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This week we bring to you our top highlights from the Tech Sector:
These highlights include everything from Recruiting Tech to innovations in apps, and big news all the way from startups to Big Tech.
We all have a lot to keep up with these days as the TechWorld moves so quickly through trades, trends, and tastemakers who are actively changing the tech landscape on a daily basis.
We are not only invested in what is happening the Tech Sector, but why these changes are occurring over time. It is through tracking the whys that we are able to develop a predictive model and follow technological innovation from the source all the way to polished product and consumer-product relationships.
Every step of the innovation process in the Tech Sector is complex and and understanding of these steps helps us better serve people, supporting a thriving global economy.
What investors and interested parties also get with charts like this is a pretty good idea about ROI (return on investment).
For example, for Snap (Snapchat’s) relatively narrow focus area–photo filters & chat functions–its announcement of its IPO at $17a share (making it worth ~$24 billion!) promises a swift positive return.
“Naturally, the lead-up to Snap’s debut has led to plenty of analysis over whether or not the self-proclaimed “camera company” will ever live up to its massive hype. Either way, the IPO is poised to make a handful of power players very rich right away.” (via Business Insider)
Meanwhile, Amazon continues to shock, appall, and even impress by sneaking its home/personal assistant AI onto IOS not only in the form of an app, but now in the form of the main Amazon IOS app: giving users a whole new level of control and access in deploying Alexa’s “10,000” functions.
There are of course still challenges to Alexa being the winner-takes-all of intelligent personal assistants. A prediction from Wired reminds us:
“Alexa does great at controlling your lights, but unless Amazon can learn more about how you spend the rest of your day, it’s going to have a hard time keeping up with Google’s ubiquity, or even Apple’s hardware dominance. Siri can’t do much now, but it’s just an overhaul away from presenting real performance competition.
Which gets to another roadblock Alexa will run into. It may be handier than Siri by a mile, but being even two taps makes it significantly less convenient.
‘I’m not convinced that people will either want to open a shopping app to use a virtual assistant or, for that matter, want to open an app at all,’ says [Researcher Jan] Dawson.”
Finally we have arrived at the inevitable return to the Net Neutrality debate, and now it’s high time to make an actual resolution that addresses both internet freedom and the democratic structure of the web.
Check out this interactive timeline of the where we were and how we arrived here of Net Neutrality: http://whatisnetneutrality.org/timeline
Here a summary of where we are now, from Wired:
“IN 2015, FORMER Federal Communications Commission chair Tom Wheeler helped pass the Open Internet Order, a sweeping set of rules designed to protect net neutrality. The order effectively bans internet service providers from blocking or slowing down any legal content you might want to access online.Now net neutrality is in danger, and Wheeler isn’t pleased. At a Senate hearing last week, several Republican lawmakers asked the new FCC chair Ajit Pai to repeal the order, which he voted against. He assured them the FCC will revisit it soon.”
“The lack of strong privacy protections online isn’t just an issue for consumers, Wheeler argues. For consumers to trust Internet of Things devices—and in turn the companies that make them to be profitable—the internet connections they rely on need to be private and secure.
Three years ago the creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, called for the creation of a Bill of Rights for the internet. That might never happen. But Wheeler’s net neutrality and privacy laws offer a step in that direction. Without such protections, internet users have few guarantees that the unfettered access they enjoy remains free.”
The Tech Sector is finally going out of its way to support the LGBTQ community and other marginalized communities, but whenever we are just beginning to learn how to make space, we have to beware of well-intentioned but problematic approaches.
For example, big TechWorld companies are using their technologies now to work on projects that for a long time have been developed from within the queer/trans* community itself without any support or resources from outside.
Now that Yelp is mapping safe restrooms for the trans* people to use, many trans* engineers, developers, and Tech Sector affiliates, are interested in expanding the conversation:
“For Teagan, a software developer who founded Refuge Restrooms, a crowdsourced database of safe bathroom info, it mostly boils down to one question. “How committed are they actually to this stuff?”
‘I mean honestly… I want the information to exist. I’m glad they are doing it. I don’t think it was done to specifically target Refuge [Restrooms]. But yeah, they feel like a mainstream tech corp took a feature worked on by and for trans folks. A feature and app that was made specifically because Yelp & Foursquare didn’t have anything like this.'”
In Tech Recruiting, Recruiter is distributing a list of ways to keep top health Tech Employees happy. These can also be generalized throughout the Tech Sector, as they outline effective communication and support without becoming overbearing in an administrative role.
1. Let Them Do What They Do Best
2. Feed Their Hunger for Knowledge
3. Remember That Money Talks
4. Focus on What’s Next
“The majority of our survey respondents (79 percent) said they are either very satisfied or satisfied with their current job. Most are happy with their current roles because they have the opportunity to make a difference.”
Also, in case you missed it, we have now developed a technology that makes it possible
for a car to be driven by a goldfish.
<via Popular Science: http://www.popsci.com/article/science/fish-car-lets-goldfish-drive-around>


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Cutting edge technology for farms has been showcased at an international consumer show, with a massive agricultural combine and GPS-guided tractor.
Farm equipment maker John Deere made its first appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas aiming to highlight the importance of tech in farming.
- Consumer Electronics Show reveals latest car concepts
- Breakthrough tech tipped to save dairy industry millions
The tractor, which weighs 20 tonne, uses GPS, lasers, computer vision, and uses machine learning and sensors to be more efficient.
The machines are guided by enhanced GPS data which is accurate to 2.5cm compared with 3 metres for conventional GPS, reported VOA news.
As they work the fields, the machines gather data about soil conditions and monitor how corn and other crops are being harvested to reduce waste and improve efficiency.
"We want consumers to understand how food is grown," Deere marketing executive Deanna Kovar told VOA.
"Not only is this machine harvesting the grain, it's harvesting the data, which helps farmers make decisions for next year."
The tractor and combine sells for $500,000 USD.

domain: news


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Amanda Seyfried Nails Braids On The Red Carpet
To say that braids are big news this year is putting it very lightly - but it’s not all bumper fishtails and rumpled, weaved halos creating a buzz. We’re set for a summer of itty bitty braids. Last night Amanda Seyfried hit the red carpet for Ted 2 with braids in her sun-kissed lengths.
The actress boasted five scalp-hugging plaits that prettily trailed into her hair, and ended in a knotted pony tied up just above the tips. It’s reminiscent of the catwalk cornrows we saw adorning the heads of models during SS15 Fashion Week at Giorgio Armani and Jean Paul Gaultier,
Giorgio Armani, Jean Paul Gaultier [Getty]
On the difficulty scale, Giorgio Armani’s rank the lowest, with their thicker, more tousled appearance leaving plenty of room for breezy, effortless braiding. Amanda’s precise plaits, meanwhile, call for intricate, finicky weaving, a blob of smoothing serum and – should you fancy it – a low-slung knot in the back.
Cara Delevingne, Jessica Alba [Getty]
You could also make like Cara Delevingne, who rocked a faux undercut cornrow at the Met Ball in 2013, in a crafty bid to show off the dinkiest ear tattoo. As cool hair goes, it certainly trumps a passé sleek chignon, no?


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WaBa Grill has announced the signing of a multi-unit deal to open eight locations in cities across Clark County, Nevada. The brand signed with Raj Sangha of Dhindsa Group of Companies, which currently owns and operates seven other WaBa Grill locations throughout Southern California. Sangha has the exclusive rights to develop WaBa in Clark County, and can introduce the brand to cities such as Las Vegas and Henderson.
“As a WaBa Grill franchisee for the past ten years, I am familiar with the excitement and enthusiasm that ripple through the community when WaBa Grill enters a new market, and I am confident that Clark County residents will enjoy the quality, flavor and value of the healthy options that WaBa Grill offers,” said Sangha.
“Clark County, especially Las Vegas, attracts people from around the country – and the world – and I feel especially proud to be able to introduce WaBa Grill to this diverse area.”
The brand’s menu offering is designed to be healthy and flavorful, with a wide assortment of protein sources as well as fresh vegetables and healthy grains. Last year, the brand added a plant-based steak option to the menu.
“WaBa Grill was founded on the principle that healthy food made with fresh, quality ingredients should be delicious and accessible to all, and soon our famous rice bowls, plates and salads will be available to Clark County residents,” said Vivian Mendoza, director of marketing at WaBa Grill.


