text:
Moose Toys Announces Shopkins™ License Agreement with Build-A-Bear Workshop
Launching a creative product tie-in for August 2017
Moose Toys is thrilled to announce the signing of a license agreement with Build-A-Bear Workshop. Build-A-Bear Workshop is the premiere interactive destination for creating personalized furry friends and a perfect fit with the Shopkins brand. This year, Build-A-Bear Workshop celebrates their 20th Anniversary. The global agreement, brokered by The Licensing Shop Inc., covers Build-A-Bear Workshop locations including those in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and China, and franchise stores in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Mexico and the Middle East.
Since its 2014 launch, Shopkins has become a global phenomenon with each season offering more than 100 different Shopkins characters to collect, including common, rare and limited edition characters. . Its animated webisode series has amassed nearly 240 million views on YouTube and the Shopkins 12-Pack was the number one selling toy in the U.S. in 2015 and 2016 according to the NPD Group. Shopkins remains the top girls’ toy and license in major categories such as apparel, room décor, party goods, sleepwear, and others.
Nicole Hardiman, Head of Licensing who oversees the global licensing program at Moose Toys adds, “We are excited to be announcing this license agreement with Build-A-Bear Workshop and are loving their products currently in development. We know our Shopkins fans will enjoy the experience being planned for this August at their global locations!”
The brand won the 2016 LIMA Award of Excellence for ‘Best Toy Character License,’ as the licensed merchandise program has generated more than $1 billion in retail sales since inception.
The post Shopkins License agreement with Build-A-Bear Workshop appeared first on Shopkins World.


text:
Automotive aftermarket parts maker Advance Auto Parts (AAP) posted results before the market opened on Tuesday, Nov. 13. Net sales inched 4.3% up to $2.3 billion, pushing diluted earnings 20% up to $1.56 per share.
Gross profit improved 6.2% to $1.0 billion, while comparable store sales grew 4.3% in the quarter. Adjusted earnings soared 32.2% to $1.89 per share.
CEO Tom Grewei said that the company delivered its “strongest comparable sales growth in nearly eight years.”
“In addition, through the disciplined execution of our financial priorities we increased our free cash flow by 140% and returned $120 million to our shareholders through share repurchases,” he added.
Advance Auto Parts updated its outlook, and now sees FY2018 net sales between $9.55 billion and $9.60 billion. Comparable store sales is touted to be 2-2.5%, while adjusted operating income margin is projected to be 7.6-7.8%.
On November 7, 2018, the AAP’s Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share to be paid on January 4, 2019 to all common shareholders of record as of December 21, 2018.

domain: news


text:
Soon we’ll get another chance to say ahoy to Aloy, as Sony announced a State of Play dedicated to Horizon Forbidden West. The event will give us a peek at around 14 minutes of gameplay captured on a PS5.
Horizon Forbidden West is still set for this year, despite any delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. That means that Sony should be starting to ramp up its reveals. The last State of Play was understandably focused on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, but now that that game is approaching release, it’s time to shift focus. A 20 minute presentation all about Horizon Forbidden West sounds like a great start.
Those looking to tune in should set aside time on Thursday, May 27, 2021. The State of Play itself starts at 2PM PT/ 5PM ET/ 11PM CT. Those stuck at work, however, can open the video as early as 9AM PT to find a “uniquely crafted countdown.”
The Horizon Forbidden West State of Play can be viewed on:
Or just click on the video below to start watching right here.
In the meantime, the original Horizon: Zero Dawn is still killing it on Steam. Sony investor documents also hint that it might soon find company on PC in the form of Uncharted 4. Even so, Horizon Forbidden West is topping a lot of lists of the few games that will actually justify buying a PS5. Some of TheGamer’s writers think there’s a lot to improve from the first game, while others are looking forward to water levels of all things.
Will we all be blown away by the gameplay on display? Will we finally get a concrete release date? And will Horizon fans finally get the make up they deserve? We might get answers (to everything but the last question) soon.
Source: Read Full Article


text:
The Conference Board of Canada has released Canada’s Food Report Card: Provincial Performance, a report that assesses each province’s food systems and food sectors.
The new Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security is striving to work collaboratively to reduce food insecurity in Canada by 50 per cent by 2030
Local producers and communities are making the cultivation of fresh fruit and vegetables feasible in Northern Canada
Report will track food supply throughout the food chain
Climate change will have an impact on crop production, food security and food safety, says a new study, but it’s not all doom and gloom
Feds to invest in growing food in the far north
Could GMOs be the answer for feeding the estimated 10 billion people that will inhabit the planet by 2050?
A Must Read for all food & beverages industry personnel
Canada’s national food & beverage processing authority
Serving the Canadian food & beverage processing industry for over 80 years!
FREE to qualified industry professionals


text:
Your weekly helping of five interesting ideas to take you into the weekend. Curated by Good Business and delivered straight to your inbox first thing on a Friday, if you subscribe here.
(1) Selfie Shopping
Mastercard is rolling out technology that will enable online shoppers to verify their identity using selfies instead of the password currently required at point of purchase. With the new MasterCard Identity Check, shoppers will confirm payments either by placing a finger on the scanner of their smartphone or by blinking into its front-facing camera to prove their identity. Financial organisations are increasingly experimenting with biometrics as a more secure and convenient alternative to passwords — easily forgotten or stolen — and Mastercard is banking on the hope that this new system will easily catch-on amongst consumers used to using their front-facing phone camera for Snapchat, Skype and Facetime. The system was designed to increase the number of merchant retail sales as more than a third of consumers abandon an online purchase simply because they’ve forgotten a relevant password. This is therefore a great example of an initiative that ticks lots of boxes: assuaging security concerns while improving both customer experience and Mastercard’s bottom line.
(2) Superhumans Found
Mars has launched a new campaign for the Paralympics that champions diversity and disability. The series of three television ads fall under the brand’s #LookOnTheLightSide banner and feature disabled actors celebrating universally awkward situations, such as embarrassing moments with new boyfriends and bad behaviour at weddings. The brand worked closely with disability charity Scope to ensure the ads reflected reality and each spot is based on a real-life story from a disabled person. The campaign is the result of a Channel 4 initiative, ‘Superhumans Wanted’, that offered up £1 million of commercial airtime and an exclusive launch spot in the first break of the Paralympics Opening Ceremony to the brand or agency that came up with the best idea for a campaign prominently featuring disability and disabled talent. This is an impressive statement by Mars that helps normalises disability, supported by an equally impressive commitment from Channel 4 to encourage its suppliers to hold their content to higher standards. More like this please.
(3) Sparring on Self-Control
A new fantasy card battling game that responds to players’ emotions and rewards them accordingly will launch later this month via a crowdfunding campaign. Champions of the Shengha is the first title from new social venture BfB Labs which aims to bring Emotionally Responsive Gaming (ERG) to the masses. An ear clip monitor worn during gameplay measures users’ emotional state by tracking their heart rate variability, and challenges them to defeat opponents using a combination of strategy and self control. Through regular play, users master skills of emotional control that will improve their capacity to deal with stress, anxiety and frustration. BfB Labs’ overarching aim is to tackle the prevalence of mental health problems. Half of common mental health disorders in the UK start by the age of 14 and ultimately affect 1 in 4 people at some point in their lives. By helping young people acquire skills to regulate their emotions, Shengha helps protect against the development of mental health problems, and does so by taking the learning to the gaming worlds where young people already feel comfortable and engaged. Our founder Giles chairs the board of Shift, the Foundation that created BfB Labs, and we’re excited about Shengha's potential. Look out for more information from us on the crowdfunding campaign closer to its launch, but if you have any questions in the meantime do reach out by replying to this email.
(4) Moo-Free Milk
A San Francisco startup has created animal-free cow's milk. Perfect Day claims to have created a product identical in taste and nutritional value to cow's milk but without the udders. The company believes that it will be a revelation for consumers who love to eat dairy ice-cream, cheese and yogurt but oppose factory style farming and its environmental footprint. Although sales of milk alternatives such as soy and coconut are expected to be worth more than $10bn by 2019, the alternatives for yogurt, cheese and ice-cream aren't faring so well. The animal-free cow's milk has been made by inserting cow DNA — which is readily available thanks to decades of research by the dairy industry - into yeast and adding sugar to create milk proteins through fermentation. These milk proteins are then combined with sugar, fats and nutrients to create the final product. Given that no udders were milked in the making of the product, however, the US FDA says the startup will have to find an alternative name to 'milk'. Somewhat surprisingly, the startup has been in talks with a number of traditional dairy companies who see it as the long-term solution to big problems such as water pollution and climate change — the world's dairy cows are responsible for just under 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
(5) Purrfect Switch-Up
The Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (CATS) has replaced all 68 adverts in Clapham Common station with pictures of cats. The campaign — which will run for the next two weeks and was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign — is not a clever marketing stunt by a brand, but rather a powerful statement against the barrage of advertising promoting buying things over building relationships that we regularly absorb on our commutes. The project is the first from new creative collective Glimpse, which wants to use the power of creativity for good by creating “glimpses” of a world where things are getting better. The collective is careful to maintain that it isn’t against advertising, it merely wants agencies and brands to be mindful of the power they wield and to use it to encourage positive values like empathy and tolerance in society. This is something that we can stand behind. By tapping into internet trends (for their cat focus) and real consumer desire (over 700 people backed their Kickstarter) CATS has led by example in creating a campaign for good that is talked about and shared for all the right reasons. We’re looking forward to increasing numbers of attempts by brands and major corporates to do the same.


