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Final Up to date: September 23, 2022, 11:01 IST
Google has given us the primary official take a look at the upcoming Pixel Watch, which would be the first smartwatch from Google. The Mountain View, California-based big has posted a video teaser on the official ‘Made by Google’ YouTube web page, which particulars among the design components of the upcoming smartwatch.
Within the teaser video, we are able to see the round dial on the Pixel Watch, one thing that the majority renders and leaks have hinted at beforehand. The round dial comes with a show that curves across the edges. There may be additionally what appears to be a digital crown on the suitable aspect of the Pixel Watch dial. Additional, the video additionally what the usual silicone straps from Google will seem like.
The teaser from Google additionally exhibits a unique sort of strap attachment, which might be a proprietary clip system from the model. The video from Google doesn’t present the again panel, so we are able to’t say something in regards to the sort of sensors you’ll be able to count on on the Pixel Watch.
Google will launch the Pixel Watch alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Professional throughout its ‘Made by Google’ occasion on October 6. The corporate lately introduced that it’ll carry the Pixel 7 collection to India for the primary time after the Pixel 3 collection, which was launched again in 2018.
The Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Professional will go on pre-oders on October 6 itself, not less than within the US. Google has confirmed that the Pixel 7 collection will include the second-gen Tensor chip, referred to as the Google Tensor G2. Lately, a Geekbench itemizing hinted that the Pixel 7 Professional could include 12GB of RAM and a Mali-G710 GPU, alongside the brand new Google Tensor G2 chipset.


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The future of package delivery has arrived. We want out packages now and you may soon be able to have it within a minute!
Zipline is a giant in drone delivery because they are the first successful drone delivery system to operate at scale. Starting in October of 2016 under contract with the Rwandan government, Zipline provides delivery of blood and medical supplies to remote areas of the country. Zipline’s operations have been successful: their fixed-wing aircraft handle the problem of “the last 50-feet” by dropping the supplies by parachute: the drones don’t land at the delivery point but simply return to the base
Medical drone delivery leader Zipline has announced a new aircraft which will achieve order fulfillment times of 1 minute and delivery speeds of over 100 kilometers per hour.

domain: news


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The Monday Morning eBriefing is a members-only digital newsletter which provides up-to-date and informative news on regulatory and legislative matters important to customs brokers, freight forwarders, and NVOCCs. It’s published every Monday at 6 a.m. ET.
If you receive questionable electronic communications, which are believed to be part of phishing schemes, always ignore and delete these communications!
23 August, 2021 at 12 PM-23 August, 2022 at 1 PM
Aug. 23, 10-11 a.m. PT.
26 May, 2022, 11 AM-12 30 PM
The last two years plus have been a real challenge for anyone involved in global supply chain management. For companies and personnel to have survived, prospered, and even grown in the past 30 months has happened because of hard work, developing additional resources, and working with a varied and creative approach to supply chain responsibilities.
26 May, 2022, 12 PM-3 PM


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It is immediate, people use it to find and exchange information quickly, to follow an interest or share something in real-time – like a video just taken or a news story just read. “We all travel and people love to talk about travel. And there is also a big focus on cost and deals,” says Greene.
Many in the travel industry – and in particular the airlines – have recognised this and already use the platform to promote deals or deal with customer queries. In fact according to a recent study by Exact Target, although Twitter has fewer users than Facebook, their regular users are the most influential online consumers.
Twitter for example, as EyeforTravel.com reported in December, accounts for 80% of American’s social traffic but is mainly used for reservations or pre-trip enquiries. Facebook, says Jonathan Pierce, Director, Social Communications at American Airlines, is used more for customer service. Having said that, American recently used Twitter for a live Twitter exchange with Dan Langford, its head of customer care.
According to Greene, a growing trend is that travel brands are incorporating their Twitter presence into integrated marketing campaigns. In doing so they are bringing online and offline together. For example, Priceline includes the hashtag #TheNegotiators at the end of their new commercials, the MGM Grand uses their Twitter handle on billboards and Virgin America has even included hashtags on airplanes. “We expect this trend to continue and become more pronounced this year and beyond,” he says.
On the horizon
While Greene stresses that Twitter exists first and foremost to deliver its growing user base of 200 million global and active users with a service that is both useful and compelling. However, Twitter is also a commercial operation and it must find ways to monetize this in, says Greene, an effective, ethical way that does not downgrade the experience.
“As part of this process we are figuring out how advertisers can leverage Twitter to reach their own users and also engage with ours,” says Greene. While the products being developed are not specifically for the travel sector, Greene believes there are natural synergies. For example, travel brands can easily incorporate photos and videos in their Tweets to more effectively communicate their messages
Greene also cites the firm’s existing Twitter card technology, which allows you to expand a Tweet to read, for example, a news post or to view a YouTube video. “This technology allows us to deliver a much richer advertising experience. We plan to expand on this technology over the coming months.”
For any travel brand – from hotels to airlines and online travel agents like Expedia or Travelocity – focused on getting users to download their app this could be a useful tool.
Another existing paid-for product is Twitter’s promoted accounts. While any brand can create a Twitter handle, start tweeting, promote a special offer and grow its follower base organically, there is also the option to amplify that using a promoted Tweet that could reach a much wider audience.
Over the course of this year Greene says we can expect to see enhancements to basic user interface. “We will see Twitter Ads products develop and will targeting analytics and attributions,” he says. A lot of work is also being done on direct response advertising where Twitter’s products work very well. Think flash sales, upcoming discounts and promotions, packaged discounts, new property introductions and so on. “Direct response is a big focus for the team with lots of new specific product road maps and features expected,” he says.
With countless social media brands – and particularly Facebook – vying for a share of the travel sector’s advertising spend, the competition is intense. Greene believes Twitter differentiates itself by being focused on real-time information and people turning to the platform for what’s happening right now, including the latest in special offers, deals and promotions. Although Twitter has fewer users than Facebook, their regular users are the most influential online consumers, according to a recent study by Exact Target. It found that active Twitter users’ reach goes beyond Twitter because they blog, post reviews, comment on news stories and participate in discussion forums. In addition, their Tweets are indexed by Google and syndicated by the Twitter API. And the list goes on. If you are not using Twitter effectively yet, it seems now is time to up the game.
Dan Greene, Director of Online Sales & Operations, Twitter will presenting at EyeforTravel’s upcoming Social Media & Mobile in Travel 2013 conference, March 18-19, San Francisco. Limited places still available.
EyeforTravel Ltd is a leading global media company specialising in business intelligence for the travel and tourism industry. Founded by Tim Gunstone in 1997, EyeforTravel produces world leading conferences, reports, webinars and news for senior executives of the online travel industry. For more information please visit www.eyefortravel.com.


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Canada helps women-led enterprises in VN
VGP - Trade Facilitation Office Canada (TFO Canada) and Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency on June 1 signed an agreement to implement an export capability building project for Vietnamese women-led enterprises during the 2021-2024 period.
The cooperation agreement is signed by VIETRADE and TFO Canada via a virtual conference held on June 1, 2021
The project is in line with the “Women in Trade for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth” carried out by the TFO Canada with financial support from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in 24 developing countries, including Viet Nam.
Accordingly, the TFO Canada will coordinate with VIETRADE to assist Vietnamese trade promotion organisations and women-led SMEs in the fields of food processing and apparel accessories.
The ultimate goal would be for these enterprises to better take advantage of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements that Viet Nam is a part of.
In addition, Vietnamese firms are expected to be invited to fairs and expos in promising markets, or to join online stalls at international expos.
At the ceremony, Viet Nam Trade Counsellor in Canada Do Thu Huong said the Trade Office in Canada has been working with the TFO Canada in a number of projects supporting SMEs in Viet Nam in fields of craft products, agriculture, seafood, footwear, and textile.
“Canadian experts have given valuable advises to Vietnamese enterprises in product development and marketing strategy to further penetrate the Canadian market,” she added.
In Viet Nam, women-led enterprises currently account for 25 percent of total small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), contributing to generating a significant amount of jobs and stable incomes for workers.
The model of women-owned businesses is growing strong with an expansion rate of 30 percent in the past 10 years, totaling 360,000 enterprises of this type in Canada.
In addition, they are also benefiting from a Canadian government support program worth CAD2 billion (US$1.66 billion) to double the number of women-led enterprises by 2025.
By Vien Nhu


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It's a big day on the New York Stock Exchange for Twitter. Shares of Twitter begin trading today. The opening price of a share will start at $26. Twitter's debut on Wall Street is expected to create some new millionaires in Silicon Valley.
DVD-by-mail sales will be ending in mid-December for Blockbuster. The company will also be closing its 300 remaining stores by early January, focusing instead on its digital operation.
Military veterans and their spouses are getting a double shot of good news from Starbucks. The company announced that it will be hiring 10,000 military members during the next five years. Plus on Monday, Veteran's Day, Starbucks will be handing out free coffee to all vets and their spouses.
Did you hear about those great deals that popped up yesterday on Walmart's website? People were getting computer monitors for $9, treadmills for $20 and kayaks for $11. Yes it was too good to be true. Prices were not rolled back that much and Walmart will not be honoring those prices. Customers who thought they were getting those deals will instead be getting a $10 gift card.


