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29 March 2019
The latest International Visitor Survey results for the year ending December 2018 show the number of international visitors to WA grew by 2%, while expenditure fell by 1%. By comparison, international visitors to Australia grew 5% and expenditure grew 7%.
Tourism Council WA CEO Evan Hall said the recent $12 million funding boost announced by the State Government would assist in turning around the decline in international tourism.
“The boost funding will effectively double our promotion of WA as a holiday destination in key markets, such as Hong Kong, the US and Germany. The boost funding is dedicated to ‘bums-in-bed marketing’ and will not be spent on administration,” Mr Hall said.
Tourism Council WA’s recent report, New Attractions for Perth, demonstrates the need for new attractions which will give visitors more things to do, so they stay longer, spend more and create jobs.
“The tourism industry is puzzled by the State Government blocking the Alfred Cove Wave Park at a time when job-creating tourism attractions are clearly needed,” Mr Hall said.
“Tourism Council WA is calling for approvals for proposed attractions to be streamlined so new, diverse experiences can be created to make Perth an exciting destination with unique activities for everyone.”
The latest survey showed international visitors who were travelling to WA for a holiday increased by 12% and their spending increased by 8%.
“It is critical that we target holiday makers who spend more, stay longer and travel widely within regional WA,” Mr Hall said.
“While Australia undergoes a tourism boom, it is imperative that Western Australia focuses on securing its market share through this boost funding and new attractions.”
WA also needs great new experiences and attractions which drive leisure tourism to Perth and beyond.
- Ends –


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KUALA LUMPUR – June 12, 2018: The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) said prices of some goods may actually increase when the Sales and Service Tax (SST) is re-introduced in September.
Fomca deputy president Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman told The Mole today this is because SST’s tax rate for products could go up to 10 per cent if no changes are made to the previous SST system before it was replaced by the Goods and Service Tax (GST).
He said there may even be other factors than methods of taxation that can influence price changes.
“Cars for example, are cheaper with GST rather than SST. Theoretically, this will mean that certain goods, like cars, will revert to its more expensive prices when SST is reintroduced in September.
“Also, there will always be those that take advantage of the transition period. In this context, the re-implementation of SST could actually result in higher final price.
“While there may be other factors such as old stock, profit margin or cost of supply, average consumers won’t really know what really cause the increase in prices,” said Yusof.
Yusof advised consumers to be more sensitive to changes in price and report any abnormal price increases to the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK).
“If prices do go up after the SST reimplementation, an average consumer might not know if the price hike was due to traders taking advantage or other factors.
“The best is to just report such cases to KPDNKK and let them investigate whether the price increase was justifiable or not,” he said.
“GST or SST, there shouldn’t be too much difference in the final price of goods,” he added
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has confirmed that SST will be reintroduced on Sept 1.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had also said that SST will be implemented at the former rate of 10 per cent.
Malaysia has been without consumption tax since the zero-rating of GST on June 1 and the reintroduction of SST is expected to make up for the shortfall in government revenue.

domain: news


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“Fleet renewal with innovative and efficient models is the best way to protect the climate and bring about further improvements in air quality. This is because modern Euro 6 vehicles have much lower pollutant emissions and lower fuel consumption than older models,” explained Bernhard Mattes, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). The VDA has conducted an analysis based on the latest figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
The results reveal that whereas the total passenger car fleet (as on Jan. 1, 2018) in Germany had expanded only slightly compared with the previous year – by 1.5 percent to nearly 46.5 million units – the number of passenger cars satisfying the modern Euro 6 standard soared by 52 percent to 9.3 million vehicles (6.1 million in the previous year) within only twelve months. Mattes commented, “That means one fifth of all cars on our roads already satisfy Euro 6. At the same time, the fleet of Euro 5 cars and older models is shrinking steadily.”
Out of the 9.3 million Euro 6 passenger cars, 58 percent are gasoline vehicles and 41 percent are diesels. The number of modern Euro 6 diesel cars has risen within one year by 42 percent, or 1.1 million units, from 2.7 million to 3.8 million vehicles. So one quarter of the 15.2 million diesels on the roads already meet the most modern exhaust standard.
“Every new diesel that comes into service and replaces an older vehicle improves the urban air quality,” Mattes emphasized. The EU stipulates that the NOx emissions from a Euro 6 diesel have to be at least 56 percent lower in the testing cycle than those from a Euro 5 vehicle. And their real world emissions are in fact much lower.
“The proportion of modern Euro 6 diesels will continue to grow in the future. Every year, around one million new diesel passenger cars are registered in Germany, while the number of older vehicles is falling all the time,” Mattes explained. In all probability, half of all diesels in the fleet would be Euro 6 vehicles by 2021.
The VDA president pointed out that the trade-in bonuses currently offered by the carmakers further accelerated fleet replacement. He added that the most modern exhaust technology and the future EU-wide mandatory road tests (RDE) would enable the final step in reducing pollutants from diesel cars. “Today the air in Germany is better than ever before. According to the German Environment Agency, the NOx emissions from road traffic fell by around 70 percent in the period from 1990 to 2015,” Mattes said. The trade-in bonuses, he continued, were being supplemented with free software updates in over 5 million passenger cars and a 250 million euro contribution from the German manufacturers to the German Government’s mobility fund.
Welcome progress is also being made in the field of electric mobility.
The VDA president stressed that the ramp-up of electric mobility could also be seen from the figures. “Last year alone, new registrations of electric vehicles in Germany more than doubled (+117 percent).” Their market share accordingly rose from 0.8 to 1.6 percent. “Every year the German automotive industry invests over 40 billion euros in research and development, with a large portion of this going on electric mobility and alternative powertrains,” Mattes stated.
“The German auto makers are continually strengthening their position in electric mobility – showing that our member companies are offering the right models, which go down well with the customers,” Mattes underscored and drew attention to the latest statistics. For example, the German OEMs’ market share of newly registered electric cars in Germany rose to 70 percent in the first two months of this year (57 percent in Jan. to Feb. 2017), whereas in 2017 as a whole their market share increased from 59 to 66 percent. In Germany the proportion of e-cars with private owners (Jan. to Feb. 2018) climbed to 39 percent – higher than that on the total car market (36 percent).
In 2017 the German manufacturers pushed up their market share of new registrations of e-cars in Western Europe to 53 percent (50 percent in the year before). In Norway, the leading market – where four out of ten newly registered cars use electric propulsion – the German manufacturers achieved a market share of 54 percent in 2017.
“Another indicator of the German automotive industry’s success is the fact that a good 80 percent of the electric cars built in Germany are exported,” Mattes said. “It is now important to rapidly expand the charging infrastructure. Only a joint effort by industry and policymakers will result in a relevant proportion of electric vehicles of 15 to 25 percent in Europe by 2025,” the VDA president emphasized.


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USDA Plans to Side With 'Fake Organic' Egg Producers, Ditch Animal Welfare Rule
By Katherine Paul and Alexis Baden-Mayer
The Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) Rule was the result of a 14-year effort by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to tighten up animal welfare rules for organic egg producers.
The OLPP was set to be enacted in January 2017. But under the incoming Trump administration's regulatory freeze, the rule was delayed multiple times. Now the USDA wants to throw it out completely.
If the OLPP is thrown out, "fake organic" egg producers will get to keep their production costs low. This will allow them to continue underselling smaller organic producers who follow the rules. At the same time, they capture a big share of the organic egg market by selling their eggs under the USDA Organic seal.
In other words, it's a great way to feather their nests.
These practices not only make it more difficult for smaller organic egg farmers to compete, they also cheat consumers who believe certified organic means higher animal welfare standards. Instead consumers are unknowingly buying eggs from producers who run nothing more than industrial-scale operations indistinguishable from factory farms apart from the type of feed they use. The result are eggs of inferior nutritional quality. (Studies show that authentic certified organic eggs have a deeper yoke color which translates into higher levels of Vitamin A, Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin E and beta carotene).
Better nutrition and better animal welfare standards aren't the only benefit for consumers who buy authentic certified organic eggs. Organic eggs produced by ethical farms where hens have real access to pasture, including organic regenerative poultry systems, have far less impact on the environment than those that come from factory farm-type egg operations that pollute with impunity.
Who are the "Big Organic" egg producers? Cal-Maine Foods and Herbruck's, which was the subject of a Washington Post exposé last year. Herbruck's sells some of its eggs under the Eggland's Best brand. But the bulk of the eggs sold by these producers end up on store shelves under private label (store brand) names.
In fact, most retail grocery chains that sell "organic" eggs under their own label (think Aldi's Simply Nature, Whole Foods 365 Organic, Trader Joe's, Kroger Simple Truth, Costco, Walmart, etc.) get their eggs from huge factory farm-type operations that routinely violate USDA National Organic Program (NOP) rules.
Lobbyists for the Cal-Maine and Herbruck's claim they'll have to get out of the organic market if the new OLPP rule is allowed to stand. Christopher Nichols, third-generation egg farmer in California told the Los Angeles Times that's bunk:
"Don't let them fool you. They knew darn well that they were building these buildings out of compliance. And they knew that when this day came, that they were going to have to face this decision. But they probably figured that they had the money and the political muscle to overrule it."
Smaller producers, Nichols told the LA Times, "just don't have that."
Is there still time to keep the USDA from scuttling the new rule? Maybe.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Europe is gearing up for another extreme heat wave that could set all-time records for several European countries.
Micro-Naps for Plants: Flicking the Lights on and off Can Save Energy Without Hurting Indoor Agriculture Harvests
By Kevin M. Folta
A nighttime arrival at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport flies you over the bright pink glow of vegetable production greenhouses. Growing crops under artificial light is gaining momentum, particularly in regions where produce prices can be high during seasons when sunlight is sparse.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) former head of the Office of Air and Radiation who was instrumental in drafting policies that eased climate protection rules and pollution standards is under investigation by a federal watchdog for his dealings with the fossil fuel industry he was supposed to be regulating, according to the New York Times.
It's no secret that the Trump administration has championed fossil fuels and scoffed at renewable energy. But the Trump administration is trying to keep something secret: the climate crisis. That's according to a new analysis from the watchdog group Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) who found that more than a quarter of the references to climate change on .gov websites vanished.
By Adrienne Hollis
Climate change is a threat multiplier. This is a fact I know to be true. I also know that our most vulnerable populations, particularly environmental justice communities — people of color and/or low socioeconomic status — are suffering and will continue to suffer first and worst from the adverse effects of climate change. Case in point? Extreme heat.