text:
If a reminder were needed of how much Microsoft wants us all to buy a new PC and upgrade to Windows 10 in the process, a set of classic Windows games are set to become unplayable. Support for Microsoft Internet Games comes to an end within a few weeks depending on your OS.
As Engadget reports(Opens in a new window), the announcement was made back on July 2 on the Microsoft Answers website(Opens in a new window). M. Hamer, a Microsoft agent, explained that Microsoft Internet Games will no longer be supported for Windows XP, Windows ME, and Windows 7 users. When support ends depends on the version of Windows being used. For Windows XP/ME users, it's happening on July 31. For Windows 7 users, it will happen on Jan. 22 next year.
Microsoft Internet Games consists of Internet Backgammon, Internet Checkers, Internet Spades, Internet Hearts, and Internet Reversi. Hearts and Reversi didn't make it into Windows 7, instead, they got MSN Go as part of the line-up. If you still play any of these games, especially on the now ancient Windows XP/ME, then it's time to find alternative web-based versions as you only have 17 days until they disappear.
What's most surprising is how long these games have remained playable and supported. Microsoft is also missing a trick by not providing OS-independent versions for users to keep playing online, especially as that would offer ample opportunity to advertise Windows 10 to a crowd that's clearly not very keen on upgrading.
As to why Microsoft is ending support, Hamer explains, "the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources towards more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences." It's hard to believe there was very much in the way of resources being used to keep these game services running.
Get Our Best Stories!
Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!Sign up for other newsletters


text:
In the Q1 of 2019, Samsung launched its first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold Foldable Phone.
Even though its commercial availability was delayed a couple of times due to display issues, it is still a remarkable device. Samsung must have taken note of this, as insiders are reporting that the Korean giant plan to reveal two new foldable smartphones next year.
On top of this, other variants of foldable smartphones are expected to hit the market next year, expanding the foldable segment to meet the demand for larger screens in compact form factors. At least two new foldable models are likely to be launched by Samsung next year, while there are rumors that LG Electronics will debut its first foldable phone.
One of these next-generation Galaxy Folds will reportedly come with a clamshell design. As per the report, the cover display will primarily be used by the company just to show notifications along with some other basic information such as battery info while charging. A couple of charging animations seemingly designed for the device have also been found in the OneUI 2.0 beta.
The retail price of the clamshell phone is estimated to be around 1 million won ($845), a price strategy to ramp up sales and make it a mass-market model. It’s expected to launch sometime in February 2020, possibly alongside the Galaxy S11. That is unless the Galaxy S11 itself is the new clamshell device, though it seems rather unlikely.
“Samsung’s plan to expand the foldable product lineup depends on the market response to the clamshell model slated for launch in 2020, but it is clear the firm will increase the lineup,” said Choi Bo-young, an analyst at Kyobo Securities. He also mentions that the proper successor to the Galaxy Fold will likely be announced around August 2020.
Let’sGo Digital, an online IT outlet based in the Netherlands, revealed that the Korean company filed a design patent with the Hague International Design System in May, though it was not officially announced until Nov. 29.
The patent sketch shows that the outward-folding foldable design looks like Huawei’s Mate X. More


text:
All our artworks are sold with a blockchain registered certificate of authenticity.
ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY is also now accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment for all artworks, analogue or digital.
Annka Kultys Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a new gallery space in London. Located at 472 Hackney Road, Unit 9, the new gallery remains at the same address in a larger unit, next door to the former space. The new entrance is in the courtyard of the Peterley Business Center.


text:
Convergint buys in Florida
SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Convergint Technologies is reaching more physical security customers in Florida, thanks to its recent acquisition of Qualified Systems Contracting, Inc.
“Essentially, it fills in a gap in the geographical area, in terms of being able to service our customers,” said Dan Moceri, co-founder and CEO of Convergint. “So, while we’ve just started up operations in Florida, what it gives us is an immediate access to service a number of our customers in the state of Florida.”
With the purchase, Convergint has picked up three locations in Florida: Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, along with hundreds of Qualified Systems’ customers, said Moceri.
Qualified Systems founder Dave Torgerson will stay on as general manager of the Florida locations, said Moceri. Qualified’s 40 employees have joined Convergint, which has hired two additional employees in Florida, he said.
Associates in the Florida locations sell and supply the same products Convergint does, providing a high level of integration and support to customers, Moceri said.
Moceri said the deal reflects Convergint’s geographic and services business strategies. “They fit very nicely into the geographic side to what we’re doing,” he said. “We’ve always differentiated Convergint based on services. Everything that we sell and support, other people sell and support in the same geographic locations. So, our big differentiator from day one has been on the services side.”
Moceri said that Qualified Systems was well aligned with Convergint in terms of the products and services they provide. He said the cultural similarities between the two companies are substantial and important.
Terms of the acquisition are confidential, Moceri said.
In 2012, when Convergint partnered with private equity investor KRG Capital Partners, the company announced plans to grow organically and pursue acquisitions to expand its geographic footprint. Moceri said the purchase of Qualified Systems Contracting is the first of those growth acquisitions.


text:
Realme is gearing up to launch the successor of the Realme GT Neo 3 and the upcoming smartphone series will be dubbed as the Realme GT Neo 5 series, the smartphone series is expected to have the vanilla model and GT Neo 5T. Realme is skipping the 4 number similar to the other Chinese smartphone brands. If you are unaware then the Chinese smartphone makers have a tradition to skip the number 4.
Now we got a new piece of information which is suggesting the battery and charging details of the upcoming Realme GT Neo 5 series. So let’s dive into the article to check out the complete details.
According to the reliable tipster Digital Chat Station, the upcoming Realme GT Neo 5 smartphone will come in two variants and one of them is BLP985 which will be housing a 5,000mAh battery with 150W fast charging and the smartphone series will also include a model with the BLP987 and the same will be housing a 4,600mAh battery along with a massive 240W fast charging technology.
It is also reported that the upcoming Realme GT Neo 5 series will be featuring Sony IMX890 primary camera sensor with support for Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and is claimed to offer better performance than the Realme GT Neo 3 series.
The upcoming smartphone series will be featuring a triple-camera setup on the back and either 16MP or 32MP front-facing camera as well. The source is not revealing any other information about the smartphone series but based on the previous reports, it is expected that the smartphone series will feature a 6.5-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
So let’s wait for more details about the upcoming smartphone series of the company and we recommend you to stay tuned with us for more interesting information from the technological world at your fingertips.
Read interesting news, reviews as well as tips & tricks on TechnoBugg website, and stay updated with the latest happenings of the tech world on the go with Technobugg App. Also follow on Google News and join our Telegram channel for the latest update.


text:
The author of a new book shows us where we may be going wrong in the kitchen.
The annual Klink Awards have been announced, honouring local wine farms in various categories.
Renee Moodie remembers a childhood dream and hauls out an old and battered kitchen companion.
IOL Lifestyle Editor Renee Moodie takes a look at the semi-finals of South Africa's own baking reality show.
Nigella Lawson's bizarre twist on a classic dish proved hard for her viewers, and some fellow chefs, to swallow. [VIDEO].
Tips for getting the most out of Google and winning in the kitchen.
Lard is healthier for frying than sunflower oil, according to scientists.
Diner en Blanc, scheduled to be held on Saturday November 28, 2015 has been postponed.
The Western Cape took top honours in the annual Eat Out restaurant awards.
Seventeen Western Cape restaurants are among 20 finalists for the Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards.
IOL Lifestyle Editor Renee Moodie looks at the four remaining contestants on the Great SA Bake Off.
A Cape Town woman is not wishing McDonald’s a happy birthday after she was served a mouldy bun.
Sounds like something you might find under the table at a five-year-old's birthday party - just one of the comments on the Great British Sausage Roll.
The world's insatiable demand for pesto is threatening the pine-nut, conservationists say.
The author of a popular book about good, cheap food shares some of her secrets.


text:
- Filed Under
The holiday season is still a couple of months away, but according to an analysis out Tuesday, you've only got about three weeks before airfares start going up.
An analysis of last year's fares by comparison travel website Kayak found that average prices for domestic travel for Thanksgiving jumped 17 percent above the lowest average fares after mid-October.
Average fares increased up to 51 percent for Christmas and 25 percent for New Year's, after mid-October. ...


