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Payment provider Xsolla have announced the launch of their newest project, Xsolla Mall, a new alternative distribution channel.
The new platform will feature a number of key tools, including branded landing pages, cloud gaming support, influencer integration and more. The new Xsolla Mall follows a number of mobile companies branching out into web payment platforms in order to skirt app store’s stringent fees, as well as other companies such as Razer launching services including Razer Gold, which offers similar alternative payment methods, rewards and more.
"Xsolla Mall unlocks a new direct-to-consumer distribution channel for delivering games and in-game content on the web," said Chris Hewish, CEO of Xsolla. "We aim to help developers tackle current market challenges like the high cost of acquiring and retaining players, high distribution fees, and increasing the number of paying players so they can earn and keep more of the profits from the sale of their games and in-game content.
Xsolla Mall perfectly aligns with our mission to bolster the gaming community by providing developers, influencers, and players with a safe, practical, and engaging platform."
Further with alternative platforms
The rise of alternative platforms can be credited to the growth of debate around the fees required by storefronts such as Google Play and the Apple App Store. By offering alternative payment platforms, and incentives companies such as Xsolla are capitalising on the growing dissatisfaction with the state of app store fees and revenue cuts.
Xsolla’s inclusion of localised payments in their release also reflects a continued focus on growing into new markets. Areas such as MENA and Asia often have very different payment systems to more traditionally supported Western markets, and by implementing these into apps it not only ensures a stable revenue stream but also widespread adoption by those for whom these methods are the only option.


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U.S. Bank Unveils TravelBank-powered Commercial Rewards Card
U.S. Bank has launched its U.S. Bank Commercial Rewards Card, its first commercial card solution targeting emerging middle-market businesses. The card, powered by TravelBank, aims to automate expense management, enhance spending control, and offer rebates for business expenses for companies with $10-150 million in annual revenue. The card features dynamic controls and customizable travel policies to enforce spending limits and policy adherence.
“Emerging middle market businesses have similar needs and opportunities as their larger competitors, but the traditional, complex corporate card and expense solutions weren’t designed for them. That’s why we created a solution tailored for emerging middle market companies that is easy to implement and includes features many large firms benefit from today,” said Dan Skaggs, head of middle market bankcard product, U.S. Bank. “With the Commercial Rewards Card, U.S. Bank is leading the charge in redefining how the emerging middle market conducts business, opening up new possibilities and opportunities for growth.”
Chewy Expands CarePlus Pet Insurance, Focus on Digital Experience
Chewy has announced the availability of new CarePlus insurance and wellness offerings in collaboration with Lemonade Pet and Trupanion. These expanded coverage options are designed to meet the diverse needs and price points of pet owners. Customers also have access to Chewy's existing healthcare services, including Connect with a Vet and Chewy Pharmacy. The expanded assortment of plans from Lemonade Pet allows users to easily manage their policies, track billing, and file claims through the Lemonade app, with the option to donate unused premiums to animal-focused charities.
"Chewy Health continues to remove barriers and expand access to high-quality healthcare while supporting customers at all stages of their pet parent journey,” said Mita Malhotra, president of Chewy Health. “We know our customers want to select from high-quality and cost-effective options that include the most seamless experience for everything from researching and buying to receiving claims payments. Our new CarePlus plans provide additional options while maintaining the same gold standard experience pet parents expect from Chewy, from wherever they are located."
Chick-fil-A Leads Restaurant Satisfaction for 9th Straight Year, with Other Restaurants Close Behind
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Restaurant Study 2022-2023, customer satisfaction with full-service restaurants has increased by 1% to a score of 81, bringing the industry back to the top spot in the Index alongside athletic shoes and soft drinks. Fast food industry satisfaction has also climbed 3% to 78.
Outback Steakhouse emerged as the leader among full-service restaurants, with a score of 83, followed by LongHorn Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, and Cracker Barrel. However, rising beef prices may pose challenges for these steakhouses. Chick-fil-A maintained its position as the top fast-food chain for the ninth consecutive year with a score of 85, but Jimmy John's is closing in with a score of 84. Despite increased restaurant prices, perceived value has improved, and quality gains have been noted.
“This year we’re seeing customer satisfaction returning to pre-pandemic levels for full-service dining, while fast food outlets have rebounded to within a point of their 2019 score,” says Forrest Morgeson, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University and Director of Research Emeritus at the ACSI. “This good news is tempered, though, by increasing inflationary pressures, which are already slowing traffic. Sooner rather than later, the industry is going to feel the pinch, and price competition and value will matter.”
