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11 December 2009 17:49 [Source: ICIS news]
WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--US retail and food services sales rose by 1.3% in November, the Commerce Department said on Friday, raising hopes that consumers are gaining confidence in the recovery and are willing to spend.
Consumer spending is the principle driving force of the ?xml:namespace>
The improvement in retail sales last month was almost twice what market analysts had been expecting.
The department said that retail and food services sales were at a seasonally adjusted $352.1bn (€239.4bn) in November, an increase of 1.3% from October and nearly 2% above the retail sales level of November last year.
Much of the gain in November’s retail sales was attributed to a 6% rise in gasoline sales at the pump, but as fuel prices were more or less steady in November, the sales increase suggests that consumers were more willing to travel and shop.
Increased consumer spending also appeared to be reflected in a 2.8% gain in retail sales at electronics and appliances stores and a 1.5% improvement in sales of building materials and garden supplies at the retail level.
Along with modest gains in retail sales at sporting goods, book and music stores and improvements in beverages and restaurant dining, the data suggest that US consumers are increasingly willing to spend on more recreational and leisure items, not just on essentials such as food, clothing and shelter.
Much of the chemicals industry ultimately depends on consumer purchasing, which drives sales of such downstream chemicals-consuming products as autos, appliances, electronics, CDs and other storage media and retail product packaging.
($1 = €0.68)
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Southeast news postings: Discontinued as of March 25, 2022
Technology Videos curated from YouTube’s best sources: CNET, TED, Wired, Marquis Brownlee, Unbox Therapy, TWiT and many more
Last Week's Tech News Weekly
What President Biden's Executive Order might mean for crypto in the US. • How AI is intersecting with the military. • A new molecular drink printer. • Gig work companies are pulling out of Russia and how it impacts citizens more than anyone else.
Author John Lennox will introduce you to a kaleidoscope of ideas including the current capacity of AI, its advantages and disadvantages, the facts and the fiction, as well as potential future implications.
Fraudsters are fooling facial recognition systems. • TikTokers are getting hired through video resumes on the platform. • Google is sued by 36 states for anticompetitive behavior. • A new version of Assassin's Creed.
The U.S. government released a highly anticipated report on UFOs recently, but it didn’t answer the central question: What are those mysterious flying objects spotted by military pilots in recent years?
The ongoing battle to break up Big Tech and the recent Facebook ruling. How Microsoft is taking on Apple with Windows 11. Instagram’s new primary focus. An injunction against Florida's SB 7072 social media law.
A number of moves by China greatly impacted the entire cryptocurrency market recently. The change saw the People's Bank of China putting an end to several financial institutions engaging in Bitcoin transactions.
Windows 11, due out later this year, is full of new features, including a new Start menu that's been moved to the center and a Microsoft Store with Android apps. Also, learn the CEO’s strategy of competing with Google and Apple.
Apple’s report on the App Store, its "trusted ecosystem" of apps in response to several antitrust cases. iOS 15 will introduce iCloud Private Relay and Universal Control. Peloton is reeling. Microsoft’s Windows 11 and more.
Targeted at both Apple and Android users, the new noise-canceling $150 Beats Studio Buds offer great sound, a comfortable fit and very good voice-calling capabilities. But, Apple users may not be thrilled with what got left out.

domain: news


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A new Kit Kat flavour has been released and it has already left customers divided.
On supermarket shelves just this week, keen shoppers have been treated to the latest taste sensation in the chocolate aisle - a mandarin-orange flavoured Kit Kat.
They're only sold at selected Woolworths stores and online.
For more Food, Wine & Drinks related news and videos check out Food, Wine & Drinks >>
Social media is abuzz with reviews of the new flavour.
"Ew, mandarin, seriously that sounds like the worst possible flavour they could have imagined," said one.
"I love orange chocolate but seriously no one likes mandarins, they are the poor cousin of the mandarin," added another.
"Seriously delicious, I love ALL Kit Kats, I am a happy man today," one more said.
More on 7NEWS.com.au
- Prince Harry and Meghan announce split from Royal Family
- Mum forced to drive through raging bushfire in terrifying fight for survival
- Swimming schoolgirl attacked by shark off Gladstone coast
Shoppers can buy an eight-pack of the new Kit Kat for $5.
Other flavours previously available include mint swirl and cookie dough.
In the video below, KitKat released Sublime Volcanic Range
Editorial note: 7NEWS.com.au has not received any monetary benefit from this content.


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On Monday the justices heard argument over whether an antitrust lawsuit brought by iPhone users unhappy that apps may only be purchased through the Apple store can move forward. Apple claims it does not have a monopoly because it is the app developers who set the prices.
Tuesday saw argument about who owns Oklahoma brought by members of the Muscogee Creek Nation.
Wednesday’s only case was about seizure of assets upon criminal conviction in state court and whether that violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines.
It’s not getting much attention but there’s a pretty important antitrust trial underway in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. The Justice Department is seeking to block the merger, actually more of a takeover, between the insurance companies Anthem and Cigna. Each side, of course, argues opposite results for the health care consumer.
Anthem’s CEO, Joseph R. Swedish testified on the first two days of trial which began last Monday and is expected to end before the new year. Another antitrust lawsuit, this time between Aetna and Humana, begins December 5.
A news story about the trial can be found here.


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Talk of a free edition of Microsoft's Windows OS isn't anything new: the idea has been around since 2005 at the very least. However, Stephen Chapman of MSFTKitchen seems the think the free edition is closer to reality than ever before, especially with businesses pushing to move software into the cloud. After a little digging, he discovered that an actual ad-based version of Windows has actually been created.
The latest finding stems around the LinkedIn profile of a senior program manager at Microsoft. In her "resume," she lists a prototype for advertising model in Windows called "Project Madision," and is supposedly not the same code name used for SQL 2010. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley added her two cents to the speculation, pointing out that Madision (and yes it's misspelled, probably on purpose) may be derived from Madison Avenue in Manhattan: the name of this street is "synonymous with the American advertising industry," says Wikipedia.
If Microsoft is still pursuing the ad-based version, this could alleviate some of the problems with Windows-based piracy, or consumers intent on spreading their one license across multiple computers (via crack). But how would this work? How would Microsoft make revenue out of a free edition? "In theory, you could use a "Windows Ads Edition" or something where you’ve basically opted for ads to stream to you in exchange for your usage of Windows," Chapman surmised.
The idea isn't farfetched. Businesses would certainly scramble to get their ad on millions of Windows-based desktops, and Microsoft would simply float in a sea of money. Naturally, consumers who actually purchase a version of Windows wouldn't receive the ad-based input. Instead, it would be locked on to those individuals who can't afford-- or refuse-- to purchase a copy of Windows, but still want to use the OS in a legal, non-pirating sense.
Would you use a free, ad-based edition of Windows?
They can limit the number of applications it can run at once to 5, if you enable adds, you can have more features, like Home Basic edition...


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Members of the PR News Corporate PR Council discuss the PR issues that give them the most sleepless nights. Tops on the list: the unpredictability of social media.
Here’s what you need to know to leverage the hottest social media platform around for your brand.
Brands like JCPenney and Hyundai are taking to social media to spread the word about their ads for the Oscars telecast, and will be engaging during the awards ceremony as well.
Facebook’s upcoming launch of Timeline for brands is a hot topic among communications pros, whose questions are on the verge of finally being answered.
Solomon McCown owner Ashley McCown provides four tips for boosting communications around an influx of good news—a reverse crisis of sorts.
While Pinsanity is on the ascendant for communicators and brands, the ability of users to copy and post content from other sites has some crying foul.
Applying the art and science of active listening can help an organization reveal its most effective digital voice, says Iona College’s Robert J. Petrausch.
Help a Reporter Out founder and small business evangelist for Vocus Peter Shankman offers tips on increasing media coverage of your company and overcoming resistance to social media.
The director of social media for CRT/tanaka and speaker at PR News’ April 18 PR Measurement Conference says all PR pros need to constantly ask themselves this question: "What defines success for my company from a PR standpoint?"


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Cars to cost more from nowCars will cost more as manufacturers are increasing prices and banks have hiked interest rates
Apnaloan.com Research Bureau
28 Apr 2008
Car buyers are in for a double blow. While car manufacturers are mulling an increase in prices by 2-3 per cent in early May due to continuous rise in input costs, banks have already hiked interest rate on auto loans by 50-75 basis points.
The move, that comes after RBI increased the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 50 per cent to be implemented in two phases, will translate into an average increase of Rs. 150 per month in the EMI on a loan of Rs. 1 lakh, for both new as well as used cars.
Banks like ICICI, Kotak Mahindra and Reliance Capital have increased interest rates from 13.5 per cent-13.75 pre cent earlier to 14.25 per cent-14.5 per cent. The hike will hit the largest selling compact cars the most and will mean that one has to shell out on an average Rs. 16,200 more on a loan of Rs. 3 lakh for a period of three years.
As reported by Financial Express, Rajan Pental, Auto Finance Head, HDFC Bank said, "The Reserve Bank of India has announced a significant hike in CRR last week and this has forced banks to increase the interest rates across all retail segments including auto loans. The bank will announce the hike in the first week of May."
The current hike is second in series this year. The first interest hike was announced by banks in January when the effective rate to the customer was hovering around 12.5 per cent - 13 per cent.


