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HDFC BANK STOCK
All about stocks: Reliance Comm, HDFC Bank
Past week went off in a consolidation mode as far as trade in the markets is concerned, watch the video to see experts discuss stocks to bet on in the coming week for retail investors.
Stocks to buy: MRF, HDFC Bank, EIL, Hindalco
ET Now spoke to various experts and here's what they have to recommend for the day's trade.
Soon, robot to greet you at HDFC Bank
The plan is to deploy it first at a Mumbai bank, certainly one that does not deal with too many senior citizens who need personalised service.
Mapping the market: HDFC Bank pipped ITC, realty stocks on a roll
Sensex’s gains from the February lows stand at 19%, suggesting that we are about to enter the bull market. Here's a wrapup of the major trends across stocks.
Times Internet, HDFC Bank launch debit card
In a first-of-its-kind offering, Times Internet, the digital arm of the Times Group, and HDFC Bank launched a co-branded debit card. The users of "Times Points HDFC Bank Debit Card" can now club points earned from consuming, creating and sharing digital content on Times Internet sites with the points made from online shopping.
Buy HDFC Bank, target Rs 1300.0 : Manish Sharma
Buy HDFC Bank Ltd. at a price target of Rs 1300.0 and a stop loss at Rs 1245.0 from entry point
Buy HDFC Bank Ltd., target Rs 1550.0 : Bank of America Merrill Lynch
HDFC Bank trading at PB multiple (3.9x FY17 adjusted book) can arguably trade at least at 1.1SD above average (or 4.1x) one year forward
Outperform HDFC Bank Ltd., target Rs 1470.0 : Credit Suisse
The global investment bank believes that digitally nimble banks will grab a large share of $600 bn opportunities within lending space. HDFC Bank is the top pick to capture that opportunity.
Buy HDFC Bank Ltd., target Rs 1350.0 : Independent Analyst
Buy HDFC Bank Ltd. at a price target of Rs 1350.0 and a stop loss at Rs 1220.0 from entry point
Stocks in news: BPCL, Dena Bank
Even though the quarterly results didn’t gave encouraging signs, experts are of the opinion that the markets will consolidate in future. Watch the video to see experts suggesting stocks that could give retail investors god returns to their investments.
Stocks to buy: GAIL, Axis Bank, RIL
ET Now spoke to various experts and here's what they have to recommend for today's trade.
Buy HDFC Bank Ltd., target Rs 1283.0 : Kunal Bothra
Buy HDFC Bank Ltd. at a price target of Rs 1283.0 and a stop loss at Rs 1243.0 from entry point
No major exposure to stressed sectors: HDFC Bank
The bank today reported a 20.2 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 3,238.9 crore in the April-June quarter as against Rs 2,695.7 crore in the year-ago period.
HDFC Bank Q1 profit up 20%
Net interest income (NII) or the difference between the interest earned on loans and that paid on deposits increase 22% to Rs 7,781 crore from Rs 6,389 crore in June 2015.
OYO partners with HDFC Bank for PayZapp
OYO is present in over 180 cities and has 6000 hotels in its network and promises to deliver a superior app booking and room service experience


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A new report, surveying the robot automation 2019 transformative trends across industry, foresees a big increase in robots and automation. This is being driven by lower-cost and more flexible technologies.
Robots are increasingly being used across industry in order to make repetitive and high-volume tasks easier. Robots don’t tire and they are easier and quicker to program.
According to a new report from the International Federation of Robots (titled “Robotics 2019”), the use of robots will increase across industry in 2019 and beyond. This mirrors a review by McKinsey titled “The great re-make: Manufacturing for modern times”.
These reviews indicate that many manufacturing firms have turned to robotics and the implementation of automation technologies looks set to grow. The biggest growth area will be China which will have 40 percent of total worldwide robotic sales by 2019, an increase from 27% percent in 2015. The number of industrial robots in China will increase tenfold to 1.8 million units by 2025.
The International Federation of Robots report also finds that as robot production has increased, the costs associated with producing robots have fallen. Taking the past thirty years into consideration, the typical price of a robot has dropped by 50 percent in real terms. These costs have fallen considerably in comparison to labour costs, especially in higher-income countries.
The report identifies 3 key growth areas:
- Automotive, citing the example of a BMW plant where stud and spot weld tasks are 100% completed by robots
- Pharmaceuticals, where a high degree of reliability and accuracy can be achieved through the application of robotic technologies
- Electronics, such as a Philips plant making electric razors, where the majority of tasks are carried out by robots
Robot automation 2019 is a trend we will see throughout the year, as key drivers for improving productivity will demand ever wider use of robot technology.

domain: news


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Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN:US), the world's largest Internet retailer, boosted the price of its Prime membership by 25 percent to $99 a year, the first increase since the service's introduction nine years ago.
WASHINGTON�The U.S. budget deficit narrowed in February, leaving the country on track for its smallest budget deficit in six years.
Sales (RSTAMOM) at U.S. retailers rose in February for the first time in three months, claims for jobless benefits dropped last week and consumer confidence improved, pointing to an economy regaining traction after a harsh winter slowed demand even more ...
Royal Dutch Shell's new chief executive Ben van Beurden on Thursday made the clearest admission yet that North American shale investments were proving a drag on performance at the Anglo-Dutch oil major.
King Digital Entertainment, the London games studio behind the mobile hit Candy Crush Saga, is to make history as the most valuable British Internet company to join the stock markets after pricing its initial public offering (IPO) at US$7.6 billion.


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Warframe: Empyrean E3 2019 Teaser Trailer
Previously known as Codename: Railjack, E3 2019 reveals Warframe: Empyrean, the game’s next major expansion! More will be revealed during TennoCon 2019 on Saturday July 6. Digital Extremes will give away the Nekros Prime warframe for free for those who watch TennoLive for 30 consecutive minutes on Twitch!
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The May Department Stores Co., recently told the state that it would lay off 118 employees at the Lord & Taylor store at the Town Center in Boca Raton mall by the end of February.
It will be the second South Florida Lord & Taylor to close since parent firm May announced in July that it would eventually close its six remaining Florida stores as part of a national refocusing plan. At the time, the firm said it would run the stores until appropriate arrangements could be made to sell or make other plans for the locations.
Last week, Seattle-based Nordstrom became the first retailer to take an available South Florida Lord & Taylor space, saying it would open in Dadeland Mall. And last month, May told the state that it would close the Aventura Mall store at the end of January.
Experts have speculated that the South Florida locations would draw upscale retailers, mentioning Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus as possibilities to fill various anchor locations.
Town Center already has Nordstrom, Saks and Bloomingdale's.
Karen-Janine Cohen can be reached at email@example.com or 954-356-4668


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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday that it would use existing fair trade laws to ask courts to shut down some of the leading distributors of the tool that could spy on online activities and inundate screens with pop-up ads.
The acting director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection, Lydia Parnes, said: “Consumers don’t deserve to be pestered and spied on by people who illegally hijack their computers.
“We’re putting purveyors of spyware on notice: This is our first spyware case, but it won’t be our last.”
Confident of victory
US officials are said to be emboldened by recent advances of anti-spyware legislation in congress and the growing consumer sentiment in favour of curbing the practice.
The lawsuit targets Seismic Entertainment Productions, a New Hampshire-based company, and the man behind it, Sanford Wallace.
Court documents allege the defendant has operated websites that distribute spyware since last December, using a variety of tricks to direct consumers to them.
“Spyware is to computers what an open window is to burglars”
Joe Barton, chairman of Energy and Commerce Committee
A contact with the smartbot.net site usually resulted in spyware being sneaked into personal computers unbeknown to their owners, the complaint said.
The programs changed people’s home pages, search engines, exposed them to an avalanche of pop-ups and caused their computers to slow down or crash, resulting in a loss of data.
The complaint also alleged the company then offered to fix the problem by selling affected consumers anti-spyware packages manufactured by another company for about $30 each, officials said.
The commission said the companies had engaged in unfair trade practices by downloading their product on to private computers without authorisation, causing serious harm, then forcing consumers to pay to fix it.
Riding the wave of popular alarm over misuse of the internet, the US House of Representatives last week approved the so-called Spy Act, requiring that consumers receive a clear and conspicuous notice before any spyware downloads.
The measure prohibits deceptive behaviour such as key-stroke logging, computer highjacking, and pop-up ads that cannot be closed.
Lawmakers expressed concern that some versions of spyware can enable intruders to gather personal data such as passwords and credit card numbers, which can then be sold for illegal purposes.
“Spyware is to computers what an open window is to burglars,” said Representative Joe Barton, chairman of the House of Energy and Commerce Committee. A companion bill is awaiting passage in the US Senate.


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WINNETKA (CBSLA) -- Cardi B. meet Kiki P.
Kiki Paschall has a bright future in either selling cookies, music or quite possibly both.
KCAL9's Laurie Perez recently sat down with the local girl scout whose smarts are making a national name for herself.
Paschall and her mother worked on a remix of Cardi B.'s "Money" -- the song is now all about selling Girl Scout cookies. And the song is a hit for anyone who likes a good beat or Thin Mints.
Perez asked the young entrepreneur how many takes the song took.
"I'm not really sure how many times but I know it took an hour to do it," she says.
And that hour has quickly paid off.
She and her friends from San Fernando Valley's Troop 3246 showed Perez how they did it.
Paschall posted her video a few days ago and then Girl Scouts USA posted it. Since that time, it's gone viral and garnered more than 40,000 likes. Those likes have also translated into sales.
She has sold more than 1,000 boxes!
"I got girls in my troop, cookies to the roof, I got girls in my troop, cookies to the roof!"
Now she and her fellow troop members are ordering more cookies, Hopeful they'll make enough money to serve meals at a homeless shelter, visit a senior center and take a year-end trip to the National Museum of African American History in D.C.
Although Paschall made selling these cookies seem like, well, a piece of cake, she said selling is actually difficult.
But she's already on to the next idea : either Bruno Mars or a Maroon 5 remix.
for more features.