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? Startup School Talk |
| What economic policy really needs to focus on ?
October 19, 2005
Quote of the Day
In today's Wall Street Journal, there was a quote from GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, taken from remarks he made earlier in 2005. The quote was
I'd say that Toyota scored a major coup with hybrids even though they didn't have a business case.
No business case, huh. Jeff Plungis of the Detroit News lays out the Lutzian analysis. In an piece on October 16, he writes
The nonbelievers - industry leaders such as GM's Bob Lutz, DaimlerChrysler's Dieter Zetsche and Nissan's Carlos Ghosn - think the business case for hybrids is far from proven, and that after the initial excitement dies down, there may not be enough car buyers out there to justify the added cost of what is essentially a second powertrain.
Yet hybrids are hot enough that no one wants to be left behind. Even the less-enthusiastic companies -- GM, DaimlerChrysler and BMW AG -- are speeding up their plans to get into the game.
What consumers might not realize is that buying a hybrid isn't a big money-saver. Various analysts estimate it can take up to 10 years for savings at the gas pump to equal the extra cash a hybrid costs.
Can you say the words, "disruptive technology", kiddies? The very definition of disruptive technology is that in the beginning it looks inferior to the existing technology.
But give the Japanese another 5 years to improve the production processes on the hybrids, and the tradeoffs may look a lot different.
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Once the price delta of hybrids collapses, then the equation will appear different. Furthermore, it will not even be caled 'hybrid' technology anymore, but will be a normal feature in many cars.
In other words, by 2012, it will be quite common for a family car with a 240 HP engine to give 35 mpg, and for a 125 HP compact car to give 50 mpg. That will just be considered normal, without mention of the word 'hybrid' at all.
Posted by: Kartik at October 19, 2005 03:42 PM
The worst thing is that buying a hybrid CAN save money - most of the assumptions in the referenced article come from a common set of talking points being spread by GM and their ilk:
1. that the batteries need replaced early, often, and expensively (Toyota warrants theirs for 100,000 miles and earlier Priuses went far longer with no apparent problems)
2. comparing the Prius to the Corolla, even though the Prius is a midsize (i.e. Camry-class) car, and yes, it really is that big
3. misrepresenting the facts on depreciation (used Priuses, even previous gen, are now one of the hottest used cars around - depreciation is less with this car than with any vehicle sold in non-trivial quantity).
Posted by: M1EK at October 19, 2005 03:44 PM
Couldn't have said it any better!
Posted by: Amethyst at October 19, 2005 04:13 PM
Really, part of what this all points out is the strong points of Japanese technology. They knew that hybrids had two power trains, and started out more expensive and less reliable. But then they just engineered the heck out of them until they improved the equation...and they are going to keep doing it.
Posted by: Mike Mandel at October 19, 2005 04:25 PM
We will see who is correct over the long term. Assumptions are too general to be applicable to a specific buyer. Some, those who drive a lot, may do much better, others, those who drive little, may do much worse. Most of the excitement may prove to be little more than fad, but one that may prove moderately long lived due to high oil prices for some time.
Posted by: Lord at October 20, 2005 03:42 PM


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Program helping to take a bite out of hunger
Canada may be a First World country, but the sad truth is that even in the Cowichan Valley there are kids who show up at school with empty stomachs, and empty lunchbags.
But Good Bite Lunch, with the help of local individuals and businesses, hopes to change that with its lunch sponsorship program.
Through the Good Bites website, Cowichanians can purchase a healthy meal that's delivered to a local child's school.
Right now, Good Bites owners Tina Vander Veen and Laurie Arbuthnot are working with Khowhemun Elementary School.
"We deliver between two and four (sponsored) lunches every day," Vander Veen said.
Sponsorship is $5.99 per day for one child. The lunches themselves consist of a healthy meal including snacks.
"They're well-balanced, healthy meals that work out to be around 550 calories," Vander Veen said.
Last Monday, for example, lunch consisted of a burrito made with whole wheat tortilla shell, organic beans and cheddar cheese, plus organic carrot sticks, cucumbers and peppers with homemade ranch dip, a fruit salad, and a homemade chocolate chip cookie made from 80-per-cent organic ingredients.
"We try to choose the healthiest options possible," said Vander Veen. "And we try not to have any additives or preservatives interfering in our foods."
The Good Bite owners hope that as word spreads about the lunch sponsorship program, they'll be about to reach more kids in Cowichan.
"There are 40 kids a day at Khowhemun that come to school with nothing — and that's just one school," said Vander Veen. "It shouldn't be that way. Every child should have lunch. They're at school to learn all day long, and I don't know how they can focus when they don't have anything in their tummies.
"We're trying very hard to get the community and local businesses to help us help them."
Good Bites sponsors one lunch per day as a business, and discounts the cost of its sponsored lunches for those donating a meal (parents purchasing the service for their own children pay $6.49).


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Technology and virtual reality have become an increasingly important addition to the fashion world, allowing creators and designers to broaden the scope of their creativity and allow their work to reach more people.
Metaverse fashion week is just one of the ways that luxury brands are making their designs more openly accessible to a broader audience. So what exactly is metaverse fashion week, and what does it mean for the fashion industry?
Defining Metaverse Fashion Week
The first ever Metaverse Fashion Week ran earlier this year in March, featuring a host of designers who were allowed to showcase their work in a digital setting, with some of the creators being solely digital designers in their own right, allowing them to get their work more recognition. In addition, the Metaverse Fashion Week was also organized by Emperia’s partner, Metaverse Group.
The fashion week provided inclusive and personalized experiences for those who visited, allowing them to explore the various fashions from luxury brands to high street names.
The metaverse tech allowed 2D images to be uploaded into a 3D immersive experience, granting visitors access to a virtual catwalk, a vast and varied marketplace, and a host of events explicitly designed to celebrate fashion.
The Metaverse Fashion Week Marketplace
One of the primary features of the fashion week was the ability for visitors to try on clothes in a digital form in the Decentraland metaverse. If they bought the clothes, they would then be able to receive a physical rendition that would be shipped directly to their home.
Decentraland is one of the leading virtual worlds in the expanding selection of metaverses to choose from. It’s the first virtual world owned by the people who use it, making it the perfect digital platform for luxury fashion brands and high street clothes retailers to build their fashion week and make it a personal and unique experience for their visitors.
Decentraland is one of the top metaverses from which to buy virtual merchandise, giving the brands of fashion week the best opportunity possible to get their digital clothes noticed and giving users an even more significant opportunity to browse and purchase exclusive fashion.
Benefits of the Metaverse Fashion Week
Fashion has always been primarily about identity and expression, helping people find what they’re comfortable with while experimenting with new styles and colors as they personalize their wardrobes and learn how best to express themselves.
The introduction and establishment of digital fashion into the industry adds a new scope of creative freedom for both brands and shoppers, allowing users to access their favorite brands wherever they are from the comfort of their homes.
It also gives brands more chances to experiment with the connection between the physical and virtual worlds, bringing a sense of unity to both the different worlds of fashion and the wider community.
Users can now express themselves through digital and physical fashion, allowing them to build a more coherent identity across multiple communities and creating a deeper enjoyment of fashion as a whole.
The Future of Metaverse Fashion Week
Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week is the beginning of a venture to see physical and virtual fashion brought together in a series of events celebrating the brand and buyer identity.
The future will see more metaverse fashion weeks making their mark in digital spaces, with virtual clothes only getting bolder and more creative as technology develops and more users become aware of the digital phenomenon that is taking the fashion industry by storm.
In September 2022, the Digital Fashion Week New York will take place. Emperia will attend and deliver thoughts on a panel discussion about web3 and the metaverse driving forward.
While the fashion week just gone was supported by the Ethereum blockchain, metaverse fashion events could benefit from a more sustainable option in the future. Hopefully, with the ever-changing developments of technology, the following fashion week will be able to operate as a more eco-friendly option, protecting the environment without losing any of the creative joy that makes the metaverse fashion week such a hit.
Ultimately, the virtual fashion week is about accessibility, bringing more high-quality fashion to a broader, more diverse audience, allowing more interaction and connection between users and brands.
Metaverse fashion week has proven to be an exciting and innovative addition to digital and physical fashion. The event is poised to carry on to greater heights as fashion continues to evolve.


