text:
OPUBCO in pipeline for $1.5M TIF
A $1.5 million request by the publisher of The Oklahoman to help remodel the Century Center building so the daily newspaper can relocate downtown was approved by a tax increment finance committee Thursday.
Already a paid subscriber but not registered for online access yet? For instructions on how to get premium web access,
« Samsung profits top forecast as mobile biz doubles
» Oil gets boost from China, U.S. economic reports


text:
Social media is embedded in our lives—Facebook alone had 1.79 billion daily users as of September 2016—which means cyber criminals are not far behind.
As companies increasingly rely on this digital channel for marketing, recruiting, customer service and other business functions, social media also has become a highly effective vehicle for cyber attacks. Outside of the corporate network perimeter and an organization’s control, it throws traditional security approaches out the window.
A growing category of digital risk monitoring vendors, identified by Forrester Research Inc. in a recent quarterly Wave report, are catering to this problem. According to the report, digital channels—social, mobile, web and dark web—“are now ground zero for cyber, brand and even physical attacks.”
The ways in which cyber criminals weaponize these channels are limited only by their imagination. Hackers can create fake corporate accounts for harvesting customer credentials, impersonate company executives, damage the brand’s reputation, and post legitimate-looking links that contain malware.
According to Cisco’s 2016 annual security report, Facebook, for example, was the top mechanism last year for delivering malware, through social engineering, in order to gain access to organizational networks.
“(Social media) is a business technology platform and because it’s been adopted at all levels of business … organizations have to figure out how to protect it,” says Evan Blair, co-founder and chief business officer at ZeroFOX, a digital-risk monitoring (DRM) vendor launched in 2013.
“And it’s a gold mine for intelligence on individuals,” he adds.
Social media—the ideal weapon
The sheer volume of traffic on social networks is a magnet not only for businesses but also for the criminal element.
According to the Pew Research Center, 79 percent of internet users are on Facebook, the most popular social network. About a third of internet users are on Instagram and a quarter are on Twitter.
Better click-through rates and lower advertising costs, among other things, are compelling companies to throw more money at social media advertising (Hootsuite estimates social media budgets have nearly doubled, from $16 billion in 2014 to $31 billion in 2016).
But it’s not just the growing numbers of users and increased brand presence that creates an attractive playground for bad actors. It’s easy to create new accounts and instantly attract followers—which means it’s easier than email for reaching a massive number of people with a phishing attack.
Adding to the problem is the fact that social media can be highly automated because it was built on an open API (application programming interface) that allows developers access to proprietary applications.“It’s a frictionless environment that allows you to communicate immediately,” says Devin Redmond, general manager and vice president of digital risk and compliance solutions for Proofpoint, another DRM vendor.
“Social media was built with automation in mind,” Blair says. “You can create an account that interacts completely autonomously.”
Even though email remains the medium of choice, according to various security companies, email phishing is on the decline. Social media phishing, on the other hand, is growing.
Why organizations are at risk
Eric Olson, vice president of intelligence operations at LookingGlass, says what makes digital risk a high priority is the fact that it’s a business risk that touches multiple facets of an organization. It not just about cybersecurity—it also involves compliance, human resources and legal, among others.
He says it’s important for security practitioners to focus on the how — e.g. phishing — rather than the channel it came from.
“You have to be able to keep eyes in all the dark corners,” Olson says.
A new technique Proofpoint identified in 2016 is angler phishing. Bad actors create a fake social media account on, say, Twitter, using stolen branding. They watch for customer service requests addressed to the legitimate account for a bank or a service like PayPal. They then tweet a reply with a link to a lookalike fake website where the customer is asked to enter login credentials.
Despite this growing threat, however, many security practitioners are not aligned with social media, Redmond says.
“The pace of adoption of social by enterprises and the pace of the risks that are evolving around that are growing much faster than people are addressing those risks,” he says.
An emerging space
The offerings of the vendors in this space vary. For example, ZeroFOX focuses largely on social media. Proofpoint covers social, mobile, web and email. LookingGlass integrates machine readable/open source feeds, analyst services, threat intelligence tools and appliances.
Whatever approach they take, more security companies are likely to join in since the market is still growing.
But even savvy companies are struggling to secure these channels. The hacking of Microsoft’s Skype for Business Twitter account in 2014 is proof—the Syrian Electronic Army wasted no time tweeting negative messages after taking over the account. They got some 8,000 retweets.
“Social media is the best attack platform for a nation-state actor and sophisticated cyber criminals, not just because it’s the easiest one to leverage for compromise, but it’s also completely anonymous,” Blair says.
Redmond expects mobile to be another rising digital frontier, as more bad actors use fraudulent apps to do things like harvesting credentials.
“If you look at it through the lens of bad actors, they’ve figured out all these are effective vehicles,” he says. They don’t have to break in anymore — they just have to pretend they’re someone else.
He adds, “They can do that more rapidly, at a greater scale, with less chance of detection.”
This article originally appeared on ThirdCertainty.com and was written by Rodika Tollefson.

