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A really busy day in the holiday life of Lands’ End
DODGEVILLE, Wis. (AP) _ Phone lines are crackling and box-stuffers are jumping in this village of 4,190 as the days speed toward Christmas.
Welcome to Lands’ End, the billion-dollar catalog retailer whose business surges from a normal 45,000 phone calls a day to about 85,000 _ sometimes even as many as 145,000 _ during the holiday season.
In the room where a beefed-up crew takes orders, hundreds of phones are ringing. Every seat is taken, and as soon as any of the roughly 1,000 chairs are vacated, a roving employee plops down and picks up the phone.
``It’s one of my best times of the year,″ said Sheila Wardell, who has typed in orders for cardigans, squall jackets and goose-down parkas for a dozen years.
Just how busy can it get? Here’s how:
_ There are 11 holiday catalogs for consumers to choose from.
_ 125 gift-wrappers wrap up to 8,800 packages a day.
_ 110,000 jingle bells will decorate gift boxes.
_ 200,000 corrugated shipping boxes are ready to be sent out. They feature Christmas poems on one side and pictures children can color of Santa and a reindeer bar on the other side.
_ 1.5 million calls are expected to (800) HI-SANTA, the cataloger’s ``Santa Sighting″ telephone hot line.
Specialty clerks deal with the fussiest customers _ those who want to know how many pieces of wood are in Lands’ End’s 8-pound fireplace starter kit and how many gadgets can be stuffed in the 21-inch, monogrammed stocking.
They’ll blow whistles for callers curious about the decibel-level, fit a child’s fleece jacket for a pampered Dalmatian doggie and find matching trousers and tops in a favorite shade of green.
``We’ve spoiled our customers,″ said supervisor Margaret Dunbar, who prefers to look for the silver-lining in the storeroom that holds an example of every item in every catalog. ``It saves a return if we help them out.″
As soon as customers call in, their orders are punched into a computer system, then zipped electronically to a storehouse the size of 16 football fields. Nimble ``pickers″ snatch the goodies from the shelves and send the orders down a five-mile maze of ceiling-high conveyor belts to those actually packing up the goods.
A veteran picker can pull 650 items an hour off the shelves and each packer fills 60 boxes an hour. The orders travel to shipping the same day and get tossed into one of a half-dozen United Parcel Service trucks.
For those short on wrapping paper or time, a quick detour to another department gets an item the gift box, ribbon and tissue paper treatment. As an added bonus, every box gets a silver jingle bell.
Warren Hoyer, 75, is among the retirees tapped for holiday work by the biggest employer in cow country 45 miles west of Madison. He spent a recent day folding hundreds of green-and-red plaid necktie-and-belt boxes.
``In the next two weeks, you won’t be able to see over the top (of the table),″ said Hoyer, a retired postal worker. ``It gets pretty wild.″


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The 5G wireless revolution may finally be arriving soon, and one smartphone-maker has come up with a way to make today's 4G phone upgradeable to the new high-speed network when it finally turns on.
It's been several years since 4G LTE wireless networks began to roll out in North America, and soon after that big speed and bandwidth upgrade we were already being promised next-generation 5G networks.
Now it's 2018 and 4G is beginning to seem a little sluggish in our increasingly wireless world but fortunately we finally have some launch dates for 5G. AT&T has said it will start off with 5G in a handful of cities by the end of 2018, while Verizon will start in Houston this year and Sprint and T-Mobile are looking to speed things up in 2019.
Meanwhile, Motorola is launching its new Moto Z3 Android phone this month on Verizon's huge 4G LTE network with one interesting bonus: it will be fully upgradeable to the carrier's 5G network when it launches next year by simply purchasing Moto's 5G "mod."
Mods are exactly what they sound like; modular attachments that snap on to the back of a Moto Z phone, adding a better camera, or speaker, or even a tiny photo printer or projector. The latest Motorola mod will add 5G and be available sometime in early 2019, although Motorola has not yet revealed pricing for the upgrade.
The Moto Z3, however, is going on sale August 16 with a retail price of $480. So if you're going to be in the market for a phone before 5G officially launches, it's currently one of few options out there to get your phone now and ensure it can handle next gen speed when it turns on.
But if you can wait for that new phone until 5G is here, there's sure to be many more options to choose from.
Stay tuned for my full review of the Moto Z3 later this month.

domain: news


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The early boom in sales during 2010 will tail off by the end of the year, according to a new report from Gartner.
The analyst firm is projecting shipments as high as 367.8 million in 2010, an increase of about 20 per cent on the 308 million last year. However, the majority of these sales will have been in the first half of the year, are set to fall in the run up to 2011.
"The PC market revived in the first half of 2010, but the real test of its resilience is yet to come," said Ranjit Atwal, a research director at Gartner.
"We have reduced our forecast for second-half 2010 PC growth to 15.3 per cent, approximately two per cent below our previous forecast, in light of the uncertain economic outlook for the US and western Europe."
Atwal explained that business purchases had slowed as expected owing to financial considerations. However, purchases have been delayed, rather than cancelled.
The consumer market has remained strong, according to the report, which said that PCs are now seen as a necessity.
"Consumers buoyed the PC market in 2009 as businesses delayed purchases. The slow pace of economic recovery, and austerity measures in Europe, have made PC suppliers very cautious in 2010," he said.
"However, consumer demand is likely to remain strong even if the economic recovery stalls because consumers now view the PC as a relative 'necessity' rather than a 'luxury', and will continue to spend on PCs even at the expense of other consumer electronic devices."
Organisations may have been slow to spend, but Atwal warned that staff using old machines could have a negative impact on productivity, and that companies should start investing as soon as possible.
"Businesses that delay replacing much longer risk alienating employees, burdening themselves with more service requests and support costs, and ultimately facing higher costs when they eventually migrate to Windows 7," he said.
"The bottom line is that businesses need to refresh their PCs sooner rather than later. Thus, the full bloom of the long-awaited professional PC refresh can't be more than a few quarters ahead."
The mini notebook sector saw its second consecutive drop in shipments, falling by 18 per cent. Gartner said that that the devices had peaked in 2009, and that sales are likely to continue downward, particularly as the iPad and its clones bite into the market.
New technique could enable quantum computers to scale-up to millions of qubits
Systrom and Krieger taking time off "to explore our curiosity and creativity"
Comcast's £29.7bn winning bid more than twice the £13.7bn Rupert Murdoch valued Sky at just eight years ago
A nuclear strike has been considered, but Bruce Willis is nowhere in sight


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The winners of this year’s Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence have been crowned at a ceremony during Tire Technology Expo (for a show report click here) in Hannover, Germany.
Bridgestone picked up the prestigious Tire Manufacturer of the Year award for the second time. The world’s largest tire maker was recognised by the awards’ independent judging panel of 27 tire technology experts for renewed investment in its research and development (R&D) and sustainable manufacturing programmes.
The Tire Manufacturing Innovation of the Year award went to the 5THR tangential mixer rotor from Kobe Steel. This special rotor enables existing tangential mixers to be converted to silica-rich compounds, instead of having to replace them with intermesh mixers.
Nokian Tyres collected the Tire Technology of the Year award for its Hakkapeliitta R2 winter tire for the BMW i3, which scored an EU label ‘A’ grade for rolling resistance, the first time this has been achieved by a winter tire.
The Environmental Achievement of the Year category was awarded to AquaJet for its water jet rubber recycling technology, which recycles used tires into material good enough to be reused in tire manufacture, beating competition from nominees including Carbon Clean Tech’s Recovered Carbon Black, the SAM-T dosing system from ColorService and Cooper Tire’s Advances in Guayule Natural Rubber.
And finally, the Tire Industry Supplier of the Year award was won by Mesnac, having been runner-up in the category for the previous two years. The jury was impressed by the Chinese supplier’s commitment to R&D and its pioneering work in smart tire manufacturing.
The head of the judging panel and editor of Tire Technology International magazine, Graham Heeps said: “Many congratulations to all our winners. The results of this year’s awards reflect two key trends in the tire industry: producing products with low rolling resistance, but doing so in an efficient, sustainable way. We’re delighted to be able to put a spotlight on the fantastic work being done in this area.”
Also announced on the night were the winners of the Young Scientist Prize (Gregory Smith) and the Lifetime Achievement Award (Professor Jacques Noordermeer). For details of all the winners, click here or see the April 2016 of Tire Technology International.


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The authorized grievance from the Digital Privateness Info Middle, to be filed with the FTC on Monday, alleges that Google is newly getting access to a trove of extremely-delicate info — the credit score and debit card purchases data of nearly all of US shoppers — with out revealing how they received the knowledge or giving shoppers’ significant methods to choose-out. Furthermore, the group claims that the search big is counting on a secretive technical technique to guard the info – a way that must be audited by outsiders and is probably going weak to hacks or different knowledge breaches.
“Google is looking for to increase its dominance from the web world to the actual, offline world, and the FTC actually wants to take a look at that,” stated Marc Rotenberg, the group’s government director.
Google referred to as its promoting strategy “widespread” and stated it had “invested in constructing a brand new, customized encryption know-how that ensures customers’ knowledge stays personal, safe and nameless.”
The Washington Submit detailed Google’s program, Retailer Gross sales Measurement, in Might. Executives have hailed it as a “revolutionary” breakthrough in advertisers’ talents to trace shopper conduct. The corporate stated that, for the primary time, it will have the ability to show, with a excessive diploma of confidence, that clicks on on-line advertisements led to purchases on the money register of bodily shops.
To do that, Google stated it had obtained entry to the credit score and debit card data of 70% of U.S. shoppers. It had then developed a mathematical method that might anonymize and encrypt the transaction knowledge, after which routinely match the transactions to the tens of millions of U.S. customers of Google and Google-owned providers like Gmail, search, YouTube, and maps. This strategy prevents Google from accessing the credit score or debit card knowledge for people.
However the firm didn’t disclose the mathematical method it makes use of to guard shopper’s knowledge. In a press release, Google stated that it had taken pains to construct customized encryption know-how that ensures that the info the corporate receives stays personal and nameless.
The privateness group is asking the federal government to not not take Google’s phrase for it and to evaluation the algorithm itself. In its grievance, the group stated that the mathematical method that Retailer Gross sales Measurement is predicated on, CryptDB, has recognized securityflaws. Researchers hacked right into a CryptDB-protected healthcaredatabased in 2015, accessing over 50 % of the saved data.
Google additionally wouldn’t disclose which…


