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Canal+ Myanmar deploys NAGRA’s Conax GO Live
March 15, 2019
NAGRA, a Kudelski Group company and independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, has announced the launch of its Conax GO Live multiscreen OTT solution with Canal+ International subsidiary, Canal+ Myanmar FG. The announcement marks the first cloud deployment of the Conax GO Live solution in the Asia-Pacific region.
The new service which launched last month enables subscribers to watch linear pay-TV channels on iOS or Android devices, with support for Apple AirPlay and Google Cast. GO Live also offers advanced features such as start-over and catch-up TV with full Electronic Program Guide (EPG) functionality. The new pay-TV offering enabled by Conax GO Live runs on the AWS cloud and operates on the Conax Contego unified content security platform with multi-DRM support.
“We wanted to propose to Myanmar market with an OTT solution that is simple, ready-to-deploy and cost-efficient yet meets consumer demand for advanced pay-TV services in this very dynamic and growing region,” said Maxime Woimant, Chief Technology and Information Officer at CANAL+ Myanmar FG. “Conax GO Live delivers all that and more. We are pleased with the initial take-up of the service and look forward to its continued success.”
“We congratulate Canal+ Myanmar FG on bringing a rich pay-TV offering to Myanmar consumers and are excited to mark the first cloud deployment of Conax GO Live in the Asia Pacific region with them,” said Stéphane Le Dréau, Senior Vice President of Sales for APAC at NAGRA. “Conax GO Live delivers all the key components of a proven cloud-based end-to-end OTT solution. It is stable, can scale to meet an operator’s growth and ensures content remains secure while helping to reduce CAPEX. We look forward to supporting Canal+ Myanmar FG as it continues to grow its footprint.”


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64bit processor in Chinese phones means Android Lollipop on Chinese phones, and development is moving fast with Uletone jumping on board with the Ulefone Be Pro.
Ulefone might be new (as a brand) to the Chinese smartphone scene, but they are moving fast to keep up and are already showing up more established phone makers with development of Android 5.0 Lollipop for their Be Pro.
When Ulefone began promotion of the Be Pro they promised a Lollipop update was on the cards. Owners of the phone have wondered when Lollipop might be released and the answer could be sooner than we had thought. A video posted by Ulefone shows the Be Pro running an Alpha version of Lollipop, the final build will be released once all the bugs have been ironed out.
Gizchina News of the week
In a statement Ulefone ask fans “not to panic, Lollipop is coming soon”. The wait will at least be another few weeks though as Ulefone, like all other China based companies, will be celebrating the 2 week Chinese New Year vacation from tomorrow.[ Ulefone Facebook ]

domain: news


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NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Bio-tech company Strategic Diagnostics (SDIX) was the biggest gainer among small-caps in Wednesday afternoon trading. Shares were skyrocketing 42% to $2.63 after it said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its RapidCheck Salmonella test for poultry use.
The RapidCheck test helps egg producers identify Salmonella in the environment before it contaminates the egg, reducing the chance of egg recalls.
Earlier in the day, stocks jumped nearly 70% to $3.13, its highest level in over two years.
Jewelry retailer Zale (ZLC) was up 32% to $5.32 after it reported same-store sales rose 7.5% in November and December, after dropping 12% during the same period a year-ago. Other jewelry retailers have also reported strong sales in the holiday season. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the company may consider selling its Piercing Pagoda chain to New York private-equity firm Apollo Global Management.Video game provider Majesco Entertainment (COOL) saw its stock jump 25% to $1.15. The company announced that it has sold more than 500,000 units of its "Zumba Fitness" interactive video game for Wii, Kinect and PlayStation Move motion controller to retailers nationwide. The video game has become one of Majesco's fastest-selling titles. Helios & Matheson North America (HMNA), ZBB Energy (ZBB) and Radio One (ROIA) were among the other stocks that were topping the winners list. Leapfrog Enterprises (LF), maker of educational toys, said it expects current-year results to fall short of expectations. Net income per share is expected to be between 3 cents and 6 cents, significantly lower than analyst estimates of 28 cents. Demand for toys slowed down after a strong start in the holiday season. The company reports fourth-quarter results on Feb.10. KV Pharmaceuticals (KV-A) plunged 23% to $1.76 after it said that it was "evaluating its liquidity outlook," in light of an expected delay in the drug regulator's approval of Gestiva, a drug used in the treatment of preterm birth in women. Shares of Constar International (CNST) were sinking 14% to 68 cents after the company filed its second bankruptcy in two years. The company said it had reached an agreement with 75% of its senior debt holders for a restructuring agreement that included reducing its debt of $220 million by $125 million to $150 million. The company emerged out of bankruptcy only in May 2009. Thoratec (THOR), PAB Bankshares (PABK) and Stealth Gas (GASS) were other stocks dominating the losers list in afternoon trading. -- Written by Shanthi Bharatwaj in New York
>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Shanthi Bharatwaj. >To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/shavenk. >To submit a news tip, send an email to: email@example.com.
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With the tax return deadline looming, check out some top tips for keeping on top.
Showing news for January 2017.
We’ve caught up with Victoria Dyke, Head of New Business Marketing at CommuniGator, to discuss GDPR and how it will change the way businesses handle marketing data in the future.
With more and more businesses moving online, whether it be in e-commerce or cloud computing, cyber security is becoming more and more important to SME's.
Basepoint Shoreham are pleased announce their latest match funding of £5000 for local charity, Chestnut Tree House!
Research commissioned by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) shows that 1 in 4 people are more likely to apply for jobs in companies which give back.