domain: news


text:
Digital transformation is not only about technology, it’s also about changes of practices which need to diffuse through an organization’s culture. This needs to be begin at the top. A new report finds C-suite discord is a block to effective DX processes.
Rapidly undergoing effective digitally transformation puts a strain across C-suite relationships, according to a new survey of major enterprises. The report has been produced by business management software provider Apptio, and commissioned by the Financial Times. Titled “Disruption in the C-suite“, the report is draws on the findings of a survey conducted with 555 senior executives, (50 percent occupying CxO roles). The executives were based in major economic nations: Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the U.S.
The report finds that while digital transformation leads to greater collaboration across different business functions, it can also create blurred responsibilities across the C-suite. This crossover carries the risk of key issues being missed; it also serves as a source of tension between top executives, as traditional functions merge and territorial disputes are triggered. As a sign of such differences, 71 percent of finance executives found the IT unit within the C-suite should be seeking greater influencing skills to better deliver the change their business requires.
Team deficiencies found in the survey included not having key performance indicators in place with to measure digital transformation progress. Also, the CFO was found to be the least deeply aligned member of the C-suite team, especially not being aligned with the CIO.
To overcome these divisions, the report recommends that organizations invest time in ‘bridging the trust gap’ between functions and seek to ease tensions, especially between the offices of the CIO and the CFO. An important factor is with establishing which function has accountability. Another measure that can be taken is with ensuing that data is more transparent and where key metrics are issued in ‘real-time’.
The report also charts how digital transformation is being fully embraced, as leaders at global brands are embracing processes and technologies like artificial intelligence, workplace reskilling, cloud computing, agile working and de-centralized decision-making.
DX survey reveals high levels of enterprise-consumer disconnect
A new survey looks at the global investment and effectiveness of businesses’ digital transformation efforts. The survey shows a disconnect between enterprise investments and consumer experiences.
The survey is titled “The Kony Digital Experience Index (KDXi) Survey”, and the main takeaway is that while businesses have invested nearly $5 trillion on digital transformation initiatives, only 19 percent of customers have reported any significant improvement in the experiences offered to them.
The Kony Inc., survey included 1,600 responses from business leaders and customers across the U.S., Europe and Asia. The responses were used to gauge the target digital project implementation efficiencies in banking, retail, utilities and healthcare. The research showed a disconnect on both sides and a potential misalignment around investment priorities, and highlighted the impact this could potentially have for businesses.
Among other things, the study found that consumers are underestimating the number of businesses that are investing heavily in every customer experience outcome by at least 50 percent. This means that while business are spending money on digital transformation projects, consumers are not necessarily noticing a difference.
The survey also reported that 62 percent of consumers say that they spend more with companies that offer effortless digital experiences, while 56 percent of consumers indicate that they will switch if a retailer does not deliver the digital experience they want. This signals the necessity for businesses to continue to invest in the digital experience for the customer. However, in doing so they need to start making an impact.
As the report states: “It is critical for businesses to have a greater focus on understanding and aligning with customer needs and priorities to ensure that they are driving the agenda for the digital technology they create and fund.”
In terms of what businesses should be doing, the basis of a strategy includes:
- Embracing innovative thinking, ambition and a commitment to improvement
- Prioritizing investment in digital outcomes, not digital initiatives
- Getting their foundations right before evolving
- Building for now, but investing in a roadmap that leads to the future
- Saying no to silos and yes to integrated digital strategy
- Setting a customer-centered digital transformation agenda
This means companies should work to provide web experiences that make it easier for users to navigate, and for websites to be more engaging and intuitive to use. There also needs to be comprehensive online and mobile facilities so that users can do everything online or via their mobile device. Furthermore, to truly step forwards, businesses need to begin offering digital experiences such as AI, chatbots and augmented reality.
Summing this up, Thomas E. Hogan, chairman and CEO, Kony, Inc. states: “Improvements in costs and efficiencies are always welcomed and clearly important to project funding, but the real returns and real impact of digital starts and stops with its impact on the customer experience.”
‘Ethical AI’ matters — the problem lies in defining it
News that Microsoft will invest around $1 billion to examine ethical artificial intelligence signals that the tech sector is thinking deeper about the ethics underlying transformative technologies. But what is ethical AI?
Microsoft is to invest around $1 billion into the OpenAI project, a group that has Elon Musk and Amazon as members. The partners are seeking to establish “shared principles on ethics and trust”. The project is considering two streams: cognitive science, which is linked to psychology and considers the similarities between artificial intelligence and human intelligence; and machine intelligence, which is less concerned with how similar machines are to humans, and instead is focused on how systems behave in an intelligent way.
With the growth of smart technology comes an increased reliance for humanity to place trust in algorithms, that continue to evolve. Increasingly, people are asking whether an ethical framework is needed in response. It would appear so, with some machines now carrying out specific tasks more effectively than humans can. This leads to the questions ‘what is ethical AI?’ and ‘who should develop ethics and regulate them?’
AI’s ethical dilemmas
We’re already seeing examples of what can go wrong when artificial intelligence is granted too much autonomy.Amazon had to pull an artificial intelligence operated recruiting tool after it was found to be biased against female applicants. A different form of bias was associated with a recidivism machine learning-run assessment tool that was biased against black defendants. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has recently sued Facebook due to its advertising algorithms, which allow advertisers to discriminate based on characteristics such as gender and race. For similar reasons Google opted not to renew its artificial intelligence contract with the U.S. Department of Defense for undisclosed ethical concerns.
These examples outline why, at the early stages, AI produces ethical dilemmas and perhaps why some level of control is required.
Designing AI ethics
Ethics is an important design consideration as artificial intelligence technology progresses. This philosophical inquiry extends from how humanity wants AI to make decisions and with which types of decisions. This is especially important where the is potential danger (as with many autonomous car driving scenarios); and extends to a more dystopian future where AI could replace human decision-making at work and at home. In-between, one notable experiment detailed what might happen if an artificially intelligent chatbot became virulently racist, a study intended to highlights the challenges humanity might face if machines ever become super intelligent.
While there is agreement that AI needs an ethical framework, what should this framework contain? There appears to be little consensus over the definition of ethical and trustworthy AI. A starting point is in the European Union document titled “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI“. With this brief, the key criteria are for AI to be democratic, to contribute to an equitable society, to support human agency, to foster fundamental rights, and to ensure that human oversight remains in place.
These are important concerns for a liberal democracy. But how do these principles stack up with threats to the autonomy of humans, as with AI that interacts and seeks to influencing behavior, as with the Facebook Cambridge Analytica issue? Even with Google search results, the output, which is controlled by an algorithm, can have a significant influence on the behavior of users.
Furthermore, should AI be used as a weapon? If robots become sophisticated enough (and it can be proven they can ‘reason’), should they be given rights akin to a human? The questions of ethics runs very deep.
It is grappling with some of these issues that led to the formation of OpenAI. According to Smart2Zero, OpenAI’s primary goal is to ensure that artificial intelligence can be deployed in a way that is both safe and secure, in order that the economic benefits can be widely distributed through society. Notably this does not capture all of the European Union goals, such as how democratic principles will be protected or how human autonomy will be kept central to any AI application.
As a consequence of Microsoft joining of the consortium, OpenAI will seek to develop advanced AI models built upon Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. There are few specific details of how the project will progress.
Commenting on Microsoft’s big investment and commitment to the project, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella does not shed much light: “AI is one of the most transformative technologies of our time and has the potential to help solve many of our world’s most pressing challenges…our ambition is to democratize AI.”
Do we need regulation?
It is probable that the OpenAI project will place business first, and it will no doubt seek to reduce areas of bias. This in itself is key to the goals of the partners involved. For wider ethical issues it will be down to governments and academia to develop strong frameworks, and for these to gain public acceptance, and then for an appropriate regulatory structure to be put in place.
Which innovations will shape Canadian industry in 2019?
Canada is in the midst of an economic shift. New and traditional industries are increasingly being driven by innovation and these advances in technology are shifting the economic landscape at an unprecedented pace.
This is the assessment by Borden Ladner Gervais, which is Canada’s largest law firm. The company has issued a new thought leadership report, titled “Top Innovative Industries Shaping the Canadian Economy”.
The report weighs in on the opportunities and risks Canada faces in order to maintain its status as an international leader in innovation across eight key industries: cybersecurity, the Internet of Things, smart cities, cryptocurrency and blockchain, autonomous vehicles, fintech, renewable energy and cannabis.
To find out more about the report and its implications for Canadian businesses, Digital Journal spoke with Andrew Harrison, a partner at BLG.
Digital Journal: Where does Canada stand as a global tech innovator?
Andrew Harrison: Canada has always been at the forefront of innovation. Products developed by Canadians or Canadian companies encompass a variety of industries and include medicinal insulin, the snowmobile, the telephone, the pager, BlackBerry Messaging, IMAX, the Canadarm and the goalie mask, to name a few. Canadians are also fast adopters of new technologies; email money transfer between individuals, which was inconceivable only a few years ago, has been used by 63 per cent of Canadians.
This is why Canada is recognized worldwide for its research and technological know-how, but we have to be mindful of the challenges in a global competitive market.
DJ: What potential does Canada have to grow faster? Is this sector specific?
Harrison: Canada is well positioned to succeed and take the lead in all innovative industries, but there are definitely sector-specific challenges that could limit this growth. For example, the lack of regulation as to whether cryptocurrencies are considered securities or not is creating uncertainty, which may restrain investment in this sector.
DJ: What are the risks that could hamper innovation and development?
Harrison: For any new product, financing is always an issue; with innovation, money becomes an even more crucial element. Companies must have access to capital – including from individual and institutional investors – if they want to bring their innovative product/process to life. Evolving politics and policies can also have a significant impact.
DJ: What framework will Canada need in the future to secure its innovation potential?
Harrison: The key element is finding a proper balance between regulating the issues that might be created by the innovation itself or its use and providing a space where innovations can thrive without too many restrictions.
DJ: What does the Canadian government need to do?
Harrison: In many cases, laws and regulations were enacted long before we saw these innovative technologies and products brought to life, so they need to be updated. In certain sectors, such as cryptocurrencies and autonomous vehicles, the Canadian government has yet to provide a framework that would define the playing rules for all participants.
The government will also need to take a look at its current regulations on privacy: the coming into force in May 2018 of the European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and recent high-profile data breaches have created the need for stronger privacy guidelines. Failure to do so could prevent Canadian businesses from accessing the European market.
DJ: What can academia contribute?
Harrison: Universities play a big role in fostering innovation – they could be the home of research and innovation and incubators of ventures, entrepreneurs, and tech talent. Universities can partner with industry players and have their researchers work closely to solve key industry issues. This is already happening in Canada. The Smith School of Business and Scotiabank, for instance, have partnered to set up the Scotiabank Centre of Customer Analytics at Smith School of Business to bring together professors, graduate students and analytics practitioners to collaborate on applied research projects in customer analytics. The academia plays a big role in creating an innovation ecosystem.
DJ: What is Canada’s most pressing technological need?
Harrison: There is still much work to be done to connect with Canada’s rural and remote communities. In 2016, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) declared that broadband Internet amounted to an essential service and adopted minimal performance standards across Canada: 50 megabit per second download and 10 megabit per second upload. However, the evidence presented to the Committee by a variety of stakeholders shows that the digital divide remains prominent in Canada – it is estimated that it will take roughly 10 to 15 years for the remaining 18% of Canadians to reach those minimums. Canada needs to develop a comprehensive rural broadband strategy in partnership with key stakeholders and make funding more accessible for small providers.
DJ: What type of investment is needed with skills and training?
Harrison: Canada has a serious shortage of tech talent, which makes it imperative for both the government, the education, and the business sector to invest in raising and fostering STEM talents. To help businesses attract the talent they require, the federal government is offering hiring grants and wage subsidies to offset payroll costs for recent post-secondary STEM students and graduates.
Technology1 month ago
IoT + Smart Edge Computing = Operations Intelligence
Manufacturing2 months ago
IoT + PLM = Product Intelligence: An equation that delivers monetization opportunities
Technology3 weeks ago
IoT + Big Data = Facilities Management Intelligence
Investment2 months ago
70% of digital transformations fail, so here’s what you can learn from them
Healthcare2 months ago
North America’s first digital hospital launches second generation Command Centre


text:
Apple unveiled four iPhone 12 models capable of connecting to a much faster 5G cellular network, bringing new attention to the wireless technology that investors are betting will lead millions of customers to upgrade their devices.
Chief Executive Tim Cook stood at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters to kick off the event Tuesday to reveal Apple’s new flagship devices, which was held by webcast. It was the second of the tech giant’s virtual product events that Covid-19 has reconfigured after the pandemic closed businesses and left people sheltering at home around the world for much of this year.
Walmart Fall Rollbacks - Up to 80% off
- Best Buy:
Save 15% or more on the Best Buy deal of the Day
Up to 15% off + free shipping at Wayfair
Nike Push for Greatness Sale: Up to 50% off new sale items for fall
Expedia Weekend Getaway Sale - 30% off your perfect stay
Back-to-School Savings: Up to 50% off + extra 25% off all shopping departments - JCPenney promo code


text:
“You could make the case that Steve has injected so much of his DNA into Apple that Apple will continue,” said Guy Kawasaki, who was an Apple executive in the late 1980s. “Or you can make the case that without Steve, Apple will flounder. But you cannot make the case that Apple without Steve Jobs will be better. Hard to conceive of that.”
Jobs Stepping Down as Chief Executive of Apple - NYTimes.com
I would like to think that people move on but institutions keep going. To keep going as strong as it has been in the past is probably beyond any single person or institution. Yesterday it was Microsoft. Today it is Apple, Google and Facebook. No one knows who will be in the lead tomorrow. However, for the time being I would consider buying Apple on a dip.


text:
Thirty years ago, Seinfeld, the "show about nothing," premiered and introduced comic Jerry Seinfeld and a cast of neurotic New York neighbors to America. The show has wildly impacted our culture: from spawning a generation of high-concept TV comedy to introducing sayings like "yadda yadda." And now, it's launched a toy: the Seinfeld Lego set.
Classic Danish toy company LEGO just announced it will produce a 900-piece set evoking the '90s sitcom with an accurate recreation of Jerry's Upper West Side Manhattan apartment. It will also release 5 mini-figures: comedian Jerry Seinfeld, bespeckled best pal George Costanza, friend Elaine Benes, eccentric neighbor Cosmo Kramer and Jerry's mailman antagonist Newman.
The concept was dreamed up by Australian video game designer Brent Waller, who apparently knows what plastic-loving adults want, since he also thought up the Ghostbusters Lego set. Last year, Waller submitted the concept to the LEGO Ideas platform and, per the company's crowd-sourced ethic, once 10,000 other fans voted for it, the project was green lit. Next, a seasoned LEGO designer will evolve the fan design proposal to become an official set you can order, date to be announced.
While it may seem odd for a toy company to be memorializing a show devoted to adult situations like waiting in line (as in "The Chinese Restuarant" episode) or masturbation (see: season 4's "The Contest"), this is not the first sitcom to take center stage: Big Bang Theory and Friends have also had official sets released. And there's an 18+ label in case you're worried that this will wind up in the hands of some little tyke that just doesn't get deadpan humor.