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Tata Motors appoints Inchcape as the distributor of commercial vehicles in Thailand
Ruslan Kinebas, CEO APAC, Inchcape, Alex Hammett, Managing Director, South Asia & Pacific, and Charnchai Mahantakhun (Bee), Managing Director, Inchcape Thailand along with Girish Wagh, Executive Director, Tata Motors, Anurag Mehrotra, Vice President, IB & Strategy, Tata Motors and officials at the signing ceremony.
Tata Motors, one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers has announced its partnership with Inchcape plc, a leading global automotive distributor, as their distributor for their commercial vehicles in Thailand. Through this partnership, Tata Motors will commence the sales and service of its commercial vehicles across the country. India’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Tata Motors, offers extensive range of sub 1-tonne to 55 tonne cargo vehicles and 10-seater to 51-seater mass mobility solutions, ranging in SCV&PUs (Small Commercial Vehicles & Pick-ups), I&LCV (Intermediate & Light Commercial Vehicles), M&HCV (Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles) and buses segments to address the evolving needs of logistics and mass mobility segments.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Anurag Mehrotra, Vice President, International Business & Strategy, Commercial Vehicle Business, Tata Motors, said “We are delighted to partner with a reputed distributor like Inchcape. The company comes with a rich experience, expertise and strong understanding of the automotive industry, as well as established presence across Asia-Pacific. We are confident that with Inchcape, Tata Motors’ top-of-the-line, advanced mobility solutions will be very well received in the country. Over the years, Tata Motors has established new benchmarks for lowest total cost of ownership performance, functionality, connectivity and safety by consistently introducing future-ready vehicles, services and solutions globally. This agreement is a momentous step towards expanding our market presence in Thailand, as it will benefit local businesses that are looking to build their fleet for short and long haul solutions.”
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Ruslan Kinebas, CEO Asia-Pacific, Inchcape, said “We are pleased to join hands with a global brand like Tata Motors, and excited to offer Tata Motors’ quality-led, innovative commercial vehicles portfolio in the Thailand market. With this distributorship, we see good opportunities to leverage Inchcape’s existing presence and network to drive business growth in Thailand and deliver excellent customer experience journey. This is a great example of our Accelerate strategy in action, delivering on the Group’s ambition to expand its existing global footprint and being the automotive distributor of choice.”
Charnchai Mahantakhun, Managing Director of Inchcape Thailand, comments “With the combination of Inchcape’s experience in Thailand, Inchcape’s global expertise in commercial vehicles and Tata Motors’ diverse product portfolio, we are confident that we will create value for the Thai logistics and commercial vehicle industry. We target to open ten retail sites across Thailand focusing on business sustainability, professionalism and transparency in working with our retail partners.”
With more than seven decades of expertise, Tata Motors is present in 44 countries spread across Africa, Middle East South and South East Asia, South America and CIS, among others. The company’s state-of-the-art research and development facilities have steadily worked to engineer innovative mobility solutions powered by alternate fuel technology, including battery-electric, hybrid, CNG, LNG and Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology.
About Tata Motors
Part of the USD 128 billion Tata group, Tata Motors Limited (NYSE: TTM; BSE: 500570 and 570001; NSE: TATAMOTORS and TATAMTRDVR), a USD 37 billion organization, is a leading global automobile manufacturer of cars, utility vehicles, pick-ups, trucks and buses, offering extensive range of integrated, smart and e-mobility solutions. With ‘Connecting Aspirations’ at the core of its brand promise, Tata Motors is India’s market leader in commercial vehicles and amongst the top three in the passenger vehicles market.
Tata Motors strives to bring new products that fire the imagination of GenNext customers, fueled by state of the art design and R&D centers located in India, UK, US, Italy and South Korea. With a focus on engineering and tech enabled automotive solutions catering to the future of mobility, the company’s innovation efforts are focused to develop pioneering technologies that are sustainable as well as suited to evolving aspirations of the market and the customers. The company is pioneering India’s Electric Vehicle (EV) transition and driving the shift towards sustainable mobility solutions by preparing a tailor-made product strategy, leveraging the synergy between the Group companies and playing an active role liasoning with the Government in developing the policy framework.
With operations in India, the UK, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa and Indonesia, Tata Motors’ vehicles are marketed in Africa, Middle East, South & South East Asia, Australia, South America, Russia and other CIS countries. As of March 31, 2022, Tata Motors’ operations include 86 consolidated subsidiaries, two joint operations, four joint ventures and 10 equity-accounted associates, including their subsidiaries, in respect of which we exercise significant influence.


