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Yesterday morning HBO Chairman and CEO Richard Pepler said that HBO will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top service that would allow consumers to watch HBO content without having a cable subscription. Whether HBO Latino will be part of this initiative is still to be determined. But Portada’s Susan Kuchinskas played what-if and asked several experts on their thoughts on an OTT HBO Latino.
Susan Kuchinskas @susankuchinskas
The Multichannel Network (MCN) World is smoking hot. YouTube content has grown up – so much so that it’s growing off the platform, thanks to multichannel networks, or MCNs, that are investing in original content and investigating new distribution channels. Is this the future of TV? What major players told Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas.
A recap of major news on the marketing and media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas. Loco por iPhone 6? The iPhone 6 may have sold 10 million units in its first three days, but Apple’s penetration in Hispanic and Latin American markets is lower, according to the […]
A recap of major news on the marketing and media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas. Heritage of conscious consumption Nielsen celebrates “conscious consumers” during Hispanic Heritage month, with vignettes of real consumers appearing every Monday on its Multicultural YouTube channel from September 15 through October 15. The […]
A recap of major news on the marketing and media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas. Denny’s “Likes” Hispanics The restaurant chain is expanding is Hispanic marketing with a dedicated Facebook page that will offer original and curated content. Denny’s vice president of marketing John Dillon told […]
Walmart’s announcement that it will create and operate its own media exchange to help its suppliers spend its media dollars based on the data WalMart obtains, has gotten mostly positive comments. What are the implications for the multicultural sector?
Nasty, nasty bots that suck up ad dollars while leaving brands with phony stats is probably a huge issue for advertisers. How huge? The ANA’s partnership with White Ops in The Marketers’ Coalition aims to identify the extent of click fraud. During the study, campaigns of participating brands will be tagged to allow White Ops to monitor them for fraud. Are Hispanic campaigns included in the effort? If so why?
Amplificación! In Hispanic Entertainment Marketing it’s all about Social Media and Content Marketing
The role of Social Media and Content Marketing efforts can not be emphasized enough when it comes to Hispanic Entertainment Marketing. Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas on how SABMiller, SuperLatina, Comida y Familia, Terra, NewsCred, Taboola and Outbrain are facilitating Hispanic Entertainment experiences.
A recap of major news on the marketing and media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas. How Maleficent Got Her Hispanic Groove Casting a Hispanic star or throwing some Spanglish into the marketing isn’t the only way Hollywood studios can attract Hispanic audiences. Sometimes, tweaking the marketing to […]
Hispanic consumers love music, and they’re more likely than the general U.S. population to use mobile devices. Put those things together and marketers get an emotion-fueled rocket to their hearts and minds. Portada’s Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas, on how marketers use music to connect with Hispanic audiences through mobile media.
A recap of major news on the Marketing and Media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas. Felipe Esparza is “un Buen Fit” for Honda Fit Combine two of the most desirable and least-understood consumer segments – Hispanics and Millennials – and you get Hispennials, a target market everyone wants […]
A recap of major news on the Marketing and Media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas. Heineken Takes a Replay for UEFA Campaign The beer brand was late to the party, but its first-ever Hispanic TV campaign on Fox Deportes scored so well that it’s signed on again […]
On fire after a successful Upfront, Hulu Latino says it will offer close to three times the volume of content it had available in 2013, thanks to its highly successful original series “East Los High,” plus content from more than 70 partners.
LINKAGE: Identity Crisis? Have a Donut!, Hyundai’s and Volkswagen’s Fifa efforts, Hollywood hunting Hispanics…
A recap of major news on the Marketing and Media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinskas. Hyundai and Volkswagen Target Hispanics during FIFA World Cup There’s more evidence that marketers are waking up to the economic and social power of Hispanic consumers, with car companies making plays at […]
A recap of major news on the Marketing and Media front from around the web compiled by Portada Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinkas
“We have video buyers and we are about to enter another Video Upfront. You won’t talk about the TV Upfronts anymore,” says SMG Multicultural’s Marla Skiko. Portada’s Digital Media Correspondent Susan Kuchinkas on how agencies and digital marketing vendors are preparing for the TV-Video convergence in the Hispanic market. Will DSP’s buy TV Spots? Will there a pricing convergence? And more…
National Public Radio is on a hunt for Hispanics. Also for millennials, multicultural programming, and a wider view of America that includes the entire continent. It thinks its mobile app may be the way to get there. Find out how NPR, Batanga and other media properties are using apps to reach Hispanics.
Agencies are paying attention to internet radio services, thanks to the move to mobile and the demand for consumer choice. Research firm eMarketer estimates there will be 159.8 million digital radio listeners in 2014. That doesn’t mean, however, that they’ll grab ad dollars away from terrestrial radio. Rather, digital listening in all its permutations will become part of the multi-channel and multi-media marketing mix. How to do a multiplatform (Hispanic) Audio Buy.


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REDgroup administration: NZ sale complete; NZ Borders likely to be rebranded as Whitcoulls
21 June 2011 @booksandpublishing
James Pascoe Group has confirmed this week that its purchase of the Whitcoulls and Borders businesses in New Zealand from REDgroup Retail has been finalised. The new owners said in a statement that negotiations with landlords of the stores 'has led to the retention of a number of outlets that...
Category: Local news

domain: news


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Over its 140-year history, automotive manufacturing technology has evolved in parallel with progress in the vehicles themselves. Early automakers custom made individual “horseless carriages.” Later, standardized parts and moving assembly lines delivered mass-produced cars. Development of integrated transfer lines enabled part runs to extend for years.
Displaying 1-10 of 13 results for
Machine tool orders rose in May as the industry recovers from a two-year slump, the Association for Manufacturing Technology (McLean, VA) said in a monthly report.
The auto industry wants to expand the use of 3D printers. Automakers such as Ford Motor Co. and BMW AG are working directly with additive manufacturers concerning deployment of the technology.
The Management Briefing Seminars, organized by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, MI, is a summer tradition in the auto industry. Professionals gather outside of the northwest Michigan resort town of Traverse City to examine industry issues.
Smarter factory systems connected via the cloud are the grand vision offered for the future factories that will fully leverage the best available tools from automation, software and machine tool builders.
To date, GBneuhaus has only produced its nanotech-enabled coatings in Neuhaus am Rennweg, a small village in the state of Thuringia. But that’s about to change: The 28-year-old firm in June founded a company in Pune, India, and will soon begin producing its antimicrobial coating there.
In auto racing, small details have a major impact on success—a concept very familiar to performance racing parts provider Oliver Racing Parts (Charlevoix, MI). Oliver produces performance connecting rods for the world’s leading engine builders.
SHANGHAI—The $150 million “factory of the future” that the Swiss innovator ABB announced nearly a year ago is becoming reality in this enormous city’s Pudong New Area.
The concepts Industry 4.0 in Europe, Made in China 2025 and smart manufacturing in the U.S. “all share a common goal—to create cyber-physical systems to innovate in manufacturing,” IDC's Bob Parker said at Dassault Systèmes’ recent Manufacturing in the Age of Experience event. “And it’s really dependent on a set of new technologies like IoT (the Internet of Things) and artificial intelligence (AI).”
There is still a lot of talk about breaking down the “silos” within a manufacturing enterprise. Siemens, like other software providers, is trying to address the problem by offering toolsets that are easier to integrate and work together.


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Chicago – LG’s share of U.S. smartphone activations hit 20 percent in the second quarter, up from the year-ago 8 percent, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) found.
Apple’s share of activations fell to 27 percent from the year-ago 39 percent, while Samsung’s share slipped to 34 percent from 36 percent. All other brands saw their collective share gain slightly to 19 percent from 17 percent.
CIRP based its findings on a June 1-6 survey of 500 people who activated a new or used phone in the April-June 2015 period.
The survey also found that Android’s OS share shot up to 70 percent from the year-ago 56 percent, while the iOS share fell to 27 percent from 39 percent.
“The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch helped Apple capture substantial share in the December 2014 quarter,” said CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz. “Trends then returned to a gradual yet steady increase for Android, up from just over half of all activations a year ago.” He also pointed out that Android enjoyed higher loyalty than iOS, given that more than 90 percent of new Android buyers previously owned an Android phone. The percentage of iOS buyers who previously had an iOS phone was about 80 percent, he said.
Comparing smartphone brands, “Apple enjoys the most loyal customers, with 79 percent of Apple owners who acquired a new phone during the quarter staying with Apple,” said co-founder Mike Levin. “With multiple brands of phones to choose from, Android customers have less brand loyalty. Samsung and LG led with 56 percent and 47 percent loyalty, respectively.”