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|By Marketwired .||
|August 28, 2014 03:11 AM EDT||
VALENCIA, CA--(Marketwired - August 28, 2014) - PDC, the global leader of innovative identification solutions, in collaboration with EVEN™ Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group's newest holistic wellness hotel brand in the U.S., recently installed PDC's Smart Band® RFID Wristband System to enhance the guest experience through keyless and cashless applications. The two new EVEN™ Hotels properties opened June 2014 in Rockville, Maryland and Norwalk, Connecticut.
Upon check in, EVEN™ Hotels guests receive an RFID room keycard, and for $8, may purchase a waterproof Smart Band® with a securely sealed RFID chip inside that stores and verifies guest data when scanned by a reader. Guests may take Smart Band® with them upon leaving the property, and re-use when visiting any EVEN™ Hotel. As each chip contains a unique ID number, the bands are impossible to duplicate.
Guests are able to access their rooms by presenting their Smart Band® over RFID-enabled locks. Unlike common magnetic stripe key cards that can be lost or misplaced -- particularly in water and recreational environments -- Smart Band® is more secure, staying fastened on the wrist. Its re-wearable silicone design allows removal when not in use.
Smart Band's contactless interface provides performance advantages over magnetic stripe key cards. Dirt and debris can collect on the cards, which can impact performance, often requiring maintenance or replacement. "RFID wristbands are not only recognized as a smarter and more reliable technology than magnetic stripe cards, they're also much more convenient," said Robin Barber, Vice President of Leisure & Entertainment for PDC. "We all know the experience of fiddling for the hotel door card when your hands are full of luggage. Smart Band® provides quick access with just a slight wave of the wrist."
The PDC Smart Band® also serves as a convenient "wrist wallet," enabling EVEN™ Hotel guests to make cashless purchases at the hotel's Cork & Kale™ Market and Bar via a quick scan of the band. Barber said that the instant transactions "take about half the time compared to using credit cards or cash, which leads to shorter lines and happier customers who can spend more time enjoying the hotel's amenities." In addition to the efficiency benefits, the system increases the potential for impulse purchases, which can boost spending.
"By automating manual procedures, PDC's Smart Band® RFID Wristband System helps us deliver outstanding conveniences to our guests at EVEN™ Hotels," said Adam Glickman, head of EVEN™ Hotels. "The system supports our mission to provide solutions for all aspects of our guests' wellness needs through innovative technologies and a distinctive service culture that differentiates EVEN™ Hotels in our industry."
EVEN™ Hotels has three additional locations in the pipeline -- two in midtown Manhattan and one in Brooklyn, N.Y. These properties will begin opening in late 2015, and all three will incorporate PDC's Smart Band® RFID Wristband System.
Smart Band® is available in a variety of colors and materials and can be completely customized with company logo, slogan, and contact information to boost brand awareness and promote special events. The wristband also serves as a colorful souvenir for guests to remember their visit long after their stay. Silicone wristbands can be ordered with any combination of silk screen printing, debossing and embossing. For more information on PDC's Smart Band® RFID Wristband System, call 866-403-6526 or visit www.pdcsolutions.com.
With more than 55 years of experience, PDC connects people, products, and technology through innovative ID systems that deliver superior customer experiences worldwide. PDC is the global leader and pacesetter in the development of wristbands, lanyards and RFID solutions. The company serves the leisure & entertainment, law enforcement, and animal identification industries. A pioneer of innovative technologies, PDC introduced the first bar code wristband system, first thermal printer wristband, first Smart Band® RFID wristband system, and the award-winning PDC Smart® Kiosk, among many other innovations.
Since its launch in 2000, PDC's Smart Band® RFID wristband system has been used by leading amusement parks, water parks, resorts, and music festivals to deliver unique and convenient applications that help redefine the guest experience, while reaping bottom line benefits to the companies who use them. Applications include: cashless point-of-sale; cashless arcade and vending; social media integration; keyless hotel and locker access; electronic access control; photo management systems; and customer loyalty programs. Additional PDC RFID solutions include PDC Smart® Cards, key fobs, lanyards and parking passes. For more information, visit www.pdcsolutions.com.
On Dec. 28, 2012, PDC was acquired by Brady Corporation (NYSE: BRC), a leader in identification and safety solutions for people, products and places.
About Even™ Hotels
EVEN™ Hotels, the newest brand from IHG, meets the large and growing demand for a hotel brand to help wellness-minded travelers keep their balance on the road at an affordable price point. An industry first, EVEN Hotels invites wellness on every journey by providing solutions for all aspects of travelers' wellness needs. With an emphasis on four components, Eating Well, Resting Easy, Keeping Active and Accomplishing More, the brand serves as a travel partner, helping guests feel better about their experience and themselves based on the choices they are able to make.
The brand launched in 2012 and is expected to be a key pillar in the IHG portfolio of preferred brands. EVEN™ Hotels opened its first two properties in June 2014 in Norwalk, Connecticut, and Rockville, Maryland. The brand has an additional three properties in the pipeline, two in midtown Manhattan and one in Brooklyn, New York. For more information, visit http://EVENHotels.com/. Find EVEN Hotels on Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/EvenHotels, or Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/EvenHotels.
SYS-CON Events announced today that Commvault, a global leader in enterprise data protection and information management, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7–9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Commvault is a leading provider of data protection and information management...
Feb. 6, 2016 02:30 PM EST Reads: 342
Your business relies on your applications and your employees to stay in business. Whether you develop apps or manage business critical apps that help fuel your business, what happens when users experience sluggish performance? You and all technical teams across the organization – application, network, operations, among others, as well as, those outside the organization, like ISPs and third-party providers – are called in to solve the problem.
Feb. 6, 2016 02:00 PM EST Reads: 673
SYS-CON Events announced today that Alert Logic, Inc., the leading provider of Security-as-a-Service solutions for the cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Alert Logic, Inc., provides Security-as-a-Service for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, delivering deep security insight and continuous protection for customers at a lower cost than traditional security solutions. Ful...
Feb. 6, 2016 01:30 PM EST Reads: 328
@DevOpsSummit taking place June 7-9, 2016 at Javits Center, New York City, and Nov 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with the 18th International @CloudExpo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo New York Call for Papers is now open.
Feb. 6, 2016 01:15 PM EST Reads: 504
SYS-CON Events announced today that VAI, a leading ERP software provider, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.) is a leading independent mid-market ERP software developer renowned for its flexible solutions and ability to automate critical business functions for the distribution, manufacturing, specialty retail and service sectors. An IBM Premier Business Part...
Feb. 6, 2016 01:00 PM EST Reads: 527
SYS-CON Events announced today that Catchpoint Systems, Inc., a provider of innovative web and infrastructure monitoring solutions, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's DevOps Summit at 18th Cloud Expo New York, which will take place June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Catchpoint is a leading Digital Performance Analytics company that provides unparalleled insight into customer-critical services to help consistently deliver an amazing customer experience. Designed...
Feb. 6, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 305
Let’s face it, embracing new storage technologies, capabilities and upgrading to new hardware often adds complexity and increases costs. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Seth Oxenhorn, Vice President of Business Development & Alliances at FalconStor, will discuss how a truly heterogeneous software-defined storage approach can add value to legacy platforms and heterogeneous environments. The result reduces complexity, significantly lowers cost, and provides IT organizations with improved effi...
Feb. 6, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 193
SYS-CON Events announced today that Pythian, a global IT services company specializing in helping companies adopt disruptive technologies to optimize revenue-generating systems, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Founded in 1997, Pythian is a global IT services company that helps companies compete by adopting disruptive technologies such as cloud, Big Data, advanced analytics, and DevO...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:15 AM EST Reads: 123
SYS-CON Events announced today that Men & Mice, the leading global provider of DNS, DHCP and IP address management overlay solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The Men & Mice Suite overlay solution is already known for its powerful application in heterogeneous operating environments, enabling enterprises to scale without fuss. Building on a solid range of diverse platform support,...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:15 AM EST Reads: 112
Cognitive Computing is becoming the foundation for a new generation of solutions that have the potential to transform business. Unlike traditional approaches to building solutions, a cognitive computing approach allows the data to help determine the way applications are designed. This contrasts with conventional software development that begins with defining logic based on the current way a business operates. In her session at 18th Cloud Expo, Judith S. Hurwitz, President and CEO of Hurwitz & ...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:00 AM EST Reads: 154
One of the bewildering things about DevOps is integrating the massive toolchain including the dozens of new tools that seem to crop up every year. Part of DevOps is Continuous Delivery and having a complex toolchain can add additional integration and setup to your developer environment. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 18th Cloud Expo, Miko Matsumura, Chief Marketing Officer of Gradle Inc., will discuss which tools to use in a developer stack, how to provision the toolchain to minimize onboa...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:00 AM EST
The cloud promises new levels of agility and cost-savings for Big Data, data warehousing and analytics. But it’s challenging to understand all the options – from IaaS and PaaS to newer services like HaaS (Hadoop as a Service) and BDaaS (Big Data as a Service). In her session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Hannah Smalltree, a director at Cazena, will provide an educational overview of emerging “as-a-service” options for Big Data in the cloud. This is critical background for IT and data profes...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:00 AM EST Reads: 102
With an estimated 50 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020, several industries will begin to expand their capabilities for retaining end point data at the edge to better utilize the range of data types and sheer volume of M2M data generated by the Internet of Things. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Don DeLoach, CEO and President of Infobright, will discuss the infrastructures businesses will need to implement to handle this explosion of data by providing specific use cases for filte...
Feb. 6, 2016 11:00 AM EST
The principles behind DevOps are not new - for decades people have been automating system administration and decreasing the time to deploy apps and perform other management tasks. However, only recently did we see the tools and the will necessary to share the benefits and power of automation with a wider circle of people. In his session at DevOps Summit, Bernard Sanders, Chief Technology Officer at CloudBolt Software, explored the latest tools including Puppet, Chef, Docker, and CMPs needed to...
Feb. 6, 2016 10:00 AM EST Reads: 227
SYS-CON Events announced today that AppNeta, the leader in performance insight for business-critical web applications, will exhibit and present at SYS-CON's @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo New York, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. AppNeta is the only application performance monitoring (APM) company to provide solutions for all applications – applications you develop internally, business-critical SaaS applications you use and the networks that deli...
Feb. 6, 2016 09:45 AM EST Reads: 323


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New Zealand’s competition regulator The Commerce Commission has released a draft decision on a new regulatory regime for the country’s fibre broadband networks, requiring the companies to publish performance measures, such as profits, quality of service, and expenditure.
New Zealand mobile consumers are benefitting from an increasingly competitive market environment and the established presence of three independent national network-based providers, according to the country’s competition regulator The Commerce Commission.
Most New Zealanders are able to reliably stream high-definition video, such as Netflix and YouTube, most of the time, according to the competition regulator, The Commerce Commission, which says fibre performs the best in delivering video streaming services to consumers.
Expected to be planned obsolete by the end of the year. Nothing but a malware spying and tracking device. More[…]
Timmy? As in Pipeline Tim... sorry bad Apple joke.NBN 2.0 is surely what's in the pipeline... NBN Co won't just[…]
It's only pointless if you're a pot head that wants a high THC level. This has a high CBD content[…]
Interesting. Australia might be slightly overdue for an upgrade of its copper communications infrastructure if it's to have any chance[…]
Well that's bloody pointless!