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OnePlus has fabulous relationships with other companies in the market. The company usually manifest its relations with limited edition smartphones in the market. We’ve seen the OnePlus 3T Colette edition and OnePlus 5 JCC+ edition in past. Also, the OnePlus 5T Star wars edition and OnePlus 6 Avengers Infinity edition were available for while in the market. All these special editions were a part of a partnership of OnePlus with other companies.
A similar strategy will bring a limited edition to OnePlus 6T. Besides that, a new teaser from the company shows, the smartphone company is teaming up with McLaren Racing, one of the most successful teams in the history of motorsport. OnePlus together with McLaren Racing will announce a special edition of OnePlus 6T on December 11. The announcement will embark at McLaren Technology Centre, along with another event happening a day later in Mumbai.
Pete Lau says, that OnePlus and McLaren Racing “were born with a big dream to create something special” and says, “a new testament to innovation, a salute to speed” will be introduced. Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, added that “speed and power” are two values that the companies share. He also explained the partnership with some powerful cliché statements like “inventive, pioneering spirit” and “new grounds for innovative ideas and technology.”
We expect that the new handset from the company will come in a new all orange gradient color. Well, this reminds me of the first racing car Bruce McLaren drove around the Monte Carlo streets at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. The handset will remain available for a limited time. Once available in the market, you require to act fast.


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Nokia X2 with Dual Boot Android and Windows Phone
Nokia X2 has made his first appearance and now it’s starting to get rumors which seem to be the successor of the Nokia X recently presented. The latest of these rumors says it will have dual boot with Windows Phone and Android.
The rumor, in addition to exposing this dual boot with Windows Phone and Android, also claims that the Nokia X2 can access Google Play services, which now can not be done with the Nokia X series. Of course, by now it is only a rumor, which also comes from the Secret social network platform to provide information anonymously, which makes you have to take it with caution.
What is certain is that a smartphone with Windows Phone and Android choice, comes from being a source of rumor and speculation time, and it would be strange that all this materialize in the Nokia X2. Microsoft Mobile should see there a good business


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Paragon Intro & Tutorial Gameplay Video Shows Epic MOBA Action
Paragon gameplay has surfaced online, and gives a quick overview of the game in its current state.
The gameplay comes from intro and tutorial video for Paragon Alpha testers, and is the first online test for Epic's MOBA.
Paragon was announced by Epic Games during the Playstation Experience earlier this month, and is coming to both PC and PS4. Before the event, Epic already teased their upcoming title with a teaser trailer, which can be seen below.
Yesterday we already reported that developer Epic is aiming for 60 frames per seconds on PS4. On top of that, PS4 players will be able to use keyboard & mouse. On PC, the top player within the team is allowed to use a controller.
Paragon Online Test 1 Footage shows MOBA in action
Check out the Paragon Online test down below:
As said, Paragon was announced earlier this month, and developer Epic is confident that the game offers an unique experience for MOBA players.
In a recent interview with Gamespot, Epic’s executive producer John Wasilczyk, talked about Paragon, and the producer was asked what would be a successful experience for him. Wasilczyk pointed out that there are so many pieces that are unique to a MOBA games, but there isn’t a game out there like Paragon.
"There isn’t a game out there that bridges the experience like Paragon, where you can have the cool choices you make in a MOBA, but in an action game world done in the way Epic does action games. That to me is the success and that’s the fun", Wasilczyk told Gamespot.
Hopefully, Paragon can establish itself between the amazingly popular MOBA's such as League of Legends, DOTA, and the recently released Heroes of the Storm.
Paragon is coming to PC and PS4 somewhere in 2016, and puts players in the fight with explosive action, direct third-person control, and deep strategic choice.
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Tesla losses grow but investors keep buying
CFO: “We are spending $100 million a week”
Investors liked what Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk had to say about demand for the electric carmaker’s vehicles.
The company’s already high share value jumped more than seven percent on reports of sustained demand despite the fact Tesla posted a net loss of more than $401 million in the second quarter, an increase from $293 million losses in the same period in 2016.
The company's stock closed Wednesday at $325.89 per share. It rose as high as $355 in after-hours trading. This year Tesla's peak closing value was $383.45 on June 23. On Dec. 30 it was $216.39.
Late Wednesday Musk and other company officials said demand is increasing for Tesla’s vehicles, including the recently released Model 3, marketed as Tesla’s first true mass market car.
Musk says Model 3 production will reach 10,000 vehicles per week in 2018.
“I think people should really not have any concerns we will reach that outcome,” he said in a conference call.
That’s in addition to sustained demand for company’s costlier Models S and X.
The Model 3 is advertised with a base price $35,000, although a version with a 310-mile battery runs about $44,000.
There had been concerns the introduction of the Model 3 would cannibalize the market for more expensive Tesla models. But so far that doesn’t appear to be happening, according to Musk.
“This has turned out to be the opposite,” he said.
In July, when the Model 3 was released, orders for the S and X were up 15 percent compared to the second quarter as a whole, the company stated in a letter to investors.
“This is maybe the best I have ever felt about Tesla,” Musk said.
Tesla reported $2.7 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up from $1.3 billion in the same period last year.
Cost of revenue also increased, however, from $955 million to $2.1 billion.
Much of the cost increase was attributed to investment in production of the Model 3, a product Tesla hopes will help the company reach beyond the luxury market.
“Our (capital expenditure) spend is at historical highs,” said Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja. “We are spending $100 million a week.”
Musk said there are already about 455,000 Model 3s on order.
Ahuja said the company should earn a margin of as much as 25 percent per car once production reaches 5,000 per week for a period of three or four months.
He also said cash flow will improve because much of the spending to bring the Model 3 to production is already complete.
“We expect our operating cash flows to be significantly better in the second half than in the first half,” Ahuja said.
Tesla is also seeing more revenue from energy generation and storage products. Last year Tesla purchased solar panel maker SolarCity. Tesla is also producing the Power Wall, a home storage product.
Revenue from generation and storage was nearly $287 million in the second quarter, up from about $3 million in second quarter 2016.
The cost of revenue for energy generation and storage was $204 million.
The ambitious production targets for the Model 3 are due in part to expectations the company’s Nevada Gigafactory, built with taxpayer supported incentives worth an estimated $1.3 billion, will enable faster battery cell production.
“We are now fine-tuning these manufacturing lines to significantly increase the production rate,” the letter to investors stated.
According to the permit-tracking website BuildZoom, there have been 78 permits issued for the Gigafactory in 2017, compared to 78 in all of 2016.
Since permitting began in 2014 there have been 222 permits with a combined valuation of $1.2 billion, according to BuildZoom.
Despite the good vibes on the call Tesla still faces potential storm clouds.
Musk said it’s possible the company could need to raise more money through borrowing. He also said little about the departure of executive Kurt Kelty, who had been in charge of battery technology and with Tesla more than a decade.
When asked about it he said Tesla tends to have longer than average executive tenures.
“Every now and again something doesn’t work out for one reason or the other,” Musk said.
Original post: Tesla’s recently launched Model 3 isn’t cannibalizing demand for its existing, more expensive vehicles.
That’s according to a letter to investors in the electric carmaker's stock posted in advance of Tesla’s second quarter earnings conference call.
“Model 3 net reservations have still steadily climbed every month, and have even accelerated further in recent weeks,” the letter from chairman and CEO Elon Musk stated. “Orders for Model S and Model X have also been increasing, both leading up to and following the Model 3 handover event.”
Musk also said the company will produce 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by the end of 2017 and as many as 10,000 per week in 2018.
Tesla shares increased in value nearly 4 percent on the news. Tesla is based in Fremont, Calif., and produces batteries in partnership with Panasonic at its Gigafactory in Storey County, east of Sparks.
See the entire earnings report below.
Come back for more updates following the 2:30 p.m. conference call with Musk.


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Sources tell FOX Business’s Charlie Gasparino that the crypto industry is bracing for increased regulation as digital currency gains popularity.
The cryptocurrency industry wants to convince the Biden administration it’s doing it more than “financing criminal enterprises”.
Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, a leading trade association in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, told FOX Business the group is mounting a charm offensive with members. keys to the Biden administration as potential new regulation looms.
Smith said the group had met with Treasury Department staff and were in the process of planning meetings with Secretary Janet Yellen and Deputy Secretary named Wally Adeyemo – the cutting edge man on cryptography and technology. .
News Highlights Business
- Headline: Crypto industry in Biden: ‘We are not criminals’
- Check all news and articles from the Business news updates.


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Great news for customers of cloudControl, a leading provider of cloud hosting services! We are very pleased today to officially announce that Potsdam-based cloudControl has teamed with New Relic to make RPM available to it’s customers at no cost. See cloudControl’s announcement here. cloudControl’s platform-as-a-service offers customers an automatic, hassle-free way to deploy business-critical PHP apps in the cloud and now they’ve further enhanced their offering with RPM’s deep visibility into production web apps.
More and more organizations are deploying PHP apps in the cloud and turning to providers like cloudControl to help make it easier for them. cloudControl has taken this concept a step further by not only providing an easy-to-use managed platform, but also by providing add-on services that enable customers to scale and optimize their apps. Among others, these include MySQL, Memcached, MongoDB and now New Relic RPM.
cloudControl customers, get started with New Relic RPM today!
If you are a cloudControl customer you are eligible to use RPM Bronze free of charge. RPM Bronze is now available in the Add-on Marketplace and RPM Gold and Silver paid upgrades will be available soon. Just log into the cloudControl console and go to the Add-on marketplace to get started. What a great way to start the New Year!
Thanks to cloudControl for being a great partner–we look forward to working together in 2011 to help organizations successfully deploy and manage their web apps.