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Jennifer Aniston Has Been Using the Same Drugstore Skincare Brand for 35 Years
Despite being a celebrity for a cool three decades, Jennifer Aniston has not completely abandoned her pre-fame roots.
In an interview with InStyle published earlier this week, the leading lady’s interest in skincare pre-dates her A-list status. She explained, “I think it’s because my mom told me to start moisturizing when I turned 15.”
Since her teenage years, and despite becoming a face in the limelight that gets studied and scrutinized by millions, she revealed one element of her lifestyle that has remained constant.
“I’ve been using Aveeno since I was a teenager,” the 50-year-old actor divulged.
The Friends alum, who became the face of the drugstore brand in 2013, is far from the only Aveeno superfan. On Walmart alone, tens of thousands of customers have reviewed the brand’s face and body moisturizers — and there are many. From a soothing body lotion with nearly 3,000 five stars to a daily face moisturizer beloved for its lightweight formula and SPF protection, Aveeno has a product solution for multiple skincare concerns, like dryness, irritation, sensitivity, and rough patches.
And Jen (can I call you Jen?) has been using the brand for over three decades. Despite gaining immeasurable access to skincare, beauty, and cosmetics gurus, she still stands by it.
Below, shop some of the most-loved Aveeno products you can buy for under $20 — if not for your skin, do it to celebrate Friends’ 25th birthday.
Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Moisturizer with Soy, $13.97; walmart.com
Aveeno Aveeno Sheer Hydration Daily Moisturizing Dry Skin Lotion, $8.77; walmart.com
Aveeno Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion, $5.46 (orig. $6.46); walmart.com
Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Lotion with SPF 15 & Oat, $7.97 (orig. $9.96); walmart.com
Aveeno Ultra-Calming Nourishing Night Cream for Sensitive Skin; $13.97 (orig. $14.93); walmart.com
Aveeno Active Naturals Clear Complexion Daily Moisturizer, $15.88; walmart.com


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Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 17, 2022
(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today announced his agency has created an online database for local governments to report their economic development agreements authorized by either Chapter 380 or Chapter 381 of the Local Government Code. The searchable database allows the public to search for agreements by local government, business entity and agreement type.
The database, created for greater transparency, will be Texas’ central repository for these local agreements, and local entities will provide a direct link on their website to the location of their agreement on the Comptroller’s website.
The Comptroller’s office is not in charge of approving the agreements.
“This new tool is a continuation of my agency’s commitment to giving taxpayers a user-friendly view into how government is treating their hard-earned tax dollars,” Hegar said.
Chapter 380 of the Local Government Code authorizes municipalities to offer incentives designed to promote economic development such as commercial and retail projects. Chapter 381 empowers counties to offer the same incentives.


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How the phone companies can help end robocalls
We did the research and talked to the experts, and found phone companies can take steps RIGHT NOW to dramatically reduce robocalls:
- Landline phones: A free service currently available in Canada, Primus Telemarketing Guard has shown effective at blocking robocalls and is promising for U.S. customers. But phone companies here are not offering a similar service to customers with landlines.
- Internet-based phones (VOIP): Another free service, Nomorobo, is currently available only for customers with Internet-based phones like Comcast xFinity, Verizon FiOS, or AT&T U-verse. But the phone companies should offer Nomorobo or a similar free service directly to their customers.
- Smartphones: Call-blocking apps for smartphones are available online, but all the phone companies should offer this technology directly to all of their customers for free.
— Tom Wheeler, FCC Chairman
|Some protections wouldn’t cost much. Carriers would need to do a relatively inexpensive software upgrade to offer robocall-blocking solutions for their smartphone and Internet-based phone customers.|
Landlines harder, but robocalls could be reduced. Protections for traditional landline users may be more difficult to provide, but phone companies do have the ability now to reduce call ‘spoofing’ – the practice of disguising the origin of robocallers. This would improve customers’ security and likely reduce the number of calls.
What we can do together
How does call-blocking work?
The technology uses computer programs to check and block incoming phone numbers against a list of confirmed spammers, or it requires callers to confirm they are humans before giving you the choice to connect the call.
The free program Nomorobo is currently available for some American consumers who use the Internet for their phone calls (VoIP), but not for standard landlines. A second technology, Telemarketing Guard, works for standard landlines but is offered only in Canada.
Technology exists right now that can stop illegal robocalls before they reach you, but few consumers have access to it. And the major phone companies refuse to offer it to you.
But with your help, we can end robocalls once and for all.
The FCC has authorized phone companies to use blocking technologies. Now we’re harnessing your outrage to demand the phone companies offer free, effective call-blocking solutions. And we’ll fight every effort to expand the use of robocalls to cell phones.
Take action here and join other consumers who are pushing the major phone companies to offer free blocking technology!
What you can do right now
Subscribe to a call-blocking service
The free blocking service Nomorobo is now available to a number of consumers, check here to see whether it’s available to you. Carriers also typically allow you to block certain numbers, but not always for free. If you subscribe, give us feedback on these services.
Consider a call-blocking device
If your telephone service does not support Nomorobo, you may want to purchase a plug-in call-blocking device. Click here for Consumer Reports’ review of these devices.
Try your smartphone’s call-blocking apps
If you have a smartphone, look into the call-blocking apps that are available. Also, Apple iOS7 and later customers can use Apple’s call blocking feature. Tell us about your experience with these apps.
Sign up for the Do Not Call list
Add your phone number to the list here or by calling 1-888-382-1222. This may reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive from legitimate companies, though it is not likely to deter scammers who frequently violate telemarketing laws. Note that Do Not Call restrictions do not apply to political campaigns, pollsters, and non-profits.
How together we can stop illegal robocalls
- Demand that the major phone companies offer this technology free to customers
- Fight industry attempts to weaken rules that regulate robocalls to mobile phones


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Wednesday, December 26, 2007
CAAF's daily journal from Friday isn't online yet, but we have learned the answer to the question on everyone's mind this holiday season: will the Judge Advocate General of the Navy certify Wild or won't he? We previously discussed that issue here. The verdict is now in: no certification.
Posted by Dwight Sullivan at 9:06 PM


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Thousands of bargain-hunting Olympics fans have attended a London 2012 sale billed as the "last chance" to own part of the Games.
The first day of the memorabilia auction in Coventry saw a scarecrow outfit from the opening ceremony sell for £2,200 and a Mary Poppins costume worn on the same night fetch £200.
People rushed to buy a myriad of collectable items at the two-day sale at the Ricoh Arena, from sporting equipment like tennis balls, javelins and running track blocks to commemorative towels and posters.
A London 2012 spokesman said 1,500 people had attended the first hour of the sale alone.
Games-makers and other Olympics volunteers were given early entry to claim a first pick of the general sale items before the rush began.
The money raised from the sale will go back to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games' (Locog) general budget.


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Data Protection Vendor Evaluation Toolkit
The toolkit contains an RFI-RFP criteria template and a corresponding vendor evaluation scorecard.
Related ArticlesFriday Five: 10/26 Edition
A 9.4 million user data breach, Apple advocating for a US privacy law, and more - catch up with the week's infosec news with this roundup!The Biggest Incidents in Cybersecurity (in the Past 10 Years) (Infographic)
Looking back at the last 10 years, what are the biggest and most notable incidents in cybersecurity history? We created an infographic that reflects on the decade and can educate users on how to prevent the next major incident.Adding Extortion to Injury
The FBI warns that extortion e-mail schemes are a byproduct of high profile data breaches.


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Rising sales of U.S. farm equipment has increased the demand for ag tires. A company that has been around in Europe for decades has decided to step into that market with a new plant in Charles City, Iowa. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Mitas CEO Jaroslav Cechura discussed the new entry at a grand opening ceremony for the $52 million plant.
Source URL: http://www.westernfarmpress.com/equipment/europe-jumps-agricultural-tire-market


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Aliens: Colonial Marines isn’t even out yet, and SEGA has already announced the first lot of DLC for the game. In fact, there will be four new add- on packs for the game, the first being titled Bug Hunt, as it grants players a new cooperative mode similar to the Horde Mode found in Gears of War. It was only a matter of time before the game adopted the popular mode, but it’ll be a whole new take on the mode. There will be three maps included in the pack, and they’ll be based on popular areas from the Aliens film. The add-on is currently planned for March, with the other three packs all coming by the end of August.
You can purchase each add on separately, or you can purchase the season pass for $30 dollars. You’ll save over 40% if you go that route, so if you know you’re going to get the DLC, the season pass is the best way to do so. You can’t purchase the season pass yet on consoles, but it is currently available on Steam. Aliens: Colonial Marines hasn’t been talked about nearly enough as I thought it would, but you can expect a lot more excitement for the game when it releases on February 12,2013.


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The maritime consultant Dynamar this week released a new report detailing the intra-Northern Europe container trade, including a breakdown of the 160 services on the trade.
The intra-Northern European trade includes 40 different carriers deploying container, roll-on/roll-off and multipurpose ships with container capacities of 100 to 3,400 TEUs.
The report finds Unifeeder provides the most ships in the trade, but Mediterranean Shipping Co. suppplies the most total capacity and “K” Line operates the longest service within the confines of the trade (between northern Spain and Gothenburg, Sweden).
The trade includes more than 130 ports in 19 countries, with the report offering profiles of each carrier. It also details operating constraints, including ice that blocks lanes in the Baltic Sea, and the preference for cargo to be stacked on Euro-pallets that generally require the use of 40-foot or 45-foot boxes.
Nearly half the capacity in the total trade is tied to Northwest continental Europe, with another 31 percent tied to the Baltic.
The report is available at www.dynamar.com
. - Eric Johnson


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Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Dragon Ball FighterZ sell over ten million copies worldwide
Bandai Namco announced today that Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Dragon Ball FighterZ have each surpassed cumulative shipments of ten million copies worldwide. That’s based on data collected across all platforms. It’s worth noting that both titles have set new sales records for Dragon Ball console games.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, which first released in 2016 and a year later in Switch, has the largest number of playable characters among current Dragon Ball console game titles, with up to 129 characters (including paid DLC). According to Bandai Namco, is still has “one million monthly active users, with many fans regularly playing the game.”
As for Dragon Ball FighterZ, it released in 2018 and a year later on Switch. Bandai Namco says it’s the fastest to achieve ten million copies sold worldwide since the release of the first Dragon Ball console game.
To celebrate each game surpassing ten million copies sold, both games are offering a token of gratitude to fans all over the world. For Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, there’ll be a special raid quest and a login bonus campaign.
Dragon Ball FighterZ will add a new ranked match challenge and give players access to the game’s DLC characters for free for a limited time and at select intervals. This will be happening between May 9 and June 22.
Source: Bandai Namco PR


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Logistics Data Bank (LDB), a project run a by the joint venture entity formed by Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Japanese IT company NEC Corporation, has been implemented at Kolkata Port. A formal announcement was made the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) last Saturday.
Logistics Data Bank service entails real time tracking of the containers with the use of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The project was unveiled in 2016 to make port related processes more efficient in the country and currently covers nearly half a dozen ports in the country. The real time tracking of containers is believed to be a major technological intervention helping the customers to plan the other legs of container movement process more efficiently with time and cost reduction benefits.


