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Although awareness of “green” consumer electronic (CE) offerings lags behind sectors like household products and automobiles, 33 percent of consumers say they expect to make some type of green CE purchase within the next two years, according to new data released by the Consumer Electronics Association.
“Going Green: An Examination of the Green Trend and What it Means to Consumers and the CE Industry,” which will be released on Dec. 19, finds that 89 percent of households want their next television to more more energy efficient.
According to the study, price and features continue to be the primary purchase drivers for CE products, but green attributes will increasingly be a factor. The study found that 53 percent of consumers say they would be willing to pay some type of premium for televisions with green attributes.
The study also finds consumers desire an easy way to determine if a product meets environmental standards, such as logos and descriptions printed on the product packaging.
An online sample of 960 adults were surveyed for the study.
A November report released by GreenFactor found that consumers in the U.S. have completely different ideas about green electronics than those in Japan.
Key Findings from CEA:
• Familiarity with green terminology is high for established terms such as recyclable (86%) or energy efficiency (76%), but lower for emerging terms such as carbon footprint (33%).
o Awareness of green labels and logos follows a similar pattern. Eighty-two percent of online adults recognize the Energy Star logo and 86% recognize the recycling arrows, but only 16% recognize the certified organic product logo.
• Consumers are most familiar with green offerings in the household products category, the food category, and the vehicle category. In each case, the quantity of offerings, length of time on the market, or the notoriety of product offering have contributed to the high familiarity rates.
o Awareness of appliances with green attributes tops awareness of computers with similar attributes (50% vs. 17%). This also stems from how these two product categories are sold, with consumers having more experience evaluating the energy efficiency of appliance purchases than PC purchases.
• Does heightened green awareness translate to a higher level of engagement in green behaviors? In some cases yes, and in other cases, it appears things are headed in the right direction but the there is room for improvement.
o For example, 87% of consumers say they turn room lights off when not in use, while 62% say they recycle household trash (i.e. cans) always or usually.
o Women tend to be more green than men: For example, 66% of women say they always shut off lights when not in use compared to 52% of males. Men and women recycle at about the same rates though.
o For a basket of CE products (TVs, computers, phones, VCRs), consumers report a 26% increase in recycling of the devices from 2005 to 2007.
o The teenage segment of the population exhibits fewer green behaviors. About 4 in 10 turn off the lights when not in use and about one-third recycle.
• Attitudinal data reveals consumers have varying degrees of concern over the environment. Fifty-five percent of consumers consider themselves to be environmentally conscious, while only 44% of teens fall into this category.
o 74% believe companies should do more to protect the environment, but only 53% think their personal actions have a significant impact on the environment.
• Over half (55%) of consumers plan to engage in more environmentally friendly behaviors over the next 12 months.
• Several factors influence consumers’ decision to engage or not engage in green behaviors. When asked why they would engage in green behaviors, consumers are most likely to respond by saying ‘it’s the right thing to do,’(69%) followed by ‘saving money.’(63%) This suggests companies must appeal to consumers’ desire to do the right thing but also their pocketbook.
o Those that haven’t or won’t engage in green behaviors cite cost (which raises a red flag as a perception problem) or simply ‘they didn’t think about it.’ This is another example of where it needs to be simple and easy – if consumers have to think too much or do too much, it may be a deterrent.
Green Confusion and Suspicions
• Suspicions and confusion of green claims do exist. The majority of consumers say they are at least somewhat unfamiliar with the green attributes of the products they purchase. Additionally, about half of consumers express suspicion regarding the green claims made by some companies.
o Sixty-five percent of consumers think some companies are overstating how environmentally friendly their products are in order to sell more.
o The data suggests males are more suspicious of exaggerated green claims than females.
o Some of this stems from confusion over what green actually means and how green claims are validated. Certainly, there are probably some cases of ‘greenwashing’ but that’s not the whole story.
Green as a Product Attribute
• Cars top the list of products for greening. Seventy-three percent feel it is important for cars to have environmentally friendly attributes, whereas 65% feel the same about consumer electronics. Home furnishings (47%) and clothing (44%) are viewed as the least important product types to be green.
• While price and feature sets are most important to consumers when deciding on what CE products to purchase, 57% of consumers indicated that the environmentally friendly attributes of a product will be important to their next purchase decision.
Green CE Defined
• Top five attributes consumers feel green CE should possess: recyclable packaging (68%), recyclable product (64%), energy efficient product (62%), packaging made with recycled materials (57%) and biodegradable packaging (53%).
• Ten percent of consumers indicate having purchased some type of green CE device over the past 12 months, and 6% have purchased a green CE accessory product. Green CE purchases are dominated by early adopters (18% CE device purchase, 12% CE accessory purchase).
• Consumers want an easy way to determine if and why a product is green. The majority (59%) want to know the specific attributes that make a CE product green, while 41% only want to know whether it is or isn’t.
• Logos and descriptions are cited as desired vehicles for establishing green credentials.
• About one-third of consumers expect to make some type of green CE purchase over the next 12 months.


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Strike Victims : If the Baseball Players Go on Strike, They Won’t Be the Only Ones Not Getting Paid : The Hotels, Bars, and Restaurants Will Suffer Too
A players strike would prove very costly to area businesses that depend on baseball games for revenue, owners of some of those establishments said.
“The strike (would have) a tremendous business impact,” said Fred Ross, who owns Front Row Center ticket agency. “If you take away all the games nationally--and consider what it will do to the communities--it’s going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Whether it will cause a recession in the country . . . no, the country is bigger than baseball.”
But Ross is correct, the devastation to baseball’s peripheral businesses will be real if the strike begins on Friday.
Businesses such as ticket agencies, hotels and bars make a large part of their living off major league baseball.
Ross said the financial losses caused by a strike reach beyond the United States, but the main financial losses would occur here.
“The impact goes beyond our (ticket) business” he said. “Let me give you an example: If a Japanese business person comes to Los Angeles, just about the first thing he or she will do is find out what sporting events are happening. Baseball is huge there, so they want to see the Dodgers or the Angels. That’s a lot of business right there.
“Then there’s people in the United States, from places that don’t have major league baseball, who want to vacation out here. Tourism may be down for a number of reasons, but people from Omaha or wherever always call to say, ‘Hey, are the Dodgers in town?’ There are people who may not come to L.A. because the Dodgers are not going to be here. So not only are they not going to be buying Dodger tickets, but they won’t be here to go to restaurants or whatever.”
As diverse as a ticket agency can be, Ross estimates baseball tickets make up 5% of his overall business revenue.
He said that probably means he would have to lay off a full-time employee. Who can say if that job ever comes back?
“It has a direct impact from Dodger games alone,” Ross said. “On the average, I sell about 40 tickets per game for $35. That’s $1,400 for every game the Dodgers don’t play.”
Reduced patronage of restaurants and bars by Dodger and Angel fans would be particularly hard on the servers who rely on tips.
“A lot of employees are not going to be working a lot of hours that they would have,” said Steve Nuccio, who owns Little Joe’s--a downtown haunt for Dodger fans. “A lot of my employees live off of tips. They aren’t going to get them if people don’t come because there are no games.”
Nuccio estimates Little Joe’s would lose about $1,000 per home game canceled because of the strike. That figures to about $20,000.
The Catch, a restaurant and bar across from Anaheim Stadium, projected a similar loss.
“We support the team, but the fans just are not coming out to see the team this year, so our numbers are down anyway,” said John Marquez, food and beverage manager at The Catch. “The Rams will be here soon, and we do very well with them. Then we’ll wait for the Ducks after that. Roller hockey has even helped.
“If it wasn’t for the (Anaheim) Arena, the strike would have a devastating effect.”
Still, Marquez said The Catch already has had to cut back its staff because of low Angel attendance.
Marquez said even though it appears as if The Catch depends on Angels games, the bar can get by on regular business and business stemming from arena events.
“We learned over the years not to depend on sports events,” Marquez said. “Even when stars like Ken Griffey Jr. come to town, the Angels are not drawing.
“The sports will often double our regular business, but the sports is a bonus, not our bread and butter.”
Little Joe’s doesn’t have a nearby arena or other attractions to fall back on.
“I suppose we could have our own softball game and see who comes to watch,” Nuccio said jokingly.
Another less-than-obvious loss of revenue would occur at hotels.
Ten American League teams stay at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange when they play the Angels.
“We’ll lose 900-some room-nights, plus food and beverage or whatever else the team might spend money on,” said Mike Hall, who is general manager of the hotel. “We’re looking at around $70,000 to $75,000 lost if the strike goes the whole season.
“That would have a big impact on us.”
Also lost to hotels would be a small percentage of fans who travel to weekend games and stay overnight.
“We sell Dodger tickets in San Bernardino County all the time to people who drive into L.A. for a game, spend the night at a hotel, see a day game and then go home after that,” Ross said.
“Others might stay in L.A. to shop or go to the movies. It affects the whole community.”
Ross said that for every dollar spent on a game ticket, three to five more will be generated from it.
“You see it in what people pay for parking and concessions,” Ross said. “It’s the same if I go to the theater--I spend it on parking, popcorn and whatever.”
The strike would also have an impact on KTLA, which televises Angel and Dodger games.
Baseball has a reputation for being a poor ratings draw, but Greg Nathanson, general manager of KTLA, says that is deceiving.
“We would rather see baseball,” Nathanson said. “Other shows will do as well, if not better, in terms of ratings. But baseball draws a different type of advertiser, so it is something we want. The advertising for baseball is at a premium rate.”
The impact on television could last into next year.
“A strike will make us lose some momentum,” Nathanson said. “The Dodger ratings are already up a point because this year they are in a pennant race. It’s an exciting season with Ken Griffey, Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell all having great years. We’re hopeful the ratings would increase and improve our advertising rate for next year.”

