-yourself cup, Starbucks is releasing another holiday cup.
The new cup is red with an illustration of hands around a heart.
“The red cup is a clean design, with the heart as a space where people can highlight someone in their life who makes the season special,” said Jordan Kay, the designer of the cup. “The design symbolizes the love and warmth felt during the holiday season, when we connect with friends and family.”
The cup released earlier this month, also designed by Kay, is mostly white, giving customers the option to color in between the lines.
The new red cup, which Starbucks says celebrates “the good in each other,” will be given to customers for a limited time, according to The Associated Press.
“By introducing this cup, Starbucks encourages customers to recognize those who fill their heart and embody goodness this holiday season by writing that person’s name in the heart of the cup,” a Starbucks representative wrote in a news release.
Customers are encouraged to share photos with their red cups on social media with the hashtag #GiveGood.
“The holidays are about remembering what it means to give love and put goodness out into the world,” said Leanne Fremar, executive creative director for Starbucks. “We loved the idea of celebrating the good in each other this holiday season.”
This year marks the 20th year that the coffee chain has released holiday cups.
In recent years, critics have condemned the cups, claiming they have become anti-Christian or anti-Christmas. President Donald Trump even suggested boycotting the coffee giant in the midst of what he has referred to as the “war on Christmas.”
Last year’s holiday cups were green, and Starbucks officials said the cup represented “a symbol of unity.”
Speculation that Massachusetts-based Dunkin’ Donuts could be purchased by Panera’s parent company, JAB Holding Company, sent the coffee-and-doughnut company’s stock soaring 8 percent higher this week, according to Bloomberg.
The business publication reported Tuesday morning that Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings, which also owns Einstein Bros. Bagels, Caribou Coffee, Keurig Green Mountain, Peet’s Coffee and Krispy Kreme, could be looking to buy out Dunkin’ Brands.
A buyout of Dunkin’ would help JAB take over even more of the coffee market not owned by Starbucks.
Bloomberg reports that Dunkin’ Brands, which includes Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins, is valued around $8.2 billion. It would be JAB’s second priciest acquisition in the past 19 months, behind Keurig Green Mountain.
According to Bloomberg's Gillian Tan, Dunkin’s costly upgrades to its digital ordering could be something JAB would be prepared to tackle, having already acquired Panera Bread and that chain’s lavish digital ordering system.
There hasn't been any evidence of a deal, but the speculation is buzzing.
Select Starbucks locations will now be selling a combination of two of millennial’s favorite things -- a burrito and sushi all rolled conveniently into one easy to grab snack.
With the limited release of the sushi burrito, only those living in Chicago and Seattle will be able to give the snack a try and see if it stands up to previous Starbucks concoctions such as the autumn mooncakes or beef jerky cold brew.
Part of the company’s Mercado menu, which is full of lunch meals for customers to enjoy, customers interested in the sushi burrito will be able to order a chicken maki roll, HypeBeast reported. Rolled up like a little burrito, the meal is jam packed with sticky white rice, shredded chicken, pickled cabbage, cucumber, onion and avocado.
What makes the sushi burrito a crossover of sorts is the tomatillo salsa and lime crema that tops it off before being rolled in a seaweed wrap. If the item does well in Chicago and Seattle, it is presumed that Starbucks will open the sushi burrito to all locations for everyone to enjoy.
Coffee and doughnuts restaurant Dunkin’ Donuts may be considering dropping ‘Donuts’ from its name.
The Massachusetts-based company announced plans on Thursday to open a restaurant location in Pasadena, California, with the shortened name Dunkin’.
Other restaurants will also feature signage and material with just Dunkin’, The Associated press reported.
The company hopes the move will encourage customers to think of the stores as more than just coffee and doughnuts shops.
“While we remain the No. 1 retailer of doughnuts in the country, as part of our efforts to reinforce that Dunkin' Donuts is a beverage-led brand and coffee leader, we will be testing signage in a few locations that refer to the brand simply as ‘Dunkin,’” the company told CNBC.