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The poor kids at Joost—and their partners at Viacom—thought the future of TV on the computer would be a discrete app that blended a slick TV emulator with internet power. They were wrong, Hulu and Google were right: It's all about the browser. So that's where Joost is going. Its Flash-based player officially launches full-throttle tonight. The early word from paidContent is that it's still no Hulu—the best place for CBS content, maybe, but it's got a lot of catching up to do. Though really, it's not clear that it ever can. There's a reason our internet TV remote is heavy on the Hulu. [Joost via paidContent]
Joost Flash Player Launches Tonight, Has Serious Hulu Envy
Trending Stories Right Now
Science fiction and fantasy offer a rich legacy of great books - but that abundant pile of reading material can also be daunting. So sometimes, it's easier to fake it. We asked some of our favourite writers, and they told us the 10 books that everyone pretends to have read. And why you should actually read them.
Someone seems to have accidentally pressed a wrong button at Samsung. On Thursday Galaxy users from around the world received a mysterious '1' message on their devices. Samsung has since addressed the incident and said there's nothing to worry about.


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Austrade media release
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Bahrain’s Olympic short distance running champion, Ruqaya Al Ghasara will turn heads today at her first Beijing race (200 metres Tuesday 19/8/08 at 12:21 EST) stepping out in an Australian designed and manufactured body-covering top including the modern Hijab in accordance with Muslim tradition.
Ruqaya Al Ghasara of Bahrain #2013 celebrates winning the Women's 200m during the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 at the Khalifa Stadium December 11, 2006 in Doha, Qatar.
Ms Al Ghasara, currently ranked number seven in the world, said that wearing the specially designed Hijood Sports Top from Australian company Ahiida had improved her performance.
“It’s great to finally have a high performance outfit that allows me to combine my need for modesty with a design made from breathable, moisture controlled fabric that allows freedom of movement and flexibility,” said Ms Al Ghasara.
“It’s definitely helped me to improve my times being able to wear something so comfortable and I’m sure it will help me to give my best performance at Beijing.
“I hope that my wearing the Hijood Sports Top will inspire other women to see that modesty or religious beliefs don’t have to be a barrier to participating in competitive sports.”
Ahiida Managing Director, Aheda Zanetti, said that although this outfit had been custom made for Ms Al Ghasara her company had been deluged with international orders from women wanting conservative sporting outfits since its inception five years ago.
“Since Ahiida first came to media attention with our special Burqini Swimsuit for Aussie Muslim lifesavers, we have had significant interest in our unique conservative sportswear,” said Ms Zanetti.
“Our sportswear supports women who want, for whatever reason, to wear things that are modestly cut and have useful functions like keeping their hair out of their eyes whilst enjoying an active sporty lifestyle.
“We are thrilled to be associated with Ruqaya who is a passionate and talented sportswoman and a great role model.
Ms Zanetti said that working with the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) had helped her to access many international markets.
“Austrade had helped me to be in places that I couldn’t get to and to speak on my behalf internationally,” she said.
Austrade’s Chief Economist, Tim Harcourt said that Ahiida was indicative of Australia’s unique business capability in servicing big sporting events.
“As a nation of sports fans, you’d expect Australia to know something about this sector. And fortunately, it’s true!,” said Mr Harcourt.
“Since putting on the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Australia has developed a world class reputation for sports infrastructure, sports marketing and merchandising as well as sports medicine and sports-related technology.
“Holding sporting events themselves has also helped Australian exporters in other sectors. For example Cleanevent which provided cleaning services to Sydney picked up the Athens contract, architects like PTW and Woodheads are helping to design architecture in Beijing in the Olympic precinct and elsewhere and Biograde are using the Olympics to showcase their environmental technologies.
“Since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Australia has forged over $1.7 billion in trade and investment deals via sports related networking. It’s become part of our national brand and its shows that the sport exports do have lasting economic benefit.”
Austrade will harness the excitement and energy of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to showcase Australia in China. More than 3000 Australian and Chinese businesspeople are expected to attend events at Business Club Australia. Business Club Australia is the official business program for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and will use the resources of Austrade’s Chinese network of 15 offices to bring together Australians and key Chinese officials and businesspeople. Over 40 Australian companies have won more than 50 Beijing Games related contracts, many with Austrade assistance.
Bahrain’s Olympic team are sponsored by Nike. As part of Ms Al Ghasara’s team contract she competes in Nike shoes and National Olympic Committee sleeveless Vest.


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Rainforest Action Network to PepsiCo, General Mills: Stop killing orangutans
The Rainforest Action Network, an organization that campaigns for the world's rain forests, is on a mission to rid your snack food of what it calls "conflict palm oil." And it's naming some of America's most popular snack food companies, including Pepsi, Campbell's Soup and General Mills among its 20 worst "conflict palm oil" users. But some of these companies say they're part of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an organization that works to promote the use of sustainable palm oil.
By Jenn Harris
September 13, 2013


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- Amazon’s billionaire founder bought two properties on Indian Creek Island
- Last week Bezos revealed that he will sell 50 million Amazon shares over the next year.
- By moving to Florida, Bezos has saved at least $610 million in sales taxes.
It has been revealed that Jeff Bezos’ move to Miami will help him save more than $600 million in taxes over the next year.
The billionaire Amazon founder announced he was leaving his former home in Seattle last year to move to Miami, purchasing two properties on the ultra-exclusive Indian Creek Island, nicknamed the “billionaire bunker.”
Bezos said the move was to be closer to his parents and to rocket launches at his Blue Origin space company, but it also carried a significant tax benefit.
Florida has no state income tax or capital gains tax, while Washington introduced a 7 percent capital gains tax on stock or bond sales of more than $250,000 in 2022.
Last week, it was revealed that Bezos had launched a pre-scheduled plan to sell 50 million Amazon shares by January 31, 2025. By moving to Florida, he has saved at least $610 million in taxes on this sale of 8,700 millions of dollars. CNBC reported.
The billionaire Amazon founder (pictured with fiancée Lauren Sánchez) announced he was leaving his former home in Seattle last year to move to Miami.
By 2025, his Florida tax savings would cover the cost of Koru, the $500 million superyacht he bought last year.
The businessman, who is the second-richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, filed a statement last week with federal regulators indicating an initial sale of nearly 12 million Amazon shares.
It notified the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the sale of 11,997,698 common shares on February 7 and 8 for a value of more than $2.04 billion.
With this sale alone, Bezos saved $140 million that he would have paid to the state of Washington, according to CNBC calculations.
Indian Creek Island, overlooking Biscayne Bay, is famous as the “Billionaire Bunker” thanks to its mega-rich residents. It has been revealed that Bezos’ move to Florida will help him save more than $600 million in taxes over the next year.
Bezos bought a three-bedroom property in Indian Creek for $68 million in June last year.
The Amazon founder also purchased his neighbor’s mansion for $79 million in October 2023.
The nine-figure sum that Bezos is expected to save by selling his shares over the next year means Amazon’s share price remains stable at its current level.
If the value of the stock continues to rise, your tax savings would also be even greater.
Amazon has seen its stock price rise steadily over the past year.
He the technology stocks called “Magnificent 7” Apple, microsoftAlphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Goal Platforms and Tesla was responsible for the vast majority of the S&P 500’s 24 percent growth in 2023.
And earlier this month, the retail giant reported that it had raised $170 billion in the final quarter of last year thanks to a surge in holiday shopping.
Amazon’s financial results beat analysts’ expectations and sent the stock soaring more than 8 percent in after-hours trading on Feb. 1.
Amazon, one of the so-called ‘Magnificent 7’ tech stocks, has seen its share price rise steadily over the past year.
By 2025, Bezos’ Florida tax savings would cover the cost of Koru, the $500 million superyacht he purchased last year, according to CNBC.
Fourth-quarter revenue increased 14 percent compared to the same period last year. Analysts on average expected revenue of $166.21 billion, according to LSEG data.
Bezos has been selling billions of dollars worth of Amazon stock since 1998 to fund his philanthropy, his space company and, most recently, his superyacht and a growing number of properties.
He resigned from the position of CEO of Amazon in 2021.
Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez own several properties on Indian Creek Island, along with retired NFL star Tom Brady and former first daughter Ivanka Trump.
Bezos bought two mansions for $147 million and is reportedly looking to buy three more homes on the island.