domain: news


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'Love Your County' GAA jewelry line launched – wear the Sam Maguire or Liam McCarthy around your neck
Jewelry line gives back to the local GAA teams
The traditional way of supporting your home county in GAA is wearing your home colors on a jersey, but this new line of “Love Your County” jewelry is a more discreet way of showing your home pride no matter where you are.
The collection includes sterling silver, silver-plated, and stainless steel charms, pendants, and dog tags depicting official county color jerseys, miniature footballs, hurleys, and football boots.
You can even hang a mini Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy cup around your neck.
A "generous percentage" from the sale of each item will go directly to the respective counties, according to reports in the Irish Independent.
The line will be unveiled to more than 5,000 potential buyers at a showcase creative trade fair taking place at the RDS, in Dublin, this weekend. It will then be available in gift shops nationwide from April and online at their websites GAAJewellery.com and LoveYourCountry.com
GAA spokesman Alan Milton said, “It's nice for people who want to declare their allegiance…It shines a light on our heritage."
He added that there are now 350 GAA clubs scattered across the globe, from Dubai, Mongolia, China, and Korea, to Mexico, Sweden, and the Cayman Islands.
Brian McGee, spokesman for the Crafts Council of Ireland said, “There is a sense of national pride with the GAA. Irish businesses also have their eye on the export market and I certainly hope it will be a hit.”
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While everybody anticipates the launch of the Apple Watch in April, Stone CEO Eric Migicovsky informed The Verge that his firm sold its one millionth smartwatch in December 2014. That’s a whole lot a lot more Pebble watches than the 400,000 marketed back in March. Stone intends to take advantage of its success by disregarding Apple’s foray into the wearables market as well as launching a new software application platform for smartwatches in 2015.
‘We have actually located a brand-new structure to utilize as an interaction design on the watch,’ Migicovsky said in an exclusive interview with The Verge. ‘It does not look like what we have today, and it does not resemble what’s on your mobile phone,’ he added.
While Migicovsky really did not elaborate what Pebble had particularly prepared for this year, Dan Seifert of The Brink says its brand-new system is ‘unlike anything else utilized on smartwatches to this day.’
Whatever Pebble has up its sleeve it better excel, since the smartwatch market is getting a great deal a lot more affordable after Apple introduces its very own watch in a couple of months. Stone also needs to compete with the similarity Samsung, Motorola, Sony as well as other producers who have already launched their own Android Put on watches with strategies to release more.
Samsung today announced its Unpacked 2015 event in Barcelona, Spain on March 1st. While the firm is just expected to reveal two brand-new Galaxy S mobile phones at the keynote, it is reported to be dealing with its next generation Gear Live watch. A brand-new Motorola 360 is also reported to be in the pipeline, and LG is supposedly functioning on a new line of Android Wear devices to introduce this year.


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Crowdfunding Campaign Raises Nearly $2.5 Million For High-Tech Motorcycle Helmet
Motorcycle helmets can be the difference between
life and death for riders, but sometimes, even the motorcycle
equipment can make it difficult to ride with bigger blind spots and
bulky material weighing motorcyclists down. However, Marcus Weller,
decided to make a change in the motorcycle helmet industry after he
suffered a severe crash in Barcelona a few years ago, ABC affiliate
Weller turned to the crowd-sourcing website Indiegogo to showcase his idea and design for a new motorcycle helmet. According to the source, Weller's idea quickly turned into the website's largest tech-based campaign in Indiegogo's history that has raised nearly $2.5 million after setting a modest goal of $250,000 for his motorcycle helmet called Skully.
Idea Sparked By A Dream
After Weller's crash, he realized he
wrecked after looking at a street sign and the car in front of him
stopped quickly, KGO reported.
"A few months later I had this dream that I was back on the motorcycle that day," Weller added, according to the source. "But there was a really important difference, which was that I had GPS maps and they were floating out in front of me like a hologram."
That gave the idea to make Skully, which allows riders to see a display on the helmet's visor while riding, Yahoo Travel reported. The helmet has a GPS-style voice feed that alerts drivers of upcoming turns, stops and other driving information.
The helmet also has Bluetooth connectivity that allows riders to take hands-free calls while on the road and it lets people stream music through their helmet.
However, some of the best features are the 180-degree rearview camera that gives riders an image in the lower right side of the visor that illuminates blind spots and drivers behind the motorcycle.
Increasing Rider Safety Is The Main Goal
The Skully AR-1 gives motorcycle riders
the high-tech evolution on gear that will not only improve riding,
but help save lives. The Skully campaign has picked up so much that
the helmet could be on the market in the near future, Power Sports
"We continue to be blown away by the outpouring of interest and support for the Skully AR-1," said Weller, according to the source. "The campaign has been a tremendous success and has been a true testament to the desire for innovation in safety technology. We look forward to delivering the AR-1 to the Skully Nation next year."
With the Indiegogo campaign allowing supporters to invest enough money to receive a version of the helmet, Weller was able to sell more than 1,700 pieces of equipment, the source reported. With a pre-order price set at $1,499, the Skully AR-1 is an expensive investment that many couldn't wait to see a reality. Those who pre-ordered will soon get their wish, as the hi-tech helmet is entering the production phase and should be shipping in 2015.
Enhancing Rider Confidence
Weller explained his helmet "feels more
comfortable" than other full-face helmets and it gives riders
confidence because it seems like someone is looking out for the
rider's every move, KGO reported.
Kyle Ellicott, co-founder of Wearable World, a startup accelerator, said when the first Skully prototype was showcased in April, everyone knew this was not just another gadget, but something revolutionary in a massive industry, the source reported.
"It's something that changes the game in terms of transportation," said Ellicott, according to the source. "When it comes to motorcycle safety, there's [going to] be nothing like it. It's going to actually save lives."
Ellicott said their passion for the helmet is visible and for Weller, he simply believes the helmet will make him feel happy and safe while riding once again.


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ZAMBIA – Leading Zambian agro-producer and processor has announced a change in its management as the company’s two founders are once again planned to become joint heads of the company.
Carl Irwin will join Francis Grogan as joint Chief Executive Officer of the agribusiness giant with immediate effect, according to an announcement released to the London and Lusaka Stock Exchanges, where the company’s shares are listed.
Mr Grogan will continue to be responsible for the operational aspects of the business, while Mr Irwin will oversee the finance and administration aspects of the group.
The two were joint managing directors of the company from its inception 20 years ago until December 2008, when Mr Irwin moved to the position of Director of Strategy and Development.
“I am confident that Mr Irwin will further strengthen our senior management team and together with Mr Grogan will help drive the group to new heights in the coming years,” said Zambeef chairman Dr Jacob Mwanza.
“We look forward to working together to continue driving the business forward over the coming years,” said the two directors.
Zambeef Products Plc is the largest integrated agribusinesses in Zambia. The group is principally involved in the production, processing, distribution and retailing of beef, chicken, pork, milk, dairy products, eggs, edible oils, stock feed and flour.
The group also has large agricultural operations where the firm grows mainly maize, soya beans and wheat in over 25,000 hectares under irrigation in rain-fed/dry-land crops farming.
The group is also in the process of rolling out its West Africa expansion in Nigeria and Ghana, as well as developing a palm project in Zambia.
Zambeef slaughters more than 80,000 beef cattle and 6 million chickens, and processes 8 million litres of milk per year. The company has 122 retail outlets throughout the country, along with three wholesale depots.


