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Softcat has ranked 23rd in The Sunday Times’ 11th annual Grant Thornton Top Track ranking of the UK’s mid-market growth private companies with the biggest sales – a jump of 29 places from its ranking in 2014. The league table ranks companies according to their growth, with businesses needing to achieve either sales or profit growth of at least 10% to enter.
Colin Brown, Softcat’s managing director has previously tied the company's growth to its employee engagement, and maintains that this is still the case: “We’re delighted to have climbed Top Track’s ranks this year, and it’s an honour to stand alongside many well known names. It’s mostly down to the hard work of our incredibly motivated staff, whose efforts resulted in strong growth in 2014, so a huge thank you to them. We invest a lot of time and money in our staff, hiring the best people, designing the best training for them and rewarding them financially and with opportunities to progress their careers. We have maintained 98-99% employee satisfaction ratings even as we have doubled in size, which in turn helps us deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction.”
Martin Hellawell, CEO, said: “I’m delighted to see us breaking in to the top 25 of the Top Track 250. Amongst that list of 250 companies I recognise many names of fantastic Softcat customers and I know first-hand how good those companies are, so being mentioned alongside them is a privilege. We’ve grown up with many of those companies and it’s been a very mutually rewarding process to support each other’s growth. However, there are plenty of customers on that list who are not Softcat customers so we still have plenty of work to do. It’s our job to keep raising the bar, continue to get better at everything we do, and fuel our growth well into the future.”
Norman Armstrong, Partner at Grant Thornton UK LLP, the title sponsor of the league table, praised the companies for their performance: "It’s inspiring to see such a diverse range of businesses creating growth opportunities both at home and abroad and positively contributing to the UK economy. Many of the businesses highlighted are recognising that the best way to grow and create sustainable profits is by developing new, innovative ways to serve their customers, alongside making a broader contribution to society.”
The Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250 is the sister publication of The Sunday Times Top Track 100, which identifies Britain's 100 private companies with the biggest sales. It ranks the next 250-biggest companies by sales, provided either sales or profits have increased by at least 10% year-on-year. The 250 companies grew combined sales by 17% to £69bn, operating profits by 38% to £4bn, and staff by 8% to 347,000.


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Paper train tickets may soon be a thing of the past in the UK. Passengers will be instead given the option to scan their bank cards or smartphones to authenticate a journey.
The Telegraph reports that paperless train travel could become a reality sometime soon in 2016. Travellers will be able to book or purchase tickets online. They can then travel using either the bank cards or smartphones through which they bought the tickets.
Ticket barriers will also be upgraded at stations across the country, which will allow travellers to gain entry by just tapping their phones or cards, similar to those on the London Underground. The ticket barriers will double as a "digital reader" that will reportedly scan the bank cards and phones when placed against it.
Once the barrier recognises that the ticket has been purchased, the passengers will be allowed access. The same procedure will have to be repeated on reaching the destination. The new system would remove the need for passengers to queue at ticket booths or ticket coupon printing machines in stations.
Representatives from the Department of Transport and various banks have met and discussed the time frame within which the service could be introduced to the general public, The Telegraph added.
Jacqueline Starr, managing director of customer experience at the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail, said: "We are in the early stages of exploring how passengers could pay for and store tickets on their contactless credit or debit cards as part of our wider aim to improve the experience of rail passengers and move towards smarter types of ticket."
The switch is reflective of the British government's plan to take the country towards a cashless and paperless society. Commenting on the impending change, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation explained that the plan is in line with the division's intention "to build a 21st century railway that provides better journeys for all, and improved ticketing is a vital part of that customer experience".

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Highlands business leaders discuss pandemic struggles, growth
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - For the first time in two years, the Highlands Commerce Guild met in person Wednesday. Since the global COVID-19 pandemic started, things have changed drastically for businesses across Louisville.
In the Highlands, businesses closed and others were forced to limit operations. However, Louisville Tourism says there’s been an upward trend.
“We were truly sad about those [businesses] that did close,” said Nicole Fitzpatrick, Louisville Tourism Community Relations Manager, “but we were surprised as well buy the new restaurants and hotels that are opening.”
One restaurant that opened in the Highlands this year is Big Bad Breakfast. They opened their doors in February. While still aware of the struggle of certain businesses over the past two years, The Endeavor Restaurant group was still confident.
”We purposefully picked that area, because we knew we could be successful,” said Edmond Heelan, the Endeavor COO. “We were nervous, sure, but we’ve seen the types of success in the businesses that do well in that area.”
Big Bad Breakfast has had steady lines since opening; something they’re very pleased with. It’s an indicator perhaps that the city is again a destination for its own residents but also the roughly 16 million people visiting the city each year. That number took a small dip during the pandemic, but it’s back to normal now, if you look at the numbers.
According to Louisville Tourism, during 2020, there was $387 million of lost business due to COVID. In 2021, that number was $148 million. Four months into 2022, that number is under $2 million.
“The interest [in Louisville] has not changed,” said Nicole Fitzpatrick, “and people want to come here and visit our city and attractions.”
Find more from Louisville Tourism here.
Copyright 2022 WAVE. All rights reserved.


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If you’ve never heard of Bored Apes, Beeple or CryptoPunks, you’re probably not familiar with the wildly popular digital assets known as NFTs.
And you’re not alone, as it seems others are investigating this new way of investing, too: NFTs saw the biggest increase (269%) in searches in 2022 than any other investment, according to a study by brokerage Forex Suggest.
Curious about how they work? Read on.
What Is an NFT?
An NFT is a nonfungible token. “It’s basically a one-of-a-kind digital asset that an individual can own,” says Alana Benson, an investing writer at NerdWallet. NFTs, just like stocks, bonds or bitcoins, can be bought, sold or traded.
NFTs can be pretty much anything digital, like a piece of digital art, sports trading cards, music albums and even tweets.
To understand what makes an NFT unique, you need to know what “nonfungible” means. In a nutshell, it is something that can’t be replaced with something else.
For example, take the painting of the Mona Lisa. Sure, there are plenty of reproductions and online images out there, “but there’s only one real Mona Lisa, and that’s at the Louvre in Paris,” Benson says. So while the Mona Lisa that Leonardo da Vinci painted is nonfungible, so too is an NFT—except it’s digital rather than physical.
In contrast to a piece of art or an NFT, a bitcoin is fungible. If you trade one bitcoin for another bitcoin, you’ll still have the same thing. That’s also true if you trade a $1 bill for another $1 bill.
How Do NFTs Work?
NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain, the same technology that is behind bitcoin, ether, dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The blockchain, a decentralized technology that stores data, keeps track of who owns NFTs and who is trading these digital assets. Each NFT is a unique token on the blockchain.
Where Can I Buy and Sell NFTs?
NFTs can be purchased at online marketplaces, private sales and auction houses such as Sotheby’s. “But the average person should start with reputable online marketplaces,” Benson says. This helps you avoid any scammers out there.
Two well-known platforms include OpenSea and Nifty Gateway. Sports fans with a more collectibles-focused mentality might use sport-specific marketplaces like NBA Top Shot. Coinbase Global, a crypto exchange, also has a beta site up and running where you can buy and sell NFTs.
Before you start shopping around for a digital asset, however, you’ll need to set up a cryptocurrency wallet. These wallets enable you to store NFTs as well as house your crypto assets, such as ether (dubbed “ETH”). In some cases, cash or credit cards aren’t accepted for NFT purchases, so you’ll need ether on hand to complete the trade.
Are NFTs Good Investments?
A handful of the most popular NFTs have sold for tens of millions of dollars, including the $69 million paid in 2021 for a piece of digital art by Beeple. And dozens more have sold for $1 million or more.
But it’s a new investment space that is lightly regulated and can be prone to fraud and scammers, Benson cautions. Plus, NFTs are risky, volatile investments.
Why? For one, the value of an NFT is determined solely by how much a buyer is willing to pay for it, not unlike a real piece of art that goes up for sale at an auction.
There is also no true underlying intrinsic value to an NFT, unlike, say, innovative, in-demand products sold by a well-known brand such as Apple—or an actual, physical piece of art.
The NFT market, as a result, has a speculative component to it. “If you buy an NFT as an investment, you are essentially betting that someone will buy it from you for more than you paid for it,” Benson says.
Furthermore, the NFT market, which peaked in January 2022, is now going through a boom-bust cycle like cryptocurrencies. Indeed, there was a 77% drop in the dollar value of NFT trades in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the quarter ending in June, according to an October 2022 report by NonFungible.com, an NFT analytics firm. The report also showed an 84% decrease in profit at resell in the third quarter and a 17% drop in active NFT wallets.
If you’re still curious and want to dip your toes in the NFT pond, tread carefully. Only use a little “fun money,” says Benson—that is, money you are willing to lose. And, as a general rule, investors should have only a small portion of their portfolio (no more than 10%) in highly risky investments like NFTs and bitcoin.
Millie content is licensed from Dotdash Meredith, publisher of Millie, Real Simple, InStyle, Investopedia, The Balance and more.
Adam Shell is a freelance journalist who worked as a financial markets reporter at USA Today and an associate editor at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.


