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At its core, real estate investing is about understanding how people use space and interact with other people in that space. The lockdowns that have reshaped our lives have had a significant impact on the way we live and work. For a real estate investor, understanding these changes is crucial. Should real estate investors change their investment strategy in a post-COVID world, and if so, how?
The pandemic’s impact on real estate will depend on the extent to which it alters the nature of human interaction. Will people feel less inclined to shop in busy malls, go to cinemas or eat out in restaurants? Will employees feel uncomfortable in offices and want to work from home indefinitely? Will online shopping continue to thrive?
These are important and challenging questions to answer. They require the ability to foresee both potential behavioural changes and the evolution of the pandemic itself.
Listed real estate suffered a significant hit
Not all real estate sectors were equally affected by the pandemic, but the sector as whole was badly hit and fell by approximately 20%1 over the year to date, underperforming the general equity market. Initial concerns over financial leverage mushroomed into fears over the sustainability of cash flows – and therefore dividend payments. While the current macroeconomic backdrop remains weak, focus is likely to eventually return to the environment of low growth, low returns and low or even negative rates we face. How will real estate fare if ‘lower for longer’ shifts to ‘lower forever’?
For structurally supported sectors, real estate's income profile should continue to look attractive. The initial worry that all tenants would stop paying their rent, jeopardising real estate companies’ ability to pay dividends, proved to be unjustified for most real estate sub-sectors. With the exception of retail and the hotel sectors (about 12% of the universe), most tenants paid their rent.
In Western markets, retail real estate was already challenged by e-commerce, a structural, thematic shift, which reduces the need for bricks and mortar shopping venues. It has also been accelerated by COVID, with a new dependency on online shopping likely to translate into a habit for many. E-commerce is clearly a drag on real estate as it reduces retailer demand for physical stores. We had already been avoiding most retail REITS for this reason. However, COVID also threatens to unseat our preference for high-footfall, experiential shopping centres, due to an increased need for social distancing measures and a reluctance to visit crowded locations. A post-COVID world might lead us to focus more on open-air shopping centres, regional shopping venues focused on non-discretionary products, or those that attract a younger, more COVID-resilient crowd.
Although retail real estate was hardest hit by structural changes and by the impact of COVID, it is perhaps too easy – and unwise – to disregard the sector altogether. We should remember that although online retail is on the up, most sales are still done in bricks and mortar shops. While the face of retail has definitely changed and that change has not yet finished, some retail landlords will emerge stronger.
Are the days of the office over?
There is much speculation about how the lockdown-accelerated trend of working from home will alter corporates' long-term real estate strategies. Working from home is a trend that is here to stay, and many companies have already announced changes2. Countries where workers suffer longer commute times but enjoy larger homes, such as the US, may see a more marked impact.
However, the office is far from dead. There are a number of factors that will likely limit the impact on office floorspace demand, particularly for prime markets. Workspaces may need to decrease density in order to allow for increased social distancing. Secondly, hot desking is now less appealing and may even become regulated against. Thirdly, companies have long engaged in providing quality spaces to attract and retain talent, and any cost saving that does arise may be channelled towards a better, and likely, greener, office in a more appealing location. Finally, the need for in-person collaboration is unlikely to disappear. This is an area where we feel our real estate strategy is well positioned, as most listed office real estate companies own modern and sustainable buildings in prime locations.
A boon for industrial real estate and data centres
While retail real estate has suffered, industrial real estate has seen something of a tailwind. The same e-commerce trends that threaten the retail sector, and which COVID-19 has intensified, are likely to benefit logistics. One thing that the pandemic has taught us is that most countries were very dependent on Chinese production of goods, such as PPE. Retailers of items such as car parts and mobile phone parts also found themselves unable to serve customers due to lack of supply and no production coming in from China, and lost revenue. A lesson from the pandemic is likely to be that higher inventory levels ensure resilient supply chains. Sectors such as food and beverage, electronics/appliances and healthcare have particularly lean supply chains at present.
The accelerated adoption of e-commerce should also require greater supply chain investment. Several industries, such as food and beverage, are still in the early phases of e-commerce adoption, and during the heights of the pandemic, grocers saw an increase in sales. Not all this growth is necessarily permanent, but much of it could be as new adopters are now familiar with e-commerce and its convenience benefits. Growth in these categories will reinforce same - and next-day service requirements.
Data centre providers, facilities that house an organisation’s shared IT operations, have been – together with the industrial sector - by far and away the best performing real estate subsector. This does not come as a surprise given the sector's growth profile, coupled with solid balance sheets. Data centres are likely to continue to perform well, as workplaces become more agile, flexible and cloud-based in a post-COVID world.
Our thematic investment approach means we are well positioned to capture the trends that COVID has accelerated. Our preference for liquid, listed real estate companies, and our broad, flexible, global mandate enables us to adjust the portfolio as we identify new trends and themes that impact the world of real estate. Looking ahead, we intend to draw even more heavily on our thematic process for idea generation and will position the portfolio to benefit from long-term trends such as the industrial and data centre sectors.
1Source: S&P Developed REIT Index, end of July 2020
2Source: Nikkei Survey, August 2020


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IOS 7.1 Spotted In More Than A Quarter Of IPhone And IPad App Traffic
By DMO Affiliate
Four days after Apple released an update to its mobile operating system, more than a quarter of app traffic is coming from iPhones and iPads running the latest software, according to data from analytics firm Mixpanel. Apple released iOS 7.1the first major update to its mobile software since its debut in Septemberon Monday. As of Friday, Mixpanel said 26.4% of app traffic is coming over devices running iOS 7.1, slightly less than the 31.5% usage rate for its previous version, iOS 7.0.6.
|IOS 7.1 Spotted In More Than A Quarter Of IPhone And IPad App Traffic|

domain: news


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The internet is abuzz with excitement for the next virtual reality movie, Voodoo Cakes, which is coming to virtual reality in 2018.
It’s a mix of all the VR films we’ve come to know and love.
A bunch of friends, including a young woman who’s a porn star, have created a virtual reality porn shoot called Voodoo Candy.
The premise is simple: A group of friends set out to capture the moment when their virtual reality camera was first installed.
The camera, like many others on the internet, is set up in a house and they have to capture their VR experience at the right moment.
Voodoo Cake is the first of many VR porn shoots coming soon.
What we know so far: The Voodoo Café is in London.
The VooDoo is located in Los Angeles.
VooCakes will have an open invitation to shoot, and it will be a public event.
It will be available to watch on your VR headset at a cafe.
There are more than 100 videos to watch in all.
It’ll be available in VR headsets.
It won’t be free.
There will be paid access.
The cafe is in a converted garage, but it will open up to the public.
There’s also a Facebook page for it.
There is a lot of VR porn happening right now.
A lot of virtual reality is being shot.
There has been some controversy around the use of VR in the porn industry, but Voodoo is different.
The whole premise is based around camming, where you’re sitting in a virtual room and someone is sitting on the bed.
You can shoot in VR.
VR is an immersive medium.
There won’t necessarily be a camera on your headset.
It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing VR goggles, or if your headset has a screen.
You’re still going to have to wear VR goggles.
The goal is to create a fun experience, to capture a moment where you could really feel the moment and it would be really real.
We’ll be working with some amazing people to bring the experience to VR.
It all started when the group in the garage decided to capture one of their VR experiences in a public place.
This group of people came together and created VoodooCakesVR.com, where they put out a request for anyone who was interested in filming VR porn.
They were very open and inviting to people who wanted to shoot VR.
The people that came forward were very passionate about VR.
They came to a decision that they would film it and they would make a Voodoo coffee.
VOOCakes is a virtual coffee with a virtual menu.
We’re trying to capture that experience, but we also want to capture camming too.
They’re also planning on doing a VR shoot with Voodoo Cafe where people can shoot a virtual video of themselves on their headsets.
We will all get together and record VR porn and share it on VOOFooDrama.com to be shared with the community.
We have a ton of VR scenes, and we’re going to do it all in one place.
They will have access to a VR camera.
They are not going to shoot it in VR, they will shoot VR in VR in VoodooCast.
The VR shoots will be free and everyone can shoot VR porn on their VR headset.
There isn’t a fixed set of rules or restrictions, but you will be able to shoot with other people.
We can’t give you access to the actual camera, so there will be no set shoot time.
There’ll be VR content that you can see, and that you’ll be able share.
You will be allowed to record VR camming.
You’ll be allowed as many people as you want, so it’s not a strictly enforced shoot-and-bust policy.
There may be a limit on how many people can be in the shot, but that’s not going too far.
There can be some VR content, like camming where you’ll sit and record with a partner, or you’ll have a camming area where you can record VR with a VR partner.
You may also be able shoot VR videos in VR if you like.
You might not have the camera at all.
We want people to feel comfortable sharing VR content on VooFooCakerama.
It should be a fun event, it will take place in a café, and there are no restrictions on what kind of VR content is being filmed or how you can shoot it.
It is going to be a really cool experience.
It was the perfect time for VR to get off the ground, and this is how we can do that.
We’ve had a lot more success with VR porn shooting than we thought we’d be able.
Theres a lot going on in VR right now, so we wanted to make sure we were getting good quality content.
We are planning to shoot in multiple locations and


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The review of longer term mortgages by Professor David Miles was published at the time of the Budget in March but there has been no feedback on the outcome of the consultation on the document. There was a muted response to a question raised at a discussion at the House of Commons last week, Financial Capability: Making informed decisions about mortgages.
Council of Mortgage Lenders director-general Michael Coogan says he believes the review is “dead, but not buried”.
Nationwide spokesman Tim Hughes says: “I agree that all products should be made available to all consumers as Miles recommends. You don't walk into a shop to find a product on sale that you can't buy.”
The government was quick to support the proposals put forward by Kate Barker on supply of housing published at the same time as the Miles report, but Miles' proposals are still at the consultation stage.