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In a move to bolster its Xbox division, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Beam, a live-streaming platform that allows users to watch and play video games with each other.
According to Microsoft, Beam will be integrated into Microsoft's Xbox Live service - a subscription service for gamers to play and interact with other users - to make the platform more social and engaging.
Microsoft's acquisition of Beam could help steal share from market leader Twitch. Amazon-owned Twitch, the pioneer in the live gaming industry, receives over 100 million monthly unique viewers, and 1.7 million monthly unique broadcasters.
Users view approximately 422 minutes of programming on Twitch, which is more than YouTube's 291 monthly minutes, according to TechCrunch. While only a few months old, Beam has already accumulated a community of over 100,000 users and hopes to expand even faster with the help of tech giant Microsoft.
The acquisition could also strengthen its Xbox Live service. Unlike Twitch, which only allows users to view others playing video games, Beam offers the option for users to interact with their favorite gamers directly within the platform. The hope is that this added ability will increase engagement across the platform, and thus act as another incentive for its Xbox Live subscription service. Xbox Live saw monthly active users increase 33% year-over-year in Q2 and now touts 49 million monthly users, according to Microsoft cited by Variety.
Microsoft's gaming business has been lagging lately. In its fiscal Q4 earnings release, Microsoft stated its gaming revenue decreased 9% to $152 million, largely brought on by lower hardware revenue. However, the company said this was mostly offset by higher Xbox Live subscription revenue. The acquisition of Beam could help bring in a larger, highly engaged community to help increase revenues in its gaming division, while mitigating losses from Xbox hardware sales.
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The listing of “Grand Theft Auto 5” on PS4 has been discussed and explained by a representative at Worten. According to a report from NZ Gamer on March 5, the spokesperson for the retailer seemingly confirmed that “GTA 5” will indeed be ported to the next generation system.
Worten apparently got enough information of the rumored product to open up a pre-order page. Although Rockstar Games did not make any official announcements, retailers are usually one of the first groups to find out about the newest releases of video game products.
Along with Worten’s listing for the PS4 version of “GTA 5,” the PC and Xbox One iterations of the same title were also listed a Czech retailer called “SuperGamer.” The store mentioned that the ports are going to be released on June 13. The date falls on a Friday, which is the normal day of the week where a majority of video games are launched in Europe. In comparison, the North American region usually gets the same software products three days earlier on a Tuesday.
“GTA 5” has only been released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 so far. Despite the limited install base, the video game still sold more than 32.5 million units worldwide so far. You can find some screens of the latest “Grand Theft Auto” title running on the two current-generation consoles in the slideshow to the left of this article.


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Insights From the UPS "Pain In the (Supply) Chain' Survey
Published: December 3rd, 2013
Healthcare executives view compliance with regulations as top concern.
As companies forge into new markets, IT investment and cost management strategies are leading priorities, the UPS Pain in the (Supply) Chain survey finds.
Healthcare executives for the third year in a row cite regulatory compliance as their leading supply chain concern, trumping supply chain issues of cost and product security, according to the sixth annual UPS “Pain in the (Supply) Chain” survey.
And for the first time product security surpasses cost management as the second highest supply chain concern, with companies citing the challenge of more sophisticated counterfeiters and protecting lengthened supply chains.
This year’s survey, conducted by TNS, sought insights from about 441 senior-level decision makers in supply chain and logistics in the US, Canada, Western Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
The survey finds evidence of an approaching shift in the healthcare supply chain. As companies seek business growth in new markets, and need to protect increasingly complex and high-value product, they are planning for transformative change, the survey reports.
Over the next five years, 84 percent of global healthcare executives will invest in new technologies, 78 percent will enter new markets, and 70 percent will implement new distribution channels such as shipping directly to hospitals and patient’s homes.
Among executives globally, 63 percent name regulation compliance as the top supply chain issue, followed by product security (53%). In North America, increasing regulation, cited by 54 percent, is the top business “pain point”, followed by changes in healthcare legislation (53 percent). The two issues rank one and two in Western Europe as well.
Regulatory challenges include murky legislative outlooks, new market complexities, and the cost of managing multiple countries’ requirements.
As a study that evolves from year-to-year, regulatory concerns as a supply chain item didn’t enter the survey until 2010, says Scott Szwast, marketing director, healthcare segment, UPS.
“In the past several years, we have seen an increase in warning letters and injunctions both domestically and abroad. Companies are facing more regulation on more complex products, and with international expansion, they are required to be in compliance with new regulatory authorities,” Szwast says.
