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Goodie Mob Selling New Album On Groupon
Goodie Mob is back together for their first project in almost a decade (and their first in 14 years with Cee-Lo Green), and they're taking a relatively unusual—but not totally unheard-of—sales strategy.
With less than a week to go before Age Against The Machine hits the shelves, Cee-Lo and his Goodie cohorts Big Gipp, Khujo and T-Mo started selling the new album on Groupon for $8.99, or a 40 percent discount off the $14.98 list price. The move comes on the heels of Ciara's Groupon promotion which ran at the end of last month, where she sold her latest self-titled album, as well as a Greatest Hits collection, for a discounted price after a steep drop in sales.
While it may seem like a way to give the album away for cheap—Groupon specializes in getting great deals on trips and businesses which otherwise would be pretty expensive, after all—it's not much different from other marketing schemes that have cropped up in the past few years. Madonna packaged her recent album MDNA with concert tickets, which helped it debut at number one on the Billboard 200 but led to the biggest percentage drop in second-week sales for a chart-topping debut, beating out the previous record set by Lada Gaga's Born This Way, which was helped in its first week by Amazon's decision to sell it for two days at just 99 cents. Taylor Swift's deal with Papa John's added another 8,000 copies to her first-week sales of Red—the album which kept Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city off the top of the charts—while Jay Z made waves with his Samsung deal earlier this year which was designed to deliver one million copies of Magna Carta...Holy Grail to Samsung users on the Fourth of July.
Of course there are issues with the promotion as well—there's a $3 shipping fee for all orders under $15, for starters, which brings the price back up over ten bucks, and while it's marketed as a "pre-sale," the company says that most orders are delivered within two and a half weeks, which means even if fans bought the album today it wouldn't arrive until two weeks after it drops on Tuesday. Saving three bucks to get the album two weeks late—that's an interesting move. But hey, free returns if you get cold feet.
Age Against The Machine comes out August 27 on RIG/The Right Records. The Groupon sale can be found here.


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A new rumor from serial leakster Evan Blass indicates that HTC will be dropping the “One” moniker on its next flagship, instead calling it the HTC 10.
Here’s the official world from Blass:
You heard it here first:
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 4, 2016
There’s been a lot of rumors circulating around the rumored HTC One M10, such as having a phenomenal rear camera and a beautiful 5.2-inch display. But, this latest rumor follows along with past leaks, such as the One M10 losing at least one logo on the device. That said, HTC could be cleaning things up and trying to simplify things more with its next flagship.
We’ve had some early leaks of what the handset might look like, though these “leaks” may not last much longer, as HTC is gearing up to release its flagship very soon.
Are you looking forward to the HTC One M10 or “HTC 10?”
source: Evan Blass (Twitter)

domain: news


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Wanna up your agent A-game? Hurry! Because it’s the last chance to secure your spot at NCL, Club Med and Globus roadshows around the country.
Forget FaceTime, it’s time to reconnect IN REAL LIFE!
Travel agents are invited to join Norwegian Cruise Line, Club Med and Globus family of brands for some face-to-face time at one of the first trade events for 2021, coming to a venue near you, really soon.
So if you’re keen to get involved, make sure you register now to confirm your spot, as seats are filling up fast.
Tell me more…
It’s time to Press Ctrl + Alt + Del on 2020, and power up now for 2021/22.
Club Med, Globus family of brands, and Norwegian Cruise Line’s say their mission for 2020 was to bring ultimate support to their Trade Partners.
Now that we’ve moved into 2021, the trio of brands say they are committed to leading the charge and innovating to meet the ever-changing market demands.
Which is where the idea for these events came from.
“We really wanted these events to be face to face as the whole idea is to engage with trade and start rebuilding our sector again,” said Pete Douglas, Director of Sales, Globus family of brands.
Rather than just presenting product info, the engaging and fun events will focus on sharing market insights with agents as well as learnings and strategies from the last 12-months to help agents take their business forward into 2021 and beyond.
Event dates and locations:
- Sunshine Coast, QLD – 20 Apr at 07.30am – Limited Spots Remain
- Brisbane, QLD – 21 Apr at 07.30am – Limited Spots Remain
- Gold Coast, QLD – 27 Apr at 07.30am – Limited Spots Remain
- Newcastle, NSW – 27 Apr at 07.30am – Limited Spots Remain
- Sydney, NSW – 20 Apr at 17.30pm – SOLD OUT
- Wollongong, NSW – 21 Apr at 07.30am – Limited Spots Remain
- Canberra, ACT– 22 Apr at 07.30am – Limited Spots Remain
- Doncaster, VIC – 20 Apr at 17.30pm – SOLD OUT
- Mornington, VIC – 12 May at 17:30pm – More Spots Added
- Geelong, VIC – 21 Apr at 17:30pm – Limited Spots Remain
- Hobart, TAS – 5 May at 17.30pm – Limited Spots Remain
- Adelaide, SA – 17 May at 17.30pm – Limited Spots Remain
- Perth, WA – 28 Apr at 17.30pm – SOLD OUT
Register here for all events.
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Ontario’s Blue Box program is under pressure to make changes.
Francis Veilleux, the president of the Bluewater Recycling Association, said at one time China accounted for 60 per cent of the market for recyclable material, and they would accept just about anything. But Veilleux added that North American recycling companies now have to sell to their material locally and the quality of the material has to be better.
Another problem is some of the items people put in their blue box.
“Currently about 90 per cent of everything we collect here we’re able to separate and market as a separate commodity. That last 10 per cent is things that either we never wanted in the first place, like bowling balls or diapers or things that we just couldn’t physically separate,” said Veilleux.
The most common problem item for the Bluewater Recycling Association is beverage cups, like a coffee cup.
“It’s a multi-layered product,” said Veilleux. “It’s a paper cup wrapped in plastic is really what it is. And so if it’s mixed in with any of our paper that we shipped anywhere else, it’s deemed a contaminant.”
Then they run of the risk of loads of paper or cardboard being rejected. The fact that coffee cups are accepted in places like London or Toronto just adds to the confusion.
Veilleux added they do accept plastic shopping bags, but preferably when they’re all together in one bag. If they’re scattered individually throughout a blue box it adds to the time it takes to separate them from the rest of the materials in the blue box.
Meanwhile, Ontario Environment Minister Jeff Yurek is to make an announcement on Thursday about recycling. Yurek is to appear in the northern part of Toronto with Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark.
The government said it will speak about “improving the Blue Box Program.”


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Aside from his family, Davido is serious when it comes to the members of his 30BG team. The music superstar recently took his entourage to a high-end boutique in Morocco for a shopping spree. Davido flooded his Instagram story with videos, and in one of them, he was seen teasing his lawyer, Bobo.
Davido values his 30BG team the same way he treats his family. According to reports, the singer decided to reward his employees for their hard work by treating them to a shopping spree.
The singer revealed on his Instastory page, in one of the videos filmed in a high-end luxury boutique in Morocco, that the shopping spree is also therapy.


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Intel this week reaffirmed its commitment to developing the Itanium processor, but also said it wants to grab market share with Xeon server chips in high-performance computing, where Itanium also plays.
Microsoft is ending its support for Intel's Itanium processor with the current version of its Windows Server OS, according to a Microsoft blog posting Friday.
The announcement of high-end servers by IBM and Hewlett-Packard this week won't halt declining Unix server sales as the onslaught of x86 servers continues, analysts said on Tuesday.
Intel on Tuesday said it has started shipping its new Itanium processor codenamed Tukwila, after multiple delays and development problems stalled its release for years.
Intel Corp. has once again delayed the release of its next-generation Itanium server processor to develop undisclosed "application scalability" enhancements.
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First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.


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By Edward Cardenas
AUBURN HILLS (CBS Detroit) – Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills will get a new destination attraction in 2016 with the addition of a LEGOLAND Discovery Center.
Mall officials announced Monday that work on the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Michigan will begin this summer, with a spring 2016 opening date for the indoor attraction.
“The LEGOLAND Discovery Centers have been a huge success across the globe, particularly as an opportunity for adults and children to spend fun, quality time together,” said Glenn Earlam, managing director, Merlin’s Midway Attractions Operating Group, in a release. “Great Lakes Crossing Outlets is the ideal location for the attraction as the mall is already a favored destination for Michigan families and tourists from the region.”
The discovery center is geared toward children 3-10 years old and features a number of interactive experiences including a brick pool, master classes from the LEGO Master Model Builder, a LEGO ride, party rooms and a 4-D cinema.
There will also be a MINILAND that will feature Detroit-area buildings and landmarks made from LEGO bricks.
LEGOLAND Discovery Center Michigan will be located in District 6, adjacent to the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets food court.
“We are excited to welcome the LEGOLAND Discovery Center to the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets family,” said Steve Berlow, general manager of the center, in a release. “The enduring appeal of the LEGO brick combined with our already popular SEA LIFE aquarium ensures that our center will continue to be the premier destination for families who enjoy great shopping combined with high-quality entertainment and dining.”
This will be the eighth LEGOLAND Discovery Center Michigan to open in the United States, and will join the popular SEA LIFE aquarium which opened in January at Great Lakes Crossing.


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Alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) still have a long road to becoming a corporate legal department’s go-to resource for large-scale legal matters. However, observers said ALSPs can gain a bigger slice of corporations’ work by improving their marketing and bolstering their partnerships with law firms.
Despite many ALSPs’ main selling point being their effectiveness for document-heavy legal matters, they aren’t securing a significant portion of corporate legal departments’ large-scale legal matter spend. According to Wolters Kluwer’s “The Effect of Very Large Legal Matters on Outside Legal Costs” report, data from the company’s LegalView platform indicated roughly 2.2% of spend on “megamatters” went to ALSPs. Wolters Kluwer defined “megamatters” as very large matters that incur over $1 million in spend.


