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Kent Bendall knows that some people think he’s crazy.
He knows they are thinking: Who in their right mind would buy a video-rental store in the age of Netflix and shomi and 24-hour-a-day on-demand movies?
But Bendall, 46, isn’t too worried about that; he’s worked at Pic A Flic Video in the Cook Street Village for nearly 15 years and knows that it isn’t just any video store.
He took ownership of the store this month, in part because it’s the best job he’s ever had and he didn’t want it to end. He also believes the store, which opened in the mid-1980s, can survive by playing to its strengths: selection and customer service.
Even before Blockbuster, Rogers Video and other competitors fell by the wayside, Pic A Flic was known as the place to go for movies you couldn’t find anywhere else — from foreign films and documentaries to black-and-white classics and quirky independent releases.
“Pic A Flic was always the staple,” said Lucas Woods, who has been renting videos there for 20 years. “They had everything.”
The store’s vast catalogue of more than 30,000 titles remains a draw today, despite the rise of streaming video, Bendall says.
“In the past year or so, I’ve seen a lot of customers we haven’t seen in three or four years,” he said. “And they’ll sheepishly admit, ‘Oh, we got Netflix. We got Shaw.’ And they’re like, ‘But we couldn’t find anything good.’
“That’s what I hear most often, ‘We had Netflix, but there’s never anything good on there.’ Or: ‘We have Netflix, but it doesn’t have the Star Wars films or it doesn’t have this.’ ”
Others keep coming back because, like Laurel Dowd, 54, they simply like the “feeling of the place.” Dowd said she’ll sometimes stop at Pic A Flic just to hear the staff joking or bantering about pop culture.
“It just feels good to be able to come into a place where they’re here because they want to be here,” she said. Downloading movies off the Internet never occurred to her. “I just go with what I’m happy with.”
Bendall hears that often, and believes that, despite the ease of watching movies online, many people still prefer the experience of getting out and browsing the video racks or getting a recommendation from a knowledgeable staff member. After all, where else can you go to find out the name of the movie that had the guy who was in that other thing, with the girl and the dog?
“Sometimes we can nail that,” Bendall said, laughing. “‘Oh, you know, Marley and Me with Jennifer Aniston.’”
Rob Nesbitt, who co-owned the store previously with Karen Rissling for about eight years, said Pic A Flic needed shot of “newness” and that if anyone can provide it, it’s his longtime friend, Bendall.
“Kent is super passionate,” Nesbitt said. “He’s super knowledgeable. The customers love him … I know he’s going to inject a lot of colour and life into the place.”
Bendall said he has no plans to fool with Pic A Flic’s success, but does want to get into video sales, and possibly expand into movie memorabilia. He also envisions hosting movie-related events in the community.
“I love movies and I really believe that a collection like this — it’s a great resource,” he said. “And for a city like Victoria that prides itself on being very artistically inclined, I think it’s important to have something like this that has a huge volume of movie history at people’s disposal.”
Lindsay Meredith, a marketing professor at Simon Fraser University, said Pic A Flic’s massive selection will likely be key to pulling in younger customers like the “millennials” — those born from the early 1980s to early 2000s.
“He’s got one serious problem on his hands: Geezers like me,” Meredith said. “We have a bad habit of dying off, and when that happens, your market disappears. Then you gotta say, ‘How do I replace it?’
“With a selection like that, there may be a whole pile of retrofitted millennials out there who have a little hankering to see Rock Hudson and Marilyn Monroe, who may want to see Humphrey Bogart or watch some of the big movies of the ’70s and ’80s. Guess what? He’s got it all.”
Pic a Flic’s location in the Cook Street Village doesn’t hurt either, Meredith said. “He’s got the best of both worlds. He’ll be getting your downtown highrise millennials in condos and he’s also getting your geezer factor. So that’s a good combo, no question.”
Meredith said a little advertising wouldn’t hurt, as would a few promotions that might encourage customers to “bring a friend” to the store. “Anything to strengthen the loyalty of the current segments he has and, of course, gently use them to expand it through to their friends.”
In the same way that vinyl records have enjoyed resurgence, Bendall is hoping people rediscover the pleasure of visiting a video store where staff have carefully selected the best products for you.
“People think I’m crazy for investing all my time and money into a video rental store,” he said. “But I think as the online thing and the instant gratification of digital downloads become more prevalent, people are going to want a cleaner, more accessible, retro way of getting their entertainment that’s more personal.
“God, I hope they do.”


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Holganix and Co-Sponsor Healthy Grow, a Pearl Valley Organix brand, have announced the roster of speakers for the Fourth Annual Bionutritional Summit to be held once again at the historic Seelbach Hilton in Louisville, KY, on October 21, 2015, the day before Landscapes 2015, formerly known as the GIE+EXPO.
Keynoting this year will be Holganix CEO, Barrett Ersek presenting his Harvard Business Review-published paper on “The X Factor and Breaking Your Industry’s Bottlenecks.” In addition to being at the helm of the multi-year INC. 5000-ranked Holganix, Barrett is an international motivational speaker on innovation and gratitude.
Other notable speakers include Shaun Kanary, who does double duty as director of marketing for Weed Pro Lawn Care and marketing professor at Baldwin Wallace University, in addition to Stephen Lange, Holganix Inventor, Cale Bigelow, professor of Turf Grass Science at Purdue University, and Jeff Leuzinger, sales manager of Healthy Grow.
Attendees will have the opportunity to ask Holganix users about their experiences with the product during a roundtable hosted by Holganix COO and former Lawntrepreneur, Dave Thompson.
Holganix is a 100 percent organic plant probiotic which contains living biology to restore soil’s essential microorganisms.
For more information on the 2015 Bionutritional Summit, or to register for the event, please visit www.BionutritionalSummit.com. Tickets are on a first-come basis with limited seats available. Register by October 1, 2015 and use the code: RSVP to purchase your event ticket for $9, a discount of $36.

domain: news


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Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani at the inauguaration of Textile Sector Buyer-Seller meet and launch of Power Tex portal and mobile app in Bengaluru. It will help provide information about various schemes and incentives of the textile ministry. On this occassion, the textile ministry has assured a Rs. 100 crore Textile Park for Karnataka and asked the State Government to provide land for the textile park.
The announcement of Textile park by the textile minister was welcomed by the textile industry in Bengaluru on Sunday.
As an assistance to silk weavers, she informed that her ministry is prepared to sanction five crore rupees for setting up of Yarn bank in the state. Those finding it hard to buy silk yarns will benefit from the proposal to set up yarn bank. The minister has said her ministry will support any number of yarn banks proposed by the Industry.
Powerloom owners, she pointed out can upgrade their plain power looms to semi-automatic looms by availing 20,000 rupees per loom incentive from the ministry.
For those adopting solar power, the ministry will provide 50 to 90 percent subsidy and for the future of Man-made fibre a road map is ready in collaboration with the textile industry.
The ministry has announced a package of Rs. 1300 crore for the skill development in the apparel industry.
Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar assured the silk growing farmers that their request to increase import duty on silk from 20 to 35 percent will be looked into under consultations with the Prime Minister.
The silk farmers have been demanding for duty increase but silk fabric manufacturers are seeking its reduction. Hence Union Minister Ananth Kumar has asked both to come to a consensus and approach the Government.
A weekly report covering market and price information on the entire chain of polyester along with online access to daily polyester chain prices.
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Goodyear recalls Wrangler Silent Armor tires
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- There's a warning for drivers. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is recalling tens of thousands of tires designed for trucks, vans and SUVs.
The company says it's recalling six versions of its Wrangler Silent Armor tires made in 2009. They say the tire treads could separate from the tire and cause accidents or cause a tire failure.
Goodyear does say the separation would most likely only occur under "severe usage conditions."
Goodyear will replace the tires for free. The recall affects about 40,000 tires and will start by March 22.
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I. Bonifacic@igorbonifacicSeptember 14th, 2021In this write-up: electric car or truck, rivian, information, gear, r1t, r1s, transportation, evRivian
At the get started of the thirty day period, Rivian achieved a major milestone. The Environmental Defense Agency revealed official vary estimates for the company’s R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV, putting equally autos just one phase nearer to an formal start. Rivian has now strike yet another critical milestone.
Immediately after months of creating pre-manufacturing automobiles, this morning our very first consumer car drove off our generation line in Ordinary! Our team’s collective endeavours have created this minute doable. Are not able to hold out to get these into the fingers of our prospects! pic.twitter.com/8ZidwTaXRI
— RJ Scaringe (@RJScaringe) September 14, 2021
In a tweet spotted by Roadshow, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe introduced on Tuesday that the organization created its initial R1T EV for a client. “After months of developing pre-creation vehicles, this early morning our initial purchaser automobile drove off our output line in Ordinary,” Scaringe wrote on Twitter. “Are not able to wait around to get these into the fingers of our buyers!”
Obtaining to this issue has been something of a journey for Rivian. The business experienced to begin with planned to get started deliveries of the R1T in 2020 but was forced to delay the truck’s debut to 2021 when it could not get its producing facility, a former Mitsubishi plant, retooled rapidly ample. The coronavirus pandemic only extra to the automaker’s issues, forcing it to drive bach the launch of the R1T and R1S from July to September. “Everything from facility development, to devices installation, to auto part supply (specifically semiconductors) has been impacted by the pandemic,” Scaringe wrote at the time.
But even with you component in all those setbacks, the R1T is generating its way to shoppers right before the Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning. Both equally of those people cars will not debut prior to the start of 2022.
All solutions recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial group, unbiased of our dad or mum corporation. Some of our stories involve affiliate back links. If you get something by one of these backlinks, we may well gain an affiliate fee.
Some parts of this article are sourced from:


