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That bit of unsettling news isn't something shoppers would likely see advertised in stores. Rather, it took some sleuthing by a nutritionist who was researching an upcoming book to find out how "fresh" spinach in a bag really is.
"It took quite a long time to find anyone who would divulge that piece of information. And I could see why," said Marion Nestle, scientist, New York University professor and author of "Food Politics" and the new tome, "What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating," which is due to come out May 2. Nestle spoke here this week about food politics in the United States, as part of San Francisco's City Arts and Lectures series.
Without a doubt, people love to eat. What's less enjoyable for many health-conscious consumers is the confusion and anxiety brought on by deciding what--and how much--food to eat. From carbohydrates and trans-fats to antioxidants and mercury, most people are baffled trying to identify what a truly "healthy" lifestyle is. The details of diseases, ingredients and nutrients seem to change weekly, based on new diet fads or research studies. Food labeling alone is enough to make people's head spin. Eggs, for example, can be conventional, brown or white, locally grown, organic or "United Egg Producers Certified," not to mention the various brands under which they are sold.
So who benefits from this confusion about nutrition and health? Nestle argues in her book "What to Eat" that the food, restaurant, fast-food, diet, health-club, drug and health-care industries all benefit most. For the health-care industry, for example, it would cost more to provide preventive services for an entire population than to pay for treatment for a smaller population that becomes ill, according to her book, which cites economic studies.
All this boils down to food politics. Under a government Nestle described as "corporate friendly" and having a closed approach to food safety and related problems, researching details about the food supply in the United States can be tough.
Yet the food supply and its politics may be more important than ever as the nation grapples with an epidemic of childhood obesity and threats of. Potential threats to the food and water supply through bioterrorism is another significant worry.
Obesity is, by far, America's biggest problem in food politics, Nestle said. Curbing the amount of food people eat is an uphill battle because the food industry constantly pushes consumers to eat more, not less, she said.
"The deep dark secret of American agriculture (revealed only by agricultural economists behind closed doors)," Nestle writes, "is that there is far too much food available--3,900 calories per day for every man, woman and child in the country, whereas the average adult needs only a bit more than half that amount, and children much less."
As a result, the food industry--worth almost a trillion dollars annually--makes food more convenient (already washed, prepackaged spinach, for example), served in larger portions, easier to access and cheaper so that people will eat and buy more. In this regard, the food industry's goal of making profits can be diametrically opposed to a consumer's goal of being healthy, according to Nestle.
Visiting the San Francisco Bay Area to promote her new book and act as guest professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Nestle contends that if people want to protect the integrity of the food supply in the U.S. and abroad, they must get involved with the legislative process and "vote with their forks."
"When you choose organics, you are voting for a planet with fewer pesticides, richer soil and cleaner water supplies--all better in the long run. When you choose locally grown produce, you're voting for conservation of fuel resources and the economic viability of local communities," she wrote.
Yet even organics face political turmoil.
To get a certified organic seal, a food producer must follow a phonebook-thick set of rules set by the Department of Agriculture, Nestle said. Among those rules, the food cannot be grown with chemical pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or chemical fertilizers. After interviewing a range of inspectors, food producers and suppliers, she said certified organic producers largely follow the letter of the rules, with few breaking them purposely.
Yet the certified organic rules are under constant attack by Congress and big organics--the companies that entered the organic business because they can charge more for the foods, she said. Those parties want to weaken the rules by adding chemicals to organic food but keep the same label, Nestle said.
"We need to keep organic standards free from the influence of big business. I can tell you it's not going to be easy to do," she said.
Is organic food healthier?
Nestle said that, without a doubt, if food is labeled "certified organic," it's better for consumers and for the planet.
Yet many people can't afford the higher price that comes with certified organic foods. Milk, for example, is a staple food, but can cost double the price if it's certified organic. (She also says that grocery store marketers put milk in the back of the store so that people buy things they see in the aisles.)Conventional milk, however, can contain cow growth hormones such as bovine somatotropin (bST), which is genetically engineered, as well as antibiotics injected to protect overcrowded cows from getting sick.
Nestle said that if a consumer can afford no other organic products, organic milk should be the priority.
One ray of hope for U.S. food politics is what Nestle described as a "grassroots social movement" in communities around the country, aimed at counteracting child obesity and the phenomenon of buying foods from across the country when those same foods are farmed locally. One example she cited was the famous chef Alice Water's program "Edible Schoolyard," in which adults teach kids to cook from a local garden.
Outside of paying attention to politics, Nestle advises that people simply, "eat less, move more, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and go easy on the junk funks."
As for the leafy greens: "In Manhattan, I would not buy spinach in a bag," she said. "If you hold it up to the light, you can see the slime on it."


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THE PHILIPPINES is moving to expand the reach of its products, setting its sights on Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, the Department of Trade and Industry said in a statement on Thursday.
The government has been setting outbound business matching missions (OBMM) with countries where it has spotted trade potentials.
The department said it recently concluded an OBMM in Mexico and is scheduling more sessions in India, Bangladesh, Russia, Egypt and Ethiopia.
“These markets were chosen based on the country’s economic growth, gross domestic product per capita, population, ease of doing business, political climate, and the Philippines’ trade and foreign policy directives,” it said.
At a March 5-7 trade fair in Guadalajara, Mexico, the department said Filipino exporters got the chance to introduce local products to the biggest trade show in that country.
The department noted that Mexico has the biggest consumer potential in Latin America, as its food and beverage consumption is projected to grow by 15% next year.
In a separate statement, the department said it organized one-on-one meetings for 15 Philippine exporters with an Argentinian businessmen earlier this month.
Aside from Mexico, business matching missions are also under way in Mumbai, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh which will run until Sept. 4.
The Philippines’ bilateral trade with India was worth $2.28 billion last year, making the regional giant the Philippines’ 15th trading partner, 16th export market and 14th import supplier. The Philippines had a $1.2-billion trade deficit with India, hence, “it is beneficial to boost exports in India’s growing market,” the department said in its statement.
Bangladesh was the Philippines’ 56th trading partner, 62nd export market and 50th import supplier last year. The Philippines exported $20.3 million to and imported $38.9 million from the South Asian country last year.
For next quarter, the department said it has lined up business matching missions in Ethiopia and Egypt, as well as trade missions to South Africa, Mozambique and other key African markets.
Philippine Statistics Authority data showed merchandise export sales contracting by 0.82% to $34.113 billion last semester from $34.397 billion a year ago, and import bill dropping by 0.959% to $53.117 billion from $53.632 billion in the same periods. — Denise A. Valdez

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Google's Eric Schmidt predicts the future of computing - and he plans to be involved. Everything You Need To Know About Larry Page, Google's New CEO. Google Source: Page's Ascent Could Threaten Google Sales Boss Nikesh Arora. Meet Google's New Global Sales Boss, Nikesh Arora. Google Eyes Mobile As The Key To 2011: Tech News and Analysis « Google is driven by search and has dreams of driverless cars, fiber to the home networks and other innovations.
But the company believes this year’s immediate strategic initiatives are all about mobile, according to CEO Eric Schmidt. Writing in Harvard Business Review, Schmidt said 2011 comes down to three priorities for Google: developing fast wireless networks, building up mobile payments and increasing the number of inexpensive smartphones around the world. These initiatives by themselves aren’t surprising if you’ve been following along.
But with Schmidt explicitly saying these are the main priorities for Google this year, it puts its various mobile efforts in better context. And it shows how much Google plans on competing in the coming years in mobile. Schmidt says Google needs to focus on developing fast networks like LTE, which are capable of 8-10 megabits per second download speeds, a 10x leap over 3G. Google has already seen a lot of success with its mobile efforts. Google CEO Eric Schmidt to step down, co-founder Larry Page to take over [Updated] Google's Eric Schmidt is stepping aside as chief executive in April, and co-founder Larry Page is taking over, the company said before its earnings statement Thursday.
"Google also announced that its board of directors had approved certain changes to Google's management team," the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, will become Google's chief executive officer, effective April 4, 2011. "Eric Schmidt, Google's current chief executive officer, will continue as the chairman of the board of directors and will serve as Google's executive chairman.
" As executive chairman, Google said, Schmidt will act as an advisor to Page and Sergey Brin, Google's other co-founder and president of technology. Schmidt will also assist with Page's transition to CEO. [Updated 2:17 p.m.: Schmidt and Page commented on the leadership changes in a statement announcing the company's fourth quarter 2010 earnings. The New York Times. News Desk: Why Is Eric Schmidt Stepping Down at Google? Was Eric Schmidt pushed or did he jump?
Both. According to close advisors, the Google C.E.O. was upset a year ago when co-founder Larry Page sided with his founding partner, Sergey Brin, to withdraw censored searches from China. Schmidt did not hide his belief that Google should stay in the world’s largest consumer marketplace. It was an indication of the nature of the relationship Schmidt had with the founders that he—as Brian Cashman of the Yankees did this week—acknowledged that the decision was made above his head.
He often joked that he provided “adult supervision,” and was never shy about interrupting the founders at meetings to crystallize a point. He couldn’t. Schmidt leaves behind an extraordinary company, and one that, despite the fact that Facebook is the flavor of the month or year, is producing annual revenues of close to thirty billion dollars (compared to Facebook’s reported two billion dollars).


