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Chinese PC maker Lenovo is looking to secure its footing in the Indian market, and simultaneously reduce its legacy dependence on IBM, with the company not renewing an agreement it had with IBM for after-sales service and support.
According to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Lenovo India has invested over Rs. 100 crore in the last six months to set up a service partner network of its own, in a move that signals its commitment to the domestic market. “After we acquired IBM’s PC business, there was an agreement that IBM would manage our post-sales service. However, we have now set up own network it as we wanted direct knowledge of our customers and also to bring in better transparency ,” said Sudipto Ghosh, Executive Director, Services.
The cost of service delivery through an outsourced relationship was also proving to be expensive for the company, especially in the current economic scenario, according to several executives who did not wish to be named.
“We did it [the transition] through a phased roll-out starting from the April, and are now wholly managing our after-sales service by ourselves,” Mr. Ghosh added.
Though Lenovo’s India’s official agreement with IBM ended two months ago, the company has spent the last six months in creating the infrastructure and service platform needed for servicing its consumer and enterprise customers.Employee training
According to officials, Lenovo India spent nearly Rs. 60-70 crore in acquiring spare parts. The rest of the investment has gone into setting up contact centres and training its employees. “I’d like to think of it as a well-oiled engine right now. We’re able to give a much better level of service as we can respond faster and at a much cheaper cost,” Mr. Ghosh said.


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Buick will be offering its active safety suite of technologies as standard equipment on every model it offers for the 2014 model year.
Read This Article
The 2012 Buick Regal GS has created a stir as fans of the automaker wait for the vehicle’s release this coming fall.
General Motors is recalling 3,633 Buick Regals for a software error.
Opel, the German-based automaker governed by General Motors, has partially revealed future design language in the form of the Monza Concept today.

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Redmi smartphone equipped with Dimensity 800 and 5G spotted on TENAA
Image courtesy of TENAA
It seems that a Redmi smartphone equipped with the Dimensity 800 chipset has been spotted on TENAA, and it seems to come with 5G support as well as an in-display fingerprint sensor. While not much is known in regards to whether it will be available in Malaysia, we do know that there might be a 4G variant of the device which is presumably much cheaper than the 5G variant.
In terms of the tech specs, the Redmi smartphone is expected to come equipped with the chipset mentioned above, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of internal storage, 6.57-inch FHD+ display and a 4420mAh battery. As for the camera, it is expected to come equipped with a 48MP main camera while the front remains largely unknown.
With all that said, do take every bit of information with a grain of salt due to the fact that the manufacturers of the Redmi smartphone have yet to provide an official statement in regards to the leaked info. Not only that, but there’s no news on the Malaysia release date and local pricing for now.
Would you be interested in getting a Redmi smartphone which comes with 5G and an in-display fingerprint sensor? Let us know on our Facebook page and for more updates like this, stay tuned to TechNave.com.


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By Melissa Keogh
Whisky aficionado John Rochfort always knew there was something special about South Australia.
While producing fine malt whisky in Tasmania – Australia’s whisky capital – the former chef says his home state continued to be praised within craft industry circles.
“Every time an award was won it was won with SA (wine) casks and SA grain and it was getting to me,” he says.
“I was determined to come back.”
After running the ship at Tasmania’s Lark Distillery – a pioneering company in the Australian whisky industry – John returned home and launched the McLaren Vale Distillery.
John says SA’s high quality barley, wine barrels and clean water supply made it an ideal base for a craft distillery.
Two years later, the business is setting the bar for not only whisky producing in SA, but across the country.
Earlier this month McLaren Vale Distillery took two major awards at the inaugural Whiskies and Spirits Conference in Adelaide.
Some of the world’s finest whisky makers were in town for the event – a first for the southern hemisphere.
“I’m proud to be South Australian after the other night – and I always was – but to take that leap of faith to leave Tasmania and do something here and have it pay off, it’s been great,” John says.
About 40km from Adelaide, McLaren Vale Distillery is run by the Rochfort family and business partner Jock Harvey.
Its single malt whiskies are aged in ex-fortified wine barrels sourced from 20 vignerons across McLaren Vale and the Barossa.
Some of the barrels have previously held premium Century-old wines.
The barrels impart their flavours on the maturing whisky and John says this means a port cask is likely to create a deep red colour, while a sherry cask will infuse floral notes.
While Tasmanian and Scottish whisky makers also rely on the wine industry for their craft, John says his distillery makes the most of the wine barrels’ flavours.
“The standard process in Scotland and Tasmania is when those casks arrive to the distillery they fill it with water to expand the wood because they don’t want their spirit to leak everywhere,” he says.
“As an ex-chef I would just watch the crimson, red or gold water flow out of these casks and think that is the best flavour you guys have got.
“The flavours we were getting in the first 10-20 days … were flavours and aromas we weren’t getting in two or three years in Tasmania.”
John says whisky making is a hard slog requiring patience and dedication, with his distillery’s first batch of single malt whiskys due for release in 2018.
“It’s not like being a chef where the meal is ready in 20-30 minutes,” he says.
“It’s five or six years before you see the product, so when you gain notoriety it means so much.”
However, the Bloodstone Collection, a limited series of 20 collaborations between McLaren Vale Distillery and SA winemakers, is a preview release and has already proved popular.


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Bioware to fix Mass Effect 3 Face Import bug early next week
Bioware has confirmed that it would roll out a long-awaited face import fix for Mass Effect 3.
Longstanding fans of Mass Effect series have been complaining about a bug that slays any Shepard created back in the original Mass Effect. While some opted for either the male or female default model, many others are waiting for a fix.
The developer yesterday promised that it would release a fix to eliminate the bug, alongside a free multiplayer Resurgence Pack that would bring new characters, weapons and maps.
PC copies will receive the fix on 9th of April, while consoles will get it a day later- on 10th of April.
Separately, publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has announced a new free DLC pack that will expand events at the end of Mass Effect 3.
Executive Producer Casey Hudson, of the Mass Effect series, said, "We have reprioritized our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player.”
Mass Effect 3 received a very warm welcome when it was released, with 890,000 copies sold within first twenty-four hours.


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Brokerages expect PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL – Get Rating) to announce $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the current fiscal quarter, according to Zacks. Twelve analysts have provided estimates for PayPal’s earnings. The lowest EPS estimate is $0.84 and the highest is $0.90. PayPal reported earnings per share of $1.15 in the same quarter last year, which would suggest a negative year-over-year growth rate of 24.3%. The company is expected to issue its next earnings report on Monday, January 1st.
On average, analysts expect that PayPal will report full-year earnings of $4.00 per share for the current year, with EPS estimates ranging from $3.72 to $4.66. For the next fiscal year, analysts anticipate that the business will report earnings of $4.84 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $3.98 to $5.88. Zacks Investment Research’s earnings per share calculations are a mean average based on a survey of sell-side analysts that follow PayPal.
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 27th. The credit services provider reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.88. PayPal had a net margin of 13.87% and a return on equity of 17.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.91 earnings per share.
PYPL traded down $0.74 during trading on Friday, hitting $80.54. 16,887,352 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,795,098. PayPal has a twelve month low of $71.83 and a twelve month high of $310.16. The company has a market cap of $93.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.58, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $99.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $141.23.
In related news, EVP Jonathan Auerbach sold 40,749 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.62, for a total value of $4,100,164.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Peggy Alford sold 14,767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.32, for a total transaction of $1,259,920.44. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 39,891 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,403,500.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PYPL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,873,879,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its stake in PayPal by 410.9% in the 1st quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 7,060,926 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $816,596,000 after buying an additional 5,678,823 shares during the last quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC increased its stake in PayPal by 72.8% in the 1st quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC now owns 12,911,679 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,493,236,000 after buying an additional 5,438,958 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in PayPal by 123.0% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 8,051,183 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,334,845,000 after buying an additional 4,440,194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in PayPal by 122.0% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,230,481 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $720,555,000 after buying an additional 3,424,122 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.
PayPal Company Profile (Get Rating)
PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a technology platform that enables digital payments on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. It provides payment solutions under the PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, Zettle, Hyperwallet, Honey, and Paidy names. The company's payments platform allows consumers to send and receive payments in approximately 200 markets and in approximately 100 currencies, withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 56 currencies, and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 25 currencies.
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A new Nintendo financial Q&A has shed some light on how the Switch had such a high quality and consistent first-party line-up in its inaugural year.
Nintendo Switch was a hit in 2017, and continues to be. A big reason for this is the first-party software releases. This isn’t just about the masterpieces that are Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, but also the regular releases in between. Every month we received a big game, whether it was Arms or Splatoon 2, and this kept the positive momentum of the system up.
Question 9 in the Q&A (you can read the whole document here) applauded this positive start for the Switch. Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima replied by confirming that they “… prepared a lineup of major titles, thinking our most important task was getting game fans and Nintendo fans quickly on board with Nintendo Switch.”
The big concern is that Nintendo has spent their big guns now. We won’t see such major Mario or Zelda games for a long time now, and there are doubts that Nintendo can keep up such a steady flow of great games. It turns out we may not need to be worried – Kimishima continues on, to say that there is no plan to slow down: “… our focus in the second year will be to continue to release numerous software titles that provide that experience and hammer home that concept and encourage consumers to discover their own ways of having fun.”
The follow-up from Managing Executive Officer Shinya Takahashi goes more in-depth into how restructuring back in the Wii U days is reaping profits now. This next paragraph is really worth reading, as it touches on a more cohesive network of teams at Nintendo:
“Behind the unceasing stream of Nintendo Switch software releases to date is an approach to development that concentrates on development, itself the fruit of efforts several years ago to integrate the software development teams, which has made it easier to organize teams. Another major factor is our approach inside Nintendo whereby not just the software, hardware, and system development teams, but also the manufacturing, global marketing, and sales teams join together now for closer discussions about “what can be developed when” and “what can be sold when.”
It really seems as though Nintendo learned massively from the failings of the Wii U. They merged not only their two console outputs into the Switch hybrid, but also merged the separate parts of their company into a tighter unit.
Representative Director Shigeru Miyamoto himself ended the joint reply to this question with a big vote of confidence for the Switch, and Nintendo as a whole. Up until now, the hardware lifecycle has trended at around five or six years, but it would be very interesting if we could prolong that life cycle, and I think you should be looking forward to that.
Let’s hope the Switch has a long and happy existence!


