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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Switch model has a launch date. NIS America confirmed folks will be capable to decide up digital and bodily copies in April 2021. It will seem first in each Europe and North America on April 9, 2021. Then, one week later, it should seem on April 16, 2021 in Australia. The contents of its bodily Frontline Edition had been additionally confirmed.
Should folks get Trails of Cold Steel IV Frontline Edition, they’ll have a bodily copy in a field with reversible cowl artwork. They’ll additionally get a The Black Records booklet and a digital copy of the Echoes of Erebonia soundtrack.
We nonetheless don’t have a launch date for the Trails of Cold Steel IV PC model, nevertheless. NIS America introduced it and the Switch port alongside the PS4 model’s localization again in April 2020. It will even seem in 2021.
As a reminder, quickly folks will be capable to play each Trails of Cold Steel sport on the Switch. Back in October 2020, Nihon Falcom introduced it was engaged on ports of the authentic two video games. At the second, solely Trails of Cold Steel III is offered on Nintendo’s console worldwide. The first two installments have a Summer 2021 launch window for Japan.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Nintendo Switch copies will seem in North America and Europe on April 9, 2021 and in Australia on April 16, 2021. The sport is straight away obtainable on the PlayStation four worldwide.


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Recently, ExxonMobil put out a report that suggested that the growth of new and renewable energy technologies and the challenge of climate change were unlikely to significantly impact the oil business. The report stated that fossil fuels would continue to fill the lion's share of global energy demand for many years. Every drop of underground oil reserves would be needed and there was little risk that they could ever become "stranded" assets. In fact, things aren't so clear.
There is a natural human tendency to assume that things in the future will look a lot like they do today. Really big and disruptive changes are hard to imagine until they are upon us. But there are a few leading indicators that suggest that big changes are afoot in the world of transportation energy.
First of all, our demand for gasoline is already shrinking. According to U.S. government figures, overall U.S. consumption has dropped 4 percent since 2007. Partly it is a reflection of the lifestyle choices of millennials who would rather live in urban centers, than at the edges of metropolitan areas. Also, cars are rapidly getting more efficient. If you haven't shopped for a car lately, you might be surprised how efficient new vehicles have become, compared with just a few years ago. Kelley Blue Book says that 30 different new vehicles get combined EPA ratings of over 40 MPG. Not long ago, you could count those super-efficient vehicles on one hand--and they were all hybrids. By 2025, cars and light trucks sold in the United States will have an average fuel economy of nearly 55 mpg. All else staying the same, that fact alone will nearly chop in half our use of petroleum once those new vehicles roll out and the fleet turns over. But that is not the kicker. The real kicker is plug-in vehicles.
When marketers want to see what the consumers of the future will be buying, they look at California. Today in California, plug-in cars account for over 3 percent of all new cars sold. That might not sound like a game changer, but it is up from almost zero three years earlier. That is very rapid growth--much more rapid than the uptake of hybrid vehicles a decade earlier. And there is no indication that it is slowing down. People love these cars.
A recent survey asked plug-in vehicle drivers in California the reasons for their decision to get a plug-in. The top reason was saving money on fuel costs. Only about 1 in 5 cited the environment as the top reason. Other reasons cited included access to new technology, a desire for energy independence, use of carpool lanes and performance. Did we talk about performance? Because the electric motor has all of its torque available from a standstill, plug-in vehicles can often out-accelerate their gasoline counterparts. So there are plenty of very practical reasons that people buy plug-in vehicles--which is why uptake is growing rapidly. And the network of charging stations to support them is growing quickly as well--from 1,000 in 2010 to more than 25,000 today and continuing to accelerate.
When you look at all of these trends, the case starts to be pretty compelling that we will be using a lot less oil than we might have thought. It does not take a great visionary to see that within a decade, plug-in vehicles will be a sizable chunk of our vehicle fleet--and the remaining passenger cars will mostly be in the 40+ MPG range. And then? The air in our cities will be noticeably cleaner, we will be sending a lot less money and military hardware overseas to keep the oil flowing and some of those oil reserves might well find themselves "stranded" in the ground indefinitely.

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Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) is expected to report Q4 earnings before the market open on Thursday, August 2 with a conference call scheduled for 8:00 am ET.
Analysts are looking for EPS of 72c on revenue of $27.27B. The consensus range is 70c-76c for EPS, and $26.78B-$27.92B for revenue, according to First Call. After reporting better-than-expected EPS and revenue in Q3, the company had lowered its lower end of FY12 EPS guidance to $3.15-$3.20 and expects the FY12 revenue growth rate to be similar to FY11. The company had also reported Q3 Pharmaceutical revenue was up 3% and its Q3 Medical revenue was up 8%, and investors will look for similar positive results from those two units. Cardinal Health said it expects the medical business to return to bottom line growth in Q4, and commodity prices are beginning to moderate. In a regulatory filing on July 31, Express Scripts had informed Cardinal Health that it will not renew its pharmaceutical distribution agreement that has provided Cardinal with approximately $9B of annual revenue to the company.
Despite the news, William Blair maintains that the company should be bought on weakness. The firm said the loss of the Express Scripts contract should have a material bottom-line impact to the company, and only lowered the FY13 EPS by 3c to reflect the loss.


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RAPHAEL G. SATTER
Associated Press LONDON — WikiLeaks supporters on Friday downloaded increasing amounts of the spam-shooting software used to attack companies seen as hostile — a development that could challenge even Internet giants such as PayPal and
during the crucial Christmas shopping season. U.S. data security company Imperva says downloads of the attack program used to bombard websites with bogus requests for data have jumped to over 40,000, with thousands of new downloads reported overnight. “It’s definitely increasing,” Imperva Web researcher Tal Be’ery said in a telephone interview from Israel. The freely available software is a critical part of the campaign by “hacktivists” seeking to take revenge on sites they believe have betrayed WikiLeaks, the group that has outraged American officials by publishing hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables and military intelligence reports. Users who download the software essentially volunteer their computers to be used as weapons that volley streams of electronic spam at targeted websites. The more computers, the greater the flow of data requests, and the better chances are of overwhelming the targeted website. The cyberguerillas, who gather under the name Anonymous, have generally been successful in foiling their enemies. Attacks directed at the main pages of Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. succeeded in making them inaccessible, in MasterCard’s case for several hours. Attacks on online payment company PayPal Inc. have periodically rendered part of its website inoperative.
, another targeted site, was inaccessible Friday.


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Words: David Zenlea, Hagerty | Photos: Bring A Trailer
We have all been living double lives this summer. In one, we’re manically reclaiming normalcy – eating at restaurants, attending concerts, visiting the grandparents, and – according to no less a source than the New York Times – “making out… everywhere”.
Yet there is also a life that remains indelibly altered by what we have experienced over the past year and a half.
No surprise, this duality carries through to the collector car world. Many of us at Hagerty have descended upon Monterey, California, this week for the Pebble Beach Concours and a host of glamorous in-person auctions. The chatter is once again about which eight-figure offering stands the best chance of being the biggest sale of the year and just how high the grand total will be (above $320M, we predict). Blink and you might think it’s 2019 again.
Except, of course, it isn’t, and not just because a facemask will now be as integral a part of the concours attire as linen pants and a dandyish hat, or because many European collectors will be stuck at home due to travel restrictions. Classic car auctions survived the pandemic largely by shifting business online; now, even as in-person sales cautiously return, much of the action is still taking place on screens.
Case in point: Last week, even as cars were boarding transports to Monterey, a 1980 BMW M1 sold for $566k on Bring a Trailer. That’s the biggest M1 sale we’ve seen at auction since 2016 (excluding racing-spec Procars) and another reminder, if we needed one, of Bring a Trailer’s growing clout.
And they’re hardly alone. RM Sotheby’s concluded its latest “online only” auction on August 4, earning $1.7M in what used to be a dead week before the big show in Monterey. Just as the so called “hybrid work schedule” has for some become a euphemism for “always working,” the new normal for auctions is one in which classic cars are constantly being bought and sold. In fact, we think this will be the biggest year ever for classic car auctions, largely because of the massive contributions from the online platforms.
None of that dampens our joy at being back in Monterey, seeing nearly priceless cars in the metal and catching up with friends and colleagues. Nor does it mean that what happens at the auctions no longer matters. This is still a pivotal week for the market as a whole and a few high- end cars in particular.
But the collector car market has proven it’s bigger than any one week. As we look beyond the summer into an uncertain fall and winter, that’s probably a good thing.
David Zenlea, managing editor, Hagerty Insider
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For the longest time, beauty consumers have come to know that a brush-like felt eyeliner tip offers one of the best ways to precisely apply the liquid cosmetic to the eyelids—however, MAC Cosmetics believes that there is a better way. MAC is launching an entirely retooled eyeliner wand with what consumers are calling a "pizza cutter" shape. True to this description, the wand features a wheel that rolls in a straight line to help glide the product on in an even, fluid motion.
While the details of this new MAC Cosmetic product are yet to be finalized, it has been confirmed that the liner will be offered in at least three different shades.
Considering that many women struggle to put on eyeliner—an unforgiving, darkly pigmented product—evenly, this tool could revolutionize the way this type of makeup, and others, are applied.


