text:
Apple Hires Former Luxury Fashion Exec Paul Deneve
What is a former luxury fashion CEO bringing to the table for Apple? We can only speculate, but there is one connection. Bloomberg reports that Apple hires former Yves St Laurent CEO Paul Deneve for special projects reporting directly to Tim Cook.
Paul Deneve actually already worked for Apple back in the 1990s in Europe. Still the question is what Apple wants Paul Deneve to do. It is possible that he will be working on sales straegory for the iWatch and possible more wearable products in the Apple pipeline.
Luigi Lugmayr Luigi Lugmayr (Google) is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years
experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting
world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into
vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at firstname.lastname@example.org.


text:
Japan: "Third-category" beer shipments in May increased four times from the last year level
During May 2005 in Japan overall shipments of beer and beer-like alcoholic beverages by five major domestic breweries increased slightly by 0.3 %...more info
UK: SABMiller is going to continue to see major transactions taking place
SABMiller PLC Chief Financial Officer Malcolm Wyman announced on June 9 there will be further consolidation in the global beer industry despite recent large mergers
. Malcolm Wyman said: "We're going to continue to see major transactions taking place; consolidation is underway," according to Dow Jones Newswires. SABMiller ranks as the world's third largest brewer by volume, after Anheuser-Busch Cos. of the United States and Belgium-based InBev.
Wyman wouldn't mention which companies look attractive as possible acquisition targets, but said as one of the major global brewers, SABMiller can look at all major opportunities that arise. It was the product of a major sector consolidation itself, when South African Breweries bought Miller Brewing of the United States in 2002.
There has been speculation that SABMiller is interested in buying Colombia's Grupo Empresarial Bavaria, but Wyman wouldn't comment on specific deals. Analysts have suggested a price range of $7.5 billion (euro6.1 billion) to $9 billion (euro7.3 billion), although there are fears the potential benefits are limited. It is also thought Heineken NV is interested in the Colombian brewer.
There have been several huge deals in the beer industry of late. Interest in Bavaria comes just months after Belgian brewer Interbrew sealed a complex $11 billion (EUR 9 billion) cash-and-stock deal to take control of Latin America's biggest brewer, Brazil's Companhia de Bebidas das Americas, or AmBev. Now known as Inbev, the merged company is the world's biggest brewer by volume and the dominant player in Latin America's fast-growing beer market.
USA: Securities and Exchange Commission seeks info on Molson Coors merger
Molson Coors Brewing Co. announced on June 9 that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Denver office has contacted it seeking information regarding first-quarter results
and material related to the merger of Molson and Coors earlier this year.
Molson Coors, the world's fifth-largest brewer by volume, faces lawsuits by shareholders angry about an unexpected loss in the first quarter since the merger and claiming they were misled about Coors' business before the deal. The brewer said the suits are without merit, according to Reuters.
Molson Coors said it was cooperating with the request from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the inquiry.
Most current shareholders would not worry about the class action lawsuits but the SEC inquiry, which could take about a quarter to complete, is a bigger issue, said Charlie Georgas of Marquis Investment Research. "The concern that current shareholders might have is the SEC involvement," he said. "These class action lawsuits pop up whenever a stock moves down."
The company, whose brands include Coors Light and Molson Canadian, reported the surprise loss in the first quarter after the merger, blaming weak beer sales and charges from the deal. After releasing the disappointing results, the company had to restate its pro forma earnings due to a mistake in accounting for part of its Brazilian business.
Canada: Big Rock sale of Kamloops Brewery
Big Rock Brewery Income Trust announced on June 6 is seeking potential buyers for its Whistler Brewery operations in Kamloops, British Columbia...more info
South America: InBev said it is not a frontrunner in Bavaria deal
InBev, the world's biggest brewer, said on June 10 it was not a frontrunner in the auction for South America's second biggest brewer, Bavaria...more info
Russia: Malt imports dropped sharply in January-March 2005
Russian malt imports dropped sharply in January-March, from 101,000 metric tonnes a year ago...more info
Australia: Barley production is forecast to fall by 13 % in 2005-2006
Barley production is forecast by ABARE to fall by 13 % to 5.62 million metric tonnes in 2005-06 compared to 6.45 million metric tonnes...more info
USA: Hop Industry Economic Viability Initiative from Washington Hop Commission
China has come on strong and is now the world's third-largest hop producer with a 20 % market share of the dominant variety
. Germany leads with 32 % followed by the United States at 30 %.
The roughly 48 hop growers in the Yakima Valley -- down from 264 in the 1960s -- survive because they've diversified into tree fruit or other crops, but they say time is running out.
"If we're going to keep our hop growers in the game, we've got to achieve major reductions in the cost of production," Ann George, administrator of the Washington Hop Commission, said.
To keep growers competitive, the Hop Commission is spearheading the "Hop Industry Economic Viability Initiative," which is entering its second phase with a $1.5 million appropriation from the 2005 Legislature. The program started last year with a $400,000 investment on labor-saving and other technologies.
Growth in the state minimum wage and increases in workers' compensation and unemployment taxes have combined to add $40,000 in costs per year to the average grower, who is already losing $300 to $400 an acre, according to the Washington Hop Commission.

domain: news


text:
Shipping backlogs at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province have forced many carriers to divert vessels to other ports in southern China, leading to greater uncertainties in the shipping industry ahead of its coming peak season as the global economic recovery accelerates.
COVID-19 cases among dockworkers at Yantian port have caused serious disruptions to the world’s largest single container terminal.
As of Monday, the port, which handles one-third of Guangdong’s foreign trade and one-quarter of China’s exports to the US, said that it has resumed 70 percent of its overall handling capacity and is expected to return to normal by the end of June, according to media reports.
However, even though more workers return to their jobs and more berths reopen at Yantian, the shipping backlogs at the port have put pressure on other ports, including Shekou and Chiwan in Shenzhen, Nansha in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
The Guangzhou port terminal of Nansha has handled 38 additional ships in order to ensure the unimpeded flow of foreign trade, the port told the Global Times in a statement on Monday.
“As a result, the container terminal has become busier, resulting in pressure on the port’s operations as well as congestion on some roads entering the port. Shipments are piling up at Nansha’s second phase, and its productivity is down by 20 percent,” the statement said.
Before the ripple effect from the backlogs at Yantian, major ports in southern China had already been working around-the-clock since late May due to the impact of the COVID-19 flare-ups in Guangdong and the lagging effects of the Ever Given containership being stuck in the Suez Canal in March. Container yards are packed, and trailers and barges are working slowly.
According to Oneshipping, a Chinese logistics information provider, more than 300 voyages have been canceled, shifted to other routes or diverted to other ports.
Following the latest announcement from Yantian Port, global shipping giant Maersk told the Global Times on Monday that “the situation will soon be improved and the backlog will be gradually cleared in the next few weeks.”
“Yantian is one of the most important gateway hubs globally, and the ripple effect of the partial closure of the port has led to congestion in nearby ports, such as Nansha, Shekou and Hong Kong. To mitigate further these impacts, Maersk is constantly evaluating the situation and considering contingencies in these ports,” Maersk said.
The backlogs have pushed up global shipping rates.
According to Zhong Zhechao, founder and CEO of Oneshipping, ocean carriers from Asia to Europe cost $20,000 per 40-foot container, a jump of about 1,000 percent from a year ago. The cost of sending such a container to the US has skyrocketed to nearly $17,000.
“The backlogs of goods in the southern Chinese ports are very severe, with old shipments still waiting as new ones keep arriving. The ports of Shekou and Nansha are already running at full capacity,” Zhong told the Global Times on Monday, warning the consequences of shipping backlogs at southern Chinese ports would be more severe than the Suez Canal congestion.
Zhong expressed concern that the coming peak season of August and September will cause further complications for the whole shipping industry.
“I am pessimistic about the global shipping sector in the second half, if it recovers slowly. That may threaten retail inventories in the US and Europe as stores are preparing for Christmas,” he said.
Source: Global Times
This article has been posted as is from Source


text:
Topps Tiles reports falling sales
Tile and flooring retailer Topps Tiles said its like-for-like revenues edged down 0.2% in the six months to the end of March, reflecting weaker levels of consumer confidence in the period.
Although group revenue increased 0.9% to £87.4 million, adjusted profit before tax dropped to £4.7 million from £5.6 million a year ago.
Following growth in revenues of 1.6% on a like-for-like basis in the first quarter, the group said that weakened consumer confidence in the second quarter led to a 2.1% decline in like-for-like revenue. This resulted in like-for-like revenue decreasing by 0.2% across the period as a whole. Like-for- like sales over the eight weeks to 25 May fell by 2.6%.
In light of the difficult trading environment, Topps said it had implemented a range of self-help measures to improve its customer proposition. This included a focus on customer service, strong ranges and multi-channel convenience. In addition, a series of cost saving and efficiency measures are expected to reduce operating costs by around £2 million over the second half of the financial year.
Topps Tiles chief executive Matthew Williams said: "In response to the weaker market conditions we saw across the second quarter, we are implementing a programme of self-help initiatives and significant cost reduction measures and are pleased with the progress made to date.
"However, we are also mindful of the current trading environment which has deteriorated slightly over the last eight weeks. At this early point in the second half, assessing the likely impact on the full year outcome is difficult, but we continue to be cautious on the like for like sales outlook for the remainder of the current year."
During the six-month period, Topps traded from an average of 322 UK stores compared to 319 a year ago.
Operating costs were £46.5 million, compared to £45.1 million in the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, operating costs were £45.8 million, versus £44.6 million a year ago. Topps said the main drivers of the increased costs were inflation and a small rise in the number of stores trading which, when combined, increased the retailer’s cost base by £1.2 million.
Williams added: "While recent indications of an improvement in the UK housing market give encouragement for the future, it is too early to judge the sustainability of this trend and given the historic relationship between housing transactions and home improvement spend, any impact on trading conditions can be expected to lag a recovery. That said, Topps remains well placed to respond to any sustained increase in housing market volumes. Against this backdrop, we will continue to focus on taking further market share as we consolidate our position as the UK's number one tile retailer."
Email this article to a friend
You need to be logged in to use this feature.
Please log in here