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ChinaTravelNews, Jerry Tang - Northern lights, hometown of Santa Claus and Nokia phones. Those are probably the top-of-mind drawcards of Finland for most Chinese tourists as China is emerging as an important visitor source market for the Northern European country in recent years.
Unique with 188,000 lakes and 180,000 islands, Finland has been attracting an increasing number of visitors from mainland China and Hong Kong in the past seven years – the number of visitor nights had increased from 83,000 in 2010 to 362,000 in 2017, out of an average of 5 million foreign visitor nights each year from around the world.
While China is not yet the largest tourist source market for Finland in terms of visitor nights, it is the top market in terms of tourist spending. According to data from Visit Finland, the Nordic state’s tourism organization, China ranked fifth in visitor nights, trailing behind Russia, Sweden, Germany and UK, but Chinese travelers were the top spenders, splurging EUR 940 per visit in 2016, followed by visitors from Spain who spent EUR 582 per visit, and those from France who spent EUR 560 per visit.
Accommodation and shopping were the two areas that Chinese tourists spent the most money on, according to David Wu, Director of Visit Finland China. They are also generally interested in outdoor activities such as dog sledging and aurora chasing tours in winter, and lakeside getaways in summer.
David Wu, Director of Visit Finland China
With more Chinese tourists opting for free independent travel (FIT) in recent years, Finland as a country with much technological innovation, yet, is operating travel services in a relatively traditional way. Mr. Wu said, “We need to advise Finnish travel brands to speed up their efforts on digital transformation, including improvement in reservation systems, inventory management and distribution channels, to better service FIT consumers.”
To achieve that, Visit Finland has partnered with Fliggy (formerly Alitrip), the travel unit of Chinese ecommerce powerhouse Alibaba, since 2016. The online travel aggregator initiated its own tour product Aurora Project to attract Chinese travelers to Finland.
Fliggy’s former president Mr. Shaohua Li targeted to send 50,000 Chinese tourists to Finland in 2017. There is no public data to indicate whether this target had been achieved. Nonetheless, it is the first major promotion of Finland’s northern lights holidays.
“The Aurora Project bundling flight, hotel and airport chauffeur services is very popular in China and matches the millennial travelers’ needs,” said Mr. Wu. “What we value most in the partnership with Fliggy is their story-telling skills. Traditional destination promoting approaches (including advertising placement on partner platforms) certainly help in boosting visitor traffic, but we still need a good story to tell the consumers in order to make a product popular.”
Finland not only works with online travel brands like Fliggy and Ctrip to promote its destination offerings, but also teams up with traditional tour operators and other travel service providers. In 2017, it signed a two-year memorandum of understanding with Chinese tour operator Utour. Mr. Wu mentioned that Finland will launch destination campaigns with Utour in the next two years, leveraging the Chinese partner’s local resources to promote Finland’s summer and lakeside offerings.
In the mix of its online and offline marketing strategies, Visit Finland mainly looks to the digital efforts for direct customer engagement. “We highly value the importance of digital marketing on B2C channels like different social media and online platforms, particularly in the China market,” said Mr. Wu. “For B2B promotion, we mainly work with offline agencies of all sizes, including study tour operators, to maximize our promotion and reach the end consumers.”
Social media is the main battlefield for destination digital marketing. To reach and engage with more potential travel consumers from China, according to Mr. Wu, Visit Finland has to cope with the sophisticated and ever-evolving digital world of diversified travel UGC (user-generated content) platforms, as well as mass media platforms in a broader sense including the most popular Chinese social media WeChat.
Mr. Wu said that Visit Finland has deployed a strategy to leverage the influence of its partner agencies or influencers on WeChat’s Subscription platform, and manage its official channel to get its own voice heard at the same time. “As a tourism bureau, we are defined by our organizational practice on what we can do with regards to promotion campaigns on WeChat. So we are focusing more on getting our stories told through our partners to get greater exposure among the audience.”
Visit Finland recorded 3,952 average page views per post on its official WeChat Subscription account in the first quarter of 2017, according to data compiled by marketing institute Dragon Trail Interactive. By comparison, a typical hit post by influencer account on WeChat Subscription platform usually exceeds 100,000 views.
Unlike commercial entities which have to take care of both brand and performance marketing, Visit Finland as a tourism board works on elevating brand awareness of the destination. The effectiveness measurement for brand marketing is less intuitive than that for performance marketing, as no booking value or conversion rate can be directly tracked in brand awareness growth (be it aided or un-aided awareness).
As of September 2017, Finland’s flag carrier Finnair had six non-stop air routes between China and Helsinki Airport, and planned to launch the seventh direct route in May 2018. With easier access to air travel between the two countries, Visit Finland will continue to attract more Chinese visitors, but the figures are not the only thing that matters, according to Mr. Wu.
“China’s travel market is still growing solidly, though not so much as a growth spurt. We are going to see sustainable increase in visitor arrivals each year. Personally, though, I think it is not about chasing numbers but understanding the latest needs of Chinese travelers.”
Finland has become partner destination of ITB CHINA 2018, a B2B travel trade show that focuses on China's outbound sector. The show is co-hosted by TravelDaily China and global travel exhibition brand ITB Berlin, and is scheduled to take place on May 16-18 in Shanghai. Click here to learn more.


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Tech News Summary:
- Logitech SA’s CEO and Chairman Bracken Darrell is rumored to resign his position, effective immediately.
- Board member Guy Getch will take over as interim CEO while a replacement is sought.
- Despite uncertainty about Logitech’s future under new leadership, customers can rely on the company’s history of producing innovative products designed to improve lives.
After almost eight years at the helm of Logitech, Bracken Darrell is stepping down as CEO and leaving the company. This news has taken the tech community by surprise as he has been credited with turning around the fortunes of the Swiss computer accessory maker.
During his tenure, Darrell brought the company back to profitability, expanded Logitech’s portfolio into new markets such as gaming, and made strategic acquisitions. In a statement, he said, “It has been an honor to lead such an amazing team, and I am proud of all that we have achieved together.”
While the reasons for his departure have not been disclosed, it is believed that Darrell is leaving for personal reasons and to pursue new opportunities.
Logitech has not yet announced who will succeed Darrell as CEO. Meanwhile, a committee of the board will oversee the search for a new CEO. In the interim, Logitech’s current Chief Financial Officer, Nate Olmstead, will take over the role of acting CEO.
Despite Darrell’s departure, Logitech is in a strong position with a revenue of $3.5 billion in 2020, a year-over-year increase of 75%. The company’s products continue to be in high demand due to the shift to remote work and virtual communication.
As for Darrell, he leaves a lasting legacy at Logitech and a bright future ahead. He has expressed his excitement to pursue other passions and opportunities, saying, “I look forward to my next chapter, and to finding new ways to make an impact in the world.”