“With the migration to telemedicine and telehealth, patient data that may be stored in a device needs to be protected. Devices are becoming more sophisticated which opens up new areas of compliance companies previously did not have to deal with,” says Szwast.
Patients are increasingly cared for in new distribution settings for which different regulations may apply. “There is not a single set of global rules for product disposal. In some countries it varies even across different regions and territories,” he adds.
As the second most pressing issue among all global regions, product protection is of particular concern in the Asia Pacific region where 76 percent of executives named product security as a top issue. In North America, the second most pressing concern after regulation is managing supply chain costs.
Trends such as home care are spurring interest in new distribution channels, although wholesaler distribution remains an important supply chain approach for reaching into new markets.
“Supply chains are mostly predicated on full pallet loads to very high points of dispensation such as at drug stores and hospitals. But other complementary channels are increasingly being created to accompany the traditional distribution model—such as direct to clinic, pharmacy, and to patient,” Szwast says.
Companies were asked about their strategies to improve competitiveness. Investment in new technology ranks number one with 74 percent investing today, and 84 percent planning to over the next five years.
In technology investments , serialization mandates, as well as the need to establish safe distribution of controlled or temperature sensitive product, are key drivers . The largest increase in technology investment is foreseen in bar coding, e-pedigree, and serialization technology. Today 42 percent are investing in this area; 59 percent will be in the next five years.
In strategies to improve competitiveness, tapping into new markets is the second priority, pursued today by 67 percent, with 78 percent planning new market initiatives over five years.
This year for the first time the survey captured empirical data on the hows and whys behind answers; executives were asked about the tactics they used and the results.
“We have always focused on the business concerns, supply chain challenges, and the strategies addressing those challenges. This year we looked for specific tactics-- what worked and to what do they attribute their success,” Szwast says.
What are the successful strategies used for addressing regulatory compliance? The top two are IT investment in bar coding, serialization, and e-pedigree, cited by 49 percent, and increased regulatory staffing levels and expertise (42 percent).
The top two challenges in product security are growing counterfeit sophistication and poor supply chain visibility with too many supply chain handoffs. The most successful strategies are shipment insurance (61 percent) and IT investment in bar code, serialization, e-pedigree and chain-of-custody solutions (56 percent).
In cost management, shipping costs and labor costs are the biggest hurdles. The most successful cost management strategies, cited by 56 percent, are logistics and distribution partnerships, followed by IT investment (53 percent).
“The survey results show that companies need a strategy in place to keep costs down and part of that is working with a third party logistics partner. We understand the overall picture of supply chain costs and can help identify redundancies, and opportunities to scale back investments,” says Robin Hooker, director, global strategy, UPS Healthcare Logistics.
“Fifty percent of executives who have been successful in managing costs have performed a supply chain optimization analyses. We can help here,” Hooker says.
As firms expand into new markets working with new suppliers and partners, send product through new distribution channels , and plan their IT investments, refining the supply chain becomes a critical exercise.
“Across all industries, 75 percent of any business’s operating results align back to how the supply chain is configured. Companies looking to outperform their competitors are investing in technology, conducting supply chain optimization, and partnering with companies that have best-in-class logistics, infrastructure, assets, and expertise,” Szwast says.


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AUSTIN, Texas – Texas’ strong economic rebound will result in a budget cushion of nearly $ 25 billion in 2023. This is according to state comptroller Glenn Hegar who predicts there will be more than $ 12 billion in the state savings account, also known as the ârainy day fund.â It also estimated that there would be a final balance of around $ 12 billion in unused general revenue at the end of the two-year budget cycle.
Hegar credits sales tax collections for performing better than expected over the past seven months.
âAll revenues are up, but sales tax in particular. The past seven months have been the strongest months we have ever seen in the state of Texas, âHegar said in an interview with Capital Tonight.
But he was cautiously optimistic about his estimate, citing uncertainties over inflation, energy prices and global supply chain bottlenecks that could change the course of the fiscal outlook.
âAll of this is going to have some type of drag on the Texas economy, especially for consumers in the ability to spend, as well as in some businesses, and that’s why I’m making these comments as to the caution of what we can see in the next 12 and 18 months potentially, âhe said.
Click the video link above to watch our full interview with Hegar.


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CHICAGO — Walgreens on Saturday will be hosting its first Mobile Photo Hack Day — a contest among mobile photo application developers in creating a "groundbreaking" application using Walgreens' QuickPrints SDK.