text:
How Jeffrey Godsick has redefined the culture, approach and global reach of 20th Century Fox Consumer Products and its popular brands.
SEGA of America has expanded the new Sonic Boom brand program with the addition of new merchandising partners for toys, comics, apparel and novelty items.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has teamed with Kent International to develop a brand-new line of bicycle tires and tubes.
Adidas Group North America has signed a licensing agreement with DuPont Protection Technologies to use its Kevlar technology and brand in a line of new football cleats.
Interior designer and best-selling author Jonathan Adler has signed REM Eyewear to create a range of women’s eyewear for his burgeoning lifestyle brand.
The Boppy Company, maker of the Boppy Feeding and Infant Support Pillow, has partnered with Rashti & Rashti to brings its brand to a range of new infant products.
Perry Ellis International has tapped DreamKyds to create a range of men's and boy's apparel and accessories under the Grand Slam golf brand.
British children's publisher Ladybird Books has challenged students from the London College of Communication to re-imagine its brand as it celebrates its 100th anniversary.
Transporation company Uber has teamed with Fuhu, the creator of the Nabi kids' tablet, to launch the UberFamily rideshare service.
Custom sportswear manufacturer Scimitar Sports has teamed up with U.K. confectionery company Swizzels for a range of apparel featuring some of its top candy brands.
Agency Rush has signed on to represent the design brand Magicomora, created by artist Sergio Mora.
Viacom International Media Networks has signed a raft of third-party for its Nickelodeon kids' animation and live-action portfolio.
MHS Licensing has signed on to represent artist Josephine Kimberling, who specializes in modern-meets-vintage florals.
Perry Ellis International has signed with Parigi Group to develop children’s apparel for its Perry Ellis and Original Penguin brands.
Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana Enterprises has teamed with Sunwing Vacations to send some of its characters to resorts in the Caribbean and Central America.
Discovery Communications is planning a line of Keurig-compatible, single-serve coffee cups inspired by the TLC series, “Cake Boss.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Mattel are teaming up to give Barbie her first-ever live-action feature film.
Lisle international has signed the first two licensees for the new TV series, “Pip Ahoy!,” which is set to debut in September.
Scripps Networks International’s Fine Living network has made its debut in the Balkans region on Telemach in both Bosnia and Slovenia.
The Walt Disney Company and the Shanghai Shendi Group, are making an additional investment to accelerate the expansion of the Shanghai Disney Resort.
Amy Reinhard has been named president of worldwide television and home media acquisitions for Paramount Home Media Distribution.
©2015 ADVANSTAR COMMUNICATIONS INC. All rights reserved.


text:
Footwear chain Russell & Bromley has launched its first transactional ecommerce site, just in time to capitalise on the key Christmas trading period.
The site, which went live last week, uses ecommerce platform provider Venda and replaces the retailer’s previous non-transactional website.
Russell & Bromley said the decision to switch to a transactional website was based on customer demand.
“Our goal is for the online part of the business to become our best-selling store,” said Brendan Regan, head of marketing at Russell & Bromley.
“Ecommerce gives us a valuable opportunity to develop our customer contact. The data-gathering opportunity that the Venda platform presents means that we’ll be able to tailor our products and retail experience to drive sales.”
Russell & Bromley has 45 stores nationwide and sells a range of men’s, women’s and kid’s footwear.


text:
This Maharashtra village is going cashless to tackle demonetisationMonday, February 20, 2017
Dhasai, Dec. 13 -- When teenager Geeta Shinde of Dhasai village in Maharashtra swiped a pre-loaded bank card last Tuesday to buy Rs5 worth of wild berries from the village fruit vendor, she took a radical step toward financial literacy-one that involved bankers, villagers and even her school teacher. As Geeta swiped her Bank of Baroda (BoB) gift debit card, Vijay Singh, the bank's chief manager for South Mumbai zone, received a transaction alert in Mumbai. To him it was no ordinary alert. "This is a great step towards financial literacy and inclusion. We want students like Geeta to learn this so that they go home and tell their parents about it. Why use cash when money is available in other forms," says Singh. The fruit vendor proudly displays the Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machine, popularly known as card swipe machine, that BoB gave him free of charge on 1 December. The village of Dhasai in Thane district is learning a lesson in cash as a result of the demonetisation drive. It's not as if Dhasai has gone cashless-small cash still changes hands at some shops. Rather villagers are learning that money isn't all about cash. Towns and cities learnt this long back, without a currency crisis to teach them. But the rural folk of Dhasai, 140 km from Mumbai, are learning about forms of money after demonetisation hit them. It's becoming a "less cash" village. BoB has given 50 EDC machines free of charge to shops, including a couple of meat sellers and a tea vendor. Navtej Singh, the bank's general manager, Mumbai division, says while the immediate aim is to cover all 100 shops in Dhasai, the long-term goals are financial literacy and inclusion. For villagers like Geeta, these EDC machines are proving to be a great substitute for cash. Geeta is keen to tell her father Shivram Shinde, a farmer who does not yet have a debit card, to get one. How does Geeta, a class 10 student, know all this? Ranjit Savarkar, chairman of Maharashtra Military School near Dhasai and the main facilitator of this move, and Geeta's teachers, gave her the basic know-how. "You need to protect your password. You must not share it with anybody," Savarkar told the students, mostly girls. The socio-economic profile of Dhasal is similar to many other Maharashtra villages- of its 679 households, 370 belong to scheduled tribes and 150 to scheduled castes. Swapnil Patkar, president of Dhasai Merchants Association, says the two main economic activities are paddy farming and small trade. Of the two banks in Dhasai- the Thane District Central Co-operative Bank (TDCCB) and Vijaya Bank-the former has a larger customer base-27,000 savings accounts, as it caters to farmers, says Kailash Kor, branch manager. "Of these, only 5% would have ATM cards. We have been encouraging farmers to apply for Rupay cards since it is free of charge. But a very small number of farmers actually use their ATM cards," Kor says. On 10 November, Savarkar, during one of his visits to Dhasai, saw long queues in front of Vijaya Bank and TDCCB. "It was a queue more for withdrawing cash than depositing old notes. I called people I knew at BoB and asked if they could provide machines to retailers. They agreed," Savarkar says. Navtej Singh says BoB normally charges Rs10,000 as a security deposit and Rs450 as monthly rent for each EDC machine. "We started opening accounts of retailers with us and waived off the charges," he says. This move towards cashless transactions not only provided Dhasai villagers an alternative to cash but also saw a spike in business. Patkar, who runs a grocery shop, said his sales dropped 30% immediately after demonetisation-from Rs5,000 per day to Rs3,500. "But after I installed the machine, sales have gone up to Rs6,000-7,000," he says showing EDC transaction slips worth more than Rs15,000 for 5 December. Salman Sayyad, who runs a meat shop, saw sales rise by 15%. Ramesh Vekhande of Konkan Krushi Seva Kendra on 6 December sold seeds and fertilizers worth Rs5,500 to farmers who used their debit cards. The Dhasai experiment is catching up in Murbad tehsil, Thane district's tribal backyard. Before 8 November, only one shop in Murbad village had an EDC machine. Now there are eight, Savarkar says. He is facilitating the expansion in around 60 small villages in the district. Most of these villages are tribal hamlets, some of them with only 20 homes. Published by HT Syndication with permission from MINT.


text:
Duve, a Tel-Aviv based hospitality tech company, that helps hoteliers create a digital and personal guest experience, has raised $10M in Series A Round, bringing their total funding to date to $14M.
Following a rapid growth in sales and customers in the last year – from small boutique hotels to large worldwide hotel chains with thousands of rooms, the company will use the new funding to invest in expanding the team and supporting more growth, and is opening multiple positions across the entire organization. The investment is led by XT-Hitech, a leading investment firm with 80 past investments and over 30 IPOs and M&As in their portfolio, together with the company’s existing investors.
Duve’s white label platform helps hoteliers and hospitality professionals enrich guest profiles and understand each guest better. Collecting details such as reason of visit, interests, language, type of visit (family/ business/ romantic etc.), travel method, F&B preferences, and more, Duve allows hoteliers to customize and segment guest journeys and build a digital and personalized experience – essentially supporting hundreds of potential guest journeys, managed automatically by Duve which is connected to all the core systems of the hotel.
From personalized online check-in flows, through a tailored guest app with content relevant to the guest in their native language, and up to personal messaging through different channels as SMS, WhatsApp and emails together with personal upsells – each guest will receive a personal experience that is built upon their exact needs.
Thus, Duve is setting the bar for the future of hospitality, giving hoteliers a way to be more precise and personal with each guest, maximizing each guest’s revenue potential, and increasing guest satisfaction, happiness, and return rate.
Duve was founded in 2016 under the name Wishbox by childhood friends David Mezuman (CEO) and Jeremy Atlan (CBDO), together with Shai Bar (CTO).
Duve sought out to provide hoteliers and VR companies with tools to improve guest services, reduce manual labor and provide guests with more added-value, increasing owners’ revenue-generation via additional services.
As the COVID-19 pandemic forced the hospitality world into a stand-still, Duve’s platform and tools became even more crucial for hotels and hoteliers, helping to facilitate the transition from physical to digital, while maintaining – and even increasing – the focus on providing a high-quality, personal service to each guest, from initial booking to post Checkout.
During COVID Duve has seen exponential growth, and have onboarded thousands of new hotels, VRs, Aparthotels, Hostels and more, according to the company.
Assif Stoffman, Managing Director at XT Hi-Tech, said: “Duve brings a new, innovative platform into the hospitality industry, offering a wide range of interactive solutions for guest experiences, and allowing hotels and hoteliers to increase their revenue and improve guest satisfaction. Duve has shown a strong product/market fit in a category we see as crucial in the hospitality industry in the years to come. We are happy to partner with the team at Duve and believe they are situated in an optimal position to lead the market.”
“We couldn’t ask for better investors who understand our grand vision any better”, said David Mezuman, Duve’s CEO. “We see the digital transformation of the hospitality industry happening before our own eyes, and we are sure that in the upcoming years, a digitalized guest experience is going to be a standard in every hotel in the world. We are excited to lead the digital transformation of the industry, and provide hoteliers with the tools to create unique guest experiences. We are heading into this journey with our wonderful employees, investors, partners and clients behind us.”
Duve currently operates in over 60 countries, and supports over 120 integration partners, across all major PMS’s, Channel managers, PSP’s, Digital Key providers and 3rd-party vendors.