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Hello, this is Kenji.
I just came back to Hong Kong on Tuesday evening from over two weeks of reporting in Europe, including at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The day before I left, news broke that Renault and Nissan had finally reached an agreement to reconfigure their 20-plus-year relationship.
When the Franco-Japanese alliance was forged in 1999, the driving force behind most global auto deals was size. Pressure was mounting on car manufacturers to reach a certain scale — the idea that a company needed to produce at least 4mn vehicles a year just to survive was widely accepted, at least among industry’s top management.
The French-led alliance was a typical cross-border tie-up of that time, and came just a year after the acquisition of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz sent shockwaves throughout the sector.
But in the past quarter of a century we have seen that bigger is not necessarily better. Chrysler was later spun off, while automakers that chose to stick to their own path without joining the “4mn club,” like Honda, not only survived but thrived.
Now the key consideration is tech, as competition shifts to electric vehicles and software-powered features. As a result car companies are courting players from outside the traditional auto industry to unleash the next generation of growth.
Deals motivated by tech sound more convincing than those based on a pursuit of volume, but let us see whether this new trend stands the test of history.
Japan’s auto industry is waking up to the new tech-centric challenges that await.
Just a few day before Renault agreed to scale back its holding in Nissan to 15 per cent, equalising the two companies’ stakes in each other, Toyota made its own surprise announcement.
CEO Akio Toyoda announced he will step down in April and hand the reins to Koji Sato, a veteran engineer involved in some of Toyota’s most popular cars, including the Prius, writes Sayumi Take from Nikkei Asia. Unlike Nissan, Toyota has been a consistent leader among global carmakers. But even this titan of automaking is now seeking a change as it faces emerging challengers such as Tesla, a company that has been around for less than two decades.
Toyoda himself acknowledged that the company needed to evolve when he said, “A carmaker is all that I am, and I see that as my own limit.”
In the same week, Chinese automaker BYD made history when it started selling electric vehicles in Japan. It was hard to imagine just a few years back that Chinese-branded cars would be competing against Japan’s automaking kings on their home turf. While it is too early to say whether local consumers will embrace BYD, the tectonic shift in the industry seems irreversible.
Samsung Electronics has defied growing pressure to rein in spending on new chip production facilities despite quarterly operating profit at the world’s largest memory chipmaker sliding to an eight-year low, write the Financial Times’ Song Jung-a and Christian Davies.
The sector is wrestling with a crisis of oversupply as customers pull back amid high inflation and rising interest rates. But the South Korean giant is sticking to its strategy of investing in a downturn in order to widen its lead over rivals.
Operating profit in its semiconductor division fell to Won270bn ($221mn) in the fourth quarter from Won8.83tn a year earlier. But Samsung said its spending this year would be similar to last year, at around Won53.1tn, as it predicted a second-half recovery in demand.
Samsung shares dropped 3.6 per cent on Tuesday as investors hoping for a stronger output cut were disappointed. Analysts caution that Samsung is heading towards huge losses in its chip division in the first half of this year.
In contrast, fellow South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix has announced plans to cut this year’s capital expenditure by 50 per cent. SK Hynix said on Wednesday that it had suffered an operating loss of Won1.7tn in the three months to December 2022, with sales falling 38 per cent to Won7.7tn.
A series of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve since last March followed by similar moves from other major central banks has changed the landscape for listed tech companies around the world, and those in Asia are no exception. Growth alone is no longer enough. Investors are starting to demand profit — or at least progress in that direction.
In south-east Asia, equity investors have been rewarding companies that appear to meet this new criterion, and punishing those that do not, Nikkei Asia’s Dylan Loh and Tsubasa Suruga report from Singapore.
Singaporean tech platform Grab is among the recent winners, although it is still well down on its IPO price. Indian food delivery app Zomato, the country’s first unicorn to go public, remains sluggish.
Unlisted start-ups have also faced tougher scrutiny from investors. Fundraising by Southeast Asian start-ups through equity and debt contracted by 31 per cent last year, after a bumper 2021. According to DealStreetAsia, which compiled the data, investors are now looking for both growth and free cash flow at the same time.
A new face at Foxconn
Foxconn, the world’s biggest iPhone assembler, made a surprise personnel announcement, naming Japanese auto industry veteran Jun Seki as the chief strategy officer of its electric vehicle arm, writes Nikkei Asia’s Lauly Li.
The 61-year-old Seki was a vice chief operating officer at Nissan before joining Nidec, the world’s biggest electric motor maker. He served as CEO of the company until last year, when he resigned after being demoted and openly criticised by Nidec’s outspoken founding Chairman Shigenobu Nagamori for “underperforming”.
Now Seki is rebooting his auto industry career at Foxconn, which plans to boost the revenue of its EV segment to 1tn Taiwan dollars ($32.7bn) by 2025, in order to lower its dependence on the smartphone business.
One question will be how Seki’s new relationship with Nagamori plays out, as Nidec has emerged as one of Foxconn’s close allies in its EV push.
Jack Ma’s movements send Hong Kong penny stock soaring (Nikkei Asia)
#techAsia is co-ordinated by Nikkei Asia’s Katherine Creel in Tokyo, with assistance from the FT tech desk in London.


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Dolphins' Ross Wants To Build Tennis Venue "Family Guy" Episode Set At Fenway Park NFL Owners To Talk Panthers Ownership NFL's Could Cut Five Minutes From Game Length NFL Vote On Raiders' Move Expected Today Cashman Field Sells Outs For MLB Games Police Respond To Scuffle Between Soccer Fans New Balance Launching "This Is Boston" Effort U.S. NHLers Threaten Worlds Boycott Vivid Seats For Sale For $1.5B
SBD/June 22, 2011/Research and RatingsPrint All
The top 100 global brands last year “grew in value at a rate of 30 percent, which is a 17 percent increase over 2009,” according to the ’11 BrandZ report cited by Marguerite Darlington in this month’s issue of LICENSE magazine. The report showed that “despite the slow 13 percent growth rate for the overall economy,” the top 100 brands from around the globe last year grew to a combined value of $2.4T. The insurance industry had the best performance "because results included three large, expanding Chinese companies." Fast food (+22%) and luxury goods (+19%) also experienced "significant increases." The top 100 brands have “increased 24 percent since the 2008 stock market crash, adding $500 billion in value.” Nike topped all sports brands, ranking 57th on the list, which was up two spots from last year. The company had a brand value of $13.9B, up 10% from ’09. Red Bull also ranked in the top 100 (93rd) with its brand value up 4%. Listed below are the top 50 brands from this year’s report (LICENSE magazine, 6/’11 issue).'11 BRANDZ TOP 50 MOST VALUABLE BRANDSRKPREV.
BRAND'10 VALUE1-YR % +/-13 Apple$153.3B84%21$111.5B-2%32 IBM$100.8B17%46 McDonald's$81.0B23%54 Microsoft$78.2B2%65 Coca-Cola$73.8B8%722 AT&T$69.9BN/A87 Marlboro$67.5B18%98 China Mobile$57.3B9%109 GE$50.3B12%1111 ICBC China$44.4B1%1210 Vodafone$43.6B-2%1320 Verizon$42.8BN/A1415 Amazon$37.6B37%1513 Walmart$37.3B-5%1630 Wells Fargo$36.9B97%1716 UPS$35.7B35%1812 HP$35.4B-11%1955 Deutsche Telecom$29.8BN/A2018 Visa$28.6B15%2160 Movistar$27.2BN/A2219 Oracle$26.9B9%2321 SAP$26.1B7%2427 China Construction Bank$25.5B22%2514 Blackberry$24.6B-20%2629 Louis Vuitton$24.3B23%2726 Toyota$24.2B11%2823 HSBC$22.6B-4%2975 Baidu$22.6B141%3025 BMW$22.4B3%3117 Tesco$21.8B-15%3228 Gillette$19.8B-4%33NR China Life$19.5BN/A3433 Pampers$19.4B11%35NR$19.1B246%3650 Orange$17.6BN/A3724 Bank of China$17.5B-20%3841 Disney$17.3B15%3936 RBC$17.2B3%4052 American Express$17.1B23%4139 ExxonMobil$17.0B10%4271 TD$16.9B19%43NR Agricultural Bank of China$16.9BN/A4435 Cisco$16.3B-2%4538 Budweiser$16.0B0%4649 L'Oreal$15.7B11%4754 Citi$15.7B17%4857 Docomo$15.4B19%4944 Accenture$15.4B5%5053 Mercedes-Benz$15.3B12%