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Victoria is a world leader in the medtech industry, with a Melbourne company finding global success with its innovative biometric analysis technology.
Melbourne doctors Hon Weng Chong and Andrew Lim are making waves – and sales – internationally with CliniCloud, a locally developed medical kit for the digital age.
Comprising a digital stethoscope and a non-contact infrared thermometer which connect to the user’s smartphone via Bluetooth, the package enables patients to assess their own biometrics, record them via the CliniCloud app and share the data electronically with doctors.
The app includes intuitive prompts which enable both devices to be used effectively by individuals who have not had medical training and metrics can be stored on a timeline, to enable vital signs to be analysed over a period of time.
Targeted at both medical practices and individuals, the CliniCloud offering has particular appeal to families with young children and those who suffer from chronic conditions which require regular monitoring, such as asthma.
CliniCloud began life as StethoCloud, the Smart Stethoscope; an invention which won the world’s leading student technology competition, the Microsoft Imagine Cup, for Dr Chong and Dr Lim, in 2012.
Recognising that temperature and heart data are equally vital biometric measures for medical practitioners, the pair opted to augment their invention with a digital thermometer, before putting the kit into commercial production.
The CliniCloud kit currently retails online for US$149.
Both recent graduates of the University of Melbourne’s Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program, the doctors say the kit was inspired by their desire to simplify healthcare by empowering patients with greater knowledge of their conditions and symptoms.
Dr Chong spent a year practising medicine before devoting himself full-time to the project while Dr Lim worked as a management consultant after graduation.
Initially a shoestring affair, CliniCloud raised US$5 million in seed funding in late 2015 from institutional investors Tencent Holdings and Ping An Ventures and has subsequently grown to a staff of 20, with premises in Flinders Lane in Melbourne’s central business district.
Early export success has come in the form of a distribution deal with United States and Canadian chain Best Buy, which began stocking the CliniCloud kits in its retail outlets early this year.
The firm has also secured a partnership with the telehealth provider Doctor on Demand, which offers video consultations with doctors and psychologists, to patients across the US. Further deals with local and overseas telehealth providers are expected to be announced in the forthcoming months.
Beginning life in Victoria has been a boon for their venture, according to the two founders. The fledgling firm’s Melbourne base has provided easy access to world-class technical talent in the fields of mobile communications, networking, internet and electronics development.
Mentoring, advice and support has also been in healthy supply, courtesy of the state’s thriving HealthTech network, which provides regular opportunities for medtech entrepreneurs to meet and collaborate.
“Another plus point is that the hospital systems in Melbourne are stronger and more innovative than those in other Australian cities,” Dr Chong says.
“It’s been a fantastic place to grow our business.”


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E-procurement solutions can help growing companies put an end to wasteful purchases and inefficient processes.
What finance executives should ask about cloud computing.
Executives at privately held companies are increasingly uncertain about the economy, according to a new survey.
The Apple-Samsung courtroom clash is a magnified version of the intellectual-property battles currently roiling smaller companies in the tech space.
Oh, you–re doing that already? And you–re wasting time managing accounts payable every day, tracking down approvals for purchases you don–t understand? Here–s how small companies can tackle purchasing inefficiencies.
Unstructured data is piling up in corporate computers, making compliance and other tasks far more difficult.
With electronic billing and invoicing, companies can loosen those paper shackles and gain the time to do more business.
In this research report, sponsored by MasterCard, CFO Research found that …
The future of business-to-business (B2B) integration is in the cloud. As …
Most executives consider customer satisfaction a critical metric, but often lack …


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- Electric vehicle adoption and higher fuel efficiency could cut global oil demand by 3.5 million barrels a day, Barclays analysts forecast.
- If EVs grow to a third of the market, it could slash crude consumption by 9 million barrels a day.
- There are still a number of barriers to EV growth, but several countries are considering measures to ban or curb internal combustion engines from their roads.
Oil consumption could take a major hit in the coming years as a growing number of countries take steps to yank the internal combustion engine from their streets, Barclays analysts forecast.
Adoption of electric vehicles and improved fuel efficiency could wipe out 3.5 million barrels a day of demand from cars by 2025, Barclays commodities analysts projected in a research note on Wednesday. That is roughly equivalent to the total production of OPEC's third-largest producer, Iran, which pumps about 3.8 million barrels a day, Reuters first noted.
If electric vehicles make up one-third of the car market by 2040, it could knock out 9 million barrels a day of demand, or about 90 percent of Saudi Arabia's daily output. World oil demand will be 96.8 million barrels a day this year, OPEC forecasts.
Some of the world's top automotive markets have recently proposed banning or curbing the use of vehicles that burn fossil fuels, Barclays notes. They include developed European nations like France, Germany and the U.K., as well as top growth markets China and India. California is also considering a ban.
To be sure, Barclays says there are still multiple barriers to electric vehicle adoption. Consumers can be turned off by their price and battery life, and there are still questions hanging over the auto industry's ability to ramp up production.
The range of zero-emissions vehicles on offer will expand significantly in the coming years, but sales targets are still just a "drop in the bucket" of the total market, according to Barclays.
Global sales of electric vehicles rose by 40 percent last year, as manufacturers offered consumers more options and better performance, according to the International Energy Agency. However, the roughly 2 million electric vehicles on the road still account for less than 0.2 percent of the global fleet of light-duty vehicles, the IEA notes.
Persistently weak gasoline prices have also encouraged drivers to buy large passenger vehicles like SUVs, the agency adds.
On Thursday, the IEA reported that progress on energy efficiency policy last year was the weakest since 2009. The energy advisor chalked up the poor performance to the sluggish introduction of new efficiency policies.
In the automotive sector, light-duty vehicle sales "grew faster in markets with lower average vehicle efficiencies" between 2010 and 2015.
"Current LDV fuel economy standards are improving efficiencies of new sales, but not fast enough to stay on track to meet long-term LDV efficiency targets," the IEA warned.
On the other side of the plug, Barclays says Europe's demand for natural gas-fired power does not seem likely to increase much as more electric vehicles hit the road. Natural gas demand on the Continent peaked in 2010, declined from there and has only just begun to pick up as gas becomes more competitive with coal.
Electric vehicles accounted for about 1.5 percent of all new car registrations in Europe last year, according to OPEC.


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CENTER CITY (WPVI) --Philadelphia police say thieves stole thousands of dollars worth of jeans from a Center City department store Tuesday night.
The theft occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. at Bloomingdale's, The Outlet Store at The Shops at Liberty Place at 16th and Chestnut streets.
Police say a group of nine men wearing ski masks ran into the store and ransacked the clothing racks.
The thieves fled with 20 to 30 pairs of jeans worth approximately $2,000.
The suspects fled east on Chestnut from 17th Street.
Police are working to gather surveillance video.
The value of the jeans was originally estimated at $4,000.


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High Street stores see fall in visitors in December as shoppers head to out-of-town centres instead
- Total footfall across the UK was 0.7% lower in December compared to 2013
- Out-of-town stores saw a 1.3% increase in customers in December
- Only the South East and the East reported positive footfall in December
The decline in the number of shoppers visiting stores slowed last month, although the appeal of online shopping continues to take customers away from the high street, new data shows.
The British Retail Consortium said total footfall across the UK in December was 0.7 per lower than the same time last year, an improvement from November’s 2.4 per cent fall.
The figure was also below the three-month average decline of 1.3 per cent, the BRC said.
High Street shopping: Rising number of shoppers are rather choosing to buy online or at out-of-town stores
Stores on the high street recorded the biggest fall in shoppers – 1.8 per cent – while shopping centres only saw a 0.1 per cent drop in visitors.
Out-of-town stores actually saw a 1.3 per cent increase in customers in December, after having grown each month of last year.
BRC director general Helen Dickinson said that the fall in visitors to high street stores was the result of the continuing changes in the way we prefer to shop.
‘A decline of 1.8 per cent in the number of high street shoppers might not at first glance look like great news for retailers but it's heartening to see the pace of decline in high street footfall slowing so dramatically from November to December,’ she said.
Dickinson also said that fewer shoppers did not necessarily mean poorer sales.
But retail sales figures released this week showed that sales at shops opened for more than a year fell 0.4 per cent in December compared to a month earlier, suggesting that Black Friday discounting had only pulled festive sales into November.
Monthly growth:Sales at shops opened for more than a year fell 0.4% in December compared to November
Total retail sales were 1 per cent higher - the latter figure signalling the lowest December growth since 2008, according to the latest sales monitor by the British Retail Consortium and KPMG.
Online sales grew 7 per cent in December compared to a year earlier, when sales had soared by more than 19 per cent on 2012.
Dickinson said: ‘What we are seeing currently is online and physical retailing finding out how they best fit together in the new multi-channel world.’
Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at researcher Springboard, said the improved footfall proved that online activity was leading shoppers back to the shops.
‘Footfall across the UK in December belied the prevailing furore over the impact on bricks and mortar stores of both Black Friday and the move to online shopping, with just a modest drop of 0.7 per cent from December 2013,’ she said.
‘Whilst online shopping becomes ever more mature and shoppers are increasingly demanding in terms of choice and flexibility to buy, the improved footfall position of our retail destinations in what is our peak trading period of the year indicates that online is driving activity back into bricks-and-mortar stores.
Wehrle added: ‘As yet it is inconclusive as to the relative influence of showrooming and click and collect in the omni-channel experience but what is clear is that if retailers want shoppers to continue to visit their stores, then ever more investment is required to deliver the heightened shopping experience that is now demanded.’
Just two regions in England reported positive footfall in December: the South East (3.4 per cent) and the East (2.2 per cent).
Scotland experienced the greatest rise in footfall of 1.6 per cent on the previous year while Wales reported a decline of 0.4 per cent.
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One of the world’s leading gambling groups Kindred Group announced a new partnership deal with MuchBetter. The multi-awarded payments company will be available to players of all Kindred brands starting with Unibet, Bingo.com and Maria Casino. Kindred needed a payment partner that could help it navigate complex regulatory requirements in both regions, and since MuchBetter only charges operators based on a player’s net deposits over a month (withdrawals are subtracted) it seemed as a realistic partnership!
MuchBetter founder and CEO Israel Rosenthal commented on the deal:“When an iGaming operator grows rapidly across lots of different regions at the same time, it needs a trusted payment partner with an agile team and experience navigating challenging regulatory requirements.
This is what we offer to all our operators, and we are excited to work with such a big iGaming brand in Kindred. We set up MuchBetter to meet the needs of operators and players alike. To hear that Kindred players specifically requested MuchBetter as a new payment option is testament to our growing reputation in the industry among players.”
Kindred Group’s senior payments solutions manager Phaedra Debattista added: “We are committed to offering players a better and safer way to gamble. We listened to our players and chose MuchBetter as a new payment partner for its seamless and secure user experience. MuchBetter’s regulatory expertise in our key regions and unique commercial model were also important considerations, and where the team has been incredibly helpful already.”Follow us on