text:
Microsoft has announced the launch of Office Store. This store would host apps that are aimed at the users of their Office productivity suite.
Microsoft is already accepting applications from interested developers. The company said:
Embracing web standards, the new cloud app model gives you maximum choice and flexibility to build a new class of apps for Office and SharePoint using familiar languages, tools, and hosting services.
Windows 8 of course is already going to include its own app store named Windows Store. It is good to see Microsoft offering another channel for developers to sell their apps.


text:
Perhaps seizing on a tax bill favorable to business, as well as a stable economy and tight labor market, job seekers chose to start new businesses in the first quarter of the year at the highest rate since the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a report from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
By Rick Cobb
Every month we publish the Challenger Layoff report. Most writers and producers of business information are familiar with our releases, and come to us regularly for comment on issues of employment. Invariably we’re asked the question: “Where are the jobs…who’s hiring?” We respond with the “hot” sectors and geographies, but we seldom get to address a core issue.
5.5% OF JOB SEEKERS STARTED A BUSINESS IN FIRST HALF OF 2014
An improving economy should lower the barriers to starting a business. However, it also means that more companies are hiring. Faced with the choice between entrepreneurship and traditional employment, a new survey indicates that less than 6.0 percent of out-of-work managers and executives were willing to give self-employment a shot in the first half of 2014.
Original article: http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/01/smallbusiness/entrepreneurs.moneymag/
"Last year 5.5% of jobless managers and executives launched a business, up 31% from 2012 and the highest level since 2009, says outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.
Confidence in the economy and access to individual health insurance via Obamacare help fuel the trend, says CEO John Challenger."
The percentage of former managers and executives starting their own business rose in 2013 to its highest level since the end of the recession, according to a new survey. The increase in entrepreneurial activity among displaced professionals belies recent trends in the wider labor force where the number of self-employed Americans declined last year.
The percentage of job seekers starting their own businesses increased by 33 percent in the first half of 2013, as an improving lending market and employment picture provided both the financial and job safety nets sought by fledgling entrepreneurs. Even with the increase, however, less than five percent of managers and executives opted for self-employment over a more traditional career path, suggesting that starting a business remains far too risky for most people.
Download the full report.


text:
- SaaS Company
- Small Business
PaySimple will be launching CAMP, an innovative platform for banks to set up their own private-labeled version of PaySimple at FinovateSpring 2012.
DENVER, CO – April 10, 2012 – PaySimple, the leader in small business receivables automation software will be launching CAMP, an innovative platform for banks to set up their own private-labeled version of PaySimple at FinovateSpring 2012. “It’s time for banks to be able to provide offerings that truly add value to their small business members, without having to make the leap to develop and manage technology themselves” said Eric Remer, CEO of PaySimple.
For the 27 million small businesses in the US, cash flow remains a critical challenge. According to a recent survey by PaySimple, 49% of small businesses suffer from late payments every single month.
Many of these businesses are turning to their financial institution for help. However, it is difficult for these institutions to create, deploy and manage technology solutions that help their small business members.
PaySimple Knows How to Make Financial Institutions Successful
PaySimple has a turn-key, private-labeled program in the marketplace today utilized by partners including American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Vantiv and Western Union. PaySimple is further enhancing its platform to enable institutions to seamlessly offer a custom-branded experience across all of their brands.
“There is an unprecedented opportunity for financial institutions to help small businesses solve their cash flow challenges, but until now there has not been a simple way for institutions to meet this need across all of their brands” said Remer.
With CAMP, banks of all sizes can get up and running in literally minutes to be able to have a sticky value-added offering to attract and retain small business members, while adding a new revenue stream.
Remer says that at FinovateSpring, he will demonstrate how banks can set up their custom-branded software in a few simple steps and how small businesses can immediately benefit from a system that combines payment acceptance across channels integrated with customer management.


text:
Troubled transportation network provider Uber has pulled the plug on its efforts to develop autonomous cars and sold its Advanced Technology Group (ATG) to start-up Aurora. With a $400 million investment and the handover of the technology and the entire ATG workforce of 1,200 employees, Uber and its partners are acquiring a 40% stake (26% Uber, 14% partners) in Aurora.
Aurora thus triples its workforce from 600 to 1,800 employees and quadruples the company’s valuation to $10 billion.
Uber had started in 2016 their own program for the development of self-driving cars, and initially had good success. In addition to robotaxis, the company also developed robotrucks with the acquisition of Ot.to. Following a lawsuit by Waymo claiming that a former employee had stolen trade secrets and taken them to Uber (Uber lost the lawsuit and had to pay Waymo a $245 million equity stake in Uber as part of the settlement) and a fatal accident with a test vehicle in Chandler, Uber had to temporarily suspend its activities. Difficulties with test permits, the departure of CEO and founder Travis Kalanick, and allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace and a toxic workplace culture meant that little progress was made in the money-guzzling development work.
This article was also published in German.


text:
17 Jan 2014 Using digital to encourage competition in retail banking
The need to increase competition in retail banking hit the headlines once again today with Ed Miliband arguing that the UK’s five major banks should be forced to sell off a number of branches to encourage greater competition in the industry. Whilst efforts to increase competition in retail banking will benefit consumers and should be commended, the debate around how to do so has often been centred on the number of branches each bank has. This is far too short-sighted.
This overemphasis on branch distribution as a way of fostering competition in the industry fails to take into account the fact that consumer behaviour has, and continues to be transformed by digital technologies. Whilst 10 years ago, the branch was the epicentre of banking relationships, this has changed. The majority of consumers have embraced online banking and increasing numbers are now using mobile to control their finances.
A cursory look around the globe illustrates how this transformation in consumer behaviour is both disrupting the industry and fostering innovation in retail banking:
The Netherlands – branch numbers drop as mobile banking increases at a dramatic rate
Over the last ten years, more than half of the country’s branches have closed. But rather than being replaced by new competitors, they’ve been replaced by a new channel. Consumers in the Netherlands have embraced the shift to digital banking at a dramatic rate – in fact, last year mobile was the dominant channel for the Netherlands Retail Bank ABN with over 1 million people using it each day.
Poland – online banking proves to be popular with customers
The shift towards online and mobile banking is illustrated by the transformation of BRE bank in Poland. In 2012, the company dropped its existing branding due to the success of their online venture mBank and relaunched under the mBank banner.
United States – retail banking disruptors on the rise
The US is home to a multitude of retail banking disruptors, including Simple, a start-up that has done away with the ideas of branches altogether. Instead, all banking interactions take place either online or through a customer’s mobile phone, allowing them to control their money whenever and wherever they want. The company are also ahead of the curve when it comes to paying in cheques, allowing customers to do so by simply taking a photo.
The UK – mobile payments service Zapp positioned for success
Mobile payments service Zapp (covered in this month’s digital trends round-up) is pushing more traditional banks to innovate their services and keep up with rising consumer expectations. They’ve partnered with 5 major UK banks to facilitate mobile payments so that consumers can pay both in-store and online without having to use a card or cash.
These examples demonstrate how digital technologies and the resulting change in consumer behaviour is already driving innovation in banking institutions. With this in mind, surely the debate around competition needs to move away from discussing the number of branches. In fact, it could be that digital is set to solve the competition conundrum. If some banks in the UK are unable to adapt to changes in technology, it’s only natural that they’ll become less relevant, opening the door to new alternatives for consumers.


text:
Despite changes to Easter trading rules across the country, options remain limited in Auckland. But most retailers aren't complaining.
After years of public debate about whether strict Easter trading rules should be relaxed, Parliament responded to the debate by giving councils the power to create a policy to allow shops to trade on Easter Sunday.
However, the Auckland Council voted to change nothing - meaning the long-held restrictions remained in place.
While some remain frustrated, a recent survey of Takapuna Beach Business Association members has revealed more retailers are happy with the Easter trading rules as they are.
Sixty per cent of those surveyed said they would not like to be able to open on Good Friday, while 66 per cent said they would not like to be able to open on Easter Sunday.
When asked whether council got the decision right, 53 per cent of survey respondents said that they did.
Takapuna Beach Business Association chief executive, Terence Harpur said this has effectively ended the debate.
"Let's not forget, there are only three-and-a-half days a year of retail restrictions when you include Christmas Day and Anzac Day until 1pm, and it's clear our retailers want it to remain that way," Harpur said.
"Kiwis really value the few shop-free days we have left, and our business owners and retail workers deserve the break. In Auckland, the Easter trading debate has well and truly been had, and it's clear it doesn't need to be revisited any time soon."
While the restrictions remain intact in Auckland, this is not the case for other cities and towns around the country.
Councils that have opened the doors to Easter trading include Tauranga, Taupo, Rotorua, Whangarei, Waitomo, Gisborne and Napier, among many others.
Many holiday towns had long been opposed to the Easter trading restrictions because this holiday period offers a significant sales opportunity - especially given the mass exodus of Aucklanders into the regions.
In regions where councils have not permitted Easter trading, stores can only open if they have received an exemption.
Auckland's Parnell Rd is among the areas that have successfully attained an exemption for 2019.
See list of areas with exemptions:
Despite the changes to the law, restrictions remain in place when it comes to trading on Good Friday.
According to Retail NZ, stores can only open on Good Friday if they meet a collection of strict requirements.
• Your store is located in an area with an exemption (see above);
• Your shop sells only food, drink, household items, personal items, automotive fuel, lubricants and accessories; and you have only enough items to meet the needs of people who live or are staying in the area;
• your principal business is selling souvenirs and/or duty free goods; or prepared or cooked food ready to be eaten immediately in the form in which it is sold;
• your shop is located at a public passenger transport station or terminal and you sell the above items and/or books, magazines or newspapers;
• your shop is a pharmacy; or
• your shop is located in a place where an exhibition or show primarily related to agriculture, art, industry, and science, or any of those matters, is being held.
Shops that do not stick to these restrictions face fines of up to $1000 for disobeying Easter trading rules.