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A local startup that sells home medical equipment online and is funded by former Invacare CEO Mal Mixon is adding both humans and robots to its sales team.
Care Motion recently raised $500,000 from two other investors to help the company market its new virtual shopping assistant, which walks customers through the process of buying products like wheelchairs, scooters and oxygen concentrators.
The Cleveland-based company will use some of that money to add more real people to its sales team.President Aaron Cavano said the company is working to hire one employee and an intern. He projected that Care Motion, which has nine full-time employees, would hire about six more people over the next six months "as long as everything scales appropriately."
The company launched CareMotion.com in June 2016. On Aug. 31, Cavano estimated that the company would bring in roughly $200,000 in revenue during the month of August.
The company's new sales employees (human and robotic) are task with driving that number up.
The virtual shopping assistant tool works like this: Say you want to buy a scooter. When you open the scooter version of the tool, the virtual assistant will ask for your name, gender, height and weight. It then will inquire about how you'll use the product (for example, "How do you plan to transport this?" "What will your primary use be for this scooter?").
Although the company only recently started marketing the tool, it has been testing it by giving links to the virtual assistant to some online shoppers who use the website's live chat function. So far the tool has "generated 10,000 leads," Cavano said, adding that the company would eventually post a direct link to the virtual assistant on its website.
Cavano said he started the company after meeting Mixon, who suggested that people needed a better way to buy home medical equipment online. Mixon knows the industry well: He led a leveraged buyout of Invacare in 1979 and served as CEO as the Elyria company became a multinational health care equipment provider. He retired in 2014.
Care Motion has raised a total of $1.5 million; much of it from Mixon, who is the company's majority owner.
Given the products it sells, Care Motion offers a few services you wouldn't need if you were, say, buying a book on Amazon.com. For instance, some of the products it sells are large and need someone to install them. Thus, for a fee, customers can have a technician in the Care Motion network do that work. And since many of the products on its website cost more than a thousand dollars, Care Motion typically calls customers after they make a purchase. It also gives shoppers links to financing options.
But Care Motion doesn't directly work with Medicare or other insurers. The company, which is technically called Pivotal Care LLC, "is focused on helping people who cannot get approved or do not want to wait months for reimbursement," Cavano said, noting that insurers also often limit what patients can buy. Many of the company's customers pay up front.
"We're seeing more and more cash buyers out there," he said.


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Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) – Stock analysts at SunTrust Banks increased their Q3 2017 earnings per share estimates for Graco in a research report issued on Thursday. SunTrust Banks analyst C. Brady now anticipates that the industrial products company will post earnings per share of $1.03 for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $1.02. SunTrust Banks also issued estimates for Graco’s FY2017 earnings at $4.51 EPS, Q1 2018 earnings at $1.05 EPS, Q2 2018 earnings at $1.22 EPS and FY2018 earnings at $4.50 EPS.
Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The industrial products company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.32. Graco had a return on equity of 40.21% and a net margin of 6.50%. The company had revenue of $379.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $369.36 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. Graco’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis.
Shares of Graco (GGG) opened at 116.04 on Monday. Graco has a 1-year low of $69.33 and a 1-year high of $116.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $110.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.88. The company has a market cap of $6.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.63 and a beta of 1.24.
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 17th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 13th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.90%.
In other Graco news, insider Dale D. Johnson sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.03, for a total transaction of $3,270,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 82,198 shares in the company, valued at $8,962,047.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Caroline M. Chambers sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.45, for a total value of $547,250.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,111,902.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 194,021 shares of company stock valued at $13,602,334 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Graco by 126.5% in the first quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 22,248 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,094,000 after buying an additional 12,425 shares during the period. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Graco by 5.4% in the first quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $141,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Graco by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 346,915 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $28,826,000 after buying an additional 18,120 shares during the period. Hosking Partners LLP raised its position in shares of Graco by 10.0% in the first quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 126,586 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,917,000 after buying an additional 11,506 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Graco by 6.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,886,860 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $460,049,000 after buying an additional 309,685 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.97% of the company’s stock.
Graco Inc designs, manufactures and markets systems and equipment used to move, measure, control, dispense and spray fluid and powder materials. The Company specializes in equipment for applications that involve materials with viscosities, materials with abrasive or corrosive properties, and multiple-component materials that require ratio control.
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C&C Group of Ireland announced plans to buy the Vermont Hard Cider Co. for $305 million. Vermont Hard Cider is the maker of Woodchuck cider, the biggest-selling cider in the US.
The deal is contingent on antitrust approval since it would give C&C more than 50% of the small but rapidly growing segment. Meanwhile, cider sales in the UK and Ireland are slowing.
In the US, cider sales account for about 0.5% of the total beer market and in the UK that figure is a huge 15%.
Vermont Hard Cider, which is based in Middlebury, Vt., said shipments of Woodchuck are up 25% this year and expects them to top 2.5 million cases. The company is just embarking on a $20-million expansion to build a new 100,000-square-foot production facility. C&C has indicated it will move forward with the project and break ground early next year.
C&C acquired Hornsby’s, a California cider producer it last year from E. & J. Gallo for about $24 million.


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NBCU has steadily expanded its programmatic sales offering, including last year’s launch of the NBCUx private exchange and improvements to its Audience Targeting Platform.
Late last week, NBC rebranded some of those products into a unified advertiser offering called Audience Studio, the crux of which is a data management platform.
“We’re allowing advertisers and agencies to combine premium NBCU inventory with their own first-party data and a combination of third-party data sources,” said Dan Lovinger, EVP of entertainment ad sales at NBC. “This is a sea change in how we think about creating value for customers.”
Bhatia said NBC’s marching order after last year’s upfront was to develop a suite of data offerings that simplify the process of TV planning and buying across channels and formats.
Although NBC revealed in January to AdExchanger that 10-15% of its 2015 upfront business was transacted programmatically, that was primarily limited to web video and display.
Linear TV was for the most part untouchable to digital planning systems given the nature of the workflow – most national prime-time programming is bought in advance and planners are accustomed to legacy cable and broadcast processes.
And premium sponsorships on top-performing shows will always be direct sold due to the required negotiation aspect.
“This is the first national programmatic TV offering at scale that allows planners to bring data sets and request inventory across the full breadth of our portfolio,” Bhatia said. “We’re neutral to how data can be used to uncover new audiences for advertisers.”


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September 5, 2017 – Dominos Pizza In Lekki Lagos Allegedly Selling Expired Pizza As Customers Battle Diarrhea & Fever
If you must buy Pizza in Lagos state Nigeria please be careful where you go.
According to residents of Lekki Lagos, Dominos Pizza is currently selling expired Pizza to unsuspecting people.
Victims are now battling Diarrhea and fever.
Here is what a victim @adaorasays wrote on IG today:
Another victim @tomi_sucre wrote:


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Pizza Hut Is Unhappy With Apple Pay, Others Are Optimistic
Apple Pay is one of the new features introduced at the Apple event this past September. In fact, the iPhone 6 is actually the only Apple iPhone release that will have the ability to utilize the new payment system. Apple Pay is the tech companies new long-awaited mobile wallet app and predicted software application for iOS.
Unfortunately for Apple, one of their biggest supporters has expressed concern for the usability of their intriguing new app.
According to NFC World, Pizza Hut VP of Global Digital Experience Danny Sullivan is not impressed, and is unwilling to have the pizza company utilize the new app. He told the attendees of the 2014 Mobile Shopping Summit how he felt.
“I am more pessimistic about Apple Pay’s impact than most people here. I had a call with Apple last week and right now it is only a payment system for apps. It is shut off from the mobile web, which I think everyone knows is a bigger part of everyone’s business from mobile devices.”
The other usual complaint is that it does not support Google’s operating system, or marketplace. According to Apple, they already have 220,000 companies in line with their app and vision. These companies include Babies R’ Us, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Subway, Staples, Panera, Petco, McDonald’s, and Calvin Klein. Calvin Klein is in the Apple camp, and had a completely different view on the outcome Apple’s new Apple Pay app, according to Tech Times.
“My instinct is it is a game changer. The alternative mobile payments space — I read there are 26 different ones — I think this one is going to be the tipping point in the whole process just because there are 500 million iTunes account holders, 22,000 retailers have already signed on and how easy it to go on iTunes and buy something.”
This sends mixed signals to those who have yet to opt-in to Apple pay and the consumers who are on the fence about which way to go. Also, Apple’s Touch ID software is still being streamlined and adopted by developers, which is part of the security for the Apple pay app. The app is still a week or more out, according to The Inquisitr.
Another explanation given by the Pizza Hut VP stated was that it was merely for an app environment, and not for the mobile web. Fortunately for Apple, this is not the first time they have heard this complaint levied against their iOS app-style ECO system. Despite Pizza Hut’s concerns, it appears the app will likely succeed. Although, only time, and the consumer market, will tell.
[Image Via LoweProfero]