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The Christmas and New Year’s break is over, yet there is still time to return unwanted presents. Return to Santa was the title of an article in the Economist that highlighted the impact on online retailers, as return rates can be alarmingly high.
The article quotes a study by Christian Schulze of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, which analysed the return habits of customers who bought at least five items over a five year period from a large European online retailer.
The 100m mean’s sprint finals of the 2012 London Olympics are over and Usain Bolt won the gold medal again with a winning time of 9.63s. Time to compare the result with my forecast of 9.68s, posted on 22 July.
My simple log-linear model predicted a winning time of 9.68s with a prediction interval from 9.39s to 9.97s. Well, that is of course a big interval of more than half a second, or ±3%.
It is less than a week before the 2012 Olympic games will start in London. No surprise therefore that the papers are all over it, including a lot of data and statistics around the games.
The Economist investigated the potential financial impact on sponsors (some benefits), tax payers (no benefits) and the athletes (if they are lucky) in its recent issue
The Guardian has awhole series around the Olympics, including the data of all Summer Olympic Medallists since 1896.
Waterfall charts are sometimes quite helpful to illustrate the various moving parts in financial data, particularly when I have positive and negative values like a profit and loss statement (P&L). However, they can be a bit of a pain to produce in Excel. Not so in R, thanks to the waterfall package by James Howard. In combination with the latticeExtra package it is nearly a one-liner to produce a good looking waterfall chart that mimics the look of The Economist:


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In Cubes Indesign C68, we spoke to Catalan designer Xavier Mañosa about his designs for Spanish lighting manufacturer Marset. Here, Luo Jingmei finds out more about the company and its expansion plans from Marset’s area sales manager Mariano Acón, who recently visited the Foundry showroom.
June 23rd, 2014
Tell us about the origins of Marset.
Marset started as a foundry in 1942. They were working with iron and metal to make doors and windows, and so on. [They also made] lamps in the traditional way. In the last 15 years, they saw that design was starting to be very important in Spain so they decided to focus on [modern] lighting design. We like to say we are an old company because we have a background of 50 years, but at the same time we are a young company in terms of design. Marset is a completely family run company. It was created by Francisco Marset, and now the grandchildren – the two Marset brothers Javier and Carlos – are in charge of the company.
What are the key Marset products?
One of the key products is Atlas, a polycarbonate lamp. It’s a combination of the technical and the creative. It’s almost ten years old but is still in production and we still sell a lot of it. In the last few years, our Discocó pendant lamp by Christophe Mathieu has become an iconic product of Marset. Luckily for us, Marset’s lights have become more known worldwide and now we have other products that are [recognisably from] Marset [such as Apparatu’s Pleat Box lamp].
What is your job scope in Marset?
Well, I’m in charge of sales in France, Belgium, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Where is Marset’s best market?
Marset’s best market used to be Spain until five years ago during the recession. Marset then made the decision to focus the sales on export. Our turnover last year was the best ever and now 70 per cent of our sales is from around the world, with [the rest coming] from Spain. Our best markets are countries like Denmark, Germany, France, and three years ago, we [started] working with a subsidiary in the USA, which has been really positive.
How about the Asian market?
I think it’s a market we want to push right now and one [which] we also need to improve in. In the past years we’ve started to consolidate the sales in the markets closer to us. At the moment we have the sales very well consolidated in Europe, and in the USA, so we are thinking that Marset has to go a step forward into the Middle East, Asia… that’s why [in recent years] I’ve been trying to come a couple of times to Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan…
Do you have a certain brand strategy in which you want to market the brand’s products in Asia?
Yes. We think we need to focus on some key markets at the moment that are more important, where we already have a presence: Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. After concentrating on these five markets we can then spread to other parts of Asia, like China, where we are [now] working with a Spanish company that is very famous in China to promote the Marset [brand] there.
There are a lot of modern lighting companies worldwide. How does Marset differentiate itself?
We like to think we are a very Mediterranean company. One thing about Marset is we think we are a medium-sized company trying to grow bigger so we like to say we are innovative. [Being] innovative means you have to rely on young people, like in this case, Xavier Mañosa has done a fantastic thing with the new lamps (Pleat Box and Scotch Club). We also have [other] new designers that are not at the moment known as the big names of design, but we trust them to give Marset freshness.
Going back to Spain, the crisis has been going for quite a while. What do you feel personally about the crisis’ affect on the design market and do you see it improving?
It has affected many companies like Marset in the furniture business that used to work a lot in the domestic markets; five years ago we had problems with employment, and projects and construction of hotels and shops stopped. Luckily for us Marset has a very good financial [status] so we can go to other countries. But also, a company like Marset is very well known in Barcelona so in situations like this where there are [fewer] new projects, interior designers and architects try to work with companies they rely on [like us]. Last year we started to [get more] projects and we are very optimistic about the situation for this year.
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
The Sub-Zero Wolf showrooms in Sydney and Melbourne provide a creative experience unlike any other. Now showcasing all-new product ranges, the showrooms present a unique perspective on the future of kitchens, homes and lifestyles.
Create a configuration to suit your needs with this curved collection.
Sub-Zero and Wolf’s prestigious Kitchen Design Contest (KDC) has celebrated the very best in kitchen innovation and aesthetics for three decades now. Recognising premier kitchen design professionals from around the globe, the KDC facilitates innovation, style and functionality that pushes boundaries.
Marylou Cafaro’s first trendjournal sparked a powerful, decades-long movement in joinery designs and finishes which eventually saw Australian design develop its independence and characteristic style. Now, polytec offers all-new insights into the future of Australian design.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
A third in the series of boutique hotels under the Lloyd’s Inn brand, Lloyd’s Inn Kuala Lumpur bring the immediacy of nature to the new high-rise hospitality experience in the heart of a bustling city. “Lloyd’s Inn Kuala Lumpur is unique from the other properties in that it is a high-rise development, with more than […]
Landing in the city’s financial district for the first time, The Sebel Sydney Martin Place has had its modern interiors completed by Stack Studio.
Leading the field in terms of ergonomics, this high-end office furniture from Buro is also designed with the evolving needs of the modern workplace in mind.