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‘People won’t question our ability’: Why performance marketing agencies want to create their own DTC brands
Performance marketing agencies are exploring building direct-to-consumer brands in-house.
Doing so will not only allow agencies more control over the growth of a brand, but serve as a test case to prove strategies they want to pursue to potential clients, according to agency execs, who say the appeal of running their own DTC brands has grown as e-commerce sales have accelerated over the last year. Agencies like Boomn, Homestead Studios and Freelance Crew, among others, expect to debut new DTC brands during the first quarter of this year.
“People want to have ownership over their outcome,” said Ryan O’Connell, co-founder and chief operating officer of digital marketing agency Boomn. “It’s hard for agencies to look at the performance of their ad accounts, Shopify dashboards and see the types of returns they’re providing for clients and not be curious about what it would look like for themselves.”
This quarter the Kansas City, Missouri-based agency expects to roll out a brand in the consumables space — hot sauces, rubs, ranches and BBQ sauces — as well as a women’s health product. Part of the agency’s strategy when it comes to in-house DTC brands will be finding brands they believe could excel if given more attention and subsequently acquiring them from fledgling companies.
“From our standpoint, it allows a different level of speed when it comes to decision-making with inventory or scaling ads,” said O’Connell when asked why the agency now wants to run its own DTC brands rather than simply working with them. “Once we got to a good enough position we wanted to make those decisions internally rather than having to wait around for decisions to be made.”
Aside from the speed of decision-making, more control over brand strategy as well as customer experience has agency execs eyeing DTC brand creation. At least, that’s part of the appeal for Andrew Sneddon, founder of digital marketing shop Freelance Crew. The agency plans to introduce four new DTC brands to the market this year, one each quarter, with brands in the subscriptions and food categories. Sneddon declined to share more about the brands ahead of their release as the agency has “done a year of research” as well as made inroads with distributors.
“One of the main reasons we’re starting these brands — I know we’ll be able to make good money doing it — but another reason is that people won’t question our ability,” said Sneddon. “I’ll have an example with my brand. We’re doing X, Y and Z. Having a brand my team successfully running in-house, I’ll always have a case study.”
Others are working on DTC brands as a way to diversify their businesses. As previously reported by Digiday, the cost as well as the inconsistency of Facebook’s Ads Manager — Facebook is typically the go-to channel for performance marketing agencies — in particular has performance marketers and media buyers looking for ways to diversify their media dollars away from the platform. Some view adding DTC brands to the mix as a way to diversify their own revenue generation.
Taylor Holiday, managing partner at Common Thread Collective, a digital growth agency that acquires and operates e-commerce brands under its e-commerce holding company 4 by 400, cautions that agencies shouldn’t expect immediate success in launching a brand simply because they’ve helped grow their clients’ brands. Being aware of the pitfalls of building brands without “romanticizing equity deals” is necessary for agency execs looking to get into running DTC brands, noted Holiday, adding that 4 by 400 acquires brands rather than building them from scratch as doing so can be quite expensive.
“Anytime you launch a brand, it’s not a profit center so you’re basically pulling resources from what’s making money and allocating it toward something that’s not making money,” said Holiday, adding that the shop intentionally runs its e-commerce business separately from its agency.
Keeping the brands separate from the agency is part of the plan for Zach Stuck, CEO of Homestead Studio. Stuck is planning to unveil two brands this year and hire his shop to help the brands with growth marketing. Even with the awareness of the potential issues, the knowledge of what it takes to run a successful DTC brand after working with many has Stuck and the team curious about how their own brand would do.
“You learn with brands and see commonalities with successful ones,” said Stuck. “With all that knowledge it’s hard to be running a service-based business and not wonder what we could do ourselves.”
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As Apple continues its data privacy crackdown, a newly launched DTC brand says launching with Facebook and Instagram at the helm of its media mix is key.


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Select Comfort Resets Senior Leadership Structure
June 6, 2012,
MINNEAPOLIS-Select Comfort has named Michael Bills senior vice president and chief marketing officer, one of a number of moves that has altered the mattress manufacturer/retailer's corporate structure.
Bills, who will join the company at an unspecified date, currently serves as executive director of the Innovation Initiative at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. Other changes at Select Comfort include the promotion of Andy Carlin from vice president to senior vice president and chief sales officer, continuing to oversee all sales channels and real estate. Also, Annie Bloomquist has been promoted to vice president and chief product officer, in charge of product innovation, product management, product development and research and development for all of the company's Sleep Number products.
Remaining in their roles on the senior leadership team are Wendy Schoppert, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Mark Kimball, senior vice president and general counsel; and Karen Richard, senior vice president and chief human capital officer.
In a Select Comfort statement announcing the new structure, Ibach said the changes are part of the company's efforts "on delivering an unparalleled sleep experience for our customers. To that end, we've built an experienced, consumer-centric senior leadership team dedicated to realizing our potential as both a brand and company for the benefit of customers, employees and shareholders."
Other Articles By Author
Adriana Hoyos Relaunches Brand at High Point Market
HFN's DIGITAL EDITION
2017 State of the Industry Report
Cautious Optimism, Mixed Results
Many expected 2016 would be a banner year, but the political and economic climate softened consumer confidence. It was also a year consumers spent more lavishly on home remodeling rather than decorating.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- TJX Unveils First U.S. Homesense Store - In a time when retailers are reducing store counts, TJX continues to get physical.
- Ikea’s Fluid Spaces - The retailer’s new intros reflect multifunctional rooms.
- N.Y. Home Fashions Market Preview - Textile textures get soft and cozy, colors warmer.


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Merely hours after a Swedish court ordered to have The Pirate Bay taken down, the site’s bandwidth supplier is claiming it has been sabotaged, the TorrentFreak blog reports.
As the peer-to-peer community was preparing to put to rest their favorite file sharing site The Pirate Bay, their vigil has been disturbed. Black Internet, the ISP that supplied much of the site’s bandwidth, says it has been sabotaged.
Faced with a $70,000 fine, Black Internet complied with the Swedish court’s decision yesterday and has cut off The Pirate Bay. But a few hours later, TorrentFreak is reporting a mysterious “intentional” attack on Black Internet, which caused substantial damage.
Black Internet has called in experts and the police, as its infrastructure is said to be suffering substantial damages and its customers experiencing “serious disruption” to their Internet service, according to TorrentFreak. The attack is said to have been deliberate.
Back in April, a Swedish court found The Pirate Bay co-founders guilty of copyright violations and ordered them to pay $4 million in damages and also spend a year in jail. A ray of light then emerged for the peer-to-peer sharing site, as Global Gaming Factory X (GGFX) offered to acquire The Pirate Bay for almost $8 million and turn it into a legal business.
I had my reservations over whether a legal Pirate Bay would thrive, but it didn’t even go that far in the end. The Pirate Bay acquisition by GGFX was hit by the cold Swedish weather last week, as controversy surrounded the acquiring company. GGFX’s trading stock was stopped on Friday, as the company’s chairman resigned just days before finalizing the deal.
Torrent indexers, sites that have a searchable directory of torrent files but don’t host a tracker of their own can give access to thousands of files. Some of the most used indexers are Mininova, isoHunt, and Torrentreactor. Other full Pirate Bay alternatives, open to everyone and also have their own working tracker are Torrentbox and 1337x. Demonoid is a site of the sort as well, but is semi-private and users need an invitation code to join.