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As more consumers dip into their pockets, companies to splash out on ads
While companies started reviving advertising spending in August-September as the lockdown eased, expenditure by most of them was equal to or less than that in FY20, as demand was still reviving and the crucial summer months had been lost in the lockdown.
Advertising expenditure on print media may rise 35% to Rs 16,100 crore in 2021: Report
The FMCG industry continued to be the largest spender ...
Indian print ad spends to rise 23% this year, digital media to see 28% surge: Report
Indian advertising spends recorded a 21.5 per cent drop ...
Here are the Winners of Instagram’s Love Runs Deep Challenge
The Love Runs Deep challenge has established the intensity of the unspoken bond between Instagram creators and their followers. This robust connection, in turn, can help brands move business outcomes.
Wavemaker India retains Zydus Wellness’ media mandate
While Wavemaker India has been the media AOR for Zydus Wellness since 2013, the account was renewed following a multi-agency pitch.
Advertisers return to multiplexes on ‘Wonder Woman’ hopes
“Wonder Woman is going to be a big starter for us after ‘Tenet’. The kind of response we are getting on footfalls, advance bookings and from the advertisers, is very heartening,” Gautam Dutta, group CEO at PVR, told ET.
ET Catalyse Virtual 14: Madmen & Mathmen feat. Tushar Vyas, Shantanu Sirohi and Tanmay Mohanty
How are the advertising’s big gun’s calibratin...
IPL franchises rake in over Rs 500cr from sponsorships: GroupM ESP
Prior to the tournament, Rajasthan Royals had lost Dubai Expo 2020 as its principal sponsor due to postponement of the event, while Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals lost Byju’s and Daikin, respectively.
AAAI elects Publicis Groupe’s Anupriya Acharya as new president
Prasanth Kumar CEO, South Asia, GroupM was unanimously elected Vice-President of the Association.
Influencer marketing has a big fake followers issue but that's not the only problem
While fake followers and fake influencers — users who’ve gained popularity only on the back of fake followers — are not new, the issue comes as influencer marketing becomes the fastest-growing category in the over Rs 14,000 crore digital advertising space, according to advertisers including PepsiCo, Under Armour, Lava, Sugar Cosmetics and upGrad.
Indian sports sponsorship crosses Rs 9,000 crore mark in 2019: GroupM ESP
The growth was primarily driven by media spends and on-ground sponsorship around cricket with the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the ICC World Cup giving a big push to both on-ground sponsorships and media spends. On-ground sponsorship grew by 25% to cross Rs 2,000 crore mark for the first time, while media spends were up by 18% at Rs 5,232 crore.
GroupM expects India’s advertising expenditure to rise 11%
The media agency network added that India would continue to be the fastest-growing major ad market in the world, expanding at more than double the rate of global adex increase (5.1%), and is set to become the world’s eighth-largest market, surpassing Canada and Australia this year itself.
WPP Group India to bring its arms under one roof
Campuses in Mumbai, Gurugram to facilitate better collaboration
GroupM names Prasanth Kumar as South Asia head, Sam Singh quits
Kumar will take up the new role with immediate effect, while Singh will leave GroupM at the end of next month.
India remains fastest growing ad market in the world with AdEx growth estimate of 14% in 2019: GroupM
As per the latest ad forecast report, total ad spends in India is estimated to grow at a rate of 14.3%, when globally, the growth is expected to be about 3.6%.


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May 23 (Bloomberg) –- Rising medical costs in the U.S. are driving Americans overseas. Procedures like hip replacements and bypass surgeries are up to 90 percent cheaper in other countries. Here's a look at the numbers behind the booming business of medical tourism. (Source: Bloomberg)
07:20 - DuPont Pioneer is partnering with Africa Harvest to improve sorghum nutrition in Kenya which will affect the quality of life for the 300 million Africans who rely on the grain for dietary needs. (Source: Bloomberg)
Retailers Plan a Whole Year for Black Friday
How Will Fed Digest U.S. Economic Data?
Martin Shkreli: Daraprim Has Always Been Affordable
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World Health Organization Verdict is in: CBD is NOT ADDICTIVE OR TOXIC
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been examining possible uses of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound of cannabis marijuana. This includes hemp products.
Why should we care about what the WHO says?
The answer is we should care about what a big organization like this, which has much say in what medicine and what does not, says. It is going to be our fall from grace if we ignore this organization. While the details will be spewed later in the next section what this organization does is halt the spread of different diseases.
You may be a CBD user or seller, both of which are stakeholders of this medicine, so we should care what this organization says. WHO also deals with diseases but in other ways, so if it was to say that CBD should be used, then CBD and hemp products will be banned all over the world.
This is why we should keep in mind what who says and it will decide our future if it has to. Please read on for more information on WHO and it will impact the sales and usage of CBD.
Who is the WHO?
Well, the WHO is a special agency that stems from the United Nations. The agency exists to deal with all matters that relate to the public health of the entire world. The WHO has played a major role in eradicating some diseases and keeping tabs on others. The WHO also helps to halt the spread of certain diseases. They also communicate important messages worldwide about all matters relating to health. In addition, from development to nutrition, job safety, substance abuse, sexual health, and more.
They are the leading authority on matters of health and wellness that are relevant to the world at large. That’s why their findings matter to so many people!
Their results are not likely to shock those who already understand the many potential effects of CBD. In many cases, this is what the cannabis community has been declaring for decades!
We’ll cut to the chase. According to the WHO, CBD is not addictive or toxic.
Important Findings from the WHO’s CBD Report
The recent report from the WHO is exciting for cannabis users all over the world. What does it say, exactly?
Well, it reveals some important information that people all over the world may want to know about hemp products. You don’t have to be interested in cannabis to care about this report.
Even if you don’t use cannabis or don’t want to. It’s important to be aware of what changes are occurring in the medical world as we understand more and more about diseases and possible treatments for them. Therefore, we can work to alleviate more and more suffering.
The WHO Cannabidiol (CBD) Pre-Review Report from November 2017 says:
“To date, there is no evidence of recreational use of CBD. Or any public health-related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.”
This is a big deal. It gives credence to what the cannabis community has been trying to communicate for quite some time. CBD and hemp products are perfectly safe and natural, and it has no psychoactive effects. It will not get you high, and it is not addictive.
This is a very positive message for those who are suffering. And therefore, want to try to experience the benefits of marijuana but do not desire to get high or stoned.
Plus, these positions CBD as a safe alternative to some other prescription pain management tools. Unfortunately, these tend to come with a high risk of addiction and dependence. In the report, the WHO also says that CBD offers medical benefits without the potential risk of addiction. The report notes:
“In an animal drug discrimination model, CBD failed to substitute for THC. In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential.”
The WHO report says that CBD has “been demonstrated as an effective treatment for epilepsy” in adults, children, and animals. It also includes that there is preliminary evidence that CBD could be beneficial. In fact, in treating Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, psychosis, Parkinson’s disease, and other conditions.
The fact that this message has been declared by the WHO is a cause for celebration!
Why the WHO is Investigating CBD
Well, it could very much be because of the many CBD sellers not correctly displaying the information, related false deals, and etcetera. WHO may have decided to investigate for this very reason. While CBD and hemp products are true alternative medicine, it has been stigmatized for all the wrong reasons. These reasons include its relation to marijuana or THC and how some sellers are selling the non-pure form of CBD that may consist of THC. THC is banned for non-prescriptive use in the USA; there will be punishment by law if the individual is caught using it.
It must be a pretty important substance if even the WHO is willing to take notice. And similarly, spend valuable time and money studying its effects.
According to the Cannabist, WHO has been arranging to examine CBD for a long time.
“At their annual meetings in 2016 and 2015, ECDD (Expert Committee on Drug Dependence) members requested a further evaluation of the cannabis plant and its components,” the site reports.
“Last year, the committee set an 18-month timetable to receive additional information and evidence to continue evaluation of cannabis, cannabis extracts and tinctures, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, CBD, and THC stereoisomers within the bounds of the international drug control policy.”
Before this pre-review, the ECDD had never formally reviewed cannabis in any way.
However, according to the WHO’s Director-General in the November 25, 2016, recommendations letter. The committee has recognized an increase in the use of cannabis – and its components – for medical purposes: the development of new cannabis-related pharmaceutical preparations to be used therapeutically.
This is what led to the willingness to study it. Because it is rising in popularity and so many people are reporting miraculous effects. Therefore, the WHO was willing to give it some attention, too.
Potential Ramifications of the WHO’s Study
Not surprisingly, the WHO study is making waves with its potential ramifications on the legal and medicinal status of CBD.
Both the WHO and the ECDD, however, have been careful to caution. That both of those subjects should be left up to the individual decisions of nations. We are not at a place of worldwide cannabis acceptance yet. However, with steps like this making the news, it seems we’re on the right track!
A major component of the pre-review is the WHO’s declaration that CBD should not be a scheduled substance. This should set a standard and send a message to nations like the United States. In fact. Where cannabis is illegal and banned on a federal level.
With the WHO’s endorsement in place, nations around the world might reconsider how they label the simple marijuana plant. It can change the way this medicine is available for use anywhere in the world. Hemp products users and sellers will rejoice if it becomes available throughout the world. It will create convenience and ease for everybody involved. The usage itself will also increase when many nations will backing this kind of product
More Information from the WHO
“At its November 2017 meeting, the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) concluded that, in its pure state. Cannabidiol does not appear to have abuse potential or cause harm. As such, CBD is not currently a scheduled substance in its own right. Current information does not justify a change in this scheduling position and does not justify the scheduling of the substance.
“However, where CBD is produced for pharmaceutical purposes as an extract of cannabis, cannabis extracts and tinctures are included in the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. A fuller review of extracts or preparations containing almost exclusively CBD will take place in June 2018. When the WHO expert committee will undertake a comprehensive review of cannabis and cannabis-related substances.
“Not scheduling a substance means that it is not subject to strict international controls, including for production and supply. Its legal status in countries is something for national legislators to decide. Some countries have eased regulations around cannabidiol, to consider products containing CBD to be medical products. These include Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.”
Additional Clarity on the WHO’s Position on CBD
“Saying it should not be scheduled for international control means that it should not be prohibited, at the international level, to produce and supply it for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research, given that the WHO has not so far seen evidence of potential for abuse or harm from cannabidiol. As to what is legal or illegal, that comes under national law, so it is up to countries to decide.”
This is a big endorsement. Of course, the WHO cannot make or change laws for nations individually. They can only make recommendations about hemp products and share their opinion based on their findings.
Still, by reporting that CBD should not be scheduled for international control. This shows that they do not consider it a serious threat. Or a danger to human society as a whole. In addition, more harmful drugs, certainly do fit this bill. But CBD does not.
Hopefully, people around the world heard their message loud and clear. CBD is not a threat to the world. It should not be treated like a seriously harmful or deadly controlled substance. They reported that they had not seen evidence of abuse or harm coming from the use of CBD.
Because of this, more and more nations may consider allowing CBD into their own citizens’ lives by easing up on restrictions surrounding CBD.
Not Yet Recommended but Considered for Medical Use
In the same Q&A, WHO explains that while it does not recommend cannabidiol for medical use until there is more evidence,
“Initial evidence from animal and human studies (i.e. a controlled study in the New England Journal of Medicine and other reported individual cases) shows that its use could have some therapeutic value for seizures due to epilepsy and related conditions.”
And, in another ECDD report, the committee said, “There is increased interest from the Member States in the use of cannabis for medical indications including for palliative care.”
Clearly, the WHO has an interest in exploring CBD for its therapeutic uses. The research is viable because it can lead to more countries being open to the legality of Cannabis.
This is great news for the cannabis community. As more and more people become accepting, we may start to learn more about what benefits this plant and hemp products have to offer that we do not even know about yet.
Reactions to the WHO Report
WHO’s report attracted attention from across the world.
Justin Strekal, political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told WebMD:
“It was terrific to see WHO acknowledge what other scientific research has already stated. While we are pleased to see the WHO finally acknowledge the absurdity of international restrictions. The continued domestic classification and criminalization of cannabidiol as a Schedule I controlled substance is out of step with available science. It is yet another example of the U.S. government placing ideology over evidence. When it comes to issues related to the cannabis plant.”
Raul Elizalde, a medical marijuana advocate, and hemp-CBD company president spoke with the EDDC during the November 2017 meeting. Elizade has seen the effects of CBD firsthand, something he shared with the EDDC during the meeting.
“My daughter, Grace, has suffered all her life from epilepsy, and, believe me, I know about psychoactive drugs,” he told the committee. “I have been giving them to her a lot, and I have seen what they do. There’s no comparison with CBD, not even close. It will be a huge mistake to consider CBD psychoactive.”
After the report was released, he told straight.com, “The fact that they don’t want to schedule CBD is something great,” he said. “I think it should be treated the same way as Vitamin C.”
What Comes Next for CBD?
According to The Cannabist, an ECCD meeting is scheduled for May 2018. Committee Secretariat Dilkushi Poovendran told The Cannabist that the meeting’s “Special Session on Cannabis.” That will include pre-reviews of the cannabis plant and cannabis resin, similarly, extracts and tinctures of cannabis, delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and isomers of THC.
Legally, in the United States, as of May 2017, “federal and state laws regarding the medical use of cannabis and cannabinoids are in conflict and have led to confusion among patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. Currently, cannabis is legal for medical purposes in 50 percent of the states. And Similarly in another seventeen states allow hemp products that are high in cannabidiol (CBD). And low in THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) for medical use.”
Ideally, with the WHO’s report and its indications, and further exploration into the potential benefits of CBD, its legal status will become clear in the future. With the possible therapeutic uses of CBD in the spotlight on an international scale. Therefore, we can only hope that more organizations like WHO get involved in bringing these benefits to people who need them.
Disclaimer: The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act require this disclaimer. We collected this information from various sources for the convenience of our customers. The statements made regarding these products were not evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products is not confirmed by FDA-approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information presented here is not meant as a substitute for information from health care practitioners. It is also not meant as an alternative to information from health care practitioners. Before using any product, you should consult your doctor and ask about the risk of interactions or complications.