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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson posted a surprise first-quarter profit on Tuesday, despite supply chain disruption due to the Japan earthquake, and said higher margins had offset lower sales.
Sony Ericsson, owned by Ericsson and Sony Corp., posted pretax profit of 15 million euros ($21.31 million) on sales of 1.1 billion.
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Analysts in a Reuters poll had a mean forecast for a pretax loss of 24 million euros and sales of 1.3 billion.
Sony Ericsson had warned at the end of last year that a lack of new smartphones would make the start of the year tough.


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Operating income was Rs 690 crore in FY 21 compared to Rs 371.7 crore in the previous fiscal year.
Total employee expenses rose to Rs 1,235 crore in FY 21 from Rs 480 crore in FY 20.
Founded in 2015 by former Flipchart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe was acquired by Flipkart in 2016.
In 2018, American retail giant Walmart acquired Flipkart and PhonePe was part of the deal.
In December 2020, the company raised $700 million led by promoters Flipkart and Walmart at a $5.5 billion valuation.
Discover stories that interest you
In addition to funding, the fintech company also said it was splitting from Flipkart Group.
Following the deal, Flipkart continued to own 87% of the company, Walmart held 10%, and existing investors, including New York-based investor Tiger Global Management, retained the remainder.
PhonePe Singapore also raised $66.5M (around Rs 500 crore) in a funding round led by Chinese tech company Tencent Holdings Ltd with participation from Tiger Global, which completed a $700M fundraiser in August 2021.
PhonePe plans to increase its workforce to 5,200 by the end of December 2022 as part of its expansion strategy.


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If they had their druthers, enterprises overwhelmingly would like to see their IT security vendors held accountable for their failures in the event of a costly security breach. According to a new survey out this week, 95% of U.S. companies say they want to see their IT security vendors offer a guarantee on their products and services and 88% say they'd be willing to switch vendors if they could find a competitor who did offer such a guarantee.
Conducted among 500 cybersecurity leaders by Vanson Bourne, the survey was carried out on behalf of SentinelOne to confirm the company's suspicions that customers crave vendors who'll put their money where their mouth is.
"Security vendors are not economically aligned with their customers. From any vendor, you buy a product—firewall, data loss prevention, anti-virus, whatever—and if the product doesn’t work and the customer gets hacked, the vendor suffers no liability as a result," says Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security strategy at SentinelOne, an advanced endpoint protection firm. "We don't see this in any other industry. Not in consumer electronics, not in the clothes we buy, the phones we buy, the watches we buy—nothing. Everything comes with a warranty, a service level agreement or something except in software and security."
Grossman considers himself a passionate supporter of security guarantees. He initially made waves in the industry several years ago when he led the company he previously founded, WhiteHat Security, to offer a money-back guarantee. He says that a big part of the impetus behind his move to SentinelOne following his long run at WhiteHat was its willingness to work with him to develop a guarantee.
"I think security vendors should know full well how well their product performed or not, and if they know their metrics, they should be able to provide some financial incentives for themselves to do a good job and provide that assurance to customers," he says.
SentinelOne kicked off its guarantee program earlier this year, offering customers $1,000 per endpoint with a cap of $1 million if they suffer a ransomware attack. And now Grossman is advocating among his peers in the industry to get them to fall into line, too.
"When I launched the warranty at Black Hat in the summer of this year, I put a call out to the rest of the industry and put them on notice that everybody is eventually going to do this, and if you need help, please ask," he says.
So far, he's had a couple of takers. Most recently was Cymmetria, maker of the MazeRunner Deception Platform. Earlier this month, the firm launched a $1 million guarantee against breaches attributed to the successful lateral movement of advanced persistent threats (APTs).
According to Grossman, guarantees like this should complement a company's solid cybersecurity insurance policy. He likens security guarantees to the relationships between cyberinsurance, car warranties and insurance.
"Our cars carry auto insurance in the event of accidents, and if we get into an accident, the insurance pays off. If, however, your car breaks down, the engine falls out of it or the tire pops, that’s where the manufacturer’s warranty comes in," he says. "While not a perfect corollary, security guarantees by security vendors function more like a warranty and cyber insurance is mostly meant to cover catastrophes."
- Do Security Companies Need to Issue Warranties?
- 10 Things Cyber Insurance Won't Cover
- 12 Tips for Securing Cyber Insurance Coverage


text: If the question of what to eat tends to be a common problem, then Beardstown might be able to make life a bit easier Saturday, when the annual Taste of Beardstown returns to Art Zeeck Park on the downtown square. "We have about 18 vendors that are going to be participating, different restaurants and different food trucks" said Abby Cooper, executive director of Beardstown Main Street. "Different organizations selling food, helping us out." The list of foods to be offered Saturday is long and varied, covering a range from sweet corn to corn dogs, rice and beans, fried bananas, egg rolls and ice cream. "I think we have a nice lineup of food vendors and different types of foods," Cooper said. Along with restaurants, such at RiverTown Coffee and Wine Corner, which will offer sample-size versions of one of its frozen drinks, community organizations such as the Lions Club and Beardstown Fire Department will be selling food, Cooper said. Members of Beardstown's African community will sell rice and beans, fried bananas and other foods traditional to Africa. Other nationalities represented on the menu include American, Filipino, South American and Mexican. Some foods are simply unique to Beardstown, Cooper said. "Food is a uniter, always," Cooper said. "It's a good way to get all of our ethnic communities together and share some food." But organizers are hoping food isn't the only way to participants' hearts, and entertainment is scheduled throughout the day. "We're trying to do a throwback to old-fashioned games," Cooper said. "There's a frog-jumping contest, a watermelon-eating contest, a watermelon seed-spitting contest. We'll also have live music." Bil Kuhn will perform country, blues and folk music, and the band Strange Candy will play pop and rock tunes. The music will begin at 2 p.m. "One really different thing that we're doing this year that we've never really tried before is we have a stand-up comedian coming," Cooper said, explaining that John Evans' family-friendly set begins at 4 p.m. "He's one of those comedians who's really good at interacting with people. He'll probably be here a bit early to walk around and get to know the community" so he can incorporate some local touches into his act. Evans has appeared on NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and on Comedy Central. "Hopefully it goes well," she said. "But we're trying something a little bit different, and we'll see how it goes." Cooper's optimistic that the Taste of Beardstown, which has been popular in past years, will continue that trend. "People know what it is," she said. "It's becoming something people know and expect." Taste of Beardstown runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday on the downtown square in Beardstown. Registration for contests starts at 11 a.m. with the first of the contests starting at 11:30 p.m. Angela Bauer can be reached at 217-408-2057.


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AlsetEhome International Inc (NASDAQ: AEI) seeks to deliver what it regards as the modernistic model housing ecosystem. It is the reason it struck a deal with Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) to serve the Houston area residents with wide-ranging products. The products include Tesla Solar P.V. Roof Panels, E.V. Chargers, and Tesla Powerwall.
The joint move
About 650 homes are set to benefit from the initial stage of the plan. They happen to be homes within areas such as Texas, Magnolia, and north of Houston. It is about embracing a clean energy ecosystem towards enhancing lives.
Most business analysts project that the company will successfully provide what it terms “a model housing ecosystem of the future.”
The dynamics seem rather impressive, considering how more people continue settling for sustainable choices when it gets to the selection of homes. The company outlines that it will continue mobilizing its resources to ensure that customers enjoy easy transitioning. The company also seeks to be one of the significant contributors in propelling the world towards sustainable energy.
Mr. Chan Heng Fai and his take
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AlsetEHome International Inc, Mr. Chan Heng Fai, has spoken about the latest development. This leader discloses the plan to unveil about 5,000 intelligently designed Ehomes soon.
He opines, “We are excited to develop the communities of the future in close collaboration with Tesla. Tesla’s products are not only technologically superior but also aesthetically pleasing. In addition to our rollout in the U.S., we plan to expand our concept on a global scale.”
AlsetEHome Inc continues upholding remarkable performance in developing, selling, managing, and leasing properties spread out across the United States.


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"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys-R-Us kid!"
Who remembers that song?
Today the toy store giant announced they have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The store is struggling with $5 billion in long-term debt.
"The company's approximately 1,600 Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores around the world - the vast majority of which are profitable - are continuing to operate as usual. Customers can also continue to shop for the toy and baby products they are looking for online," the company's statement said.