text:
It’s not uncommon to hear someone lash out at Apple for being restrictive, but this takes it to a whole other level.
Chinese streaming platform Leshi TV, also known as LeTV, is expected to launch a smartphone next month. When you’re entering the smartphone market, one of your major competitors is Apple – so it makes sense that you’d want to explain why your device is better than the ever-popular iPhone. Hey, you might even want to take a shot at Apple. It’s a good way to grab headlines, if nothing else.
Well, headlines have been grabbed. LeTV CEO Jia Yueting has compared Apple to Hitler. Yes, the _____ is Hitler theme is alive and well.
The Verge first spotted Yueting’s post on his verified Weibo page. He posted a cartoon image of Hitler, with an Apple logo imposed on his red armband.
Written across the top is “Crowdsourced, freedom vs arrogance, tyranny.”
The rest of the text, loosely translated, says that iOS is a “closed-loop platform developers love to hate” because it “greatly curb[s] technological innovation, hinders industrial progress, and hurts the interest of users.”
Apple has acquired FoundationDB, a company that specializes in speedy, durable NoSQL databases, TechCrunch has learned. A notice on the FoundationDB site notes that it’s no longer offering downloads of its database software. Financial terms of the deal were not available. CEO David Rosenthal was previously VP of Engineering at Omniture and co-founded the company with COO Nick Lavezzo… Read More
It’s been a controversial week in tech, to say the least. With Apple’s reveal of a new one-port MacBook to the Ellen Pao gender discrimination trial, the tech world has been up in arms. These are our best stories of the week (3/7-3/13). Read More
I’m going to predict that Apple and Google will not renew their Safari default search deal in the U.S. Both parties now have reasons not to renew. We don’t know precisely when their deal is up, but we know it’s this year. Previously, The Information reported that Microsoft and…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
The first big move was to buy the Promoted Trend—which, at last check, costs $200,000 a day—to be the top item on Twitter. Apple's choice of wording for the ad seemed to show it was mostly interested in keeping that paid position out of the hands of rivals, not in coming up with a fancy hashtag. The Promoted Trend simply read: "Apple event."
Apple has been slow to adopt all social channels and embrace marketing on them. It doesn't even have an @Apple Twitter account.
Still, today, Twitter was all about Apple, with its watch event appearing naturally several times among the trending topics. Apple finally launched the much-anticipated wearable device, and revealed it would hit stores April 24—pre-orders start April 10. The Apple Watch costs anywhere from $350 to $17,000 for the premium gold edition.
Apple fended off potential brand-jackers by making sure its Promoted Tweets showed up for anyone searching most keywords associated to Apple and watches. It also unveiled a new Macbook today, including a new gold variety, and made sure to buy the top paid position for anyone searching for that keyword on Twitter.
Still, not every competitor was discouraged from going after Apple with a real-time social media blitz. Scrappy startup Pebble, which shot to fame raising money for its smartwatch on Kickstarter, was active on its personal Twitter account while Apple showed off new features of its watch. Pebble took some shots at Apple and its watch features.
However, Apple still closed the paid gates on rivals pretty tightly. For instance, a Twitter search for "apple watch" came back with this atop the results. Looks like Apple does not suffer trolls lightly.
Apple debuted the long-awaited Apple Watch today, and as promised, it gives marketers a completely different way to think about mobile creative. A number of brands and tech names have already developed Apple Watch apps, which will be go live once the smartwatch is available for pre-order on April 10 and in retail stores on April 24.
Here are 7 brands that already have use cases for the wearable.
The Stamford, Conn.-based hospitality marketer already has a smartphone app that unlocks hotel room doors, and its smartwatch app plans to do the same. It's a simple concept, yet it entails big implications in cutting the cost that hotel brands pour into producing physical room cards.
Retale: The location-based couponing app turns print circular ads into digital promos from 130 merchants and will be one of the first retail names to launch a dedicated feature for Apple Watch.
The wrist app will sync with Retale's existingiPhone and iPad apps, so people can save information—like lists of local stores—on multiple devices.
Retale is tight-lipped about what the actual app will look like, but it will take advantage of a store-finder feature to help people locate nearby offers. A mockup of the app shows a map that plots the distance from a user to a nearby Target store, for example.
Marsh Supermarkets: Earlier this year, Marsh Supermarkets started loading up its 75 stores with beacons in anticipation for Apple's smartwatch announcement.
Up until now, beacons have primarily been utilized to trigger push notifications on smartphones, and Marsh claims to be the first to employ the technology to build out a smartwatch app with beacon vendor InMarket.
"If you look at that situation when you're running through a store, how much more convenient is it to have a hands-free option to see what you're making for dinner or understand what the deals are when you're in-store?" Todd Dipaola, CEO of inMarket told Adweek in January.
Shazam: The music-discovery app has its sights on devices beyond smartphones, as CMO Patricia Parra said last week.
Like InMarket's Dipaola, Shazam's Parra also plans to eventually make the content that smartwatches stream handless. "We are going to get to a world where you don't even have to [touch an app]," she said. "We are going to be wearing stuff that tells us things like when our blood pressure rises."
Social apps: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and WeChat all plan to launch Apple Watch apps, which will likely make it one step easier to take and share social photos.
These sites are already overloaded with user-generated photos, and with wrist-enabled cameras, one can only expect for the amount of photos to grow.
Panera Bread: In September, the bakery chain rolled out Apple Pay, which includes an option to pay through Apple Watch.
Similar to other brands' apps, the payment technology plugs into Panera's mobile app and lets people hold the watch over a reader that's at the point of sale.
Apple shared a similar use case with Whole Foods at today's event.
CNN: The news site's upcoming app will pull in breaking news from 12 categories like breaking news, health and entertainment. The app will also livestream CNN TV coverage and lets people tap to read and save stories.
"The CNN app on Apple Watch is our most personal product to date, and a true game-changer," said CNN chief product officer Alex Wellen in a statement.
And you thought making a killer ad for a smartphone was tough.
With today's unveiling of the Apple Watch, marketers are facing the realistic possibility of a looming smartwatch era that will force brands to devise effective messages on the tiniest of screens.
"If there are eyeballs on [the screens], there will be ads," said Mike Kisseberth, chief revenue officer at Purch. "The question is, what form they will take to create an experience that delivers real value for both the user and the marketer."
Indeed, the Apple Watch creates a marketing niche that will require testing formats that squeeze into the wearable's 38-millimeter and 42-millimeter screen options. So we asked a handful of agency leads to weigh in on the new dilemmas posed by the device.
"The challenge marketers will face will be one of using adequate restraint," said Ben Parker, Naked Communications' head of stategy. "The temptation will be to try to rush onto people's wrists with the kind of content that is currently served on their phones. This will be a mistake."
Push notifications could viewed as bad news to smartwatch wearers, added Dan LaCivita, CEO of Firstborn.
"Because the Apple Watch is largely notification-based, and it will be tempting to tap into that, there is a huge risk of being irritating when marketing to users—a constantly vibrating wrist will get old fast," he said. "So marketers are going to have to be very edited in terms of frequency and value when it comes to creating Watch-based alerts."
Brands are going to have to be concise to not only fit their messages onto the screen but to also work in harmony with consumers' ever-shortening attention spans. Mike McKenna, managing partner at McKenna and Partners in Boston, said the copy will have to be headline-driven.
"Challenges via the wrist are similar to old-fashioned, out-of-home communications like billboards—where you need to get the whole story out at 55 miles an hour," McKenna said.
Sophie Kleber, director, product and innovation at Huge, advised industry peers to "make it legible and immediately useful."
Kleber continued, "People look at their watches continuously throughout the day, for about 0.5 seconds each time. With that in mind, designers should focus on only providing messaging and functionality that is timely, of high contextual importance, and immediately actionable. If you have to take out your phone to complete an action initiated on the watch, then it's not a true watch use case."
Tara Greer, EVP, executive creative director, platforms, at Deutsch LA, predicted that brand presences on Apple Watch will likely be utility based, similarly to apps on smartphones.
"Marketers will have to work harder to earn a place on our bodies," she said. "Sports marketers are probably going to have the easiest time of this; there's a natural fit between tracking physical data and creating great products and services for the [Apple Watch], that don't feel invasive, but rather, like a natural extension of the brand."
Whether Apple Watch ads and marketing actually work will be worth observing in the coming months.
"At some point, there is only so small a screen can get before it is not an effective visual medium, regardless of the age demographic," said McKenna of Marsteller.
At the same time, Tom Bash, senior manager of product strategy and operations for Exponential, addressed the elephant in the room: Will enough people actually buy Apple Watch to warrant marketers' time and money? Preorders become available April 10, starting at $349.
It's unclear, he said, "if Apple can convince non-watch people—and consumers who wear watches primarily for fashion reasons—that they need a smartwatch in addition to their iPhone."
To find out, set the calendar app on your smartwatch (if you have one, that is) to the end of April—or the next time Apple CEO Tim Cook and company take center stage while revealing their quarterly earnings. That's when we'll find out about the demand for the tech giant's latest invention.
Back in September, Appleunveiled the Apple Watch at a big event, which also saw the introduction of the latest iPhone models. Six months later, the company just held another event talking about it more, and mostly telling us things we already knew about it.
This time, however, we got the prices and the release date. Let’s get those out of the way. All models will be available for pre-order and for trying on beginning on April 10 in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US. You’ll need an appointment to try one on. The devices will be available online or by reservation in Apple’s retail stores and authorized re-sellers in China and Japan on April 24.
As you’re probably aware from the first event, there are three collections. Each is available in 38 mm and 42 mm.
Prices are as follows:
Apple Watch Sport: $349 and $399
Apple Watch: from $549 to $1,099
Apple Watch Edition: from $10,000 to who knows?
Yes, the cheap end of the high-end watches is $10K. CEO Tim Cook really prefers the Mickey Mouse graphic on his own Apple Watch, according to his presentation. This would definitely look killer on a ten thousand dollar watch.
As you also know from the original event, all models are highly customizable. Each has various models, band options, and you can always tailor the display to your liking. Feel free to browse around the company’s website for a look at all of your options.
But let’s face it, it’s not how these watches look that will make or break them. It’s what they can do, and how much consumers value that. I can tell you right now, they’re not going to be for everyone. Many will be perfectly content with their phones and/or other existing devices.
What will make Apple Watch stand out is really only limited to what developers are able to get out of it, and according to Apple, there are already thousands of apps ready to go for the device’s release. How many of them are specifically enhanced by the watch form factor is a question that remains unanswered. How many of these apps will be better on a watch than on a phone or a tablet?
Well, the health category is an obvious area where it can make a real difference, so it’s no surprise that Apple (and other smart watch makers) play this up. In fact, health was a major theme of today’s event even before the watch was mentioned. Apple also announced ResearchKit, a new open source software framework for medical and health research, aimed at providing doctors and scientists with more data. Utilizing this are some new apps aiding research on asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease.
Many health apps will take advantage of the watch, but the device itself even goes out of its way to get you more active. It even sends you notifications (which you can opt out of) telling you if you’ve been sitting for too long.
“Apple Watch encourages you to sit less, move more and get some exercise every day,” the company says, “The Activity app provides a simple visual snapshot of your daily activity with three rings that measure active calories burned, brisk activity and how often you’ve stood up to take a break from sitting during the day. Apple Watch provides the detailed metrics you need during dedicated workout sessions for the most popular activities, such as walking, running and cycling through the Workout app. With an accelerometer, a built-in heart rate sensor, GPS and Wi-Fi from your iPhone, Apple Watch smartly uses the best sensors for different types of motion and provides a comprehensive picture of your all-day activity and workouts. The Activity app on iPhone collects your activity and workout data from Apple Watch so you can see your history in greater detail. Apple Watch uses this history to suggest personalized activity goals, reward fitness milestones and keep you motivated.”
Beyond health, Apple wants the watch to be “integral to your life.” In other words, how did you ever get by without this thing. So, of course, you can communicate with people using various apps. You can check your email. You can browse Instagram. You can use Apple Pay at stores, and pull up your boarding pass at the aiport. You can even receive and make calls. You can do a lot of things…you can already do with your smartphone.
And that’s probably the biggest problem with Apple Watch. Most of what you can do with it, you can already do with a smartphone, and worse yet, to do most of it, you still have to have your iPhone with you.
It would be one thing if it replaced your phone. If you had your phone’s capabilities at your wrist, and no longer needed to carry your phone around, I could see this being a hot item. Many would still prefer the phone, but some subset of people would be happy to “upgrade” to a more light-weight experience. With this, it’s just another thing you’re carrying around, even if it’s actually wrapped around you. It’s also another thing to charge.
As others have pointed out, as an everyday device, the Apple Watch isn’t filling much of a need like past Apple devices like the iPod or iPhone have. It’s just another thing. And a pricey one at that. At its least expensive, you’re essentially paying $350 to look at your wrist instead of your phone, while still carrying your phone around. For the high rollers, you’re paying upwards of ten grand. And just so we’re clear here, here’s an example of one of these high-end models:
Also, just to keep things in perspective, you can get about 4 of Apple’s 27-inch 3.5GHz with Retina 5K display iMacs for $10,000.
Here’s an AutoTrader article about 10 good used cars you can get for under $10,000. Money has a nice list of 24 things to do with $10,000. Somehow “buy a watch” didn’t make the list.
Update: Apple didn’t reveal this in its announcements, but the Apple website shows the high-end watches going as high as $17,000. That includes this model:
Here’s a list of brand new cars you can get for that much.
Apple is very proud of the fashion elements of its collections, but I have a hard time buying that those looking to wear a watch for the fashion aren’t going to opt for a more traditional time piece.
Vox put it well: “Viewed as a gadget, the device is just too expensive given its limited functionality. Yet it’s going to be an uphill battle to sell a square, bulky touchscreen device as a fashion statement. In trying to be both a gadget and a luxury item, it’s at high risk of falling in the no-man’s land between the two.”
And I believe that was written before the $10K price tag was announced.
Certainly Apple’s device has more potential in that regard, but still. How often are tech and fashion really complementary?
Maybe I’ll be proven wrong. When the iPad was unveiled, I felt like it was pretty much an over-sized iPhone that didn’t make calls. I actually kind of still feel that way about it (and competing tablets), but I’ll happily acknowledge that I underestimated how much people would want such a device. Maybe I’m underestimating that for the watch too.
Apple's event in San Francisco today isn't only about the Apple Watch. CEO Tim Cook started the product demonstration with a quick update on some of the company's latest devices and services, and the numbers are rather astonishing. Of course, Apple did get to the watch, and revealed that they are set to open for pre-orders starting April 10, in stores April 24, and they will retail for between $350 and $17,000—for the top gold model.
We knew Apple was big, but these stats are big even for them, and they show why top brands focus on developing for Apple's platform:
Let's start with its flagship, the iPhone. Apple now says it has sold more than 700 million of them since the product launched in 2007.
Apple's latest-generation phones contributed to that number. The iPhone was the No. 1 selling phone in the world last quarter.
Apple saw a 50 percent growth in phone sales last quarter, compared to industry growth of 25 percent.
As for customer satisfaction with the device, Cook said it was at an "unheard of" 99 percent.
Apple Pay was perhaps the biggest new service to come to the iPhone last year, allowing people to pay through their phones at stores and elsewhere. Since launch, Apple Pay has gone from 6 banking partners to more than 2,500.
The number of retailers accepting Apple Pay tripled to 700,000.
Coca-Cola plans to have 100,000 vending machines capable of accepting Apple Pay by the end of the year. Currently, 40,000 of them accept it.
Every major car brand is committed to incorporating Apple CarPlay into their automobiles, with 40 new models planned this year alone.
Apple finally brought HBO Go to Apple TV, which will charge $15 a month for the streaming version of the cable network. Apple TV has 25 million users now.
Also in news not related to watches, the new Macbook is the thinnest yet at 13 millimeters, and it's the lightest at 2 pounds.
Instagram is a juggernaut. Snapchat is a phenomenon, and Kik and Line are basically killing it. What do all these have in common? They represent the latest in mobile and digital communications. The messaging craze has continued to evolve in surprising ways, and in ways marketers can start to take advantage of.
Last week, was a good indication of how these platforms of the future are growing and developing. Here's a look at some of the must-see digital stats that shine a light on mobile, messaging and the wider tech landscape:
3. This week, SXSW starts its version of March Madness with its yearly Austin festival dedicated to tech and entertainment. Expect 72,000 festivalgoers in the heart of Texas for this must-attend event.
6. Tinder, the "swipe right if you like" dating app, finally launched a paid service that gives users unlimited swipes, do-overs and other premium features. Tinder Plus, however, costs twice as much for old and wrinkly people in the United States—those 28 and older will pay $20 a month compared to $10 for younger people.
7. Tumblr's Creatrs Network, its new in-house influencer agency, helped generate 625,000 engagements—likes, reblogs and follows—for a campaign for the movie Ouija, produced by Universal.
10. Last week, the Nasdaq topped 5,000 points, an indicator of the health of the tech sector. That's the highest the stock tracker has been since 2000's infamous tech bubble. This time's different, though?