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Social Media News August 2022
Instagram’s Creator Marketplace
Earlier last year, Instagram announced that they were testing a new Creator Marketplace feature. Now the function is being rolled out to several active brands in the US.
The Creator Marketplace is designed to help businesses to find the right creator for their brand message. Using the Meta Business Suite, filters can be applied to customize for specific audiences. According to Instagram, you can also filter by the creator’s audience. Additional columns indicate whether a creator is already following the brand or has already expressed interest in a collaboration. But the Marketplace goes even further than that. Once you have found a suitable creator for your campaign, you can plan and structure the project in the module. With its own message column, all the specifics of the collaboration can be handled directly in the marketplace.
According to Andrew Hutchinson from SocialMediaToday, the new function brings a lot of value – especially according to the new focus on Reels and Influencer marketing.
We are curious if and when the function will appear on the global market.
Facebook Trend Report
Facebook has published a new trend report, drawing attention to new social issues. Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, social awareness for many different topics has increased. Equality and social empowerment are becoming more and more important. From its own analysis of anonymized user data and other global studies, Facebook is trying to put together a trend diagnosis for the upcoming months. We have briefly summarized the most important points for you:
- Gender revolution
Gender equality also includes the acceptance of fluid identities. This means that gender-neutral marketing will be even more important in the future than it already is. Try to rethink outdated gender roles and step outside the box.
This trend not only shows beautiful faces to the outside world, but also describes an unadulterated self-image. This includes above all body positivity. The movement for a positive body image and more acceptance in society is gaining importance. In particular, brands that have a clear connection to fashion and beauty can win this trend for themselves. Because here, too, authenticity is important.
- Imitation and challenges
Facebook has also been able to observe that short videos boost our creativity. Honestly, this is nothing new for anyone involved in social media, but there is one peculiarity here. The competitive urge of some people and the reputation to the public promote all those challenges and hashtags. This is where collaborations become more and more important.
- Instant shopping experience
Shopping is becoming more of an online experience. Everything must be easy to find and, above all, uncomplicated to order. Everything you see, you have to be able to order with one click. In app shopping and live shopping are gaining importance. We must therefore ensure online that there is a seamless transition between looking and buying.
You can find all the other topics here 👉 https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/culture-rising-2022-trends-report/
Brand Building for B2B Companies
LinkedIn is an important platform to start connections and bring the brand into focus. Therefore, marketing on LinkedIn should be more and more about brand building.
A LinkedIn study has now found that 82% of B2B marketing managers consider brand building to be just as important as it is for B2C companies. And LinkedIn seems to perform particularly well for this kind of brand building. B2B companies are producing more and more similar content to B2C companies. Storytelling and creative videos are not to be neglected. A successful communication strategy can therefore be very effective for B2B companies.
It turns out that emotional marketing, as we know it from B2C brands, is gaining a new importance for B2B brands. Business-oriented companies therefore no longer have to produce boring, fact-oriented marketing. As a result, we are seeing B2B brands more and more on social media. The brand wants to anchor itself increasingly in people’s minds and win over customers despite long B2B buying processes. According to Jan Firsching from futurebiz, brand awareness is therefore one of the most important goals in LinkedIn marketing.
Facebook Feed Update
From now on, the in-app experience on Facebook will be changing a bit as well. Similar to Instagram, the focus will be more on video content. Videos of your family and friends are being played separately from algorithmically selected videos.
According to Sara Fischer of Axios Media Trends, Facebook is shifting from a social network to an entertainment platform like TikTok. The development is supposedly a reaction to new regulators regarding data privacy. This should give users better control over what they watch in the future.
The shift to more video formats naturally includes more vertical features on Facebook. Users will then be presented with videos that Facebook’s algorithm believes they will interact with or enjoy.
The biggest change is the separation of general content from family and friend content. According to Axios, Facebook is thus increasingly becoming a platform for shopping advertising.
TikTok`s Live-Stream shopping potential
We know that live shopping events have a great potential in terms of advertising and sales. TikTok has now published an infographic that shows us how to use the video platform for more shopping promotion.
Live streams provide creators with more reach and interaction with the community. And TikTok seems to be the perfect platform for this. The infographic shows that TikTok users are 50% more likely to watch branded live content than other users.
Another statistic shows why TikTok Live Shopping should not be neglected. Half of all TikTok users have bought something after watching a live stream. It is also interesting to note that TikTok users say that they prefer to watch TikTok lives hosted by creators. Even more than from celebrities or brand ambassadors. The most popular live topics are tutorials and product releases. But conventional live events, product sales and Q&As are also popular among users.
All these points speak for more shopping advertising on TikTok. Our recommendation: If an event or product release is coming up, you should test the live function. Perhaps creators with whom you already have a cooperation with are suitable for testing.
Pinterest is a platform that is meant to inspire and encourage creativity. That’s why they now want to further curb negativity on their platform. With the help of a Creator-Codex, Pinterest should become a positive place that encourages and enriches.
During the covid pandemic, the idea of a Creator-Codex was born. Amid political happenings and a global pandemic. During this very time, Pinterest wanted to be a place where its users felt comfortable and supported.
The Creator-Code sets the following rules:
Be friendly: Your content should make everyone feel good and not exclude anyone
Check facts: The information you publish must be accurate and true
Watch out for triggers: be careful about possible sensitive topics
Be inclusive: do not exclude anyone
Don’t harm others: make sure your content is safe for others.


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After the meeting on Tuesday, the government is expected to announce some incentives for the exporters
Commerce and Industry minister Anand Sharma is once again going to convene the Board of Trade (BoT) meet on Tuesday in an effort to boost the country’s merchandise export and identify the sectors where more stimulus is required to be given in the wake of the present global scenario.
The BoT, which is an advisory body on foreign trade to the government, last met in March this year, which was quickly followed by the annual review of Foreign Trade Policy (2009-2014) under which exporters were given a slew of incentives in April.
Some of the significant points which are going to be taken up in Tuesday’s meeting are extension of interest subvention for some of the sectors which are still not covered under the scheme, creation of an export development fund for aggressive marketing and increase in credit availability by bringing exports under the priority sector among others, officials in the commerce department told Business Standard.
After the meeting on Tuesday, the government is expected to announce some incentives for the exporters. The ministries of finance and commerce and industry have been discussing extending interest subvention for leather and some sectors of engineering and textile exports. Both are also mulling the creation of a corpus fund which would support exporters in their marketing efforts.
“We have been pushing for a long time for an export development fund with a certain corpus which would help exporters in marketing their products more aggressively than the competitors in the international markets, because today, marketing is the key factor in promoting exports,” Rafeeque Ahmed, a leading Chennai-based leather exporter and president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), said.
FIEO has also recommended for the increased focus market scheme and market linked focus product scheme benefits at the rate of five per cent for exports to countries or regions with whom India has free trade agreements and other such bilateral arrangements.
According to Sanjay Budhia, an exporter from Kolkata and chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s export committee, the government should clarify the issue of value added tax imposed by the states on exporters. “There is no clarity on the issue and continues to affect us adversely.”
Budhia also added that the government must look into creating a national shipping regulator for smooth transaction of exports. He said, currently, the shipping companies are forming a cartel and charging exporters exorbitantly.
The ministry of commerce and industry under the director general of foreign trade, has constituted the second task force on reducing transaction cost for exporters. The committee is expected to submit its report by October.
During the first four months of this financial year, exports reached $98.29 billion, higher than $96.63 billion in the corresponding period of last financial year. Total exports in 2012-13 stood at $300.60 billion, which was 1.76 per cent lower than $305.96 billion in the previous year.


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Research in Motion (RIM) has not provided a new mobile operating system for its BlackBerry smartphones since the product line first hit the market. At a software conference on October 18 in San Francisco, California, the Canada-based mobile device manufacturer announced the future release of a new mobile OS, referred to as BBX, that will appear in the next generation of BlackBerry devices.
According to Reuters, it was confirmed that BBX would be faster, and would work in conjunction with the QNX system that currently powers RIM's PlayBook tablets. Beyond that, RIM representatives refused to reveal any other details, not announcing the release dates of any BBX-powered smartphones or addressing other related questions.
The news source reports that this development was met with an unenthusiastic, but not negative, response from those gathered at the conference. Dave Lane, a software developer with the Tennessee-based company Metova, confirmed the lack of excitement that the BBX announcement failed to generate.
"BBX could potentially be exciting, but I was honestly expecting a bigger announcement. There was nothing revolutionary," Lane said, according to the news source.
RIM's reticence to reveal anything beyond a bare minimum of information about BBX is similar to its vague explanation of its mobile network's service outages last week. InformationWeek reports that the latter development may only contribute to the existing negative perception of the company.


text: We came across a recent article in the New York Times (full article available here: http://dld.bz/caF3R). This article discusses how a few bars opening across the United States (and beyond) plan to donate all profits to charity permanently. The article did not mention any bars in the five boroughs, though we hope this idea gains momentum and that such bars are able to keep their word. As the NY times articles mentions, it’s hard enough running a profitable business in the food/beverage industry, it’s probably even harder when profits cannot be reinvested back into the business. Here’s hoping that they succeed and that the model is copied numerous times over in the five boroughs. We can imagine a day when we do a NYC bar crawl where we hit many such pubs!


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SEO and web designers don’t often see eye to eye, but Topseos might give us web designers something to agree on with those scummy seo :)
Shaun has a bee in his bonnet about Topseos – which is naturally ALL OPINION as this article is.
Supposedly, Topseos rank the Best SEO companies in the world – see this list. Now, they call themselves the independent authority on search vendors, and give out awards every month to the ‘winners’ but the SEO community forced an apology from topseos here.
What you are not told clearly, to win these top awards you need to PAY TOPSEOS a lot of money (aparently) TOPSEOS is a lead generation company it appears.
In fact, probably the leading authority on SEO in the UK according to Shaun, Dave Naylor, said in a recent interview Topseos was a sham and another respected UK SEO Patrick Altoft pitched in here detailing how much these things cost.
For a complete picture of this – see this site which lifts the lid on Topseos.
Now Topseos also rank the “best web design companies in the world” and whether or not they actually pay for those awards, how they operate in the SEO industry could well be the shape of things to come.
Effectively once a company pays and is awarded the top awards, these companies then PROMOTE THE HELL out of the fact they have WON these awards, using Twitter spam bots and Press releases – see this Twitter feed!
Now the SEO industry (those that aren’t just spammers! I know I know ;)) is trying to educate consumers to this, but I wondered what the web design industry thought of Topseos rankings for best web design companies.
But in a wider sense, it would be nice to get an idea of what web designers and developers think of these paid for awards and if they serve to serve anything other than getting those who pay for the awards, more unsuspecting clients.
Please leave your comments :)
Get me on Twitter here :) – Jack
(Off topic comments won’t be published on this one) – Shaun


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Maritime logistics players openly defy Shipping Ministry order on waiving chargesLogYcode
Indian airlines and associated industries could see revenue losses at the pace of Rs 1122.1 crore because there is a decrease of 47 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase in passenger demand. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) published an revised review of the Covid-19 crisis on Friday, revealing that. The apex body also estimated this failure could cost more than 29.32 lakh citizens jobs.
Latest IATA forecasts have suggested a decline in the Asia Pacific area. Airlines in Asia Pacific will see the highest drop in sales of US$ 113 billion in 2020 compared to 2019 (-US$88 billion in an estimation of 24 March) and a 50% fall in passenger traffic compared to 2019 (-37% in an estimation of 24 March). “Such forecasts are focused on a scenario of extreme travel restrictions that continue for three months, with a gradual easing of domestic sector restrictions, accompanied by national and intercontinental restrictions,” the apex body said.


