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After serving the first developer preview version of the Windows 8 last year in the public, and couple of early milestone leaks finally Microsoft is heading to preview the recently announced and much hyped Windows Store for the Windows 8 running machines and tablets, just like an Apple iTunes Store. The company is already on the way to deliver its first Windows 8 “Consumer Preview” in the public. Windows 8 Consumer Preview is said to be carrying the many features inside it, just like the first developer preview version and according to the latest tidbit. We come across to know that new Consumer Preview of Windows 8 will also carry few launch games in the Windows 8, to test the complete functionality of the Window Store.
A source near to The Verge folks revealed that Microsoft has been planning to release a number of games by default in the device, and the source has released a list of games that may come with Window 8 Consumer Previews soon. Windows 8 is said to be more focusing on the tablet, as the Microsoft is trying to enter in the tablet market with its own operating system for the tablets to compete with Apple’s iconic iPad series. Last month, in CES 2012 we have seen the number of prototype devices running on the new Windows 8 tablet version which is appeared to be releasing soon in upcoming two or more months to the third-party manufacture companies. However, here is the list of games that may are coming with Windows 8 Consumer Preview soon:
- Hydro Thunder
- Toy Soldiers
- Reckless Racing
- Angry Birds
- Rocket Riot
- Crash Course
- Ms Splosion Man
According to the source, the Pinball and Solitaire will come pre-installed on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview build, but the other games will be available on Windows Store games section as an optional downloads for the Windows 8 machines. Microsoft’s Windows Store will also allow developers to submit their apps for free of cost, or become the official developers by charging between $1.49 to $999 per app or game, while the Redmond Company taking 30% of a proceeds at first, and will be reduced to 20% after an app reaches $25,000 in sales.
Microsoft is readying up to launch the Windows Store late in February, along with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Follow us on Google+, Twitter or Facebook to remain in touch. We will keep you updated!


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Berry College welcomes Nancy Rewis as the new vice president of marketing and communications.
As head of marketing and brand development, Rewis will lead the marketing and communications teams actively supporting the strategic goals of Berry College. She is responsible for developing a comprehensive marketing strategy for the institution and will work across all departments to tell Berry’s story through public relations, digital marketing, print design; video, multimedia and photography.
“Nancy is a strategic leader who consistently delivers results through developing integrated partnerships and brand extensions. She built a portfolio of five businesses generating more than $70 million in gross sales and directed product development and multi-platform marketing,” said Berry College President Steve Briggs. “We are excited to have her in Berry’s corner.”
Rewis was selected through a competitive national search with the assistance of the executive search firm Harvard Group International.
Rewis, of Atlanta, was most recently vice president of marketing and eCommerce at Gem Shopping Network in Atlanta. From 1994-2014, she served in a variety of roles at Turner Broadcasting, including vice president of marketing and brand development. She also was senior director of brand partnerships and director of marketing for Turner Classic Movies.
“I am thrilled to be a part of such a vibrant, innovative and thriving college community,” she said. “I look forward to working with the Berry team and can’t wait to share the story of Berry.”
Rewis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Mississippi. She is a member of American Marketing Association, Women in Cable and Telecommunications and has served as Executive Mentor, Turner Women Today. She and her husband have two children.

domain: news


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Lexus has released the first photos of its first EV for the US, the 2023 RZ 450e. The RZ electric crossover looks similar to the Toyota bZ4X, but it will have more power thanks to the Direct4 all-wheel drive powertrain.
We can see that the RZ shares its DNA with the bZ4X and Subaru Solterra, but it does get unique front and rear fascias to bring its styling in line with the rest of the Lexus lineup. Lexus has not released the specs for the RZ 450e, but its name hints that it will have more power than the bZ4X, which only has 215 horsepower.
Lexus shared details about its new Direct4 powertrain earlier this year, which used a 210 hp electric motor on both the front and rear axles, so if that stays the same for the RZ, we can expect close to 400 hp.
Lexus has not announced when the RZ 450e will arrive and we’re still waiting to see its interior.


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Because of low user, social media is being blocked from Facebook, three apps Face-book authorities have said that the apps are -Hello, Moves and TBAS.
On July 2, a Face-book post on Face-book posted this information on a blog post.
Among the apps, the Hello app was launched in 2015 for Android users in Brazil, USA and Nigeria. The fitness app named Move was launched in 2014 and the TBES app was launched last year.
Facebook authorities say that in 90 days these apps will delete all types of data from users on their database.
The company also said that Face-book authorities review their apps regularly. In this case, the application is closed for some time.
The Face-book authorities apologized on the post, saying there are some users of the app. They will be somewhat frustrated due to closing the app. But Facebook authorities are grateful to them.


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After finishing the most recent rice crop, Sripai Kaeo-eam immediately moved on to the next crop, ignoring the recommendation of Thai officials to limit rice growing to save water.
The Narendra Modi government's clean-up of the real estate market shows signs of success and the industry in India is "ready to take off", according to the Economist.
Taxing the wealth of the richest 0.5% of the population in each member country, Europe can increase budget revenue by more than 227 billion USD.
Fuel shortages in recent months have forced Russia to ban the export of gasoline and diesel to stabilize the domestic market.
The new era of trade and investment in Asia will focus on within the bloc and less towards the West, according to the Economist's forecast.
The huge subsidy packages of the US and Europe are threatening globalization, making smaller economies, even the UK or Singapore, lose out, according to the WSJ.
The ruble's devaluation of more than 20% against the USD this year is said to be a double-edged sword for the Russian economy.
Reuters reported that China's state-owned banks are actively selling US dollars to buy yuan in both domestic and international markets. "It's become normal for state-owned banks to sell dollars to slow down the yuan's decline," a Shanghai-based trader told Reuters. .
On August 17, China Evergrande Group, once China's second largest real estate company, filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.
The less optimistic hardware outlook caused Apple stock to drop nearly 5% at the end of the week, dragging its market capitalization below $3 trillion.
Operate and exploit advertising by iCOMM Vietnam Media and Technology Joint Stock Company.
116 Thai Ha, Trung Liet Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi.
Editor in chief: Tran Vo
Tel: (+84) 903076053/7 Fax: (+84) 903030935


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I wanted to do a quick follow-up to my column on Wednesday about the confusion of laws governing interstate sales from retail wine shops to consumers. I’ve gotten enough response on this to warrant some amplifications and clarifications.
What’s astounding about this story is how very few people understand the laws, even the so-called experts. In trying to get clarification about New York State’s laws, for example, a spokesman for the New York State Liquor Authority would speak to me over the phone only with a lawyer present, and the lawyer refused to allow himself to be identified or quoted. I was mystified by this. After all, we’re talking about a matter of law, which should be clear cut, right? But I guess for lawyers nothing is clear cut, otherwise we wouldn’t need them so badly.
Anyhow, they did point me to a recent court decision, Arnold’s Wines Inc. v. Boyle, in which Judge Richard J. Holwell of Federal District Court upheld New York’s law permitting direct shipments of wine from in-state retailers while banning direct shipments from out-of-state retailers. Yet just this month, Judge Sidney Fitzwater of Federal District Court in Texas came to the opposite conclusion in Siesta Village Market v. Perry, striking down a similar Texas law.
The two rulings stem from the 2005 Supreme Court decision, Granholm v. Heald, which ruled that states could not prohibit consumers from receiving direct shipments from out-of-state wineries if they permitted such shipments from wineries within the state. The dispute between retailers, who favor interstate shipments, and wholesalers, who oppose them, is over the rather vague language in the Supreme Court decision, which didn’t specifically include or exclude retailers from the decision. Naturally, the two sides have divergent opinions.
The Specialty Wine Retailers Association, which represents retailers, has been supporting court challenges to interstate bans, and Tom Wark, the association’s executive director, told me he was confident states would prefer to collect sales and excise taxes on legal interstate shipments rather than oppose freer trade.
“Online sales are only going to grow,’’ he said. “The law is going to change and states are going to have a choice. They can be sued and they can spend millions of dollars defending those laws, and they’re going to lose significant tax revenue that specialty retailers are willing to pay to ship interstate.’’
While the retailers frame the issue in terms of free trade and consumer access, the wholesalers place it in terms of safety and social desirability. Craig Wolf, the chairman of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, raised the dire specter of underage binge drinking and people dying from drinking tainted products.
“The world sees the Internet as their friend, they don’t see the danger in it,’’ he told me. “I guarantee you, if I gave my daughter a gift card or a credit card tomorrow she could order a bottle of vodka on the Internet and get it three days later. They don’t see alcohol as different from other products. We regulate alcohol on a social model, not a business model.’’
Personally, I find this line of thought unconvincing. The wholesalers speak as if retailers want to deregulate alcohol sales entirely, but what retailers are calling for is regulated interstate shipping, in which retailers would be licensed and registered, would pay sales tax and would submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the states that they ship to. I don’t see how that would differ from the current rules governing in-state retailers, which the wholesalers support.
Meanwhile, Jack over at ForkandBottle.com took me to task for going too easy on Wine.com, the online merchant that brought this whole issue to light when it was revealed that it had conducted its own sting operation, ordering wine from retailers around the country and then turning in those it suspected of breaking state laws. He said I should have emphasized “how the wine community regarded this act by Wine.com as very slimy and uncalled-for.’’
In fact, a great deal of heated discussion about Wine.com took place, particularly at Vinography.com, Alder Yarrow’s excellent blog. Honestly, I should have given credit to Alder in my column for publicizing the original story about Wine.com, which appeared in Richard Cartiere’s Wine Market Report, a trade publication. In any case, I don’t think it would have been enlightening to pile on Wine.com. The issue to me was not whether they should have acted as they did. More illuminating than passing judgment on Wine.com was the fact that the strongest response from the states involved was to send letters to some of the retailers asking – not telling – them to stop what they were doing. The goal for me was to demonstrate the confusing nature of these laws.
By the way, I asked Wark of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association whether the Wine.com flap was the best thing that ever happened for retailers. He said, “It’s not the best thing, but it has raised awareness in a significant way about the direct shipping laws and how they affect retailers.’’
The wholesalers reaction was a little different. “You saw complete disrespect for the law in the blog traffic,’’ Wolf told me. “If the states say they’re going to open the door to direct shipping, how can they control it?’’