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学习啦【英语文摘】 韦彦时间：2016-08-27 11:09:19我要投稿
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index has closed at a record high, surpassing a level it last reached in 2000 at the height of the dot com bubble.
The index gained 20.89 points to close at 5,056.06, besting the high of 5,048.62 it hit on 10 March 2000.
The S&P 500 index gained 4.97 to 2,112.93 and the Dow Jones rose 20.42 points to 18,058.69.While the Dow Jones and S&P 500 have hit multiple records recently, the Nasdaq has taken longer to recover.
Some analysts think it can push on from the current level.
"[The Nasdaq] has the potential to go up, absent some external event that I can't predict," said Walter Price, senior portfolio manager at AllianzGI Global Technology fund.
However Mr Price said the current market environment is different from the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.
In 2000, "a lot of the high-growth companies were selling at 200 or 300 times next year's earnings," he said.
"This is nothing like that. This is a whole different world versus 2000."
The rise of Apple has been an important part of the Nasdaq's recovery. It launched the iPod in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007.
The success of those products helped its market value surge to more than $750bn and accounts for around 10% of the index's value.
Back in 2000, Microsoft was the most valuable stock on the index, now it is a distant second to Apple with a value of $365bn.
Away from the Nasdaq, shares in IBM were the biggest winner on the Dow, rising over 3% after it reported better-than-expected earnings on Monday.
What's Steve Cook planning for AR and VR gadgets? Here are three possibilities.
Apple is doing a great job of hinting that it's very serious about virtual reality. The company recently confirmed a Financial Times report that it hired VR expert and Virginia Tech computer-science professor Doug Bowman, also the head of the university's Center for Human-Computer Interaction. Apple has also acquired three companies working in either VR or AR (augmented reality) during the past year: AR company Metaio, motion capture startup Faceshift, and expression analysis company Emotient.
So what does Bowman's hire suggest Apple has planned for VR and AR? It's impossible to know for sure, but here are three possible scenarios.
1. A headset to replace the iPhone.
Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster recently told the Wall Street Journal he thinks Apple is pursuing an AR product, like electronic glasses or an Apple version of Google Glass, that could potentially replace the iPhone one day. This type of device could allow consumers to scroll through applications without obscuring visibility of the real world. Even if Apple has no official plans to produce such a product, Munster told the WSJ that Apple will still allocate resources to the technology "just to hedge their bets," and that he thinks Apple has a small team of people working on AR.
Piper Jaffray公司高级分析师Gene Munster最近告诉华尔街日报，他认为苹果公司正在研发一种AR设备类似于苹果版谷歌眼镜，这类产品很有可能会取代iphone。这类设备在允许用户使用各种APP时也能顾及到周围的世界。即使苹果目前没有明确计划要生产这类产品，但根据Munster向华尔街日报提供的信息，苹果公司将会调配一部分研发资源用于该技术的发展。“苹果这样的做法是设法对冲赌注”并且他认为苹果有一小部分员工正在对AR产品进行研究。
2. A gadget to make all screens a thing of the past.
Dreaming even bigger, Apple could be envisioning a headset that would make all other products with a screen--tablets, computers, TVs--obsolete, as suggested by Tech Insider. VR has been referred to as "the last medium," suggesting that as soon as VR and AR technology reach a tipping point of consumer adoption, there will be no need for any other device with a screen. Everything from computing to entertainment to apps will be achievable through one singular device.
3. Apple's electric car.
Despite Bowman's extensive experience in VR and AR, there is also a chance that his hiring is actually related to Apple's secretive car project. Why? As the FT reported, car companies including BMW have been experimenting with "gesture control," where drivers can use physical gestures to control infotainment systems. The benefit of the technology is the ability to operate electronic features while continuing to look at the road ahead, rather than look down at a screen and risk distracted driving. While it seems unlikely that Apple would hire a VR expert for something other than VR, Bowman's expertise in "human-computer interaction" does lend itself to this type of technology.
Regardless of Apple's specific plans, it's hard to imagine the company not offering some sort of product or service related to VR and AR technology in the next few years. Investment in the sector has grown for the past six consecutive quarters, helping the industry claim a spot on Inc.'s most recent list of the Best Industries for Starting a Business.


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See, before today, if you shared a video from Instagram or Facebook on WhatsApp with another user, they would be forced to leave the app to view the content you shared.
The changelog of WhatsApp update 2.18.51 for iPhone also mentions the ‘Dismiss as Admin’ feature, however, this feature was already rolled out to Android and iPhone users last month with update 2.18.116 and 2.18.41 respectively. The social media network bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 and unlike other social network’s apps such as Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp has so far remained an ad-free app.
WhatsApp fans look set to see a controversial change coming to the Android and iOS chat app.
Facebook’s other properties, like WhatsApp, have also enabled peer to peer transactions. The photo-sharing platform also recently received group video calling, AR camera effects, and an anti-bullying feature.
WhatsApp is one of the most downloaded smartphone apps.
According to reports, the payments feature is now visible to some users based in the United States and UK. Many service provider will now partner with Instagram to connect with the users, a restaurant booking app Resy become one of the first to partner under this new update. “Jan has done an incredible job building WhatsApp”, Facebook’s CEO noted, calling Koum a “tireless advocate for privacy and encryption”.
It seems that Facebook is turning WhatsApp from a safe messaging app to just a general messaging app while taking away the security measures that its founders were so adamant on. That means that third-party developers will soon be able to offer playful ways to communicate within the popular messaging app, something that Facebook’s own messaging app, Messenger, has offered for years. As of now, the feature has been launched in the beta mode. Facebook would suggest a match based on the data fed in the new profile. Also, the social networking website announced bringing in 3D illustration and models to the News Feed. With WhatsApp losing its advocate for bloat-free and advertisement-free user experience, the company is expected to introduce advertisements on the platform.


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At the main report of WWDC21, Apple presented the next privacy steps for iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS 12 Monterey. In a new interview, Apple’s vice president of software engineering, Craig Federi, detailed iCloud Private Relay and others.
This new feature works like a VPN, allowing users to connect to virtually any network and surf Safari in a more secure and personal way. According to Apple, it ensures that the traffic coming out of the device is encrypted so that no one can intercept and read it.
To Fast company, Federighi talks about this new feature, as well as the application tracking transparency policy introduced with iOS 1
The incentives for “innovation” in the world of exploitation are high and therefore there is a lot of progress in the art of tracking; much progress in the arts of security exploits. So, in both areas, we think there will continue to be a cat and mouse game. We believe that we are bringing a lot of tools into this fight and we can largely stay ahead of it and protect our customers. But this is something we recognize as a battle we will fight in the years to come. “
This feature is part of a new service introduced by Apple during WWDC21. iCloud + offers existing iCloud subscribers three new privacy features: Hide My Email, HomeKit Secure Video extension, and iCloud Private Relay.
The difference from iCloud Private Relay to other VPNs is that even Apple doesn’t know what you’re doing while you’re connected to it:
We wanted to take that [trust evaluation] completely out of the equation, with a double hop architecture, ”he says. “We hope consumers believe in Apple as a reliable intermediary, but we didn’t even want you to trust us. [because] we don’t have this ability to drain both your IP and the destination you’re going to – and that’s unlike a VPN,,
In the interview, Federighi also talked about the policy of transparency of application tracking. Although he does not share how many people opt in or opt out of this feature, he believes Apple has succeeded “not through the lens of what the opt-in or opt-out rate is, but the fact that consumers have a choice.”
“The key for us is for consumers to have a choice,” he explains. “Do you know if it was 50/50 or 95/5 or 5/95 – everything is fine if it represents what the consumer actually wanted; that they had the opportunity to evaluate this decision and to make any decision for them. So we certainly look at success not from the lens of what the degree of inclusion or opt-out is, but of the fact that consumers have a choice. “
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A lot has been talked about the lack of local language growth in India. While companies tried solving this with transliteration etc initiatives, Google India has pushed the envelope with the launch of Hindi ads on its Google display network.
This move is to target the 500 million Hindi speaking audiences in India enabling AdWords advertisers can now build campaigns reaching Hindi language sites on the Google Display Network using text, image, rich media, and video display ad formats.
Google’s language targeting helps users to target their ads to run only for people who speak that particular language. However, Google has also mentioned that targeting all languages helps to get more potential customers, but needs separate language campaigns for different languages.
Google had been stressing on the local languages for quite sometime now. The company launched the Indian Language Internet alliance to cater better to the Hindi speaking audience.Google had also launched the hindiweb.com, a portal that aggregates Hindi content and has partners like Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar, Jagran etc.


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“Social distancing” to help curb the spread of the coronavirus may have a dramatic economic impact on North Fork business owners.
Whether forced to close due to employees who have contracted COVID-19 or closures out of an abundance of caution, many businesses are making swift decisions to stay afloat during a time of year that’s already challenging.
“Town is very quiet,” said Scott Raulsome, who owns Burton’s Bookstore on Front Street in Greenport Village. The bookstore remains open, but quiet, he said. “We haven’t had more than two customers in the store at the same time.”
Though open, Mr. Raulsome said he is taking additional precautions —sanitize, sanitize, sanitize — and is planning to limit how many customers can be inside the store at one time. He’s also emphasizing other methods of transactions that aren’t in-person.
“People who are going to be home for a couple of weeks, they’re trusting me to pick out books for them,” he said, emphasizing that he has the ability to ship and even offer local delivery.
Mr. Raulsome isn’t the only business owner who is remaining open, staying vigilant and trying to stay positive.
March is always a rough go — weather-driven and dependent on regular customers.
“We came into March knowing already it would be a down month and now you put this on top of it. We’re playing it by ear,” said Nancy Kouris of the Blue Duck Bakery.
She remarked in a phone interview Friday afternoon that she’s not expecting to see her regulars, many of whom are elderly residents, and fears that public health concerns will deter tourists.
“We understand, we totally get it,” she said. “But it’s scary economically.”
The bakery is already facing uncertainty as it plans to supply bread for events, such as the Riverhead Farmers Market. As of Thursday, the event was on. By Friday morning, it was canceled.
“The bread was in production and ready to be baked tomorrow morning,” Ms. Kouris said.
Now, it will be baked and donated locally to CAST and the Little Free Pantry in Greenport.
Supervisor Scott Russell said Friday that the impact is felt by business throughout the town, not just Greenport.
“The economic impact, certainly in the short-term, is severe,” he said. “Impacts on the financial health of businesses in the long-term is difficult to predict.”
Front Street Station, which briefly closed Thursday to sanitize the building as a precautionary measure, reopened Friday. Owner Sharon Sailor said the eatery closed after an employee — who hasn’t worked since March 7 — had contact with someone who’s tested positive for coronavirus. She said she’s offering customers options such as single-use silverware and paper menus to reduce the chance for spreading germs, as well as continuing to offer pick-up and delivery.
“We’re trying to push through it together,” Ms. Sailor said. “I’m concerned, financially, for myself and friends in the village that are on a shoestring right now. It’s a little scary.”
Ms. Sailor said they will continue to compensate their quarantined employee, but expressed concerns for the hundreds of service industry workers who rely on tips to make ends meet.
“We would be bustling today,” she said Friday, where temperatures reached the mid-60s once clouds cleared.
Meanwhile, some small business owners have assessed the risk and closed their doors.
Rena Casey-Wilhelm, who owns The Weathered Barn with her husband, Jason, decided to close over health concerns, since they both have compromised immune systems and elderly parents.
“When I was 21, I came down with pneumonia, the sickest I have ever been in my whole life,” Ms. Casey-Wilhelm, who has asthma, said in an interview. “I could barely breathe and it was frightening. Now in my 50s, there was just no way I was going to put myself in that position.”
Two of their employees, who are both in their 20s, are impacted by the store’s decision to close but will still be paid for their scheduled hours, she said.
“The last thing we wanted anyone to feel was an obligation to work because of their potentially lost earnings,” Ms. Casey-Wilhelm said.
Finances, she said, will be tight since business owners rely on the prior summer’s earnings to get through. On Thursday, the Small Business Administration announced that disaster assistance loans of up to $2 million will be made available to small business harmed by the coronavirus crisis.
“Our agency will work directly with state Governors to provide targeted, low-interest disaster recovery loans to small businesses that have been severely impacted by the situation,” SBA administrator Jovita Carranza said in a statement.
A request would have to be made from Gov. Andrew Cuomo in order for such loans to be issued locally.
Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that small businesses in the city with fewer than 100 employees could be eligible for small loans if they could document that sales decreased by 25% amid the outbreak.
“Hopefully, arrangements are made,” Ms. Sailor said. “But we’ll weather this storm.”
Ms. Casey-Wilhelm and other business owners are also optimistic. She urged community members to continue supporting local businesses as they work through the hurdles.
“We are all in this together and this virus affects each and every one of us in so many ways health-wise as well as our local economy … We feel confident we will all come out A-OK on the other side.”