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London stock markets fell on Thursday after staging a robust recovery in the past two days as investors feared the incoming economic data will cement their worries of a sharp economic slump as the coronavirus crisis hits the entire world.
After posting the biggest two-day percentage gain since the blue-chip index was launched in 1984, it dropped 2.6% as heavyweights such as British American Tobacco, Ferguson and Prudential traded without entitlement to its latest dividend pay-out.
Data showed British retail sales failed to grow at all in February, even before shops shuttered due to the lockdown. All eyes will turn to the U.S. jobless claims report, which many fear will be one of the worst in history.
Among other stocks, aerospace engineer Senior Plc gained 8.7% as it took cost-cutting actions to save cash to deal with the expected impact of the coronavirus crisis, but suspended its 2020 outlook, scrapped dividend.
Electricals retailer Dixons Carphone fell 2% after it warned of not meeting its profit and debt outlook due to the pandemic. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)


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The company said the .NET SDK support helps broaden the ecosystem of developers that can build skills for the Misty II robot for businesses, homes, researchers, and education puproses.
“Misty Robotics is leading the way in the platform robot category, taking down the existing barriers to entry and enabling developers worldwide to build for and compete in the personal, service, healthcare, education, retail and entertainment robot markets,” said Tim Enwall, CEO of Misty Robotics. “Misty Robotics has selected Microsoft as a technology partner for both the building of Misty II and the creation of her tools. With this new .NET SDK, we’re now opening up the Misty robotics platform to a broader developer audience.”
The company said by pairing the .NET SDK with low-level hardware access, developers can directly access sensor data, commands, debugging tools, and hardware resources. In addition, developers can tap into the .NET ecosystem of libraries and sample code, and build skills in native multi-threading.
“Given that I’m not a robotics expert but I do know C#, I was impressed with how quickly I was able to get up to speed programming Misty,” said Scott Hanselman, principal community architect for web platform and tools at Microsoft. “Direct deployment and debugging with a Visual Studio extension, a myriad of sensors and a massive .NET SDK filled with familiar types made this a robotic playground.”
Tools include a user-friendly Command Center, Skill Runner, and API Explorer, which lets developers test pre-built skills and features on Misty before building their own, Misty Robotics said. The robot platform comes equipped with technologies such as a 3D depth camera, microphone array, two Qualcomm processors, as well as obstacle detection and capacitive touch sensors. Developers can extend the robot’s capabilities through integration of third-party APIs, including those provided by Twilio, Microsoft, and Google. Third-party hardware such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi can also expand the robot, as well as physical augmentation through 3D printing features.
The robot is available today at $2,899, a 10% discount off the MSRP of $3,199. The company said it also offers payment plans and interest-free offers for qualified buyers.


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Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer on Thursday launched the new Mi 10 series smartphones in the home market. Reportedly, the phones were made available for purchase today in China, but the sale lasted only for a few seconds as all the devices went sold out immediately. As per the report, Xiaomi claims that the new Mi 10 series phone generated over CNY 200 million wherein the company retailed around 50,000 units of the smartphones. Xiaomi Mi 10 Series With Snapdragon 865 Chipset & 108MP Camera Launched; Check Prices, Features & Specifications.
According to the company, the smartphones were retailed on every store, inclusive of Tmall, JD.com, Xiaomi Mall. Moreover, the interested fans can get their hands on the devices during the second sale, which is scheduled to happen on February 21, 2020.
If the reports are to be believed, Xiaomi Mi 10 Series seems to have resonated well in the home market. It would be interesting to watch if Xiaomi is able to keep up the supply as the country is affected by Coronovirus.
Variant-wise, the Xiaomi Mi 10 phone comes in three storage configurations - 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. As far as the prices are concerned, the 8GB RAM + 128GB variant costs 3999 yuan. Whereas the 8GB RAM and 12GB RAM variants retail at 4299 yuan and 4699 yuan respectively.


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Wireless charging enables an electric car to travel where you want, when you want. It takes the bulk energy storage away from the electric car – or electric bicycle, scooter, light/heavy goods vehicle or even bus – and out into the grid where it belongs. It is the next logical step.
Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) wireless charging can do this, and HaloIPT’s wireless charging technology can do this – here, today, now.
Employing the same technology used to charge electric toothbrushes, HaloIPT says its wireless charging system could drive the take-up of electric cars and overcome fears that drivers will forget to recharge them.
This week the company demonstrated adapted electric cars in London that could recharge themselves simply by parking over a transmitter pad in the road. The Citroën electric cars were fitted with receiver pads on the underside of the car, allowing the cars to be powered up automatically and wirelessly.
Drivers of existing electric cars, such as the G-Wiz, Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Nissan Leaf, have to connect a cable from a socket in the side of the car street-side parking meter-like stands to mains sockets in car parks and at home.
Anthony Thompson, HaloIPT’s chief executive, told the Guardian that convenience and consumer fears over “charge anxiety” – drivers worrying about forgetting to recharge their electric car – would make wireless charging a success. “There are a number of issues that wireless charging solves with electric vehicles – people are inherently lazy and they don’t like having to take action. With our system, you can recharge without having to make a conscious decision,” he said.
The technology works using inductive charging, and the pads in the road can be buried under asphalt, making them effectively invisible. While other companies are working on similar technology, HaloIPT claimed its system can charge with greater lateral movement – meaning parking accurately is not so important – and a greater gap between the pads than rivals.
The company has already trialled wireless charging with buses in New Zealand and in Milan, but there are currently no wireless charging bays in the UK and none of the car manufacturers has adopted the technology.
Despite the news this month that electric car sales in the UK had dropped by nearly 90% in two years to just 55 last year, HaloIPT sees the UK as a key market globally for electric cars. “The UK is the epicentre of technology behind electric cars, it offers good government support for them and it has lots of early adopters,” said Thompson. “Both Germany and France also have big electric car programmes too, and California is pushing along quite nicely.”
Starting in January, a government subsidy will offer up to £5,000 off new electric cars, which it expects will help drive sales of around 8,600 of the vehicles in 2011.
As well as wireless charging bays, Thompson sees wireless charging roads as “technologically possible” and says getting such charging lanes to most of the UK’s population would cost around £60bn. “By electrifying the roads, you shift the argument from energy being stored to energy being distributed,” he said. “Batteries could be smaller and drivers wouldn’t have to worry about range.” Most electric cars today can go no further than 100 miles without recharging.
Howevever, David Bott, director of innovation programmes at the Technology Strategy Board, has previously told the Guardian he was sceptical that such charging lanes would be practical: “It’s scientifically feasible, but it’s whether it’s scalable and feasible is another matter.”
While aided in the UK by its development partner Arup, two of the main obstacles to the take-up of the firm’s technology are standards and cost. HaloIPT estimates it would cost £3,000-£3,500 to retrofit an existing electric car with the wireless pad, and to make it affordable, car manufacturers would need to be persuaded to incorporate the technology in new cars. Last year Nissan demonstrated a similar wireless system but has yet to add it to any of its cars.
As well as wired competition, wireless charging also needs to overcome the alternative system of battery-swapping at designated electric car refuelling stations, as promoted by the Better Place project. Shai Agassi’s California-based company has already signed up Israel, Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii, and Ontario to the idea, and major car makers including Renault-Nissan.


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Nokia Sharpens Focus to Connect Next Billion to the Internet
SINGAPORE, September 15, 2010 – Nokia today unveiled a strategy to connect the “next billion” people to the Internet by leveraging its unique capability to provide emerging markets with powerful yet affordable mobile phones and locally relevant Ovi services. Nokia’s vision of “Connecting People” beyond telephony was a highlight at the final day of the annual Nokia World event, and complemented yesterday’s rollout of a powerful new family of smartphones and updated Ovi services. To demonstrate its commitment to emerging markets, Nokia also updated a portfolio of feature-rich mobile phones and underscored Internet services that cater to a world in which four out of five people are within reach of a cellular signal.
Mary McDowell, Nokia’s executive vice president for Mobile Phones, said in her keynote that the company is ideally placed to capture much of the projected growth in the global marketplace and that the company intends to maintain its leadership in voice and data for the masses.
“More people will join the information age using a mobile phone than a PC,” McDowell said. “With 80 percent of the world’s population in reach of a cell tower, it is the mobile phone that will offer the first PC-like experience for many of the next billion people who will come online.”
She added that Nokia will leverage its local knowledge of consumers, distribution strength and scale to innovate and deliver what consumers deem is valuable at prices they can afford.
Innovation and portfolio renewal
Following the recent launch of the Nokia X3 Touch and Type, Nokia unveiled its second touch and type phone: the Nokia C3 Touch and Type, which combines a touch screen and traditional phone keypad. An affordable design classic, this Series 40 phone also features a full stainless steel chassis, 3G, WLAN, a 5 megapixel camera with flash, a music player, FM radio and support for up to a 32GB memory card. The phone has fast access to messaging and email plus applications and games from the Ovi Store. Priced at approximately EUR 145, excluding taxes and subsidies, it is expected to be available in Q4.
McDowell also emphasized that in addition to well-made, well-priced devices, consumers everywhere crave apps that deliver globally and locally relevant content. And they want it quickly, easily and affordably.
“New kinds of services and powerful software typically associated with smartphones are becoming more important in the traditional mobile phone space,” she explained. “We are rolling out targeted services to meet consumer demand for connectivity, access to information and affordability.”
Responding to a higher consumer demand for information and services
Nokia is responding to higher demand on a number of fronts delivering to the needs of people in growth markets, including the integration of Ovi services. In addition, Nokia provides wide-scale business opportunities for third-party Series 40 developers.
Ovi Mail has attracted more than 14 million email activations, the large majority of which are new users coming from emerging markets. In the last six months alone, 60 percent of new Ovi Mail accounts are from Southeast Asia Pacific and Africa, and more than 77 percent of people in the Middle East and Africa are now signing-up for Ovi Mail on their Nokia mobile phone instead of a PC. In addition, more than 80 percent of Ovi Mail consumers globally are accessing their mailboxes from their mobile device.
Ovi Browser in Beta
Through its recent acquisition of Novarra, Nokia brings new browser technology and the power of cloud services to Series 40, enabling more Internet users in emerging markets to get more out of what the Web has to offer. Ovi Browser is now in beta release and makes Series 40 browsing faster, more affordable, easier to use, and more personalized.
A hyper-local approach to music services has seen Nokia become the single largest source of digital music revenue in markets including Brazil, Mexico and India, when Nokia digital billings for 2009 are compared against IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) estimates. With music services live across 38 markets, Nokia now offers the most globally scaled digital music footprint.
Ovi Store on Series 40
With hundreds of millions of Series 40 devices in use today, Ovi Store provides easy discovery and access to apps as well as high-volume business opportunities for developers. With Series 40 as the world’s largest mobile platform, Nokia believes there is plenty of opportunity for third parties to develop locally relevant apps and achieve volumes. Nokia recently extended its reach by launching a fully commercial Ovi Store in China.
Enabling emerging market consumers’ journey into services
Ovi Life Tools and Nokia Money are among the best examples of catering to the needs of emerging markets. They are positively impacting consumers’ lives by providing access to the Internet for education, entertainment, health, business improvement and self improvement.
Today Ovi Life Tools is available in India, Indonesia and China, and now has more than 4.7 million users.
Nokia Money aims to offer consumers with mobile phones access to basic financial services. Together with YES BANK and Obopay, Nokia’s pilot in Pune, India, called Mobile Money Services by YES BANK, – has moved to full commercialization. The next step for an India-wide rollout is the city of Chandigarh.