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Girl Power: Hasbro regains profit on sales of girls’ toys
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PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Hasbro returned to profitability in its first quarter, driven by sales of girls’ toys such as My Little Pony and Nerf Rebelle. The prior-year results were dragged down by restructuring charges.
Its latest earnings topped Wall Street estimates but revenue was short of what analysts expected.
Sales of girls’ products rose 21 per cent. Sales of My Little Pony Equestria Girls dolls also resonated with customers.
The boys’ category reported a 2 per cent increase in sales, helped by Nerf and Marvel products. This was partially offset by weakening Beyblade sales.
Game sales fell 4 per cent, hindered partly by declining sales of trading card game Duel Masters.
Sales of preschool products slipped 4 per cent due to soft sales of core Playskool items.
Sales for the entertainment and licensing division rose 13 per cent thanks to the inclusion of Backflip Studios. International sales increased 5 per cent, led by Europe and Latin America.
In the U.S. and Canada, sales edged down 1 per cent.
The Pawtucket, R.I.-based company earned $32.1 million, or 24 cents per share, for the period ended March 30. That compares with a loss of $6.7 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier.
Stripping out favourable tax adjustments of 10 cents per share, earnings were 14 cents per share.
The year-ago period was pulled down by restructuring charges totalling 14 cents per share. It also had favourable tax adjustments of 4 cents per share a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings for the latest period of 10 cents per share, on average.
Revenue edged up 2 per cent to $679.5 million from $663.7 million, but missed Wall Street’s estimate of $690.1 million.
Last week rival Mattel Inc. reported an unexpected first-quarter loss, hurt by soft Barbie sales and markdowns to clear excess inventory.
Hasbro Inc. shares finished at $54.61 on Friday. Its shares are down slightly so far this year.
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Mattel launches a new- look Barbie at the Nuremberg Toy Fair to help it fight off competition from the likes of Disney and Lego. As Hayley Platt reports the move comes a day after Chief Executive Brian Stockton was removed following a disappointing h


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Hyperledger, the open source blockchain project, has released version 1.0 of its fabric framework. Rather than adding a bevy of new features, 1.0 focuses on better user interfaces and documentation, security, and a little ‘chaos testing.’
Open source projects have spurred rapid innovation in many fields, from operating systems (Unix/Linux), to artificial intelligence toolkits (TensorFlow, Caffe, MLlib), to big data analytics (Apache Spark, Eliasticsearch, Apache Hadoop). Blockchain has proven to be no different. Dozens of companies across industries have come together under a few distinct organizations to collaborate on creating blockchain frameworks that can power new processes or types of businesses.
Now, Hyperledger, the collaborative industry effort backed by The Linux Foundation and with enterprises like IBM, Intel, Change Healthcare, and others, has announced that its Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework has reached version 1.0.
What Hyperleger 1.0 means to you
In software terminology, version “1.0” is generally considered the first “complete” release of the software, in that it contains all the major features and is reliable enough for production environments. By reaching 1.0, the Hyperledger Foundation is essentially positing that its blockchain implementation — now complete with smart contracts that use “chaincode” — is now complete enough for enterprises to start using in earnest.
If you have been watching blockchain frameworks develop from afar, waiting patiently for more maturity and feature-richness, this is a notable signal of production-ready maturity. We can expect companies to start diving in and, at the very least, experimenting with Hyperledger now that the organizers behind it are showing newfound confidence.
[ Related: How to Realize Blockchain’s Potential ]
Still, the Hyperledger team admits that the platform is not done. In a release, the group said, “There’s much that we want to do, including improve delivery of a Byzantine Fault Tolerant orderer capability, explore integration with other Hyperledger projects such as Sawtooth, Iroha, Indy and Burrow, … deliver proper installers for the various development platforms, and much, much more.” They also note the need to improve performance and scalability.
Bringing bugfixes and chaos to Hyperledger Fabric
This new version of Hyperledger Fabric doesn’t come with a bevy of new features. Instead, the maintainers locked down adding new features two months ago so that they could place their focus on testing security, fixing bugs, and “reducing technical debt,” in addition to improving the cosmetics of user interfaces and building better documentation. By adding more tests into their development pipeline, they hope to add to the platform’s overall reliability.
One interesting note is that the hyperledger team wants to add “chaotic testing” to its continuous integration pipeline. This is a technique made popular by Netflix back in 2011 through the use of its “Chaos Monkey” tool, inspired by the idea of, unsurprisingly, “unleashing a wild monkey with a weapon in your data center (or cloud region) to randomly shoot down instances and chew through cables .”
In Netflix’s case, chaotic testing randomly shuts down their production servers to ensure that their infrastructure is fault-tolerant and can automatically work around any issues. Chaos Monkey is now its own tool to shut down virtual machines and containers in an infrastructure to help engineers build more resilient services.
[ Related: IoT and Blockchain: A ‘Gig Economy’ for Machines? ]
Just as with developing more proactive ways to product infrastructures from cybersecurity attacks, chaotic testing will ensure that Hyperledger Fabric can withstand any number of unique and unexpected edge cases that can, and will, arise in production environments.
The potential for ‘mature’ blockchains
Hyperledger has a few competitors in this open source blockchain space, notably Ethereum and Openchain. Even then, many companies with the technical and financial means to roll out blockchain implementations have been hesitant due to the general immaturity of these systems. There are still many challenges, such as weak governance and a lack of understanding into how to handle the infrastructure at scale.
BitCoin is currently dealing with one of those infrastructure issues right now — in an effort to improve performance, the cryptocurrency could actually “fork,” or split into two distinct versions, at the end of July. Clearly, businesses will be looking into how Hyperledger Fabric could avoid these kinds of situations altogether.
Most of the current implementations are focused on banking or other business functions that involve transactions of money or other products, such as global supply chains. Healthcare is following close behind, with many eager to bring medical records and IoT data together to decentralize healthcare interactions, and there is opportunity to improve the car-buying experience with blockchain as well.
Businesses will likely approach even version 1.0 of Hyperledger Fabric with a degree of hesitation, but anyone can now download the source code from GitHub or check out the wiki for details on getting started. Expect to see more experimentation and early implementations in the years to come, particularly among those who are interested in working with a collaborative, open source blockchain project.


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IN A NUTSHELL:
- According to Asus representatives, Nvidia's GPU shipments decreased in the first quarter of this year;
- This may make it even more difficult to purchase a GPU from the company;
- The reason is likely to be the lower-than-expected production capacity at Samsung's factory, which manufactures chips for Nvidia.
During a recent conference with investors, Asus representatives commented on the availability of Nvidia graphics cards (via Tom's Hardware). According to them, shipments of Nvidia's GPUs decreased again in the last quarter, suggesting that acquiring a new GeForce card will continue to be difficult in the near term - perhaps even more difficult than before.
"The most pressing issue for GPUs right now is the shortage of Nvidia's GPUs There was a quarter-over-quarter decrease in shipments [in Q1]. Because of that shortage, we are seeing [graphics cards] price hikes," said Asus' executive.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Nvidia shipped 9.1 million GPUs to the market - about a million more than a year earlier. Unfortunately, in a situation of rapidly growing demand, primarily related to the ongoing pandemic and the surge in cryptocurrency value, this number proved to be insufficient to meet demand.
Asus representatives are convinced that Samsung's factory produces fewer RTX 3000 chips than the Nvidia assumed, which may hinder the improvement of the market situation.
"As for when we will be able to resolve this gap [between supply and demand], it is really hard to tell. Our guess is that the gap might have been caused by lower yields upstream. As for when [Nvidia] can increase that yield is something hard for us to predict," said the executive.
- Nvidia - official website


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Huawei Mate Xs May Launch In India Soon, Company Teases
Huawei Mate Xs foldable phone was officially unveiled back in February as a refresher to the Mate X that was launched in 2019. Now, a month later, the Chinese brand has started teasing the launch of the Huawei Mate Xs in India through the official Huawei India Twitter handle. While detailing the quad-camera details of the phone and 5G capability, Huawei also says that it “is here to unfold a new chapter of smartphones with the #HuaweiMateXs5G.” This suggests the Huawei Mate Xs India launch could be nearing as the company looks to take on foldable phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and the Motorola Razr (2019). Unfortunately, Huawei hasn’t mentioned a timeline or any other specific details about its launch just yet.
Huawei Mate Xs specifications
As for the specifications, the Huawei Mate Xs flaunts an 8-inch main display with 2,480 x 2,200 pixels resolution. This display folds outwards down the middle to offer two displays when folded, a 6.6-inch screen on the front with a 19:5:9 aspect ratio, and a 6.38-inch 25:9 screen on the back that can be used as a viewfinder for selfies. The foldable phone is powered by the Kirin 990 SoC coupled with 8GB RAM and 512GB internal storage. The phone runs Android 10 with EMUI 10 custom skin on top and Huawei Mobile Services.
As for the optics, the Huawei Mate Xs features quad-rear cameras consisting of a 40MP (f/1.8) SuperSensing primary wide sensor, a 16MP ultra-wide-angle lens, an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, and a 3D Time of Flight sensor. The rear cameras also double up as selfie snappers. There is a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for security and a 4,500mAh battery with 55W fast charging support. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, and USB Type-C.
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The New York Times changed its bestseller lists to keep those darned kids from annoying authors of adult fiction. Volumes 4 and above showed that ten-year-olds gladly read books more than twice as long as people expected, and so on.
I thought that the end of the series might mean the end of its disruptions. But the recent release of J. K. Rowling’s digital editions is making the same sort of waves. Not only is she managing those rights herself through her Pottermore site, but her team decided to release the ebooks without digital rights management (DRM) protection.
Mike Shatzkin passes on the results he heard from Charlie Redmayne of Pottermore:
The key to Charlie’s disruption was his willingness to substitute watermarking for DRM. He said it definitely made him nervous to do it, but he couldn’t see any other way to achieve what he wanted for Pottermore. He had to be able to sell to any device; he wanted to be able to allow any purchaser complete interoperability. There was no way to do that and maintain DRM. . . .Shatzkin also reports that major British publishers were saying they might discard DRM as well. Already Tor announced that it would stop using it. Paid Content quoted an anonymous publishing executive saying that he or she now breaks DRM on ebooks. The industry may decide that going DRM-free is the only way to stem the rising flood of Amazon.
Apparently, Potter ebook files started showing up on file-sharing sites pretty much right away after they opened. But before they could serve any takedown notices, Charlie says the community of sharers reacted. They said “C’mon now. Here we have a publisher doing what we’ve been asking for: delivering content DRM-free, across devices, at a reasonable price. And, by the way, don’t you know your file up there on the sharing site is watermarked? They know who you are!” And then the pirated content started being taken down by the community, before Pottermore could react. And very quickly, there were fewer pirated copies out there than before.
Of course, whenever the Harry Potter books shift the ground in publishing, the big question is whether those changes will benefit, or even affect, ordinary titles. Most books don’t have thousands of people lined up to buy them before pub date. Most authors haven’t become richer than the queen of England and therefore able to take chances with their digital domain.