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Lockdown fatigue grows as UK footfall rises for third straight week - Springboard
Pent-up desire to go out and shop is growing week-on-week. As lockdowns in the UK drag on, footfall across all retail destinations rose by 6.7% in the seven days stretching 31 January to 5 February, according to the latest figures from Springboard.
It was the third consecutive week in which footfall has increased and by far greater an uplift than in the previous seven-day period, it noted.
There were rises of 9% in UK high streets last week, plus a 4.5% lift in retail parks and 4.3% boost in shopping centres as lockdown fatigue looks to be intensifying.
Despite the heavy impact that the pandemic has had on large cities, footfall rose in regional cities by 2.5% and by a hefty 12.3% in Central London.
The overall outcome of the increase has seen a further reduction in the year-on-year decline in footfall, to -63.9% across all retail destinations from -65.2% last week.
Footfall also increased every day, averaging +4% over the working week but rising by 22.6% on Sunday and 11.2% on Saturday.
The degree of uplift varied across the UK, ranging from -4.9% in Scotland where the weather was most severe and -0.2% in Northern Ireland, to +17.6% in the West Midlands and +10.5% in the South West.
In high streets, increases in footfall across the UK were more consistent. In six out of 10 geographies the increase in footfall was greater than 10%, reaching as much as +18.5% in the West Midlands.
Diane Wehrle, Insights director at Springboard, said: “With shopper activity increasing for the past three weeks despite all but essential stores remaining closed, the results are delivering ever more compelling evidence of escalating lockdown fatigue. The UK’s accelerated vaccination drive could well be driving additional consumer confidence”.
Copyright © 2022 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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Langton Capital – 2016-04-07 – Easter trading, leisure travel, Premier Foods & other:
A Day in the Life:
Don’t you think that, in the run up to a break, your world splits periods into ‘before the holiday’ and ‘after the holiday’?
It might be Christmas, Easter or a break in the Maldives or whatever and I suppose some sort of split between the periods is to be expected but I for one find that the two parts of my brain don’t communicate very well with each other and I’m busily making plans for ‘after Easter’ in early March but, after the break, I can’t recall clearly what I’ve said and done.
Maybe I’m going a bit gaga but, in that case, I must have been gaga for the last thirty years or so because it’s a problem with some vintage at least chez Langton.
Hence I should perhaps call for forbearance from those people, clients, relatives, acquaintances etc. whom I’ve double booked or left waiting in coffee shops or whatever and say that, from here on in, I’ll try to do better. On to the news:
PUB, RESTAURANT & DRINKS PRODUCER NEWS:
• Coffer Peach Tracker updates on sluggish Easter, overall LfL sales +0.2% with restaurants > pubs as ‘public keep out of the rain’. Tracker suggests ‘wet and stormy weather across Britain put a dampener on people going out to eat and drink over the Easter holiday weekend’.
• Easter Tracker: An early Easter is always more likely to catch inclement weather. Pubs down 1.6% LfL. Beer gardens hardly full.
• Easter Tracker: Reports drink led pubs & bars down 2.1% over the 4dy weekend but restaurants were +4.3%. Peach’s Peter Martin reports ‘the public presumably chose indoor activities like shopping and the cinema rather than going outside.’ He adds ‘overall the market shouldn’t be too disappointed, however, considering the severity of the weather and the fact that last year was a bumper Easter, with like-for-likes 5% up on 2014.’
• Tracker: Coffer Corporate Leisure reports ‘overall, the industry should not feel too perturbed by the numbers given the mixed weather we experienced and an earlier Easter than last year.’
• Tracker says ‘outlook for eating and drinking out numbers appears to be much tougher over the coming months than we have seen in 2015’. Says comps are strong and there is ‘low confidence from consumers and leisure business owners alike ahead of the referendum.’ Coffer Corporate Leisure adds ‘new openings in the restaurant sector especially could mean like for like sales are tough for existing operators.’
• Constellation Brands FY numbers. EPS 543c vs 518c. Sales $6.5bn, up 9%. EBIT +18% at $1.9bn.
• Constellation FY. Says for FY17 it expects comparable EPS of 605c to 635c. Announces purchase of Prisoner Wine Company portfolio of super-luxury brands. It says this transaction is expected to be accretive for fiscal 2017CEO Rob Sands reports ‘it has proved to be another dynamic year of significant accomplishments and impressive financial results for Constellation.’
• Constellation CEO Sands says ‘in fiscal 2016, our beer business delivered industry-leading market results as the #1 growth contributor in the U.S. beer category, achieving stellar growth across the portfolio.’ He says ‘overall, we are excited to build on the success of fiscal 2016, as we are targeting impressive results for the coming year.’
• Enterprise Inns has announced that it yesterday bought back 111,067 of its own shares at prices between 96p and 99.5p
• The UK’s hospitality sector has seen a slump in growth in the first 3mths of 2016 per CIPS, with restaurants, hotels and pubs seeing their slowest rise in new business since 2013. The new report from Horizons indicates than an overcrowded market following a boom in the sector and uncertainty over the EU referendum are key factors in the step change.
• Moody’s has downgraded Soho House bunds to Caa2 and just three levels away from default status over liquidity fears, writes Propel. The ratings agency explained its decision: ‘Soho House’s strong brand and growth potential although we are conscious of the capex required to support this growth. Moody’s is also mindful of the uncertainty that results from Soho House exploring growth opportunities in new markets where the model is yet to be proven, which we expect may challenge profitability. The negative rating outlook reflects the uncertainty embedded into Soho House’s ambitious growth plans and the likelihood of associated volatility in operating results. In addition, leverage will remain high and interest coverage will continue to be pressured in the next 12 to18 months.’
• Andrew Page, former chairman of The Restaurant Group, has become chairman of 75-strong Côte as it looks to grow its brands. Speaking to MCA, Page said: ‘Alex and the team at Côte have built a superb business with significant potential for further profitable development. I am delighted to be joining as chairman and look forward to working with the team and BC Partners to deliver further continuing success.’ As well as its central chain of the same name, Côte is looking to grow its fledgling concepts Jackson & Rye and Limeyard.
• Liberation Group CEO Mark Crowther has told MCA there has been significant interest in the group from suitors and he expects its refinancing to be finished by this summer. The group is looking to expand its West Country-based Butcombe estate, acquired in January of last year, and is embarking on an investment drive as well as looking at further additions.
• More than half a million new cars were sold in March in the strongest month in the UK since 1999, according to SMMT figures. Consumer spending on big ticket items shows no signs of slowing down, as witnessed also by recent strong sales in furniture and fittings as reported by various retailers. The 519,000 cars sold is second only to the 525,539 cars sold in August 1997.
• Scotland’s economy grew by 0.2% in Q4 of 2015 but lagged the UK as a whole, which saw its GDP rise by 0.6% by comparison. On an annual basis, Scottish Gross Domestic Product increased by 0.9% vs 2.1% for the UK.
PREMIER FOODS’ BID APPROACH FROM McCORMICK:
• This is something that we’ve tried to keep close to.
• Recent notes include commentary on the group’s pension liability and a piece earlier in the week on ‘anchoring’ and how, if a buyer has bid a ridiculously low figure for an asset, a house, a painting, a company, it may succeed in ‘anchoring’ the market around that figure and turn the transaction to your advantage. A couple of points from our recent pieces are set out below. If you would like more detail, drop us a line.
• The Fundamentals: PFD is a recovering stock; much of the heavy lifting has been done. Whilst this has not been acknowledged by the Stock Market, competitors (McCormick, Nissin, maybe others) recognise it. PFD has high-profile brands with overseas potential. Shareholders may be on the slow-road to 150p over 3-5yrs.
• The Bid(s): McCormick has conditionally offered 52p, 60p and 65p. It has ‘anchored’ the approach at such a level that shareholders may be tempted to roll over at a regrettably low price.
• The Options: The company could go it alone – or at least try to. PFD could agree the bid at 70p, 75p or 80p. It could engineer an auction.
• Since the above was written on Monday, PFD has met with McCormick. The talks are said to have been ‘constructive’. PFD, however, maintains that 65p still undervalues the company. It produced a 44 page presentation, which is now on its website, to argue that it has a bright future as an independent company. It does not specifically address key issues such as its pension fund, the potential re a White Knight, when (of if) it will ever pay a dividend again etc.
• World Travel and Tourism Council president David Scowsill has told Travel Weekly that terror attacks have had little effect on global tourism growth. The WTTC’s Economic Impact Report 2016 finds that growth in travel and tourism outpaced economic development in the majority of countries last year, growing 3.7% and adding more than seven million jobs. WTTC president and chief executive David Scowsill explained: ‘The negative impacts are regionally specific. There is a movement away from centres hit most recently – from Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt to Spain, Italy and Greece. But we’re not seeing a drop in bookings [overall]. We keep an eye on GDS bookings and don’t see any fall-off in demand.’
• Travelzoo research contends, however, that, while global tourism is growing, safety is now a prime concern for almost three quarters of people considering a holiday this summer. A trend towards staying close to home has been confirmed by the travel deals company, which has found that the UK is the top destination this year, beating Spain and France among others. A poll of 2,000 British consumers shows that safety (71%) has become the most important factor in deciding where to go, trumping affordability (52%), and good weather (42%).
• Travellers to and from Greece have been warned of potential disruption today due to strike action by public sector unions over pension reforms. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has warned those that might be affected to check with their airlines or tour operators.
• Thomas Cook is looking to cut 18 jobs from Hotels4U as the travel giant sets about restructuring its bed bank division.
• Private equity-backed Pure Gym is going ahead with plans for a flotation that could value the budget chain at c£500m. Investment banks Jefferies, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse are handling the float. The move would follow rival The Gym Group’s £250m IPO last November.
FINANCE & MARKETS:
• Fed minutes note concern over risks of global economic slowdown. They say it was a key factor in decision not to raise rates in March. In December, the Fed said it believed that it would raise rates four times in 2016. This has now slipped to two times. it says it has ‘judged that the headwinds restraining growth and holding down the neutral rate of interest were likely to subside only slowly.’ It adds ‘In light of this expectation and their assessment of the risks to the economic outlook, several expressed the view that a cautious approach to raising rates would be prudent or noted their concern that raising the target range as soon as April would signal a sense of urgency they did not think appropriate.’
• World markets: UK and Europe up yesterday. US also higher. Far East mixed, down for choice, in Thurs trade
• Oil price up overnight at around $40.15 per barrel
Merlin Entertainments in 60 Seconds…
• Merlin suffered last year on the back of 1) the Alton Towers accident and 2) Sterling strength
• Sterling has weakened & MERL reports Q1 trading numbers 19 May
Positive news-flow continues:
• Currency helpful. Weaker Sterling (esp. vs Euro) keeps Brits at home & draws inbound travellers to the UK (esp. London)
• Staycations: QHotels says c1m holidaymakers will stay in the UK as a result of increased concerns re travel
• Safety: Travelzoo has reported that 71% of Brits surveyed had adapted their travel plans as a result of terrorism fears
• Value: Butlins says 42% of UK holidaymakers think the UK is an undervalued destination
• Domestic bookings: Hoseasons has had 7 of its 10 best ever booking days in the last quarter
• European visitors: VisitBritain has reported overseas visitor numbers +6% y-o-y in Jan (the latest month for which data is available) to 2.5m. Sterling has weakened since
• Overseas expansion: This is continuing apace, the group will update next month
Other factors, share price etc.:
• We commented post the regrettable Alton Towers crash that weakness in the group’s shares represented a buying opportunity at around 370p
• This did prove to be the case but, we would contend, MERL’s shares, though perhaps no longer cheap, per se, still represent fair value at around 22x this year’s earnings
Retail Roundup from Nick Bubb:
Marks & Spencer: The much-awaited Marks & Spencer Q4 trading update will come out at 7am this morning, shortly after we’ve gone to bed in sunny Colorado, but we’ll find out soon enough how well the company managed expectations…Despite weak comps, the City has been expecting General Merchandise sales to be a bit over 3% down LFL in the period, with Food sales up a tad LFL, but the sharp jump in the share price just before the close last night implied that somebody expects the news to be better than that…It is not clear, for example, if the City baked in the benefit to Q4 from Easter moving forward a week, although we would expect M&S to clarify the impact. It is also not clear if it will be Steve Rowe or Marc Bolland who will be handling the analyst’s conference call…
Dunelm: This morning also brings the Dunelm Q3 trading update and, though it is unlikely to get much attention in the press, they will also have an odd timing impact on sales to explain. With the interims on Feb 10th (for the 26 weeks to Jan 2nd), Dunelm explained that due to the 53rd week included in the last financial year, the interim figures included eight days of the Winter Sale, compared to only two days of Winter Sale included in the comparative period. This boosted LFL sales growth by c£10m (equivalent to 2.6% over the half year), but this impact will reverse in the Q3, to leave stated LFL sales broadly flat, although Dunelm will no doubt clarify the underlying sales trend and any Easter-adjustment.
Topps Tiles: Interestingly, yesterday’s pre-close update from Topps Tiles reported that Q2 growth (for the 13 weeks to April 2nd) was slightly reduced by the fact that the earlier Easter ell within the first half this year: “we estimate this reduced LFL sales growth in the quarter by c0.6%”. Nevertheless, LFL sales growth still picked up to a very solid 4.9% and the statement was perfectly upbeat (CEO Matt Williams said “we enter the second half of our financial year in good shape, confident that our plans to extend the appeal of the Topps brand will underpin our further progress”), so it’s a bit of surprise that the share price eased off slightly.
Today’s Press and News: The main focus is on the 3% rally in the Next share price, eg as the lead story in the FT market report puts it, “Next bounced off a two-year low yesterday after one the retail sector’s most-followed analysts said the stock had fallen too far” (the broker Haitong upgraded Next from “sell” to “buy”: see below). We can’t see much coverage of the Topps Tiles trading update, but there are a few snippets about the bumper SMMT new car sales figures for March (the UK’s new car market grew by 5.3% in March, to 518,707 vehicles, making it the biggest ever month since the bi-annual plate change began in 1999) and the slightly better than expected H&M Q1 results, whilst the FT has a big feature article about the market share pressures on mighty Wal-Mart in the US.
Next Share Buyback Watch: The shrewd “Mr Share Buyback Man” was in action yet again yesterday, picking up another c£5m worth of Next stock (c93,000 shares at an average price of 5346p), to take his post results activity to £30m in total, and this time he managed to get the price up, with the shares closing at 5410p (with a little help from an upgrade from the “scourge of Next”, the veteran analyst Tony Shiret…). Nick Bubb – email@example.com


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SHANGHAI — Personal care behemoth Unilever is the latest international company to launch a flagship story on JD Worldwide, JD.com’s cross border e-commerce platform.
JD Worldwide allows foreign companies direct access to China’s 600 million Internet users. Some of Unilever’s most popular brands, and products that haven’t been sold in China previously, are now available through the flagship. Brands featured on the new flagship include Ponds, Dove, Vaseline and Lux.
Though Unilever has been selling its products through JD.com since 2013, this deal marks a new commitment from Unilever to leverage JD’s platforms in China, according to Andy Li, director of Unilever’s China e-commerce business.
“JD.com is a long-time partner and our fastest growing e-commerce sales channel in China, so we’re excited that this partnership with JD Worldwide will extend our offering to include many of the best-known products in our global portfolio,” he said.
“Unilever has more than 400 brands globally, many of which are not yet available in the Chinese market. By partnering with JD Worldwide, we can quickly and efficiently address growing demand from Chinese consumers for many of our most successful products.”
Leo Li, head of JD Worldwide believes the addition of Unilever will encourage even more international companies to join up to the cross-border platform, and simultaneously pique the interest of Chinese consumers who bought more than 162 billion yuan worth of cosmetics and personal care products last year, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
“We aim to make it easier for global brands like Unilever to connect with Chinese consumers through our complete cross-border service that takes care of everything from customs to marketing,” he said.
“This partnership illustrates how we are working with leading international brands to meet growing consumer demand in China for imported products.”