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One of the most important things people look for when dealing with companies is customer service, yet time and time again folks are forced to deal with bad customer service, and it drives them crazy.
A new poll finds that 66% of Americans have experienced bad customer service in a store, online or at a restaurant. And it seems one of the things people hate most is being put on hold, with 51% of people saying it’s the worst customer service experience they have to deal with.
People hate being put on hold so much that 32% of folks say they’d go without sex for a whole week if it means they wouldn’t have to deal with it ever again. What’s more, 40% say they’d prefer watching water boil than to be put on hold, while 30% would rather watch paint dry.
But being put on hold isn’t the only negative customer experience people have to deal with. Others include:
- Transferring me again and again (48%)
- Dealing with a grumpy employee (41%)
- Never ultimately finding a solution to my problem (41%)
- Abruptly hanging up mid-conversation (40%)
Source: SWNS Digital


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People just can’t stop using China’s Twitter clone, Weibo. Back in February, it was announced that the service was actually worth more than Twitter, and now numbers show that it actually has more users than Twitter.
According to the latest estimates, Weibo has 340 million active monthly users (a figure that’s up 30% from the previous year). About 154 million of those users visit the site every single day, with an overwhelming 91% doing it via mobile.
Twitter, which is actively blocked in China, had only 328 million active monthly users at last count.
Gaofei Wang, Weibo’s chief executive released a statement saying “Our relentless focus to build the best social media experience in China is reflected in Weibo’s strong performance. Looking ahead, we continue to see strong momentum, as we further optimize Weibo to share, discover and consume information, especially for the mobile, social and video environment.”
According to the China Internet Network Information Centre, there are an estimated 731 million internet users in China, with 90% of them access the internet via a smartphone. And since Sina Weibo is one of the most popular sites in the nation, it makes sense the numbers would be staggering.
Along with being China’s most popular micro-blogging services, it’s also the preferred platform for most Chinese media outlets, including newspapers and TV stations, which all have millions of followers.
Following in Twitter’s footsteps, the site launched their own live streaming app last year, named Yizhibo. Like in the US, the site caught on quickly, with millions of users broadcasting live video.
There are several likely reasons for Weibo’s surpassing Twitter: one being the fact that the site had capabilities like e-commerce that go beyond what Twitter can do in the US, and two being that there are simply more potential users in China.
And even though they’ve been surpassed by their Chinese clone, you have to imagine Twitter is still feeling just fine.


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30 Stores That Will Be Closed on Thanksgiving
In recent years, the Black Friday craze has inched further and further into Thanksgiving. With stores opening as early as 5 p.m. on Thursday, festive dinners are being overshadowed by shopping frenzies. Retailers like to point the blame at consumers—according to the National Retail Federation, almost six in 10 Americans plan to shop Thanksgiving weekend—but opening a day early also runs the risk of cannibalizing sales that could have been made on Friday. Furthermore, with stores open the day before, the idea of going shopping in the middle of the night for already picked-over merchandise seems unnecessary.
But there are still stores that allow workers to stay home and enjoy the holiday. BestBlackFriday.com keeps a running (and updated) list of which companies will not be open on Thanksgiving.
DSW employees can kick off their (well-priced) shoes and settle in for a holiday spent with friends and family; all of the chain's stores will be closed on Thanksgiving.
The warehouse club has always had a reputation for being good to its employees. This Thanksgiving, Costco's 200,000-plus team members will have the opportunity to spend the holiday with their families (same goes for Christmas and New Year's Day).
Nordstrom won't be open for business on Thanksgiving, but some employees will still be coming in for work. "[F]or the past 40+ years, some of our employees work on Thanksgiving eve and into the wee hours of the morning on Thanksgiving Day to decorate our stores with our holiday trim," a company spokesperson told ThinkProgress in 2014. "This is mostly a group of employees who have volunteered to be there and some bring along relatives or friends to join in. We'll also have a small team working in our Nordstrom.com Call Centers on Thanksgiving to serve the many customers who shop online that day."
In 2014, a Dillard's spokesperson told ThinkProgress, "We choose to remain closed on Thanksgiving in longstanding tradition of honoring of our customers' and associates' time with family."
5. BJ'S WHOLESALE CLUB
BJ’s Wholesale Club will be closed Thanksgiving. "Thanksgiving gives family and friends the chance to spend time together," Chris Baldwin, the company's president and CEO, said in a press release in late September. "We're committed to letting our team members enjoy the holiday, and we'll be ready bright and early for our biggest Black Friday ever."
"Thanksgiving is more than turkey. Or football. Or sleeping in," the company formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory wrote in a blog post. "It’s a time to reflect. To be thankful and appreciate what we have. To celebrate and share with family and friends near and far. That’s why Burlington stores are closed on Thanksgiving Day, so our customers and associates can enjoy time with their friends and family near and far."
REI will close all of its 151 stores for both Thanksgiving and Black Friday—yet all 12,000 of the retailer's employees, including hourly workers, will be paid to embrace the company's mission of getting people outdoors. "When you look at retail today, this playbook of promotions and consumerism, it's not working," REI chief executive Jerry Stritzke told Fortune. "It feels like it's lost momentum since then."
8. SUR LA TABLE
Better make sure you've got all the Thanksgiving Day kitchen appliances and tools you need before the big day; kitchenware haven Sur La Table will be closed.
9. CRATE & BARREL
Crate & Barrel employees will be staying home on Thanksgiving this year.
10. JO-ANN FABRICS AND CRAFTS
Your arts and crafts projects will have to wait until Friday: Being closed on Thanksgiving has been a long-held tradition for Jo-Ann's stores.
11. T.J. MAXX
"We feel so strongly about our employees spending Thanksgiving with their families," T.J. Maxx and Marshalls spokeswoman Doreen Thompson said in 2013. "And we don't anticipate this changing in the future."
Marshalls, like T.J. Maxx, is owned by TJX and will therefore also be closed.
13. PIER 1 IMPORTS
For the past couple of years, Pier 1 Imports has decided to stay closed for the holiday.
You'll have to buy your last-minute Thanksgiving fixings somewhere other than Publix.
15. SIERRA TRADING POST
“As in past years, Sierra Trading Post stores will be closed on Thanksgiving so our associates can enjoy the holiday with family and friends,” a company spokesperson said.
16. BARNES & NOBLE
Barnes & Noble wants its employees to enjoy the holiday with their families (then curl up with a good book).
17. SAM'S CLUB
Sam's Club is closed on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.
If you’re craving Swedish meatballs instead of turkey (or, you know, you really need an ottoman), you’ll have to wait it out. Most IKEA locations in the U.S. will be closed on Thanksgiving so employees can spend time with family and friends.
19. THE HOME DEPOT
The Home Depot stays closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In 2014, when asked why Patagonia stores close on Thanksgiving, a spokesperson responded, “It’s a holiday—we’re closed!”
It wasn't until 2015 that Staples decided to close its stores on Turkey Day. “We want our customers and associates to enjoy Thanksgiving their own way,” former company president Demos Parneros said in a press release at the time of the announcement.
Better make sure you've got enough catnip and dog treats to last the day; PetSmart will be closed.
The home improvement giant gives its employees Thanksgiving Day off to spend with their families.
24. GUITAR CENTER
The musical instrument retailer will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. The rocking will recommence on Friday morning.
25. MALL OF AMERICA
By closing its doors on Thanksgiving, the Mall of America has brought a bit of excitement back to Black Friday. "The energy has been extremely high," director of public relations Dan Jasper told CNBC in 2016. "It's a completely different vibe than the past few years."
26. THE CONTAINER STORE
In 2015, The Container Store posted a statement on its blog explaining why they choose to close on Thanksgiving Day: "We love seeing all of our customers—don’t get us wrong! But we feel it’s more important for all of our employees to be able to spend this holiday with their families, in order to recharge and renew and come back to work ready to take on the holiday season!"
27. NEIMAN MARCUS
The luxury department store will be closed for Thanksgiving. But if you're so inclined, you can order a Thanksgiving dinner for 12 from them for a cool $495.
29. OUTDOOR RESEARCH
In 2016, the outdoor apparel and gear company said it would be joining REI in its #OptOutside initiative, and will be closed on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday. They're repeating the newfound tradition again this year.
30. OFFICE DEPOT
"As we evaluated our store hours for this holiday and weighed the business and personal considerations, we decided it was best to provide our associates with the day off to spend time with family and friends by closing our retail stores on Thanksgiving Day," Office Depot's former COO Troy Rice said in a 2016 press release. They're doing the same this year as well.
This is just a fraction of the list of stores deciding to stay closed on Thanksgiving. Check out of the full list on BestBlackFriday.com.