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In recent weeks, the European transport sector has been offering return freight at rock-bottom prices. These are mostly prices that do not nearly cover transportation costs. In some cases, not even the price of diesel. Do these ridiculous prices also plague fruit and vegetable transporters?
"More trucks are off the roads and everyone is looking for work. I, therefore, sometimes come across shockingly low prices," says John Opstal of gebr. Opstal transport in the Netherlands. "We have not noticed this ourselves yet. We specialize in groupage loads going to Belgium and France. We also do airconditioned fruit and vegetable transport. These are less prone to competition than, for example, dry goods transportation. But it must be said that return freight prices have not been in line with the market for a long time already."
The low prices do, however, indirectly affect the sector. The coronavirus outbreak, after all, means there is less freight available. "Some days we have eight trucks on the road to France. And sometimes, half of these are empty on the return leg. I can do a return trip for €200/€300. But if I lose money, I would rather drive back empty. There are, however, other carriers on the market that abuse this situation. They drive for cheaper. I hope my fellow Dutch transporters will not do so," concludes John.
For more information:
Gebr. Opstal Transporten
2665 LP, Bleiswijk, the Netherlands
T: +31 (0) 103 330 228 or +31 (0) 614 680 522


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Apple has announced Apple AirPods that looks very close to EarPods without Wires and comes with its own Charging Pod to give a total of 24 hours battery backup. There are always good number of alternatives available for such accessories. We hand picked few Best Apple AirPods Alternatives for iPhone and Mac computers to help you save some money and experience the best quality as well. The problem with Apple AirPods as many users feel are, it is hard to carry several accessories and protecting them from getting lost.
Apple is very clear about the future being wireless and it has already started it with 12 Inch Macbook Retina announcement last year. By removing the traditional headphone jack from iPhone 7, Apple now has a single Lightning Port connector making it to own the device completely.
There are tons of Bluetooth headphones available in the market from popular brands to compete with the latest Apple AirPods. Keeping battery backup and audio quality as the top priority while choosing a wireless bluetooth headphone, there are very few branded headphones that keep up the promise and provide us quality headphones. That’s why we hand picked few best bluetooth wireless headphones that stands as tough competitors to Apple AirPods in providing excellent audio quality and battery backup.
Apple AirPods are expected to be released by the end of October 2016. If you have decided to go with the Apple’s own pair or wireless headphones, then its a good choice. I won’t say the pricing is too high like other apple accessories. Apple AirPods are priced little higher than the current bluetooth headphones available in the market. The pricing of Apple AirPods is so Apple 🙂 is what i can say.


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Why do food prices increase?
On his blog, Jordan Schwartz, World Bank lead economist for sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean, mentioned several factors that are driving the price increase: speculation in commodity markets, the booming demand from Asia for feed grains and land use switching out from food crops to biofuels, among others.
There is growing consensus that food prices have increased due to fundamental shifts in global supply and demand. A variety of forces contribute to rising food prices: high energy prices, increased income, climate change and the increased production of biofuel. Income and per capita consumption in developing countries has increased; consequently, demand has also risen. Biofuel policies adopted in developed countries also explain the growth in demand.
Furthermore, the food supply has not increased sufficiently at a time when grain reserves are declining and land and water availability for food production has decreased. Changes in food supply and demand have been accompanied by predictable effects in terms of pricing and have been further affected by the rise in the cost of non-renewable resources. In light of the above, the combination of factors driving up food prices has led to a growing consensus that this increase is a structural rather than a cyclical phenomenon.
Today’s high food prices have few precedents. Only in the early 1970s were higher spikes recorded in real prices of grains such as wheat and maize. Food price inflation tends to be accompanied by hikes in energy prices and reduced liquidity in the grain market, such as in the current situation. Grain reserves are at their lowest level in the past 30 years, after the meager wheat harvests of several large-scale producers.
While the region as a whole is a net food exporter, increased food prices negatively affect income, nutrition and health of poor consumers. Even in countries with solid agricultural systems, most people buy their food and thus suffer the consequences of sustained price increases. High-priced food reduces the real income of the most vulnerable populations, with grave consequences for their health and nutrition. Moreover, the rise in food prices and the different trade patterns can combine to generate negative impacts even for food-exporting countries.
Logistic problems drive up food prices
In many Latin American and Caribbean countries, logistic and transport costs have more of an impact than customs duties on the price of commercial trade. The World Bank estimates that logistic expenses account for between 16% and 26% of GDP, and between 18% and 32% of the value of the commodities, compared with about 9% of GDP and commodity value in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In the case of Central American processed goods, the internal logistic burden increases the cost of food commodities with higher unit values by 8% to 15%.
Beginning in 2000, bilateral and regional free trade agreements reduced customs duties worldwide. Nevertheless, freight costs have more than doubled. For large-volume commodities of relatively low value, such as grains and edible oils, shipping and freight costs can increase the final price to the consumer by 30% to 50%.
Food commodities entering a Caribbean or Central American country often are subject to multiple delays, unnecessary direct costs and damages that ultimately hurt consumers. According to the World Bank’s Logistic Performance Index, customs clearance is particularly deficient in the Caribbean, where it normally takes from three to five days (compared with less than a day in Chile and three days in Latin America as a whole). Moreover, in several countries of the two sub-regions, imports take much longer to reach the broker after unloading, particularly in Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica and Panama.
According to Food Price Volatility, a Growing Concern, weather conditions are a leading cause of the July surge in food prices. The drought in the United States – the world’s largest exporter of maize and soybeans – resulted in vast damages to those summer crops. The lack of rain in Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan has contributed to projected wheat production losses.
The abrupt food price increases turned favorable price prospects for the year upside down. World Bank experts do not currently foresee a repeat of 2008; however, negative factors – such as exporters pursuing panic policies, a severe El Nino, disappointing southern hemisphere crops, or strong increases in energy prices – could cause significant further grain prices hikes such as those experienced four years ago.


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The FINANCIAL — McDonald’s Corporation on April 25 announced results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017.
“Our efforts to build a better McDonald’s are yielding meaningful results with continued positive momentum and a strong start to 2017 that includes positive comparable sales across all segments, higher global guest counts and enhanced profitability,” said McDonald’s President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook. “There’s a sense of urgency across the business as we take actions to retain existing customers, regain lapsed customers and convert casual customers to committed customers. We’re continuing to build a more personalized and enjoyable visit, which delights customers with the taste and quality of our food and offers the highest level of convenience, in order to gain traffic in an increasingly competitive industry and deliver profitable growth for our System and shareholders.”
First quarter highlights:
Global comparable sales increased 4.0%, reflecting positive comparable sales in all segments while up against an extra day in 2016 due to leap year
Consolidated revenues decreased 4% (3% in constant currencies), due to the impact of refranchising
Consolidated operating income increased 14% (16% in constant currencies)
Diluted earnings per share of $1.47 increased 18% (19% in constant currencies)
Returned $1.6 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends, in connection with our target to return between $22 and $24 billion to shareholders for the three-year period ending 2019
In the U.S., first quarter comparable sales increased 1.7%, building upon strong prior year results that benefited from the launch of All Day Breakfast. The U.S. continues to strengthen its foundation as it executes strategic menu, value and convenience initiatives, with first quarter performance benefiting from the expansion of All Day Breakfast offerings, along with the Big Mac and beverage value promotions. Operating income for the quarter increased 13%, reflecting savings from the Company’s recent G&A and refranchising initiatives, a gain from the strategic sale of a restaurant property and higher franchised margin dollars. The U.S. continues to focus its efforts on driving guest count growth, according to McDonald’s.
Comparable sales for the International Lead segment increased 2.8% for the quarter, primarily driven by continued momentum in the U.K. and Canada’s successful launch of All Day Breakfast. The segment’s operating income increased 2% (6% in constant currencies), fueled by sales-driven improvements in franchised margin dollars across most markets.
In the High Growth segment, first quarter comparable sales increased 3.8%, led by strong performance in China and positive results across the entire segment. The segment’s operating income rose 36% (38% in constant currencies), with about half of the increase resulting from lower depreciation expense due to the accounting treatment of the pending sale of the China and Hong Kong businesses. Results also benefited from prior year VAT reform in China.
In the Foundational Markets & Corporate segment, first quarter comparable sales rose 10.7% and operating income increased significantly, led by very strong performance in Japan as well as strong results across the segment’s other geographic regions.
Steve Easterbrook concluded, “Today, we’re harnessing the strong execution of our fundamental business drivers, a sharp focus on our customers, the benefits of right-sizing our organization and the contributions of the talented franchisees, suppliers and employees to seize the opportunities before us. We’re challenging ourselves to identify and pursue initiatives that can bring the biggest benefit to the most customers in the shortest possible time. I’m confident that we’re on the right path and well-positioned to unlock incremental growth and deliver against our Velocity Growth Plan for 2017 and beyond.”