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NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio -- The signs are all there for City Council next month to approve a more than year-long journey to revamp the community’s zoning codes related to business signage.
“It’s definitely coming down the home stretch of the project,” Director of Planning and Community Development Kimberly Lieber said. "The final stage is the council adoption stage.
“This was more of a full rewrite than a slight text change. We wanted to address those areas of the code that were not working for us.”
The update of the sign code covers size and scale, temporary signs, sign face calculation, architectural features, design guidelines, drive-thru facilities, sign variances, administration and enforcement.
While pole signs will continue to be prohibited by the city, a notable change residents can expect involves digital signs, which currently aren’t permitted.
“In the new code, a limited amount of digital signage -- not to exceed 50 percent of the sign face area -- will be permitted for ground signs, which must only have copy in one color on a dark background,” Lieber said. “The message may change once per day.”
Prior to revamping the city’s signage codes, North Olmsted audited its sign variance requests for the past several years in hope of finding a pattern. The results included what Lieber described as “common sense stuff” that needed to be addressed.
“This was the right time to do it,” Lieber said. "A good example of why the changes were needed is the new Raising Cane’s, which had to seek multiple variances for their drive-thru facilities.
“It seems as though if you have a drive-thru restaurant there should be some expectation that by right they should be able to have signage that serves the drive-thru.”
Another change has to do with the size of signs requested by larger retail stores and businesses. Current code allows for one square foot of sign face per lineal foot of building frontage, with a 100-square-foot cap.
This was deemed unreasonable for the larger big box stores. The updated codes eliminate the one square foot for one lineal foot standard, as well as the 100-square-foot sign size limit.
“We made small changes that I think will have a significant impact for businesses,” Lieber said. "It saves them time and money, and they can get their approvals more quickly.
“They’ll have more flexibility to design and arrange signage on their buildings and on their properties, but at the same time it’s not dramatically increasing the amount of signage available to the businesses. It’s just a few small tweaks that provide that flexibility without dramatically changing the overall area of signage.”
The revamped zoning code suggestions came as a result of the community survey, which was completed exactly a year ago.
“The survey looked at various types of temporary sign styles, such as yard signs, banners, feather signs and inflatables,” Lieber said. "The survey reinforced the preference for temporary sign types like banners and yard signs that are less obtrusive than ones that move, flutter or inflate.
“Also, respondents preferred the type of monument-style ground signs we currently require.”
The revamped zoning code suggestions were also recommendations from the chamber of commerce and stakeholder focus groups with sign company representatives, local businesses, franchise businesses and developers.
“We tried to be very responsive to their concerns and what made sense,” Lieber said. "Also, what made sense for business will make it easier to administer from a city’s standpoint, too.
“I think businesses will find some of the corrections to be very agreeable, so they don’t have to spend extra time filling (out) applications and making their case in front of the appeals board.”
Read more news from the Sun Post Herald.


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ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) A money-back guarantee can give consumers some piece of mind. But one CBS46 viewer reached out to Better Call Harry when she ran into a problem getting a refund.
79-year-old Bertha Furcron had dentures made by an Aspen Dental office. After six weeks, she still had pain.
The color of the dentures was not what she wanted, and the price was not what she expected.
Bertha asked the office’s business manager about the money back guarantee, but she says she was told that no changes could be made.
After the Better Call Harry team got involved, Bertha received her refund.


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Electric-car startup Lucid Motors Inc. has an undisclosed commitment to build an assembly plant in Saudi Arabia, a potentially costly promise the company made after accepting more than $1 billion in financing from the Saudi Public Investment Fund in 2018, according to people familiar with the matter.
The plant promise represents a significant investment commitment for the startup, which hasn’t yet sold a car from its one existing factory in Arizona. It is also a potential boon for Saudi Arabia, which has struggled to lure Western companies to the country in the wake of the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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Apple denies tracking iPhones, to fix 'bugs'
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Apple on Wednesday denied claims it was tracking the location of iPhone users but said it planned to fix "bugs" that resulted in location data being unencrypted and stored for up to a year.
"Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone," the California company said in a statement. "Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so."
Apple said the iPhone was not logging a user's location but maintaining a database of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers to "help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested."
The statement was Apple's first on the issue since a pair of researchers raised privacy concerns last week with their revelation that iPhones and iPads were storing latitude and longitude coordinates along with a time stamp.
Apple said the location data researchers were seeing on the iPhone is "not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone."
"This data is sent to Apple in an anonymous and encrypted form," Apple said.
At the same time, however, Apple said it planned to reduce the amount of time the Wi-Fi and cell tower data is stored on the iPhone from as much as a year to seven days.
"The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly," Apple said. "We don't think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data."
Apple also said the data cache will eventually be encrypted and can be deleted by a user when Location Services is turned off on the iPhone.
US lawmakers this week invited Apple and Google to attend a hearing on privacy next month following the claims that the iPhone and Android devices were regularly tracking a user's location and storing the data.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also sent letters this week to Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Research in Motion, and Hewlett-Packard asking whether their devices are tracking, storing, and sharing users' locations.
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Amid border clashes, calls for boycotting Chinese products have intensified. While India relies heavily on imports from China, a much smaller portion of China’s imports are from India. An economic boycott seems infeasible. In FY19, 5.1% of India’s exports were destined for China, while only 3% of China’s came to India. Also, 13.7% of India’s imports were from China, while only 0.9% of China’s were from India. Imports from China accounted for over 14% of India’s total imports in FY20 (until Feb.), the highest share among all the nations. Exports to China accounted for over 5% of India’s exports, the third-highest.
Data from the CPCA show that China exported 2,957 cars to India in April. India came in as No.7 among China’s auto export destinations, despite the impact of the global pandemic and noise calling for a boycott of Chinese products in India. Industry data shows China exported $4.3 billion worth of parts to India’s $57 billion auto component industry in the 2018 financial year alone. There are many essential commodities that are imported from China and India will need to speed up its infrastructure growth manifold to produce them in their own country. For instance, 76.3% of all antibiotics imported by India are from China. Apart from this there are many Indian start-ups that have Chinese investors and therefore throwing away china completely from the Indian market seems like a far fetched possibility.


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A record 414,168 runners applied to take part in this Sunday’s (28th April) London Marathon and UK exports have also been smashing records, as sales of trainers and sports footwear overseas reached £392 million in 2018, a 21% increase since the previous year.
The most popular destination was the Irish Republic, which imported British products worth £94 million.
Exports to other economies also raced up; China by 233% to £2.3 million, UAE 181% to £1.6 million and the largest growth came in the Thai market, with exports growing by 1157% to £1.1million.
Trainers and Sports footwear have been a high performer for British exports, increasing at an average annual growth rate of 21% and have more than tripled in value.
London took 1st place in the regional race for most footwear exports in the UK, worth over £1.8 billion in 2018. They were followed by North West England in 2nd (£1.1 billion) and the East of England in 3rd (£634 million).
Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, said:
Exports of UK trainers and sports footwear are doing brilliantly all over the world, the record number of applicants for this year’s London Marathon is truly inspiring, and it’s encouraging to know that more runners than ever will have British made trainers on their feet.
The export success of companies like Norman WALSH and New Balance, which have large headquarters in the UK is testament to the economic benefits of selling overseas. I encourage like-minded businesses to


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Sunday, 26 September 2021
THE Kenton Theatre in Henley enjoyed a record number of ticket sales for August.
Over the last five years the New Street venue has sold an average of 850 tickets during the month but this year the total topped 1,400.
Tom Ryan, the theatre’s joint general manager, put the success down to the popularity of the latest programme and the box office being open slightly longer.
A show by comedian and TV presenter Dara O’Briain on October 1 sold out in a matter of hours and a show by veteran American singer PP Arnold later in the month is selling well.
Mr Ryan said: “About 75 per cent of sales are online but for people who aren’t online it’s important to be accessible.
“I’m pleased with the variety of shows we have coming up and we’re seeing lots of new customers, which is lovely.
“Henley is a big town when you include the surrounding area, so the more things we can put on the better.
“Credit must also go to our box office volunteers who have been putting in extra shifts this summer, so it’s nice when that’s rewarded.
“We have also made a big effort to get the word out — from having stalls at fetes to wide-ranging programme and poster drops, increased social media and, of course, support from the Henley Standard.”
15 September 2017
POLL: Have your say