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Introduce your child to Nature's Wonders through unique experiences at The Ritz-Carlton, Naples, one of the top family hotels and resorts in Florida. The North Naples grandmother who was arrested on a DUI charge wearing a bikini in April has been arrested again.
The Beach House of Naples specializes in women's designer swimwear, resort wear, and accessories with an emphasis on personal service. The glamorous Florida grandma who was wearing a bikini when she was arrested for DUI last year is back behind bars. Patricia Ebel hit the headlines in April 2015 when she was filmed being arrested after taking sobriety tests in a striped two-piece after crashing her black BMW in Naples, Fla. The 50.
Read the Naples Grande, Naples, Florida hotel review on Telegraph Travel. See great photos, full ratings, facilities, expert advice and book the best hotel. Olde Naples The Estates Park Shore Resort [wimble.info | currency]} Naples Florida Vacation Homes LLC.
Get same day green-tea and grocery Delivery in Naples, FL. Shop online from stores like Publix, Whole Foods Market, Costco, CVS Pharmacy®, PetcoNow, Total Wine & More, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, and Publix Liquors. Your first Delivery is free. Try it today! See terms. 6 Apr 2017 I'm Elena, Daily Mom's managing editor and lover of all things travel. I want to share First things first, while there are a lot of choices for where to stay when visiting Naples, Florida, it really is a no brainer which hotel to choose. The Hampton Put on your bikini and head to Clam Pass Park. Visit a beach.
Naples, Florida Climate report for average, Monthly and Daily weather averages and records for Naples, Florida. wimble.info The Authority in Expert Weather. Naples Daily News, Naples, Florida. 86K likes. News and photos of note and interest from the Naples Daily News and wimble.info in Naples, Florida.
Florida surf reports and live surf cams for Cocoa Beach to Sebastian Inlet. The source for East Coast and Central Florida surf reports. SurfGuru features Florida surfcams, a surf forecast, and Florida surf reports. View a live surfcam at the Cocoa Beach Pier or Sebastian Inlet, Florida. Naples Daily News, Naples, Florida. 86K likes. News and photos of note and interest from the Naples Daily News and wimble.info in Naples, Florida.
Florida surf reports and live surf cams for Cocoa Beach to Sebastian Inlet. The source for East Coast and Central Florida surf reports. SurfGuru features Florida surfcams, a surf forecast, and Florida surf reports. View a live surfcam at the Cocoa Beach Pier or Sebastian Inlet, Florida. Americans looking to find happiness in these turbulent times should head south to Naples, Florida, home of the happiest lowest rates of daily stress and lowest lifetime diagnoses of Kourtney Kardashian looks like a Hollywood pinup in new bikini photo to plug Kylie Jenner collaboration.
21 Apr 2015 Florida's WINK CBS News just happened to be passing by the scene of an accident last week in Naples, in which a 49-year-old woman crashed her BMW into the back of a another car that was stopped at an intersection. That in itself wouldn't exactly be breaking news, except for the fact that the woman. Best Swimwear in Naples, FL - Everything But Water, Island Company, Aqua Beach Wear, Anthony's Ladies Apparel, Everything But Water, Swin 'n Sport, Tommy Bahama, Burlington, Tommy Bahamas Relax, Tommy Bahama. Great swimsuit shop with suits for all ages and shapes. The ladies working there are very.


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What's "right to repair" and why does it matter
June 2019—At least 20 states are working on “Right to Repair” legislation. People are getting fed up with having to buy a new one or send the product back to the manufacturer to be fixed.
As of March, around 20 states had considered right-to-repair bills to protect consumers’ ability to fix their property—be it through parts, software, or a network of local third-party businesses that keeps repairs accessible and affordable—and not just designated manufacturer partners, though some of those bills, such as one in Washington, are no longer active. These bills essentially aim to break the monopolistic death grip that companies have on unnecessarily expensive repairs and instead allow consumers to decide who they want to fix their stuff, be it an independent repair shop, a skilled friend, or hell, even themselves.


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Remember it’s your personal information, your data, your private information and you have the right to know how others are going to use it.
WhatsApp themselves have said it is too early to know just how many users have been affected.
Headlines like “People are Air Dropping Nudes to Strangers in a New Cyber Flashing Trend” and “Cyber Flashing is the new iPhone safety threat” appeared as headlines on my news feed.
Throughout 2018 almost every day carried some headline about companies being hacked, data being lost and the big social media giants selling your data without your knowledge. However, those are the media headlines. What...


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A male sprinter breaking from the starting blocks in ruby red pumps is one of several provocative images used in a new campaign to draw gay visitors to Sydney, Australia, in November for the Gay Games.
The Australian Tourist Commission is set to launch an ad campaign from Dailey & Associates, West Hollywood, Calif., that appears to be one of the most far-reaching efforts in recent memory aimed specifically at the gay community.
The multimedia campaign, set to break the last week of April, marks the first time the 30-year-old government-sponsored ATC has specifically targeted gay tourists, said Bob Monfrini, the client's director of marketing.
Monfrini said the ads are meant to capitalize on an international sporting event that has strong appeal to the gay community and is taking place in a popular destination.
"We saw the Gay Games as a great opportunity," said Monfrini. "The gay community is an affluent, loyal group that is also well-organized. We wanted to give them a reason to travel to Australia and remind them this is a very gay-friendly country."
Monfrini said the somewhat racy ads, which will run in gay magazines, are likely to draw more chuckles than outrage. "We're doing these ads with a wink and smile," he said.
Another ad draws a comparison to the recent Winter Olympics with the message, "Salt Lake City was for sissies." A third ad reads: "We need athletic supporters."
Mike Perdigao, Dailey svp/man aging supervisor, noted that the campaign is an innovative way to capitalize on an event that is expected to draw more international spectators than the Olympics.
"That was surprising to us, but when you get ahold of information like that, it seems wrong not to use it," Perdigao said. "In the post-9/11 environment, people want to travel someplace where they feel safe. We are giving them a great reason to go to Australia."


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|It's not easy. But done right, a name change can spell a fresh lease of life for most companies.|
|It's ironic that on the day after UTI Bank "" the fifth largest Indian bank by market capitalisation (Rs 21,817 crore as of July 2007) "" officially announced its name change to Axis Bank, a media report announced UTI Bank's inclusion among India's 50 most valuable brands.|
|The study, conducted by London-headquartered global brand valuation firm Brand Finance, valued the brand at Rs 829 crore.|
| "Oh, we knew what we were giving up," says Hemant Kaul, president, retail banking, Axis Bank.|
Kaul is, however, manifestly optimistic about the opportunities provided by a fresh start. A brand health check in February (a bi-annual exercise) revealed that while the UTI brand scored high on customer satisfaction, it scored much lower on brand perception among non-consumers.
"The legacy brand had public sector connotations, which was not entirely healthy for a private sector, board-managed bank," he says.
|That they were anyway required to surrender the UTI brand name to UTI Mutual Fund by January 2008 "" following an impasse over a non-compete clause and joint brand promotion "" was, therefore, probably fortuitous. |
Never mind what Shakespeare said. Anyone who's sweated over a corporate name change can tell you that there's a lot in a name.
|"Sometimes, the value of a brand name can exceed the value of the hard assets," agrees William Lozito, president of Strategic Name Development, a leading, US-based brand naming consultancy. "Take Coca-Cola or GE or Intel; their brand equity is in the billions," he adds.|
| Others share that view. In fact, Samit Sinha, managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting, rarely advises brand name changes. "Corporate brand changes are a drastic measure; there's often too much resonance and tradition with customers," he says.|
Sometimes, a change is inevitable, especially in the case of mergers and acquisitions.
According to proprietary research by Strategic Name Development, M&As accounted for 34 per cent of all name changes among US companies in 2006. There's no corresponding number for corporate name changes in India, but there are enough examples.
|In fact, UTI Bank is the only Indian bank to change its name without undergoing a change in management. Even in 1955, when Imperial Bank became State Bank of India, it was after the Reserve Bank of India acquired a controlling interest.|
|For UTI Bank, a SWOT analysis determined that while the new name should retain the perception of professional and friendly service associated with the legacy brand, it could afford to lose the bureaucratic image.|
|Meeta Malhotra, director of Ray+Keshavan, leading brand identity and design consultants, is an advocate of this middle path. "It's sensible for the new name to leverage existing brand equity as well as support the new vision," she explains.|
|That's exactly what the Aditya Birla group did after it acquired L&T Cement and successfully rechristened the market leader UltraTech.|
|"They wisely decided to mirror the brand DNA in the new name. UltraTech successfully captured the premiumness as well as technical prowess and quality engineering associated with L&T," points out brand consultant Sarvajeet Chandra.|
|New game, new name|
It's not only mergers, of course. Changing business models is the second most common trigger for name changes.
|"When a company's interests expand or narrow, their name often changes to become a more accurate reflection," agrees Lozito.|
|Last year, Apple Computers changed to Apple Inc, as it shifted focus from computers to converged consumer devices.|
|Closer home, Telco became Tata Motors in 2005 to indicate its movement as a company from rail to road: the focus of the company had changed from manufacturing steam locomotive boilers to complete locomotives, trucks and finally passenger cars in 1998.|
| Similarly, in 2001, branding agency Shining Universe was enlisted to transform chemicals company Vam Organics. |
Vam considered a commodity chemicals players; Shining recommended a shift to specialty chemicals.
"We created a new umbrella name Jubilant. 'Organo' connotes life and nature, and 'sys' connotes systems, synthesis and science. Jubilant Organosys positioned the company as climbing the value chain by entering research-based knowledge industries," says Shombit Sengupta, founder, Shining.
|How to do it|
Is a name change a very technical process, then? Not really. "Look at any top 100 brands. Half the company names "" Google, Apple and so on "" are either nonsensical or randomly coined," declares Sinha. Still, as a rule of thumb, most consultants advise keeping the new name short and culturally ambiguous.
|For UTI Bank, "Axis" was selected from a list of over 50 possibilities. Given the bank's growing interests in other Asian markets including Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong, a "global-sounding" name was imperative.|
|Ethnic choices like Unnati and Pragati, otherwise keenly favoured in group polls, were, therefore, axed. The pruned list was then checked for semantics, pronunciation and cultural references.|
|Before deciding on "Axis", for instance, the bank considered opinions from established Jewish banks, given a regrettable reference to the Axis Powers of World War II.|
| "It was one of those 'aha' names," says Sumanto Chattopadhyay, group creative director, O&M Advertising, which holds the Axis Bank account. But it was more than a catchy moniker. |
As P J Nayak, chairman and managing director, Axis Bank, pointed out while announcing the name change, "We hope Axis will denote stability and security just as geometers conceive of an axis as a line of reference around which all else is measured."
It's not enough to just announce a new name, though. What companies need to remember, cautions Sinha, is that for a consumer, when there is a name and visual identity change, the company is perceived as promising something new.
|"You have to be careful, therefore, to not deliver exactly the same experience as before," says Sinha.|
|Chandra quotes the Indian Airlines example: it was rebranded Indian in December 2005 with a new logo, design and livery. The airline's identity hadn't changed for 37 years and the intention, according to a company representative, was to project a younger, more modern and fresher image, ahead of the arrival of new planes and an initial public offering (IPO).|
|"Unfortunately, that brand makeover didn't trickle down to include a refreshing of its services," says Chandra.|
|Old wine, new bottle?|
By that definition, UTI Bank's re-branding is a bit of a paradox, because while the new visual identity begs renewed brand perception, its service proposition is to stay the same. Kaul doesn't agree.
|"We were correcting the earlier mismatch," he says. "Our first concern was to reassure 6.5 million existing customers that besides our name and logo, nothing from our network, our technology platform or our management had changed."|
|Beginning August 1, the marketing machinery for communicating the change to Axis Bank swung into motion. Ubiquitous billboards with striking photographs of identical twins stated "Everything is the same except the name".|
|Viewer reactions to the Axis Bank TVC on YouTube unanimously declare it "eye catching" and "simple".|
|Ironically, this what UTI Bank was most concerned about. "There was a worry that something as serious as financial services was being reduced to such simplicity," says Chattopadhyay.|
|"But people have an innate fascination with twins. And when you combine simplicity of message with an emotional connect, it works."|
|Meanwhile, deliberation on what visual elements of brand identity should be maintained resulted in a new logo derived from the alphabet "A", but which retained the house colour, burgundy.|
|"Legacy issues with visual equity need to be tested carefully because often companies can be quite wrong about what audiences remember about the brand," warns Malhotra.|
|While redesigning Hindustan Unilever's coffee brand Bru, Ray+Keshavan found that the colour green was strongly associated with the brand, so it was retained. On the other hand, while redesigning ACC cement, the consultancy found there was no clear colour association but people remembered the capital letters.|
|The brief from Axis to O&M was clear "" once the communication campaign served its purpose, there would be no more mention of the legacy brand.|
|"The effort was 360 degrees in one short, intensive burst, across mass media, 2,500 ATMs, the internet and mobile channels," reveals Chattopadhyay. While the outdoor media campaign ran for three weeks, the television commercial will be on air a few weeks longer.|
|Meanwhile, O&M has begun work on a subsequent television-led campaign, which will focus on each of the bank's key products, minus the twins. "The consensus was that there needn't be any reinforcement of the change of name," says Chattopadhyay.|
|Lozito supports this, "Our bias is to have a company make a clean, rapid change, and do so in a dramatic way by employing all elements of the marketing mix. In most cases, consumers have a hard time recalling the preceding company name."|
Changing corporate names don't come cheap. Axis Bank is reported to have spent over Rs 50 crore on its rebranding exercise, while Lozito points out that the Cingular-AT&T name change set the company back $2 billion.
|The general consensus among brand consultants about corporate name changes seems to be, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Simply put, it's tough to follow and tough to manage.|
|Kaul doesn't disagree. "Execution was a logistical nightmare," he says. Spread across 96 elements, including cheque books, pay orders, welcome kits, 28 different types of cards, it's an arduous and ongoing process. The cheque books on Kaul's desk still bear the UTI branding. "The last bit of marginal legacy will take a while to phase out," he says.|
|As is usually the case, ultimately, investors just want to see a compelling rationale that "" whatever the company is called "" it can not only make its business work but also net new business. Kaul predicts a 7-8 per cent rise in retail banking business in August.|
|"Registering a name change is easy. Only time will tell if the customer makes the perception move in his mind about brand Axis," speculates Chandra. Would UTI Bank have surrendered the name if it didn't have to? "Hypothetical questions shouldn't be answered," laughs Kaul.|
Arati Menon Carroll |