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Shaoxing Xinshan Science Technology Co.,Ltd
Address: Dongfangyimai, No. 2, Pujiang Road, Shaoxing, China
According to relevant financial media reports, in the first quarter of 2017, there was a clear recovery in the lighting industry. Professionals are cautiously optimistic about the current development. Well, the most intuitive features, manifested in the full production line and product prices. In terms of data, both official and fiscal new manufacturing PMI rose in February.
In January and February, official and Caixin Manufacturing PMI both picked up
Data show that China's official manufacturing PMI in February was 51.6, expected 51.2, before the value of 51.3, non-manufacturing PMI dropped to 54.2, the previous value of 54.6.2 Caixin manufacturing PMI 51.7, before the value of 51. All better than market expectations.
February survey data show that China's manufacturing output to further growth, the chain growth rate increased, but overall only mild, lower than the fourth quarter of 2016 each month. Output expansion was driven by further growth in new business volume, which was partly due to the strong increase in newboundbound traffic, setting the highest record since September 2014.
Labor employment in February continued to contract, extending the consistent trend since November 2013. However, contractions in February were the weakest in two years. New orders increased and contracted labor, resulting in a slight increase in backlog.
The average monthly input costs rose sharply, but the increase has slowed to 4 months to reflect the most manufacturers, raw material prices is the main reason for rising input costs. In order to protect the profit margins, the corresponding manufacturers continue to increase product prices within the month, the rate of increase is considerable.
In February, the industry was optimistic about the business prospects for the coming year. The optimism hit a 21-month high. Manufacturers generally expressed their confidence that new product development and market conditions will improve.
2, the listed company's operating profit in 2016 is considerable
In early March 2017, the listing announcements of various listed lighting lighting enterprises were released one after another. Among the nearly 19 listed companies generally concerned by the industry, in addition to the year-on-year decline of BDO and Qinshun Optoelectronics, the other 17 listed companies in 2016 Of the operating profit showed a good rise, the lowest increase of 3%, the highest at 116%.
The average earnings per share of 19 listed companies in 2016 were 0.536 yuan / share, up by 114.44% from the previous year's 0.23 yuan / share. One of the most obvious earnings per share growth company Foshan Lighting, earnings per share increased 1923% over the previous year.
From the above data we can see that in 2016 the mainstream of the industry's listed companies operating income, net profit, earnings per share have a substantial rise, and from the list of listed companies, the main reason for the performance increase is LED chips Product prices in good shape, while small spacing LED ushered in the market caused by the eruption.
3, the industry ushered in a new wave of capital
At the beginning of 2017, the success of Top Lighting, Sanxiong Aurora and Mitsuhiro Electronics has attracted the attention of the public. The capital market has entered the lighting industry, injecting more resources into the industry and contributing to the further development of lighting technology. China lighting industry in the international market visibility.
Moreover, the reverse trend of listed companies operating income rose, but also from a certain level of feedback on the market warmer phenomenon. In addition, China Lighting Association recently released in 2016 China lighting lighting products sales of 5600 billion yuan, a new record high, but also from the data for the 2017 opening year set a good tone.
4, the industry is full of production trends
As LED packaging leader, Mu Linsen current capacity has more than 42000kk / month, and the successful acquisition of Long Wansi Stride to open up overseas markets can be expected since last year, investment and M & A and other capital operations involving an amount of 13.4 billion yuan, while in the areas of lighting, chips, etc. Investment heavily in the layout.
Guosinjiao small spacing lamp beads quality process industry leader, small pitch production capacity has reached 1200kk / month, is expected by the end of 2017 reached 2000kk / month. The company is one of the leading domestic packaging companies to benefit from the trend of LED industry warming, small spacing lamp beads outbreak, with rapid growth capability.
According to the 2016 annual report released by Australia-based Shunchang, the LED production line of the Company basically maintained full operation during the reporting period. The annual chip production reached 2.05 million pieces of 2-inch chips. The performance, quality and yield of the products good.
Recently, Hua Can Optoelectronics held its annual shareholders' general meeting. Liu Rong, the president of the company, said: "We are now full. As far as I know, major manufacturers in the industry are now full. In the short term, there is a certain shortage of supply. Demand is expected to rise, the entire second quarter and the third quarter is expected to supply and demand situation will be more nervous. "In the first quarter of 2017, Hua Can Optoelectronics is expected to achieve net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of about 76 million yuan -8100 million, a year earlier A loss of 13.9 million yuan.
The price of Sanken S-30MB / S-32BB series chips, the chip industry leader, has been raised 8% since Jan. 10, marking the end of the reshuffle of the LED industry chain as a whole. The industry has entered a stable revenue era from the era of excessive competition. At present, Sanan Optoelectronics already has about 290 sets of MOCVD equipment, in full production with full sales status.
The application of LED products is still further penetrated and expanded. General lighting, small pitch displays, automobiles and other fields are expected to continue to maintain high growth, optical communications, Micro-LED as a new application areas will open up new demand for space, integrated circuit chips Business is still steadily advancing. As production capacity tightens, it is expected that the Company will continue to launch new capacity in 2017.
5, the demand for raw materials to finished products generally have price increases
At present, the lamps and lanterns products of all major lighting markets all have different price increases, of which the lowest is 3.5% and the highest is 20.7%. Terminal market prices, which shows that the market is gradually rational, began a reasonable demand for profits and standardized development requirements.
According to the relevant financial media reports, in the first quarter of 2017, there was a clear recovery in the LED industry. Professionals are cautiously optimistic about the current development. Well, the most intuitive features, manifested in the full production line and product prices. Major manufacturers are in full production state, there is a certain short supply in short supply, the industry chain is also generally the demand for price increases. The industry is expected throughout the second quarter and third quarter, supply and demand situation will be more nervous.
After several years of industry reshuffle, the industry is now gradually rational and standardized development. We expect the market will give us more opportunities in 2017.


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The event will take place from November 19th to 21st, 2023, at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, King Abdullah Road.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Saleh bin Dakhil, explained that “BIOFACH Saudi Arabia” is the only international forum in the Kingdom specialized in the agriculture and organic products sector. It serves as the ideal platform for professionals in this field in the Middle East and North Africa region. The exhibition has achieved significant success in its first edition and is one of the most important international exhibitions in the region. It promotes investment in agriculture and organic products, attracting major investors, distributors, suppliers, and solution providers in the global organic products industry.
He emphasized the growing global market for organic foods and beverages, reaching $198.1 billion in 2020, with an expected increase to $500 billion by 2027, as retail sales of organic foods continue to grow in 187 countries worldwide.
He also highlighted the substantial progress in the organic products sector in the Kingdom, thanks to Vision 2030. In the last five years, the organic production rate reached 98.77%, with 56.8% of total agricultural area dedicated to organic farming. The number of organic holdings increased by 175.86%, and the market value of organic foods exceeded 1.8 billion Saudi Riyals, showing a growth rate of 32.16% compared to 2018.
The exhibition features presentations from more than 50 local and international companies and agencies in the agriculture, organic products, and related sectors. The current edition is expected to attract strong participation from local and international companies, facilitating bilateral meetings, successful collaborations, and signing agreements for the supply of goods and services. The exhibition opens its doors from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM for three consecutive days.