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Follow-up to LG Optimus G planned for Q3 2013
The LG Optimus G Pro is expected to hit the US fairly soon, but word is already coming out about the plans for the follow-up to the LG Optimus G. According to Engadget, the next version of the LG Optimus G is planned to make its way around the world in Q3 of 2013.
LG's Head of Mobile Marketing, Won Kim, told Engadget that the follow-up to the Optimus G is going to be "something different and something unique". We're not exactly sure what that could mean though. The only detail given so far is that the next-gen Optimus G will not be following the G Pro with a 5.5 inch screen. Instead, the screen is expected to be "closer to the 5-inch mark".
So, LG is going to be putting its next flagship up against some pretty big competition, since that would be around the time we would expect to see the Note III and the Nexus 5, not to mention the Motorola X Phone.


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Among the many moves Ford's made within its mobility division, the company bought Silicon Valley startup Autonomic and North Carolina transit-technology firm TransLoc at the beginning of the year. Early this month, Ford bought dockless scooter startup Spin. Not long after that, Ford announced a partnership with Walmart and Postmates to design an autonomous-vehicle delivery service. A "mobility business group" within the Ford Smart Mobility division will "be responsible for growing the automaker's existing mobility business ... and future business that come out of Ford X." Those growing points of regular, traceable contact could result in healthy data sales.
Ford CEO Jim Hackett made several comments to that effect during a podcast interview, such as, "We have 100 million people in vehicles today that are sitting in Ford blue-oval vehicles. That's the case for monetizing opportunity versus an upstart. ..." He added, "The issue in the vehicle, see, is: We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us. We know what people make. How do we know that? It's because they borrow money from us. And when you ask somebody what they make, we know where they work, you know. We know if they're married. We know how long they've lived in their house because these are all on the credit applications. We've never ever been challenged on how we use that. And that's the leverage we got here with the data."
The Detroit carmaker isn't alone in pursuing the idea. We figure the first carmaker to create a viable, profitable way to broker customer data across platforms will provide the case study for every other maker.
A scaled mining operation isn't a near-term consideration, though; the fitness redesign needs larger and more immediate returns from brick-and-mortar divisions around the world. Ford Financial, the company's lending arm, has put a good show on the P/L sheets, contributing 35 percent of Ford's profit this year, up from 24 percent last year.
Elsewhere, save for the Middle East and Africa, the situations range from worrying to carnage. Ford lost 58 percent of market share in Mexico between 2008 and 2017. U.S. tariffs could erode the cash pile Ford needs to apply to emerging technologies. European losses total $973 million over the past five years; one analyst called the market "unsalvageable." In the same time, South American losses amount to $3.9 billion. Another analyst said, "We expect operating losses to continue through at least 2020" in South America.
The brand underperforms in China, posting a larger-than-expected loss this year. The last CEO of Ford China resigned after six months, and a temporary CEO filled in for 10 months. China, however, remains so immature a market that Ford still has a chance, given a well-executed reorganization. Last month, Ford China became a standalone business unit, broken out of the Asia Pacific operations, with a new CEO. The company plans to launch 50 new vehicles there by 2025, and is lining up a number of new investments and partnerships. Even so, one analyst wrote, "Lincoln momentum has stalled after a series of marketing pushes. We do not see a path to sustaining Lincoln or Ford passenger car presence in the Asia Pacific region. Including China. We value Ford's share of China [joint ventures] at zero."
In fact, the analyst consensus seems to be, at best, skepticism. Hackett and his teams know Ford needs to be "fundamentally redesigned." Analysts aren't sure the executives will get it done, and done right, in time. One observer believes international markets are already so bad that "all that will ever be sufficiently profitable is in the U.S./Canada," yet North American markets are unhealthfully dependent on full-size trucks, SUVs, and vans. Another said there's a "low degree of confidence in management's ability to successfully engineer a turnaround."
Ford's lack of detail about its reorganization and how it aims to combine its acquisitions has made it tough to get analysts on board. After Ford EVP Joe Hinrichs spoke to investors for 25 minutes at a New York conference last week, Hinrichs answered questions with more generalities. When an attendee asked for clarifications, Hinrichs said, "We have the details in our mind. ... We're not ready to talk about them." One of those details involves painting all side mirrors on the 2020 Ford Explorer black in order to reduce complexity. The exchanges led another attendee to say, "Investors came into the conference desperate for details of Ford's restructuring plans and all they got was a best-practices fundamentals lecture. I hope they also got a T-shirt."


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Honda has priced the 2014 Accord Hybrid and will have it at a dealer near you on Halloween.
Read This Article
Honda's full-size pickup truck, the Ridgeline, is going on hiatus starting next year. Don't worry though, it's coming back in 2016.
The latest rise in gas prices is once again impacting both driving habits and vehicle purchase decisions.
Auto shows are a time for carmakers to display their hottest new models, boast about big horsepower numbers, and showcase low-to-the-floor, stylish, swoopy concept cars that have no chance of making it to production.


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Hollywood Hills family sues Netflix for depiction of home in reality series
Netflix is being sued by a family who say an image likely taken by a drone of their unique and isolated Hollywood Hills home in 2022 for the series "Buying Beverly Hills" has caused them relentless harassment by sightseers and real estate agents, also raising concerns for their safety.
Aharon Dihno, 60, and his two minor children and Dihno's partner are the plaintiffs in the suit, alleging intrusion upon seclusion, violation of the state's false advertising and privacy laws and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Netflix published the ad at issue in September, promoting "Buying Beverly Hills," a reality television show depicting the daily operations of The Agency, a real estate firm that sells high-end property. The show focuses specifically on The Agency's Beverly Hills office. The Agency is a co-defendant in the suit.
The ad featuring an image of Dihno's family home shows the interior and exterior of Dihno's home from a vantage point that could only have been obtained with a drone, the suit states.
After the ad was shown, Dihno and his household "suffered a constant onslaught of visitors interested in seeing the property," causing the plaintiffs to fear for their safety and lose any sense of privacy, the suit states. The plaintiffs also endured harassing phone calls from real estate brokers interested in selling the property, according to the suit.
for more features.


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The Toyota Hilux 4×4 SR Double Cab chassis diesel has recently went on sale in Australia, where its future customers will have to pay 43, 740 AUD before driving it home.
Toyota has created a new version of the Hilux at its Japan headquarter and this is named the Hilux 4×4 SR Double Cab. The model has been launched recently in Australia where it will be setting you back for at least 43,740 AUD. This version is coming with standard features such as the electronic stability control, the six airbags, the 6.1-inch display with Bluetooth and audio streaming, the multi-information trip computer found in the instrument cluster and so on.
The car manufacturer says that there is a high demand for cab chassis body style from customers who need to carry fuel or water tanks or to attach storage lockers or toolboxes and the model in question is combining the practicality of five seats with the pickup body style and also the popular 3.0 liter four-cylinder turbo diesel engine, connected to a five-speed automatic transmission, which seems to be gaining more and more fans in the Pacific country. The Toyota Hilux 4×4 Double Cab chassis diesel is bringing the total number of Hilux versions available in Australia to 23.


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A milestone for Fulton County as the Walmart Supercenter officially opens its doors. YNN's Maria Valvanis was in Gloversville for the grand opening and explains how more days like this could be on the horizon.
GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. -- "Since we did the groundbreaking back in 2011, I've probably been asked 500 times, when is this new store going to be open?" said Mayor Dayton King.
Excited employees and folks lining up ready to shop. Wednesday morning the ribbon was cut, officially opening the doors to Fulton County's first Walmart Supercenter.
"About time," said Edwin Marriott.
From the planning to the construction, getting here was a nine-year process, and officials say it's time to start reaping the benefits.
"Right now we estimate $600,000 at a minimum for sales tax; that's not including the property tax," said King.
Plus, nearly 100 jobs. And for people like store manager Marvin Massey, who has been working for 18 years with the company, he knows just how far a job can take you.
"I zoned the shelves and did all the stuff to make the store look pretty and worked my way up through the company," said Massey.
And you can't beat convenience. From groceries to furniture, residents we spoke with say the supercenter is a one-stop-shop.
Crystal Bonafede said, "That's why I always go to the Amsterdam Walmart cause I can do everything all in one spot, and now I can go either here or there."
"I've got my pusher behind me. I'm going down to sporting goods now," said Marriott.
And it's even the venue of choice for two 11-year-old birthday boys we found.
"It was the new store and I just wanted to see how it looked," said Orion Bonafede.
Nick Tefler said, "I got a fish and donuts and pop tarts."
But the best gift is what county leaders say the store will bring to the area.
"There's more businesses coming. There's talk of a Burger King opening near the site and a local business, the Fulton County Federal Credit Union, just established their new branch in here," said Mark Kilmer.
Helping revitalize the economy, one business at a time.