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Breaking news from the Gama Trade Show, a brand new boxed game has just been announced – Shadow War: Armageddon.
Some of the Warhammer Community team are currently at the huge trade show in Las Vegas, and are showcasing some of the exciting new releases on the way over the next few months. The first of these is Shadow War: Armageddon.
Right now we don’t have a huge amount of detail on this set (though we will, very soon), but what we do know is that it is a squad-level game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The specific setting is the hive cities of War Zone: Armageddon, and the two forces pitted against each other are Space Marines Scouts from the Blood Angels Chapter and ferocious Ork Boyz.
We think the idea of close-range combat amongst the sprawling ruins of Imperial industry sounds pretty ace.
We’ll have more news for you on this game, as well as other new releases, over the next several hours, so stay posted!
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Independently-owned local weekly the Rotherham Advertiser sent two reporters to cover the Bahrain gr
Ian Cameron, the independent producer of film magazine Movie has died of a virulent form of lung dis
Australia's ACP Magazines is likely to witness more structural changes, reported the Australian.
Britain's radical press is fighting for survival, reports the Guardian.
The editor of the Spectator denied accusations that his magazine is only about politics and said it
The New York Times Magazine has appointed linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer as the new On Langua
Flora MacMillan, advertising director of Reader's Digest's UK, will be leaving the publication this
German publisher Bauer Media has hired Ella Dolphin as publisher of its weekly women's fashion magaz
France's largest publisher of consumer magazines, has posted poor earnings for 2009 because of a ste
The book retailer has hired Time Warner's Jonathan Shar to create and handle magazine and newspaper
Sony Corporation has announced that it is adding more newspapers and magazines in its e-book store.
Playboy Enterprises, the Chicago-based publisher of US men's magazine Playboy, is likely to start ea
Jamie and Bobby Deen, sons of celebrity chef and restaurateur Paula Deen, have launched the first is
Former Norwich Evening News editor Bob Crawley will soon be heading London's regional media house Ar
The Hollywood entertainment weekly Variety has laid off its veteran film critic Todd McCarthy and ab
The US City and Regional Magazine Association (CRMA) has announced the finalists for its 25th annual
Jamie Carragher, the English footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League side Liverpool, t
Indian computer and consumer electronics magazine Chip has launched a special-edition consumer buyin
Soviet writer Stanislav Kunyayev has accused Polish literary magazine Novaya Polsha of publishing ex
The military families of Canada have launched a new national magazine titled Ubiquitous Magazine for
Georgian lawmakers angered by magazine’s request for crime-scene photographs related to the murder o
Revamped edition of Wedding Inspirations unveiled at the Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg.
Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) report says that magazines not aware if their websites earn a profi
Good Housekeeping will stage a special show on women to celebrate the magazine’s 125th anniversary.
Fortune magazine has named Apple as the world’s most admired company for the third year in a row.
Australia-based Pacific Magazines is going to open two new online shops linked to its magazines, InS
The Asians In Media magazine, popularly known as AIM, is taking a break until the end of March.
Al-Islam apologises for report.
Meter Down, an in-auto rickshaw magazine, will launch in the Indian city of Mumbai this week.


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There is no question that the new iPhones will be among the biggest tech stories of the year. Doesn't matter if you're wielding a Galaxy S8 or a Lumia 950, if you're attuned to the comings and goings of the mobile industry, what Apple does matters.
Here are the important details you need to know:
Plus, our favorite Apple pundits will be on the ground in Cupertino showcasing the new Apple campus and all the other minutiae, so be sure to follow them.
Are you excited about the Apple event? Couldn't care less? Let us know in the comments below!
Have you listened to this week's Android Central Podcast?
Every week, the Android Central Podcast brings you the latest tech news, analysis and hot takes, with familiar co-hosts and special guests.
Be an expert in 5 minutes
Get the latest news from Android Central, your trusted companion in the world of Android
Daniel Bader was a former Android Central Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor for iMore and Windows Central.


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Since the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning was revealed back in May, the all-electric Ford F-150 has attracted significant interest from potential buyers as Ford has secured over 160,000 reservations for the forthcoming pickup. The second phase of F-150 Lightning production recently began at Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center ahead of the model’s launch next spring, but most of its myriad details – including specs and pricing – leaked out months ago. Ford Authority spies also spotted a Lariat-trimmed Lightning in Dearborn recently, and now, a 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum finished in Iconic Silver has been spied as well.
The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum is one of four available trims for the electrified pickup and starts out at $89,874 before the current $7,500 tax credit or $82,374 with the credit, though changes are seemingly on the horizon. As is the case with other trim levels, the Platinum badge on this F-150 Lightning is located on the charging port door underneath the F-150 logo.
The range-topping Platinum trim adds a host of upgrades to the F-150 Lightning for that price, including 22-inch wheels, a Vador Black high-gloss tinted chrome front grille, skid plates with signature front lighting, premium Nirvana leather, aluminum and real wood trim, a B&O sound system, and the Max Trailer Tow Package.
The F-150 Lightning Platinum also comes equipped with Ford’s extended range battery as standard equipment, which Ford says will provide an estimated 300 miles of range. However, recent rumors indicate that actual range may be far higher – as many as 469 miles in one case. The F-150 Lightning Platinum comes with a 240-volt charger capable of adding 21 miles of charge per hour, while the optional 80-amp Charge Station Pro can fully charge the battery from a 15 percent state of charge in 8 hours. The F-150 Platinum will provide 563 horsepower and 775 pound-feet of torque from its twin electric motors, good enough for an estimated 0-60 time in the mid-four second range.
Additionally, the 2022 F-150 Lightning will launch with a number of new and innovative features, including, most notably, its Mega Power Frunk and vehicle-to-vehicle charging, which will be limited to other Lightnings at first.
We’ll have much more on the F-150 Lightning Lariat soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and continuous Ford news coverage.