Dunkin’ Donuts, which has been referring to itself as just Dunkin’ since it began its “America runs on Dunkin’” campaign in 2006, said it won’t make a final decision on the name change until late next year, according to the AP.
“We do not anticipate making decisions regarding our branding until the latter half of 2018 when we begin rolling out our new store image,” the company said.
For five days only, Starbucks stores nationwide offered a unique beverage dubbed the Unicorn Frappuccino, a colorful pink and purple drink with sweet and sour flavors and sent customers into a frenzy.
A little more than a month later, the coffee giant has introduced the Ombre Pink Drink.
According to Starbucks, the beverage is “combines (the) light, fruity Cool Lime Starbucks Refreshers Beverage with cool, creamy coconut milk and a splash of Teavana Shaken Iced Passion Tango Tea, for a bright burst of hibiscus notes.”
The Ombre Pink Drink will be added to Starbucks’ year-round menu, Delish reported.
Here’s what it looks like:
A grande serving of the beverage has 100 calories, 2.5 grams of fat and 18 grams of sugar.
Starbucks added a similarly named offering, the Pink Drink, a combination of Strawberry Acai Refreshers with passion fruit and acai flavors, coconut milk and strawberries to the menu in April.
Select Starbucks locations in the U.S. have begun testing a new offering for customers in two states.
According to CNN, the coffee chain will offer coffee ice cubes to customers who request them in cold drinks.
The new ice cube option is only available in St. Louis and Baltimore locations while the company sees how customers will respond to the offering.
Starbucks spokeswoman Holly Shafer said 100 stores will offer the cubes for the next eight weeks.
Each drink with the customized cubes will cost an extra 80 cents.
The cubes can be added to iced espresso or brewed coffee drinks, CNN reported.
Starbucks is working to increase employment opportunities for service members and their families through its “Military Family Stores” initiative.
On Tuesday, the coffee chain’s Clarksville, Tennessee, location became the 37th store designated as a Military Family Store, meaning that it’s now staffed primarily by veterans and military spouses.
“Seventy-five percent of my business is the military,” store manager and military spouse Shannon Feltz, 47, told Fox News. “We are so excited about this announcement. I’ve never felt so supported by a company in my life.”
In addition to the Clarksville location, Starbucks unveiled four other Military Family Stores on Tuesday, including two in Texas serving Camp Mabry in Austin and Ft. Bliss in El Paso, one serving Naval War College in Rhode Island and one in Massachusetts near Joint Base Hanscom. The stores are part of the coffee chain’s efforts to provide jobs to veterans and military spouses while also serving as a place for service members to come together, connect and share stories. The company has pledged to hire 25,000 veterans and military spouses by 2025 and currently employs more than 10,000.
“Service members and military spouses are the best example of engaged citizens.” Starbucks senior vice president John Kelly said in a statement. “Long after leaving active duty, they continue to vote, volunteer and serve their communities at a high rate, serving as the best examples of citizenship. We are honored to serve as a place where these American heroes can continue to impact their community in a positive way.”
Matt Kress, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and now manages the veterans and military affairs program for Starbucks, remembered the “frightening period” when he transitioned from active duty life to civilian life.
“Some of our veterans are only with us for a year, while others are here longer,” Kress told Fox News. “This is their landing spot to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their life.”
Read more at Starbucks Newsroom.
A Massachusetts man who sued Dunkin’ Donuts for not using real butter on his bagel has won a settlement.
Jan Polanik accused 20 local Dunkin’ Donuts of grand deception.
It turns out it’s all about how you order a bagel.
If you ask for a bagel with butter, you will get a butter substitute.
A spokesperson told the Boston Globe that customers will only get real butter if they ask for it on the side.
This is because Dunkin’ workers keep the butter packets refrigerated and the margarine at room temperature, so it’s easily spreadable.