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Conditions within a trade policy under consideration by the European Parliament have the potential to seize up that region’s cross-border trading in recyclables. Numerous panelists at the 2022 Paper & Plastic Recycling Conference Europe, held in mid-November in Rotterdam, said the recycling industry needed to raise its voice to get the attention of policymakers.
Marc Ehrlich, CEO of Switzerland-based trading firm VIPA Lausanne, said pending waste regulations being considered by the European Parliament Environment Committee is not specifically a ban on exporting paper and plastic scrap, “but it will become much more difficult to export.”
As written currently, the new regulation would ask a nation receiving a recovered paper from Europe, such as India, to “demonstrate it has a recycling system similar to Europe,” said Ehrlich. There is little clarity, he commented, as to who makes the assessments of overseas systems or what a notional audit would look like. “We don’t have the criteria at the moment,” said Ehrlich.
Ehrlich urged delegates to contact their representatives in the European Parliament, including the 50 or so on the Environment Committee. “Tell them your recycling system [in Europe] will collapse because you don’t know what you’re doing,” he advised his fellow recyclers to say directly to the elected officials. “You have to do that today; no one has done it before you,” he urged.
Ehrlich also said the paper and metals sectors should be removed from any such waste directives: “Take out the non-problematic materials: recovered paper and metals,” he stated. “Sorry, but plastic will not be well received. They have only plastic in mind,” Ehrlich said of those seeking export bans.
Shailesh Gothal of Belgium-based Gemini Corp. said as more plastic scrap stays in Europe, it gives recyclers there an “opportunity to build capacity.” With a current plastic recycling rate of 16 percent in Europe, “We have a lot to do,” added Gothal.
Shipping lines also seem to be preparing for the end of large-scale plastic scrap shipping, said Gothal, with lines reducing space allocations for plastic scrap leaving European ports.
Robert Powell of United Kingdom-based Miro Logistics said global container port congestion that characterized much of 2021 and the first half of 2022 is “easing to over.”
Rates being charged by shippers also have declined from 50 to 70 percent and “the market is still softening,” said Powell. Recyclers shipping containers to the Far East have access to “pretty much unlimited” capacity, he remarked, and container bookings to India are “not a problem at the moment.”
Powell said plastic scrap shippers are “best off if you also have other commodities” to ship. He also recommended plastic exporters get the destination shipping office “on board with acceptance” to ease shipping line fears over container abandonment.
The panelists, including moderator Simon Ellin of the U.K.-based Recycling Association, agreed that the pending waste directive threatening trading opportunities in Europe is tied in part to recyclers and traders using the word “waste” attached to the commodities they trade, such as “waste paper.” Stated Powell, “The word ‘waste’ is the wrong word to be using. When I talk to shipping lines, I use the word ‘recyclables’”
The 2022 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference Europe event was Nov. 15-16 at the Hilton Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
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Dollar General Corp.'s DG +0.94% Dollar General Corp. U.S.: NYSE $61.31 +0.57 +0.94% Dec. 11, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4.12M AFTER HOURS $60.65 -0.66 -1.08% Dec. 11, 2013 7:57 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 606,888 P/E Ratio 19.53 Market Cap $19.45 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $190,252 12/05/13 Dollar General Posts 14% Profi... 11/07/13 Funds Feast on High-Quality IP... More quote details and news » fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 6.5% as the discount retailer attracted more bargain-seeking customers and its average-transaction size increased.
In its second quarterly report since an initial public offering on Nov. 12, Dollar General said its profit benefited from strong sales of basic, consumable items and seasonal products and from new customers.
The Goodlettsville, Tenn., company also reiterated plans to accelerate store growth and issued a financial outlook in line with Wall Street's forecasts.
Consumers feel better that the economic environment has stabilized, but they remain concerned "about overall where things are and where it's going," Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Dreiling said during a conference call. "Most have reset their spending norm."
The number and size of Dollar General's transactions are growing, and sales were strong across all regions, he said. "But we also continue to see signs of this new consumerism" as people shift where they shop, switch to lower-cost brands and are generally frugal, he said.
One example of this consumer mindset is in sales of Coca-Cola, the retailer said. When Dollar General ran advertisements for specials on Coke in the past, "people would buy four or five weeks' worth and put it in the closet," Mr. Dreiling said.
That isn't happening now. "They're not stockpiling, which, again, is indicative of the fact that people are holding back," he said.
Dollar General's fastest-growing customer segment is people making more than $70,000 a year, executives said. Meanwhile, the chain's share of existing customers' wallet has also grown. "There's this nice balance of the new and the old," Mr. Dreiling said. Dollar General said its research has found that 97% of new customers plan to continue to shop at Dollar General if the economic environment improves, the same percentage as older customers.
Ongoing efforts to continue these trends include a new store layout that should be in about 1,500 stores by year end, revamping its apparel and home categories, and adding more name brands, such as Hanes and Rexall health and beauty products. Dollar General announced Wednesday it has begun selling L'Oréal cosmetics in its stores.
"We believe Dollar General has a lot more sales and margin power left and can continue to show strong earnings growth over the next few years," said Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Wiltamuth in a note to clients.
Jason Asaeda, retail analyst for Standard & Poor's Equity Research, agreed. "We see [Dollar General] gaining market share with its compelling values on basic necessities and its easy-to-shop stores," he said in a research note. "We also see the company's direct sourcing, cost savings, and category-management efforts supporting further margin gains."
For the quarter ended Jan. 29, the company reported a profit of $87.2 million, or 26 cents a share, up from $81.9 million, or 26 cents a share. The latest quarter included 25 cents a share in charges from items including termination of a sponsor advisory agreement and early debt repayments.
Net sales increased 12% to $3.19 billion. Same-store sales rose 7.4% on top of 9.4% growth a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently forecast earnings of 43 cents a share on sales of $3.19 billion.
Gross margin rose to 32.2% from 29.4% amid prior-year inventory write-offs.
Dollar General also said profitability was helped by cost-reduction efforts, increased private-label sales and store-format changes that have boosted product sell-through. Dollar General said it entered the first quarter with inventory in good shape, but better quality, pricing and mix of merchandise also helped it achieve 85% sell-through of merchandise stocked for Valentine's Day, the quarter's first holiday.
The company had 8,828 stores at the end of the period, compared with 8,362 a year earlier.
Dollar General projected earnings for the new year of $1.55 to $1.63 a share on sales growth of 8% to 10%, with same-store sales up 4% to 6%. Analysts expect earnings of $1.56 a share and sales growth of 10% to $12.96 billion.
Capital spending is estimated at $325 million to $350 million, with about half of that for 600 new stores, remodeling and relocations. Dollar General spent about $274 million for capital projects last year as it opened 500 stores, and it is one of the few retailers continuing to expand aggressively in the tough U.S. economy.
The company's outlook assumes neither inflation nor deflation, executives said.
Dollar General went public in November to raise funds to repay some of the debt taken on during buyout-firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.'s $7.2 billion acquisition in July 2007. During KKR's tenure, the once-struggling retailer has been turned around, adding new private-label items and streamlining its inventory process. Only around 25% of its merchandise is now priced at a dollar or less. More than two-thirds of sales come from groceries and household goods.
The stock is up about 22% from its November IPO price of $21.
Tess Stynes contributed to this article
Write to Tess Stynes at email@example.com


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Rep. Cindy Axne (IA), the lone congressional Democrat from Iowa, has claimed over the last year that inflation is “false advertisements” and that there would be no long-term effect.
Now she has belatedly admitted that inflation is real.
During a recent interview with KNIA-KRLS, a local radio station, Axne was asked if she believed that inflation affecting the economy was linked to the increase in spending from the White House due to the pandemic. Axne said it is “shortsighted” to follow the narrative that the White House caused inflation.
“The facts are that although there is inflation, it isn’t just because of – you can’t ever just – listen, I wouldn’t blame inflation on President Trump, and I’m not going to blame it on President Biden,” Axne said to the radio host. “To do so is so shortsighted and doesn’t look at the reality of things.”
Axne claimed, without evidence, that inflation had surged because of “decades of moving products out of our country” and “decades of putting tax policy in place that hurt working-class families.” She also blamed the pandemic for higher prices.
Several prominent economists linked to the Democrat party, including Larry Summers, warned last year that the massive spending bills pushed by the Biden administration would spark inflation. Summers was Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration and the chief White House economist in the Obama administration.
However, Axne — who happily promoted and voted for the Democrats’ $1.2 trillion, 2,702-page so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill last year, which Biden signed into law and has been helping fuel inflation, and voted for the $1.9 trillion covid relief legislation that had sparked the warning from Summers — has made claims in the past that inflation is “false advertisements” and that there is no long-term effect.
Last July, during a town hall, Axne said inflation is a “false advertisement” because people were comparing the 2021 prices to the 2020 prices of consumer goods when she was responding to a constituent wondering if she was “concerned about the rising gas prices and the rise in the cost of consumer goods here in Iowa and in America.”
At the same event, when asked a follow-up on inflation by the Iowa Torch, a local news organization, Axne also claimed that “No economists worth their salt has said we’re looking at a long-term inflation problem in any way, shape, or form.” At the time, she believed that the country is seeing “an economy that’s doing really well.”
Also, in July, only days later, Axne dismissed the idea that the economy is experiencing inflation during an interview with a Des Moines television station.
“We’re not even remotely close to a point to say that we’re at rising inflation,” she said, debating that the country needs “to wait ’til we have an actual, an expert, who says that’s what’s happening.” She added: “Right now, we’ve been able to, you know, keep inflation from being a big issue.”
But, despite Axne’s flip-flop on inflation, prominent economists linked to the Democrat party have called out inflation and blamed the Democrats’ spending.
Steve Rattner, who served as counselor to the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration, wrote last November that Biden’s American Rescue Plan was the “original sin” that caused inflation.
“The bill – almost completely unfunded – sought to counter the effects of the COVID pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment,” Rattner added. “That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.”
Rattner also said in December on Bloomberg TV that it will “take multiple years” to work inflation out of the economy, and “it is going to be painful.”
Summers warned the country last year on the increase in government spending. During an interview with CNN, Summers said, “I do think that unfortunately some of the predictions that I made about the consequences of stimulus do seem to have come true.”
Nevertheless, inflation is at a 40 year high. It was reported that consumer prices are up 7.5 percent, jumping the most in nearly four decades as the new year started. As a result, inflation is zapping the savings accounts of American family’s basic needs and added pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike the interest rates in March. Breitbart News’s John Carney wrote:
Although many economists and anti-Trump journalists claimed President Donald Trump’s tariffs would raise prices, consumer prices remained low throughout his administration. Trump’s tariffs turned out not to be taxes on consumers. Instead, they were absorbed by Chinese producers and exporters and the profit margins of most large U.S. companies.
Inflation only began to accelerate last March after years of coming in below the Fed’s two percent target. The Fed had decided to keep interest rates low although the economy was recovering at a faster than expected rate. What’s more, the Biden administration pushed through billions of dollars of deficit spending in the American Rescue Plan. These combined to fuel demand for goods and services faster than supplies could expand, pushing up prices.
Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell, following the advice of many of the economists on the central bank’s staff, initially claimed that inflation was due to transitory factors. Fed officials forecast that inflation would fall in the latter half of 2021, predicting that supply chains would swiftly unsnarl and a rebalancing of consumer demand from goods to services would relieve pricing pressure. The Biden administration, under the tutelage of former Fed chair and now Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, largely followed suit and continued to press for even more spending.
At the news of Axne blaming everything but “Biden’s toxic agenda,” the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a House Republican-aligned group, slammed the congresswoman for rubber-stamping the agenda.
“Cindy Axne rubber-stamped Biden’s toxic agenda that sent prices through the roof,” said CLF Press Secretary Cally Perkins. “While Axne tries to paper over her failed record, Iowans know exactly who to blame for record price increases.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.