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Winner, Winner meat for dinner!
Greg Bisaro is flying high after securing top place at the Australian Meat Industry Council’s Sausage King and Best Butchers Burger competition, Mid North Coast division, in Coffs Harbour on June 7.
Mr Bisaro said he only took over his shop two years ago after a 20 year hiatus, but said the win indicates that he is a cut above the rest.
“It was surprising but really great to take out two of the meat categories at the competition in Coffs Harbour,” Mr Bisaro said.
“It was only the second year I have entered the competition and last year we placed with a third and equal second.
“So for this time around to win two categories and take second in another two is great.”
Mr Bisaro is the owner of Waniora Village Butchery in Port Macquarie and won the Traditional Australian Beef category and also in the Continental category for his bratwurst.
“It was all a bit crazy, you aren’t actually allowed to go into the competition,” he said.
“We had to send our sausages and burgers to Coffs Harbour with no identifying features and all the entries are blind taste tested to find out who the winner is.”
Along with Mr Bisaro, Larry Dickson from the Port Meat Store also stole the competition taking first place in two burger categories.
Claiming the top prize for Best Butchers Beef Burger and Best Butchers Gourmet Burger for the beef and onion burger and port and cheese burger.
“It was great to take out the competition in two of the burger categories,” Mr Dickson said.
“This was the third time we had entered the competition but the first time we have entered our burgers and won – so that was really great.
“We decided to push the burgers this year as they have been increasingly popular and are one of our most popular products.”
He said he was proud that his burgers were above the rest tested on the Mid North Coast.
“I have been in the game for a while and with all the new butchers coming through it is good to know that we are still competing at a high standard,” he said.


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Pukka Pies tries to go ‘posh’ with rebrand
The pie brand wants to move on from its connotations with fish and chip shops and football fans and become a “family mealtime” brand.
Pukka Pies is unveiling a rebrand as well as a move into the premium market, as it admits it had previously “not properly supported the brand” with marketing.
The brand has launched an £8m marketing campaign to show off a complete brand relaunch – which includes updated recipes for its most popular pies, brighter packaging and a new brand positioning aimed at convincing mums to consider the brand for family meals.
The relaunch is part of an ambition to bring one million new consumers into the hot pie category and put pies in the top five meal occasions for families.
The launch campaign centres around the strapline ‘Everything’s Pukka’, highlighting that despite life’s ups and downs eating a hot pie will always be a comfort. The TV ad shows a busy mum sat at the dinner table confronted with her family’s everyday woes, allowing them to wash over her as she savours a Pukka Pie, telling her family, “don’t worry guys, everything’s pukka”. The campaign will also include outdoor, digital, social and in-store activity.
The brand is also moving into the premium sector, with a new ‘Posher Pukka’ selection. The range will include more “premium” ingredients, and includes the flavours chicken, leek and pancetta, steak and porter ale, and veggie tikka masala with chickpea and spinach.
You can buy it at football matches or as a treat on Fridays from fish and chips shops. It was important the marketing campaign focused more on family life.
Deborah Ewan, Pukka Pies
Pukka Pies CEO Deborah Ewan joined the business in September, but says the brand had been working on its overhaul since the start of the year. Despite the family-owned brand being the market leader in the hot pie category, she admits it had never put any investment into the brand, with its marketing and advertising spend, as well as investment in new innovations or reformulation of existing products, all minimal.
Despite this lack of investment, Pukka Pies seems to be performing well. According to IRI data to 10 September 2017, its sales grew by £3.4m or 14.6% year on year. Meanwhile, brand penetration is up from 14.2% to 16.2% for the same period, meaning it reached an extra 580,000 households.
Repositioning the brand
The brand hopes the £8m investment will accelerate its growth. It is also keen to move away from its image as being only for football fans and an occasional treat. Instead, it wants to be seen as a regular option for family meals.
“We’re a recognised brand, but we’re mainly seen as being in fish and chip shops. But in the last 10 years, we’ve managed to get some really good presence across all retailers. But by doing that, we’ve not supported the brand at all, either from an innovation point of view or above-the-line advertising,” Ewan tells Marketing Week.
“It was more about the repositioning of the brand as a homely family mealtime brand. You can buy it at football matches or as a treat on Fridays from fish and chips shops. Mums are buying it but not to the extent [we’d like] because of current brand perceptions. It was important the marketing campaign focused more on family life.”
While Pukka Pies wants to push the overeall brand, it also saw a gap in the market for a premium offering. Brand research showed there are three types of players in the hot pie market: cheaper own label options, “standard” pies such as Pukka Pies priced at around £1.50 and more premium offerings such as Higgidy at £3 and over that some consumers branded “inaccessible”. It hopes to undercut other premium brands with the Posher Pukka offering, which it prices at £2.50 a pie.
“It is important to us that consumers are getting value for money. We did a lot of development on our [premium] products, so when consumers tasted it they could taste the difference compared to others. Instead of standard gravy we use porter ale, and bigger chunks of carrot. It’s a real premium brand,” concludes Ewan.
With rebranding – especially in this case – there is always difficulties as the product has often been represented in a much different light which can detract its current consumers.
In regards to the Pukka rebrand, I personally have always seen it as a fish and chip shop dinner or a football match snack and although I do think the rebrand will help to attract a larger more sophisticated audience it may offend its current audience.


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TV’s share of the global ad market has risen steadily from 37% in 2005 to 39.9% in 2010, yet muted growth is expected for 2011 and 2012, according to [pdf] a December 2011 forecast from Zenith Optimedia. TV ad spend is expected to total about $184.3 billion USD this year, or 40.2% of the total ad market, and rise to $193.7 billion in 2012 to represent 40.4% of the market. However, beyond that, a slight decline is forecast to 40.3% in 2013 and 40.2% in 2014. Even so, Zenith predicts TV ad spend to contribute 41.1% of new ad dollars between 2011 and 2014.
Total global ad spend, forecast at $458.4 billion for 2011, is expected to grow about 16.7% to roughly $534.4 billion in 2014.
Cable to Drive US TV Ad Growth
Cable networks will continue to build momentum, and are expected to overtake network TV to command the largest share of the US national TV ad market in 2011, according to other December analysis from Zenith Optimedia. Data from the analysis indicates that network TV will end 2011 down 2%, with a further decrease of 1% in 2012 despite the return of the Olympics to NBC. Meanwhile, the spot TV marketplace is predicted to rise 4% this year and 8% in 2012, driven by an increase in spend by the apparel category. By contrast, Zenith predicts a 4% decrease in advertising expenditure for syndication in 2011, with a further 12% decline in 2012.
Global Print Spend to Decline, Outdoor to Inch Up
Zenith expects global spending in two other major ad verticals, newspapers and magazines, to decline in the coming years. Newspapers, which held 21.3% share in 2010, are predicted to drop to 20% in 2011, and decline even further over the forecast period, falling to 16.5% in 2014, representing an ad share loss of 17.5% from 2011. The share of the global market held by magazines is also expected to decline, though more moderately, shrinking 0.5% points a year to a 7.9% share in 2014. Within the US, Zenith predicts decreases in newspaper ad spend of 8.5% this year, and 8% in each of 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Meanwhile, global outdoor ad spend is predicted to reach $31.3 billion this year and grow 16.2% to $36.35 billion in 2014. Ad spend in radio and cinema is expected to grow at a smaller rate, with radio steadily losing market share over the time period and cinema holding its 0.5% share.
Internet Global Ad Share to Rise 33%
The share of global ad spending represented by the internet vertical, expected to reach 15.9% this year, is predicted to rise 33% to 21.2% in 2014. The internet will also be the largest contributor of new ad dollars to the global market, expected to account for 52.9% of the growth in total expenditure between 2011 and 2014, growing from $72.8 billion to $113.3 billion during the time period. According to November 2011 figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), internet advertising revenues in the US have hit new highs, reaching $7.88 billion in Q3 2011, representing 22% growth from Q3 2010 and a 2.7% increase from the previous peak in Q2 2011.
Meanwhile, global display internet advertising spend, expected to reach $25.36 billion this year, should grow an impressive 68% to $42.65 billion in 2014. Similarly, paid search spend is forecast to grow 55%, from $35.5 billion to $55 billion. Classified internet ad spend, pegged at $11.99 billion in 2011, is expected to grow a comparatively small 30% to $15.6 billion in three years.


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The first bricks were laid last week at the Lion Retail Park in Oriental Road, Maybury.
Simon Singleton, retail operations director and Martin Taylor, will lay the first few bricks along with colleagues who worked at the original store.
The construction work is expected to take several months and Focus hopes to re-open the store in May 2005.
Since fire devastated the superstore in early July there has been speculation as to whether or not Focus would return to the town.
Police and fire crews who attended the fire were treating the incident as suspicious and investigations are continuing.
More than 20 fire crews from across the county were drafted in to deal with the blaze and the severity of the damage meant the entire building had to be torn down.
The site has been vacant and cordoned off for some time.
The replacement building will offer the same range of products but the company says it is also taking the opportunity to bring its store up to date, and will include a showroom area for kitchen and bathroom suites.