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NYC Inspector’s 10-Year Fraud Leads to Crackdown
New York City will tighten oversight of private lead and asbestos safety inspectors, after one unlicensed inspector admitted falsely certifying hundreds of buildings as clean over many years.
Testing of Jersey City residents near PPG plant site finds no chromium in their bloodstreams
Jersey City residents were tested last month to ensure that the carcinogen chromium, which is found in the soil at a PPG Industries plant on Garden Avenue, isn’t getting into their bloodstreams. The first set of test results are positive, The Jersey Journal reports in today’s editions.
The next tests will be in December when the most contaminated soils at the site are expected to be fully removed. <more>
ACA, IPPIC to Advise on Global Lead Paint Ban
The International Paint and Printing Ink Council, with counsel from the American Coatings Association, will take the coatings industry’s lead in the global initiative to end the use of lead in paints, ACA reports.
The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead in Paint, which held its inaugural meeting in May, is a voluntary partnership of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). <more>
ASTM Declarable Substances Committee Approves New Lead Paint Testing Standard
A new ASTM International standard will provide the means to quickly detect and quantify the lead concentration in toys and other children's products. The new standard, F2853, Test Method for Determination of Lead in Paint Layers and Similar Coatings or in Substrates and Homogenous Materials by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry Using Multiple Monochromatic Excitation Beams, was developed by Subcommittee F40.01 on Test Methods, part of ASTM International Committee F40 on Declarable Substances in Materials. The analytical technique described in this standard is commonly referred to as HDXRF.
“Frequent testing of children's products aids in identifying sources of lead contamination and ultimately prevents out-of-compliance merchandise from reaching store shelves,” says Berry Beumer, vice president, XOS Inc., and chairman of the task group that developed F2853.
ASTM F2853 provides a convenient means to test for lead using the energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy technique. Such testing will ensure that toys and other children's products will comply with laws (such as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008) that are currently being enforced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
According to Beumer, the HDXRF test described in F2853 enables lead quantification separately for the substrate and paint level in a 5 minute measurement cycle. Beumer notes that all interested parties are invited to join the task group responsible for F2853 as it considers future revisions to the standard.
“While the presence of lead has been of primary concern to industry, other harmful elements such as cadmium, arsenic and antimony are now also under scrutiny,” notes Beumer. “The task group is anticipating continued expansion of F2853 to include these and other elements in the standard. Additional interlaboratory studies will be required for the precision and bias statements for these additional elements, and the continued participation of third party test labs and toy and apparel manufacturers in such studies will be very helpful in expanding the scope of method.” <more>
PPG Must Pay $1.3M
Judge orders penalty for releasing toxic substances into river
MOUNDSVILLE - PPG Industries must pay more than $1.3 million for releasing pollutants into the Ohio River, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The order stems from a civil suit filed by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, claiming PPG was dumping toxic substances into the river. According to court documents, Marshall County Circuit Judge David Hummel ordered PPG to pay a total civil penalty of $1.37 million to the WVDEP.
Hummel ruled $1.02 million must be paid by "certified or cashier's check" in installments over the next eight months. The remaining $350,000 must be used by PPG for "Supplemental Environmental Projects," which are described as "projects or activity which improves, protects, or reduces risks to public health or the environment at large."
In May 2009, the WVDEP filed a formal civil complaint against the Pennsylvania-based company, stating that "during the conduct of its manufacturing processes, PPG discharges effluents into the Ohio River" from its manufacturing facility, known as the Natrium Plant, in Marshall County. The WVDEP notes in the complaint "the discharge of any pollutant into waters of the United States is prohibited" by the federal Clean Water Act. <more>
Surface Finishing Expo China 2011
Surface Finishing Expo China 2011 is the largest one in South China. Its preparatory work is moving smoothly to a new stage. Overseas publicity has been carried out successfully. Advertising of SF EXPO has been covered to America, UK, India, Germany, Russia, Japan, Turkey and Korea through different media. You can find their news on professional magazines, industry sites and institutes.
In the event, they will offer a series of industry activities to boost up the industry exchange. New products will appears in the event, experts will give professional talks. For more information, stay tuned.
Ms. Wing Lau
International Marketing and Public Relation
Organizing Committee of SF EXPO CHINA
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Kansai Nerolac Paints appoints H
Nishibayashi as nominee director With effect from 30 July 2010
The board of Kansai Nerolac Paints in its meeting on 30 July 2010 has accepted the resignation of Y. Tajiri, nominee of Kansai Paint, Japan (KPJ) on the board of the company with immediate effect.
The board has appointed H. Nishibayashi as nominee director of KPJ in the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Y. Tajiri.
Further, the board has approved the brown-field capacity expansion of Bawal unit of Rs. 68 crore. <more>
Shah Rukh Khan chosen as brand ambassador for Nerolac Paints?
There are film stars, mega stars, superstars and then, there's the unanimous star of them all: Shah Rukh Khan!
Sources close to Bollywood Hungama have informed that the King Khan has now been chosen to be the brand ambassador of Nerolac Paints. Our source also added that the reason to choose SRK as the ambassador was because of his global appeal! Even though the finer details of the deal are still being worked upon, there are strong rumors that SRK had flown to Kolkata late last week to sign on the dotted lines.
What can we say besides, long live King Khan... and his never-ending list of brand endorsements. <more>
Asian Paints hikes prices on costly inputs
Asian Paints has announced a price hike in its decorative paint segment by 1.2%. Prior to this, the company had increased prices in May and July by 4.15% and 2.6%, respectively. The paint maker has hiked prices to offset inflationary pressure on decorative products.
Asian Paints MD & CEO PM Murty said, “The cost of raw material has increased significantly, hence, we are going to witness margin pressure in the coming quarters. Raw material index in the first quarter of this fiscal stood at 106.5, with the base taken at 100 in FY10. There are supply-demand concerns for titanium dioxide (TiO2), acrylic monomers, resins and turpentine oil.” <more>
Kansai Nerolac Q1 net profit up 23%
For the quarter, the company declared net sales of Rs.5.25bn, marking a growth of 27.2 % over the same quarter of the previous year.
Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited, one of the leading Paint companies in India, today at the Board meeting announced its results for the first quarter of financial year 2010-11. For the quarter, the company declared net sales of Rs.5.25bn, marking a growth of 27.2 % over the same quarter of the previous year. Net profit of the company increased by 22.7 % over the same period last year and stood at 519.2bn <more>
Nordson Reports Record Profitability for Third Quarter
WESTLAKE, OH - Nordson Corp. has reported third-quarter sales that were strongly improved over the same period a year ago and all-time quarterly records for operating profit, net income and diluted earnings per share. For the quarter ending July 31, 2010, sales were $279 million, a 35-percent increase over sales in the prior year’s third quarter. The sales improvement included a 38-percent increase in volume partially offset by unfavorable currency translation effects. Third-quarter operating profit was $68 million, and net income was $55 million. Diluted earnings per share were $1.61, inclusive of a $0.31 tax benefit related to the previously announced sale of the company’s graphic arts UV curing product lines, an additional unrelated $0.01 one-time tax benefit, and a $0.01 restructuring charge. This earnings-per-share level is more than double that of the previous year’s third quarter.
“Our outstanding performance in the quarter clearly demonstrates that we are winning in the marketplace, capturing returning demand and serving our customers with a more efficient model,” said Nordson President and Chief Executive Officer Michael F. Hilton. “Our global team continued to execute in every segment and every region and delivered the highest quarterly level of operating profit and net income in Nordson’s history. With this record performance, we continued to generate high levels of cash and increased our dividend for the 47th consecutive year.” <more>
Jotun launches Colour Trends 2010 concept in Oman
Leading manufacturer to consolidate number one position in Oman paint market
Jotun Paints, one of the worlds leading producers and suppliers of paints and coatings, has announced the launch of its Colour Trends 2010 concept which will be available in their assortment of decorative paints in Oman - a move that is in line with the leading paint manufacturers aim to strengthen its number one position in the Oman paint market. <more>
Berger Paints expansion
Berger Paints India Ltd is considering several projects to double its capacity by 2015. It is also planning to revive the proposal to set up an automotive paint unit in Jejuri near Pune in Maharashtra.
Company Chiarman Kuldip Singh Dhingra told reporters in Kolkata after the annual general meeting that one of the investment plans is for Rs 250 crore investment to double capacity to 500,000 tons. This includes Rs 125 crore spend on setting up a water-based paint unit in Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh.
Akzo Nobel, the world's largest paint and coatings supplier, reported that Asian sales, which account for 20 percent of global revenue, helped its second quarter profit leap 76 percent from last year to $351 million.
Akzo Nobel takes a slow and steady road to integration
Employees were given enough time to adjust, says Heiko Hutmacher, Senior V-P, HR, Akzo Nobel NV..
Two years after the formal merger, ICI Paints has been officially renamed Akzo Nobel India. The transition from ICI Paints to Akzo Nobel India has been a slow but sure process.
“Employees were given more than 24 months to get adjusted to the new situation,” says Heiko Hutmacher, Senior Vice-President, HR, Akzo Nobel NV. In an interview to The New Manager, Hutmacher spoke about the various HR issues involved in the transition period, as they moved the company from being a multi-local entity to a global major. Akzo Nobel India currently has 2000 employees which would double by 2014, he said <more>
Asia Resins Report Details Growth, Trends
While performance and other considerations impact new coatings technology, environmental compliance is the chief factor driving current development, a new analysis finds.
“Manufacturers have developed a variety of coatings technologies, which differ in final product attributes,” says the report by market researchers Frost & Sullivan . “These technologies vary according to the substrate, curing conditions and method of application.<more>
Nalco Opens New Facility in India
NAPERVILLE, IL - Nalco has opened a new corporate office and research and development facility in Pune, India. The $8.5 million, 60,000-square-foot facility will serve as the headquarters for sales, marketing and supply-chain operations for NLC Nalco India Ltd. as well as house a new state-of-the-art technology and innovation center. The Pune laboratory will eventually employ more than 100 engineers and chemists.
"Pune Center will become one of Nalco's major innovation hubs for water and energy technologies. Its immediate focus will be to provide technical support to our energy upstream (oil field) and downstream (refinery and chemical processing) customers throughout the eastern hemisphere, including the Asia-Pacific region, the Caspian, Middle East, North Sea and West Africa," said Manian Ramesh, Nalco's Chief Technology Officer. "It will focus on troubleshooting and customer problem solving areas and will transform into another Center of Innovation for Energy in addition to our Sugar Land, TX, laboratories. The Pune Center will also focus on water and process research by developing integrated solutions that uniquely combine chemistry, engineering, equipment, performance data and service automation. It will build water sustainability solutions for our global customers, incorporating leading research done at our Naperville, IL, center." <more>
Seicoat Introduces Anti-Graffiti Coating
Seicoat Corp. introduced GPA-300 Graffiti Proofer Non-Stick coating for use on a variety of surfaces, reported to facilitate the removal of graffiti without the use of chemicals.
The company says the product has demonstrated effectiveness in third-party test results, with evaluation in accordance with the ASTM 6578 graffiti-resistance test method. The product is reported to resist adhesion of paint, permanent marker, stickers, and adhesives <more>
ABB helps Electrolux save energy
An ABB robotics solution has reduced the energy consumption of an Electrolux production line by 15 percent. The solution has also boosted productivity and production flexibility, improved health and safety, and significantly reduced the factory’s carbon footprint.
Every second of every day, Electrolux sells two of its products - ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers and a huge range of other domestic appliances - to consumers all over the world: a feat that requires state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and production concepts to achieve.
“Installing ABB’s robotics equipment on the new coating process has been instrumental in our sustainability success and made a huge contribution to the site reaching its emission reduction goals for the year." <more>
Nanocones as antireflection coating
Jia Zhu and Yi Cui
Reflection can be greatly reduced by graded refractive-index layers fabricated in a simple, scalable process.
10 June 2009, SPIE Newsroom. DOI: 10.1117/2.1200905.1655
When light hits the interface between media characterized by different refractive indices, a fraction is reflected: see Figure 1(a). This imposes severe limits on many optoelectronic devices such as solar cells1 and LEDs.2
A range of techniques to reduce reflection have been proposed and developed. For example, a quarter-wavelength transparent layer is typically used as an antireflection coating in solar cells. However, this technique only works for specific wavelengths. Since solar energy covers a wide range of wavelengths, a broadband method is favored. With graded refractive-index layers, light only experiences a gradual change of the refractive index instead of hitting a sharp interface—see Figure 1(c)—and reflection can be greatly reduced for a large range of wavelengths and angles of incidence. Several techniques have been developed to fabricate these layers.3,4 However, many involve complicated processes or work only for certain materials.<more>
Grace opens manufacturing facility in Western China
W. R. Grace & Co. has expanded its footprint in Asia Pacific with the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Chongqing, China. The facility houses manufacturing operations for cement additives and concrete admixtures, as well as a quality control lab and office areas for administrative and sales personnel. The company is a supplier of specialty materials for a wide range of industrial applications, including sealants and coatings for food and beverage packaging, specialty chemicals, additives and building materials for commercial and residential construction.<more>
Cytec Announces Price Increases on its Epoxy Resins and Epoxy Hardeners in Europe, Middle East and Africa
Cytec Industries Inc., and its affiliated companies, announced to its customers the implementation of a price increase for its entire range BECKOPOX™ and DUROXYN® epoxy resins and epoxy hardeners in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The price increase will be applicable on all shipments as of September 1st, 2010, or as contracts allow. It will be up to EUR 0.35/kg, depending on the grade.
This pricing adjustment is necessary to compensate for increasing raw material prices over the last months. Cytec remains committed to servicing and delivering value to its customers.
European Consumption of Carbon Black, 2009 (Tonnes)
Source: IRL’s ‘Pigments &
Fillers in the European Coatings Industry’ (March 2010)
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September 27 - 29, 2010
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October 7 - 10, 2010
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Woodcoatings Congress Reducing the Environmental Footprint
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People who have started up online businesses in the Dunstable area are being invited to pop up in a temporary high street shop.
An organisation called PopUp Britain, part of national enterprise campaign StartUp Britain, will be popping up in an empty shop in Ashton Square on September 19.
Up to four retailers will share the space and rent for between two and four weeks.
Emma Jones, StartUp Britain co-founder, said: “Our aim is to give the growing number of online retail start-ups a chance to test out their products in a physical high street environment, talking to their customers face-to-face and getting a feel for demand.
“Our shops not only provide a new shopping experience in the short term, and a buzz to the high street, they also bring a meaningful boost to the local economy for the long term.”
The shop will be the first in Beds, Herts and Bucks.
The pop-up shop will run for three months and new start-up retailers will share the space for between two and four weeks. The shop has the capacity to house four firms. Retailers will range from fashion to home wares, to gifts and chocolates.
The shops reflect the trend that more than 70 per cent of businesses are now started and run from home.
The day-to-day running of the shop will be the responsibility of Dunstable Town Council. Councillor Terry Colbourne of Dunstable Town Council said: “PopUp Dunstable is an exciting opportunity for small businesses that don’t have a presence on Dunstable’s High Street to give it a go at minimum cost and risk.”
Local businesses interested in taking part should call 01582 513000 or email email@example.com or visit www.popupbritain.com/apply