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Farmers in India receive financial and post-harvest services through Arya, a firm that recently raised $21 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Intel Capital and existing investor IDG Ventures India. Other investors included Columbia Ventures Corporation, Accion Venture Lab and Omidyar Network India.
Arya is a technology-enabled agri finance & market linkages platform that connects farmers to banks and other financial institutions and agri-focussed market linkages to assist them in accessing better credit facilities and open up market opportunities for their produce. It aims to provide the farmers with access to risk mitigate credit, information about the best quality crop inputs; solutions for production optimization techniques; and access opportunities for trading agricultural produce.
Arya will use the funds to grow its presence in India by enhancing its technology platform, expanding its network of quality suppliers providing agricultural inputs, co-investing in projects that directly benefit farmers, increasing farmer engagement on their platform, bringing on board new partners & financial outreach centres and exploring strategic options of enabling access Solutions at large scale.
Arya is a credit and agritech startup that provides financial and supply chain services to farmers in India. Founded in 2015, Arya enables farmers to access finance, improve their market access, and get better yielding harvests. Recently, it has raised $21 million in a Series B round to expand its services in India.
In this article, we’ll discuss Arya’s background and its services’ importance.
Overview of Arya
Arya is a tech-enabled agri-financing company that strives to provide financial services and post-harvest support to farmers in India. Founded in 2018, the company’s mission is to make credit easier, faster and fairer for smallholder farming communities. Arya uses an asynchronous communications layer between traditional banking systems and a digital agri-finance platform to instantly assess borrowings and disburse loans close to their point of need. They also offer post-harvest lending specifically designed for smallholders and supplier finance solutions.
Arya operates on four key pillars:
1) Partnering with financial institutions;
2) Leveraging mobile technology for loan processing;
3) Building data analytics models for finetuning credit underwriting;
4) Creating direct relationships with rural farmers through agents to better understand their needs. With this approach, the company has reached out to many more smallholder farmers than traditional banks usually do due to its innovative structured finance products being tailored around each farmers’ specific credit desires.
The funds raised by Arya will be used towards further expanding its operations in India. This announcement reflects the growing trend among investors looking towards emerging markets such as India as an increasingly attractive investment opportunity in FinTech.
Problems faced by Indian farmers
Indian farmers are often faced with numerous problems in their daily lives. The agricultural sector faces various challenges due to natural causes and the lack of modern technology and advancements. These challenges include limited access to credit, inadequate post-harvest services, inefficient supply chain management, untrained labor inputs and scarce resources for financing and equipment.
In addition, inconsistent weather conditions lead to high crop uncertainty and reduce crop yields, resulting in economic losses for the farmers. Also, input prices tend to be higher than output prices as market power lies largely with wholesalers or retailers rather than the farmers.
These obstacles limit agricultural productivity at a large scale, leading to low yields and poor quality produce. Moreover, low bargaining power of the farmers due to limited access to financial capital and inadequate knowledge on how best to market their products further exacerbates the situation. Therefore, Indian farmers find it difficult not only during production but also in marketing their produce profitably.
Arya raises $21M to provide farmers in India finance and post-harvest services
Arya provides farmers in India with access to finance and post-harvest services. The company recently raised a $21M Series A round of funding to expand its services and reach more farmers. This funding will allow Arya to provide more comprehensive services to farmers, offering them access to finance and post-harvest services such as storage, transportation and marketing.
Let’s look into what this means in more detail.
Overview of the $21M investment
Arya, the Indian agritech startup that provides farmers in India financial services, has raised $21M from private equity firm Aspada and early-stage venture investors Shunwei Capital, Elevar Equity and FMO.
The new fundraising will help Arya to expand its existing services and grow its geographical reach. Currently, the company operates in more than 400 villages across seven major states in India. It also leverages digital data about farm economics and livestock farming processes to create efficient systems for managing price fluctuations and market developments.
The fund of $21 million will be the largest Series A round completed by an agtech startup in India till date. Part of this investment is expected to finance Arya’s expansion into other regions of India not serviced currently and provide more comprehensive post-harvest services. The additional capital will also support further development of AI/ML technology built into their model predicting customer behaviours, loan performance analysis & forecasting crop prices.
Arya’s goal is to become a one-stop shop for all farming needs, helping it get closer to achieving core mission – improving farmers’ everyday lives through digitization. This funding signifies investors’ growing confidence in Arya’s mission, approach and consumer experience – which will be the future path for making substantial progress towards agricultural development in India.
Services provided by Arya
Arya is a venture-backed business that provides farmers in India with a suite of financial and post-harvest services. By utilizing artificial intelligence and satellite technology, Arya aims to reduce risk, increase revenue and improve access to capital for rural Indian farmers. The company just raised $21 million in Series A financing led by Sequoia India and Omidyar Network India with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Endiya Partners, Pi Ventures and other investors.
Farmers can access affordable credit through the Arya platform at more than double the speed of traditional lending institutions. They can also purchase insurance coverage for crop loss from bad weather or pest infestations. Additionally, Arya enables farmers to track harvest indices using satellite imagery to identify crop productivity patterns on their farms, helping them make informed decisions about planting cycles and inputs needed for higher yields.
Finally, Arya offers post-harvest services such as warehousing, value chain creation and quality certification which gives farmers better control over pricing once their crops are ready for sale. By providing all these services under one roof at an affordable cost to rural farmers in India who are currently underserved by traditional banking services or lack the technical expertise needed to use current technologies available in the market today such as satellite mapping or analysis data captured through AI algorithms on ground level activities across different districts or farms, Arya has created a much needed scalable solution that helps overcome some of the major challenges faced by rural farming community across India.
Arya’s raised funds will enable them to scale their agri-tech operations and make it easier for farmers in India to access finance and post-harvest services. In addition, the raised funds will help Arya transform the way farmers manage their operations, including access to market information, better supply chain systems, and digital payment solutions.
This article will discuss the main benefits of Arya’s raised funds for farmers.
Benefits to farmers
The newly-raised capital will help Arya to expand its technology and reach to provide more financial and post-harvest services to farmers in India. With Arya’s support, smallholder farmers can access affordable loans, livelihood insurance, and technology-driven market linkages. This can potentially open up new income generation paths and increased farmers’ profits.
Providing financial capital and market linkages creates access for marginalised smallholder farmers, who have been disproportionally affected by the Covid pandemic. The financing they receive can help them purchase seeds, fertilisers or even gear them up with digital tools such as mobile phones or other IT support. In addition to helping fund tangible necessities like these, the service also provides post-harvest assistance such as training—training that teaches sustainable farming techniques that allow long-term yields and promoting best practices in organic farming if needed. Plus, Arya’s platform connects these farmers directly to buyers with whom they can sell their produce or create trade relationships over the long term– thus eliminating intermediaries from which large companies typically take a large portion of profits.
Overall this raises the incomes of smallholder farmers drastically. Across India there is an estimated 24 million smallholders; this venture could eventually provide them with a valuable opportunity for profitability which will trickle down through multiple generations of families providing life changing opportunity in perpetuity!
Benefits to investors
The new funding enables Arya to pursue its vision of providing innovative digital farming and financial solutions to more than half a million smallholder farmers in India. This investment also allows investors to gain exposure and support a fintech challenger in the agritech space.
Arya’s platform is designed to help smallholder farmers access finance for agriculture needs, give them better market access and get post-harvest services like storage, sorting and transportation. Investors will benefit from their investment with the potential growth of a platform that will assist farmers in meeting their needs. The platform provides improved agricultural outcomes for farmers by connecting them directly with buyers, who could be other stakeholders such as companies, farmer producer organisations or banks.
In addition, investors are looking ahead to the long-term potential of utilizing data obtained from the company’s existing operations and using technology such as machine learning, artificial intelligence or natural language processing embedded into Arya’s proprietary software applications offered on its platform. By taking an investor stance in Arya’s business model, investors are helping bring disruption in agritech sector while benefiting financially such as appreciation of share value, dividends or returns based on performance of business operations & investments made by the company into various areas of operation within its business model.
In conclusion, Arya’s innovative platform gives Indian farmers access to finance and post-harvest services, enabling them to create greater economic opportunity for themselves and their families. The company’s latest $21M round of funding will help the organization continue its mission by expanding its capabilities and reach.
This influx of capital will also provide valuable resources that can fuel the continuing development of the platform and introducing it to more smallholder farms in India. Ultimately, this injection of capital should provide a much needed boost to farmers in some of India’s most underdeveloped areas, helping them move up the value chain and ultimately build for a brighter future for all involved.
tags = Arya, raises $21M, farmers, India finance, India, post-harvest services, indiabased south asia 46m 14msinghtechcrunch, Noida-based startup, Quona Capital
James Gordon is a content manager for the website Feedbuzzard. He loves spending time in nature, and his favorite pastime is watching dogs play. He also enjoys watching sunsets, as the colors are always so soothing to him. James loves learning about new technology, and he is excited to be working on a website that covers this topic.


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Pippa Middleton: Director & Shareholder of New London Business
Pippa Middleton picks up a picnic basket at a local store on Friday (May 31) in London, England.
The 29-year-old younger sister of the Duchess of Cambridge changed up her outfit later in the day to have coffee with a pal.
Pippa has just been named the sole director and shareholder of a new business called PXM Enterprises, which has a London address, The Times UK reports. It is unknown exactly what the company’s function is, however, it has been speculated it could be a way to help the Middleton business, Party Pieces, expand into America.
FYI: Pippa is wearing Tory Burch loafers while getting coffee.
20+ pictures inside of Pippa Middleton out and about in two slightly different outfits…


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Updated on December 10, 2021
The Big Five tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft) have different means of earning income. Here’s a look at how each of these tech giants make money.
Statista made an infographic summarizing Amazon’s revenue from 2014 to 2018. For 2018, Amazon earned $232.9 billion in revenue. Amazon’s top revenue sources include:
- Online stores, aka its famous website (and presumably other digital vendors they own, such as Comixology), making up 53% of its total revenue.
- Retail third-party seller services, aka the Amazon Marketplace, making up 18% of revenue.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud computing/server hosting platform used by many companies; it makes up 11% of Amazon’s revenue.
Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and push into the brick-and-mortar sector also seems to be doing OK. Those sectors made up 7.4% of Amazon’s revenue, a large increase over 2017.
Apple earned $265.6 billion in revenue for 2018. I wrote last fall about Apple’s earnings, but to summarize, here’s an infographic outlining their 2018 fiscal year.
As you can see, Apple makes nearly two-thirds of its income from iPhone sales. Apple Music, iCloud, and other items falling under “Services” place a distant second. That’s followed by: Macs; iPads; and “Other Products” (the Apple Watch, AirPods, etc.).
Facebook reports that for 2018, they earned $55.8 billion in revenue, up 37% from 2017. That’s the smallest amount among the Big Five tech companies. A whopping 98.6% of their revenue comes from advertising; 92% of that comes from mobile advertising. This might be why Facebook places a big emphasis on its various apps.
Alphabet (Google’s parent company) reported it made $136.8 billion in revenue for 2018, up 23% from 2017.
Of this, 85% of its revenue comes from advertising; the other 15% comes from Google Play sales, hardware sales, etc. Here’s an infographic showing its non-advertising revenues have grown over the past decade.
For the fiscal year 2018, Microsoft earned $110 billion in revenue. Said revenue comes from a mix of sources, but collectively:
- More Personal Computing: 38% of revenue. Said category includes Windows, the Xbox, Surface tablets, and search advertising revenue (presumably the Bing search engine).
- Productivity and Business Processes: 32% of revenue. This includes the Office software suite and related services (Office 365, etc.), plus LinkedIn.
- Intelligent Cloud: 29% of revenue. This includes Microsoft’s cloud computing and server businesses.
Overall, most of the Big Five tech companies have diverse revenue streams. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon make most of their revenue by offering consumers various hardware, software, and services (retail, etc.).
Meanwhile, Google and Facebook are heavily or near-exclusively reliant on advertising for income. This might explain those two companies’ multiple problems with privacy and advertising issues, especially with the European Union.
“box” by MikeBlogs is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Flickr / cropped from original)