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The year 2017 was great for many tech firms in China. Tencent briefly outdid Facebook in market valuation reaching a $500 billion valuation mark. Toutiao shot up from obscurity on the international scene with its parent Bytedance buying Musical.ly. Alibaba spread its wings further into Asia, Didi started its global expansion, Huawei overtook Apple as the second largest smartphone seller.
There were those who did not have such a good year. Many companies that jumped on China’s sizzling “sharing economy” trend folded in a matter of months. Fintech companies were hit by regulatory constrictions with e-commerce and financial platform Qbao found itself accused of running a Ponzi scheme.
And then there were those who just wish 2017 never happened. Here are the top tech fails in China for 2017.
We could say that LeEco has had a rollercoaster year… if that rollercoaster suddenly fell apart in the middle of the ride and all the passengers started jumping out in panic. LeEco’s early signs of trouble started in October 2016 when it started running out of cash, partly because of its hyped-up overseas expansion. As one of LeEco’s previous employees explained, the company failed on multiple fronts of its quest for globalization. But the troubles likely began earlier with the company shuffling funds between subsidiaries to cover losses and present itself in a good light.
In between, there was a series of dramatic twists, including the troubles of ride-hailing company Yidao which was relying on LeEco’s financial support to subsidize rides. In October, LeEco’s listed arm changed its name to New Le Shi to distance itself from its founder Jia Yueting. Meanwhile, the panel who approved the listing in the first place was put under investigation.
The latest news from YT Jia, who has been blacklisted in China, is that he has refused to come back to Beijing to deal with debts sending his wife and brother instead. Interestingly enough, in a social media post explaining his decision not to come to Beijing, Jia has blamed his financial woes on a bank that has sued LeEco for being “just two weeks late on an RMB 30 million interest payment.” Jia has also transferred controlling shares of Faraday Future to his nephew Jiawei Wang in order to keep the company from potential legal action.
Bike rental hit China 2017 with a bang. Suddenly, China’s entire urban population became hipster overnight with colorful gearless bicycles becoming a popular mode of transportation. But the autumn saw the death of many bike rental companies, including Bluegogo.
The company made its name on the international scene after its failed attempt to expand overseas at the beginning of 2017. Since then, the company was followed by a string of bad luck resulting in Bluegogo’s users worrying over lost deposits, its workers worrying over their jobs and, finally, the sale of the company to ride-hailing giant Didi.
Bluegogo wasn’t the only one that bit the dust—at least six other bike rental businesses shuttered during the big bike rental explosion. While China’s two biggest players in the field ofo and Mobike occupied the 1st tier of the bike rental market according to user numbers, Bluegogo belonged to the 2nd tier of Chinese bike rental companies. Along with Coolqi, which has suffered a nearly identical fate as Bluegogo, other members of the tier were Youon and Hello Bike.
Unlike their failed competitors, this duo decided to overcome difficulties by merging. The tactic seems to have worked: Hello Bike just announced a round of financing worth RMB 1 billion. This may be the reason why ofo and Mobike, are under pressure to join forces.
3. Bitcoin exchanges
Chinese regulators have watched bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies explode in the country with the kind of enthusiasm reserved for emails from Nigerian princes. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) started cracking down on cryptocurrency as early as January 2017 when it started investigations into China’s three largest exchanges: OKCoin, Huobi, and BTCC. This continued in February when the exchanges were forced to freeze bitcoin withdrawal for four months.
In September, initial coin offerings (ICO) became the next victim of regulation after a spike in scammy ICO schemes that would put Ponzi to shame. Bitcoin exchanges got their final verdict the same month when they were forced to close shop. In response, many Chinese traders have resorted to peer-to-peer exchanges on the private over-the-counter market but they too have recently met with a crackdown. PBOC’s latest move was to dampen incentives for bitcoin mining this week although the practice has not yet been banned.
The future of cryptocurrencies in China is not completely bleak, however. Cryptocurrency trade has earned a reputation of an element of instability and a tool for siphoning off money out of the country but the PBOC it also recognizes its potential. The central bank has already tested its own digital notes exchange platform while blockchain has become a fixture in the government’s development plans.
OKCoin, Huobi, and BTCC have moved trading to their international divisions with Huobi announcing it will expand its cryptocurrency exchange business with the help of Japanese financial institution SBI Group. BTCC’s CEO and co-founder Bobby Lee has recently stated that it’s only a matter of time before China lifts its crypto exchange ban. Maybe not such a bad year after all?


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Energy major Chevron to accept Apple Pay mobile payment system
In a recent announcement, Chevron Corp. - the second-biggest oil company in the US - has revealed that it will soon be accepting Apple's new Apple Pay mobile payment system.
The announcement implies that Chevron is the latest company partnering Apple for the Apple Pay platform. Already, Apple has worked out partnerships with over 500 banks and a number of retailers, so as to ensure widespread support for the forthcoming Apple Pay service in the US.
The much-touted Apple Pay mobile Pay mobile payment service is scheduled to be launched on Monday, October 20. The new service will be launched alongside iOS version 8.1 --- a software update which will enable mobile payments via iOS devices.
About its partnership with Apple for the new service, Chevron said that the Apple Pay mobile payment system - which essentially consumers to pay with their iOS devices instead of credit or debit cards - will soon be accepted Chevron and Texaco stations.
Chevron, which took over Texaco in 2001, revealed that the Apple Pay service will be rolled out to 3,000 Chevron and Texaco stations before the holiday season this year. Subsequently, the service will also be made available at an additional 5,000 stations.
In reference to the move, Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall said: "Initially, Apple Pay payments will be made in the store, but we are working along with Apple Pay on developing the technology out at the fuel dispensers as well."
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Chipotle Hikes Prices by 4% to Cover Higher Employee Wages
Businesses have been paying more for supplies and raised hourly pay to entice people to return to work. Therefore, menu prices went up.
Chipotle raised prices on the menu by 4% because the company raised the hourly pay for employees.
From NBC News:
In May, Chipotle said that it would raise hourly wages for its restaurant workers to reach an average of $15 an hour by the end of June. Company executives said at the Baird Global Consumer, Technology & Services Conference that they would be passing along the price of raising pay to consumers.
“It feels like the right thing, at the right time, and it feels like the industry is now going to have to either do something similar or play some kind of catch-up,” CFO Jack Hartung said at the virtual conference. “Otherwise you’ll just lose the staffing gain.”
It makes financial sense.
The economy continues to open, which means businesses need employees. But with the government handing out money people do not want to go back to work.
Therefore, businesses have raised the minimum wage (on their own!) to entice people to work.
Unfortunately, they need to raise prices on the menu to offset the costs.
The companies need to make a profit.
The May jobs report showed a decent number of new jobs. The leisure and hospitality industries added 292,000 jobs.
But does the formation of new jobs matter if the companies do not hire anyone since no one applies? The leisure and hospitality industries’ “employment in those fields is still down by 2.5 million with pre-pandemic levels.”
Plus, restaurants have to deal with a rising cost for supplies as those companies dash to accompany demand.
Chipotle is not the only business raising prices.
Kitchen on Klinton Wings and Things in Lafayette, LA, had to change prices since the price of chicken has hit “an all-time high.”
Co-owner Tre’Jan Vinson said he cannot “get a case of chicken for under $160.”
Emaco Food Services, one of Vinson’s suppliers, admitted the country has a chicken shortage. It raised the cost of chicken, but the situation is fluid so each week businesses have a different price.
Hakan Swahn, the owner of Aquavit in New York City, said he spends “15 percent more on supplies, while customers’ checks are on average about 15 to 20 percent.”
San Matteo Pizzaria in New York City faces the same problems:
Ciro Casella, the co-owner of San Matteo Pizzeria on the Upper East Side, said the price for “everything” has gone up “sky high.”
“Even pizza boxes, they raised like crazy,” he griped.
“I used to pay $12.95 for a bundle. Now it went to $17.95 . . . Delivery fees are up. Olive oil went up 30 percent. Buffalo mozzarella went up $30 a case. Tomatoes went up 30 percent. If the prices don’t go down in a few months, I’m going to have to raise the menu prices.”
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
JOE BIDEN’S ECONOMIY
Price increases are happening everywhere. Most retailers do not announce price increases. They just steathily increase prices.
Joe Biden said “American’s who earn less than $400k will not pay more” when he was campaigning.
Why a lie. Every economist knows that an increase in the deficit affects everyone – your kids and grand kids will be affected most because they will ultimately pay for most of it. And their is a short term tax in the form of inflation due to the oversized stimulus that the new cash infusion causes.
Yeah, when a politician ever says “you won’t pay” you better grab hold of you wallet.
I agree with the spirit but the sad fact as you know is that you can’t hold on to your wallet with any hope of defense. They are stealing the mythical value of fake printed papers that never leave your wallet. What a great deal!
Papers and electronic bits that can be flagged, marked, ironically on secure exchanges at progressive costs (e.g. intermittent/renewable energy). And possess the arms to confiscate and engage in redistributive change and exchange of material possessions.
Not only have prices increased due to inflation your income is worth less than it was a year ago as well.
Oh look, economic reality is setting in…just an early domino in a bigger trend.
While these people will make pennies more, they will also pay more taxes near the lips of the brackets that negate much of it. They, along with everyone else, will also pay higher prices for anything and everything given enough time.
What a big win for the blue collars and the middle class!
It’s only fair that a progressive wage is offered to match a progressive price. A progressive path and grade. This way lies dysfunction and catastrophic anthropogenic climate change.
A progressive price, progressive wage (and “benefits”), and vice versa. An ouroboro evolution to a singular outcome presaging a veritable and literal “big bang”.
Progessive prices, not costs. Shared/shifted responsibility. Obamacares 2.0.
Raise your prices 4% and you will have 8% less customers.
For some reason, this restaurant is a millenial favorite. I can’t figure why.
But it won’t be for long.
Now they get to feel extra virtuous for eating overpriced rice and beans.
Oh, and guacamole is extra. . .
Because it’s “woke.”
Everything is family farmed, organic, gluten free, fair traded, and non-GMO, farmed and transported entirely by little hippie elves who live in hollow ganja stems.
And now their employees have a new “living wage.” And, of course, they’re not going to
lay offcelebrate a small percentage of employees who “voluntarily depart to pursue other experiential opportunities.”
Maybe all the fat wokesters like their e-coli diet.
Ms Chastain, I would ask a favor. In your post, you acknowledge that over 2 million jobs must be reinstated to get the economy back to pre-pandemic levels. These are not “new” jobs, as you called them. Please don’t use biden definitions, since they replace reality.
If we include the actual new jobs required by a healthy economy (i.e.: high school and college graduates attempting to enter the job market, as well as LEGAL immigrants, etc.), we can’t ignore how far behind the job market has fallen in the last year. Pre-pandemic employment can be a benchmark, but if economic history is accurate, the economy is behind at least twice as many jobs as the number you noted.
This summer, as the next batch of graduates/legal immigrants hit the streets, if the economy has an inflationary “glitch,” and/or the housing/stock markets stagnate or tumble, next year will be a real lesson in the Laws of Economics.
Like many things under Biden – Economics has been perverted. They actually believe economic principles are racist. It’s a bit like believing gravity is racist.
Economists in the Biden administration believe you can print money indefinitely with no adverse impact. Even AOC has alluded to this belief. She and others think that because the USA is the world’s reserve currency – you have an unlimited printing press.
Such economists must have gotten a PhD in Woke Economic Studies. These views are dismissed by any real economist. In fact, these views would have been considered nutty in any year other than this one one where it seems everything is turned upside-down.
Someday, people will report on the bizarre theories of the Woke economists. Probably not before the depression tat this idiot will cause. Or the national security threat when the world decides the US Dollar is no longer be trusted as the world’s reserve currency and a new one replaces it (maybe one from China). If that happens, the USA is f*cked.
To put it in perspective – we ate the seed corn – borrowed more – and ate that too. Now the administration wants to give us happy talk about how we can borrow more indefinitely.
The Federal economy is being led by morons and it seems to get worse every year with Biden people achieving the pinnacle of economic insanity by borrowing money to invest in climate change and other woke initiatives that limit our economy and reduce our ability to pay bac our debt (meaning a negative return on invested capital). Like a business owner who uses borrowed funds to supports a politician that is anti-business and wants to close all businesses 6 days a week. If the invested funds achieve the goal – the business dies.
Thank you for pointing out the need to NOT use the Marxist terms of the left. You are correct. These are not new jobs, and we are far behind the benchmarks set by the previous administration pre-pandemic.
When people say that the Biden administration is the third term of the Obama Administration, they are stating a fact. We are seeing jobs being outsourced, with no hope of those jobs returning to America any time soon. We are seeing record unemployment, hidden inflation, poor representation globally, rampant illegal immigration, and a hatred for America by its very own population.
I have tried Chipolte three times. They are better at a colon cleanse than the Varsity in downtown Atlanta.
A 4% reason why I refuse to eat there. I was forced to eat there, once. The food wasn’t that great.
It’s the McDonald’s of Mexican food. Depending on where you live, you can find a lot of truly great Mexican food. I’m in Austin, TX and would never dream of wasting my time or money in a Chipotle… it’s a fast-food shit-hole.
Over the past year I’ve been adding a very generous tip for servers even though I haven’t eaten inside. Even so, my favorite place shut down for 3 weeks for lack of staff. When they opened up, prices were up by about 7-10% as well. My back-up favorite is gone. And this is a state that fought for survival of small business.
By a new regulation, approved approved by 60%+ of our Republican voters, wages will rise to $15/hr by 2026, but that may be eaten up by Bidenflation. How about it, Blue States? What have you done?
This is what happens when they install a dementia-ridden, communist pedophile traitor in the White House. Don’t expect things to get better until the pedophile is gone and if the whore succeeds him, that just extends the pain.
I buy Chipotle sauce at the supermarket and use it on my own cooking.
Wondering if crypto will surge as inflation starts a screaming rocket ride to the moon.
I have bought some crypto, I’ll probably buy more.
And yet the weird thing, their stock price.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
CMG as of Jun 09 4:00 PM ET Markets are closed
That’s an overinflated stock price if I ever saw one.
Ultra-woke Starbucks raised its prices about 12% in January. I haven’t been back there. I make coffee the old fashioned way again.