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Updated from 2:01 p.m. EST
were among technology's losers Thursday, falling 25.9% after the company said it would delay its annual report because it needs more time to review and assess its internal controls.
The supercomputer maker said that it expects to file its 10-K report with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
on or before March 31, but said it expects to use the 45-day extension period permitted by the SEC to submit its Section 404 assessment that relates to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. When the company completes its formal assessment, it expects that it will identify one or more material weaknesses in its internal controls. Cray believes that it will find that it suffered from inadequate review of third-party contracts and lack of software application controls and documentation.
Cray's "auditors have expressed their serious reservations to the company and its audit committee as to whether the company will be able to complete its assessment and whether the auditors will be able to render an opinion on either the company's assessment or its internal controls," Cray said. Shares traded down 78 cents to $2.23.
rose 7.5% after the software company posted first-quarter results that topped expectations. The company posted pro forma earnings of $10.7 million, or 27 cents a share, on sales of $97.7 million. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected earnings of 23 cents a share on sales of $93.9 million. A year ago the company earned $7.5 million, or 19 cents a share, on sales of $86.4 million. Strong sales at the company's ObjectStore and DataDirect units led to the first-quarter sales beat. Looking ahead, Progress forecast second-quarter pro forma earnings of 30 cents to 32 cents a share on sales of $98 million to $100 million. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 28 cents a share on sales of $97.9 million. Shares traded up $1.69 to $24.25.
( FLSH) fell 3.1% after the maker of flash memory storage said it plans to sell $75 million in convertible notes. M-Systems, which is selling the notes as part of a private placement, said that it would use proceeds from the deal to fund general corporate purposes. Shares traded down 71 cents to $22.59.
rose 5.3% after the company posted second-quarter earnings and sales that were better than expected. The company, which provides products used by the semiconductor industry, posted earnings of $4.5 million, or 6 cents a share, on sales of $85.1 million. Analysts expected earnings of 3 cents a share on sales of $80.8 million. A year ago the company earned $5 million, or 7 cents a share, on sales of $80 million. Looking ahead, Entegris forecast third-quarter earnings of 7 cents to 8 cents a share, which includes a 1-cent benefit related to its liquidation of Metron, on a slight increase in sales. Analysts are looking for earnings of 4 cents a share on sales of $82 million. Shares traded up 50 cents to $9.99.
rose 11.9% after the Web development services company raised its first-quarter earnings and sales guidance. The company now expects earnings of 33 cents a share on sales of about $53.5 million. Previously, the company expected earnings of 30 cents a share on sales of $48.5 million. On a pro forma basis, the company expects earnings of 50 cents a share, up from previous guidance of 40 cents a share. Analysts had expected pro forma earnings of 41 cents a share on sales of $48.6 million. Shares traded up $3.61 to $33.84.
Other technology movers included
, down 9 cents to $24.54;
, down 4 cents to $18.03;
, down 13 cents to $23.41;
( LU), unchanged at $2.81;
, up 14 cents to $13.16;
Sirius Satellite Radio
, up 14 cents to $5.38;
, up $1.07 to $42.25;
, up 4 cents to $4.23;
, up 14 cents to $16.17;
( RETK), up $1.13 to $11.65; and
Research In Motion
( RIMM), up $2.25 to $81.21.


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Two Silicon Valley companies delivering thousands of entertainment channels over the internet have announced significant funding rounds and milestones for their services.
Roku, whose set-top box delivers more than 700 channels of movies, TV, music, radio and web content, has received $60m in a Series F round, while TuneIn, which gives access to more than 70,000 radio stations, has bagged $25m in Series C funding. Read more
Splashpath founder Dan Morgan (left) with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps
London startup Active in Time has taken the path less traveled to financing by licensing its Splashpath swim tracking app to Speedo. Read more
Ouya, the open-source games console, has become the first Kickstarter tech project to graduate to a more traditional funding scheme – venture capital.
After getting $8m from 63,000 crowdfunders last August, Ouya on Thursday announced it has raised $15m from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Mayfield Fund and Nvidia, to accelerate its plan to attack the mass market. Read more
In a rare event, a crowdfunded start-up has gone on to raise mainstream venture capital.
Digital Spin, which raised £60,000 in August from platform Seedrs, has now received several times that amount from Passion Capital and Balderton, two of London’s most active venture funds. Could this be the start of growing links between amateur and professional early-stage investors? Read more
Duedil, a start-up that provides information on every private company in the UK, has raised $5m in funding ahead of an expansion into more than a dozen countries across Europe.
The London-based company takes data from public and private databases and links it together to provide users with insights that would otherwise have been impossible to obtain. Read more
Roy and Eldar Tuvey, the British brothers who sold their startup ScanSafe to Cisco for up to $183m in 2010, have announced a new venture, this time in mobile services.
Wandera helps companies save money on data roaming by compressing data in the cloud before it is sent to an employee’s phone or tablet. On Wednesday it received $7m in backing from Bessemer Venture Partners, whose past investments include Skype, Box and Linkedin. Read more
The Tesla Model S was Motor Trend car of the year last year and starts at a base price of $62,400. So how could you get one for an all-in cost of $500 a month?
Simple: start by valuing your own time at $100 an hour. That, at least, is according to the creative accounting that Tesla has just come up with for a new lease deal for the vehicle. Read more
Just for a change, Apple investors are jumpy. After ticking about 1 per cent lower throughout Tuesday morning, Apple stock suddenly leapt in high-volume trading just after lunch to close up 1.4 per cent for the day.
The reason for this latest share-price volatility seems to be a fresh bout of speculation circulating on Twitter about what Apple might announce at Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting. Read more
Berlin has scored a victory over London in the battle to be the main hub for Europe’s start-up companies after Seedcamp split its flagship event of Europe’s largest support programme for fledgling tech businesses between the two cities.
The incubator programme, which began life with a week-long event at London’s Imperial College in September 2007, will now hold four such gatherings in the UK and German capitals. Read more
Apple lost its crown as the world’s most valuable company this week after its quarterly profits disappointed Wall Street. However, worries of slow growth didn’t discourage some tech observers from rooting for Silicon Valley’s star tech power to bounce back.
Farhad Manjoo at Slate called suggestions that Apple was somehow losing its allure with consumers “totally bogus”. The only thing that held it back, he added, was an inability to keep up with customer demand: “Limited supply, unlike limited demand, is something Apple can fix. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not such a terrible problem.” Read more
Motion-sensing advances in computing will be a major feature of next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with companies including eyeSight, InvenSense, PointGrab and PrimeSense showing their technologies and Intel emphasising the “perceptual computing” of voice and gesture commands at its press conference.
But Leap Motion, which will be demonstrating its motion controller’s capabilities at the show, claims its technology is over a hundred times better than the competition and today it is announcing a a $30m funding round and a deal with Asus. Read more
The so-called PayPal mafia is a force to be reckoned with in Silicon Valley: Max Levchin joining the Yahoo board is just the latest example of a network that spans Facebook, YouTube, Yammer, LinkedIn, Square and – with Elon Musk’s SpaceX – the edge of the earth’s atmosphere.
In the British start-up world, the closest analogy is Lovefilm. The DVDs-by-post turned video-on-demand service was acquired by Amazon in January 2011, but even before that, had started the careers of many London tech-scene notables.
Now, Adam Valkin – a co-founder and sometime chief executive of Lovefilm, who went on to join TV producer Endemol and, three years ago, Accel Partners’ London office – is helping to take the Lovefilm mafia abroad. Read more
The FT’s latest ebook is about Amazon and its voracious expansion from online book retailer into technological giant.
Is the company a force for good? Can it justify its current stock price? Why does Amazon compete with the companies it provides services to? Will Amazon agree to pay more tax in the UK as Starbucks just agreed to do?
Thanks to everyone who took part in the Q&A. If you have further questions, please post them to Twitter using #FTAmazon. Barney Jopson, the FT’s US retail correspondent, and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, global media editor, will answer them here as soon as possible. Read more
After two quarters of declines, iPhone sales ticked up again in the latest period, to nearly 27m. Meanwhile, iPad sales dropped to 14m as rumours of a new iPad mini spread like wildfire. But for Wall Street, this was just the appetiser: the real banquet will be Apple’s current quarter, when iPhone sales are projected to jump to 50m and iPads to 22m. Speaking on the earnings call, Apple executives sounded optimistic about their ability to ship the new products in high volumes – though they warned that profit margins would suffer a temporary dent.
See below for our blow-by-blow take on the company’s latest earnings call. Read more


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The latest figures from MYOB’s Business Monitor Report reveals businesses are generally optimistic about current conditions. 33 per cent of SMBs expect the economy to improve in the next twelve months, while 32 per cent think it will remain much the same.
This year’s results show an improvement on last year when only 25 per cent of Australia’s small business owners expected to see an improvement in economic conditions.
Franchisees and manufacturing and wholesale businesses are amongst the most optimistic with 49 per cent and 46 per cent respectively believing economic conditions would improve.
Business conditions have remained steady for most operators, (42 per cent) with 29 per cent reporting an increase in revenue in the past 12 months with the most successful businesses occurring in the tourism, import and export sectors. SMBs with an increased digital presence was also expected to see growth. Whilst Gen Y run businesses and start-ups were also anticipated to achieve increased revenue.
The report also revealed disparities between the earning power of businesses in the city versus the country, with 39 per cent of metropolitan businesses experiencing growth compared to 19 per cent of rural operators.
Tradies were amongst the least optimistic of all business owners with only 24 percent expecting improved conditions in the next 12 months.