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Giddings Berries USA in expansion mode
A year after opening its U.S. office in Monterey, CA, Giddings Berries USA continues to expand its presence as it builds out its staff and prepares for increased volume both immediately and over the next several years.
While Santiago, Chile-based Giddings Fruit has had a presence in the United States for a handful of years, it first opened the Monterey office for its U.S. subsidiary in October of 2020 with industry veterans Ian Grigg as the chief operating officer and Helena Beckett as director of sales. In early October, Beckett told The Produce News the U.S. staff now numbers nine with the company in the midst of its organic blueberry season in Peru, which will soon be followed by production from Chile.
Giddings’ production from these two countries is steadily increasing with major volume expansion expected in the near future. “We started with organic blueberries from Peru and Chile, but we are in preparation for much greater supply from other countries,” she said, adding that Giddings is building its North American grower base. The sheer size of the company’s planned berry production in the next few years will be many times greater than that coming from its South American farms.
Moving forward, Giddings Fruit, a vertically integrated company with facilities throughout North and South America, is planning on representing a full line of berries in the United States through its Giddings Berries USA entity. When the Monterey office was opened a year ago, the reasoning was simple: be closer to its customers and simplify the logistics piece.
In early October, Beckett said the firm’s current Peruvian organic blueberry production is in the middle of its season with peak shipments to the U.S. market continuing through mid-November. “This is a good year in terms of both volume and quality,” she said.
On that same day, the company’s first air shipments of organic blueberries from Chile arrived in the United States. Beckett said the bulk of the crop will come via ocean liner with the first arrivals expected around Nov. 1 and continuing well into March of 2022. “We are expecting to have promotable volume of organic blueberries from early November through early December and then again from mid-January to March. We will still have supplies from mid-December to mid-January, but the volume won’t be as great.”
While the company does expect to ship more volume of organic blueberries to the United States this season than it did last year, Beckett said, “the emphasis is on quality not volume,” as it builds its U.S. program.
She said the U.S. appetite for both organic and conventional blueberries continue to expand, especially because of the healthful reputation that blueberries enjoy. While Beckett lamented that the worldwide pandemic is still in our midst, she did say that it has heightened interest in eating healthy, which has helped boost demand for organic blueberries.
The pandemic also continues to disrupt the normal flow of business. The problem with container ships getting unloaded in the side-by-side Los Angeles and Long Beach ports has caused Giddings to shift its incoming West Coast business a bit north to the port of Hueneme near Oxnard, CA. That port has different dimensions, so it has different capabilities. “It can’t take the larger vessels, so it primarily unloads automobiles and produce,” Beckett said, noting that its unload time is only a few days compared to the weeks it is taking in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Giddings also utilizes the East Coast ports of Philadelphia and Miami, giving it several different ports of entry from which to service its customers.
Beckett noted that the pandemic also continues to alter the way produce suppliers are interacting with their customers. As a relatively new company, the Giddings Berries team was very much looking forward to the face-to-face meetings that the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit in New Orleans was sure to supply. “PMA was going to be a huge coming out party for us,” she said. “This is a lost opportunity for us to get in front of our customers and introduce ourselves to others.”
Beckett said the team is anticipating attending one or two additional regional produce shows now that PMA has been canceled. However, she added that the produce industry has become quite adept at using the internet to communicate and she is certain that will continue. “Zoom is an accepted form of communication now,” she said. “Even though we are excited to get back on the road and see customers in person, I don’t think we will be doing that as much… and that is okay. That’s a silver lining, if there is one.”
The Giddings Berries sales executive added that the company fully supports the decision to cancel PMA. She noted it would not have been appropriate to go to New Orleans in light of both the pandemic and the hurricane. But she said that city still needs the economic boost that could have come with the PMA convention. As a company, Giddings is identifying specific non-profits to work with in New Orleans to donate at least some of the dollars it would have spent at the convention.


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According to a poll conducted by Kelton Research, which surveyed customers at Commonwealth Edison and Ameren, only 54% of respondents were aware that they have a choice of which electricity provider to use.
Illinois business customers can save 20-30% on their electric rate -- with no change in reliability or service -- just by choosing a new electric supplier rather than the utility, which will continue to deliver this electricity over the utility's wires. Residential customers can save 10-15%.
Many customers, however, especially among small and medium-sized businesses, are not exercising their right to shop for a lower electric rate despite the thousands of dollars in savings available.
For example, among the smallest businesses in the ComEd service area -- businesses with peak demands under 100 kilowatts like dry cleaners, branch banks, restaurants, and similar storefront establishments -- only 19% of customers have chosen an alternative retail electric supplier.
The Kelton Research survey may provide one clue as to what is keeping customers from taking advantage of these savings. According to the survey, half of customers said that the ease of the shopping process is a primary factor in their decision of whether or not to shop for electricity. Customers may be under the false impression that choosing a lower electric rate -- a new process for most customers -- will be a hassle and confusing.
Fortunately, with the right tools Illinois businesses can quickly and easily find the lowest electric rates in the market.