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Two-thirds of all internet users, and 65% of all adults over 18 years of age, use social networking sites. Social Media Usage: 2005-2015, the latest report from the Pew Research Center, finds social networking is the new normal for people up to 65 years of age. One-third of people over 65 use social networking sites. […]
As people take on self-service across all aspects of daily living, self-care in health is growing beyond the use of vitamins/minerals/supplements, over-the-counter meds, and trying out the blood-pressure cuff in the pharmacy waiting for a prescription to be filled. Today, health consumers the world over have begun to engage in self-care using digital technologies. And […]
The Field of Dreams works in nostalgic plotlines about baseball, but as I’ve pointed out since the advent of consumer-facing health technologies, there’s no Field of Dreams effect in health care when it comes to consumer health engagement. U.S. health consumers aren’t using the patient portals that health care providers have built as part of […]
This post is written as part of the Disruptive Women on Health’s blog-fest celebrating the 2014 mHealth Summit taking place 7-11 December 2014 in greater Washington, DC. Women and mobile health: let’s unpack the intersection. On the supply side of the equation, Good Housekeeping covered health tracking-meets-fashion bling in the magazine a few weeks ago in article tucked […]
Consumers around the world are feeling more knowledgeable, self-confident and realistic, enabled by mobile platforms, the democratic power of social “choruses,” and a more sharing economy featuring collaborative consumption. As peoples’ phones get smarter and smarter, they carry more powerful multichannel information devices in their hands which empower Homo Informaticus – the new global digital […]
About Jane & Health Populi
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn is a health economist and management consultant that serves clients at the intersection of health and technology.
Her clients include all stakeholders in health, including providers, payors and plans; companies in biopharma, medical devices, financial services, technology and consumer goods; non-profits and NGOs. Jane's lens on health was best described by Dr. Regina Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General, who says that health is where we live, work, play and pray.
California Healthcare Foundation White Papers
- Consumers blame insurance and pharma for health costs, but love their primary care doctors October 22, 2012
- Patients want online communication with doctors, and more clinicians are listening July 26, 2011
- Patients want to see the notes their doctors write about them: the power of transparency in health care October 2, 2012
- ePatients: a connected, collaborative, creating community September 30, 2010
- 51% of Americans Say It’s Government’s Responsibility To Provide Health Insurance November 24, 2015
- The Average Price of a New Specialty Drug Exceeds Median U.S. Annual Income; and a Tweet from Pam Anderson November 20, 2015
- American health citizens hungry for cost controls November 19, 2015
- Retail Health Landscape Expanding Through Clinic Growth, Accenture Forecasts November 18, 2015
- 51% of Americans Say It's Government's Responsibility To Provide Health Insurance - Health Populi: […] Americans’ appetite for government...
- The Part-Time Medical Home: Retail Health Clinics -: […] Posted at Health Populi on […]...
- As health cost increases moderate, consumers will pay more: will they seek less expensive care? -: […] The growth of high-deductible health pla...
- As health cost increases moderate, consumers will pay more: will they seek less expensive care? -: […] Posted at Health Populi on […]...


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|A panel discussion at the Việt Nam-US Trade Forum in HCM City on November 17. — VNS Photo|
HCM CITY — The annual Việt Nam-US Trade Forum has heard that clean energy, infrastructure, healthcare, and digital economy are among the areas in which the two nations can expand trade ties in future.
Speaking at the forum in HCM City on Thursday, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Đỗ Thắng Hải said Việt Nam has always considered the US one of its most important partners.
The official cited statistics as showing that two-way trade increased from US$450 million in 1995 when the two countries established diplomatic relations to $113 billion last year.
The US has been Việt Nam’s second biggest trading partner and the largest and most important export market for many years, while Việt Nam is the eight largest trading partner of the US, he said.
For many years the US has also been one of the largest investment partners, and now ranks 11th out of 141 countries and territories with a presence in Việt Nam with $10.3 billion, he said.
“Along with the traditional fields of co-operation, the two sides need to look forward to the fields of … the future. I especially want to emphasise three important areas with great potential for co-operation between the two countries -- digital transformation and supply chain diversification, energy transformation and technological innovation and environmental protection.”
Digital transformation would be the main driving force of the global economy, and Việt Nam is trying to catch up to narrow the development gap, he said.
It is also making efforts to participate in the global production network and value chain, especially diversification of supply chains, to meet the urgent global requirements of today, he said.
“Việt Nam has been and will continue to be a reliable destination for businesses, including American, in an effort to ensure a clean and stable supply chain in a volatile world.”
|The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the US’s Oregon State sign an MOU for cooperation in trade and investment at the Việt Nam-US Trade Forum in HCM City on November 17. — VNS Photo|
Susan Burns, consul general of the US in HCM City, said, “Việt Nam is now our 10th largest trading partner globally, and more than that, it is a key node in supply chains that are vital to the US economy, from the semiconductors that power everything from our phones to our cars to the solar panels driving the clean energy revolution.
“Việt Nam is the eight largest market for US agricultural products, while the US is the largest market for Việt Nam’s agricultural exports,” she said.
She highlighted areas in which the two countries could expand trade ties, including clean energy, infrastructure, healthcare and digital economy.
Pamela Phan, deputy assistant secretary for Asia in the US Department of Commerce, said the US is ready to strengthen co-operation with Việt Nam in new initiatives, potential areas and areas in line with current sustainable development trends such as digital economy, clean energy, healthcare, education, and financial services.
Phan Thị Thắng, vice chairwoman of the HCM City People's Committee, said the city is developing many important projects to maximise its potential including in logistics, exports, smart city, developing Thủ Đức City into an innovative and highly interactive hub, and an international financial centre, and they need the participation of US businesses.
She sought US agencies’ support to carry out a pre-feasibility study on the establishment of an irradiation centre for export goods, and their technical and personnel assistance to the city and Mekong Delta provinces to maximise their agricultural resources.
Việt Nam has faced challenges in its economic and trade relations with the US, including an increase in the frequency of trade remedy investigations against its goods, Hải said.
The forum will offer a good opportunity for officials, experts, and businesses of the two countries to exchange information and seek measures to promote investment and trade ties, he said.
At the forum, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the US’s Oregon State signed an MOU for cooperation in trade and investment with a focus on renewable energy, economic development and commerce.
The forum was organised by the ministry, the American Chamber of Commerce in Việt Nam and the US-ASEAN Business Council both offline and online. — VNS