text: The latest buzz in the tech world revolves around the speculation of hidden reverse wireless charging capabilities in the highly anticipated iPhone 12. News broke when an FCC filing hinted at this exciting feature that could potentially revolutionize how we charge our devices. Reverse wireless charging would allow iPhone 12 users to not only wirelessly charge their smartphones but also use their device as a charging pad for other compatible devices. This means you could effortlessly top up the battery life of your AirPods, Apple Watch, or even a friend's smartphone simply by placing it on the back of your iPhone 12. The incorporation of this technology would be a game-changer, giving users enhanced convenience and versatility when it comes to powering up their devices. Let's dive deeper into this intriguing possibility and everything it could offer.Inside This ArticleOverview of iPhone 12FCC Filing DetailsEvidence of Reverse Wireless Charging in iPhone 12Potential Applications of Reverse Wireless Charging in iPhone 12ConclusionFAQsOverview of iPhone 12 The iPhone 12, the newest addition to Apple's renowned line of smartphones, is making waves in the tech industry with its impressive features and upgraded capabilities. Released in October 2020, the iPhone 12 comes in four different models: the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. One of the standout features of the iPhone 12 series is its stunning design. The devices boast a sleek, flat-edge design reminiscent of the beloved iPhone 4, giving them a modern yet nostalgic appeal. With a Ceramic Shield front cover, the iPhone 12 offers improved durability and is four times more resistant to drops. Additionally, all models are equipped with an IP68 rating, making them water and dust resistant. When it comes to performance, the iPhone 12 sets the bar high. Powered by Apple's A14 Bionic chip, these devices deliver exceptional speed and efficiency. Whether you're multitasking, gaming, or using demanding applications, the iPhone 12 handles it all with ease. The A14 Bionic also enhances the device's camera capabilities, enabling advanced computational photography features and stunning image quality. Another notable upgrade is the introduction of 5G technology in the iPhone 12 series. This next-generation wireless technology offers faster download and upload speeds, lower latency, and improved network reliability. With 5G support, users can enjoy seamless streaming, online gaming, and real-time interactions like never before. The display on the iPhone 12 is a visual delight. The Super Retina XDR display with HDR10+ support ensures vibrant colors, deep blacks, and high contrast. Whether you're watching movies, browsing photos, or playing games, the iPhone 12 offers an immersive viewing experience. Apple continues to prioritize security and privacy with the iPhone 12. The devices feature Face ID, Apple's advanced facial recognition system, which ensures secure access to your device and enables convenient authentication for payments and app usage. With iOS updates and regular security patches, the iPhone 12 offers reliable protection against vulnerabilities. In terms of storage options, the iPhone 12 offers a range of choices to suit individual needs. From 64GB to 512GB, users can select the storage capacity that best accommodates their files, apps, and media content. This ample storage space ensures that users can capture memories, download apps, and store files without worrying about running out of space. Overall, the iPhone 12 sets a new standard for smartphones with its powerful performance, cutting-edge design, and advanced features. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a creative professional, or an everyday user, the iPhone 12 has something to offer for everyone.FCC Filing Details The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for overseeing the communication services and devices in the United States. It regulates and approves the sale and usage of various electronic devices, including smartphones like the iPhone 12. In October 2020, a filing made by Apple to the FCC caught the attention of tech enthusiasts and industry experts. The filing contained important details about the iPhone 12, including features that had not been officially announced by Apple at that time. The FCC filing revealed specific information about the iPhone 12's wireless charging capabilities. It mentioned a "charging function at normal peak power of 360 kHz" which indicated the presence of reverse wireless charging technology. This filing created excitement among tech enthusiasts who speculated that the iPhone 12 might support reverse wireless charging, allowing users to charge other devices wirelessly by placing them on the back of the iPhone. The FCC filing also provided information about the iPhone 12's wireless connectivity, network compatibility, and other regulatory certifications. It showcased Apple's commitment to adhering to the standards set by various regulatory bodies. While the FCC filing confirmed the existence of wireless charging features in the iPhone 12, the exact details and functionality of reverse wireless charging were not revealed. Apple, known for its secrecy, did not provide any further information about this feature leading to even more anticipation among iPhone enthusiasts. The FCC filing was a significant milestone in the iPhone 12's release timeline, as it provided a glimpse into the device's capabilities and hinted at the possibility of reverse wireless charging. This revelation fueled further excitement and speculation about Apple's flagship smartphone.Evidence of Reverse Wireless Charging in iPhone 12 With the release of the iPhone 12, Apple enthusiasts have been eager to uncover the latest features and capabilities of this highly anticipated device. One intriguing aspect that has emerged is the possibility of reverse wireless charging, a feature that allows the iPhone 12 to act as a wireless charging pad for other devices. While Apple has not officially confirmed this capability, there is mounting evidence to suggest that reverse wireless charging may indeed be present in the iPhone 12. Firstly, several leaked images and videos of the iPhone 12 demonstrate a new placement of the wireless charging coil. These images show a larger and more powerful coil compared to previous iPhone models. This enhanced coil suggests that Apple may have improved the charging capabilities of the device, potentially enabling it to transmit power to other compatible devices. Furthermore, recent FCC filings for the iPhone 12 shed further light on this feature. These filings mention a "bilateral charging capability," which is industry jargon for reverse wireless charging. This indicates that the iPhone 12 is equipped with the necessary hardware to perform this function. While the filings do not explicitly mention reverse wireless charging, the use of this term strongly suggests its presence in the device. Another piece of evidence is the inclusion of MagSafe technology in the iPhone 12. MagSafe is a magnetic alignment system that allows for easy attachment of compatible accessories, such as chargers and cases. It is highly likely that the presence of MagSafe in the iPhone 12 is not just for accessories but also for facilitating reverse wireless charging. The strong magnetic connection provided by MagSafe ensures efficient power transfer between devices, making reverse wireless charging a plausible feature. Lastly, reports from industry insiders and reliable analysts have indicated the presence of reverse wireless charging in the iPhone 12. These sources have a track record of accurate predictions regarding Apple products, lending further credibility to the notion that reverse wireless charging is indeed a feature of the iPhone 12. While Apple has yet to officially confirm the presence of reverse wireless charging, the mounting evidence suggests that this feature is highly likely to be included in the iPhone 12. If true, it would offer users the convenience of charging compatible devices, such as AirPods or Apple Watch, by simply placing them on the back of the iPhone 12. This would eliminate the need for multiple chargers and provide a seamless charging experience. As we await the official announcement from Apple, the evidence thus far points to an exciting addition to the iPhone 12 lineup. Reverse wireless charging would bring a new level of versatility and convenience to the device, further solidifying Apple's position as an innovator in the mobile phone industry.Potential Applications of Reverse Wireless Charging in iPhone 12 Reverse wireless charging is a revolutionary feature that has the potential to transform how we use our smartphones. With the iPhone 12 rumored to have this capability, the possibilities for its applications are both exciting and impactful. Let's explore some of the potential applications of reverse wireless charging in the iPhone 12. 1. Charging other devices: One of the most obvious applications of reverse wireless charging is the ability to charge other devices wirelessly using your iPhone 12 as a power source. Imagine being able to charge your AirPods, Apple Watch, or even another iPhone simply by placing them on the back of your iPhone 12. This convenience eliminates the need for multiple charging cables and adapters, making it incredibly convenient for users on the go. 2. Emergency power: Reverse wireless charging can also be a lifesaver in emergency situations. If your friend's phone is running out of battery or a family member is in need of extra power for their device, you can simply offer them a boost by enabling reverse wireless charging on your iPhone 12. This comes in handy when access to a power outlet is limited or not available, ensuring that you can always lend a helping hand when needed. 3. Wireless charging accessories: With reverse wireless charging, the iPhone 12 could potentially open up a new market for wireless charging accessories. Manufacturers of smartwatches, headphones, fitness trackers, and other wearable devices could develop charging cases or docks that utilize the reverse wireless charging feature, allowing users to conveniently charge their accessories on the go. 4. Boosting battery life of other iPhones: Reverse wireless charging can also be beneficial for iPhone users who own older models with smaller batteries. With the iPhone 12's reverse wireless charging, you can share some of your device's battery life with another iPhone, giving it a much-needed boost and ensuring that both devices can last longer throughout the day. 5. Fueling IoT devices: The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly growing, with various devices interconnected for seamless communication. With reverse wireless charging, the iPhone 12 could act as a hub to charge IoT devices such as smart speakers, smart bulbs, or even drones. This would streamline the charging process and reduce the need for multiple chargers, simplifying the user experience. 6. Enhancing gaming experiences: Gamers would especially benefit from reverse wireless charging in the iPhone 12. With the ability to charge wireless gaming accessories such as controllers or virtual reality headsets, gamers can enjoy longer gameplay sessions without worrying about battery life. This feature could revolutionize mobile gaming and enhance the overall gaming experience on the iPhone 12. 7. Promoting sustainable charging: Reverse wireless charging aligns with the growing focus on sustainability. By enabling users to share their device's battery life with others or charge devices wirelessly, it reduces the overall need for traditional charging methods, which consume electricity and generate electronic waste. With the iPhone 12's reverse wireless charging, Apple is taking a step towards a more sustainable future. The potential applications of reverse wireless charging in the iPhone 12 are diverse and promising. Not only does it provide convenience and assist in emergency situations, but it also opens up new possibilities for charging accessories and fuels the growth of the IoT ecosystem. As we eagerly await the official release of the iPhone 12, the inclusion of reverse wireless charging holds immense potential for reshaping the way we use and interact with our smartphones.Conclusion In conclusion, the FCC filing for the iPhone 12 has given us a glimpse into the potential inclusion of hidden reverse wireless charging technology. This exciting feature, if indeed present in the new iPhone, can revolutionize the way we charge our devices. Imagine being able to share power with your friends or wirelessly charge your accessories on the go. While Apple has yet to confirm the existence of reverse wireless charging in the iPhone 12, the FCC filing has sparked curiosity and anticipation among tech enthusiasts. As we eagerly await the official announcement, it's clear that Apple continues to push the boundaries of innovation in the world of smartphones. Whether or not reverse wireless charging makes its debut in the iPhone 12, one thing is certain: Apple is committed to delivering cutting-edge technology and enhancing the user experience. The iPhone 12 is poised to be another groundbreaking device that will shape the future of mobile communication.FAQs Q: Will the iPhone 12 have reverse wireless charging? A: According to a recent FCC filing, there are indications that the iPhone 12 may feature hidden reverse wireless charging capabilities. However, it is important to note that Apple has not made any official announcements regarding this feature. Q: What is reverse wireless charging? A: Reverse wireless charging allows a smartphone to act as a wireless charging pad, enabling it to wirelessly charge other compatible devices by simply placing them on the back of the phone. It essentially turns your phone into a portable charging station. Q: Which devices can be charged using reverse wireless charging? A: Reverse wireless charging is typically compatible with devices that support wireless charging. This includes smartphones, smartwatches, and even certain wireless earbuds and accessories that have built-in wireless charging capabilities. However, it is important to check the specific device's compatibility before attempting to charge it using reverse wireless charging. Q: How does reverse wireless charging work? A: Reverse wireless charging works by utilizing the wireless charging coil present in the back of the phone. The phone emits a wireless charging signal, which is received by the compatible device placed on its back. This signal is then converted to electricity, which charges the device's battery. Q: Is reverse wireless charging efficient? A: Reverse wireless charging is generally less efficient compared to traditional wired charging or even regular wireless charging. The energy transfer can be slower, and a portion of the energy is lost in the process. However, it provides a convenient way to charge compatible devices when a charging cable is not readily available.


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E-commerce players may also be forced to give up the word "exclusive" when they launch products such as smartphones on their platforms, as the rules mandate that an online retailer can not push vendors to "sell any product exclusively on its platform only".
As a result, the entire range of AmazonBasics products - which includes everything from batteries to laptop cases to camera tripods - are now unavailable across the country.
Some products began to disappear from Amazon India, including Echo speakers, Presto home cleaning goods, and other AmazonBasics products. Previously, some of these products were available for delivery within a day or two.
"There is much uncertainty as to what the impact of the government rule changes is going to have on the e-commerce sector but we are still evaluating it".
Industry sources have said the new rules will dent foreign investor sentiment and force the big online retailers to change their business structures, raising compliance costs.
Such arrangements will be barred under the new policy.
Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. suffered a blow in India, the next frontier of e-commerce, when the government rejected requests to defer a deadline requiring online retailers to comply with tighter new rules starting on Friday.
"We believe that policy should be created in a consultative, market-driven manner and we will continue to work with the government to promote fair, pro-growth policies", Rajneesh Kumar, senior vice president & chief of corporate affairs, said in a statement.
After weeks of lobbying with the erstwhile Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), NITI Aayog, finance ministry officials and Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Amazon India and Flipkart lost the battle to traders and wholesalers who were vehemently against deadline extention. Various trader bodies had also alleged that these entities were giving preferential treatment to certain sellers.
Another rule blocks entities in which an e-commerce firm, or any of its group companies, owns a stake from selling its products on that firm's marketplace. They had also written to the government stating that they need more time to understand the details of the framework.
But the group wants the government to go further by forming a new regulatory authority and a "special investigation team" to look into the business models of major e-commerce players. According to a CRISIL report, almost 35-40 per cent of e-retail industry sales amounting to Rs 40,000 crore could be impacted due to the tightened policy.
In late December, India modified rules around foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce.
According to a quick estimate, more than 400,000 items that account for almost a 3rd of Amazon's $6 billion in annual sales in India will probably disappear at least temporarily from the company's service in India. Amazon had committed an investment of over United States dollars 5 billion, while Walmart made its biggest bet pumping in USD 16 billion for 77 per cent stake in Flipkart.