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Michigan has 14.9 million apple trees in commercial production, covering 34,500 acres on 775 family-run farms.
Originally printed in the September 2023 issue of Produce Business.
An after-school crunchy snack. Sparkly fruit salad. Warm fragrant pie. All are more satisfying with apples, and Michigan’s new apple crop stands ready to fulfill apple lovers’ aspirations.
“This fall brings the second large Michigan apple crop in a row for our industry,” says Diane Smith, executive director of the Michigan Apple Committee (MAC) in Lansing.
She reports Michigan’s 2023 crop estimate is 32 million bushels (1.344 billion pounds) of apples. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Michigan harvested a record 32.38 million bushels of apples in 2022, and the average annual crop size is approximately 24 million bushels.
There are more than 14.9 million apple trees in commercial production, covering 34,500 acres on 775 family-run farms in Michigan.
Trish Taylor, marketing manager for the integrated packer/shipper Riveridge Produce Marketing Inc., Sparta, says the size of this year’s crop “looks to be on par with last season for Michigan. We’ve had great weather for growing. And while the early season was dry, that helped to mitigate issues that occur with humid, wet days, so the fruit has excellent quality.”
The cool nights and warm days of Michigan produce the third largest crop of apples in the U.S. Their great number of varieties — with their flavorful quality aided by their climate and rich soil — ensures nearly year-round availability.
Smith notes flavor profiles differ for each variety, but Michigan growers produce a variety for every taste.
MANY VARIETIES TO MARKET
Smith says Honeycrisp, Gala and Fuji are the most popular varieties, and Cripps Pink, EverCrisp and Ambrosia are also growing in popularity. “Many people love traditional favorites, such as McIntosh, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, as well.”
North Bay Produce, with its numerous grower-owners, distributes a wide range of apples worldwide, according to Ken Korson, apple category manager for the Traverse City-based cooperative.
Honeycrisp remains the most popular variety and one of North Bay’s biggest sellers, Korson says. Galas remain popular throughout the year, he adds, and the Red Delicious apple remains “a popular and affordable choice.”
“EverCrisp, Pink Lady, and Ambrosia are the newer varieties that are coming on strong out of Michigan,” Korson observes. “Older demographics still appreciate Jonathan, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Macs, Fuji, and some of the older varieties, as they are consistently reliable and provide good value.”
Korson says Ambrosia and Pink Lady are two newer apple varieties for the North Bay cooperative of growers and will have more availability in the market this fall.
For the Applewood Fresh Growers network, based in Sparta, the earlier variety apples have a high demand, says Shelby Babcock, sales and marketing specialist for the grower/packer/shipper, with SweeTango and Rave apples being at the top of that list.
“Our production this year is growing with SweeTango and Rave varieties, allowing us to provide more volume to our customers and a range of sizing for bag and tray pack fruit. The popularity of these apples relies solely on the eating experience they give, with a higher flavor profile than some varieties.”
“I think one of the most beneficial marketing tools would be the in-store signage and demos. Letting customers try a product firsthand pushes them to purchase.”— Shelby Babcock, Applewood Fresh Growers, Sparta, MI
Applewood Fresh Growers describes the flavor profiles and uses of about 20 apple varieties on the website. For example, the Kiki variety attributes includes brix level, sweetness to tartness balance, coloration, and November to July availability.
Riveridge Produce Marketing’s Taylor reinforces the popularity of Honeycrisp, Gala and Fuji as its most popular apples. “They have the flavor for today’s consumer palate,” she explains, but adds, for a late season variety, “EverCrisp has gained steam for its wintertime crunch and flavor.”
Typical harvest start dates of the almost-20 current varieties available through Riveridge include: Paula Red, Aug. 19; Honeycrisp, Sept. 1; Empire, Sept. 22; Red Delicious, Sept. 25; EverCrisp, Oct. 22; and Pink Lady, Oct. 28.
Bassett’s Markets, headquartered in Port Clinton, OH, with four supermarkets close to Lake Erie, features more than a half dozen typical apple varieties, along with organic Honeycrisp and Gala. Paul Meyer, produce manager, notes his customers ask for specific apple varieties. Although the organic apples are not the top sellers, he says, “some people seek them.”
In the fall, during what he terms “pie season,” he says, “Granny Smith goes fast. People just grab them.” Both the bulk sales and bags sell well.
Public relations and community engagement manager Katie Cothron, Save A Lot, Saint Ann, MO, says the chain’s retail partners “across the country have the flexibility to source and stock items that are appropriate from the communities they serve. That may mean from us or from a local vendor.”
MICHIGAN APPLES IN U.S. AND ABROAD
Michigan apples’ reputation for quality stretches across the U.S. and into several countries. Although MAC’s Smith says only a small percentage of Michigan apples are exported, “it is important for us to maintain a presence globally, and foster trade relationships in existing and new markets.”
Most Michigan apples are sold domestically in approximately 32 states, she says.
Applewood Fresh’s Babcock points out Michigan’s location in the U.S. is beneficial for transportation and mobility. “We have packing facilities in the northern areas of Michigan as well as the southeast, giving an advantage to our customers for logistics and fruit offered.”
Korson reports North Bay delivers apples to various destinations, including the East Coast, Florida, Texas and the Rocky Mountains.
“Prepacked apples, such as those in 3-pound poly and 2- and 3-pound pouch, continue to be the choice of consumers at checkout. They’re easier to select when doing shopping online, and shoppers can rest assured they’ve gone through a packing process where the fruit is checked for quality, size, color, and washed.”— Trish Taylor, Riveridge Produce Marketing Inc., Sparta, MI
“Prepacked apples, such as those in 3-pound poly and 2- and 3-pound pouch, continue to be the choice of consumers at checkout,” says Taylor. “They’re easier to select when doing shopping online, and shoppers can rest assured they’ve gone through a packing process where the fruit is checked for quality, size, color, and washed.”
At Riveridge Produce, Taylor says growers follow quality control steps “right in the field to determine storage longevity, which is helpful packing an entire year.”
WAYS TO SELL MORE APPLES
Social media is a marketing tool that is often overthought and overlooked, says Babcock. But, she adds, “After the pandemic, there has been a shift.”
“I think one of the most beneficial marketing tools would be the in-store signage and demos. Letting customers try a product firsthand pushes them to purchase,” she recommends. “Telling your product’s story through the packaging and in-store signage is crucial and will continue to grow, as many people choose products based on their taste preferences, emotional connection and overall experience.
Babcock adds Applewood Fresh can create and design materials specific to customers’ needs, such as in-store signage, informational display cards, digital ads, and media elements that are new and relevant.
Smith says the state board is continuing its strong presence on social media. “We have recently added TikTok to our online offerings, with the goal of reaching our target to raise brand awareness and educate consumers.”
For the 2023 crop year, the MAC has launched a redesigned website, Smith adds. “This website is consumer-facing, with health information, recipes and information on where consumers can find Michigan apples.”
And don’t overlook in-store displays. “In my opinion, it is crucial for retailers to create captivating displays at the store’s entrance to attract apple consumers and boost sales,” says Korson.
In many of the Save A Lot locations across the country, “our promo items are typically on larger displays near the front of the produce department,” Cothron reports. “Our marketing team does a great job of using different bold colors to communicate different items and help give the display or section some appeal to the customer, while also helping the customer differentiate varietals among that product.”
BUY LOCAL STILL IMPORTANT
“Everyone wants to know where their food comes from, but local is even more important these days with the cost of freight. The fewer miles a piece of fruit must travel, the fewer costs built in,” says Riveridge’s Taylor. “But also, consumers want to know their fruit comes from local family orchards — so they’re supporting those invested in the community.”
Meyer says Bassett’s uses signs that alert customers to local products, adding, “We buy Honeycrisp from a local producer.”
“People want local, regional fruit,” Babcock stresses. “The farm-to-table movement. Local movement of fruit ensures freshness, benefits the environment, and supports the local economy. It allows us to provide a quicker turnaround time on shipments and keep fresh apples stocked on those shelves.”
“Local is extremely important,” Smith agrees. “Apples in fall are part of the culture in Michigan. Consumers want to know where their food comes from and want to support local whenever they can. Each individual retailer has its own method of merchandising apples, particularly in the fall. Those in Michigan and close by do a great job of emphasizing freshness and support of local farmers.”
But Michigan growers also recognize their growing market goes beyond “local.” “The local market is always important, but as our crop increases in Michigan, it’s important to expand our distribution beyond the local market,” says North Bay’s Korson. “We continue to work on partnerships to transport our fruit to various parts of the U.S. and the world.”
“The future of Michigan apples looks promising as long as we remain competitive in terms of pricing and continue to export a portion of the crop to balance out what is being imported,” he says.


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Your actions are powerful. We want a fashion industry that is fair and just for garment workers. We want to see workers’ demands met. And we will not stop until this happens. And you can help us get there.
URGENT ACTION NEEEDED
NEXT, NIKE AND AMAZON:
IT’S TIME TO PAY YOUR WORKERS
The 35 million people around the world who sew our clothes make some of the lowest wages in the world. It would take just ten cents per t-shirt for brands to make sure garment workers survive the pandemic. Tell Nike, Amazon and Next: It’s time to pay your workers.
This campaign is now closed. We launched the campaign on Black Friday 2020- a national day of shopping frenzy when cheap mark ups see hundreds of thousands of shoppers drawn...
Since March, workers who produce Primark’s clothes in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia have been protesting mass dismissal, unpaid wages and reduction in pay. Sign our petition today and join us in calling for Primark to to ensure that all workers in their supply chain are paid their wages. Workers should not have to pay the cost of the pandemic!


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iPad2 Day One Sales: Half A MillionMarch 14, 2011 4:49 am
While we’ll wait for Apple’s official word on this one, we have some solid estimates from Piper Jaffray: 500,000 iPad2s have been sold on a single day (saturday).
“Munster is sticking with his estimate of 400,000 to 500,000 iPad 2s sold, compared with 300,000 iPad 1s in its first weekend last year.
The difference is that nearly all those iPad 2s were sold in one day; stocks were essentially depleted by Saturday and not replenished. In its calls to retailers over the weekend, his team was unable to find a single iPad 2.”
Statistics Source: Fortune


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Coming Full Circle
Greg Deese’s journey to becoming a community pharmacy owner isn’t a traditional one. In fact, even five years ago, the odds of him running an independent pharmacy would have seemed unlikely to most. We recently spoke with Deese about his long career as an executive for major chains, his transition to hometown pharmacy owner, and how he has learned to connect with the community during a pandemic.
It all started because of a girl.
Even though Deese became interested in healthcare at a young age, he wasn’t sure which area to focus on. Then he started dating a girl in high school who worked at a drugstore, a job she loved. Deese saw firsthand the positive impact a local pharmacist had on the community and was sold. A Charlotte native, Deese enrolled at the University of North Carolina and eventually earned his pharmacy degree.
He immediately accepted a job with a chain pharmacy upon graduation, working as a pharmacist for seven years. While he enjoyed the pharmacy experience, Deese grew more and more fascinated with the business side of the industry. This led to an ascent up the corporate ladder within the company, first as a Pharmacy Supervisor in which he oversaw 50-60 stores. Deese was soon promoted to District Manager, a post he held for about seven years before earning a Regional VP role which brought him to Washington D.C. Deese held this high-level executive position for 10 years.
While Deese visited many stores during this time, he says he missed out on those key personal interactions inside a pharmacy.
“I was really not in the pharmacy,” Deese said. “I oversaw the whole store but was never actually in the pharmacy.”
After a decade in D.C., Deese returned home to North Carolina, despite his company not having any openings in the area. He accepted the same position with another large chain, a position he held until about three years ago when the company chose to leave the South. While he could have relocated with the company or taken a job with another chain, at 57 years old, he didn’t want to do either.
“I was tired of 150 flights a year and 150 hotel rooms a year,” Deese said. “People think it’s glamourous until you do it. After 18 years of doing it, I wanted to sleep in my own bed at night.”
“I found I love being a pharmacist now as much as I did 30 years ago and maybe even love it more.”
Deese decided it was time to open his own store, a challenge he was eager to tackle despite not having filled a prescription since 1990. He partnered with a long-time colleague who had already owned 10 independents in South Carolina. The two opened North Main Pharmacy in Mount Airy, NC in 2018, followed by Oakhurst Pharmacy in 2020.
“I absolutely love ownership, I never had done that before,” Deese said. “I found I love being a pharmacist now as much as I did 30 years ago and maybe even love it more because the technology is so much better. I was literally on a typewriter when I first started.”
Deese’s second store opened a year ago, just as the pandemic was starting. This prevented Deese from using one his core strengths, his social skills, to connect with people to help get his young store off the ground. Fortunately, the pharmacy’s hometown location helped offset those early challenges.
“My store is literally one and a half miles from almost everything I did my entire life until I left for college,” Deese said. “As I started getting on Facebook and doing advertising, it was amazing how many people would ask, ‘Are you the same Greg Deese I went to elementary school with?’”
“It’s work, but it pays off. I have people walk in and say their neighbor learned about our store’s COVID tests from our Facebook page.”
Deese’s use of social media has helped him connect with the community during the pandemic. He has built partnerships by joining three local community Facebook groups, participating in web events with the Monroe Road Advocates (MORA), and posting pertinent videos on his store’s Facebook page. Oakhurst Pharmacy also has a presence on Instagram.
“You have to find a way to do it even though you can’t visit people,” Deese said. “It’s work, but it pays off. I have people walk in and say their neighbor learned about our store’s COVID tests from our Facebook page.”
Oakhurst Pharmacy began doing COVID testing in November 2020. The store continues to expand its COVID-testing capabilities, now offering antibody tests and PCR tests. Deese feels this has helped put Oakhurst on the map.
“That’s what helped us turn the corner,” Deese said. “It brought people out of the house because they needed to get the test. They walked into the store and said, ‘Wow, I didn’t even know you were here!’”
As of this writing, Deese and his staff are fully prepared to administer the COVID vaccine, they just haven’t received any doses yet.
“I’m eager to get it,” Deese said.
Once he does, it goes without saying he’ll be successful at getting the word out and taking care of his new patients. Deese is also eager to tap into those social skills that made him a successful executive once the pandemic relaxes.
“As soon as doctor’s offices open up I’ll be calling on them,” Deese said. “I already have a list of every single doctor’s office, orthodontist, dentist, and chiropractor within five miles because I know each of them have a different part of the business they can impact for me. That’s what you have do in this world right now with all of the competition and the big boxes.”
While Deese might not have said that five years ago, it couldn’t be more fitting now.
“I’m a 60 year-old with a 13 year-old, so in my mind it’s the perfect segue,” Deese said. “I’m home for my 13-year old at night.”
Learn more about Oakhurst Pharmacy by visiting their website.