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We Need To Protect *All* Personal Data
One of the most pressing issues is the volume of sensitive information about individuals that companies collect every day. Private companies track who we are, where we are, what we’re interested in, who we talk to, and what we want to buy. On the one hand, people have learned how to mine data like this in order to build incredibly useful products and well-tailored experiences. On the other hand, they’ve also created an incentive for companies to collect and store as much information about individuals as possible, on the off chance that it’ll come in handy one day.
Unfortunately, the commercial incentives to protect that information aren’t nearly as strong. Some data elements, like credit card numbers, are highly regulated — but most personal information is not. Protecting personal information is an explicit focus of my team at Square, and I’m sure it’s a priority for my fellow panelists as well, but the laws are vague enough (and enforcement actions rare enough) that many companies don’t think twice about the potential downsides of the information they collect.
This is a worrisome enough trend in a purely online context, but the rise of connected devices means that we’re all carrying tons of sensors around with us all the time. The data those devices collect is much more intimate — and while I think some startups are starting to tap the commercial potential of it, criminals are just starting to find ways to abuse it.
Directly monetizable personal data, like credit card numbers and identity information, has been for sale on underground markets for a long time now. We’re starting to see other forms of stolen information traded now as well, including databases from non-financial institutions. Pair that with a trend toward end-user extortion and ransomware, and it’s unfortunately easy to imagine a future in which criminals know as much about us as companies do and data breaches routinely lead to blackmail. Until we get ahead of things and align companies’ incentives with those of their customers, this is likely to remain one of the most pressing issues of the next decade.
The Future of Security Roundtable is a Google-sponsored initiative that brings together thought leaders to discuss how we can best protect ourselves from the data breaches and security risks of tomorrow. Panelists are not affiliated with Google, and their opinions are their own. Read the post that kicked off the roundtable here and feel free to join in the conversation.


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The Maxol Group has announced that its latest convenience destination at Dublin Road in Dundalk will open on 8th October, bringing the number of Maxol stations in Ireland to 236. Situated opposite the Dundalk Institute of Technology, the Dublin Road site will be the Group’s fifth new site opening in just six months, and 22nd in just two years.
The station will feature the company’s award-winning fresh food Moreish concept, which is the Group’s 21st Moreish café to be introduced in the space of just five months. This will include a contemporary seating area, high spec washrooms as well as complimentary Wi-Fi within the Maxol Mace convenience store. A drive-through car wash and pay-at-pump facilities providing diesel 24 hours are also available.
Commenting on the imminent opening of the new service station, Brian Donaldson, Group General Manager, The Maxol Group said; “We’re very excited to announce the opening date for Maxol Dublin Road in Dundalk and look forward to bringing a comprehensive retail and service offering to the local area and to motorists on the go. This is our fifth opening in six months, with more planned, and reflects our significant investment in Ireland over the last 24 months, in terms of new site developments and refits of existing sites.
“The new location at Dublin Road is the perfect fit for our latest new forecourt concept and we look forward to welcoming local students, residents and of course commuters to our latest Maxol convenience destination, situated at the heart of the community in Dundalk.
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Niall Swan


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Quote from the review: "Samsung’s new flagship portable media player, the P2, is sleek and svelte enough to catch the eye of potential iPhone or iPod Touch buyers. Sammy’s touchscreen interface isn’t nearly as sophisticated and fluid as Apple’s, and the player’s lack of WiFi may be a dealbreaker for some, but the built-in Bluetooth is handy for wireless listening and even for taking calls."
Read the full Samsung P2 4GB MP3 Player Review. More reviews are available in our Review section.
Luigi Lugmayr Luigi Lugmayr (Google) is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years
experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting
world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into
vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at email@example.com.


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To wake people up, I’ve come up with a new acronym for DRM: CRAP. It stands for Content Restriction Annulment and Protection. With CRAP technology (aka DRM), your ability to view or listen to the the content you acquire, record, or play in real-broadcast time (ie: a Cable TV or radio program) is easily resticted by its distributors. They can restrict whether you can record it and what devices you can play it on (including the portable players and the type of computers you can use for playback). You may agree to a certain license when you’re first exposed to the technology. But the people at the CRAP controls can revoke those terms and issue new ones whenever they want (thus, annulment). And, the worst scourge to many: you’re prevented by both the technology and the law (the Digital Millenium Copyright Act or DMCA) from tampering with CRAP technology, even if it’s only to make a copy that works on an unsupported device for your own personal use (the protection part).
“The shift to digital revenue streams is happening faster than previously thought,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Capital Inc. “But the key question remains: How well can digital revenues compensate for declines in physical sales?”
[…] In a conference call with analysts, Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. attributed the company’s profit increase to a continuing rise in digital sales, which grew 30% from the previous quarter, to $69 million, nearly triple the year-earlier figure. The CEO singled out a mobile phone marketing campaign as having driven digital sales of Madonna’s latest album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor.”
[…] The music industry is benefiting from increased digital sales. Nearly 20 million songs — a record — were downloaded by U.S. listeners during the last two weeks of 2005, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Worldwide, more than 420 million tracks were downloaded last year.
By contrast, U.S. sales of music albums fell 7% last year, to 618.9 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.


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By Anna Oleksiuk, Fintech Practice Leader, Intellias
Having already experienced three major crises in the last two decades, the financial industry needs to invest in technology to find new ways to navigate this latest crisis. Increasing costs and political unrest – combined with economic and funding challenges – will make 2023 no normal year for financial businesses. Fintechs and traditional financial institutions will only weather the recession with a robust plan for innovation to address this new “sobering” market.
Business confidence has declined significantly, consumer spending is down, and economic growth projections are poor, with investor cash drying up. In Q3 2022, fintechs raised just $13.3 billion globally, down by 64% from an all-time high in Q4 2021. According to the British Chambers of Commerce in October 2022, 39% of businesses across the UK believe their profitability will reduce over the next 12 months.
The market reality for fintechs
While traditional financial institutions (FIs) are marginally better off, being less reliant on external cash injections, fintechs are in the danger zone. Investment isn’t what it used to be since some fintech companies took a tumbling fall. Fintech investors want to be guaranteed their investments make good judgements.
All things considered, it’s a fair prediction that financial businesses with the best product, positioning, and financial diligence will be a beacon for capital and market share – while those that don’t make changes will struggle to compete.
A good number of private reserves will be used for immediate survival versus the innovation and transformation required for long-term strategic growth. The answer to navigating all this growth-survival conflict lies in good corporate governance.
Three fundamentals for fintechs to navigate this recession
By focusing on three fundamentals, fintechs can ideally position themselves for success:
- An agile business model
Embracing change will be vital this year. The emerging world of open finance offers many new opportunities, although banks and fintechs may need to reassess their current business model to be able to transform successfully.
While market leaders have managed to successfully build out a platform, embrace open banking, and scale through collaboration with partners, many FIs remain pegged down by rigid legacy architecture.
Fintechs don’t have to rip and replace for a backend systems transformation in finance. In fact, most choose to progressively decouple non-critical systems from the core and design new offerings as microservices. A lot of these new products are “borrowed” from other industry players via APIs, and are not built in-house.
The way forward is to adopt cooperation over collaboration. This means that fintechs will have to find high-potential product ideas, instead of producing just features. And banks will have to map the current shortcomings and determine the optimal technology for evolving their product portfolio. This evolution is vital for ensuring smooth operations in 2023 and beyond.
- Strong business processes
Although business size isn’t everything, it appears that profitability discipline is. Amazon, often touted as the growth-at-all-costs kind of company, only survived by checking its balance sheet and selling over $672 million in convertible bonds to build a stronger cash reserve merely months before the 2000 stock market crash hit.
While many unicorn fintechs have shown strong surface-level growth results, such as a high number of user acquisitions in new markets, some have not yet broken even or only broke even for a few months in 2020 before plunging – with exceptions such as Starling Bank that announced a full year of profit in 2022.
With consumer spending dwindling, digital banks that are mostly dependent on transactional revenue will feel further pressure. To avoid getting backed up in a tight corner, fintechs must embrace the somewhat remedial, but effective profitability discipline.
Strategies like launching new crypto or investing more in aggressive marketing for customer acquisition are all well and good – but might bust the budget in 2023. It’s sensible to focus on things that can help secure the investor trust needed to build cutting-edge things and do away with processes that can tank the business. Real efficiency just isn’t achievable without financial diligence and strong operating processes.
- A culture of innovation
Fintechs can sometimes rush in and churn out multiple ideas, implementing them without properly assessing their impacts on user base growth or profitability. They are best to build a better process for prioritising and validating new customer offerings and to ensure they test an idea first. It is important to be willing and capable of creating MVPs while also building an open team culture where any ideas or feedback can freely travel within the organisation.
Thinking about the business roadmap, not just the product roadmap, is also important. This means thinking about the main KPIs and remembering that copying the competition with new product features or launching new offerings isn’t always the best course of action.
Innovation is important, but financial product development is expensive and takes time. Therefore, it’s always better to start with an MVP product or service which can take three to six months to get to market. Customer feedback is vital to refine the application as is the evaluation of clear metrics to check the new development is getting the required results.
Strategising to thrive during the downturn
In this unpredictable financial landscape, those businesses that are prepared to embrace change will be the winners – the fintechs that can evaluate, economise, and evolve to create new opportunities. And technology will play an instrumental role in this.
Cutting costs is good, but it’s important to do it strategically. This means fintechs must try to find the optimal “save-growth” pairings, rather than simply slashing costs. For instance, a fintech can reduce customer acquisition costs and grow its user base by investing in new digital sales channels or improving existing onboarding flows.
Ultimately, it is all about making the right choices and priorities for improving areas with the highest ROI potential. 2023 will be a tough year, but it’s full of opportunities for businesses that are ready to pull off a tough act, knowing where to play their cards right, and when to fold.