text:
Local Coffee Shop Helping Hurricane Relief
The Hudson Valley is making a local connection this weekend with the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.You can help make a difference for victims of the hurricane that hit Puerto Rico right here locally in Poughkeepsie.
The Crafted Kup, a local coffee shop in Poughkeepsie is doing their part this weekend to aid Purto Rican citizens in wake of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
You can help by donating a number of things like water, canned non-perishable food, first aid supplies and feminine products.
Bring your goods to The Crafted Kup and try help out if you can. Be sure to snag a cup of cold brew while your there.


text:
"An inside look at the Hogwarts Legacy game" was shown during the Autodesk Vision Series event, and snippets and images have popped up online, including a cutscene.Autodesk Vision Series ran from August 3rd to the 4th, and included "an inside look" at Hogwarts Legacy. Images and other details have popped up across the HarryPotterGame subreddit, including a cutscene, which you can see below.
A Hogwarts Legacy cutscene has surfaced onlineThis footage was shared on YouTube by BNS_Victory [LEEUW] and was then posted to the HarryPotterGame subreddit and, as spotted by IGN, was also picked up by the Hogwarts Legacy News account.
The cutscene shows two students hiding and watching as three more wizards fight and subdue a hippogriff. The defeated hippogriff is dragged inside, and the two watchers split up: one to gather "the evidence," which sounds particularly intriguing, and the other to rescue the hippogriff. The clip ends with one student trapped outside and seemingly searching for a new way in.
It's the most we've seen of Hogwarts Legacy for some time — the Hogwarts Legacy DLC and early access details leaked a few months ago, and before that, the Hogwarts Legacy team changed things up with an ASMR video. Hogwarts Legacy is set to launch this holiday for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.


text:
Hit by shrinking demand in the electronics industry and global uncertainty, chemical giant DuPont (NYSE:DD) downgraded its 2011 earnings guidance Friday below Wall Street’s expectations and warned of a tough fourth quarter.
The disclosure by the Wilmington, Del.-based blue-chip company sent its stock spiraling more than 6% into the red in pre-market trading.
DuPont said it expects to post non-GAAP EPS of $3.87 to $3.95 for 2011, down from $3.97 to $4.05 previously. Even the more bullish end of the new outlook, which represents an 18-20% year-over-year increase, would miss the Street’s view of $4.03.
“We are seeing slower growth in certain segments during the fourth quarter, driven by global economic uncertainty. This uncertainty is contributing to ongoing conservative cash management in some supply chains,” CEO Ellen Kullman said in a statement.
DuPont said the lowered outlook reflects “destocking across polymers and certain industrial supply chains that has accelerated” during the current quarter. In particular, the company pointed to further softening in demand for consumer electronics and to the still-weak housing and construction markets.
“We continue to drive our aggressive productivity initiatives, and, with customer inventories at very low levels, we are staying close to our customers to assure that we are ready to respond when demand returns," Kullman said.
Still, DuPont said it anticipates posting 2012 earnings growth and will update investors on its full-year guidance next week.
The news slammed DuPont’s stock, which dropped 6.00% to $43.73 in recent trading and was already down almost 7% on the year as of Thursday’s close.
DuPont’s gloomier forecast comes after chip makers Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) and Altera (NASDAQ:ALTR) downgraded their fourth-quarter guidance due to tepid demand.


text:
Pryor Cashman Obtains Injunction Against Trump PalaceLaw360
Pryor Cashman, on behalf of its client, grocery chain The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. sued the landlord and managers of Trump Palace, claiming they used "bogus" violations to impose $86,000 in fines and threaten to terminate the lease on A&P’s gourmet its flagship Food Emporium street-level unit.
The Trump Palace condominium association and landlord Equity One Inc. threatened to cancel the lease on A&P's gourmet Food Emporium store for failing to polish brass on its doors, repair chips in its granite exterior and keep the roof terrace clean, among other infractions, A&P said in a complaint filed in New York state court.
A&P is seeking an injunction barring Equity One from canceling the lease. “Not only is Trump's imposition of fines frivolous, but its conduct is in bad faith,” Pryor Cashman partner and trial counsel James S. O’Brien, Jr. said. “Trump's conduct is classic overreaching and the default notices must be enjoined.”
The building's rules, laid out by a condominium agreement, simply require owners to keep their units in “good” condition, O’Brien said. The rules do not mention brass polishing, replacing the loading dock door or any of the half-dozen other infractions cited in the default notices, O’Brien said. “In fact, A&P always maintains its Food Emporium store ... in excellent — not merely 'good' — condition and Trump's conduct was and is entirely arbitrary and subjective,” A&P said in the complaint.
Trump's alleged violations relate mostly to issues addressed by a series of agreements between the parties over the years, like a 2007 dispute settlement in which A&P agreed to polish the brass twice a year. But many of those conditions have since been superseded by later agreements, the complaint states.
“The alleged violations underlying the default notices are bogus,” O’Brien stated. “To the extent that any repairs to the premises ever were required, A&P has already completed them or is in the process of completing them.”
In the case, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. v. Equity One et al., the Supreme Court, New York County, granted A&P a temporary restraining order pending a full hearing on its injunction application.
A&P is represented by partner James S. O'Brien Jr. and associate Sarah Bell.
A copy of a Law360 article discussing the case is attached here.