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"The performance of the ad product was significantly greater than what we got anywhere else. The challenge that we had is that there was never enough scale or inventory for us to buy," said Marni Walden, exec VP-president of product innovation and new businesses, Verizon.
So Verizon decided to buy AOL -- all of it.
Verizon wasn't only looking to buy ads but also sell them. The telecom, internet and pay-TV giant's core business of selling access to its internet, cellular and TV networks "will always be important to us, but one of things we think a lot about is how do you monetize above the access network," Ms. Walden said.
Verizon had begun to assemble a media business through its content-delivery systems Edgecast and Uplynk and its data marketing arm called Precision Market Insights and would be adding a streaming video service that it had acquired from Intel, which it unveiled earlier this month as Go90. But it needed ad tech to turn those businesses into real moneymakers. "We tended to think about having all of this oil in the ground, but we didn't have the rig to bring it up. So AOL and its ad-tech capabilities were that rig," Ms. Walden said.
Sometime between 12 and 18 months ago -- roughly the same timeframe that AOL was contemplating a deeper pivot to mobile -- Ms. Walden and AOL's CEO Tim Armstrong began discuss different ways the two companies could work more closely together, such as a joint venture. "It didn't probably get as heated until probably the end of last year. Then the full decision for acquisition happened shortly before we did the deal," Ms. Walden said. The rationale for that decision was fairly simple, to hear Ms. Walden tell it.
"If you think about how the model works, bringing scale to their platform is what they desperately needed to make that business compete in the top three," said Ms. Walden, positioning AOL alongside digital media juggernauts Google and Facebook. "And we believe that Verizon brings that."
There's a punishingly long way to go before AOL truly reaches that plane, but Verizon's plan is clear. It starts with bringing AOL into the mobile landscape, where it's largely been absent while Facebook and Google have plunged big stakes in the ground.
Google and Facebook "are sort of native mobile companies," said Jordan Bitterman, chief strategy officer at the media agency network Mindshare. "And AOL was never going to get there by evolving the company. They had to buy it and be bought by it."
In the months immediately before and after the Verizon deal closed in June, AOL signed a slew of deals to increase the amount of inventory it could sell to advertisers and gain a foothold in mobile. It struck a video programming deal with NBC Universal, signed a 10-year display ad and search deal with Microsoft and agreed to buy mobile ad network Millennial Media.
AOL had vast content and online reach, Verizon brought 109.5 million wireless subscribers in the U.S., and Millennial Media had access to 65,000 apps and tons of mobile login data, said Wenda Harris Millard, president and COO of advisory firm MediaLink and former Yahoo sales boss. "If you look at that combination of vast inventory and matching the data to target and serve advertising to the same people via desktop, mobile and addressable TV, that's a big story," she said.
But there wouldn't be any story if not for the work AOL had also done over the past few years in assembling its ad-tech stack, which attracted Verizon's attention and will undergird everything that Verizon and AOL look to accomplish.
When Razorfish's then-global CEO Bob Lord joined AOL as head of its ad-tech arm in July 2013, the portal's ad-tech business was in its "1.0" stage, said Mr. Lord, now president of AOL. "It was all focused on the [real-time bidding] market," referring to the eBay-style auctions hosted by computers that would let other computers bid to buy ads across multiple sites in the blink of an eye.
Over the succeeding two years, AOL has upgraded its ad-tech arm through a flurry of acquisitions, including video ad network Adap.tv and analytics firm Convertro, to add to the products it already had in place, such as its automated ad-buying and ad-selling tools and its ad server. Earlier this year, AOL formally combined all of its ad-tech assets into a one-stop ad-tech shop called One by AOL.
At the same time that AOL was piecing together its ad-tech stack, it was connecting the data dots across the stack's various assets as well as across the larger AOL in order to better target and measure ads and personalize content.
After unifying its ad-tech data for better targeting and more accurate measurement, it began incorporate other data. It added data from ContentLearn, its product that determined what to show on the AOL home page, and eventually data from Gravity, the content personalization firm AOL acquired in January 2014. Then it added a Convertro-powered data management platform that would crunch data to assess where marketers should spend their money as well as TV set-top box data through its PrecisionDemand acquisition.
"What you have is a flywheel that you're seeing that gets faster and faster and more useful as more data gets added to it," said Seth Demsey, chief technology officer for AOL Platforms. And now AOL gets to add Verizon's customer data, which includes authenticated demographic information and real-time locations.
Gaining access to Verizon's anonymized customer data "was really essential. That will be our key sustainable competitive advantage for a long time to come because it's a persistent data record that not only provides me with information around content consumption but also the context that somebody's in and the behaviors they have," Mr. Lord said.
Mr. Demsey declined to discuss details of how AOL plans to use Verizon's data, but one possibility seems obvious. When it comes to mobile ad targeting and measurement, location is as valuable a signal as someone's age or gender. Problem is, location data has historically been pretty bad. "There's a little distrust around the accuracy of location data," said Andrew Casale, CEO of publisher-centric ad-tech firm Index Exchange.
An ad-tech company may be able to identify where someone is one minute, but it will keep targeting that person with ads based on that location days later when the person has moved on to somewhere else. That's because those companies are "a few steps away from the source [of the location data, and Verizon is the beginning of the source," said Forrester analyst Richard Joyce, referring to Verizon's network-level data. "It has the potential to be very powerful."
But that data is only as valuable as AOL's ability to use it to find places to put those ads. Until the acquisition of Millennial Media closes, AOL's mobile footprint is relatively small compared to giants like Facebook and Google. All of AOL's desktop and mobile properties combined to reach 170.7 million people in the U.S. in August 2015, a 6% drop year-over-year, according to comScore. While AOL CMO Allie Kline said two-thirds of AOL's traffic is mobile, the company doesn't generate enough mobile revenue to appear on eMarketer's list of U.S. mobile ad revenue share, according to the research firm. When the acquisition of Millennial Media closes, that will change somewhat. Millennial Media is estimated to rake in 0.3% of the $30.5 billion U.S. advertisers are expected to spend on mobile ads this year, per eMarketer. By comparison Google will take in 32.9% of that money, Facebook will take 19.4% and Yahoo will take 2.9%.
That's why AOL has been assembling what Mr. Lord described as its "content stack." In addition to the NBC Universal deal, the company is looking for its deal with Microsoft -- to handle ad sales for Microsoft's properties like MSN, Skype and Xbox and which brought 940 of Microsoft's full-time ad sales employees and contractors to AOL -- to add more content and inventory it can sell and shore up the scale issue that Ms. Walden had mentioned.
In particular, AOL is focusing on video as a way to grow its mobile audience and revenue, Mr. Lord said. "We know that we need a lot more video on our properties," said Jimmy Maymann, Executive VP and President of AOL Content and Consumer Brands.
At its Digital Content NewFronts presentation in April, AOL execs said the company plans to create more than 3,600 video episodes, 45 times as many episodes as it produced last year. And it's continuing to increase both the amount of video it produces and the places through which it can distribute those videos. The company will distribute some of its video programming through Verizon's mobile-first video service Go90 and is expected to support the ads that will run on the service, though execs from neither AOL nor Verizon wouldn't go into details on those plans. The NBC Universal deal will bring some of the Comcast-owned conglomerate's TV shows to AOL and offer AOL opportunities to bring some of its own programs and talent to TV.
Similar to how Facebook decentralized mobile and threaded it throughout the company, AOL is doing the same with video. Last week the company ousted its head of video Dermot McCormack, who had been at the company less than a year but joined before Verizon bought the company and spurred AOL's broader overhaul. AOL's VP of Originals and Branded Entertainment Nate Hayden is taking over as the company's de facto video boss and will report directly to Mr. Maymann, according to an AOL spokeswoman. But Mr. Hayden won't be the only face of AOL's video business as its various businesses take on more video responsibilities.
For example AOL will lean on the Huffington Post to fill up its video library. Despite reports that AOL would look to shed the news site, "that was never the plan," said Mr. Maymann, who had been CEO of Huffington Post before being promoted to oversee all of the company's consumer brands in August.
On Oct. 19 the Huffington Post will premiere "HuffPost Rise," a 10-minute morning news show that will stream live on the Huffington Post's home page five days a week and also have an emailed version with a 90-second video news digest. "HuffPost Rise" will bookend its news round-up with an opening inspirational message and a closing call to action to get involved or donate to a charity or nonprofit organization, in keeping with co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington's emphasis on balancing negative news coverage with more positive messages.
"HuffPost Rise" will join the Huffington Post's growing programming slate. The site already produces shows like HuffPost Live -- which outputs eight hours of live programming a day that can be edited into 500 clips to populate AOL's properties and averages 100 million to 130 million streams a month, per Mr. Maymann -- and struck a deal over the summer with digital video network BroadbandTV to erect a video network of citizen journalists, as it gets ready to launch its 24-hour video network HuffPost 24.
"As we are moving towards what we are calling HuffPost 24, which is 24 hours of programming, we want to capture the whole spectrum," Ms. Huffington said. And AOL's hope is that more content -- from the Huffington Post, NBC Universal and Microsoft -- will capture more ad dollars.
"Now I have simplified two things for a brand advertiser; No. 1, I'm providing you potentially one automated programmatic stack, and now I'm the company that's going to help you pool audience access to simplify your buying," Mr. Lord said.
It will take time, however, to see if simplicity can help AOL's sales. Considering that eMarketer projects AOL will receive 0.7% of the $170.2 billion advertisers will spend on digital ads worldwide this year—compared with Google's 30.4% share and Facebook's 9.6%—the company has leagues to travel before it can legitimately be considered on par with the two digital ad goliaths.
Through the Verizon, Microsoft and Millennial Media deals, AOL's share of global digital ad revenue will likely go from "less than a percent of revenue to something that is probably two-and-a-half times that," Mr. Bitterman said. "So it's not going to get them close to Facebook. It's certainly not going to get them close to Google."
AOL and Verizon may have to settle in the foreseeable future for just getting closer.
Amid major media agency reviews being conducted this year, agencies have incorporated AOL's ad-tech products and content offerings into their pitches to big brands looking for partners to help them spend their budgets, according to Mr. Lord. "The NBCU-AOL relationship was central to one of the proposals," he said, declining to name the agency or brand involved. "I haven't heard the outcome of that yet, but we were in the pitch at least."


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At Google I/O earlier this month, Google announced new features for Google Lens, a couple of which appear to be rolling out right now.
The two that we’re seeing available are instant translations, as well as web photo retrieving for restaurant menus. The first one is self explanatory, but for the menu one, let’s say you’re at a restaurant and not sure what a menu item is. You can now point Google Lens at the item, then Lens will return photos of what the dish is. Who knows, maybe you’ll finally be able to get something other than the Pad Thai at your go-to Thai spot. On a personal note, if you’re not trying the larb, you’re doing it wrong.
What we should also be seeing soon is a “popular dishes” feature that goes along with the menu photos. At I/O, the company said we’d soon be able to determine which dishes were the most popular via a cross reference of the menu against online reviews of the restaurant. That will be super handy when going to new locations to eat.
Be sure you’re running the latest Google Lens update by following the link below.
New! ¡Nuevo! Neu! Live from Google Lens in more than 100 languages:
📖 Point your camera at text
🔎 Lens automatically detects the language
👀 See the translation right on top of the original words pic.twitter.com/U2BpHOilBP
— Google (@Google) May 29, 2019
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By THE NATION
“This project aims to produce 30 million rubber pillows valued at Bt18 billion to distribute to poor people nationwide,” he said. “The Marketing Organization for Farmers (MOF) will be responsible for manufacturing the pillows, while the Agriculture Ministry will handle the distribution to people at one pillow per household.”
Thammanas further added that the Bt18 billion fund will be provided by BACC in the form of a loan. He expects the project to start early in 2020 and to help rubber farmers release their products in stock at reasonable prices, as part of the government’s urgent measures to boost the grassroots economy.
“To pay back the loan, I will propose to the Cabinet that MOF holds charity lotteries for the public around early 2021, which should raise enough money to pay back the principal as well as interest to the BACC,” said Thammanas. “The Government Lottery Office will responsible for the issuance of lottery tickets, which could be branded ‘help rubber farmers’ to attract buyers who want to try their luck for a good cause.”