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Thailand enhances personal data protection through the launch of the PDPA Centre, a multifaceted hub addressing complaints, providing guidance, and proactively monitoring potential violations for a secure digital environment
Thailand’s government has collaborated, emphasising blockchain’s transformative potential in government, highlighting its benefits for citizens, and reinforcing Thailand’s proactive stance in shaping a connected, transparent, and technologically advanced era of governance.
BRIN is advancing digital identity by implementing Blockchain technology, decentralising data storage, establishing a solid foundation of trust, and creating a secure and transparent environment for managing digital identities.
The centre is a blockchain-focused facility that aims to nurture 100 startups in 5 years, offering a dedicated blockchain platform, access to technocrats, mentoring programmes and venture capital funding.
PolyU and Cybaverse will establish the PolyU and Cybaverse Academy Joint Lab on Law and Web3. The lab was established in response to the growing development of Web3 and blockchain technologies.
By 2030, three million officials will be trained in AI/ML, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, the Internet of Things, AR&VR, data analytics, drone and blockchain technology.
The Department of Science and Technology aims to upskill its workforce in blockchain technology while the Department of Information and Communications Technology has an online safety precaution for the LGBTQ+ community.
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore will open a centre aimed at creating a global ecosystem for blockchain and cryptocurrency research; new master’s and minors in blockchain technology will be offered.
The Personal Data Protection Commission launched a Guide on Personal Data Protection Considerations for Blockchain Design and renewed an MoU with Hong Kong to develop personal data protection collaboration.
Vietnam’s cloud computing market is predicted to grow 26% annually, the fastest pace in SE Asia. About two-thirds of enterprises use AI for their digital transformation and the rate of firms using the IoT reached 86.67%.
Vietnam is one of the 5 leading countries in blockchain with 10 Vietnamese start-ups with a capitalisation of over $100 million. The government has supportive policies and is open to new technologies, enabling start-ups to grow rapidly.
Blockchain technology powers various influential applications that aren’t as well-known as crypto and is gaining popularity with multiple uses spread across a diverse range of business sectors.
The Vietnam Blockchain Union will raise community awareness and guide the development of legal corridors, standards and regulations in the application and creation of products and services on blockchain tech.
The blockchain network will validate the claims of suppliers along with their identities and connect all the e-GP systems through a network, which will help retrieve and validate relevant supplier data between various e-GP systems.
Kerala Blockchain Academy, under the state-run Digital University Kerala, is offering two free fundamental programs in blockchain technology. The courses are online, free of cost and one month long.
Khon Kaen University signed an MOU with the Department of Medical Services for the development of digital medical certificate issuance that uses blockchain-based technology.
To make IoT platforms more secure, the researchers have come up with an energy and time-efficient blockchain protocol that allows secure communication over IoT networks.
The blockchain trial was initiated as part of the Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement to make cross-border trade simpler between the two countries.
As technology advances, more data centres have become the industrial world’s powerhouses. Thus, another data centre will be built by the end of the year to boost the Philippines’ digital economy.
Blockchain and IoT technologies are used in the “Next Generation Cold Food Import Safety Management Platform” to digitise and enhance monitoring and control of imported frozen or chilled meat from mainland China.
The programme, aimed at entrepreneurs and start-ups, delves into the various use cases of Blockchain, analysing real examples of how different industries execute the technology and improve businesses.
BlockTrack secures digitise healthcare information systems by decentralising the control and ownership of patient data, through a blockchain-based innovation.
The interactive gamified platform revolutionises entertainment and cognitive training while the blockchain solution addresses digital contract signature, document storage and asset management.
The blockchain framework used to digitally attest HealthCerts is powered by OpenAttestation – an open-source document notarisation framework that uses cryptographic hashes for independent verification.
The BTC Network is one of SUSS’s endeavours in harnessing transformative technologies to serve society’s changing needs and contribute to building an inclusive and resilient society for social good.
The trial supports the government’s recently announced Simplified Trade Agenda, which will reform and digitise trade compliance processes.


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Turbine maker Vestas says it will hire up to 400 workers for its Windsor, Colo.-based blade facility.
Vestas says it is encouraged by a rebounding U.S. wind market – a region that has produced the most new orders, according to Michael Zarin, company spokesperson.
In addition to the Windsor blade plant, Vestas has three additional plants in Colorado that manufacture components: facilities for both blades and nacelles in Brighton and a tower factory in Pueblo. In the recent past, uncertainty in the U.S. market forced Vestas to lay off Colorado workers.Â
Citing financial problems caused by 2012's production tax credit uncertainty in 2013, Vestas laid off workers in February 2013. However, Vestas' re-staffing efforts are well under way. In fact, last year, the company resumed hiring at the tower factory in Pueblo.Â
As for Vestas' hiring timetable, Zarin notes, ‘We'll ramp up until we have the required numbers.’


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SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2010: Motorola Web Tool Lets Broadband Users Help Themselves
Motorola has taken the wraps off Edge Home Center, a Web-based self-service console to let broadband customers set up their home networks -- and troubleshoot any problems -- without calling up their provider for help.
Home Center, to be available in December for first customer installations, is part of Motorola's Edge Service Assurance Software Suite. The system provides gateway management features, Wi-Fi controls, PC diagnostics, a network map and security settings. Subscribers can log in to a Web portal, at home or elsewhere, to manage any device or service.
In addition, if a subscriber does eventually call for technical support, Edge Home Center can show a service provider's agent any self-care steps the subscriber has already taken.
"With the new interoperability capabilities of today's media devices and the increased tech savviness of today's consumer, the subscriber now has the tools to own such home network management tasks," Alan Lefkof, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola Mobility's Software Solutions, said in a statement. "That's why we're delivering innovative service assurance solutions that will be relevant and efficient both now and in the future."
Home Center can discover and manage non-Motorola devices, and also accommodate optional services such as antivirus, PC backup, home automation or third-party applications, according to the company.
The smarter way to stay on top of the multichannel video marketplace. Sign up below.


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China July pork prices surge 25% on-month -statistics bureau
Aug 10 (Reuters) - China's pork prices in July surged 25.6% on a monthly basis, said the statistics bureau on Wednesday, attributing the gains to production capacity cuts, farmers holding back pigs from market and a recovery in consumer demand.
On an annual basis, pork prices were also up 20.2% year-on-year, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday. (Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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Providing real-time food safety data at your fingertips is just one part of iFoodDecisionSciences’ business model.
“Our team’s passion to serve the industry, our dedication to helping our clients deliver their produce in a safe and timely manner is above and beyond,” said Diane Wetherington, CEO of iFoodDecisionSciences. “We can get a call from a grower at 5:00 p.m. saying they need to add 500 new blocks to our system so they can start harvesting those plots of land the next morning, and we will meet their request almost immediately.”
iFoodDecisionSciences is committed to providing exceptional customer support because the team understands how crucial it is for growers to easily collect, manage and access data about their fields.
Growing Company Roots
The company’s inception stemmed from a Center for Produce Safety project where iFoodDecisionSciences played a key role in analyzing California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement audit data. “After this and other similar projects, our company found its purpose and started growing into a strong organization dedicated to streamlining the food data collection process,” said Wetherington.
Before the company officially launched in 2013, they collaborated with a core group of Western Growers’ members—Taylor Farms, Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Mann Packing and Church Brothers—to determine the needs of every stakeholder in the fresh produce supply chain.
“Western Growers was instrumental in helping us move forward. Hank invited us to meet with the Science & Tech Committee to give them a demo of our initial tool box. After the presentation, we had several companies pilot our software, and we were able to refine our platform based on their input,” said Wetherington.
Building a Food Safety Tool Box
iFoodDecisionSciences offers software that helps growers, harvesters, shippers, packers, third-party suppliers and processors save time and money by making data collection and analysis easier. Currently, most companies have to wait for a crew member to take information from the field back to the office, scan and format the data, and only then can they be able to analyze the information. iFoodDecisionSciences simplifies that process.
The company builds software “tool boxes” that funnel information from the field to an online portal using a computer, laptop, mobile device or tablet. These tool boxes are built using client input, so growers and processors are able to access and sift through the data that is most important to their operation’s success.
With the software, companies know immediately if they have a problem in the field. During field assessments to determine if there is any risk before harvest, there might be a delay in inputting and analyzing the paperwork and growers won’t know about the risk until after the crop has been harvested, said Wetherington. “We provide users with access to food safety information anytime, anywhere. Growers can use this real-time information to quickly make field decisions that will prevent food safety incidents.”
Prioritizing Collaboration and Innovation
The global population is expected to reach 9.3 billion within the next 30 years, and food production will need to increase by as much as 70 percent to meet this surge. To help growers dramatically increase food production in a safe and healthy manner, collaboration with innovators and entrepreneurs dedicated to food safety is crucial.
iFoodDecisionSciences was among the first start-up companies to join Western Growers in its efforts to advance technology to solve agriculture’s biggest issues, including food safety. Western Growers’ recently-launched Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) in Salinas, CA, serves as an incubator where startups can come together and collaborate on new technologies that will enhance and improve the industry. The Center currently houses 14 companies that are headquartered all across the country but are all working on one mission.
“Our home base is in Seattle, so we love being able to come to the heart of Salinas to join forces with like-minded entrepreneurs,” said Wetherington. “Being part of both the Salinas community and WGCIT family will play a fundamental role in our journey to become a recognized leader in food safety data management and information needs.”