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A Chinese websiteDoNews posted a photo of the rumored upcoming Gold plated Ipad Mini 2 equipped with a Touch ID sensor which was implemented in the recent Iphone 5s, also rumored specs is it will be a 1024 x 768 (163ppi), a7 processor and a 1gb of ram.
Pinoyscreencast is a platform for tech enthusiast. Started as a blog in 2010 where we just share tutorials, guides and latest tech news. We’ve been listed as one of the top tech blog sites in the Philippines. But after a long hiatus this platform has expanded to more than just a blog.
Users can now browse the latest deals, compare products and learn the latest trends and tech, be updated with latest happening in the Philippines in just a click of a button.


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Leading care technology supplier, Access Group, has launched an online hub to help care providers identify and monitor people showing symptoms of COVID-19.
The Access Group has announced a new charitable partnership with The Care Workers’ Charity.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.


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Chinese equipment giant Huawei Technologies has reportedly pulled its routers and switches from the US market as a result of Cisco Systems’ suit against the company for intellectual property piracy.
Published reports indicate that Huawei and its distribution subsidiary, Futurewei Technologies, removed its Quidway switches and routers from its US Web site and was recalling the products it sold in the U.S.
The move appears to be a victory for Cisco, which filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas last month claiming that Huawei unlawfully copied and misappropriated software, copied documentation and other copyrighted materials, and infringed numerous Cisco patents.
Huawei has not commented on the reports of the US product recall.
Cisco said: "Huawei's infringements of Cisco's copyrights are being addressed."
Huawei had emerged as a significant low-cost competitor to Cisco, more so overseas than in the US. The companies routers and switches were sold to service providers and enterprises, and appealed to users familiar with the way Cisco products operate.


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macys kids clothes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|Look up macys kids clothes in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
- macys kids clothes Part of the reason for the surge in enquiries is that Euroglaze’s website currently ranks on page 1 of Google searches for REHAU frames. This is attributed to the fact that the company’s web partner has updated the website’s architecture, switched the security protocols and kept pace with Google’s changing algorithms on SEO. “We are a trade specialist so all retail enquiries and enquiries from smaller independent installers are handled by our customers, which means they are sharing directly in the success of our campaign.” The black-tie awards ceremony was held on 15 June at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, at the centre of the country’s great east-west glass manufacturing corridor – where nine out of ten of the UK’s largest glass manufacturers have production sites. British Glass is calling for seminar presentations, based on practical examples of large manufacturing businesses securing funding for improvement in energy efficiency and carbon reduction, for a one-day glass industry event in November 2017. Ms Stephens continues: “The new extension has provided a fantastic and really flexible space that thanks to the new PURe® patio doors and windows, can be enjoyed whatever the weather. It’s great to be able to open up the living space and enjoy the close access we now have to the garden but even when the blustery weather that we are so familiar with here in the Yorkshire Dales takes hold, the glazing has provided us with a peaceful and cosy retreat. It’s the perfect space for both work and relaxation and I couldn’t be happier!” Martin Nettleton adds: “We invested in the campaign to target those larger installation and distribution companies increasingly dissatisfied with the big fabricators who are starting to compete with them by setting up their own networks of trade counters and distribution outlets.
|This instagram clothing websites page lists articles associated with the title Seo.
If an how to get pen ink out of clothes led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.


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Tag Archives: desk union
Major brands like JLL, British Land and even banks are partnering with coworking spaces.
February 6, 2015
Some shared offices have jumped on the coworking bandwagon to sell workspace.
December 18, 2014
DeskUnion has struck a deal with banking giant RBS to offer coworking for local businesses at its flagship Edinburgh branch.
July 8, 2014
What can women gain from working in an all-female workspace? Quite a lot, as OT discovers.
November 1, 2013
We continue the debate on business centres vs coworking spaces. Could it ever be a match made in heaven?
October 2, 2013
A new coworking hub has launched in Edinburgh, the Creative Exchange, thanks to DeskUnion and Medusa.
August 22, 2013
Desk Union has announced a partnership with Medusa to offerrevolutionary IT solutions to the flexible desk space market.
August 14, 2013


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Despite trying economic times, an unprecedented decline in hard disk drive (HDD) terabyte shipments for enterprise applications in 2009 and the emergence of relatively affordable solid-state drives (SSDs) on the market, HDD vendors forged ahead by introducing new HDD products that address both current and future enterprise storage market requirements. As a result, International Data Corporation believes that enterprise HDDs will prosper for years to come.
According to new research from IDC, HDD shipments for enterprise applications will increase from 40.5 million units in 2009 to 52.6 million units in 2014. Moreover, the hard disk drive industry will ship more Petabytes for enterprise applications in the next two years than it did in the preceding 20 years. IDC found that growing interest in new storage delivery models such as storage as a service, or storage in the cloud is likely to put greater storage capacity growth demands on Internet datacenters. Therefore, the demand towards hard drives will also grow.
Several ongoing trends will continue to impact enterprise hard drive market revenue over the forecast period, including a continued shift away from higher cost performance-optimized HDDs to lower cost capacity-optimized solutions and solid state drives (SSDs) to complement HDDs in storage systems. Hard drive revenue derived from enterprise markets will grow at only a 1.7% CAGR during this time. Additionally, there will be an increased effort among end users to better utilize existing storage system assets.
"We're definitely seeing intensive cost cutting measures among end users striving to bring more efficiency to current solutions. The employment of technologies such as data deduplication, thin provisioning, storage multitiering, and storage virtualization are all contributing to reducing end-user costs,” said John Rydning, research director for storage mechanisms: disk.
IDC also claims that the transition from 3.5” to 2.5” performance-optimized form-factor HDDs will be complete by 2012. Hence, at least, in the enterprise space there will be no high-performance 3.5” hard drives. Still, the price per gigabyte of performance-optimized HDD storage will continue to decline at a rate of approximately 25% to 30% per year.


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The last weekend of January saw the fashion world in the metaverse reach new heights, with big names and iconic brands leading the charge. The intersection of fashion and technology took center stage as leading designers like Calvin Klein and style influencers like Jack Grealish embraced the latest in wearable tech.
From virtual runways to cutting-edge designs, the metaverse saw a host of exciting developments shaping the future of fashion and style. Smart clothing, augmented reality, virtual showrooms, and sustainable materials were prominent features.
However, brands are now incorporating technology in their designs, allowing for personalized and interactive experiences. As a result, the metaverse provides a new platform for creative expression, pushing the boundaries of traditional fashion and the convergence of fashion and technology.
Calvin Klein Enters The Chinaverse
Calvin Klein has taken a bold step into the Chinese metaverse by launching a new game for its audience. The game, aimed at metaverse users in China, provides a unique platform for players to engage with the brand and earn points that can be redeemed for virtual and real-life items.
This innovative approach to customer engagement is a smart move by Calvin Klein, capitalizing on the massive and growing Chinese metaverse market.
By fostering deeper connections with its customers through virtual experiences, Calvin Klein is positioning itself at the forefront of fashion’s digital future. As a result, the company is setting the bar for other brands looking to reach new audiences.
The launch of this game is a testament to the company’s commitment to innovation and a sign of the growing importance of virtual engagement for fashion brands looking to drive growth and succeed in the digital age.
Jack Grealish Joins Gucci Town
Football star Jack Grealish joins Gucci Town as an avatar, bringing his on-field style to the virtual world. The deal between Gucci Town and the player includes Jack’s avatar sporting the latest Gucci outfits, offering fans a unique way to interact with their favorite player and experience the fashion brand in a new light.
This collaboration is a major win for Jack and Gucci, further establishing the trend of celebrities and sports stars embracing the metaverse. In addition, these stars also provide fans with an exciting new level of engagement and excitement.
Yves Saint Laurent Gearing for The Metaverse
Yves Saint Laurent moves into the NFT and metaverse space, filing trademarks to offer its makeup collection in the digital world. In addition, the iconic fashion brand has plans to build virtual stores in the metaverse.
These metaverse stores allow users to try on and purchase its products in a fully immersive digital setting. This strategic move into the NFT and metaverse space highlights the growing importance of virtual engagement and commerce.
NFTMetaverseFinance is not responsible for the content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products or any other content posted on the site. Some of the content on this site (namely Branded Voices content) is paid content that is not written by our authors and the views expressed do not reflect the views of this website. Any disputes you may have with brands or companies mentioned in our content will need to be taken care of directly with the specific brands and companies. The responsibility of our readers who may click links in our content and ultimately sign up for that product or service is their own. Cryptocurrencies, NFTs and Crypto Tokens are all a high-risk asset, investing in them can lead to losses. Readers should do their own research before taking any action.