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It was a big day for Amazon. After years of developing mobile technology, the company has unveiled their newest product, the Fire Phone. From head-tracking to amazing visuals, the newest addition to the Fire line has high possibility to change mobile gaming. This announcement comes only a little over a month since they announced the Fire TV.
Under the Hood
The Fire Phone looked snappy while CEO Jeff Bezos showed off the various aspects of the device. With a 2.2 GHz Snapdragon processor at the helm, the phone has 2 gigs of ram to back it up. This set up allows the device to smoothly transition the effects and features that Amazon has developed.
An Adeno 300 graphics processor gives dynamic color to one of the phone’s best features: dynamic perspective.
We are standing on the edge of a mobile revolution due to dynamic perspective only available on the Fire Phone. With four IR cameras that work in bright sunlight or the darkest night, dynamic perspective takes 3D imagery to a new level. There is no hardware needed as the cameras track head movement to change the viewing angle on the device. While this feature is handy in many ways, it could change how mobile games are developed.
See the complete article on GameSkinny.com.


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NVIDIA has launched Jetson TX1's successor at an event today, and it was designed to run twice as fast while drawing less than 7.5 watts of power. The product aptly called Jetson TX2 is an AI platform for drones, robots, smart cameras and other embedded devices. It can be used for navigation, image and speech recognition, among other purposes. Since it's more powerful than its predecessor and was specifically designed for "edge computing" -- data processing at or near the source instead of in the cloud or a data center -- it could leader to faster, smarter and more accurate devices.
Deepu Talla, vice president and general manager of the Tegra business at NVIDIA, said:
"Jetson TX2 brings powerful AI capabilities at the edge, making possible a new class of intelligent machines. These devices will enable intelligent video analytics that keep our cities smarter and safer, new kinds of robots that optimize manufacturing, and new collaboration that makes long-distance work more efficient."
The chipmaker has also revealed that around a dozen partner companies are already using the TX2 in different ways. Cisco is using the platform for an all-in-one collaboration device that enables screen sharing, interactive whiteboarding and video conferencing. A company called Fellow Robots relies on TX2 to record on-shelf inventory and to detect items and availability in store. The platform also allows Live Planet to stitch 4K 360-degree videos for live streaming. It powers the vision-based algorithms in a compact-yet-powerful MIT drone, as well.
NVIDIA is now accepting pre-orders for the TX2 Developer Kit in the United States and Europe, with other locations to follow. It'll set you back $599 to get the carrier-board-and-module combo, but you'll at least get the package when it starts shipping on March 14th. The module-only TX2 is priced at $399, but it won't start shipping until sometime in the second quarter. NVIDIA will also continue selling the TX1 Developer Kit for $499.


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RIU Hotels & Resorts has taken a step forward in its expansion strategy for the line of Riu Plaza urban hotels by purchasing a plot of land in the heart of Chicago. The newly-built skyscraper will house a hotel with 28 floors and more than 350 rooms. Construction work will begin in spring 2022 and is expected to last for around two years. Chicago is the third largest city in the USA by population and is one of the most popular tourist destinations. The image of its skyline at the edge of Lake Michigan is recognised the world over and the Magnificent Mile shopping area, located right next to the future hotel, is the equivalent of New York’s 5th Avenue or Los Angeles’ Rodeo Drive.
“We have been working to make this opportunity a reality for several years. It’s a dream location for any investor, right in the heart of the city. That’s why I’m so delighted to present this project, which has gone ahead despite numerous difficulties. Chicago is a great tourist destination that complements and enhances our range of urban hotels and strengthens RIU’s commitment to the United States, where we are about to open our fourth hotel, the Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square”, commented Luis Riu, CEO of RIU Hotels & Resorts.
The building that houses RIU’s new 4-star hotel will be Chicago School, an architectural style developed in this city in the late 19th and early 20th century that used pioneering materials and techniques to construct large buildings. In fact, an example of this style, the 10-floor Home Insurance Building inaugurated in Chicago in 1885, is considered to be the world’s first skyscraper.
The future Riu Plaza hotel will be located at 150 East Ontario Street in the Streeterville neighbourhood, an area that is brimming with commercial and cultural life close to the famous Navy Pier, with the Chicago River to the south and Lake Michigan to the east. It will be fully focused on travellers visiting the city for business or tourism and will offer a competitive range of services including breakfast, just like the chain’s other Riu Plaza urban hotels. The classic facade will complement the building’s modern and functional interior, with a stand-out Sky Bar on the 26th floor.
RIU is about to open the hotel Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square, taking the number of Riu Plaza hotels to nine. These establishments are located in some of the world’s most important and historic cities: the Hotel Riu Plaza España in Madrid; the Hotel Riu Plaza Panama in Panama city; the Hotel Riu Plaza Guadalajara in Mexico; the Hotel Riu Plaza Berlin in the German capital; the Hotel Riu Plaza The Gresham Dublin in the Irish capital; the Hotel Riu Plaza Miami Beach in Miami; the Hotel Riu Plaza Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco; and the Hotel Riu Plaza New York Times Square and Hotel Riu Plaza Manhattan Times Square, both in New York.
In the next few years, the Riu Plaza brand will also find its home in Canada and the United Kingdom. In London RIU has acquired a building next to Victoria Station, where construction work has already begun to convert it into a 4-star hotel with 435 rooms that will open its doors in 2023. Meanwhile, in Canada it has selected Toronto, the fifth largest city in North America, as the home of the newly-built Riu Plaza Toronto hotel, with 350 rooms, meeting rooms, a gym, a bar and a restaurant.


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Finding a replacement for palm oil
Researchers have found that creating synthetic replacements for palm oil could still be years away; consequently, more attention should be focused on making existing production processes more sustainable. Despite the significant environmental impact of palm oil production, none of the existing alternative products are currently economically or environmentally viable at scale, according to researchers at the University of Bath’s Centre for Integrated Bioprocessing Research (CIBR) and Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT).
Published in Nature Sustainability, the findings revealed that despite the strong case to reduce farming of oil palm, short-term efforts must focus on making these processes more sustainable, rather than replacing them. Efforts to synthesise an alternative are predicted to take several years; as a result, researchers are calling on government and industry to collaborate, to make current production more sustainable while synthetic alternatives are developed.
“Palm oil is the most widely used land-grown oil crop, and expansion in the market over the past few decades has led to increases in greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of biodiverse tropical forest areas to farming. Whilst action is being taken to improve the sustainability of palm oil cultivation it is not happening as effectively or quickly as it needs to,” said Chris Chuck, author and professor.
Researchers analysed existing alternatives to palm oil, grouping them into three distinct types of alternative technology including existing crop oils, alternative tropical oils and microbial single cell oils. Palm oil is a challenging product to replace, due to its range of applications; it can be used in cooking, food and other consumer goods products, as well as fuels.
“While they may be able to play a role in replacing palm oil, large-scale replacement with alternative crop oils such as sunflower, rapeseed or exotic oils like coconut oil and shea butter presents significant sustainability and technical challenges. The only viable large-scale direct replacements are single cell oils from algae or yeast, but these require significant further development before being economically viable. Governments in producing countries and industry should be working together closely to reduce the impact of the industry while synthetic alternatives are developed for the sake of our climate,” Dr Sophie Parsons said.
To reduce the impact of palm oil production, researchers recommend empowering the existing Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) scene to take effective enforcement action where needed, supported by policy and ensuring that local rules prevent further expansion of farming into ecologically valuable land. Researchers also recommend implementing certification of plantations and mills, and better management of wastage in the production process. Researchers are currently determining the lowest theoretical cost of a microbial oil, and the technological development that would be required to produce an alternative to palm oil, with their findings to be published later in 2020.
Pact Group Holdings, Cleanaway Waste Management and Asahi Beverages have entered into a joint...
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Joy-Con drift has been the talk of the Nintendo community over the past couple of weeks, with Kotaku releasing a report on it and getting the attention of many. While the issue is nothing new, the attention is, which finally caused Nintendo to release a comment of sorts on the matter. Of course, this was after a class action lawsuit was filed against them. That said, a recent report from VICE has revealed that an internal memo sent to Nintendo's customer service department has instructed them to fix users' Joy-Con drift free of charge, regardless of warranty status.
The internal memo was provided to VICE Games by an anonymous source that is familiar with Nintendo's customer support documentation. According to the memo, customers will not have to provide a proof of purchase or confirm the warranty status on their devices in order to receive a repair. In addition to this, customers who have already paid for a repair can request a refund.
"Customers will no longer be requested to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs," reads the memo. "Additionally it is not necessary to confirm warranty status. If a customer requests a refund for a previously paid Joy-Con repair [...] confirm the prior repair and then issue a refund."
While this information was probably not meant to be made public in this manner, it is certainly a lot better than the comment that was issued by Nintendo recently that basically said they are aware of the Joy-Con drift issue and that all complaints could be directed at their customer support department. However, knowing that said department has been instructed to offer free repairs are all users affected by the issue, that will be the place Nintendo Switch owners will want to go.
It was also noted that a few troubleshooting steps will be gone through before the free repair is issued, but this is to be expected. At the end of the day, the Joy-Con drift problem is beginning to be rectified. Here's to hoping that it doesn't make its way to the upcoming Nintendo Switch Lite, which is set to drop on September 20th.
What do you think about all of this? Are you glad to see this kind of move by Nintendo regarding the Joy-Con drift? Do you believe there is more that should be done? Sound off in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!0comments