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Maybe you thought the only thing you could get out of a vending machine was stale prewrapped cake, a bag of Frito-Lays and a feeling of regret. Try a book instead.
The New Yorker just featured a story on “the world’s first short-story vending machines” in France, but in Philly we’ve had them for years. Nic Esposito and Philadelphia nonprofit book publisher The Head & The Hand launched the literature vending machines in 2014 at Elixr Coffee in Rittenhouse Square with rotations around the city, and they’re back March 17.
Read full article here.


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Seasonal hiring grows; economic uncertainty continues
First, the good news. A retail consulting group is projecting the largest hiring of seasonal employees — 800,000 — since 1999.
According to Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., seasonal hiring has risen each year since 2008, the worst year of the Great Recession.
"The last two years saw holiday hiring return to pre-recession levels," according to a release from the consulting group. "This year, we could see hiring return to levels not seen since the height of the dot.com boom."
The National Retail Federation now estimates that holiday season sales account for 20 percent of annual retail sales, so retail operations need adequate employees on hand to deal with the increase in business.
Retailers also are hopeful that increases in employment for the past year will mean that retail sales will increase.
"Holiday spending will undoubtedly benefit from the fact that payrolls are increasing by an average of 215,000 new workers per month, so far this year," according to the release from Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. "That translates into more people with jobs, which means more holiday spending money."
While the hiring is good news for all who will receive the seasonal jobs, what is not exactly bad news, if not quite good news, is the need for continued growth of full-time jobs.
Also what is needed is for average salaries to increase, so with full-time jobs, those employed can shop more, save more and have a true sense of financial stability.
One of the aftermaths of the Great Recession has been a continuation of economic uncertainty.
Some attribute the political problems of the Democratic Party Nov. 4 to this continuing uncertainty since the Democrats continue to control the White House.
These seasonal jobs may provide relief for many who not only need money for the holiday season but also still are trying to make ends meet and recover from the Great Recession.
We hope that projections about increases in spending in the holiday season will have parallels for the economy year round.
We also hope that many of the seasonal employees will be able to find full-time employment with the companies that hire them for the holidays.
The opinions in this space represent a consensus of discussion by The Daily News Journal Editorial Board.


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A Perth business owner is calling for the people of Perth to come together to make the city a better place to live.
Abbey Prince, who runs Hair Logic in the city’s County Place, wants to use the second anniversary of her salon opening to make a plea to the business community.
She says more could be done to help support businesses in the city and help start-ups get a foot in the door.
Abbey said: “We need to do more to highlight the businesses in Perth, because it is full of charity shops and coffee shops.
“We are a little city and you want to build on that and make the place better - we want people to come here for a good reason.
“More help needs to be given to independents as well, because so many people are going self-employed now.
“So many people try to open a business and it closes within a year because people buy online.
“I have been in that position myself since I opened, but because of the support I get from my clients it has helped me to sustain the business.”
Abbey said she would like to see a grant scheme put in place and for rents in the city centre to be reduced.
She continued: “A grant scheme should be put in place to help people as a stepping stone - you can only help yourself, but it could help to create good businesses that people thrive from.
“We should be able to support each other, but the rates in town are ridiculous, it costs so much.
“That is why shops are closing left, right and centre and why so many shops are sitting empty due to the rent being so high.
“We all have a passion for our businesses and put the hard work in but we should also be supporting each other as well.”
One of the ways Abbey hopes to support other local businesses is by holding a charity raffle on her salon’s second anniversary, Saturday, June 22.
She explained: “It is my second year anniversary on June 22 and I celebrate it every year. But this year I want to give something back.
“I have been asking other businesses to donate raffle prizes and so far I have about 10 in total from local businesses across the town, and all the money raised will go to Perthshire Women’s Aid.
“Megan from Fit4Less has donated PT lessons, Combat Fitness has given free boxing lessons, The Loft is doing free entry with a booth for people, Clean Queen has given free cleaning and I am putting in a cut and colour.
“Facetime Aesthetics have given a £50 voucher and The Maltings has given a food voucher.
“This will help to promote all these other businesses as well.”
She added: “I couldn’t have done the past two years without the support I get from my clients, friends and family.
“I do all of this on my own and I am a single mum - I have my son full time, but I still need to make ends meet.
“But we all need to get Perth together and make it a better place.
“Everyone needs to club together and support each other a bit more.”
Abbey’s charity raffle will take place at her Hair Logic salon on Saturday, June 22.


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Metrocenter mall fights crime stigma to get back in the shopping gamePosted: Updated:
PHOENIX – Metrocenter Mall was built in the early 70's in the heyday of the regional mall. But competition grew, and then there was crime. Within the last ten years, there were months where dozens of cars were stolen.
That's no longer the case, and now there are new owners and a new reality of lower rents and local businesses as the mall tries to make a comeback.
Metrocenter has a glorious past that many people in Phoenix still remember.
“Metrocenter was the place to be,” said Commander Chuck Miiller of the Phoenix Police Department.
Miiller said when they were in high school, no one ever asked where they were meeting after a football game. Everyone cruised the giant oval shaped road around the mall and hung out in the vast parking lot.
Today it is a different place, an example of changes in American shopping habits and the dog eat dog world of retail competition.
“When I come over here, I see empty spaces like crazy,” said Lee Arison who was at the mall with his wife.
It is true. There are a lot of empty store fronts. But on a recent Monday afternoon, there were also plenty of people.
“It appears to already be working,” said general manager, Brent Meszaros.
Meszaros is bullish on Metrocenter's future after Carlyle Development Group bought it in January for only $12.2 million.
“Not only did we get the building for less money,” Meszaros said. “But now we can offer lower rates to entice new tenants to come in, or keep tenants we want to stay.”
Meszaros said low rents are attracting local businesses and national chains wanting to test new concepts. But the old Broadway building and JC Penney are empty. Dillard’s building is for sale.
“We're over 70% occupied, so we still got a great base of tenants,” Meszaros said.
Attracting a new generation to its air conditioned expanse is also about combating recent history.
“This was a high traffic area for stolen automobiles,” Commander Miiller said. “Then over five years, working with security, we worked hard to make sure people who came here, when you left the business their cars were here.”
To some extent Metrocenter still struggles with a perception versus reality problem. Police say the crimes numbers are way down and 86 security cameras on site have a lot to do with that.
“No mischief please,” Meszaros said with a laugh as he proudly showed us the security station in the middle of the mall where guards monitor the cameras.
Last summer, they knew there was a string of catalytic converter thefts at area businesses. Metrocenter guards spotted two men in the parking lot as they stole a catalytic converter from a truck. They recorded the evidence and police arrested the men.
“It's a big deterrent,” Meszaros said of the cameras. “We want people to know this is not the place to do this kind of stuff”
Commander Miiller said the numbers show improvement.
“Property crimes dropped over 75% over those five years in addition to violent crimes, assaults, robberies also dropping over 25%,” said Miiller.
“Jordans, new?” Randy Dixon asks a young customer in the Finish Line store. “Low-top, high top what do you want?”
Dixon is the manager of the store. He said he knew sales numbers at the store were low, but he still likes where Metrocenter is going.
“The way that everything is running now,” Dixon said. “Actually haven't seen anything that would have me believe this is not going in the right direction.”
Meszaros is very candid when he says the mall will never be what it once was. There is too much competition. So they are looking at different businesses long term, perhaps assisted living, a medical office and a college campus to fill some of the empty space. He expects to have a number of new tenants by Christmas.


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Over 100 designers gathered to celebrate King Living’s first anniversary in Singapore
31 August 2016
Australian furniture brand King Living celebrated its first anniversary in Singapore on 28 July 2016.
More than 100 interior designers and industry professionals gathered at King Living’s showroom in Kallang to celebrate its first anniversary here. Hosted by the local and Australian King Living teams, the party also allowed David King, chairman of King Living, to personally introduce the brand and share candid anecdotes of how it all started.
Guests ate, drank and mingled among King Living designs. Demonstrations of all-time favourites like the Jasper, King Cloud, Felix, and Delta kept the designers engaged.
King Living has been designing and manufacturing original contemporary furniture since 1977. The King Living experience begins at the design stage and brought to new levels with technological advancements.
The King Living Singapore showroom is located at 22 Kallang Avenue #01-00 Hong Aik Building.
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Hong Kong lifestyle retailer Goods of Desire opened its first store outside of its home city, right here in Singapore.
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White Horse Ceramic proudly opens its new showroom at Balestier Point


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While we Android gamers aren’t exactly starved for choice, sometimes there is just nothing quite like the classics. Originally released in 1983 on the Apple II, Lode Runner Classic has now made its way to the Google Play Store.
Though it has only been out of beta for a short time, Falcon Pro has quickly gained a reputation as one of the best Android Twitter apps available. With its 1.6 update, Falcon Pro hopes to maintain that reputation.
In case you played Real Racing 2 on your mobile device then you’re most likely excited about Real Racing 3, the next episode in the series, which should be launched in the near future.
The Airdroid 2.0 beta has now been released to the general public, bringing with it some new features and an improved user interface.
Want 50GB of free cloud storage on the go? Then get MediaFire for Android, which is now available for download through Google Play.
Imangi Studios has released Temple Run 2 for the iOS platform, and has promised a release on Google Play for Android devices by next week.
XDA member ThilinaC has released port of Sony’s Xperia Z launcher onto Samsung Touchwiz devices. The download comes with the new UI and some nice looking custom Xperia widgets to help spice up your Samsung handset.
Explore alien worlds and fight off creatures in the new Gene Effect for Android, now available on Google Play for $3.50.
Instapaper has updated its Android app to version 1.2, which adds pagination mode, performance improvements and in-line footnotes.
Games, games, and more games. The Google Play Store will never run out of interesting games to keep us entertained during days when the time runs slow. Kickstart the first half of January with... awesome new games that will certainly bring good vibes for the rest of the month.
In this installment of our twice-monthly list of 9 new Android games, you’ll get to:strategically pla...