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The Federation of Independent Retailers (NFRN) has launched a new campaign urging consumers to shop locally during the coronavirus pandemic. Posters calling on customers to ‘Shop Local, Shop Little’ are now being sent out to its 15,000 members around the UK.
While many fashion retailers have taken the decision to close their doors temporarily following government social distancing guidance, some have remained open with special measures in place to limit the potential spread of the virus.
National president Stuart Reddish comments: “In unprecedented challenging trading conditions, we want to do remind shoppers to support their local shops. Independent retailers play a critical role in their communities. We help raise much needed funds for local charities, we give young people their first jobs and we keep a watchful eye out for the elderly, disabled and more vulnerable people in society.
“We are already hearing stories about how NFRN members are going above and beyond to help their customers. As the poster says, independent retailers are working hard with their suppliers to supply their customers during this difficult period. Many of our members also offer a delivery service and will be happy to deliver to the elderly and vulnerable and those who are self isolating.
“We really hope that customers will see these posters and shop local and little in their community shops.”


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Consumers research travel on multiple sites, but book directly with airline and hotel sites.
Consumers are going online to plan and buy travel in increasing numbers. Driven by low prices, most buyers search multiple sites.
Claria Corporation's Feedback Research division said 88 percent of consumers who have gone or plan to travel this summer use the Internet to research and purchase their trips.
In terms of actually purchasing travel, 61 percent indicate they purchased or planned to purchase an airline ticket online, up from 50 percent in 2004. Online purchases of hotel accommodations also increased this year to 52 percent, up from 40 percent in 2004.
Consumers frequent multiple general travel sites, according to the study. Respondents who visited Hotwire.com also looked at Orbitz (71 percent); Expedia (67 percent); and Travelocity (62 percent).
Of those who purchased travel online and researched at a general travel site, 73 percent indicated they went to the specific travel company's site to actually make the purchase. Just over half (52 percent) report they go directly to the company site because they believe company sites offer the lowest prices. Forty-seven percent say company sites offer special deals, and 22 percent just want to get their frequent flyer points.
Airline-only sites record the highest number of repeat visitors per month. Southwest.com leads the pack with an average 9.31 visitor returns. AlaskaAir followed at an average 9.29 return visitors, and Northwest.com visitors came back an average 9.19 times.
Scott Eagle, Claria's CMO, said the study shows consumers increasingly compare prices.
"While some consumers indicated that they purchase because of ease of use or frequent flyer programs, it's clear that low prices will be a primary driver in online travel decisions," Eagle said. "In an environment like this, the challenge for travel brands is balancing the costs of maintaining a competitive product with building brand equity and high brand awareness."
Feedback Research analyzed data from its parent Claria's network of users between April 1 and July 1, 2005. Additionally, users who had purchased travel in the past 12 months or viewed travel sites in the prior 30 days were surveyed.
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Hill Country opening Ashley store in Tacoma, Wash.
June 22, 2012,
TACOMA, Wash. — Hill Country Holdings will grand open its newest Ashley Furniture HomeStore here June 30.
The New Braunfels, Texas-based Top 100 company will open the 30,000-square-foot showroom at South 38th Street, near the Tacoma Mall. It's the retailer's first Tacoma store and fourth in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area.
The store also is giving the first 100 families attending the grand opening $100 gift certificates, and all visitors will be eligible to win hourly giveaways including sofas, rugs and mattresses. Customers who make purchases on grand opening day will be entered in a drawing for a chance to receive full credit for the purchase.
The company declined to disclose its investment or sales projections for the new stores. Hill Country President Gary Seals said overall, the chain is experiencing double-digit sales increases this year.
Hill County is No 35 on Furniture/Today's Top 100 with 21 stores and estimated furniture, bedding and accessories sales of $196.6 million in 2011, up more than 17% from the previous year.
In addition to the Seattle area, the retailer operates Ashley Furniture HomeStores in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, McAllen and Brownsville, Texas.
In a release, Seals said Hill Country "is proud to contribute to the growth of the city of Tacoma, and is looking forward to bringing jobs to the local economy while expanding retail business in the area.
"We have had our eye on the Tacoma market for five years, and we're thrilled that the right opportunity for a location has finally opened up."
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text:
"Ethical manufacturing petition delivered to San Francisco Apple Store"
will start after this message from our sponsors.
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Ethical manufacturing petition delivered to San Francisco Apple Store
This is standing on solid air.
These workers in China primarily who are suffering on a regular basis from suffering of the hands, suffering of legs, swelling limbs on a regular basis, right.
The second is this is not organized as a distributed organizing campaign by an organization, right.
It's by individuals and four continents around the country demonstrating the capacity of people to come together on issues they care about on a regular basis, right.
The service instinct is this is not just about Apple, all right.
It represents a new movement of people and consumer advocacy with issues of world organizations and brand you love, you can immediately rapidly respond, coordinate with others and start a movement online and off and the significance of this is if Apple changed it's policies, it doesn't change one company because the iconic nature of this company, it changes two and then ten and a hundred.
Not just impact a million lives what you could directly but tons of millions and hundreds of millions around the world.
We deliver 250,000 petition signature from petitions on change.org and someofus.org to Apple here in San Francisco.
We met with the representative who took these two big boxes of signatures from us and said that he would be contacting Apple's management right away and speaking with them.
He also said that he would try to get the message up to corporate and that he'll be contacting us later this week to let us know when we can expect to hear our side
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US car dealers want extension of ‘Cash for Clunkers’
U.S. auto dealers are asking the government to extend the deadline for submissions for its “Cash for Clunkers” program to August 31, citing computer problems that are delaying the entry of applications into the system.
The National Automobile Dealers Association late on Friday said dealers began reporting slowdowns or crashes with the computer system on Friday afternoon.
The U.S. government said it would suspend its popular “Cash for Clunkers” auto rebates on Monday as the program’s $3 billion budget runs dry, a month after it was launched.
“Many dealers are working around the clock to submit their “clunkers” applications to meet the Administration’s deadline,” NADA said in a statement.
“Despite these efforts, computer issues may prevent some “clunker” applications from being submitted in time, through no fault of the dealers.”
The program, offering payments of up to $4,500 to people who trade in old gas guzzlers for new, fuel-efficient vehicles, will end at 8 p.m., August 24, by which time all applications for the rebates must be submitted to Washington.
It has provided a big temporary boost for the auto industry and the U.S. economy. In the past few weeks, both Ford Motor Co and General Motors Cohave increased production as some models have been in short supply.
“This later deadline for submissions would help avoid computer slowdowns due to overwhelming demand, and ensure that the President’s statement yesterday that every dealer ‘will get their money’ is achieved in a sensible, orderly manner,” NADA said in its statement.


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Samsung's newly released 840 EVO SSD isn't available yet, but as luck would have it, the drive's predecessor is currently on sale at TigerDirect. The e-tailer offers the 120GB model for just $79.99 after a $20 mail-in rebate, and shipping is free. Assuming that rebate check doesn't get lost in the mail, you'll end up paying just 67 cents per gigabyte.
Mechanical storage more up your alley? Then you'll be pleased to know that Seagate's 3TB Desktop HDD hard drive is available at a discount yet again, this time at Amazon for $119.99 shipped. Per-gigabyte cost: just under four cents.
In other news, while memory prices have ballooned up this year, occasional sales can make up for the hikes. Case in point: TigerDirect currently sells an 8GB kit of Patriot DDR3-1600 memory for just $39.99 after a $30 mail-in rebate. (Free shipping is available, as well.) That's not much more than what a similar kit cost last year, before prices went up so dramatically.
The U.S. deals are unfortunately off-limits for our Canadian readers. However, we invite our Canuck friends to peruse NCIX's latest sale. The e-tailer's Back-to-School Kickoff Sale Event includes a number of choice deals, including the same 3TB Seagate hard drive mentioned above for $119.99 CAD. Given the exchange rate at the moment, that's actually cheaper than what Amazon charges.
|MSI spills the beans on its cadre of custom GTX 1080 Ti cards||2|
|AIDA64 version 5.90 supports Ryzen and Apollo Lake||1|
|MSI Trident 3 Arctic stuffs a GTX 1070 in a 5L package||14|
|Gigabyte shows off a trio of GeForce GTX 1080 Tis||11|
|iOS 10.3 arrives with APFS support in tow||9|
|MakeVR and Vive Tracker get HTC Vive ready for work and play||1|
|Biostar X370GTN is the first Ryzen Mini-ITX motherboard||27|
|Intel gives hard drives a boost with Optane Memory||59|
|Starcraft Remastered constructs higher-fidelity pylons||46|
|They were going to launch a G-sync version but trying to represent the price induced an overflow error in their storefront software.||+31|