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The Askaniadesign automobile design studio a Ukrainian company from the city of Zaporozhye, is preparing their first of the supercar. The model for the time being is in its early stages of development and for now it is only portrayed in digital photos.
The company did not indicate what will be the engine that will be equipped the car or any other details. They have requested on their fans on Facebook to vote to choose how the car will be named. Lets hope they will go through with their project and make the car as good as it looks.


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Where is Plant-Based Meat Going?
5 Mins Read
The idea that plant-based meat is over is ridiculous. Sure, too many mediocre brands launched too fast and too early. But amidst a burning planet and worsening climate crisis, the category is just getting started.
Over the past few months, media headlines decrying plant-based meat’s demise have dominated US airwaves. These headlines are grossly misleading. First of all, it’s a very North America-centric view of the world- around the world, there is evidence that consumers are decreasing their animal meat consumption and embracing plant-based meat. In fact, we published an entire report on the growing alt protein industry across Asia Pacific. Secondly, a lot of these headlines use Beyond Meat as the industry avatar by which to judge a sector that has over 1,000 companies. This is a misguided way to look at things, as I write about here.
The idea that plant-based meat is over is ridiculous. Did too many brands launch too fast? Sure. Did a lot of mediocre products end up on grocery shelves? Absolutely. Does that mean we should pack up our plant-based leather bags and go home? Heck no.
Reality check: in the US, plant-based meat sales are down or flat. Investment into the space has more than halved according to Crunchbase data (from $ 2 billion in 2021 to $800 million in 2022). And anecdotally, I used to get dozens of new product pitches and funding announcements in my Green Queen inbox every week and now we are down to less than five. Across the world, plant-based meat is taking a beating. For a deeper look at what’s going on with plant-based meat sales in the US and abroad, I recommend this alt protein investor’s analysis.
I am in no way suggesting that the industry does not have its problems. There are too many plant-based products that simply don’t taste great – vegan commercial cheese is a particularly disappointing area. A number of consumers find the products overly processed (though let’s get real about what’s in our meat and remind ourselves that it’s carcinogenic!). Investors absolutely got caught up in the hype and didn’t always do their DD, backing companies that were undeserving. The products are often more expensive than their animal counterparts, which is highly problematic, especially when regular folks are battling skyrocketing food inflation due to an uneven economy, rising interest rates and supply chain chaos.
All that said, Impossible Foods just reported a 50% increase in retail sales in 2022, which shows that good governance + good branding + good product R&D (over the past 18 months, the company debuted chicken nuggets, meal bowls, sausage links and more) is still a recipe for success and repeat consumers. Hot take: Beyond Meat is having a bad year because the company could be run better, not because plant-based meat is done and dusted.
If anything, the justification for the sector has never been clearer. Here are some of them. 1) Gen Z is hyper climate aware and they are ditching meat, and their friends and families are becoming social omnivores. 2) Our global food supply is increasingly interrupted by climate change-related extreme weather- your pantry will not look the same in five years- many of your favorite foods will be too expensive or impossible to source. 3) Food insecurity continues to be a major problem and governments are turning to alternative protein as a solution – Singapore’s 30 by 2030 plan is a good case study. 4) Industrial meat production requires too heavy a GHG emissions price. 5) Industrial meat consumption is linked to a slew of diet-related diseases. That means sick folks, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and a less productive population. 6) Industrial meat requires more land, more water and more energy than we have to give if we are being realistic about our resource allocation. 7) It also produces more methane and demands more antibiotics than we (humanity) can afford. Cue the superbug resistance crisis. 8) Demand for animal protein keeps growing, particularly in Asia, where hundreds of millions of people are becoming middle class and looking to increase their dietary status via meat consumption.
I could go on and on (I haven’t even touched upon the ethical case against eating meat- here are the best books to get you started if you learn more) but you get the gist. Animal protein production is broken and the status quo needs to be upended. Hence, the case for plant-based meat.
Are you an advocate of organic, whole food, plant-based diets who can’t understand why folks need beef replacements? Good for you! Keep on enjoying the healthiest diet around.
For everyone else, we need lower emission options. The world’s largest fast-food chain, McDonald’s, sells over 2.36 billion burgers a year (this is a 2021 stat). That’s the industrial meat we desperately need to convert to plant-based.
Some back-of-the-napkin climate math. The average burger is responsible for around 2.84 kg of CO2. So that’s approximately 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 in McDonald’s burgers alone (excuse my crappy, back-of-the-napkin math). According to tree offsetting data, you’d have to plant 300+ billion trees* to offset the carbon cost of the burgers, not to mention everything else on the menu. And all the other fast food chains. And all the industrial supermarket meat. For perspective, we currently plant 1.9 billion trees a year.
And no, we can’t feed the world’s animal protein appetite using 100% grass-fed, regeneratively-grown beef, sorry. That type of meat will remain a tiny proportion of total meat production and only be eaten by an elite, privileged (mostly Global North-dwelling) sliver of our global population.
So, onwards for plant-based meat! Tomorrow, I will share my 2023 alt protein trend predictions, and they include plenty of suggestions and ideas for the industry on how we can better serve our customers and our purpose. Stay tuned.
*According to the agency Encon, “to compensate 1 tonne of CO2, 31 to 46 trees are needed.” So 6.7 million tonnes x 46 trees is how I got to the 300+ billion trees needed.


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Stealth Wear – Invisibility Cover for Spying Cog
A Stealth Wear hoodie has recently been designed by Adam Harvey, which is being claimed to act as an invisibility cloak fighting the spying equipment i. e. surveillance cameras.
The drones are used everywhere so as to snoop on each and every person while skulking the skies. It is being said that the tool works in a very simple way as it blocks thermal radiation. And this is what the drones actually perceive.
It is not the only thing that Harvey belonging to New York has come up with as CVDazzle of the same category is also brought. It has been told that CVDazzle is a makeup, which thwarts face-recognition applications. And a cell phone pouch is on the list that is being promised to block radio signals, thus preventing tracking.
Coming back to the hoodie, it is expensive to be produced. Though, it is amid claims that it would be available on stores, it would hardly be purchasable from the ordinary ones. The hoodie would not allow the drones to sense the body heat and they could only see the body parts, which would not be concealed under the Stealth Wear.
"I'm very interested in seeing how this will play out in terms of how we treat other's data and how we balance security with privacy", Harvey exclaimed.
New Zealand News
- Hyundai Motor Corp to create ultra-fast EV charging network E-pit in Korea
- MGE gets six-month extension for South Korea’s Inspire Entertainment Resort development project
- Price of two cheapest trims of Tesla Model 3 electric sedan increased by $500
- Genting Malaysia asks employees to accept reduced pay; executives to take leave without pay
- Tesla to design & build affordable EV in China: Tom Zhu
- Norway’s ICE car sales decline as buyers making shift to EVs
- Pursang launches Retro-inspired E-Track Motorcycle for Euro 14,449 in Netherlands
- ElectReon successfully tests dynamic wireless EV charging system on public road in Sweden
- Volvo to design special Gothenburg Green City Zone for autonomous & related technologies


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Moments after Vice President Joe Biden called Paul Ryan’s foreign-policy comments “a bunch of malarkey” during the Oct. 11 vice presidential debate, the Obama campaign bid on the trending term “malarkey” on Twitter. Users seized on the old barb, generating tens of thousands of messages tagged #malarkey, which created a commercial boomlet, complete with T-shirts and bumper stickers.
That is the kind of thing that really gets Adam Bain going. As it should: Twitter’s president of global revenue is responsible for the growing array of advertising tools that make moments like these a profit center.
Bain, 39, started his career in news at one of the first regional city guides, Cleveland.com, and then spent two years as a web producer at the Los Angeles Times before he joined News Corp. (NWSA) in 1999. An affable sales executive, he rose to become president of the Fox Audience Network, a division that included one of the largest digital advertising networks and was responsible for making money from properties like MySpace.
When Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recruited Bain in August 2010, the microblogging platform was the black sheep of social media sites. While LinkedIn (LNKD) and Facebook were building robust advertising engines in preparation for their much-anticipated initial public offerings, Twitter had a $3.7 billion valuation but no obvious business model.
Bain eschewed banner ads in favor of messages that showed up directly in the stream of tweets. Pundits wondered whether users would rebel, but it worked. Says Bain: “In 2011 the most retweeted tweet of the year actually came from a marketer itself.” (It was a Wendy’s tweet aimed at charities.)
With 140 million active users, Twitter has now become a staple for advertisers. It is expected to pull in $288 million in ad revenue this year, according to eMarketer, a 107% jump over 2011, and is now valued at $8 billion. What’s more, the company launched mobile advertising in February and already brings in more revenue from that than from desktop users. “Even though Twitter’s usage is way below what Facebook has, the company has been able to attract a lot of big brands,” says eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. She credits Bain and his 250-person team.
Next up? Bain has a self-service tool for small businesses in the works, but as with the company’s slow-to-emerge ad products, he is taking his time to learn from competitors before releasing it widely. By watching other companies struggle, Bain calculates Twitter will benefit. That’s likely to be the strategy for an initial public offering as well: It’s not expected before 2014.
This story is from the December 3, 2012 issue of Fortune.