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Retailers demand major overhaul of business rates after Next Christmas sales slump 9.2 per cent | Daily Mail Online
Today, further figures came out:
Christmas sales: the winners and losers on the UK high street | Business | The Guardian
Meanwhile, Amazon has just announced how little it pays in business rates:
Amazon accused of 'gaming the system' on business rates - Telegraph
Here is comment from the Mail, just posted:
Iniquitous injustice ripping apart communities
Commentary by Ruth Sunderland
This week an entrepreneur named Simon Key was forced to compose an announcement that the Big Green Bookshop, an independent store he co-founded a decade ago in North London, is to shut because of ‘absolute monster’ business rates.
As he was contemplating an uncertain future, Amazon – whose online might has been a scourge of independent bookstores – revealed in a letter to MPs that last year it paid £63million in business rates. That is a paltry sum in relation to its £8.8billion of UK sales.
Its corporation tax payments are even more derisory.
The most recent tax bill for its warehouse operations, Amazon UK Services Ltd, was a slender £4.7 million. And it didn’t even pay it all, deferring some of the charge – perfectly legally – and only handing over £1.7 million. You may not be surprised to learn that the Big Green Bookshop paid a higher proportion of its profits in tax and rates than the U.S. Goliath.
The letter revealing Amazon’s obscenely small direct contribution to Britain’s public purse exposes the gaping loopholes in our system, and the advantage to be gained by online firms which rely on massive out-of-town distribution centres with far lower rates than town centre bricks and mortar traders.
So it is that shameless overseas mega-companies get away with minimal payments, while costs are piled without mercy on high-street business owners.
While it’s easy to identify this injustice, it is harder to work out what should be done. There are no easy or painless answers. But effective solutions must be found, and fast. Otherwise, the high streets will disintegrate as thousands of entrepreneurs who are the backbone of the economy are forced to give up the ghost.
Entrepreneurs, that is, like Simon Key, who set up his bookshop because there wasn’t one locally. He is continuing his business online, but independent bookstores are about more than just ringing up sales, they are about the soul of the community.
When his shop shuts, it will also be an end to the children’s drama workshops and visits by local authors. And what will arrive in their place?
Most likely a betting shop or a fast food shack.
The trouble is that there’s no room for sentiment on the British high street, which has suffered its worst Christmas since the financial meltdown in 2008, with companies like Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and House of Fraser expected to report very patchy trading over the festive period.
Yet as once-proud stores struggle with weak sales and rising rates bills, Amazon continues to gorge on the income it makes from British consumers.
This week it became the most valuable company in the world, worth just under $800 billion on the U.S. stock market.
Founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man on the planet with a fortune of £107billion. His divorce from wife MacKenzie, announced yesterday, will be the most expensive in history – but even after that he will be spectacularly wealthy.
To put that vast wealth – embellished by low tax bills in the UK – into perspective, he could, as an individual, buy Marks & Spencer 20 times over and still have billions in change.
Like millions of other Amazon customers, I am a fan of its low prices and fast deliveries. The company has invested billions of pounds in the UK and provided thousands of jobs, including high-level research roles, which is to be applauded.
Yet these benefits are coming at an unacceptable cost. Amazon is doing nothing illegal. The problem is that the tax system here, and in other developed nations, is grievously outdated.
It was devised for an era which no longer exists, when all businesses were ‘bricks and mortar’ companies. Now the corporate tax and rates rules are unfit for purpose. In particular, too much tax is extracted through business property, giving a massive unfair advantage to those who operate largely online.
Amazon argues that it does pay national insurance, PAYE and other taxes. But it pays far too little through the corporate tax and rates system towards the schools that educate its workforce, the hospitals that treat them, and the roads its lorries and vans speed along with our parcels.
So what can be done? In his most recent Budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced some measures, including plans to cut business rates by a third for almost half a million small high street shops.
He also unveiled a ‘digital services tax’ on online operators, though this is only expected to raise £400million by 2021-22, which is chicken feed compared with their revenues.
These are welcome moves, but not enough.
The first obvious point is that Amazon and other Silicon Valley operators must be forced to come clean on the business rates and corporate taxes they pay here. At the moment, Amazon operates through a number of different UK subsidiaries and it is virtually impossible to make sense of its full tax situation.
City watchdogs should bring in a new rule that all companies above a certain size must disclose their total corporation tax and business rate payments in a simple format so the public can see exactly how much – or how little – they are handing over.
Armed with that information, consumers might decide that if lower prices online come at the expense of reduced tax funding for public services, they would prefer to take their custom elsewhere.
Corporation tax needs wholesale reform. It is charged on profits, which can easily be manipulated when offset against apparent losses, rather than sales, which are far harder to fudge.
As for business rates, they are a vital source of income for cash-strapped local authorities who need to pay for essential services.
So the money needs to come from somewhere.
One possibility is to cut, or even abolish, business rates and make up for the lost income by increasing the rate of VAT or introducing a new online sales tax. This would no doubt provoke objections that consumers, rather than businesses, would end up paying more.
The truth is that all taxes are, in the end, paid by individuals. The overall tax take would be the same, it would just be redistributed more fairly, with Amazon paying more and traditional retailers less.
There is scope for more imaginative measures, too, including a green ‘delivery tax’ on the vehicles used to deliver goods. There would need to be exemptions for small firms and sole traders to avoid penalising ‘white van man’ unfairly, but the delivery culture is adding hugely to emissions and road pollution.
A tax on the plastic packaging used by Amazon, on the same principle as the plastic bag charge in shops, is another possibility.
The fact is there are no magic wands to save the high street in its current form, but allowing Amazon to continue making billions to enrich its founder and its shareholders at the expense of our public purse should not be an option.
Amazon outrage 'shows we MUST reform business rates': MPs pile pressure on ministers | Daily Mail Online


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Beijing Automotive Industry Corp.
General Motors may sell parts of its Saab unit to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding and close down the rest of the Swedish brand, Bloomberg News reported.
Germany has assured General Motors and the Opel Trust that its $6.70 billion offer in financial aid for Opel is not tied to the choice of an investor or a plan.
Chinese carmakers are venturing on to the global stage with bids for Western brands from Volvo and Hummer to Saab, but there are doubts that these inexperienced firms can manage the transformation such deals would bring.
General Motors says its talks over Opel’s rescue will focus on the consortium of auto parts maker Magna International and Sberbank, as well as RHJ International, The Associated Press reported, while talks with Beijing Automotive Industry Corp. have ceased.


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This week, Google introduced an initiative called Search Plus Your World, which will combine standard search results with items culled from Google+ and photo-sharing sites such as Picasa. The idea, generally speaking, is to expand the reach of Google, from regular ol' websites to the "social web" – where most Internet users operate today.
Search Plus Your World, expected to hit many computers today, is controlled via a toggle switch. Turn it on and search results will change based on your friend's tastes. Switch it off to return to the standard Google view. But that's not quite enough for Twitter, which today issued a strongly-worded statement about Search Plus Your World, expressing concern that Twitter results would be harder to find under the new system.
"As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results," the statement read. "We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users."
So is Twitter right to be worried? Hard to say – we haven't yet had a chance to try out the new search feature.
Google, Shankland writes, "can change how it presents search results derived from social services. It can change what services it chooses to listen to. It can offer different actions that people can take when seeing social information. It can give people different controls over how exactly their own social content is indexed for later inclusion in search."
Still, Shankland adds, "Google can't simply ignore social information. Because – perhaps you may have noticed – social connections are a force that's rebuilding the Internet." He's right, in the humble opinion of this blogger. Google will undoubtedly weather some complaints about the security, privacy, of practicality of the new Search Plus Your World feature, and the tech giant may even be forced to make a few corrections.
But as the social Web continues to grow, Google must find a way to incorporate social media results. And for the time being, Search Plus Your World is it.


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A thermostat regulates the temperature of a system and keeps the system's temperature at desired setpoint temperature. The device does this by turning heating and cooling devices on and off and regulating air flow of a heat transfer fluid as needed. This maintains the correct temperature. Thermostats may be used to control heating or cooling a system, or may be a component part of a heater or air conditioner. There are a variety of ways that thermostats can be constructed and could use...


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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 02: Elon Musk attends the 2022 Costume Institute Benefit celebrating In America: An Anthology of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Sean Zanni | Patrick Mcmullan | Getty Images
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon set the tone early this earnings season when he said inflation is “deeply entrenched” in the U.S. economy and impacting conditions on a multitude of fronts.
Since then, company leader after company leader has expressed similar sentiments.
Most say they’ve managed to navigate difficult times spurred by inflationary pressures at their highest level in more than 40 years. They report cutting costs, raising prices and generally trying to adapt models to the uncertainty of what’s ahead.
Tesla founder Elon Musk was practically apologetic on his company’s earnings call for hiking prices to meet higher costs.
“So I do feel like we’ve raised our prices. Well, we’ve raised our prices quite a few times. They’re frankly at embarrassing levels,” the mercurial electric vehicle pioneer told analysts. “But we’ve also had a lot of supply chain and production shocks, and we’ve got crazy inflation. So I am hopeful, this is not a promise or anything, but I’m hopeful that at some point we can reduce the prices a little bit.”
Nothing, however, seems certain at the moment, other than that inflation is on everyone’s mind.
Of the 91 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, inflation has been mentioned on 85 of the analysts calls, according to a search of FactSet transcripts.
Consumers paying the prices
Like Musk, company officials generally expect inflation to come down from the 8.6% quarterly growth rate from a year ago, as measured by the consumer price index. The CPI accelerated 9.1% in July, the highest number since November 1981.
But they’re also not taking any chances, using pricing power now to bolster their top and bottom lines amid a highly uncertain environment.
“Our primary response to the environmental challenge of inflation is higher pricing,” said Michael F. Klein, the president of personal insurance for Dow component Travelers. “We are pleased with our actions to increase rates over the past few quarters and remain confident in our ability to achieve further increases.”
The higher prices certainly haven’t hurt profitability, with results so far countering the generally pessimistic attitude on Wall Street heading into earnings season.
With nearly 20% of the S&P 500 companies reporting so far, 78% have beaten estimates for profits, which are up 6.3% from a year ago, according to Refinitiv. The beat rate on the revenue side is 72.5%, with sales up 11.3%.
Though energy companies have been a major boost to the aggregate top and bottom lines, the overall feeling is that cash-rich consumers are able to handle the burden of soaring prices, at least for now.
“We have been able to and continue to be able to pass through our product cost inflation to our customers, and they are increasingly finding ways to pass that through to their consumers as well,” said Sysco Chief Financial Officer Aaron Alt. “We’re confident that will continue to be the case certainly in here and now.”
Defying recession fears
Economists have worried that a looming recession could chill consumer spending that has been persistent but short of the pace of inflation.
Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser said the company has been focused on what she calls the “three Rs”: Russia, rates and recession.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a contributor towards the supply chain difficulties that have aggravated inflation, which the Federal Reserve is seeking to tamp down through aggressive interest rate increases. The rate hikes are aimed at slowing an economy that contracted by 1.6% in the first quarter and is on track to have shrunk by the same amount in the Q2, according to Atlanta Fed projections.
Still, Fraser said she thinks the U.S. will avoid an official recession or at least a deep one, even though two consecutive quarters of negative growth fits the rule-of-thumb definition. The National Bureau of Economic Recession is the official arbiter on recessions and expansions.
“It’s just an unusual situation to be entering into this choppy environment when you have a consumer with strong health and such a tight labor market,” Fraser said on Citi’s earnings call. “And I think that’s where you hear so many of us not so much concerned about an imminent recession in the [United] States.”
But Solomon, the Goldman CEO, said the company is playing it safe even though its economists expect inflation to pull back in the second half of the year.
“I think our tone is cautious because the environment is uncertain. The environment is very uncertain,” he said. “There’s no question that economic conditions are tightening to try to control inflation, and as economic conditions tighten, it will have a bigger impact on corporate confidence and also consumer activity in the economy. I think it’s hard to gauge exactly how that will play out, and so I think it’s prudent for us to be cautious.”
Originally Published Here -Source link