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Walmart.com uses Vudu to offer video streaming
Santa Clara, Calif. -- Wal-Mart Stores said Tuesday that it is leveraging last year’s acquisition of video-streaming service Vudu to launch digital online movie rental and streaming on Walmart.com.
On Tuesday the retailer started offering 20,000 titles that can be viewed on almost any device with Internet access, from PCs to televisions to Sony's PlayStation3 and other Blu-Ray disc players.
This is Wal-Mart’s second try at competing with Netflix, as it previously offered a DVD-by-mail service but it stopped that service in February 2010.
"At Walmart, one of our key priorities is to provide a continuous channel for our customers, from our stores to our powerful e-commerce and social media platforms," said Steve Nave, senior VP and general manager, Walmart.com.


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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville Electric Service and Tennessee Valley Authority have created a fund for Nashville residents and business owners who were impacted by the Christmas Day bombing.
"What happened last year was devastating for the city of Nashville, but NES is fortunate enough to be able to lend a helping hand,” says Sylvia Smith, Vice President of Customer Relations. “We are grateful for our customers, so this is just another way to continuously return the favor."
Residential customers who qualify will receive $300 and commercial customers who qualify will receive $1,200. NES said applicants who no longer have an account with the service will instead see a decrease in their final account balance.
People who were employed by a business that was impacted by the bombing can also apply, but they will need to provide proof of employment.
Residents and business owners who are interested in applying can do so online through NeedLink.


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Will Pluggable Optical Modules become Obsolete?
LightCounting reports on the IEEE Optical Interconnects Conference
The conversation began in massive, standing-room-only sessions at OFC 2017: how do we continue to scale the bandwidth in today’s hyperscale data centers? Will we need to move away from pluggable optical modules? If so, why, when, and will the answer be on-board optical (OBO) modules or must we co-package the optics with the ASICs?
The conversation continued at the IEEE Optical Interconnects Conference held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This conference, attended many times by this LightCounting analyst, had long been about how the supercomputer industry can get to the next level (the Holy Grail of exascale) without consuming all the electrical power on the planet [OK, perhaps just an unreasonable portion of the world’s power]. But the supercomputer industry stepped back from running this conference in 2016, allowing the hyperscale datacenter folks to step in and begin to ask the hard, technical questions of optical interconnect researchers and manufacturers. A majority of the conference remained devoted to R&D presentations from academia and industry. Program co-chairs were Ali Ghiasi and Ilya Lyubomirsky.
Picojoules per bit (pJ/bit) has much to do with the debate. It takes more energy to move a bit, even across a CMOS chip, than to operate the logic gates. At each increase in SerDes speed, it takes more power to drive long PCB traces. The conference program asked if on-board optics will be an answer, or should the industry be working on the far more radical step of co-packaging ASICs and optics? What solutions will we have at 100Gb/s?
3D Sensing for Self-Driving Cars Reaches the Peak of Inflated Expectations
LightCounting releases a new report addressing illumination in smartphones and automotive lidarIn 2019, the market for VCSEL (vertical cavity surface-emitting laser) illumination in smartphones will exceed $1.0 billion – now nearly triple the size of the market for communications VCSELs. That’s quite remarkable for a market that didn’t exist three years ago.3D sensing in smartphones felt like an overnight sensation, but the technology foundations were laid down years ago with Microsoft’s Kinect – a motion-sensing peripheral for gamers released in 2010 but discontinued in 2017 after lackluster sales. Lumentum supplied lasers to the Kinect almost a decade before the iPhone opportunity emerged; the company was ready to profit from the iPhone X opportunity when Apple decided to launch 3D sensing for facial recognition in September 2017.
Figure: 3D depth-sensing meets the Gartner Hype Cycle
Source: Gartner with edits by LightCounting
If all technologies follow the Gartner Hype Cycle, shown in the Figure above, then 3D sensing in smartphones is now moving up the slope of enlightenment. Android brands raced to add 3D sensing to their flagship phones in 2018 – the Xiaomi Mi8 Explorer and Oppo Find X phones were first – although these only sold in single digit million quantities. Huawei also brought out new phones with 3D sensing, but the ongoing U.S. export ban on the Chinese company must be hurting the company’s traction outside China. Apple continues to dominate the market as all new iPhones released by Apple since 2017 have included 3D sensing on the front of the phone. Apple is expected to introduce 3D sensing for ‘world-facing’ applications in 2020, which adds another laser chip to every phone.
Last year illumination for lidars were not included in our market forecast since LightCounting considered it unlikely that lidar would penetrate the consumer market to any great extent over the forecast period. All indicators now point to a market for lidar illumination ramping up in 2022 and beyond. Optical components firms are now shipping prototypes and samples of VCSELs, edge emitters and coherent lasers to customers developing next-generation lidar systems – many of them building on their expertise in illumination for optical communications and smartphones.
As was the case with smartphones, the foundations for lidar technology were laid down much earlier – in this case with the DARPA Challenge 2007, where the winning vehicle used a 64-laser lidar system from Velodyne Acoustics (now Velodyne Lidar). Lidar is considered by the majority of the industry to be an essential part of the sensor suite required for autonomous driving, helping the vehicle to navigate through the environment and detect obstacles in its path. The first commercial deployments have begun. In Germany, lidar on the Audi A8 enables the car to drive itself for limited periods under specific conditions. In Phoenix, Arizona, you can hail a ride in a Waymo robotaxi.
Investor enthusiasm for lidar is undeniable with nearly half a billion dollars invested in lidar start-ups in 2019 according to our analysis of publicly available investment data. Notable deals include $60 million for U.S. company Ouster in March, Israel’s Innoviz Technologies Series C round of $132 million in the same month, and $100 million for U.S.-based Luminar Technologies in July. Interestingly, these examples illustrate the variety of lidar approaches: each company is building a different type of lidar based on a different wavelength: 850nm for Ouster, 905nm for Innoviz and 1550nm in the case of Luminar. There’s an open technology battle and they can’t all be winners.
The automotive lidar market seems to be close to the peak of ‘inflated expectations’. It’s easy to understand why. The automotive industry is enormous, with nearly 100 million vehicles (including trucks) produced annually. Players like Baidu, GM Cruise and Waymo are backed by deep corporate pockets, and new entrants like Aurora and Pony.ai are attracting hundreds of millions in investment. Intel’s $15.3 billion purchase of Mobileye in 2017 was also directed at autonomous driving. Sensor company AMS is in a $4.8 billion battle to acquire German semiconductor lighting firm Osram with its eye firmly on lidar.
However, signs indicate that the descent into the trough of disillusionment could have already begun. Waymo has yet to roll out its robotaxi services more widely – and this summer admitted that its vehicles needed more testing in the rain. GM Cruise has delayed launch of commercial services for self-driving cars beyond 2019 and is reluctant to commit to a new timescale, with its CEO Dan Ammann observing that safety is paramount; automotive is not an industry where you can “move fast and break things” he said. A casualty of the slow pace was optical phased array lidar developer Oryx Vision, which closed its doors in August and started to hand money back to investors.
While lidar is being deployed commercially today, prices are not conducive to mass production, and there are open questions around regulation, safety, ethics and consumer acceptance. Do local laws prohibit self-driving cars? Will they really be safer than humans? Who is responsible for a crash? LightCounting remains skeptical about the pace of adoption of autonomous vehicles, but will be watching the market closely and with optimism.
More information on the report is available at: https://www.lightcounting.com/Sensing.cfm.