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NOLA Brewing Company (3001 Tchoupitoulas St., 504-301-0117; www.nolabrewing.com) recently released a collaboration with Left Hand Brewing Company in Colorado called Hey! Left Hand Collab coffee saison, and it has another collaboration brew with another Colorado brewery due April 20.
Brewed in partnership with Oskar Blues Brewery, also in Colorado, The Wolf and the Lamb is a 7 percent alcohol-by-volume hoppy pilsner. "The name comes from the use of Styrian Wolf and Agnus (Latin for "lamb") hops," says NOLA Brewing Director of Marketing Jamie Montero, "These two newer European hops have some traditional spiciness associated with noble hops, but they are fruit-forward with notes of tropical fruit, berries, melon and citrus."
The Wolf and the Lamb release party begins at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday, April 20 on the balcony of The Avenue Pub (1732 St. Charles Ave., 504-586-9243; www.theavenuepub.com).
On Saturday, April 23, Deutsches Haus celebrates the 500th anniversary of the enaction of Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law passed in 1516. Under Reinheitsgebot, brewers may only use water, malted grain, hops and yeast to make beer.
Deutsches Haus (1023 Ridgewood Drive, Metairie; www.deutscheshaus.org) will offer beer, food, music and information about beer styles from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. There will be beer from local breweries. Admission is free and food and drink purchases benefit Deutsches Haus.
Saint Arnold Brewing Company in Houston released 5 O'Clock Pils in Louisiana. The Bohemian pil uses Saaz hops in the light, rich, full-bodied lager.


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Mon, 4 August 2014
Marketing and social media keep changing, and video is more popular than ever – with customers, and with potential guests. Google also wants to show more video, not just text and photos. We all have a smartphone in our pocket - it’s time to take it out and film what’s happening all around. Customer comments, community events, interviews, staff, new supplies and ‘behind the scenes’ – hospitality is full of stories. Short is better – think of how much information can be squeezed into a 30-second TV commercial!
In this interview, Ken Burgin talks with Max Hitchins, the Hospitality Doctor. Over the last few years, Max has recorded hundreds of videos and posted them to his YouTube channel. He uses a regular camera, and sometimes just his phone, then adds titles and descriptions in the YouTube notes. He explains his video process, and how easily you can do it too. Everyone’s now talking about ‘content marketing’, and what could be easier than asking customers for an interview so they create it for you!


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Latest TAP Stories
Formally known as European Sink Outlet for the past 20 years, ESO Decorative Plumbing exemplifies the company's rebranding along with its all-new 5,000 square foot showroom. POMPANO
IRVINE, Calif., May 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- HomeAid America announced a new, national partnership with Delta Faucet Company today.
Learn how other bars and restaurants are using Tap TV to take their businesses to new heights PHILADELPHIA, May 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Are you looking for a way to supercharge your
The new Ambient family offers consumers and designers more than a half dozen models to consider when outfitting a new kitchen. Smyrna, TN (PRWEB) April 16, 2015
Franke is introducing a complete suite of kitchen faucets made of solid-stainless steel at price points significantly below the industry norm for this product category. Las
LUXEMBOURG, April 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Portuguese airline TAP to enable paying by smartphone on its online booking systems in Germany, Luxembourg and Austria
This press release is to announce to readers that The Renovator’s Supply has announced that it will be increasing its eBay offerings in 2015. Erving Ma (PRWEB)
New WaterSense®-labeled bath technologies from Delta Faucet Company help consumers save water and money INDIANAPOLIS, March 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On average, a household's leaks can account
BARCELONA and TEL AVIV, March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- CGS Tower Networks LTD, the engineering driven company and a leading provider of solutions to support and empower
- Stoppage; cessation (of labor).
- A standing still or idling (of mills, factories, etc.).


text: “According to figures from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles, Thailand and Malaysia’s previous tariff rate on textile and apparel import from China averaged 21.5 per cent and 16.8 per cent, with the rate dropping to 16.9 per cent and 15 per cent from July 1, 2005. It will drop to 10.6 per cent and 9.2 per cent from Jan. 1, 2007 .The two countries will lower their tariff upon Chinese textile goods to zero in 2010, and the Philippines will reduce its textile tariff in a similar way, the chamber of commerce said .Indonesia, with its tariff rate against Chinese textile goods below 5 per cent, will directly lower it to zero in 2009 .Vietnam’s previous textile tariff rate was as high as 36.6 per cent, and it dropped to 31 per cent after July 1, 2005, and will drop to 27.2 per cent in 2006. It is expected to reach 26.6 per cent in 2007, 22.8 per cent in 2008, 19 per cent in 2009, 12.6 per cent in 2011, 5.8 per cent in 2013 and zero in 2015 .Beginning from July 2005, China, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand gave tariff cuts to each other on 7,455 kinds of commodities. The practice was launched in compliance with the Trade in Goods Agreement of a Framework Agreement for Overall Economic Cooperation between China and the ASEAN countries .By 2010, China and six old ASEAN member nations, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, will impose zero tariffs on most normal products, while China and the other four new ASEAN members of Cambodia, the Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will do the same in 2015 .The China-ASEAN FTA has a population of 1.8 billion and US$2 trillion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is set to become the third largest global trading region after the European Union and the North American Free Trade Zone .During the January-November period of 2005, China exported textile and apparel worth US$5.08 billion to the ASEAN, growing 22.4 per cent year on year and accounting for 4.8 per cent of China’s total textile export .Meanwhile, China imported textile and apparel worth US$620 million from the ASEAN, growing 5.8 per cent year on year and making up 4 per cent of China’s total textile import .Due to frequent limitations from the United States and the European Union, Chinese textile exports still face difficulties when entering the two largest markets after the elimination of global textile quotas in 2005, according to insiders .The significant textile tariff reduction will not only expand Chinese exports to South East Asia, but also help them to enter Western countries through bypass means, insiders said .Source: Asiapulse, Austrialia .


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Informa Exhibitions Acquires Miami-based FIME Exhibition & Congress
The Miami-based FIME Exhibition & Congress, consistently ranked the No. 1 medical trade show in the United States, was bought by U.K.-based Informa Exhibitions as part of its Life Sciences portfolio.
As tracked by the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association, FIME attracts more than 57,000 attendees to its annual event.
FIME complements the Group’s existing collection of 22 exhibitions and in excess of 100 conferences across the EMEA and APAC Life Science markets.
“The acquisition of FIME will generate substantial value for our customers and partners by driving further product innovation and deeper engagement in these specific markets,” said Charlie McCurdy, CEO of Informa’s Global Exhibitions Division.
He added,”Informa has the resources as a global company to grow the show on a strategic level, and we anticipate the show will become a key component of our Global Exhibitions Division.”
Now in its 25th year, FIME serves the communities of North and South America, with a primary focus on medical technology, medical products & supplies, medical services, and medical equipment.
Under Informa,, FIME will continue to offer a multi-specialty conference program in line with Informa’s motto of ‘Exhibition with Education’.
Their goal is to “provide an unrivalled knowledge-sharing and business networking platform for healthcare trade professionals in the region,” according to company officials,
According to Simon Page, Managing Director, Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions: “Informa has a long-term strategic vision to continue to expand the Life Sciences’ exhibition business into the American markets.”
He added, “The recent acquisition of FIME fits in firmly with our goal of expanding our international trade show operations in the region and with our existing portfolio of life sciences events across the globe.”


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Americans have employed the same strategy as Europeans as well as the Chinese. India is probably the next country to implement the carrot and stick strategy to encourage the country toward greener cars. After facing a lot of resistance from the automobile industry, the proposal of NITI Aayog to sell exclusively electric vehicles after 2030, stopping the production of diesel-powered and petrol cars, has been the motivation of government officials in the Indian government.
Limiting the Carbon Emission
According to reports in the media, authorities are preparing to implement tough measures to focus the attention on EVs. Setting strict emission standards is among the strategies that the government might use to stop Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs). One option is to enforce CAFE standards, which are similar to the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, which were widely used throughout the United States.
Carbon emission targets may limit the intensity of vehicle emissions by every automaker in order to ensure that all models that are produced under the brand name comply with the emission standards that are permitted. These measures could raise the price of conventional ICE engines and, ultimately, will give an increase in sales of electric vehicles.
Pay the Price Strategy
Utilizing the concept of “polluter pays for the cost , “the government can raise tax rates on ICE vehicles and make them less attractive to buy. The funds raised can be used to encourage the EV market. Recently, the government held a conference; the government met with the heads of three-wheeler and two-wheeler electric firms, and they were asked to develop specific steps to move into electric-powered mobility.
In the news, to boost the EV sector, the government is presently brainstorming about reducing the tax on goods and services (GST) for electric cars to five percent from 12 percent. Tax reductions are also anticipated to spur global companies to get involved in India’s growing electronic mobility market to lower pollution levels.
The Little Context
In order to speed up the adoption of electric vehicles In order to speed up the adoption of e-mobility, the Indian state’s government’s think tank, NITI Aayog, proposed the purchase of solely electric cars in the next decade within a cabinet memo last week. Its Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has suggested preparing an outline to end the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles until 2030.
Automobile giants like TVS, Hero MotoCorp, and Bajaj Auto raised concerns about the transition. At the same time, industry organizations such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) have said the government has made an unwise decision.