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The sudden drop in Amazon's stock price has had an impact on the market for trailer shop
If you are looking for high-quality products, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry, email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Amazon's shares fell on a bleak outlook and its slowest growth since the dot-com bubble burst
Amazon shares fell 10% in extended trading on Thursday after the company issued a revenue forecast that fell short of analysts' expectations.
Here's how the company did it:
Earnings: Adjusted eps of $7.38 versus estimates of $8.36, according to Refinitiv
Revenue: $116.44 billion versus expectations of $116.3 billion, according to Refinitiv
Amazon's revenue rose 7% in the first quarter, compared with 44% in the same period last year. That was the slowest pace of growth in any quarter since 2001 when the dot-com bubble burst and the second consecutive single-digit increase.
Forecasts for the second quarter suggest growth could fall further, by 3-7% compared with the same period last year. Amazon said it expected revenue of $116 billion to $121 billion in the current quarter, below the average analyst estimate of $125.5 billion, according to Refinitiv.
Like Google and Facebook earlier this week, Amazon attributed much of the slowdown to macroeconomic conditions and
Russia's incursion into Ukraine.
"The pandemic and subsequent war in Ukraine have created unusual growth and challenges," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement. He added that with staffing and storage capacity at normal levels, the company was "fully focused" on offsetting costs in its fulfilment network.
Amazon has been dealing with a number of economic challenges, including rising inflation, rising fuel and labour costs, global supply chain disruptions and an ongoing pandemic. To offset some of those costs, Amazon earlier this month imposed a 5% surcharge on some of its U.S. sellers, the first such charge in its history.
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Market overview of
The semi-trailer market is valued at more than $29.8 million in 2021 and is projected to reach $42.8 million by 2027, with a cagR of more than 5.3% over the forecast period.
The market was negatively impacted by COVID-19 in 2021. This leads to a decrease in The industrial production of The
. Subsequently, this led to low demand for semitrailers. Similarly, sales and production of The
declined as supply chains in The global market were disrupted. For example, The number of units produced by Schmitz's, a well-known Semi-trailer manufacturer in Europe, declined by 28% in 2019-20. The reduced production time of The
affected The company's overall productivity, resulting in a loss in The quarter.
In the medium term, the growing use of alternative fuels is likely to drive the growth outlook for the semi-trailer market during the forecast period. Semi-trailer manufacturers are adopting and developing cutting-edge technologies to improve The efficiency of The vehicle The
. Similarly, German company Kassbohrer recently launched its latest semi-trailer, covering four product groups, in response to changing trends in the industry to meet the exact needs of consumers.
Due to the versatility and flexibility of roads and trailers, most transportation in the manufacturing, automotive, construction and energy sectors takes place on roads and trailers. Semi-trailers are more popular than full trailers.
Key market trends
In the European Union, about 75% of inland freight was transported by road in 2020. In 2019, European roads carried about 1.7 trillion kilometres of goods. In recent years, the share of road freight
has gradually increased, while the share of railway freight has declined.
The key factor driving the growth of the
market is the increased inclination toward logistics semi-trailers. In addition, the rapid growth of e-commerce in Europe marks the core pillar of the single digital market and indicates the development of the online retail industry, which is sensing the expansion of well-organized retail space. As the e-commerce
industry grows in Europe, demand for more developed
distribution networks is rising. As the market continues to grow, demand is also expected to rise for all types of semi-trailers, most of which are used by commercial fleet operators, including express services, postal services and e-commerce delivery services.
It is expected that by 2025, the North American market will occupy the largest market share of
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which allows free trade between the US, Canada and Mexico, will lead to an increase in fleet operations in the region. This is expected to boost
shipping due to increased business activity and consumer spending. Wabash, Modern Translead, Great Dane, and Utility Trailer are the major players in the North American semi Trailer market. These participants are focusing on collaborating to launch technologically advanced semitrailers. The North American semi-trailer market is currently in a replacement cycle, with an ageing semi-trailer population that needs to be replaced with technologically advanced semi-trailers. As a result, the North American semi-trailer market is expected to dominate the market in terms of value during the forecast period.
The Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the most promising
market and is expected to continue this trend in the coming years. Increasing infrastructure activity and supporting investment from domestic and foreign investors are the factors leading to the growth of the Asia Pacific
market. Large projects led to increased demand for
s used to transport heavy machinery, driving the
market during the forecast period.
The trailer shop supplier manufacturer
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Spain’s Regulatory Sandbox
Spain has just passed a draft bill to create a Regulatory Sandbox. It is outlined that the supervisory oversight of the Sandbox will be undertaken by three regulatory agencies: The Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), and the General Director of Insurance and Pensions. However, the bill now has to continue its legislative process, of which changes could occur as it is a draft bill.
This draft regulation could play a major role in boosting Spain’s FinTech scene. There are currently over 300 FinTech Startups based in Spain. The Spanish FinTech ecosystem has seen a massive boost in the past few years. Some of the main industries which these spanish FinTechs have entered are crowdfunding, personal financial management, and enterprise financial management.
The term Sandbox has become somewhat of a buzzword in the FinTech space, below we’ll explain more in depth about what it really is. The Regulatory Sandbox concept was first thought of by the UK’s former chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport. Sir Walport suggested that the financial services industry would benefit from having something equivalent to the clinical trials of the health and pharmaceutical sectors. This is essentially what a Regulatory Sandbox is – a ‘testing ground’ for innovative FinTech products. The primary aim of a Sandbox is to boost regulation to keep up with the accelerated pace of innovation.
Sandboxes are primarily for startups, who don’t have to be fully licenced, wanting to test out an innovative product. The testing stage normally runs for several months. This allows early-stage FinTech startups to launch and evaluate their products in a restricted market environment.
UK Sandbox Program – Main Takeaways
The UK implemented its Regulatory Sandbox program in 2016, it was the first of its kind. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) state that there have been many benefits from the regulatory Sandbox program. Examples being:
- Sandboxes have helped the governing bodies to understand up-and-coming technologies. This includes any risks that may come with them. These insights are uncovered before the technology hits the mass market, meaning they can prepare regulations.
- Startups build in safeguards for consumers at an earlier stage than normal.
- Access to the regulatory expertise offered by the Sandbox also reduces the cost and time for innovative ideas to get to market.
- Going through the Sandbox program helped startups to raise investment. A large factor for investors is the regulatory certainty of the startups. Taking part in the Sandbox reassures investors that the FCA’s oversight allows for regulatory alignment.
All the above have permitted for increased competition in the FinTech sector and has attracted foreign interest. To find out more in-depth about the insights that the UK has gained with its Sandbox check the full report here.
Spain is home to a number of innovative FinTech startups, one of which is Rebellion – a FinTech challenger bank aimed at teenagers. There are only a few players in the world tailoring their product to tackle this market. Furthermore, there is the upcoming launch of Fundsfy, they’re not your average FinTech challenger bank. Fundsfy is one of the only FinTech banks targeted solely at investors. They combine an array of WealthTech offerings with neo banking features. These are only two examples of how Spanish FinTechs are pushing ahead of the status quo in this nascent industry.
With the launch of a Regulatory Sandbox in Spain, we can expect FinTech startups like the above to thrive. Furthermore, by utilising the information uncovered by the supervising bodies, spanish regulations in this sector should become more favourable. This in turn can increase the appeal of launching a FinTech startup in Spain, in addition to attracting more foreign investment.


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This past summer, the IE10 team rolled out such video game classics as Asteroids and Missile Command. Now they’re adding Contre Jour to that list – a very cool casual game that’s a bit of an audio visual masterpiece. And if that weren’t enough, it’s also available on Xbox Live, which means you can also play Contre Jour on your Windows Phone. My productivity will never be the same.
Read more on News Center


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‘Tis the season of eCommerce! We have Black Friday (social distancing turning the party digital), Cyber Monday, and of course those holidays! How will online shopping be different this holiday season?
While we wait to find out, studies are predicting one of the biggest online shopping seasons ever. Shopping in person is harder to do this year, and forecasters argue that people missed out on their usual spending for vacations, going out to dinner, and other activities due to the pandemic. What does that mean for the holidays? Extra cash for gift giving this year.
What to expect?
In the Redpoint Global Holiday Shopping 2020 survey, the study found that nearly two-thirds of the 1,000 adult shoppers surveyed (62%) planned to do all their holiday shopping online and that, “70 percent of consumers say they will exclusively shop with brands that can demonstrate that they personally understand them this holiday season.” These shoppers are going increasingly digital and as they do so, their expectations around personalization are at a maximum.
Shoppers spending their hard-earned dollars on fashion and apparel websites this season will be in for a treat when they find the most personal experience they can get when using Forma-powered digital dressing rooms. Forma's technology automatically converts every outfit in a photo into a digital outfit that any shopper can try on instantly and photorealistically. Shoppers can directly see what they look like rather than using their imagination to project onto models that don't look like them. Shopping is inclusive this year.
Why digital tryons?
Because it works. In many ways.
Trying on apparel digitally goes beyond just about sizing or returns. It is a whole new frontier. It is about confidence and it is about curiosity.
For brands, beyond the lift in key metrics you love like AOV, conversions, sharing, etc., Forma impact other factors that might not be as obvious:
Whatever it is, digital tryons have even more impact than meets the eye. This holiday season will be the big coming out party!
Do you have an interest in trying out digital dressing rooms or learning more about trying on apparel digitally?
Feel free to reach out to us at firstname.lastname@example.org!