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The economy sucks right now, but every cloud has a silver lining: nearly every stock is swinging low to bargain basement prices at the moment, and if you monitor your favorite companies’ share prices enough (go for Apple, Google and other established Silicon Valley companies), you’ll learn just what the key saddle price is for [...]
Ever think to yourself, “my job sucks?” Well watch this 15-second video and think again, it (and the ones following) will change your whole perspective on how bad your job compares to what’s out there: For clarity: that man is holding onto a metal frame very high above the ground, spraying water at 400,000 volt [...]
As my first article here, I’m going to review the Skyrim: Dawnguard beta which I have been playing religiously for the past several weeks on the PC.
If you’ve seen the movie The Avengers, you’re almost certainly mystified by the computers featured within the film: transparent glass, superimposed scientific graphing, multitouch gestures that can move an image from a hybrid mobile computer to several stationary networked screens, etc. But how far off is this technology from being mainstream? Let’s have a look.
Linus Torvalds, in a speech released today at a university, had some kind words to say to Nvidia related to Linux hardware support as seen in the video below:
Nobody would expect that the famous and late Steve Jobs, Apple’s driving force for over a decade whose direction made them the world’s most valuable company, was a key contributor to Google’s Google Plus “social networking” website, but it’s true. In addition to that, I’m going to reveal that Google+ is functioning exactly as intended [...]


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Piofiore: Episodio 1926 delayed until November in Japan
Posted on 3 months ago by Elias in Switch | 0 comments
Previously slated for an October release, Idea Factory has decided to push the release date for Piofiore: Episodio 1926 to November 12 in Japan. Only citing ” “various circumstances” for the delay, it joins the list of the many games that have seen delayed release dates this year.
While publisher Aksys has not yet given word on a delay for the Western release, which was also supposed to release on October 8th, we will update this post if an announcement is made. You can check out our previous coverage of the title, which is a sequel to the July 2019 (2018 for PS Vita) release Piofiore: Fated Memories, here.
Piofiore: Episodio 1926 arriving in Japan on October 8th
Posted on 6 months ago by Elias in Switch | 0 comments
Idea Factory has announced that Piofiore: Episodio 1926 will launch for Switch on October 8 in Japan. This otome visual novel is a sequel to Piofiore: Fated Memories, which released on PS Vita back in 2018. It is worth noting that this title is slated for Western release via Publisher Aksys Games in late 2020.


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Brief: Visa appoints Aliza Knox to head up commercial solutions division
06 November 2003 | 2831 views | 0
Visa International has appointed Aliza Knox as senior vice president of its global commercial solutions division.
Knox replaces Lorraine Yeakle who is moving to the company's global brand and marketing group.
She joined Visa in 2002 to manage the alignment of product development and business strategies.
In her new role, Knox will have direct responsibility for the strategy and development of Visa's procurement and travel solutions and will report to Stephen Schapp, executive vice president for global product platforms.


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Tough mobile news - Call costs to dual sim mobile phones from landlines reduced
A lot of people have mobile phones in this day and age, and research last year showed that an increasing number of households rely on a mobile rather than a land line to communicate with friends and family.
With this in mind it may please many people to know that the cost of phoning a mobile handset from a landline is apparently going to reduce by 85% by April 2015.
This is good news for owners of dual sim mobile phones, since they will no longer have to worry about the costs being suffered by family and friends connected though to them by the sim they have set aside for that purpose.
The drop in prices for landline to mobile calls may also mean that tough mobile phones could become a piece of important work safety kit, provided as readily by construction companies to their employees as hard hats are so that they can keep in contact with them from an office landline, without paying expensive bills, even if the worker is in the middle of a field.
So, what does an 85% drop in phone call costs translate into as money, you may ask? Well, according to the Competition Appeals Tribunal is means that, on average, prices will fall from 4.18p per minute, to 0.65p per minute in the next three years. Not bad at all.
However, that does unfortunately mean that if you own a dual sim mobile phone, an angry boss or angry spouse can phone you for a greater length of time without cost concerns cutting the call blissfully short.


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BMW is said to be working the new water injection system that debuted on the M4 MotoGP safety car into the new M4 GTS, along with a raft of other track-focused enhancements.
2015 BMW M4 MotoGP safety car with water injection
- Noah Joseph
- Feb 13, 2015
BMW has been providing the safety cars for the MotoGP series for 16 years now, but this latest M4 outfitted for duty also packs an innovative water injection system to optimize combustion that could see implementation on production models in the near future.
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Crumbl Cookies Location Coming to Whole Foods Plaza
Written by Site Hub on August 25, 2023
A new local spot for those with a sweet tooth is coming to Monroe Ave.Daniele Family Companies is set to open a new Crumbl Cookies at the Whole Foods Plaza in Brighton. This will be the cookie’s second Rochester location, with the first being located at 100 Marketplace Drive in Henrietta.
Source: 13 WHAM


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Australia’s Oroton stores are now trying to promote their summer collection. Despite it being fall in many parts of the world, Australia’s actually enjoying their hot summer weather. Anyway, Oroton has elected to make use of QR Codes to promote their summer clothing line. They’ve launched a sleeker, more chic, trendier fashion designs and accessories for summer this year by putting up a QR Code in some of their shops. Since the brand is not outwardly popular over here in the US, suffice to say that the brand is big in Australia and New Zealand. The company goes as far back as the 50’s when the disco metallic and neon accessories were acceptable.
Quality is important and so is elegance. And Oroton’s got both high up on their priority list. For more information on the company, the brand and also their latest QR Code efforts, visit their website at www.oroton.com
What the company is doing with QR Code is in line with the latest trend in the fashion industry and that is to make use of technology to promote their products. A mobile web site has been created for the summer 2009 line and will be integrated with their print advertisements in magazines like Marie Claire and offline and off-print efforts. Curious passer-bys who chances on the surreptitious QR Code sitting in front of the store can scan the QR code and go to the mobile web site to watch and download a fashion video and then enter a competition. Marie Claire is one of the first few magazines to embrace the QR Code technology and actively encouraging their advertisers to use it.
Fancy winning a branded handbag this summer? Head on over then!
A representative retorted that it is an interesting and intriguing way to encourage consumers to engage with the brand. It’s like a cyber bridge between the company and it’s end-users. Given the fact that it costs a lot of marketing money to launch a line via advertisements, commercials, print advertisements, brochures, catalogs and leaflets, putting up a QR Code seems like a much more funkier and more conducive way to promote the summer fashion line.
Those who do not have smart phones with a QR Code reader installed can request for the exclusive online content via SMS. It is another fantastic way to get the consumers to hand over their mobile number for future promotions.
The partnership between Oroton and those involved in the campaign proves to be working and it inevitably demonstrates how quickly companies in the land down under are to make use of this technology.
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A company whose sole purpose is to sell tickets has once again been blindsided by people coming to its website to buy tickets. It is just the three-hundredth time it has happened this year.
One person at the company said they were shocked when they realised what was happening. “We were just sitting around the office not really doing that much, and then all of a sudden someone says, ‘Hang on – what’s going on? Looks like people are trying to buy tickets … from … from a website … from our website!’
“And everyone else was like, ‘But that can’t be right. We’re just a ticketing website!’ And so we went into a bit of a panic, because we’re totally not set up for this”.
Another staff member said it was lucky that the company’s sole purpose wasn’t to sell tickets, otherwise it might be a bit fucking ridiculous. “Imagine that! It’d be a bit like going into a McDonalds and the person at the counter being astonished when you try to order a hamburger. But no, our sole purpose isn’t to sell tickets. It’s to charge a $7.95 handling fee for a digital automated service”.
In a statement this morning, the company said there was an unusually high demand for tickets. “Not unusual in the sense that it’s never happened before – it is entirely predictable and it happens about once a week. But unusual in the sense that we still seem to be taken by surprise by it every single time”.