text:
Today, 17.5 million units of bitcoin are in circulation, up from seventy thousand when the cryptocurrency first launched in 2009. This sizeable increase is testament to the speed at which blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin, is becoming more widely used. Yet cryptocurrency is just the tip of the iceberg; today blockchain use cases are found not only in finance but in a diverse range of industries including healthcare, government, and agriculture.
But for the moment many large corporations, including banks, are only experimenting with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. For the average consumer, meanwhile, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are still too cumbersome to use on a daily basis, even though they have the potential to deliver many advantages over traditional fiat money.
The situation we then have today is complex: blockchain is poised to disrupt many industries, but at the same time has not quite hit the mainstream.
This intriguing picture is at the heart of day 4 of Silicon Valley Innovation Center’s Navigating Fintech Disruption executive immersion program. Through company meetings and workshops, we show executives how blockchain is being used today, the potential it holds for the future, and how they can themselves deploy it within their own enterprise.
Day 4 begins at Stanford University for an interactive session with the Stanford Blockchain Collective. An interdisciplinary group, the Collective works on some of the most advanced blockchain and cryptocurrency research anywhere in the world.
This meeting brings executives the very latest information on how and where digital ledger technology is being used. Program participants learn about applications of blockchain not just in banking and finance; they also see inspiring use cases in industries such as energy, education, and environment. The session at Stanford shows executives just how different the world will look when blockchain and cryptocurrencies are applied widely across the economy.
Simplicity is Key
Still, for all the disruptive potential blockchain possesses, it is in banking and finance where its biggest impact is felt. The original use case for blockchain – as tracking technology for cryptocurrency bitcoin – also remains its most well-known.
Yet even though bitcoin has spread rapidly and is now held in millions of wallets worldwide, it is still too complex for many consumers who typically use cash and credit or debit cards to make everyday purchases.
A number of startups in Silicon Valley are trying to change this pattern of behavior. Among them is Abra, whose mission is to simplify cryptocurrency and bring it to the mass market.
During a meeting at Abra on Day 4 of the program, participants gain unique insights into the cryptocurrency economy. They also learn how the majority of Abra’s users see bitcoin and other virtual tokens as long-term assets to hold on to rather than as an everyday cash alternative.
Executives also hear Abra’s vision for the future of cryptocurrency. Namely, following past periods of euphoria and volatility in price, we are now entering a more stable phase where larger investors will enter the market. This movement has the potential to drive up the values of currencies like bitcoin and ethereum in a big way.
“All this infrastructure is being built for institutional investors to come into cryptocurrency,” says Bill Barhydt, the CEO and Founder of Abra. “As institutional money makes its way into the crypto space, watch out. It’s not going to take a lot because it’s still a relatively new asset class.”
Focus on User Experience
An interactive session at HyperWallet, a global payouts platofrm, builds on the learnings at Abra. During a visit to the company, executives gain clarity on how institutions and corporations will implement more blockchain solutions in the future.
Namely, they will take advantage of blockchain as a service platforms provided by big tech firms such as a Amazon, IBM, and Google. It is through this virtual infrastructure that companies from all industries will be able to develop and test their own blockchain applications.
These platforms will simplify the user interface, thus allowing innovative blockchain solutions to flourish. Hyperwallet’s own global payouts platform is rooted in this philosophy. It takes what is a complex process and transforms it into an elegant customer experience.
“We have to remember that consumers don’t use these technologies directly,” says Michael Ting, Digital Markets Vice President at Hyperwallet. “We use products and services that employ those technologies, and those products and services are run by companies and service providers.”
Beyond Blockchain Cryptocurrencies
The fourth meeting of the day was held with Tradespace, a startup operating a proprietary intellectual property analytics platform. This session is focused on future use cases of blockchain, including for intellectual property rights management.
Experiments in this field have already been conducted, with singer Imogen Heap soon to launch a blockchain platform through which artists can release their work. Heap believes the digital ledger technology will help enforce copyright on creative work and bring performers greater revenue.
Executives dive into this theme with Tradespace, learning through an interactive Q&A session how blockchain’s immutable record-keeping architecture will impact not just creative work, but any industry where an intermediary between parties has traditionally been required to verify transactions. This includes not just banking and finance, but other high-value industries such as real estate and law as well.
Experimentation Today, Rewards Tomorrow
As participants discover on day 4 of the Navigating Fintech Disruption program, blockchain will appear in more and more industries. For now, cryptocurrency is still its most common use case. However, this is changing as experimentation moves to execution in leading areas such as logistics, supply chain, and finance.
Challenges undoubtedly remain, with much still to be done across industries and countries to agree upon a unified set of regulations and legal frameworks. Once those rules are in place, the companies working with blockchain now will be best-placed to take advantage of the technology when it becomes as ubiquitous as smartphones and the internet today.
Silicon Valley Innovation Center helps financial sector executives experience and connect with the Silicon Valley fintech startup ecosystem through a fintech executive immersion program. As Silicon Valley is a hotbed of fintech innovation, company executives will benefit greatly from visiting the innovation hub and interacting with startups like the ones mentioned in this article. Through this immersive experience, executives will also gain deep insights into how partnering with Silicon Valley startups can be a game-changer for their businesses.


text:
Beyond Limits’ artificial intelligence for industry use
The company says its approach combines existing human knowledge with data sources, so that its systems can adapt in situations where data is missing.
Beyond limits also says its Cognitive AI technology involves the use of both conventional techniques such as machine learning, neural networks and deep learning alongside knowledge-based reasoning to make solutions with audit trails that can explain the reasoning behind autonomous decisions - with crucial industries such as healthcare, that accountability being an ethical necessity.
In , AJ Abdallat, CEO and Founder of Beyond Limits, said: ““Today we are seeing unprecedented, world-wide demand for systems that go beyond the limitations of conventional AI. Our cognitive software has the ability to understand situations and place problems in real-world contexts as well as to learn over time. We’re excited to help more customers by applying our unique and powerful AI approach to solve some of the toughest problems facing industries and the world today.”
The company said it would use the funding for research and development, and to expand in the United States and Globally, with a launch in Asia planned.
“bp ventures was established to identify and invest in high-potential, game-changing technology companies that can help us reimagine our global energy system,” said Morag Watson, Senior Vice President, Digital Science and Engineering at bp. “With this additional investment, we believe that Beyond Limits’ Cognitive AI could help create a more intelligent and sustainable future for the energy sector and indeed across industry as a whole.”
Google launches Visual Inspection AI tool for manufacturers
Google Cloud has launched Visual Inspection AI, a new tool to help manufacturers identify defects in products before they're shipped.
Poor production quality control often leads to significant operational and financial costs. The American Society for Quality estimates that for many organisations this cost of quality is as high as 15-20% of annual sales revenue, or billions of dollars annually for larger manufacturers. Google Cloud’s new Visual Inspection AI solution has been purpose-built for the industry to solve this problem at production scale.
How does it work?
The Google Cloud Visual Inspection AI solution automates visual inspection tasks using a set of AI and computer vision technologies that enable manufacturers to transform quality control processes by automatically detecting product defects.
Google built Visual Inspection AI to meet the needs of quality, test, manufacturing, and process engineers who are experts in their domain, but not in AI.
- Run autonomously on-premises: Manufacturers can run inspection models at the network edge or on-premises. The inspection can run either in Google Cloud or fully autonomous on your factory shop floor.
- Short time-to-value: Customers can deploy in weeks, not the months typical of traditional machine learning (ML) solutions. Built for process and quality engineers, no computer vision or ML experience required. An interactive user interface guides users through all the steps.
- Superior computer vision and AI technology: In production trials, Visual Inspection AI customers improved accuracy by up to 10x compared with general-purpose ML approaches, according to benchmarks from several Google Cloud customers.
- Get started quickly, with little effort: Visual Inspection AI can build accurate models with up to 300x fewer human-labeled images than general-purpose ML platforms, based on pilots run by several Google Cloud customers.
- Highly scalable deployment: Manufacturers can flexibly deploy and manage the lifecycle of ML models, scaling the solution across production lines and factories.
Industry use cases
The demo video shows how Visual Inspection AI addresses use cases to solve specific quality control problems in industries such as automotive manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing, electronics manufacturing and general-purpose manufacturing.
Kyocera Communications Systems, a manufacturer of mobile phones for wireless service providers, has been able to scale its AI and ML expertise through the use of the solution. “With the shortage of AI engineers, Visual Inspection AI is an innovative service that can be used by non-AI engineers,” said Masaharu Akieda, Division Manager, Digital Solution Division, KYOCERA Communication Systems. “We have found that we are able to create highly accurate models with as few as 10-20 defective images with Visual Inspection AI. We will continue to strengthen our partnership with Google to develop solutions that will lead our customers' digital transformation projects to success.”
Visual Inspection AI has fully integrated with Google Cloud's portfolio of analytics and ML/AI solutions, giving manufacturers the ability to combine its insights with other data sources. The tool integrates with existing products from Google Cloud partners, including SOTEC, Siemens, GFT, QuantiPhi, Kyocer and Accenture.