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U.S. Bank finds Illinois small biz owners in a cautious frame of mind
Optimism? Let's just say it isn't running especially rampant among small business owners in Illinois, according to U.S. Bank's new Small Business Annual Survey.
The survey is based on responses in the first quarter of 2014 from 200 small business owners in Illinois, as well as nearly 3,000 other small business owners nationwide.
Noted Greg Fioresi, regional small business banking manager for U.S. Bank in Chicago: "We're seeing small business owners here (Illinois) move forward cautiously, waiting for sustained demand before making big investments in their business."
According to the survey, Illinois small business owners' views of the nation's economy are pretty much in line with those of their counterparts across the country. About half (53) of Illinois respondents said they believe the national economy is in recovery, but more than two-thirds (69 percent) said they believe the state's economy is weaker than the national economy.
Still there are glimmers of an improvement in the outlook of Illinois small business owners. But only glimmers.
When asked to describe their local economy, three-quarters of Illinois respondents (77 percent) selected "fair" or "poor" (down from 87 percent in 2011), and one-quarter of respondents (23 percent) selected "good" or "very good," again an improvement from 13 percent in 2011.
Illinois survey respondents said taxes and local government budgeting were the most worrisome aspects of the Illinois economy, while lower unemployment and higher wages were two reasons to feel good.
But caution is the operative word among Illinois small business owners.
Only 29 percent of Illinois small business owners said they were likely to make a capital expenditure in the next year, about the same as the national average, and 20 percent said they planned to add staff in the next 12 months, again about the same as the national survey average.
And many Illinois small business owners have concerns about health care and the reforms now being instituted. Only one in four respondents (26 percent) said they believe national health care reform will be positive for their businesses in the long run.
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Even though Toyota is selling plenty of hybrids, the automaker is also investing in hydrogen fuel-cell technology as evidenced by its rollout of the Toyota Mirai fuel-cell car in California. And a few days ahead of the start of the Tokyo motor show, Toyota has taken the wraps off a futuristic fuel-cell vehicle (FCV) concept dubbed Fine-Comfort Ride.
The origami-style exterior aside, this fuel-cell concept promises a range of 1,000 kilometers or 621 miles on a full load of fuel, along with zero CO2 emissions — and really no other emissions. Toyota is staying mum regarding the details of the powertrain, only indicating that this concept features electric motors at each wheel. Along with the newly developed hydrogen powertrain, the Fine-Comfort Ride concept is also expected to showcase advanced autonomous driver assist systems.
When it comes to design, there’s a diamond-shaped interior layout that grows narrower toward the aft section of the car, offering the widest seating area at the front row. The interior itself is futuristic enough, with four swiveling round-shaped seats that can rotate to face each other, conference-style, and a large rear bench that wraps around the tail section of the vehicle.
The concept features swiveling seats that can face each other, in addition to a back bench.
This is just a concept for now — and despite Toyota championing fuel-cell technology, the current Mirai only has one competitor in the marketplace in the form of the Honda Clarity. But “competitor” may be too strong a word, given the fact that there are just 91 hydrogen filling stations in the U.S. (less than two per every state is one way of looking at it), and most of them are in California, where these two models are sold. It’s not the investment in hydrogen tech that’s lacking at the moment — it’s the infrastructure. And Toyota has not fully embraced pure-electric vehicles. The development of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles may be effectively coming at the expense of a Toyota competitor to the Nissan Leaf, among others.
Without measurable growth in the numbers and geographic locations of hydrogen filling stations, Toyota may soon face some tough questions about its lack of focus on battery-electric cars in the U.S., plug-in hybrids notwithstanding.
We’ll have to wait a few more days till the Tokyo motor show gets going to get answers to these questions, but for now there is no doubt that Toyota can dazzle with a futuristic exterior and interior concept design.


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New Delhi: The third edition of Google For India event saw some major announcements from the search engine giant. Google stressed that it's not just adapting its products for India but building for India first. Google claimed that India crossed 400 million Internet users, with 300 million connected smartphone users.
Rajan Anandan, Vice President, South East Asia and India, Google said during the keynote, "Today, an average connected mobile user consumes 4GB of data every month, and it is projected to grow to 11GB per month in the next 4 years."
Talking about YouTube, Google added that Indians are watching more video content than ever before. Google claimed that over 225 million Indian smartphone users are watching videos on YouTube every month.
"Indian language usage will explode as more Indians come online. And we’re excited to be a part of this journey," Anandan added.
Google also claimed that there are 230 million Indian language users online while Hindi language search query has seen an increase of 400 percent year-on-year. The company added that there is a total of 28 queries made with voice input out of 100 received by Google in India. At the Google for India event, the company announced the addition of new languages to the GBoard including Bagheli, Bagri, Marwari, Tulu, Haryanvi, Bhojpuri, and Mewari among others.
Google's Sapna Chadha, Head of Marketing, Google Southeast Asia and India also gave an update to the Google's ambitious Internet Saathi programme. Google says that the Internet Saathi has already benefitted 12 million women across rural India. "Women across the nation have gone on to do amazing things for themselves and their communities with #InternetSaathi," Chadha added.
Google also gave an update to its another ambitious programme called Public Wi-Fi Hotspots where the company is offering free Internet at railway stations and other public places. Google said that it's now providing free Internet at 227 stations which are catering to 7.5 million monthly active users. Google added that 22 railway stations will be added to the programme later this month. Google plans to offer free Internet through its initiative across 400 railway stations by 2018.
Talking about the Tez by Google app, the company said that the 10 weeks old app has seen a tremendous response in the country. Google said that there are 12 million active users on Tez app which see over 140 million transactions. Google also claims to have 5.25 lakh+ merchants already on the Tez app.


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February 5, 2012 |
San Jose, California-resident Krishna Kumar loves Indian mangoes. But he doesn't find them in "mainstream" retail outlets in the US - they sell mangoes from Guatemala, Mexico and so on, but not the Indian variety, which are available only in "Indian cash-and-carry stores". But in the above link, the story starts with what was given as the strap: India is the world's largest producer and exporter of mangoes. But a lot more focus on quality is required to expand to new markets.
February 3, 2012 |
Indian Agriculture Research Institute has developed four hybrid mango varieties which promise a yield three-four times higher than the existing varieties. This is likely to scale up mango production in the next 10 years without any additional input cost. The varieties named Pusa Pratibha, Pusa Peetamber, Pusa Shreshth and Pusa Lalima possess traits of popular varieties like Dussehari and Neelam. India is the world's largest producer of mango at 15 million tonne. It exports around 60,000 tonne to the UAE, UK, US and Bangladesh earning $35 million.
April 25, 2011 |
MUMBAI/PUNE: While mango lovers await the arrival of Alphonsos, retailers are showcasing imported fruits and other mango varieties to weather a not-so-sweet start to the summer season. Mango production this year has taken a hit due to untimely rains in October-November and the cold wave that followed. However, arrivals of the prime mango variety, Alphonso, may firm up by the month end as weather conditions improve in the Konkan region, the main area of its cultivation in India.
March 16, 2011
If you have already tasted mango this year, then mango mania has already gripped you. But if the fruit hasn't yet made it to your dinner table, sample what happens behind the scenes. Yogesh Arjun Dhole, a leading mango retailer from Mumbai's Crawford market says that last year the mango market was worth at least Rs 2,000 crore if not more. "This year, there have been some issues with the crop but still the business should be around Rs 1,700 - 1,800 crore," he says. Alphonso and Kesar are the largest selling varieties and besides the huge domestic demand; a lot of mangoes are exported to markets like the UAE , Europe and Asia.
February 7, 2011 |
PUNE | MUMBAI: You can call it mango 'mahurat' trading. This year's first Alphonso mango has fetched a record Rs 600, almost 50% more than the last year's opening price. The first four boxes of this rare and delicate variety of the king of fruits were sold for Rs 7,000 each in Mumbai's popular fruit and vegetable bazaar, the Crawford Market, in January. Each box contained a dozen Alphonsos. In Pune, the first box of 40 Alphonsos was sold at an auction conducted by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)
December 7, 2010 |
PUNE: The country's fresh fruit basket for Christmas and New Year will be smaller and dearer, thanks to the unseasonal rains and the delayed winter. Also, a shortage of high-priced raw material will affect the fruit processing industry adversely. The incidence of pest attacks on most fruit crops has gone up due to unseasonal rain in October and November and the resultant humidity. Almost half of the strawberry crop in Mahabaleshwar, which grows about 80% of the country's output, has been lost.
April 14, 2010 |
PUNE:The scorching summer could send Alphonso prices soaring even higher. Sudden fluctuations in temperature along the coastal Maharashtra over the past week have wiped out almost the entire crop in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts. So far, the temperature has risen by more than five degrees above the average, damaging the ripening mango crop. This is expected to severely affect the fresh supply of mangoes and result in prices going up. Hit by cyclone Phyan in November, temperature fluctuations in January and Thrips disease, Alphonso production had already seen a 70-80% drop.
May 22, 2009 |
Mangoes are the obvious luxury of summer – so obvious, I almost gave them a miss. Besides I didn't want to get into the inevitable argument about which variety is best. Usually I am happy to debate the merits of different food varieties, but with mangoes I feel it's pointless. Dasheharis, Langras, Neelams, etc. are all fine mangoes, but the Alphonso is so superior that I no longer bother even debating the issue. If people don't want to eat Alphonsos, that's fine because it just leaves more for those of us who do. It's true that of late some interesting new varieties have been coming on the market, mostly developed at agricultural research centres.
February 12, 2009 |
PUNE: This one-time supply outstripping demand is going to be welcome because it will mean that the king of mangoes, the alphonso from the Konkan (Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts mainly) will come within reach of more buyers. With an estimated 20% increase in production, growers from the region expect a healthy fruit and a bumper crop, provided the weather does not have extreme swings between now and mid-March. Last year, untimely rains had adversely affected the mango crop in the Konkan, leading to black spots on most of the mangoes which made them unfit as table fruit.
May 22, 2008 |
AHMEDABAD: This could well be termed as a giant leap of sorts. The arid land of Kutch will rub shoulders with south Gujarat's Navsari district in exporting a record 1,500 tonne of kesar mangoes in 2008. This, is a significant 900% jump from what the region exported in 2007. While Navsari has found its exports stagnating at 2,500 tonne, favourable weather conditions has pushed Kutch's contribution to the state's mango export basket. Gujarat expects to export 6,000 tonne of kesar (Navsari, Kutch and Junagadh)