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The modern smartphone era has lot to offer. The launch of new iPhone 8 and iPhone X earlier this month marked the beginning for upcoming new Smartphones. And the first one in the race is Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL. Mark way for the sequel: Google on Wednesday announced its two new phones in its Pixel series it is follow up devices to last year’s Pixel smart phones.
According to Google CEO Sunder Pichi “It is hard to develop exciting new products based on the hardware alone “. According to Google it is in a transition from a” mobile first” company to an “AI (artificial intelligence)” business.
Like the previous Pixel phone, Google is leveraging the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence” infused with Google Assistant. Real time language translation and object recognition that provides immediate contextual information will going to change everything.
Both the Pixel and Pixel XL will run on latest version of Android i.e. Android 8.0 OREO. the XL has 6 inch pOLED display with an 18:9 display format whereas Pixel 2 comes with 5 inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080*1920 pixels and both the devices are Dust and Water resistant. Both the variant comes with Snapdragon 825 processor with 4 GB ram and comes in two storage variant 64 and 128 GB.
Even though the battery of Google Pixel2 is 2700 mah ,Yet, according to Google new Pixel will feature “all day battery life” with fast charging with a claim of 7 hours in “ 15 minutes” Which is very promising.
Both the version support one lens 12 MP shooter which is very sharp and capable of providing Quality photos and comes with an F/18 aperture . A new Auto focus mechanism is there and is fused with Video stabilization that incorporates both optical and electronic image stabilization, promises to keep the shake out of videos.
In the Announcement event CEO Sunder Pichai promises lots of new features like that of real time photos and real time emoji just like in iPhone X. This is not all of it, Google lens is also fused with AI and when a picture is shot , Google lens will give results based on the object it is pointed at . For example, taking a picture of a dog will tell you what kind of dog it is.
These two Google smart phone will going to give iPhone some hard times, even though iPhone stands out in some better ways like wireless charging and face recognition dot feature will pixel 2 and Pixel XL clearly lacks. Google rather than focused and putting efforts on looks of the phone , Focused on main hardware and machine learning AI functionality of the phone will give rise to the new era. It is clearly indicated that there will be AI and improved camera. These tow phones did look promising but we will soon know how they stand against Apple and Samsung’s top end offering only after its release.


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16 May 2023
Luxury group Prada achieved approximately $1.8 billion (€1.065 billion) in net revenue for the quarter ended March 31, an increase of 22% year on year (YOY), reports Footwearbiz.
The group’s footwear cutting laboratory at its Levanella plant in Arezzo, Tuscany.
Across the board, footwear sales were up 20% on the year previous, bringing in just under $192 million (€176 million) at retail, with leathergoods also rising by 14% as a category. Ready-to-wear collections performed best, however, experiencing group-level growth of 38% YOY over the three months.
Flagship brand Prada brought in 85% of sales, followed by Miu Miu (14%) and Northampton shoemaker Church’s (1%), which the Italy-based group acquired back in 1999.
Asia-Pacific, the company’s largest market by a significant margin, rebounded strongly, Prada said, showing a 22% improvement YOY in terms of retail sales. Chief executive, Andrea Guerra, who officially took the helm on January 26, pointed to the return of Chinese consumer spending following the easing of zero-covid restrictions in December, calling the country a key “engine of growth” in the region.
Broken out separately, Japanese retail sales increased by 55% YOY. Japan is the group’s fourth-largest market, responsible for 12% of sales in the first quarter. Asia-Pacific takes a 38% share of this total, followed by Europe at 27% and the Americas (18%). Middle East-based customers, meanwhile, provided 5% of sales during the period.
The group was up 28% in Europe, 15% in the Middle East and 5% in the Americas.
“Our priority for the year remains increasing store productivity [and] focusing on retail execution,” Mr Guerra added. “We will continue to invest in our brands, our stores and our infrastructure for the growth of tomorrow.”
Prada plans to recruit 400-plus new hires by the close of the year, more than half of which will be trained in shoemaking, leathergoods manufacture and ready-to-wear production by its own academy.


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Finally acknowledging that very few people actually sit in an office chair the way it was designed to be used, Steelcase has created a new chair that caters to all the wacky poses we strike when using various devices. So while the new Gesture can still be used with a traditional keyboard and monitor setup, it's also just as comfy for use with phones and tablets too.
Steelcase claims they studied some 2,000 people and discovered nine new office chair postures born from the way we all use mobile devices now. So to address those new ergonomics, the company designed the Gesture with improved reclining back support, floating arms that provide support while typing or texting, and even a seat that's comfortable to sit on right to the edges. And while the case for an iPad-friendly chair might seem flimsy, Steelcase knows what it's doing; the company already makes the best office chair for your buck.
In other words, instead of locking you into a single specific pose for optimal ergonomics, it's designed to flex and adapt to how people really want to sit throughout the day so they remain comfortable no matter how bizarre their pose. And thankfully the Gesture isn't just some design concept, it will actually be available sometime in the fall for a yet to be revealed price.


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Hong Kong shares to open down 0.1 pct, Belle weak
HONG KONG Jan 4 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares were set to start lower on Friday, with the benchmark Hang Seng Index dragged by a 2.4 percent decline for China-focused footwear retailer Belle International.
The Hang Seng Index was set to open down 0.1 percent at 23,370.4. The China Enterprises Index of the top Chinese listings in Hong Kong was indicated to start flat.
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Summary List Placement
Alexa, Amazon’s smart assistant, can now help you find a COVID-19 vaccine.
Amazon announced on Tuesday that users can now ask Alexa questions like “Alexa, where can I get a COVID vaccine?” or “Alexa, where can I get a COVID vaccine in Seattle?” Alexa will then provide a list of nearby locations offering the vaccine — users can say “Alexa, call the first one,” and the device will connect with that location so users can ask about available appointments.
Alexa, which is built into Amazon’s suite of Echo smart home devices, can also answer questions about vaccine availability and eligibility in over 85 countries and can help users find a nearby COVID testing site.
Over 85 million Americans are now fully vaccinated and roughly 40% of Americans have received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


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Rising costs and delays don't necessarily mean HS2 is failing – an expert in new infrastructure development explains
HiteJinro unionized cargo drivers occupy the company’s HQ during strike
HiteJinro delivery drivers continue with their protest to demand a raise in delivery fees. In the group’s latest strike, it was reported that the workers became more aggressive and occupied the brewing and distiller company’s headquarters in Seoul.
It was added that they hung banners from the building’s rooftop on Tuesday this week after occupying the ground floor. As per The Korea Times, the police said there were more than 70 unionized workers who are members of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity on the scene, and they entered the premises of HiteJinro at 6 a.m.
The authorities said the group’s entry was very sudden and that they have disrupted the flow of work in the lobby. Their action impeded the entrance of employees to the offices, but they managed to get in around 9 a.m.
The most hostile act could be the moment when the delivery drivers threatened to set the rooftop ablaze if the police will stop their protest. As a result, firefighters were called to keep the place safe. They also laid down safety air cushions in front of the HiteJinro headquarters.
The company’s spokesman said that a meeting on how to resolve the issue had been set. The alcoholic beverage maker also announced that there is no shortage of beer or soju as deliveries have resumed.
"We have normalized the delivery of our products, as most truckers came to our company's headquarters building from our factories, where they had been blocking the entrances," the spokesman said.
The delivery drivers started staging their protest against HiteJinro in March. They barricaded the entrances to the company’s production plants in Gyeonggi Province, Cheonju, and North Chungcheong Province. Earlier this month, the group also held a sit-in protest at HiteJinro’s Hongcheon brewery in Gangwon Province.
The management and the drivers could not negotiate as HiteJinro insists that the workers must discuss their issue with Suyang Logistics instead. This is a subsidiary that is wholly owned by the company. As reported in Korea Joongang Daily, HiteJinro is saying this because the drivers were contracted by the logistics firm to work at the firm’s factories.


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How do investors get their information? We review the changing landscape since the tech boom in the 1990’s and take a look at the possibilities for artificial intelligence as mobile apps become yesterday’s news.
For over a hundred years, the newspaper was the go-to medium for stock information. The markets moved slowly, as reaction times were limited by the printing press and the time it took to call your stockbroker. While the Wall Street Journal had 1.7 Million subscribers in 1990, the digital revolution extended the newspaper’s reach to many more.
The internet drastically sped up the velocity of financial markets in the 1990s, with the invention of financial news sites like Yahoo! Finance and CNN Money. Suddenly, investors could view articles pulled from thousands of sources all in one place. This allowed investors to make quick, informed decisions based on a huge database of information. In 2016, Yahoo! Finance generates about 20 million unique monthly visitors, eclipsing the subscriber base of print newspapers during their peak popularity.
Beginning in the mid 2000s, curated news was not enough for savvy investors, who wanted to skip the raw data and seek the wisdom of the crowd through more quantitative insights. This gave rise to crowdsourced sites like Seeking Alpha and StockTwits, which gave unbiased insights into the collective predictions of the investing community, earning the term “social investing” before mainstream social networks were born. Today, these sites cater to a niche market of active traders, and the top 10 crowdsourced investing sites generate approximately 5 million visitors a month.
As mobile smartphones took over the consumer market, the “App” was born, allowing users to access these social and news products from anywhere, and freeing many day traders from their desks. At the same time, mobile trading became increasingly popular, now making up around 20% of all retail investor trades. Today there are hundreds of apps offering investment advice, boasting a combined active user base around 100 million.
In 2016, we look ahead to many promising post-app technologies, as messaging becomes an operating platform of its own with third party integrations, and bots allow users to instantly satisfy their needs with the help of artificial intelligence. Banks and brokerages have shown strong interest in Facebook messenger and Amazon Echo, as they continue to engage with their customers’ daily lives.
It’s an exciting time for the future of financial information, as your financial advisor could be just an instant message, or a voice command away at all times. Notably, while the user-facing technology is changing, the core features of investment information are not. Users demand instant access to earnings ratios, analyst opinions, and other intel on the trajectories of their investments. To make this information actionable, publishers can allow users to dig into their holdings and trade from anywhere.
Once the hype dies down over artificial intelligence, we can expect something even more innovative to take its place as the easiest, most efficient way for retail investors to research and transact. When this happens, trading technologies will be ready to penetrate the new medium for information exchange, as the retail investing market opportunity expands even further.