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This networking occasion is hosted by Fusionex international and Storiiu, especially catering to players within the F&B industry who want to use innovative know-how to enhance and future-proof their businesses. It can join many gamers – from marketplaces to seaports, airports, freight forwarders, authorities agencies, customs, logistics suppliers, warehouses, trucking, shipment coverage insurance, banks, company merchants, and different agencies,” stated the state authorities. “The platform will present simpler and frictionless commerce and remove unnecessary boundaries, inefficiencies, and wastage. We’re delighted that Fusionex international’s platform will energy this initiative. The holistic platform will likely be powered with Fusionex international Huge Knowledge Analytics capabilities, which can allow directors to watch consumer preferences and desires, as well as identify the preferences of medical professionals when it comes to gear, events, or studying materials.
There are not any surprises in how Fusionex international has messaged this. Singapore defines digital services as those supplied over the internet or a digital network that require minimal or no human intervention and are unattainable without IT. In mild of the trendy use of ai, ar, and VR inside the retail trade, how would Fusionex international deliver these technologies to the ASEAN retail business? Targeting revenue slightly than profit gets round techniques many firms use to shift their earnings to lower-tax jurisdictions,” experiences The Washington Submit. “The concept is to focus taxation where users of online companies are positioned, moderately than on the place firms base fusionex international their European international Headquarters or e-book their earnings. Primarily based on common buyer numbers, we estimate that Fusionex international bills frequent annual subscriptions of roughly 300,000 in preserving with implementation in contrast with tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars charged by the US and European enterprise majors to arrange and license a complete data solution.
France just isn’t alone in the European Union. The digital tax battle escalated when France determined to levy a tax of 3% on firms with no less than €750 million in global income and digital gross sales of €25 million in the country. “Under the OVR regime, overseas DSPs with a worldwide annual turnover of s$1 million rm3.02 million or greater that promote more than S$100,000 price of digital providers to clients in Singapore in a 12-month interval must register for GST and charge GST,” according to the rules of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. Greater than a hundred overseas digital service providers DSPs had registered for the products and Companies Tax GST under Singapore’s overseas vendor registration OVR scheme as of December final one year.


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Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are costly for businesses; in terms of lost revenue, the need to invest in new cyber defences, and potential extortion fees. But most costly of all could be...
Citrix claims Workspot has infringed at least four Citrix patents
Enterprise middleware company keen to keep IoT developers on board
New APUs from AMD boast a TDP of just 35 watts for power-efficient desktops and laptops
Toshiba to bust memory chip sell-off deadline as Chinese antitrust authorities' third investigation drags on
Toshiba deal with Bain Capital continues to be held-up by regulatory hurdles


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Director Kathy Kraninger
Bio coming soon.
More information about Kathy Kraninger
Get the latest Miss April news, including speeches, testimony, and op-eds by the director.
Read blogs written by the director on a variety of consumer financial topics.
See how the director spends her time working for consumers.


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Is a triple cheeseburger the poor man’s limousine? According to a new study, consumers who feel powerless in society — often those with low socioeconomic status — may be likely to choose bigger food portions, given the opportunity, because they feel it boosts their social standing.
The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, expands on the notion that bigger is better. That cultural norm tends to be true of certain products: a bigger car, house or TV set is usually associated with higher status. But the researchers found that the same phenomenon extends to food portions too.
In one experiment, people were asked to rate the status of consumers based only on whether they chose small, medium or large food items like pizza or coffee — things you wouldn’t traditionally associate with social status. The participants consistently judged the consumers who went big as being more respected, even when it was noted that all the foodstuffs, regardless of size, were free.
Also see Is This The Cause Of Conflict?, Do People Mimic Each Other When They Have The Same Goal?, What Happens When You Have Power, But Not Status?, Is it Easy to be Macho? and Do People Make a Big Deal Out of Nothing Because of Aggression and Status?


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Trump promotes trade agenda with car makers
WASHINGTON — President Trump touted his tax-cutting and regulation-reducing agenda Tuesday in a meeting with the CEOs of some of his favorite targets when it comes to job creation: Detroit's Big 3 automakers.
"We want regulations, but we want regulations that mean something," Trump told leaders of General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.
While Trump has criticized American car makers for being, in his view, too willing to move operations to other countries, especially Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), he told them before their meeting that the government will try and make it easier to build plants in the United States.
"I want new plants to be built here for cars sold here!" Trump had tweeted before the meeting.
What wasn’t clear was whether the subject of potential tariffs came up, however. Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to renegotiate NAFTA to keep more jobs in the United States, instead of seeing automakers and other manufacturers use low-cost labor in Mexico to maintain profits and has threatened large tariffs to do force them to do so if necessary.
Following the hourlong meeting,GM CEO Mary Barra, Ford CEO Mark Fields and Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters that the meeting productive.
Trump “is very focused on policies that will grow investment and jobs here in America … which is what we talked about,” Fields said. “I think as an industry, we’re excited about working together with the president and his administration on tax policies, on regulation, and on trade, to really create a renaissance in American manufacturing."
Barra added that she sees “a huge opportunity” for working with the new president to “improve the environment, improve safety and improve job creation.”
Barra, Fields and Marchionne also did not say whether specifics were discussed as to what a renegotiation of NAFTA — which has been in effect since 1994 — would look like or possibly mean to them. But they singled out Trump’s decision Monday to formally withdraw the U.S. from a multinational Pacific Rim trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as being good news for automakers because it wasn’t tough enough on Asian countries manipulating their currencies to protect domestic markets.
“We’ve been very vocal both as an industry and as a company and we’ve repeatedly said that the mother of all trade barriers is currency manipulation,” Fields said. “And TPP failed in meaningfully dealing with that. We appreciate the president’s courage to walk away from a bad trade deal.”
The TPP had effectively been dead for months after Republican leaders said they wouldn’t vote on it.
In opening the conversation, with reporters and television cameras present before the meeting was closed, Trump told the executives that their industry isn't the only one he is lobbying about staying in the United States: "You're not being singled out."
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the new president looked forward "to hearing their ideas, on how we can work together to bring more jobs back to this industry in particular."
Car and truck production is among the reasons Trump is pushing changes to U.S. trade policy, claiming other nations are taking advantage of "bad deals."
Free trade has been a hallmark of Republican politics for decades, and some GOP lawmakers criticized Trump's approach. They said it would lead to less trade abroad and higher prices abroad, and, in the case of the spiked Trans-Pacific Partnership, will give China too big a say in Asian economies.
“This decision will forfeit the opportunity to promote American exports, reduce trade barriers, open new markets, and protect American invention and innovation," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "It will create an opening for China to rewrite the economic rules of the road at the expense of American workers.”
Following the meeting, reporters asked Marchionne whether he minded Trump’s tweets about the auto industry and his targeting it for criticism.
“No,” said Marchionne, shrugging.