It’s unclear how much money the man won in the lawsuit.
Starbucks is switching things up by adding an offering to menus at select locations across the country.
>> Read more trending stories
The coffee giant will sell a new dessert in more than 100 stores, Business Insider reported. Ten "upscale" stores in Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, DC., will be the first locations to provide the new Roastery Affogato menu, which offers the frozen treat, according to Business Insider.
The menu item, inspired by affogatos, an Italian coffee-based dessert, is a scoop of ice cream topped with a shot of espresso.
Versions of the affogato on the Roastery Affogato menu will range from $6 to $8.50.
Starbucks is also testing a less expensive affogato menu at 100 store locations in Orange County, California, according to Business Insider.
Starbucks' Seattle Roastery started offering affogatos to its customers last summer.
Starbucks will start serving ice cream at more than 100 stores https://t.co/zifj2AqaYL pic.twitter.com/ESzc941cn5— Business Insider (@businessinsider) February 14, 2017
Starbucks debuted its annual holiday cup on Thursday.
But instead of offering customers one festive cup, the coffee company released 13 cups with different designs. All the cups are red with white designs and the company's green and white logo. Some designs feature hand-drawn snowflakes, reindeer, Christmas lights, candy canes, ornaments and Santa Claus riding his sleigh.
According to Starbucks, the cup designs were created by customers from around the world. The designs were submitted to the company via its #RedCupContest last year.
"We crafted coffee. You made it art," Starbucks wrote in a promotional video with the hashtag #RedCups.
Customers complained last year that Starbucks' plain red cups were not festive enough and criticized the company for attempting to be politically correct by taking the Christmas theme off the cups.
The coffee giant's vice president of design and content, Jeffrey Fields, told Us Weekly that the plain cups were meant to embrace "the simplicity and the quietness" of the holiday season.
More recently, Starbucks debuted a green cup that features a mosaic of dozens of people drawn in one continuous stroke. The cup, meant to encourage unity and symbolize "shared values and the need to be good to each other," was criticized when customers believed that the cup was replacing the company's usual red cups.
"All these faces on my green cup and not a one of them looks like Santa or Jesus. Why do you still hate Christmas?" one Twitter user asked the company. Another said the design was "political brainwashing," saying: "I want snowflakes."
Take www.y100fm.com everywhere you go! Download your app below from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store:
Enable our Skill today to listen live at home on your Alexa Devices!


text:
NEW DELHI — About 12 percent of spices brought to the United States are contaminated with insects parts, whole insects, rodent hairs and other things, according to an analysis of spice imports by federal food authorities.
The finding by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is part of a comprehensive look at the safety of spice imports that has been years in the making. The federal authorities also found that nearly 7 percent of spice imports examined by federal inspectors were contaminated with salmonella, a toxic bacteria that can cause severe illness in humans.
In a report released Wednesday, the FDA says testing of imported spices between 2007 and 2010 showed that spices were twice as likely as other inspected foods to be contaminated with the salmonella. More than 80 types of salmonella were detected.
The agency decided to study the issue as several spice-related outbreaks have caused illnesses around the globe. In 2009 and 2010, black pepper and red pepper from India, Vietnam and China used in salami caused hundreds of illnesses.
- Seattle’s vanishing black community
- Bellevue School District seeks to fire football coach Goncharoff over scandal
- Boeing tankers will be delivered to Air Force late — and incomplete
- Paul Allen ends KEXP’s yearslong fundraising drive with $500,000 donation
- A six-pack of observations from Seahawks' OTAs: Justin Britt, Alex Collins, Tharold Simon and more
Most Read Stories
The FDA says there have been 14 known outbreaks around the world since 1973, causing almost 2,000 illnesses, many of which were in children.
The FDA says that during the study period, 749 shipments of spice were refused entry into the United States because of salmonella contamination while 238 other shipments were denied because of the presence of what the FDA calls “filth”: insects, excrement, hair or other materials.