text:
USA: Verusen, an innovator in materials inventory and data management technology, will launch its pioneering cloud platform at the “Salute to Digital Innovation and Intelligence in the Supply Chain” event taking place today from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.at the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
Verusen’s cloud platform uses advanced artificial intelligence to harmonize and provide visibility into materials inventory data from ERP and other systems. The platform’s predictive capabilities also optimize inventory and procurement. Not only does it help companies avoid overstock costs and production risks from inaccurate materials inventory, the platform also supports a more agile supply chain that better handles the dynamic pace of today’s business climate and changing customer demands.
“Evolving customer demands and expectations are significantly impacting every supply chain around the world,” said Paul Noble, founder and CEO of Verusen. “Legacy systems piled on top of one another and non-integrated technologies, all with disparate data, create additional challenges for today’s supply chains.
While we first saw this with B2C companies, it’s now fully impacting B2B businesses, as well―driving up costs of materials and processes while complicating continuity of knowledge and operations. Our technology addresses a massive need across every industry, especially manufacturing, where visibility and uptime are critical.”


text:
Radyvylivmoloko brief market review.
Trends in the dairy market in Ukraine.
The season of "big" milk has almost begun. Cows slowly appear on fields, the raw milk amount is increasing, raw milk prices continue to fall. Quarantine restrictions remain unchanged. Dairy prices in the world and in Europe continue to decline.
The situation on the Ukrainian dairy market is worsening.
Raw milk - trends
The raw milk price in Ukraine steadily decreased in April. This mostly applies to milk from the private sector. The main reason for this is that due to the quarantine, private sector milk has no alternative but to sell to industrial producers. In general, the dynamics of raw milk in Ukraine is negative, for the first three months the raw milk amount received for processing decreased by 3.5% compared to last year.
High-quality milk prices decreased by approximately 2-3% in April.
The situation in the Ukrainian butter market is not clear. Despite the rapid fall in world prices, the butter price in Ukraine decreased relatively slightly. Imports of butter from Europe have become even more profitable. Exports of Ukrainian butter are profitable only in a few post-CIS countries. Butter production continues to increase seasonally. Butter 82% can be sold at prices 3700-3800 USD per ton.
The biggest changes took place in the Ukrainian casein market. In a month the goods have fallen in price by 1000 USD per ton. Traders continue to lower prices for Ukrainian casein, taking advantage of the fact that some Ukrainian producers need money and are forced to sell casein. Production has increased seasonally and a lot of casein is now in stock.
Casein can be sold at prices 6200-6300 USD per ton.
Our production in April, ton:
Our forecast for May
Quarantine is expected to ease in May, or possibly end. This means that markets will start working in Ukraine and it is likely that the amount of raw milk for producers will decrease. This can affect both the raw milk price from the private sector and the price of dairy products. The dairy industry expects information from the state in May regarding support in connection with the crisis both in Ukraine and in the world. The situation in Ukraine and the world is changing very dynamically and, unfortunately, forecasts of consumer market trends are not optimistic.
This information booklet is intended only for customers and partners of Radyvylivmoloko LLC. Not for public or commercial use. All the information, mentioned here should be considered only as and opinion of Radyvylivmoloko staff.
Exchange rate change, 2,7 %
Fluctuation rate, 2,7 %


text:
Leader in Cloud-Based Social Business Teams Up With SoftBank Telecom to Provide Businesses With an Enterprise-Class Alternative to Salesforce Chatter.com
Clearvale Express Enables Companies to Launch Social Networks Inside and Outside of the Enterprise
REDWOOD CITY, Calif, TOKYO, BEIJING and MILAN, Italy, Feb. 8, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BroadVision (Nasdaq:BVSN), the leader in cloud-based social business solutions, today announced the global launch and immediate availability of BroadVision Clearvale Express, a free social networking solution for business. A streamlined version of Clearvale Enterprise – the company's flagship enterprise social networking solution – Clearvale Express enables businesses of all sizes to create social networks for use inside and outside of the enterprise on a cloud platform, with a seamless upgrade path to comprehensive enterprise-wide collaboration. A more compelling alternative to Chatter.com for the performance-minded companies, Clearvale Express offers a risk-free transition to their Enterprise 2.0 future. To get started, visit .
With Clearvale Express, any business of any size can immediately enjoy the benefits of enterprise social networking – greater performance, higher productivity, tighter team and company alignment – over the cloud, and at zero cost. Among the many scenarios where businesses can increase performance and productivity are:
--Sales: finding knowledge that's critical for closing deals
--Marketing/PR: managing the lifecycle of a press announcement
--HR: identifying staff with key skill sets
--Customer care: handling time-consuming exceptions
--Product/service development: radically improving the company's ability to innovate
A more extensible, flexible, and open approach
"Enterprises are seeking a collaboration solution that's more about getting their work done than just chattering," said Pehong Chen, founder and CEO of BroadVision. "As an eighteen-year veteran in the enterprise market and a pioneer in helping companies drive value via the Web, BroadVision has brought a special sensibility to the cloud market, and 'enterprise class' is one area where we've been able to differentiate from many of our peers. With a more robust and open platform of engagement for the enterprise, integrating easily with any systems of record, as opposed to locking into just one type of CRM such as Salesforce.com, the Clearvale platform is the clear solution of choice for Enterprise 2.0."
Another key differentiator is the ability to launch networks inside and outside of the enterprise.
"Businesses that are looking at Enterprise 2.0 are not only looking to manage the bottom line with a more efficient way to engage employees, they are also looking to grow the top line with a more effective way to engage customers, partners and the general public," said Chen. "With Clearvale Express, businesses can immediately begin taking steps to do that."
Partners have also been looking for a streamlined version of Clearvale. SoftBank Telecom, one of BroadVision Clearvale 's biggest customers in Japan, saw the opportunity to use Clearvale PaasPort – BroadVision 's innovative platform-as-a-service program – to bring a solution to the very large SMB market. SoftBank was also looking for a way to leverage the new technologies that are enabling today's virtual workplace.
" BroadVision 's unique view of the future – the virtual, mobile, social enterprise – can now take hold across the entire Japanese business market," said Ken Miyauchi, COO, SoftBank Telecom. "Japanese companies are all looking for ways to work more productively. The social business cloud provides a way for business to achieve that, quickly and inexpensively. With Clearvale Express, this can now be a reality for any business."
One of the key features of Clearvale Express – now also available on Clearvale Enterprise – is its integration with Google Apps. With a very large number of SMBs worldwide now using Google Apps, Clearvale Express brings a new level of performance to their productivity suites.
"For SMBs everywhere, this can be a real game changer," said Chen. "And it's as easy as Facebook and Twitter, only more suitable for the kinds of things you need to do to run a business."
Driving innovation since 1993, BroadVision (Nasdaq:BVSN) is an innovative provider of e-business and social networking solutions for organizations seeking to grow profitably by improving online business processes through invited participation and social interaction. Our solutions -- including Clearvale, the world's first network of networks for the socially driven enterprise -- enable mission-critical e-business for next-generation organizations around the globe. The customers benefiting from BroadVision solutions include Baker Hughes, Epson, Hilti, Iberia, Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Company, SINA, Sony, U.S. Navy, Vodafone, Xerox and more. Visit for more details.
For more information about Clearvale, visit .
The BroadVision logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5621
CONTACT: Deborah Yang Director of Marketing BroadVision, Inc. 650-331-1000 x 7169 email@example.com