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|By Marketwired .||
|July 17, 2014 11:16 AM EDT||
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/17/14 -- The AllSeen Alliance, the broadest Internet of Everything open-source project, today announced that ControlBEAM, Fortune Techgroup, FreeWings Technologies, Grid2Home, Legrand Group, MachineShop and Vedams are the group's newest members. Since its formation in December 2013, the AllSeen Alliance has brought together 58 organizations to collaborate on an open software framework, based on AllJoyn open source code, to connect devices and services regardless of brand, transport layer, platform or operating system.
AllSeen Alliance members are located across the world and represent diverse market segments including consumer electronics manufacturers, home appliance makers, automotive companies, Internet of Things (IoT) cloud providers, enterprise technology companies, innovative startups, chipset manufacturers, service providers, retailers and software developers.
The addition of these new members strengthens the roster of enterprise and industrial solutions providers within the Alliance, with the goal of expanding AllJoyn beyond the connected home:
- ControlBEAM, provides a unifying open source platform to create and distribute apps for controlling products and automating business, retail, and home;
- Fortune Techgroup, service provider and semiconductor technology supplier in China;
- FreeWings Technologies, provides research and development as well as design for next generation wireless communications;
- Grid2Home, a provider of software solutions for the IoT market: Connected Home, Smart Grid, Smart Cities, and Industrial IoT;
- Legrand Group, the global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures;
- MachineShop, provides enterprises and device OEMS with the technology to service-enable their businesses through hundreds of discrete, managed APIs that simplify the interfaces to the Internet of Everything; and
- Vedams, specializes in storage engineering and test services.
"It's great to see such intense interest in the AllSeen Alliance's work, with companies all around the world coming together to foster an open ecosystem in which a wide range of devices, objects and systems can connect and share information in a simple, transparent way," said Joe Speed, Director IoT of The Linux Foundation. "Nearly 60 members joining in seven months is amazing progress."
More about the new members:
ControlBEAM is a leading innovator of business, retail and home automation solutions. ControlBEAM provides an open source platform to unify and simplify M2M communications and digital life experiences through an interoperable interface to connected products, people, and enterprise data, all structured as digital objects. The platform is designed to support all primary use cases within a digital world, from intelligent sensors and networks to machine control and human/machine interfaces.
"The mission of ControlBEAM is well aligned with the AllSeen Alliance -- to connect people, places and things on a unified platform and enhance user experience," said Doug Migliori, President, ControlBEAM. "We look forward to contributing to this open source initiative to accelerate adoption of a truly interoperable platform."
Fortune Techgroup is a 14-year-old semiconductor technology and service provider in Shanghai, China. Fortune Techgroup works with leading semiconductor suppliers such as Freescale, NXP and Qualcomm Atheros to provide domestic manufacturers with a wide range of chip technology services and applications in the fields of mobile Internet, broadband access and "triple play services" -- the integration of telecommunications, broadcasting and the Internet.
"With the explosive growth predicted for the Internet of Everything, we felt it was important to join the AllSeen Alliance and be part of its important collaborative work to ensure openness in the underlying infrastructure," said Jun Pang, Vice-President Fortune Techgroup.
FreeWings Technologies Co., Ltd is a high-tech enterprise engaged in design, research and development, product supply and technical services for wireless communication. Founded in 2009, the company is headquartered in in Ningbo, China with marketing centers in Shenzhen and Shanghai.
"From automotive to mobile, wireless communications is an essential part of the Internet of Things infrastructure," said Wenmin Zhang, VP, FreeWings Technologies. "We're excited to join the AllSeen Alliance's effort to move this technology forward."
Grid2Home (G2H) is a software solutions company at the forefront of enabling the IoT. Initially founded in 2010 with a focus on Smart Grid solutions, Electric Vehicle Charging, Renewable Energy Management and Appliance Control, Grid2Home has recently added solutions for Home Automation, Security and Healthcare markets. Grid2Home is committed to an open standards approach and actively contributes to the creation of IoT standards and their related networking protocols. The company has developed solutions across more than 50 different platforms, including more than a dozen processor families, running on more than 10 operating systems, and supporting six different physical interfaces.
"Open source platforms and open collaboration are critical for rapid customer adoption of IOE solutions. It will enable interoperability and foster the creation of the next wave of innovative solutions. Our goal of participating in this group is to avoid some of the market fragmentation that has plagued so many other promising technologies while positioning G2H as a bridge between various IOE devices," said Ashu Joshi, COO, Grid2Home. "We're pleased to join such a diverse and exciting group."
Legrand Group is a world leader in products and systems for electrical installations in commercial, industrial and residential settings. Legrand's offering covers these fields: Control and command of electric power, Cable management, Power distribution, Voice-data-image distribution and Home Automation
"The Internet of Everything is all about an ever-increasing number of objects and devices in our daily lives being able to discover and interact automatically and seamlessly," said Ernesto Santini - Innovation and Systems Department, Legrand Group. "For Legrand, it's very important that we are part of the work to make the Internet of Everything's vast promises a reality."
MachineShop is providing the on-ramp to the Internet of Everything by service-enabling the billions of connected systems and their trillions of interactions with applications and end users. MachineShop marries the simplicity and openness of APIs and web services to the enormous potential of a hyper-connected world as a next generation middleware company.
"The Internet of Everything is a fast-moving market that requires innovation of a matching pace. Only a well managed set of services can provide this rate of development," said Greg Jones, CTO, MachineShop. "We're excited to bring our knowledge of endpoint devices, API's and application development to the Alliance and collaborate with the others members as we work to meet real-world enterprise needs."
Vedams specializes in end-to-end engineering services across the complete storage technology stack and provides development, product quality assurance, test automation, interoperability testing, solution certification, customer support, escalation handling, sustaining and release management services. Vedams' clients range from start ups to public companies that are developing leading-edge technology and products in the storage domain.
"The Internet of Everything, with all its interconnected network of sensors and devices constantly collecting, transmitting and analyzing data, brings profound implications to the landscape of embedded systems, cloud, storage and analytics, as we know it," said Kris Rajana, CEO, Vedams. "Being able to help our clients navigate this new landscape with AllJoyn suite of products, is important to our company. We actively collaborate with AllSeen's Compliance and Certification working group in build / release of the validation tool for the core framework. So we're excited to join the Alliance and collaborate with the other members to help shape this technology in a way that's open and universal across brands."
The AllSeen Alliance has also added Politecnico di Milano as a sponsored member.
About The AllSeen Alliance
The AllSeen Alliance is a nonprofit open source consortium dedicated to driving the widespread adoption of products, systems and services that support the Internet of Everything with an open, universal development framework that is supported by a vibrant ecosystem and thriving technical community. The Alliance hosts and advances an industry-supported open software connectivity and services framework based on AllJoyn technology accepting contributions from premier members, community members and the open source community. This secure and programmable software connectivity and services framework enables companies and individuals to create interoperable products that can discover, connect and interact directly with other nearby devices, systems and services regardless of transport layer, device type, platform, operating system or brand. For more information, please visit: http://www.allseenalliance.org. The AllSeen Alliance is a Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. www.linuxfoundation.org.
The AllSeen Alliance
"ReadyTalk is an audio and web video conferencing provider. We've really come to embrace WebRTC as the platform for our future of technology," explained Dan Cunningham, CTO of ReadyTalk, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at WebRTC Summit at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Jan. 18, 2017 12:00 AM EST Reads: 2,251
In 2014, Amazon announced a new form of compute called Lambda. We didn't know it at the time, but this represented a fundamental shift in what we expect from cloud computing. Now, all of the major cloud computing vendors want to take part in this disruptive technology. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, John Jelinek IV, a web developer at Linux Academy, will discuss why major players like AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM Bluemix, and Google Cloud Platform are all trying to sidestep VMs and containers...
Jan. 17, 2017 11:00 PM EST Reads: 509
IoT is at the core or many Digital Transformation initiatives with the goal of re-inventing a company's business model. We all agree that collecting relevant IoT data will result in massive amounts of data needing to be stored. However, with the rapid development of IoT devices and ongoing business model transformation, we are not able to predict the volume and growth of IoT data. And with the lack of IoT history, traditional methods of IT and infrastructure planning based on the past do not app...
Jan. 17, 2017 10:30 PM EST Reads: 674
The many IoT deployments around the world are busy integrating smart devices and sensors into their enterprise IT infrastructures. Yet all of this technology – and there are an amazing number of choices – is of no use without the software to gather, communicate, and analyze the new data flows. Without software, there is no IT. In this power panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, Dave McCarthy, Director of Products at Bsquare Corporation; Alan Williamson, Principal ...
Jan. 17, 2017 10:30 PM EST Reads: 2,336
WebRTC has had a real tough three or four years, and so have those working with it. Only a few short years ago, the development world were excited about WebRTC and proclaiming how awesome it was. You might have played with the technology a couple of years ago, only to find the extra infrastructure requirements were painful to implement and poorly documented. This probably left a bitter taste in your mouth, especially when things went wrong.
Jan. 17, 2017 09:15 PM EST Reads: 7,532
SYS-CON Media announced today that @WebRTCSummit Blog, the largest WebRTC resource in the world, has been launched. @WebRTCSummit Blog offers top articles, news stories, and blog posts from the world's well-known experts and guarantees better exposure for its authors than any other publication. @WebRTCSummit Blog can be bookmarked ▸ Here @WebRTCSummit conference site can be bookmarked ▸ Here
Jan. 17, 2017 08:00 PM EST Reads: 11,615
A critical component of any IoT project is what to do with all the data being generated. This data needs to be captured, processed, structured, and stored in a way to facilitate different kinds of queries. Traditional data warehouse and analytical systems are mature technologies that can be used to handle certain kinds of queries, but they are not always well suited to many problems, particularly when there is a need for real-time insights.
Jan. 17, 2017 06:45 PM EST Reads: 6,216
Providing secure, mobile access to sensitive data sets is a critical element in realizing the full potential of cloud computing. However, large data caches remain inaccessible to edge devices for reasons of security, size, format or limited viewing capabilities. Medical imaging, computer aided design and seismic interpretation are just a few examples of industries facing this challenge. Rather than fighting for incremental gains by pulling these datasets to edge devices, we need to embrace the i...
Jan. 17, 2017 05:15 PM EST Reads: 3,565
Web Real-Time Communication APIs have quickly revolutionized what browsers are capable of. In addition to video and audio streams, we can now bi-directionally send arbitrary data over WebRTC's PeerConnection Data Channels. With the advent of Progressive Web Apps and new hardware APIs such as WebBluetooh and WebUSB, we can finally enable users to stitch together the Internet of Things directly from their browsers while communicating privately and securely in a decentralized way.
Jan. 17, 2017 04:45 PM EST Reads: 3,053
Fifty billion connected devices and still no winning protocols standards. HTTP, WebSockets, MQTT, and CoAP seem to be leading in the IoT protocol race at the moment but many more protocols are getting introduced on a regular basis. Each protocol has its pros and cons depending on the nature of the communications. Does there really need to be only one protocol to rule them all? Of course not. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Chris Matthieu, co-founder and CTO of Octoblu, walked through how Octob...
Jan. 17, 2017 04:30 PM EST Reads: 2,906
The Internet of Things can drive efficiency for airlines and airports. In their session at @ThingsExpo, Shyam Varan Nath, Principal Architect with GE, and Sudip Majumder, senior director of development at Oracle, discussed the technical details of the connected airline baggage and related social media solutions. These IoT applications will enhance travelers' journey experience and drive efficiency for the airlines and the airports.
Jan. 17, 2017 04:15 PM EST Reads: 1,980
SYS-CON Events announced today that Catchpoint, a leading digital experience intelligence company, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Catchpoint Systems is a leading Digital Performance Analytics company that provides unparalleled insight into your customer-critical services to help you consistently deliver an amazing customer experience. Designed for digital business, C...
Jan. 17, 2017 02:30 PM EST Reads: 1,743
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo 2016 in New York. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, is co-located with 20th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry p...
Jan. 17, 2017 02:15 PM EST Reads: 3,637
In his General Session at 17th Cloud Expo, Bruce Swann, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Campaign, explored the key ingredients of cross-channel marketing in a digital world. Learn how the Adobe Marketing Cloud can help marketers embrace opportunities for personalized, relevant and real-time customer engagement across offline (direct mail, point of sale, call center) and digital (email, website, SMS, mobile apps, social networks, connected objects).
Jan. 17, 2017 02:00 PM EST Reads: 5,379
Things are changing so quickly in IoT that it would take a wizard to predict which ecosystem will gain the most traction. In order for IoT to reach its potential, smart devices must be able to work together. Today, there are a slew of interoperability standards being promoted by big names to make this happen: HomeKit, Brillo and Alljoyn. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Adam Justice, vice president and general manager of Grid Connect, will review what happens when smart devices don’t work togethe...
Jan. 17, 2017 01:45 PM EST Reads: 272
"Tintri was started in 2008 with the express purpose of building a storage appliance that is ideal for virtualized environments. We support a lot of different hypervisor platforms from VMware to OpenStack to Hyper-V," explained Dan Florea, Director of Product Management at Tintri, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jan. 17, 2017 12:45 PM EST Reads: 4,479
"There's a growing demand from users for things to be faster. When you think about all the transactions or interactions users will have with your product and everything that is between those transactions and interactions - what drives us at Catchpoint Systems is the idea to measure that and to analyze it," explained Leo Vasiliou, Director of Web Performance Engineering at Catchpoint Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York Ci...
Jan. 17, 2017 12:45 PM EST Reads: 5,557
The 20th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, Microservices and WebRTC to one location. With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit your speaking proposal ...
Jan. 17, 2017 12:45 PM EST Reads: 5,065
20th Cloud Expo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy.
Jan. 17, 2017 11:45 AM EST Reads: 4,196
SYS-CON Events announced today that Super Micro Computer, Inc., a global leader in Embedded and IoT solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology, is a premier provider of advanced server Building Block Solutions® for Data Center, Cloud Computing, Enterprise IT, Hadoop/Big Data, HPC and E...
Jan. 17, 2017 11:45 AM EST Reads: 5,721