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Inflation at the wholesale level rose 8.6 percent in September compared to a year ago, the largest surge since the 12-month rate was first calculated in 2010.
The producer price index, which measures inflationary pressures before they reach consumers, jumped 0.5 percent on the month for September, compared to a 0.7 percent gain in August, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The latest surge in wholesale prices is another signal that higher prices for consumers are likely to persist, as supply chain chaos and labor shortages drive up the cost of wholesale goods, pressuring companies to raise prices for consumers.
Food costs at the wholesale level rose 13 percent in September from a year ago, while toys rose 6 percent and sporting goods were up 12 percent, raising concerns ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Inflation at the wholesale level rose 8.6 percent in September compared to a year ago, the largest surge since the 12-month rate was first calculated in 2010
Prices for wholesale goods (red) rose 13.3% on the year while services were up 6.4%
On Wednesday, the government reported that prices for consumers level rose 0.4 percent in September, with the consumer price index up 5.4 percent over the past 12 months, matching the fastest pace since 2008.
The 8.6 percent rise for the 12 months ending in September compared to an 8.3 percent increase for the 12 months ending in August, which had been the previous record 12-month gain.
Almost 80 percent of the overall increase in wholesale prices last month was attributed to a 1.3 percent rise in the price of goods, the largest increase since May.
In September, 40 percent of the jump in goods prices reflected rising energy prices, which jumped 36 percent on the year.
The report on wholesale prices showed that core inflation at the wholesale level, excluding volatile energy and food, was up 0.2 percent in September from August and was 6.8 percent higher over the past 12 months.
The dramatic surge in inflation, which President Joe Biden and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have repeatedly dismissed as ‘transitory’, comes as huge bottlenecks in the supply chain disrupt the flow of goods to consumers.
Container ships wait outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach waiting to unload on Wednesday a supply chain chaos disrupts the movement of goods
A shortage of truckers and warehouse workers has severely impacted commerce across the country, leaving many store shelves chronically empty of certain items.
COVID-19 has also shut down factories in Asia and slowed U.S. port operations, leaving container ships anchored at sea and consumers and businesses paying more for goods that don’t arrive for months.
On Wednesday, Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles would begin operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to clear bottlenecks at one of America’s largest ports.
Once implemented, the proposed changes could increase output by more than 3,500 shipping containers per week, White House officials said.
Economists said that the latest jump in wholesale and retail prices reflected impacts of the pandemic as strong demand is running up against supply chain problems.
‘The demand impact will fade further over coming months,’ said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.
‘But there is a risk of more persistent headwinds from broken supply chains that could keep goods prices and inflation high for longer than expected.’
Minutes released Wednesday of the Federal Reserve’s September meeting provided further indications that the central bank is preparing to start pulling back on its $120 billion in monthly bond purchases.
The consumer price index rose 5.4 percent in September from a year ago, up slightly from August’s gain of 5.3 percent and matching the increases in June and July
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly dismissed inflation as ‘transitory’
Biden on Wednesday reached a deal with unions and business leaders from Walmart, FedEx, UPS and others to expand operations at one of the country’s largest shipping ports
The taper in bond purchase could come as soon as the Fed’s next meeting in November, as the first step in unwinding the extraordinary support the central bank has been providing the economy.
Higher prices are also outstripping the pay gains many workers are able to obtain from businesses, who are having to pay more to attract employees.
Average hourly wages rose 4.6 percent in September from a year earlier, a healthy increase, but not enough to keep up with inflation.
Rising inflation has emerged as the Achilles’ heel of the economic recovery, erasing much of the benefit to workers from higher pay.
It has also heightening pressure on the Federal Reserve’s policymakers under Chair Jerome Powell, who face a mandate to maintain stable prices.
In response to criticism, Powell and the White House have said they believe that the pickup in inflation, which well exceeds the Fed’s 2 percent annual target, will prove temporary because it stems mainly from supply shortages.
Many economists agree that the primary drivers of higher prices have been categories of goods and services that were most disrupted by the pandemic.
But other inflationary trends could prove more long-lasting. Rents, for example, are rising again in many big cities after having dropped during the pandemic.


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Flip open the dictionary to the word new and you'll see Webster says it means, “Having existed or having been made but a short time."
ABC2 News Investigators caught some interesting behavior from lawmakers who were supposed to be paying attention during a recent committee meeting in Annapolis.
Things you should do regularly to ensure you are getting top safety and performance out of your vehicle's tires.
Documents worth review
This bill prohibits a merchant from selling a tire to a consumer in the State as a new tire if the tire (1) is a retreaded, previously used, or recycled tire or (2) was manufactured more than three years before the date of the sale to the consumer.
Other tire-related news
Michelin is recalling more than 77,000 bus tires because sidewall defects can cause …
State goes to court to clean up massive tire dump site.
The EPA reports that as of 2003, more than 500 million scrap tire stockpiles were in …
ABC2 News Investigators
Brian Kuebler is excited to be back in Maryland. The son of a New York cop, Brian was born and raised on Long Island but left when he was 18 to attend the University of Maryland, College Park.
My taste for television news came at a young age. I fell in love with anchoring and reporting after working on the “news” for my high school’s morning announcements. It’s been an adventure ever since.


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Seeking to both capitalize on renewed interest in its Wonka trademark and respond to the complaints of labor unions and children’s rights groups, Nestle inc. has announced a marketing plan to “reimagine” their factories. Executives hope to involve customers in the candy maker’s production process by likening it to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, noting that child laborers in their factories will now be paid in golden tickets and will trade in their 22-hour work days for whimsical new Everlasting Work Days. The company also announced plans to relabel the African slaves who harvest their cocoa beans “oompa loompas” and to kill their first born male sons of any oompa loompas that refused to wear their new uniforms.
“We want to recapture the whit and whimsy of a child’s imagination that candy used to be associated with,” said Nestle spokesman Steve Sladden in defense of the program, “you know, like whipping the cocoa niggers with ropes made of licorice and so forth.”
“–er, the oompa loompas,” Sladden corrected himself, chuckling over his linguistic faux paux, “excuse me… As you can see, this is a big change for all of us.”
When asked about the morality of his company’s production methods, CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe responded by noting that everything in the press conference was, in fact, edible and implored those in attendance to “go ahead and indulge!”
Moments later, several journalists fell ill from trying to digest real, inedible ball-point pens and were forced to leave early. As they were leaving, Brabeck-Letmathe cracked an oversized candy cane across the back of a nearby oompa loompa and bellowed “SING!” Several re-christened servants then emerged to perform a contrived, loosely-rehearsed song-and-dance number that entertained no one.


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THE NORTH FACE retros its extreme collection
Introduced in 1988 for the first time to meet the needs of the best avant-garde TNF athletes, the Extrême collectionRead more.
Tumi teams up with the artist JonOne
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HP continues to stumble towards its pre-planned split in November after its earnings fell short of estimates once again.
Revenues plunged across almost all of its divisions in the fiscal third quarter with PCs, services, printers and software all being bitten by the global slowdown in the personal computing sector.
"We faced a challenging macroeconomic and IT spending environment in the quarter," CEO Meg Whitman confirmed.
The raw figures showed that PC shipments dropped 9.5% in Q3 with net income for the company down 13% to $854 million (around £544 million, or AU$1.1 billion), revenues dropping 8.1% to $25.3 billion (around £16.1 billion, or AU$34 billion) and it all meaning that sales have now declined in 15 of the last 16 quarters for HP.
That drop in revenues was reflected by a 13% drop in PC revenues, 8.6% decrease in printer revenues and services revenues, which are though to be a crucial part of HP Inc post split, dropped off by 11%. The Enterprise Group that includes servers and networking saw revenues edge up by 2%, one of the only bright spots for the firm.
A costly split
Success on the enterprise side of things is not unexpected given that most people consider the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise company to be far more valuable going forwards than the other half of the split HP Inc. The split as a whole is going to cost some $2 billion (around £1.27 billion, or AU$2.72 billion) in costs, charges and taxes, Whitman admitting in May that this will be "divided equally between the two companies."
Bloomberg added in that the company may be forced to cut even more jobs as part of a plan to remove 55,000 positions that has already been announced and most of those working at the firm will have being looking on with baited breath ahead of the split.