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Gilat Satcom has unveiled the launch of its ‘Village Island’ portfolio, which according to the company enables rural villages and remote communities in Africa where ARPUs are low to take control of their digital futures. According to the company, the Village Island will be launched at the Innovation Access Digital Africa summit, which is set to take place during 14th-16th April at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
The company revealed that Village Island has been developed to provide internet, VoIP and IP video over a private satellite network. According to Gilat Satcom, this will allow connectivity for individual villagers starting from USD 1 a month.
The company also stated that its Village Island will be provided by governments, NGOs, cellular and telephony operators, major ISPs and others to a group acting as the Village Nano-ISP. This group could be a church, a school, a village chief or another community organisation.
The private Village Nano-ISP will be responsible for selling the services direct in the village, billing users and paying the monthly service charge to the provider. Gilat Satcom provides detailed business plans to enable both the network providers and the Village Nano-ISPs to build profitable and commercially sustainable services.
Eran Yoran, Director Marketing & Business Development of Gilat Satcom stated that: “Providing affordable access in Africa is an ongoing theme for the telecoms industry. There are many entrepreneurial people living in rural Africa who would gladly run a network if they had the tools and know-how available to make it work. We have worked for a long time to provide a solution which is both affordable for the village end-user and profitable for the entire supply chain.”
Yoran added that: “Village Island is economically self-sustaining and scalable so it can grow with demand and with a minimal additional investment. We have established a business plan that targets users with $1 a month to spend on telephony and is still profitable.”


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LEADING privately-owned media and publishing house, Alpha Media Holdings, won third prize in the printing and packaging category at the just-ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo.
BY SILAS NKALA
AMH are the publishers of NewsDay, The Standard and Zimbabwe Independent. The company’s chief operating officer Kangai Maukazuva said they were excited about the award.
This year’s showcase had a total of 753 exhibitors of which 68 were foreign.
Mozambican-based company, Ports and Railway came out tops among foreign exhibitors followed by firms from Japan and Malawi.
Ports and Railway representative, Amir Amande said: “We won a gold medal for the best foreign exhibitors plus a small prize medal with a ZITF tower design and a certificate. It was a big effort from our side and we are excited about it. We competed with big countries and we beat them, our feeling is that we made a big effort to win.
“We deal with rail transportation and ports handling in Mozambique. What made us win is the design and quality of exhibition in terms of information we provided to the visitors and the capacity of the officials to give the people information they wanted. We feel quite happy and the award was a big surprise for us.”
Ports and Railways was one of the exhibitors from 18 foreign nations that were represented at this year’s trade fair.
Other countries which exhibited at the fair were Botswana, China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malwai, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates and Zambia.


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The management of Lekki Deep Seaport has announced the arrival of Rimbaud, the first transshipment vessel to call at the container terminal of the deep seaport.
A statement by the port said that the vessel owned by CMA CGM shipping company, arrived at the terminal on Thursday.
The statement added that the vessel came with cargo from two of the largest container shipping lines in the world, CMA CGM and Maersk.
According to the statement, the vessel was carrying 411 twenty-foot equivalent units of transshipment cargo and had a nominal container handling capacity of 6,900 TEUs.
The statement read in parts, “The vessel, which arrived at approximately 1.00 pm on Thursday, June 29, 2023, was carrying cargo from two of the largest container shipping lines in the world, CMA CGM and Maersk. The service originated from the far east passing through Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Nansha, TanjungPelpas, and Singapore to Kribi, Cameroun, before finally arriving at Lekki Port this afternoon. The vessel was carrying 411 TEUs of transshipment cargo and has a nominal container handling capacity of 6,900 TEUs.”
Speaking on the development, the Managing Director of Lekki Port, Du Ruogang, thanked the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Ports Authority for their support in ensuring the commencement of transshipment activities at Lekki Port.
Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer of Lekki Port, Laurence Smith, noted that all regulatory agencies operating at the port, particularly the Nigerian Customs Service worked together with Lekki Port and the container terminal operator, Lekki Freeport Terminal, to ensure a hitch-free arrival of the vessel and processing of cargo.
“Lekki Port, with its state-of-the-art Ship to Shore cranes and sophisticated scanners, is now poised to position Nigeria as the preeminent transshipment hub of West Africa. The transshipped cargo will be departing for Cotonou, its final destination, on 6th July 2023,” he said


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ATLANTA — Employment scams are on the rise in the turbulent job market created by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new Better Business Bureau® (BBB®) study finds. BBB warns job seekers to verify employment offers to avoid illegal jobs, identity theft and fake checks to which millions are exposed annually.
The in-depth investigative study — Job Scams: BBB study finds job scams increased during pandemic, warns job seekers to verify employment offers to avoid illegal jobs, identity theft and fake checks — details the many forms employment fraud takes and the scams that often result. Read the full study here.
Job scams have been a problem for years. In 2020, BBB estimated 14 million victims with $2 billion in direct losses related to job scams. Last year, the 2020 BBB Employment Scams Report by BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust found job scams to be the riskiest of all the scams they tracked in 2018 and 2019. However, BBB’s study finds that the problem worsened in 2020. Losses reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) about employment scams were up 27% between 2018 and 2020, while complaints to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) nearly doubled in 2020.
BBB Institute’s 2020 report on job scams found that this fraud most commonly victimized people ages 25-34, with women filing 67% of complaints about this fraud. The median financial loss reported by these victims was $1,000; in addition, they often reported loss of their time, as 32% were never paid for the work they did for an “employer” that turned out to be fraudulent.
Identity theft is a common outcome of job scams, as scammers often steal job seekers’ personal information to open bank accounts to further their fraud. BBB found 34% of victims provided their driver’s license number and 25% provided their Social Security or Social Insurance number.
Fake checks also frequently accompany job scams, and they continue to grow. This new BBB study finds that 36% of job scam complaints to BBB involved a fake check, with fake check complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) increasing by 65% between 2015 and 2020. In the two years since BBB issued an investigative study on fake check fraud, losses absorbed by banks themselves due to fake checks went up 40% to reach $1.3 billion. Common fraudulent job offers involving fake checks include mystery shopping or secret shopper jobs, car wrap jobs, nanny or caregiver jobs, and small business jobs such as photography or painting houses.
A St. Louis woman who lost her job during the pandemic was recruited through a job search website for a job as a remote assistant for a large company. The “employer” deposited a check for $2,400 into her bank account to purchase equipment from a third-party vendor, then asked her to buy $2,400 in Home Depot gift cards and text them the numbers on the back. She heard nothing further from the “employer,” but her bank informed her that the check deposited to her account was fraudulent. She not only lost the funds she spent on the gift cards, but had another $2,400 stolen from her bank account.
Employment scam victims frequently become unwitting accomplices in other fraud, used as money mules, to mail fake checks, or to participate in reshipping scams, which represent 65% of the scam job offers reported to BBB Scam Tracker. Scammers “hire” victims from job boards, Facebook or Craigslist, offering to pay them as much as $2,500 to receive and then send on packages. These fraudsters often use stolen credit card numbers to order laptops, cellphones and high-end goods and have them sent to reshipping victims, instructing them to repackage the goods and providing shopping labels to send the packages to a new address, often in Russia. The accomplices who were hired for this fraudulent type of work are never paid, and their identities may be used to open bank accounts.
The FTC has taken action against job scammers, including a fake job placement company the agency sued in 2019. Associated scams such as reshipping schemes and money mule schemes have been a focus for state and federal law enforcement; in December 2020, the Department of Justice announced the results of a worldwide effort to deal with money mules, resulting in action taken against 2,300 people.
Tips to avoid job scams:
- Research the job offer. Call or go directly to the actual company’s website for contact information to verify the job posting.
- Check on businesses offering jobs atBBB.org.
- Do an internet search with the name of the employer and the word “scam” to see if there are reports involving job scams.
- Examine the email address of those offering jobs to see if it matches the protocols used by an actual company. Be alert to gmail business email addresses.
- Consider creating a separate email address when posting a resume on job boards or applying for jobs. This can help detect “offers” from scam employers you did not contact.
- Consider setting up a second bank account simply to handle pay for jobs where you have never met the employer in person.
- If you’re paying for the promise of a job, it’s most likely a scam.
- Be very wary of mystery shopping or secret shopper positions.
- Work-from-home jobs that involve receiving and reshipping packages are likely scams.
- Beware of jobs that involve receiving and forwarding money.
- Don’t fall for a fake check scam. BBB is not aware of any legitimate job offers that send checks to applicants and ask them to send money to a third party.
- Be cautious in providing personal information such as your full address, birth date and financial information in your resume or to unverified recruiters and online applications.
- Be wary of vague job descriptions.
- Even if you do the work, it still may be a scam.
- Do not respond to calls, text messages or emails from unknown numbers or suspicious addresses.
- Do not click any links in a text message from a number you do not recognize. If a friend sends you a text with a suspicious link that seems out of character, call them to make sure they weren’t hacked.
It is important that victims of job scams report them to:
- Better Business Bureau –BBB.org or BBB.org/scamtracker.
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) –reportfraud.ftc.gov or call 877-FTC-Help.
- Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) –ic3.gov/complaint.
ABOUT BBB®: BBB helps people find and recommend businesses, brands, and charities they can trust. People today are overwhelmed with choices – and often unsure about where to find verified, unbiased information. There are more than 30 million businesses in North America alone; and hundreds of thousands of websites around the world where people shop online. There are thousands of free and subscription websites that offer a range of information, including reviews, reports, directories, listings, and gripe sites. BBB is the one place where you can find it all.