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Size matters to Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus, at least it does on Saturday, when the popular and ever-growing Big Wig fundraiser returns with its annual hairy proposition.
If 2009’s first Big Wig in a condo building (view photos) led to an even larger event space last year (view more photos), then it’s only natural that Big Wig III on Saturday at Bradford Gallery ups the ante, says AGMC’s interim executive director Russ Bralley.
“It’s bigger and better this year,” Bralley says. “Bradford Gallery is like 4,000 square feet, there’s a VIP area, DJ Todd Skelton, and an open bar. The phone has been ringing off the hook, and ticket sales are through the roof.”
Hold up. Did he say open bar? Yes, children, not only will the mixed LGBT crowd be bopping their booties and flipping their wigs, their ticket buys them free beer, wine and cocktails. Also on tap are hors d’oeuvres by chefs from some great restaurants, awesome raffle prizes, door prizes, and free admission to Jungle for an afterparty.
Some folks have been working on their high hair for weeks, and that just adds to the excitement, Bralley says.
“People are really thinking about how to make their wig special,” he coos. “There’s nothing more fun than men and women wearing crazy wigs and dancing to disco music and flashing lights.”
What more do you need? Buy $30 advance tickets online, or expect to pay $35 at the door if you have on a wig and $40 if you don’t do the do. VIP tickets are $55 and allow access to a special area, special munchies and a swag bag of goodies worth more than your ticket price.
All proceeds benefit the long-beloved Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus, which kicks off its spring season with the Divas 2 concert April 29-30.


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Birdies partnered with Leap to open its new store in Los Angeles.
A company that aims to make physical retail less risky and more productive for brands, especially those new to brick and mortar, is in the fast track for expansion.
Leap said it expects 50 physical stores to be open using its platform by the end of this year and 250 by the end of 2022 — an additional 400% growth. The company offers a full-service platform that covers the entire life cycle of a brand’s brick-and-mortar venture, including staffing, store design, tech integration and day-to-day operations. It also owns the leases for the stores.
Leap currently operates stores across New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Austin, Scottsdale and southern Florida. Among the brands using Leap to grow their retail footprint are Birdies, Mack Weldon, Goodlife, Faherty, Public Rec, UpWest, Pact, Vincero, Naadam and Something Navy.
“Stores are core to our strategy for building our brands and driving overall growth,” said Matt Scanlan, CEO of apparel and home retailers Naadam and Something Navy. “But developing and managing the complex infrastructure required for physical retail isn’t where we want to invest. By leveraging the Leap platform for stores, we can scale more rapidly with more flexibility and less risk, all while focusing on what we want to be best in the world at – creating awesome products and deepening connections with our customers.”
Added Marisa Sharkey, co-founder and president of footwear brand Birdies, “it’s vital to meet customers where they are, whether that’s online, on social media, or in stores.”
“Leap enables us to reach new customers, capture real world insights and connect more deeply with our customers in premium locations like Abbot Kinney Boulevard in LA,” she said.
Leap’s business model includes signing leases directly with landlord partners across street, mall and other prime retail locations. In so doing, it takes away a significant risk from brands, while also driving benefits for landlords.
“We’re excited to work with Leap to bring new brands to our portfolio,” said Gabrielle (Aaron) Licht, leasing manager at Macerich. “Their data-driven platform brings value to our partnership by helping brands access the strong demographics at our centers that mirror those of their online shoppers, which sets these brands up for success with us.”
“Brands are looking to grow via fully immersive retail stores to build their brand and acquire customers without traditional risks, barriers to entry and liabilities.” said Amish Tolia, co-founder and co-CEO, Leap. “Our platform approach is the future of retail. Qualified brands are now able to scale their physical retail strategy without having to outlay significant upfront capital or dedicate internal resources to real estate, leases, store design, staffing or technology.”


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Facebook (META -1.52%) is overhauling its Libra digital currency in an effort to assuaged skeptical regulators, announcing it will support multiple versions backed by fiat currencies including the U.S. dollar and euro.
Libra's governing body, the Libra Association, said Thursday it hopes to work with regulators, central banks, and financial institutions globally to expand the number of single-currency stablecoins available on the Libra network. The coins would be a digital extension of the currency of the country. The tech group still plans to launch a multi-currency coin that could be used for cross-border payments.
Originally Libra, which launched in June, was intended to be a single digital token backed by government debt and a mixture of different currencies. But regulators worried that Facebook's more than 2.5 billion monthly active users adopting Libra could destabilize monetary policy, and enable money laundering and other nefarious activities. By supporting multiple versions of Libra backed by stablecoins, Facebook is hoping to get the backing of regulators, something it said it needed to launch the digital token.
The Libra Association also announced changes to the Libra blockchain, which was originally going to be open to anyone to participate in running the network. Now anyone who wants to verify transactions on the blockchain will have to gain approval. Libra Association is still working on what the approval process will be.
The group also said that it has started discussions with Swiss regulators to gain a payments license, and that it wants to register with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a money-services business. That could result in increased reporting and record-keeping for the group. Libra plans to launch sometime between the middle of December and the end of 2020. It originally eyed the end of June as the launch date.


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NHTSA Looks Ready to Recall 500,000 Ram 1500 and Heavy-Duty Trucks
High-pressure fuel pump failures in diesel-powered Ram 1500 and heavy-duty HD trucks have been around for some time. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating it. Today, it announced that it upgraded its probe of the problem, indicating it is close to issuing a recall. The high-pressure fuel pump in question is the CP4 Bosch pump for the 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engine.
Which Ram trucks are part of the potential recall?
The potentially affected trucks go back years. They include 2014 to 2022 Ram 1500, 2500, 3500, 4500, and 5500 HD trucks. The investigation recently added Ram 1500 trucks built from 2014 to 2022. Its investigation began in late 2021.
Other models with the Bosch CP4 pump are also part of this investigation. They are the 2021 to 2022 Jeep Gladiator, the 2014 to 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the 2020 to 2022 Jeep Wrangler SUVs. Even BMWs are part of the investigation. These models include the 2014 to 2018 BMW 328D, 2014 to 2016 BMW 535D, and 2015 to 2017 BMW X3 models.
What is an NHTSA “upgraded investigation?”
An upgrade in an NHTSA investigation means the agency is doing an engineering analysis, according to Automotive News. This is the last step before issuing a recall. For the BMW models, the NHTSA said that “Failed pumps on vehicles were caused by an interaction between pump internal components and U.S. market diesel fuel. This leads to increasing slip and eventual particle-generating wear surface.”
So the pump’s degradation from the different U.S. diesel fuel formulations creates loose particles wearing out components inside of it. Once this final phase of the investigation is done, the NHTSA sends out a “recall letter” to Stellantis.
Hasn’t Ram issued recalls for this before?
This is a somewhat confusing issue with diesel fuel pumps because there are several recalls for them. The most recent was at the end of 2022. Ram issued over 60,000 2020 to 2022 Ram 1500 recalls, and Jeep Gladiator and Wrangler recalls were issued for the same issue. But this one involved the 3.0-liter diesel engine, not the 6.7 Cummins.
Just a few months earlier, Ram recalled almost 140,000 2014 to 2020 Ram 1500s and Jeep Grand Cherokee models for issues with the high-pressure fuel pumps in the same 3.0-liter diesel engines.
Can owners replace the fuel pumps themselves?
At the end of 2021, Ram issued a recall of over 222,000 2019 to 2020 Ram HD trucks for Bosch CP4 failures. This recall also takes in other components in the fuel system damaged by the debris particles.
With issues around the Bosch CP4 fuel pumps well documented, many Ram truck owners have taken it upon themselves to convert over to the previous CP3 pumps. In fact, there are several kits available for the conversion. Prices vary from a few hundred dollars to over $2,000. This came in handy when replacement pumps were not available when an earlier recall was issued.
Once a formal recall comes from the NHTSA, MotorBiscuit will give you the details.


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CBN has released the official guidelines of the eNaira cash that was released some days ago.
The CBN has stated that the application has received more than 5,000 downloads within hours of the launch.
The enaira is expected to contain two-factor authentication and other security features to secure the safety of cash. The CBN released a statement about the guidelines concerning the Enaira.
Meanwhile, Tier 0, which is only a phone number without a validated National Identity Number, has a daily transaction limit of N20,00 and a balance limit of N120,000.
Tier 1, which has a verified number, has a transaction limit of N50,000 and a balance limit of N300,000.
Tiers 2 and 3 have daily transaction limits of N200,000 and N1 million, respectively, as well as balance limits of N500,000 and N5 million, respectively, whilst merchants have no limit.
The statement reads in part: “Financial Institutions (FI) may create eNaira sub-treasury wallets for branches tied to it and fund them from its single eNaira treasury wallet with the CBN and FI may create eNaira branch sub-wallets for its branches.
“The eNaira branch subwallet shall be funded from the treasury eNaira wallet.
“eNaira Merchant speed wallets shall be used solely for receiving and making eNaira payments for goods and services. eNaira speed wallets shall be available for end users to transact on the eNaira platform.”
“Additionally, it will improve monetary policy effectiveness, enhance government’s capacity to deploy targeted social interventions, provide alternative less costly channel for collection of government revenue and boost remittances through formal channels.
“The guidelines seek to provide simplicity in the operation of the eNaira, encourage general acceptability and use, promote low cost of transactions, drive financial inclusion while minimizing inherent risks of disintermediation or any negative impact on the financial system,”