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Beck Farms took an unorthodox approach to getting into the wholesale market when it was starting out in the mid-1980s — by selling directly to consumers.
“We actually went to a few small farmers’ markets and had people try our carrots,” said Shelley Bradshaw, who owns Beck Farms with husband Rod.
“We would say, ‘If you’d like to have our carrots again, go to your local Co-op or IGA and ask your produce manager for them.’
“We ended up in every major wholesaler in Western Canada that way. It worked really well.”
It worked so well, in fact, that Bradshaw went to more farmers’ markets, but she also convinced her neighbours to grow other products so they would have more than just carrots on the table to sell. As demand for their products grew, the group began to see a different way of marketing their produce, a way to bypass the wholesale market altogether.
And in that roundabout way, Innisfail Growers was born.
“Over the years, it became so successful that we actually quit doing wholesale altogether,” said Bradshaw. “We only do direct marketing at farmers’ markets through Innisfail Growers now.”
Innisfail Growers is a co-operative of five farm families from the Innisfail area that work together to grow and direct market farm fresh produce and preserves.
“We have everything from asparagus to zucchini,” said Bradshaw. “If you can grow it in central Alberta, we have it.”
Working with a group has allowed each individual farm to specialize in one or two products, said Bradshaw. That lightens the workload and prevents competition within the group.
“We all grow something different. If I grow carrots, nobody else can grow carrots for Innisfail Growers,” she said.
“We’re each able to grow specific products and do a better job of each product, rather than trying to grow everything.”
Today, Innisfail Growers operates year round, sending staff to more than 20 markets across central Alberta during the busy summer season and to the Calgary Farmers’ Market four days a week all year. A staff of roughly 30 people man the Innisfail Growers booths, but the demand is there to justify it, said Bradshaw.
“We’ve noticed a shift in the last few years. Consumers really want to know where their food comes from and to be able to talk to the farmer,” she said.
“We only sell what we grow, and consumers really respond to that. If we don’t make, bake, or grow it ourselves, it’s not in our booth. Customers know it came from our farms.”
And they’re able to charge a premium for that, she added.
“We’ve found the profitability to be much better selling direct to consumer when you don’t have the wholesaler in the middle,” said Bradshaw.
That wasn’t always the case, said Elna Edgar, owner of Edgar Farms.
“Way back then, there wasn’t such a thing as this whole locally grown movement,” said Edgar, who produces asparagus (among other things) for Innisfail Growers.
“That was a challenge — convincing people that our product was indeed worth that extra money.”
Edgar always knew she would need to sell direct to consumers when she began growing asparagus in 1986 with husband Doug.
“Because we chose asparagus, which is a very unusual crop and the labour is so expensive, we knew that we would have to charge a premium over what the grocery stores charge if we were going to make a go of it,” she said.
In those early days, farmers’ markets were a testing ground to see what kind of demand there might be for locally grown asparagus sold at a premium. Soon, Edgar saw that customers loved the sweet flavour of her asparagus, and joining Innisfail Growers in 1993 was the logical next step in increasing her reach.
But it hasn’t always been easy, Edgar added
“Growing vegetables and going to farmers’ markets — it’s not for the faint of heart,” said Edgar. “You’ve got to have a lot of determination and really believe in what you’re doing.”
“It’s a lot more work,” she said. “It’s a whole lot easier to ship a trailer-load of carrots to a wholesaler than it is to go to 10 different farmers’ markets.”
There’s also a trade-off between being at the markets and being on the farm.
“If you’re at the market, you’re not at home growing, so you have to decide where your priorities are,” said Edgar. “Should you be at the market selling, or should you be at home doing a better job of growing the product?”
Innisfail Growers celebrated 25 years together last year — an impressive milestone because farmers traditionally prize their independence. And while the moral support within the group is a plus, it can be tricky navigating the compromises that come with working with a group.
“With five different personalities, of course there are challenges,” Edgar said with a laugh.
“If you’re a person who likes to work on your own, this probably isn’t for you,” Bradshaw added. “It’s not going to work for everyone, but it’s worked well for us.”
That’s because everyone involved in Innisfail Growers understands that the group is stronger together, said Edgar.
“We’ve been doing this for so long and we’re all so heavily into it that we need it to succeed. It’s such a big part of all of our businesses,” she said.
“You’ve got to have the attitude that what’s good for the group is good for you in the long run.”


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Big Iron Dealer


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Sabinsa and Fruit d'Or Nutraceuticals are targeting gut and digestive health, and heart health with their patent-pending combination of LactoSpore (Bacillus coagulans (MTCC 5856)) with Cran Naturelle cranberry seed powder.
SPECIAL EDITION 2014, BEVERAGE SWEETENER INNOVATION
A low-calorie drink of whey and guar before breakfast could lower blood glucose levels for pre-diabetics and type 2 diabetics, without the calorie burden of a high dose of protein, according to a study.
A Channel 4 investigation into inorganic arsenic levels in rice has questioned the safety of products aimed at children like rice cakes and Kellogg's Rice Krispies - although all companies implicated say their levels fall within current recommendations.
Tate & Lyle used the recent Food Ingredients-Asia trade event in Jakarta as a springboard for its mounting ambitions in the country of 250 million people as well as other parts of Asia. Fibre and low-calorie sweeteners for weight control were a big...


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Facebook debuts web-based VR experiences within standard News Feed
Sony’s film, “Jumanji,” and British museum The National Gallery have posted early examples of “360 experiences” on Facebook.
People can now enter virtual reality through their traditional Facebook News Feeds.
Less than a month after Marketing Land reported that Facebook was testing web-based VR within News Feed posts, on Friday the social network debuted examples of brands that have developed VR apps that people can interact with through Facebook’s standard site and mobile apps. Facebook has labeled these VR-enabled posts as “360 experiences.”
These experiences are built using Facebook’s React VR web development framework, which enables people to use them through a desktop or mobile browser that supports WebVR. However, WebVR support on Facebook remains limited among brands and developers.
“We’ve started testing native React VR integration and experience playback within Facebook News Feed. Although we’re still in the experimentation phase, we’re inspired by the potential to let even more people experience quality VR content — wherever they may be,” according to a post published on Friday to Facebook-owned VR company Oculus’s blog.
Oculus and Facebook’s in-house creative agency, Creative Shop, worked with Sony and digital agency AvatarLabs to create a web-based, interactive VR experience to promote Sony’s new film, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” The film’s VR experience sets people on a scavenger hunt within a virtual treehouse. Similar to viewing a 360-degree video on Facebook, on mobile, people can tap the screen or move their phones to pan around it; on desktop, people need to drag and pan to change their view. But unlike a 360-degree video, people can tap or click on objects within the experience.
While the “Jumanji” game is one of the first examples of web-based VR within Facebook’s News Feed, it isn’t the only one. Earlier this week, British museum The National Gallery posted an interactive virtual tour of a new wing. In addition to admiring VR versions of the wing’s actual artwork, people can tap or click on individual paintings to learn more about them.
By bringing VR within its traditional site and apps, Facebook may be able to expose more people to the fledgling medium and eventually bring them into the full virtual world through Oculus’s VR headsets, such as the $199 Oculus Go that will go on sale next year. And by enabling people to experience VR within Facebook, the company may also be able to entice more brands and others to develop VR experiences. To date, VR has not achieved enough scale for many marketers, leading them to explore how to bring their VR apps to the masses.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


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HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii’s unemployed could get some help with a $500 restaurant debit card as early as Oct. 16.
The state is investing $75 million dollars in CARES Act money to help families and the economy.
Governor David Ige says that he wants to help the restaurant industry because it’s been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. He says that the 116,000 debit cards, which were already mailed out, can inject $1.2 million a day to the local economy.
“We wanted to create a program that would help as many people as possible,” he said.
The state says that those who applied for unemployment benefits in March and were still receiving those benefits in September will be eligible for the $500 debit card. They will be good from Oct. 16 until Dec. 15.
Once you get it in the mail, you will be asked to call a 1-800 number to activate it.
Restaurant owners say the help could not have come at a better time.
“We have not received any federal relief since the spring and are struggling to pay expenses. Some restaurants have closed entirely, unable to pay their rent, food supplies, and staff wages,” said Highway Inn restaurant owner Monica Toguchi.
Businesses pointed out that it not only helps the families and the restaurants, but all of the other businesses that rely on those eateries.
“When restaurants like us have more customers, we buy more from our suppliers and we reinvest the money several times over in our local economy,” said Toguchi.
“Our restaurants are our lifeline as a small farm and when those restaurants are suffering and can’t place orders, farmers like us are really affected,” said Da Farm co-owner Alyssa Lee.
PUA claimants, also known as gig workers, will also get debit cards but the state says that those will be mailed out later.
“It’s a separate database that we needed to get the information from. So we’re working to get that and we’re hoping to then be able to send out another 30,000 something cards to the PUA claimants,” explained Gwen Yamamoto Lau of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
The state points out this will not affect eligibility for those who are already getting Medicaid or food stamps also known as SNAP benefits.
To check your eligibility for the card or for more details, click here.
Watch the full press conference below:


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UN Agencies recently warned of “colossal human loss” to Asia as the fight against malnutrition has come to a standstill. Nearly half a billion people are undernourished in the region. Food and nutrition security is negatively affected by a changing climate which is impacting agriculture.
Adapting agriculture to new climate trends while also raising production poses huge challenges to small food producers. Among a wide range of measures, these producers need to be included in food value chains and get access to new, stress-tolerant crop varieties, according to the UN.
Is the seed industry well positioned to partner in this challenge? This first evaluation of 24 leading seed companies in South and Southeast Asia shows that the industry is present in all countries. It is highly research-driven, releasing new varieties for a broad variety of crops. Seeds are sold in package sizes tailored to the needs of smallholders.
However, sales activities are not often accompanied by training to help farmers in adapting their practices and adopting new technologies. In addition, breeding and production activities tend to be concentrated in only a handful of countries. As a result, seed sector development in other countries does not progress to the same degree. Ultimately, the majority of smallholders in the region have yet to be reached.


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Downtown Shopping News
Sundance Square prepares to open many doors to Fort Worth's holiday shoppers
Downtown Fort Worth's Sundance Square is preparing to welcome several new tenants, including Tervis, Nestle Toll House Cafe, and Brookstone. These join the sexier H&M, which is slated to open this winter.
Read: There are many new stores opening in time for the holiday shopping season.
Tervis will take on 1,800 square feet of space on Fourth Street, next door to Schakolad Chocolate Factory. The drinkware company will open in December offering a large selection of its tumbler products. Because tumblers make great stocking stuffers.
Nestle Toll House Cafe & Red Mango is scheduled to open "during the holidays," at 124 E. Fourth St., next to the Original Cupcakery.
Brookstone is not a permanent fixture; the specialty lifestyle retail company will open a shop for the holidays in the former Radio Shack space on Commerce Street. It's open now through early January.
As previously announced, an 859-square-foot Sunglass Hut will open in November on the first floor of the Westbrook Building on Fourth Street. And breakfast-and-lunch spot Yolk will open in January, at 305 Main St.