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Latest Retail News – 19/05/2012
1. Boston Consulting group say Australian consumers among most financially insecure in developed world.
2. Choice Magazine urges ACCC to investigate Australian retailers attempting to block cheaper prices online.
3. David Jones Company Secretary follows other senior staff leaving the company.
4. Gaming retailer, Game, placed in hands of liquidator.
5. Furniture retailer Nick Scali expects 22% profit drop this year.
6. Seven in ten Australian retailers put major business decisions on hold.
7. Australian Retailer of the Year awarded to Dan Murphy’s.
8. Retravision holds emergency meetings with members to discuss cash flow issues.
9. Electronics giant, Samsung, launches chain of apparel, shoes and accessories stores.


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Madonna Barbie Snubbed By Mattel
She may be the Material Mom, but Madonna’s no doll, according to the toy titans at Mattel.
After learning that expectant mother and catwalk maven Heidi Klum was recently honored with her own Barbie Doll as part of the brand’s Blonde Ambition Collection, Madge decided she wanted to be immortalized in plastic, too, The Globe’s Loosch Lips Column reports.
The Queen of Pop immediately rang up Mattel and pitched the idea of producing a Barbie Doll in her likeness, which would celebrate her contributions to music, spies say. Madonna was floored when the company politely said “thank, but no thanks” to idea of creating The Madonna Barbie.
Word is Mattel — who met controversy over their Black Canary Barbie in 2008 — feared the public backlash that could arise from consumers who frown on Madonna’s raunchy image. The sexualized “Holiday” singer has had several run-ins with the Catholic Church and more than few high-profile romantic entanglements over the course of her nearly 30 year career.
But this is one royal diss Madge won’t take lying down.
The Globe writes: “Since she’s used to getting what she wants, Madonna is now considering launching her own doll collection to rival Barbie.”


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Indeed Brewing's bet pays off; expansion will double capacity
The trio who started Indeed Brewing Co. 15 months ago took a risk. Despite high up-front costs they invested in beer canning equipment to tap into the retail market, where few of the new craft breweries were focused.
Now co-owners Tom Whisenand, Nathan Berndt and Rachel Anderson can't keep up with demand for their beer and have begun a series of expansions that will nearly double their Northeast Minneapolis brewery's capacity by August 2014.
"This expansion is about meeting the demand," Whisenand said. "It's about being able to grow at a good rate and it's about the quality and consistency of the beer, because that's what the consumer deserves."
Indeed brewed 911 barrels of beer in its first five months, 1,651 barrels in the next five months and nearly 2,600 barrels in the most recent five months, according to figures provided by the company.
Indeed is on pace to brew 5,500 barrels in 2013 and expects to brew 12,000 barrels in 2014. That's still only about 10 percent of the volume that Summit Brewing Co. and August Schell Brewing Co. produce, but about half of what Surly Brewing is doing.
To keep up with the demand, Indeed is adding five fermentation tanks - at roughly $25,000 each - between now and August to the seven it already has. With 12 tanks, Whisenand said Indeed could brew 18,000 barrels per year.
Indeed started its brewery in a space much larger that it initially needed, so no additional real estate is needed.
Nick Halter covers retail and sports business.
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Publication Date: September 30, 2021
Over its 17 years in existence, Tesla had redefined people's view of electric cars, and in 2020, the company saw its stock rise by more than 700% to became the most valuable carmaker in the world. In December 2020, Tesla celebrated its fifth consecutive quarter of profit and joined the S&P 500. However, in 2021 competition in the electric vehicle space was rapidly heating up. In January, General Motors announced that it would phase out gas-powered vehicles to sell only vehicles with zero emissions by 2035. A week later, Ford announced that it would invest $22 billion on electric vehicles (including hybrids) and $7 billion on autonomous vehicles by 2025. Meanwhile, BMW was developing electrified versions of all its models, and the Volkswagen Group had announced a new strategic plan with the specific aim of catching up with Tesla. Tesla's run had defied the skeptics, but with competition revving up, would Tesla be able to dominate the market in the years to come?


text: For the first time in nine quarters, Lenovo saw a decline in its China PC business. Again, this is not a surprise given a 14% decline in worldwide PC shipments, according to IDC. But Lenovo, which enjoys well over 35% share of the Chinese market, can't afford to let this slippage become a trend. To that end, the company's Mobile Internet Digital Home (MIDH) segment has been an excellent offsetting vehicle. The MIDH division comprises of "every non-PC" aspect of the business, including smartphones, which grew 206% in the fourth quarter. Remarkably, for the second consecutive quarter, Lenovo's smarphone business, which gained an additional 3.5% market share to an overall 13% share, is outgrowing the overall Chinese smartphone market, which grew in the quarter at a rate of 117%. Meanwhile, total MIDH revenue surged 74% year over year and now accounts for 9% of the company's overall sales. I don't believe Apple and Samsung fear these results today, but it's nonetheless encouraging that MIDH segment is growing at such a brisk pace to the extent that the business has achieved profitability in such a short period of time.


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Magni sets up in the UK
By Euan Youdale19 January 2018
Italy-based Magni Telescopic Handlers has set up a new venture in the UK
For the last three years Magni has been represented by the Forkway Group, its official distributor in the UK. The agreement came to an end in September last year as Magni decided to go it alone to increase market share.
The new entity, Magni Telescopic Handlers UK, is a wholly owned subsidiary and is headed up by Alex White who previously working for Forkway representing the Magni brand.
The subsidiary is set to move into a new UK headquarters in Dorset by the end of March. The building is part way through a major refurbishment and when finished will hold a stock of machines and parts and will have comprehensive training facilities. However, this is just the start, as there are plans for a new purpose-built facility.
The Magni range of rotating and heavy lift telescopic handlers was first introduced at Bauma, in 2013. At the time there were just a couple of models but since then the range has grown at a significant rate. Magni now has 13 models in its rotational range, six models in its heavy lift range and a 20m rigid chassis telescopic handler.
In 2016 Magni signed a deal with Zhejiang Dingli Machinery (Dingli), under which Magni has redesigned the company’s self propelled boom range and distributes Dingli scissors in Europe, in the name of Magni Dingli. The joint venture also allows better access to the Chinese market for Magni telescopic handlers.
Magni will be exhibiting at a number of UK shows in 2018 and will have demonstration machines available for customers.


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The past few weeks have been a good one for wireless consumers who can't seem to get off the phone. Three of the four major national wireless carriers -- Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile ? unveiled unlimited wireless voice calling plans for $99.99 per month. Sprint-Nextel is testing unlimited voice in four cities and may go national very soon in response to the other three carriers? announcements.
This shift in the wireless market reflects both the falling cost of making wireless calls and the perceived desire of consumers to have calling plans where they don't have to worry about going over their allotted plan minutes. This follows a similar trend to what happened over the past decade in the landline voice industry, where metered long distance plans were gradually replaced by all-you-can-eat bundles of local and long distance service. While many consumers gravitated to those bundled landline plans, TRAC's research indicates that the typical phone user can still save money by sticking with a metered long distance plan coupled with a standard, unlimited local plan. Similar math applies to the new unlimited wireless plans. The great majority of users do not make enough wireless calls in a month to need an unlimited voice plan. In addition, none of the companies have announced that subscribers will be able to share minutes on these plans, making them suited mostly to the power-user as opposed to the great many subscribers who share their minutes on so-called ?family? plans.
Another type of user who may benefit from the unlimited wireless plans are individuals who are already spending in excess of $100 combined on their landline, long distance, and wireless services. Such users, who may already be investigating ditching their landline phones anyway, could potentially save by going to an unlimited wireless voice plan. An additional point to keep in mind is that only T-Mobile is offering unlimited text-messages as a part of the unlimited voice package. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility are both charging an extra fee for unlimited text messages on top of unlimited voice.
Source: Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org


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Just in: the largest grocery retailer, Kroger announced and shared a new icon dubbed “Fresh Cart” which has joined the elongated “K” and “G” Kroger logo and the “Fresh for Everyone” logo in its retail, marketing, and media branding scheme. The curvy Fresh Cart icon – with two-wheel points and resembling a citrus slice – will sport the same contemporary, streamlined look and signature blue color of the Kroger logo. Kroger notes on its website that the Fresh Cart icon reflects its brand motto of “feeding the human spirit” through easy access to fresh food for all.
In this regard, the official spokesperson said in a conference this Thursday that the Fresh Cart combines two core Kroger Family stocks, innovation, and modernity, into one. The Cincinnati-based supermarket giant is an icon that has become synonymous with the grocery experience.” Our shopping cart was created using the letter K curve to represent our dedication to Constantly improving your shopping experience. No matter how you like to shop.
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Citrus wedges symbolize a commitment to freshness that goes beyond food. At Kroger, “Fresh” is an approach to everything we do and a sentiment we hope will inspire our customers. Going forward. This icon will complement our existing Kroger Family brand assets, including the logo and tagline, and serve as a consistent visual unifier across our banners, services, methods, and expertise.”
While the Ads concerning Fresh Cart will comprise retail, television and radio broadcasts, digital, print, social media, podcasts, cinema, and outdoor channels. Kroger said it plans to launch a multimedia campaign to highlight the latest update to its brand.
“Our new brand icon, the Fresh Cart icon, brings together the Kroger family of companies into one unified visual framework and reinforces our brand promise, ‘Fresh For Everyone ’‘stated by Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen said on Kroger’s second-quarter conference call.