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NY’s Restaurant Letter Grading System: Keeping The City Safe, Or Unfair and Arbitrary?
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New York City’s restaurant industry health standards are among the toughest in the country. They have been the subject of much praise and criticism since the Bloomberg administration introduced a letter grade system into eateries in 2010. The New York Health Department conducts impromptu inspections of restaurants at least once a year where an inspector assigns a letter grade based on compliance with the city’s health and sanitary code.
Each violation of a regulation generates a number of points. After the inspection, the points are tallied and the restaurant receives a score—the lower score, the better the grade. The restaurant must then display the framed blue letter grade in a visible area such as a door window with a bright, A, B or C.
While the scheme has undoubtedly reduced the number of food poisoning cases and forced restaurants to up their game which has improved the overall standard of hygiene, restaurateurs have long argued that the system is fine-driven and that they have been unfairly targeted for violations unrelated to health. They say that contesting the grade is an onerous, costly process.
Last year, more than 1,000 restaurants were fined for hiding their inspection grades. Fifty-five percent of the cheaters had received the lowest grade of C and been fined up to $1,000 each. In response, restaurants claimed that hiding the bad grade was a “calculated business approach” and that it was far better to pay the fine and avoid showing the letter than risk losing business, reported NY Daily News.
“I’d rather take the fine than place the C up there. It would have ruined my business. I know a lot of other restaurants do that because it’s not worth it,” said Thomas Mak, manager of Juniper, in Brooklyn.
A number of restaurants that spoke with AlterNet revealed that in order to keep up with the strong competition in New York, maintaining the A grade "golden standard" was paramount.
“It's severe rivalry out there and it’s very tough. Should you lose an A grade, it puts you behind and sometimes out of the race. You lose the clientele that is looking for that specific grade,” a midtown B-grade restaurant anonymously disclosed to AlterNet.
Another C-grade restaurant owner who chose to remain unidentified, said, “The health department in New York is just so strict. It levies very harsh conditions on food establishment donors. The system works to a certain degree. But it’s not fine-tuned and certainly isn’t always fair. It depends entirely on how lenient or strict an individual inspector is. You can get penalized just for the sake of being penalized.”
B-Cup Café in the East Village, an A-grade restaurant, admitted that while the system can be tough, it works as an important tool overall to instruct consumers where to eat and obliges restaurants to maintain good health standards.
“It isn’t that difficult to maintain high sanitary conditions in accordance with the Health Department’s guidelines as long as you are vigilant about food preparation and food protection regulations. Food has to be maintained at a certain temperature and precautionary measures must be taken with regard to preparing food, cleanliness and workspace and the turn over of disposables when attending to food. We sympathize with those who have lost their grade because it’s difficult to boost once it has been lost,” the general manager told AlterNet.
So which area in New York has the worst letter grade rating? According to a Gothamist report, only 51 percent of restaurants in Chinatown earned an A grade rating compared with 80 percent of restaurants elsewhere in the city. The reason for the grade disparity lies in language barriers, confusion over inspection reports, unwillingness to appeal poor inspections and a general misunderstanding among inspectors about how foreign cuisines in that neighborhood are to be served. Last year, restaurants in that area paid $600,000 in fines despite 40 percent of households living below the poverty line.


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Attention travelers please! Now double tickets will be booked on one ID of IRCTC in a month
New Delhi: There is news of relief for those traveling on e-train tickets. They will now be able to generate 12 e-tickets every month instead of six. Ticket account has also been linked with Aadhar card to check black marketing.
To generate an ID, a visitor needs to create an account on the IRCTC site. Black marketers were also taking advantage of this facility by making fake IDs.
Indian Railways has tweeted that for the convenience of passengers and to curb black marketing, Aadhaar card and mobile number will also have to be entered while generating e-tickets. Aadhar card number will also be given at the time of account creation. Now 12 e-tickets can be made in a month.
It was also informed that Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will now make travel packages for tourists from the corporate sector train Tejas Express. IRCTC will take tourists from Lucknow to New Delhi via Tejas Express, while a flight from New Delhi will take them to Leh. For this, IRCTC has prepared four packages for Ladakh from June to August. IRCTC has also started booking this seven-day package.
IRCTC has prepared a tour package for Leh via Lucknow to New Delhi. The journey from Lucknow to New Delhi will be by Tejas Express. From there tourists will fly to Leh. IRCTC will provide three star hotels to the tourists for food and accommodation.
The tour includes hotel stay in Leh, overnight stay at Leh Palace, Shanti Stupa, Gurudwara, Nubra Valley Camp in Sham Valley, Disket, Hunder and Turtuk villages besides local tours and sightseeing of stupas and monasteries including Pangong Lake Huh. Powered by IRCTC.
The package for two people staying together in a hotel will be Rs 44,500 per passenger. For staying together, the three persons will have to pay Rs 43,900 per passenger and Rs 42,000 per child separately. Packages will be booked on a first come first served basis.


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Princes has signed a long-term partnership deal with Italian pasta producer Pastificio Guido Ferrara in a deal that it hopes will boost its European presence.
The supply partnership agreement, announced today (11 February), is part of a strategy to “more than double” Princes’ sales of customer own brand and branded pasta in the European market over the next five years, it said.
The partnership is designed to bring together the pasta production capabilities of Ferrara with the supply credentials of Princes.
Ferrara is a long-term supplier to Princes and operates one of the most modern and well-invested pasta factories in Italy, according to the canned tuna producer.
“This new partnership agreement with Ferrara is further evidence of our commitment to expand our international operations and build strong supply partnerships,” said Princes MD Ken Critchley. “Our vision is to continue to enhance Princes’ capability, expertise and supply chain excellence across numerous markets to better serve our customers. We have an ambitious strategy to continue to strengthen our supply chains through partnership and selective acquisitions.”


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NOVA Chemicals to Showcase Expertise at ISTA Forum
Calgary, Alberta, Canada (May 13, 2019) – NOVA Chemicals Corporation (“NOVA Chemicals”) will showcase its polyethylene and expandable styrenics offerings and expertise at the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) Forum in Denver, May 13-16. For the first time, NOVA Chemicals’ polyethylene and expandable styrenics teams will co-exhibit at the ISTA Forum. In addition, Monika Kleczek, Ph.D., a product development research scientist for NOVA Chemicals, will present original research demonstrating the viability of film-to-film recycling of flexible packaging for transportation applications. Jonathan Quinn, market development manager for NOVA Chemicals’ PE business, will formally begin his three-year term on the organization’s global Board of Directors during the Forum, and will speak at the event.
NOVA Chemicals’ polyethylene and expandable styrenics businesses will jointly demonstrate how their resins and expertise are enabling the development of tougher and more sustainable packaging for transport applications, including abuse-resistant, recyclable film structure designs for ships-in-own-container (SIOC) compliance and lightweight ARCEL® resins that protect fragile goods in transit. Both businesses have been focusing on plastics sustainability and packaging requirements of the e-commerce supply for several years and have a deep understanding of the impact these market trends have on the transportation industry.
Dr. Kleczek will present a paper titled, “Polyethylene Packaging Repurposed as Value-Added E-Commerce Consumer Packaging,” on Wednesday, May 15 at 2:15 p.m. The presentation will show how PE packaging film can be mechanically recycled multiple times into high-value flexible transportation packaging materials, including machine-stretch film, vacuum-pack protective film, collation shrink film and dunnage film, before being ultimately recycled into durable rigid consumer or industrial products.
“This research highlights NOVA Chemicals’ commitment to advancing a circular plastics economy. The transportation industry, brand owners and the plastic industry at-large have established aggressive sustainability targets that include making flexible packaging products more recycle-ready,” she explained. “While the research we’re presenting at ISTA focuses primarily on flexible packaging for the transportation industry, it will show that our PE resins have potential for broad application across a number of industrial and consumer packaging markets.”
Quinn’s appointment to the global ISTA board reflects his considerable expertise. “Flexible packaging solutions for e-commerce need to be designed for the home delivery supply chain while meeting retailer goals for aesthetics and sustainability,” he explained. “ISTA plays a vital role in the testing and regulation of these flexible packages, which helps ensure their ability to endure the rigors and challenges of e-commerce.”
Quinn has been involved with ISTA since he was a student at Clemson University and formally joined the organization through NOVA Chemicals in 2016. NOVA Chemicals is a long-term member of ISTA and actively supports the organization’s role in the development of flexible and rigid packaging for transit.
“Jonathan is a welcome addition to our global Board of Directors,” said A.J. Gruber, President of ISTA. “He brings valuable insight and leadership in the burgeoning e-commerce space, which will be an area of increased focus for our organization for years to come.”
In addition to being officially installed on the ISTA board, Quinn will be joined by Peter Apostoluk of Millipore Sigma for an interactive discussion session titled “Foods, Pharmaceuticals, & Detergents… Oh My!”. The session, which is scheduled for Thursday, May 16 at 8:45 a.m., is about the role of e-commerce packaging in protecting consumers and the need for new standards and labeling protocols.
To learn more about NOVA Chemicals’ products and expertise, visit the company’s booth at the ISTA 2019 Forum or www.novachem.com.
About NOVA Chemicals
NOVA Chemicals develops and manufactures chemicals and plastic resins that make everyday life safer, healthier and easier. Our employees work to ensure health, safety, security and environmental stewardship through our commitment to sustainability and Responsible Care®. NOVA Chemicals, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is wholly-owned ultimately by Mubadala Investment Company of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Media inquiries, please contact:
The NOVA Chemicals logo is a registered trademark of NOVA Brands Ltd.; authorized use. ARCEL® is a registered trademark of NOVA Chemicals Inc.
Responsible Care is a registered trade mark of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada.


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Fans of Singapore Airlines newest class of travel won’t have to wait until August to experience the features of the cabin. The new Premium Economy Class can be experienced without even stepping onto the aircraft, thanks to a unique, interactive website created by TBWA’s Digital Arts Network (DAN) Singapore.
The website, which you can view by clicking here, is designed for seamless use on all digital devices and platforms. It extends the Singapore Airlines world-class experience online, highlighting the Premium Economy seat in a 360-degree, rolling format and highlighting the new technology capabilities as well as providing a sneak peak into the new menu and exclusive privileges of the cabin as Singapore Airlines begins the roll out of the new service. The website also allows consumers to seamlessly transition to the booking page for all Premium Economy Class available routes.
The new cabin class, which opened for sale on February 3, is available on select flights from Singapore to Sydney starting from August 9, and will subsequently be available to other destinations across Asia, Europe and the USA in the latter part of 2015 and early 2016.
“The new Premium Economy Class is a major launch for Singapore Airlines this year,” said Tuomas Peltoniemi, Head of Digital at DAN Singapore. “To honour the airline’s investment in world-class on-board experiences, DAN Singapore designed an immersive digital experience to showcase the innovative Premium Economy seat, and take customers through the experience in a virtual and visual way.”
“The new Premium Economy Class is designed to appeal to a new generation of traveller,” said Dawn Lee, Group Account Director at TBWA\Singapore. “This presented the agency a great opportunity to develop a modern and contemporary campaign to match.”