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Latest News on Samsung Galaxy s9 Chipset
Showing of 0 - 10 from 6 results
Samsung Galaxy s9 Chipset - Total results - 6
Jan 13, 2018
Samsung Galaxy S9 specifications leak hints at 12 MP dual-aperture rear camera, 4 GB RAMAs a rule of thumb, the smaller that F-stop, the larger the amount of light that comes in and the better the bokeh (background blur).
Dec 16, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus to be teased in February and go on sale in March: ReportThis report flies in the face of expectations of a CES 2018 debut and an MWC 2018 launch for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
Dec 04, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 expected to come in a Purple variant, other colours to remain same as the Galaxy S8The Galaxy S9 is also expected to feature a QHD+ display with 80-90 percent screen to body ratio.
Nov 16, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 plus expected to come with a dual-camera setup and tricks similar to the iPhone XSamsung has recently patented the under screen fingerprint technology which too is likely to feature on these smartphones.
Sep 01, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 is likely to release by January 2018, a month ahead of schedule: ReportIf rumours are to be believed, the smartphone giant will begin shipping the phone's OLED display by November.
Jun 29, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 flagship smartphones expected to arrive with 7 nm and 8 nm processorsSamsung will make use of its own 8 nm manufacturing technology for its next-generation Exynos chipset as it prepares for 7 nm production.


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Facebook has officially launched the Atlas advertising platform which is purportedly going to give the giants of the industry like Google a run for their money. Facebook calls this “people-based marketing” since the social media giant will not be utilizing cookies to track people and to learn more about their browsing habits. It will be using the login credentials of its over 1.3 billion users, the biggest database of any Internet company in the world! Hence, Facebook can track a user on mobile devices too since they are not relying on cookies here (cookies don’t work on mobile devices). It is going to be a paradigm shift as far as advertising is concerned and this has got the digital advertising agencies quite frenzied.
Facebook can even track its users offline. If a Facebook user goes about shopping in a mall and enters an email id in the shop registry and that shop is on Facebook, then the social networking giant can map that id to the actual user. It can then easily find out whether that person saw a particular ad or not! This helps marketers to reach real people across devices, platforms and publishers. So the cross-device impediment that they used to face until now has been removed. They can now target, serve and measure the performance of their ads across devices.
All this leads to better optimized ads that can help the digital marketers get better ROI on their media budget. When a company like Facebook has so much user information the natural proclivity is to tie that data to analytics and an ad server and start targeting users in hitherto unheard ways. “That’s Marketing Nirvana”, said one digital advertising CEO; how true! Marketers will now be able to successfully serve ads to people based on their demographic data like age, gender, socio-economic status, et al. They can even measure how effective their ad campaigns have been at targeting the right customer group. Instagram, as a publisher is already plugging into the Atlas ad server in order to examine and authenticate ad impressions, according to a Facebook Atlas Update. Looks like there is a lot to come in the days ahead.
So, is this the start of a new era of holistic advertising?
What do you think?


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After a long hegemony of Apple’s iPad, while HP is giving up its TouchPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is struggling with a patent issue, Sony and Amazon are betting their tablets will rival the iPad.
The Japanese company plans to lure the buyers with music and movies, while it prices two of its versions at $499 and $599, the same as the two lower-end Apple iPad models.
“Yes, yes, Apple makes an iPad, but does it make a movie?” said Howard Stringer, the CEO of Sony in a presentation at Berlin’s annual consumer electronics fair. “We will prove that it’s not who makes the tablet first who counts, but who makes it better.”
Alexander Peterc, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas says, “Sony’s big advantage is that they have the content. If they can make it easy to use and hassle-free, they have half a vote from me,” Sarah Rotman Epps of Forrester believes that Amazon, the e-commerce giant could overtake the sales of Apple’s iPad if it prices its tablet at $300.
“Amazon’s willingness to sell hardware at a loss combined with the strength of its brand, content, cloud infrastructure, and commerce assets makes it the only credible iPad competitor in the market,” writes Rotman Epps.
Amazon hopes that with the devices being cheaper, consumers will spend more for its digital content.
The Amazon tablet runs on Android 3.2, with a 9-inch screen, slightly smaller than the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen.
Sony’s tablets run on Android will integrate Sony’s music, video, gaming and digital book offerings. Tablet S which is about the size of an iPad with a wedge-shaped design and Tablet P is a smaller, dual screened tablet which can fit in a purse and open like a book with two screens.
“We will aim to win the No. 1 share in the Android-based tablet market in 2012,” Akihiro Matsubara, a director at Sony Corp. (6758)’s marketing unit in Japan said.
Though Only nine percent of consumers considering buying a tablet actively prefer an Android tablet—compared with 16 percent who prefer iOS and 46 percent who prefer Windows,” according to analysts, it could finally be a way for Google to get Android firmly in the tablet market.