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MBA students interested in shopper marketing careers now have one more reason to consider an MBA from UT Knoxville. UT Knoxville’s full-time MBA program has partnered with UT Knoxville’s Shopper Marketing Forum to create an Excellence in Shopper Marketing Fellowship. This inaugural scholarship will be awarded to a Class of 2012 student who will begin the program August 2011.
Shopper Marketing Forum News
A group of top executives from some of the nation’s leading companies — including PepsiCo Americas Foods, Wal-Mart, Nestlé, Kimberly-Clark and The Walt Disney Co. — are gathering at UT Knoxville to help the College of Business Administration launch its Shopper Marketing Forum. The meetings — which are not open to the public — will take place today and tomorrow. ‘Shopper marketing’ is understanding how one’s target consumers behave as shoppers and leveraging this intelligence to benefit the company or brand, consumers, retailers and shoppers.


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November Nichols, the African American founder and CEO of a fragrance brand called Chémin, has teamed up with JCPenney to unveil a new affordable luxury collection. The collaboration brings the line of gender-neutral perfumes and body products to more than 50 of JCPenney’s stores nationwide and their online platform.
Together with retail giant JCPenney, Nichols is dedicated to making Chémin’s products accessible to everyone while maintaining the same delightful scents and sensory experiences its loyal clients have come to love.
The Chémin collection is now available at JCPenney stores in various states, including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Utah. The range includes not just perfumes but also a variety of natural body products such as body butters, crystal-infused body oils, Vitamin E sugar scrubs, charcoal scrubs, and lotions, according to Black Enterprise.
Founded in 2017, Chémin holds a special place in Nichols’ heart, paying tribute to her paternal grandmother, the “medicine woman” Mary Lena “Chémin” Portalis. Since then, the brand has been known for its focus on self-care, exploring the intersection of beauty, wellness, experience, service, artistry, and life. Aside from fine fragrances and body products, the brand also makes hand-poured soy candles and artisan handcrafted teas.
Chémin, which is the only Black brand with its own fragrance house, also offers a unique “Chémin Custom Fragrance Experience” where individuals, groups, and organizations can create their own signature scents through consultations and formulation sessions, and curate their palette of fragrance accords, taking home a bottle of their own creation.
Moreover, Nichols is committed to empowering artisans and increasing diversity in the fragrance industry. With the fragrance sector projected to generate significant revenue, she is optimistic that more minorities and women will venture into this lucrative industry.
Learn more about the brand via its official website at MaisonChemin.com
Also, be sure to follow them on Instagram @MaisonChemin


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Cooking meals from their homeland helps refugees acclimate to their new lives in Canada
By Steven Sandor | March 28, 2023
The Free Store for Ukrainian Newcomers was established in the spring of 2022, and it’s had more than 6,000 visitors. The premise was simple; it would be a place where those fleeing the war in the Ukraine could find life’s necessities as they adjusted to their new lives in Canada.
But what if the Free Store could also be a place for these Ukrainian refugees to sell their goods to the public?
A few months back, Ukraine’s Kitchen by Free Store opened, and there were 300 orders made for Ukrainian goodies such as perogies, borscht, cabbage rolls and sweets. Free Store co-founder Jorgia Moore said that six people are currently working in the kitchen.
“They are in a place that’s safe, they can speak the language that’s familiar to them, and they are sharing the recipes that come from home,” she said.
The Ukrainian cooks work with Indigenous chef Matthew Potts, and Moore said it’s important that the newcomers recognize that they have found refuge on Treaty 6 Territory. With that in mind, Potts and the newcomers will soon create meals that mix Indigenous and Eastern European flavours.
Moore is four generations removed from her great-great grandparents who came to Canada. She’s learned a lot from the food that the newcomers are making in the kitchen.
“I realized that a lot of the Ukrainian food we eat in Alberta is very old school,” she said. That is, much of the Ukrainian recipes we’re familiar with came to Canada during the great waves of immigration in the early 20th century. But, meanwhile, back in Ukraine itself, the food scene evolved.
So, the Ukrainian chefs at the Free Store are making things that are new to Moore, like the Eastern European take on croissants.
“I had never had them before, but was told they’re very popular now back in Ukraine,” she said.
If you’d like to try some of the fare from Ukraine’s Kitchen, you can order ahead or visit the Free Store. As Moore points out, you can do double-duty to support Ukrainian refugees — go to the store and donate some goods, and then purchase some food from the kitchen.


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Napco Security Technologies reported Tuesday that its net income for the fiscal fourth quarter fell 6 percent, although the company said its net sales were up.
The Amityville-based company, which makes electronic security, fire alarm and “connected home” devices for homes, businesses and schools, reported net income of $3.2 million, down from $3.4 million for the same period a year ago.
Net sales for the quarter ended June 30 rose 7 percent to $25.7 million.
Product development “and marketing endeavors have resulted in us growing market penetration in the burgeoning wireless cellular communicator market category,” said Richard Soloway, president and CEO of Napco, in a news release.
Napco shares closed up 45 cents to $8.20. The shares are up nearly 15 percent in the past year.


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Cloud Packaging Solutions is planned to be re-branded to Mespack-Cloud, a Duravant Company
Engineered equipment provider Duravant has closed the acquisition of Cloud Packaging Solutions, a US-based manufacturer of high-speed horizontal flexible packaging equipment, for an undisclosed sum.
The agreement to acquire Cloud Packaging from its parent company Hearthside Food Solutions was signed in November this year.
Cloud Packaging is engaged in the manufacturing of high-speed horizontal flexible packaging equipment. Hearthside bought Cloud Packaging as part of its acquisition of Ryt-way Foods in 2013.
Cloud’s rotary soluble pod equipment and ultra-high-speed packet, pouch, and sachet machines will join Duravant’s portfolio of engineering equipment for the food processing and packaging sectors.
Duravant intends to combine Cloud’s product offerings with Duravant operating company Mespack’s portfolio of highly engineered equipment to gain synergies.
Furthermore, Cloud Packaging Solutions is planned to be re-branded to Mespack-Cloud, a Duravant Company.
Mespack managing director Guillem Clofent said: “We’re thrilled to partner with Cloud and work together under an aligned go-to-market strategy. Both Mespack and Mespack-Cloud equipment will be available through the Mespack global sales team.”
The alliance, which brings together two engineered equipment firms, is expected to expand Duravant’s capabilities to cater to the customers in food and beverage, CPG, household goods and pet food sectors.
Mespack-Cloud general manager Mike Werner said: “We’re excited to be a part of the Duravant family of world-class brands and automation solutions.
“And, we’re even more excited to align with the Mespack team to better serve our customers through a united and collaborative strategy.
“Duravant’s lifecycle management via the company’s SupportPro services also gives our customers broader access to value-added solutions that will help their operations achieve their productivity and efficiency goals.”