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Beijing — Apple opened the entirely new Apple Sanlitun, the next iteration of Apple’s first store in China. Sitting adjacent to the previous location on Taikoo Li’s open square in Sanlitun, the brand new store is twice the size of the original and introduces several firsts for Apple in China. It is also opening with the same comprehensive health and safety procedures currently in place across all Apple Store locations for employees and visitors, including a mask requirement, temperature checks, and social distancing before entry and inside the store.The new store features many of Apple’s latest retail design updates, including a Forum, Viewing Gallery, and Boardroom. The Forum will be the future home for Today at Apple, where the store will host some of Beijing’s greatest artists, musicians, and creatives who will showcase and teach their process. The Viewing Gallery, situated within the grand upper level, offers a stunning vantage point for the lively outdoor square. Local businesses and entrepreneurs can get personal advice and guidance from the Apple team in the store’s dedicated Boardroom. With more than double the space of the previous store dedicated to service and support, customers will have ample room to meet with a Genius or experience Today at Apple.
Apple Sanlitun also features Apple’s first integrated solar array in a retail store in China. The array will provide power to the store below, which, like all Apple facilities worldwide, runs exclusively on renewable energy. Apple is supporting enough clean energy in China to power more than 450,000 homes each year.“This store sets a new standard for Apple Retail in China and we’re thrilled to build on our history in Beijing,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People. “We look forward to operating Apple Sanlitun, and all of our stores around the world, with the health and safety of our customers and teams as our top priority.”
Since opening 12 years ago with 52 team members, Apple Sanlitun has welcomed more than 22 million visitors — the equivalent of every resident of Beijing passing through its doors. Now, 33-foot glass panels, fabricated in Tianjin, China, blur the barrier between inside and out, and signature staircases on either side of the store run parallel with exterior stairs to create further transparency and flow. The floors are clad in Padang Light stone from the Shandong province, and the west terrace is lined with Sophora japonica, the official tree of Beijing. The store is now home to 185 team members, who today will open a new era for Apple in Beijing.
Source: Apple Newsroom


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The MCCI released its annual economic forecasts, the ‘MCCI Perspectives Economiques/MCCI Economic Outlook’ in a press conference held on Thursday 30th November 2017, in the presence of the President Mr. Azim Currimjee.
According to the MCCI’s econometric modeling, economic growth, as measured by an increase in the GDP, is expected to be of 4 percent in 2017 and 4.4 percent in 2018. The Potential Growth of the economy is at 4.1%, indicating an expected inflation rate of 3.8 percent in 2018, as compared to 3.5 percent in 2017.
On employment, the MCCI expects further decreases in the unemployment rate to reach 7 percent in 2017 and 6.8 percent in 2018.
On the main macro-economic indicators, our econometric model shows higher growths in the three main components, be it consumption, investment or exports.
The full report can be accessed here in English or French.


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Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HLL.BO)
|Market Cap (Mil.):||Rs1,656,362.00|
|Shares Outstanding (Mil.):||2,163.20|
* ITC Ltd gains 1.7 pct, Hindustan Unilever Ltd is up 1.6 pct and Britannia Industries advances 2.5 pct. * Dabur India Ltd gains 2.1 pct, while Jubilant Foodworks Ltd adds 2 pct. * Falling inflation will lift consumer spending, while lower raw material costs will aid margins, traders say. * India's inflation dropped to a new multi-year low in October, helped by slower annual rises in food and fuel price. (firstname.lastname@example.org / email@example.com
* BSE index falls 0.37 pct; NSE ends 0.29 pct lower * DLF, Jindal Steel hit by regulatory worries * Defence equipment makers rally By Abhishek Vishnoi MUMBAI, Oct 27 - Indian shares fell on Monday, retreating from a more than one-month high hit earlier in the session as investors booked profits after recent strong gains, while consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever slumped after it warned the country's consumer spending will remain weak in the near term. The decli
MUMBAI - Hindustan Unilever Ltd, controlled by consumer goods giant Unilever Plc , warned India's consumer spending will remain weak as the economy sags after its own profit rose 8 percent on robust sales of soaps and detergents.
MUMBAI, Oct 27 - Hindustan Unilever Ltd, controlled by consumer goods giant Unilever Plc , warned India's consumer spending will remain weak as the economy sags after its own profit rose 8 percent on robust sales of soaps and detergents.
MUMBAI, Oct 27 - Hindustan Unilever Ltd, the Indian unit of consumer goods giant Unilever Plc , said second-quarter net profit grew 8 percent, in line with estimates as sales remained robust despite the country's slower economic growth.
Reuters Market Eye - Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) falls 2 percent.
* Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) falls 2 percent. * Morgan Stanley downgrades to "underweight" from "equalweight." * Cites "lofty" valuations despite "weak" earnings growth. * HUL trades at 37.6 times 12-month forward earnings compared with 35 times for peers, Thomson Reuters data shows. * Morgan Stanley says ITC is its top pick in the Indian consumer goods sector. (firstname.lastname@example.org / email@example.com)
MUMBAI - Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) sees no immediate sign of recovery in demand for consumer goods after a transport strike last year helped sales volume in April-June outgrow estimates for the first time in eight quarters.
* Net profit 10.57 bln rupees vs 9.66 bln rupees analyst view
* BSE index falls 0.52 pct; NSE ends 0.54 pct lower * Hindustan Unilever up after quarterly volume growth beats estimates * Havells India falls; depreciation, taxes weigh on earnings * Bank of Baroda gains; lower provisions boost profit By Abhishek Vishnoi MUMBAI, July 28 - Indian shares fell on Monday to their lowest close in a week, as profit-taking hit shares of blue-chips such as ICICI Bank Ltd for a second consecutive session after the record highs of last wee


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Newly opened Long Island City Pizza Factory is planting a flag, claiming it is the world's first "full-digital pizzeria," an accomplishment its owners hope will give it a direct connection right into customer hearts.
As technology advances and people use computers and smart phones daily, online ordering at pizzerias is on the rise. While large chains, like Domino's and Papa John's, are already taking advantage of online ordering, the technology is available for smaller pizzerias to jump into online ordering as well. Online ordering offers a variety of benefits, including:
Larger orders for more profits
Accurate gathering and reporting of customer demographics
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Asda has paved the way as the first UK supermarket to approach The Vegan Society with intention to improve the labelling of its vegan products.
The supermarket giant has started displaying the Vegan Trademark on 16 different items, some of which have already reached store shelves, causing positive social media reactions. Additional products will be released in the next few months.
George Gill, chief executive of The Vegan Society said: “We are very pleased that yet another major retailer has listened to its customers and decided to make the shopping experience easier for vegans and those shopping on their behalf. Asda’s move reflects the changing eating habits towards healthier and more compassionate choices, setting a great example for other supermarkets.”
Asda joins other high profile companies such as Alpro, Lush, and Ikea in taking the trademark, which can now be been on around 24,000 products spanning 800 companies.
While Asda is the first supermarket to use the Vegan Trademark, Sainsbury’s and The Co-op label the majority of their own-brand vegan products but the trademark provides extra assurance to vegan customers.


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Wednesday 05 May 2021
The impact of this issue announcement is high. Please act accordingly to rectify the issue, as stated below.
Dell desktops, laptops, and tablets built since 2009 and running Windows.
What you need to know:
Dell has released a patch to address critical security issues in Dell’s dbutil_2_3.sys driver (CVE-2021-21551), which comes bundled with PCs. The said vulnerabilities can be used to crash systems, steal information, and acquire privilege escalation.
Actions to be taken:
Administrators and users are advised to read Dell’s advisory (DSA-2021-088) and FAQ document containing remediation steps.