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EU to support USA in trade conflict with China
Wall Street Journal informs, the European Union is ready to support the United States in a trade confrontation with China if Washington abolishes steel and aluminum duties for European enterprises. According to the publication, Brussels is currently working on a proposal for a trade partnership between the US and the EU, which resembles the Transatlantic agreement.
Within the framework of future cooperation, the European Union is ready to reduce tariffs on imports of American cars, industrial equipment, agricultural products and medicines. Also, Brussels is ready to support Washington in "countering some trade practices in China." As noted in The Wall Street Journal, this can be expressed in the filing of joint suits against the PRC in the World Trade Organization.
It is reported that the proposal for cooperation between the EU and the USA came from Germany. The economy of this country is very dependent on exports and trade confrontation with the US can greatly harm it. According to the ZEW study, the sentiments of institutional investors in Germany are at their lowest level for more than 2.5 years, because of the threat of a trade war. On May 1, American duties on steel and aluminum will begin to affect European countries, which will further exacerbate the situation. Therefore, Germany's desire to establish relations with the US is fully justified.


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DON'T SHARE NUISANCE.
Food inflation rises to 9.13 per cent
Food inflation touched the two-and-half-month high figure in the week ended June 11.
New Delhi: Food inflation in the country touched a two-and-half-month high of 9.13 per cent in the week ended June 11 on the back of costlier fruits, milk, onions and protein-based items.
Food inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 8.96 per cent during the previous week. It was almost 23 per cent during the second week of June, 2010.
Food inflation has crossed the 9 per cent mark after a gap of one week.
The latest food inflation numbers are the highest since the week ended March 26, 2011, when the rate of price rise of food items touched 9.18 per cent.
As per data released by the government today, fruits became dearer by 28.66 per cent year-on-year, while milk grew 15.30 per cent more expensive.
During the week under review, prices of onions went up by 11.89 per cent and eggs, meat and fish by 10.56 per cent on an annual basis.
Cereals were also up 4.32 per cent and potatoes became dearer by 0.71 per cent.
However, prices of pulses, wheat and vegetables went down during the week. While pulses became 10.34 per cent cheaper, wheat was down 1 per cent and vegetables 9.27 per cent.
Overall, primary articles reported inflation of 12.62 per cent during the period under review, down from 12.86 per cent in the previous week. Primary articles have a share of 20 per cent in the WPI.
The latest surge in food inflation comes close on the heels of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) forecast that monsoon rains are expected to be below normal at 95 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA), with margin for error of plus or minus 4 per cent.
A below normal monsoon can have a serious fallout on agricultural output.
Meanwhile, inflation of non-food primary articles stood at 18.43 per cent for the week ended June 11 as against 20.20 per cent during the previous week.
Fibres grew more expensive by 43.77 per cent and minerals by 25.90 per cent. Fuel and power became dearer by 12.84 per cent and petrol was up 33.23 per cent year-on-year.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to allay concerns over the forecast of 'below normal' monsoon rains during the current season and said the projections are only a shade below the annual average.
"Let us wait for some more time... They (IMD) are saying it would be around 95 per cent and normal average is 98 per cent," he had said.
The latest surge in food inflation numbers belies the RBI's recent claim that headline inflation would be mostly driven by commodity prices in next few months and the rate of price rise in food items would moderate.
Overall inflation was mostly driven by high food prices in 2010.
Headline inflation in the country stood at 9.06 per cent in May. The RBI has already hiked key policy rates 10 times since March, 2010, to tame demand and curb inflation.
Food inflation was in double digits for most of last year, before showing signs of moderation since March this year. However, it has again started going up since the second half of May.
The government had to deal with a series of bad news during recent weeks on the economic front. While January-March economic growth stood at 7.8 per cent, the lowest in five quarters, industrial output also slowed down to 6.3 per cent in April.


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In its latest earnings report, the folks over at Microsoft did make mention that they shifted 2.4 million Xbox console units over to retailers, which means that not all of them have been sold and made their way into the homes of consumers. What other kinds of gems can we unearth from Microsoft’s latest earnings report for the first quarter of the fiscal 2015 year? Well, it seems that the Redmond-based company has also sold 9.3 million Lumia handsets in the process, which is a fair number taking into consideration their current market position.
Of course, the tech giant did manage to bring home a net income of $4.5 billion from a revenue of $23.2 billion, which is still a whole lot of dough when you think about it. Still, this net income is lower than the $5.24 billion it picked up during the corresponding period last year, which can be attributed to $1.14 billion worth of restructuring expenses that occurred from the company’s acquisition of Nokia.
At least there is an increase of the number of Lumia smartphones sold in this quarter, which goes to show that the world is slowly embracing Windows Phone willingly. It still does not look as though Microsoft is going to overtake the likes of Samsung, HTC, Apple and LG in terms of smartphones sold anytime soon. [Press Release]


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Entries in 'OnLive' (14)
Its failure to access the console ecosystem was the main cause behind the eventual demise of streaming games platform OnLive, one of its key competitors has said.
The closure of OnLive will leave many gamers without access to content they believed they own, as well as a totally useless piece of hardware.
OnLive will shut its services this month, and has sold some of its assets to PlayStation.
Streaming games platform OnLive will serve as event partner for this year's Games Media Awards.
Green Man Gaming has become the first retailer to be able to sell OnLive’s Games Bundle.
Cloud gaming firm OnLive has announced the expansion of its eponymous game streaming service to six new European regions.
3.6bn people will rely on cloud technology by 2018, a new report from Juniper Research forecasts.
Cloud gaming outlet OnLive has halved the price of its CloudLift service to under £5.
OnLive says its new business model will finally convince gamers that cloud gaming can work.
With a new-look management team and two new business models, we find out why OnLive says it's ready to win over gamers.
OnLive has revealed its new-look management team ahead of the service’s re-launch today.
OnLive re-launched itself today, but what does the new service really mean? MCV explains all
Cloud gaming specialist OnLive has relaunched itself with two major new business models that it believes will finally win over gamers.
Cloud gaming specialist OnLive is the latest firm to pledge their support to this year's MCV Awards.


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Black Friday Bargain Hunters
Published 7:00 pm Friday, November 26, 2010
Turkey has been said to make people sleepy, but perhaps thegorging on Thursday, kicking feet up to watch football and going tobed early is actually fueling the body in preparation for earlyFriday.
The sun had not even had its first cup of coffee today, butBrookhaven shoppers were already pounding the pavement at 5 a.m. oflocal retail stores in hopes of grabbing those big-ticket items atmore affordable prices during Black Friday sales.
“We ignored the craziness and looked for some good deals,” saidAnn Brumfield while looking for a special Christmas gift. ” Weprobably could have waited to shop any time, but there’s somethingabout this day that makes you want to get out and do it.”
Some could argue a certain chemical in turkey creates a shoppingimbalance in the brain, but some shoppers were out and about onspecial orders.
“It’s crazy, pretty crazy,” said local shopper ClintRounsaville. “Partly my doing, partly my wife’s doing.”
Rounsaville’s wife was not present to comment.
While taking full throttle of shopping carts, bargain huntersexpected to save a little money and to be groggy eyed doing it.They also expected a few disappointments, though.
“We got the TVs we wanted, but we missed out on the $3crockpots,” said Myra Mathis, who drove in from Georgia to spendThanksgiving in Brookhaven. “You have to be a savvy shopper to shopon Black Friday.”
Missing out on certain items is not the only disappointment fromyear to year.
Many shoppers become disgruntled at the way some stores handledthe distribution of products or how stores might vary fromadvertisement times, which can interfere with shoppers’ BlackFriday strategies.
“I’m going to write about it on Facebook and let everyone knowhow sorry that was,” said Kristi Anderson, who arrived at a localstore at 2 a.m., but was unable to net and haul away a TV she wasafter.
Most often, people think about the shoppers on Black Friday. Butperhaps the unsung heroes are the workers who manned their battlestations and kept order during the morning.
“You have to get up early to hang with us,” joked PamelaBarksdale, Fred’s store manager.
For some, Black Friday shopping is more than bumping earlymorning elbows to save some extra cash.
“We enjoy it,” said Lynn Smith, who has been tag-teaming theshopping aisles with her daughter for the past 15 years. “It’s likea mother-daughter tradition now.”
Rebecca Smith, Lynn Smith’s daughter, drove 58 miles fromFlowood and took off from work to shop with her mom, who claimsthey have the art of bargain shopping mastered.
“We got it down to a science,” said Rebecca Smith. “That’s whywe get what we want.”
After a long day of feasting, the morning seemed to arriveearlier than normal. When one shopper was asked how she wouldrespond if someone said people that shop on Black Friday were crazy- she had very little to say.
“Yeah, probably right,” said Brandi Hedgepeth with a laugh asshe loaded her catch into the back of her vehicle.