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Google Search already get some synthetic intelligence (AI) tweaks to boost user encounter. But with the swift growth of inferior-quality content material, Google is now in the approach of enhancing the quality of its lookup effects. VP of Engineering Shashidhar Thakur on the sidelines of Google for India 2017 on Tuesday said that Google is producing constant efforts to lower down on the volume of phony information content material stated on its lookup engine.
“Whether it really is in India or internationally, we make certain that we uphold a higher bar when it comes to the quality of newsy content material. Usually, in lookup, we find this form of content material algorithmically,” Thakur instructed Gizmos 360. The algorithms deployed at the rear of Google Search look for the authoritativeness of the content material and its quality to rank them correctly. Thakur said that this constant advancement will uplift the quality of the lookup effects more than time.
“We increase ranking signals on our lookup engine from time to time to get over the issue of phony information. Indicators help the system comprehend a query or the language of the query or the text or matching unique key terms to offer related effects,” described Thakur.
Related to other lookup engines that use code-dependent bots to crawl unique webpages, Google Search indexes hundreds of billions of webpages continuously. After indexed, Google Search adds webpages to unique entries that incorporate all the phrases readily available on these web pages. This info is then processed to the Knowledge Graph that not just looks for any individual key terms but also picks user passions to give related effects.
“Inferior-quality content material on the Web isn’t really a new and particular difficulty,” Thakur said. “But surely, it is a difficulty that we have to have to address by constant tuning and producing the fundamental lookup algorithms far better. This is certainly a really important place of aim for us.”
Google isn’t really the only Web organization that is taking the menace of phony information significantly. Fb and Microsoft’s Bing are also screening new developments to suppress phony information. A modern report by Gartner predicted that phony information will grow multifold by 2022 and persons in mature economies will eat far more volume of fake details more than the details that is accurate and truthful.
Owning said that, Google is dominating the Web house and its lookup engine is the most distinguished place for counterfeit content material. Thakur at the Google for India stage discovered the variety of day-to-day lively lookup users in India has developed two moments in the last one yr. The Mountain Check out, California-headquartered organization also produced Google Go as the lightweight version of the flagship Google application on Android equipment.


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Nissan showcases compact-SUV concept
23rd Oct 2012 6:10 pm
Nissan has unveiled a new compact-SUV study based on the V-platfrom at the Sao Paulo motor show.
Nissan has unveiled a new compact-SUV concept at the Sao Paulo motor show.
This concept, known as the Extrem concept study is based on the V-platform that also underpins the Micra and the Sunny.
This is the first concept designed by Nissan specifically for the Brazilian market where it aims to account for 5 percent of total new car sales by 2016.
The Extrem concept has been designed by Nissan Design America (NDA) in San Diego with inputs from Brazilian designers. It is 3,850mm long, 1,765mm wide and 1,530mm high, with a 2.450mm wheelbase.
The concept’s design is inspired by various Nissan models, ranging from the GT-R to the 370Z. The Extrem is powered by a 1.6-litre petrol motor and could be offered with various other petrol and diesel powerplants coupled with all-wheel-drive or front-wheel-drive.
Nissan however, announced that this is currently only a concept car with no immediate plans for production.
Checkout more images here


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Alabama Power profits up 39% in 1Q
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Alabama Power reported a 39 percent increase in first quarter 2010 net income compared to the first three months of 2009, according to federal financial filings.
Alabama’s largest supplier of electricity, and Southern Co. subsidiary, posted net income of $203 million for the three months ended March 31, 2010. That is up from $146 million for the same period in 2009.
Alabama Power’s operating revenues increased to $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2010, up from $1.3 billion in 2009.
Southern Co. also saw its profits soar in the first quarter of 2010 after one of the coldest winters in a century.
The Atlanta-based energy company had net income of $494.5 million and earnings of 60 cents a share, compared with net income of $125.7 million and earnings of 16 cents a share in the first quarter of 2009.
Revenue spiked 13.4 percent to $4.16 billion.
The past winter was a record breaker for Southern Co. (NYSE: SO), which set its highest ever winter peak, producing 37,224 megawatts of electricity and surpassing last summer's peak demand.
The company also noted increased industrial sales contributed to Southern Co.'s first-quarter performance and show improvement in industrial activity. The industrial activity could signal the beginning of an expected slow economic recovery, Southern Co. said.
"While the past 18 months have been unique, we are optimistic about the improving industrial activity in our region," CEO David M. Ratcliffe said in a statement. "We do believe that the long-term viability of the Southeast remains strong and we continue to prepare for the future growth of our region."
Kilowatt-hour sales to retail customers jumped 10.3 percent in the first quarter. Residential electricity sales rose 20.6 percent, electricity sales to commercial customers increased 3.4 percent and industrial sales went up 6.7 percent.
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Last summer, Nielsen Media Research announced its Anywhere Anytime Media Measurement (A2M2) service, which aims to begin tracking media usage on cell phones, the Internet, and devices like iPods alongside its famous “People Meter” ratings of television viewership. It hoped to have preliminary data from a panel of 400 iPod users by the end of 2006…well, the numbers are in, and even though Nielsen is declining to release the complete figures and findings, the reported results are making the industry blink…and perhaps scratch its head.
Nielsen Media Research tracked the usage habits of 400 iPod owners in the U.S. from October 1 to 27, and found that while almost 16 percent of iPod users have played a video on their iPod or via iTimes, less than 1 percent of the content items played by iPod users on the device itself were videos. And among owners of video iPods, the percentage nudges up to 2.2 percent.
Of course, where music tracks might have average lengths of three to five minutes, television and movie programming are likely to range from (say) just over 20 minutes for a half-hour sitcom to perhaps 80 to 120 minutes for a movie. It stands to reason that one could play several (or dozens) of music “content items” in the span of time a user might require to view one video “content item.”
However, when measured by duration of consumption—how much time users spend on various forms of content—video still loses out, making up just 2 percent of the total time spent using iPods or Apple’s iTunes software. But having a video-capable iPod is an advantage: video iPod owners consume video 11 percent of the time.
If representative of the behavior of iPod users as a whole—and with a sample size of just 400, that might be a difficult claim—it seems iPod users are primarily interested in using the device for music and audio, and Apple’s online video offerings—introduced roughly a year ago—have yet to really catch on. Nielsen apparently plans to expand its panel to include people who don’t own iPods but who do use iTunes software.
In conjunction with its recent quarterly earnings report, Apple noted that film partner Disney has sold over 500,000 movies via iTunes in just two months. Apple has been offering short films and a wide selection of television programming for far longer, and claims to have sold more than 45 million videos overall.
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It's the season of lakes, loons, lazy days and, of course, federal ministers doling out pork across the land.
There are almost too many announcements to keep track of these days.
Here's a sampling of just one day's work by the Harper cabinet last week:
- Transport Minister Denis Lebel hands $225,000 to the Gatineau, Que., hot-air balloon festival as part of an effort to "raise the visibility of Canada's attractions on the international stage."
- Treasury Board President Tony Clement drops into the Thornloe Cheese Factory near New Liskeard, Ont., to hand out $1.2-million to a smattering of local small businesses.
- Revenue Minister Gail Shea attends the opening of a new tourist attraction in Cap-Egmont, PEI, called the Bottle Houses - a clutch of small structures built entirely of empties - to check in on last year's $49,000 federal grant. A sum of $49,000 apparently buys a lot of empties.
Earlier this month, Ottawa gave a total of $2-million to a New Brunswick doughnut maker and a Quebec coffee roaster - in both cases, so the businesses could buy new equipment.
The summer spending smorgasbord is a time-honoured tradition, gleefully practised by successive Conservative and Liberal governments.
What's different is that Stephen Harper once vowed to end the practice. He even ran an election on it, promising to get out of the business of business subsidies.
Campaigning in Toronto in 2004, Mr. Harper challenged the business community to stop receiving government subsidies, making it a condition of lowering business taxes.
"I won't lower one without lowering the other," Mr. Harper assured members of the Toronto Board of Trade. "That is what I mean by low-tax solutions rather than high-spending solutions."
It hasn't quite worked out that way. Once in government, the Conservatives cut the corporate tax rate from 22.5 per cent to 16.5 per cent, with a further reduction to 15 per cent slated for next year.
Business subsidies weren't cut. Instead, they soared, partly as a result of the government's Economic Action Plan, designed to offset the impact of the recession.
Even the regional development agencies - the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, the Economic Development Agency for Quebec Regions and Western Economic Diversification Canada - are still in the subsidies business in a big way. The agencies will hand out more than $1-billion this year, with a chunk of that money going to businesses that could, and probably should, be getting the money from their local banker.
Governments insist repeatedly that these kinds of subsidies are good economics.
"Our government continues to support Quebec producers, driving the economy and helping them access new markets," Industry Minister Christian Paradis said as he gave Montreal coffee roaster and retailer Van Houtte Inc. $1.8-million to buy equipment. The "repayable contribution" comes from a special fund to help agrifood processors modernize.
Ottawa's inability to kick the subsidies' habit is more about politics, and demonstrating that Ottawa has a direct role to play in the economy.
If these businesses are viable, they should be getting the money privately. The government's involvement merely crowds out private lenders and transfers risk to Canadian taxpayers.
Governments need to be far more strategic about how they spend money, particularly as they work to eliminate swollen budget deficits incurred during the recession.
In his recent budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty vowed to "improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations" and get "value for taxpayers" as he pursued spending cuts.
The summer pork parade suggests otherwise.
If Canada had a budget surplus and there weren't other more crying needs, maybe the spending wouldn't seem so glaringly wasteful.
But that's not the case. Access to family doctors and specialists remains inadequate in much of the country. Common shared infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and sewers, is crumbling and requires every dollar Canadian taxpayers can afford. And businesses aren't investing enough in productive R&D.
It's about choices.
Surely, Canada's economy of the future isn't about balloons, cheese, bottles, coffee and doughnuts.