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Inside Samuel Colt’s 19th Century Tinkerers’ Palace
The National Park Service has awarded a $750,000 grant to historic Colt Park in Hartford, the factory Samuel Colt started in the 1800s to make his iconic gun. But in 2018, being a gun manufacturer is not so easy. Remington Firearms recently filed for bankruptcy. But the making of guns has been an intricate part of our history. Back in the mid-1800s, one gun maker went beyond just the making of firearms. He wanted to create a workplace utopia at his factory in Hartford, Conn.


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Dogecoin price (DOGE) up 700%, launch of the alt season?
A rise in the Dogecoin price is often equated with the launch of the alt season, a period when small cryptocurrencies see their prices rise significantly while the Bitcoin BTC price drops or stagnates.
The dominance of Bitcoin on the crypto market is indeed in sharp decline and should continue to go down, leaving the way open for altcoins which are recovering.
Watching a cryptocurrency like Dogecoin rise so quickly may surprise newcomers to the crypto sphere, yet that is clearly what characterizes this speculative market.
Crypto tokens can indeed gain a lot of value without any real reason or utility of their project, Dogecoin was initially a joke when it was created but the icon of this dog has become one of the symbols of the cryptocurrency market.
Dogecoin is cool as Elon Musk said on Twitter, the CEO of Tesla does indeed like to talk about this cryptocurrency he is fond of from time to time.
Emblematic of this crypto market which can see token prices skyrocket by surprise, the rise in the Dogecoin price therefore seems to give the starting signal for this alt season long awaited by many holders of certain crypto tokens whose price had fallen very low following the bear market which followed the BTC bull run at the end of 2017.
Cryptocurrencies that had lost 90% of their value, like Waltonchain (WTC) to give an example, and some of which will therefore return to their levels at the start of 2018, apart from projects that are definitely dead like Substratum for example.
We can thus notice some slightly forgotten altcoins which are talking about them again as Nano, the Nano price which was still at 1 dollar at the end of 2020 is already above 4 dollars now!
The Digibyte price (DGB) up 25%, another historic token in this market.
The arrival of new traders and investors in the crypto market often results in altcoin prices rising significantly, with newcomers preferring to buy cryptocurrencies whose price seems more attractive than to buy Bitcoin which already seems too expensive.
Individuals will therefore be interested in all these small cryptocurrencies that could become the new Bitcoin or the new Ethereum killer.
We should therefore expect to see the price of certain cryptocurrencies skyrocket in the weeks and months to come if this market continues its upward movement initiated by the rise in the BTC price which reached $42,000 in early 2021.
While DeFi decentralized finance is enjoying some success, we should not underestimate the ability of certain cryptocurrencies that have been present for several years to resurface thanks to the arrival of a new Bitcoin bull run.


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The pieces are starting to fall into place in carmaker Geely's efforts to carve out a stake in China's hotly contested smart car market.
In the biggest development, subsidiary Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology this week acquired control of Alibaba-backed handset firm Meizu for an undisclosed amount.
Xingji Shidai, 79% owned by Geely, is to buy 39% of Meizu from founder Jack Wong and another 27% from Alibaba unit Taobao, the State Administration of Market Regulation revealed Monday.
The specifics are still being negotiated and the deal is still under review by regulators, Reuters said.
Xingji Shidai is backed with a 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) investment from Geely and is targeting sales of 3 million handsets and CNY10 billion in revenue in 2023.
Geely is China's largest privately-held auto company and the owner of European brands such as Lotus, Volvo and Lynk. It sold 1.33 million vehicles last year.
A counter-intuitive move
Its move into handsets is not only counter-intuitive, but runs defiantly against the trend of mobile players like Huawei pushing into smart car solutions or Xiaomi building its own cars outright (see Chinese auto giant Geely plunges into smartphones).
What's more, Meizu is hardly a prize. Once one of China's biggest handset firms, its market share has shrunk to below 1%.
Geely told Reuters in a statement there was a "close connection in technologies" between smart car cockpits and smartphone software.
Chairman Eric Li sees mobile phone technology as an enabler that can build an ecosystem around a rich and convenient in-car experience combined with satellite, 5G and Internet of vehicles connectivity.
As it happens, Geely's smart car platform reached another big milestone early this month with the successful launch of its first nine LEOsats.
Geely is the only Chinese carmaker so far to follow Elon Musk into space. But it's a very different operation from Starlink's global broadband business.
Geely's constellation of up to 240 satellites, built by aerospace affiliate Gee Space, is intended to be a global navigation system, capable of delivering centimeter-level precision.
The company aims to start commercial service in 2026 and extend operations to Belt-Road countries in central Asia and elsewhere.
Geely's hi-tech ambitions are not confined to smart cars. In its other recent initiatives, it has set up a JV with Germany's Volocopter to make air taxis and is investing heavily to achieve self-reliance in chips, batteries and other core tech by 2026.
- Chinese auto giant Geely plunges into smartphones
- SK Holdings and Geely start ignition on EV investment fund
- Huawei's auto business rebounds
— Robert Clark, contributing editor, special to Light Reading


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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have boomed this year, and several investors are on the lookout for the best NFTs to invest in as the ecosystem gains traction.
The explosive growth of the NFT market has opened new investment opportunities in the nascent sector. This article explores some of the best NFTs to invest in for huge profits as the year ends.
1. Decentraland (MANA)
In the world of NFTs and Metaverses, Decentraland has quickly established itself as a prime destination for the virtual reality experience. Based on the Ethereum blockchain, Decentraland allows users to create, share, and monetise content and applications in a decentralised manner.
Decentraland is one of the key cogs in the metaverse discourse and the best NFT to invest in based on the growth trajectory in the past three weeks.
The asset has shown strong bullish potential and broke through the $1.56 resistance price six months ago. Now, the metaverse protocol seems to set new all-time highs (ATHs) almost daily.
Currently, Decentraland’s governance token MANA is trading at $5.1673, up an astonishing 23.67% in the past day and 60% in the last seven days.
This price gain is even more remarkable when considering the year-to-date (YTD) increase of the asset. The YTD increase stands at 6,573.74%, and a 12-month trailing increase of 5560.45% shows that the protocol has been on a tear all year long.
Decentraland’s strong price gains have largely stemmed from the growing use case of the protocol. In the past week, Decentraland welcomed the Government of Barbados into its ecosystem. Yesterday, the protocol also announced a metaverse land purchase worth over $2.4 million by the Metaverse Group and Tokens_com.
This purchase is reportedly the largest metaverse land sale ever, making Decentraland one of the best NFTs to invest in, given the strong potential of the asset.
2. The Sandbox (SAND)
The Sandbox is also a close competitor in the metaverse race, and the asset has proven to be one of the best NFTs to invest in this month. The NFT based protocol, which is set to launch a beta Alpha event at the month, has doubled its November 1 price of $1.57.
The ERC-20 token recently hit a new record value a few hours earlier of $7.22, following surging interest in the digital asset. At press time, The Sandbox’s utility token SAND is still maintaining an uptrend and trades at $6.7553, up 25.96% on the daily trading chart.
Weekly gains of 79.13% show strong bullish backing, while a YTD increase of 18,827.17% indicates that SAND is one of the NFT tokens expected to make a serious upward movement.
The Sandbox team has moved to enable more mainstream adoption of NFTs by partnering with a legacy fintech company, Request Finance, to provide fiat-to-crypto conversion.
According to a tweet on the partnership, Request Finance will process all SAND payments across the network.
3. MyNeighbor Alice (ALICE)
MyNeighbor Alice is one of the best NFTs to invest in this metaverse-centred bullish run. The protocol built on the Ethereum network is an online multiplayer builder game that allows players to buy and own virtual lands, collect and build new projects and connect with others.
The asset slated to launch in Spring of 2022 has been on a tear following a surge in interest. At press time, the ALICE token is trading at $26.33, up 15.32% in the past day.
ALICE has been up 89.82% in the past week with a strong bullish back. This increase puts the digital asset high above the 20-day moving average (MA) support price of $16.36. The 14-day relative strength index (RSI) of 77.62 shows that the digital token is trading in the overbought region.
ALICE’s strong price gains have had little push from the fundamental growth of the ecosystem. The blockchain protocol recently launched an $80 million metaverse grant in collaboration with the Chromia ecosystem, and this project is expected to spur more interest in NFTs and the metaverse.
4. Axie Infinity (AXS)
Axie Infinity remains the star of the show in the blockchain game niche. Axie Infinity which was launched in 2018, is a play-to-earn (P2E) gaming platform that has taken the crypto world by storm.
The appeal largely lies in the fact that players become partial owners of the game through their ownership of NFTs called Axies. Each Axie comes with unique features that players can upgrade after every successful battle with experience points (XPs).
The Axie Infinity protocol has shown strong bullish potential and has surged 26,459.48% YTD, detailing that AXS is one of the best NFTs to invest in.
The digital token is trading at $142.98, up 6.04% in the last 24 hours. However, AXS is trading slightly above the 20-day MA price of $142.26, indicating a growing bullish sentiment. Axie Infinity’s Ronin Chain recently integrated with Covalent, a blockchain-focused firm.
5. Enjin Coin (ENJ)
The Enjin network has remained one of the best NFTs to invest in, given the protocol’s strong appeal to gamers. The asset which enables an interconnected ecosystem where users can easily create websites, clans, and trade in-game has been on a tear lately.
The low-cost protocol has spiked up 14.14% and currently trades at $4.390, reflecting a growing bullish backing. Weekly gains are even more impressive at 45.59%, with a YTD increase of 3,282.14%, showing a steady climb in its value.
Enjin’s recent climb in price has been through a strategic move into the popular heterogeneous network Polkadot. In a November 19 tweet, the Enjin network announced a crowload for launching as a parachain on the Polkadot ecosystem. According to the tweet, stakers will be rewarded limited edition NFTs and share 10% of the EFI token supply.