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We’re quite a fan of Windows tablets and how its now more accessible than ever before, but today Cherry Mobile made an announcement that made them even more so – by lowering the prices of their Alpha PC’s by a few thousand Pesos. The 8″ Alpha Play now retails for PHP 5,999 and the Alpha Morph is now only PHP 9,999.
Cherry Mobile also formally introduced the Alpha Shift which comes with a keyboard dock that houses a 500GB Hard Drive for PHP 14,999 – for those who want more storage in their convertible PCs. Also, its worth noting that the Alpha Play now comes with a free Bluetooth Keyboard – an addition that will definitely compliment its productivity.
Alex likes doges and wowes. Much bio.
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In an attempt to better integrate its services Sony has confirmed it is to rename its PlayStation Network offering the Sony Entertainment Network
Having been hit by a number of reputation tarnishing hacks last year in which millions of users saw their personal details accessed, Sony has announced its plans to rebrand all PlayStation Network accounts and services under the banner of the 'Sony Entertainment Network', a move the Japanese tech giant has said is to aid its plans of creating a "global comprehensive network platform of services."
"On February 8, 2012, your "PlayStation Network account" will be renamed a "Sony Entertainment Network account" or a "SEN account," an official statement from the company said. It added the update would occur "in conjunction with Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3 system software and PlayStation Vita system software updates."
Marking nothing more than a simple name change and service rebranding Sony has reassured user that the demise of the PlayStation Network will not mean a reduced service or drop in access abilities.
"For general purposes, this account change is a change in name only. Your username or password will not change, nor are we asking you to change them," an official Sony spokesperson said.
"This transition is based on Sony's goal to enhance its unique digital entertainment offering. As a series of these activities Sony started last September, PlayStation Network will be aligned with Sony Entertainment Network. This helps us get closer to our goal of establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account."
Are you a Sony PlayStation Network user? How do you find the service and are you in anyway concern by its rebranding? Let us know via the comments box below.


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CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 2, 2013 |
A photographer was hit by a car and killed Tuesday after taking shots of Justin Bieber's white Ferrari while it was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol, authorities said. Police are interviewing the motorist who hit the 29-year-old man but no arrests have been made. Bieber was not in the car. The photographer died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. A friend of the photographer told KCAL-TV Channel 9 that he was not a professional. The incident took place on Sepulveda Boulevard near Getty Center Drive shortly before 6 p.m. A friend of Bieber was driving the sports car when it was pulled over on the 405 Freeway by the CHP for a traffic stop, according to LAPD Sgt. Rudy Lopez.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 21, 2012 |
The cherry-red 1989 Corvette convertible that Corky Rice has is in cherry condition. It ought to be. It still has its original new car invoice sticker on its windshield and a mere 67 miles on its odometer. The shiny two-seater was stolen in 1989 from the new car sales lot at what was then called C & M Chevrolet in San Diego and driven straight to a nearby self-storage facility, where it was locked in a garage-size unit and left there - for 23 years. The rent on the unit started at $50 a month.
October 23, 2012 |
Simplify, then add lightness was the well-worn philosophy that Lotus' founder, the late Colin Chapman, imbued into all of his products. For 2013, it would seem the company is simplifying, then adding an automatic transmission. The company announced that it will be adding an automatic transmission to the options list on the 2013 Evora S, a sublime hunk of metal powered by a 345-horsepower, supercharged Toyota motor. Review: Lotus Evora S Because automatic transmission likely sounds too blase for a sports car company like Lotus, it calls this transmission Intelligent Precision Shift (IPS)
October 8, 2012 |
Mercedes-Benz is recalling one of its fanciest cars because the air conditioning refrigerant could explode under certain crash conditions. The German luxury automaker will recall 432 of its 2013 model year SL-Class cars to fix the problem, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday. The sticker price of the SL, a two-door sports car, starts at more than $100,000 and ranges up to nearly $150,000 depending on options and equipment. Mercedes isn't the only German automaker with a problem in some high-end cars.
October 2, 2012 |
The Cobras on display at the L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden this weekend don't hiss or spit or bite. They will be sitting pretty on the grass when the 127-acre Arcadia grounds host Shelby Cobra sports cars for the exhibit "Serpents in the Garden. " Thirty Shelby Cobras -- five of them originals built between 1962 and 1967 -- will be tucked into the landscape, all accompanied by their owners. Few car shows are lucky to have such an idyllic backdrop. "When you look at images of the good life in California from the mid-20th century, it was about beautiful gardens, outdoor living and cars," said Richard Schulhof, chief executive of the arboretum.
September 26, 2012 |
Consumer Reports panned the high-technology Fisker Karma after testing the $107,850 luxury plug-in hybrid. The magazine said the sleek-looking, speedy car suffered from significant reliability problems and doesn't compare well to other luxury sports cars such as the Porsche Panamera. The Fisker runs on electricity for about 38 miles and then a small gasoline engine kicks in and extends the range. Only a few thousand have been sold, but the car has already attracted attention for its styling.
September 25, 2012 |
Consumer Reports panned the high-technology Fisker Karma after testing the $107,850 luxury plug-in hybrid. The magazine said the sleek-looking, speedy car suffered from significant reliability problems and doesn't compare well to other luxury sports cars such as the Porsche Panamera. The Fisker runs on electricity for about 38 miles and then a small gasoline engine kicks in and extends the range once the car's battery charge runs out. Only a few thousand have been sold, but the car has already attracted attention for its styling.
September 5, 2012 |
The nation's two leading sports-car racing series, Grand-Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series, said Wednesday they plan to merge in 2014. "This merger will strengthen professional sports-car racing beyond what either of our organizations could have achieved separately," ALMS founder Don Panoz said in a statement. Both series hold races -- some of them long endurance events -- that feature different classes of sports cars, led by the exotic Daytona prototype cars in Grand-Am and the LMP1 cars in the ALMS.
August 19, 2012 |
Imagine it'?s 1932 and you'?re an automobile lover with a robust bank account looking for a sports car that will turn heads and land you at the front of the valet line and also at the front of the pack at your local racetrack or road rally. You would then, as you might now, look for a Bugatti. Today, it?'s the Veyron. In 1932, it was this Type 55 Cabriolet, which will go up for auction Sunday at Gooding & Co.'?s Pebble Beach event. The Type 55 was considered a road-going race car, built using the same 2.3-liter inline, supercharged eight-cylinder engine as the Type 51 race car. Here, it makes 135 horsepower at 5,500 rpm. This Type 55 routs that power through a four-speed non-syncho manual transmission.
July 26, 2012 |
Car buyers are trading down to smaller vehicles and are finding that they are just as satisfied as they had been with larger autos, according to a study by market research firm J.D. Power and Associates. In its 2012 APEAL (Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) Study, J.D. Power found that 27% of new-vehicle buyers during a four-month period this year replaced an existing vehicle with a smaller new auto. Only 13% went in the opposite direction during that period, while 60% purchased a vehicle in the same size class of the auto they were replacing.