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Brussels, Oct 25 (AP/UNB) — The head of Apple on Wednesday endorsed tough privacy laws for both Europe and the U.S. and renewed the technology giant's commitment to protecting personal data, which he warned was being "weaponized" against users.
Speaking at an international conference on data privacy, Apple CEO Tim Cook applauded European Union authorities for bringing in a strict new data privacy law in May and said the iPhone maker supports a U.S. federal privacy law .
Cook's speech, along with video comments from Google and Facebook top bosses, in the European Union's home base in Brussels, underscores how the U.S. tech giants are jostling to curry favor in the region as regulators tighten their scrutiny.
Data protection has become a major political issue worldwide, and European regulators have led the charge in setting new rules for the big internet companies. The EU's new General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, requires companies to change the way they do business in the region, and a number of headline-grabbing data breaches have raised public awareness of the issue.
"In many jurisdictions, regulators are asking tough questions. It is time for rest of the world, including my home country, to follow your lead," Cook said.
"We at Apple are in full support of a comprehensive federal privacy law in the United States," he said, to applause from hundreds of privacy officials from more than 70 countries.
In the U.S., California is moving to put in regulations similar to the EU's strict rules by 2020 and other states are mulling more aggressive laws. That's rattled the big tech companies, which are pushing for a federal law that would treat them more leniently.
Cook warned that technology's promise to drive breakthroughs that benefit humanity is at risk of being overshadowed by the harm it can cause by deepening division and spreading false information. He said the trade in personal information "has exploded into a data industrial complex."
"Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponized against us with military efficiency," he said. Scraps of personal data are collected for digital profiles that let businesses know users better than they know themselves and allow companies to offer users "increasingly extreme content" that hardens their convictions, Cook said.
"This is surveillance. And these stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies that collect them," he said. "This should make us very uncomfortable. It should unsettle us."
Cook's appearance was one-up on his tech rivals and showed off his company's credentials in data privacy, which has become a weak point for both Facebook and Google. That is facilitated also by the fact that Apple makes most of its money by selling hardware like iPhones instead of ads based on user data.
"With the spotlight shining as directly as it is, Apple have the opportunity to show that they are the leading player and they are taking up the mantle," said Ben Robson, a lawyer at Oury Clark specializing in data privacy. Cook's appearance "is going to have good currency," with officials, he added.
His speech comes a week after Apple unveiled expanded privacy protection measures for people in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, including allowing them to download all personal data held by Apple. European users already had access to this feature after GDPR took effect. Apple plans to expand it worldwide.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google head Sundar Pichai sent brief video remarks to the annual meeting of global data privacy chiefs.
Zuckerberg said the social network takes seriously its "basic ethical responsibility" to safeguard personal information but added that "the past year has shown we have a lot more work to do," referring to a big data breach and the scandal over the misuse of data by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
He also said the company is investing in measures to beef up protection, including building a new tool to let users clear their browsing activity and deploying artificial intelligence to detect fake accounts and take down extremist content.
They both said they supported regulation, with Pichai noting Google recently proposed a legislative framework that would build on GDPR and extend many of its principles to users globally.
The International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners , held in a different city every year, normally attracts little attention but its Brussels venue this year takes on symbolic meaning as EU officials ratchet up their tech regulation.
The 28-nation EU took on global leadership of the issue when it launched GDPR. The new rules require companies to justify the collection and use of personal data gleaned from phones, apps and visited websites. They must also give EU users the ability to access and delete data, and to object to data use.
GDPR also allows for big fines benchmarked to revenue, which for big tech companies could amount to billions of dollars.
In the first big test of the new rules, Ireland's data protection commission, which is a lead authority for Europe as many big tech firms are based in the country, is investigating Facebook's data breach, which let hackers access 3 million EU accounts.
Google, meanwhile, shut down its Plus social network this month after revealing it had a flaw that could have exposed personal information of up to half a million people.
Dhaka, Oct 24 (UNB)- Grameenphone (GP) is going to offer Apple’s latest products including iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, the most advanced iPhones ever from November 1.
Customers will be able to pre-order iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max from October 26 at Grameenphone Centers and through Grameenphone Website www.grameenphone.com.
San Francisco, Oct 24 (AP/UNB) — Yahoo has agreed to pay $50 million in damages and provide two years of free credit-monitoring services to 200 million people whose email addresses and other personal information were stolen as part of the biggest security breach in history.
The restitution hinges on federal court approval of a settlement filed late Monday in a 2-year-old lawsuit seeking to hold Yahoo accountable for digital burglaries that occurred in 2013 and 2014, but weren't disclosed until 2016.
It adds to the financial fallout from a security lapse that provided a mortifying end to Yahoo's existence as an independent company and former CEO Marissa Mayer's six-year reign.
Yahoo revealed the problem after it had already negotiated a $4.83 billion deal to sell its digital services to Verizon Communications. It then had to discount that price by $350 million to reflect its tarnished brand and the specter of other potential costs stemming from the breach.
Verizon will now pay for one half of the settlement cost, with the other half paid by Altaba Inc., a company that was set up to hold Yahoo's investments in Asian companies and other assets after the sale. Altaba already paid a $35 million fine imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission for Yahoo's delay in disclosing the breach to investors.
About 3 billion Yahoo accounts were hit by hackers that included some linked to Russia by the FBI . The settlement reached in a San Jose, California, court covers about 1 billion of those accounts held by an estimated 200 million people in the U.S. and Israel from 2012 through 2016.
Claims for a portion of the $50 million fund can be submitted by any eligible Yahoo accountholder who suffered losses resulting from the security breach. The costs can include such things as identity theft, delayed tax refunds or other problems linked to having had personal information pilfered during the Yahoo break-ins.
The fund will compensate Yahoo accountholders at a rate of $25 per hour for time spent dealing with issues triggered by the security breach, according to the preliminary settlement. Those with documented losses can ask for up to 15 hours of lost time, or $375. Those who can't document losses can file claims seeking up to five hours, or $125, for their time spent dealing with the breach.
Yahoo accountholders who paid $20 to $50 annually for a premium email account will be eligible for a 25 percent refund.
The free credit monitoring service from AllClear could end up being the most valuable part of the settlement for most accountholders. The lawyers representing the accountholders pegged the retail value of AllClear's credit-monitoring service at $14.95 per month, or about $359 for two years — but it's unlikely Yahoo will pay that rate. The settlement didn't disclose how much Yahoo had agreed to pay AllClear for covering affected accountholders.
The lawyers for Yahoo's accountholders praised the settlement as a positive outcome, given the uncertainty of what might have happened had the case headed to trial. Estimates of damages caused by security breaches vary widely, with experts asserting the value of personal information held in email accounts can range from $1 to $8 per account. Those figures suggest Yahoo could have faced a bill of more than $1 billion had it lost the case.
But Yahoo had disputed those damages estimates and noted many of its accountholders submitted false information about their birthdates, names and other parts of their lives when they set up their email. The lawyers representing Yahoo accountholders have a big incentive to get the settlement approved. Yahoo will pay them up to $37.5 million in fees and expenses if it goes through.
Oath, the Verizon subsidiary that now oversees Yahoo, declined to comment. A hearing to approve the preliminary settlement is scheduled for Nov. 29 before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose. If approved, notices will be emailed to affected accountholders and published in People and National Geographic magazines.
Milwaukee, Oct 24 (AP/UNB) — Police dogs have always helped their human counterparts through their eyes and nose, and now some of the dogs are getting their own backup — cameras that transmit live video.
The devices generally attach to dogs' backs on a vest and transmit video to a handler watching from a screen, possibly on their wrist or around their necks. It's so the officers can better assess what they are up against before they go into a situation.
"If we have a really close encounter with armed people it doesn't work out well for anyone," said Shawn Gore, Portland, Oregon, police K-9 officer. "If we can gain distance it gives us lots of options to negotiate and de-escalate."
David Ferland, executive director for the United States Police Canine Association, a training program for police dogs, said departments generally use the cameras when dogs go out to look for suspects, missing people or explosives — for the dog's safety and for intelligence gathering.
Ferland doesn't have statistics but he suspects fewer than 5 percent of agencies have the cameras because they are so expensive. Most cost between $6,000 and $20,000, he said.
But some K-9 academies are already training dogs with vests and cameras so they get used to them, Ferland said.
K-9 cameras started gaining traction about a decade ago after departments saw their success in helping dogs in the military, he said.
Law enforcement agencies generally pay for the cameras through donations or use forfeiture or drug seizure money, which is how Portland is paying for its cameras. That police agency has used 10 cameras on its 10 K-9s since about 2012 and is in the process of getting newer cameras, costing about $20,000 each.
Tactical Electronics started making K-9 cameras in 2006 and has sold 5,000 to 6,000 to law enforcement and military around the world, said Addie Ventris, the company's marketing director.
In Wisconsin, the Muskego Police Department recently bought its first camera for its dog, Sirius, said K-9 Officer Shawn Diedrich.
"Being able to get a layout of an area — whether it's out in the woods or in a house or it's in a business, the camera will start to give us that layout so when officers have to go into that environment they can do it more safely," Diedrich said.
Dhaka, Oct 23 (UNB)-Grameenphone Limited ended the third quarter of incumbent year with 71.4 million active subscribers, registering 11.8% YoY growth.
With 36.3 million data subscribers, 50.9% of the total subscribers on the GP network were using internet services, said a press release.
Grameenphone reported revenue of BDT 98.1 billion for the first nine months of 2018, up 1.9% from the same period last year.
“The third quarter of 2018 saw the implementation of many directives, most notably the VAT reduction on data and uniform floor tariff,” said Michael Patrick Foley, CEO of Grameenphone Ltd.
He added “We crossed 3.8 million 4G subscribers with a little over half of our total subscribers using our internet services.”


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Dealerships handle the vast majority of vehicle sales in the United States. That in mind, private-party purchases are an important part of the American car market, despite the lack of many security and financial services that come with dealer transactions. Caramel is striving to change that with a new e-commerce platform aimed at improving the private-party sale process by providing dealer-like services to individual buyers and sellers.
Disclaimer: Roads & Tracks‘s parent company, Hearst, has invested in Caramel.
Ask Americans how they feel about car dealerships, and there won’t be many positive responses. But financing a private-party purchase isn’t easy, and there aren’t any warranty packages available. Add to that the hassle of titling and registering a vehicle on a bill of sale, and the whole process can be daunting compared to a dealership trip. Dealers invest in software to ease the process for customers as well, while there’s been no help for private-party buyers. Ed Brojerdi, co-CEO and founder of Caramel, is aiming to bring those e-commerce tools to those adrift non-businesses who are selling (or buying) cars.
“It’s one of the largest retail markets in the United States. The irony is that most of the attention, innovation, technology and software that’s been coming out the last handful of years has been directed towards new car transactions,” Brojerdi told R&T. “You know, providing software and digital tools for dealerships and things of that nature. But when you look at private parties, it’s been largely ignored from a technology innovation perspective. When you go to do a private-party transaction, you feel like you’ve been transported to the Eighties.”
Caramel aims for its software to be used alongside traditional online vehicle marketplaces in an attempt to improve the current private-party shopping experience. Among its features are enhanced safety functions that allow buyers and sellers to upload scans of their driver’s licenses. From there, each party can use the app’s biometric selfie feature to verify their identity, which is then matched against existing DMV data. This aims to ensure a buyer isn’t laden with toll fees or citations that may be attached to the seller’s title. The system also checks that the person selling the car has legal ownership of the vehicle. Price negotiations and general vehicle conversations are contained within the Caramel app or website, an effort to limit the need for any sort of uncomfortable face-to-face interactions. All of the paperwork can be handled through Caramel too, thanks to their integration with DMV and DocuSign services. Brojerdi claims the service can even apply for registration discounts for military service members and others who qualify.
Once the seller and buyer have agreed to a price in the Caramel system, the seller receives an overnight parcel for the vehicle’s title. Once that title has reached Caramel’s offices, the buyer’s funds that have been transferred through Plaid are released from Escrow and passed to the seller.
Caramel can also help in choosing shipping options for the acquired vehicle if it’s inconveniently located—from city to city or state to state.
During the buying process, users have the opportunity to utilize a number of features previously available only from dealers. This includes filing for financing from verified lenders like Ally Financial (including loans for exotics and classics). Caramel also allows customers to compare rates and enroll in insurance for their new car in real-time. Caramel claims to ease reliability concerns by way of purchased vehicle service packages from Zurich. The company even worked with partners to develop unique service packages for EVs and exotic cars.
“We work with a partner who has built a custom EV program and an exotic warranty program. If you buy that 911 Turbo from Bring a Trailer, very few folks can get that car covered if the transmission goes out for example,” Brojerdi said. “We provide some coverage plans for that as well on the vehicle service contract. We tried to think through what real current enthusiasts are, but also the mass-market car people need in the private-party sector.”
In an effort to further assist enthusiast buyers, Caramel has also integrated an optional digital inspection tool. Sellers will be tasked with taking 13 photos of the car, which are then fed into a machine-learning program. The software will then analyze the images and produce their take on a condition grade report, similar to what you might find at an in-person auction. If a buyer is unsatisfied with the results of this inspection, they can cancel their purchase without penalty.
As Caramel tries to build trust with the automotive community, the service doesn’t currently cost users anything. While you don’t see Caramel organically integrated into the popular vehicle marketplaces yet, for now, a Caramel link can be added to online listings. Brojerdi hopes that Caramel will be likened to the CPO dealer process.
“My crude analogy would be like when certified pre-owned cars were launched a few decades ago,” Brojerdi told R&T. “People suddenly were like ‘I’d rather have a CPO car versus a normal used car.’ In a way, we’re sort of thinking if there’s that little Caramel link in a post, I as a buyer know that this person is willing to go through security validation. They’re willing to make sure that my money and the title are handled digitally and professionally.”
All of this has the potential to change how we currently use vehicle marketplaces online. And change would be a very good thing.