text:
Reuters blog archive
Who says central banking is boring? The European Central Bank, now grappling with safeguarding the survival of the euro zone, has made it to iTunes, with its monetary policy app "€conomia". It challenges iPhone and iPad users with -- you guessed it -- keeping inflation at just under 2 percent. The new app is the on-the-go version of "The Monetary Policy Game" that has been available on its website for some time.
What is most striking is not the funky music soundtrack you would expect to hear playing quietly in the background while the Governing Council meets to set policy in Frankfurt. What really sticks out is the lack of monetary policy tools at the user's disposal.
You can cut, raise or hold the benchmark interest rate, read up on the press coverage, and watch the economy thrive, stagnate, or flounder.
But you can't inject billions of euros into the financial system through refinancing operations of various maturities. You can't provide emergency lending to financial institutions with no access to capital markets, you can’t tell everyone that the current interest rate is appropriate, you can't purchase vast amounts of Italian bonds, and as of now, you can't be the lender of last resort.
1000 apps might not seem like a lot compared to the 300,000 offered for Apple's iPhone, but there's enough on offer at Apple's new Mac App Store to cover most software bases, some of it deeply discounted.
The Mac App Store interface is easy to navigate, much like the iPhone and iPad sections on iTunes, with app icons arranged in rows.
from Tales from the Trail:
Not a great day for US-Russia relations. The United States won the extradition of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout from Thailand against Moscow’s vehement objections. The Russian government said the extradition of the man known as the “Merchant of Death” was not only illegal but also the result of “unprecedented political pressure from the United States.” Earlier this month we had news that a key Russian spymaster and double agent had defected to the United States after unmasking the spy ring here. And then to top it all off, Republicans signaled they would block ratification of the START Treaty this year. It looks like more of a meltdown than a reset in US-Russia relations.
Not that START is dead yet, with Joe Biden leading the charge today to twist arms in the Senate and Hillary Clinton due on the Hill tomorrow. But if anyone was hoping President Barack Obama would rescue the second half of his presidency by focusing on foreign policy, it has hardly been an auspicious couple of weeks, after the debacle of the G20 meeting, the failure to strike a trade deal with South Korea and now this. Still, here’s hoping the president can strike peace in the Middle East or negotiate a successful exit from Afghanistan.
Music industry types must have had been reaching for their tranquilizers this afternoon, following a report that Apple is in early stage talks to buy Spotify. The report spread quickly, as these things do, and some thought it made a lot of sense. So Apple, maker of the world's most popular music device, the iPod, which already owns the No.1 music download retailer iTunes, would be buying Spotify --the much-loved and critically acclaimed music streaming service, just as it's finalizing deals to launch in the U.S.? This would be too much to handle for many music executives, who think Apple already holds way too much power.
They'll probably be relieved to know that after an initial flurry of panicky phone calls we got a helpful call from one person close to Spotify, who shot down rumors of a potential sale to Apple or anyone else as "completely untrue".
Be careful what you wish for because you might just get another major label's catalog.
eMusic, the independent music lovers' independent digital music site, is well, no longer that independent. As of November, it will now have music from the world's number one music company Universal Music, adding more than 250,000 tracks to eMusic's catalog bringing it to 10 million.
from Shop Talk:
Mattel's Fisher-Price, home to many infant and preschool toy brands, is going digital.
The maker of Little People playsets and Power Wheels toy cars is launching iPhone applications related to its "The Chatter Telephone," "See ‘n Say" and "Little People Farm" brands.
Amie Street, the digital music site which made its name with a dynamic pricing model for songs, has signed up Sony Music as its first major music label. It means songs from acts like Beyonce (pictured), Outkast, Kings of Leon and The Ting Tings are now available on the site as well as plenty of catalog albums.
But the songs will not be dynamically priced like the rest of the music on Amie Street which fluctuates based on demand. Sony's songs will cost 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, much like they are on sites like iTunes and Amazon.
It should probably come as no surprise, but Apple has again cut off iTunes syncing privileges for Palm's Pre, the latest dig in their tit-for-tat over Palm's smartphone. Apple's newest version of iTunes, launched yesterday, disables the sync.
In July, Palm updated its webOS software to allow Pre users to sync the handset with iTunes, Apple's ubiquitous media management software, where millions of people store their music and videos--after Apple had disabled such functionality in an earlier iTunes update.
from The Great Debate UK:
- Will Findlater is deputy editor of Stuff magazine. The opinions expressed are his own. -
Apple’s "It’s Only Rock and Roll" launch held a few surprises. Most were expecting major updates to the whole line of iPods, but it was only really the iPod Nano that got a thorough going-over.
Britain's Sky News caused a bit of a stir on the blogosphere on Tuesday after it cited John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, as saying the Beatles back catalog was finally going for sale on iTunes: seemingly confirming a longstanding rumor that had gained momentum ahead of a widely watched Sept 9 Apple music-entertainment event.
But the report by the 24-hour news service, spotted by 9to5Mac and TechCrunch, among others, was stricken off the Sky News Web site hours later and discredited by a numner of other media outlets including Cnet. In response to Reuters' queries, EMI, which owns the master recordings, sent us this from Ernesto Schmitt, EMI's global catalog president:


text:
Subscription-based video service seeks to become “Netflix for gearheads.”
Articles by Greg Dool
Folio: and Kantar Media team up for a survey that finds media companies get less ad-agency face time and faster RFP turnaround demands, but potentially valuable sales support remains minimal.
Leading publishers identify the trends that will most impact them in 2016, and how they’re positioning their companies to capitalize.
The ways in which audiences—and advertisers—interact with magazine brands are changing, and engagement and affinity are key.
ALM says the legal magazine's readers have left print for digital, so it must do the same.
Nineteen-year-old women's lifestyle magazine to shutter after April issue as Meredith elects to "align resources against more profitable activities."
Informa continues to grow its U.S. events business; Cole sells off lucrative trade show but plans to keep expanding products and services.
Print will make up just 18 percent of the revenue mix by 2020, according a new survey by Connectiv.
Special-interest publisher looks to expand media business by covering the growing UAV industry in print.
The merger gives birth to the most comprehensive B2B information and media resource in the North American grocery, convenience store, and big-box retail market, according to the new company.


text:
December 13, 2017
General Electric (GE), Nigeria, today released a whitepaper titled "The Future of Work in Nigeria. Bridging the Skills Gap: The Key to Unlocking...
November 30, 2017
The National Office of Professional Training (ONFPP in French), in partnership with the Guinean government’s Delivery Unit (DU), completed a training...
November 22, 2017
Vantage Capital, Africa’s largest mezzanine fund manager, announced today that it has provided $12.5 million of funding to Purple Capital, a prominent...
November 9, 2017
Innovate Ventures, the leading Somali tech and business startup accelerator launched in partnership with VC4A, Telesom and the Work in Progress! Alliance,...
November 6, 2017
VP adds that presidency will make dramatic policy changes in Oil & Gas sector if necessary. “The present administration remains focused on making...
November 2, 2017
The oil & gas industry in Africa continues to face market challenges arising from the low oil price, competition for revenue growth and local talent...
November 1, 2017
In collaboration with Africa’s hottest emerging design talent, Lulu Mutuli and Azra Walji, global beer brand, Heineken® has launched its first-ever...
October 23, 2017
Leading pan African cement manufacturer, the Dangote Cement has maintained its strong hold in the Nigeria domestic cement market accounting for 65 percent...
October 21, 2017
The new brand builds on Orange strong presence in Sub Saharan Africa, with 50 million customers in 16 countries Orange, one of the world’s leading...
October 20, 2017
QGIAM, the private equity arm of Africa focused investment firm Quantum Global recently announced that on behalf of their investors, the sale of its...
- Most Read
- Most Viewed
Become a digital reader
The Times of Africa goes viral with its digital...
Get the best reference
Unfold Africa with a fresh perspective. Subscribe


text:
Samsung’s focus may be on launching as many new smartphones as possible at the moment, but the company is also busy preparing at least one new wearable device. That would be the Galaxy Buds+, an upgraded version of the rather excellent and popular Galaxy Buds. Not a lot has been revealed about the new wireless earbuds through leaks and rumors ever since they were confirmed to be in development, but Samsung itself has accidentally shown us what the Buds+ will look like.The APK file for the latest version of Samsung’s SmartThings app was stripped down by the folks over at XDA Developers and found to contain references to the Galaxy Buds+. Also included in the app are animations showing the charging case and the buds, revealing that the design for both will be the same as that of the Galaxy Buds and its charging case. The color pink has been confirmed as well – the Buds+ are likely to be available in black, white and blue as well, as we had previously learned from our sources.Unfortunately, there is still no information on what features the Buds+ will offer. Active noise cancellation to challenge Apple’s AirPods Pro seems likely, but that is simply speculation for now. However, the features of the Galaxy Buds+ probably won’t stay under wraps for long. Support pages for the Galaxy Buds+ are already online on Samsung’s website, so an official launch could happen at any time.
Spread the love


text:
US racing wagers tops $911 million in November
U.S. horse racing business just reported its its annual betting handle statistics, according to Equibase‘s most recent release of economic indicator data, revenues were down 1% to $910.7 million in November. It’s important to remember that this occurred with more than 30% fewer races.
The pandemic hit the industry hard in 2020. Some industries prospered, like the online gaming market. Some of the best in NJ online casinos attract hundreds of thousands of players annually.
But the fact that the American horse racing business had a considerable increase despite recovering from the ravages of a pandemic, the major negative press brought on by widely reported scandals, safety concerns, and regulatory reforms brought on by new laws is particularly noteworthy.
The resilience of Thoroughbred racing was on full show in 2023, according to NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney, as the organization ended the year with a considerable rise in revenues and total handling of more than $12 billion, the largest since 2009.


text:
The worldwide recession, which has been crunching other sectors of IT for months, is finally beginning to crack into the data storage market.
Research company IDC revealed in its quarterly disk storage systems report March 6 that total disk storage systems market revenues declined 5.9 percent from 2008, totaling $7.3 billion. Weakness in server systems sales-not in storage arrays-was the main culprit, IDC said.
Despite the sales downturn, storage capacity shipped continues to grow at a substantial pace. IDC said total disk storage systems capacity shipped reached 2,460 petabytes, an increase of 27.3 percent over a year ago.
IDC also reported that worldwide external disk factory revenues posted a year-over-year decline of .5 percent, with revenues totaling $5.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008.
It was the first time in five years that IDC reported negative-growth numbers in either of those world storage markets.
In the total worldwide disk storage systems market, Hewlett-Packard led with 19.7 percent while IBM and EMC ended in a statistical tie for the second position, with 18.0 percent and 17.1 percent market share, respectively. EMC maintained its lead in the external disk storage systems market with 23.3 percent revenue share, followed by IBM with 15.7 percent and HP with 13.0 percent revenue share.
Dell ended the quarter in fourth place with 9.3 percent share. Hitachi and NetApp finished the quarter in a statistical tie for fifth with 7.8 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively.
Among the top five suppliers, Dell and HP posted the strongest year-over-year revenue growth during the fourth quarter of 2008, with 10.0 percent and 5.8 percent growth, respectively.
“Because of the global economic crisis, the last quarter of 2008 was tough for the disk storage systems market, resulting in a market decline from the same quarter last year,” said IDC Storage Systems research manager Natalya Yezhkova.
“The negative impact, however, varied among market segments. For instance, high-end storage was impacted negatively by a freeze in end-user spending and longer purchasing cycles; but some low-end and midrange storage segments actually increased as end users broadened their search for storage solutions in these lower-cost segments to satisfy their increasing storage needs while optimizing investments in storage infrastructure,” Yezhkova said.