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The nominees for this year’s mobile industry awards have been revealed. There are a lot of names that have made the shortlist this year, and I’ll be going over them all below.
I’ll also be sharing my opinion on who I think will win each category. Why not join me and make your own predictions for who you think will win each category in the 2018 Mobile Industry Awards as well?
It's an Apple-heavy week, as we investigate the 2020 iPhones, Apple's plans to ditch Intel in Macs, and Fortnite's incredible iOS success. We've also got the word on Spotify's first piece of hardware and the long-awaited OnePlus 6 and LG G7 ThinQ. Let's get started!
Apple's iPhone X and Samsung's Galaxy S9 are two of the hottest phones in 2018. Which one deserves to be your next smartphone? Delve in to find out the features and power which sets them apart, so you can decide for yourself.
It seems that no matter how counterproductive something is, if Apple does it, other smartphone manufacturers will be sure to follow just a year or two later.
A great example of this is the new iPhone X notch which is now making its way to a number of Android phones this year. Here’s a look at some of the biggest phones expected to drop this year that have clearly taken inspiration from the iPhone X design.


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The Philips Hue brand has established itself as a frontrunner in the world of HomeKit smart lighting. And it looks to be continuing to push the envelope in 2020 with a new lineup of outdoor products, thanks to leaked product catalog found by Hueblog.de.
These new light solutions will likely be officially announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. But thanks to Hueblog, we can get an early sneak peek.
The new items are all color and ambiance models, but they are more sophisticated integrated outdoor light fixtures than the usual multi-color smart bulbs.
The new products include a new XL version of the Philips Hue Lily, a garden spotlight. The XL translates into a much brighter bulb up to 1200 lumens. Philips is also readying a new addition to its Impress line of lights with a box wall-light that is apparently launching in Spring 2020.
There’s also a new ‘Hue Nyro’ SKU which is a rectangular lamp that has an unusually modern boxy design, available as a path or wall lamp. There’s a new circular wall light in the form of the ‘Hue Daylo’ and a hang-down ‘Hue Attract’ wall lamp.
Finally, the new Philips Hue Appear and Philips Hue Resonate offer theatric conical and box spotlight lighting onto walls. The units include lamps on the top and bottom, to throw light up and down a feature wall for example. They provide 1000-1200 lumens of maximum brightness.
Whilst it seems like most of these products will be launching in the spring, pricing information was not available in the leaked documents. Expect to see more details about these new Hue items at CES next month.
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Roblox has long been one of the most popular games in the world–it’s had millions of fans for its nearly fifteen-year run. But it continues to grow and bring in new players, and it’s now up to 42.1 million daily active users.
According to Roblox’s Q1 2021 earnings, the game has also achieved solid revenue in addition to its huge playerbase, earning $387 million in revenue. Both revenue and daily active users (DAUs) are way up year-over-year, with revenue up 140% from Q1 2020 and DAUs up 37% from Q1 2020.
Roblox has exploded in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns went into effect across the world in March 2020. It has rapidly become one of the most popular games in the world–while showing off a particularly consistent streak in audience growth. Its recent successes have even surprised developer Roblox Corporation, which expected growth and revenue to decrease as lockdowns lifted throughout the world. However, while there was a slight downturn between February and March in monthly active users (MAUs), Roblox is now up to an all-time high 202 million MAUs.


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For those curious, even though Dell discontinued their Windows RT based XPS 10 tablet, you will still be able to download and install the upcoming Windows RT 8.1 update. The same applies to the discontinued Lenovo Yoga 11 tablet.
Windows RT 8.1 is set to roll out on the same day as Windows 8.1, which is October 17th for current Windows 8 users and a general availability on October 18th. Of the new features that come with Windows RT 8.1, the most noteworthy feature is the addition of Outlook RT.
We recently reported that Microsoft is now the only company selling a Windows RT based tablet (Surface RT) as companies such as Dell and Lenovo have opted not to continue selling their Windows RT tablets. The reason for this is due to lack of sales. Microsoft may be the only one selling a Windows RT device right now, but Windows RT 8.1 is set to change the game just a little and hopefully turn things around for the sinking platform.
However, if you were one of the unlucky ones who obtained either the XPS 10 or Yoga 11, have no fear. You can still download and install the Windows RT 8.1 update to bring new life into your discontinued product.


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The OnePlus 3 is expected to be a big departure from the company’s previous flagship phones, swapping that iconic sandstone material for a sleek metal design. But don’t worry, OnePlus CEO Peter Lau says the new device will still feel good in your hand. The company co-founder continued to hype the OnePlus 3 this week on Chinese social network Weibo without offering any concrete details. In a rough translation, he says the phone offers a “cool feeling.”
A leaked render making the rounds online shows a premium metal design seemingly inspired by the HTC One. The device certainly looks like it would feel nice to hold thanks to a unibody build and a slight curve in back. The OnePlus 3 is also expected to pack a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 820 processor, a 16-megapixel rear camera, a 3,000mAh battery and a fingerprint scanner in front. It could come in two different variants packing 4GB or 6GB of RAM, with the cheaper version starting at just over $300.
OnePlus is set to launch the new phone this spring with an official unveiling expected later this month. Last we heard the device could make its debut on May 28 before hitting the market in June.


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Madonna just bought The Weeknd's massive Los Angeles mansion at a big discount
Madonnahas bought The Weeknd's Hidden Hills homefor almost $20 million.
- The Weeknd originally listed it for nearly $25 million before cutting the price by several million.
- Madonna also owns homes in New York and Portugal.
Madonna has bought The Weeknd's sprawling Los Angeles home for $19.3 million, the New York Post reports.
The Weeknd, born Abel Tesfaye, originally put the home on the market in June with an asking price of just under $25 million and it went through a price cut before the legendary pop star bought it for almost $6 million under the initial listing price.
Photos of the 12,500-square-foot Hidden Hills property show sleek white interiors and massive lawns surrounding the house.
The sprawling property has a total of nine bedrooms, nine full bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms across its 7-bedroom main house and separate 2-bedroom guesthouse, in addition to other lavish features like a wine cellar, five-car garage, swimming pool, cabana, spa, and chef's kitchen with two islands and stainless steel appliances.
The Weeknd bought the home in 2017 for almost $20 million, Architectural Digest reported at the time, days after Selena Gomez, his then-girlfriend, bought a $2.5 million ranch in neighboring Studio City.
The Post reports that Angel Salvador at The Agency represented The Weeknd in the sale of the property and Trevor Right of The Beverly Hills represented Madonna.
The Weeknd still owns at least one other multimillion-dollar California home
In 2019, The Weeknd bought a $21 million penthouse in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Times reported at the time of the purchase that the penthouse The Weeknd bought "is called the 'Mogul' and boasts a dark, masculine palette of deep navy blue complemented by walnut wood paneling."
The 8,000-square-foot home also has a private elevator, floor-to-ceiling windows, and access to the
She listed her Beverly Hills, California, home in 2018 for $35 million, although it's unclear how much the property ultimately sold for.
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Airport operators and airlines around the world are still unable to assess what financial damage may have been wrought on their businesses by last week's failed terrorist plot.
An insider at BAA, which was recently acquired by Spanish services giant Ferrovial for £10.1bn, said: "There are two areas: there's the financial cost [of the current disruption] to us and then there's the financial effects. But it is far too early at the moment to say what either of those will be. Who knows where we will be in 48 hours time?"
The market reacted sharply to the news of the foiled attacks. Some stocks were hit harder than others, with airlines and tourist companies taking the brunt of the sell-off. British Airways initially dived 5 per cent, although by Friday the carrier's shares were down just 1.5 per cent over the week.
Fears also grew about how the wider UK economy would suffer. A Grant Thornton analyst, Maurice Fitzpatrick, reportedly predicted that the delays - should they average three hours a flight - would cost the economy up to £10m per day.
But nerves started to calm as the week progressed, and the FTSE 100, after its initial slump, closed on Friday down just 3 points. And not all in the market were unsettled by the events. One analyst at a big investment bank, who asked not to be named, said BA was likely to face a hit of around £10m because of the disruption.
But, he added: "That's not a huge number in the context of things. Is this going to change travel patterns? No, not even 9/11 did that. I really don't think this is going to be a big issue for the airlines' profits and therefore for their share prices long-term."
There remain concerns, however, that airport operators could suffer a big financial blow from the security crackdown on hand luggage. Although restrictions about what passengers could take into the cabin with them were eased slightly late last week, Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for Transport, was reported yesterday as conceding: "I don't think we will be able to return to what we had."
Instead of the usual large bags, laptops and duty-free purchases, hand luggage was initially restricted to essential items only, such as passports and medicines. No liquids are allowed on to US flights, although more duty-free purchases were being allowed on flights to other destinations by the weekend.
Airports groups such as BAA - the owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - garner some of their biggest revenues from retailers, so a prolonged crackdown on hand luggage would hit home hard.
Airports act as landlords, letting out retail space for high rents. This attracts a range of shops, from chemists and electrical retailers to luxury-goods companies keen to take advantage of "dwell time", when bored travellers waiting for their flights indulge in retail therapy.
"Is it significant? Yes, it's very significant," said Andrew Fitchie, an analyst at Collins Stewart.
"The whole global airport model is predicated on keeping charges for the infrastructure down by cross-subsidising from retail. That's the case with BAA and with regional airports in the UK, and it's one of the reasons low-cost carriers have been able to grow.
"It's been the cornerstone of the airport industry for the last 20 years or so."
Mr Fitchie said it was hard to put a figure on revenues garnered from retail by airports, but conceded: "We're talking not tens but hundreds of millions of pounds."Reuse content