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Business News›Maharashtra Electricity
Offer import duty sops to EV makers, Aaditya Thackeray urges FM
Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray says he has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with a list of recommendations for India’s EV sector, including lowering import duties for all electric car makers for a certain period.
Now, Karnataka invites Elon Musk to set up a Tesla plant
Karnataka’s minister for large and medium-scale industries Murugesh R Nirani has urged Elon Musk to set up a Tesla plant in India by projecting the state as the “electric vehicle hub” of India.
Tesla wooed by states after Elon Musk flags government problems
The pitches, tweeted over the weekend, touted everything from infrastructure, sustainability and a streamlined approval process. They were made from different parts of India -- Telangana in the south, Maharashtra in the west, Punjab in the north, and West Bengal in the east.
Maharashtra, Punjab, West Bengal, Telangana invite Tesla to set up shop after Musk tweet
West Bengal minister-in-charge of minority affairs and Madrasah education Md Ghulam Rabbani, too, replied to Musk’s tweet, saying the state had the best infrastructure and chief minister Mamata Banerjee had “the vision”.
Tata Motors wants to make EVs mainstream, targets 50,000 annual sales in FY 2023
The company will line up a range of mass-market offerings in sub-Rs 10 lakh in next 24 months, with an eye on 150,000 annual volume.
Honda to kick off EV battery swapping in Bengaluru by June, first in 3-wheeler spaceBengaluru is home to promising EV startups in the country such as Ola Electric, Sun Mobility and Ather.
Discoms' outstanding dues to gencos rise 4.4% to Rs 1,21,030 crore in JanuaryDiscoms owed a total of Rs 1,15,904 crore to power generation firms in January 2021, according to portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators).
Electric two-wheeler sales more than double in 2021, industry data showAbout 234,000 units were sold during the year compared to just about 100,000 units sold a year ago, according to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV).
Increase in commodity prices driving up costs between 5-25%: Amit Gossain, MD, Kone Elevators India"This means that the builder has increased his price to the end user and the end users have to pay that price," Gossain explained. "The builder is, of course, resisting the additional costs by the vendor. But there has been a 70% increase in steel prices in the last one and a half years so we also have to increase."
Electrical machinery industry availed credit of Rs 94.8 thousand crore in March 2021: ReportThe report entails an analysis of credit flow at cluster level while factoring the state of MSMEs in the respective cluster.
Maharashtra polls: Centre's focus on cooperatives raises political temperatureCooperatives play a big role in Maharashtra's rural economy and political parties that control these cooperatives also largely control the manner in which the electorate here votes.
Earth Energy looks to invest Rs 100 crore in two years as EV demand risesThe locally-manufactured Glyde range comes in two options — a low-speed Glyde SX with a top speed of 25 kmph, and a high-speed Glyde SX+, which can go up to 90 kmph, with the former not requiring a driving licence or registration to ply on roads in the country.
Mahindra Electric aims to double production capacity, to add half a dozen modelsAccording to people in the know, the company is likely to invest close to ₹300 crore for its last-mile mobility business which is about 10% of its allocated EV biz investment. The company is likely to close FY22 with the volumes of about 14,000 to 15,000 EVs, which could potentially double in FY23 provided semiconductor challenges do not aggravate.
Maharashtra government urges hospitality industry to support state EV policy"The state's comprehensive EV Policy has been developed to fortify Maharashtra's position as the leading destination for EV manufacturing and utilisation. With standard operating procedures (SOPs), infrastructure mandates, and incentivization, we look forward to the widespread acceptance of EV's in the state," state Tourism and Environment Minister Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray said after a meeting with Chalet Hotels.
'You would look great in our red racing suit.' Anand Mahindra's verdict after Maha minister drives e-autoMinister Subhash Desai took the auto for a ride at the launch of Mahindra's e-auto.
Tax benefits on electric vehicles in India: All you need to knowIn order to meet its commitments under the Paris Climate Accords, the Centre has taken initiatives to promote the use of electric vehicles and has pushed state governments to incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles.
Electric vehicle mkt to see investment of Rs 94,000 cr in next 5 years: ReportThe consultant estimated that India will need about 26,800 public charging spots by 2025, requiring space of about 13.5 million square feet.
Mahindra Electric Mobility launches passenger electric three-wheeler Treo in Maharashtra"With the launch of Mahindra Treo today (in the state), I am certain that we will help transform Maharashtra's last-mile commute to a noise- and pollution-free ride," said Mahindra Electric Mobility Ltd CEO Suman Mishra. According to Mahindra, it has sold more than the 13,000 electric three-wheelers sold since the launch.
Investments of USD12.6 bn to fuel Electric Vehicles over the next 5 yearsHowever, the government needs to reduce the number of permits specially required for EV manufacturing set-up and provide specific tax concessions to the private sector for charging infrastructure in their premises for investments to scale in the EV segment, according to a latest report.
The speed bumps in India's electric vehicle drive that no one's talking aboutAround 20 states in India have already come up with either a draft or final state level electric vehicle policy, these state policies overall aim to promote India’s transition from ICE to EVs. The objectives of each state level policy will vary but some common objectives that these policies include is to solve air quality issues, help in climate change mitigation, reduce dependence on oil imports and promote development of EV industry. Almost all of the state policies prioritized 2 & 3 wheelers, public transportation and job creation.
Repeal of farm laws: Mixed feelings for farmers outside Punjab, HaryanaMSP is a concern for most of the small and marginal farmers growing non-commercial crops.
Reliance BP Mobility Limited launches first mobility station in Navi MumbaiJio-bp Mobility Stations across the country will offer additivised fuel, which forms a protective layer on critical engine parts to help keep the engines clean, at no extra cost, the statement said.
'The shortage of coal at power plants is different from shortage of coal in the country'In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said coal dispatches were constrained due to a prolonged monsoon, panning reports that power stations had an average of four days’ worth of coal at the end of last month, the lowest level in years.
India must rethink on data centres in metros: Microsoft execMajor global cities like Amsterdam and Singapore are shunning any new data centres because they "suck out" power, and we need to be circumspect about concentrating all the capacities in or around the financial capital, says Microsoft executive.
Indian Oil plans to install electric vehicle charging facility at 100 outlets in MaharashtraThe Aurangabad rural police-run outlet that became operational last year is the only outlet selected in 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' across Maharashtra, the officials said. Indian Oil Head (Maharashtra Office) Anirban Ghosh inaugurated this pump through an online medium in the presence of DYSP Vishal Nehul, an official said
13 states have approved, notified dedicated EV policies: Centre"Thirteen states (Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Gujarat, West Bengal) have approved/notified dedicated EV policies to promote adoption of electric vehicles," Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar said.
Maharashtra EV Policy to accelerate electric vehicle adoptionAs per the Policy, the state government targets to achieve 10 per cent penetration of EVs as new vehicle registrations by 2025, as well as 25 per cent EV adoption in public transport and last-mile delivery vehicles in six key cities -- Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nashik, by 2025.Load More
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Twitter has changed what happens when users opt out of the “Allow additional information sharing with business partners” setting in the “Personalization and Data” part of its site.
The privacy setting in question. For most users, the box is checked by default.
The changes affect two types of data sharing that Twitter does:
- Conversion tracking for ads on Twitter. When an advertiser runs an ad for a mobile app on Twitter, Twitter collects information about who views, interacts with, and clicks on the ad. If a user who saw the ad proceeds to download and open the app, Twitter will notify the advertiser that the user’s device completed a conversion.
- Twitter’s use of third-party analytics libraries. Like most of the web, Twitter shares device identifiers and cookies with Facebook and Google so that it can measure the effectiveness of its own ad campaigns on those platforms.
For people protected by GDPR, type-1 data sharing remains opt-in, and type 2—Twitter sharing their data with Google and Facebook—never happens at all.
Why Did This Happen?
To understand what’s going on, we need to look at another piece of Twitter news from last year.
On August 5, 2019, Twitter announced that it had identified and fixed a couple of bugs. As it turned out, some of its privacy settings were... not setting things correctly. Specifically, the opt-outs for device-level targeting and conversion tracking—the same conversion tracking described above—did not actually opt users out. Twitter explained at the time:
Source: “An issue with your settings choices related to ads on Twitter,” at https://help.twitter.com/en/ads-settings
Twitter fixed both bugs, and its privacy settings began working the way they were supposed to.
The next event happened months later, when Twitter announced its quarterly earnings. Apparently, advertisers had really appreciated the data they weren’t supposed to be getting. Once Twitter shut off the hose of non-consensual device information, advertisers were unhappy. And Twitter announced a substantial hit to its revenue after fixing the bugs.
That leads us to today. Twitter apparently was happy to let users opt out as long as ad spending continued to grow. But last year, the privacy bugs and subsequent fixes seem to have shown Twitter exactly how much privacy options were costing it. Now, Twitter has removed the ability to opt out of conversion tracking altogether.
Laws MatterToday, users in Europe maintain the same agency and control over their personal data that they’ve always had. They get to decide whether advertisers can use Twitter’s ad tools to tie actions on Twitter to device identifiers. Everyone else has lost that right. The reason is simple: European users are protected by GDPR. Users in the United States and everywhere else, who don’t have the protection of a comprehensive privacy law, are only protected by companies’ self-interest. All too often, Twitter, Google, and Facebook will give users only as much control as they think they need to in order to stave off regulation and competitors, but no more. When push comes to shove, they’ll protect their bottom line.
“By stating that it does ‘not control the use of these tracking technologies’, and by asking users to read the privacy policies of any third-party companies that may receive personal data, Grindr is attempting to shift accountability for the advertising technologies that it is using away from itself,” the report concluded.
This is why it shouldn’t be up to tech companies to give us privacy. We need strong data privacy laws that protect users’ rights to privacy, access, and control. And we need to change a system that tempts companies to sell out their users for a few points of growth.