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Plus, Jameson Caskmates teams up with Revolution and Bale Breaker Brewing, Widow Jane launches a 14 year old bourbon, and whiskies from Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Islay, Wales, and Ireland are hitting shelves.
The third chapter of Little Book, Westland’s newest Garryana, straight bourbon, Irish whiskey, a very old Brora, and even older blended scotch are also rolling out.
The Louisville distiller pays tribute to influential figures, like Muhammad Ali, in its redesigned bourbons and ryes.
Buffalo Trace has unveiled a single-barrel Elmer T. Lee, Writers’ Tears is rolling out its cask-strength Irish whiskey, and two limited-edition scotches are hitting shelves.
Plus, we have more details about The Walking Dead bourbon, several new craft whiskeys are hitting shelves, and Oban is releasing a distillery-only scotch.
Focusing on innovation and experimentation, the Fred B. Noe Craft Distillery will be the home for small-batch Jim Beam brands like Booker’s and Baker’s.
State officials passed new regulations defining standards for the designation, including an unusual barrel requirement.
Plus, there’s a new recipe for The Peat Monster, while Buffalo Trace’s latest experimental bourbon, a very old Talisker, and a bottled in bond wheat whiskey are hitting shelves.


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Samsung has recently launched the Galaxy S22 series on February 9, 2022. The all-new Galaxy S22 and S22+ are powered with a second-generation dynamic AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 10~120Hz, which is clearly written in the official picture.
The screen refresh rate parameters in Samsung’s official press release have quietly changed, and both the S22 and S22+ have been changed to 48~120Hz refresh rates.
If we go back and check the Ross Young status, Samsung has shown frequencies below 48Hz as a demonstration, not a commercial product specification. Samsung has yet to explain the change.
If you are looking to purchase this newly launched device then the Galaxy S22 series will go on sale globally on February 25, and the National Bank Pioneer Program has been launched. The price for early adopters is:
8GB+128GB: 5499 yuan
8GB+256GB: 6299 yuan
8GB+128GB: 7099 yuan
8GB+256GB: 7899 yuan


text: China, US Hold High-Level Discussions On IP Issues 17/12/2007 by Liza Porteus Viana, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch China and the United States last week held high-level discussions on a host of topics including intellectual property rights, reaching agreements to cooperate on IP rights protection, stopping counterfeit medicines and devices, reducing copying of patented biotechnology, and sharing innovation. The 18th US-China Joint Commission on China and Trade (JCCT) and third China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) were held in Beijing on 11 December and Grand Epoch City on 12-13 December, respectively. US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and other government officials at a time when the trade relationship between the two countries is strained. “Whereas trade was once largely a source of stability in US-China relations, it has recently become a source of tension, and not only because of safety concerns,” Paulson said on 11 December. “Worries about the effects of foreign competition – through trade or through foreign investment – have led to a rise in economic nationalism and protectionist sentiments in both our nations.” “Neither China nor the United States can protect our way to further prosperity,” he said. “We must resist attempts to reduce transparency or increase regulatory obstacles in order to protect domestic industries.” USTR said China has made some progress since the 2006 JCCT meeting. Beijing has, for example, acceded to the World Intellectual Property Organization “Internet treaties” (on protection of copyrights and performances), cracked down on the sale of some computers not pre-loaded with legitimate software, increased policing of counterfeit textbooks and teaching materials, and aided the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in enforcement raids. But it needs to do more to enforce anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy laws, USTR said. During this year’s JCCT summit, the two countries agreed to exchange information on customs seizures and counterfeit goods originating from Chinese companies, and Beijing agreed to strengthen enforcement of laws against company name misuse. Some Chinese companies have registered legitimate US trademarks and trade names without permission. The two sides also agreed to cooperate on case-by-case enforcement against such company name misuse, according to the USTR. In agriculture, USTR said “China agreed to eliminate the requirement to submit viable biotech seeds for testing, which will reduce the possibility of illegal copying of patented agricultural materials.” On pharmaceuticals, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on active pharmaceutical ingredients, and China agreed to expand regulations on control of bulk ingredients used in counterfeit drugs, USTR said. In April, Sotheby’s sued three Hong Kong-registered companies that used the name “Su Fu Bi,” written with the same Chinese characters the auction house uses to write its name in Chinese. And in September, Italian fashion company Gucci sued two Chinese companies for trademark infringement of its logo on women’s shoes. The United States has filed two dispute settlement cases against China’s treatment of IP rights with the World Trade Organization, one over what it views as deficiencies in China’s legal regime for protecting and enforcing copyrights and trademarks on products, and the other over China’s barriers to trade in books, music, videos and movies. China only allows a certain number of foreign films to be shows in the country’s theatres each year, which US officials say fuels piracy. At the time of the meeting, the Motion Picture Association of America announced that China had blocked imports of US films. Schwab, speaking to reporters at Thursday’s SED meeting, said the US delegation has raised the film issue with China’s Ministry of Commerce and directly with Wu. “It will be raised with anyone and everyone we see in the course of the day,” Schwab said, according to Agence France-Presse. Wu voiced her displeasure to US officials over the WTO complaints, saying that move, along with what China views as protectionist measures being debated in the US Congress, could further strain trade ties. “China is a responsible developing nation, not only in terms of the protection of intellectual property rights, but also improving product quality and balancing foreign trade. Our attitudes are clear-cut and our actions are resolute,” she said, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. During her opening remarks at the SED Wednesday, Wu said if any of 50 or so ‘protectionist’ bills pass the US Congress, “they will severely undermine US business ties with China. I have noticed that the American business community and public figures with vision have seen the grave consequences of protectionism.” During the JCCT, the US and China signed several memoranda of understanding on issues such as high technology and strategic trade development, safety of drugs, medical devices, food and feed, biofuels, science and technology protocols, and expansion of US exports to China. During the SED, 31 agreements were reached in financial services, food and product safety, energy and the environment, investments, China’s currency and other topics. The next SED meeting will be held in June 2008 in Washington. USTR Annual Report to Congress on China Separately, in an annual USTR report [.pdf] to the US Congress on China’s WTO compliance delivered on 11 December, Schwab noted that Beijing has overhauled its legal regime and has put into place more laws regarding intellectual property rights and piracy. But, it said, China “has continued to demonstrate little success in actually enforcing its laws and regulations in the face of the challenges created by widespread counterfeiting, piracy and other forms of infringement.” Contributing to Beijing’s poor enforcement record, according to the report, are weaknesses in the enforcement system, such as underutilisation of strong criminal penalties. China offers a type of “safe harbour” for copyright infringers by having such a high threshold for criminal investigations. This is raising concerns that China may not be complying with its obligations under the TRIPS agreement, the report said. Among other things, the TRIPS agreement requires countries to enforce penalties against copyright and intellectual property infringers. “Although the central government displayed strong leadership in modifying the full range of China’s IPR laws and regulations in an effort to bring them into line with China’s WTO commitments, effective IPR enforcement has not been achieved, and IPR infringement remains a serious problem throughout China,” the report stated. As stated in its WTO complaint, the US charges that China continues to maintain import and distribution restrictions on legitimate items such as DVDs, books, and music, which fuels the pirated goods market. The report also claimed China has hampered US attempts to evaluate whether it is working hard enough to address the widespread IP infringement occurring in the country, and that while it has made some progress in ensuring software used in government computers is legal, that progress has been slow. China also needs to improve its measures for copyright protection on the Internet after it signed WIPO’s Copyright Treaty and Performance and Phonograms Treaty, the so-called Internet treaties, the report said. But it did note China has been moving forward on proposed legal measures affecting the intellectual property rights of foreign rights holders, such as its Anti-Monopoly Law issued in August. In October, officials from the US Government Accountability Office testified before Congress on the risks to intellectual property rights, particularly as an increasing amount of manufacturing is taking place in Asian countries. They noted that technological advances have spurred the illegal reproduction and distribution of some products. “The severity of these risks has been intensified by weak enforcement in some countries, particularly China, whose enforcement challenges have persisted despite US efforts,” officials concluded in their testimony. US lawmakers such as Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) have criticised the pace at which the US insists its trading partners abide by WTO IP enforcement rules and China’s reluctance to abide by them. Senate Finance Committee leaders sent a letter to Schwab and other US officials two weeks ago to press Chinese officials to meet their commitments on intellectual property rights, trade, currency and other issues, including moves to join the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement. “We recognise the progress that China has made in certain areas,” the senators wrote. “However, we remain deeply concerned that many of these promises remain unfulfilled.” William New contributed to this report. Liza Porteus Viana may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related "China, US Hold High-Level Discussions On IP Issues" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