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South African leads international prune association
By Ntswaki Motaung, AgriOrbit - Jul 24th 2018, 14:42
At the recent annual congress of the International Prune Association (IPA) Chris Krone, chairperson of Agri Western Cape’s Commodity Chamber was elected as president for the association for the third time. Established in Agen, France, in January 1990, the IPA is the international prune industry’s trade entity that represents the interests of prune growers and packers across the globe.
As the second longest serving member of the executive committee, representing South Africa since 1994, Krone was once again elected as the president after being president from 2003-2004 and 2009-2010. Krone, a former prune farmer, is respected internationally for his technical knowledge of prune production. He is also the director of the Dried Fruit Technical Services (DFTS) in South Africa.
According to Krone, South Africa currently has a small prune industry, which was a lot bigger in the past. Production has decreased since the 1970’s when it peaked at 3 600 tons to the current less than 1 000 tons. Krone says that the IPA is planning to promote the consumption of prunes with an emphasis on its health benefits. This will consequently also mean a boost for the South African industry where consumers perceive dried fruit as expensive. The consumer, however, does not consider the weight of the product before being dried, but only considers the nett weight – which of course is incorrect as only 20-40% of the weight is transported.
The prune industry is of great importance to the health of the nation, not only to old people but also for job creation and new farmers. Hence the government has placed high emphasis on the expansion and development of the industry. Krone added that the next IPA conference, taking place in November 2019, might be hosted in South Africa. He says that if it is marketed in such a way to attract the interest of the media, agriculture, consumers, packers, marketers and the state, the industry will benefit immensely.
“The international networking promises to unlock export and import opportunities not only for prunes but also for other dried fruits and nuts. South Africa is the gateway to sub-Saharan markets and we know how to do business in Africa, certainly better than most others,” said Krone.AgriOrbit
Manufacturing growth far lower than expected
14/03/2019 - 15:46
The manufacturing sector saw tepid growth at the start of 2019.
SA limped out of 2018 with growth below 1%
19/02/2019 - 14:20
SA will have limped out of 2018 with growth of below 1%.
Global tomato juice market - Key findings and insights
18/02/2019 - 13:45
In 2017, the global tomato juice market amounted to 5.7M tonnes, remaining relatively stable as in the previous year. After a moderate decline in the volume of consumption from 2007 to 2009, consumption then regained an upward trend, increasing strongly through to 2013 and then levelling off over the next four years. Overall, the market volume increased at an average annual rate of +1.3% over the period from 2007 to 2017.
Latest retail sales figures show disappointing trend
15/02/2019 - 10:01
Available economic activity data has shown that the economy ended last year on a weaker footing, with December retail sales figures being the latest to disappoint, declining for the first time in nearly two years.
Western Cape has high hopes for marijuana market
11/02/2019 - 10:32
The Western Cape believes the medical cannabis market has significant potential to boost the local economy and is moving fast to position itself as the country’s main hub for this new industry.


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The world is fighting Corona, Corona has unfold its foot in all of the international locations of the world. But India helps many superpower international locations. It is certainly salable to assist such international locations in these situations. Let us inform that 96,785 deaths have occurred as a result of Corona virus in the entire world. So far, 16,14251 instances have been reported everywhere in the world. Talking about America alone, the variety of sufferers has reached 468895 and 16,697 folks have misplaced their lives.
America is its largest sufferer in the entire world, adopted by Italy and China. Spain, Italy, Germany, France, China, Iran, Britain, Turkey and Belgium have been named within the checklist of prime 10 international locations struggling corona. <! –
In any such scenario, India has emerged as a troubleshooter for a lot of international locations of the world. This is the explanation why India is being praised all over the place. Let us let you know that when the dialogue has began within the US about the usage of the drug hydroxynclotroquigan within the remedy of this virus.
Since then, round 16 international locations of the world have been demanding to purchase this medication from India in order that an epidemic like corona could be liberated. For this, the primary name was made by the American nationwide husband and requested PM Modi. In the start, he had some sharp phrases too, however with the cargo of drugs, he modified his tone. He wrote within the tweet that in troublesome circumstances extra cooperation between buddies is required. Thank you to India and its folks for deciding on idroxychloroquine. With this, India is supplying this medication in Britain.
Follow @ dailynews360


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The sound of plastic wheels on concrete could be heard for blocks as swarms of children descended on the Dalton School Wednesday morning. Looking like little executives en route to the airport, they walked, skipped and ran with heads held high as they wheeled their book bags and backpacks into school.
''More kids should be using wheels,'' said Terry Goetz as she dropped her eldest daughter off at Dalton. ''Their poor backs,'' she added, shaking her head as she watched a young boy with a heavy book bag and an unwieldy violin case struggling to keep his balance.
In both private and public schools across the city, many children seem to be taking a load off. Backpacks with wheels, and luggage carriers, have become a popular way for students to carry weighty textbooks.
Dr. Harris Burstin, a pediatrician at New York Medical Center, said he had received many calls from concerned parents.
''I see a lot of children with back pain which is caused by a simple imbalance of the muscle groups,'' he said. ''I've actually weighed the bags, and many kids are carrying between 30 and 50 pounds on their back.''Continue reading the main story
''Perhaps it's the competitive nature of the city,'' Dr. Burstin added. ''Why do these kids feel they have to take every book home and every book back to school?''
According to Bruce Bacon, a security guard at the Dalton School who welcomes the students in the morning, the trend started last year but took off this fall.
''I've seen tons of them,'' he said. ''These kids have a lot to carry between school and all the activities.''
Jay Newman, the father of two daughters who attend the Dalton School, chuckled as he watched students wheeling their books. ''We ended up purchasing duplicates of the heavy textbooks so the girls wouldn't have to carry them,'' he said. ''Have you ever tried to carry one of those book bags? They're really heavy.''
Eastpak and L. L. Bean offer models, as do stores like Kmart, Conway and Payless Shoes, which all carried backpacks on wheels in August, the traditional back-to-school shopping month. The backpacks typically cost from $16 to as much as $200 for models featuring in-line skate wheels.
Brian Feinstein, the manager of the Payless shoe store at Herald Square, said the items were so popular he could barely keep them in stock.
''We had kids dragging their parents in all the time showing them the backpack with the wheels and convincing them that it would make their lives easier,'' Mr. Feinstein said. ''Some of these kids walk a mile in city blocks to get to school, and they need the extra support.''
Kirk Nyarko, a salesman at Innovation Luggage on Broadway at 57th Street, said he, too, noticed a boom in sales to parents of schoolchildren. The store carries higher-end models that start at $69.99. ''It's just another offshoot of the backpack craze,'' Mr. Nyarko said. ''And I think this is just the beginning.''
According to Delphine Michaud, a third-grade teacher at Trevor Day School on the Upper East Side, students there usually start wheeling their books in the fifth grade. ''Some of the kids in that grade are still fairly small, and it's a lot to carry,'' Ms. Michaud explained, adding that many also carry laptop computers back and forth. ''I also think it has become trendy,'' she added.
KIMBERLY STEVENSContinue reading the main story


text: There’s a Nintendo Direct coming this week to Japanese consumers exclusively for Monster Hunter fans. The event will be broadcast on October 27 at 20:00 JST and will be available to watch live via YouTube. This special Monster Hunter themed Nintendo Direct will be hosted by Monster Hunter series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, but before you get your hopes up the company has stated that the broadcast will not feature any new information concerning Nintendo Switch or its smart phone applications. However, it should certainly prove to be interesting. There’s still an announced Monster Hunter game scheduled to be released by March 2017 in Japan so hopefully the focus will be on that.


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News stories featuring IDATE:
July 15th, 2014
Twenty-eight million consumers will use their NFC phone to make a mobile payment in 2014, a new forecast by IDATE reveals, and the value of transactions conducted via NFC will rise from an estimated €4.6 billion…
Feed for stories featuring IDATE.
• Find a list of all the companies and other organisations that have been featured in NFC World in our directory.


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Google Drive to Backup Data From iPhones; Makes Switching From iOS to Android Easier? [DETAILS INSIDE]
The Google Drive app for iOS just got a new feature: it can now instantly backup contacts, calendar, and camera roll and store it in Google's cloud storage. The new feature is Google's way to help iOS users to make the switch to Android OS easier and more convenient.
According to the Verge, the Google Drive update will let iOS users backup data from their iOS devices so that when they buy an android device, their backed up data will be easily accessible from the Google apps. iOS users who plan to make the switch to Android no longer need to use other apps to transfer important data from their iOS device, reducing the inconvenience of switching devices.
In Google's updated guide to switching from iOS to Android OS, the switching as become a simple three-step process. But first of all, the iOS device must have the google Drive app downloaded.
According to the updated guide, first step in making the switch is downloading the Google Drive app from the the Apple Store. Once the Google Drive app has been completely downloaded, users will need to log in with the google account they will use in the Android device.
— 9to5Google (@9to5Google) December 14, 2016
After logging in to the Google Drive app, open the backup wizard by going through menu>setting> backup. Once there, users will be able choose what data they can backup, or simply backup all data by clicking the "start backup" button. The Guide also mentions that the backup speed will depend on how much data is in the iOS device, so they recommend keeping the device plugged and with a stable internet connection.
After the backup, users can now log in on their Android phone using the same Google account they used in the Google Drive app on their iOS phones. This will allow the backed up data to appear into the Android phone under various Google apps. The guide also reminds users to disable iMessage on their iOS devices.However, as per the Verge, users will need to plug their iOS device directly to the android phone to transfer texts and music library.