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This ESHA Nutrition Ruby library developed by Jens Balvig aims to work easily with the ESHA nutrition API. Offers code for installation and usage. ESHA nutrition is a food labeling software that affords to search foods with nutrients and calorie count. ESHA products include R&D, food processor, database licensing, and web services.
One of the bigger challenges with anything having to do with software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications is how quickly they can sprawl out of control. Before most organizations realize it they wind up with multiple silos of SaaS applications that are even more difficult to integrate than traditional enterprise applications.
After launching its public beta a year ago, SimpleGeo is making public its storage product the company is based upon. Though the company has offered a few other geo APIs in the interim, the SimpleGeo Storage API geo database solution is the only product for which it charges and it appears to have lowered the price.
Splice Machine prides itself on being the only transactional SQL-on-Hadoop database aimed at giving developers an easy-to-learn tool for managing big data in the enterprise. ProgrammableWeb spoke with Splice Machine's CEO Monte Zweben at the recent API World and Data Week conference in San Francisco - where they won a Top Innovator award - to discuss how API developers can access the best-of-both-worlds SQL and NoSQL database engine to return contextual and personalization data in realtime.


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Cambodian beer could be sipped across the world under Carlsberg’s expansion
CARLSBERG plans to export Angkor beer to new markets outside of Asia within the next two years, as the firm claimed strong Indochina sales as the main driver of 49 percent growth in its first quarter Asia profits.
The company’s Indochina Manager Henrik Andersen said Wednesday that the Denmark-based brewery already sells “a very small amount” of Angkor abroad, and that the brand is beginning to see potential for export to new markets, within a one- to two-year time frame.
“I think our export opportunities are in Asia and also outside – in the UK, France, US, even Japan – where Asian brands are becoming specialty beers with lots of exotic features,” he said.
Carlsberg – which owns 50 percent of Sihanoukville-based Cambrew Limited – brews Angkor beer along with Chang, Bayon, and premium beverages such as Angkor Stout and Angkor Export.
The brewery’s first quarter profits jumped by US$13.1 million, to an overall $39 million in Asia, this year. The results were “driven by a very strong organic growth of around 30 percent” in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, CEO Jorgen Rasmussen said at a conference releasing the results late Tuesday.
Andersen declined to release the firm’s market share and revenue in Cambodia, citing concerns about competition, but said he was optimistic about the future of the brewery in the Kingdom.
“The Cambodian beer market is still a smaller market in Asian terms, but there’s good growth potential because of lower per capita consumption than neighbouring countries,” he said.
Estimating the overall beer market in Cambodia would grow by 6 percent to 10 percent in 2010, he said statistics for the market were difficult to compile because of a large amount of unreported beer brought across the border.
Beer preferences are growing in line with the country’s developing economy, he said.
“Every market in the world as it develops becomes more sophisticated [with its brand preference]. We expect it, and it opens up opportunities.”
Of its Angkor brand, he added, “one of the strong features is that we own a very strong brand in Cambodia, that’s an asset we treasure”.
Amsterdam-based Heineken brewery also claimed strong revenues in Indochina in its first quarter results released last month.
The results claimed organic growth in Asia and the Pacific totalled 1.7 percent in the first quarter over the same period 2009, after adjustment for asset sales. Internationally the brewery saw 5.3 percent decline in its organic growth for the first three months, year on year.
Its subsidiary Cambodia Brewery Limited produces Tiger, Anchor, ABC Stout and Gold Crown for the domestic market, according to its website.
The Kingdom’s beer market is set to become increasingly crowded as Cambodia’s Chip Mong Group signed a deal in December with Germany’s Ziemann Group to establish a $60 million brewery in Cambodia.
Another Cambodian company, Kingdom Breweries Limited, announced plans to begin brewing what it terms “a boutique beer” later this year, brewery chief executive officer Peter Brongers said previously.
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Jaguar Land Rover India has further enhanced its online purchase and service presence, creating a safe and convenient experience for its customers, from the comfort of their home. A pioneering effort, Jaguar Land Rover, through its Retailers was one of the first to introduce online purchase with “findmeacar.in” for Jaguar and “findmeasuv.in” for Land Rover.
BMW Group plans over 30 billion Euros on future-oriented technologies up to 2025
Skoda Auto India has finally commenced the bookings for its much awaited Karoq against refundable amount of INR 50,000/- across all authorized dealerships and on Skoda Auto Website.
Volvo Car India executed an awareness activity about the harmful effects of air pollution and encouraged innovative solutions for environment sustainability. This was an integrated program that included Social Media, Digital campaign, dealer activations and CSR activities across schools in Delhi NCR to sensitise children about air quality.
The BMW M GmbH has concluded the 2019 financial year with a new sales record. 135,829 performance/high-performance automobiles were sold. Compared with the previous year, the number of newly registered BMW M automobiles increased by 32.2 percent.
Volvo Cars and leading telecom provider China Unicom are joining forces on using 5G next generation mobile network technology for communication between cars and infrastructure in China.
Following the Launch of the all new Bentley Flying Spur, Bentley on 31st October, 2019 launched a new Augmented Reality app to showcase the all-new Flying Spur which has been dubbed the world’s finest grand touring sedan.
Porsche together with the 88 German Porsche Centres has opened its digital sales channel for new and pre-owned cars immediately available.
After more than 30 years away from single-seater racing Porsche is back, following the first laps of the new 99X Electric car at the official test drives of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship for the 2019/2020 season in Valencia, Spain. Last week, Neel Jani and André Lotterer, the two regular drivers for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, joined rival manufacturers at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia for three days of track testing ahead of the contest’s launch next month.
WILL IT BE THE SMALL MID-SIZER OR THE BIG SMALL CAR? AND IS THAT A GHOST IN YOUR ENGINE OR AN ACTUAL PROBLEM? AAA (ASK ANYTHING ON OUR FORUM), THE GURU-CUM-AGONY MASTER, HAS ALL THE ANSWERS


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In pictures: Fires in Brazilian Amazon on the rise
Deforestation in the Amazon has hit its highest level in a decade and experts now fear that it could be even higher this year, according to Euronews.
According to the National Institute for Space Research, between August 2019 to July 2020, almost 9,205 square kilometres were deforested. This is an increase of 34%.
One year ago so-called 'Day of Fire" that sparked raging wildfires in the Brazilian Amazons drew the world's attention to the problem.
Under the pressure from the international ecological activists Bolsonaro tried to implement the measures to stop the fires. For instance, in July the Brazilian government introduced a 120-day ban on fires in the Amazon region.
The measures have not proven to be effective so far, while Brazil's leader calls the data regarding the rising number of Amazon fires inaccurate.
An elderly farmer who set fire to an area of the rainforest around his property walks away as the fire approaches his house in an area of Amazon rainforest, in Para state (Carl de Souza/AFP)


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The European CO2 shortage is likely to ease this week with at least one plant supplying the gas restarting production today.
But a UK meat industry association has warned it will take time for that to filter through the supply chain and it still expecting plants to be experiencing problems over the next two to three weeks until normal supplies are fully restored.
The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said: “The CO2 shortage continues to cause considerable disruption throughout the meat supply chain. The BMPA welcomes the news that at least one plant has restarted production today.”
The crisis has been caused by a number of ammonia production plants closing for maintenance work at the same time – CO2 is a by-product of the ammonia production process.
The shortage has caused problems in the food industry. It is used in the process of stunning animals in slaughterhouses, in packaging to extend the shelf life of products and in freezer and chiller cabinets in retail outlets and delivery vehicles.
Three out of five key UK CO2 producers were shut down, hitting the UK particularly hard, although one of them – a plant in Billingham, County Durham – reopened today (2 July).
On Friday (29 June) UK baker Warburtons revealed it had been forced to halt production of its crumpets at two of its four plants due to the CO2 shortage.
Three days earlier, Danish Crown UK subsidiary Tulip suspended production at an abattoir in Scotland it runs in conjunction with Scottish Pig Producers as the gas shortage started to bite.
The BMPA said other meat plants could “be in difficulty” by the end of this week unless supplies come back.
In its statement, the association said: “Plants are having to improvise, which they can do by changing packaging methods, and this is being done in close consultation with their customers to try and ensure that the consumers are able to find meat in the shops and enjoy it in restaurants and other outlets.
“Some ranges are having to be compromised on to ensure that the shelves are kept full. Logistically it is proving very challenging for the meat supply chain and everyone is working hard to overcome the problems. Demand is particularly very high at this time for barbecue meat due to the hot weather and, of course, the football World Cup.”
Nick Allen, the BMPA’s chief executive, said: ”We are hoping that the increase in CO2 production will happen quickly, we have a number of plants that will be in difficulty by the end of the week if supplies do not materialise and it will be very difficult to keep everyone stocked with meat.”