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This company says it is Europe’s biggest privately owned car dealer, selling more than 200,000 vehicles a year. Chairman and chief executive Sir Arnold Clark, 85, started the Glasgow firm in the 1950s after he refurbished a Morris car and sold it for a profit. It now has 200 outlets that sell new cars from manufacturers such as Kia and BMW as well as used vehicles. It also offers repairs, servicing, vehicle rental and insurance.
This profile reflects the company at time of publication and does not reflect any changes that may have subsequently occurred. Fast Track and its sponsors do not endorse, guarantee or recommend investment in any of the companies.


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The Tesla that crashed on top of an ambulance was not in self-driving mode, confirm San Diego authorities
The incident with a Tesla Model 3 that flew from a parking lot the other day and landed on top of an ambulance was not caused by its self-driving software, but rather a driver error, ruled the local San Diego authorities. The local fire department was called to a car crash scene in Kearny Mesa to witness what one doesn't see every day - a Tesla lodged between a parked ambulance and the embankment behind it.
Since whenever there is an odd incident with a Tesla there is an immediate suspicion that it may have been caused by the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta mode gone awry, the authorities were quick to point out that FSD is not the culprit here. The Autopilot option wasn't engaged, it turned out, but rather the reason for the weird Tesla-on-ambulance action was a good ol' human error.
Apparently, the driver pressed the wrong pedal while trying to park and instead of hitting the breaks hard they pressed on the accelerator causing the Tesla to spring forward through a wire fence and launch on top of the ambulance with its front end. The San Diego Fire Department (SDFD) commenced dislodging maneuvers, and, knowing how hard it is to extinguish the flames from a burning electric car, they opted to carefully lift the Tesla by belts and slowly ease it to the ground.
None of the vehicles involved has been totalled and all people in the Model 3 escaped relatively unscathed. The driver and a passenger asked to go to the hospital, while the other passenger opted out of a hospital visit, while nobody outside the vehicle sustained any injuries.


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By Ashwin Kumar
SHAH ALAM, Feb 14 — The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) welcomes the Selangor government’s recommendation for hotel room rates in the state to be lowered in order to attract more tourists.
MAH president Yap Lip Seng said the hotel industry, airliners and tour operators are jointly working on promotions and deals in order to boost the tourism industry following the slowdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Multiple discussions were held, including with Tourism Malaysia, for a concerted campaign for tourism recovery.
“We applaud the state government’s initiative in reaching out to the industry, and we hope to see stimulus initiatives from the government to further promote tourism in Selangor.
“While hotels and private industry stakeholders may offer special promotions for this period, we still need the state government to help promote and market the products and services further,” he told Selangor Journal when contacted today.
Yesterday, Selangor’s Culture, Tourism, Malay Customs and Heritage Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari said many hotel room reservations were cancelled due to the virus outbreak and had suggested that hotel operators promote lower room rates to bring in more tourists.
Abdul Rashid added the state government will arrange a meet with the Selangor hotel association sometime in March to discuss the matter.
On this, Yap assured that the hotel industry also welcomes any party including the government sector to hold events and meetings in hotels to support the industry during critical times.
The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) on Tuesday revealed over 95,000 of hotel room bookings were cancelled, which were mostly from Chinese tourists since the coronavirus outbreak.
This amounted to almost RM40 million of losses.


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Pennsylvania PUC adopts final order for Smart Meter access
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved a final order regarding security standards for third-party access to consumer Smart Meter data on Thursday, which will help residents better track energy usage and save on utility bills.
The Electronic Data Exchange Working Group first proposed the data standards in February 2015. The PUC unanimously approved the standards on Thursday by a vote of 5-0. The goal of the project is to allow consumers the ability to receive information about their energy usage. Customers who opt in would also be able to receive tips for saving on bills and options to obtain lower rates within the energy marketplace.
The project would allow usage data to be accessible to third parties only if consumers opt into the program. All personal consumer information would be kept confidential, with the PUC unanimously agreeing on a zero tolerance policy regarding the topic in an effort to protect consumers. Only usage data would be accessible, and data would be made available to companies that could help consumers better understand energy usage and savings opportunities, such as electric generation suppliers.
The project is expected to balance the needs of consumers while furthering the energy economy in Pennsylvania. The new initiative seeks to educate the public on getting the most out of the energy marketplace while providing a platform through which businesses can better compete by helping customers save.


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Lexington Home Brands unveils Tommy Bahama collection in Chicago
Home & Textiles Today Staff -- Casual Living, September 20, 2012
Lexington Home Brands previewed eight new lifestyle collections under the Tommy Bahama Outdoor Living brand on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at Venue One, 1044 West Randolph St., one day prior to the Sept. 20 opening of the International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market at the Merchandise Mart.
Lexington Home Brands launched its Tommy Bahama Outdoor Living brand this week at Venue One in Chicago.
The Venue One showroom, located one mile from the Mart, across from Harpo Studios, opened at 8:30 a.m. A cocktail party celebrating the new brand launch took place from 3-6 p.m. with dealers and prospects from across the country in attendance.
"We are thrilled with dealer reaction to the Tommy Bahama Outdoor Living program," said Phil Haney, president and CEO of Lexington Home Brands. "These buyers clearly recognize the opportunity that this brand extension represents at retail. The product is designed for a sophisticated consumer, and our innovative merchandising display unit allows them to offer a high degree of customization very effectively, in a compact area. Dealers are particularly excited about the fact that 100% of this product will be stocked in North Carolina and available for immediate delivery."
Gina Wilcox (far left), senior licensding manager and Chrisann Furciato (far right), VP of licensing for Tommy Bahama with Lexington Home Brands President and CEO Phil Haney and Casual Living Executive Editor Nicole Crews.
"We're gonna do it because we're big on indoor Tommy Bahama, so it makes since to go big on the outdoor. Plus it's just gorgeous," said Bill Bacon, president, Bacon's Furniture and Bacon's Outdoor Living.
Tommy Bahama, whose motto is "Make Life one Long Weekend" has evolved from a purveyor of island-inspired camp shirts to a worldwide lifestyle brand with 102 retail stores and 13 restaurant locations in the U.S., newly opened units in Singapore and Macau, and a Hong Kong unit scheduled to open in November. The company's U.S. flagship location in New York is also slated to open in November. The 8,500-sq.-ft. destination, comprised of a retail store, restaurant and two bars, will be located at 551 Fifth Ave. and 45th Street in the historic Art Deco Fred F. French building.
"The outdoor category features a number of great trade names," Haney said. "We will offer dealers the opportunity to differentiate themselves with a true consumer brand - one that resonates powerfully with the affluent segment. The demographic that shops at a Tommy Bahama store, or purchases the product at Nordstrom, a prestigious resort, or golf pro shop finds an immediate connection with the brand promise of a relaxed, casual, comfortable and sophisticated lifestyle. We think that translates brilliantly into the outdoor living category."
Bacon's Furniture and Bacon's Outdoor Living President Bill Bacon and General Manager Ken Garofalo at the Venue One soiree.
"The design kiosk is genius. Plus there are a lot of global looks that make this perfect for hospitality and contract," said Simone Baptiste, a Gary, Ind.-based interior designer and NEWH board member, hospitality chapter.
The Tommy Bahama Outdoor Living showroom will be open Sept. 19-22 from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Lexington is providing private car service to and from Venue One. Call 336-687-5001 for pick up.


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"Brioche is a pastry bread that is rich in eggs in butter," she said.
All those who try her bread can taste her love for the popular French pastry.
She's made a name for herself, and a business, The Brioche Lady. Now that business has blossomed into her and her husband's very first bakery.
"Have some good food, sit down have fun, play some chess or checkers and hang out," said co-owner Leng Thao. "Hanging out means a lot to us because it makes the place feel warm, but more importantly our hearts feel warm."
They're located at the Northern Village Shopping Center off First and Herndon where the former La Parisian Bakery used to be.
Leng says they wanted it to feel like a sliver of Paris. Inside, they're serving more than just brioche.
French toast and other items are crafted out of their bread. Lattes and coffee are also available to order.
For the Thaos it all started 20 years ago in France, where they first met. Leng, from Southern California, was visiting family and met Nubchi who was born and raised in France.
Both of them stopped for love and came together for the sake of brioche.
"One of the best complements someone has said is that it reminds them of their childhood in France, it reminds them of their trip to France and that is exactly what we try to replicate," Leng said.
The couple has eight children and another on the way. One of those eight includes their brioche business.
Nubchi says it was born out of her own needs.
She couldn't find anything that came close to the brioche she had back home as a child.
"Brioche is the one pastry bread that I miss the most about France," she said. "Every time I would see brioche at the store then I would buy it, and always get disappointed."
The Brioche Lady is open six days a week starting at 8 a.m. They're closed on Wednesdays.
Next, they plan on experimenting with more brioche flavors to put their unique twist on their very own piece of France.