text:
What’s more classic than a road trip for the July 4 holiday? This year, you can expect to have a lot more company.
You’ll be sharing the road — and air space and rails and waterways — with a record number of travelers this year.
Over 44 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home around the coming holiday, up 3 percent from last year, according to AAA.
Bill Sutherland, AAA’s senior vice president of travel and publishing, said strong employment combined with rising incomes “bode well” for summer travel, especially the July 4 holiday. And some travel costs, such as gas prices and airfares, are down from a year ago, adding incentive to travel.
Of people traveling for the holiday, 85 percent will drive to their destination, about 8 percent will fly and 7 percent will take other transportation modes, such as trains, buses and cruises.
Here are some reasons why are more people traveling:
Economy: The economy is growing at a good enough clip for the Federal Reserve last week to raise a key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.25 percent.
Employment: People are working and feel more stable. While U.S. employment growth has slowed slightly in May, nearly 4.6 million jobs have been added over the last 12 months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The nation’s unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in May.
Income: Salaries are starting to rise. The average full-time worker earned $22 an hour in May, up 2.4 percent from $21.48 a year earlier, according to BLS data.
Gas: The average gas price nationwide costs $2.28, 4 cents less than a year ago. Drivers, however, may see prices increase closer to the holiday weekend.
Airfare: AAA’s Leisure Travel Index shows that average airfares for the top 40 U.S. flights are 10 percent lower this year, with an average round trip ticket costing $186.
Car rental: The average daily car rental rate is $65, 14 percent less than last year.
Where are most people going? Orlando, Fla., remains the No. 1 destination for summer travel AAA says. That’s followed by (in order): Vancouver, Canada; Cancun, Mexico; Seattle; and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.


text:
Facebook: What is Mark's entrepreneurial agenda in India?
Shocking, but true! Millions across the globe already believe that Facebook is Internet. This does bring us to a critical juncture: Is Facebook blurring the Internet identity?
On October 28, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg walked on to a stage at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to a resounding applause. In an hour-long closely controlled question-and-answer session, one of the key questions shot at him was: “Why are you showing so much interest in India? Answer honestly.”
The 31-year-old Harvard dropout pretty much unflinchingly dived straight into nuances and spoke on the importance of its 130 million users from India in the Facebook universe. It is pertinent to mention that India is only second to US on the count of FB users.
Speaking of his heart on the mission in Indian subcontinent, Zuckerberg spoke of his contentious plan to dole out Internet services to several million Indians who still are not connected to the Internet.
Internet.org, which drew a lot of flak from the advocates of net neutrality in India, is a free but limited Internet service for the subscribers of Reliance Communications in the country. Zuckerberg tried to douse some flaring concerns and advocated the roused case with this assertion: “Net neutrality is an important principle and we are doing a lot to push it.”
However, the ground reality is a bit of a variant from the claimed one. In fact, Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in the developing world, “people will walk into phone stores and say ‘I want Facebook.’ People actually confuse Facebook and the Internet in some places.”
In a bid to annul the controversy Zuckerberg defended his stand, “Some of the people advocating net neutrality say that there should be no zero rated Internet. Zero rating is important to ensure that more people get on to the Internet.”
The zero-rated Internet is good on its USP that it doesn’t charge customers on the use of certain websites and apps. It continues to be a contentious topic in India as the likes of Zuckerberg believe that it is essential to bring everybody online while critics claim that the richly-funded websites would rake in the benefits and the moolah. Consequently, it would eclipse the small players and the startups and in the long-run quality of Internet would be affected for the ‘imminent billion users’.
On the entrepreneurial end, it appears, for now, that Mark Zuckerberg has aimed for the best of both worlds when it comes to India as Internet.org can bring him brawn of gatekeeping (which he safely terms as ‘a gateway’) in the virtual world and moolah as it would for rope in a billion prospective net users. In a nutshell, speculations are rife about FB being the neo-Internet avatar in the developing world.
With four years of journalistic and editorial experience from two leading English dailies, namely, The Pioneer and Hindustan Times, Akash dabbles in Applied Linguistics and mainstream journalism. His interests include book writing, travelogues, Gender Studies and Shaivism. The author is a senior features writer cum sub editor at 'Entrepreneur Online' and has a dual masters in journalism and English Language Teaching (ELT).


text:
BioShock game coming to the NGP
Irrational's Ken Levine dropped a big bomb on the stage at Sony's E3 press conference.
Levine began speaking of a concept in its early stages but that it didn't have a suitable home, until now.
Whipping out an NGP from his pocket Levine proclaimed that they had finally found a suitable home for the game.
This is still in its early stages so we'll be on the look out for more news when it arrives.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 after all
- Tomonobu Itagaki's Devil's Third gets a release date
- Adr1ft is coming to PC and consoles at the end of the summer
- EA gives the new Mirror's Edge a name – Mirror's Edge Catalyst
- ZombiU PS4 and Xbox One port reportedly in the works
- Mike Bithell's Volume to be released this August
- Gearbox's new shooter Battleborn gets a pre-E3 trailer
- Steam Controller launches in October, Steam Machines arrive in November
- Gears Of War devs Black Tusk change their name to The Coalition ahead of E3


text:
Earlier this week we announced that global demand is growing for the Nominum N2 Secure Consumer solution, which provides simple, effective cloud-based digital parenting capabilities. Deployed by millions of households worldwide, N2 Secure Consumer fills a growing need for better monitoring and management tools among parents concerned by the number of hours their children spend online. Study after study shows that children and teens are spending increasing amounts of time online, which should be no surprise given that today’s youth were practically born with mobile devices in their hands.
Nominum’s inaugural security report published by its Data Science team, Data Revelations: Fall 2016, includes an analysis of some of the largest threats that are impacting organizations and individuals, including ransomware, DDoS, mobile malware, IoT-based attacks and more. Since DNS is the launch point for over 90% of cyberattacks, it offers a great vantage point from which to examine, understand, thwart and proactively prevent threats1. With industry-leading research experience, and by applying machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, neural networks and more, Nominum Data Science is able to locate, analyze, prevent and predict some of the most sophisticated and dangerous cyberthreats ever to hit the internet.
The increasingly digital consumer lifestyle, fueled by explosive growth in use of the internet, mobile technologies and social media, has given rise to the empowered customer. With access to more information, choices and opportunities, consumers across all industries are in a position to demand not only what they want, but also where and how they want it.
Nominum Data Science just released a new Data Science and Security report that investigates the largest threats affecting organizations and individuals, including ransomware, DDoS, mobile device malware, IoT-based attacks and more. Below is an excerpt.
On Friday, October 21, 2016, there was a major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that took down major U.S. company websites, including Twitter, Paypal, The New York Times, Box, Netflix and more. The attack targeted managed DNS provider Dyn Inc., which hosts the authoritative DNS for these popular domains. The attack originated from a large number of compromised IoT devices, including internet-connected cameras, routers and digital video recorders.
I had the privilege of authoring the foreword to this year’s Broadband Outlook Report, published by Telecoms.com Intelligence. The report provides a comprehensive run-through of the most current and pressing technologies affecting the broadband delivery industry today. This year’s theme is “Digital Transformation,” one of the telecom industry’s most nebulous and ill-defined terms.
Data scientists put in a tireless amount of work tracking cybercriminals—from specific individuals to entire organizations—looking at their behavior and the methods through which they attempt to compromise data. Because DNS is a ubiquitous protocol that’s used for most internet interactions, it also provides fertile ground for cybercriminals to launch malware. Nominum Data Science examines massive volumes of DNS data—100 billion queries daily—to detect anomalies and uncover the patterns of malicious code authors before other security experts.
For service providers, achieving the subscriber communications trifecta is nearly impossible: that is, sending the right message to the right person. Email is a heavily used subscriber communications method, given both its low cost and the ability for subscribers to view the message at their convenience.
For service providers undergoing digital transformation, the importance of subscriber and network protection cannot be understated. When subscribers and networks are at risk of attack or infection, a provider’s digital strategy is weakened and business growth limited.