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Survey compares car dealers to independents
Prices that are too high and the inability to perform repairs properly are the main reasons that car owners become dissatisfied with auto repair shops, according to the latest "Consumer Reports" subscriber survey. But how do independent repair shops compare to car dealerships?
Every year, the "Consumer Reports (CR) Annual Auto Survey" asks car owners how satisfied they were with auto repairs performed by dealerships and independent shops in the previous 12 months. This year, the findings on repair service are based on more than 67,000 reports on service visits to independent mechanics and 101,000 service visits to new car dealerships by "CR" subscribers.
As in past years, most car owners prefer taking their vehicles to independent shops rather than dealerships for repair work. But for the first time, "Consumer Reports" also re-contacted 5,400 of the respondents and asked about their specific repair gripes. Of that group, about three-quarters were either completely or very satisfied with their repair shop.
1. Of the 27% who weren’t, 38% cited high prices as a reason. This is a more common complaint for dealerships (42%) than for independent shops (32%).
Respondents for the next three gripes (2, 3 and 4) rated car dealers and independent shops about the same.
2. The second most-common complaint among the re-contacted respondents is even more troubling: More than a quarter of the unsatisfied group said their car’s problem wasn’t fixed properly.
3. Twenty-one percent of the re-contacted subscribers said it took longer than expected to complete the work.
4. Eighteen percent said they had to bring the car back because the repair did not “hold up.”
5. There was a slight difference between the two types of repair shops among owners who felt the staff had treated them poorly, with 8% citing dealerships and 4% citing independents.
For more information regarding Consumer Reports’ survey on car repair shops visit www.ConsumerReports.org
Sometimes, this dissatisfaction prompted owners to switch shops. Of the re-contacted subscribers, almost a quarter revealed that in the last five years, they’d had a vehicle repaired at a shop they no longer use because of problems with their service experience.
Almost half of that group cited the negative experience was at a dealership, and a third said it was at an independent shop. A fifth cited a franchise chain similar to Midas or Sears for their dissatisfaction.
One other red flag for repair shops: A sizeable 30% of female respondents who stopped using a shop said they felt the staff tried to take advantage of them because of their gender.
ConsumerReports.org/carrepair offers car repair information service that can help drivers understand common problems, learn how components work, and receive a service estimate that reflects local prices. This special section includes a Car Repair Estimator and a Car Repair Encyclopedia, which can answer many common questions.


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Starting early this year, though, things changed. Loaded outbound containers outnumbered empties in February, March, and April, the first such three-month run, Wong says, since the spring of 2000. The totals so far in 2008 are 1,033,655 loaded inbound, 595,232 loaded outbound, and 476,853 empties.
This counts as good news. So far this year, so many empty containers have left Long Beach that, laid end to end, they would stretch all the way past New York and end up in Nova Scotia somewhere. (And the number of empty containers which have left Los Angeles is even greater.) But, they no longer outnumer the loaded containers which have left those ports.
The US will never again have a trade surplus in goods, and given the way its economy is headed, that’s well and good. But it’s nice to export something substantive, and clearly that’s beginning to happen.


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For retailers who are primarily concerned with minimizing chargebacks, the total cost of e-commerce fraud is worse than they realize.
A targeted phishing campaign aimed at Canadian businesses prompts users with high levels of access to divulge login credentials and authentication codes.
Open banking is changing the way people manage their money, transforming the relationship between customers and financial institutions.
While consumers can't change their personal information, they can take preventative measures to protect their data from new account fraud.
When Red spots suspicious activity on Grandma's account, she needs a dynamic fraud protection tool to determine whether it's really her or a Big Bad Wolf.
Social engineering schemes such as spear phishing rely on the human mind's inclination toward self-deception to motivate users to open malicious links.
To protect their users from spam and phishing attacks, security professionals should adopt a basic, layered approach to email security.
As banking and retail institutions adopt stronger security measures, cybercrime trends are shifting to maximize fraudsters' ROI.
Banks and financial institutions require a dynamic strategy to identify emerging cybercrime trends and stop fraudsters in their tracks.
With new cognitive enhancements, IBM Trusteer Rapport can help financial institutions protect their customers from phishing attacks.


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Thomas Cook head knocks Government's 'stay at home' campaign
Thomas Cook chief Ian Ailles has knocked the Government's focus on promoting domestic tourism, stating that it is "fundamentally wrong" to market holidays within the UK and not to equally support outbound holidays.
Speaking at the ABTA Travel Matters conference today (10 May), Ailles, chief executive, mainstream, Thomas Cook UK and Ireland, claimed that recent research conducted by the tour operator found that taking "UK holidays are no cheaper than going abroad".
Referring to VisitEngland's recent 'Holidays at home are great' campaign, of which Thomas Cook was a partner, Ailles said the operator, "supported the campaign because it made sense for us commercially", but that the Government should be supporting tourism "across the spectrum".
He added: "The Thomas Cook 'Wonderful World' campaign should have run alongside the VisitEngland campaign."
Ailles called on the Government to recognise the economic benefits that overseas holidays bring to the UK economy, saying that Thomas Cook employed more than 19,000 people in the UK. He claimed that 60% of holiday makers would spend £200 at home before embarking on an overseas trip, according to recent ABTA research.
Criticising the Government's rises in Air Passenger Duty (APD), Ailles accused chancellor George Osborne of having employed a "stealth tax", stating that the Treasury will have collected £3.9bn from APD by 2016.
He said: "The Government needs to assess the damage APD does to the UK economy."
Follow Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith on Twitter @LoullaMae_ES
This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk
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- Tesco Clubcard uses Twitter to pick out Christmas gift ideas
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- O2 launches 'walk' campaign with Ed Sheeran
- BBH London promotes Caroline Pay to deputy ECD
- ASA bans 'strongly sexual' Giffgaff ad
- Hammerson uses automated mechanical model to showcase Christmas gifts


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The Ford F-150 Lightning order books have reopened after production was suspended for several weeks due to an issue with the electric pickup’s battery pack.
On Feb. 4, A truck caught fire in a holding lot outside the Dearborn, Michigan, factory that builds them, and the plan was idled as the issue was addressed.
It was traced back to a manufacturing defect in its battery pack which has since been resolved, but resulted in the recall of 18 vehicles that had made it into customer hands.
Prices for the truck have also been increased, with the base Pro model now listed at $61,869, including shipping.
FORD LAUNCHING ‘MILLENIUM FALCON’ OF PICKUP TRUCKS
The Ford F-150 Lightning Pro is a work-oriented model. (Ford)
That is up from $57,869 in December, and $41,699 when it first went on sale early last year.
The F-150 Lighting is offered in four trims. (Ford)
Ford told Automotive News that the adjustments are due to “current material costs, market factors and supply chain constraints.”
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The automaker also said that the Pro is currently sold out for retail orders and only available to fleets.
Ford has delivered 3,600 F-150 Lightnings so far this year. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The starting price for the XLT trim remains at $65,369, while the higher-tier Lariat’s price has increased from $76,369 to $77,869, and the top of the line Platinum’s from $98,769 to $99,969.
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Ford delivered 3,600 F-150 Lightnings in January and February as it continues to ramp up the production rate to a target of 3,000 per week by the end of 2023.


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Do you want fries with that?
That defender of free enterprise, that bastion of corporate capitalism, the esteemed Wall Street Journal, just published an article detailing a longtime challenge facing McDonald’s: getting its workforce to provide service with a smile.
You read it first at the WSJ: breaking news none of the customers had ever suspected. No one who patronizes the restaurant chain could have known the dark truth that the employees might be “rude or unprofessional.”
The riveting exposé blows the lid off what’s happening behind the counter at McDonald’s: “service is broken.”
In a comprehensive industry comparison of customer service at fast-food chains, McDonald’s consistently tanked.
And of course it has nothing to do with keeping workers part-time, paying minimum wage and offering no benefits. People love jobs like that – especially when it means their skin is permanently saturated with the aroma of eau de fries and they get to wear greasy uniforms.
And of course management understands the problem is completely unrelated to lousy pay.
Nope, highly-paid upper management knows everyone is born with the passionate career goal of “Order Taker” under the bright yellow arches at the home of the revered “Big Mac.”
“The fast-food giant, whose restaurant sales in the U.S. began to slip last year, is pushing franchisees to improve staffing and service amid mounting complaints about rude employees.” Corporate HQ was shocked – shocked! – to learn that “customers find service ‘chaotic.’ “
“But achieving speed and friendliness of service across the chain has been a particularly elusive goal, at least in part because about 90% of McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. are owned by independent operators.”
That’s right, folks, in a stunning tour de force of insightful analysis, the blame lies not with the company, but with the franchisees!
If only the corporation owned all the restaurants! Then lousy service would never be a problem!
McDonald’s declined to make executives available for interviews, and won’t publicly say what it will do to “address complaints,” other than giving top management more big increases in their compensation packages.
When learning that the reason behind the rise in customer complaints could be because customers now have ways to complain, including the email address on food packaging, the CEO immediately demanded who was the meathead who came up with that bright idea.
According to a memo sent to franchisees, the company is doing several things to improve service, such as providing electric shocks for employees who fail to smile and releasing flying monkeys to attack workers who forget to include ketchup packets in orders.
Under a new “dual point” ordering system that is being rolled out nationwide, the customer places an order at one end of the counter. When the order is ready, a “runner” will dash across a bed of hot coals to deliver it, thanking customers and begging them to come again because otherwise workers get an extra beating at the end of their shift.
“Dual point provides personalized one-on-one service. To the customer, we appear friendlier and better organized.”