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This year was a big one for the shared mobility industry. Vehicles got smarter, regulations got tighter and global ridership trends showed new preferences for vehicle types and pricing models.
According to new market research from Berg Insight, the number of lightweight shared mobility vehicles available worldwide will reach 38.2 million by 2027, up from 25.3 million vehicles in 2022. So we’re right in the middle of a boom – quite literally.
In this blog post, we relive five main themes from 2023; showcasing the impact of our platform and celebrating how the community as a whole has mobilized like no year before.
Let’s take a look:
Native excellence, endless integrations
It’s safe to say that 2023 was the year of extensibility. As in previous years, we continuously worked to equip our operators with software solutions that drive usage and revenue for scooter and bike share systems, as well as analytics to digest the robust data from their operation.
Of the many, many new features that launched this year on our platform, none would be possible without the backbone of your fleet – the Rider App. One year ago, our faster, leaner and mightier app launched and has since been boosting ridership for operators across the globe. One European bikeshare provider, for example, has increased their average number of total rides by 73% since migrating to the Rider App.
Incident avoidance, parking management and pre-ride safety screenings are additional examples of innovations that bloomed this year. Let’s also not forget the public release of our Open API, which opens the door to a world of integration possibilities. Operators using the Joyride platform can now seamlessly connect their services to a wide range of third-party software providers and even build custom tools suited to their specific business needs.
Another standout moment was the official launch of Joyride’s Micromobility Operator App. With a suite of purpose-built productivity features – including vehicle health filters and multi-scan functionality – we put efficient and profitable fleet management at the fingertips of some key industry players. Since its launch last summer, this in-field operations app has been saving valuable time (13 seconds per unlock, to be exact) for our operators. Keep an eye on even more user segmentation coming to this app in 2024 that’ll target specific audiences.
A smarter micromobility supply chain
As we predicted last year, micromobility vehicles continued to iterate for better durability, longer lifespans and battery density. What we didn’t expect, though, was for major micromobility suppliers, such as Segway Commercial, to shift their Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) strategies to only accept orders for 500 or more units.
Even with fleet financing options, vehicle stock was hard to come by in 2023, but the Joyride Garage hardware catalog continued to grow with new and refurbished vehicles, parts and accessories. Best of all was the transition to a two-way micromobility marketplace, which enables buyers to request quotes directly from suppliers and track every detail of their fleet purchase.
Our specialization in New Mobility assures top-quality products tailored for your specific fleet needs—including e-scooters, low-speed vehicles, e-bikes, spare parts, IoT devices, batteries and more.
Shared mobility – shared knowledge
The micromobility market continues to mature, and with age comes wisdom. The Joyride Academy team spent 2023 immersed in research, paying keen attention to what worked (and what didn’t) for shared mobility providers big and small.
With these learnings we created a whole new set of resources to help shared mobility startups avoid common pitfalls and ultimately launch and scale a profitable shared mobility business. And our community dove right in. In fact, the Academy grew by 40% in 2023, with thousands of course enrolments. Across the board, you watched 150 hours of video content, too.
Record ridership and revenues
We weren’t the only ones busy in 2023. Fluctuo’s European Shared Mobility Index and the North American Scooter Share and Bike Share Association’s Annual Report demonstrated that micromobility is here to stay–a point proven by the business growth of our customers.
Around the globe our operators hit record ridership, added new vehicle types to their fleets, established strategic partnerships, received prestigious grants, expanded to new markets, and experimented with all sorts of innovative public-private business models.
Part of the micromobility movement
The micromobility industry does move fast, and what better way to keep pace than to mingle with movers and shakers in other countries? From Guangzhou to Amsterdam, Joyride’s global team attended and exhibited at dozens of conferences including Micromobility Europe, NABSA, Curbivore, MOVE America, Canton Fair, Eurobike and more!
Seeing the latest in smart technology, climate-tech and electric vehicles is always a blast, and we also had big news of our own. At Micromobility America in San Francisco, we announced our partnership with GEM to deploy IoT-connected low-speed vehicles (LSVs) for shared use. The collaboration connects GEM’s street-legal LSVs, with the Joyride software platform, making it seamless for scooter and bike share operators to go multi-modal, or for new players to get started with minimobility.
From innovations in smart technology to enhanced user experiences, this year has been a testament to the collective dedication of the Joyride team and the shared mobility industry at large. As we wrap up 2023 during this holiday season, we’re not just celebrating growth, we’re looking forward to an even more collaborative and sustainable future, together.


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When disposable contact lenses hit the U.S. market two years ago, they seemed a godsend for busy, or lazy, consumers. No more cleaning, disinfecting or soaking lenses. Just toss ‘em after a week of continuous wear. A half million people, according to industry estimates, bought them.
In theory, the new disposable lenses stay cleaner than the conventional extended-wear lenses, thus reducing the risks of eye ulcers and other painful complications.
But now come the horror stories. One 22-year-old Los Angeles woman scrupulously cleaned her disposable lenses every other day and discarded them weekly. Still, UCLA doctors reported in this month’s American Journal of Ophthalmology, she suffered ulcers of the cornea (the transparent covering of the eye ball) in both eyes. Another patient who wore disposable lenses continuously for three weeks, three times longer than the maximum wearing time usually recommended, had such severe corneal ulcers his vision will never be restored to 20/20.
In the last few months, several medical journals have published reports of complications such as pain, redness and loss of vision, sometimes even in wearers who faithfully discard the lenses after a week.
Problems arise with any continuous wear, regardless of whether lenses are trashed or cleaned. The risk of microbial keratitis (corneal inflammation), for instance, is five times greater with extended-wear contact lenses than daily wear lenses, Harvard researchers found in a Contact Lens Institute study expected to be published soon in a major medical journal.
“Disposable lenses may not be as safe as believed,” concludes Dr. William T. Parker, a San Diego ophthalmologist who says he reported the first case of corneal ulcer associated with disposable lens wear earlier this year in an ophthalmology journal.
Not everyone agrees. Says Contract Lens Institute spokeswoman Colleen Puckett, the keratitis risk is small for both types of lenses.
Even some objective experts consider the journal reports isolated, worst-case scenarios, not reflections of general use. “I’ve seen virtually no problems (with disposables),” says Dr. Fred H. Dubick, a Burbank optometrist who fits one in six of his contact lens patients with disposables. If patients are fit by a professional eye care specialist and follow recommendations on wearing schedules and follow-up care, they “should not have any problems,” he says.
However, both advocates and opponents of disposable contact lens wear agree on at least two points:
--Patients who wear the lenses continuously for more than one week are asking for trouble.
--"The minute wearers have any redness or pain, they should see their eye doctor immediately,” Parker says. “By immediately, I mean that same day.”


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Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said the media giant would of course consider alternative proposals for its stake in Hulu but they’d have to top its longstanding agreement to sell its remaining stake in the streamer to Disney next year.
Disney has been going through a bumpy patch and returned CEO Bob Iger indicated recently that paying billions to buy in Hulu may not be a top priority. Under a four-year old, put-call agreement, Comcast can force Disney to buy the stake (or Disney can force Comcast to sell it) early next year.
Asked about Iger’s comments at a Morgan Stanley media conference today, Cavanagh, the CFO who was elevated last fall and works very closely with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, said: “On this one, remember they and we, back in 2019, put together a very clean and good agreement for a put-call that does happen in early 2024.”
“We are very happy with that,” he said. “But, if there is something different that comes along, we have to consider things. But we won’t do something unless it is better in our minds than that.”
There’s been ongoing jockeying surrounding Hulu for some time. Iger will appear the same conference tomorrow, his first appearance after saying last month that he’d be open to selling Hulu, instead of buying it.
“Everything is on the table right now, so I am not going to speculate whether we are a buyer or a seller of it. But I obviously have suggested that I’m concerned about undifferentiated general entertainment, particularly in the competitive landscape that we are operating in, and we are going to look at it very objectively and expansively,” he told CNBC Feb. 9 after the company had reported quarterly earnings, and managed to extricate itself from a proxy fight with activist investor Nelson Peltz.
The Hulu agreement calls for the streamer’s valuation at deal time to be set by independent experts but gives a guaranteed minimum valuation of $27.5 billion, meaning Comcast’s one-third stake would cost at least $9 billion. Disney already owns the other two-thirds.
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An ISO certification calls for celebration every time, and it’s always nice to see companies applaud such successes and milestones.
Lara Mallia, Director at Uniplast, expressed her pride in “working with amazing colleagues who are eager to work towards better practices to safeguard the environment.”
She said this in a recent social media post where she praised her company’s receipt of ISO14001:2015 certification.
Uniplast is a plastics manufacturing company with services ranging from prototyping, diverse injection moulding capabilities, printing plastic components, assembling, packaging and inspection.
As an organisation with over 25 years of experience, Uniplast Ltd. provides tailor-made manufacturing services, with their ultimate goal being to maximise the added value in their customer business model.
Lara Mallia / LinkedIn
Lee Xuereb says that even with the MEA’s proposal to have €3 reduced through tax deductions, COLA will still have ...
The UK royals are on the hunt for a CEO to manage Kensington Palace, the official residence of the Prince ...
He affirms that the journey towards success is the real prize, not the destination.
This comes as three of the beers brewed by the company were awarded silver and bronze medals in this year’s ...


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In a report titled, “Missing the Mark: Global Content Survey of Brand Marketers and Their B2B Audiences,” released by The Economist Group this week, 75 percent of marketers said that mentions of their products and services were a frequent part of their content strategy. However, 71 percent of executives say that they do not have a positive impression of content that feels like a sales pitch, showing a disconnect between marketers and B2B buyers.
In terms of content marketing resources, 71 percent of B2B professionals find articles to be the most helpful resources in terms of business-related matters. Fifty-one percent of survey respondents said that research reports were most important, while 27 percent cited briefing papers. At the bottom of the list were newsletters (19 percent) and events (8 percent).
When it comes to making business decisions, 85 percent of those who were surveyed said that they prefer text over video and audio content. Also, mobile devices are not playing a large role in how content is consumed, according to this report — about 78 percent of respondents said they use their laptop or desktop to view the content.
The Economist Group surveyed 500 global business executives on what they are looking for from content providers, and 500 global marketers on how they are building their content strategy. Peppercomm worked in association with The Economist Group to gather the results.
The Importance of Measuring Marketing Efforts
In the 2014 State of the Inbound report released by HubSpot, data shows that more than 20 percent of marketers do not measure the ROI of their inbound marketing efforts. This is compared to 53 percent of marketers who said that they try to keep track of the ROI.
While some people are still ignoring the opportunity to measure ROI, those who do are reaping the benefits, according to the report. Researchers discovered that marketers who keep track of ROI are 17 times more likely to see the same or greater ROI over the previous year.
“After all, higher performing marketers are more likely to measure results, thus they are also more likely to drive growth,” wrote the authors of the report. “Nevertheless, there’s a strong correlation between simply measuring ROI and achieving it. Marketers that are not currently measuring ROI should begin immediately, because eventually they will nee a baseline against which to establish year-over-year performance.”