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- Private drugmaker Kaleo, criticized last year for sharp price hikes to its opioid reversal drug, now faces a legal challenge alleging shady business practices promoting its other marketed product, called Auvi-Q.
- In June, Adamis Pharmaceuticals sued Kaleo in U.S. district court, claiming the company "engaged in an elaborate scheme to undercut the commercial launch and success" of Symjepi, its rival drug to Auvi-Q. Per the complaint, Kaleo bought three domains featuring the brand name of Adamis' drug — mysymjepi.com, symjepi.co and the misspelled sympjepi.net — and redirected that web traffic to Auvi-Q's site instead.
- Symjepi and Auvi-Q are each epinephrine injections, approved as emergency treatments for allergic reactions. Both companies declined to comment on the pending legal matter. Adamis seeks a jury trial in its complaint, filed June 21.
Cybersquatting was most common in the 1990s and early 2000s, with someone snatching a domain and then selling it to the trademark holder for an easy payday.
The practice has since fizzled out as federal law enacted in 1999 outlined the grounds to take action against cybersquatters. Referencing that legal framework, two intellectual property experts who reviewed the complaint at the request of BioPharma Dive said the case appeared relatively clearcut against Kaleo.
They said a key legal question is if Kaleo was using the domain in bad faith.
Alexandra Roberts, an associate professor at University of New Hampshire's law school, said that component is pretty clear here in this case.
"There's no other reason to choose Symjepi as a domain name, unless you're trying to mislead people, you're trying to divert traffic," she said. "People are looking for Symjepi and, instead, you are going to pull them over to your site and try to sell them products. That's textbook cybersquatting."
Adamis' first approved product is Symjepi, which contains the same active ingredient as and competes with Kaleo's Auvi-Q. Adamis gained U.S. approval in June 2017 and partnered with Novartis' Sandoz to sell and distribute the drug just over one year later.
In February 2019, a Sandoz customer contacted the pharma to inform them symjepi.net had redirected them to Auvi-Q, the complaint states. Kaleo acknowledged it owned the site after Adamis requested they stop using the domain. Since that request in February, the site no longer redirects to Auvi-Q, according to the suit, and navigating to the site now returns a placeholder webpage from GoDaddy.com, a web hosting company.
Adamis claims this confusion translates to trademark infringement, cybersquatting and, ultimately, "irreparable harm" to the company's goodwill and marketplace reputation.
For Kaleo, the lawsuit is unwelcome news, just a few months after it came under scrutiny with a Senate report and a "60 Minutes" segment on its pricing practices.
"It's hard for me to see what the escape route is going to be and how they are going to get out of it," said Mark McKenna, a professor specializing in intellectual property at the University of Notre Dame's law school.
Kaleo would be on firmer legal grounds if they used the websites to compare the two drugs instead of simply redirecting the user, Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School wrote in an email to BioPharma Dive.
"I'm surprised to see anyone still cares about domain names in 2019," Lemley wrote.
That said, Adamis has elevated the issue to the point of suing Kaleo and seeking injunctive and monetary relief.


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Business is typically slow in the summer for restaurants and shops that line South Jersey’s main streets. Many residents leave for vacation, and others skip the window-shopping to avoid the heat.
But this season, heavy rain and winds have been punishing for merchants who have suffered power outages for days, along with extensive storm damage and flooding.
Chain stores and restaurants like McDonald’s and Wawa in West Deptford lost power on July 22. In Westville, the storm that began June 19 and dumped more than four inches of rain caused flooding in a Capital One bank, a laundromat, and Kasper Performance Edge, an automotive repair shop. Four blocks of Westfield Avenue, a business corridor in Camden, lost power for nearly 72 hours in late June.
The weather’s economic impact on businesses is still being tallied, but in Collingswood, last week’s storm — which brought 70 mph winds that toppled 15 utility poles — hit at a particularly bad time: Restaurant Week, an annual event that allows 11 local establishments to host their own Farm to Fork specials to ease the summer slump.
Merchants along Haddon Avenue in Collingswood said they lost thousands of dollars each in canceled reservations and spoiled goods because of a power outage from 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday morning.
“The beginning of last week hurt. These small business owners, when you’ve lost three days of revenue, it’s a killer,” said Collingswood Mayor Jim Maley. “Our community takes great pride in that downtown. They want it to be there, so they focus their shopping there."
Collingswood officials promptly decided their annual Restaurant Week would not be ruined.
They created a new campaign: “Lights On.” Restaurant Week for the 11 dining establishments has been extended until Aug. 2 and 30 shops will offer a 10 percent discount coupons for return trips in September.
“Come back to our restaurant, come back to shop,” Maley said. “Do all of it.”
Maley said many of Collingswood’s 14,000 residents frequent the downtown, where 90 percent of the local businesses are located. He said that while other towns have been affected by this summer’s weather, no other community faced what his borough did last week.
Cecilia Cabrera, the front manager of El Sitio, an Ecuadoran-influenced steakhouse, said she has appreciated the community support after the storm, but added that her business was hit hard because of the power outage
“What is lost is lost,” she said. “It’s nice that there was an extension … but it’s a loss.”
El Sitio is not open on Mondays, but was forced to keep its doors closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Cabrera said they canceled 40 reservations last Wednesday. The staff salvaged what food they could but ended up tossing inventory — chicken, beef fillets, and seafood to be used for paella, an option from the restaurant’s $35 “Farm to Fork” three-course promotional deal.
Jose Alban, a chocolatier and co-owner of the Candy Jar by 1892, spent part of last week transporting his gelato to nearby freezers.
He said the store lost about $350 in melted frozen treats, on top of an estimated $1,200 in revenue from the three-day closure. Fortunately, the temperature in the store did not rise above 75 degrees. Then, Alban said, the chocolate, already beginning to liquify, would have been ruined.
“We keep going,” he said.
Pete’s News, a convenience store a few blocks down, threw out an estimated $1,000 worth of food, said store owner Dipack Bhuta. South Jersey Foot & Ankle Centers ran a generator to stay open, but the physician relied on light streaming through the window, said office manager Elizabeth Hobbs. The clinic rescheduled seven patients.
Megan Hartling, 37, who has worked at Frugal Thrift & Vintage for eight years, said business has suffered over the last few months because of the weather. She said she appreciates the “Lights On” campaign and said sales improved over the weekend. On Saturday, she said, the store made $700, more than the average for a typical weekend day.
She said she thinks many customers have stopped by just to support locally owned stores.
Marjorie Mannix, 63, who has lived in Collingswood for two years, stopped for lunch at Sabrina’s Cafe, one of the restaurants in the “Lights On” campaign.
“I think it’s a great community effort,” she said.


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Jump bikes has a new owner;Uber.
Uber, the ride hailing giants made its first acquisition under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Jump Bikes, a startup that rents out electric dockless bikes in San Francisco and Washington DC. The New York City-based e-bike startup has been working with Uber for two months on a pilot to integrate bike-sharing options into Uber’s app. Apparently that trial went well because now Jump will become a subsidiary of Uber, and the ride-hailing company will take a leap into a brand new industry, with a different set of challenges and pitfalls.
The bike-sharing company Jump, launched in 2011 as a Social Bicycles that runs GPS-enabled programs in twelve cities all over the world, including Portland, Oregon, and Phoenix, Arizona. In San Francisco, where it has 250 bikes, and Washington and about 100 Jump employees will be joining Uber.
Jump’s offerings are both electric and dockless—twin cycling innovations that helped kick off a nationwide (and global) bike-sharing craze. Dockless bike shares, which allow users to leave their rides just about anywhere when they’re done with a journey, have quickly become a huge business in China and are rapidly expanding into some US cities.
TechCrunch reports that the deal was valued at close to $200 million. Jump, had raised about $15 million in funding. Jump’s team will stay “independent and focused on growth vs. integration,” with CEO Ryan Rzepecki reporting directly to Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO told his company in an email.
The acquisition is a signal that Uber doesn’t want to be seen as just a taxi substitute, but an urban mobility company. “We’re committed to bringing together multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app—so that you can choose the fastest or most affordable way to get where you’re going, whether that’s in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a blog post.
Earlier this year in January, the company received exclusive permission from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) to launch its service in Uber’s backyard. Since dockless bikes are pretty new in the US, SFMTA is using the next 18 months to access the program to see if it works before allowing Jump to offer its services in the long term. Jump has 250 neon-red electric powered bikes scattered across the city today.
With so many travel options these days, there is certainly a demand among consumers for more aggregation. Navigation apps like Transit, Citymapper, and Google Maps now list ride-hailing options alongside transit and bike routes. People want to compare prices and make informed decisions, and there is a race among companies to be the first to offer that multimodal service.