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NAB taps power of AI chatbots for business customer service
- 04 September, 2017 11:41
NAB has launched a virtual chatbot aimed at helping business customers better answer common banking queries online.
The digital virtual banker pilot is running on the banking giant’s nan.com.au website and has been designed to answer more than 200 common questions relating to business banking accounts, with 13,000 variants. If the artificial intelligence-powered bot can’t answer a question, the inquiry is then reverted to a human banker.
The questions and responses were based on thousands of real-life customer enquiries. NAB said customers were also involved in the initial testing and development phases, where 75 per cent agreed a virtual banking assistance would be a desirable offering to have available.
The self-service assistant has also been extended to a tutorial video for NAB Connect users aimed at helping customers understand how to better use the platform by doing things like adding users or setting up recurring payments.
NAB chief operating officer, Anthony Cahill, said the name of the virtual game was to offer solutions that make life easier for customers. The solution was the brainchild of NAB’s customer journey team and based on a re-imagining of specific customer experiences.
“Our research shows that two-thirds of Australian SMEs cite dealing with administrative tasks as taking a lot of effort, and our customers desperately want to spend more time on their business and less time on dealing with admin tasks,” he said.
“Our virtual banker is there to help solve it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We will continue to develop the virtual banker over coming months, enabling an even broader and more diverse range of instant answers and guidance for business customers.”
NAB claims to have 1000 employees across different divisions, including marketing, product and banking, working on similarly themed projects. Talking on the launch of the virtual banker, NAB’s EGM of business transformation, Anne Bennett, said customers are doing 275 million things with the banking giant a year, and it’s keen to make as many of them as easy and accessible as possible.
“When this customer journey designed their preferred reality, it was with the idea that we’d keep adding more products, services, information and also more ways to engage with the virtual banker,” she said. “We’ve love for you to be able to user your voice for example, to activate it and ask questions when our business customers driving around.”
According to Forrester’s State of Chatbots report, chatbots have the potential to improve information distribution, customer care, commerce, and marketing over time by making them more natural.
A recent survey undertaken by LivePerson also suggested consumers are warming to bots even as they still prefer to interact with a human. According to its report, the majority of Australian consumers have a positive or neutral perception of using a bot to communicate with a brand’s customer service, slightly higher than global averages.


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Although there is a quite obscure circumstance about it on which model of Android will be primarily based Samsung Galaxy S9 firmware. Will this new Marshmallow or the very good previous “five”?
Till now, all the prototypes Galaxy S9, which are lit up in all sorts of leaks, employing Android 5.one Lollipop. Nevertheless, this slide Google developer formally introduced a new variation of its Android 6. Marshmallow functioning program.
In theory, it is rational that the Korean huge will release a new flagship at after dependent on the new Android 6., but will the Samsung Galaxy S9 firmware at the identical time is nicely recognized for the absence of glitches and pace, provided that the organization made a decision to speed up the process of growth?
A calendar year back, came out even with a totally operate-OS Android 4. four.4 KitKat Galaxy Observe 4 for some time suffered from all sorts of bugs that have been mounted totally is not the first firmware update. Will Samsung danger, or would desire to release a secure working Galaxy S9 based mostly on the verified fifth edition of Android? In theory, nothing prevents release an update in a pair of months. The unfortunate knowledge of Apple with its iOS 9 also speaks in favor of the truth that must not be rushed.
What Samsung smartphones will get Android six. Marshmallow?
At the minute the representatives of Samsung have formally verified the exit firmware upgrade on the basis of the sixth edition of Android for smartphones subsequent companies:
Note that below indicated only currently launched models that on which edition of Android will be based Galaxy S9 firmware, no formal data has however been received.
But it is acknowledged that the significant update will get not only the firmware, but also included in its composition a proprietary shell Samsung Touch Wiz. In addition, in the new firmware ought to be accessible some new fascinating purposes, which, nonetheless, if preferred, you can securely uninstall.
How would just get root, until you will be Samsung Galaxy S9 firmware based on Android 6. Marshmallow, it is challenging to say. Specifically, when you consider that the Korean electronics big, this time needs to use their personal chipset with first cores for a massive element of the Galaxy S9.


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Barely one year of winning the outstanding design award during the 2018 Nigeria Auto Journalists Award, has the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross once again continued its strings of global prestigious awrads.
At the recent national “Car of the Year in Russia – 2019” award ceremony, the Eclipse Cross was named as the best “Compact SUV” in one of the most highly competitive categories.
“Car of the Year in Russia” is judged by a public vote and is the largest survey of its kind in the world, with more than a million people voting for their favourites. The votes are independently verified by research company IpsosComcon.
It is not just the public who are impressed; the Eclipse Cross crossover SUV was selected as the “RJC Car of the Year 2019” run by the Automotive Researchers’ & Journalists’ Conference of Japan (RJC).
It is a strategic model designed by the Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi Motors to join its global line-up of crossover SUVs: the ASX compact SUV and the Outlander.
Since launch in 2018, the model has been sold in over 100 countries and has gained international recognition with nine awards. The impressive array of global honours is due to its technical abilities, design, and safety features.
In 2018, the car earned the highest safety rating according to the independent European organization Euro NCAP and was also awarded by the Nigeria Automotive Journalists Association (NAJA) as the Outstanding SUV design of the year.
In Nigeria, Massilia Motors general manager (Sales), Tunji Itiola explained: “The SUV is equipped for the local market with a 2.0 liter Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) petrol engine that allows seamless gear interchange, giving the smoothest driving experience within its category’’.
‘’Not only is the Eclipse Cross a stylish fusion of a sharp coupe and a compact SUV, it has high rough road performance and well-balanced dynamics, due to Mitsubishi’s unique Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) four-wheel-drive system.’’ Itiola said.
It is an upscale model with super exciting features which include, the adaptive cruise control, which maintains a selected distance between a vehicle and the car ahead using radar. It reduces driving stress, especially during traffic jams on highways and assures better safety.
Another award-winning safety feature is the lane departure warning intelligent sensors placed all around the vehicle that monitors your surroundings and provide active warnings to alert you of possible danger. For instance, if your car is drifting from its lane while the turn signals are not operating.
To top it all, the most unique innovation of this beauty is the Head-Up Display (HUD), which conveys information above the dashboard for easy viewing.
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) is a global automobile company based in Tokyo, Japan, which has a competitive edge in SUVs and pickup trucks, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
MMC launched the i-MiEV – the first mass-produced electric vehicle in 2009, which was followed by the Outlander PHEV in 2013 – a plug-in hybrid market leader in Japan and Europe.
Pajero/Montero Sport, Triton/L200, Ooutlander and Xpander play a major role in achieving its growth. MMC is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Massilia Motors is the joint venture of the CFAO group and the Chanrai group uniting forces to deliver customer satisfaction. With operations run by CFAO, Massilia Motors is the sole distributor of Mitsubishi Motors in Nigeria. Line-up includes the ASX, Eclipse Cross, Outlander, Pajero, Pajero Sport and the L200 pick-up.
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Here are some of the new original shows and movies that will be coming to the streaming service. "The increasing number of streaming services with high-quality, exclusive content away from the legacy multichannel bundle appears to be making it easier and easier to cut the chord".
Netflix predicted it would pick up 5 million new streaming subscribers from April through June.
The company had started developing potential shows and many of them hails from Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel.
The service will also be the exclusive home to 30 seasons of "The Simpsons" - TV's longest running prime time scripted series.
Disney announced during a presentation for investors on April 11, that the service will launch on November 12 in the United States with a monthly price of $6.99 - which is cheaper than competitors Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Netflix fell nearly 4 percent last week when Disney gave its presentation on the service.
The move "allows them to position Hulu as their edgier, adult offering", he said. Following its U.S debut, Disney plans to expand the service globally with the goal of being in almost all major regions of the world within two years.
Although Netflix is now facing heavy competition from companies such as Disney which is set to release its Disney+ streaming service soon, and Amazon, Hulu, and HBO all entering the streaming market; Kraft believes that Netflix's ability to lock down talent "will continue to feed" Netflix's "appetite for high-value original content". The $6.99 per month price point won't hurt either.
"We were pleasantly surprised by the content levels" announced at Thursday's investor event, Macker said.
Most Korean consumers subscribing to local IPTV services have been paying from 1,000 won to 2,000 won for sought-after video content. The company has a slate of original TV shows that will be available for a monthly subscription, but the company hasn't said how much it will cost. "Will consumers understand that a new Marvel movie is available in theaters, but not on Disney+ for eight months?"
Disney could "certainly have an impact on Netflix's growth over ... a short term period", Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at KeyBanc, told Cheddar.
Meyer said Disney may "carve out a small niche" among families and young viewers but doesn't pose a serious threat to Netflix.
Netflix also is in talks to purchase the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood to allow its films to more easily compete for Academy Awards, after "Roma" director Alfonso Cuarón won Oscars for best director and best cinematographer.
From January through March, Netflix reported it added 7.86 million paid subscribers internationally, compared with the average analyst estimate of 7.14 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Laura Martin, analyst at Needham & Co., disagrees, saying Disney with its well-known brands and franchises will eventually overwhelm Netflix.
South Korea is the latest country where Netflix has tried out mobile-only subscription with cheaper pricing plans, as the streaming giant applies different pricing strategies depending upon the region.


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Visiting Delegations at 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show Here to Buy Your Products!January 6, 2011
Vidya Desai is an International Trade Specialist with the U.S. Commercial Service International Buyer Program.
I am writing to you from the bustling International Commerce Center (ICC), here at the 2011 International CES, one of the largest consumer electronics show in the world. It is opening day of the show and thousands of people are anxiously awaiting the opening of the show floor. Among these thousands are 34 foreign buyer delegations recruited by the Commercial Service International Buyer Program (IBP). There are over 700 IBP recruited delegates from key markets, including buyers from China, Brazil, Vietnam, who have traveled the distance to make deals with U.S. companies.
We have several meetings scheduled between U.S. exhibitors and overseas Commercial Specialists. These meetings help educate U.S. companies about the overseas markets to see if their products can succeed. If you’re a U.S. exhibitor at CES and want to take advantage of this service, it’s not too late! Stop by the ICC in the South Hall Connector, Room S224/S225 to request a meeting.
In addition to all the buzz around the ICC, Commerce Secretary Locke will be visiting the show today! Secretary Locke will be speaking at one of the session at the Tech Policy Summit this morning. It is just the beginning of an exciting four days here at CES and we hope to help make your visit to CES a success!