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Aiming at expansion in Maharashtra, Bandhan Bank is setting up retail asset centres in Pune and Mumbai while adding 31 branches in the state.
The asset centres are specialised places for processing loans and cater to the loan requirements of customers. Those looking for loans from Bandhan Bank can also walk into these centres, have their queries resolved, pay EMI and even apply for new loans. The bank plans to open a total of 48 asset centres across the country in the current financial year.
Also Read: Annapurna Finance goes the Bandhan Bank way
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, managing director and CEO, said the expansion of the asset centres indicates a growth in the retail business and deeper penetration into the markets.
These decentralised centres will play a critical role in diversifying its assets portfolio and introducing new products in the retail asset portfolio, he said.
The bank is also expanding its branch network as their customers needed its physical presence, the CEO said, adding this hand-holding was important before bank customers transitioned to digital banking.
Also Read: Bandhan Bank’s collection efficiency increases to 97%
The bank will be adding 550 new branches across India in the next few months, including 30 in Maharashtra, where it currently has 59 branches.


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Russian historical epic Viking to be released in Italy, UKSociety & Culture March 30, 2:11
Putin visits ice cave during Arctic tourSociety & Culture March 30, 0:02
West’s reaction to Russian protests part of long-planned campaign - diplomatRussian Politics & Diplomacy March 29, 23:56
Putin orders Defense Ministry and FSB to ensure protection of Russia’s interests in ArcticMilitary & Defense March 29, 21:46
Kiev aware of few chances to win in debt lawsuit case — envoyBusiness & Economy March 29, 20:52
Russian top diplomat dismisses claims about human rights violations in Crimea as liesRussian Politics & Diplomacy March 29, 20:23
Moscow suspects Jabhat al-Nusra could be used to topple AssadRussian Politics & Diplomacy March 29, 19:58
Lavrov reiterates there are no facts substantiating Iran’s links to terroristsRussian Politics & Diplomacy March 29, 19:40
Russia to upgrade helicopter protection system based on Syrian experienceMilitary & Defense March 29, 19:00
NEW YORK, August 19. /TASS/. The largest Russian food retailer Magnit joined ranks of Forbes World’s Most Innovative Companies rating. Magnit was ranked 23rd in the rating released on Wednesday in the online version of Forbes.
According to Forbes, the Russian company outranked such global giants as Visa, MasterCard, Starbucks and Coca-Cola. US Tesla Motors took the lead in the rating.
Krasnodar-headquartered Magnit is the largest food retailer in Russia in terms of revenues and the number of stores. Company’s revenues rose 30% year-on-year to 453.7 bln rubles ($6.8 bln) in the first half of 2015.
The retailer was managing over 8,000 stores as of the end of June 2015, including 7,103 convenience stores, 168 hypermarkets, 49 Magnit Family stores and 682 cosmetic stores.


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Preppy British brand Jack Wills has announced a move into the Asian market as it prepares to open stores in Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong before the end of this year. The fashion retailer‘s push into the Far East precedes potential expansion opportunities in the Middle East where four stores are currently operated through a franchise partner.
Established in 1999 as a grown-up alternative to ‘university outfitters‘, Jack Wills is well known for its quintessential Britishness with a youthful twist.
The retailer has ambitions to open its own factory to increase its UK based manufacturing. In the meantime, the company has launched an apprenticeship in Somerset to encourage traditional weaving skills and techniques. It has also sponsored a flock of sheep in Wiltshire in a bid to own the entire process of production, from the shearing of the sheep, to the spinning and weaving of the wool, right the way through to the end process.
The contemporary retailer favours direct customer engagement through events and viral, guerrilla and social media marketing. This non-advertising strategy works in the UK, where the brand knows its market, but does it translate internationally?
“British lifestyle brands are really appealing in Asia. We‘re gaining a lot of momentum there” says Wendy Becker, Jack Wills‘ chief executive.
“Both [the Far and Middle East] have seen rapid, profitable growth during the financial year and, with only a small number of stores currently, represent size-able opportunities to grow the Jack Wills brand” Becker explained.
The international expansion comes after a recorded 5.2% sales growth to £129.3m for the financial year ending February 2014.
In addition to adding to its store count, Jack Wills will focus on developing the omni-channel side of the business after seeing an increase in online sales. It is currently in the process of installing a new web platform and to updating its tills and point of sale capability.
The brand will also broaden its categories, offering footwear and handbags (for the first time) in its autumn 2014 range.


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--Fairfax selling 51% Trade Me stake for A$616 million
--Trade Me CEO: Sale likely to positively impact company's index weighting
--Trade Me CEO: Sale Has No Material Impact On Trade Me's Financials
(Adds comments from Trade Me chief executive, background on company's current index weighting.)
WELLINGTON--It will be business as usual for Trade Me Group Ltd. (TME.NZ), despite news earlier Monday that Fairfax Media Ltd. (FXJ.AU) has decided to sell its remaining 51% stake in the company, Trade Me Chief Executive Jon Macdonald said.
"We have operated quite independently from an operational perspective so there is nothing big that we need to pull apart. There's no material impact on how we do business or our financials," Mr. Macdonald told the Wall Street Journal by phone.
Fairfax Media is selling its 51% stake in Trade Me for 616 million Australian dollars (US$649.7 million), or A$3.05 a share, in a deal underwritten by UBS New Zealand. The stock, which is listed in both New Zealand and Australia, is currently on a trading halt as the book build is being completed but closed Friday on the Australian Stock Exchange at A$3.22.
Trade Me does expect the sale to "positively impact" its index weighting, however, Mr. Macdonald added--a factor which New Zealand institutions would have to recognize in their portfolios.
Trade Me is included in New Zealand's NZX-50 index but due to liquidity requirements has previously been excluded from the more prestigious NZX-10. However, with a market capitalization of NZ$1.6 billion based on Friday's local close of NZ$4.05, the Wellington-based company is the eighth largest New Zealand company on the exchange.
Hamilton Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson said the increase in liquidity was likely to support the company's share price in the medium term but would also be good for the liquidity of the New Zealand stock exchange as a whole.
Trade Me was listed on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges on Dec. 13, 2011, after Fairfax sold a 34% stake in the company, raising 363.50 million New Zealand dollars (US$305.34 million) in the process. Fairfax Media bought the internet auction website in 2006 for NZ$750 million.
The site sells everything from books to million dollar houses and is the first place most New Zealanders go to hawk second-hand goods, pick up a bargain, buy a car or find roommates or romance.
Write to Lucy Craymer at email@example.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires


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First, the Office 2003 launch wasn't exactly a big surprise or a secret. News about the products has been extensively covered, and reviews have appeared over the past month in both trade and general pubs. The beta software -- which came on over a dozen CDs -- was in the hands of more than half a million people during the past year. I have been running the beta in my lab for the past several months as well. What was interesting and perhaps a bit different was that many of the bravest souls using this software actually put it into production and weren't shy to provide glowing testimonials about why they did. I couldn't decide whether this was out of desperation for some of its cooler features or just a tremendous sign of faith in Microsoft products. Or perhaps it was a lack of any real alternatives to run their desktop software applications. Well, as Scott McNealy reminds us, we all do have choices.
Second, the number of partners, ISVs, developers and associated vendors that were displaying their wares in the pavilion upstairs before and after Bill's address were staggering, both in their numbers and in their fervent conviction about their own products. At first blush, this didn't seem all that different. But unlike the go-go days of the last decade, the people at the small booth-lets were, in many cases, ill-prepared to discuss product specifics and go into details. Microsoft's own voluminous press packet lacked any of the press releases of their partners, something that would never be overlooked in the days of yore. That suggests that MS picked its partners at the last moment or that partners didn't have this information until right before the launch party (which contradicts my first point, I know).
Third, no Microsoft executives were harmed in the production of this event. Try as we might, we at VARBusiness could get lots of face time with the product managers, but no one higher up the executive food chain. There is nothing that gets my boss' goat more than a lack of the Big Interview. Granted, we have been spending tons of T&E dollars running around the country meeting Microsoft execs during the past month, but that was last month. Yesterday, the big cheeses just weren't available. My colleague Carolyn April was one of the invited few to hear Bill at his second NYC venue later that day, and you'll have to read her reactions on varbiz.com.
Fourth, Microsoft is usually so good about being on point with its messaging, but they were slipping yesterday. Bill made a big deal about this being the single biggest launch event in Microsoft's history when it comes to the number of products. And he certainly took us through many of the components making up Office as he could, under the guise of the theme of the day -- "Great Moments at Work. " Remember, the last time Microsoft used the "at work" moniker was to launch an integrated fax application in its Office suite some 10 years ago, a complete and dismal failure at that. However, the sheer complexity surrounding the number of different versions of Office and its prices and feature sets is overwhelming. MS could have done a better job delineating this. There are probably over a hundred SKUs when you add it all up.


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Signtacular, a new specialty sign company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, looks to help organizations across the country more seamlessly navigate returns to work and school amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advertising Vehicles, a vehicle branding company, created Signtacular specifically to provide businesses, schools, and individuals with a source for pandemic safety signage and other general needs.
“Our experts know signage, and, we also know just how much organizations need help navigating pandemic communications and all of the changes and protocols that come with it,” says Ken Black, CEO of Signtacular.
Some of the newly-founded companies offerings include back to school packages, including items like pavement arrows, floor graphics, and decals, as well as a la carte items for schools to pick and choose the products they need.
In addition to school reopening packages, Signtacular also offers customizable plastic yard and aluminum signs, banners, and floor and wall graphics, ranging from COVID-19 support, safety, and health, to building and property, directional, political, and event signage and materials.