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A record from Reuters means that Microsoft is having a look to tackle Amazon within the retail retailer house. Microsoft is reportedly running on era that gets rid of the desire for cashiers and checkout lines in shops, very similar to Amazon’s era already carried out in its Amazon Go brick-and-mortar retailer.
According to the record, Microsoft’s era tracks which pieces shoppers put into their carts. While it is unclear how a ways alongside Microsoft is in creating this era, the corporate has reportedly proven pattern tech to doable companions and has even talked to Walmart about imposing it.
The precise era utilized in Microsoft’s provider is not defined, however it may be connected to the corporate’s new Kinect for Azure venture. Detailed at Microsoft Build ultimate month, this venture builds on Kinect’s present skills and comprises built-in computing energy and a sensor package deal with a depth-mapping digicam. It can be utilized to execute spatial mapping and movement monitoring, which might turn out to be useful when monitoring shoppers’ arms as they succeed in for pieces on cabinets.
Microsoft’s retailer tech is designed to help outlets “keep pace” with Amazon as the net buying groceries large dabbles extra in brick-and-mortar endeavors. Specifically, outlets who may use Microsoft’s era may higher compete with Amazon Go, the corporate’s cashierless comfort retailer. The first Amazon Go retailer opened to the general public in Seattle previous this yr, and Amazon is predicted to open new places in Chicago and San Francisco quickly.
Amazon Go works like this: shoppers scan the Amazon Go cellular app at a turnstile sooner than coming into the shop. They can then browse and put the pieces they would like of their buying groceries baggage. The integrated retailer era tracks shoppers as they pick out pieces up, put them again, or put them of their carts for acquire. When completed, shoppers can simply stroll out—Amazon expenses the client’s on-file bank card for the pieces they put of their baggage as quickly because the buying groceries shuttle is whole (i.e., after they go away the shop).
Microsoft may make so much of cash through offering a large number of outlets with the era had to make their shops as tech-savvy as Amazon Go. But Microsoft additionally needs to stay tempo with Amazon normally as the 2 are repeatedly competing in cloud computing. Microsoft sits proper at the back of Amazon in promoting cloud services and products, some of which help run e-commerce websites and different services and products. As of now although, it is unclear when Microsoft will roll out a last model of its checkout-free retail era, or if the venture shall be scrapped totally.