The agency’s findings “are a wake-up call” to spice producers, said Jane Van Doren, a food and spice official at the FDA. “It means: ‘Hey, you haven’t solved the problems.’”
The agency labeled spice contamination “a systemic challenge” and said that most of the insects found in spices were kinds that thrive in warehouses and other storage facilities, suggesting the industry’s problems result not from poor harvesting practices but from poor storage and processing.
John Hallagan, a spokesman for the American Spice Trade Association, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report and could not comment on it. But spice manufacturers have said food manufacturers often treat imported spices before marketing them, so FDA findings of contamination levels in its import screening program do not mean spices sold to consumers are dangerous.
FDA inspectors have found that some spices that claim to have been treated are contaminated nonetheless. And the high levels of filth from insects and rodents is a problem that is not easily resolved because, unlike with salmonella contamination, simply cooking or heating the spices will not rid the products of the problem. Insects can also be a source of salmonella contamination.
What share of the nearly 1.2 million annual salmonella illnesses in the United States result from contaminated spices is unclear, officials said. Fewer than 2,000 people had their illnesses definitively tied to contaminated spices from 1973 to 2010, and most people eat spices in small quantities.
But people often fail to remember eating spices when asked what foods might have sickened them, so problems related to spices could be seriously underreported, officials said.
Recent U.S. legislation grants the FDA the power to refuse entry of foods that the agency even suspects might be contaminated, strong leverage to demand changes in harvesting, handling and manufacturing practices in foreign countries.
Spice imports from Mexico and India have been found to have the highest rate of contamination. Nearly one-quarter of the spices, oils and food colorings used in the United States comes from India, according to the FDA.
The FDA commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, had intended to visit India this fall and meet with spice-industry officials to discuss the agency’s concerns about spice safety, but the government shutdown delayed her plans, she said. Indian spice officials are offering incentives to get farmers to change some traditional harvest and handling practices that could lead to contamination.
Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, said the spice industry needed to clean up poor storage practices, a difficult task. “There is no magic wand for any of the problem we’re addressing,” he said.
Taylor said food-safety rules proposed this year aiming to make imported and domestic food safer on farms and in processing facilities should help reduce spice contamination. The proposed rules include regulations that will require food importers to better understand where the food they bring into the country has been.
Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.


text:
President Barack Obama announced today that he will push for a law to protect consumers from unscrupulous practices by credit card companies.
The president outlined his plans after meeting this afternoon with the chief executives of the credit card industry.
Obama said he wants legislation that will prevent consumers from facing a sudden, surprising rise in fees. He said credit-card companies must publish their forms in plainspoken language. He also said companies must make it easier for people to do comparison shopping.
Both the House and Senate are considering a credit card "bill of rights" to limit the ability of credit-card companies to raise interest rates on existing balances and to require greater disclosure.
Prior to Obama's meeting, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd sent a letter prior to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, asking him to impose an emergency freeze on credit card interest-rate hikes. While the Fed already has a pending rule to forbid credit card companies from raising rates on borrowers with existing balances, it does not go into effect until July 2010.
Banks warn that this legislation could backfire, restricting lenders and actually making less credit available to Americans during the economic crisis.
Almost 80% of American households have credit cards. The average outstanding credit card debt for households was $10,679 at the end of 2008, according to CreditCard.com, an online marketplace designed to link consumers and card issuers.
Market response in the hour after Obama's 2 p.m. comments was measured, with
Bank of America
up 30 cents to $8.77,
up 81 cents to $163.81 and
, at $58.10, and
, at $3.15, essentially unchanged.
Discover Financial Services
climbed 44 cents to $8.51 in response, while
jumped 72 cents to close at $20.97.
Copyright 2009 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.