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“Hatsize is offering Surgient customers a migration program plus an incentive to upgrade to a truly global cloud automation solution provider who is committed to its customers,” said Guy Hummel, Hatsize CEO.
Calgary, Alberta (PRWEB) January 18, 2012
Hatsize, the leading cloud automation software provider for hands-on demos and training, today announced the Surgient Migration Incentive Program designed to help Surgient customers upgrade to an equivalent, cloud-based training or sales demo solution with Hatsize. This new Surgient Migration Incentive Program addresses concerns raised by Surgient customers, who recently indicated that Quest plans to end support for Surgient in 2012.
“Hatsize is offering Surgient customers a migration program plus an incentive to upgrade to a truly global and enterprise class cloud automation solution,” said Guy Hummel, Hatsize CEO. “We think this program will be very attractive to Surgient customers who want to establish a relationship with a company like Hatsize that is deeply committed to its customers.”
Hatsize’s Surgient Migration Incentive Program
Surgient customers can now get 10 FREE concurrent users for 6 months when they purchase 10 or more concurrent users with a one year Hatsize subscription.
Please note that this program is only available to current Surgient customers.
For more information, go to Hatsize's Surgient Migration Incentive Offer.
"The scalability and flexibility of Hatsize enables customers to offer both self-paced and scheduled training and sales demos to anyone, anywhere in the world," said Andy McBride, VP Operations. "Hatsize solutions run on a variety of virtual machines and operating environments and can be deployed in a customer’s own datacenter or using the Hatsize datacenters in Europe, Asia or North America."
Hatsize is a leading cloud automation software company that has provided over 2 million hours of cloud-enabled demo and training sessions for the world’s most successful technology companies including IBM, Juniper, Sun Microsystems and Symantec.


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Netflix said it expects to reach the 100-million subscriber mark this coming weekend, after announcing that its customer base had reached 98.75 million in 2017.
Netflix made the announcement as part of its Q1 2017 financial results presentation.
“We remain incredibly excited about the opportunity in front of us to build a truly global and durable Internet TV business,” said Netflix.
The company said it added 5 million members in the quarter, and passed the $2.5-billion mark in quarterly revenue.
“The opportunity provided to us by the growth of the global Internet is gigantic and our plan is to keep investing as we increase membership, revenue, and operating margins.”


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Edvard Munch’s iconic “The Scream” just sold for a record $120 million at auction in New York, but that’s peanuts compared to the very voluble dema
Muscle Maker Grill announces today that founder Rod Silva has been named a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012 program
Innovation and choice have become the watchwords of the beverage business.
Experts agreed during a QSR-hosted webinar that energy drinks offer quick-serve operators a tremendous growth opportunity that has so far
Pei Wei has a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity for an aspiring videographer to travel to Asia on a culinary research and development tour.
Hispanic consumers visit quick serves more than any other demographic, according to a new study, and operators can gain their loyalty by addressing
Cheeseboy: Grilled Cheese To Go is gearing up for National Grilled Cheese Month this April with a video con
TCBY, The Country’s Best Yogurt and frozen yogurt pioneer, today announced the launch of the TCBY Greek Challenge, a Facebook contest designed to e
Now entering its eighth year, the 2012 AIA|LA Restaurant Design Awards honor excellence in the design of restaurants, cafes, bars, lounges, and nig
A new research report


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Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise-line operator, reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates and raised the lower range of its 2015 earnings forecast, saying bookings for the next three quarters are running well ahead of last year.
Profit rose to 25 cents a share, excluding some items, last quarter from 9 cents a year earlier, the Miami-based company said Tuesday in a statement. That beat the 16-cent average of 17 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Carnival and other cruise lines have shifted ships to the Caribbean from the Mediterranean in recent years to counter weakness in European economies. That’s increased capacity in the U.S. market and put pressure on ticket prices. The company also said currency fluctuations reduced second-quarter earnings by 10 cents per share.
Since taking over as chief executive officer in July 2013, Arnold Donald has revamped Carnival’s marketing and customer service, commissioned new ships and worked to counter damage to the brand from highly publicized mishaps, including the 2012 grounding of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, which killed 32 people.
The company now expects 2015 earnings in the range of $2.35 to $2.50 a share, up from a range of $2.30 to $2.50 in April.
The Caribbean represented 34 percent of the company’s cruise-ship capacity last year, according to a regulatory filing. Carnival this month introduced fathom, a new line aimed at customers who want to do good while they sail. The first itinerary next year will include a stop in the Dominican Republic, where guests can build homes or teach English before returning to the ship.
This article was written by Christopher Palmeri and John Fahnenstiel from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.


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It's a strange, strange modern media world.
Through a series of acquisitions, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) could end up as a new kind of Disney customer, relying on the entertainment giant for streaming video infrastructure services. The result would have nothing to do with Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) providing content to AT&T, something the Mouse House already does through licensing agreements that feed AT&T's U-verse, DirecTV and DirecTV Now offerings. Instead, it would come about because of Disney's recent decision to acquire a majority ownership stake in BAMTech, the streaming technology company born out of MLBAM . (See Disney Joins OTT Bandwagon.)
Here's how the situation plays out. BAMTech is currently the streaming partner behind the HBO Now over-the-top video product. If Disney's buyout plan gains regulatory approval, that means Home Box Office Inc. (HBO) will become a Disney customer. Meanwhile, AT&T is in the process of closing a deal to acquire HBO parent company Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). Assuming that transaction also goes through, AT&T will automatically become a Disney customer through its Time Warner/HBO ownership.
There is a catch, however. Reports suggest that HBO's contract with BAMTech is set to run out this year, and the entertainment provider already uses additional streaming services for other HBO products. It's entirely conceivable that HBO could be in the process of switching its supplier contract to another vendor, or moving the service in-house, even before the AT&T deal goes through.
Light Reading reached out to HBO for comment and was told: "We are still assessing but we have stated publicly that we do plan on consolidating all streaming products (we have five different ones around the globe) onto one internal platform."
For AT&T's part, the company doesn't appear to need BAMTech for streaming purposes. The telco acquired Canadian company Quickplay last year, and it's Quickplay's platform that underlies the DirecTV Now OTT service. AT&T has also said it's consolidating all of its video services on to a single platform, suggesting that Quickplay will be the primary technology support for any video streaming initiatives going forward. (See AT&T, Verizon Want to Wholesale IPTV.)
Disney's deal to acquire BAMTech and AT&T's earlier acquisition of Quickplay both emphasize the importance to video companies of owning not just content assets, but also delivery infrastructure. Several other large players in the industry have come to the same conclusion. That's why Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) formed its Digital Media Services group, Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) built its own content delivery network and Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) created its Technology Solutions business. (See Comcast Intros a Whole New Kind of Bundle and Who's in the Media Merger Hunt?)
Meanwhile, it's worth noting that Disney is also a Verizon DMS customer in addition to partnering with (and soon owning) BAMTech. That fact illustrates just how complex the streaming ecosystem has grown, and how many parts of the video delivery chain overlap.
As another example of overlap and companies intertwining, Hulu LLC announced recently that it's using Amazon Web Services Inc. to power the Hulu live TV service. (See Hulu Hooks Up With AWS for Live TV.)
This despite the fact that Comcast is one of Hulu's owners, and also offers its own streaming video technology. But then again, Comcast also uses AWS for some of its own infrastructure purposes.
Also, keep in mind that Comcast, Time Warner and Disney, alongside 21st Century Fox, are all co-owners of Hulu. (See Comcast Ready for Clash With Hulu.)
And the web grows ever more tangled.
— Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video, Light Reading


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“Wal-Mart is an improbable candidate for corporate gorilla because it belongs to a sector, retail, that has never before produced America’s most powerful companies. But Wal-Mart has grown into a business whose dominance of the corporate world rivals GM’s in its heyday. With 1.4 million employees worldwide, Wal-Mart’s workforce is now larger than that of GM, Ford, GE, and IBM combined. At $258 billion in 2003, Wal-Mart’s annual revenues are 2 percent of US GDP, and eight times the size of Microsoft’s. In fact, when ranked by its revenues, Wal-Mart is the world’s largest corporation.”
More here by Simon Head in the New York Review of Books.


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MacBook, iPad Offspring: The New MacBook AirBy Reuters | Print
In introducing the new MacBook Air, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: "We asked ourselves what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up? Well, this is the result."
CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct 20 (Reuters) - Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the thinnest, lightest Mac laptop yet, fusing features from its popular iPhone and iPad with its traditional line of personal computers.
Apple, whose computers have taken market share from PCs based on Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows, will bring a version of its mobile applications store to the Mac, aiming to replicate its success and spur development of new programs.
Loading up Macs with iPad features may help Apple stave off investors' fears that sales will begin bleeding over to the tablet, which has stirred up astonishing demand.
The new MacBook Air -- introduced on Wednesday with Jobs' signature "one last thing" set-up -- is designed to reproduce the versatility of popular devices such as the iPhone and iPad, and will incorporate FaceTime video chats, which Apple is bringing to all its Macs.
Utilizing flash storage like the iPad rather than hard drives like conventional computers, it can power up almost instantly from standby mode and store data twice as quickly as a standard hard drive. But it sacrifices processing power compared with Apple's other laptops.
"We asked ourselves what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up? Well, this is the result," Jobs said at a media event in Cupertino, California, calling the Air the "future of notebooks."
It starts at $999 for an 11.6-inch model, weighs as little as 2.3 pounds (1 kg), and measures 0.11 inches (0.3 cm) at its thinnest to 0.68 inches (1.7 cm) at the rear.
"They're basically merging the product lines; they're simplifying it," said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu. "They're taking the strengths out of what they've learned on the iPhone and iPad and bringing that technology over to the Mac side. It makes a lot of sense."