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2021 was undoubtedly the year of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies took the world and Wall Street by storm. But even more, it was the year where non-fungible-tokens (NFTs) , which were considered obscure as recently as many months ago, went truly mainstream.
So, what are NFTs and why did they become so popular this year?
March was when NFTs really started making headlines. It was all down to auction house Christie’s record-breaking NFT sale: a piece of digital art, called “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days”, created by Mike Winkelmann, a graphic designer better known in the online art world as “Beeple”, sold for $69.3m. It was a collage of 5,000 pieces of digital art that Beeple has been producing on a daily basis since 2007.
It was the first time that Christie’s had listed an entirely digital piece of work in its 250-year history, and was one of the first milestones that triggered the incredible rise of “non-fungible tokens”, or NFTs.
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Yes, but what are NFTs?
NFTs are cryptographic tokens – much like a cryptocurrency – that are recorded on a blockchain and can be used to prove the authenticity, ownership and provenance of anything – physical or non-physical – such as artwork, collectable cards, or real estate, for example, in much the same way as a blockchain can be used to settle financial transactions or track elements in a supply chain. “Non-fungible” implies the token is unique and cannot be duplicated or swapped for anything else (unlike individual bitcoins, for example, which are “fungible”).
It is worth stressing that when someone buys an artwork that is authenticated by an NFT, they are not actually buying the digital asset per se. Instead they are purchasing a digitally-authenticated note which states that there is only one owner. Anybody can download a copy of the file or link corresponding to whatever the NFT is tokenising, but only the NFT owner holds the contract stating their ownership rights.
Why were NFTs introduced?
They have been presented as a solution that ascertains ownership over an object that can otherwise easily be reproduced. Unlike a traditional painting or sculpture, digital artwork is trivially easy to duplicate – it’s just a matter of downloading a copy. NFTs prove authenticity in the same way that the blockchain ensures a single bitcoin is owned only by one person.
Unlike physical pieces of art which can be broken, lost or destroyed, NFTs cannot be destroyed as they are recorded on a blockchain (a blockchain is an immutable record of transactions – if you need to know more, take a look at my colleague Dominic’s explanation here) in the same way as cryptocurrency transactions are. Most NFTs use the ethereum blockchain, but there are others.
How NFTs took the world by storm
NFTs are not just for tokenising assets. They can also act as smart contracts – contracts that are programmed to automatically execute certain actions in certain conditions. So in the case of “Everydays”, for example, the NFT gives the originator of the token a cut of future sales, with Beeple receiving 10%. This can help artists to secure a reliable source of income – and more importantly perhaps, a chunk of future resale value.
Are NFTs new?
NFTs are not entirely new. The first type of NFTs to hit the market were “Coloured Coins” in 2012, which are bitcoin tokens with extra functionality that allowed them to represent other assets on the blockchain.
In 2017 (notably, another boom/bubble period for crypto generally), NFTs and digital art came together to create “Cryptokitties” – digitally-created cartoon cats that can be bought and sold with NFTs verifying ownership. Crypokitties were created "to explore the concept of digital scarcity, implement a non-fungible token within smart contracts”, says their creator.
But a renewed interest in cryptocurrencies and a boom in digital art have thrust NFTs into mainstream consciousness. It’s not just obscure digital artists getting in on the act – earlier this year visual artist and musical performer Grimes, better known today perhaps as Elon Musk’s ex-partner, made $6m in minutes, by selling digital art backed by NFTs.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder and – until recently – chief executive of Twitter, also got involved by auctioning off the first tweet ever to appear on the social media website. The tweet – from Dorsey’s account – simply said "just setting up my twitter”. It sold for $2.9m.
The winner of the auction received a “digital certificate” of Dorsey’s first ever tweet. What does that actually mean? The tweet remains publicly available on the platform under Dorsey’s account. And the “owner” – as certified by the NFT – won’t be able to delete it or do anything with it. They will merely have been recorded as being the owner.
It is perhaps this which has left many people scratching their head – vast amounts of money are exchanging hands with no apparent benefit apart from the knowledge that you are the owner of an original, one which may have spawned millions of entirely identical copies. Some proponents compare it to owning the Mona Lisa versus owning a student poster of said masterpiece, but unsurprisingly, that’s not an argument to convince the sceptics.
The most popular NFTs of 2021
There have been several blockbuster NFTs in the last year. Beeple was the biggest, but data analytics firm TRG Datacenters has had a look at some of the other most-searched-for NFT art pieces between January and September 2021, based on Google Trends data.
The most popular NFT by search was Dorsey’s first tweet, mentioned above. The second one was Hashmasks, a collection of more than 16,000 unique digital assets made together in collaboration with 70 artists worldwide. In February, the project “sold its collection of 16,384 NFTs for $16 million in less than a week, with the most expensive Hashmask selling for 420 ETH ($650,000),” according to industry website The Block Crypto.
The third most popular NFT by search volume was none other than the iconic Doge meme, featuring the now-famous Shiba Inu Japanese dog breed, which sold for $4m in June this year. “After being fractionalised into 17 billion pieces — split up to allow for community ownership — the NFT is now valued at $220 million,” Business Insider reported in September.
Does the future for NFTs hold boom or bust – or both?
There certainly seems to be no shortage of interest in NFTs. A number of crypto exchanges are keen to get involved. Brian Armstrong, CEO of America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, expects the NFT market to surpass the size of Coinbase’s cryptocurrency business, which recently reported third-quarter revenue of about $1.3bn.
In October, Coinbase signalled its intent to enter the NFT place by launching its own NFT marketplace. In early December, another such platform, Blockchain.com, announced it is launching its own NFT marketplace in coming weeks. Exchanges like Binance and FTX.US have already launched NFT marketplaces of their own.
But even with NFTs gaining popularity, as with any other asset class, there is always the risk that the bubble bursts. NFTs may be the white-hot phenomenon of the moment, but, as with any new technology, they still have some way to go before they are widely accepted and become truly mainstream.
Despite the eye-watering sums changing hands in headline-grabbing transactions, they are still very much a niche product, and may well turn out to be a passing fancy – digital tulips, perhaps (or Cryptokitties, even). Holders of tokens could end up sitting on a surplus of NFTs with little buying interest if there is a slump in their popularity, in the same way as numerous bubbles have burst over the last several years.
However, as with the wider use of the blockchain, it does seem clear that because of NFTs’ usefulness as records of ownership in business, they could well be here to stay in one form or another.
Dominic Frisby has put together a downloadable Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin for MoneyWeek subscribers, which includes a bonus section on other cryptocurrencies. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up now to get the report plus your first six issues free.
Saloni is a web writer for MoneyWeek focusing on personal finance and global financial markets. Her work has appeared in FTAdviser (part of the Financial Times), Business Insider and City A.M, among other publications. She holds a masters in international journalism from City, University of London.
Follow her on Twitter at @sardana_saloni
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Microsoft and Yahoo! deal struck and likely to be announced today
Apparently, according to Kara Swisher at AllThingsD, the search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo has now been made.
Taken from AllThingsD:
“Sources said Microsoft search technology will be used on Yahoo sites, although it is not clear if it will be branded as “powered by Bing”–Microsoft’s handsome and innovative new search offering–or not.
In addition, sources said Yahoo would still sell search ads on its sites and on Bing too, although Microsoft’s AdCenter advertising sales technology will be underneath it.”