text:
The brainchild of classically-trained chefs Michael ZonFrilli and Steven Strupp, Bambucha Kombucha was launched around 18 months ago in San Diego after ZonFrilli, who had first experimented with making kombucha almost 20 years ago, started tasting products from local producers and realized that with his culinary background, "I could do a better job."
And while the world probably doesn’t need another pair of home brewers looking to take their hobby to the next level, acknowledged Strupp, there is definitely a place for culinary-inspired brands offering more sophisticated and complex flavor profiles, hence their ‘chef-crafted’ moniker.
“GT’s is an amazing product and they have forged a path for the rest of us, but I think some other brands are relying on extracts and not using a lot of fruit, and that’s what really inspired us. Some are overly acidic and some are more tea based and really lack that bright acidic flavor, but the beauty of it is that there is room for all of these styles.
“Some people like a flatter less acidic kombucha, but I want it to blow my head off.”
When it comes to flavor, he said: “We didn’t want to put out another berry kombucha, everyone else is doing that, so we have a blueberry tart flavor with blueberries, almonds and vanilla. We're balancing the flavors so we don’t have to use so much sugar, while the almonds really make the blueberries pop.”
People were begging for a plain ginger and we just couldn’t do it
ZonFrilli said: “We’ve been tasting and critiquing foods for so long that we know what really pops. People were begging for a plain ginger and we just couldn’t do it! So we’ve got a Thai ginger flavor, which combines ginger root, kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass – so we’ve got that southeast Asian thing going on.
"We’ve also got classic pairings such as our Mango Masala, which combines mango and lime with turmeric, ginger and cayenne," added ZonFrilli, who is looking for investment that will help the brand scale up production significantly over the next six months.
While Bambucha Kombucha love to wax lyrical about its flavor profile, however, it does not make any hard health claims about its wares, he stressed.
“Health benefits are a wonderful magical bonus of kombucha, but we’re not making any health claims. Our products are refreshing and delicious, and if they deliver additional benefits, that’s just the icing on the cake."
Brands like ours are seen like craft beers versus bigger brands such as GT’s, KeVita, Health-Ade
Not surprisingly, given their approach, the first customers for Bambucha kombuchas were in the restaurant trade, although Strupp and ZonFrilli also picked up business with yoga studios and bars, he said: “We love working with mixologists. You just add a splash of our kombucha to liquor and you've got a complex, but consistent, cocktail your can serve.”
However, the brand is also picking up retail accounts from high-end grocery retailers and health food stores as buyers look for something more distinctive from the local brands in their functional beverage sets, he added.
“We’ve been focusing on San Diego and we’ve been slowly moving into Orange County, Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks.
“It’s definitely an easier sell when you are a local brand, because people recognize this as an artisanal product. I think brands like ours are seen like craft beers versus big brands such as GT’s, KeVita, Health-Ade, Reed’s and so on. They also like the fact we’re using an organic biodynamic local farm to source some of our ingredients, which you wouldn’t see in a mass produced product.”
Controlling alcohol levels
Asked about controlling sugar and alcohol levels in kombucha, which has landed some brands in the category in legal hot water, ZonFrilli said: “We’ve tested competitor products and a lot of them are over 0.5% abv.
“We filter our inoculate/starter for every new fermentation to reduce the amount of yeast that’s always growing, but it’s not going to take out the lactobacillus strains. When we are done with the fermentation, we filter a second time with an extremely fine micron filter that pulls out the yeast before we carbonate the beverage and add flavorants, so the yeast doesn’t continue to ferment [convert sugar to alcohol] in the bottle.”
Asked about standards of identity for kombucha, he doesn't like the idea of anything too prescriptive when it comes to formulations, but would like to see a distinction between raw and heat pasteurized products:
“In my opinion if it is cooked and probiotics are added on the back end, it’s not really kombucha.”


text:
Southampton, England native and now Los Angeles resident, Gareth Emery, planned a 2.5 hour set showcasing his classic hits over the last ten years with a North American tour.