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FDA Officially Raises Legal Tobacco Age To 21
It's official - the FDA says it is now illegal to sell tobacco to anyone under the age of 21.
Last week, the White House signed off on a bill that would increase the legal age within the next six months. But it looks like the new rules are already in effect.
The FDA's website has now been updated to read "It is now illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product – including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes – to anyone under 21."


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Assassin's Creed Unity "no face" bug resolved, performance issues investigated
Guess you could say they saved face...
Assassin's Creed Unity launched over a week ago and since its launch we have been seeing a bevy of complaints on the graphics.
In reply to the complaints on graphics (texture issues, no faces) and performance, Ubisoft has created a live blog for their updates.
So, here we are today and we've seen both the performance being "investigated" and the graphics being resolved in a patch. If you're facing the performance issues that others have reported, it comes from a discrepancy between the pre-launch and post-launch environment. Ubisoft is looking for the best fix at the moment and have no ETA on when the fix will be implemented. As for the graphics issue that left us without a face, well, with the Day One patch (and following patches) that problem will be fixed.
Love me, plz.
Catch me on Twitter @TatiMo_GZ


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Allentown, PA – Agere Systems is set to redefine its business to focus on providing advanced IC solutions that access, move, and store network information. It will exit its optoelectronics business, which represented about 10% of the company’s total revenues in the June quarter of FY02. With the refocus of its business, Agere is going to reduce its work force from 11,200 to 7,200 by the end of December 2003.
“We are redefining Agere as a provider of IC solutions to target the communications and computing opportunities that present the best long-term potential,” said John Dickson, president and CEO of Agere. “As we exit our optoelectronics business, our first priority will be to ensure that we fully support our opto customers during the transition and meet our commitments to them.”
Agere will continue to deliver ICs for wireless data and storage applications, as well as multi-service networking solutions for segments such as metro, access, and enterprise.
Agere is seeking a buyer for all or parts of the optoelectronics business, but will discontinue optoelectronics operations no later than June 30, 2003. With the planned exit of the optoelectronics business, the company will discontinue or sell operations in its facilities in Dallas, TX; Alhambra and Irwindale, CA; and Matamoros, Mexico.
In addition, as a result of this exit and the previously announced sale of the analog line card business, the company no longer needs to move manufacturing operations from its Reading and Breinigsville, PA, facilities to the Allentown, PA, facility. The company intends to sell the Reading and Breinigsville properties once it discontinues those operations.
Agere will move its remaining IC wafer fabrication line from Allentown to Orlando, FL, by the end of September 2003. This move will allow the company to consolidate all of its US manufacturing operations in one facility, resulting in significant reduction in manufacturing space and costs.
Agere continues to seek a buyer for the Orlando operations and intends to sell the plant as an ongoing operation, allowing the company to continue sourcing products from this facility. If the company does not identify a buyer, it plans to operate that facility at least through September 2004.
The company’s manufacturing consolidation is consistent with its fab-lite strategy. Agere will leverage foundries for standard process technologies, continue its IC assembly and test operations in Singapore and Thailand, and maintain its wafer manufacturing joint venture with Chartered Semiconductor.
Agere’s central campus will remain in Allentown, where the company’s two sites will house R&D, operations, marketing, sales and other corporate functions.


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Despite two big names in retail —Macy’s and Sears—announcing plans to close many locations in 2017, Atlanta-based NanoLumens, makers of custom-built indoor and outdoor LED displays for a variety of markets, announces that it is increasing its commitment to the retail channel and has recently named Matt Nurre to the position of vice president of global retail sales to lead the company’s channel development programs. “The retail channel has emerged as a pillar of our long-term global growth strategy, and for good reason,” says Nurre. “While the traditional model of the stand-alone brick and mortar retail business is being challenged, the advent and widespread proliferation of digital technologies, anchored by a LED visualization solution, is opening the door to an exciting new kind of customer experience that is helping retailers around the world to reinvent themselves for a new generation of connected consumers.”
Bright Future Awaits Retailers Who Combine Digital Signage Technology with Design for Compelling Customer Experiences
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, January 10, 2017 — Set against a backdrop of post holiday news from several brick and mortar retailers who announced plans to close hundreds of locations in 2017, NanoLumens today forecast a significantly rosier picture for those forward-looking retailers who integrate digital signage technology with design to create new kinds of compelling customer experiences. In fact, the industry leading manufacturer and marketer of indoor and outdoor LED visualization solutions is increasing its commitment to […]
The DailyDOOH Gala Awards is the LED Display industry's biggest night - a black tie event that recognizes excellence and promotes best practice in the industry. In it's fifth annual ceremony Thursday night, NanoLumens came away with the much coveted award for Best Overall Retail or Mall Experience.
A recent publication for systems integrators talked about how pervasive the mobile app "Pokémon Go" use is among the installers and systems designers. Who would have thought? Can we use that for a teachable moment? Let's consider the lessons of "Pokémon Go." While only at level 18 of the game, it has already taught lessons to be considered for selling. This is a "real environment" augmented reality game of preparing, while doing and learning, all in order to win — even when no one is certain of the rules and challenges of the game!
LED Display technology can be the means in which a retailer takes knowledge of a customer accrued through their online shopping history and leverage it in a retail store. LED displays can identify the customer or customers standing in front of it.
The physical store has become just one among many touch points on a radically revamped shopper journey. The same forces that are making the distinctions between "omnichannel retail" and just plain "retail" disappear are already changing the ways that stores are designed, laid out, equipped, staffed and managed.


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Tekmetric Launches Two-Way Text Option
Nov. 25, 2020—Information provider Tekmetric will soon be launching Tekmessage, a two-way texting feature, according to a press release.
With the feature, which will be available to users by November 30, potential customers will be able to find auto repair shops online through sites like Google and text shops directly. The conversations will show up on a customer's phone as a regular text message thread.
“We wanted to make customer communication as easy as possible so auto repair shops can spend more time on big picture things like enhancing their processes and boosting revenue," said Prasanth Chilukuri, co-founder and CFO of Tekmetric in the release.


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Google knows all. It even knows the contents of your emails, as a convicted sex offender found out the hard way last week in the US.
A 41-year-old man from Texas was arrested after Google found child pornography in his Gmail account and tipped off police. The arrest was a win for Google’s new software that trawls millions of email accounts for images of child abuse, The Telegraph reports.
But it was also a reminder of the vast amounts of private data collected, collated and scanned by the advertising giant. Yes, Google is a search business, but it makes its money from advertising, and the more it knows about you the better it can targets its ads to you. Primarily it gets to know you by your search terms, followed by scanning your emails.
So what exactly does Google know about you? The better question is what doesn’t it know, says executive director of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at UNSW, David Vaile.
“Google knows everything about everything because they’ve scanned the entire internet, and they’ve also tracked the vast majority using Google Analytics, which is their tool that feeds back information to website developers but also to themselves,” says Mr Vaile, who is also vice-chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation.
According to Mr Vaile, the company probably knows your age, gender, a lot about your health, your family relationships, politics, sexuality, religion and “a whole lot of other things”.
It uses this information, gleaned from your interactions with the entire suite of Google products, to build what’s called a ‘psychographic profile’ – a snapshot of you that helps it personalise your pop-up ads.
This means that if you have Google Earth on your phone, a Gmail account, and you use the Chrome browser on your desktop computer while you enter Google searches, all of the data you volunteer ends up in one big pile.
“All of those things get triangulated and married up, such that they know everything about you,” Mr McGibbon says.
The former Federal policeman, who is also security general manager for Dimension Data Australia, says Google holds “a honeypot of us” which, if stolen, misused or accidentally distributed could be “catastrophic”.
“While I don’t doubt the morality of any of these companies, that doesn’t mean it won’t be misused through some failed corporate decision, or that it can’t be stolen,” Mr McGibbon says.
Should you be worried?
AVG Technologies security advisor Michael McKinnon has read several of Google’s security white papers, and spoken with their security experts.
But with so much data in store, Google is both a huge target for hackers, and one mistake away from a disaster.
What exactly does it gather?
1. Your browser, operating system and Internet provider.
2. The websites you visit, the pages you click on, and how long you spend on each one.
3. Whether you’re using a desktop, smartphone or tablet.
4. If you’re a Gmail user, the emails you send and receive. If not, it can still scan any email you send to a Gmail account.
5. If you have an Android phone, and don’t turn off location tracker, it will be logging your movements.
6. For users of Google Now, the company’s version of Siri, it can use all of this data to make predictions on what it thinks you want. Spooky.
What can you do?
AVG Technology offers PrivacyFix, a free tool to block trackers and toggle the privacy settings of your Google account.
Click to find out what Google thinks it knows about you (including your age and gender) here.
See if Google has been tracking your movements here.
Get a list of your data held by Google here.
Download everything Google knows about you here.
Even if you turn off cookie tracking, Google can assign you a unique tracking number based on the versions of your operating system, plug-ins, apps and more. Click to find out if you are trackable via browser fingerprinting.