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Tencent profit soars as Chinese tech major wins on smartphone games
The Chinese technology major Tencent reported a profit boost on Wednesday, helped by the growing popularity of its mobile games.
Net profit for 2016 was up 43 percent year on year from 28.81 billion yuan (Dh15.36bn) to 41.09bn yuan.
Revenues from online games increased by 25 per cent to 70.84bn yuan, mainly driven by successful smartphone offerings such as Honour of Kings.
Tencent expanded its presence in the gaming sector last year, when it paid US$8.6bn for a majority stake in Supercell – the maker of online game Clash of Clans.
Overall revenue was up 48 per cent at 151.94bn yuan, driven by smartphone games, advertising, digital content sales, and payment related services, the company said.
Tencent operates China’s biggest messaging service WeChat through which a variety of businesses including gaming, advertising and social networking have flourished in recent years.
The firm has also sought to make its instant messaging platform QQ more interactive, adding facial beautifying tools, painting-style photos, and animated video stickers, it said on Wednesday.
Looking ahead, the company said it wanted to expand the popularity of its major smartphone games, as well as adding new “genre-driven” PC games in 2017.
It would also develop its capabilities in emerging technology, including cloud services, it said.
Follow The National’s Business section on Twitter
Updated: March 22, 2017 04:00 AM


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G-Eazy “Been On (Remix)” Featuring Rockie Fresh And Tory Lanez
G-Eazy adds MMG's Rockie Fresh for his upcoming These Things Happen Tour. Rockie will be the tour's opening act along with Tory Lanez and California native Kyle. To celebrate the big announcement, G released the brand new smoked out remix to his Christoph Andersson produced track “Been On.” The records features tourmates Rockie Fresh and Tory Lanez. The Oakland native released a teaser video featuring unreleased footage along with the full tour lineup. You can listen to the record above and watch the teaser and see show dates below.


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What you need to know
- Meta announced its new AI assistant arriving for Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp which offers real-time information and discussions for users.
- AI photo editing software is arriving for Instagram first as it leverages Emu technology for various visual effects.
- AI stickers will also arrive as a way of letting users utilize their text-based descriptions to create the perfect add-on for chats and stories.
At Meta Connect, the parent company behind Facebook is announced several new AI experiences users will get to experiment with soon.
According to a blog post, Meta AI is a the latest player in the AI chatbot space. The company calls this is a new AI assistant, akin to Bard or ChatGPT, that "you can interact with like a person." Meta adds the custom model utilizes Llama 2, its largest language model, for text-based discussions. And, through its partnership with Bing, users will find access to "real-time information" and several AI image generation tools.
This new Meta AI assistant can be found on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp first before arriving on Ray-Ban Meta and the Quest 3 in the future. Meta AI is in beta and is reportedly only for U.S. users at this time, as well.
Additionally, Meta is attempting to bring "personality" to its AI technology via social media influencers and icons. There are 28 unique AIs that users can message, portrayed by people such as Snoop Dogg, Kendall Jenner, Charlie D'Amelio, Naomi Osaka, and many more. The AI chatbot aims to capture each influencer's unique flair and traits as they portray different characters for users to interact with for guidance on cooking, writing, boxing, and other activities.
These AI characters are rolling out today in the U.S., available on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.
Meta is working on bringing some AI photo editing software to its ecosystem, as well. The announcement post states "Restyle" and "Backdrop" are features that will soon appear on Instagram backed by the image generation technology, Emu.
Restyle is a tool that lets users add a visual element to a photo based on a description given to the AI software. Meta says users can use descriptors such as "watercolor" or "torn edges" to help the AI craft their ideal image.
Backdrop, as the name suggests, can alter the background of an image. Meta has partnered with SAM AI (Segment Anything Model) for this capability, giving users a way of grabbing what's at the forefront of an image and describing what new, creative thing they'd like behind it.
Meta will include tags on images, alerting others that an image edited with Reshape and Backdrop is AI-generated for the sake of safety and transparency.
Lastly, AI stickers are on the way for a little more creativity and imagination for our chats and stories. These stickers will utilize Llama 2 and Emu to turn a user's text prompts into a high-quality sticker for use.
The company is planning on rolling this feature out on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories over the next month. However, Meta will let a few select English users gain access to it before it becomes widespread for everyone.
Meta is looking ahead to what more it can do with AI — and places it can plug it into. Businesses and content creators will soon find the tools required to create their own AIs that give strong callbacks to their brands and personalities. For creators, Meta informs that any AI crafted in their likeness must be sanctioned and controlled by the person before it can be approved and functional.
Moreover, Meta teases that it is creating an AI sandbox that will allow anyone to experiment with creating their own AI with "realism, embodiment, and connectedness." It's estimated this could arrive sometime during 2024.
A conversational assistant you can use across our apps, new tools to easily edit your images, and AI characters played by Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, Snoop Dogg and more … Get all the AI news from Connect 👇https://t.co/EhCk7GFdbtSeptember 27, 2023
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Nickolas is always excited about tech and getting his hands on it. Writing for him can vary from delivering the latest tech story to scribbling in his journal. When Nickolas isn't hitting a story, he's often grinding away at a game or chilling with a book in his hand.


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FAISALABAD. Indonesia will encourage production of palm oil and its processing in addition to the production of high value products from this edible oil as joint ventures in Pakistan, said Mr. Wisnu Suryo Hutomo Minister Counselor of the Indonesian Embassy in Islamabad.
During a meeting with Acting President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Farooq Yusuf in his office here Hutomo told that there are vast opportunities of exploiting untapped trade potential between the two brotherly countries. “Pakistan is exporting rice while there is huge demand of Pakistani Kinno and Mango in Indonesia”, he told, adding that Indonesia is also exporting Palm Oil to Pakistan. However; efforts are being made to encourage production of Palm Oil within Pakistan in collaboration with Indonesian businessmen.
He told that he has visited University of Agriculture (UAF) so that high yielding varieties of Indonesian Palm could be cultivation in local environment of Pakistan. He said that a proposal was also under consideration to setup a refinery to process crude oil in order to produce food grade palm oil. He said that this will initiate a process for the production of a long chain of high value products including biscuits, chocolates, soap and cosmetics etc. He told that he has been trying to promote consensus on these projects between the investors of two countries as it may ensure balance bilateral trade between the two countries.
Regarding China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Hutomo said that 288 different projects are being implemented with huge investment of 63 billion dollars. “This major infrastructure will not only benefit Pakistan but also ensure enhanced connectivity between the regional countries”, he said and told that proposed Palm Oil refinery will not only cater to the domestic needs of Pakistan but its products could also be exported to others countries.
He further told that a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) has already been signed between the two countries while Pakistani business community should contact its commerce ministry to finalize the draft of the proposed Free Trade Agreement.
Hutomo told that 33rd Trade Expo will be organized from October 24 to 28, 2018 in Indonesia. He told that 11000 exhibitors and 28,000 visitors are expected to visit this mega event. He said that the exporters of knitted kids’ wear should also participate in this event as Indonesia is a major consumer market of kids’ cloth. He told that he will visit Faisalabad next month along with Indonesia ambassador to formally invite business community of Faisalabad to participate in this trade expo. He further told that Indonesia will provide free visa for 30 days to the participants from 174 countries for this trade expo. He said that it’s a big opportunity to make exports to Indonesia and hence, exporters of Faisalabad should also avail from tit.
Earlier Farooq Yusuf Acting President FCCI said that trade balance is in favor of Indonesia and the proposed palm oil production and refinery will help in balancing trade between the two countries. He said that Indonesian investor could also invest in hydro projects and alternative energy resources while joint ventures could also be initiated in textiles, agro based industry, livestock, fruit processing, Halal meat, leather goods, oil and gas, information technology, tourism, organic as well as inorganic agro-based products and food items.


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Early orders of Prince Harry’s memoir are similar to Michelle Obama’s industry-leading bestsellers, according to Barnes & Noble.
As of Friday afternoon, Spare is the top-selling book on the website of the largest US bookstore chain, the company said. The title, published by Penguin Random House, also has the top spot on Amazon.com in the UK and US. Waterstones, the UK’s biggest bookshop chain, said it’s on pace to be one of this year’s best-sellers.
“Hands down, it will be one of the biggest books of the year,” said Shannon DeVito, Barnes & Noble’s head of books.
The memoir will be available in stores on Jan. 10.
Michelle Obama’s Becoming sold more than 17 million copies worldwide, and was translated into 50 languages, according to publisher Penguin Random House. Its success led to Obama becoming the third best-paid author of 2019, according to Forbes.
The memoir, according to reports, is getting buzz for chronicling a deep rift between Prince Harry and older brother Prince William. The book also reportedly delves into Harry’s drug use and sex life in his younger years.
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text: METALLICA participated in Record Store Day yesterday (Saturday, April 19) by making an in-store appearance at Rasputin Music in Mountain View, California.Fans reportedly began lining up before dawn, with the store handing out 400 wristbands for entry beginning at 10 a.m. Check out pictures from Wire Image, Getty Images. Video footage of the line outside the store can be viewed below. Hundreds of independently-owned music, movie and video game stores across the country celebrated Record Store Day in honor of the culture and unique place they occupy nationally and in their local communities. Record Store Day was organized by MonitorThis.com, the Alliance of Independent Media Stores, the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, Newbury Comics, the Value Music Group of Indie Stores and thousands of independent artists from around the country. The campaign, conceived last fall, aims to battle "a perception that record stores are something of a joke; like we are all dinosaurs stuck in the tar," says Eric Levin, an Atlanta retailer who heads the 32-store Alliance of Independent Media Stores. For more information about national Record Store Day, visit www.recordstoreday.com.