Of course, that’s not going to happen.
Instead, with a production value greater than the tour itself, Gareth aims to offer lasers, multiple cameras, and smoke from his back yard and will broadcast the set from his pool.
The Englishman invites fans to “fire up Zoom, get the drinks in, lights, and turn the living room into a nightclub.”
Those that refunded or still hold a ticket to an original tour date will be admitted to the stream for free. Otherwise, it’s $10 to view the original broadcast and subsequent replays that will be aired in Europe the day after and in Australia and Asia two days later.
According to Gareth, the fee is necessary to offset production costs and tickets are limited to 1000 persons.
The event is scheduled for Friday, May 8, 2020 at 9 p.m. E.S.T. with replays in Europe on Saturday, May 9, 2020, at 8 p.m. U.K. time and Sunday, May 10, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. A.E.S.T. time.
A limited-edition Decade T-Shirt is also available for $45.
Those that refunded their ticket and still have the receipt can email firstname.lastname@example.org for admittance.
For others who wish to join the live stream can visit: http://www.garethemery.com/decade
We invite your comments in the section below.
Follow Gareth Emery:


text:
China’s rich last year did something that few associate them with these days: They showed some restraint.
China was knocked off its perch as the world’s biggest buyer of Rolls-Royce cars, just one year after it overtook the U.S. for the first time.
The wealthy Chinese have fallen in love with the prestigious ride in recent years. First introduced in the country in 2003, the Rolls-Royce has ascended in a way that is even more impressive given China’s rich have to pay substantially more than their Western peers for the cars, thanks to import duties and luxury taxes. The average Chinese buyer splurges on average four
But in 2012, China slipped to second place, with the U.S. returning as the best-selling region, according to sales numbers released by the company last week.


text:
Apple’s WWDC is over for another year, and as the dust settles on the iOS 9, Apple Music, and OS X El Capital launch, it’s a chance to reflect on five days of sessions. It’s hard to gage the tone of a week-long developer event from a fast-paced keynote – even with an Apple Music section which went on too long, and which several developers I spoke to suspected was padded to fill up space originally intended for an Apple TV SDK announcement. If there can be such a thing as an overarching theme, though, it felt like it might be harmonious co-existence.
Apple isn’t shouting about universal apps, as Microsoft is with Windows 10. What was a persistent message in most of the sessions I attended, though, was the idea of being a “good neighbor”.
That’s applicable to apps coexisting on the same device (and, with the arrival of multitasking in iOS 9 on the iPad, both coexisting and running at the same time), and to being sensitive to the hardware limitations a device might come with. That iOS 9 will be pushed out to such a broad range of iPhones and iPads, new and old, is testament to Apple’s ambition and to its own frugality, but also a challenge to developers.
The gauntlet Apple threw down to its coders in attendance is a sub-100ms response time for apps, on the oldest device they plan to support. Minimize your footprint, went the warning, because you really can’t be sure what other apps might be running alongside you.
It’s also a message at the core of strengthening an ecosystem: devices that work independently, but are improved when they work together. In the case of the Apple Watch, for instance, native apps in watchOS 2 will be able to get directly online through the wearable’s integrated WiFi, but a paired iPhone is more than just a tethered network connection. It could, for instance, be used as an intermediary to parse out the bare minimum of data that the watch needs to show, keeping load-times low, rather than displaying everything the server wants to push across.
Tightening the bonds between devices, the cloud, and services like iCloud and Siri, came up time and time again. Deep-linking, for instance, will blur the lines between web content and apps, making navigating between software and services more efficient, but also helping discover information currently locked up in software in the same way that Google made its goal to index the web.
HomeKit, meanwhile, has expanded in its own unexpected ways. The “hub” we envisaged Apple TV becoming has been flipped; sure, the set-top box can serve as a gateway, but that’s a role just as easily served by iCloud. Siri – itself ramping up to better face-off against Google Now – gets a starring role, whether you’re at home or away.