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Slow start at new Giardino sites
SOME of AIM-listed restaurants group Giardino's newest outlets are failing to make as much money in their opening period as hoped, pushing pre-tax profits down by 9.5% to £1.5m in the first half-year.
The group, whose cafés and restaurants are mainly in shopping centres, has been hit by a fall in the number of people visiting malls and a reduction in London tourists.
With six new cafes and one restaurant opened in the six months to 31 January, sales from the group's 56 venues grew by 34% to £12.8m. The dividend is held at 0.6p.
Giardino's restaurants division has fared better than the cafés with the one new opening, Azzurro, an Italian-style diner in Maidstone, Kent, trading above expectations.
Giardino is negotiating leases for three more sites in the M25 area destined to become either Azzurro or Auberge restaurants.
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Bensaci is facing four criminal charges (Image: Getty)
Samy Bensaci, 18, from Montreal, is facing four criminal charges in connection with a $50m phone hacking scam.
Prosecutors say he is part of a gang that stole millions of dollars by breaking into the phones of cryptocurrency owners.
Lieutenant Hugo Fournier, spokesperson for the Canadian police force – the Sûreté du Québec – said the SIM-swapping scam netted the thieves “$50 million from our neighbours to the south and $300,000 in Canada” in 2018.
The gang allegedly used a SIM swapping technique, where fraudsters can get access to phones and all of the apps – including crypto wallets.
Bensaci was arrested in Victoria, British Colombia, in November and charged with fraudulently obtaining computer service, committing fraud over $5,000, identity fraud, and illegally accessing computer data, reports Infosecurity Magazine.
The teen stole millions by breaking into the phones of cryptocurrency owners (Image: Getty)
Last month the teen was released on $200,000 bail and was banned from accessing “any computer, tablet, mobile phone, game console, including PS3, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or any other device capable of accessing the Internet”.
He is also banned from owning or trading cryptocurrency.
Many alleged victims attended a cryptocurrency conference called Consensus in New York.
Rob Ross, an American victim of the scheme who was robbed of $1m in cryptocurrency in two separate attacks, told La Presse: “We suspect that hackers spot targets during such events.”
• Coin Rivet is a website bringing news, information, analysis, opinion and insight from the fast-moving blockchain world.
Cryptocurrency latest: Brits warned over potential crypto scam North Korean hacker group Lazarus targets British crypto users Singer Akon given go-ahead to build ‘crypto city’ in Africa


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MD-Farm Co entered into a capital and business partnership with Farming. Through this partnership, the two companies will ramp up the production of strawberry vertical farming systems.
The plan is to expand in Japan and globally. The company has developed its own related equipment needed in vertical farms, such as automatic shelving and harvesting to reduce costs. MD-Farm 's goal is to develop its industrialized DX technology locally in as many countries as possible.
Photo credits: MD-Farm Co., Ltd.
Yuki Matsuda, CEO of MD-Farm, said: "We believe that the quickest way to launch our vertical business in Japan and overseas is to collaborate with the Quantum Leap Group, which has a grand network in business and investment, especially in Japan and overseas.
Nakamura, CEO of Quantum Digital Farming, said: "The Quantum Leap Group believes that healthy companies are an important asset of Japan. MD-Farm is based on steady development, global expansion, and Japanese agriculture. It's a company that can introduce a fundamental change in agriculture to Japan."


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Malaysia Backs Down on Tesla Deal
Here’s what (we think) we know
Less than 18 months after the Malaysian government announced that it wants to waive import duties on 100 Tesla electric cars in effort to promote electric vehicles (EVs), the project is now on hold, sources say.
At last count, only 16 Teslas had been brought in by Greentech Malaysia thus far, people familiar with the project informed this website.
From this figure, two were assigned to Greentech Malaysia but these cars are now off the roads and awaiting spare parts, sources familiar with the matter tell Motion Digest. At the time of writing, it is unclear why the project had been frozen.
Stopping the imports may be a good call for the government, given the costs involved. A Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water official says each Tesla Model S costs roughly RM300,000 duty-free, putting the cost of bringing in the remaining 83 units at a whopping RM24.9 million.
To recap, prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the 100-Tesla project in February 2016 following his visit to Tesla Motors Inc’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
“Malaysia has decided to promote electric vehicles under a special programme where the government will allow imports of 100 units of Model S, premium electric sedans. These cars have zero-emission. We would like to promote such cars in Malaysia,” he said.
Putting the project on hold may amount to taxpayer money saved, for now. The Teslas were meant to be offered to government-linked companies for lease to showcase the EVs and their benefits to the public.
While it is impossible to know for sure, there is a possibility the purchase funds may be redirected to more urgent expenditure to benefit more Malaysians directly, especially with the 14th general elections (GE14) around the corner.
One possible factor in the decision may be the as-yet not conducive environment in Malaysia for EVs. In a media briefing in March, Greentech Malaysia conceded that the biggest challenge in promoting electric vehicles is providing preferential treatment for EV purchase including via financial incentives.
Despite a national goal of having 100,000 electric cars, 100,000 electric scooters and 2,000 electric buses on local roads by 2030, Malaysia’s tax incentives for EVs are not conducive towards achieving the goal. Excise duty for fully imported EVs and hybrids range from 65% up to 100%.
Accommodative taxation for EVs, while very expensive if seen through the environmental perspective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, is critical for promoting adoption of EVs. Case-in-point: Tesla’s sales in Hong Kong came to a grinding halt in April as the end of a tax exemption increased the price tag from USD$75,000 to around USD$130,000.
The postponement also comes at an interesting time. China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which in May announced the acquisition of a 49.9% stake in Malaysia’s national carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd, also has EV technology and capability under its belt.
According to the majority shareholder DRB-Hicom, Geely would take the lead in terms of production, manufacturing, sales and marketing post-acquisition while DRB-Hicom manages the distribution aspect.
Does the postponement of the Tesla EVs importation plan tie into the emergence of a global EV player like Geely in Proton? Either way, it would very likely signal exciting times ahead for Malaysia’s auto sector.


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These days, apple apple pay in the social circle of friends PA screen, with the iPhone, bind the bank card is social platform on the cover of the topic. In February 18th Apple Pay officially landed on the first day of China service area, users to bind a credit card but need to spend a few hours a day, the Apple Pay will bind more than 38 million bank cards. This apple is also very good sense of self, it is on the first day of the show to the satisfaction of 1000%.
But bound to activated although a number of Apple pay, does not mean that the use of a large quantity of, apple pay on-line for a week, the online performance is unlikely to reach 1000% satisfaction.
The first single after the preferential user enthusiasm decline
For Apple pay, when used to support NFC enabled credit card machine, so the current apple pay below the line number of businesses is not much, mainly dominated by fast food shops, supermarkets, convenience stores, like McDonald, Carrefour, family, Germany. However, even if it is not much in the number of these support businesses, users are not able to successfully complete the payment.
In the Apple Pay line on the first day, reporters visited longevity on a McDonald's, when the staff told reporters, Apple Pay will have two or three days to use, equipment upgrading. In February 23rd, the reporters came to the McDonald's stores in the POS machine at the counter again, and did not see the words of Pay Apple, but the clerk said already can use. The clerk told reporters that they had just received training on how to use Apple Pay, and on the same day, the use of Apple Pay to store customers a total of only three. "Apple pay just on the line, the use of more consumers, because at that time, many banks have launched promotions, especially first single discount, a day almost ten is with apple pay, now use the decline in the volume of May is because nothing attractive advantages and benefits." Reporters waiting for half an hour at McDonald's, about a dozen consumers, only one consumer with Apple Pay.
One of Carrefour is also the first to support Apple Pay businesses, according to the reporter, at present the Carrefour stores have been able to use Apple Pay. In the town of Pujiang Carrefour stores, the reporter saw the shop for customers to use Apple Pay, but the operation was very strange, even the clerk also recommended that customers should not Alipay pay it faster."
Some experienced users of Apple pay told reporters, in support of the majority of businesses still exist rush into battle, some operations are not skilled, some directly expressed received training did not come, let customers come another day trial.
Safety is no danger of anything going wrong
Fast is a big selling point Apple Pay, while another major selling point is the safety, the use of fingerprint identification authentication, mobile phone lost nor stolen. But in the afternoon of February 23rd, a Apple Pay "negative news" was born, people use the Apple Pay binding credit card after the failure of a stolen million hours.
According to media reports, Ms. Wang use Apple pay is bound to a credit card, but did not succeed, after a day, try to bind the credit card was stolen brush pen, each other using Ms. Wang's card in the apple store online consumption, a total of $1862, equivalent to RMB million yuan. Ms. Wang suspected the other by Apple ID obtained the credit card information, but the bank said, can not determine the bank card stolen brush with Apple Pay.
Security expert Lv Lisheng told reporters, this may be just an ordinary fraudulent behavior, or in the use of mobile phone users before they can be implanted a virus, so the relevant information is stolen. "There is no public documents show that Apple pay has been cracked, apple pay on the iPhone is not directly store credit card information, but save a by UnionPay payment encrypted token (token), stored in the iPhone's independent security chip (called se chip), use it to replace the magnetic information can understood as a token and credit card magnetic stripe equivalent. Only when the fingerprint authentication through iPhone, it allows you to use NFC to read token. If token cannot reverse leakage, the reduction of credit card information." Lv Lisheng said that the credit card is stolen brush is likely because previously in the unsafe environment using this credit card.
Compared to the needs of network and bank card information stored scan code mobile payment, Apple Pay payment security from the principle is accepted. However, safety is relative, too simple action against money people always make people feel unsafe. A bank official told reporters, NFC, the biggest problem is how to do after the loss of the terminal. "Although Apple devices and bank cards can be canceled, but need to race against time."
Apple Pay also in the ATM machine withdrawals
In addition to the brush mobile phone faster and more secure payment, Apple Pay actually have unknown function, for example, can be achieved without card withdrawals. Reporter from inside the union people to know, in the non-contact IC card function of ATM, the mobile phone is placed in the ATM machine "IC card induction zone", enter the required amount, choose whether to print the receipt, enter your bank card password, ATM opportunity to remind you once again the phone on the reader, after the completion of the induction, we can take now. In the iPhone mobile phone in "Wallet", choose to pay the bank card, there is the corresponding transaction information.
According to the experience, different from the payment of fast, using a mobile phone taken now save time and not too many advantages, however, the penniless and did not bring a bank card, the binding of the apple pay phone, perhaps can explain urgent needs. At present, according to different banks and the amount of money for each different, generally 2
A fee of 50 yuan.
According to UnionPay insiders, currently supports the non connected ATM is not much, the estimated future will be transformed to POS machine.