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Square (SQ) said Wednesday that its chip-card transactions now take just two seconds, narrowing the irritating speed gap between the old swipe method and new cards.
Though the speedy two-second wait is only for transactions through Square’s 2 million-plus sellers, it’s nevertheless proof that chip cards don’t have to be slow.
The San Francisco-based mobile payments partnered with Mastercard (MA) on the project to shorten the time for transactions involving the global chip-card standard known as EMV (which stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa).
Elsewhere in the wild, research has found chip cards can take up to 10 seconds or longer to process, though there aren’t reliable stats to obtain a national average.
Chip card transactions, which became mainstream in the U.S. in 2015, promised far more security and fraud-protection. But these impersonal benefits — which provided the most benefit to retailers and banks that had to foot fraud charges — often are outweighed by the annoyance of longer lines and checkout times.
The changes have also irritated brick-and-mortar retailers during a key time as they face increased competition from online retailers. In some cases, retailers choose to risk fraud and revert to swipes in order to move lines.
“Taking an EMV payment in as little as two seconds helps speed up the line for our sellers, gives time back to their customers, and reduces in-store fraud in the U.S,” said Jesse Dorogusker, head of hardware for Square, which lets individuals and businesses accept online payments on a smartphone or tablet computer. “Square sellers don’t need to compromise performance to reap the benefits of newer, more secure technology like EMV.”
Square will also allow retailers to stop collecting signatures, following the April announcement that all the major credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) stopped requiring signatures. Square cited decreases of in-store card fraud thanks to the security from the chip technology.
For payments, the next steps will likely involve promoting the use of contactless payments, something Square says it’s been pushing, rather than simply getting the time down further. It’s standard in other countries, faster, and more seamless. In fact, it’s more akin to the active swipe that some consumers miss that kept the payment process in motion, not stuck in a pause.


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- Green Check Verified Acquires PayQwick to Power the Cannabis Financial Ecosystem
- PayQwick and Invictus Launch Partnership to Serve Nevada Cannabis Operators and Banks
- Cannabis Business Payments Best Practices and Standards
- Arcview Group “CEO Circle” Interview
- Interview with CEO Bob Craig | Benzinga CCC
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Category Archives: Press Releases
Green Check Verified Acquires PayQwick to Power the Cannabis Financial Ecosystem
Leading Technologies Unite to Deliver Broader, Integrated Suite of Services to Cannabis Industry BONITA SPRINGS, FL, September 7, 2022 – Green Check Verified (GCV), the leading fintech provider of compliant cannabis solutions and services to financial institutions, today announced deal …
PayQwick and Invictus Launch Partnership to Serve Nevada Cannabis Operators and Banks
The partnership offers cash logistics and digital financial solutions to cannabis operators, banks and credit unions in Nevada and California LOS ANGELES, CA and Las Vegas, NV, August 18, 2022 – PayQwick, one of the first Fintech leaders in …
Cannabis Business Payments Best Practices and Standards
Wespay | Erica El Hilali, MBA & AAP | May 18, 2022 The impact of the cannabis industry on the US economy is large and growing and requires standards and best practices for financial institutions to best serve these customers. …
Bespoke Financial Partners with PayQwick To Bolster Financial Services For Cannabis Companies
Forbes | Jackie Bryant | April 21, 2022 Bespoke Financial, which claims it is the first lender in the country providing debt financing to cannabis companies, today announced its strategic partnership with PayQwick, the cannabis industry’s most comprehensive treasury and financial …
CRB Monitor and PayQwick Form Partnership
CRB Monitor and PayQwick Form Partnership to Expand Payment Solutions for Banks and Financial Institutions.
New Alliance to Enhance CRB Onboarding and Compliance Monitoring Capabilities for Clients.
PayQwick Appoints Arcview Collective Fund Co-founder Jeanne M. Sullivan to Board of Directors
EIN Presswire | January 26, 2022 PayQwick announced today the appointment of Jeanne M. Sullivan to the board of directors, adding a cannabis and technology innovator, investor, and advisor with a track record of guiding dozens of successful companies. Ms. …
PayQwick Appoints FinTech Exec Joe Proto to Board of Directors
PayQwick Appoints FinTech Exec Joe Proto to Board of Directors.
PayQwick expands its presence in cannabis-related financial services.


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As prices for hazelnuts, two-thirds of which are sourced from
Turkey, slowly start to recover following global shortages,
pistachio production also shows signs of improvement following last
The Balkans will be the setting for the Food Technology group show
2003 to take place in Istanbul, Turkey from 27 to 30 March 2003.
The exhibition will concurrently run three separate shows: Food
Technology, Food Ingredients &...
Cadbury Schweppes announced that it has agreed to acquire a 51 per
cent equity interest in Kent, the leading sugar confectionery
manufacturer in Turkey, in addition to a majority equity interest
in its distribution arm, Birlik.


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Full Talk value on recharges of smaller denominations, Sounds great eh! Well Uninor is offering exactly that for its customers in Andhra Pradesh. The Telecom Operator today announced that it will offer full talk value on recharge of Rs. 10, 20, 30 and 50.
Speaking on the launch of this offering, Mr. Satish Kumar Kannan, Business Head, AP Circle, Uninor said, “At Uninor, constant efforts are made to design plans that provide supreme value, world class and affordable mobile telephony services to consumers based on their usage patterns. The new offering launched today presents cost effective and convenient options for our users in Andhra Pradesh to connect with loved ones. Here every rupee spent is earned by the user.”
We hope Uninor will offer the same in other circles also.


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By Kabiru Dogon Daji
Kebbi state Emergency Management Agency (KSEMA) has warned the people of the state to desist from buying substandard electrical appliances, saying “electrical shops owners should ensure that only standard wires, recommended by Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), are sold to consumers.
Chairman of the agency in the state, Alhaji Sani Dododo, who gave the warning yesterday in Birnin Kebbi, noted that a considerable number of fire incidences were as a result of the used of very law quality electrical cables and other related appliances.
He further warned that government would not fold its arms and watch lives and property of citizens perish to infernos “simply because some bad elements are selling substandard products to them.”
He said: “We just had a meeting recently with the SON, the police, electrical shops owners and stakeholders and resolved that henceforth, substandard items should not be brought to the state and a routine periodic check would be mounted by security agents, SON and KSEMA.
“The problem is that people liked cheap material otherwise, how anybody would spent millions of naira to build a house and instead of procuring standard wires they go for the cheaper ones and no sooner they melt.”
“As you know, for over a year now Kebbi enjoyed an uninterrupted power supply because of the efforts made by the Senator Atiku Abubakar Bagudu-led administration; so, we enjoy 24 hours steady supply unlike before when we experienced load shedding every six hourly.”


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The maker of the famous UGG boots, Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK) , nosedived 9% last week despite posting better-than-expected EPS. The big news was an $0.85 per-share loss, which happened to be $0.21 less than consensus.
But its UGG brand saw sales down 6.9% year-over-year. Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK) relies heavily on its UGG brand, which is not a hot topic given that it’s currently the middle of the summer. UGGs account for over 85% of sales. Yet, worth noting is that Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK) also owns the Sanuk and Teva sandals brands.
The turnaround story
Two unseasonably warm winters have put a real hurting on Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK)’ stock, with shares down nearly 45% over the past two years. Going forward, the company plans to make the move to a “classic” boot and shoe company, offering sneakers and ballet flats.
Its other initiative includes offering UGG Pure, which includes using wool material as opposed to sheepskin. This product should prove to be lower cost.
The company hopes to hit a sales target of $2.4 billion by 2015, including UGG sales of $1.8 billion, Teva sales of $250 million and sales from Sanuk brands of $200 million.
Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK) hopes to add 30 stores by 2013, two-thirds of which will be in Asia. Longer term, the shoe company plans to have a store base of 200 by the end of fiscal 2015.
Fellow specialty shoe company Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX) also took a 20% plus nosedive last week. The company posted a 40%-plus fall in profits from $61 million in 2012 to $34.5 million in fiscal 2013. EPS came in at $0.48, well below consensus of $0.63.
The thing is, everyone wears shoes, it’s just a matter of the brand. Deckers Outdoor Corp (NASDAQ:DECK) and Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX) are specialty shoes that just don’t appeal to everyone. However, there are a couple of other stocks that have a broader appeal.
A rising star
Sales are expected to be up over 15% in 2013 due to new product launches and new store openings — the company hopes to open upwards of 50 retail stores in 2013. The company also boasts a solid $265 million cash position compared to long-term debt of only $125 million.


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Oyo is the legendary Indian start-up that rose to fame incredibly fast and became India’s one of the topmost valued start-ups. However, since the pandemic hit the nation making the country one of the most severely affected countries in the world killing millions during its second wave, the start-up ran into troubles which made it incur tremendous losses.
However, OYO is not planning to file preliminary documents to go public as soon as next week and has plans to seek at least $1.2 billion throughout the filing.
The initial public offering will consist mainly of primary shares or those sold by the company along with a small portion of the secondary stock. Ritesh Agarwal, the 27-year-old founder, and the chief executive officer has no plans of selling his stake whatsoever.
Oyo is targeting an offering of about $1.2 billion and reports indicate that the hotel service could increase the amount during the actual filing. The company is pushing to accelerate the initial filing as soon as next week, but, reports suggest that the IPO could be held in the initial weeks of October.
If the IPO becomes successful then this could mark a tremendous comeback for OYO as the hotel-booking startup, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., stumbled in its global expansion and later was devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
To keep the company afloat and income coming, Agarwal, the CEO, and founder had to pull back in certain markets, cutting the workforce and slashing compensation. He said that the pandemic hit OYO like “a cyclone” with business plummeting sharply.
Currently, the India IPO market is booming especially this year around and is on track to hit a record in the amount of fundraising. Recently the food-delivery company Zomato Ltd. went public in July and saw its shares surge, despite substantial losses. This success story has fueled the Indian IPO market attracting investors.
Agarwal is positive that its company will pull through these times and will turn fortunes. We have recently seen Microsoft Corp. Announcing that it would enter a multi-year alliance with Oyo and invest $5 million in the company.