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DEARBORN, Mich. - For the last six weeks, Ford Motor Co.'s top executives met almost daily to craft a plan to keep the company solvent in the face of the worst financial crisis in decades. Surrounded by black-and-white photographs of Henry Ford and the Model T in the Thunderbird Room on the 11th floor of Ford's world headquarters, they waged a battle to decide Ford's future.
CEO Alan Mulally and his leadership team worked through lunch, taking quick bites of Caesar salad as the global credit crisis deepened and automobile sales collapsed. With gasoline prices falling, some argued that Ford should abandon its costly plan to retool North American truck factories to produce smaller, more fuel-efficient cars from Europe. Others pushed to curtail future investment in key products like the F-150 pickup that have seen sales drop off dramatically in recent years.
Global product development chief Derrick Kuzak - backed by Mulally - countered: If Ford has a future, it depends on delivering a new generation of class-leading cars and trucks that people actually want to buy. They fought off every challenge to one of the most ambitious product plans ever put together, albeit at the cost of thousands of jobs.
"We're only going to be in business if we create products that people really do want and value," Mulally told The Detroit News in an exclusive interview Tuesday. "This is the essence of creating a viable Ford."
Unlike rival General Motors Corp., which has curtailed its investment in some new vehicles to conserve cash, Ford is betting the business on new cars in a make-or-break bid to turn the company around before time runs out.
Ford's latest launches have done little to arrest its decade-long decline in U.S. market share, and it is far from certain that the cars and trucks in Ford's pipeline will be enough to turn the tide. Yet, Wall Street analysts such as Eric Selle of JPMorgan say this is the only way forward for an automaker that has wasted too many years producing lackluster products that barely covered its costs.
"The status quo is no longer acceptable," he said. "Abandoning the product plan would have been a bad move."
Ford has demonstrated that it can make money off its small cars in Europe, Selle said, adding that the concessions it won from the United Auto Workers union last year should allow Ford to do the same thing in this country.
In Mulally's Thursday morning meetings, already the stuff of legend in Detroit, Ford's top executives review the company's progress on the turnaround plan. By the end of September, the full magnitude of the global credit collapse was becoming all too apparent to Ford and the company needed to take urgent action to shore up its liquidity.
The weekly meetings became daily sessions. Mulally summoned the leaders of Ford's Asian and European operations to Dearborn. Along with Ford Americas President Mark Fields, Kuzak and other key executives, they began looking for ways to conserve Ford's liquidity.
Each time, they would emerge from the Thunderbird Room with orders for their respective teams, which would then work long into the night crunching numbers and running models.
They worked Saturdays and Sundays, poring through the company's business plan looking for places to shave more costs. But the discussion always returned to the product plan.
Vehicle programs are a huge expense. Cutting one is an easy way to balance the books. GM is postponing new investment in its pickups to save money. Chrysler LLC canceled part of its product portfolio earlier this year. Some at Ford wanted to do the same thing.
"It was like, OK, which one do you want to cut out? Which one do you think we don't need? Remember, this is to stabilize our position in the marketplace and actually grow. We're not going to stabilize anything" if we keep cutting, Mulally said. "You have to allow that debate to happen, because we had to still come up with all of the hard actions."
Kuzak told The News that he saw little point in preserving cash at the expense of Ford's lineup.
"Outstanding products are the heart of any turnaround of our business and its future success," he said. "The whole intent from the beginning was to protect the product plan and the capital spending and engineering that goes with it and look for every other element of cash that isn't directly tied to the products."
Mulally's turnaround plan is based on consolidating Ford's worldwide operations to better leverage its global scale. Kuzak said many elements of that plan are ahead of schedule, and he challenged his department heads around the world to study their budgets to determine what could be eliminated in light of these newfound efficiencies. Other executives did the same.
They also began a careful analysis of Ford's most efficient operations, like its new joint-venture factory in Nanjing, China. Chinese partner Changan had introduced some cost-saving tooling practices there that Ford rushed to implement at other facilities around the world.
As part of this effort, executives decided to cut another 10 percent of the company's salaried payroll in North America. Benefits, including the bonuses paid to Mulally and other senior executives, are being cut. So is advertising.
Ford was already on track to cut at least $5 billion in annual operating expenses because of its earlier restructuring actions. These new cuts, announced Friday, are expected to save another $8 billion to $9 billion.
At the same time, Ford is transferring money from its lending arm, Ford Credit, to the parent company and will continue debt-equity swaps to raise additional capital. These actions, combined the possible sale of assets like its stake in Japan's Mazda Motor Corp., are expected to raise another $6 billion to $8 billion through 2010, when the full benefits of the new UAW contract kick in.
The product plan remains largely intact. In the end, Ford only delayed one new product program -- a European crossover that had not even been announced. It is also postponing plans to offer a diesel version of the F-150, as well as the freshening of a few of its poorer sellers in the United States.
Because Ford's plan assumes no help at all from the federal government, some of these actions could be reversed by a federal bailout. And Mulally said Ford's approach should help make the case for government assistance.
"Whoever is going to invest or loan us money wants to know we're taking the actions to create a viable company going forward," he said. "We are absolutely taking the appropriate actions. We've demonstrated that we're making progress."
Source: Detroit News


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US NEWS FEEDS
Most business owners are in favor of paying higher wages to their workers if it makes business sense. There are obvious benefits to a well-paid workforce, but some businesses — especially those reliant on government funding — would be put at a disadvantage if the Connecticut minimum wage is increased too quickly.
CT News Junkie
READ MORE >
OP-ED | $15 Minimum Wage Has Unintended Consequences


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It can be tough to figure out what kinds of content an audience will pay for. So many news publishers are learning what their readers will register to consume instead, while girding themselves for the collapse of third-party cookies.
This past July, The New York Times disclosed during an earnings call that it had begun experimenting more with registration walls in an attempt to learn more about readers preferences and needs, saying that the direct connection to the audience would “help us maintain or increase our momentum in building out our subscription base,” as The Times’ CEO Mark Thompson put it.
Other news publishers are keying in on registration walls too. Earlier this year, Hearst Newspapers put up a registration wall ahead of launching a paywall for its Connecticut newspapers, gathering up 100,000 email addresses in the process, according to Hearst Newspapers president Robertson Barrett; GateHouse Media launched a registration wall in the fall, and it has been adding it across the hundreds of titles it owns. Tribune Publishing, home to newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune, plans to test them again after a small test that ran in 2017.
A publisher using a registration wall can drive subscriber conversion rates 10 times higher for its known users compared to its anonymous users, said Michael Silberman, svp of strategy at Piano. Yet news publishers have historically been reluctant to use them, in part because they can drive readers away and put short-term pressure on a site’s traffic. Tribune Publishing abandoned a registration wall it was testing on the Hartford Courant’s after discovering that 90% of the people who hit it simply left the site.
A short-term traffic dent might be worth it. An array of moves made by browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Safari will soon limit publishers’ ability to sell ads with the help of third-party cookies, a change that has dented publishers’ monetization by as much as 25% in some markets. Laying groundwork that allows publishers to shift from third-party to first-party data will help publishers avoid further pressure on their ad revenues.
But for now, most publishers’ interest in registration walls seems tied to existing subscription efforts, rather than gathering more first-party data or closing the paywall loophole Google Chrome created this summer; Google recommended publishers use a registration wall to solve the problem of Chrome users activating Incognito mode to get around publishers’ metered paywalls.
Not every publisher is using registration walls for the same reason. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2019, Forbes will begin putting one in front of its site’s readers, offering them an ad-light experience of their divisive site in exchange for their email addresses.
The test is designed to help Forbes learn more about what its audience values, Forbes CRO Mark Howard said last week at the Digiday Publishing Summit. But the audience data gathered from those who register will help Forbes’ efforts to diversify revenues.
“We’re thinking about how we develop more products for those communities,” Howard said. “It’s about leveraging first-party data, it’s understanding the inter-connectedness of the content they’re consuming. This is the tip of the iceberg of supporting products that are not ad-supported.”
Figuring out the value exchange can be difficult. Gannett’s USA Today, for example, has tried offering visitors perks such as sweepstakes entries in exchange for registration; on USA Today Network, its collection of local news sites, the registration wall is used to unlock content after readers hit a paywall.
Even though the right value exchange will vary from site to site, each publisher should be able to come up with something.
“If your relationship is so fraught they don’t want to do a low-friction signup, you need to examine what you’re doing,” said Jason Bade, the co-founder of the paywall platform Pico.
Why PMG’s Nike win doesn’t seem all that unusual for the indie media agency
The Texas-based independent agency continues to grow its roster of clients after landing Nike's media AOR business for North America.
Media Briefing: Publishers see a bump in commerce sales during Black Friday weekend despite economic downturn
Publishers' commerce businesses show positive signs that consumers are still shopping despite the economic downturn.
How Apartment Therapy’s Riva Syrop is pivoting its events business around the economic climate
Apartment Therapy's event strategy closely revolves around its commerce business to appease both advertisers and consumers.
SponsoredPublishers are adapting advertising strategies for a privacy-first world
Tina Iannacchino, senior publisher director, Seedtag So much of the attention around the death of third-party cookies and its impact on the digital advertising industry is focused on the implications for brands and consumers, which is far from the complete picture. The digital publishing industry in the U.S. is massive and set to be shaken […]
Experts tip in-house operations and retail media as the most fertile landscape for new job market entrants
Although 'readjustment' and 'flexibility' will be required from those laid off by Big Tech.
The Washington Post invests in climate coverage as its team expands to over 30 journalists
The Post's climate team continues to expand as the publisher makes big bets on the beat drawing younger audiences.