text:
Despite occasional predictions that 2016 would be the year of digital wallets, that doesn’t seem to have been the case in the United States. As of March 2016, just 3.5 percent of eligible transactions — which include only those made by a consumer with the appropriate phone to a vendor with a compatible POS system — were made via Apple Pay, the digital wallet player that’s been in the U.S. market for the longest. Compare this to the United Kingdom, where one in 10 transactions are contactless, or Australia, where 53 percent of people pay with a contactless card or digital wallet at least once per week.
But first, some backstory: A digital wallet is simply a third-party mobile or web app that connects to a payment card and facilitates secure purchases. In many cases, it takes the form of a mobile phone app, and works by holding a phone to a contactless payment terminal. Technically, even PayPal is a digital wallet, albeit a more traditional one; it uses stored funds or a connected account to complete online transactions, adding a layer of security between the purchaser and the merchant. Unlike credit card transaction fees, which vary in amount but are standardized across networks in terms of who pays for what, digital wallets take on a variety of revenue models, and no standard fee structure has been established across the available options. In the long shadow of PayPal, upwards of 100 mobile wallets have launched in the U.S. alone, by giants of technology such as Apple, Samsung, and Google, as well as by smaller upstarts.
Adoption — and reporting on said adoption — varies for these major players, too. One data source reports the percentage of people who have tried Apple Pay to have risen from less than 10 in late 2014 to close to 25 in recent months. Regular users, on the other hand, are reported to be closer to 5 percent. A different survey in 2015 found that about one in five, or 20 percent, of eligible users had tried Apple Pay at least once. This same survey found close to 14 percent of Android and Samsung users to have tried the mobile wallets on their phones — and that only a small percentage of that used the services regularly.
Some might argue that it’s only a matter of time before mobile wallets become the new standard. But before that, as we inch toward ubiquitous digital wallet usage, the two unavoidable questions then become which companies are actually succeeding — and which digital wallet can devise a revenue model that leads to long-term sustainability.
A digital wallet walks into a (store)…
As if payments weren’t already complicated enough, digital wallets add another layer of intermediaries to the payment flow — and each wallet is slightly different. Here’s how.
Whether an Apple Pay transaction occurs in a store, an app, or online, the transaction flow described here remains the same, with the Apple device simply adding an additional layer between the card and the merchant. But a number of added security steps ensure that the card details are protected. Apple works with users’ banks to verify the card upon setup, but after that, Apple does not pass card details between its own and the banks’ servers. Apple also doesn’t store any individual card information on their servers. The card network then assigns a Device Account Number (DAN) and a “key used to generate dynamic security codes unique to each transaction,” according to Apple. Apple Pay uses the latest standards for tokenized transactions as determined by EMV, and given the security measures Apple takes, these transactions carry a similar amount of risk as those made with a chip card (that is very little, or at least much less than those made with a magnetic stripe card).
As for Apple Pay’s effect on transaction fees, the same interchange, card network, and merchant acquirer fees apply as would in a card transaction. In addition, Apple has managed to negotiate a fee structure with banks that others have not. Banks signed on to the platform pay Apple a fee for each transaction, reported to be 0.15 percent for credit cards and $0.50 for debit card transactions. When Apple Pay launched in 2014, 83 percent of U.S. card issuers were on board; At the time of writing, customers of more than 1,500 banks and credit unions can use Apple Pay. While this is an extra expense banks take on, they do so in the hope that the simplicity of Apple Pay makes transacting so much easier — particularly in the context of e-commerce — that transaction volume will go up significantly enough to account for the new fees. That said, these contracts are typically three years long, and other market changes (discussed in more detail below) may leave Apple unable to continue charging these fees in the future.
Android Pay is Google’s second attempt at a mobile wallet, as Google Wallet has pivoted to focus on peer-to-peer payments. As with Apple Pay, the merchant acquirer, card network, and card issuer infrastructure — and therefore fees — are the same in an Android Pay transaction as they would be for a credit and debit card transactions. It’s been reported that Android Pay also uses tokenization to hide actual card information from merchants — although, unlike Apple and Samsung wallets, Android Pay does not store information in a secure element, meaning that information, while tokenized, could theoretically be accessed by another app on a device.
Google wasn’t as lucky as Apple in setting up fee arrangements with banks. In between Apple Pay and Android Pay launching, Visa and Mastercard standardized their tokenization services. This change made the identity verification and better security enabled by tokenization free, thus preventing digital wallet companies (including Google) from charging for this service. When Apple set up its contracts, on the other hand, tokenization was a unique bargaining chip that they used to convince banks that it was worth paying to be on the Apple Pay platform. Google may offer coupons, rewards, and loyalty programs in partnership with card issuers and retailers (in fact, it looks like they have already started) — meaning revenue from Android Pay would come from advertising and other marketing agreements, rather than from the banks.
Samsung Pay uses a unique technology to allow its payments to be accepted anywhere a credit card can be swiped — not just in stores with near field communication (NFC) sales terminals. Using Magnetic Secure Transmission, high-end Samsung devices “shoot” out the same magnetic code that magnetic stripe readers receive when a card is swiped. Like Apple Pay, Samsung also uses tokenization and stores information where it can’t be accessed by other phone apps.
Launching to the public nearly a year after Apple Pay, Samsung also missed out on being able to charge banks transaction fees for purchases with their wallet — but executives say this wasn’t their strategy in the first place. Rather, the company is hoping that Samsung Pay helps drive sales of their high-end devices — because people “just love it more.”
While a number of digital wallet attempts have quietly faded away, Chase Pay is newer to the space and uses different technology to facilitate online and in-store payments. For in-store transactions, Chase Pay customers show the cashier a QR code on their phone, which the cashier then scans. Some critics think the extra steps of unlocking the phone, opening an app, displaying the the QR code, and having the code scanned are enough to challenge consumer adoption of the technology — but it’s too early to tell, as Chase Pay has so far only launched for online purchases and at a limited number of retail partners, including Starbucks.
Online, Chase Pay simply entails a button that retailers can add to checkout options, enabling the purchaser to log into his or her Chase account to authorize the purchase. While Chase Pay doesn’t work for accounts with other banks, Chase points out that one in every two American households is a Chase customer, meaning the potential market is plenty large.
In terms of security, Chase Pay uses tokenized DANs that are unique to each Chase account a user holds — but that stay the same across devices. This is distinct from the DANs used by Apple Pay, which change across devices. Chase Pay does not tokenize each individual payment, meaning that the DAN used for purchases from two different retailers is the same. These methods involve fewer encryption and other data securitization steps than those used by Apple Pay, and it makes sense that Apple, not being a card issuer, would want to offload security onto the issuers; this mitigates the risks associated with being a conduit of sensitive information. On the other hand, Chase is a card issuer, and therefore already has many fraud and risk mitigation tactics in place to protect their account holders — and the bank itself. In addition, because Chase Pay doesn’t involve transmitting sensitive user information between parties, there are fewer opportunities for these details to be uncovered by a hacker.
While the consumer experience on Chase Pay isn’t as seamless as on other platforms, the pricing structure may be attractive enough to incent retailer adoption. By partnering with Visa to license its own transaction processing network, called ChaseNet, Chase Pay can charge retailers a fixed price, with zero network, fraud liability, or processing fees. Of the digital wallets covered here, Chase Pay is the only one to actually affect transaction processing, essentially acting as the acquirer, the card network, and the card issuer — and therefore having control over transaction fees. Given that retailers are always looking for ways to reduce their spend on these types of fees, Chase Pay may gain traction over the coming years — but much remains to be seen.
No winner… yet
Digital wallets have taken on a number of forms over past few years, and while many industry insiders have heralded the importance of mobile, no one player has fully captured the market.
Returning to the original question of who’s winning the digital wallet, the evidence suggests that “winning” could take many forms: Apple, for example, locked down bank fees for their wallet transactions (at least temporarily), whereas Chase has used their digital wallet as an entrance into innovation within transaction processing. And it’s not clear if one category of digital wallet will ultimately surpass others; everyone from device manufacturers to banks themselves seem to be in the throes of crafting or refining their digital wallet strategies. What is clear, though, is that digital wallets are still very much in their early years, with seamless user experience, a high degree of security, and zero cost to users being the tenets upon which these products are built.


text:
It has been discovered that hackers have exploited a security vulnerability within Google Chrome version 107, making it necessary for Google to release an emergency security update. In the near future, other Chromium-based browsers should follow suit, as well as other browsers powered by the Chrome engine.
107 emergency updates released by Chrome, fixing high-risk vulnerabilities
It is currently recommended that users upgrade to Chrome Stable for Mac and Linux version 107.0.5304.121, while Chrome Stable for Windows-10 will install version 107.0.5304.121/122; Chrome Extended Stable will install version 106.0.5249.199; and Chrome for Android will install version 107.0.5304.141. A new version of Chrome has been released for Android devices. It is called 107.0.5304.141.
You can manually upgrade Google Chrome on the desktop by going to chrome://settings/help or by choosing the Chrome “Menu” > “Help” > “About Google Chrome” button in the Chrome menu.
It has been identified that this high-risk vulnerability, which is numbered CVE-2022-4135, is caused by an overflow in GPU heap buffers. This incident has been classified as ‘high severity’, which is only behind ‘critical’ in terms of its level of seriousness. To avoid potential risks, Google strongly recommends that users update Chrome immediately in order to avoid the potential impact of this vulnerability. The company has found evidence that hackers are exploiting the vulnerability to launch attacks.


text:
Larry Lamb lights up Islington
Christmas came to Islington in style this weekend as two of the borough’s busiest shopping areas had their festive lights switched on.
The roads around Archway and Islington High Street were full of Christmas cheers as �people came in droves to enjoy the festive fun and games.
In Islington on Saturday, EastEnders and Gavin and Stacey star Larry Lamb came to get the �party started.
After switching on the lights for the N1 Centre, in Parkfield Street, Camden Passage and �Islington Green, he announced the winner of a hamper of luxury food drink in the Youthnet charity raffle.
Meanwhile, in Archway on Friday the lights were turned on by An�is Higgins, a pupil from St John’s Upper Holloway Primary School, in Pemberton Gardens, winner of a recent Christmas poster competition, Cllr Catherine West, leader of Islington Council and Cllr Phil Kelly, Mayor of Islington.
Then on Saturday characters from yuletide show The Enourmous Turnip performed, and revellers enjoyed face-painting, balloon-modelling and magic.


text:
Emu Australia is in a gift-giving mood. The company is debuting a 300-sq.-ft. pop-up shop on Nov. 1 in the OC Mix shopping center in Costa Mesa, Calif. Scheduled to be open daily through January, the store will feature women’s and children’s collections, including its signature waterproof styles. The shop is the first of its kind in the U.S.
Emu Australia is partnering with outdoor lifestyle retailer Gear Coop for the venture. A soft opening will be held on Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. to kick off holiday selling.
“Emu Australia has a large brand following in the Orange County market,” said Emu Australia President Dan Singer. “Having grown up in Laguna Beach, I know this market very well.”
While the brand is best-known for its cozy shearling boots, it has recently ventured into spring styles that include dress and casual sandals and canvas casuals, and it will introduce a companion girls’ line of novelty designs for spring ’16.
The Aussie brand is also partnering with model and global WaterAid charity ambassador Elyse Knowles for its spring ’16 campaign, shot in the Byron Bay region of Australia. Knowles is not a newcomer to the fashion industry — she has her own apparel brand, called Evrryday. Part of the proceeds from the sale of her line goes to WaterAid, an international nonprofit that improves access to safe water and sanitation.