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Sign Up for the Portland Business Journal Afternoon Edition Newsletter
Send this story to a friend
Adidas wins round in knitted-footwear battle with Nike
The German footwear and apparel brand is also taking the offensive, filing paperwork seeking to invalidate Nike's patent for its own Flyknit running shoes.
The moves are the latest developments in a dispute between arch-rivals Nike (NYSE: NKE) and Adidas over which brand was the first to develop the technology behind their versions of lightweight knitted running shoes.
Nike, based in unincorporated Washington County, in February debuted the Flyknit Racer during a media event in New York. The shoe's upper is woven together, making it lightweight but also requiring fewer materials than typical running shoes that are comprised of various sewn-together pieces.
Analysts almost instantly heralded its potential. Reducing the amount of material used to make shoes also reduces the cost of manufacturing, which could eventually help fatten Nike's profit margins.
Adidas followed up five months later with Primeknit, shoes that, in addition to being similarly named, came with nearly identical features. At the time of its announcement, James Carnes, Adidas' head of sport performance design, said that Primeknit had been three years in the making.
Nike, however, disagreed and filed a patent infringement claim in District Court in Nuremberg, Germany, last month seeking an interim injunction against Adidas, which is based in nearby Herzogenaurach.
Katja Schreiber, an Adidas spokeswoman in Germany, said German courts often grant interim injunctions without hearing both sides of an argument.
She said that once oral arguments were made this morning, the court "made clear that the granted injunction cannot be sustained." Adidas said that it expects the judge to set aside the injunction during a hearing on Nov. 7.
At the same time, Adidas is hoping to have Nike's patent canceled. Adidas plans to present documentation showing that the technology has been known since the 1940s.
Nike, which has said that it plans to seek a permanent injunction against Adidas, issued a statement Wednesday calling the recent developments "just one step in the process."
"We will continue to aggressively protect our intellectual property rights, including through the conclusion of this interim injunction proceeding as well as in a formal infringement case," the company said.
Erik Siemers is managing editor of the Portland Business Journal.
- Most popular
- Oregon film office and tech association get cozy in new Portland digs
- Oregon Medicare spending among the nation's most efficient
- Salesforce continues to staff up in Hillsboro
- 6 startups nab $30K each to spin out OHSU and PSU tech
- Big day on tap for Adidas
- Meet the most-searched person of 2013
- Chirpify powers Eminem's #GivingTuesday campaign
- Urban Airship: Don't be annoying on mobile
- Nike among Black Friday winners
- HIV in Oregon: Not the death sentence it once was
Email Newsletter Signup
Afternoon Edition: The latest local business news delivered to you each afternoon.
- Payroll and Staff Accountant Oregon Community Foundation | Portland, OR
- Executive Assistant The Oregon Community Foundation | Portland, OR
- Community/Economic Development Manager Benton-Franklin Council of Governments | Richland, WA
- Careers at Verizon Wireless Verizon Wireless | Local Opportunities
- Clinical Research Associate Sterling Life Sciences | Portland, OR


text:
Ice cream social to support troops
FONDA – The Fonda Reformed Church will sponsor its annual Support Our Troops Ice Cream Social on Tuesday from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the church, 19-21 Broadway.
Tickets cost $3.50 each. Veterans will be admitted for free.
Those attending are asked to bring an item to send to troops overseas. All proceeds will be used to buy extra items for troops and cover postage to ship the items, a news release said.


text:
Stay with us here. After putting up the money for his own space company, Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced today he’ll be on board its first manned mission. His brother will too. We’ll talk about it, plus more headlines from the future: cryptocurrency ransom, new treatments for Alzheimer’s and a prophetic Prince album.
Here’s everything we talked about today:


text:
Google recently announced that it’s getting ready to introduce PayPal payment in the Android Market. This will ease both the developer’s selling process and the client’s payment. PayPal will handle transfers automatically from the user’s PayPal account to the Checkout account.
The framework for this service is ready and all we have to do is wait for Google to give its blessing. Maybe this innovation will add a couple more Android Market-supporting countries on the list, since there were some users discontent out there who really wanted apps, but couldn’t purchase them.


text:
+ Vizag, Oct 10 (ANI): As Hudhud Cyclone approaches Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, NDRF DIG SS Guleria assured of all preparation to handle the same and said that the forces are fully equipped and are confident of successfully handling the cyclone. International Business Times India, 2 weeks ago
Very severe cyclone threat to Andhra Pradesh-live updates - AndhraNews.net, 2 weeks ago
NDRF teams in place as HudHud set to cross Andhra coast on Sunday - Hindu Business Line, 2 weeks ago
1 images for "guleria"
YS Guleria, head of sales and marketing at HMSI, also said the company plans to invest Rs 11 bn in its operations during the current FY. NEW DELHI: Honda Motor Co Ltd's Indian two-wheeler unit expects sales of 4.5 million scooters and motorcycles during the ...Economic Times, 1 month ago
Interview with President & CEO and vice-president, sales & marketing, HMSII..Afaqs, 2 months ago
Present at the MoU signing ceremony were Mr. S. S Bhatia (General Manager Retail Assets Division) and Mr. Yadvinder S. Guleria (Vice President Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd.) With this landmark Memorandum of ...Web Newswire, 1 month ago Honda inaugurates its 800th dealership Zigwheels, 23 hours ago HMSI opens its 800th dealership, in Karnataka Autocar Professional, 1 day ago Honda Two Wheelers India Celebrates its 800th Dealer in the Network Motoroids.com, 1 day ago
University of Waikato engineering student Shalini Guleria has been awarded second place in the 2014 Sir Paul Callaghan EUREKA! Awards for her idea to reduce side effects in the treatment of cancer. Shalini presented her idea during a 12 minute ...Noodls, 2 weeks ago Oct 15 Eureka moment for Waikato engineering student University of Waikato, 2 weeks ago Otago University student named Eureka! award winner Scoop, 2 weeks ago
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) at the foundation stone laying ceremony for its upcoming plant at Vithalapur in Ahmedabad district gave a glimpse of its near future. Wherein, HMSI Vice President- Mr. Y S Guleria said, "We announce that ...New Indian Express, 22 hours ago Honda CBR650F to Be Domestically Produced and Launched in India by 2015 New Indian Express, 22 hours ago
By Chanchal Chauhan NEW DELHI: Two-wheeler manufacturers have seen record sales this festival season, mostly riding on price cuts and programmes aimed at enticing customers. Analysts and industry executives are predicting the strong seasonal demand ...Economic Times, 2 days ago Two-wheeler sales maintain positive momentum in September 2014 Zigwheels, 3 weeks ago
Comment · print · T T T+· T- THE HINDU NDRF 10th Battalion Commandant Prasanth Dar adderessing a press conference on Hudhud cyclone at NDRF headquarters on ANU campus in Guntur District on Monday. Photo: V. Raju NDRF evacuated nearly ...The Hindu, 3 days ago
"This Dhanteras has been a phenomenal day of retail sales for Hero MotoCorp . For the first time, our total sales to end-customers across the country in a single day far surpassed the 2,00,000 mark on Tuesday, which is a growth of over 80 per cent ...OnCars.in, 3 days ago Dhanteras Dhamaka: Hero, Honda sales zoom ahead Millennium Post, 1 week ago Dhanteras: Hero, Honda Post Massive Two-Wheeler Sales NDTV Profit, 1 week ago Hero MotoCorp, HMSI rake in massive sale on Dhanteras Economic Times, 1 week ago
More from: , Financial Express...and 5 other sources
Figures released by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) on Friday showed that the levels of five major pollutants were five to eight times higher than prescribed limits on Diwali. Several city hospitals told HT that their emergency ...Hindustan Times, 5 days ago
on your WebpageAdd Widget >Get your members hooked!


text:
Osaka-based catalog mail order giant Senshukai[J] is going to introduce an iPhone/iPod app allowing you to check up showcases filled with fashionable clothes. It is now under Apple’s consideration for upcoming release and will be available at AppStore next week.
Senshukai has an experimental website, which is called Bellmaison Lab[J], developing and demonstrating new services for the new-generation mail order schemes.
The new app is developed by a tech start-up Yappa, and based on a platform which is also used for Sankei Newspaper’s iPhone/iPod app. When you find something you wish to purchase, you will be connected to a sales representative on the phone by clicking an order button seen on the app screen.
I wonder why an ordering process cannot be completed on the app, and I suppose Apple might prohibit any kind of money-making transaction to be made through iPhone app platform, that’s why potential shoppers are forced to make a call for an order. Leafing through the catalog and an ordering process are separated, which might be good for fashion shopping addicts in order to control their desires.
July 7th Update:
We learned that Apple had announced to support in-app purhase feature on iPhone OS 3.0 and its later. As soon as the app supports the feature, you’ll be able to purchase an item without making a call to anyone. But If a merchandiser uses the feature, it has to pay 30% of the purchase price of each item to Apple. http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/sdk/inapppurchase.html
At the iPhone 3GS launch event in Omotesando, Tokyo, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son told a story about when he talked an idea of combining iPod and cellphone to Steve Jobs.
According to Son, he had a meeting with jobs in 4,5 years ago, which is before he bought the Japan’s third biggest cellphone company from Vodafone. There he told Jobs about his intention either to establish or buy cellphone company in Japan, and asked if Apple could make a new device which combines their popular music player iPod and cellphone. Jobs answered to Son that he actually had been thinking the same idea.
He also announced that the nation’s superstar group SMAP is cast as their Softbank Mobile’s brand character, stepping into Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt‘s shoes.
As Japanese terrestrial TV broadcast switches into digital, broadcasters can no longer bring you the time signals telling accurate time, due to the time lag caused by video/audio compression and decompression processes especially required for digital broadcast and its viewing.
In response to the expectations of the clock’s fans who has lost opportunity to see it, NHK has released several editions of the virtual clock app in forms of Adobe AIR-basd app, iWidget[J] (for NTT DoCoMo’s cellphone handsets) and blog widget for major blog platforms.
On the other hand, individual Macintosh software developer Mr. Nobuatsu Sekine developed and released the iPhone/iPod app a couple of weeks ago, allowing you to read and listen to news scripts provided by Radio Japan or NHK’s overseas broadcast in seven languages – Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian.
(This link will launch your iTunes to download the app.)
Since the app shows you the transcripts of news headlines and also makes you hear fluent story reading by native speaking news anchors, it would be a great tool for your daily-basis language learning, and the app developer hopes so.