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SmileDirectClub Doesn’t Have Much Time to Straighten Itself Out
This column is part of the sixth annual Heard on the Street stock-picking contest.
Consumers have less to smile about as inflation stays stubbornly high. That is bad news for an already loss-making maker of clear teeth aligners.
SmileDirectClub Inc. (SDC)
- Recommendation: Sell
- Price: $1.62
initial public offering in 2019, its Nasdaq-listed shares are down 90%. The company was set up to offer a cheaper alternative to teeth-straightening companies such as
which owns the Invisalign brand. SDC’s basic treatment costs around $2,000 compared with the $5,000 or more rivals charge. Treatment is carried out remotely with new aligners sent out every couple of weeks in the mail, cutting out the expense of face-to-face visits with an orthodontist.
In the three months through June, SDC made sales of $126 million—a 28% on-the-year fall—and a net loss of $65 million. Align Technology reported a 4% sales decline for the same period and is still profitable. SDC’s typical customer earns around $65,000 a year and has less disposable income now that inflation is close to 10%. The business also spends heavily on advertising to keep the flow of new clients coming: Since the first quarter of 2020, marketing and selling costs have swallowed up 56% of total sales on average.
Management is pinning its hopes on two new innovations to boost demand. Later in 2022, the company will launch a smartphone app that takes a 60-second scan of your teeth to create a treatment plan within a few minutes. The process normally takes up to three weeks as the customer must send back a putty mold of their mouth.
This might increase the low 0.5% conversion rate of website visitors that go on to make a purchase. Improving that to 0.75% would bring in an additional $200 million in annual revenue. SDC also wants to attract higher-income customers by joining with dental practices to offer in-person treatment. Its new premium package will cost double the basic plan.
If inflation continues to squeeze its core customers’ income and these new innovations don’t live up to expectations, SDC could run short of cash. It is cutting costs by reducing its workforce and pulling out of some overseas markets. At the midpoint of its guidance, the company expects to have $140 million of cash by the end of 2022—enough to last around four quarters, based on its current rate of cash burn.
SDC’s access to debt markets looks shaky. Around $750 million of outstanding convertible bonds that were issued by the company early in 2021 trade at 15% of their face value. In April, the company did manage to borrow $255 million, but had to pledge intellectual property and receivables cash linked to its consumer financing unit as collateral. This loan came with an effective interest rate of over 13%, including a portion that is paid in kind, said Krishan Sutharshana, a distressed debt analyst from Reorg.
Betting against the stock has been lucrative, and short interest is high at close to a quarter of the free float, according to Fintel data. That does raise the risk of short squeezes if the company’s turnaround strategy shows any signs of working. But a business model inspired by the wider direct-to-consumer trend might continue to show limitations in a field as sensitive as orthodontics.
In its short life as a listed company, SmileDirectClub’s stock has suffered serious erosion, and the pain might not be over yet.
Write to Carol Ryan at firstname.lastname@example.org
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8


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It could be a race to the finish – or at least the closing bell on Monday trading.
With Tesla’s stock price up as much as $10 a share during the New York Stock Exchange’s morning session, the automaker briefly surged ahead of rival General Motors to become the country’s most valuable carmaker based on market capitalization.
With GM also in positive territory, however, it remains to be seen whether the upstart or the established automaker will wear the crown at the end of the day. Tesla has been in striking distance since last week when it surged past Ford Motor Co. to become the number two maker by value. (more…)


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A sale like few others planned for historic Guthriesville store
The price for preservation is just $10 - plus a letter of credit for $1.3 million. Otherwise, Wawa awaits.
It looks like the old Guthriesville General Store, a piece of East Brandywine history, is about to go up for sale. And the price will be cheap. Dirt cheap: $10.
But there's a catch. To view the property, interested buyers will need a $1.3 million letter of credit, a prohibitive sum for many.
That is amount the Wawa chain, which wants to buy the property and build a convenience store there, says an engineering study estimated rehabilitating the general store would cost.
The sale offer would give local preservations a chance to see if anyone is interested in buying the general store and preserving it. If not, Wawa would take over and demolish the general store to build a convenience store.
Built in 1869, the off-white structure with teal shutters and a front patio has been labeled one of the state's most endangered historic sites by Preservation Pennsylvania.
The $10 price is the latest development in a fight that began in 2001 when Wawa began seeking permission to build a store with 12 gas pumps behind the general store.
Construction has been stalled by preservation groups and residents who want to save the property and prevent owner Claudio DiGiamberardino from selling to Wawa.
The sale proposal has been agreed to by Wawa and East Brandywine Township, though not by local preservationists. Once it is signed, they will schedule a 75-day sale period and set procedures for potential buyers.
If no one buys the general store, it is expected to be sold to Wawa. In a February interview, Wawa spokeswoman Lori Bruce said the chain would then "document the structure before demolishing it." Wawa would presumably then build the store it has long wanted.
The property is at Route 322 and Bondsville Road in Guthriesville, a village in fast-growing East Brandywine, northwest of Downingtown.
John Black, chairman of the East Brandywine Historical Commission, said a number of sale conditions such as the letter of credit would deter buyers.
"The conditions are quite burdensome," he said.
Any interested buyer has to create a preservation plan for the building. The owner can determine use as long as it complies with zoning ordinances and doesn't compete with Wawa, Bruce said.
Black said he would like the store preserved and turned into a post office or a restaurant. He said the entire village of Guthriesville was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, but would most likely lose its eligibility without the store.
"The store has a much bigger impact than people are giving it," Black said.


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With E3 2016 just around the corner, more evidence appears that suggests Microsoft is set to make a strong move into virtual reality with the Xbox One.
At this year’s E3, plenty of gamers are expecting a glut of hardware announcements alongside the gameplay footage and new project reveals that are the bread and butter of the event. Many are expecting news on updated versions of the current consoles on the market in particular, with speculation continuing to rumble over a PlayStation 4K. Although Xbox boss Phil Spencer has called the rumors over an enhanced Xbox One “creative chatter” recently, many are still expecting some kind of announcement of that kind – and it looks as though Microsoft will have another trick up its sleeve.
Those interested in exactly what will be coming up at E3 2016 now have the ability to search by specific product categories over on the official site, and one of the choices happens to be Virtual Reality. From a list of drop-down options after that point, Xbox, Xbox Live, and Xbox One are all categories that can be selected. This certainly points towards a number of companies looking to promote VR experiences specifically for Xbox.
There are four companies that appear under the Xbox One tab, with two names that gamers may find familiar. Maximum Games is the publisher behind Farming Simulator, while Rebellion is responsible for the Sniper Elite titles, and currently has Sniper Elite 4 scheduled for release this year. Rounding off the list are Readily Information and 3DRudder.
These new E3 2016 listings certainly match up with some other news that appeared this week. A major European developer, which remains unnamed at this point, has allegedly confirmed that it is going to debut a Xbox VR game at E3 2016 with a view to releasing the title in 2017. Since Rebellion is based in the UK, there certainly has to be a possibility that it is the developer in question.
There is, of course, the question of exactly what VR hardware will fit with the Xbox One. After all, Microsoft had previously reached an agreement with Oculus to make the Xbox One controller and games compatible with the Rift headset, so perhaps further discussions have taken place between the two companies. Meanwhile, there is the possibility of further movement on the HoloLens, or maybe even the outlying chance of another headset in the works.
Of course, the addition of new hardware may put additional strain on the Xbox One console, which may well be why suggestions of an upgraded Xbox One with more power have been doing the rounds. Whether this, or the addition of VR projects to Xbox, come to fruition remains to be seen. Thankfully, with E3 2016 coming up very soon, gamers will not have a long wait to find out exactly what Microsoft has planned.