text:
Fondation Louis Vuitton will soon launch an exhibition at its famed Parisian outpost, spotlighting the comprehensive collection of English industrialist and patron of the arts, Samuel Courtauld. A total of 110 works including 60 paintings and graphic pieces will be on display from both old and new masters such as Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Yayoi Kusama, Gerard Richter, and more. Apart from the noteworthy participants, the luxury label aims to showcase pieces of various disciplines (abstract, expressive, or distanced) by these international artists to educate amateur observers and reinspire expert art critics.
View a selection of works to be displayed at Fondation Louis Vuitton above. The collection will be on view from February 20 until June 17.
In other exhibitions, conceptual contemporary artist Tyrrell Winston is set to launch his first solo show in Paris entitled “Lines.”
Fondation Louis Vuitton
8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi
Paris, France 75116


text:
DNY59 | iStock | Getty Photos
Individuals added practically $4 trillion to their financial savings throughout the pandemic, however a lot of the positive aspects went to the rich, in response to a brand new examine.
Stimulus checks, rising inventory markets and fewer spending selections led to an enormous financial savings growth over the previous yr, with Individuals saving about $3.7 trillion, in response to a examine from Oxford Economics. But 70% of the acquire went to the wealthiest 20% of Individuals, the examine discovered.
The surplus financial savings — or financial savings above and past the traditional pre-pandemic development ranges — had been much more skewed to the highest. Of the $2.6 trillion in extra liquid financial savings, 80% went to the highest 20%, and 42% went to the highest 1%.
On the identical time, “households within the backside earnings quintile saved lower than implied by their pre-pandemic habits,” the examine discovered.
Whereas it is not shocking that America’s financial savings, like earnings and rich, are concentrated on the high, the diploma of the financial savings inequality was surprising, in response to Nancy Vanden Houten, the economist who co-authored the examine with Gregory Daco.
“This newest knowledge means that financial savings are much more skewed to the highest than we beforehand thought,” Vanden Houten mentioned.
The highest-heavy financial savings glut might have implications for the financial system and markets. Economists cite America’s financial savings growth as one motive shopper spending will stay sturdy within the coming months and even years, since households will have the ability to faucet their financial savings for continued consumption.
The examine discovered that about $360 billion of financial savings can be spent down over the subsequent yr and half, primarily based on family spending and financial savings charges. But as a result of financial savings are so top-heavy, the overwhelming majority of the spending can even be by the rich and prosperous. The examine estimates that greater than $250 billion of the roughly $360 billion in spending will come from the highest quintile — which implies shopper spending within the coming months and years can be strongest on the high.
Economists say high-end eating places, resorts, style, collectibles, jewellery, wine and different companies that cater to the prosperous will do higher within the coming months than retailers and companies for the mass market.
“Since upper-income households saved extra throughout this era, the outlook for shopper spending will largely depend upon these households,” Vanden Houten mentioned.
The rich additionally usually spend a smaller share of their financial savings on consumption than center class and decrease earners, so total spending within the coming months from financial savings might fall wanting projections.
“That is unprecedented,” Vanden Houten mentioned. “There are some limits in spending. Will rich folks go on two holidays as an alternative of 1 as a result of they missed one in 2020? Or will they simply take yet one more elaborate trip? We do not know.”


text:
Operation OPSON VIII report has been released by Interpol and Europol.
Extensive fraud in Greek honey imports has been discovered.
An Indian snack maker files a lawsuit against a Georgia-based company.
Adulterated alcoholic beverages caused more than two-dozen deaths.
Handheld near infrared spectroscopy devices speed up food fraud detection.
The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program summarizes more than 90 analytical methods for olive oil.
Authorities in Cork, Ireland discover a large amount of counterfeit wine.
Welcome to our eighth weekly HorizonScan Hazard Challenge! The answer to last week’s question is show at the bottom of this article.
A large siluriformes fish smuggling operation has been uncovered.
Welcome to our seventh weekly HorizonScan Hazard Challenge! The answer to last week’s question is shown at the bottom of this article.


text:
(NerdWallet) Americans spend more than $420 billion per year at pharmacies for prescription drugs, according to a 2022 report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Prescription discount cards help people save money on prescription drugs by offering savings at participating pharmacies. One popular company, GoodRx, offers discounts of up to 80% on prescription drugs at over 70,000 U.S. pharmacies with its prescription savings program. And according to the company’s website, “there’s absolutely no cost and no catch.”
But earlier this year, GoodRx was penalized by the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, for disclosing patients’ personal health information without their consent. And using GoodRx’s discounts isn’t always easy or predictable.
Here are four potential catches the federal government, pharmacists, researchers and the company itself say you should know about before using GoodRx.
“Keep in mind you cannot use GoodRx and insurance at the same time,” the company’s website says. It encourages users to pay for prescriptions as a “cash” payment with a GoodRx coupon. (In this context, paying “cash” means you’re paying out of pocket — without insurance.)
Using GoodRx rather than insurance means your insurance doesn’t have to reimburse you or count your spending toward your deductible or out-of-pocket maximum.
Whether this matters to you depends on your coverage and what you expect to spend on prescription drugs each year.
“Who cares if it’s not going to count toward your deductible if you were never going to spend so much that you’re going to hit your deductible anyway,” says pharmacist Shannon Rotolo, who recently left the University of Chicago for a new position at the University of Rochester.
But if you know that you’ll spend enough to hit an out-of-pocket maximum or Medicare Part D catastrophic coverage, Rotolo recommends having it count toward your deductible. “Get the lower prices from your insurance plan sooner in the year,” she says.
2. PRIVACY VIOLATIONS
GoodRx’s “not-so-good privacy practices” made it the first-ever company penalized for violating the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, according to a post by senior attorney Lesley Fair on the agency’s business blog.
“In our complaint, we alleged that GoodRx violated the FTC Act (which prohibits unfair and deceptive practices in the marketplace) by sharing sensitive personal health information for years with advertising companies and platforms — contrary to its privacy promises that it would not do so,” FTC spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald Henderson wrote in an email.
The FTC imposed a $1.5 million civil penalty on GoodRx. (For context, that’s about 0.2% of the company’s 2022 annual revenue of $766.6 million.)
The FTC also prohibited GoodRx from sharing any of its users’ health data with third parties for advertising, and the company must obtain consent before sharing data for any non-advertising purpose.
When asked whether and to whom GoodRx sells or shares patient data today, a company representative referred in an email to a February 2023 “ GoodRx Response to FTC Settlement.”
“The settlement with the FTC focuses on an old issue that was proactively addressed almost three years ago, before the FTC inquiry began,” the GoodRx statement says. The company disagrees with the FTC’s allegations and does not admit wrongdoing.
GoodRx says in its statement that “privacy and security are paramount to us and an essential part of how we conduct our business,” and it encourages customers with questions to review the company’s privacy policies.
GoodRx’s prices “fluctuate frequently,” the company’s website says. So it might be hard to predict what you’ll pay and where you’ll have to go for your medications.
“If you’re really trying to find the lowest price with GoodRx, you can end up spending as much in gas money driving to a pharmacy across town one month, and then the next month, you’re driving to a pharmacy in the other direction or the adjacent town,” Rotolo says.
Prices for common generic medications on GoodRx can change by hundreds of dollars per fill over just six months, according to research published in 2022 by Rotolo and colleagues in the journal Supportive Care in Cancer.
“You may be better off just using your local pharmacy’s cash price, even if it’s a couple bucks more,” Rotolo says (although the price difference will sometimes be much higher, she acknowledges). “It may be worth it,” she adds, “just to know that you’re going to continue to get that same price at that place, probably for a while.”
4. PHARMACY CHOICE
To get the lowest price with GoodRx, you may have to use a specific pharmacy — probably a large chain.
“A lot of (independent) pharmacies won’t even accept the GoodRx card,” says pharmacist Jessica Robinson, assistant professor at East Tennessee State University’s Gatton College of Pharmacy.
Smaller pharmacies might not be able to afford it.
“What happened was independent pharmacies were very excited to help patients any way they can, and then found out that a lot of the price negotiations are reimbursing below the cost of the drug,” Robinson says.
Pharmacies don’t get to negotiate with GoodRx, Robinson says, but “they are usually willing to sell a medication to a cash-paying patient at cost.” So while an independent pharmacy might not take GoodRx, they may have other options to help you afford medications.
There are several options for help affording medications that you might want to consider along with GoodRx.
“I always recommend going to your traditional mom-and-pop independent pharmacy and asking them if they can help you with a cash plan or cash price,” Robinson says.
“A lot of manufacturers will have really comprehensive patient assistance programs” that can help with the cost of their brand-name drugs, Robinson says.
COST PLUS DRUGS
Cost Plus Drugs is an online pharmacy offering low-cost generic medications delivered by mail. But as with GoodRx, you generally can’t use insurance.
Grants to help patients afford out-of-pocket costs for medications are available from nonprofits such as the Patient Access Network Foundation, the HealthWell Foundation and the Patient Advocate Foundation.