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The latest digital revolution has been defined by different technologies aiming to blend the physical and digital spheres. It has deeply affected all industries, especially retail.
The way we shop for products has radically changed. And cosmetics have also experienced such a transformation.
A rising market
In spite of the challenging landscape that retail is facing, high-end beauty sales went up by 6% in the US between 2016 and 2017, according to The NPD Group. 90% of these earnings came from makeup. Cosmetics are, in fact, a product used on a daily basis, with two out of five women aged 18 to 54 wearing five or more makeup products every day, according to estimates.
Online is clearly taking over the market. For instance, 45% of US consumers say they buy skincare and cosmetic products online, with the percentage rising to 60% in the case of consumers aged 18 to 34. In this country, the largest beauty retailer, Ulta Beauty, saw their eCommerce sales increase by a whopping 63% in the third quarter of last year. On the other hand, Sephora, one of the biggest players in the industry, has also been working on blurring the lines between the physical and the digital, investing in in-store experiences that have left most retailers lagging behind.
One of the trends that have highly influenced customer behavior is user-generated content. This has emerged alongside a wave of influencers and celebrities that have made their way into the fashion industry, either by advocating third-party brands or creating their own product lines.
Statistics from Google show that 66% of cosmetic purchases made by consumers are influenced by YouTube. This tool provides them with more information and enhances product visibility, allowing them to better see how products look when used.
This is why they usually make informed decisions and sometimes even know more than sales assistants at the stores. This has made brand loyalty decrease over the years. One single negative experience can make a customer never choose a specific brand again. In fact, what customers now value are new, innovative experiences, especially those that make their journey interactive and let them try products.
The age of visual shopping
Visual content has gained more and more relevance in the cosmetic industry, always highly influenced by looks and design. The emergence of new technologies has come in handy. Those range from tools to assist customers and educate them throughout their shopping journey to innovative gamified experiences that increase engagement. And let’s not forget systems that personalize content to better tailor the offering to every single customer and achieve better conversions. According to the latest study by A.T. Kearney’s which looked at online beauty and personal care shoppers, consumers no longer want to accept the beauty business as it has always been and tend to increasingly be attracted to digital alternatives.
Product discovery experiences
Many beauty retailers have bet on new technologies and personalization to make the lives of their potential customers easier. For instance, Covergirl (sister brand of Max Factor), decided to create their Custom Blend App that uses facial recognition and artificial intelligence solutions to mix different shades of foundations to specifically match the customer’s skin tone. Shiseido and L’Oréal came out with similar ideas. For example, the latter uses augmented reality in their app to let customers virtually try different makeup products.
Technology brings the customer experience beyond brick-and-mortar beauty stores and helps deliver a more personalized journey. And we can’t deny that facing retail giants that invest more and more in digital experiences, smaller beauty companies willing to thrive will need to get in the retail tech game too.
Hottest beauty retail tech solutions: visual search for cosmetics
Examples of interesting tech solutions that retailers can use are bluetooth beacons or visual search for cosmetics. Beacons, that let brands and retailers send messages to customers located around or inside the stores, might be a good marketing tool and can help them reach more customers with targeted offers. But it may feel intrusive and it can only be used in-store. Visual search, on the other hand, can connect consumers to the products that retailers sell wherever they might be. And most importantly, it gives power to consumers, allowing them to scan cosmetic and beauty productswith their phones to access different kinds of digital content.
This technology can help beauty companies enhance the process of product discovery while enabling more informed and better purchase decisions. This can help both companies selling different beauty product brands, such as Sephora, and individual brands, such as Dior, as it helps them connect with their customers while building trust with their products.
Reordering made easy
Visual search for cosmetics can be useful when it comes to reordering products a customer regularly buys. Sometimes finding the right words to describe a product we want to find or reorder can be tricky. We do not always know its full name, shade or finish (in case of eye makeup, foundation or lipsticks, for instance). Using image recognition in native or web-based beauty brand apps, retailers can make it easier for customers to place an order from the comfort of their homes.
Catchoom’s product recognition solution can be integrated into your web or mobile app in order to let your customers scan products to either buy that lipstick they fell in love with again, or to help them learn more about your products. For example, they can connect a foundation with a video explaining how to make it last longer.
Retail tech is taking the reigns of retail as a whole, and keeping up with digital progress is a great way to appeal a new generation of customers, much more tech-savvy and demanding than previous generations were.


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A natural pet food company with a Monroe location just west of Interstate 75 will open a second location just east of the highway.
Blue Buffalo plans to occupy a nearly 144,000-square-foot logistics building at 675 Gateway Blvd. in Monroe, in Warren County.
The new building, which is scheduled to be operation by March, will be the second location in the city for the Connecticut-based company. It will continue to occupy the 390,000 square feet it moved into in 2013 less than six miles away at 1201 Logistics Way in Monroe, in Butler County.
MORE: Online retailer’s massive Monroe expansion to create over 100 new jobs
Blue Buffalo’s Monroe operations distribute pet food to retailers throughout the eastern half of the United States.
The company employs 60 people at its current location. The new facility is expected to generate 20 new jobs.
“It obviously speaks to our strengths, our location within the region and our connectivity to transportation,” Monroe City Manager William Brocktold this media outlet. “We’re lucky to have had the assets in place for them to consider us going forward. Much like us, we like to have these opportunities here in Monroe. We’re a growing city, they’re a growing business and I think we partner together well that way.”
Blue Buffalo routinely supports Monroe projects, including the city’s police K-9 unit, Brock said.
MORE: Amazon confirms Monroe fulfillment site: Here’s what we know now
The company is the second in the past year to locate additional operations in Monroe. Last January, Hayneedle announced that it would maintain operations in 721,000 square feet of space at 1001 Logistics Way while also opening a 994,000-square-foot facility on Gateway Boulevard.
Blue Buffalo’s decision to open in a second location gives both companies a presence in each of the IDI Logistics industrial parks in Monroe – Monroe Logistics Center on Logistics Way and Park North at Monroe on Gateway Boulevard.
“Having two companies locate additional facilities in Monroe in the past year speaks to the strength of the partnership between the companies, the City of Monroe and IDI Logistics,” said Jennifer Patterson, assistant to the city manager. “That partnership is essential to successful growth for everyone.”
Hayneedle and Blue Buffalo aren’t the only major players at the Park North at Monroe. Amazon plans to open a nearly 1.4 million-square-foot fulfillment center at 700 Gateway Boulevard in the third quarter of this year.
Company officials said they were excited with Blue Buffalo’s strategic decision to stay in the Monroe area.
“The Gateway location fit our space requirements and is ideally located for our logistical needs,” said David Kerley, distribution center supervisor. “Additionally, the City of Monroe has been a very good business partner to Blue Buffalo.”
Will Roberson Jr., Blue Buffalo’s director of warehousing and distribution, said the company has found success in partnering with both the city and IDI Logistics in expanding its warehousing and distribution footprint in the Midwest.


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On November 11, 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that China and the United States have come to an agreement to eliminate trade tariffs on information technology products. The announcement was made at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing. The agreement is an extension of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Information Technology Act (ITA) and would eliminate tariffs on all products included in the ITA Declaration, which includes medical devices. The agreement has to be approved by all other ITA members before it moves forward. If approved, the agreement is expected to affect around one trillion dollars’ worth of global sales.
China is the world’s largest exporter of high tech products. According to trademap.org, China exported over $550 billion USD worth of electrical and electronic equipment and over $74 billion USD worth of optical, photo, technical, and medical apparatuses in 2013. The United States and China are important trading partners. In 2013, China exported more goods to the United States than any other country.
Though the agreement may make exporting medical devices to the U.S. from China more cost-effective, it won’t necessarily make it easier. Medical devices distributed in the USA are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the agency has many requirements for device establishments. A device establishment is required to register with FDA, list all its products, and, depending on the complexity and risk of its devices, it may need to submit information about the safety and effectiveness of the devices. FDA also has a new Unique Device Identifier (UDI) requirement. By 2018, most devices will be required to bear a UDI on their labels. Establishments in China must also designate a U.S. Agent, a representative who resides in the United States and can communicate with FDA on behalf of the foreign establishment.
Registrar Corp can help Chinese establishments take advantage of the potential tariff-free exporting by helping them navigate through the U.S. FDA regulations for medical devices. Registrar Corp’s team of Regulatory Specialists can register a device establishment, list its products, assist with UDI requirements, and function as its U.S. Agent. To learn more about FDA regulations for medical device companies or about what Registrar Corp can do to help, contact us at 1-757-224-0177 or through our Live Help chat service: https://www.registrarcorp.com/livehelp.


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The Ultimate Band List (UBL) quietly rolled out its "MP3s on UBL" resource two weeks ago, but it was put to the test on Friday when it offered a one-day-only track for download by electronica band Underworld.
The site was inundated with users trying to get the track--roughly 4,000 users downloaded the song--though the MP3 page got more than 100,000 page views in the first 8 hours. Many users reported delays or were locked out of the site altogether, according to Steve Rennie, president of the UBL.
"It was a long Friday," Rennie said, "but for all the right reasons."
The launch comes as IBM, Sony Music Entertainment, Time Warner's Warner Music unit, and other entertainment and technology interests test the Madison Project, which aims to allow people to buy and download music online securely, and the Recording Industry Association of America is touting its Secure Digital Music Initiative, a project that seeks to create a specification that could be embedded into any music distribution technology to protect copyright holders' property.
Rennie noted that for all the antipiracy efforts surrounding online music distribution and the controversy that has hovered over MP3, "at the operating level of the labels, [music executives] are worried about how to 'break' new bands." That is the music industry's real concern, he told CNET News.com, because "If you don't break new bands, you don't have anything to protect."
The UBL was not discouraged by its rocky foray into the largely uncharted MP3 (MPEG 1, Audio Layer 3) waters, but rather saw it as affirmation that its long-held goal to introduce new bands to music fans on the Web would be boosted by the controversial format, Rennie said.
MP3 compresses high-quality sound files so they can be downloaded quickly onto a PC hard drive. Its popularity online has made it a de facto standard for downloading music, observers say, although it has faced roadblocks to date by many in the mainstream recording industry because it is favored by music pirates and often is used to post unauthorized copies of copyright-protected music online.
But the format has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts lately, with former opponents to MP3 getting caught up in its momentum. Just after music download, news, and community site MP3.com got an $11 million investment from the likes of high-profile venture firm Sequoia Capital last month, portal Lycos said it would offer an MP3 database, the Harry Fox Agency issued Internet record company GoodNoise the first mechanical license for delivering songs via MP3, and label Rykodisc (whose artists include Frank Zappa and Morphine) entered a licensing agreement with GoodNoise to promote and sell music from its catalog via MP3.
So it is not a surprise that the UBL, which began as a directory of bands but has evolved into offering broader content and e-commerce, is offering songs for download via MP3. After all, noted Rennie, "We're going to serve up the music the way [the fans] want it."
The UBL, as "by far, one of the old guard" among Net music sites, enjoys "a good solid base of consumers that rely on them," noted Mark Hardie, senior analyst at Forrester Research.
While he sees the UBL's foray into MP3 as just "positioning," since "the digital distribution market is still nothing right now" financially, Hardie said the onslaught the site experienced "just goes to show that they underestimate their audience.
"The UBL is one of the oldest sites out there, and they have a large audience," Hardie added. "If you offer them something unique, they're going to come a calling."
He likened the UBL's experience to that of Broadcast.com in Webcasting the Victoria's Secret lingerie fashion show last week, noting that being unprepared for a glut of users "is just going to disappoint the audience."
Still, there are worse problems than having too many people rushing to your site. And although offline music brands such as MTV, Rolling Stone, and others have been partnering or otherwise beefing up their online offerings as the Web has matured, the UBL has enjoyed significant success, especially considering that it has done little to market itself, Rennie pointed out.
Hardie agreed, noting that: "There are no set players in digital distribution yet. [The UBL] is as likely as anyone else to be in the mix."
And in the mix it is, coming in just behind MTV in unique users for the month of December, according to Media Metrix. MTV had roughly 1.16 million visitors; the UBL had 984,000; JamTV had 736,000; and Launch Media had 620,000. MP3.com, generally considered the hub site for MP3 downloads and information, had 601,000 unique visitors, according to Media Metrix. Plus, Rennie noted, the UBL has "seen a 20 percent increase in traffic from the top of the new year."
Hardie suggested that the UBL consider outsourcing to cope with the traffic.
"If they're going to offer MP3s for download, they should offload it," he said. "But there's a cost associated with that. Getting someone else to host it is going to cost some dollars, and they may not get those dollars back."
But Rennie said outsourcing is not in the plan for the UBL, which is working on an "evolution" that will include upgrades to the site's backbone. No date has been set for those changes, he said.