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Education publisher Pearson, whose U.S. headquarters are in Hoboken, bought Mondly, a global online language learning platform, according to an April 29 announcement.
Mondly offers consumers high quality learning in English and 40 other languages through its app, website, virtual reality and augmented reality products. The platform includes language courses for both professional and personal learning in a combination of more than 1,300 language pairs, offers business solutions through MondlyWORKS and has built an award-winning app that helps children learn languages called MondlyKIDS.
“Today’s acquisition marks another step in our digital strategy that gives us an exciting foothold in the fast-growing market for English learning directly to consumers and builds even more connectivity across the entire Pearson portfolio,” said Andy Bird, CEO of Pearson. “Mondly is a fast-growing and profitable company that expands our reach and scale in the language learning market and drives growth for the company. This acquisition is strategically important for the group and it is growing and driving shareholder returns.”
This acquisition is expected to accelerate revenue growth from 2023 onwards ahead of Pearson’s English language learning division, which continues to expect mid-teen margins for the division in 2025, Pearson said.
The Mondly team, including its founders, will join Pearson’s English language learning department.


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Apple’s problems continue to grow as users of its Apple Music service have yet to be impressed. Investors seem pessimistic about the future success of Apple Music as it appears that people generally are not using the product. Where Apple thought there would be easy pickings from the likes of Spotify and Pandora, it appears the incumbents have a firm grip on their users and the streaming music industry in general. Troubles with Apple Music, decreased iPhone sales in China and overall slow revenue and profit growth, have compounded investors’ worries.
Subscribers of the recently released Apple Music service have two months left to decide whether to cancel their free subscriptions or start paying $9.99 per month for the service. Although the verdict is not yet in regarding how many of the 11 million users will actually sign up, early predictions are not favorable to Apple. Factors such as a confusing interface as well as competition from well-established programs such as Spotify do not necessarily bode well for the company that revolutionized the music industry with the creation of the iPod.
The 11 million subscriber number was released by Apple Senior Vice-President Eddy Cue in an interview with USA Today earlier this week. Although Cue stated he was thrilled with the number, the announcement did not help Apple’s share price, which has fallen about 6% in the last five days.
Apple recently acquired Beats Music, a 24/7 streaming Internet radio service, to the tune of $3 billion. That appears to be the number one draw for subscribers to the Apple Music service. However, the confusion regarding the program may be just too much when considering spending money for the service. Jim Dalrymple, an influential Apple enthusiast who writes for the blog, The Loop, is extremely disappointed in the service and has voiced his feelings. “I had high hopes for Apple Music. I really wanted it to work and become my default music streaming service, but after the problems I’ve experienced over the last couple of weeks, I’m disabling it altogether.”
Specifically, the biggest problem with the service appears to be the “unintuitive interface.” Regardless of whether a user has accessed Apple Music through and Apple operating system (“iOS”) app, or iTunes via a computer, navigating the options is confusing. Certain features of the system appear to disappear, which make creating playlists difficult. The “add” music option is sometimes nowhere to be found.
Moreover, every time a user wishes to launch Apple Music on a new device, he/she has to go through the whole setup process again, thereby duplicating playlists and individual songs in a user’s music library.
In addition to the user problems with Apple Music, there is also the issue of competition from music streaming juggernaut Spotify. According to Spotify, it boasts 75 million users for its free service and 20 million users of its $9.99 per month premium service. Pandora also reports 79.4 million users. Essentially, Apple and Spotify are offering the exact same products, thereby raising the issue of whether users are likely to jump to Apple Music. Given the ease of using Spotify and the problems with Apple Music, people simply may stay with Spotify.
Once the three-month free subscription of Apple Music ends, we will see how competitive Apple Music actually is.


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Gamers were outraged when they heard that StarCraft 2 would be coming in three different parts. Blizzard had claimed it wouldn’t let the merger between Activision and Blizzard parent company Vivendi impact the way it did business. But the move reeked of the type of thing that would fit right in with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent comments that the company want their games to be exploitable. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Blizzard COO Paul Sams vehemently denies that StarCraft 2 is being milked.
Speaking with VideoGamer.com today before a midnight launch of Wrath of the Lich King in London today, he said:
“The fact of the matter is, it’s absolutely, positively untrue about us trying to stretch it out and milk it. People think that it was a monetary driven decision. I can absolutely, positively tell you, with 100 per cent certainty, that that was not part of the conversation. I guarantee it. I give my word. There was never, ever a conversation where we said, ‘let’s do this because we’re going to make more money’. I guarantee it. As a matter of fact the sole reason we did it was because we thought it was going to be a better experience. Anybody that says otherwise is not correct. It is absolutely not what we did it for.”
Sims’ denial is more passionate than the usual corporate line we get, so maybe it’ll be enough to convince fans that Blizzard truly is doing this to deliver the best game is possible.
But I doubt it.
Last Updated: November 13, 2008


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Due to the global downturn in the economy, Credit card major SBI Card has been facing a decline in its credit card issuance. The major reason for the fall is the rise in the number of defaults in the segment.
However the delinquency rate is likely to hold on in the coming months as the company is restructuring its card-portfolio. Through this move SBI Card plans to reach out to those customers who have had a good past record but are unable to repay due to the crisis.
Diwakar Gupta, CEO, SBI Card said, “We are seeking to build a quality portfolio. We are reaching out to card holders, who are having a good track record but are facing repayment difficulties due to the current economic downturn, with restructuring packages, which includes a softer Equated Monthly Installment option.”
In order to help the customers, company may increase loan tenure along with revising the interest rates, added Mr. Gupta. Currently SBI is charging interest rate that hover between 3.1% and 3.35% per month but it may revise them down to 2.5%. The company is taking this move with a view to check the number of defaults.
SBI has recently tied up with Dena Bank to launch a co-branded credit card to enhance the services provided by SBI Card. The company aims to provide more efficient banking services and therefore wants to benefit from the services extended by professional organizations, said Bhaskar Sen, Executive Director of SBI Cards.
SBI Cards & Payments Services Pvt Ltd (SBI Card) which is a joint venture between the State Bank of India (SBI) and GE Money has a credit card base of over three million customers.


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Even in normal times, distributors occupy a unique place between hardware and software makers on the one hand and resellers on the other.
These, however, aren’t normal times. With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting businesses, schools, and government agencies coast to coast, D&H is one of many distributors hustling to be the real-time connection point between partners with urgent customer requirements and vendors struggling to overcome severe supply chain constraints.
“That’s really been occupying our time: reaching out to identify what those needs are and then working very aggressively with our manufacturer partners to acquire the inventory to make sure we meet those needs,” says Dan Schwab, D&H’s co-president.
With roughly a third of Americans under orders to avoid all but essential travel at present, most of those needs revolve around staying productive while working from home.
“What do they need to conduct business virtually with their customers?” Schwab asks. “That’s really where we’re spending the bulk of our time.”
Acquiring those products isn’t easy at the moment, thanks to a trio of issues that combined to leave everything from laptops and monitors to network gear and webcams in short supply. “You had the Chinese New Year, where manufacturing typically takes a break in Asia,” Schwab notes. “Then you had the coronavirus, which required a shutdown of a lot of large manufacturing areas. Then on top of that you had this unprecedented surge in demand.”
Schwab, who’s been impressed by the speed with which vendors are overcoming those hurdles, expects the inventory shortages many channel pros are now experiencing to start easing in about a month.
“We’ve seen a lot of these manufacturers getting ramped up,” he says. “By mid-to-late April we really expect to have a tremendous amount of the backlog filled, certainly by the time it gets to early or mid-May.”
Until then, in an effort spearheaded by a task force composed of representatives from the company’s logistics, procurement, sales, and customer service groups, among others, D&H is collaborating with partners to get as many end users as possible operational again as quickly as possible.
“It’s almost triage in many respects, working with manufacturers to get all the products we can,” Schwab says. “They’re working within their own prioritization mechanisms, as are we, to make sure that we support the greatest needs within our communities.”
Pinpointing the first of those needs didn’t take the task force long, he continues. “Where we’ve had the greatest demand is within education and medical,” Schwab says. D&H is currently developing bundles of hardware and software for remote learning and remote healthcare to address that demand. Additional pre-assembled solutions for meeting work-from-home requirements are likely to follow.
Credit initiatives will be coming as soon as next week too. Those will be on top of more customized efforts already underway to help partners cope with cash flow challenges, the company’s preferred approach to dealing with financing issues.
“Some customers may need 60-day terms, because they’re working in an education or medical institution that’s going to take longer to pay. Some of them may need longer than that,” Schwab says, noting that D&H is tackling those requirements on a case by case basis. “We’re historically very flexible with our partners,” he says.


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Freed Kanner London & Millen LLC
Professional Services /
Recent News About Freed Kanner London & Millen LLC
Drug maker AbbVie is facing federal antitrust lawsuits accusing it of using patents to stifle competition and boost the price of its drug, Humira.
A class action lawsuit accuses Progressive Insurance of not paying Actual Cash Value for insured losses.
A Chicago federal appeals panel has upheld a lower court ruling that boarded up a class action antitrust suit against Georgia Pacific and Westrock, which alleged they conspired to fix prices for containerboard. Judges again found the companies were not colluding, but rather making parallel moves in reaction to the market.