text:
Nisshin Steel announced on Friday the firm posted 4.6 billion yen of consolidated recurring profit for fiscal 2011 ended March 2012, which was 74.7% lower than fiscal 2010 level due to higher raw materials cost and limited steel price increase but was higher than 1 billion yen of former outlook due to higher sales volume. The net loss was 4.8 billion yen compared with 10 billion yen of former outlook. The firm tries to improve the profitability for fiscal 2012 though better selling price and cost reduction while the firm failed to disclose the annual target.The recurring profit decreased by 13.9 billion yen from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2011. The result was impacted by 36.5 billion yen of higher raw materials cost while the firm gained 18.5 billion yen from higher steel price and 12.6 billion yen from cost reduction. The recurring loss was 4.4 billion yen for January-March compared with 2.2 billion yen profit in October-December 2011, 3.4 billion yen profit both for July-September and April-June 2011. The stainless unit posted 2 billion yen of recurring loss for fiscal 2011. The unit posted 3.5 billion yen loss for January-March compared with 1.5 billion yen of loss in October-December 2011, 1 billion yen of profit for July-September and 2 billion yen of profit for April-June.
Japan Steel Scrap Composite Prices (Sangyo Press)09/25/2018
|36000YEN (-)||41100YEN (-)|
|315.73US$ (-1.14)||360.46US$ (-1.3)|
* Average of electric furnaces steel maker's purchasing price in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya (per ton)


text:
London’s tech industry has increased tenfold over the last decade, a new report from the UK government’s Digital Economy Council and Dealroom, a discovery platform for investors, claims.
According to its figures, the number of unicorns in the country (companies valued at least $1 billion) grew from 8 to 81, with those nearing unicorn status growing at a similar pace.
London’s tech scene has venture capital investment to thank for the growth, as the money coming into the space grew from $1.7bn in 2010, to $16.02bn last year.
Fintech, ecommerce, digital healthcare and food delivery were some of the most successful verticals.
Growth doesn’t seem to have ended with 2020, as this year the trajectory remained the same. There are now 91 unicorns, including Hopin, Zego and Wise as the new entrants, City AM states.
While London is a regional leader, well ahead of Berlin, Paris or Amsterdam, it still trails some of the world’s biggest tech hubs, such as the Bay Area, Beijing and New York. The UK government wants to narrow that gap and has started reviewing listing laws as it seeks to make London more attractive for companies looking to go public.
According to City AM, culture secretary Oliver Dowden will meet with tech firms next week to discuss how to further expand the sector.


text:
Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry Article
Join 62,000+ members. Yes, it's completely free.
The deadline to submit entries has been extended to 17:00 CT on Monday, April 24.
April 18, 2023
There is still time to enter Ignite Brand Pitches, the new concept from Global Licensing Group, which is set to launch at Licensing Expo, taking place on June 13-15 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas. The deadline to submit entries has been extended to 5:00pm CT on Monday, April 24.
Ignite Brand Pitches is aimed at Licensing Expo’s signed exhibitors to provide them with a platform to generate buzz and brands with existing licensing portfolios. Five selected brands will be given the opportunity to pitch their brand on-site at Licensing Expo in June.
“Trend spotting is continuously ranked as one of the top objectives for attendees visiting Licensing Expo and we wanted to find a creative way to provide our brands and visitors an experience that was meaningful,” says Anna Lommatzsch, event manager, Licensing Expo. “The ’ignite presentation’ format is an innovative way to portray several brands, showcasing their concept in 5-minute increments through rapid-fire pitches consisting of 20 total slides that will advance every 15 seconds. We hope this concept provides brands an opportunity to generate a buzz around their initiatives and fulfills the audience who is keen to spot new trends.”
The program aims to highlight new branding concepts from emerging IPs. The competition is free to enter.
“We are launching Ignite Brand Pitches this year to support continued innovation and to spotlight ‘newness’ for existing exhibitors to amplify their current projects,” says Ella Haynes, event director, Licensing Expo.
Enter Ignite Brand Pitches for Licensing Expo 2023. Entries close at 5:00pm CT on Monday, April 24.
Senior Digital Editor U.K. & EMEA, License Global
Ian joined the License Global editorial team in May 2022 as digital editor for the U.K. and EMEA, becoming Senior Digital Editor in April 2023.
Ian is a huge fan of sports and entertainment brands and, as a father, toys and kids' brands are a large part of his life!
He has been at Informa (formerly UBM) since 2018, where he was previously the editor of SHP, a B2B digital publication aimed at health & safety professionals.
Ian studied journalism at university before spending seven years in online fantasy gaming. Prior to moving to Informa, Ian worked in B2B trade print media, in the automotive sector, working on various publications aimed at independent automotive technicians and parts distributors.
You May Also Like
Hello Kitty at 50April 23, 2024
Aviation American Gin Releases Bottles Inspired by ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’April 23, 2024
Mo Willems on Bringing Stories and Franchises to Life in New WaysApril 23, 2024
Funko Unveils ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Movie Pops!April 23, 2024


text:
The rollout of Android Wear 2.0 has been a mess, but ASUS has made a bigger mess of it than most other manufacturers.
Google originally announced the new version of the OS at its I/O 2016 developer conference last May. In September 2016, Google said that the update's release had been delayed until early 2017, but in February, it announced that Android Wear 2.0 was finally ready, and would be made available to numerous devices "in the coming weeks".
By late March, no devices had been upgraded, and when Android Wear 2.0 actually began rolling out, it was quickly suspended for numerous devices due to the discovery of a last-minute bug. In April, Google said all eligible devices would be upgraded by the end of May, including the ASUS ZenWatch 2 and 3.
Then in mid-May, ASUS said that the update was finally making its way to the ZenWatch 3, but then said it was "mistaken" and that it was expected by the "end of the month". Obviously, that didn't happen. As Android Police reported, ASUS USA tweeted last week that the update "will be released in the coming weeks if everything goes smoothly" - but then deleted that tweet.
If you haven't yet smashed your ZenWatch to pieces from the sheer frustration of this farce, ASUS has just thrown another crumb of hope your way. The company told Wareable that Android Wear 2.0 will - definitely, truly, for realsies - begin rolling out to the ZenWatch 3 on July 11.
The ZenWatch 2 will have to wait a bit longer; the update is due to make its way to those watches in two waves - the first sometime in mid-July, and the second either in late July or early August.
ZenWatch owners probably aren't holding their breath.
2 Comments - Add comment


text:
A space-age beard-buster is promising to give users the closest shave possible — and it doesn’t even use a blade.
Instead, this razor uses a laser, requires no water, and is “sharp” for 50,000 hours — so it’s good for the environment too.
Skarp Laser Razor looks and works exactly like a typical razor, but cuts the hair at skin level, protecting against razor burn, accidental cutting and irritation, its inventors say.
The laser works by targeting a particle in hair called a chromophore, which shears when hit by a specific wavelength of light, according to the gizmo’s creator.
The idea for the razor first occurred in 2001 to inventor Morgan Gustavsson, who partnered with Paul Binun 12 years later.
They launched a fundraising campaign Sept. 21, and its reached its $160,000 goal in just two days. As of Tuesday morning, the project had raised more than $1.1 million.
The two “quickly knew they had something special,” they crowed on their Kickstarter page.
If all goes well, the aluminum-bodied razor will be available by March 2016, and will retail for around $159 to $189, plus shipping.


text:
Westwood One Appoints Kalin as EVP, COO
Jul 16, 2008 8:17 AM
New York, NY - Jul 14, 2008 - Westwood One has appointed Steven Kalin as executive vice president and chief operating officer. In this role, Kalin will be responsible for business operations, inclusive of network and traffic operations, and information technology, as well as play a lead role in business development activities and strategic planning. Kalin will be based in New York and report directly to Westwood One President and CEO Thomas Beusse.
Kalin was most recently the chief operating officer and a board member of Rodale, a publisher of magazines, books and online health and wellness information. Kalin has 20 years of media experience with traditional and digital platforms and strategic, business development and operational roles. Earlier in his career, Kalin served as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Medscape, a website for physicians. Kalin was also vice president of business development for ESPN Internet Ventures and with ESPN Enterprises. At the start of his career, Kalin was a consultant with McKinsey & Company in the firm's media practice.


text:
Politicalite.com is the UK’s hottest independent news website and its read by thousands of people a month, since launching in April 2017, we have seen our readership grow on record scale thanks to the power of social media, mainly Facebook.
Estimated READERS ****
In May-June 2018 we reached over 7.4 million people on Facebook and gained over 2.6m post engagements and gained over 7.3k likes**
Facebook is our main source of referrals via shares and groups. We have a standard weekly reach of 2.1m with that number rising during heavy news cycles.
Some of our posts go viral which leads to instant link clicks to politicalite.com and real users on our URL. That means thousands of users see the ads you place, that’s instant exposure for a competitive price. (To be a featured link on our viral videos please enquire please for a quote.)
We can feature tracks in viral vids, info-vids and credit the artist by adding a link to streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music in comments or post header. (enquire for more details)
Politicalite used a outsourced Ad platform and bespoke HTML tags to display in page ads across mobile, tablet and desktop which are displayed to our 500,000 active monthly readers.
United Kingdom: 76%
Unites States: 6.9%
DONATE TO KEEP JOURNALISM INDEPENDENT
* Google Analytics, November 2018
** Facebook Pages Insights 26 June 2018
*** Facebook Pages Insights, 26 June 2018


text:
Global vice president of sustainability at Mars is convinced the next decade will be all about the technical challenges of delivering change
Kate Wylie is global sustainability director at Mars, where she led this year's launch of its Sustainable in a Generation strategy. With 15 years' experience in corporate sustainability under her belt,...
Global Briefing: Coronavirus crisis will have 'negligible' impact on emissions without green recovery, study warns
All the green business news from around the world this week
Deal to enable rollout of 100 EV charging hubs hailed as an example of 'private sector green recovery at its most promising'
The tech giant is looking to turn the Just Transition concept into a clean energy investment reality
Some of America's largest retailers have teamed up to help accelerate efforts to curb plastic bag waste


text:
The new cocoa year started on October 1st and its time to review some of the production data from the last cocoa year. Let’s start with the largest producer, the Côte d’Ivoire. According to an item in Africa Report, the West African country had its worst production in five years. Total cocoa exports amounted to 1,178,526 tonnes, 14 percent down from last years 1,367,877 tonnes. Exporters expect the current season to be just as bad, predicting exports in the range of 1 million to 1.15 million tons.
The causes cited for this decline are bad weather, increases in black pod disease and a generally crumbling infrastructure. In addition, the free pesticides promised by the government have not made their way to the farmers who need them. One farmer’s complaint: “We were supposed to receive the pesticides by August free from the government, but it’s being sold on the open market. People are making a fast buck from selling it.” Since the 2002/03 civil war, the country has basically been at a standstill. The elections planned for this Fall hopefully will constitute a first step towards improved services.
The Cocoa Management Committee has also proposed paying farmers 35 percent more than in the previous year to halt the decline in production. But the aging and sick trees need replanting, a process that will take several years to yield higher production. More than 78 percent of the trees are 15 years old while 19 percent have reached the end of their life cycle of 30 years. The Cocoa Management Committee has decided to distribute enough seedlings to plant 15,000 hectares. The new varieties are supposed to produce pods in only two years. I can only wonder about the quality of those cocoa beans. Faster is not always better.