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Patina Brands, who invests capital, advises founders, and facilitate global distribution, has taken minority stakes in Perfumer H, according to BeautyMatter.
Related: IFRA Cautiously Welcomes New EU Chemicals Strategy
Prior to this investment, Patina backed Brooklyn-based sexual wellness brand Maude and Stockholm-based fragrance brand 19-69.
“We are inherently attracted to brands who over-index on consumer resonance and thoughtful creation, even if it runs counter to the early-stage investment community’s traditional emphasis on pace of growth. We’re willing to forego those traditions in order to support a vision we sincerely believe to be singular and calculated, and we strongly believe that to be the case with the brand Lyn and Christophe have set out to build," said Brady Donnelly, founder and managing director at Patina.


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Comcast has long said that a minority of its customers approach the limits of their 1TB data caps in their home internet plans, but that number is growing. In a recent call with investors (via Ars Technica) Comcast says that its median users are using 200GB of their 1TB data cap a month, thanks to streaming video.
In the last couple of years, Comcast has rolled out data caps to customers — first limiting users to 300GB per month back in 2015, and raising that limit to 1TB a month in 2016. In the past, Comcast has said that “more than 99 percent of our customers do not come close to using a terabyte,” with most using around “six percent” each month, and if they go over, they have to pay an additional charge — $10 per 50GB used.
But that was exactly two years ago — the demand for streaming video has grown considerably since then. Customers have more options to stream higher definition video, while companies like Google and Microsoft have announced streaming gaming services. According to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, “our customers’ demand for speed and data usage keeps increasing,” and that the “median usage for our [residential] business is over 200 gigabytes, and this is increasing at 34% year-over-year in the quarter.”
Residential internet pulled in $4.6 billion for Comcast
That growth is making Comcast a lot of money. Senior Executive Vice President and CFO Michael Cavanagh highlighted in its earnings call that broadband internet was “the engine of growth for our Cable business,” and noted that “Residential high-speed internet revenue was again the largest contributor to overall Cable growth, increasing 10% to $4.6 billion.”
200GB a month is still a good distance away from that 1TB limit, but it’s a considerable jump from just 60GB a month just a couple of years ago, and that likely means that even more customers are meeting or exceeding that data cap, although Comcast didn’t reveal that figure in its call. Ars Technica noted that earlier this year, it found that 4.1 percent of households hit their limit, a jump of 2.1 percent from last year.
That number is likely going to rise, given that Comcast plans to launch its own streaming service. Roberts noted that despite the competition between companies like Amazon, Disney, and Netflix, streaming video “is more friend than foe, and we wish every bit was our bit, but if people consume more bits, and video clearly does that and 4K video does even more of that, that’s in the sweet spot of where this company is going to grow.”
Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.


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4:30 p.m. Electric car maker Tesla says it has temporarily increased the battery capacity of some of its cars to help drivers escaping Hurricane Irma. The electric car maker said the battery boost was applied to Model S and X cars in the Southeast. Some drivers only buy 60 or 70 kilowatt hours of battery capacity, but a software change will give them access to 75 kilowatt hours of battery life until Saturday. Depending on the model, that could let drivers travel about 40 more miles before they would need to recharge their cars. Tesla said it made the change after a customer asked the company for help evacuating. The company said it's possible it will make similar changes in response to similar events in the future.
Interesting. Battery capacity is subject to software limit. Is this a hack waiting to happen?
This includes both malware and legitimate applications, such as antivirus and firewall applications. The new Chrome error won't show up for all antivirus and firewall software, but only for those that do not rewrite SSL connections in a proper way, resulting in SSL errors. The feature will arrive in Chrome 63, set for release on December 5, but until then, users can test it in Canary.
China's industry ministry is developing a timetable to end production and sale of traditional fuel cars and will promote development of electric technology, state media on Sunday cited a Cabinet official as saying. The reports gave no possible target date, but Beijing is stepping up pressure on automakers to accelerate development of electrics.
Is this evil or what?
Is Google actively planning to fund the EU through the Brexit negotiations?
Have Google lost their collective minds?
Answers on the back of a used EUR100 note please.


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When 37-year-old Shikha Goel was diagnosed with breast cancer three months ago, life came to a grinding halt.
The Delhi-based founder of fashion label Ilk had to reorganise everything around her.
Her work, her friends and her future plans momentarily took a backseat.
The initial shock was too much to handle, but she picked herself up and decided to fight the disease with support from her family and friends.
She launched a social media initiative to encourage more women to routinely get screened for breast cancer. What followed was an urgent surgery and prolonged rounds of chemotherapy.


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Will support HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality.
Skyrim VR was something of a killer app for the PlayStation VR when it launched on it last November- bringing one of the most substantial and beloved games of all time, fully converted to VR with no cutbacks, exclusive to Sony’s VR headset. PSVR ended up generating mainstream interest thanks to Skyrim‘s release, furthering its lead as the top selling VR headset on the market.
Now, Skyrim VR is coming to other VR headsets too. Bethesda has confirmed that Skyrim VR will be launching on Steam come April 3, and that it will be compatible with HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, and, yes, Oculus Rift. You can pre-order the game on Steam right now, and you can also see the announcement trailer for the game for yourself below.
The Elder Scrolls Skyrim VR will come with all three expansions included; the game is also available on *takes a deep breath* PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (with two separate releases!), Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation VR.


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TIGA urges game dev tax breaks
UK game developer's friend TIGA have said that the business could decline by up to five percent every year unless the British government offer up tax breaks to aid struggling firms.
If the government do submit to giving game makers a break, then conversely, the organisation believes the industry could actually grow by up to four percent a year. The UK is under increasing pressure, given the tax breaks offered in places like France, Canada and Ireland.
"The UK games industry is still successful and world leading. However, because most of our key competitors benefit from a tax break for games production, our industry is at a competitive disadvantage," offers Gareth Edmondson, TIGA vice chairman.
The exec believes the industry will stop shrinking next year if the government offer tax breaks soon, and Edmondson also urges that this move would create more jobs for young people. More soon.
- Final Fantasy XIV's first expansion Heavensward will launch in June
- Sony gives the full PS Plus line-up for April
- Before The Fall patch arrives for Final Fantasy XIV today
- Evolve's first load of DLC arrives today for Xbox One
- Lords Of The Fallen exec producer confirms a sequel is in production
- Pacman takes over Google Maps
- Techland warns of contaminated Antizin hitting Dying Light tomorrow
- Speedrunner beats Bloodborne in just 44 minutes
- Dragon Age: Inquisition's Jaws Of Hakkon DLC not out on remaining platforms till May


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Companies should humanize brands, use social media optimally to build connections – eCommerce Innovation Summit
The eCommerce Innovation Summit – powered by the Innovation Enterprise, successfully came to a close on 21st March 2018. The two-day event (from 20th – 21st March) was an unequalled get together of 28 speakers and an interactive audience of 100 senior executives from the field of sales and marketing from eCommerce and retail sectors.
The eCommerce Innovation Summit 2018 started with the primary agenda of analyzing the latest digital trends that are impacting the ecommerce industry.
The first day of the event saw some great sessions and networking exchanges. You can check the first day’s sessions here.
The second day at the event was another round of interactive sessions, some fire-side chats and networking exchanges. The day started with a fireside chat by Samuel L Lau – Head of Digital Marketing, Blue Shield of California. He discussed about the ongoing transition of the U.S. healthcare industry that has affected the “how” and the “who” of the medical marketing strategies.
Gregory Fina – Director of Technology at Serena & Lily, talked about the importance of staying ahead in the market and shared some tips and tricks for getting ahead of competition. One of the key sessions was taken by Lauren Chan Lee – Director of Product Management at Care.com, who talked about the specifics of building an eCommerce marketplace that will drive conversions.
Sonia Hunt – VP Marketing, The Perfect Sip, in her session How to humanize your brand to impact eCommerce growth talked about the importance of building a brand image that is approachable, relatable and reachable. She said that social media would play an important role in helping companies connect with their customers.
Avinash Gangadharan who is the vice president of Engineering, Discovery and Omnichannel at Walmart Labs, discussed about the peculiarities of building personalized eCommerce experiences and how Walmart Labs are defining the future of next generation customer experience.
Later in the day, Juozas Kaziukėnas – Founder and CEO at Marketplace Pulse, talked about the evolution of brands. He also talked about the ecommerce strategies at Amazon which are reshaping the buying patterns.
Nick Fairbalm – SVP Marketing, Le Tote, talked about the importance of building a customer focused experience. He told that he considers customers and their feedback one of the important steps in the overall selling process.
Lowell Goss – VP Design & UX, LendingClub said that the shopping has become instinctual. People add products to cart, checkout, get free delivery, free exchanges etc. and all these have become an integral part of shopping.
Ali Haris – Senior Manager, SEO Macy’s quoted the following prediction from Gartner, “‘Conversational AI-first’ will supersede ‘cloud-first, mobile-first’ as the most important, high-level imperative for the next 10 years. He discussed about the evolution of digital customer journey and future of search.
The eCommerce Innovation Summit 2018 comprised informational sessions and provided ample networking opportunities.