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|Hikma CEO Said Darwazah|
When Boehringer Ingelheim put its U.S.-based generics business on the market, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Mallinckrodt ($MNK) and Perrigo ($PRGO) reportedly pulled up seats at the bidding table. But Hikma emerged the winner, snagging Boehringer's Roxane Labs unit for $2.65 billion to substantially boost its noninjectable generics business.
Under the terms of the deal, the Amman, Jordan-based drugmaker will pay $1.18 billion in cash and issue 40 million new shares to Boehringer, handing it a 16.7% stake in the company. Hikma will also shell out up to $125 million based on performance milestones. When all is said and done, the purchase will make Hikma the sixth largest supplier of generic drugs in the U.S., the company said in a statement.
"Roxane represents a great opportunity for us to grow in the U.S.," Hikma CEO Said Darwazah told Bloomberg. "We liked the asset since the moment we saw it and we are happy that we won after a very competitive process."
This is not the first time Hikma has struck a deal with Boehringer. Last year, the company paid $300 million in cash and performance-related milestones to grab assets and injectable products from Boehringer's Ben Venue Laboratories unit. The company also bought a flailing Ben Venue plant in a separate deal, and has since gutted the facility and used equipment in other plants.
The latest deal has the potential to quadruple Hikma's generics sales. Last year, Hikma's nonbranded business brought in $215 million, or 15% of its revenues. Now the company is eyeing sales of $725 million to $775 million from Roxane in 2017, Hikma said in a statement, with 88 Roxane products chipping in. And Roxane's Columbus, OH, manufacturing plant will also give Hikma the tools it needs for noninjectables expansion, allowing the company to make solids, liquids, nasal sprays and dry powder inhalers.
Analysts seemed pleased with the deal, saying it "represents good value" compared with the median purchase price for similar transactions, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Max Herrmann and colleagues wrote in a note to investors, as seen by Bloomberg. Hikma paid about 10 times Roxane's estimated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for 2017. "We continue to believe the company has superior long-term growth prospects," Herrmann said, as quoted by Bloomberg.
Hikma's acquisition of Roxane also comes amid more dealmaking, as companies look to grab bigger pieces of a rapidly consolidating generics market. In January, Pfizer ($PFE) agreed to pay $15 billion for generic sterile injectables specialist Hospira ($HSP). In May, Endo ($ENDP) paid $8 billion for Par Pharmaceutical to get its hands on Par's generics portfolio. Earlier this week, Teva ($TEVA) said it would buy Allergan's ($AGN) generics business for $40.5 billion, solidifying its position as the world's largest generics maker.
Hikma is content with its latest spate of M&A and doesn't see any more big acquisitions on the horizon, Darwazah told Reuters. The company "is not in the race to be No. 3" and will focus instead on adding products and technology, the CEO added.
"We won't be the size of Teva and other big companies, but we will be bigger than many other companies that were ahead of us over the last 5 years," Darwazah told the news service.
Special Reports: Top 10 Drugmakers in Emerging Markets | The top 10 largest pharma layoffs in 2013 - Boehringer Ingelheim


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Safaricom has quietly introduced the successor to 2018’s Neon Kicka 4, the Neon Kicka 5.
The device still targets the same user base that its predecessor, which has since been discontinued, did.
The Neon Kicka 5 is listed on Safaricom’s online store, Masoko, and available in the company’s physical retail shops, for the same price that the Nokia Kicka 4 was priced at at launch almost 2 years ago: Kshs 3,500.
The Safaricom Neon Kicka 5 comes with a 4.95-inch display, an increase from the 4-inch that graced its successor. Onboard storage has been doubled to 8GB, addressing one of the most pressing issues with the Kicka 4: its limited storage space. The memory, though, stays the same, which is why there’s, obviously, the Go version of Android 9 Pie running on the device.
As can be seen from the image above, the Safaricom Neon Kicka 5’s biggest visual upgrade is the overall design which has been altered to accommodate the bigger frame necessitated by the slightly bigger display. It also has a slightly boxy look.
Processing power is provided by the same quad-core MediaTek processor found on the Neon Kicka 5’s predecessor. What that means is, besides the wiggle room the chipset has to balance speed and performance, it also dictates that the device is locked to 3G networks only, just like its predecessor. Specifically, Safaricom’s 3G network since such devices tend to be network-locked i.e. they cannot be used on another network.
That also means that the Neon Kicka 5 is not that Kshs 20 per day 4G smartphone that we are expecting from Safaricom any time now.
While the battery has received a bump up to 1,800mAh, the same is not the case in the camera department which remains, for the lack of a better word, basic (a 2-megapixel camera at the back and a 0.3-megapixel shooter on the front).
As of early this year, Safaricom had sold nearly 1 million units of its Neon range of budget smartphones. The Neon Kicka 5, and those that come after it, are expected to carry on the legacy of their predecessors as far as bringing more and more Kenyans to the smartphone world – and, more importantly, online – is concerned.
“Despite the high percentage in mobile telephone penetration in Kenya, there remains a large population in this country that still uses 2G phones; tough economic environment being the main reason they cannot afford smartphones,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa revealed as the company announced its financial results 2 months ago, further highlighting the gap the Neon Kicka 5, despite its limited chops, is plugging in the country.


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Corvette History Through Ads: Banned Commercial
Corvette History Through Ads #11 The C6’s Banned Commercial By Rick Tavel? 2013 Before getting into third generation Corvette advertising, as we are awash in C7 media, I’d like to take a moment and revisit a TV commercial from the first year of the beloved C6. The ad was one of several produced to introduce […] More »
Chevy has a great new video posted on YouTube that offers us a first-hand look at how a blogger from DadCentric.com makes so much progress behind the wheel of a Corvette Z06 thanks to the skills he learns at the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School. The day at Spring Mountain Resorts, located about an hour
The picture says it all. Shared on facebook.
Strategic Vision announced the winners of their 18th annual Total Quality Awards last week. Just like last year, the Chevrolet Corvette Coupe took best of show honors in the Premium Coupe category. The C6 also topped the Premium Convertible/Roadster division as well. For the first time in more than 10 years, domestic cars make up
Corvette enthusiasts have the chance to buy one rare C6 on eBay Motors right now. Some lucky – and wealthy – person will be the owner of a Corvette C6RS Supercar when the bidding finally comes to a close on May 19. Only seven of the cars have been produced, and the one up for


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Dillard's announced it will make a significant contribution of more than $1 million to local chapters of Ronald McDonald House Charities.
The donation was made possible through the sale of Dillard’s exclusive Southern Living Christmas Cookbook.
For the sixth time, Dillard's offered a special custom edition of the Southern Living Christmas Cookbook to benefit RMHC. The 288-page hardbound cookbook is filled with fabulous holiday recipes, color photos, menus, decorating tips and entertaining ideas.
After six days in the national spotlight selling more than $113 million worth of classic cars for Barrett-Jackson, Amarillo’s Spanky Assiter immediately turned his sights homeward to his next challenge: Lining up consignments and preparing for Assiter Auctioneers’ huge Canyon Heavy Equipment and Vehicles Auction, set for Thursday at his Canyon headquarters.
Sprouse Shrader Smith has appointed two shareholders and three new associates within the firm.
Laura Hale, shareholder, is located in the firm’s Amarillo office.
Her main areas of practice include oil and gas, real estate, corporate transactions, and labor and employment law. Hale received her education from Texas Tech University School of Law and has been with the Sprouse Firm since 2004.
The Johnson & Sheldon accounting firm announced its merger with Cornell & Co.
Albert Cupell, Mary McCuistion, Morgan Moser and Laurie Shepard will join the Johnson & Sheldon team and move to the Johnson & Sheldon located in Amarillo National Bank Plaza II, 500 S. Taylor St., Suite 200, in Amarillo.
Cupell will continue to be the primary contact for Cornell & Co.. Cupell has been with Cornell & Co. for 35 years.
NuVal announced that United Supermarkets has signed a contract extension guaranteeing its stores will continue carrying the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System.
Under its United Supermarkets, Market Street, Amigos and United Express banners, United has offered NuVal scores since early 2010 and was the first supermarket chain in Texas to do so. The contract extension assures United’s guests that they can continue to count on the program to help them find the most nutritious foods on its shelves.
Technical Solutions, a provider of unified communications, announced the company will be launching a program designed specifically for the education market.
“Today’s school phone system is not like our parents’ phone system,” said Gene Wells, president. “Today, we’re able to provide educators with dramatically greater levels of communication and security than ever before.”


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WASHINGTON – The US Dept. of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and Empire Kosher Poultry Inc. issued a public health alert on Aug. 24 over concerns that products may be contaminated with Salmonella.
Empire Kosher produced and sold items including whole raw chicken and raw chicken parts between Sept. 2017 and June 2018.
FSIS was notified on June 18 of multiple Salmonella I 4,,12:i:- illnesses within the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. Based on the available epidemiological information, many patients have been identified in that area of the country. FSIS also stated that approximately half of affected patients had been hospitalized due to this health issue.
The agency is concerned that some product may be frozen and in consumers’ freezers. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged to handle properly, prepare and cook these raw chicken products.
FSIS said in its release that it is continuing the investigation, working with the company and public health officials and will provide updated information when it is available.