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Consumer confidence in the U.S. edged up in the first quarter of the year, while sentiment in some other big nations including China and Russia fell, according to a survey.
Around the world, confidence climbed or stayed stable in every region except Latin America, said Nielsen’s global index of consumers and spending. A drop in oil prices is helping some countries while hurting others.
“Compared to the end of last year when all regional confidence scores declined, it was a more upbeat start to the year,” the report concluded.
Among the world’s biggest economies, Japan showed the biggest increase, hitting its highest confidence level since 2005. India and Taiwan also saw a jump in consumer sentiment, giving an overall boost to the Asia-Pacific region despite a slight slump in China.
The United States enjoyed a slight bump in confidence, aided by brighter job prospects and lower gas prices, the report said. However, retail sales were flat in April, the Commerce Department said, indicating that many shoppers are still cautious about spending.
“Half of Americans are still in a recessionary mindset,” said James Russo, senior vice president of Nielsen Global Consumer Insights. “Nearly 35 percent say they live paycheck to paycheck.”
That kind of caution also extends around the world.
Despite generally rising confidence, many people are still planning to spend less on discretionary categories including vacations and new clothes. The one exception are millennials, especially those 25 to 29 years old, who will outspend other groups.


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Rocked by the devastating effects of COVID-19 on global economies, New Zealand’s central bank has flagged the use of a negative Official Cash Rate (OCR) in its latest Monetary Policy Statement (MPS).
“As an unconventional fiscal strategy, a negative OCR is something Kiwis have never seen before, and one we would need to see greater conversation from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) about once retail banks are in a place to implement,” says Brad Olsen, a senior economist with economics consultancy Infometrics.
Essentially, lowering the OCR into negative territory would mean that cash deposited with the central bank would incur a storage charge, as opposed to earning an interest income, he says.
While previously guaranteeing that the OCR would stay on hold at its current level of 0.25 percent for the 12-months to March 2021, in its latest MPS the RBNZ told banks to prepare systems for the possibility of a negative OCR by year-end, signalling the potential for a dramatic change in fiscal policy.
Why use a negative interest rate in New Zealand?
By using a negative interest rate strategy, the central bank aims to incentivise spending and deter saving to encourage much-needed economic activity.
Sombre economic projections to year-end anticipate rising unemployment, supply chain disruption, and further damage to New Zealand’s economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Government debt levels are expected to soar, doubling to over $200 billion,” Brad says.
With lessened tax revenue the result of rising unemployment coupled with increased spending on social support, the Government will be in the red for a long time, he adds.
While currently in a state of uncertainty, the possibility of a reduction in pricing across the economy is likely and could cause New Zealand consumers to adopt a wait-and-see approach to spending that would exacerbate an already challenging situation.
The implementation of a negative OCR would bring retail lending rates lower and encourage individuals to spend on goods, services, and property which could, in turn, enable businesses to be more profitable, stabilising wages and employment.
As an export economy, another major concern for New Zealand is a reliance on foreign investment which the RBNZ flagged in its latest MPS, saying that ‘reduced world activity will mean lower demand for New Zealand exports’.
“New Zealand’s exports are holding up, but as the world edges into recession, disruption to trading routes and international freight lines could affect the prosperity of our primary export sector,” Brad says.
“While the general feeling is that the economy has driven down the value of our dollar, reducing the OCR could realise a further reduction which would support exports going forward.”
“Global trade will soften but a lower OCR has the potential to assist in creating demand for New Zealand’s exports by making them more attractively priced on a global scale,” Brad says.
How have negative interest rates worked overseas?
Previously indicating neutrality, RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr has said negative interest rates ‘had been operating just fine around the world, and should be viewed as an extension of traditional monetary policy’.
Just a handful of central banks currently use zero or negative interest rates including Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the European Central Bank (ECB), and Japan.
Utilised to combat a persistent deflationary period and the European debt crisis, negative interest rates across Europe have been used to stimulate the economy and improve the demand for exports. They have also given individuals pause for thought to re-examine finances, asking whether investments such as term deposits are rewarding enough.
In the case of persistently low interest rates, those with savings may be inclined to search for better returns outside their bank. Internationally, however, Brad says the vast majority of retail rates have failed to fall below zero.
How will a negative interest rate affect me?
For mortgage-holders, the concept of a negative OCR should mean a further discount on interest rates. However, banks may be reticent to pass this rate cut to customers as profit margins will already feel the squeeze of a reduced OCR.
“In the case of historical OCR cuts, these haven’t always flowed through to retail rates, however, in more recent times consumers have benefitted from record low interest rates. What we’re seeing is the RBNZ doing the heavy lifting to keep wholesale rates as well as their own funding rates low,” Brad says.
“Seeing mortgage rates fall below three percent is a huge move, especially in uncertain economic times, however, there is concern about how much the RBNZ can do, given that banks forecast pricing movements in advance,” he adds.
For savers and retirees, the slow, downward creep of the OCR since September 2015 is bad news.
Where the current average interest rate on a 12-month term deposit between New Zealand’s five major banks is around 2.2 percent, and the current OCR is 0.25 percent - there is a 1.95 percent gap.
Should banks be able to maintain a comparable difference if the OCR was further cut, then a -0.25 percent OCR would see an assumed 12-month term deposit rate of 1.7 percent.
A retiree with a $10,000 deposit would have their gross return of $170 reduced to net $140 per annum, after a 17.5 percent tax rate.
While some say reducing the OCR further would immediately reduce wholesale interest rates, effectively amounting to monetary stimulus, the impact on New Zealand’s housing market remains to be seen.
Brad expects that the major effect for those in the residential property market will be the availability of credit.
“With loan-to-value restrictions (LVR) gone for the next 12-months, banks will be keeping a closer eye on lending to understand who will repay their loan and who will be more vulnerable,” he says.
As our country navigates unchartered economic waters with a long-term expectation that the cost of borrowing will be cheaper for longer, coupled with this recent relaxation of LVR restrictions, a negative interest rate seems likely to entice buyers sitting on the fence to make a move.
“However likely the RBNZ is to implement a negative OCR, New Zealand’s banks will have their hands full navigating the post-COVID-19 economy while updating technological infrastructure in preparation for the single biggest test to software systems since Y2K,” Brad says.


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Northcliffe farmer quits dairy over Brownes’ milk price
A South-West milk producer will leave the industry after 45 years because buyer Brownes is offering too little for his milk.
Northcliffe farmers Michael and Francis Armstrong, whose contract with Brownes will expire on March 12, said the company’s offer of a three-year fixed agreement of 45¢/litre (average) was not a price they were prepared to work for.
The departure of Mr Armstrong means there will be four million litres less milk collected from WA dairy farms each year. This is on top of and will be added to the millions already lost after out-of-contract Brownes milk suppliers Tony Ferraro, Dale Hanks and Graham Manning were forced from the industry after the company refused to collect their milk in late October.
“Imagine if I went back to them and asked if the Brownes management were happy to revert to a pay rate they had been on 16 years ago,” Mr Armstrong said.
“That is what Brownes are asking me to do. I don’t entirely blame Brownes for this situation because while the major supermarkets continue to sell $1 milk, dairy farming in WA cannot be sustainable.
“The supermarkets now have just under 50 per cent market share with their homebrand milk offerings, which is holding the entire industry down.”
Mr Armstrong said he had already started to convert from dairy to cattle farming.
Meanwhile, Busselton farmer Ruth McGregor said she was also considering her future as a diary farmer.
Mrs McGregor and husband Ian have about 300 cows and produce three million litres of milk a year for Brownes.
“We have been offered about 42¢/l, which is unsustainable and would not provide our farm with any incentive to move forward and expand,” she said. “We can’t avoid the fact that we must consider our future as dairy farmers.
“We haven’t made a decision about whether we continue... or whether to explore alternative options but that time is coming very soon. The whole proposition is making us feel kind of trapped at the moment, which is making myself and my husband extremely anxious and depressed.”
WAFarmers dairy section president Michael Partridge said he was extremely disappointed that Mr Armstrong had decided to stop producing milk.
“The loss of the Armstrong family by the WA dairy industry means that we have also lost a great amount of potential for the next generation of dairy farmers,” he said.
Brownes was contacted for comment
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Disney recently announced a visit to the "Happiest Place On Earth" was going to cost you even more in 2018. If this news sent you into a panic over being able to budget your fill of Disney feels, we don’t blame you. But we might have a found a fix: Earlier this week the official Disney Parks Blog revealed the opening of a brand new store called Disney Home. So now fans can eat, sleep, and live in eternal Disney happiness.
As the name suggests, Disney Home is a home furnishings store that sells Disney-themed items like dishes, linens, kitchen tools, pillows, and even swag for your pets. Any fans of last year's collaboration between Disney and Starbucks, which included ten different limited-edition cups and mugs, are going to want to visit this space. An extremely hard to find Beauty and the Beast enchanted rose tumbler already caught our eye, and according to the Orange County Register, merchandise options will be updated each season.
Disney Home is located in the Downtown Disney District of the Disneyland Resort. According to the Disney Parks Blog, "The opening of the Disney Home store is a part of the continuous, promenade-wide transformation happening at the Downtown Disney District in 2018." Throughout this year, there are plans for several refurbishments and new openings of additional venues and retailers (including Disneyland's very first brewery and beer garden).
The store's location is perhaps the most exciting part of this announcement — because, guess what? We can transform our homes into our very own "Happiest Place On Earth," without even buying a ticket.