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Signs of turnaround in office property market
There may be light at the end of the tunnel for the office property market this year, but retail is still in the doldrums.
Conditions for retail and office spaces continued to be challenging, although declines in prices and rents appear to be easing, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority data.
Overall office prices fell 1.4 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months. This was a slower decline than the 4 per cent fall in the first quarter from the final three months of last year.
Office rents fell 1.1 per cent from the first quarter to the second. This followed a decrease of 3.4 per cent in the first three months of the year from the last quarter of last year.
The stock of office space increased by 76,000 sq m in the second quarter, edging up the overall vacancy rate to 12.4 per cent, up from 11.6 per cent in the first three months of this year.
While the figures paint an uncertain picture of the office market, analysts are still optimistic.
Ms Christine Li, director of research at Cushman & Wakefield, said that despite a long run of nine quarters of decline, “there are signs that the office market is starting to turn the corner”
She noted that the net employment increase of 3,300 workers for the financial and insurance sectors in the first quarter was more than the increase of 2,800 workers for all of last year.
Price recovery will be led by premium buildings, such as new developments in Marina Bay.
“Taking into account these factors and the improvement in local and global economic growth, the office rental index is likely to reach an inflexion point and rebound in the second half of this year,” Ms Li added.
The retail space continued to post sluggish numbers.
Property prices fell 3.2 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months and followed a quarter-on-quarter dip of 4 per cent in the first three months of the year. Rents declined 1.2 per cent, a slower slide compared with a 2.9 per cent dip in the previous quarter.
Overall vacancy rates rose 8.1 per cent, up from 7.7 per cent for the previous quarter.
Ms Tay Huey Ying, JLL’s head of research and consultancy, said retail rents have declined for 10 straight quarters. However, she singled out suburban malls for “bringing cheer” to the retail sector, noting that demand in the suburbs of 15,000 sq m in the first half of the year exceeded the net new supply of 13,000 sq m.
“This is in line with the continually strong interest for retail space in suburban malls, proving their resilient nature despite the persistently weak consumer sentiments,” Ms Tay said.
She noted that suburban malls have attracted the expansion of beauty shops such as Innisfree in Bedok Mall and Sulwhasoo in Westgate.
Dr Lee Nai Jia, head of research at Edmund Tie & Company, said: “While the entry of Amazon Prime into Singapore may exert downward pressure on retail sales, the impact may not be immediate on bricks-and-mortar malls.
“We see more online shops entering malls as the e-commerce scene becomes more crowded.”
Straits Times, 29 Jul 2017


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More than 50 delegates from trade unions representing Mondelēz International workers around the world gathered in Chicago on September 20- 21 at a Global Summit to address the rampant and calculated destruction of jobs by Mondelēz, whose global subsidiaries include Nabisco, Cadbury, LU and Milka.
Representatives of the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) and the BCTGM International Union led the spirited meeting that focused on developing a coordinated, global response in defending quality jobs at Mondelēz. The IUF is an international federation of trade unions which represents 2.5 million workers in affiliated organizations in 126 countries. The BCTGM is an active affiliate of the IUF and has partnered together on many important initiatives.
Bringing together labor leaders from across the globe became necessary after Mondelēz embarked on a program of endless restructuring and financial engineering to achieve short-term financial gains which resulted in the elimination of thousands of good union jobs and the weakening of trade union rights. One strategy the company has executed is outsourcing production from unionized facilities to low-wage countries with lower levels of regulatory standards and social protections. Most recently, Mondelēz eliminated 600 union jobs at the Nabisco facility in Chicago and announced the closure of its factory in Valladolid, Spain, with the loss of 220 jobs. This comes on the heels of plants closings in Toronto, Canada, and Philadelphia, Pa, and the earlier closing of the iconic Cadbury plant in Somerdale, UK. Most of this production was sent to lower wage nations.
“A coordinated worldwide effort is essential in stopping companies like Mondelēz from destroying good middle class jobs and then exploiting low wage workers across the globe,” notes BCTGM International President David B. Durkee.
“Mondelēz is hoping that consumers don’t catch on to their simple strategy: close unionized factories, ship production to low-wage nations and then ship the finished products to the same countries it has just closed the factories in. We believe that if consumers understand how this disastrous strategy is hurting their communities and economies, they will say ‘enough is enough.’ Part of this new, coordinated global effort is to educate the public about this devastating business model, which enriches the largest shareholders and top executives at the expense of its workforce and the communities and countries in which they live,” Durkee reflects.
“By combining our efforts with those of other unions representing Mondelēz in Europe, Asia and Latin America, we will be well-suited to confront this corporation wherever they do business,” Durkee concludes.
Twenty BCTGM delegates participated in the Global Summit, which produced tremendous dialogue and international understanding among the global unions. The Summit will provide an important and effective springboard for communication and future actions to address Mondelēz’ activities anywhere in the world.


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Food inflation witnessed a sharp moderation to 8 per cent for the week ended November 19, though prices of most agricultural items, barring potatoes, onions and wheat, continued to rise on an annual basis.
Food inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), was 9.01 per cent in the previous week ended November 12. It stood at 9.03 per cent in the corresponding week of the previous year.
According to data released by the government on Thursday, onions became cheaper by 40.65 per cent year-on-year during the week under review, while potato prices were down by 10.98 per cent. Price of wheat also fell by 4.71 per cent.
Food inflation drops from 9.1 pc to 8 pc
However, all other food items grew more expensive on an annual basis.
Pulses became 13.80 per cent costlier during the week ended November 19, while milk grew dearer by 11.41 per cent and eggs, meat and fish by 13.55 per cent.
Vegetable prices were up by 5.13 per cent year-on-year. However, this marked a substantial slowdown in the inflation rate in comparison to the past few months, when prices of vegetables had witnessed double-digit growth.
Fruits also became 7.98 per cent more expensive on an annual basis, while cereal prices were up 1.97 per cent.
Inflation in the overall primary articles category stood at 7.74 per cent during the week ended November 19, as against 9.08 per cent in the previous week. Primary articles have over 20 per cent weight in the wholesale price index.
Inflation in non-food articles, which includes fibres, oilseeds and minerals, was recorded at 2.14 per cent during the week under review, as against 4.05 per cent in the week ended November 12.


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News - Foton
Foton commercial moves to Ateco
Ateco to become the new distributor for Foton heavy trucks in Australia
30 Oct 2012
ATECO Automotive has expanded its brand portfolio after announcing it had acquired the rights to distribute Chinese Foton trucks in Australia, but not utes.
The Sydney-based distributor will officially take over on Thursday (November 1) from the current distributor, Transpacific Industries Group.
Transpacific Industries, which has a number of waste management companies under its umbrella and also has the rights to distribute Western Star, MAN and Dennis Eagle trucks in Australia, could not be contacted for comment.
The arrangement with Ateco does not affect the local distribution of Foton Auto’s range of utes and light commercial vehicles, which is managed by Queensland company FAA Automotive Australia.
FAA is scheduled to commence sales of Foton’s light-commercial range, including the Tunland ute, by the end of 2012, but an official on-sale date is yet to be confirmed.
Foton’s initial offering of light and medium trucks under Ateco will be limited to the Aumark truck range that is already on sale in Australia, with new specifications and pricing information to be confirmed early next year.
Ateco has had some experience distributing commercial vehicles with Fiat Commercial before the Italian brand was taken over by the recently formed Fiat Chrysler Group Australia earlier this year.
Governing director of Ateco Australia, Neville Crichton, said he was excited to be bringing commercial vehicles back to Ateco.
“We have enjoyed great success in this country over the past few years with Chinese-made utilities and SUVs, and I think the time is now right for us to press ahead and enter other market segments with well-equipped and very competitively priced Chinese products,” he said.
Foton was founded in 1996 and is now the top-ranked commercial vehicle manufacturer in China.
It has sold more than five million vehicles worldwide and Ateco claims it now ranks as “the largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in the world”.
Foton has joint-venture agreements with a number of manufacturers and suppliers, most notably Daimler, with which it will produce a range of medium and heavy trucks under the Auman name.
The 50/50 partnership with Daimler will see the Auman truck range using Daimler’s Euro V Mercedes-Benz heavy-duty engines in future Foton truck models.
A spokesperson for Ateco Automotive said it is not yet known what future Foton trucks would make it onto the Australian market beyond the Aumark range.
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Personal income rose 0.6% during the month, and spending rose 0.4%.
Meanwhile, people also stashed away a larger portion of their earnings. The savings rate rose to 3.6% in November, up from 3.4% in October.
The encouraging news was partly the result of a comeback after Superstorm Sandy led income and spending to fall in October.
Even so, the rise in November was stronger than economists had anticipated, and led some to revise their forecasts for fourth quarter economic growth higher.
The Commerce Department's monthly data comes a day after it released a report showing the economy grew 3.1% in July through September, with a rise in consumer spending leading as the single largest driver of economic growth.
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Dallas, TX, December 19, 2008 --(PR.com
)-- The Transition Companies LLC (“TTC”) is pleased to announce the sale of King Oil Company of Hagerstown, Maryland to a Private Investor. TTC acted as King Oil’s M&A Advisor for this transaction.
TTC’s transactional team included Charles Boyer who advised King Oil in opening the process, Gary Brown who worked thru the final closing and Brandon Fitzgerald who directed the various marketing activities that produced the successful sale of the company.
Michael Ryan, Executive Director of Transactions at TTC said “we opened the market using our proprietary buyer list consisting of 157 prospective buyers. These resources resulted in numerous interested parties finishing with several “finalists.” The owners of King Oil Company were able to choose the transaction with the buyer that best met their personal objectives.”
“While the high end, mega M&A market is at an effective halt, demand still exists for profitable, well managed middle market companies,” said Gein Sartin, CEO of The Transition Companies.
The Transition Companies, headquartered in Dallas, Texas is a leading Mergers and Acquisition ("M&A") firm specializing in confidentially opening the market to maximize the value realized by the owners when selling their privately-held companies. TTC also provides consulting services for companies that want to increase earnings now or increase market value for a future sale.
The Transition Companies, originally founded in 1988, has 4 offices nationwide and a dedicated professional team of 105 Associates. TTC's team of professionals has provided valuation, consulting and executed M&A sale transactions for hundreds of companies across all industry sectors nationwide.