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Learning is big business for Verizon Wireless. Trainers at the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based communications company are expected to tie instruction directly to company objectives. This approach ensures executive buy-in, provides concrete benchmarks by which to measure success, and helps the company better serve its growing customer base, says Lou Tedrick, staff vice president, workforce development.
"Training initiatives are not done unless there is a business reason to do it," she says. "When we get contacted to do something, we ask, 'Which of our key performance indicators it's designed to move?,' 'What results do we expect?,' and 'How will it affect our customers?' Then we make the decision of how to support it from a training perspective."
Giving sales and customer service reps the product information they need, and keeping customers happier, is a clear business need, so last year the training organization began providing certification on the Verizon Wireless line of data products, devices, and services, such as its text messaging, wireless Internet, video, music, and GPS navigation services.
The certification program is based on a four-step process, says Tedrick. During the first stage, known as "learn it," the employee receives initial instruction both online as well as in the classroom; the second stage, "show it," includes an activity-based demonstration to managers of knowledge attainment followed by feedback; the third, "prove it," is where workers take the test that determines whether or not they've earned the certification, and also includes an examination of post-training performance indicators, such as individual sales achievement and customer service quality ratings; the fourth step, "earn it," is devoted to recognizing those who gain certification.
"If they hit everything they were asked to do, took the training, passed their test, completed their 'show it' successfully, and at the end of that quarter, when we looked at their results, hit the targets they were expected to hit, then they get recognized as having completed data certification," Tedrick explains.
Quarterly, the company's four operating areas each identify key data products to feature for certification. "They're typically the ones they believe will move their numbers the best," says Tedrick. In any given quarter, one area may choose to certify employees on Verizon Wireless's suite of PDAs, while another might choose to focus on e-mail and text messaging services. When there is a national launch of a new product, such as this summer's release of Chocolate, a music-centric phone, all areas feature certification.
Since the start of the program at the beginning of last year, 80 percent of the company's sales and customer service reps have earned data certification for at least one quarter. And, it hasn't been for nothing—Verizon Wireless exceeded its data revenue target for the year.
The company's data certification training to sales and customer service reps requires a hearty learning management system (LMS) and effective information management. Last year, enhancements to the software further customized it to meet the company's needs.
"As a training organization, you have to have the infrastructure to execute," says Tedrick of what it takes to pull off certification at a large company. "So, you have to have a good LMS." You also need access to employee and learning results data. "We brought together data from our LMS with employee data, as well as sales and service performance data," she points out. "That was essentially three different systems we had to pull the data from and massage it to quickly get the results."
The benefits of a powerful LMS also was put to good use in another training initiative last year. "We've used LMS as a competitive advantage with third-party business partners," says Tedrick of the tailored training on Verizon Wireless products that the company is able to deliver to the employees of other companies, such as national retailers, who sell the Verizon Wireless products and services. "They're outside the Verizon Wireless employee population, but from our customer's perspective, they're just another group that sells our products and services," Tedrick observes. To make sure their understanding of the products is as thorough as that of its in-house employees, Verizon Wireless provided customized online learning portals for each third-party partner via a hosted CMS.
Sidebar: Tuition Assitance
Helping employees go to school is perceived as a luxury to some companies, but Basking Ridge, N.J.-based communications provider Verizon Wireless now knows it's essential to success. "We've always known tuition assistance was great to attract employees," says staff Vice President, Workforce Development, Lou Tedrick, "but what we didn't know is whether we were retaining them, if they have more promotions and movements than others [who have not had tuition assistance], and whether performance and productivity is better than those who don't use it."
To remedy this information deficit, Verizon Wireless decided to make use of recent enhancements to its learning management system (LMS) to figure out exactly what tuition assistance has meant to the company. "We were able to look at comparisons of our participants turnover with our non-participants, and [it turns out] they turnover at a much lower rate than non-participating employees," she says. Moreover, the company discovered that these graduates change career position more frequently, both laterally, to other roles at the same level, and vertically, to jobs with more responsibility. As if that wasn't enough to prove the program's worthiness, the data also revealed participants of tuition assistance to be better performers than non-participants.
"Some people can look at tuition assistance as an expense, but we see there's just tremendous value in it, not only from it being the right thing to do," says Tedrick, "but if we can retain, promote, and grow those people, and they perform better, it's a huge win for any business."
Sidebar: Success Secrets
The efficacy of Basking Ridge, N.J.-based communications provider Verizon Wireless' learning program is no accident, says staff Vice President, Workforce Development, Lou Tedrick, who cites three key ingredients to its success:
Senior Leadership Support: "With every major business initiative that we have, training is one of the key go-to-market requirements, where we don't move unless we know we have the workforce adequately trained and ready to go," Tedrick explains. "It's a mandate for us to build a capable workforce to support our customers."
Training as Business Leader: "Our learning community show up to the rest of our business as business leaders first," she points out. "We understand what's going on in the business, and that what we bring to the table is the learning and development to support their initiatives." To ensure that ethos stays strong, Tedrick and her team are delivering business acumen training to the company's curriculum development staff.
On-the-Job Application: "We have a very passionate, committed group of learning professionals, who know their craft, but [also] know how to apply it to our business. We know how to take the best of the learning world and apply it to the Verizon Wireless business," she says.


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The great thing about a BMW is that you can make the front look as questionable as the M3, M4 or a 4 Series and people would still buy it because hey, it’s a Beamer after all. It feels like that factor has come into effect at the best possible time such as this as BMW has begun with its version of 2021 on a high.
In the first three months of 2021, the BMW Group, comprising of BMW itself, Mini, and Rolls-Royce, has delivered 636,606 vehicles worldwide which is a 33.5% increase from the same period last year. To be more specific, BMW alone sold 560,543 units, an increase of 36.2% over 2020. Much of this record has the popularity of the X SUVs and 5 Series to thank for.
Another prominent factor that helped BMW is the demand for PHEVs and BEVs. The German carmaker sold 70,207 electrified vehicles in the first three months of this year, more than twice when compared to the Q1 2020 figures. Not only this, but the BMW M cars also saw a 21% increase in sales, mainly because of the X5 M, X6 M, and the M440i Coupe.
Speaking about its other two companies, Mini sold 74,683 units, a 16.2% increase from last year, with the Countryman being the leader of the charts. Similarly, John Cooper Works models too saw a 19.1% rise in sales. And, as we’ve already mentioned, Rolls-Royce is already celebrating its best-ever first-quarter sales in 116 years.