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Kim Kardashian is in Yerevan to participate in the WCIT-2019.
Reporters were waiting for her at the airport yesterday all day along, but they left through another presidential exit and went to the hotel, where Kim also checked in not through the main entrance.
Almost 3 am in Armenia and I can’t sleep I’m so excited to be here and see everyone!— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) 6 октября 2019 г.
“Almost 3 am in Armenia and I can’t sleep, I’m so excited to be here and see everyone!” Kim tweeted.
Earlier, Kardashian announced her arrival in Armenia.
“I will be visiting Armenia in the next 2 weeks and hope to seek ways I can help increase trade and hopefully create jobs for Armenians which includes @skims production there in the future,” she wrote on Twitter.
The main photo: Arsen Sargsyan
23:13, October 13Kylie Jenner says stretch marks after childbirth are “gifts” from her daughter
15:01, October 13Kim Kardashian intends to meet with Greta Thunberg, 16, and help her
14:13, October 13Scandal at ‘Miss France’ contest
10:05, October 13Kourtney Kardashian: It was very special to be baptized at Etchmiadzin Cathedral
15:13, October 12Billy Porter expected to play fairy godmother in new Cinderella movie
14:15, October 12Jennifer Lopez wears tiny bodysuit to promote new single
12:05, October 12Joaquin Phoenix’s Tesla hits paramedics’ truck
10:05, October 12Kim Kardashian: Dinner with Armenia President Sarkissian was powerful
21:01, October 11Kim Kardashian shares new photos of children’s baptism in Armenia
20:13, October 11Victoria’s Secret now has transgender and plus-size models
19:11, October 11He's lost his head! Jared Leto thinks someone stole his $11k fake head
17:31, October 11Kate Middleton’s new hair color


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Virgin Australia has opened its seventh and final domestic Lounge in Canberra today, thanks to a rise in domestic travel and an increase in customer demand.
With Virgin Australia expecting to be at 80% of pre-COVID-19 capacity by July 2021, the good news is that from today, all Virgin Australia domestic lounges are open and ready again to welcome passengers.
These lounges include Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth and the newly revamped Adelaide.
“Virgin Australia is committed to offering its frequent flyers lounges and looks forward to welcoming guests as they return to leisure and corporate travel.”
Virgin Australia Group Spokesperson
Tell me more…
As part of the reopenings, Virgin Australia will continue to roll-out its new and fresh Lounge menu nationally, with the Canberra Lounge to offer key dishes, including a selection of sandwiches, salads, wraps and healthy snacks, prepared on-site, and served from a hosted bar.
Last month, Virgin Australia also opened its ‘lounge of the future’, at Adelaide Airport.
The contemporary design includes a large light-filled space, with the central walkway leading companies to numerous dining and seating areas.
Ambient lighting, bright greenery and Australian sustainable furniture complete the lounge making it what the airline says is a relaxed, inviting and uncomplicated place, to refresh and recharge.
The reopening of these lounges marks a significant moment for Virgin Australia’s future, with the airline expected to make further improvements to its customer offering, including a new and fresh onboard menu for Business Class, and a buy onboard retail menu for Economy and Economy-X guests, to be revealed in the coming months.
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AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE: AZO) reported third quarter 2022 earnings results today.
Net sales increased 5.9% year-over-year to $3.9 billion. Domestic same-store sales increased 2.6%.
Net income decreased 0.6% to $592.6 million, while EPS increased 9.6% to $29.03 compared to last year.
During the quarter, AutoZone opened 24 new stores in the US, opened four stores in Mexico and three stores in Brazil.
Looking for more insights on the earnings results? Click here to access the full transcripts of the latest earnings conference calls!
Fast-food chain McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) on Tuesday reported an increase in adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022 when its revenues remained broadly unchanged. The company said fourth-quarter
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) reported fourth quarter 2022 earnings results today. Revenue increased 28.4% year-over-year to $43.1 billion. Net income attributable to stockholders increased 14.8% to $2 billion while EPS rose 19.8%
Construction-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) reported double-digit growth in fourth-quarter revenues and adjusted earnings. Adjusted net profit increased to $3.86 per share in the December quarter from $2.69 per


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Carmakers are diversifying their product offerings now more than ever. The era of segmentation between brands is drawing to a close and companies are offering products that cater to a much larger spectrum of car buyers. SUVs are big business, so here it is -- the new Lamborghini Urus SUV.
The new Urus is the first SUV to wear the Raging Bull badge on its hood since the LM002 disappeared from the market after its very limited 328-unit production run 24 years ago. Sant’Agata has a special name for it: they’re calling it the world’s first Super . . .


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TikTok ads are generating sales conversions, but that’s not always simple to measure.
August Noble was hesitant to test TikTok ads for clients of his independent marketing firm. “I was begrudgingly holding off having to learn a new platform and a new creative approach,” Noble said in a recent phone interview. But in a time of advertising upheaval, with Apple’s new data policies crimping marketing, the economy slowing, and brands looking for better ad performance wherever they can get it, Noble had to test TikTok.
Noble said he manages between $5 million and $7 million in ad spending a month for about a dozen brands, half of which are direct-to-consumer products. About 80% of the ad budgets typically go to Facebook and Instagram, he estimated, and most of the rest to Google. In July, Noble ran a test, moving 80% of one client’s spend to TikTok, turning off ads on Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook. Noble would not name the brand publicly, but it makes consumer health packaged goods—the kind of product that is easy for TikTok influencers to demonstrate in videos, driving sales on sites like Amazon after gaining a little virality.
“On TikTok, it was massive,” Noble said of the leap in revenue. During an average month, the product generated about $180,000 in sales from about $80,000 in ad spending. In July, revenue was closer to $300,000, after the TikTok experiment.
That is all well and good, but Noble’s example also highlighted another trend affecting millions of marketers: TikTok could not quite measure how effective the ad campaigns were, and that’s because of Apple, Noble said.
Apple’s anti-data policies made it so apps cannot track a consumer from an ad view to a sale. Once a consumer leaves an app like TikTok to make a purchase, the “conversion” is undetectable, unless the consumer allowed the app to track them. That is part of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency rules, which took effect last year. The loss of “signal” on Apple software—iOS—wreaked havoc on marketers’ measurement schemes. “Attribution isn’t perfect from any of these platforms, but the gap that we’re seeing with TikTok is bigger than any other,” Noble said.
TikTok declined to comment for this story, but the Chinese-owned app is integrating its ad network more closely with tools that Apple has built to share some campaign metrics with marketers. And marketers like Noble are figuring out measurement on their own.
TikTok reported a return on ad spend of about 0.4 times on the campaign for Noble’s health product brand. That meant for every $100 in ad spend, the brand saw about $140 in sales. But Noble said that the actual return on ad spend was 10 times higher than that. In July, the brand saw about $400 in revenue from every $100 spent on ads.
Meta has had similar issues reporting “conversions” over the past year. Ads performed more effectively than Meta could technically measure. Late last year, Meta said that it undercounted conversions—when ads leads to sales and other outcomes—by about 8%.
These kinks in the ad machinery are affecting TikTok, Meta and everyone else, according to ad tech specialists. And all platforms are coming up with their own models to measure ads based on the limited data that Apple now shares through SKAdNetwork, which reports broad performance metrics from ad campaigns.
“TikTok has been one of the bellwethers around innovation with SKAdNetwork,” said Katie Madding, chief product officer at Adjust, a mobile ad measurement and analytics platform. Adjust has done studies with TikTok to show marketers how to work within Apple’s anti-tracking framework, and how to use SKAdNetwork.
Last week, Adjust released a study into how marketers on apps like TikTok can prepare for iOS data changes, and for the update to SKAdNetwork that is set to come next month. The study shows that advertisers are looking for guidance on how best to measure ads while Apple is still tinkering with the parameters of the platform.
Lashanne Phang, senior director of mobile at Pubmatic, the programmatic ad platform, said that TikTok is gaining ground among marketers because of its algorithm. Even if TikTok can’t pinpoint its own effectiveness, it seems to target ads with the same proficiency with which it targets videos to users of the app. TikTok’s infamous algorithm is known for hooking audiences with incredibly niche interests and entertainment tastes.
“Ultimately it’s who has the algorithm that is able to target the user best based on user behavior and predictions,” Phang said.
Mass marketing confusion has led to a reshuffling of the ad decks, according to Noble. Brands that were comfortable plowing all their money into Facebook, Instagram and Google are now open to test the waters on TikTok, and to a smaller extent Snapchat and Pinterest. Meta’s ad revenue was $28.15 billion in the second quarter, down slightly from $28.58 billion in the same quarter in 2021, which was its first yearly ad revenue decline since becoming a public company in 2012. Meanwhile, TikTok does not disclose ad revenue, since it is a Chinese-based private company, but The Wall Street Journal reported recently that TikTok could triple its ad revenue this year to $12 billion.
Basis Technologies, a demand-side platform for advertisers to bid on ad inventory on web, apps and connected TV, said brands are increasing spend on TikTok. “We are seeing our advertisers’ investment in TikTok nearly double this year compared to last year, collectively,” said Amy Rumpler, senior VP of paid search and social at Basis Technologies, in an e-mail. “As advertisers overall are becoming more comfortable with the platform and its ability to generate performance, dollars are starting to flow in that direction.”
Ben Yahalom, chief business officer at True Classic Tees, is running marketing tests on Meta to adjust to Apple’s new iOS rules. True Classic is in its third year of business, with about $200 million in sales a year from its direct-to-consumer clothing lines, with about $100 million in marketing spend a year, Yahalom said.
True Classic puts up to 60% of its ad budget into Meta, because Meta’s apps reach 3.65 billion people a month. “Without Meta we would definitely not be where we are,” Yahalom said. True Classic will “push as hard as we can” into TikTok, Yahalom said, but it’s “not nearly as scalable as what you get on Meta.”
Meanwhile, True Classic has adjusted how it targets ads, choosing to reach broad audiences instead of niche interests. For instance, instead of just serving ads to men, the target for the clothing line, True Classic includes women in the targeting. Meta’s advertising automation algorithms chooses the most likely shoppers regardless of demographics. True Classic also experiments with more creative versions of ads, to win over shoppers with better marketing instead of relying on hyper-precise targeting. And True Classic adjusted the bidding strategy to reach people on Apple devices, Yahalom said. True Classic is willing to spend more to win an ad impression for a person using an Apple device, because its calculations showed ads to Apple consumers drive higher returns on ad spend.
With marketers testing and learning on social media apps, the competition is heating up for Meta and TikTok. Both need to prove they are driving performance at a time when those data points are hard to see. “Right now, TikTok is the channel that makes us feel like we have a growing business,” indie marketing consultant Noble said.
Still, Meta has a history of running performance campaigns and finding audiences for small businesses. “Wherever performance goes, budget flows,” Yahalom said. As for TikTok, “as a channel, it’s definitely working, but it’s hard to do over time,” Yahalom said.
In this article:
Garett Sloane is Ad Age’s technology, digital and media reporter. He has worked in newspapers from Albany to New York City, and small towns in between. He has also worked at every advertising industry trade publication that matters, and he once visited Guatemala and once rode the Budapest Metro.
TikTok advertiser says Apple data rules make sales harder to track – AdAge.com