text:
DORinsight, the leading company of online research, took its place among the group companies of Hedef Holding, one of Turkiye’s leading investment groups, for ₺10 million. Having Turkiye’s first and largest online research panel, DORinsight will continue its rapid growth, which it has achieved by sharing its technology and experience with other research companies, within the body of Hedef Holding group companies.
Ideal Financial, one of the group companies of Hedef Holding, which is among the leading investment groups in Turkiye and contributes to the development of the financial sector with more than 20 group companies, 6 of which are publicly traded, under its umbrella, acquired DORinsight, which has Turkiye’s first and largest online research panel.
KAP: The agreement, which was also reported to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP), was realized over ₺10,032,552 for all company shares.
Strengthens interaction between brands and target audience
Experienced name in the research industry, DORinsight serves industry players with the online research panel Napoleon, which has Turkiye’s first and largest database with permission. While research companies are able to reach fast and clear results through online research with the participation of 1.2 million consumers who were previously authorized by the Napoleon panel, they strengthen the interaction between brands and their target audiences.
Online access to 1.2 million people of all ages with Napoleon While Napoleon has signed successful projects with more than 400 brand collaborations and leading companies in the field since 2011, it also provides instant and online access to 1.2 million people of all ages, 42% of whom are women and 58% are men.
In his statement, Dr. Namik Kemal Gokalp, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hedef Holding and Chairman of the Board of Ideal Financial, said the following;
“As Hedef Holding, we are happy to include DORinsight among our group companies and to further expand our business network. Bringing the tradition of online research to the research industry, DORinsight offers the research industry the advantage of speed and a wide audience with its Napoleon panel. Napoleon, which we aim to be a new generation financial platform with the addition of FinTech solutions in the near future, will offer its users many innovations that can be advantageous in their daily lives. As Hedef Holding, we are very excited to support new generation initiatives with all our group companies and to accompany them on their journey. We will continue to continue our investments.”
Source: Egirisim / Prepared by Irem Yildiz


text:
This is actually kind of sad.
According to reports, Egypt's Olympic team is indeed getting their unis from China, but their clothing is going to be bootleg Nike pieces.
Chairman of the committee, Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed Ali explained why the team is going for this look:
"[We] signed with a Chinese distributor in light of Egypt’s economic situation."
That makes a little sense considering Egypt's recent political revolution situation.
However, Nike is not feeling Egypt's idea to dress their team with knockoff duds:
"Nike is highly concerned that if these allegations are true, the athletes will have received products that do not meet Nike’s quality standards. We are now in discussions with them to see if a solution can be reached."
Synchronized swimmer of the Egyptian team, Yomna Khallaf, doesn't like the fake Nike digs either, he said:
"It’s so frustrating that we had to pay extra 2000 (Egyptian) pounds to have other proper stuff to wear so that we can look okay not even good."
The worst part of this situation is that the items aren't even first-rate knockoffs. Apparently, the team's bags are adorned with Nike logos, but have zippers that say Adidas.
Ali is trying to make things work, but we think this is just cray, he said:
"This costs a lot of money, especially in light of the team being 112 players. Plus we have the coaches, management and doctors going."
It's sad that the Egyptian team can't afford to buy better uniforms, but what we don't understand is why they're being so open about it.
Maybe they should've kept this occurrence to themselves, because what they're doing is totally against the law.
Whatevs, if they want to wear knockoff threads, then so be it!
[Image courtesy of FinishLine.com.]


text:
ARGENTINA: Quilmes hit by economic conditions
Latin American brewing force, Quilmes Industrial SA, posted a US$23.5m loss for the first quarter on net sales some 49% down at US$155m. The Luxembourg-based group recorded a net profit of US$21.6m in the first quarter of last year.
The company said it had been hit by lower beer volumes resulting from adverse economic conditions in certain Latin American markets. Beer volume sales fell from 3.84m hls to 3.31m hls.
Net revenues in Argentina, the group's largest market where it operates the leading brewing force, Quilmes, fell dramatically from US$148m to US$60.2m, severely affected by the devaluation of the Argentine peso and government restrictions on the financial markets. Volumes in Argentina fell from 2.72m hls to 2.28m hls.
The company's operations in Bolivia performed better, with net revenues rising marginally from US$21.1m to US$21.4m but volumes were down from 395,000 hls to 388,000 hls. Sales in Paraguay fell from US$24.7m to US$19.5m with volumes down from 488,000 hls to 425,000 hls. In Chile, revenues fell from US$8.3m to US$7.2m on slightly lower volumes of 135,000 hls.
Earlier this month, Quilmes sold a 36% stake in its Argentine division to the Brazilian-based drinks company, AmBev, for US$346.4m and took on AmBev operations in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay as part of the same deal.
Companies: Anheuser-Busch InBev
The global roll-out of InBev's Brazilian beer, Brahma, adds a third premium brand to the global brewer's international portfolio but some observers have suggested it's an unnecessary step which threat...
Functional soft drinks are relatively undeveloped in Latin America in comparison with Europe but there is significant growth potential. Hope Lee of industry analysts, Euromonitor International, examin...
The pan-Latin American beer force AmBev has opened a new brewery in Peru....
AmBev has announced the sales volumes for the third quarter of this year....
The investment bank, Merrill Lynch, has warned that a takeover of the Brazilian brewer Kaiser by a large international group could lead to some profit-taking in the shares of the market leader AmBev, ...
Companhia de Bebidas das Americas (AmBev) has reported a 92% year-on-year leap in EBITDA for the second quarter of this year....
AmBev's Peruvian unit has launched a new bottle in the country....
Companhia de Bebidas das Americas or AmBev has been boosted by a strong recovery of its Brazilian beer unit and reported a 11% jump in second quarter beer volumes....
- The end is nigh for Global Travel Retail - Comment
- Five ways small brands can beat big players
- Interview, Bulldog Gin founder Anshuman Vohra
- Pernod Ricard's Q1 results - Preview
- Pernod Ricard Q1 2017 results by region, brand
- Diageo most at risk to Thai alcohol ban - analyst
- Jobs at new India hub won't affect staff - Diageo
- Stumbling UK Pound prompts Conviviality price hike
- US craft spirits could be as big as craft beer
- AB InBev fund ZX Ventures buys homebrew co
- Global gin insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends
- Global Scotch whisky insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends
- Global rum insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends
- Global Wine Market 2016-2020
- Global RTD insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends


text:
International smartphone vendors face competition from local brands in Southeast Asia
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES
With sales ratios of smartphones to total handset sales in some markets in the Southeast Asia region expecting to grow about from 10% currently to 40-50% in the next 3-5 years, the region is becoming a battle field for all smartphone vendors, according...
The article you are trying to open requires News database subscription. Please sign in if you wish to continue.


text:
The digital currency of China's central bank now has 261 million users
According to the central bank, the digital yuan application, e-CNY, had 261 million unique users by the end of 2021, more than twice as many as it had in October, even before this month's release.
It is unknown when the e-CNY app will be released nationwide, but it will be trialed in several cities and at Winter Olympics venues. By the end of December, transactions totaling US$13.8 billion had taken place via the app as the central bank pushed the adoption of its digital currency.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) accelerated the trial in 2022 by making the e-CNY wallet available through the Apple and Android app stores in China, following a draw and application process for early adopters. The digital yuan is nothing like cryptocurrencies, which are banned in China.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are considered highly volatile, speculative, and lacking intrinsic value by the PBOC. Hence, cryptocurrencies are seen in China as potential money laundering tools.
Researchers at the central bank have published a research paper regarding the digital yuan. The digital yuan aims to:
1) Diversify the ways in which the central bank provides cash to the public and meets the public's demand for digital cash.
2) Encourage fair competition, efficiency, and safety in retail payment services.
3) Investigate ways to improve cross-border payments by following the international initiative.
The only way to convert cash into e-CNY is through commercial banks authorized by the PBOC to handle the operation. With over 8 million merchants using it, people have been transacting in huge volumes and embracing the digital Yuan in such a short period of time. As the US government is reported to be planning a bill to provide billions in funding to boost US capabilities amid the US-China tech war, the Chinese government has published a major plan to boost its competitiveness in the digital economy before 2025.
CBW - External Analyst


text:
- SmackDown General Manager Booker T noted that the hardcopy version of his new book From Prison to Promise will be in stores September 1st but can be pre-ordered through iBook. Booker sold around 300 copies of his book at the Chicago Comic-Con this weekend.
- WWE Diva Eve Torres is featured on NBC’s Stars Earn Stripes reality TV show. It premieres tonight at 8pm EST on NBC.
- Tyler Reks said on Twitter that he and Curt Hawkins will be working this week’s RAW and SmackDown.
- Chris Jericho took fan questions on Twitter this weekend and was asked about WWE releasing AW. He replied:
“It’s a drag. But it’s not the attitude era anymore”
The Hottest WWE news, photos and videos delivered to your inbox in one convenient newsletter. Sign up now and give it a try!
|18||Hulk Hogan Says Steve Austin Is A "Constant Bitch"|
|11||Video: Ryback Comments On His Injuries From The Hospital|
|6||Backstage News on Why WWE Might Be Calling Charlotte Up, WWE Network Rushed In Canada|
|5||Who Was Responsible for John Cena's Strong Booking on RAW and Why, Another RAW Change|
|4||More on Ryback Possibly Being Injured, Update on Zeb Colter's WWE Status, Orton & Jericho|