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China has always been famous for Internet censorship. In fact, China has been known for everything that goes against freedom of speech and expression. Newspapers are censored, television is censored, the Internet is censored. What’s new though, is the fact that data privacy awareness is on the rise in Mainland China.
Accepting Internet Censorship
Almost everything in China is under the scrutiny of the dictatorial government. Needless to say, people in China are used to this regime and way of life.
They know the government tracks their moves on the Internet. They know they cannot use the services that others get to use. Internet privacy is nonexistent.
There has never been much debate surrounding the lack of Internet freedom in China, unlike the uproar surrounding data protection in the US and Europe.
Netizens in China seem to be resigned to the fact that they have no privacy online and there’s nothing they can do about it. More than the citizens, visitors to the nation complain about the lack of Internet freedom in China.
Someone visiting from another country gets frustrated with the absence of popular social media and messaging services, slow and unreliable emails, and the hawk eye of the government on everything they do. But are the Chinese people themselves concerned about privacy at all?
According to a professor in China, the netizens lack of concern surrounding internet privacy isn’t surprising. In the last few months though, there has been some outcry over recent privacy issues.
At the start of the year, an affiliate of Alibaba called Ant Financial, automatically enrolled users in its Sesame Credit scoring program and later apologized for it. A few months later in April, a government watchdog admitted that it could recover deleted WeChat messages. Nothing is really deleted in the virtual world.
The admittance cemented the suspicion that many already had about the government surveillance on WeChat, the most popular social networking and messaging service in the country.
However, while these incidents did give rise to concern among Chinese citizens, it wasn’t on the scale of the buzz that the Facebook data leak or the GDPR created.
An Interesting Question
This made people around the world wonder if the Chinese netizens even care about privacy. This has a lot to do with their cultural attitudes. In Chinese culture, it is quite common to ask highly personal questions to even strangers.
If you are in China and meet someone for the first time, don’t be surprised if you are asked personal questions like your salary or your marital status. In fact, Chinese people expect to be asked questions like how many kids they have or where they live at the first meeting itself.
In China, privacy doesn’t exist traditionally. Therefore, people are used to the government surveillance. The rest of the world may be talking about privacy, but most people in China don’t care because privacy isn’t the priority in their lives. The younger generation is busy chasing their dreams and the older generations don’t bother about the Internet.
Although the people of China are used to being tracked online, their expectations are slowly changing. After increased incidences of Internet fraud and personal data theft, they now want privacy.
The concern isn’t unjustified given the unauthorized access to user data by platforms like Alipay, WeChat, and Ant Financial. If the demand for privacy continues, it could pose a major challenge to the authoritarian Chinese government itself as well as various tech companies.
Surveillance in China isn’t uncommon at all. The government has closed-circuit cameras in all big cities and also monitors much of the online communications of citizens. Despite cultural attitudes, when Chinese netizens get to know about such data leak incidents, they start to think twice about their Internet privacy.
There has been a widespread uproar on social media regarding the growing control of Tencent (the company that owns WeChat) and Alibaba over Chinese citizens’ online activities. Tencent has one billion users, but it claims that that the company does not store or use the chat history of users for any purpose.
These assurances were not believed by Internet users because there have been instances of WeChat users being arrested over things they said on the app, and conversations have also been used as evidence in court proceedings.
Chinese citizens who want to remain connected have no option but to keep using services like WeChat. There’s no email, Facebook, or WhatsApp in China. There is very little innovation in China, this is why they are always trying to steal from the west. They are not creative people, well, their government stifles anyone who wants to try anything new.
China is an Authoritarian Country
Virtual private networks are mostly banned. Whether you want to order food online or make payments, WeChat is the only option you have in China. This has been taken advantage of by Tencent.
It isn’t clear if the growing displeasure and anger of Chinese netizens will bring about any change in the country.
But what is most definitely clear is that such discomfort surrounding online privacy will lead people in China to hunt for other ways to stay connected without compromising their safety. Their wish might just come true.


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|Vinfast's IDG Sedan 02 at Paris Motor Show |
Recently, images of the first two models of Vinfast’s sedan and SUV designed by Pininfarina through a $5 million contract sharing intellectual property rights from BMW are now exhibited at the Paris Motor Show at the end of last week.
With the logo V in front and the word Vinfast in the back, the IDG Sedan 02 design which won the public vote in the sedan line-up with 22,400 votes (36.2 per cent).
The vote for SUVs was won by IDG SUV 02, with 13,853 votes (22.4 per cent). However, according to information leaked on social media, IDV SUV 03 will also be introduced at Paris Motor Show. The commercial versions of these cars will be sold in 2019.
|Vinfast IDG SUV 03 at Paris Motor Show |
At Vingroup’s annual general shareholders’ meeting (AGM) taking place on May 31, Vuong stated that the domestic market is the priority of Vinfast. Although Vietnam is a competitive market, he believes Vinfast’s chances of success are high.
Vuong confirmed that Vinfast cars will beat competition in quality due to the highly automated manufacturing. There are 1,200 robots working in the welding factory of Vinfast.
Moreover, the selling price will be very different from market standards as profit will not be a priority for Vinfast as instead the firm will focus on capturing the market. In the long term, however, Vinfast will export its cars.
“In the long term, Vinfast will be the mainstay business line for Vingroup. Vinfast will not only manufacture automobiles, but also set foot in the heavy industry through cutting-edge technology to manufacture so many things. This is the new target of Vingroup,” Vuong said the AGM.
With the total investment of VND35 trillion ($1.54 billion), the 335-hectare mega automotive factory project in Cat Hai (Haiphong city) is expected to place Vietnam on the global map of automobile manufacturing with the annual capacity of 250,000 electric motorbike and 250,000 cars in the first phase.


text: Roundy's, Pewaukee, Wis., said last week it has acquired two independent store chains, Mega Marts, Oak Creek, Wis., and Ultra Mart, Menomonee Falls, Wis. Mega Marts operates 17 Pick ' n Save stores, 16 in Wisconsin and one in Illinois. The company's decision to become a Roundy's subsidiary follows the death of its founder, David A. Ulrich, in September 1998. Ultra Mart operated seven stores, all in Wisconsin, under the Pick 'n Save banner. Roundy's said it expects the Ultra Mart deal to close by mid-January and the Mega Marts deal to close in first quarter 2000. Primarily a wholesaler, Roundy's currently owns and operates nine distribution centers and 23 supermarkets in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.


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Picky venue selection, special glassware, high price points, and heritage- and taste-focused advertising have driven the rapid growth of the Belgian lager. Launched in the U. S. in 1999, Stella Artois posted sales of 1 million cases in 2002, according to Impact Databank. It hit that milestone quicker than any import in 20 years. It is expected to pass the 2 million mark this year.
The brains behind the brew is Bryan Semkuley, VP-marketing for Labatt USA. Labatt saw an opening as Heineken targeted a broader audience in recent years; for instance, hip-hop artist Jay-Z appeared in an ad.
"Some of our competitors chose to reposition themselves," says Mr. Semkuley, 42. "We saw an opportunity."
When Labatt debuted Stella Artois in New York in 1999, Mr. Semkuley says, it was picky about what venues it went into-"fine dining accounts, trendy Eurobars." "We were selective in who would get the brand," says Mr. Semkuley, a 20-year Labatt veteran who started while a student at the University of Calgary.
Labatt sells chalice-style glassware to vendors at cost, instructs bar staff on proper pouring techniques, and supports the beer with out-of-home and print advertising from Interpublic Group of Cos.' Lowe. Tags, accompanying product shots, have included "Prized since 1366" and "Every drop is precious." Lowe's New York office does local adaptations on Labatt campaigns created in the agency's London office.


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PEF seeks presidential help
THE Governing Council of the Private Enterprise Foundation is to meet President Kufuor later this month to discuss ways of salvaging local industries and developing the private sector.
The meeting is expected to request a presidential intervention for market access for Ghanaian products to other member states of ECOWAS, especially Nigeria, which has banned the importation of textiles and hair care products from Ghana.
First National Vice President of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a Governing Council Member of the Private Enterprise Foundation, Wilson Atta Krofah, told The Statesman in an interview that the business executives would discuss with the President the state of Ghanaian industries, and the unfair trade practices adopted by neighbouring states.
“One of the things we will tell the President is that our industries are collapsing because of the unfair trade practices that we are having from the international community, particularly Nigeria.
“We expect the President to use his diplomatic powers to help resolve the issue,” the Council member said.
“Nigeria has to listen since the opening up of each other's market is part of the ECOWAS protocol adopted by member states and especially when President Obasanjo is a good friend of President Kufuor. “If Nigeria refuses to listen, then Ghana must also close its market to products from other economies,” Atta Krofah fumed.
“We cannot be strictly adhering to the ECOWAS protocols whilst our industries are collapsing” he added.
Also on the agenda of the presidential meeting would be a discussion of the role of industry in the government's private sector development programme. Business executives would seek from the President practical ways by which they could partner government to achieve the objectives of industry. Even before the scheduled meeting, Castle sources have hinted to The Statesman that President Kufuor has already discussed the issue of market access with President Obasanjo, but the latter would not budge.
According to Mr Atta Krofah, their meetings with the President in the past have yielded positive results. He said most of the concerns of the private sector were factored in the current budget. He mentioned the reduction on profit tax from 32% to 30% and the reduction in Withholding Tax from 7½% to 5% among others to buttress his point.
For years now, many industries have faced a number of threats that have inhibited their growth, usually from the inflow of uncustomed goods, infringement on intellectual property rights, importation of imitated products that usually carried lower prices and the lack of market access by member states of ECOWAS.
Mr Atta Krofah said the collapse of the textile industry was not due to Government's refusal to take on board concerns of the sector, but because some of the problems have international dimensions and have to be resolved through diplomacy. This, he said, required a lot of time since Ghana was a member of the WTO and ECOWAS. But the major headache of the private sector was not just the lack of market access, he stressed, but also the dumping of goods, especially textiles, which were relatively cheaper due to smuggling and the special incentives given to the industries in their countries of origin by their governments, onto the Ghanaian market.


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In the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, many are struggling right now. One restaurant dedicated to pies, is hoping they can make a little difference.
"Cannot start to imagine how much good people are suffering through this, but maybe a Pi Day contribution might help bring some feel good again," said Patrick, owner of Pie Bar - Capitol Hill.
Pie Bar is working extra hard to celebrate Pi Day (3/14) this year. Usually a busy day for them, the restaurant is baking extra pies, and offering specials throughout the weekend.
135 whole pies. 810 slices.
That's what Pie Bar is serving up all day on March 14.
"I'm doing an all day and all night bake," said Patrick. "I hope the little we can help sparks another movement of kindness. More than ever it really feels like we are ALL in this together."
What's more, a portion the profit of all pie purchased at full price at Pie Bar on the Hill today will be donated to local food banks. They're also doing a Blueberry Pie Special (antioxidants!) Sale price is, you guessed it, $3.14.
Last year they made 120 pies, and sold 710 slices. This year, we think people need pies more than ever!
For those worries about contact, they have a walkup window, perfect if you're looking for limited contact.
The Pie Bar is located at 1361 E Olive Way, Seattle, WA 98122.