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The restructuring will value about €420 million ($509 million) and scale back head workplace employees prices by 20%. Regional workplaces and native operations may also be impacted.
“The influence of the pandemic on our enterprise was amplified by our on-trade [pubs, bars and restaurants] and geographic publicity,” CEO Dolf van den Brink, who took cost in June final yr, stated in an announcement.
With extra alcohol consumption going down at house, Heineken’s direct-to-consumer platforms, together with Beerwulf, Six2Go and Drinkies, tripled orders final yr. On-line gross sales of its home-draught methods grew within the mid-double-digits.
Nonetheless, beer gross sales by quantity slipped 8.1% in 2020. Heineken offered extra non alcoholic drinks, nevertheless, pushed by Heineken 0.0 and Maltina in Nigeria. The corporate stated that the phase has “a lot potential for progress” and that it plans to make non alcoholic beer accessible in all places.
The group can also be pushing into laborious seltzer — flavored glowing water containing alcohol. Heineken launched merchandise on this class in Mexico and New Zealand final yr, with extra launches to return in 2021. In the US, it has partnered with drinks model Arizona to launch Arizona Dawn Exhausting Seltzer.
Van den Brink stated that Heineken’s strategic assessment would leverage present strengths and new alternatives to “chart our subsequent chapter of progress.”
“We aspire to ship superior and worthwhile progress in a quick altering world,” he added.


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22 Oct Report: Nike Reaches 15-Year Deal to Stay with Texas
Nike Inc. has agreed to a new 15-year deal with the University of Texas, according to a report from the Austin American-Statesman.
The source told the newspaper that the deal is larger than Michigan’s 15-year, $169 million deal signed in July. Michigan left Adidas for Nike in what was touted as the largest college deal. Terms of the Texas deal weren’t available.
Texas reportedly canceled a meeting with Under Armour executives on Oct. 4 in what was seen as a sign that Nike had re-upped. Texas has been with Nike since 2000.


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Adelaide’s famous, old Brickworks market at Torrensville has officially showed off its new facelift today!
The $65 million project to build the new Brickworks Shopping Centre in front of the iconic Brickworks’ chimney stack, will boost visitors to the site, as well as provide upwards of 600 new jobs.
With more than 40 specialty shops, the centre not only includes your go to’s such as Woolworths and Big W, there is also a green grocer and a lovely outdoors dining area that includes some delicious eateries such as Burger Bar and Zambreros. And you will never have to fight for a carpark again, with 700 on-grade carparks provided for patrons.
After two years of planning and with construction beginning in April last year, the centre was officially opened today by Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis, the 17,000 square metre shopping metropolis is sure to bring shoppers from all over Adelaide.


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Let's just say that investors really, really, REALLY love that Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) introduced three new, high margin private label brands on Wednesday.
Shares of the home goods retailer exploded by as much as 50% in afternoon trading as retail traders returned to old friend Bed Bath & Beyond (and meme trades such as AMC and BlackBerry) amid its positive product news. The company said it will debut the three new home brands —Our Table, Wild Sage and Squared Away — in the coming weeks as part of CEO Mark Tritton's ongoing revival of the business.
Bed Bath and Beyond has now unveiled six new private label brands in five months. It plans to release two more by February 2022. The company is targeting 10 new private label brands overall within the next three years.
Tritton told Yahoo Finance Live he is staying focused on executing the turnaround plan rather than getting swept up into watching the surging stock price.
"I can honestly say this is not distracting. We believe in the plan," Tritton said.
FILE – In this March 25, 2021 file photo, shoppers look at items in Bed, Bath and Beyond, in New York. It can be too easy to overspend on products in the name of self-care. Of course you want to comfort yourself during this horrendous pandemic, and retailers are quick to offer all sorts of items to do just that. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
That's good seeing as Tritton has big goals on tap for Bed Bath & Beyond.
The company plans to invest $1 billion to $1.5 billion in the business over the next three years. During that stretch, Tritton will earmark $250 million to remodel some 60% of Bed Bath & Beyond stores. The rest of the funds will be split between improvements to e-commerce technology and the supply chain. Money will be spent on launching the aforementioned 10 new private label brands.
Bed Bath & Beyond is targeting low- to mid-single digit same-store sales growth by 2023 and $1 billion in operating profits.
The moves are paying off already.
Bed Bath & Beyond notched its third straight quarter of same-store sales gains in its most recent quarter amid better merchandising and promotional strategies. Adjusted operating profits rose 13% in the quarter from a year ago.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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Watch Yahoo Finance’s live programming on Verizon FIOS channel 604, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Samsung TV, Pluto TV, and YouTube. Online catch Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, and LinkedIn.


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In early Asian session on Wednesday, the Canadian dollar edged up against the currencies of U.S., Europe and Japan. The loonie climbed to a 2-month high against the euro.
The Canadian dollar jumped to a 2-month high of 1.3641 against the euro in early Wednesday Asian deals at 9:00 pm ET. If the Canadian dollar advances further, it may likely target the 1.320 level. The euro-loonie pair is now worth 1.3654, compared to yesterday’s closing value of 1.3696.
During early Asian deals on Wednesday, the Canadian dollar strengthened against the US dollar. At present, the loonie is worth 1.0180 against the greenback with 1.012 seen as the next upside target level. The greenback-loonie pair was worth 1.0247 at yesterday’s close.
The Canadian dollar gained against the Japanese yen in early Asian session on Wednesday. As of now, the loonie-yen pair is worth 81.80 and the next upside target level for the loonie is seen at 82.2. The pair closed yesterday’s trading at 81.19.
Looking ahead, German IFO business climate index for November, Italian retail sales for September, U.K.’s preliminary third quarter GDP and the Eurozone industrial new orders for September are slated for release in the European session.
Across the Atlantic, the U.S. durable goods orders, personal income and spending, new home sales – all for the month of October, weekly jobless claims for the week ended November 20, Reuters/University of Michigan’s final report on the consumer sentiment index for November and the Federal House Finance Agency’s house price index for the third quarter are expected in the New York morning.


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It's almost certainly Solid Snake. I mean, you can't get much more iconic in the world of PlayStation, can you?
So it's nice to hear that at the very least, the addition of the legendary Solid Snake to the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale roster is a possibility.
This according to GamerFitNation ; in speaking with Seth Killian at the New York Comic-Con, Killian says trying to put Old Solid Snake in Battle Royale is "something to be looked into." While the team's current focus is on bringing Raiden to the colorful battler, there's no doubt that fans want Snake, too. Raiden is a bad-ass, no doubt about it, but there is no Metal Gear Solid without the main man. And wouldn't he make a formidable opponent in PlayStation All-Stars ? I think he'd be awesome.
I'd want him to be able to blend in, go stealth, and backstab the hell out of everyone. But that's just me.
Related Game(s): PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale


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Joe Colombo's contribution to modern furniture design cannot be overstated Kelsey Keith- Senior Editor, Dwell
Last week, Kartell unveiled the exhibition “Homage to Joe Colombo,” at Tribeca’s R20th Century Gallery to celebrate the reissue of Joe Colombo’s renowned 4801 chair. Designed in 1965 by the legendary Italian maestro, it is the only chair Kartell ever manufactured in wood, and now, almost half a century later, it’s finally being produced in plastic for the first time. In celebration, R20th Century gallery, the Kartell Museo and the Joe Colombo Archives have put together a gem of an exhibition, exploring the relationship between Kartell and Colombo, one that gave rise to ten seminal works of design between 1964 and 1971. In addition to both vintage and new versions of the 4801 chair, the exhibition includes vintage lamps and accessories, sketches, archival photographs, and even a letter from The New York Times to Colombo. Guests gave high praise for the brilliantly curated exhibition and toasted the auspicious occasion with bubbly courtesy of Ferrari Cerrano!


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High street shops saw a like-for-like sales fall of 2.2% in April due to the bad weather, making it the fastest fall in a year.
Latest figures for May saw consumers take advantage of clearance sales to pick up bargain knitwear, with perfumes and cosmetics sales boosted by promotions and discounts.
The recent sunny weather has boosted sales of barbecue meats, salads and ice creams and swimwear.
David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, which compiled the data, said: "While sales didn't soar through the roof, this is still a very creditable performance from UK retailers. Promoting the right product at the right price made the difference in May."
More top news
Angry protesters have demonstrated outside a police station following the death of a black man who died following a chase.
A heartbroken young mum has issued a poignant plea for a missing teddy bear which plays out the voice of her dead son.
A dry day tomorrow with some bright and sunny spells


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PQube has released a new trailer for the English release of Blazblue: Central Fiction Special Edition, which launches for Nintendo Switch in February 2019 in NA and Europe.
The trailer goes over the features of the game, which include the four DLC characters Es, Mai Natsume, and Sunano’o that are now part of the base release, as well as all the System Voice sets and Color Sets for characters.
The game will support all playstyles on the Nintendo Switch, and will also have the full story mode with English text (but Japanese voices) that was included in the original release as well.
Check out the trailer below:
For those interested, a demo is currently available on the Japanese eShop, which you can read more about here.
BlazBlue: Central Fiction Special Edition releases for the Nintendo Switch in Japan and North America on February 7, 2019. It’ll release the day after in Europe on February 8. The Japanese and European versions will be available physical and digital but the North American version will be digital-only.