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Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) has announced another successful year for its consumer and entertainment events as it closes 2018 having hosted over 500,000 visitors across more than 29 events. This shows approximately 7 per cent increase in visitor numbers for the consumer and entertainment events from 2017. Ranging from pop concerts and theatrical productions to consumer shows and sporting events, DWTC’s events calendar has been strategic in the evolution of Dubai as a global business, leisure and entertainment hub.
Mahir Julfar, Senior Vice President — Venue Services Management, Dubai World Trade Centre said, “DWTC’s annual consumer and entertainment events calendar has become an important component of our MiCE sector offering as it continues to attract thousands of thrill seekers, super fans, sporting enthusiasts and music lovers from around the world. The number of attendees in 2018 is testament to the strength of this market segment. As we go into the new year, we look forward to contributing to the city’s exciting, multicultural leisure and entertainment offering with an unforgettable line up of events, shows and festivals for the entire family.”
Over 420 exhibitors and 45,965 of the region’s pop-culture fans attended the Middle East Film & Comic Con in 2018, immersing themselves in international popular culture, film, TV, sci-fi, animation, manga, comics, collectibles, and more, through a series of talks, meet-and-greets, workshops, live events and an exhibition. Running for the 19th year, Modhesh World, Dubai’s largest indoor family ‘edutainment’ destination, was spread across eight halls over the summer months, featuring a plethora of attractions, experiences, games, shows, contests and workshops. The 22nd edition of Carpet Oasis drew in 24,000 traders and visitors from all over the world to explore thousands of handcrafted silk carpets and antique souvenirs, including some of the finest products from Iran, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. One of the highlights for the younger generation this year was the ‘Passport to Adventure’ Disney On Ice production which dazzled a 20,000 strong audience with its combination of world-class ice skaters and heart-warming Disney stories, lavish costumes, dazzling lighting, and enchanting music.


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Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to add video chat to the social networking site.
This is not the first time Facebook and Skype have teamed up – they already share some instant messaging tools.
Skype is in the process of being bought by Microsoft, which is a major shareholder in Facebook.
The new video-call service was launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who also revealed that the site now had more than 750 million users.
However, he said that the total number of active users was no longer a useful measure of the site’s success.
Instead, the amount of sharing – of photographs, videos and web links – was a better indication of how people engaged with the site, explained Mr Zuckerberg.
Mr Zuckerberg said that it was likely that other “premium” Skype functions would be added in future.
Industry analysts welcomed the announcement.
“Advertisers love anything that keeps users on Facebook for longer and that is something Facebook has been brilliant at – keeping people engaged with the platform for increasingly longer periods of time,” Susan Etlinger of the Altimeter Group told BBC News.
“It stands to reason that the longer you are on Facebook, the happier advertisers will be.”
In California, Skype chief executive Tony Bates welcomed the partnership, calling it a “long-term relationship” that could benefit both companies.
“The two companies built these products separately and independently over a number of months but they will be compared directly,” said Ben Parr, editor-at-large of social media blog Mashable.com.
“They are going to be in more heated competition in the next year or so and you are going to hear a lot about who is going to win the social networking war – how does Google catch up, how does Facebook respond. This story isn’t going away.”


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Super Bowl Economics: NY May Profit More Than NJ
Next week’s Super Bowl XLVIII is expected to bring $600 million to the New York/New Jersey region, says the NFL. But how much of that will stay in New Jersey, the host city, isn’t clear.
Hotels and homeowners on both sides of the Hudson River are trying to profit as football fans come to the region to attend the game at MetLife Stadium.
But with questionable weather and high ticket and airplane prices, Denver Bronco and Seattle Seahawk fans are slow to make purchases. There are plenty of seats available on the secondary retail market, and the average price is expected to drop.
Marty Schenker of Bloomberg News joins Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson to explain.
- Marty Schenker, executive editor of Top News for Bloomberg. He tweets @mschenker.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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$PERY said that the company's international business grew 9% in FY16 & represents 30% of its total business. $PERY also said that its current sales are continuing to show an upward trend despite the price increases to consumers. As part of company's lean inventory policy, it maintained its pricing & did not have to do heavy promotions at FY16-end.
$NFLX a monster move, going up. Expect making some money on Monday.
$AMD down more than 6% even after posting above consensus third quarter results.
$MCD stock rose more than 2% after it posted better than expected 3Q16 results, driven by global same-store sales growth. Meanwhile, earnings and revenue were lower than last year, hurt by refranchising efforts.


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Apple has filed a legal challenge against the Russian antitrust authority which fined the company $12 million for creating an unfair competition atmosphere. Last month, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) accused the iPhone maker for abusing its dominant position in the apps marketplace.
The Russian antitrust authority had ruled that Apple had unfairly blocked Kaspersky’s app Safe Kids which was basically offered parental control features. However, Apple released a similar feature on its devices named ‘Screen Time’ around the same time. As a result, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has fined the iPhone maker 906 million rubles ($12 million).
However, Apple believes that it has been unfairly fined and has challenged the antitrust authority. The Moscow Arbitration Court accepted Apple’s claim, to challenge the fine, last Friday. The initial hearings to discuss the matter at hand have been scheduled for June 21.
Apple has challenged the fine
Apple will be required to provide evidence in regards to the challenge it has made, according to the database of the court. The defense i.e the Federal Antimonopoly Service will have to provide a clear written statement of defense.
The Russian antitrust authority first filed a case against Apple in 2019. Back then, the company had said that it had to remove several parental control apps as they were a threat to users privacy. The company had called such apps “highly invasive” in terms of security to the devices used by its users.
On April 27, the FAS said that the iPhone maker had worsened the situation for app developers by giving its own apps and services an unfair advantage over the competition. Apple is also going through a trial in the United States, as Epic Games has called the App Store on the iPhone to be unfair.
The antivirus maker Kaspersky has accused Apple of being anti-competitive.


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After a dismal performance last year, the tourism sector has revived in the first quarter of this year. The number of tourist arrivals in the first quarter was 4.1 million, up 14 per cent from the same period last year. As of June, arrivals had reached about 8.17 million, up 12.5 per cent from last year.
Tourism receipts totalled S$5.4 billion in the first three months of this year, up 2 per cent from last year, while gazetted hotel room revenue was S$800 million, up 4.6 per cent.
The growth in the first quarter reverses the declines seen last year � in the first quarter last year, tourist arrivals fell 6 per cent from same period in 2014, receipts fell 14 per cent, and gazetted hotel room revenue fell 3 per cent.
Releasing the figures on Monday (Aug 29), the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said spending on shopping, accommodation and food and beverage expenditures grew significantly in the first quarter, which made up for the decline in spending on sightseeing, entertainment and gambling (SEG), which shrank largely due to the decline in gaming revenue reported by the integrated resorts.
Spending on shopping grew 25 per cent to about S$1.2 billion, while spending on accommodation grew 7 per cent to S$1.67 billion. Spending on SEG however, fell 21 per cent to about S$1.08 billion, although it still made up 20 per cent of overall receipts.
Last year, Singapore saw tourism spending fall for the first time in six years, even as tourist arrival numbers exceeded targets. Spending fell by 6.8 per cent to S$22 billion.
Amid economic uncertainty and regional competition, the STB is aiming to increase tourism receipts by 2 per cent this year to reach S$22.4 billion, and arrivals by 3 per cent to 15.7 million visitors.
Excluding spending on SEG, tourists from China were the biggest spenders (S$790 million), followed by Indonesia (S$588 million) and India (S$285 million).
Visitors from China also made up most of the arrivals in the first quarter (747,000), followed by Indonesia (704,000) and Malaysia (270,000).
The STB noted that although the Average Occupancy Rate (AOR) at hotels has edged up to 84 per cent in the first quarter, the Revenue per Available Room (RevPar) declined by 2.3 per cent year-on-year to S$202, due to a weakened Average Room Rate (ARR).
ARR fell 2.9 per cent to reach S$239, continuing a decline seen last year. At the top end, ARR was S$444 at luxury hotels, down 1.6 per cent, while at the economy end, the ARR was S$100, down 2.5 per cent.
Source: Government of Singapore