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Flappy Bird may be no more but it turns out that some people are willing to pay literally anything to get their hands on the game for iPhone and Android
Bidding for a 16GB iPhone 5 with Flappy Bird installed reached $90,000 dollars overnight, the listing has since been removed, it's not clear whether that was by eBay or the user selling the item.
A number of second hand devices with the viral game pre-installed were listed on eBay within hours of Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen removing the game from iPhone and Android app stores yesterday.
Although the game can no longer be downloaded, it is still available to play on devices if already installed and many entrepreneurial eBay users have seized the opportunity to cash in on the game's popularity. The game consists of flying a bird through pipes by tapping the screen repeatedly.
At last look the $94,100 16gb iPhone had 62 bids. Although this particular price tag appears unbelievable and excessive, dozens of iPhones with Flappy Bird installed are now appearing on eBay and although cheaper that this particular listing they're still leaning on the side of excessive for a second hand smartphone..
In a series of tweets posted on Saturday Dong Nguyen told fans “I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore. It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore.”
Flappy Bird has become the number one iOS and Android game recently, despite being released in May 2013. It has now been downloaded more than 50 million times and was said to be making an estimated $50,000 in advertising revenue each day.
The sudden increase in download volumes has prompted speculation that bots were been deployed to download the app thousands of times.
Nyugen stated that the success of his notoriously hard game ruined his simple life, but he will continue to make games.


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As mainstream brands continue to adopt girl power platforms the pressure to adapt is on – but is female empowerment on the runway fashion’s most pressing issue?
Maria Penaranda, Contributor
Illustration by Valeriya Kim
Thom Browne’s ready-to-wear spring 2019 show at Paris Fashion Week sparked outrage in light of the #metoo era. Models walked in five inch heels, adorned in elaborate, meticulously embroidered garments and Hannibal Lecter-like masks, many of the items binding their arms to their bodies, rendering them powerless in the event of a fall. Only in the world of fashion could a ritual as bizarre as the runway show be normalized and esteemed. An Instagram post by fashion critique account @diet_prada led the disapproval, writing:
“Maybe there was something in the @thombrowneny show notes we didn’t see, but we’re finding it hard to grasp the need to show women literally bound and gagged on the runway at this particular moment in time. In an era where women’s accusations are consistently doubted and dissected at every step, this showing reads as tone deaf. If this was somehow a response to end the silencing of women, it missed the mark.”
It’s easy to disapprove of something challenging, especially when this disapproval aligns with popular discourse. The line between fashion-as-art and fashion-as-industry is, undoubtedly, blurred. However, despite the fashion industry’s never-ending violations of ethics, fashion-as-art should be no more subject to literal readings than any other medium.
Browne’s show is unsettling, and rightfully so. It has been devastating, as women, to watch the Kavanaugh hearings, and have our worst gut-wrenching suspicion confirmed by the institutional power of the US Senate – the age of silencing women is not over just yet. It’s understandable and completely valid to argue that the Thom Browne show reads as tone deaf – Browne himself being a white, male American designer, and the collection being shown during the Kavanaugh hearings. Even so, the Thom Browne show seems, in its grotesque aestheticism, somewhat metaphorical of the silencing of women. Considering how the fashion industry has been, in recent years, consistently exploiting feminism for profit, the Thom Browne show feels at least more honest than the perverse notion of social justice capitalism currently dominating fashion.
I can see the temptation in wanting to see women as always empowered, but sugar-coated representations of inclusivity and faux-feminism don’t serve anyone but the companies profiting off of them. The Thom Browne show was an unsettling, exquisite spectacle of artistry, and it deserves more than a literal reading. Anyway, it’s a bit ridiculous to demand ethical integrity from the fashion industry – its very existence depends on normalizing the imposition of cycling cultural standards of (often Eurocentric) beauty and coolness.
The real letdown of Paris Fashion Week this year was not the Thom Browne show, but the Celine show, who’s newly appointed creative director Hedi Slimane had everyone at a loss for words (an understatement) when he debuted his first collection for the fashion house. Gone was the women-centred, natural elegance of Celine under Phoebe Philo, and in its place a tacky derivation of Slimane’s time at Saint Laurent. “A brand that was once thoroughly identified with a peerless instinct for what women want in fashion all of a sudden looked like a gust of toxic masculinity,” wrote Tim Blanks in Business of Fashion.
Browne may not be giving us any kind of tangible notion of female empowerment, and honestly, that’s okay. It’s not anti-feminist. Art is not always readily comprehendible or literal. We’ve lost Celine – or at least the Celine we knew and came to love. If you’re sick of faux-feminism and tokenism on the runway and crave a genuine effort towards ethnic diversity, inclusivity and gender fluidity, cult brands like Eckhaus Latta and Telfar have been, for a while now, paving the way. It’s important to remember, though, the nature of the beast. The fashion industry is notorious for its indifference to ethics, from its severe environmental impact to human rights violations in manufacturing. As consumers, we are not only indifferent, but complicit. It is, sadly, very absurd to demand an aesthetic display of female empowerment from an industry that literally thrives off exploitation.


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Yesterday we told you about Activision’s upcoming Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and showed off a few of our mad licks in the process (OK, the YouTube Guitar Hero community has since branded us noobs–no one’s perfect). Not to be outdone by its primary competitor, Harmonix’s Rock Band announced yesterday that it too would be jumping on the licensing bandwagon.
Hair-metal gods Motley Crue have become the first band to release a new single via the game. Users can download the group’s new track, “Saints of Los Angeles,” for 99 cents via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Beginning tomorrow, the track will also be available at PlayStation’s store.
Rock Band will also be joining the Crue on its upcoming Crue Fest, alongside such bands as Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx: A.M., and Trapt. The Fest will be holding Rock Band competitions on stage between sets, which will almost certainly go swimmingly with a restless crowd that’s waiting for roadies to set up Papa Roach’s gear.


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NBA Playgrounds 2 in development
Sequel to over the top basketball game is coming later this year
Saber Interactive has announced that NBA Playgrounds 2 is in development.
NBA Playgrounds 2 promises more over-the-top, two-on-two street action with a new line-up of online and local multiplayer game modes, as well as new courts from playgrounds across the world.
Playgrounds Championship mode introduces a new worldwide ranked league system, featuring multiple competitive solo and co-op division ladders. Season mode is a new single-player experience that recreates the feeling of leading a team through the regular season, playoffs, and, ultimately, the NBA Championship itself. There’s also improved matchmaking with dedicated servers, the arrival of four-player online matches, the return of three-point contests, custom matches, and more.
The game will launch with a roster of over 200 current and retired NBA players – including Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, DeMar DeRozan, Damian Lillard, Karl-Anthony Towns, Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, Dr. J., Allen Iverson and Larry Bird.
NBA Playgrounds 2 is expected to launch in 2018 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC.


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With a press release, Apple just confirmed it has sold over 3 million iPads (iPad mini + iPad 4th gen) in three days. Interestingly, Apple is not separating sales figures of the iPad mini from the regular iPad; in the press release, Apple simply says it is a new record doubling the previous milestone of 1.5 million weekend sales of the iPad 3 in March.
Apple today announced it has sold three million iPads in just three days since the launch of its new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad—double the previous first weekend milestone of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only models sold for the third generation iPad in March. The Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad will ship in a few weeks in the US and in many more countries later this year.
Apple notes how “demand for iPad mini exceeded the initial supply”, confirming that some pre-orders (which began on October 26) will be shipped “later this month”. Tim Cook was quoted in the press release:
Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.
To put these numbers in a better context, here’s how iPad sales evolved over time since the release of the original model in 2010:
- Apple sold 1 million iPads in 28 days after the device went on sale in April 2010;
- 2 million iPads were sold in less than 60 days;
- 3 million iPads were sold in 80 days;
- 3 million”new iPads” were sold in four days, from March 16 to March 19, 2012.
In today’s case, however, the comparison is different as Apple is accounting for two models (iPad mini and iPad 4th gen) in a somewhat clear intention to report iPad sales as a single category without specifying models – similarly to how they do for iPod sales or iPhone sales without differentiating between device models. It’s also worth remembering how the new iPads’ rollout has been one of the largest ones for Apple to date: the iPad mini went on sale on November 2 in 34 countries, whereas the 3rd generation iPad launched in 10 initial countries, and then rolled out to 25 more a week later; both WiFi and WiFi + Cellular versions of the 3rd generation iPad were available at launch.