There is a whole lot of Kool-Aid to be drunk when you’re at a company-specific developer event. Nonetheless, the coders I spoke to this past week have been vocal and positive, for the most part, about the changes afoot in Cupertino. The tools are getting stronger; the guidance more specific.
From my own perspective, there’s a notable push toward efficiency, one which I can’t help but connect to the increasing footprint of the iPhone and iPad, not to mention low-power computing platforms like the new MacBook. No, they’re not slow, but neither are they running a Core i5 or i7, and so there’s extra emphasis on writing frugal code and making use of things like Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) to more intelligently optimize performance on low-power devices.
As a MacBook user myself, I’m selfishly pleased to hear it; I’m also heartened by early, anecdotal feedback from developers that OS X El Capitan runs significantly faster than its Yosemite predecessor. More broadly, though, there’s no doubting that Apple is pushing for fanless designs and other ways to maximize battery life, and encouraging apps that take a miserly approach to system resources will help make such devices acceptable to an increasingly mainstream market.
Prudence and thrift are seldom going to capture as many column-inches as something like Apple Music. Yet, as crucial to the company’s future – and its bottom line – as its streaming audio service might be, getting developers onboard with this overall vision of modesty has the potential to be exponentially more important.
Expect a few busy months ahead as developers translate those messages into their own software. One thing’s for sure, after all: when iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan arrive this fall, iPhone, iPad, and Mac users won’t be shy in calling out those who haven’t risen to the challenge.


text:
Rarer than a scorching British summer is the idea that the UK’s energy companies can ever provide good news. But there’s plenty of it at the moment as a price war among suppliers means homeowners have the chance to fix their bills for two years — protecting them from further price hikes for that period, and at cheaper prices than many variable rate deals.
One of the offers comes from EDF, with its Blue tariff. It says the average household in the UK will pay £1,059 a year, prices are fixed until April 30, 2014 and the firm promises to tell all customers if a new deal comes to market that could save them at least £52 a year at typical use. Anyone who wants to quit the tariff can do so at any point without facing early termination fees.
They might not be as famous as the ‘big six’ but the gas and electricity coming through is the same and they're often considerably cheaper - particularly Ovo, First Utility and the Co-op. When Scottish Power leapt to the top of the best-buy table earlier this month with its Energy Fixed November 2013 deal, at an average annual cost of £1,052, First Utility quickly took its crown with its iSave Fixed V3 plan, which is fixed for longer - until 31st December 2013 at an average cost of £1,040.
Other quick ways to save include paying by direct debit and signing up to paperless billing, turning the thermostat down just a tad (a one degree reduction could save the average household £40 a year), insulate lofts, floors and walls, and switch to longer life, energy saving light bulbs.


text:
Wrigley is hoping to grow Skittles’ customer base with the release of a new flavour.
While the majority of Skittles consumers are in their teens, new Wild Berry is targetting consumers in their mid-twenties. The new flavour is being supported by a £10m through-the-line marketing campaign, including a new TV ad that goes live in February.
Wild Berry comprises: raspberry, strawberry, wild cherry, berry punch and melon berry flavours, which are expected to attract consumers with a more mature taste palette to the brand. The variant will be available in 55g single bag (rrp: 49p) and 174g sharing pouch formats (rrp: £1.28) – and is well suited to the Big Night In occasion.
“Skittles is performing phenomenally well,” says Wrigley European confections business unit director Matt Austin. “Not only has its annual growth rate, which currently stands at +16.3% year-on-year, been in double digits for the past three years, Skittles has also generated an additional £20m in value sales in the last three years – that’s +112% growth. We’re confident Skittles Wild Berry will capture the attention of a new generation of Skittles lovers, broadening brand appeal to a wider age demographic and ultimately creating additional sales opportunities for retailers.”