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Sweet taste of success for sugar boss
THE head of one of Britain's major foods producers was today named European Businessman of the Year. Iain Ferguson, chief executive of Tate & Lyle, won the Forbes award for bringing the company to growth and leading it back to the ranks of the UK's top 100 companies after a seven-year absence.
Best known for being a sugar producer, Tate & Lyle processes a range of other food ingredients.
New York finance magazine Forbes said: 'After years of a sagging stock price and a seven-year hiatus from the FTSE 100, one of Britain's venerable manufacturers has returned to the vaunted index.'
The businessman spent much of his career at Unilever after studying chemistry and psychology. He took over at Tate & Lyle in May 2003.
Investors piled into Tate's stock last year on the back of rising profits and demand for its Splenda Sucralose product, used in low-carbohydrate food and drinks. This helped secure its promotion to the Footsie last month.
The group works at 61 sites across 28 countries. It employs 6,700 people in its subsidiaries and a further 4,800 in joint ventures.
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Gandaria City Mall opens July 2
Er Audy Zandri
The Jakarta Post
Despite the ever expanding number of malls in the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta is apparently not the "City of Shopping Malls". Dubai, with a total of 76 malls in 2010, could be the first contender, followed closely by various cities in India like Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore.
Shopping malls have transformed from literally the fruit of consumerism into something more complex in recent years. While more and more malls are becoming the norm in Jakarta, with various stores clustered in one spot, a smaller number has turned into favorite weekend destinations, with people dressing up not necessarily to buy anything.
There are now places where people can spend time with family to relax, be it at a giant bookstore or a karaoke hall, watch a concert or a jazz performance in one area, enjoy culinary delights at established restaurants, do various sports like jogging and ice skating and see blockbuster movies within an integrated theater. Dubai Emirates Mall, for example, houses the world's third largest indoor ski slope, measuring 400 meters with 6,000 tons of snow.
Jakarta will see another giant mall this year, competing with the likes of Plaza Indonesia and the integrated eX, Plaza Senayan, Grand Indonesia and Mall Kelapa Gading.
The 301,374-square-meter Gandaria City shopping mall, located within the biggest superblock yet in South Jakarta, Gandaria City superblock, is scheduled to open its doors to the public on July 2nd.
With the major construction to finish very soon, the project has received a Green Mark from Singapore for its architectural botanical concept, in addition to many green features that are expected to reduce its carbon footprint. The mall is not expected to have any negative impacts on air quality or traffic in the surrounding area as there will be direct tunnel access to its parking areas from Jl. KHM Syafi'I Hadzami and four direct accesses from different streets.
There will be about 500 tenants within the five-story shopping mall, ranging from Metro Department Store, Studio XXI, Ace Hardware, Toyland to T-Rex karaoke. One zone in the mall, named Mainstreet, will be a 30,000-square-meter food and beverage site with the old city of Batavia as its reference.
Developed by the Pakuwon Group, Gandaria City is aimed at becoming an excellent, one-stop shopping and service-oriented mall that combines the features of a prestigious shopping mall and lifestyle themes.
The group held a gathering on April 28, 2010, attended by tenants and representatives of the Pakuwon Group. With construction in the area to come to an end, in which buildings include the 36-story Ganda Ria 8 office tower, two Gandaria Heights towers of condominiums and an internationally operated, 300-room five-star Gandaria City Hotel, Gandaria City is one development that will help change the face of Jakarta and turn it into a megapolitan city, while the idea of a "city of shopping malls" can wait a little bit longer.
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‘Every consumer has their go-to brands—the companies they will do business with again and again because of a trusted track record, great product and strong service. Every company wants to be a go-to brand, only about one-third of them reach that status.’ BARE shares an article by Blake Morgan for Forbes on the connection and progress for customers of the future.
‘Many travel habits will morph as tourism slowly returns. But across all the trends experts point to, the one constant is the “p” word: Privacy. Have we all become semi-recluses through quarantine?’ BARE shares an article by Tamara Thiessen for Forbes about the upcoming changes for hotel stays and luxury travel.
‘Can you still deliver a great customer experience from six feet away? That’s the challenge for companies in our global pandemic world. Social distancing guidelines have changed how people interact with each other and with brands.’ BARE shares an article by Blake Morgan for Forbes with creative customer experience ideas for social distancing.
‘Some clients firmly believe that passively collected data are a better way to reveal true, actionable insights about consumers’ behaviour… we’ve been cautioning against the sole reliance on passive data, because we continue to prove that direct interaction with a respondent is still valuable in unlocking the why behind their behaviour, IF you do it right.’ BARE shares an article by Mary Mathes for Quirk’s on the importance of purposeful data collection.