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Non-Invasive Optical Oxygen Analyzers and Permeation Testing Solutions
OxySense is the international leader in optical oxygen sensor systems for the packaging, packing and processing...
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Lion Precision, a leading manufacturer of clear label sensing devices, has launched its latest label sensor called the LRD8200.
The advanced sensor employs a unique technology which can be deployed...
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Peratech, the innovators in touch technology, has developed an ultra-sensitive sensor using its award winning QTC™ technology. Quantum Tunnelling Composite material changes its resistance when...
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Sick has manufactured the W18 photoelectric sensor for the purpose of identifying various targets such as clear PET containers for Hartness’ GlobalShrink TFS machine. The W18 photoelectric...
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Lion Precision, maker of the world’s first clear label sensor, has released its newest label sensor, the LRD8200. The new sensor uses a different technology that works equally well with all...
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Keyence’s LK-G portfolio of Laser Displacement Sensors has combined accuracy, high resolution and more than 7” long range for providing top grade measurement performance. Its measurement...
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Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions, Inc. (TAOS) has recently launched its initial range of state-of-the-art proximity detection and digital ambient light sensors (ALS).
TAOS, a leading...
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BinMaster’s new line of compact non-contact radar – aka CNCR – level sensors puts 80 GHz of precision to work measuring simple and aggressive liquids.
Small in stature, but big...
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Although red laser triangulation displacement sensors have been in use for more than 20 years, blue laser versions are also now available. Before selecting which colour to use, it is important to...
News - 19 Feb 2018
A new type of malleable, fully recyclable, and self-healing “electronic skin” has been developed by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder). The device could be...


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Webinar / Smart Appliances: Industry Forecast to 2020
Smart Appliances: Industry Forecast to 2020
Wednesday, November 30 at 9 a.m. CST / 3 p.m. GMT
While developments in connected appliances are still nascent, the growth momentum is expected to pick up strongly around the world in the next years. Connected appliances will not only offer tangible benefits to consumers but also create significant opportunities for other industries such as retailing, home care and packaged food.


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IoT devices seem to be ubiquitous, but the truth is we’re not nearly there yet. In fact, IoT Analytics continues to predict steady growth as the future for IoT for years to come, with more than 27 billion devices online by 2025.
They’re not alone in their bullish IoT predictions either. MarketsAndMarkets projects the global IoT market will more than double from 2021 to 2026, growing from just over $300 billion to over $650 billion.
We’re seeing several trends influence this growth. First, the IoT market has matured to the point where regulations and standards are emerging to cope. Second, Moore’s Law isn’t dead, and IoT devices continue to get more powerful and efficient. Finally, other technologies that complement IoT, like AI/ML, 5G, and SD-WAN, are also coming into their own.
In the sections below, we’ll drill down and look at five specific trends to understand what the future of IoT looks like.
Trend #1: Growing IoT security and regulation requirements
As the IoT market matures, we’re seeing more legislation around the security of IoT devices. California’s SB-327, a.k.a. “The Default Password” law, is one early example. The idea behind SB-327 and other comparable legislation is simple: default passwords = easy-to-compromise devices. The law requires passwords on any network-connected devices, including IoT devices, to be either unique or force a change on initial login. While SB-327 is California legislation, in practice it tends to impact all of the U.S.—since the same devices sold to California residents are usually sold to the rest of the nation (and beyond).
By requiring manufacturers to create unique passwords per device or force a change on login, the law makes it harder for botnets to grow. This doesn’t change much for admins that we’re already changing their default passwords (you are already changing your default passwords, right?!). For admins that weren’t, expect to have password changes forced upon you as you deploy new IoT devices.
This is seen as more of a bellwether event than an anomaly, as similar legislation is cropping up across the globe. In the United Kingdom, the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill (PSTI) addresses many of the same points as SB-327. Even non-governmental agencies like the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) are prioritizing cybersecurity. The IMDRF has made managing medical device cybersecurity risks critical pieces of their 2021-2025 strategic plan, which is likely to influence what’s to come specifically for IoMT security.
Beyond default passwords, there’s also plenty of activity related to data privacy and data security in the IoT world as well. Compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and PIPEDA has long been a requirement in modern networks, and security and data privacy best practices for IoT are catching up. Case-in-point: an EU Radio Equipment Directive update adds requirements for wireless devices to better protect consumer privacy.
Frankly, keeping up with all the nuances of legislation across industries and borders can be difficult. So, let’s boil this down to what practical impacts network engineers can expect to see in managing their IoT device networks:
- Encryption everywhere. Hopefully, this one is already a standard for you. But if it’s not, expect regulations and default device configurations to push you towards encryption throughout the 2020s (e.g., HTTPS instead of HTTP, SNMP v3 instead of v1/v2c, MQTTS instead of MQTT, etc.).
- Certificate-based authentication. Passwords are a bit of a necessary evil in IT. They have their flaws, but the industry hasn’t delivered a great way to get rid of them. Certificate-based authentication helps us (somewhat) move away from password-based authentication, and many smart device manufacturers already use technologies like PKI and X.509 certificates.
- More IoT security standardization. Some of the security innovations in IoT are going to mean more work for IT. The curveballs encryption can throw into network discovery, monitoring, and packet inspection for IoT visibility are prime examples. However, we’re also seeing more authoritative standards and best practices emerge. Today, the NIST Cybersecurity for IoT Program and ENISA’s Good Practices for Security of IoT are good starting points if you’re just learning about IoT security, and we’re likely to see more standardization rolling out soon.
Trend #2: IoT will get edgier
Since this is an article about network trends, we’re obligated to mention the edge (and we’re sure this is the first you’re hearing of it 😉). But there is some legitimate substance behind all the edge hype.
From smart cities to wearables, and manufacturing, there’s a persuasive argument for processing data as close to the source as possible. And fortunately, IoT devices (the source in this case) are getting more efficient at processing data. At the same time, 5G is emerging as a high-throughput transport mode for IoT data, and SD-WAN enables agile network routing. All this comes together to create a reality where use cases previously constrained by bandwidth, processing power, or network agility will all become possible.
Many of these distributed low-latency examples fall under the umbrella of multi-access edge computing (MEC). Practical examples of MEC applications include fleet management for autonomous vehicles, traffic management, and richer augmented reality experiences for everything from ads to games (like Pokemon Go).
For network managers, supporting these edge use cases will require a more dynamic approach to network infrastructure, IP address management (or even just finding IP addresses in an IoT network), and performance monitoring. Not only are there more endpoints to manage, but IoT endpoints can be mobile, and, with SD-WAN, the underlying transport medium connecting them can vary.
Trend #3: IoT marketplaces will continue to grow
For IoT deployments, getting the implementation specifics right can be tricky. No single IT team can be expert-level in all the specifics across different use cases. The requirements for an industrial application are different from wearables, which are different from smart medical devices.
IoT marketplaces address this challenge by providing a centralized list of solutions for specific applications. Today, marketplaces are already making it easier to deploy production-grade IoT systems. A few examples include:
- Cloud providers like AWS have ready-made IoT cloud solutions
- Telcos like AT&T have begun creating IoT-focused marketplaces to provide a central location to find everything from IoT hardware to development kits
- Third-party sites IoT Marketplace provides a variety of solutions across 20+ verticals, and includes partners like AWS, IBM Cloud, and The Things Network
These marketplaces help take the complexity out of building IoT systems by allowing administrators to avoid reinventing the wheel. Instead of piecing together hardware, software, and connectivity solutions from scratch, curated kits help you hit the ground running.
While fully turnkey solutions aren’t yet practical for most cases, marketplaces remove a lot of the initial friction from solution design and deployment.
Trend #4: IoT and AI
AIoT is the relevant buzzword here, but we’ll keep it focused on the tech. Fundamentally, most IoT deployments are about analyzing data to make better-informed decisions. AI and ML can drastically improve the analytics process, and learn from the IoT data they generate.
While this may eventually lead to Skynet becoming self-aware in the long term, there is a lot of potential for good in the medium term (just kidding).
Some of the most exciting emerging AI and IoT trends emerging include:
- Visual inspections. We’re getting to the point where IoT systems can aggregate enough high-quality data using ML and computer vision for use cases like visual inspection: looking for damages to packages or product defects.
- Traffic management. IoT that leverages AI is a big part of smart city applications, and traffic management is a great example. With a plan to combine CCTV with AI and IoT in their traffic management system, New Delhi, India is one of the early adopters. In the years to come, expect to see more and more cities following suit.
- Advanced wearable tech. Augmenting existing wearables with more intelligence increases possibilities for applications in industries including health, fitness, education, and more. Applying AI and ML to biometric data can improve the quality of insights on everything from a workout routine to the effectiveness of medical treatment. In education IT, AI can make game-based learning and AR/VR experiences more immersive.
A big networking challenge for AI and IoT is ensuring network throughput and performance is sufficient to support data transmissions in near real-time. Proactive network monitoring and granular network visibility are key.
Trend #5: The rise of smart industry
If you needed words like Industry 4.0, IIoT, and Smart Industry to complete your buzzword bingo card, congrats! Smart industry use cases have been ramping up for years, and we can expect them to continue to do so throughout the 2020s.
Some of the textbook smart industry use cases are:
- Predictive maintenance. Smart sensors can help plant managers be proactive about maintaining expensive factory equipment. Just how much of an impact can IoT have? A McKinsey Digital article reports sensor data can cut unplanned downtime in half, and reduce maintenance costs by up to 40%.
- Making equipment utilization more efficient. IIoT gives plant managers better production visibility. This, in turn, enables more efficient load balancing across equipment and plants, and even when and where to identify opportunities for better, more sustainable, and more efficient ice cream-making options.
- Improving supply chain management. IoT can optimize multiple aspects of supply chains. The right network of sensors helps reduce waste by ensuring products are shipped and stored in suitable environmental conditions, streamlining inventory management workflows, and optimizing transportation operations.
In all of these cases, it’s easy to draw a straight line between IIoT and business benefits. Expect to see proliferation, iteration, and improvement across nearly every facet of industrial production. Supply chains in particular are likely to see significant innovation in the years to come because we’re at a fascinating point in their history. In addition to technology reaching a tipping point, the industry is learning how to adapt to recent shortages that flipped “just-in-time” assumptions on their head.
The network as an enabler of IoT
One thing all these IoT trends have in common is connectivity. In particular, these new waves of IoT will tax networks and those that maintain them, like never before. If you’re not sure where to start, an IoT checklist is a great first step in preparing your network for the demands of IoT.
If you’re looking for a network monitoring and management solution to help, Auvik supports over 15,000 devices from over 700 different vendors.