text:
The fact that the Huawei P30 Pro will have four cameras has been rumored and leaked for quite some time. It also makes sense for Huawei to add an additional shooter to its camera-centric flagship as the P20 Pro from 2018 was the phone to introduce the triple-camera concept. Meanwhile, other manufacturers not only caught up and adopted a three-camera system, but have also implemented quad-cameras, like Samsung and its Galaxy A9.
Huawei CEO Richard Yu posted a picture on Weibo zoomed in on the moon. Whether he tried to show off the new hybrid zooming advancements of the P30 Pro or something else is irrelevant. The watermark on the image, despite attempts of redacting it, clearly hints “Huawei P30 Pro Leica Quad-Camera”. This is as official as a confirmation can be.
Chances are the standard P30 will also get an additional camera, for a total of three, stepping it up from last year’s dual-camera setup. The Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro will be officially unveiled at a March 26 special event in Paris.


text:
Submitted by WA Contents
Dutch Design Week will be held between 21-29 October 2023 in Eindhoven
Netherlands Architecture News - Apr 20, 2023 - 12:43 1290 views
The 2023 edition of Dutch Design Week will take place from 21-29 October 2023 at various locations across Eindhoven.
The design event presents ideas of more than 2,600 designers to more than 350,000 visitors from home and abroad. In more than 110 locations across the city, DDW organizes and facilitates exhibitions, lectures, prize ceremonies, networking events, debates and festivities.
DDW focuses on the design of the future and the future of design. DDW's goal is to show "how designers from around the world shape a positive future and to strengthen the position and meaning of Dutch designers."
DDW Talks is one of the key highlights of the event, which explores a specific theme every year. Key figures, design experts and high-profiled designers share their unique perspectives on the diverse design world across a range of disciplines and topics.
From digital innovators to eco-warriors, visitors can meet the designers and makers pushing creativity to the limit to pursue a more sustainable and exciting future.
For more information visit DDW's website.
Top image courtesy of DDW.
> via DDW


text:
- 2 min read
Telecom industry headed for strong growth: Ind-Ra
India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) said the telecoms industry is headed towards a higher ARPU regime and strong subscriber growth amid clear turnaround signals over the past four to five quarters that is likely to drive revenue growth for the top private carriers, particularly Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.
Kolkata: India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) said the telecoms industry is headed towards a higher ARPU regime and strong subscriber growth amid clear turnaround signals over the past four to five quarters that is likely to drive revenue growth for the top private carriers, particularly Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.
The rating company said the sector turnaround is being driven by a mix of “moderation in competition intensity between the big telcos, resulting in waning tariff differentials, increasing data penetration, supporting growth in average revenue per user (ARPU), and a growing subscriber base”.
Ind-Ra sees continued revenue growth for Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel due to moderation in competition intensity, and also expects financially-weaker Vi to also continue growing ARPU, but believes the latter's subscriber base will need close monitoring as it continues to lose customers, stung by its inability to compete effectively with Airtel and Jio on the 4G space due to much lower network capex spends.
Market leader Jio reported a near 16% on-quarter jump in net profit to Rs 3,291 crore in October-December, helped by strong ARPU growth. Second-largest telco, Airtel, in turn, reported Rs 854 crore net profit in the December quarter, returning to the black after six straight quarters of losses, backed by strong data user additions. Vi too sharply narrowed net loss to Rs 4,540.8 crore in the fiscal third quarter on the back of a cost-optimisation plan and decent 4G user adds. It also reported modest ARPU growth but lost 2 million customers.
The Fitch Group company said a conducive regulatory environment and a possible pick-up in data usage and enterprise business activities after the Covid19 crisis is slated to benefit telcos at large. “The increasing share of data and broadband subscribers along with the increase in data tariffs augurs well for ARPU growth,” it said.
It added that Jio’s recent focus on post-paid tariff plans coupled with Vi’s tariff hikes on select plans in the past six months also indicate the telcos' inclination towards growing ARPUs in the long run.
The combined India mobile revenues of the Big 3 telcos increased 22% on-year to Rs 44,200 crore in the December quarter as both Bharti Airtel and Jio continued to gain market share with 32% on-year revenue growth each even though Vodafone Idea’s revenue dipped 1.8% on-year.


text:
We are changing the way we think about food, nutrition, and health. So what’s the latest buzz around the Internet and in the news this month? Below are some of the most intriguing insights and trends.
US cracks down on bogus weight-loss products.
Weight-Loss Companies Charged with Fraud: (The New York Times) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged Sensa Products, L'Occitane, HCG Diet Direct and LeanSpa with deceptively marketing weight-loss products. The companies made 'unfounded promises' that consumers could lose weight using their food additives, skin creams, and dietary supplements. The four companies will collectively pay $34 million to refund consumers. The case is part of a broader crackdown on companies that the government says “peddle fad weight-loss products.”
The triad of impulsivity, food addiction, and obesity.
Impulsive Personality Tied to Food Addiction: (PsychCentral) University of Georgia investigators have found that people with impulsive personalities are more susceptible to food addiction. We already know that compulsive overeating is associated with obesity. The same behaviors associated with alcohol and drug abuse may lead to unhealthy food relationships. Researchers noted that food addiction has generated a lot of interest recently due to its similarities with other forms of addiction, and it may be treatable working with similar techniques to address impulsivity, food addiction and obesity.
The obesity – cancer link: 50% of cases could be prevented with diet.
Cancer Prevention: WHO Report says Diet is Critical: (Saludify) Obesity is a major source of “preventable” cancers. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that new cancer cases will increase 70% over the next two decades. WHO researchers cited high sugar consumption, alcohol abuse, and obesity as prime suspects in developing certain cancers, suggesting that 50% of the predicted cases could be prevented with diet or lifestyle changes. They claim a balanced diet with good sources of fiber from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains can stave off cancer.
Is overweight becoming the new normal for our children?
Many Parents of Obese Children Underestimate their Weight, And Parents of Normal-Weight Kids Often Think They are too Thin: (HealthDay) Data show that half of the parents of overweight or obese children think their kids are of normal weight. Conversely, one in seven parents of normal-weight children think their kids are too thin. With more than one-third of children in the U.S. classified as overweight or obese according to their BMI, it is suspected that overweight is beginning to “look” normal. Pediatricians are being asked to take a more active role in counseling parents on their children’s weight.
Real world data show neighborhood grocery store initiative fails to alter obesity.
Better Access to Healthy Foods is not enough to Tackle Obesity: (London School of Hygeine & Tropical Medicine) US initiatives to put grocery stores with low cost healthy foods into economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods so as to lower obesity rates and increase fruit and vegetable consumption have failed to live up to their promise. According to a recent study published in Health Affairs, building new food retail stores is not sufficient to improve the diets of low-income residents. This is the first formal evaluation to measure the effectiveness of government programs, such as the $400 million Healthy Food Financing Initiative, and it mirrors earlier study findings in the UK.
Living life well-fed,
My Bariatric LifeConnect with MyBariatricLife on StumbleUpon
Published On: February 14, 2014


text:
KFC, Taco Bell owner cuts forecast on China investigation
Yum Brands increasingly under pressure after a second food scare drove customers away
Yum Brands said same-store sales in China fell 14 per cent in the third quarter due to a food safety scare involving a former supplier
Earnings per share, excluding special items, will rise 6 per cent to 10 per cent this year, the Louisville, Kentucky-based company said. That’s down from a previous projection for growth of at least 20 per cent.
Yum, which has more than 6,400 restaurants in China, has been under pressure after a second food scare drove customers away from its KFC and Pizza Hut chains there.
The fast-food company is also struggling in the US, where Pizza Hut is trying to compete with peers offering steep discounts and new items.
Third-quarter net income more than doubled to $404 million, or 89 cents a share, from $152 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Excluding some items, profit was 87 cents a share. Analysts projected 83 cents, the average of 16 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Revenue fell 3.2 percent to $3.35 billion, missing analysts’ $3.37 billion average projection.
Same-store sales fell 14 per cent in China in the quarter.
The company in September reported a preliminary decline of about 13 per cent.
Shares fell 0.2 per cent to $69.60 in late trading in New York.
Yum slumped 7.8 percent this year through today’s close, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 Restaurants Index retreated 3.1 per cent.


text:
Telecom Lead America: Chilean mobile operator Entel is planning to invest $2.2 billion through 2015, with a focus on operations in Chile and Peru.
The company will invest $700 million this year, up from $521 million last year.
Recently, Entel Chile selected Ericsson to supply its 4G / LTE network. The telecom operator in Chile also expanded partnership with Ericsson for its 2G and 3G networks.
The deal is for multi-standard radio access network, Evolved Packet Core with Evolved Packet Gateway on the SSR 8000 family of Smart Services Routers, operation and support system and backhaul transport design.
In April 2013, Entel agreed a $400 million deal for the acquisition of NII Holdings’ Peruvian subsidiary Nextel Peru. Nextel is the third largest operator in Peru, and is well positioned in the enterprise segment.
The deal bodes well for the future growth of Entel, due to the lower penetration of telecoms services in the Peruvian market compared to Chile. One of the major challenges for Entel has been the lack of clear growth opportunities.
However, the operator faces major challenges, as it needs to recover profitable margins in Nextel Peru’s operation, which has had lower levels of Ebitda than Entel in recent years.
Meanwhile, Analysys Mason says telecoms retail revenue in Latin America will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.3 percent between 2012 and 2017. Mobile services will account for about 80 percent of this growth. Increased usage of mobile handset data and mobile broadband services will boost mobile retail revenue at a 4.8 percent CAGR, while fixed retail revenue will grow at a 1.4 percent CAGR.