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Halton Borough Council has granted planning permission for Phase 2 of Aukett Europe's Daresbury Park project in Cheshire. The 40ha scheme - located north of Red Brow Lane - will be largely commercial office space, with limited small-scale retail units.
Haskoll has unveiled its newly redesigned visitor centre (above) for the Eden Project. Commissioned last year to make recommendations on customer flow, access and retail amenities, the practice was asked earlier this year to implement its designs. The shop has been successfully extended and a new cafeteria opened.


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Two new Intel 'RealSense' cameras -- the D415 and D435 -- have been unveiled by the brand as a new way to incorporate 3D capabilities into a project without the need for complicated equipment. Each of the cameras are able to process complex data in real-time, which will work effectively indoors, outdoors and at a variety of different ranges. This acknowledges the rising number of consumers who are partaking in 3D imaging projects to ensure that they are always able to perform as required in different scenarios.
The D415 and D435 Intel 'RealSense' cameras are priced at $150 and $179 respectively, and are poised to help further push the industry forward by providing users with access to enhanced capabilities in a compact frame.
Real-Time Processing 3D Cameras
More Stats +/-
3D Camera Smartphone Add-Ons
3D Image-Generating Cameras
3D Smartphone Camera Adapters
3D Camera Computers


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Voith continues to expand its digital agenda and extends the range of its trading platform for recovered paper (RCP) merQbiz. For this purpose, merQbiz and the American logistics provider C. H. Robinson have agreed to an exclusive cooperation: the customers are now offered unmatched freight capacity, competitive real-time pricing and a powerful supply chain network to the platform.
“The fact that we were able to win C. H. Robinson, one of the world’s largest logistics groups, as a partner for our digital trading platform shows that we have hit a nerve in the market with merQbiz,” says Dr. Hubert Lienhard, CEO of Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA.
The B2B-trading-platform merQbiz was launched in 2017 by Voith. It connects buyers and sellers of recovered paper in a digital marketplace. The platform gives buyers and sellers the ability to directly network with one another and access timely and reliable information about the supply and demand of recovered paper.
In addition, users can securely conduct their sales and purchasing transactions on the trading platform. Similar to the well-known online marketplaces, merQbiz evaluates the merchants, the buyers and the quality of the goods. This ensures a high level of security for all goods, logistics and payment flows as well as a high degree of transparency and professional handling. In the medium term, the trading platform’s offers will also be available to customers outside the United States.
As a result of the expansion of the product range to include integrated logistics solutions, merQbiz now also offers the automation and improvement of previously manually performed logistics processes on a user-friendly digital platform.
Absolute transparency in the market now applies not only to the pricing of recovered paper, but also to the shipping costs – competitive pricing is carried out in real time and customers receive prompt transport offers that match with their trading order.
The group serves more than 113,000 customers worldwide today with logistic solution. 2,600 thereof are in the paper, board and packaging industry. In the last business year C.H. Robinson generated sales of approx. 10 billion Euros.
“The integrated logistics solution is a game-changer for the industry. The supply of recovered paper will become even more predictable for our customers in the paper industry“, said John Fox, CEO of merQbiz.
In addition to its existing research and development budget, Voith invests around 100 million euros annually in digital products and services.


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January 18, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Measuring wrinkles, sun damage with software
I tested, firsthand, emerging bioscience technology that applies hard numbers to my skin's health. With two flashes of white-light digital imaging to my face and some sophisticated mathematical algorithms, the system I subjected myself to could calculate all that frightening detail in a few minutes.
This thing will either be youth-obsessed America's godsend or nightmare, I can't decide.
Apart from numbers, the technology, called Clarity Pro, can depict the depth and severity of wrinkles in a 3D chart, show the extent of bacteria-filled pores in a graph, or represent UV damage in purple dots scattered about your face in a white-light image. It can also calculate how long a person can be exposed to the sun, in minutes or hours a day, before incurring more UV damage.
When patents are finalized in the next year, the technology will also be able to forecast a patient's likelihood for skin cancer as a consequence of UV sun damage, according to Raj Chhibber, CEO and founder of BrighTex Bio-Photonics, the Silicon Valley-based maker of Clarity Pro.
"Diagnostics are key to assessing your health. Early intervention can solve a lot of problems," said Chhibber, a physicist by trade.
"We put a doctor in a computer," Chhibber said.
The technology is not out on the market yet, but it's poised for release next month to a number of high-end spas, medical health clinics, cosmetics companies and researchers, Chhibber said. He said he could envision an exam costing anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars at a commercial spa or clinic, depending on its stature. (For their privacy's sake, he would not release names of customers.)
With the tool, doctors and aestheticians will be able to recommend creams, salves or surgeries based on skin condition, and then show patients before and after effects of recommendations. Independent researchers may also be able to test, quantifiably, the claims of those companies selling antiaging procedures or corrective creams. Cosmetics companies will be able to produce similar research and back up their claims--or not.
All this could shake up the cosmetics industry, which has long sold its antiaging products with subjective claims of worth. Technology that can be used to fact-check product efficacy could ultimately be a blemish on sales. Or it could boost an already booming market for facial antiaging products, which is worth more than $10 billion in the United States annually.
Creams that claim to reverse aging can easily sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Health spas promoting chemical peels, micro-dermabrasion treatments, facials and Botox have popped up all over the country. Just turn on the TV for shows like "Extreme Makeover" and "Nip/Tuck" to see that facelifts and collagen implants are child's play when it comes to the country's fixation with youth.
Computer diagnostics for skin health could be the next generation of the business. After all, advancements in science and technology are merging at a fast clip, and demand for ever-better data about health is catching up.
"Hopefully we can help people understand what's helping them by understanding the process and show people the reality of UV damage," said Chhibber.
In Asia, Chhibber said, demand for such diagnostics may be more robust because spending on looks is much greater. And many Americans venture overseas to get facial procedures done because it's much less expensive than in the United States. "We don't know how Americans will accept this," he said.
At least one California company likes the results.
Ray Mead, founder of a skin specialist in Carlsbad, Calif., recently met the BrighTex team at an antiaging conference in Las Vegas. People at the conference who tested his company's product, Lumiere, an LED light-therapy treatment for removing age spots, tried Clarity Pro before and after the treatments and found that Lumiere worked, Mead said.
"We had people go measure the size of their pores, their number of
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Originally published on Mon December 23, 2013 4:50 pm
Emergency contraception has been embroiled in controversy pretty much from the start.
But this year the legal wrangling over who can buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription came to an end. A federal judge in New York ruled in April that the morning-after pill also had to be made available over the counter to girls 16 and under.
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
And I'm Audie Cornish.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, made a rare visit to the Central African Republic today. Its government was toppled earlier this year, and Muslim and Christian militias are now locked in a brutal fight. Samantha Power met with the country's new president and appealed for reconciliation to prevent further atrocities.
Right in the middle of holiday shopping season, some 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in a major breach of Target customer data. The thefts occurred in stores, not online. Target says it's working with a forensics company to investigate and prevent similar data thefts from occurring in the future. Security experts say one way to limit them is to switch from magnetic stripes on cards to embedded chips.
Originally published on Thu December 19, 2013 5:42 pm
Christmas is less than a week away and shoppers continue their quest for the perfect gift at the perfect price. But at one shop in a southwest Ohio mall, Roman Catholic friars are offering their presence for free.
The New York City Council is slated to vote on a bill today that would add electronic cigarettes to the city's smoking ban. If the bill passes, use of e-cigarettes would be prohibited from public and private venues such as beaches, parks, restaurants and offices.
Much of the debate over whether and how to overhaul the country's immigration policy has hinged on whether and how to create a pathway to citizenship. But a majority of Latinos now say that's less important for unauthorized immigrants than giving them relief from the threat of deportation.
Originally published on Thu December 19, 2013 4:28 pm
President Obama has commuted the sentences of eight people convicted of drug crimes, saying their terms were unusually harsh due to a system that treated crack cocaine as a more serious offense than powder cocaine.
The president also pardoned 13 others convicted of various other offenses.
The commutations come after the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which is aimed at reducing disparities in the way the law treats cocaine possession.
If you're confused about the latest recommendations for treating high blood pressure, take heart. Doctors are confused, too.
On Wednesday, a panel of specialists called the Eighth Joint National Committee published guidelines saying that many people over 60 don't need to start taking medications to lower blood pressure until it's above 150/90 millimeters of mercury.