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2030 will be an important year for a couple of reasons. For starters, every boomer in the U.S. will be over 65 years of age, meaning that 20% of our entire population will have reached retirement age. It will also mean that millennials will be approaching 50 years of age. They and Generation Z will make up most of our workforce. These facts, along with the findings of a study into how the customer experience will be evolving by 2030 give a hint as to how brands might begin preparing to meet these upcoming challenges.
Analytics software firm SAS partnered with Futurum Research in May 2019 to survey more than 4,000 consumers, tech professionals, and marketers. They discovered five key areas of technology they felt would drive the evolution of customer experience by 2030. Here’s the five.
Researchers discovered that 33% of those polled were already using three or more mobile phones in their households and that 41% anticipate more by 2025. In fact, many said they expect to see further increases by 2030. These findings validate and strengthen studies during the pandemic that an increasing number of consumers depend on digital devices. What this means for brands is that they must adopt mobile-first marketing strategies and possibly consider mobile-only as well.
44% of respondents reported having at least one wearable device like a fitness tracker or smartwatch in their household. What’s more? More than 50% said they anticipate using wearable technology to start or increase by 2025 while 78% said they expect to control other devices with their wearables.
These findings are invaluable because brands can capture more data and provide real-time feedback and information to consumers. Fitbit has already launched a voluntary study of its wearers to see if their device can detect early stages of infectious diseases and atrial fibrillation. Wearable devices provide brands an opportunity to not only help consumers complete tasks but another way to engage with them in positive ways.
An overwhelming number of consumers expect to utilize smart assistants to make online purchases or control smart homes by 2030 – a whopping 80%. Of those polled, 35% of households said they already employ two or more smart assistants, while 50% said they expect to see the number increase through 2030. Like wearable devices, brands have the opportunity to gather and analyze data that can help generate better-personalized consumer experiences.
According to the study, about a third of consumers already use three or more financial apps regularly, and 45% expect their usage to increase in the next five years. Industries in this area have an excellent opportunity to expand their market but need to work hard in establishing digital trust between them and their customers.
AR and VR
Augmented and virtual reality may be the next wave of digital consumer popularity. While this has yet to happen, 78% of those surveyed said they anticipate using AR or VR by 2030. Another 56% expect to participate in vacation and entertainment events through one of the devices by 2025.
AR has already made inroads and demonstrated its popularity on mobile devices with such things as “see” directions. These allow consumers to try on clothing and even eyeglasses without leaving their homes via the camera on their phones. They can see how furniture or another product might look when placed in one of their rooms, which is a great opportunity to reach consumers who may be unable or unwilling to venture out. What a novel way to generate customer interest while promoting compassion.
In case it’s been forgotten, the millennials and Generation Z mentioned earlier also depend more on digital technology than older generations. Get ready for 2030!
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This week, RadioShack CEO James Gooch resigned after only a year on the job, the latest sign of trouble at the struggling electronics retailer, which has reported back-to-back quarterly losses. Like other brick-and-mortar retailers, RadioShack is facing an existential threat from online behemoth Amazon, which sells the same goods for cheaper. In addition, although RadioShack has identified smartphone sales as a primary area for growth, it's competing there with Apple Stores, plus AT&T and Verizon outlets. Can RadioShack win back the hearts and minds of electronics shoppers?
Yes. Customers still want a physical electronics store: Gooch's departure is a "golden opportunity" for a new leader with vision, says Laura Heller at Forbes. With 4,700 stores nationwide, RadioShack has "tremendous geographical reach." And with its strong focus on smartphones, "there has to be a way for RadioShack to succeed in a market where small, mobile devices are rapidly becoming the most purchased and used consumer products in the world." Shoppers are "hungry for a place close to home they can physically visit," and a "friendly neighborhood technology store would fill that gap."
"RadioShack's CEO loss is its biggest opportunity"
No. RadioShack's smartphone strategy won't succeed: Sure, smartphones are booming and RadioShack wins points for offering a "variety of devices from the major carriers," says Rick Aristotle Munarriz at The Motley Fool. But it's not easy to make money in the long term as a third-party distributor. "It's the wireless carrier that establishes a direct relationship with the customers," which means RadioShack is "really just a retailer of wings, applauding as its patrons fly away with their purchases." Customers "may come in for replacement charging cords and accessories, but it's ultimately a cesspool of crummy margins."
"RadioShack's CEO steps down"
And investors are jumping ship: "There's a stirring scene in the movie Titanic in which passengers on the lowest decks of the ill-fated liner are following the rats as they scurry to higher ground to escape the rising flood," says Marc Bastow at InvestorPlace. Reminiscent of that scene: The exodus of panicked shareholders from RadioShack. The company's share price has dropped a painful 73 percent this year alone, cutting its valuation to a quarter of what it once was. "Life jackets, anyone?"
"RadioShack sends out an SOS"
THE WEEK'S AUDIOPHILE PODCASTS: LISTEN SMARTER
- 7 things the world's happiest people do every day
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- Israel has only two choices: Eliminate the Palestinians or make peace
- 7 grammar rules you really should pay attention to
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- The biggest lesson Obama failed to learn from Bush
- Why America is duty bound to help Iraqi Christians
- 10 burning questions you've always wanted to ask about investing
- 10 things you need to know today: July 22, 2014
- How to pack a jar salad
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Facebook sees mobile use substantially increases
Facebook has a huge growth in mobile use listed in the presentation of its latest quarterly figures. The number of mobile users that log month rose 51 percent to 819 million. Also the total number of users increased significantly.
According to Facebook are the 819 million users who log at least monthly of 469 million daily online. This makes the vast majority of mobile users online on Facebook: the social network has a total of 1.15 billion people who log monthly, while 699 million daily log. This represents a growth of 21 and 27 percent respectively compared to the same period a year earlier.
The increase in the number of active users, both mobile and on the web, also to an increase in revenues resulted: Facebook turned a revenue of $ 1.81 billion, up 51 percent compared with a year earlier in the quarter . The vast majority of revenue is derived from advertising, with 41 percent of revenue comes from mobile. This proportion rises to the proportion of mobile revenue in Facebooks. Eventually, the company made a profit of 333 million dollars, while a loss of $ 157 million was recorded. During the same period last year
In addition, Facebook gave some other statistics released by the presentation of its quarterly results. Thus, the company now has more than a million advertisers on his site and are now more than 100 million people use Facebook via their ‘dumb phone’. They use the Java version of Facebook which according to the company at 2500 ‘simple’ phones should work .Viewing:-117
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alcatel-lucent - News, Features, and Slideshows
Alcatel-Lucent this week extended its carrier SDN product line with an automation and network control system designed to accelerate service provisioning from multivendor IP and optical infrastructure.
Nuage Networks this week released an application designed to better integrate physical and virtual networks.
As it awaits to be swallowed up by Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent continues to expand its switching and virtual networking portfolio.
Size is power in the mobile networks business, but it's only one of the reasons Nokia is acquiring Alcatel-Lucent.
ALLEN, TX -- Nokia's $16.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent is an example of the industry shifting just as Cisco predicted, its CEO said this week.
The possible acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent of France by Finland-based Nokia would bring together complementary patent portfolios and increase their scale against larger global competitors, analysts said Tuesday.
As tech companies increasingly rely on analyzing and selling user data to boost revenue, trust is emerging as one of the defining issues of the year for the IT sector.
A number of different technologies are being developed or improved to offer higher speeds for fixed and mobile broadband networks, as operators are preparing to compete with each other and carry video traffic in 3D and at higher resolutions, which is expected to happen in the coming year.
- Raiders change strip to support cancer research
- Chromebook sales up 27 per cent to 7.3 million units: Gartner
- Federal Government foreshadows changes to spectrum pricing and allocation
- Seventy per cent of Australian small businesses predict growth in year ahead
- OWASP releases new security standards for app developers
- Woolworths customer leader, Jess Gill, departs, following CMO out the door
- The old billboard gets the flick as digital OOH advertising takes over
- Ad tech vendors offer new capabilities for customer targeting
- Markets to Metrics: The changing role of the CMO
- How Tesco's loyalty card transformed customer data tracking


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It wasn’t long ago that we blogged about Macy’s ongoing lawsuit against J.C. Penney over the store’s contract with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. However, J.C. Penney is being sued again, this time by a company whose products are sold in J.C. Penney.
Bodum Group, an upscale coffee-press maker is suing J.C. Penney for breach of contract. The company had reached an agreement in November of 2012 to have its product featured in a boutique like shop within J.C. Penney. This was all part of J.C. Penney’s plan to reinvent itself by creating many shops within its shop. The shops were to highlight collections of products like the Bodum coffee-press makers. However, according to the lawsuit J.C. Penney missed the launch date for the boutiques and did not install nearly as many they had agreed to. In addition to the lack of boutiques, the lawsuit accuses J.C. Penney of scattering the company’s products around its store with no strategic plan towards targeting the consumer.
J. C. Penny suffered a 25% sales decrease last year, and in an attempt to counter some of the loss is selling mid-market products at very deep discounts.
While Bodum Group estimated spending $2.8 million preparing to launch the brand at J.C. Penney, they have yet to estimate the damages caused by J.C. Penney’s alleged failure. However, according to the company, the damages will extend into the future as they will have to wait for a significant portion of time before they can safely re-launch the product.


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House Subcommittee Unanimously Approves Landmark FCRA Legislation
July 16, 2003
By a vote of 41-0, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions today passed H.R. 2622, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).
The legislation is the result of six hearings, nearly 100 witnesses and months of deliberations by lawmakers. In those hearings, testimony indicated that an expiration of the uniform national consumer protection standards in the Fair Credit Reporting Act would negatively affect consumer access to credit and the economy as a whole. Many witnesses also noted the need for increased protection for consumers against identity theft and other inaccuracies in the credit reporting system. H.R. 2622 specifically addresses concerns arising from those hearings.
Included in the legislation are provisions to:
- Empower consumers to guard against identity theft by increasing the effectiveness of consumer initiated fraud alerts and enabling consumers to block fraudulent information in their personal credit records after filing a police report;
- Increase consumer awareness of their rights if they believe they may be victims of fraud or identity theft;
- Improve the accuracy of consumer credit information by discouraging the reintroduction of fraudulent information into the credit reporting system;
- Expand consumer access to credit information to ensure accuracy by giving consumers the right to request a free credit report annually;
- Simplify consumers' ability to limit unsolicited offers of credit;
- Enlist financial institutions' support in fighting identity theft by requiring them to develop procedures to "red flag"identity theft, investigate certain changes in customer addresses, and truncate credit and debit card information; and
- Direct regulators to determine how to increase the prompt investigation and correction of disputed information in a consumer's credit file.
The Subcommittee accepted four amendments to the legislation by voice votes:
- An amendment offered by Rep. Brad Sherman (CA) would require the disclosure on consumer credit reports the name, address, and telephone number of businesses that supply information to credit bureaus.
- An amendment offered by Rep. Gary Ackerman (NY) would require financial institutions to notify the consumer if they will be supplying negative information, such as late payments or defaults, to credit reporting agencies.
- An amendment offered by Rep. Bernie Sanders (VT) would require credit reporting agencies and mortgage lenders to provide consumers with credit scores and an explanation of the key factors that were used to determine that score.
- An amendment offered by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL) would commission a study by the Federal Trade Commission, in consultation with the Department of Housing and Urban Development on the effects of credit scores and insurance scoring on the availability of consumer credit.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or email@example.com.


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Rumor: EA wants to power WiiU online with Origin
Nintendo are supposedly interested in the team-up to gain an edge in the western market.
Electronic Arts and Nintendo might soon appear gushing hand-in-hand, according to the new set of rumors carried by WiiUGo.
EA is supposedly persuading Nintendo to make Origin one of the key element in WiiU’s online strategy, giving it a massive push against Valve’s Steam who, according to the website’s source, is also in talks with Nintendo.
It appears Nintendo are inclining more towards EA however, who sees the partnership “as an opportunity to rebuild relationships with Western gamers because they feel that only a massive western company such as EA understands what is needed to make an online service attractive to western gamers.”
Allegedly, EA were already working on providing various services to WiiU, including voice and video chat, leaderboards and friends list. The service would also provide greater flexibility than Xbox Live, a factor which polled at the top when Nintendo tossed options at publishers and developers. The source says, “Many publishers are happy with Xbox Live’s features, but they aren’t happy with how strict Microsoft’s guidelines are. Nintendo went with an open flexible approach with online because when Nintendo asked developers/publishers what they wanted in an online service, that was the number one thing they asked for.”