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NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market shook off an early slump and was mixed in morning trading Tuesday as investors weighed conflicting reports on how the U.S. economy is doing.
Indexes slipped shortly after the opening bell after the government reported that number of homes being built last month plunged to the lowest level in more than two years, the latest sign that the housing market is cooling.
That downbeat report was countered by a subsequent survey from The Conference Board consumers were far more confident last month than economists had expected, reversing three months of declines.
Investors are also keeping a close eye on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who begins two days of congressional testimony on Tuesday. It’s his first appearance there since the Fed signaled in December that it would hold off on raising interest rates. Powell said he expects solid, but slower growth in 2019 and remains “patient” on raising rates.
Corporate earnings continued rolling out. Home improvement retailer Home Depot felt the brunt of a weakening housing market and fell after weak results in the fourth quarter. Auto parts retailer Autozone rose after reporting earnings that beat analysts’ forecasts.
Drugmakers will be in focus today as CEOs of several major pharmaceutical companies appear before Congress to discuss drug pricing. The leaders of AbbVie and AstraZeneca are among those appearing.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 37 points, or 0.2 percent, to 26,054 as of 10:15 a.m. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 indexes were little changed.
MANAGEMENT MAKEOVER: Macy’s will trim its management structure in a move that could save it million as it gears up for fiercer competition in the retail sector. The company also surged past Wall Street’s profit forecast for the quarter. The stock rose 1.5 percent.
The department store operator warned investors about a weak fourth quarter earlier this year because of soft holiday sales. Its competitors also faced a tough holiday sales season. The Commerce Department reported overall retail sales in December marked the biggest drop since September 2009.
HOME IMPROVEMENT RUT: A weak housing market helped slam the brakes on growth for home improvement retailer Home Depot. The stock fell 2.2 percent after a key sales measure fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts. The company also expects weak sales this year.
The housing market initially cooled last year as average 30-year mortgage rates climbed to nearly 5 percent. Home prices have consistently risen faster than wages and the inventory of homes listed for ,000 or less is tight, suggesting a sluggish market going forward.
TESLA TUMBLES: Tesla fell 1.3 percent after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it wants the electric car company’s CEO held in contempt of a settlement agreement after he tweeted incorrectly last year that he had secured funding to take the company private.
On Feb. 19, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company will make around 500,000 cars in 2019. He later corrected himself, but the initial figure didn’t match the company’s previous forecast. Musk is supposed to get approval from company officials before making any statements that could impact the stock price.


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Yet, the assumptions underpinning IEA’s outlook that are perhaps most surprising and subject to uncertainty come outside the developed world—most notably in China, where the agency sees oil demand growth effectively petering out after 2020 if China is to meet its announced policy commitments. In fact, after record-breaking growth there upended oil markets from 2000 to 2015, IEA now sees Chinese oil demand plateauing at 15 mbd and failing to ever come close to current U.S. levels despite China’s substantially larger population.
This feels like a stretch. Consider first that despite rapid growth in auto sales over the past several years, the number of passenger vehicles per 1,000 people in China stands today at just 90—about the level it was in the U.S. in 1920. By 2040, IEA sees Chinese vehicle ownership reaching U.S. 1950s levels. True, for China to reach current American motorization levels, the country would have to squeeze about a billion cars and trucks on the road compared to about 250 million in the United States, an unimaginable outcome if you have ever experienced Beijing traffic. But it’s also true that there is no reason to believe Chinese consumers will settle into a dramatically different growth pattern than American consumers. As they get richer, their lifestyles tend to converge toward ours.
Anyone who doubts this should take a look at China’s rapidly expanding market for light-trucks. Just a few years ago, these vehicles were nowhere to be found in China. But today, American-style SUVs and even pick-up trucks account for nearly 40% of the Chinese vehicle market, with sales on pace to top 9 million units this year—only slightly behind the projected record-breaking total of 10 million in the U.S. That shift has already had an impact on fuel markets, with 2015 seeing the fastest growth in Chinese gasoline demand in history and 2016 not far behind.
A flattening out of demand growth doesn’t seem to square with that. It’s possible that competition will dramatically change the trajectory of oil demand in China. IEA figures there will be about 60 million electric vehicles on the road there in 2040, equal to 11% of the fleet. In total, alternative fuels will meet almost one-fifth of China’s transport fuel needs in 2040, up from just 9% today, according to IEA. That’s impressive, but it’s also debatable. Can the Chinese EV industry mature fast enough to meet expectations? Where will all those electric vehicles charge in dense Chinese cities where high-rise living is the norm and few vehicle owners have access to dedicated parking for EV charging? And how many Chinese consumers will open their wallets for vehicles that IEA itself says carry at best a 10-year payback?
It’s not hard to put together a picture that spells real trouble for the oil industry in the coming decades. There are incremental shifts around the edges of key markets, competing technologies are getting cheaper, and countries have made some ambitious policy commitments that they can’t reach without far fewer barrels. And yet, it may be too soon to write oil’s obituary. The past two years have reminded many observers that black gold is tough to beat, no matter what commitments countries make, and that countries like China still have a lot of room to grow. Maybe more than anything, today’s OPEC decision reflects the cartel’s belief that oil has plenty of good days yet to come.
Follow me at @samori8 and share your thoughts.


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While the ICT industry will move towards new aspects of intelligence, openness, service, and integration, 10 key trends are to reshape the landscape of the industry in 2018, according to Taipei-based and government-backed IT research institute MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute).
The ten trends are: precise recognition, retail intelligence, AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based security, software openness, edge-fog computing, technology servitization, network service miniaturization, telecom operation dataization, cross-border application, and concentrated industry,” says Chris Hung, deputy general director at MIC.
Top 10 ICT Trends to Observe in 2018
The 10 key trends are elaborated as follows:
- Precise Recognition: Deep learning helps increase the precision level of recognition technology and spur innovation across industry sectors such as transportation, administration, public utilities, finance, automotive, medical care, and more.
- Retail Intelligence: New retail service model can trigger demand for smart/intelligence product offerings. For instance, Amazon and Alibaba have unveiled their own smart retail concept with advanced voice and image recognition technologies to come out with new business models like Customization, Virtual-Physical Integration, and Multichannel Marketing and the demand for new products like AR (Augmented Reality) digital signage, cloud-based video recorder, smart POS (Point of Sale), and self-checkout machine.
- AI-based Security: AI integrated security systems can safeguard national and cyber security better. A number of cyber and terrorist attacks in 2017, coupled with the widespread use of internet, the concerns for physical and cyber security are expected to rise sharply in 2018 and thus more AI-based security products can be expected for more precise intelligence analysis, identification recognition, system malfunction detection, and system failure prevention and correction.
- Software Openness: Open-source software becomes the mainstream. The increasing popularity of cloud computing, big data, IoT (Internet of Things), AI, and Blockchain that are developed based on open-source software has forced leading companies like Microsoft and Apple to join the bandwagon by collaborating with open source communities to speed up their technology and application developments.
- Edge-Fog Computing: The rise of fog computing helps solve future’s big data issues with a decentralized computing infrastructure that uses one or more collaborative end-user clients or near-user edge devices to perform low latency computation and aggregation on the data.
- Technology Servitization: More new services will be derived from emerging technologies. A cloud-based architecture is a foundation for software servitization over the years especially in the form of SaaS (Software as a Service).
In the future, emerging technologies such as Container, Blockchain, AI, and Quantum Computing and more technology-centric services are going to gain an increasing attention.
- Network Service Miniaturization: More micro-operators are to provide customization services. With the advent of the 5G era, the critical success factor for a business depends on what service it provides. Small cell, coupled with V2X and IoT applications, LTE D2D compliant to 3GPP standard will become the areas of focus in 2018. Meanwhile, the proliferation of micro-operators dedicated to providing regional services is expected to generate more customization services without having to obtain a spectrum license.
- Telecom Operation Dataization: Data service is to become a main source of revenue for large-scale telecom operators which aim to tap new markets with greater diversity. Having a large amount of data, telecom operators are able to conduct the precise marketing strategy and better utilize service resources to stand out in the future.?
- Cross-border Application: Smart cities become the best testbeds for smart applications in light of the fundamental changes in government policy concerning the smart city development. In addition, the proliferation of smart applications has also shifted the customer demand from single- to multiple-use and integrated solutions and has made smart cities the best test fields.
- Concentrated Industry: Industry concentration is to be further intensified in 2018 owing to the increasing demand for cross-border application integration. Taking the semiconductor industry as an example, the IP deployment has become more widespread under the intelligence trend in the non-3C application sector but SMEs seems unable to afford alone. The industry concentration is further intensified as a result. The recent case would be Broadcom`s proposal to acquire Qualcomm. Nevertheless, this has reflected semiconductor vendors` intention to expand via M&As.
Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan`s premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry. http://mic.iii.org.tw/english


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Microsoft is freezing the price it charges customers that continue running legacy versions of its business software. Citing the global economic downturn Microsoft said the price for joining its custom support program would not be raised this year, and it will maintain the 2008 pricing. Custom support applies to products that …
This is news?
I've paid exactly the same for support from Microsoft every year since Microsoft came into being. I fully intend to continue this into the future.
- Boffins attempt to prove the UNIVERSE IS JUST A HOLOGRAM
- China building SUPERSONIC SUBMARINE that travels in a BUBBLE
- Review Raspberry Pi B+: PHWOAR, get a load of those pins
- Experimental hypersonic SUPERMISSILE destroyed 4 SECONDS after US launched it
- Will It Blend? Maybe. BlackBerry’s secret comeback weapon


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Peugeot has finally lifted the veils off the Vision Gran Turismo virtual racer designed for the Gran Turismo 6 video game.
With a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio (875 kg and 875 hp) and a hypothetical 0 to 100 km/h sprint of just 1.73 seconds, the Vision Gran Turismo supercar promises an interesting driving experience for gamers.
Peugeot was asked by Kazunori Yamauchi, the man behind the driving game, to design a car specifically to commemorate Gran Turismo’s 15th anniversary. The automaker said yes to the challenge and came up with the Vision Gran Turismo, “a high-performance endurance racer,” as it is described in the press release.
The car features a striking monolithic silhouette sculpted to defeat air resistance, thanks to a height of just 1,040mm (40.9in) and despite the absence of nearly any aerodynamic features. Peugeot says the body design alone is enough to “effectively stick the car to the road.”
The racer is powered by a mid-mounted 3.2-liter V6 turbo engine, which produces 875hp. The unit is mated to a six-speed manual transmission and an all-wheel drive system. The Vision Gran Turismo rides on 22-inch alloys at the front and 23-inch wheels at the back, with Peugeot describing the steering as “super-responsive.” Braking power is supplied by four ventilated Brembo carbon discs (380mm in the front and 337mm in the rear).
Available exclusively on the PS3 in six color schemes, the Peugeot Vision Gran Turismo will be released as a part of a free update for Gran Turismo 6.