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Ford drives into the Valley ... Oracle promises cheaper hardware ... Samsung-Blackberry deal still in play ... and more
Big day for Windows 10 ... Ellison's on stage for data center unveiling ... Net neutrality gets more presidential firepower ... and more
State of the Union address will be heavy on tech ... Will IBM's earnings disappoint, again? ... Twitter picks up ZipDial's call ... and more
Take a look at these useful tools for backing up and restoring your iOS device.
Microsoft is all about Windows 10 this week ... the NSA was lurking in NK networks ... Alibaba starts with partners in US ... and more
E-filing federal tax returns is free for people whose needs are simple. Get all the details here--and easy access to a variety of free tax software from top providers.
Servers boost Intel results ... Xiaomi wants in on smart homes ... Prosecutors try to catch their Dread Pirate Roberts ... and more
Intel earnings coming ... Xiaomi's phablet is thinner than iPhone 6 Plus ... Facebook goes for enterprise social network ... and more
Some of the vulnerabilities allow attackers to take full control of users' systems
CISPA is back! ... Snowden says hack-backs are a bad choice ... Google wants a cut of the US insurance market... and more
The FCC chief is pulling in the same direction as President Barack Obama ... Samsung says profits will be down ... and more
The departures of Mike Hilton and Raj Singh were planned well in advance, said analysts
What you need to know today in the world of tech


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-Michelangelo, age 87
It's impossible to know everything because everything is always changing. This is a good
thing. Continuous change opens the door for curiosity, creativity, and innovation.
The advertising and marketing industry has only just begun to question fundamental assumptions and models. It's an amazing opportunity, please join us...
Some take brand safety for granted. The industry has become complacent and focused on tech advances to the detriment of transparency. In fact, the pendulum swung so far in the direction of automation that advertisers started losing control of their brands.
Agencies are stunned at what they consider to be Facebook's low video ad viewability rates of 20 to 30 percent. Facebook says "the value of an ad is not binary". Dabbl says, unseen ads can't work - and two seconds is not enough to count as "seen".
Fears about ad fraud have been building as the methods for perpetrating fraud become more sophisticated. At the same time, the industry remains unsure of fraud's overall cost to the digital display advertising ecosystem.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google is planning to introduce an ad-blocking feature in the mobile and desktop versions of its popular Chrome web browser, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.
Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Marc Pritchard laid into Google and Facebook’s ‘walled gardens’ and demanded transparency from the digital supply chain, heralding a new era in digital advertising.
After a damning investigation by a U.S. trade association, many big brands no longer believe agencies act in their best interest when buying online and TV ads on their behalf.
The concept of trust and goodwill in relationships has been studied in depth. The best outcomes for all participants occur when the parties decide to trust each other.


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Buoyed by the demand for bicycles in India, Firefox Bikes, a Hero Cycles group firm, is aiming to double gross sales this yr to 2 lakh cycles, a senior firm official mentioned.
“It’s been a good time for biking in India in addition to the world over,” mentioned CEO Sukanta Das. “The final two years have been phenomenal and we’ve got been among the many few companies which have ended up on the best aspect of COVID,” he mentioned.
“We’ve seen an incredible development and adoption of biking as a alternative to stay wholesome in addition to for] transportation,” Mr. Das added. He mentioned final yr, the premium bicycle maker bought multiple lakh bikes and was concentrating on gross sales of greater than two lakh this yr. “Now we have already achieved what we did final yr in H1. So, we are going to absolutely double,” Mr. Das mentioned, including that the corporate was taking a look at doubling the turnover in 2022 because the sturdy demand for bikes that began throughout the lockdown final yr was set to proceed for the subsequent two years.
General, the bicycle market in India is estimated at 27 lakh yearly. Of this, premium bicycles or bikes that price above ₹10,000 constituted about 7 lakh.
Mr. Das mentioned the corporate had acquired a lot of export enquiries from throughout the globe and had not too long ago begun exports to Canada.
Whereas final yr the corporate centered on the home market owing to sturdy demand, it now plans to begin exports to Africa and West Asia.
#Firefox #Bikes #eyes #doubling #gross sales #sturdy #native #demand


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Apple’s big event will be scheduled for Oct once the world could get to discover the flagship apple iphone 12 series. Today, top up to this year’s event, which usually would be considered a digital one given the Covid-19 pandemic, turn up reports from the technology giant leaving 2 of the current models, the apple apple iphone XR, the apple iphone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Unsurprising, given that Apple company experienced let proceed of the heavy apple iphone XS as well as the heavier a lot bigger apple iphone XS Greatest extent coinciding along with the release from the apple apple iphone 11 series this period around last 12 months. Nevertheless, there is certainly present a difference this specific time as both apple iphone 11 Expert and Pro max were definitely easier than Apple’s 2018 choices.
Reviews from the move surfaced with the twitter deal with iAppleTimes which stated not only would the apple iphone XR and 2 of the apple iphone 11 models vanish from your marketplace, the specific apple iphone 11 may also obtain the substantial $150 cost reduce one Apple company will get via with the apple iphone 12 release occasion.
Given that the apple iphone SE 2020 released by Apple earlier this a yr will be significantly more effective than the apple iphone XR, this makes sense in order to abandon the second option. Thinking of that the model was combined in India given that a year ago, currently there might be some good price cuts coming our strategies the country on any existing stock.
Resources at Apple Indian refused to verify or deny the move, but informed us that heading forward Apple’s merchant partners in Indian would be concentrating on the iPhone 11 for the time being and might also get the piece of the iPhone 12 cake by the coming year, with regard to which manufacturers such as FoxConn and Pegatron have brought within new investments.
The issue though is would certainly Apple’s India enthusiasts prefer the boxy iPhone SE or even go with the iPhone 11 which usually could cost the shade lower compared to the device launched earlier this yr.
Of course, should you be actually looking in order to upgrade an current iPhone, we might recommend that you wait around a month lengthier. Once Apple commences the apple iphone 12, right now there is every possibility of a significant discounted not just on the apple iphone 11 models, but additionally on the restricted iPhone XR stocks and shares that might be lying about.
Around the iPhone 11 Professional and Pro Max looks rather simple in comparison. Since when the apple iphone 12 Pro plus Pro Max gets to the marketplace, it would certainly come enabled along with 5G even though Indian is still far from enabling the newest system, Apple thinks much more simply no sense getting second-rate competition.
Furthermore, whenever the iphone XR, which has already been the actual strike through the 2018 start, is almost spots to become put to sleep, exactly why would both additional models that may didn’t bring inside some money on release fare any kind of much better?


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Health Desk--17 February, 2018: A link between highly processed foods and cancer has been suggested by French researchers. They classified foods including cakes, chicken nuggets and mass-produced bread as “ultra-processed”.
A study of 105,000 people hinted the more of such foods people ate, the greater their risk of cancer. A lot of caution is being expressed about the study, but experts said a healthy diet is best.
The team - at Universite Sorbonne Paris Cite - used food surveys on two days to work out what people were eating. Those on the study, who were mostly middle-aged women, were followed for an average of five years. The researchers concluded: “These results suggest that the rapidly increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods may drive an increasing burden of cancer in the next decades.”
But they said the findings need to “be confirmed by other large-scale” studies and research was needed to establish what could be behind the link. This study is far from the definitive take on ultra-processed foods and cancer. It cannot say ultra-processed foods are a cause of cancer. There are also factors that muddy the waters as people who ate a lot of ultra-processed foods had other behaviours that have been linked to cancer.
While the researchers did adjust their analysis for this they say their impact “cannot be entirely excluded”. Prof Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s prevention expert, said: “It’s already known that eating a lot of these foods can lead to weight gain, and being overweight or obese can also increase your risk of cancer, so it’s hard to disentangle the effects of diet and weight.”


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Following the government’s decision to hike customs duties on imported electronic gadgets to 20 percent, Sony India has decided to hike prices of its console, and pass the increased duties to customers. All versions of the popular consoles will now get more expensive by Rs 3,000.
According to NDTV, the 500GB version of the PS4 Slim will now cost Rs. 31,990 while the 1TB version will now have a Rs. 35,990 price-tag. It is worth noting, however, that the older stock will continue to be sold at the lower price-points, with the higher prices only applicable to the new stock. As for the PS4 Pro, the device will now be priced at Rs. 41,990, having been originally launched at Rs. 38,990.
There’s no word on whether the PS VR headset will also see a price hike. The device currently sells for around the Rs. 30,000 mark on e-commerce portals like, Amazon and Flipkart, although, it’s available for a mere $199 (around Rs. 12,800) right now in the US. The device nominally carries a $299 MSRP (around Rs, 19,252) in the country.
Either way, in case you’ve been meaning to buy the PS4 but is yet to take the plunge, now is as good a time as any to pull the trigger if you don’t want to pay the extra three grands.