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News of the port initially stemmed from the same image that suggests a PlayStation 4 and Vita bundle is coming to the UK in December. If the bundle actually exists, it would be a great way for newcomers to take advantage of the handheld device's Remote Play capabilities, the support of which is mandatory with PS4 games that don't require specific hardware to be played.
Posted on Jan 26th 2015 11:00AM
Posted on Jan 26th 2015 10:00AM
Posted on Jan 23rd 2015 7:00PM


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Town calls time on parking
The Town of Port Hedland has agreed to remove timed parking in the Port Hedland CBD.
The Port Hedland Chamber of Commerce made a request last year to remove the timed parking due to concerns it was impacting businesses in the area. At the final council meeting for 2016 the council unanimously voted to carry the recommendation.
Timed parking was implemented in the Port Hedland CBD in 2014 along Wedge Street, Edgar Street and parts of Anderson Street.
The original concerns received from businesses in the area claimed customer parking was being consumed by vehicles parking in the bays all day, limiting access for additional customers.
However, since the original concerns and implementation of timed parking in 2014, the economic landscape of Port Hedland as well as the population has changed drastically.
The Chamber of Commerce said these changes resulted in a decline in patronage and the timed parking was further impacting businesses in these areas.
The enforcement of timed parking has required about three hours of the rangers time per day.
The removal of timed parking will now allow rangers to turn their attention to other areas of concern throughout the Town of Port Hedland.
According to section 2.1 of the 2014 - 2024 Town of Port Hedland Strategic Community Plan, the removal of timed parking will assist businesses located in the Port Hedland CBD to provide unrestricted parking for patrons, encouraging customers to travel into the CBD.
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The game development industry brings something new all the time. General Arcade shows the most interesting releases, updates and news of the past week, which are recommended reading for both industry veterans and novice developers.
Microsoft has released Babylon.js 6.0. Developers team added the Havok physics engine. And not just added, but “secretly worked with the Havok team” on it. And it’s all free!
Microsoft releases DirectStorage 1.2 with HDD support
The developers have also improved GPU decompression of textures.
iOS 17 will introduce installation of applications from third-party sources
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg writes about Apple’s plans. According to him, the company will comply with a law passed by the European Parliament, which obliges Apple and Google to allow the installation of applications on smartphones from third-party sources in Europe.
SEGA buys devs of Angry Birds — Rovio Entertainment for $776 million
The acquisition will address SEGA’s current weakness in the mobile market outside Japan, helping it develop its brands and launch online services around the world.
Realistic shooter with a view from the chest recorder called Unrecord
A whole team now working on the game has opened a page on Steam, where they shared the first details.
Dive into Epic Games’ Unreal Editor for Fortnite
Epic Games Executive Vice President Saxs Persson shared some behind-the-scenes details regarding the recently released UEFN, talked about the features and benefits of the editor, and discussed monetization strategies.
GDC 2023 talk on character rendering in The Callisto Protocol is now available
You can look at the GDC Vault.
Where to find and how to choose the right trend for your hyper casual game
In addition to a series of articles on hyper-casual games and the social media trends that inspire them, AppMagic spoke with AZUR Games and FreePlay, developers and publishers in the mobile and hyper-casual games market.
Lighting setup for a cozy forest scene in Unreal Engine 5.1
Yueyang Zhao talked about his project House in the Forest, talked about the choice of assets and his approach to creating vegetation, and also spoke in detail about how he set up various lighting scenarios in Unreal Engine 5.1.
Fast design iterations in Breachers using AssetPostprocessor and Blender
Developers for current projects have come up with a workflow where they model and organize levels in Blender and rely on the Unity AssetPostprocessor to integrate them into the project.
In the article, they shared how they came up with this workflow and how it supports fast iterations.
GigaBash is a colossal kaiju clash paying homage to Godzilla and Ultraman
Passion Republic Games got the opportunity to work with Toho Co., Ltd, the studio behind the Godzilla franchise. In late 2022, the team released the Godzilla 4 Kaiju Pack DLC, adding Godzilla, Gigan, Mechagodzilla, and Destoroy as playable characters in GigaBash. The Epic Games team sat down with the studio to talk about the creation of GigaBash, the opportunity to work with Godzilla, and how Epic MegaGrant helped them during development.
In the GDC 2023 keynote, developers Shinya Kumazaki and Tatsuya Kamiyama discuss how they brought traditional Kirby gameplay to the 3D world, as well as explore some of the game’s new features, including the fan-favorite Mouthful Mode.
6 Ways ScriptableObjects Can Benefit Your Team and Code
In the article Unity explains the benefits of ScriptableObjects.
GDC 2023 talk from Epic Games about UE5 character physics
Learn how the new Unreal Engine 5 tools can be used to create a dog that can be petted in a presentation by Andreas Suika.
Indie developer Kaigen Finlay: “It’s easy to lose yourself in game development”
Kaighen Finley founded his own website and game development company Team iNtuition right out of high school. He mainly focused on web development, but has always been drawn to game development. Therefore, after two years, he “sharply switched” to the later. That’s when he started working on Q’Redux, which is now in Early Access on Steam.


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The diamond industry’s race to public markets is accelerating, with plans by Beny Steinmetz Group, the privately-held natural resources company, to float Sierra Leone’s biggest diamond mine on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Beny Steinmetz, founder of the company, confirmed the “good possibility” that the Koidu diamond mine, expected to produce 500,000 carats this year, will be offered to Hong Kong investors in the second half of 2012. Tiffany & Co, the US jeweller, sources many of its diamonds from the mine.
A BSG spinoff called Octea, the new holding company for Koidu, will aim to raise $400m-$600m and achieve a valuation of $2bn-$3bn.
Octea is the latest example of how diamond producers are trying to capitalise on rising demand from Asia amid declining diamond supplies.
Anglo American agreed a $5.1bn takeover of privately held De Beers, the biggest diamond miner by sales in November. Alrosa, De Beers’ Russian competitor, has taken steps toward a listing.
Hong Kong has emerged as a favourite market to finance the expansion of diamond mines and jewellery outlets. Chow Tai Fook, the Chinese jewellery retailer, floated in Hong Kong last year. Graff Diamonds, the high-end London jeweller, is planning a Hong Kong listing. Both companies need capital to build retail outlets across Asia.
Mr Steinmetz said he thought Octea could achieve an “in-between valuation” straddling a luxury goods multiple and a mining company multiple. It would be the first diamond miner to list in Asia.
The fundraising would finance development of a new diamond field in Sierra Leone that would expand group production. Octea’s long-term plan is to produce 2.5m carats from Sierra Leone. That compares with De Beers’ production of 33m carats in 2010.
The Steinmetz family have been prominent in the diamond business for decades, although BSG has diversified to iron ore and oil and gas. Steinmetz Diamond Group is De Beers’ biggest customer, buying rough diamonds, cutting them and selling them to jewellery manufacturers.
But Octea will not include any part of Steinmetz, Mr Steinmetz said, adding that it did not make sense to integrate upstream and downstream components of the diamond business in one unit.
Octea marks Mr Steinmetz’s return to the public markets after Nikanor, the copper miner in the Democratic Republic of Congo that floated in London in 2006. It merged with Katanga Mining before Glencore took over the combined business after the financial crisis.
Mr Steinmetz says he is a special adviser to BSG but does not have any executive role at the company, which is owned by a foundation.


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Intel has lifted the veil on a second generation of Gaudi accelerators that could drastically reduce the time needed to train large-scale AI models.
Announced at Intel Vision 2022 in Dallas, the Gaudi 2 processors are built on a 7nm process, feature 24 onboard 100GbE RoCE ports, and feature the most memory of any accelerator on the market (96GB HBM2e).
The new processors are a product of the Israeli company Habana Labs, which has been absorbed by Intel in 2019, and are designed to waiters dedicated to deep learning workloads.
Train AI models
In recent years, a number of large-scale natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision models have emerged that offer far superior performance to previous entries in the respective disciplines.
The problem is that training these multi-billion parameter models is incredibly computationally intensive, and therefore expensive and time-consuming, a limiting factor in the development of the technology.
However, with the new Gaudi 2 accelerators, the cost and time required to develop new sophisticated AI models will be significantly reduced, according to Intel.
According to Eltan Medina, COO at Habana, the price/performance ratio is a key factor for customers, and has therefore been a priority during the development of the second generation accelerators.
Benchmarks presented at Intel Visions suggest that Gaudi 2 processors deliver about 2x the training throughput on popular NLP and vision workloads (BERT and Restnet-50), compared to Nvidia’s A100 GPU.
At the same time, the new Gaudi chips are expected to save around 40% on both types of workloads, again compared to A100 GPUs.
“Intel is advancing AI and value for data center customers with Habana accelerators, which are the optimal solution for deep learning dedicated servers,” Medina said. “We think this category will be extremely important.”
Gaudi 2 processors are immediately available to customers and are also likely to support cloud instances of AWS further down the line, like with the previous generation.