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The popular mobile app that drivers use to pay and find available public parking in Pittsburgh and in other cities experienced a data breach several weeks ago that affected 21 million users nationwide.
ParkMobile is an Atlanta, GA-based company that offers a free app allowing users to find open parking spaces across the United States and pay from the comfort of their cars through their smartphones to save the time needed to fiddle with the meter.
Someone is selling account information for 21 million customers of ParkMobile, a mobile parking app that’s popular in North America. The stolen data includes customer email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, license plate numbers, hashed passwords, and mailing addresses.
The sample data from ParkMobile shared by a hacker on a cybercrime forum reveals data allegedly belonging to some big names.
The Pittsburgh Parking Authority Tuesday confirmed the breach, saying that hackers broke in and stole some users’ personal information. Authority officials said, however, that credit card information and Social Security numbers were not breached.
Asked about the sales thread, Atlanta-based ParkMobile said the company published a notification on Mar. 26 about “a cybersecurity incident linked to a vulnerability in a third-party software that we use.”
“In response, we immediately launched an investigation with the assistance of a leading cybersecurity firm to address the incident,” the notice reads. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have also notified the appropriate law enforcement authorities. The investigation is ongoing, and we are limited in the details we can provide at this time.”
However, cybersecurity researchers at Gemini Advisory soon discovered a database from the breach being offered for purchase on several hacker forums including Russian-speaking cybercrime forums. The data included in the listing concern email addresses, phone numbers, license plate numbers for all registered vehicles of a user, and hashed passwords
The data items that have not been accessed because they were not present in the ParkMobile database, to begin with, are parking history, location history, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and plaintext passwords.
If you’re a ParkMobile user, changing your account password might be a pro move.
On the other hand, the dark web seller has set a price tag of $125,000 which is a little high. So ParkMobile users may have some time before their details are massively leaked.


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A UK developer has created a new title designed to raise awareness of the effects of climate change, but it's not a standalone game - it's an ad.
Playmob, a studio that specialises in games with purpose and charity work, has built Island Nation Defense with the help of We Are The Oceans, an organisation dedicated to preserving the planet's oceans.
The game is a tower defence style affair where players have to frantically grow crops and sell them to fortify a sea wall against the ongoing onslaught of ocean waves. If the wall falls, the crops and village will be destroyed - a scenario designed to mimic the threats faced by small island developing states.
Throughout the experience, and once the ocean has inevitably won, players are presented with a series of facts about climate change and how it might be curtailed.
Rather than release this as a game in its own right, Playmob has worked with ad tech specialist TreSensa to make it a playable ad that will appear in other titles and apps across the studio's global network of mobile publishers, reaching over 150m gamers.
The United Nations Office for Project Services is also assisting with distribution and marketing.
The project follows a previous partnership between Playmob and We Are The Oceans, which revolved around another playable ad called The Big Catch. The ad was played by more than 3.2m people, with an average playing time of 1 minutes and 13 seconds.
"Game makers have an incredible opportunity to provide their audiences and fans with positive messages, offering them engaging content that not only helps their own bottom line but increases their brand value through the enabling of social change," said Playmob founder and CEO Jude Ower. "Equally for NGO's, foundations or even brands with a social message who want to reach, engage and mobilise individuals and communities, there is arguably no better route than through gaming."
Island Nation Defense soft-launched last week, and can also be played online here.


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As retailers continue to look for ways to enhance the customer experience, Epson today announced plans to showcase its innovative retail solutions at RSPA RetailNOW 2022. At work in millions of POS systems worldwide, Epson retail solutions support customer engagement, can help increase sales and provide more efficient cost management. Epson's solutions and demonstrations will be on display from July 25-26 at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Fla. in booth #307.
During the show, Epson will provide a sneak peek at new Mobilink™ wireless receipt printers. Slated to announce later this year, the new portable Mobilink products will offer an updated rugged, modern design along with improved wireless capabilities to meet the evolving portable printing needs of customers today.
"Businesses are looking for technology solutions to help them adjust quickly to a changing retail environment, Show attendees will have an opportunity to explore our most impactful retail products, including new mobile solutions that will offer retailers cutting-edge features for improving business efficiencies and serving customers."
-Mauricio Chacon, group product manager, Business Systems Division, Epson America, Inc.
Epson's David Vander Dussen, product manager, will also participate in a panel discussion – A New Horizon: Next Generation Retail Technology Beyond 2022. David will discuss insight on new technologies and trends that are around the corner and will continue to drive the transformation for the channel.
Epson invites RetailNOW attendees to experience the following innovative solutions at its booth:
Liner-free thermal label printers – The OmniLink® TM-L100, which offers our broadest media support, and the TM-L90II deliver solutions for meeting the growing demand for buy online and pick up in store (BOPIS), curbside pickup or delivery.
POS receipt printers – As the fastest POS receipt printer in the industry1, the OmniLink TM-T88VII offers flexible connectivity between multiple devices to help merchants deliver the best customer experience in virtually every environment. The OmniLink TM-H6000V multifunction receipt printer helps businesses leverage printing from web-based apps including online ordering services, so they're ready for the ever-changing world of retail.
Mobile POS solutions – The OmniLink TM-m50, TM-m30II-h and TM-m30II-SL provide innovative solutions for retailers to easily manage mobile receipt printing needs.
Kiosk-Friendly Receipt Printer – The EU-m30 is a sleek, compact kiosk thermal receipt printer with an easy mounting kit for effortless integration and serviceability, ideal for busy retail environments.
On-demand color labeling – The ColorWorks® C4000 and C6000-Series desktop color label printers offer retail environments an easy solution for adding color to labeling and eliminating the cost, hassle and lead time of pre-printed color labels.
Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to co-creating sustainability and enriching communities by leveraging its efficient, compact, and precision technologies and digital technologies to connect people, things, and information. The company is focused on solving societal issues through innovations in home and office printing, commercial and industrial printing, manufacturing, visual and lifestyle. Epson's goal is to become carbon negative and eliminate use of exhaustible underground resources such as oil and metal by 2050.


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Got Chocolate? Study Shows It’s Heart Healthy
Contributed by William Angelos| 16 November, 2006 04:31 GMT
A daily dose of dark chocolate may help reduce the risk of blood clotting, suggests new research. A team of John Hopkins University scientists led by Professor Diane Becker studied the effects of chocolate on platelets, tiny particles in blood that stick together.
Platelets can form clumps that eventually turn into clots. This condition can cause blockage in blood vessels that ultimately can lead to a heart attack. The typical preventive treatment is aspirin, which thins the blood.
Investigating the effect of chocolate on platelets was not the original purpose of the study; it was designed to analyze the effect of aspirin. However, some of the participants did not stop eating chocolate as they were instructed to do.
The scientists decided to take advantage of the aberration by comparing the blood of those who quit eating chocolate to the blood of those who did not. They found that the chocoholics’ platelets took longer to clot.
Chemicals in cocoa called “flavonoids” have an effect similar to that of aspirin in reducing platelet clumping, the researchers concluded.
And dark chocolate is said to contain more flavonoids than any other food — including green tea, black tea, red wine and blueberries.
Two tablespoonfuls of dark chocolate a day — with minimal sugar and butter — could be enough to keep clotting problems at bay, the scientists suggested.


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With the Apple Watch, It's Time for Smartwatches to Get Serious
It’s about time.
After months of speculation surrounding its foray into the wearables realm, Apple unveiled today its Apple Watch -- marking the company’s first new product category launch under the stewardship of Steve Jobs successor Tim Cook.
Cook called the Apple Watch -- not the iWatch, as it had long been rumored the device would be called -- “the most personal product we’ve ever made.”
Samsung, LG, Motorola and other tech giants have all introduced watches of their own to a somewhat lukewarm response in recent years, but the Apple Watch -- given the company’s unique ubiquity -- holds potential for widespread adoption of the wearables category.
It will be available in two different sizes with three options for faces -- the stainless steel Apple Watch, the anodized aluminum Apple Watch Sport and the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition. Customers can also choose from six different kinds of straps.
Priced at $349, the Apple Watch is compatible with 5th generation iPhones and beyond.
Despite the long road leading up to the announcement, eager Apple fans will have to wait longer yet for the device, which Cook said will arrive early next year.
Of note is that the Apple Watch charges wirelessly, via a magnet that latches onto its back. In addition, rather than merely interacting with the watch face by touching it, the new interface can be controlled via a multi-functional side dial that Cook called a “digital crown,” which takes users ‘home’ and activates Siri.
Apple Watch will also boast Fitness and Workout apps, said Cook, that will enable users to monitor their daily activity as well as set broader exercise goals.
And in addition to telling time, users can also use Apple Watch to respond to messages, read stock information and communicate with friends by sending sketches, audio messages and even recordings of one’s own heartbeat.
Apple Watch is also compatible with the company’s brand new mobile payment system, Apple Pay, which was also unveiled today.
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