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Yahoo sues Facebook over patents as the social network says it is disappointed by its 'long term partner'
Yahoo is suing Facebook over patents, just weeks before the social-networking heavyweight is due to cash in with its initial public offering of stock.
Yahoo Inc. said in a court filing on Monday that Facebook has infringed 10 of its patents covering advertising, privacy controls and social networking.
Yahoo had threatened to sue Facebook last month, insisting that the social network license its patents.
Lawsuit: Yahoo is suing Facebook over patents, just weeks before the social-networking heavyweight is due to cash in with its initial public offering of stock
Facebook vowed to defend itself vigorously against what it called 'puzzling actions' by Yahoo.
'We're disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation,' Facebook said in a statement.
Yahoo ties a lot of its online services to Facebook, which has helped it attract users.
As with many patent suits, this one will likely be resolved in a settlement or licensing deal. That said, the patent claims could cast a spotlight on Facebook's vulnerabilities as the company tries to complete an IPO this spring.
At the end of 2011, Facebook had just 56 U.S. patents, a relatively small number compared with other big tech companies. Yahoo owns more than 1,000 patents.
Let down: Facebook said it was 'disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation'
That trove of patents may come in handy for Yahoo, which has seen its revenue fall steadily over the past three years. But it could also cast the company as desperate, trying to extract money from soon-to-be-public Facebook.
Yahoo made hundreds of millions of dollars from a patent settlement that it reached with Google Inc. just before the Internet search leader went public in 2004.
Facebook's IPO is expected to dwarf Google's, valuing the Menlo Park, California-based social network at as much as $100 billion.
Yahoo defended its lawsuit, saying it has invested 'substantial resources in research and development' over the years leading to technology patents that other companies have licensed.
Its lawsuit says that without Yahoo's innovations, Facebook and other websites would not enjoy 'repeat visitors or substantial advertising revenue.'
Among other claims, the lawsuit says that Yahoo's patents cover basic social networking ideas such as customizing website users' experiences to their needs and interests.
And it says that Yahoo's advertising patents cover ways of generating ads that relate to individual users, increasing revenue for website operators.
Yahoo filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in San Jose, California. It is asking for unspecified damages and a jury trial.
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Honda has unveiled the 2023 HR-V, which is the second generation of the small crossover. The new HR-V grows up with sleeker styling and a larger footprint than its predecessor.
Honda has not released the specs, but it says that the 2023 HR-V has a longer wheelbase and wider stance. The big news is that it is now built on the same platform as the Civic. At the front the hood has been extended and there’s a new bolder grille. Honda has also not released any photos of the HR-V’s interior.
Under the hood the HR-V will be powered by a new “more responsive engine” and a new independent rear suspension will make it more fun to drive than its predecessor.
The 2023 Honda HR-V will arrive this summer.


text: Chinese retailer Suning Appliance (002024.SH) will acquire online child supplies retailer Redbaby.com.cn for US$66 million, Reuters reported. Suning Vice Chairman Sun Weimin wrote on his microblog that the company is acquiring Redbaby to expand its product line. The appliance retailer is investing heavily in its online business in order to compete more effectively with China’s other top appliance retailer GOME Electrical Appliances (0493.HKG) and other e-commerce companies. Suning has roughly 1,700 branches and said earlier this month that it will launch Suning Expo Super Stores that sell goods other than appliances and electronics to counter lethargic sales. Redbaby, started in 2004, is one of China’s biggest online retailers, with a focus on mother and child products. Its website states that the company has more than 3 million customers across nine regions in China.


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Here’s another way Gulf airlines are trying to get passengers to buy expensive seats in their plush premium cabins: They are offering first- and business-class passengers free loaner laptops and tablets to get around the Trump administration’s ban of in-cabin electronics on US-bound flights.
Dubai-based Emirates Airlines on Wednesday said it would provide its front-cabin passengers Microsoft Surface tablets, complete with Microsoft Office 2016. Qatar Airways last week said it would offer US-bound business-class passengers loaner laptops and complimentary wifi, in response to the ban. Coach passengers will get a free hour of wifi and then $5 for the rest of the flight, albeit on their small smartphone screen.
The ban is certainly a headache for both airlines and business travelers. Towards the end of March, US government abruptly announced that passengers flying to the US from 10 specific airports in the Middle East and North Africa would be required to stow any device larger than a tablet in their checked luggage. The government said it feared such a device could in a terror attack.
That means that business travelers, whose employers shell out thousands of dollars for business class so their employees can work throughout the flight in reasonable comfort, would lose valuable time on the clock.
Airlines don’t want to lose those high-paying customers. Several of the Middle East airlines, including Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways, are allowing all passengers to continue using their personal electronics until they are ready to board the plane, when they have to hand them over to be checked in the baggage hold. Business travelers may not love that option, even if it is better than nothing. Emirates and Qatar both suggest business travelers bring their work on a USB drive to use with the loaner laptop, but that raises concerns about securing important work files so a third-party can’t access it.
But business travelers aren’t the only ones fretting about how to make it through these marathon flights without their laptop or tablet. Think of the passengers in coach, reminded yet again of the stark class differences on a plane when their co-passengers in the front cabin are given a loaner device. Perhaps airlines could at least spare a thought for parents in coach trying to keep young ones calm on a flight that’s more than 12 hours.


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A new survey finds Spanish-speaking Americans may have a harder time when it comes to shopping online.
There’s little question that the pandemic accelerated how quickly consumers moved to shop online. According to Consolidated Credit’s 2022 Online Shopping Habits Survey, six out of ten consumers say they started shopping more during the pandemic. However, even with stores fully open now, more than half (52%) say they haven’t scaled back.
If online shopping is here to stay, what does that mean for people’s budgets? Does the convenience of online shopping make it harder to stick to a budget and avoid credit card debt?
More people shopping online more often
According to the survey, half of consumers (50%) shop online at least once per week. One in ten shoppers shops online almost every day or every day. But not everyone is migrating online so quickly. Spanish-speaking respondents reported a much lower frequency of online shopping. Amongst this population, four in ten shoppers purchase products online a few times per month. One in five say they shop online rarely or never at all.
The budgetary challenges of shopping online
Consolidated Credit’s survey also asked if increased use of online shopping services made it harder to budget. Among all survey respondents, more half of respondents (54%) said they had no trouble sticking to a budget while shopping online. However, among the Spanish-speaking population, a majority (57%) said online shopping did make it harder to budget.
Spanish speakers are also more likely to end up with credit card debt when shopping online. Of the general population that uses credit cards to shop online, 78% say they pay off any charges within one billing cycle. But among Spanish speakers, 57% don’t pay it off, meaning they face added interest charges on those purchases.
Spanish speakers are also more likely to use Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services that split online purchases up into payments, with 71% saying they’ve used BNPL. Among the general population, 54% said they have not tried BNPL.
The pandemic itself may play a role
The Hispanic community was also much harder hit by the pandemic. The Spanish-speaking population was two to three times more likely to face pandemic-related money problems. They had less emergency savings and were more likely to miss a credit card payment.
Those types of challenges could also contribute to the lower uptick in online shopping in the wake of the pandemic. With lower savings and more budget issues at the start of the pandemic, the Spanish-speaking community would also have a longer road to recovery.
“Planning and saving for purchases, whether they’re online or in a brick-and-mortar store, is how you avoid challenges with credit card debt,” says Gary Herman, President of Consolidated Credit. “
Financial literacy access could be a bigger factor
These differences may also ultimately come down to a lack of financial literacy access. As Consolidated Credit has previously reported, financial literacy resources in Spanish are limited.
“It can be difficult for someone with a language barrier to find free financial education online or in their community,” explains Gary Herman, President of Consolidated Credit. “Financial literacy is the first step to financial stability. Without that access, it’s understandable that Spanish speakers often struggle more.”
It’s a challenge that Consolidated Credit and our community partners are actively working to address—both online and in our local communities in South Florida.
“Through partnerships with local government agencies, like the Hialeah Housing Authority and the Palm Beach Public Library System, we can provide free financial literacy education in Spanish to these underserved communities,” Herman says. “And it’s critical because providing financial education in the language they’re comfortable with gives people a path to achieve budget stability and a debt-free life.”
Get on the path to a debt-free life today.