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On September 17, VIV Qingdao 2020 Asian International Intensive Livestock Exhibition opened in Qingdao. VIV builds a development platform of communication, cooperation and win-win for domestic and foreign animal husbandry industry by introducing superior global resources and high-end technologies, which shows the great progress of feed industry technology.
With the theme of "Intelligence FDSP Top quality", the exhibition shows FDSP's research and development, breakthroughs, innovations and achievements in the fields of feed, livestock, agro, aquaculture, storage, die and other industries with diversified modes such as delicate page drawing, on-site explanation and one-on-one negotiation. FDSP feed machinery, storage machinery, pellet machine dies and its system engineering are constantly upgraded in practice, and are constantly improved in the upgrade, which constructs the brand positioning and development pattern of FDSP keeping pace with the times.
Mr. Chen Zhiliang, chairman of FDSP company and Mr. Wu Xiang, chief engineer, appeared on the scene of this exhibition to have in-depth communication with customers from Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia and other regions, and patiently answered the customers' consultation on the project and demand. Many customers showed a strong demand for cooperation, and even the regular customers came to find FDSP booth, and signed a new 40 tph feed production line contract on the spot.
With originality manufacturing delicate products, with meticulous creating high-quality engineering. Although affected by the epidemic in 2020, the number of foreign customers visiting the VIV Exhibition decreased significantly, but the number of projects from China domestic customers increased significantly, and customers came to FDSP booth was in an endless stream.
Hand in hand with the exhibition, FDSP shows to customers brand strong strength as a well-known industry, with quality and technology two-way support of feed machinery equipment. In the future, FDSP will bring higher quality and more humanized integrated system solutions to customers, and continue to cooperate with customers for win-win cooperation!


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(Reuters) – TPG is exiting its whole investment in car dealership China Grand Automotive Services (CGA) through a sale to Haitong Securities and a third party investor, according to regulatory filings and sources close to the transaction.
According to Hong Kong Stock Exchange filings, a unit of Haitong Securities agreed to pay HK $2.1 billion to purchase nearly 39 percent of TPG’s stake in CGA. The rest of TPG’s stake in CGA was bought by an undisclosed third party.
The whole stake was sold for around HK $5.4 billion, according to Reuters calculations.
Based in Shanghai, CGA is China’s largest car dealership.
TPG had started to invest in the Chinese firm in 2007. The U.S.-based firm, one of the most active in China, does not disclose details of its investments but Reuters had previously reported it held at one point 40 percent of CGA.
The company had considered on and off a stock market listing in Hong Kong. It eventually decided against it last month, IFR reported in October.
TPG declined to comment. It was not immediately possible to reach Haitong Securities or China Grand Automotive Services for comment.


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Bargain hunters hauled themselves from bed in the darkness this morning to wrangle for parking spots and wait in lines as the holiday shopping season officially lurched into gear.
It did not go off without a hitch.
Just ask Shannon Christian, who rose at 4:45 a.m. and drove from San Juan Capistrano to Fountain Valley to snap up a $15 DVD player only to be foiled by a traffic jam as she neared Fry's Electronics.
Unwilling to waste precious time, Christian zipped over to the Target Greatland in Costa Mesa, which was selling a similar product for almost twice that amount, only to learn that it would be opening an hour later than advertised to appease neighbors. "I'd pay twice as much for less hassle," the 36-year-old account executive said, after opting to wait in line with some 250 other shoppers who were set to pounce when the doors finally opened at 7.
"I'm still going to be stoked to buy a DVD player for 28 bucks."
Vigorously, if not joyfully, consumers descended on stores across the nation today in hopes of scoring deals.
The day after Thanksgiving was the busiest shopping day of the year in 2003, although that hasn't typically been the case over the last decade. Known as "Black Friday" because it was supposedly the day retailers shift from "the red" into "the black" to reap profits, it marks the traditional kickoff of a shopping season that actually starts before Halloween.
Sales figures won't be available until next week to show whether consumers actually outdid themselves compared with last year. The National Retail Federation, the industry's largest trade group, has predicted that up to 130 million people will shop today through Sunday, helping to boost spending to $219.9 billion this holiday season, which would be a 4.5% increase over 2003.
"This weekend is, without question, the most important weekend" for retailers, in terms of giving them a glimpse into the upcoming Christmas season, said Richard Giss, head of Deloitte & Touche's retail group in Los Angeles.
Glendale Galleria, where JC Penney gave away 3,800 snow globes within 45 minutes of opening, was exceptionally busy today, according to Giss' partner Jackie Fernandez, who has been roaming Southland malls on Black Friday for close to a decade.
"At JC Penney, the lines at 6:30 in the morning were out the door; Robinson-May, the same thing," she said. "It's certainly the busiest I've seen since the late 1990s."
Ditto at Lakewood Center, where economist Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. surveyed the scene.
"They had lines outside some of the stores at midnight," Kyser reported at 11 a.m. Friday.


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Unless you’ve been living in a proverbial cave, you’re surely aware that the Beijing Olympics have just begun and run through August 24. And you’ve most likely been paying attention to the press coverage of cool new athletic gear that will be shown off at the event. Perhaps you’ve even noticed our own cover package, hitting newsstands today, focusing on the Olympics as a showcase for R & D projects and new products. But have you been paying attention to how fashion designers are taking part in this year’s Olympic mania?
Hong Kong retailer Lane Crawford, for instance, has asked 12 forward-thinking fashion houses — 3.1 Phillip Lim, Alberta Ferretti, Alexander McQueen, Burberry Prorsum, Costume National, Emilio Pucci, Givenchy, Maison Martin Margiela, Neil Barrett, Rick Owens, Stella McCartney (who designs real athletic-wear for Adidas, of course) and Yves Saint Laurent — to create fantasy uniforms for a dozen Olympic sports, from archery to sailing. The outfits, on view at Beijing’s Today Art Museum, will eventually be auctioned to benefit UNICEF.
While athletes themselves might not be wearing these dramatic designs, creating sportswear that fashionistas might wear outside of an Olympic arena is a huge trend. A new report from market researcher NPD Group found that “more than a third of the overall global revenue in the sports market is being generated by sport-inspired sneakers and garments vs. sneakers and garments actually used for sports. If we take out equipment and bikes, the ratio goes beyond 50% of the business done on ‘sport- style’ rather than ‘sport- use,” as Renaud Vaschalde of NPD, author of the report, said in a statement. “So, it comes as no surprise that manufacturers are jumping on the lifestyle wave in the hopes that their businesses can ride it into profits,” Vaschalde continued.
No doubt Nike, Speedo, and other makers of increasingly stylish sports gear will be paying attention to what these high-end designers are creating, if not to lure in their own audience of athletes, then to attract other consumers looking for stylish, yet sporty clothing and accessories.
It will be interesting to see how fashion continues to influence sportwear in seasons to come, and how athletes will influence fashion as well, especially in the light of the NPD report.
What comes next? The Bloomberg Businessweek Innovation and Design blog chronicles new tools for creativity and collaboration, innovation case studies in both the corporate and social sectors, and the new ideas that have the power to change the way things have always been done.


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We’ve often talked about how traditional forms of advertisements such as TV commercials are no longer effective. People mute them, change the channel, or just don’t pay attention to them. But there’s one magical time of year when that’s not true: the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl Ad phenomenon is truly a stroke of marketing genius. Everyone looks forward to them—even those who don’t necessarily watch football. They’re clever, funny, have high production values, and often feature A-list celebrities. In fact, ads are so widely viewed that 30 seconds of Super Bowl airtime this year cost companies about $4 million.


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When One Piece anime returns with New World on October 2nd, a time jump won't be the only new beginning for One Piece. Since it's a whole new storyline, they're also giving it a new theme song! According to Crunchyroll, vocalist Hiroshi Kitadani, responsible for One Piece's original opening "We Are," has been brought back on board for the new theme, "We Go!"
Are you excited for the new anime arc? Tell us in the comments!


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Microsoft is getting brickbats from developers unenthused by its forthcoming operating system(s), and the BBC is the latest to join the chorus. When asked about bringing iPlayer to Windows Phone, the corporation's on-demand honcho, Daniel Danker, responded by saying it's not cost-or-time effective for the system -- thanks to a lack of support for HTTP Live Streaming. Mr. Danker confirmed to us that HLS is not the proprietary format it's believed to be, used on a wide variety of devices including Smart TVs and consoles -- but is not included in Redmond's mobile OS.
Live streaming is also impossible thanks to a "bug" in the software that can't secure the session, breaking the corporation's copy protection system which only affects mobile devices. Redmond's known of the problem for some time, and is working on a solution, but has yet to make any official announcement otherwise. He told us that he's optimistic that a solution might arrive, perhaps on October 26th, but until then, the corporation won't even look at developing an app for any Windows-powered handset. After the break we've included the full text of the original email if you'd like to hear it from the source.