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Love Apple gear? Like math? TUAW’s Doing the Math series examines the numbers and the science behind the hardware and software.
Several sites — including TUAW — reported yesterday that 80% of all smartphones AT&T sold in Q411 were iPhones, based on AT&T’s quarterly earnings report. On closer inspection, however, there’s a subtle but important detail that we overlooked in AT&T’s wording. It reported “9.4 million smartphone sales” but “7.6 million iPhone activations” (emphasis mine).
Creativity is a splendid thing. It lets you come up with never-before-considered ideas, and leads to the creation of products like the Love Box. The Love Box is a videography accessory for the iPhone that lets you mix two videos together in real time.
It’s a wooden box with a slot for your iPhone and a sliding mirror. You position the phone’s camera in front of the mirror, which lets you record both the action in front of you and the action behind. You can slide the mirror to show just the rear, just the front or something in between. To get a better idea of how it works, you should check out the YouTube video below.
The world’s eyes have been on Apple this week after it announced record-breaking quarterly earnings In the midst of all this commentary and congratulations was a sobering article by New York Times reporters Charles Duhigg and David Barboza. Titled “In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad,” the report was critical of Apple’s relationship with its overseas manufacturing partners.
The piece details the harsh working conditions found in the companies that build Apple products. The 7-page article claims Apple puts incredible pressure on its partners to produce a large volume of components in a short amount of time and for little profit. This incredible pressure forces companies like Foxconn and Wintek to cut corners and risk the safety of the workers to meet Apple’s demands. Apple supposedly turns a blind eye to these practices and will even cut money to companies that complain. The article ends with a statement that implicates Apple fans in this scandal by saying “And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.”
In 2010, the Copyright Office said jailbreaking a handset did not violate the DMCA and the jailbreak community breathed a sigh of relief. What many people didn’t realize was that the exemption covering jailbreaking will expire later this year. When it expires, companies can go after jailbreak developers like the iPhone Dev Team using the DMCA. They could face jail time and monetary penalties for their involvement in creating jailbreaking tools. Needless to say, this would put a halt to most, if not all, jailbreaking.
To prevent this from happening, the EFF created a webpage that tells you how to contact the Copyright Office and ask them to extend this exemption. The advocacy group also wants to extend this protection to tablets and video game consoles. They have instructions on where to send your comments and a guideline about what to say in your communication with the government agency. Comments are due by February 10 at 5 PM Eastern Time. If this is a cause you believe in, head over the EFF and take some time to help keep jailbreaking alive.
For the past three years, I’ve had the pleasure to meet with HP at Macworld to find out what new Apple-centric products the company has produced. This year afforded another opportunity for HP to showcase their products, and I’ve put together a booth tour video with many of the highlights. If you can’t make it to Macworld | iWorld 2012, I hope you’ll enjoy this visit with the fantastic HP team.
Among the products you’ll see in the video are the new HP LaserJet Pro 400 color M451 printer, an excellent device for small to medium businesses and home offices. There’s also the HP LaserJet Pro 300 color MFP (multi-function printer) M375, an “all-in-one” printer/scanner/ copier/fax, and the faster HP LaserJet Pro 400 color MFP M475 printer. All of these devices are iOS compatible, using AirPrint for fast wireless discovery and printing.


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TMS Asia-Pacific chief executive officer, Gary Marshall has announced the promotion of two key Asia-based personnel to senior management roles as the company continues to expand its Singapore and China operations.
Effective immediately, Thomas Lim will take on the role of Manager – Singapore while Frances Zhou has been promoted to manage the Shanghai division of the company’s Group China operation.
Mr. Lim’s extensive Singapore industry background includes a stint in business development management for a major international brand prior to joining the travel and hospitality industry recruitment specialist in 2005.
His many industry accolades include the prestigious 2000 Ministry of Travel & Industry ‘Model Workers Award’ and two National Association of Travel Agents’ ‘Excellence Service’ Awards in 2000 and 2001.
Mr. Lim will be based in the company’s Asia Head Office in Singapore where Adeline Lee takes over as Senior Consultant for the Singapore office.
Frances Zhou joined TMS’ China operation two years ago after a lengthy career in senior business development roles in hotel management and latterly, for one of China’s biggest online travel operators.
Announcing the promotions, Mr. Marshall said that after successful tenures in their respective offices as senior consultants the two new managers had shown great leadership qualities.
“Both Thomas and Frances will play key roles in further developing the TMS brand in their respective areas of management,” he said.
“They are the top revenue producers for their respective offices and I have little doubt that they will continue to drive our business to even greater heights.”


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Apple will invest $1 billion to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S.28
As we all remember, during the presidential election, Trump nibbled Apple for manufacturing some of the company’s main products in China, but the announcement that Cook made yesterday looks like a good response to this criticism and will probably be welcomed by most Americans. And despite the fact that Apple’s CEO has been against Donald Trump's election since his campaign first started, he joined the President’s tech summit in December 2016 and, after the meeting, expressed his readiness to work with the Government on key areas including privacy and security, education, and creating jobs.
“Creating jobs is a key part of what we do by giving people opportunity not only with people that work directly for Apple, but the large number of people that are in our ecosystem. We’re really proud that we’ve created 2 million jobs, just in this country”, Tim Cook said back then in a statement to Apple’s employees.


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|Govt announces more export sops|
|BS Reporter / New Delhi November 29, 2007|
|But falls short of exporters' expectations|
Finance Minister P Chidambaram today announced additional relief measures for exporters who have been hit by a 15 per cent annual appreciation in the rupee against the dollar.
This is the third such package since July but it has fallen short of both exporters
First Published: Thu, November 29 2007. 23:50 IST


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The gaming industry faces a fierce challenge in the economic climate moving forward with new product launches. Microsoft’s Xbox Series and Sony’s PlayStation 5 was planned to be launched this year and hoped to be the next generation’s best technological advanced consoles to date. However, due to the global pandemic it is in high doubt that Microsoft will not be able to have the most advanced technology or the best games for consumers to be addicted to. To add to this as the United States faces the brink of recession, will consumers want to invest in the newest gaming piece?
It is evident that the global pandemic has brought economic struggle all around the world. However, it has been rumored that the gaming industry may be decreasing their prices therefore consumers may be able to afford the newest gadget compared to previous year’s pricing. The supply chain issues have proved a challenge for Xbox due to the demand needed by different retailers. Furthermore, manufacturing delays have also been a problem for game developers. With manufacturers having less people working, getting supplies at a cheaper cost could be proved harder than first thought.
June 2020 the gaming industry was set to see the E3 gaming event however it was cancelled months ago due to the pandemic. This would have been a chance for Xbox to push the new game consoles to the video gaming industry and build more hype around the launch. As the event is not taking place, industry experts and traders of the console will not be able to see the Xbox Series first hand. Some people hoped the event would be hosted online however organizers of the event decided to scrap the idea. Therefore, from July Xbox has decided to show a glimpse of some of the new games in the development process. Prior to this in May, Xbox released a gameplay reveal which featured third party game playing.
With the unpredicted circumstances upon us, Xbox Chief Phil Spencer discussed the business position to BBC News. Spencer discussed the adaptation of testing for the new console as employees are having to work from home to ensure the business can carry on as usual. He explained “We have test kits at home and we’re all using them, so we can ensure that everything’s working the way it should”.However, even though test kits are going to the homes of employees the usual schedule is not completely up to date due to the pandemic, as Spencer explained “We probably had a couple [of] weeks missing in our testing cycle, just as we got up to speed with things”.
It has been acknowledged that due to many leisure activities in the world having to shut down and businesses demand going down, many industries are seeing the forefront of the impact from a loss of jobs. Therefore, game developers are worried that consumers may not have the disposable income they usually have to spend on a new launch. As Chief Phil Spencer discussed with BBC News Xbox are concerned about “macro-economic environment”. Xbox has acknowledged their industry is not an essential requirement for consumers at this uncertain time therefore they have planned to see the fall back from COVID19.
But for game console lovers there is hope, as the economic situation has become negative for businesses hoping to release new products, for the consumers that are lucky enough to be in the position to still want to buy there could be positives. Xbox are looking at lowering the price of the new console and games and offer a subscription service which allows consumers to pay for their new leisure activity at a monthly cost. It has been rumored by industry experts that Microsoft’s Xbox launch is aiming to undercut Sony’s PlayStation 5. Xbox is attempting to find positives outlooks in the motivation for a consumer to buy a product, even though they will see it as an investment, it will provide hours of fun for their family which in the long term could be seen as a cheaper way to have fun than many days out.
Xbox has not aimed high this year in relation to the number of consoles sold, it has chosen to focus on delivering an experience for the consumer and understanding the feedback consumers are giving them from previous consoles. Xbox hopes to push its Xbox Game Pass, a service that allows consumers to access many more games and the smart delivery technology will allow games to move on to the next generation console. For now, Xbox are focusing on their statistics and ensuring their business is aware of what games are most popular and how often people are playing on the console.
For consumers that are in a position to purchase a new gaming console this year, both businesses Xbox and PlayStation have confirmed they aim to go ahead with the launch.