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Port of New Orleans Leader Accentuates Positives in Annual Address
Port of New Orleans President and CEO Gary LaGrange cited numerous Port and industry-wide accomplishments, while challenging local business leaders to think big and act as ambassadors for the maritime community during today’s 27th Annual State of the Port Address hosted by the International Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers Association of New Orleans at the Marriott Convention Center. Exerpts from the address follow:
LaGrange ticked through a series of best rankings – most notably the No. 1 logistics hub in the nation by Business Facilities Magazine and Forbes Magazine’s top “Brain Magnet.” As a result of improved business climates and intermodal connectivity, LaGrange cited the vast investments being made by energy, chemical, and steel companies throughout Louisiana. New and expanded plants and exporters will spur cargo in the coming years.
Total Breakbulk volume for fiscal year 2013 was 2.78 million tons, up 1.34 percent compared to the previous year. With significant investments in oil and gas infrastructure in North America, as well as the $70 billion of announced investments since 2012 in Louisiana, the Port of New Orleans is well positioned for growth in the breakbulk market, LaGrange said. As evidence, the first six months of 2013 has already shown a 500 percent increase in oil field-related equipment.
In the container market, the increase in export cargo has been a driving growth force. The Port has benefitted from the U.S. Gulf industrial rebirth which has given many chemical companies a cost-competitive advantage. As a result, chemical volumes tripled over the last five years. In 2012, the Port handled 2 million tons of chemicals, and the first six months of 2013 showed a 35 percent increase over the same time frame in 2012.
While the export cargo growth at the Port captured the attention of industry leaders and even President Obama, the Port also realized significant increases in inbound containerized cargo. Shippers and container carriers are capitalizing more and more on the 12-hour rail connection to and from Memphis for both import and export cargoes. Instead of moving via East Coast ports Port, officials are seeing this cargo slowly begin to shift.
The Port’s cruise business continues to break records, as well. In 2012, the Port handled 977,703 passengers and is on pace to break that mark in 2013. A report by Cruise Line International Association, determined cruise spending in Louisiana rose 42 percent in one year to top $399 million, generating 7,548 jobs and ranking New Orleans the sixth largest cruise port in the nation.
Looking ahead, LaGrange touted major projects the entire maritime community must support.
“We must find the political will to support vital investments in Port infrastructure in Louisiana,” LaGrange said. “The Port has $66 million in Capital Outlay requests this year alone.”
Also, the ultimate deepening of the Mississippi River is vital to all commerce on the Lower Mississippi River, he said. A recent report by economist Dr. Tim Ryan determined a 50-foot channel for the Lower Mississippi River would create $11.49 billion in U.S. production, generate 17,000 new jobs and mean $849 million in increased income for American workers.


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Businesses and end users experiencing app fatigue
Thursday, June 18, 2020 by Glenn Gruber
When I began drafting this article, it was before COVID-19 really took hold and spurred the “2 years of digital transformation in 2 months”, as Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has said. With that context, everything that I believed was amplified 100x. The lasting effects of the pandemic are going to change the way that many businesses operate, where we work ...
Results from 2020 Quarterly Mobile Index report
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
PubMatic announced findings from their Q1 2020 Quarterly Mobile Index report, which shows that mobile advertising was much less affected by the coronavirus pandemic when compared to desktop advertising during the first three months of the year. With an accelerated shift to mobile, PubMatic advises publishers to take the current environment as an opportunity to review th...
Microsoft DART team tracks 77k active web shells
Thursday, February 6, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
In a blog post promoting the capabilities of its commercial security platform, Microsoft said that on a daily basis the company's security team detects and tracks on average around 77,000 active web shells, spread across 46,000 infected servers.
According to ZDNet, these numbers are staggering, since the 77,000 figure is far larger than any previous reports about...
Advanced barcode reader from Dynasoft is here
Thursday, January 16, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
Dynamsoft has introduced its Dynamsoft Barcode Reader version 7.3 software development kit for advanced barcoding that intelligently restores physically missing parts of barcode images and that improves on the difficulties of scanning crumpled barcodes. The new SDK version also adds optical character recognition capabilities for processing text that may accompany a barc...
Global gaming industry in 2019
Thursday, January 9, 2020 by Christian Hargrave
Mobile is on track to dominate the estimated $152 billion global gaming industry in 2019, accounting for 45% of the market. To help app developers and advertisers take advantage of this meteoric growth, Adjust, the industry leader in mobile measurement, fraud prevention, and cybersecurity, has become the first mobile measurement partner in Unity Technologies’ Veri...
How to get user engagement in 2020
Thursday, January 2, 2020 by Scott Tomkins
The most difficult challenge for every app developer to overcome is: How do I get my app in front of a customer so that they can engage with it? UA campaigns are notoriously expensive and invariably suffer from diminishing returns. ROAS at the start of a campaign falls somewhere between 200% and 300%, but soon enough it peters out. I can’t tell you how many times ...
Nuggets in the top identity leaders list 2019
Thursday, December 5, 2019 by Richard Harris
Nuggets announced its inclusion in the One World Identity’s (OWI) Top Identity Leaders List 2019. Securing their place alongside, Google, Microsoft, Visa and Apple, the British startup was credited for its pioneering solution in their annual Identity Landscape Report.
The Identity Landscape saw the biggest names in identity shortlisted across 35 categories, pla...
Developer ecosystem insights for Q2 2019 report
Monday, November 18, 2019 by Freeman Lightner
The data from the Developer Economics survey give all the answers in the recently published State of the Developer Nation Q2 2019 report, which - as always- is now available for free download!
What’s new in the developer ecosystem?
The report highlights the latest insights from the developer ecosystem, based on responses from 19,000+ softwar...
Nodle cash app now available for android
Monday, November 11, 2019 by Christian Hargrave
Nodle.io announced that Nodle Cash app, previously only available pre-installed on the HTC Exodus 1 smartphone is now officially live on the Google Play Store for all Android phones.
Nodle’s Network, dubbed The Citizen Network, is a community of smartphones that act as secure nodes — or hotspots — to seamlessly connect and locate physical assets, lo...
Cost to develop mobile apps
Friday, November 1, 2019 by Richard Harris
According to SmartBrain.io, the average cost to develop a mobile app in Eastern Europe is $23,000 versus $171,450 in the U.S.
SmartBrain.io analyzed data from more than 400 deals between Eastern European contractors and international startups and found out that developing a new app in Poland, Romania, Ukraine, or another Eastern European country requires, on average,...
FTC cracks down on stalking apps
Thursday, October 24, 2019 by Freeman Lightner
The Federal Trade Commission has barred the developers of three “stalking” apps from selling apps that monitor consumers’ mobile devices unless they take certain steps to ensure the apps will only be used for legitimate purposes. The settlement resolves allegations that these apps compromised the privacy and security of the consumer devices on which th...
InApp advertising 2019 survey released
Thursday, October 3, 2019 by Richard Harris
Fyber has released the 2019 State of In-App Advertising and Monetization survey, which looks into the present and future of in-app advertising and monetization. Fyber commissioned Sapio Research to conduct the survey among 400 marketers and 400 app developers in the UK and US. The results show a dramatic shift away from the traditional waterfall model of trading in-app ...
iOS 13 testing challenges
Wednesday, October 2, 2019 by Eran Kinsbruner
The arrival of Apple's new operating systems, iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, represent big releases with multiple updates and features that represent good news for consumers, such as the increased security and privacy features, enhanced user experience, and consolidated single sign-on. For app developers, it presents some exciting opportunities for innovation.
For anyone ...
Ethics standards and security protocols app developers should follow
Monday, September 30, 2019 by Richard Harris
Unbiased realtime inapp bidding solution launches
Monday, September 16, 2019 by Richard Harris
AppLovin announced the launch of MAX, an unbiased real-time in-app bidding solution, less than a year after its acquisition of MAX Inc. Since its beta period in early 2019, MAX has been offering advertisers equal opportunity to bid simultaneously on each impression in a publisher’s inventory via a single unified auction. This process is meant to yield the highest ...
MariaDB enterprise server helps you sleep at night
Thursday, June 20, 2019 by Richard Harris
MariaDB Corporation announced the release of MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4, code-named “Restful Nights” for the peace of mind it brings enterprise customers. Databases are the backbone of critical business services used every day. A database failure can result in sleepless nights for everyone involved. The new MariaDB Enterprise Server includes added f...
GDPR for app developers as seen by former CTO of CBS
Thursday, June 13, 2019 by Richard Harris
GDPR is only the beginning. Data protection laws impacting how developers manage customer data are exploding all over the globe. Recently, Turkey fined Facebook, Microsoft updated its Compliance Manager, and California prepared to implement its new privacy regulations.
As companies and app developers increasingly rely on a global customer base, combating this issue i...
App ads.txt and developer responsibility
Tuesday, June 4, 2019 by Amit Halperin
As the industry continues its effort to clean up the supply chain, in-app is next in line to adopt ads.txt. By all accounts, ads.txt adoption was a widespread success on the web, with 75% of all web publishers implementing the file since the IAB released it in May 2017. As more budgets move to in-app placements, the IAB is hoping to see the same success with app-ads.txt...
Scaling apps against competition easier with new accelerator program
Tuesday, May 28, 2019 by Christian Hargrave
Bidalgo announced the launch of the Bidalgo Accelerator, designed to help marketers from small and mid-sized app developers combat all the major challenges faced when trying to scale their apps.
In today’s crowded mobile ecosystem, many app marketers find themselves up against the competition with significantly more resources with which to acquire new users. Th...
Crowdsourced security and bug bounty adoption is spreading
Monday, May 20, 2019 by Richard Harris
There continues to be a fundamental imbalance in cybersecurity. Attackers are finding new ways to penetrate cyber defenses as targets proliferate to the cloud, mobile, and connected devices. Defenders need to take a proactive security approach.
The evolving threat landscape and the ever-widening security skills gap are giving rise to new approaches such as crowdsourc...
Creating apps that work without the Internet
Friday, May 3, 2019 by Richard Harris
We've become a bit lazy in the United States when it comes to developing apps. It's nothing for us to stuff in a healthy dose of remote content downloads for our games, mobile ad networks for our full-screen videos, analytics so we can track user activity, and other fat-pipe code that works well in the land of gigabit connections.
But did you know that a...
Mobile apps that use big data better do the data science too
Friday, March 29, 2019 by Richard Harris
Data science has emerged as a new powerhouse for organizations, turning mountains of data into actionable business insights that impact every part of the business. However, not all data science platforms and methodologies are created equal. The ability to use data science to make decisions with transparency and accountability comes down to many factors, including whethe...
Bidalgo expands into London
Thursday, March 28, 2019 by Richard Harris
Bidalgo has expanded to London to help app marketers in the region achieve growth quickly, easily and profitably.
The London office will be managed by Oliver Gold, who was recently hired as Bidalgo’s UK Country Manager. With 16 years of experience in digital media, Mr. Gold will oversee all UK operations for the company, including the development of strategic b...
Apps from maps using location intelligence is a whole new world
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 by Richard Harris
Technically a map is defined as a diagrammatic representation of an area of land or sea showing physical features, cities, roads, etc. As soon as we view a map, we inherently start turning it into information by analyzing its contents and finding patterns, assessing trends, and making decisions about what we are seeing.
Creating apps and software that use map informa...
HeadSpin acquires performance testing company and launches new tools
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 by Richard Harris
In an email to ADM, HeadSpin said they have acquired application performance testing company NimbleDroid. Effective immediately, HeadSpin will integrate the NimbleDroid functional performance testing tools into its core platform and all employees will join HeadSpin including NimbleDroid co-founder and CEO Junfeng Yang, who has been named Chief Scientist of HeadSpin...
A cloud suite for decentralized and Blockchain apps has emerged
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 by Christian Hargrave
RTrade Technologies is proud to announce the launch of Temporal, a versatile tool for companies with large amounts of data to secure, store and track. The platform can be used as is, or customarily built to manage and deploy blockchain-based applications and non-blockchain data-storage solutions for any enterprise.
Temporal is an open-source API for distributed data ...
Best practices to avoid being removed from the Apple App Store
Tuesday, March 12, 2019 by Richard Harris
For any app developer, developing a top-ranking app on Apple’s App Store would be a career highlight. Yet thanks to Apple doubling down on user privacy, even popular apps like Facebook have been taken offline. For developers, it’s increasingly important to stay abreast of rapidly-changing privacy, compliance and policy changes to avoid a similar fate -the dr...
First multiTEE security platform for mobile app developers emerges
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 by Christian Hargrave
Trustonic says it will expand support to include Huawei’s Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) on its mobile application security platform, Trustonic Application Protection (TAP). Until now, TAP has enabled app developers to build apps secured by both strong application shielding for iOS and Android, and hardware-based protection for the 1.7 billion Android devices...
Female gamers are an untapped market for developers
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 by Richard Harris
Here are some fun facts. Women gamers make up 65% of all active gamers and they also play mobile games at a higher rate than men. What's even better for app developers and publishers, is that 79% of those females are more likely to make in-app purchases.
Brands want to reach this highly engaged audience, and yet, a large part of the gaming app industry's outp...
New mobile ads SDK lands from Verizon Media to replace Flurry Ads
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 by Brittany Hainzinger
Verizon Media launched Verizon Ads recently, a new mobile SDK that is a single and modular SDK for app developers that aims to bring together the best monetization assets of AOL and Yahoo, and can provide access to complete mobile demand across Oath Ad Platforms. The SDK integrated with the IAB Tech Lab Open Measurement SDK. It will replace the Flurry Monetization ...
In app mobile ad spending is taking a quarter of media budgets
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 by Richard Harris
A new study from PubMatic and Forrester reveals that media professionals opt for programmatic buys, via programmatic direct and open exchange, over direct buys for in-app inventory. Buyers also cite targeting capabilities and inventory quality as the top criteria for choosing programmatic in-app publishing partners.
The report was a commissioned study conducted by Fo...
Hothead games wants to make your mobile game a hit too
Thursday, January 24, 2019 by Richard Harris
Hothead Games announced that it has launched a new publishing division to help third-party game developers turn their mobile games into hits. The company is currently accepting submissions and offering financial assistance for games in various stages of development that will benefit from Hothead’s expertise in analytics, marketing, monetization, and gameplay mecha...
Lightning Platform Mobile from Salesforce aims to futureproof apps
Thursday, January 24, 2019 by Christian Hargrave
Adding another lego to the wall between native programmers and low-code app builders, Salesforce has just announced the new Lightning Platform Mobile, a set of tools and services that aim to empower business users to build quick, connected and future-proofed mobile apps.
Consumers today expect their mobile experiences to be immersive and easy-to-use. But with a...
Game developer tips and insight for 2019
Thursday, January 24, 2019 by Richard Harris
2019 offers promising new opportunities for game developers to reach new markets. But how can developers best capture diverse users’ attention and loyalty? Webpals Mobile, a performance-driven mobile-app user acquisition company, recently conducted a study comparing advertising driving gaming app downloads in the United States and Asia. Drawing on insights from th...
App developer and software jobs might be declining says new report
Thursday, January 17, 2019 by Richard Harris
If your title is app developer, or work if you work in the software development field and are starting to feel like the Jedi are dying off - you might be on to something.
According to a new report put out by Freelancer.com, the software developer job title, and a few others including app developer, and app designer, have seen a dramatic decrease in popularity since l...