text:
Fortnite officially reveals Jordan s collaboration with the new Jumpman zone
After filtering yesterday, Fortnite has officially announced its new collaboration with Jordan, which is the iconic brand of clothing and sneakers associated with the superstar of Basketball Michael Jordan. While this crossing between the two brings mainly a series of new cosmetic items that players can now buy, a new location known as Jump man Zone has also been added. Fortnite for limited time.
As of today at 7:00 pm EDT / 4:00 pm PDT, this Jump man Zone area in Fortnite will open the players. This place will greatly allow players to compete in a treasure search in which they will seek to find the Air Jordan 11 «Cool Gray shoes, which Jordan will launch at the end of this month. After completing this task, you can see a number of different areas that include a museum, a video room and even a basketball court. Best of all is that basketball courts will even allow players to shoot and play with friends.
When it comes to the cosmetic items that are arriving at Fortnite as part of this event, all the new team of the game is designed to combine with the Cool Gray slippers. By completing more challenges, players can unlock the outfit of plays and Crossover in their basic form. If you complete 10 challenges, you will unlock the MVP and Downtown versions of these sets, which are bright silver. Finally, when completing 12 challenges, you will unlock the spray «Deep in the Paint» and a new room in the Hall of Fame you can visit.
As a whole, this Jump man Zone is configured to stay in Fortnite until December 11. However, in the short term, Fortnite Chapter 2 is about to come to an end in a few days on December 4. Epic Games has not yet said what players should expect from chapter 3, but we should learn more in the coming days.
What do you think of this new collaboration between Jordan and Fortnite ? Are you going to try to acquire all this new team for yourself? Notice me in the comments or send me a message on Twitter a @ mooreman12.


text:
Hardware (DVD, TV, PMP, Set-top Box, …) News
Octoshape and Altech partner for OTT/IPTV in the Middle-East and Africa
Jul 30, 2014 – Octoshape and Altech Multimedia have announced that they have entered into a partnership to offer video contribution and distribution solutions to major broadcasters and operators in the Middle East and Africa.
News categories: Octoshape, Altech Multimedia, Michael Koehn Milland, Paulo Caldeira, Africa, Digital TV, Infrastructure, IPTV, Middle-East, OTT, Set Top Box
Eagle Kingdom ports middleware to DTVKit platform
Jul 30, 2014 – DTVKit has announced that Eagle Kingdom Technologies (EKT) has ported its solidTV middleware on top of the DTVKit platform, and has joined DTVKit as a member.
News categories: DTVKit, Eagle Kingdom, Amy Cleary, Jill Mulder, Digital TV, Middleware, Set Top Box, Worldwide
India's GTPL chooses ST chipsets for cable STBs
Jul 29, 2014 – STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) has announced that its STi5197 SD and STiH273 HD cable chipsets have been picked by GTPL, a leading Indian Cable MSO (multi-system operator) with over 3 million digital subscribers.
News categories: STMicroelectronics, GTPL, Guru Prasad V, Vivek Sharma, Cable TV, Digital TV, India, Semiconductor, Set Top Box
Russia's MTS launches new HD STB
Jul 29, 2014 – Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS” – NYSE: MBT), the leading telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, has announced the availability of a new high definition digital set-top box (STB).
News categories: Mobile TeleSystems, Cable TV, Digital TV, Russia, Set Top Box
Hungary adds 12,000 pay TV subscribers in 2Q 2014
Jul 28, 2014 – According to the Office of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH), in June 2014, the number of digital pay TV households in Hungary was 2,092,426, up from 1,949,845 in June 2013.
News categories: NMHH, Cable TV, Digital TV, Hungary, IPTV, Market Research, Satellite, Set Top Box, Smart card / CAM, Subscribers
HGI sets out business requirements for media gateway
Jul 28, 2014 – HGI has today set out high-level Broadband Service Provider (BSP) business requirements for a Media Gateway as it continues in its quest to build a technology-agnostic smart home ecosystem.
News categories: HGI, Duncan Bees, Philippe Calvet, Digital TV, Gateway, Home Networking, Middleware, Personal Video Recorder, Set Top Box, Worldwide
Alcatel-Lucent and Telefónica bring network DVR to Movistar TV in Spain
Jul 28, 2014 – Alcatel-Lucent (Paris; NYSE: ALU) and Telefónica have enabled a cloud-based TV feature for Telefónica's, Movistar TV. Movistar subscribers now have access to up to 350 hours of personal online recording through their set-top boxes.
News categories: Alcatel-Lucent, Telefónica, Roque Lozano, Digital TV, Infrastructure, IPTV, Middleware, Personal Video Recorder, Spain
Broadcom powers Technicolor's Tata Sky HEVC set-top
Jul 28, 2014 – Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) has announced that its BCM7252 high-efficiency video codec (HEVC) H.265 system-on-chip (SoC) will power Tata Sky's first generation Ultra HD set-top boxes (STBs).
News categories: Broadcom, Technicolor, Tata Sky, Harit Nagpal, Georges Laplanche, Rich Nelson, Digital TV, India, Satellite, Semiconductor, Set Top Box
UK's Freesat adds 6,000 households in 2Q 2014
Jul 28, 2014 – Freesat, the UK subscription free satellite TV service, added 6,000 new homes in the three months to the end of June. In all, Freesat has added 24,000 households in the first half of 2014.
News categories: Freesat, Emma Scott, Results, Satellite, Set Top Box, Subscribers, UK
- India registers 1.85 million additional DTH subscribers in 1Q 2014
- Octoshape and Altech partner for OTT/IPTV in the Middle-East and Africa
- 2.2 million active smartcards for Italy's TivùSat
- Eagle Kingdom ports middleware to DTVKit platform
- Asia Pacific OTT TV to surge to $10 billion
- Brazil adds 513,000 pay TV subscribers in 2Q 2014
- India's GTPL chooses ST chipsets for cable STBs
- Telsur selects ATEME encoder for iOS streaming
- Russia's MTS launches new HD STB
- Airtel Digital TV adds 376,000 subscribers in 2Q 2014
- Nokia to trial LTE for national TV broadcasting
- Hungary adds 12,000 pay TV subscribers in 2Q 2014
- HGI sets out business requirements for media gateway
- Alcatel-Lucent and Telefónica bring network DVR to Movistar TV in Spain
- Broadcom powers Technicolor's Tata Sky HEVC set-top
- UK's Freesat adds 6,000 households in 2Q 2014
- AirTies and Octoshape selected by Digiturk for international OTT service
- Thailand's NBTC proposes ฿690 DTT receiver subsidy coupoon
- Digital TV Research provides Netflix subscriber split by country
- Entropic licenses Cryptography Research DPA countermeasures


text:
Honda City 2020 launched at ₹10.89 lakh, takes aim at Hyundai Verna 2020
Honda City 2020 has been officially launched in India at a starting price of ₹10.89 lakh and goes up to ₹14.64 lakh (ex showroom prices, Delhi). The fifth-generation Honda City and the preceding model will both be sold by the Japanese car maker here.
While the fourth-generation Honda City was upgraded to meet BS 6 emission norms in late 2019 and it makes sense to persist with it, the latest Honda City manages to raise the bar in several key areas and puts itself out as a strong option in the sedan segment which also features Hyundai Verna 2020 - launched earlier this year, and Maruti Suzuki Ciaz.
The biggest of all changes in City 2020 are in terms of its looks and engine options. The new City looks extremely contemporary and gets heavy design upgrades highlighted by a profile that is now longer and wider than the previous model. A thick chrome strip on the front fascia is flanked by a 9-LED headlight setup on either side. On the side, the wheel arches over the new alloys are more prominent and so is a sharp body line that stretches the entire length of the vehicle.
Also check these Cars
The tail lights at the rear have been reworked and the overall appeal of the vehicle is now extremely up market. This is also obvious because certain styling elements in City 2020 have been brought in from elder siblings like Civic and Accord.
The upgrades extend into the cabin as well which is now even more well appointed. The seats are plush - the cushioning is three times more than in seats in the fourth-generation City, there's enough leg and knee room for even three passengers at the back and there is a new seven-inch TFT LCD panel behind the steering wheel for the driver. The main eight-inch infotainment unit has also been upgraded.
Also Read - Honda City 2020 vs Hyundai Verna 2020: Duel of petrol automatic variants)
Safety in the new City has been taken several notches up and the most striking addition is a Lane-Keep camera under the left rear view mirror. It puts out a live feed on the central display unit whenever the left indicator is engaged. Apart from this, it also has six airbags, ABS with EBD, vehicle stability assist (VSA), agile handling assist (AHA), hill start assist (HSA), and Honda claims that the new City 2020 weighs slightly more because of the use of ultra-high tensile strength steel frame. The car also offers a first-in-segment walk-away auto lock convenience.
City 2020 is offered with a new 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine and Honda persists with diesel powertrain too courtesy a 1.5-litre i-DTEC motor. While there is an option to choose between a six-speed manual or a seven-speed CVT transmission unit in the petrol, the diesel City 2020 comes only with a six-speed manual option. In petrol, Honda claims a fuel efficiency of 18.4 kmpl in the petrol manual and 17.8 kmpl in the petrol CVT option. The diesel variant has a claimed mileage of 24.1 kmpl.
Honda City 2020 is offered in three variants - V, VX and ZX across both petrol and diesel powertrains.
When compared to the new Verna, City 2020 starts at a higher price point although the diesel manual transmission - City 2020's most expensive variant on offer - sits under the price point of the most expensive Verna - the diesel AT variant priced at ₹15.09 lakh (ex showroom).


text:
The Honda Accord Euro is not a nameplate many are familiar with in the U.S., but that's because the automaker has employed its luxury arm—Acura—to sell the car as the Acura TSX here in the U.S.
Read This Article
UPDATE: After speaking with officials from Honda, we have learned that the information that went into this story is false.
Darn kids these days.
When asking consumers what is most important when buying a new vehicle, many will mention styling.