text:
Iran's Non-Oil Trade With Azerbaijan Up 35%
EghtesadOnline: Iran’s non-oil trade with Azerbaijan stood at 702,062 tons worth $326.91 million during the nine months to Dec. 21 to register a 32.74% and 35.49% increase in tonnage and value respectively compared with last year’s corresponding period.
Azerbaijan was Iran’s eighth major trading partner in the world during the period.
Iran exported 665,807 million tons of goods worth $313.28 million to Azerbaijan, up by 37.19% and 39.14% in tonnage and value respectively YOY.
Azerbaijan was Iran’s 13th export destination in the world during the period, Financial Tribune reported.
Iran exported liquefied natural gas and iron/steel pipes to Azerbaijan and imported 36,255 tons of commodities worth $13.63 million in return, down 16.85% and 15.5% in tonnage and value respectively YOY.
Imports mainly included non-alloy iron/steel products, oilcake and barley.
Azerbaijan was the 61st exporter of goods to Iran in the world.


text:
Chevrolet Replaces Volt Charging Cords
Chevrolet will replacing many 120-volt charging cords for free
Chevy stresses that the program is not a recall
Owners will be notified in the next few weeks
General Motors will soon launch a new customer satisfaction initiative designed to give Chevrolet Volt owners a more consistent charging experience. The automaker recently announced the program, which will provide new charging cords for free to many current Volt owners.
According to General Motors, the new initiative will replace the 120-volt cords on all 2011 and many 2012 versions of its plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt. The automaker says 240-volt cords are not affected, and that the program isn't necessitated by safety concerns, but is designed to make recharging more reliable for owners of the fuel-efficient hatchback.
"It's just an effort to offer a more consistent charging experience. It's not a recall," General Motors spokesman Randal Fox told Reuters. "It's more of a customer satisfaction program."
General Motors' decision to upgrade the 120-volt cords on the Volt comes on the heels of a battery enhancement program earlier this year. In that program, Chevrolet announced it would strengthen materials surrounding the plug-in hybrid's lithium-ion battery to prevent leaking fluid from starting a fire after an accident. The automaker also announced it would add a new sensor and a tamper-proof bracket to the hatchback's coolant reservoir, both designed to prevent overfilling.
Each upgrade came after several damaged Volts caught on fire following government crash testing. After considerable examination, Chevrolet linked the fires to leaking coolant, which dripped on to the hatchback's battery and created a short circuit. No one was hurt in the fires, which occurred hours to weeks after the crash tests.
Although issues with the Volt's charging cords and lithium-ion batteries are serious, Chevrolet may be more concerned about decreasing consumer interest in the vehicle. The automaker recently announced it would idle the Michigan factory that builds the Volt for five weeks to reduce inventory, and later advertised incentives that include zero percent interest rates for up to five years.
Chevrolet says Volt owners affected by the cord exchange will be notified over the next few weeks.
What it means to you: The Volt's newest customer satisfaction program proves Chevrolet is serious about ensuring owners get a high-quality EV experience.


text:
Drivers Unfazed by High Gas Pricesgreenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread
Drivers Unfazed by High Gas Prices Fuel demand, driving habits show no sign of changing
New York Times Tuesday, October 10, 2000
As the price of fuel has climbed sharply this year, thousands of American drivers have stopped using expensive premium gasoline, and some families have tried to eliminate the small number of driving trips they deem unnecessary.
Few people, however, have sharply cut back on their driving or have begun shopping for cars based primarily on fuel efficiency, according to interviews nationwide and government and auto industry data. The nation is on pace to use almost the same amount of gasoline as it did last year, which was the most ever. And while the popularity of the very largest sport utility vehicles has softened recently, gas-guzzling SUVs and other light trucks continue to gain market share.
Americans, in short, are tinkering.
"We've seen some effect," said John Lichtblau, chairman of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, "but it's small."
Oil demand, consequently, shows little sign of abating in the United States. With Americans accounting for about one quarter of the world's energy consumption, the strength of gasoline demand in recent years is a major reason, economists say, that prices have moved to their current level.
Some 60 percent of the public reports being worried about energy costs, according to the Gallup Organization. That helps explain why both Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore have focused on the issue during the campaign's final weeks.
But "people are reluctant to change their driving habits unless they're forced to do it in a dramatic way," said Christopher W. Cedergren, an analyst at Nextrend, a market research firm in Thousand Oaks, Calif., that has been interviewing SUV owners in recent weeks.
In addition, even after rising steadily for the last 20 months, gas prices remain significantly lower, adjusted for inflation, than they were during the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1980, for example, a gallon of regular unleaded gas cost over $2.50 in today's dollars, according to Economy.com, a consulting firm in West Chester, Pa.; this year, it has cost an average of $1.50.
Perhaps equally as important, upper-income consumers have enjoyed much larger gains compared with other Americans, and many have developed a distinct taste for SUVs. The average owner of a large SUV -- which typically goes about 13 miles on a gallon of gas -- is part of a family with $103,000 in annual income, according to General Motors. Wealthier Americans are relatively indifferent to gas prices.
This summer, Americans spent about 2.7 percent of their after-tax income on gasoline and fuel, Economy.com reports, and the number has not exceeded 3 percent since the end of the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War.
Even though both gas prices and borrowing costs have risen over the last year, neither increase has been big enough to trip up the light-truck boom. Together, minivans, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles accounted for nearly half of all new vehicles bought in the United States during the first nine months of the year, said Mark Cornelius, the president of Morgan & Co., an automotive consulting firm in West Olive, Mich.
For many drivers today, spending a few extra dollars -- or even $10 or $20 more -- when they go the pump is a small price for being in a vehicle that is not dwarfed by others on the road.
"As much as I'd like to be more fuel conscious, I'm not going to compromise my kids' safety," said Doug Johnson of Austin, Texas. His wife drives an SUV; he drives a pick-up truck.
Federal research has shown SUVs to be no safer for their drivers than cars.
Anyhow, Johnson said, "higher gas prices don't make that much difference in the total cost of owning a car."
-- Martin Thompson (email@example.com), October 10, 2000


text:
Tea maker Long Island Iced Tea (now Long Blockchain (LBCC) ), biotech Bioptix Inc. (now Riot Blockchain (RIOT) - Get Riot Blockchain Inc Report ) and camera and film manufacturer Eastman Kodak (KODK) - Get Eastman Kodak Company Report have recently gained a common thread: cryptocurrency.
While, you've likely heard about the first two, Kodak may come as a bit of a surprise. Well, on Tuesday the company saw shares jumped more than 50% after launching an initial coin offering (ICO) for its KODAKCoin cryptocurrency.
The currency will help finance the company's KODAKOne platform which will help photographers license their work.
"Utilizing blockchain technology, the KODAKOne platform will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to register both new and archive work that they can then license within the platform," Kodak said.
What is a 130-year old camera company doing offering an ICO? Nothing more ridiculous, certainly, than a tea maker adopting a new name and switching its focus to cryptocurrency, I guess.
Outside of cryptocurrencies -- yes, I promise there is more going on -- the bears seemed to be waiting in the wings as Wall Street firms preached optimism.
But for you bears out there, at least one columnist over on our premium site Real Money says your contrarian bets may not pay off as in years' past.
"The argument is that the number of bulls is at a record high and that just isn't sustainable," writes James Deporre, aka "Rev Shark" or "Rev" as some of us in the office like to say. "The fatal flaw in this thinking is that there is [currently] an endless sea of liquidity out there and there seems to be in no end in sight of how long it will last."
Interest rates, no matter where they are headed near-term, aren't really going to deter on a cost-of-capital basis, "so when you run out of buying power you just go out and get some more" he adds.
Though overall market momentum can keep up, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - Get Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Report couldn't keep its hot start to 2018 going this week. Shares of the semi corrected almost 4% Tuesday after shooting higher in the first week of the year.
AMD's drop follows news that Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) - Get Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Report would suspend some updates to its Windows operating system that were meant to patch the Meltdown vulnerability that could be exploited in AMD, Intel (INTC) - Get Intel Corporation (INTC) Report , and ARM Holdings' chips. ARM is now part of Japan's Softbank.
Is the dip an opportunity to buy AMD and Intel, especially after the latter went full-throttle in a 90-minute keynote at CES in Las Vegas? Or is it a sign of more struggles to come? Read on to see these stores and more from TheStreet and its affiliates.
This is an excerpt from "In Case You Missed It," a daily newsletter brought to you by TheStreet. Sign up here.
Photo of the day: A new road ahead for Ford
Ford Motor Co. (F) - Get Ford Motor Company Report has come a long way since Henry Ford, pictured above in the 1940s riding an 1896 Ford, founded the company in Detroit and began the industrial revolution. Well, until recently, it seems Ford may have been stuck in its ways amid the autonomous driving boom that swept both the auto and tech sectors. Not anymore, it seems, as Ford CEO Jim Hackett appeared at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday, Jan. 9, to detail his company's plan to "become the world's most trusted mobility company." His thorough proposal is the latest in a turnaround bid that's earned Hackett more than a few critics since he took the helm at Ford in May, when it kicked off a $3 billion cost-cutting plan that included a major workforce reduction to address the company's sagging profits and struggling stock price. Read More
Read more from "In Case You Missed It." Sign up here.
More of What's Trending on TheStreet:
- Did Intel's Embattled CEO Just Shock Everyone at CES?
- Toyota Partners With Amazon, Uber on These Crazy Self-Driving Mobile Stores
- Apple's iPhone Addiction Issue Unlikely to Impact Shares Anytime Soon: Analysts
- Why Stocks Now Have an 83.7% Chance of Rising in 2018