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The A1366 will have a Hash rate of 130 TH/s and an efficiency of 25 J/TH, beating its predecessors in computing power and power efficiency, the company said. It’s unclear when they will start shipping.
“We are now working around the clock across the supply chain to prepare for future purchase orders and deliveries of the new products to our clients worldwide,” Nangeng Zhang, chairman and CEO of Canaan said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The new series and the A1366 in particular are “extremely competitive” when compared to Bitmain’s flagship S19 XP and MicroBT’s M50S on an efficiency basis, said Ethan Vera, COO of bitcoin infrastructure company Luxor Technologies.
The second model, the A1346, has slightly lower specs at 110 TH/s hash rate and 30 J/TH efficiencies.
“We expect the A13 series to get a lot of interest due to the top-tier efficiency, if the price is in line with competitors,” Vera said. “Miners are flocking to the latest-generation machines as hashprice has been plummeting, creating a dynamic where the most-efficient miners have higher resistance to hashprice.”
Hash price is a term coined by the company, referring to revenue miners earn from a unit of hash rate over a specific timeframe.
Bitcoin miners have seen their profit margins squeezed over the past few months as they deal with the sharp decline in the value of bitcoin at the same time as power costs and mining difficulty rise. On Sunday, the difficult metric jumped by 3.4% after climbing 13.55% two weeks ago.
“While the current challenges in the industry persist, the fundamental values and the long-term growth prospects of bitcoin and the supercomputing industry remain strong,” Zhang said.
Vera also pointed out that Canaan has in the past had “mixed reviews” from North American miners and, because of its use of chips from SMIC, which was blacklisted by the US, the company “is seen as more likely to face supply chain disruptions.” To be clear, Canaan hasn’t announced whether the two new models are made with SMIC chips.


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UPS Plans Hefty Holiday Fees Amid Coronavirus-Related Shipment Surge
United Parcel Service Inc. plans to impose hefty fees on large shippers during the holiday season, reflecting the added complexity and cost of an expected crush of online orders amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The fees will test the ability of large retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Target Corp. to offset costs during a holiday season when skittish shoppers will avoid crowded stores and rely more on online orders.
UPS on Friday said the fees could total as much as $3 a package for ground shipments and other lower-priced shipping options and up to $4 a package for air shipments bound for residences.
That is significantly higher than the last time UPS instituted additional fees during a peak holiday season, in 2018. Surcharges then reached 28 cents on ground shipments and up to 99 cents for some air shipments.
The newly planned fees come as UPS as well as rival FedEx Corp. try to offset significantly higher costs from the influx of packages flowing through their network.
They have already imposed additional fees on large shippers, and have raised prices on some customers by double-digit rates.
Shares of both companies got a boost Friday. Investors have been hoping delivery companies could squeeze higher prices out of customers after years of investments to expand and modernize their delivery systems. The pandemic has allowed them to capitalize on that much sooner than expected.
In an internal document circulated before the surcharges were disclosed, UPS told its sales team that the fees would offset higher costs to hire new workers and to secure additional air, truck and rail capacity.
“These surcharges help protect our network and ensure UPS is compensated appropriately for additional costs incurred to maintain our high-quality service,” according to the document, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The new charges come after UPS’s new chief executive, Carol Tomé, recently said the company would take a more aggressive approach to raising prices on large retailers to manage capacity.
“While retailers may squawk at price increases that come their way, large retailers have a way to spread that across and nobody knows,” Ms. Tomé, who previously served as finance chief at Home Depot Inc., said on an earnings call last week.
Shipping consultants expected the holiday surcharges to be steeper than before, but were surprised by how high UPS is going.
“This is devastating to retailers,” said John Haber, CEO of the supply chain consultant Spend Management Experts Inc. “It’s getting to a point where I’m starting to consider it gouging.”
Retailers including Target have been revamping supply chains in recent years to give themselves more options to fulfill online orders. The Minneapolis-based retailer ships more than 80% of online orders from its stores, a spokesman said, reducing the distance, cost and time it takes to fulfill an order.
While Target is a big UPS customer, it also uses a number of other national and local carriers. “We can choose the best option for every box,” the Target spokesman said.
A FedEx spokeswoman declined to comment. Company executives have said they are evaluating plans for added fees during the peak season. “This is part of the new normal,” FedEx Chief Marketing Officer Brie Carere said in late June.
In the past, the company hasn’t imposed surcharges on residential deliveries during the holidays and instead worked closely with shippers to manage expected shipping volume during the busiest times. It has charged more during peak periods for bulky parcels.
UPS said its surcharges will apply from mid-November until mid-January. They are designed to apply only to customers who ship more than 25,000 packages a week, with the fees rising based on how much higher the weekly shipping volume is compared to the customer’s average weekly shipping volume in February. That month is seen as a baseline because it was before the pandemic upended buying and shipping patterns.
The starting fees are $1 for ground shipments and $2 for air. The company said it would also include surcharges of $5 on shipments that require additional handling and $50 for large items.
A UPS spokesman said the surcharges reflect the available capacity to handle and ship packages.
UPS is encouraging customers to adjust their operations to avoid the brunt of the fees. According to the internal document, some of those steps include shifting promotions during the holiday season so volume doesn’t spike too much during the busiest times such as around Thanksgiving, and enticing shoppers to pick up orders in stores or to have packages delivered to access points like dry cleaners, drugstores or other local businesses.
“These strategies help UPS decrease disruptions to our network, maintain a steadier stream of volume throughout peak season and may alleviate financial effects of the surcharges for our customers,” according to the document.
by WSJ/Paul Ziobro


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We can't forget that in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is Small Business Saturday.
Leaders with the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce encouraged people to shop local this holiday season.
Small Business Saturday takes advantage of one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.
The chamber's president and CEO, Joyce Waugh, says local companies are the backbone of our community.
"Don't forget they are employing people, they are investing in our community and your dollar turns over several times in the community when you shop in the region," Waugh says.
American Express is offering a $10 credit to anyone who makes a purchase of $10 or more at a small business this Saturday.


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(PRWEB) May 08, 2014
The beautiful energy saving curtains offered by expert company Lightinhome.com are popular for quality materials, elegant designs and affordable prices. Recently, the company has released a new range of energy saving curtains, and launched a promotion for these wonderful items.
As a matter of fact, Lightinhome.com is striving to do everything to ensure customer satisfaction. As part of its comprehensive curtain solution, the company’s online workers have listed its curtain tags on its website; that makes it more convenient for worldwide customers to find suitable items for themselves. Also, the company has arranged a lot of qualified workers to work at its online shop. All customers can ask related questions around the clock.
The company’s marketing specialist is proud of its new energy saving curtains. “We are excited to announce our beautiful items and launch the big promotion. All of the new curtains are now available at discounted prices, up to 30 percent off. Before creating the fresh range, our top experts spent several months doing marketing research. Thus, I believe these products can certainly meet the needs and requirement of the global customers,” he says.
After a few minutes, he adds happily, “By the way, the special offer will be valid until May 25, 2014. Clients who are interested in our new energy saving curtains should visit our online store as soon as possible.”
Lightinhome.com is one of the world’s leading home furnishing retailers; it provides custom curtains and all kinds of curtains at affordable rates. The company’s products include vintage floral curtains, country curtains, blackout curtains and more. All its products are made from selected materials; they are promised to be soft and beautiful.
To find more information about the company’s wonderful products, please visit: http://www.lightinhome.com/tags/.


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You go out, you meet someone, you get invited back, you don’t have anything on you so you do the responsible thing and nip to the convenience store to stock up. So far, so good? Wrong.
In a country where birth control is a serious matter, with regulations restricting inner-city couples to one child each, you can bet there will be a lot of nervous men and women in the Hunan province this week, as news broke that police had raided a workshop producing counterfeit condoms.
As the Times reports:
Police warned that that contraceptives had already been distributed nationwide and many people had already bought and used the poor quality items, risking both pregnancy and disease… Four people have been arrested in the condom bust [snigger] where bare-chested employees were found using vegetable oil to lubricate the condoms to make them smooth and shiny before placing them directly in fibre bags without bothering with sterilisation.
Police have warned that, although the fake condoms are packaged to resemble reputable brands, such as Durex, a good way to spot a counterfeit was that the price of the fakes is significantly lower than that of the genuine article. Presumably noticing that your genitals smell like chip fat is a fairly good indicator too.Times Online