text:
For further information on this release, please contact Lourens Kriel or John Reeves
Bottoms Up Draught Systems launches new UK partnership with Event Cup Solutions
In response to the highly anticipated requirement for sustainable, reusable solutions to replace single-use drinks containers, a unique new partnership has been struck up between two of the UK’s leading service providers.
Bottoms Up Draught Systems has reached an agreement with Event Cup Solutions (ECS) to provide their customers with a one-stop turnkey service for all of their reusable cups. ECS will be fully responsible for the supply of all cups and ancillary items and provide a complete delivery, collection, wash and storage service for all Bottoms Up Draught Systems’ customers in the UK.
Identifying the correct partner to allow Bottoms Up to rapidly increase their business in the UK was critical. Josh Springer, Founder and CEO of Bottoms Up said “Being a foreigner has brought its fair share of challenges to growth in the UK for Bottoms Up. We know that a more sustainable solution is the future for all venues, but in the USA we are a little behind the curve in this regard. We felt it best that we partner with someone that already has the knowledge and infrastructure in place to help grow the reusable cup solution. We feel the partnership is extremely beneficial for both parties. ECS has the knowledge and the infrastructure to wash cups at the scale we need and the Bottoms Up system provides a MINIMUM 30% (in some cases up to 9 times) higher throughput of service. And more cups to wash means more revenue for ECS. It’s a win win win win! Bottoms Up gets knowledge and distribution. ECS gets more revenue due to higher throughput. Fans get their beer faster, and stadiums have happier fans because the fans get to enjoy more of what they paid to come to see, not be stuck in the beer queue!”
Lourens Kriel of Bottoms UP UK commented “Forthcoming EU & UK legislation will increase the cost of single-use beverage containers. This, combined with operators’ demand for a more sustainable solution aligned with the need to reduce waste and have a fast efficient service at the point of sale, has driven this rise in demand. To facilitate this rapid growth, we needed to find a partner who understands our sector and has the capacity and ability to offer a nationwide service to our existing and future client base. We are extremely happy to have found that partner in ECS.”
ECS has four regional wash centres across the UK, all fitted with state-of-the-art custom-made washing machines designed to wash and dry plastic glasses. With the capacity to wash in excess of 2 million cups per week and with plans to open a further site in the North East of England in 2021, ECS has the highest capacity of any reusable service provider in the UK.
“The addition of Bottoms Up Draught Systems to our growing customer base is testimony to the unique capabilities and capacity we have at ECS” explains John Reeves, Sales Director at ECS. “Changes in legislation and consumer thinking mean we are anticipating a continual increase in demand for sustainable reusable solutions, and having four regional wash centres with a fifth in the pipeline means we can offer a service where our customers’ cups will travel fewer miles and be washed, dried & stored correctly.”


text:
Value home retailer The Range has announced its new headquarters will open in the summer and will create 450 new jobs in its home town of Plymouth.
The new HQ will be connected to an existing store in Plymouth, and will hold up to 700 staff – adding an additional 450 jobs across a number of departments such as buying, ecommerce, IT, marketing and accounts to the existing 250-strong head office staff.
Once completed, the new head office will link to a new The Range superstore, which the retailer said would allow for increased staff training and be a “huge step in the continued success of the company”.
The Range was founded by owner Chris Dawson, who opened his first store in Plymouth in 1989, then trading as CDS (Chris Dawson Superstores).
The retailer now trades from 164 sites across the UK and is aiming for a store portfolio of 600 sites.
“It was always very important for me to keep our Head Office operations in our home city of Plymouth and the place that CDS The Range started; I have staff that have worked for the company for over 20 years so having a new office built just down the road from the current office is a big deal to all of us,” said Dawson.
“Having the new superstore next to our head office also means that it can be used as a training academy and centre of excellence so that Range staff from across the UK can come down to Plymouth and be trained to the highest standards.”
In November, The Range posted a 22% fall in earnings to £42.6m but reported that sales rose 14% to £869m.
Dawson had been considering an IPO of the value home retailer in 2017, and drafted in former House of Fraser chief executive Nigel Oddy to run the business that year, but talks of a float have since subsided.


text:
Though under heavy camouflage, the new Renault Kwid has been sighted while on test in The Netherlands, in Europe. Sporting its familiar design, the Renault Kwid is made in India and exported to markets across the globe. Export data reveals that the India made Kwid is as of now exported to France and Germany for testing and validation.
As on date, Renault Kwid is seen powered by a three cylinder 800cc petrol unit mated to a 5 speed manual gearbox. This engine is capable of 54 bhp power and 72 Nm torque while mileage stands at 25.17 kmpl. Built of 98% localization, the Renault Kwid gets a 300 liter boot, 180mm ground clearance and a host of customized options yet to be seen in a vehicle in its class.
At the upcoming Auto Expo, Renault will debut two new variants of Kwid – one featuring AMT transmission and the other with a more powerful 1 liter engine.
Renault Kwid p will also be making its way to Africa and South America besides Iran. The international spec model will be different to that on sale in India as it would have to comply with safety regulations prevalent in the country of import along with more powerful engine lineup, bigger tyres and modified suspension. These changes are mandatory especially considering that speed limits are higher in these countries as compared to India. The international spec model will receive dual airbags along with ABS.
Also Read – Renault Kwid Review
Along with Renault Kwid, Renault India will be showcasing a facelifted model of the Duster and a special edition of the Lodgy while Renault EOLAB concept, Renault Sport RS 01 and company’s F1 racing car will also be on display at 2016 Auto Expo.


text:
Despite some losses, Apple continues to enjoy a healthy lead in the smartwatch market with the Apple Watch.
Pebble has announced that is has cut 25% of its staff as money is tight and the sluggishness of the smartwatch market continues.
The Fitbit Blaze smartwatch is now available from the makers of the leading fitness tracker wearables on the market.
HTC is set to launch its first smartwatch designed to compete in the high category sometime in mid-April.
Check out these five reasons to buy a smartwatch so you can understand just some of the benefits they can provide.
According to the latest research, the Apple Watch already enjoys a commanding lead over all the other smartwatch manufacturers.
Photos of the Nokia Moonraker, a smartwatch canceled when Microsoft purchased the company, have surfaced.
It seems smartwatch popularity is on the rise as more and more consumers consider buying one of these watches.
The Apple Watch 2 is rumored to be announced in just a few short months alongside the iPhone 6C.
Samsung has a long history of supporting the Android ecosystem. Currently, the company boasts many products from smartphones to tablets and even smartwatches that support the Android operating system. Now it seems that Samsung may finally be working on a way to bring their smartwatch compatibility and no how to the iOS platform. Samsung is… Read more »


text:
KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The review and upgrade of the free trade agreement (FTA) between India and South Korea is facing a speed bump, with the latter seeking a relaxation of gold import restrictions.
The South Korean government wants restrictions on gold shipments into India, imposed last year, to be scrapped, declaring it a contravention of the FTA.
Countering the demand, India, which since 2017 has been in the process of holding bilateral meetings to review and expand the FTA agreement, is seeking to incorporate ‘value-addition norms’ in the trade agreement to check the surge in the inflow of the precious metal into India.
Under the FTA between the two countries, the customs duty on gold imported from South Korea is nil, against 10% applicable for shipments from non-FTA countries, along with a 3% integrated Goods and Service Tax.
The Indian government is unnerved by the surge in gold imported from South Korea, with imports hitting $338-million between July and August last year, compared with total South Korean gold imports for the entire 2016/17 financial year of $70-million.
In response, the Indian government has directed that all gold imports from South Korea will require a licence from the Directorate General for Foreign Trade. However, no importer has yet applied for such a licence, government officials in India have said.
The Customs Department, under the Finance Ministry, has warned against relaxing import restrictions and wants each gold consignment from South Korea be independently checked, rather than relying on the submission of self-assessment certification by the importer to prevent the misdeclaration and violation of the FTA agreement by merely using South Korea as a trans-shipment location.
The Customs Department is also considering demanding submission of bank guarantees for every consignment of gold from South Korea, reckoning that importers will be not be willing to get into import transactions as such a move will block up importers' working capital.
Government officials familiar with FTA review trade talks so far, said that India had a trade deficit with as many as ten countries in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership grouping, including South Korea.
India’s trade deficit with South Korea during 2017/18 increased to $11.96-billion up from a deficit of $8.34-billion in the previous financial year.


text:
April 25, 2013 BY Aaron Hope
adidas ran wild with the adicolor concept in 2006, including nearly forty collaborations in addition to a retro for the first shoe sold specifically with customs in mind. Now on the 30th anniversary of ghilly-laced canvas’s debut comes a trio of new in-house colorways celebrating the personality conveyed by different colors. Three adidas Consortium adiColor 30th Anniversary Pack drops play with primary colors in premium nubuck, going tonal on the lateral and multicolor Stripes on the medial side. Stick with Sneaker News for updates on what’s tabbed for an early May release and let us know which of these bomb pop flavors you find tastiest after seeing more below.
Tags: adidas adicolor