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Auto sales in Mexico drop during April for the 11th month in a row
Sales of light vehicles in Mexico declined for the 11th month in a row in April, this time to 109,265 units, down 4.6% compared to same month of 2017, according to the latest data from the Mexican Auto Dealers Association (AMDA). Year-to-date sales are now of 446,494 vehicles, a 9.4% drop against the same four-month period of 2017, AMDA figures revealed.
Given that sales have been in line with AMDA’s forecasts, the possibility of improving results during the second half of the year is increasing, but it will depend on a successful renegotiation of NAFTA and the absence of post-electoral conflicts, said Guillermo Rosales, head of the auto dealers lobby.
Nissan, the best-selling brand in Mexico with a 23% market share on a year-to-date basis, saw its sales sink 17.9% to 22,534 vehicles. Its year-to-date sales totaled 102,694 units through April, representing a 16.8% decrease. Its premium brand Infiniti posted a 4.6% gain with 136 units. Year-to-date sales are now of 685 Infiniti vehicles, up 0.3%.
Volkswagen, now second best-selling carmaker in the country with a 14.1% market share, including its Audi, Porsche and Seat brands, posted a 11.7% drop in sales to 15,219 units. Year-to-date sales by the German automaker totaled 63,124 vehicles, down 17%.
General Motors, which now holds a 14% market share on a year-to-date basis, sold 18,902 vehicles in April for a 3.5% decline. Its year-to-date sales of 62,707 units through April represent a 22.9% drop.
Toyota sold 8,566 vehicles in April for a 4.9% decline. The Japanese automaker remained as the fourth best-selling brand in Mexico with a 7.7% market share. Its year-to-date sales totaled 34,308 units, which represents a 1.3% drop compared to the first four months of 2017.
KIA, which is already the fifth best-selling brand in the country with a 6.9% market share, sold 7,503 units last month for a 4.1% increase. KIA’s year-to-date sale totaled 30,704 vehicles, which represents a 17.1% hike.
Honda (6.6% market share) also saw its sales drop 6.4% to 6,283 vehicles, while its year-to-date deliveries were of 29,256 units, up 1.9%. Honda figures do not include those of its premium brand Acura, which sold 110 vehicles in April and totaled 551 in the first quarter, representing drops of 4.3% and 19.2% respectively.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (6.4% market share) marketed 6,684 vehicles in April, down 0.3% compared to same month of the previous year. Its year-to-date sales dropped 12.9% to 28,563 units.
Ford Motor Co. (5.3% market share) sold 5,364 units in April for total year-to-date sales of 23,708 vehicles, representing decreases of 9.9% and 11.9% respectively. Ford figures do not include those of its Lincoln brand, which marketed 149 units last month for total year-to-date sales of 685 vehicles, with double-digit hikes of 75.3% and 30.5% respectively.
Mazda sales rose 9.6% in April to 4,198 vehicles. Its year-to-date sales of 17,416 units represent a 5.8% gain in the first four months of 2018.
Following the path of its twin KIA but with less units marketed, Hyundai also saw a two-digit increase in sales of 40.5% to 4,502 vehicles in April. Its year-to-date sales totaled 16,317 cars and SUVs, representing a 22.7% hike.
In the premium market, BMW led the gains with a 20.1% sales increase in April to 1,470 cars and SUVs. Its year-to-date sales are now of 6,215 vehicles for a 21.9% jump.
Mercedes-Benz saw its sales hike 44.2% in April to 1,901 vehicles, for total year-to-date sales of 6,220 units, up 10.9%. It’s worth noting that the German automaker does not report sales of certain high-end SUVs since November 2012 concerning security reasons.
Audi sold 1,058 cars and SUVs in April for total year-to-date sales of 4,473 units, representing increases of 0.9% and 5.4% respectively.


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WAL-MART Stores Inc. is reporting a 9 per cent increase in third-quarter net income as the world's largest retailer continues to bring back shoppers by re-emphasising it has the lowest prices.
The US-based company said on Thursday it earned $US3.63 billion ($A3.52 billion) or $1.08 per share in the quarter ended October 31. That compares with $US3.33 billion or 96 cents per share in the year-ago period.
Net sales excluding Sam's Club membership fees rose 3.4 per cent to $U113.2 million.
Analysts were expecting $1.07 per share on revenue of $US114 billion.
Wal-Mart says its revenue at stores opened at least a year rose 1.5 per cent, below Wall Street's estimate of 1.8 per cent.
Wal-Mart narrowed its full year earnings guidance and issued a fourth-quarter profit outlook that's below analysts' forecasts.
Originally published as Wal-Mart's Q3 profit up 9 per cent