text:
STUDENTS | August 4, 2018
All summer long, we’ve been covering the spectacular work of our students across the city. From selling baked goods to hosting community events, our students have taken their passions and turned them into self-owned businesses. Meet the young entrepreneurs shaping the future of business.
Gage Park HS Grad Celebrates TGi’s One-Year Business Anniversary; Gives Back
Young entrepreneur Devonta Boston, 21, designs and sells hoodies, windbreakers, and T-Shirts under his TGi brand. The growing small business is celebrating one year this month and will host a grand opening event July 21 from 11 a.m.- 8 p.m. at the Englewood Boombox, 822 W. 63rd St. There will be music, food, an open mic, live art and more. Proceeds will go to help better the community, he said.
TGi didn’t start as a small business though, it was initially a high school group he and his friend Omphile Franklin formed at Gage Park HS their junior year. They were active in volunteer work and community service. The two designed matching hoodies just for them, he explained, to get students interested in joining the group. Read more here!
Oglesby Elementary Student to Launch ‘J’s Delights’ After Winning School Competition
Entering and winning a school business competition was the final push 13-year-old Jada Jackson said she needed to create JJ’s Delights, her dessert business, which launches in August.
The Oglesby Elementary School eighth-grader grew up watching her grandmother cook, learning family recipes over time.
Her earliest memory of selling her cupcakes was when she was seven. She baked and sold them to family and neighbors.
“It started when my cousins and I were trying to get a bike for the summer,” Jada said. “ We decided to bake since my grandma was always bringing me a lot of baking gadgets.” Read more here!
Hobby Turns Into Small Business, ‘Mimi’s Accessories,’ For This Teen Entrepreneur
Mimi’s Accessories & More didn’t start off as an accessories business. Fourteen-year-old Marchaun “Mimi” Holmon, an incoming Dyett HS freshman, would simply spend time making bracelets with her grandmother for “fun.” The favorite pastime soon turned into a small business when her grandmother noticed that she showed talent, said the teen entrepreneur.
“I started making bracelets when I was in fifth grade with her,” Mimi said. “One day she was like, ‘You’re really good at making them, you should try to make money from them and put it up for college.’” Read more here!
Teen’s Organization, ‘Black Is Gold’ To Host Back-To-School Drive Aug. 4
Ever since she was a young girl, 17-year-old Amber Anderson says she wanted to have something of her own that could impact people. Under her co-founded organization, Black is Gold, the Kenwood senior says she’s fulfilling that goal.
On Aug. 4, the organization is hosting a back-to-school event at Marcus Garvey Elementary School from 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. There will be music, games, food and even free haircuts and styles for students. Black Is Gold members will distribute 150 book-bags filled with school supplies. Read more here!
Sisters Follow In Mother’s Footsteps, All Self-Published Authors
The Jones sisters, three at Pullman Elementary School, one in college, have all followed in their mother’s footsteps as authors, with the exception of one sister, who’s an illustrator.
What started as a class project for Ayanna Jones in the second-grade, created a ripple effect, said her mother Shaniqua Jones, the author of “A Memoir to My Younger Self.”
At a young age, Jah’Kaya Tekhen says she knew she was destined to have her own business.
Today, the University of Chicago Charter School junior is the founder/creator of Legendary Cosmetics, a beauty line selling products ranging from lipsticks to foundations. She caters to all complexions but specializes in darker tones. She says she plans to help people feel “lavish” for years to come. The business is set to launch this fall. Read more here!


text:
Toyota GT86 Might Be Getting a Boost In Performance
Aug 26, 2013 18:40
Toyota is reportedly preparing for a power increase for the Toyota GT86. According to chief engineer, Tetsuya Tada, his team is considering ways of increasing the performance, which will make it to production from 2015.
"I hope to make an engine upgrade at least one time with this car. We have already tried all possibilities and there are several types of 86 prototypes at the Toyota proving ground now; one is a turbocharger, one is bigger displacement and the other is a special hybrid system," Tada said. He added that at the moment, all possibilities are being considered.
For now, no other information was given. The sources did say that the 2.0 liter boxer engine would be increased to 2.5 liters.
Luxury cars are more than price tags. They are special art pieces riding on four wheels. When you purchase one, you are buying an invention, a little piece of history. Luxury cars are mind-blowing inspirations that have been meticulously-manufactured to bring pride to their inventors. Read more
Buying a used car is kind of similar to buying clothes. In a way, both tasks are exhausting and take a considerable amount of time to pick the ideal candidate. Despite all the complications, the market for used cars is expected to reach a whopping 162 million by 2027. The Covid-19 pandemic has further ramped up the demand for second-hand cars and used car dealers are the favorite candidates to reap the full benefits of the surge in the demand. Read more
If your car or truck has an internal combustion engine, it has one or more accessory belts. For many designs, this is a serpentine belt. This is an important piece of your engine that may wear over time. Understanding what it does, how to know when it is damaged and how to fix it will help you to keep your vehicle in optimal operating condition. Read more


text:
Register your domain name
Manage your domain name
About DNS Belgium
March: slotenmakerij (locksmithing)
09 April 2021
March is the month of spring. We took a look at the most used terms in domain names registered in March and know for sure: March is the month of locksmiths
Backup: best protection against ransomware
30 March 2021
Regular backups of important files and data are the best protection against ransomware.
Prevent cyber attacks with Domain Guard & Domain Shield
23 March 2021
By investing in innovation DNS Belgium remains one step ahead of cyber criminals. Domain Guard or Domain Shield protect domain names against cyber criminals.
Domain Guard and Domain Shield prevent cyber attacks
23 March 2021
By investing in innovation DNS Belgium remains one step ahead of cyber criminals. Domain Guard or Domain Shield protect your domain name against cyber criminals
Female role models in IT
07 March 2021
IT has a diversity problem. The main reason seems to be the limited influx of women and a wrong idea of what a job in IT involves.
05 March 2021
Box was in pole position February, but do terms like fit, beauty, zen and infrarood imply that we are working on our well-being and our beach body?
Digital Inclusion Index
02 March 2021
DNS Belgium is developing a Digital Inclusion Index to help companies make their digital services more inclusive.
To reduce your carbon footprint as a registry
23 February 2021
Registries can have an impact on sustainability in the digital society. By playing a pioneering role in this respect, DNS Belgium wants to inspire people.
Year of accelerated digitalisation
09 February 2021
The speed of digitalisation accelerated in 2020. This is apparent from the annual market survey conducted by Insites Consulting for DNS Belgium.


text:
FED President Jerome Powell spoke at an online event organized by Princeton University and also touched on the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in his speech.
Powell says, “We don’t feel the need to be the first. We already have a first mover advantage because we are the reserve currency. ” used the expressions.
Powell predicts it will take years rather than months for the FED to issue a digital currency, despite the digital dollar efforts of the central bank’s Boston branch. The President further stated that the bank has invested heavily in understanding technology and examining the policy questions that come with CBDCs.
Powell also acknowledged that what prompted the FED to research CBDCs was the ability of the private sector to create private money – such as cryptocurrencies.
Currently, many central banks from around the world are working to issue their own digital currencies. In Turkey included. China has come a long way in this regard, and the country has been trying its digital currency in social life for the past few months.
On the other hand, Europe is working on a digital euro. Yesterday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said, “As the ECB, we had a very serious consultation for the digital euro. There was a high degree of participation. More than 8,000 people joined our program online and responded at a high level. That’s why we continue on our way. “We continue carefully but without stopping to create a secure system that can meet the demands of Europeans.”
Lagarde continued, “We have to go fast, not fast. I hope the process will not take more than 5 years ”.


text:
Ecobank Nigeria has launched a programme to reduce gender inequality in entrepreneurship and aid equal representation for women in the formal business sector.
The launch of the gender-based proposition for women-owned businesses, called ‘Ellevate’, in Lagos was attended by female entrepreneurs.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan, said the objective was to be the leading pan-African financial institution driving financial integration and contributing to the economic development of the continent by deepening engagement with women-owned businesses.
“Ellevate was designed by Ecobank to empower women-owned and women-managed businesses in Nigeria and indeed across all our Africa footprints, leveraging various unique financial and non-financial benefits,” he said.
He said Ecobank’s Ellevate promised women-owned businesses an end-to-end partnership in which they could gain access to financial services specially tailored for them and loans at special terms and discounts.
He said they could also get fixed deposit investments at special premium rates, zero account maintenance fee, continuous financial education and capacity building under its AUDA-NEPAD academy and other special arrangements.
Akinwuntan said that they would have access to networking and recognition under its business clubs as well as access to markets, leveraging its various e-commerce solutions.
He said they would also have “access to Ecobank’s unique digital payments and collections like Omnilite for payments, EcobankpayNQR for contactless local and cross-border collections and modern POS channels, and various lifestyle benefits including campaigns and promotions to drive Ellevate customers’ business growth and personal well-being.”
According to him, Ellevate was designed for registered businesses owned by women or managed principally by women or with high percentage of female board members or manufacturing products for women.
“This proposition is a total package addressing the broad needs of women-owned businesses in Nigeria including businesses that produce for women,” he said.
Some successful entrepreneurs who spoke during the event include the Founder, Health Africa, Fola Laoye; the Founder, Braveline Growth Partners, Taba Peterside; and the Founder of Ruff n Tumble, Nike Ogunlesi. Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.