text:
LONDON -- Tesla Inc. is in discussions with Canadian miner Giga Metals about helping to develop a large mine that would give the electric vehicle maker access to low-carbon nickel for its batteries, three people familiar with the matter said.
Alongside its goal to reduce pollution from driving, Tesla is also striving to reduce its own carbon footprint.
"Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way," CEO Elon Musk said in July.
Giga Metals's low-carbon nickel plans include turning waste from its mining operations into cement type rock using carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and using hydropower.
Giga Metals's President Martin Vydra declined to comment on any talks with Tesla, but said: "Giga is actively engaged, and has been for some time, with automakers regarding our ability to produce carbon-neutral nickel.
"The cost of developing our project, excluding bringing hydroelectric power to the site, will be less than $1 billion."
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Used to store energy in batteries, nickel is expected to see a surge in demand over coming years as governments, companies and consumers seek to curb emissions from fossil-fuel vehicles.
Forecasts from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence suggest nickel demand for batteries will rise to 1.4 million tons in 2030, or 30 percent of total nickel demand, from around 139,000 tons and 6 percent respectively this year, as sales of electric vehicles increase.
The problem for Tesla and other automakers is that most of the world's new nickel production will come from Indonesia, where the process would involve disposing mining waste into the ocean, a major concern for environmentalists.
Giga Metals's Turnagain mine in British Columbia has measured and indicated resources of 2.36 million tons of nickel and 141,000 tons of cobalt, according to its website.
Canada produced 180,000 tonnes of nickel last year.
Giga plans to produce 40,000 tons of nickel and 2,000 tons of cobalt a year for 20 years. That would be enough to power thousands of electric vehicles.
"The mine is in North America, so could secure supplies for Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory," one person familiar with the matter said, adding Canada's environmental regulations were among the most stringent in the world.
Tesla could provide financing, possibly in exchange for equity, nickel and cobalt. It could agree to buy the nickel and cobalt, which would attract financing from others, the person added.
Any deal would be for the life of the mine, which could be for up to 40 years, the people said.
The Financial Times recently reported that Tesla had agreed to buy cobalt from commodity trader and miner Glencore.
The people said Giga Metals had also discussed the possibility of a deal with other automakers including Germany's BMW and Mercedes-Benz, a subsidiary of Daimler.
Daimler said: "we do not comment on supplier relationships for competitive reasons," while BMW said: "we generally do not comment on suppliers we might hire in the future".
The Turnagain deposit, at around a billion years old, is relatively young and clean of impurities, which would mean high recoveries of nickel and cobalt.
Giga has access to hydroelectric power in British Columbia, but producing metal creates carbon emissions as it involves using diesel-fueled machinery, trucks, heating buildings and blasting hard rock.
However, the company is working on a process that would allow the tailings, or waste rock, to absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and turn it into cement type rock, the sources said.
"Mining and processing the ore at Turnagain is likely to generate up to 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year," the second person said. "The tailings could absorb up to a similar tonnage of carbon, neutralising emissions from the mine."


text:
- Esports company ReKTGlobal is buying TikTok talent management firm TalentX Entertainment as it looks beyond gaming.
- The companies first connected in February 2020 and formed a joint gaming venture in May.
- Insider spoke with ReKT's CEO Dave Bialek to learn more about the deal.
TalentX Entertainment has a new owner.
Esports company ReKTGlobal is acquiring the TikTok-focused talent management firm, including its flagship brand Sway LA, in an undisclosed equity deal. As part of the purchase, ReKT is creating a new influencer marketing and talent division called "ReKTX" that will work with creators in all content categories — not just gaming and esports.
"We view ourselves as a Gen-Z media and marketing company at this point," ReKT's CEO Dave Bialek told Insider. "That is where the relationship with TalentX has really blossomed."
TalentX was started in December 2019 by two YouTubers, a 17-year-old TikToker, a talent agent, and a former Fullscreen exec. It gained traction in the influencer world after six of its creators moved into a company-run mansion dubbed the "Sway House." The house's members became some of TikTok's top stars and gained millions of followers on social media while also courting controversy by hosting parties during the pandemic. The success of the collective led TalentX to focus its energies on a small group of creators rather than expanding out its roster. The company said it currently has around 35 creators under its management — roughly the same number of talent it told Insider it had back in early 2020.
The Sway brand has since evolved to focus less on day-to-day life in an LA mansion. The group no longer lives in a single house, and some members have left the group entirely. Current Sway talent Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson, Noah Beck, Bryce Hall, and Blake Gray have used their social-media fame to launch a variety of business ventures, including podcasting, angel investing, and direct-to-consumer products. Bialek said it was these efforts, and not the Sway House itself, that drew interest from ReKTGlobal's team.
"To me, whether they are living in houses together or whether they are just sort of a cohesive collective doesn't really matter," Bialek said. "It's really about evangelizing the brand and helping other brands to marry themselves to Sway and some of these other intellectual property concepts."
While ReKT's leadership is looking to branch outside of gaming, its position in the creator industry is still largely built around esports. The company manages two esports franchises, the London Royal Ravens and Rogue, which have won over a dozen world titles to date. Outside of its gaming and influencer-marketing businesses, ReKT also operates a fan-membership platform, working with a variety of non-esports brands including the home improvement show "This Old House" and NASCAR. The company said it has over 150 employees. TalentX has around 15 staff.
ReKT's acquisition of TalentX is the culmination of a year-long courtship between the two companies, who first met in February. In May, TalentX and ReKT launched a joint venture called TalentX Gaming. The goal of TXG was to build out a roster of gamer and esports influencers while also encouraging some of TalentX's existing stars to film video game content. ReKT also made an investment in TalentX around that time.
ReKT's leadership grew close with some of TalentX's creators over the course of the year, Bialek said. Sway House members Richards and Johnson personally invested in the company in December.
"The more and more we got to know them, the more we wanted to be in business with them," Bialek said.


text:
02 Oct 2019
Amazing Aldi Christmas
Fantastic news that our campaign to drive downloads of the My McDonald's App has been shortlisted for Influencer Marketing Campaign of the Year a the SocialDay Social Media Marketing Awards.
We brought together effective (insta)storytelling, authentic content and just the right mix of influencers to deliver a campaign that singlehandedly drove hundreds of thousands of app downloads.
Fingers crossed for the results next month!


text:
- By Andrew Groen |
- Monday October 22, 2012
It’s just business as usual in the game industry. Developers staff up to make a huge game, then shed members once it ships because they no longer have anything for them to do. It happens again and again, whether the game is successful or not. Typical? Sure. Good business practice? Not so much.
- By Patrick Shaw |
- Tuesday March 6, 2012
The next games in the Fable series take a dramatic turn away from the role-playing game design that the series is known for.
- By ChrisKohler |
- Wednesday August 18, 2010
Remember hearing about Peter Molyneux’s talk concerning his Kinect game Milo and Kate at the TEDGlobal conference last month? Well, as with all TED conference presentations, the video of the talk is now available online. You might have already read Wired UK’s recap of the talk, but now you can watch it as if you […]
- By Earnest Cavalli |
- Thursday April 30, 2009
Fable II fans, mark your calendars: The second downloadable content pack for the game, dubbed “See The Future,” arrives May 12. Alongside the official release date announcement, developer Lionhead Studios has released the latest issue of semi-regular video podcast “Inside Lionhead” which focuses almost entirely on the upcoming DLC. Too lazy to watch the clip? […]


text:
Okay, if you didn’t know this, well you’re lucky you’re here with the Gadget Gang because as always we got you. Anyway, Samsung has got something really cool in store you might just be interested in. Yeah, a foldable Samsung smartphone. A first by this smartphone brand by the way. The foldable display concept has been touted for a quite a while now and Samsung has finally given the world an idea of what a smartphone with this kind of tech will look like. This they did at their annual Samsung Developer Conference.
The foldable Samsung smartphone promises a small tablet screen size in a pocket-sized mobile device. When folded in two the device appearance resembles a thick-looking smartphone. But, at the conference where they unveiled the phone, Samsung didn’t allow developers or the media to touch and scrutinize the phone up close. Nevertheless, they still ensured everyone that mass production of the phone will be ready in a couple of months. Samsung is part of a small group of mobile developers that are working on foldable smartphones.
Huawei has claimed to have a 5G phone with a screen that’s foldable in the works and are planning to launch it around the middle of 2019. However, Samsung and Huawei seemed to have already been beaten by a display-making startup from China called Royole. This brand already has one of their products on the markets as we write this. Royole says their phone will be available to the public later on in the year.
What Samsung executives say
The senior VP of mobile marketing in Samsung, Justin Denison, was the one showing off the new smartphone at the conference, which when closed is a smartphone, but when opened fully it becomes a tablet. We can’t lie, the foldable Samsung looks amazing and might just prove successful. The new display tech it uses is known as the Infinity Flex Display. This new exciting technology allows you to close and open the phone over and over again without having to worry about degradation. Denison stated that the Infinity Flex represents a completely new mobile platform.
He continued on and said that this new dimension they added was to help you multitask, watch and browse like never before. However, what he showed at the conference wasn’t the final product. The phone Samsung eventually release will likely have smaller bezels and be sleeker than what Denison showed to the world. This foldable Samsung smartphone will be able to manage up to three applications simultaneously without struggling.
Infinity Flex Display
This new display technology is specifically designed to unfold and fold repeatedly without having to suffer display quality degradation. Samsung claims you’ll be able to fold the phone several times over without you having to worry about wear and tear signs showing. At the conference, they wrapped the phone around a chunky outer-shell which they said they did to ensure their design remains a secret. However, for now, what we know is that, when folded out, the screen will measure about 7.3 inches.
It was clear that the main thing Samsung was really interested in showing off was their display. However, they still also have several different applications in the works designed for flexible displays. These include stretchable ones as well as rollable displays. While those are not likely to make an appearance on the Samsung Galaxy X, their development will help them produce a more durable display build.
There’s unfortunately not a lot we can say about the phone’s design because Samsung ensured they don’t reveal too much, beyond the screen display of course. The only thing we know for sure is that the phone will be operational even when fully folded. In fact, it will still have the characteristics of a typical smartphone even when in this mode. They also announced that they’ll be working closely with Google in the development of a new user interface designed for their Android phones. This product will be called OneUI. It’ll allow for features made specifically for foldable smartphones.
Patents, as well as concept drawings, give away a few ideas of what the Samsung Galaxy X might possibly end up looking like. LetsGoDigital managed to get their hands on a Samsung patent and from the images on the patent the display looks like it’ll be hidden under the mobile device’s top rear when unfolded. When it’s closed is when it comes out. While this is still largely just a rumor it may be how the hidden screen display will function.
Rumours suggest that consumers should expect the Galaxy X sometime this year, however, we think it’s most likely going to be out to the public in 2019. At the conference they said it’ll be out in the “coming months” so for now really all we can do is wait and see. All the same, here at the Gadget Gang we’re excited at this new prospect. Hopefully, now you will too.