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Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.
The Teaneck, N.J.-based IT service provider said profit fell 3.6% to $477 million, or 82 cents a share, from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $1 a share, according to a Refinitiv poll.
On an adjusted basis, the company made $1.19 a share. Analysts expected $1.13 a share.
Revenue increased 8.3% to $4.08 billion from the year prior, in line with the $4.08 billion estimated from analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Cognizant now expects full-year revenue to be in the range of $16.09 billion to $16.13 billion, up from $16.05 billion to $16.30 billion as previously guided. It reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance of $4.50 an adjusted share.
For the fourth quarter, Cognizant expects revenue in the range of $4.09 billion to $4.13 billion and adjusted earnings to be at least $1.05 a share.
Write to Kimberly Chin at email@example.com


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The rise of crypto casinos, which is definitely a trend over the past 5 years, is one of the things reshaping the whole online entertainment industry. Blockchain-powered casinos now make the same disruption like online casinos did back in the days.
So in this article we decided to take a closer look at what’s going on with the casino industry and how blockchain technology is revolutionizing it as we speak.
What Are Crypto Casinos?
Crypto casinos are the next evolution steps of online gaming sites. Similar to traditional online casinos, crypto casinos offer a diverse range of games, including slot machines, table games, and live dealer games. But many crypto casinos on the today’s market not only accept cryptocurrencies as payment methods but offers some games based on blockchain.
Unlike typical online casinos that most of us seen dozens of, crypto casinos offer players some unique advantages that are extremely valuable for players where market is highly regulated. These benefits include quicker transaction speeds, improved security, and increased anonymity. In other words, you can gamble from restricted countries..
In the crypto casino games, transactions are stored in blocks connected by a cryptographic signature known as a hash. This ensures transparency and security as the end result can’t be changed or modified.
What Do Online Crypto Casinos Offer?
It’s not without reason that more and more people transitioned to crypto casinos from traditional casinos. Crypto casinos have quite a few advantages compare do traditional online casinos that don’t integrated any of blockchains. One of them is that they have lower transaction fees compared to credit card payments or using 3rd party services to top up your balance.
When doing a transaction with a traditional payment methods such as credit cards or PayPal, you will definitely be a subject to high fees. That’s something you won’t see in crypto casinos as crypto fees often equal to just a few dollars for transaction to happen.
Another good thing is that due to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, crypto transactions do not require a centralized intermediary (like banks or payment processors) to approve or make transactions. Instead, the transactions are handled directly by blockchain nodes (as known as crypto miners) which eliminates banks and other institutions from equation. This drastically cuts transaction fees and makes your transactions censorship-free.
Crypto casinos’ increased security is also another thing ensured by blockchain. Players at traditional casinos are frequently required to submit their personal and financial information to complete transactions. As a result, they may be vulnerable to identity theft or even being banned from a casino when they gamble from restricted region.
In contrast, crypto casinos enable players to make transactions anonymously without disclosing personal financial information. This is once again possible due to the decentralized nature of the blockchain.
How Crypto Casinos Are Changing the Online Entertainment Industry
The Internet changed our lives forever. The very same thing happened with online entertainment, which has become a massive industry in recent years. This shift allowed people to enjoy a variety activities online that were offline-only just a few years ago. And now you can see tens of streaming services, online game hubs and even casinos who migrated to Internet.
Among these online casinos, sites accepting crypto have become the most popular ones. And the key reason is that players now can play their favorite casino games anytime and from any location as long as they have an internet connection and some crypto in their crypto wallets.
A popular crypto casino usually have at least the same range of casino games compared to traditional online casino. But they also offer a separate separate set of blockchain-enabled games that are totally great and fair.
With all its features, crypto casinos are stealing popularity from those sites that didn’t integrated blockchain.The crypto casino industry is expected to grow even further allowing more people to enjoy fair games.
Crypto Casinos vs. Other Forms of Online Entertainment
What are things that make crypto casinos outstanding the in the online entertainment industry? Here are some of them:
- The Use of Cryptocurrencies
To begin, crypto casinos allow users to utilize cryptocurrency to play games. This means that when playing at online casinos, gamers may take advantage of the perks of cryptocurrency, such as the things that have been mentioned. Other sources of online entertainment might not provide this.
- Significant Prizes
Crypto casinos offer much more welcome bonuses and promotions compared to traditional casinos. While traditional gaming sites are still there, they can hardly compete with crypto-powerd casinos in terms of promotions.
- Wide Range of Games
Crypto casinos provide a unique sort of enjoyment that varies widely. They don’t only offer conventional casino games such as slots, blackjack, and roulette but also more unique current games with amazing visuals and gameplay. Crypto casinos truly provide something for everyone.
The games in crypto casinos are built by some of the industry’s top software companies, assuring high-quality amusement. Furthermore, because crypto casinos operate on a worldwide scale, they provide games from all over the world.
- Unique Community
Crypto casinos have a distinct community. It’s not just players who like casino games, but crypto enthusiasts and early adopters who enjoy all the benefits crypto has to offer.
Some crypto casinos even support live games where people can see each other via VR helmet. This adds an extra layer of social interaction making the process more engaging.
With the constant evolution of technology, it’s likely that we will see even bigger advancements when it comes to online gaming that crypto will make possible.
Crypto casinos are indeed the new frontier of online entertainment. They provide players with a one-of-a-kind experience that combines the thrill of casino games with the advantages of cryptocurrencies.
As cryptocurrencies and crypto casinos become more and more relevant, we may expect further improvements and breakthroughs in the crypto casino industry in the future.


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It was as of late announced that Iqra Aziz and Yasir Hussain had at long last chosen to get married. Their wedding date had additionally surfaced the web yet nothing had been authoritatively uncovered by the two entertainers.
In any case, Iqra just uncovered her wedding greeting card on her Instagram and it is the most amusing thing you will understand today.
Inferable from the measure of debates the two turned out to be a piece of throughout the year, there is no denying that the card additionally attacks their faultfinders.
By the by, the card likewise affirms that the two will get hitched on December 28, 2019.
Demonstrating a delightful outline of the two love feathered creatures, the card goes onto state “Khadim sahab ka larka Yasir – Khadim sahab’s child, Yasir, Der aya, durust aya – gradually made it.”
“Aziz sahab ki larki, Iqra – Aziz sahab’s little girl, Iqra, Samajhdari ki misaal – is as of now a case of intelligence.”
“28 December, 2019, Kyunke 2020 men mehengayi barhegi – Because 2020 will be increasingly costly.”
“Nikkah 1pm sharp, bharpoor lunch 2:30 pm sharp – a great deal of lunch at 2:30 pm sharp.” including that it was “On the grounds that our PM is actually quite sharp”
Completion off by saying that “Blessings ki zarurat nahi, salaami mashwaray ki tarhan sanctum (dil khol ke) – No compelling reason to bring endowments, simply offer us salaami like you give us guidance (without limit),” Indirectly tending to their well-wishers (read pundits).
via: web news


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FESPA Global Print Expo 2019 is Europe’s largest speciality print exhibition for screen and digital wide format print, textile printing and signage solutions. It will take place at the Messe Munich from May 14-17, 2019
With Print Make Wear one of the key features at this year’s Global Print Expo, textile is set to be a key talking point at the event, counting over 160 exhibitors showing textile solutions.
First time exhibitor Omniprint will be using FESPA 2019 as a platform for displaying its range of direct-to-garment (DTG) printing technologies, including its latest system, the Cheetah Industrial DTG.Digital sublimation and direct-to-textile printers will also be a key feature.
FESPA Global Print Expo 2019 will see the world premiere of Karibu, the first roll-to-roll printer from swissQprint. The Swiss company has confirmed that it will come with a range of standout features, including: a roll handling system that enables fast loading; a finely segment-able vacuum system; new output software; and a bespoke ink set.
Canon will once again exhibit its range of wide format digital print and automated workflow solutions, including the successful Océ Arizona flatbed series and the Océ Colorado printer, featuring Canon UVgel technology.
Ricoh will also present its assorted solutions designed to support and improve print production environments.
SPS TechnoScreen will introduce the new SPS ASTRON QX, a full servo-driven cylinder machine designed for high-end industrial screen printing applications.
German ink manufacturer, Marabu will be presenting its offering for screen, digital and pad printing, for both graphic and industrial applications.
Workflow and Colour Management
As a developer of software applications for sign-making, screen printing, garment decorating and digital printing, CADLink is promoting the latest version of its Digital Factory OKI™ Edition RIP software, which enables users to manage their print workflows more efficiently.
The Epson Edge Print software for its S-series and F-series printers will be a highlight on the Epson stand.
Line-up of technologies and exhibitors for Print Make Wear micro-factory
FESPA has revealed the line-up of technologies and exhibitors for its Print Make Wear micro-factory feature.
The products highlighted within Print Make Wear will be provided by 19 exhibitors and will be presented within two separate tours, one focused on roll-to-roll technologies and the second on garment decoration. The technology demonstrations will be supported by a programme of talks and catwalks to enhance the visitor experience.