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SHAREit empowers users and companies in the crypto space
Platform drives around two million new users to crypto apps each month
Dubai, UAE, 14 April 2022: SHAREit Group, a global technology company, is connecting more and more users to various cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges in the Middle East.
According to a report published by TripleA, Saudi citizens are ranked third in the Arab world in terms of owning cryptocurrencies with a total of 453,000 Saudis who own this type of digital currency. Egypt ranked first in the Arab world with about 1.8 million cryptocurrency owners whilst Morocco ranked second with 878,000 owners.
In a recent keynote speech at the Crypto Dubai Expo, SHAREit Director for Global Partnerships Lisa Dominguez shared that UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are among the top countries with SHAREit users that are also active users of cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges.
SHAREit is a strong growth channel for crypto apps. It currently works with around 30 crypto apps to enhance user acquisition – driving around two million new users to crypto apps each month.
Behind this platform is the SHAREit group, whose diversified suite of applications has been installed by nearly 2.4 billion users worldwide, including its core app SHAREit. SHAREit has been lauded as the Top 10 most downloaded app of all time globally on Google Play and houses the world’s largest peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing ecosystem. Currently, SHAREit’s reach spans 150+ countries and is available in 45 languages.
Increasing demand for P2E games and NFTs
As the pandemic prompted the shift to virtual economies, many people have been forced to grapple with the uncertainty of keeping their jobs. Emerging technologies such as blockchain offered an alternative way of earning income amidst the lockdowns, particularly through gaming. With the play-to-earn (P2E) economy came the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which grant users personal ownership of their digital assets and can then be traded for cryptocurrency or cash with other players.
In her keynote, Dominguez also shared the different ways crypto companies can use SHAREit as a growth channel to drive user acquisition and build community. This can be done across user acquisition, awareness, and remarketing solutions. Through its unique audience targeting and app recommendation solutions, SHAREit is also able to drive existing users of crypto apps to become new players of P2E games.
Catapulting SHAREit’s mobile app growth through crypto marketing
With over 700 brand partners across the globe, 30 of which are crypto platforms, SHAREit has managed to earn the trust of some of the biggest names including Bybit, Nexo and Crypto.com.
As Google’s first app channel partner, Dominguez mentioned that SHAREit drives growth and engagement through connectivity and is also the 3rd largest mobile publisher globally in the finance investments category as per the recent AppsFlyer Performance index – a testament to not only the scale but also the quality of users that SHAREit can drive.
“SHAREit’s solutions connect crypto apps to millions of new users each month, many of whom convert to high LTV users for these apps. We also see that a significant number of our users sit in the top markets for crypto adoption worldwide,” shares Dominguez.
SHAREit drives new user acquisition through different executions made possible through the app – including app recommendations & banner ad placements.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for up-and-coming crypto ventures – from mobile & decentralized apps to Tokens, NFTs, and P2E games – to tap into the potential of SHAREit’s 2 billion global users. In emerging industries like cryptocurrency, new product discovery begins with peer-to-peer recommendations, and P2P marketing has always been one of SHAREit’s strongest points,” adds Dominguez.
For more information, please visit: http://www.ushareit.com/
About SHAREit Group
SHAREit Group is a global internet technology company that has built a diversified suite of applications installed by nearly 2.4 billion users worldwide, including the core app SHAREit. These range from popular tools in the utility space to digital entertainment content applications. SHAREit Group’s business network reaches over 150 countries in 45 different languages.
According to AppsFlyer Performance Index Edition XIII for H1, 2021, SHAREit was ranked #4 media publisher globally after Google, Facebook and TikTok in the volume rankings for IAP index across all categories. It aims to help brands achieve their business goals and users to access seamless digital content of the highest possible quality.


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Bel Brands USA has added to its Boursin portfolio with a limited-edition apple cinnamon cheese flavour.
Launched to coincide with autumn in the US, the gournay cheese is described as a “delightfully indulgent option”.
“Apple cinnamon is the perfect fall addition to Boursin’s existing flavours, offering another versatile option for guests to enjoy as the seasons change and consumers crave warming seasonal dishes,” said Matt Barlow, brand director of Boursin.
“Incorporate the warm autumnal flavour of Boursin apple cinnamon to sweet and savoury dishes will impress guests at Thanksgiving, or any celebration big or small.”
Boursin apple cinnamon is sold in the deli section of retailers across the US, including Kroger and Albertsons, for a suggested retail price of $5.99.
The launch follows the limited-edition introduction last year of a maple bourbon Boursin flavour. Other variants in the brand’s range include: basil and chive, garlic and fine herbs, and red chili pepper.
Bel Brands USA is a subsidiary of Bel Group, which also sells brands such as The Laughing Cow, Babybel and Leerdammer.
Paris-headquartered Bel Group recently unveiled a “major strategic turn” that includes the development of hybrid products that integrate dairy and plant-based raw materials.
As of 2020, the firm will offer recipes that combine dairy raw materials with vegetables or leguminous plants.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024


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It turns out failing to wear your seat belt is a common drag on Uber rider ratings — it even hurt the rating of now-CEO Dara Khosrowshahi for a while.
While Khosrowshahi was interviewing for the top job at the scandal ridden ride-sharing company, he told The Washington Post, his rider rating was stuck at 4.73 out of 5.
"The board was not happy with that rating," Khosrowshahi told the newspaper. "I wasn't wearing seat belts in the back and I didn't even know that I was making the driver feel unsafe."
Just as Uber riders can rate their driver's attention to safety, drivers are encouraged to rate their riders on the same criteria, an Uber spokesperson told CNBC. And drivers frequently cite a rider's failure to wear a seat belt as a source of irritation — and also often a reason for lowering the rider's rating, the spokesperson said.


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(Yicai Global) May 29 -- Jumei International Holding will sell more than half of its stake in China's biggest parenting website Babytree for USD86.5 million before the maternity platform closes a new funding round.
The online cosmetics retailer will sell off 4 percent of the company to a third-party investor, it said in a statement yesterday without citing a reason. The deal will leave the firm with a 3.3-percent holding.
Jumei invested CNY1.55 billion (USD250 million) in Babytree in 2015 through convertible bonds and revolving credit. The startup is now looking to conduct a funding round led by an internet giant which values the target at CNY15 billion, according to media reports this morning. The new investor is not yet known but is expected to help Babytree with e-commerce, New Retail and in other areas.
New Retail, described by Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma as "the integration of online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain," is changing the way Chinese consumers shop. Alibaba, alongside rival tech giants Tencent Holdings and JD.Com, China's biggest online retailer, are three of the strongest players in the New Retail game.
Editor: James Boynton


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What you need to know
- Many of Microsoft's apps take advantage of the folding displays of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3.
- Microsoft highlights its expanded partnership with Samsung in a new blog post.
- Teams supports showing a presentation on one half of a screen while showing people's faces within a meeting on the other half.
Microsoft and Samsung further expanded their partnership with new features for foldable devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. These features take advantage of the unique form factors of folding devices when using Microsoft Office, Teams, and Outlook.
For example, in Microsoft Teams on a foldable Galaxy mobile device, people can see a presentation on the top half of a screen while seeing people's faces from the call on the bottom half. Within a Teams call, a user can open a shared Whiteboard and draw using the S Pen on supported devices.
Outlook also takes advantage of the folding displays, as it can show the contents of an email on one side while previewing emails on the other side.
Samsung's phones support dragging and dropping content between multiple active apps as well, such as Microsoft's Office apps.
"With the Multi-Active window, you can run multiple apps at the same time," says Patrick Chomet, executive vice president, head of Mobile Products & Experiences at Samsung. "For example, you can open Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint and easily drag and drop a table right into your presentation. Now, you can even run two instances of the same app."
Microsoft calls the Galaxy Z Fold 3 a "multitasking powerhouse" in its blog post discussing Microsoft's apps and the new folding Galaxy phones. The post doesn't specify which features work on the Galaxy Fold 3 and which work on the Galaxy Flip 3. The Galaxy Flip 3 doesn't support the S Pen, so some features, like drawing on a Whiteboard in Teams, won't be supported.
A note-takers dream
A folding device for productivity
Samsung is taking its biggest foldable to the next level with S Pen support, stronger glass, water resistance, and improved specs, all at a lower price than before. Many of Microsoft's apps can take advantage of its folding display.
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Take Off Your Shoes for a Cause Today!
Give your toes some air! For one day, TOMS shoes wants you to go barefoot in support of its 4th annual One Day Without Shoes event to raise awareness for children who don't have access to footwear. "The problem is large but the solution is simple," said TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie. "Wearing shoes and basic hygiene can prevent both infection and disease due to unsafe roads and contaminated soil. By imagining a life without shoes, we can all contribute to the awareness of these conditions." Those who want to participate can find information on barefoot events and walks, like the one today in New York with model Anne V. (shown), at One Day Without Shoes.com. Nail polish brand Essie also created a limited-edition light blue color in honor of the event named One Day Without Blues (inset). And if you can't go shoeless today, check out the footwear on TOMS’ website—for every pair of shoes purchased, a pair is donated to a child in need.