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The Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice series started off with a great first lecture in the new term, given by Erinch Sahan of the World Fair Trade Organisation. During the 90-minute lecture, Erinch discussed the question of whether business can be more than a profit maximiser. In this article, two of the Department’s students share their thoughts about the lecture with us.
The business of business is business. But is it though? Famous economist Milton Friedman wrote in an article that the only social responsibility a business bears is to increase profits for shareholders. Of course, this was back in the 1970s and a lot of organizations have clearly extended the very definition of social responsibility since then.
Today, global income inequality still remains a major problem, arguably caused by globalization and offshoring. It is also a time where we seriously need to think about the impact we have on our planet. The rise of CSR projects and green initiatives undertaken by corporations has become much more prominent, but can the very nature of business be conscious of the environment and disadvantaged communities whilst not compromising potential profit maximization opportunities?
A lot of these questions were addressed last week at the lecture given by Erinch Sahan who currently serves as the chief executive of the World Fair Trade Organization.
The WFTO is a global community of Fair Trade Enterprises with over 400 members across 70 countries. Member organizations believe in the changes of supply chain management in favor of creating more equity and justice within international trading structures. Overall, the organization aims to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged communities in developing countries by creating a fairer and more inclusive way of doing business that benefits all stakeholders.
Throughout the lecture, Sahan touched upon a wide array of subjects, such as addressing the question of whether there is a business case for CSR, which still a lot of CEOs don’t believe exists. He briefly also addressed the current state of business and how we are severely operating outside of our planetary boundaries. Unsurprisingly, he used Kate Raworth’s concept of the “Doughnut” from her book “Doughnut Economics”, something I personally thought was quite cool since not too long ago she gave a lecture on the very same topic in one of our Cutting Edge Lecture series.
Looking at the state of business today, there’s a clear trend towards being more environmentally and socially conscious when making business decisions, however; organizations, especially publicly traded corporations have the fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to maximize profits – which most of the time can come at the cost of the planet or marginalized communities. To truly change the trajectory of doing business towards a more responsible and inclusive way, Sahan stated that the very meaning of shareholder value and the concept of win-win needs to be addressed and possibly changed. What is a win-win situation? How do we define a win? Once we find new answers to these moral and perhaps philosophical questions, we might be able to not just think within monetary terms but also include social and ecological well-being into the equation of shareholder value.
Sidney Trompell is an MSc African Development candidate at the LSE. In the past he has worked on various entrepreneurial projects within Kenya and the UK. He is interested in how productive entrepreneurship can positively affect political institutions within East Africa.
The primary objective of the private sector has been to maximise profit. This logic has defined the mission and operation of firms. As a result, they have not taken into account their impact on inequality, ecological crises, poverty wages, consumers, the community and the global economy. Erinch Sahan gave an engaging talk about this topic, beginning with the problem of what causes it, explaining the possible solutions and ending his lecture with some examples of fair trade companies.
According to Erinch Sahan, income inequality is the main problem. While productivity has grown, wages have not increased at the same rate. Those who own the capital are able to extract the value and accumulate it. The working force does not have the opportunity to get part of the profit. Having money makes more money than working. While in the 1970s shareholders got 10% of profits, nowadays they get 70%. As a result, inequality increases, creating instabilities and injustice.
The causes, as presented by Erich, have been that governments fail to regulate, consumers want cheaper goods and services, unions have lost power, and there is a lack of diversity in companies’ leadership. Additionally, there is less competition because corporations are getting bigger and concentrate a lot of power, while shareholders and CEOs are inactive.
This can be solved by changing the DNA of corporations. The mission of firms should go beyond profit maximisation. We can suggest to investors to run a different business model in order to have a different and better economy. They can win more if they solve problems like poverty, hunger and inequality. Alternative business models are on the rise. They are more diverse with regards to gender and play an active role in solving the big problems of society because their mission is to benefit the people, the environment and the community as a whole.
The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) is a movement promoting Fair Trade Enterprises which have as their mission to put people and the planet first, as opposed to maximizing profit. It involves changing the structure, purpose, behaviour and impact of the private sector. The effect is what really matters. The mission and structure of corporations should have a positive impact on people and the environment. Erinch Sahan suggested that the business DNA can be changed if the community is involved in the decisions companies make, workers and farmers are represented in the board of managers, profits go to social programs as well as workers or farmers, and if there are collective ownership and legal frameworks that support these changes.
At the end of the talk, Erich presented interesting firms from each continent that support fair trade. As examples, he mentioned El Puente from Germany, Cojolya from Guatemala, and Selyn from Sri Lanka. An inspiring message was that we can live in a different and better world if companies think differently, as these companies have changed the lives of many people by making more room for positive impact in a changing world, and we can help to promote it.
Enrique Forero is an MSc Development Studies candidate. He graduated from economics and industrial engineering. Given that he has worked in promoting innovation, investment and exports, his research interest is on these topics and their impact on development.
On Friday, 25 January, Claire Hutchings from Oxford Policy Management will be giving a talk on “Counting what counts: The art and science of measurement in aid and development”. The lecture takes place from 4-6pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre in the New Academic Building. The series is open to LSE Students and Faculty. Other external guests should visit https://bit.ly/2AxvWVG to reserve a seat.
The views expressed in this post are those of the author and in no way reflect those of the International Development LSE blog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.


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The dairy industry is ever changing, and there is constantly news being thrown at us in all different directions. Our weekly dairy market insights newsletter is curated by the Crops Growers dairy and livestock team to keep you up to date on markets and current events impacting your dairy operation.
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November 16, 2021
Farm Credit East, along with more than 80 sponsors, contributed to this year's Northeast Dairy Challenge. The program engages students with a holistic, on-farm experience to put their ag education and communication skills to the test.
October 19, 2021
When Farm Credit East's 2021 interns signed their offer letters, there was still a chance the internship would be virtual. Farm Credit East ultimately decided that internships could be completed in-office, which was a breath of fresh air to this group of interns. Today, on National Intern Day, read about the relationships built, training gained and their 2021 summer intern experience.
July 29, 2021
In the Northeast, there is no shortage of fresh food grown locally. What’s your favorite summertime farm product? Let us know in the comments below and visit our Farm Fresh Guide to find out where to buy your favorite farm fresh products all summer long.
June 22, 2021


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This Infographic Explains The Patent War Between Apple And Samsung
When I was a teenager I used to work at the electronics department at the local Sears store in my neighborhood mall. Now, before you start making fun of me, I’d like to say that I learned a lot about electronics and technology while working there.
Back then, HDTVs had barely begun to surface and placed on the sales room floor. The latest video camera technology for camcorders used mini DV cassettes. The most advanced landline phones consisted of a 2.4 GHz frequency and a basic LCD interface controlled by handset buttons.
Today, touch screen buttons seem to be the popular option for modifying settings on any device. This modern way of interacting with devices leaves little room diversity. After all, there’s only so many unique ways of touching a screen to select an option.
This brings us to the current patent war between two big corporations. It is no surprise to anyone that Apple and Samsung are rivals. The duo have been involved in lawsuits in many different countries worldwide. Although the majority of courts have sided with Apple, the war is far from over. So who is copying whom?
Check out the infographic we’ve included below. The folks at MBA have organized a chart to uncomplicate the complicated patent war between Apple and Samsung. Lawsuits are flying back and forth like a high-school cafeteria food fight.
Yes, the war so far has been messy. Apple has been able to successfully block the Samsung Galaxy tablet from being sold in the Netherlands, Germany and Australia (at least for a while). Meanwhile, Samsung has been able to force Apple to hand over the iPhone 4S source code coding, which includes the current beta Siri technology.
Long story short: Apple claims Samsung is blatantly copying their iPhone and iPad designs. Samsung, on the other hand, claims that Apple cannot claim copyrights and patents on certain basic functions for any device. On a side note, Apple submitted suggestions on how Samsung can make their own original devices. Ouch!
The patent war between Apple and Samsung is far from over. Both companies are standing strongly to their grounds. Who will win the patent war after all is said and done? The fate of each company depends on the courts now.


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Global automaker giant Toyota announced its continued investment in the alliance with another Japanese company, Subaru. The duo first joined forces in 2005 and recently announced that they will build electric vehicles together.
Earlier in 2019, the company disclosed in June that they have agreed to jointly develop a platform dedicated to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and to jointly develop a BEV model, both of which will employ Subaru's AWD technologies and Toyota's vehicle electrification technologies.
The agreement in 2005 between the two saw Subaru build Toyota vehicles and Toyota supplying vehicles to Subaru, and of course the development of the rear-wheel-drive Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ sports cars.
A worker of Fuji Heavy Industries assembles a car on the production line of Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 at Subaru's Gunma main plant in Ota-city, Gunma prefecture on March 16, 2012. AFP / Kazuhiro Nogikazuhiro Nogi
Here are four things the companies plan to do in the future:
1. Bringing together both companies' strengths to jointly develop all-wheel-drive models.
2. Joint development of the next-generation 86 and BRZ.
3. Following the Crosstrek Hybrid, expanding use of Toyota's hybrid system in other Subaru models.
4. Cooperation in the domain of connected vehicles and technical collaboration in the field of autonomous driving.