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The closure of a popular supermarket in Lincolnshire has been put back – again.
Marks and Spencer announced in February that it was pressing ahead with plans to shut the store in Winfrey Avenue, putting 33 jobs at risk.
The company revealed the decision had been made due to “changing shopping habits” – and had planned to close on April 11.
However, that date was pushed back due to some supermarkets becoming extremely busy when the country went into lockdown.
And it seems that initial boom in trade has convinced bosses to keep the store going for even longer, with a closure now not expected until next year.
An M&S spokesperson said: “We have made the decision to delay the closure of our Spalding store until 2021.
“We will keep the community updated next year as things evolve and once we have decided to close the store.”
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Lincolnshire Live asked for more specific information about what has prompted the latest push-back of the closure, but the company declined to go into more detail.
The company also refused to comment on whether the recent success could makes bosses rethink the decision to close.


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iPad mini 2 may still have some spec disappointment
It is widely expected that the mobile world will see some new iPad models being released in the coming weeks, which will include the iPad mini 2 but reports are suggesting that it may still have some spec disappointment upon release.
There has long been speculation on whether the iPad mini 2 would feature a Retina display or not, and now analyst Brian White of Cantor Fitzgerald is claiming that a Retina display iPad mini will not be unveiled next week at the expected showcase event by Apple.
These claims come after meetings in both China and Taiwan and while it is claimed that Apple is indeed working on an iPad mini model with a Retina display, it will not be making an appearance next week and instead won’t arrive until sometime during the first quarter of 2014.
The iPad mini version that will be making an appearance alongside the iPad 5 will have some minor changes that include a faster processor and improved camera. The iPad 5 meanwhile is supposedly going to have a major overhaul, but we have heard claims like these before that have been followed by others that are claiming we will see a Retina display iPad mini this year.
There has been talk that manufacturing difficulties have been causing low yield rates for the device that led to claims that stock levels would be low to begin with, so there is the chance that Apple has decided to wait until next year before launching the HD version of the iPad mini.
One thing does seem certain though is that consumers are set to get more colour choices with one of them being the popular Gold colour finish as yet another leak was reported earlier today.
Will you skip the iPad mini 2 if it doesn’t have a Retina display?


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In a letter to Minister of Health Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the Icelandic Federation of Trade maintains that enforcing existing laws and regulations on e-cigarettes is more important than tightening regulation: “Existing laws stipulate state monitoring of e-cigarettes and e-liquids to ensure consumer safety and to prohibit sales to children and teenagers,” the IFT states.
The letter was penned after a group of members requested that the IFT emend “misrepresentations” in statements made by the Directorate of Health, the Minister of Health, and the Icelandic media in regard to the recent lung-injury outbreak in the U.S. associated with e-cigarette use.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has concluded that the cause of the outbreak may most likely be traced to illegal marijuana products (THC liquids) that are sold on the black market without any kind of supervision,” the IFT maintains.
Instead of tightening regulation, the government should, the IFT argues, “encourage consumers to restrict their purchasing to regulated entities that operate in accordance with existing laws and regulations. IFT members emphasise the importance of selling only CE-certified products.”
The IFT agrees with Director of Health Alma Möller who characterised the results of a recent poll–indicating that 10% of Icelandic 10th graders use e-cigarettes habitually–as worrying. “It’s clear that minors are obtaining these e-cigarettes and related products by illegal means. The IFT is in agreement with the Director of Health in that public oversight, ensuring that the laws are followed, is necessary.”
Möller has recommended that the Directorate of Health tighten existing regulation, ban flavoured e-liquids and improve existing labels on e-cigarettes. The IFT points out that the current legislation on e-cigarettes forbids text or photo advertisements on e-cigarettes that target children and teenagers. Furthermore, advertising e-cigarettes and e-liquids is illegal.
“The Director of Health recommends banning flavoured e-liquids. Such a thing, however, has nothing to do with public health. Neither does it prevent individuals from obtaining such e-liquids. In the event of flavoured e-liquids being banned, individuals–children and teenagers included–may attempt to illegally obtain such liquids, which are not subject to public supervision. Flavoured liquids that have been smuggled into the country are not subject to laws and regulations regarding e-cigarettes and thus the law will not prevent unscrupulous parties from putting such liquids into the hands of children and teenagers. The consequences could be completely antipodal to the intentions.”


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Today’s blackout at CES 2018 sent attendees and exhibitors to spread hilarity on Facebook.
Here’s everything we know about the LG V30 Raspberry Rose edition, including release date, price, and specs.
Here’s everything we know so far about Samsung’s upcoming flagship Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus smartphones, including release date, price, and specs.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 owners have reported that they aren’t able to charge their smartphone once the battery runs out.
The 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is just a few weeks away. Here’s what to expect from the annual consumer electronics trade show.
Looking to buy Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8? Here’s everything you need to know about the Galaxy Note 8, including specs, features, and price.
Black Friday is right around the corner, so we’ve compiled a list of of the best Samsung deals on smartphones, TVs, and tablets.
Did you recently buy an iPhone 8? Here’s our list of the best iPhone 8 apps that you need to download.
Google’s Pixel 2 promises better battery life.
Join us on Tuesday, September 12, at 10am PT / 1pm ET as Apple announces its next generation of iPhone devices and more.


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On October 23, BTCChina, the largest Bitcoin trading platform in China, has updated an announcement that It will close the foreign exchange operations and stop
To speed up its closure, BTCChina will adjust the withdrawal transaction fees to remind and urge users to withdraw as soon as possible.
Until Oct. 25, the platform will remain with the previous standards of withdrawal transaction fees:
- Transaction withdrawal fee for BTC: 0, 0015 BTC;
- LTC withdrawal transaction fee: 0.001 LTC;
- ETH withdrawal transaction fee: 0.01 ETH;
- BCC Withdrawn Transaction Fee: 0,0005 BCC
Beginning October 25, the new withdrawal transaction fee standards will be activated:
- Withdrawal tr transaction fee for BTC: 0.0045 BTC;
- Withdrawal Commission for LTC: 0.003 LTC
- Withdrawal Commission for ETH: 0.03 ETH;
- Withdrawal commission for BCC: 0.0015 BCC.
After October 30, the platform is very likely to stop online withdrawals service. By announcing the increase in withdrawal transaction fees in advance, BTCChina wants to check and return all the money on time.
With the final date, the biggest Bitcoin trading platform is to say goodbye to its users and the market.
The work of checking and returning funds is the last step in closing BTCChina. On September 27, the platform ceased accepting CNY and Digital Asset deposits. On September 30, he stopped accepting fiat and cryptocurrencies and closed all the trading features on BTCChina Exchange.
In addition to BTCChina, other Chinese Bitcoin trading platforms like OKCoin and Huobi have also announced that they will close the CNY market based on the announcement of the "Seven Regulators" Previously published by the Regulators
However, although the Chinese government currently prohibits the trade of Bitcoin, the government did not consider it absolutely illegal. Some researchers believe that this means that the Chinese government could release the Bitcoin trade under certain circumstances in the future.
When the regulatory system is completed, the Chinese government could reopen the door for Bitcoin.
Huobi and OKCoin said that they would continue to communicate with regulators and would try to recover the CNY trading market in the future.


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The initiative was brought to the Netherlands by Gianfranco Bertone, the initiator of the Italian version of the project, who is a professor in Astroparticle Physics at the University of Amsterdam. Bertone himself is author of several popular science books that have been published in Italian, English and recently also in Dutch.
The Dutch ‘Cosmos Boekenprijs’ is part of the National Science Agenda (NWA) and aims to select the best popular science book in physics, mathematics or astronomy each year. Earlier this year, high school students aged 15-18 could apply to be part of the student jury, leading to a jury of 37 students. Over the course of the next half year, the jury members, as well as a professional jury, read five selected books (that the students get for free) and each select a winner. To further stimulate the students’ interest in reading and in popular science, some of the authors of the five selected books visit the schools as well. At a festive book gala on 28 October, the authors of the two winning books will then each receive a prize of €2000,-.
Interested in the book gala on 28 October, or in participating in next year’s edition to select the best popular science book in Dutch of 2022? Visit the Cosmos Book Prize website using the link below:


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Asia Stocks Rally As China Cuts Tariffs On US Imports
On 6 February, Chinese trade officials confirmed that tariffs on 1,717 products would be cut. Some of these tariffs are to be reduced from 10% to 5%, while others will be cut from 5% to 2.5%. This January 2020 trade agreement leads on from talks which have taken place since last year, and is likely to increase US trades by up to $200bn.
China Tariff Cuts
The tariff reduction announcement relates to last year’s “phase one” agreement, which was signed off in January 2020.
Analysts suggest it could be a result of the vast number of temporary factory closures that have taken place this year due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
The January agreement does have clauses relating to any natural disaster or unforeseen events, and the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp has already indicated it will not be able to take deliveries of some liquified natural gas (LNG) shipments, using “force majeure” as the reason for order cancellations.
The cuts to tariffs relate to $75bn of US products arriving in China and will be effective from 14 February. Existing tariffs will remain in place on around $35bn of US products.
The US will complement the Chinese agreement by cutting some US tariffs on Chinese products.
The Chinese finance department said this deal aims to “to promote the healthy and stable development of Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations“.
This news prompted Asian stock markets to rally, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rising by 2.6%.
Yuan exchange rates also lifted on the news, while the Chicago Exchange for soybean futures also rose alongside the Brent Crude futures index in London.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, the senior China economist at Capital Economics, commented:
“Perhaps they want to show goodwill and send the message that they are still committed to de-escalating trade tensions despite the coronavirus delaying the ramp-up in their imports from the US.”
Li Qiang is the head of the Shanghai JC Intelligence Co., and commented: “We don’t see any impact from this tariff cut. The measures are in line with what the US side is doing.”
He added that although the Chinese will continue to process waiver applications for US agricultural products, there will be no tariff reductions if the US doesn’t first make changes to their own high tariffs on agricultural product imports.