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In May, OPI will debut Bond Girls, a collection of six new Liquid Sand nail lacquers ($9 each) featuring a textured, matte finish infused with reflective sparkle fitting the allure surrounding the Bond Girls. In hues of white, pink, blue, purple, gold and coral, Bond Girls offers a range of shimmering shades with the distinctive Liquid Sand finish, said the company.
“OPI is extremely excited to partner again with EON Productions,” said Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI co-founder and artistic director. “Following the success of the holiday promotion with the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, it’s been a thrill to create colors for the women who’ve captured Bond’s attention over the last five decades.”
More info: www.opi.com


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There’s no denying the influence that e-commerce is having on the retail landscape, and that influence is starting to go mobile. And as that trend grows, marketers have an opportunity to leverage the influence of consumer preferences. Specifically, by crafting their messages around local interests, marketers stand to boost their engagement with the tech-savvy consumers that see their messages.
To gain additional insight, a recent Scarborough survey found that local influences heavily dictate the content preferences of mobile device users. Mobile ad-friendly shoppers (see infographic), defined by Scarborough as adults who used a smartphone or tablet in the past 30 days for shopping, agree they’d be willing to receive ads on their phone in exchange for certain services, or disagree that ads on phones are annoying.
For example, in Knoxville, Tenn., the city that boasts the highest percentage of mobile ad-friendly shoppers, the reality-adventure TV genre reigns for the group. In fact, mobile ad-friendly shoppers in Knoxville are 45 percent more likely to cite reality-adventure as television programming they typically watch. Science fiction and music videos are also Knoxville favorites.
Comparatively, TV viewing preferences in Roanoke, Va., which has the smallest percentage of mobile ad-friendly shoppers, are more diverse. For example, Roanoke mobile ad-friendly shoppers are almost three times more likely than all in that mobile group to typically watch daytime soap operas. In fact, Roanoke’s mobile ad-friendly shoppers are more likely to watch 16 of the 23 television genres that Scarborough measures, whereas those in Knoxville are only more likely to view four.
LOCAL SPORTS PLAY BIG AMONG MOBILE AD-FRIENDLY SHOPPERS IN KNOXVILLE AND ROANOKE
Football is a big draw among Knoxville’s mobile ad-friendly shoppers. This consumer group is 19 percent more likely than other smartphone or tablet users in the market to have watched a Tennessee Titans game on TV during the past year, and they’re 11 percent more likely to have watched the Super Bowl. In Roanoke, however, tennis and horse racing are popular. Roanoke’s mobile ad-friendly shoppers are 154 percent more likely than other smartphone or tablet users in the city to have watched men’s tennis on TV during the past year, and 80 percent more likely to have watched horse racing.
Mobile ad-friendly shoppers in Knoxville and Roanoke have overlapping interests in the UFC and WWE leagues.
LOCAL NEWS IS A SIGNIFICANT DIGITAL MEDIA INTEREST AMONG MOBILE AD-FRIENDLY SHOPPERS
Mobile ad-friendly shoppers are also big fans of online local news. About half of this consumer group in both Knoxville and Roanoke went online for local news during the past month, as did 48 percent of all mobile ad-friendly shoppers nationally.


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It has been six months since the Covid-19 pandemic made its presence felt in the United States. Since that time, in addition to the health and social impact, the pandemic has caused widespread business disruption and, in many cases, failed businesses. While some companies were able to access certain government relief funds, which offered temporary relief, businesses in many sectors like entertainment, food and beverage, hospitality, tourism, and retail face a dire and tenuous future.
The challenges in other sectors, such as commercial real estate, include accessing reliable capital to close transactions. In this post, we will explore the various reasons why traditional loans lack reliability, especially during difficult times, and are increasingly being replaced with private capital.


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Fuel leak prompts Ford commercial vans recall
Over 11.000 Ford commercial vans are being recalled for a fuel tank leak.
January 25, 2023
DHL, Ford Pro considering charging options for 2,000 electric E-Transits
DHL signed up for 2,000 electric Ford E-Transits and is working with Ford Pro to help determine their best charging options.
December 7, 2022
2023 Ford Transit Trail gets serious off-road capability
The 2023 Ford Transit Trail gets taller, wider and impressive off-road capability with versatile all-wheel-drive.
November 9, 2022
Penske delivering electric Ford E-Transits to prominent B2B player
Penske Truck Leasing announced that it will be delivering electric Ford E-Transits to global B2B player Sonepar.
October 5, 2022
FedEx announces all-electric Ford Pro E-Transit pilot
As part of its goal of having a zero-emission fleet by 2040, FedEx has partnered with Ford Pro to pilot ten all-electric E-Transit vans.
August 10, 2022
Startup lands big electric van deal with Walmart
Walmart has agreed to buy thousands of electric delivery vans from an Arkansas-based start-up.
July 13, 2022
Ford Transit van, pickup sales show strong growth in June
Ford's strong numbers for June include a year-over-year surge in sales for conventional and all-electric Transit vans. Pickups also enjoyed impressive growth.
July 6, 2022
GM's electric BrightDrop vans roll out to FedEx
FedEx announced this week that it received 150 all-electric vans from GM subsidiary BrightDrop.
June 22, 2022
Penske makes big buy of electric Ford E-Transit vans
Following a successful pilot, Penske moved ahead with a large purchase of electric Ford E-Transit vans which will roll out across the country at various Penske locations.
May 4, 2022
Google launches integrated last-mile delivery platform
The pandemic accelerated e-commerce and the number of deliveries and increased the strain on delivery networks.
March 17, 2022
2023 Ram ProMaster gets a facelift, more storage and additional safety features
With cargo capacity ranking high among fleet buyers, Ram aims to please with 2023 ProMaster which offers best-in-class storage while delivering more safety features and creature comforts.
March 16, 2022
Ready to work, Ford Pro rolls E-Transits out to customers
Shipping for the E-Transit, Ford’s second electric vehicle has begun from the Kansas City Assembly Plant.
February 8, 2022
Changes for 2022 Jeep Gladiator and 2022 Ram ProMaster City
Stellantis revealed some changes for the 2022 Jeep Gladiator and 2022 Ram ProMaster City.
December 29, 2021
Ram updates fuel economy, tech and safety on 2022 Promaster
Ram Commercial introduced Wednesday its 2022 ProMaster commercial van and aimed it squarely at one of the largest commercial customer categories: vocational.
August 26, 2021
Ford reports on E-Transit interest
Since going live in early May, over 20,000 Ford E-Transits, the nation's first OEM produced all-electric van, have been earmarked by customers on the van's registration site.
June 23, 2021
U.S. mail to be powered by Ford
Ford will be providing engines, all-electric powertrains and suspension components for next-gen delivery vehicles for the United States Postal Service.
June 23, 2021
Ford Transit Connect recalled
Ford is recalling certain 2013-21 Ford Transit Connect vehicles over concerns of a possible gear position mix-up.
June 2, 2021
EZ STAK’s EZ Folding Shelf target delivery van market
Each shelving unit comes with two foldable shelves, available in four widths: 48 inches, 60 inches, 72 inches, and 84 inches.
May 5, 2021
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Charging can make or break the Ford F-150 Lightning
Get away from home- or work-based overnight AC charging and the Ford F-150 Lightning will cost significantly more to fuel up at DC fast-chargers.
Big learning curve with Ford F-150 Lightning range recalculations
Ford dominates truck sales in 2022
Ford F-150 Lightnings roll out to green conscious utility
Toyota Tacoma sinks on new crash test while Nissan Frontier pulls ahead


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CO Business Turned Me Away Because of Trump Support, Woman Says
A Colorado frame shop refused to serve a customer who brought in her pictures and memorabilia from President Trump's inauguration.
Katie Richter told "Fox & Friends" that she took her items to Suitable For Framing in Aspen, Colo.
Richter said she was looking down at her items and asking the clerk which frames and products would be best to preserve her keepsakes.
She heard the clerk say they could not help her with the request, and Richter asked whether it was because of her political beliefs.
"I was a little befuddled," Richter said, describing the moment the clerk confirmed her suspicion.
"I respect your freedom of speech but am happy my vote canceled yours out," she told the clerk as she left the store.
Richter said that after a local newspaper asked the store owner for reaction, they said it was because of a crease in the photo she presented.
"They started to backtrack when... I took it to the media," Richter said.