All entries will be reviewed by a panel of notable judges:
Kobie Hatcher, solutions director at AIM Consulting, a technology solutions and services company providing resources in flexible configurations;
Scott Regan, head of marketing at Apigee, which makes application programming interface products and tools for enterprises and developers;
Ari Fuchs, lead API engineer and developer evangelist for Aviary, a company that developed a photo editing platform that allows any developer to instantly inject a photo editor inside their product;
Brett Goldstein, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Innovation & Technology. Goldstein, was appointed to the position by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in June 2012 to accelerate Chicago's growth as a global hub of innovation and technology. He was previously the city's chief data officer;
Kevin McGinnis, VP product platforms at Sprint. McGinnis leads a group responsible for developing platforms and product lines that support customer choice and service enablement;
Terry Howerton, founder of TechNexus, a Chicago-based collaboration center that’s home to hundreds of entrepreneurs, startups and growing companies. Howerton also recently co-founded and now chairs the Chicago Tech Academy, a public charter high school teaching entrepreneurship and tech skills to more than 600 inner-city children;
Matt Moog, Viewpoints.com CEO, a provider of consumer product reviews. Moog also is the founder of the FireStarter Fund, an early stage investment fund; and
Jasbir Patel, Walgreens senior director and general merchandise manager for photo. Patel is part of the senior leadership team at Walgreens.com.
"Hackers" who participate in the all-day event will be competing for $5,000 in cash prizes and complimentary mentoring and residency within TechNexus incubator and collaboration center for six months.


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CES is quite a bit different this year. For the first time ever, CES is entirely virtual, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty to talk about. Senior Writer Lauren Goode talks with WIRED staff about the newest tech from the show, including TCL's rollable phones, shower head speakers, UV phone chargers, Samsung's microLED televisions, the future of ARM processors and much more.
LAUREN GOODE: It's the first ever entirely virtual CES. The fact that the world's largest Consumer Electronics Show has gone online this year means that we at Wired can't really experience it the way we normally would. We can't see the dancing robots or the giant displays or the smart toilets in person. But we're still trying to cover it because technology is marching on. Companies are trying their best to adapt to the pandemic, and they're making big bets on innovations for the future.
So I decided to ask my Wired colleagues what they're seeing on the ground at CES this year, or should I say, through their screens at CES this year, and what's piquing their interest. So I want to take it to Michael Calore who's my editor. Mike, thanks so much for joining me on this video.
MICHAEL CALORE: Hi Lauren.
LAUREN GOODE: Mike, the big question that I want to ask you is does anyone care about CES this year?
MICHAEL CALORE: I do think people care. I think consumers care, our readers care because, you know, CES is the time you get to see all the stuff that's coming out this year. Companies are still showing up, and they're still putting out a bunch of stuff. So there's going to be things that you can buy next Christmas season, and that's usually what CES is about.
Also companies show up to do business with each other. You know, the TV buyer at the big box store is going to be talking to all the TV manufacturers and seeing what's new. So I think that people still do care, even though it's smaller and a little bit sadder.
LAUREN GOODE: Do you get the sense so far from what you're seeing or hearing from the press conferences that companies are adequately addressing some of these crises that we're facing right now, or is it a lot of lip service and people just want to get to the robot that pours you a glass of wine?
MICHAEL CALORE: I think some companies are addressing the pandemic, but they're doing it in a really weird way. Like they're showing you all of the different UV light sanitization and stuff that they've put into their gadgets, and that's not always effective at killing germs. But I think the fact that everybody is hyper aware of germs this year makes those sorts of things a little bit more appealing. So people are, you know, catering to that.
LAUREN GOODE: Right, and we're also seeing a lot of companies market their products as ideal work from home products now, because many of us are spending much more time at home, and working from home, and home schooling from home. Have you seen anything in those categories that you find particularly interesting?
MICHAEL CALORE: I think the most interesting thing for working from home is noise canceling headphones. Anybody who lives with other human beings be they fully grown or very small will know the value of a good pair of noise canceling headphones, and like this is a great year for noise canceling headphones. There are dozens of them. They're all coming down in price, and they all have incredible battery life so they last all day. So you can shut the world out all day while you toil at your desk in your kitchen or whatever.
LAUREN GOODE: Like it seemed for a while that if you wanted really good powerful headphones you had to get big ones that went around your ears, and now everyone's into buds.
MICHAEL CALORE: I've actually been surprised by the quality of wire-free earbuds. You know, the kinds that don't have any wires connecting them. Just sort of like Apple's AirPods. Everybody makes a version of those now. Over the last couple of years, they've been getting really good. 2021 is going to be the year where you can buy a pair of those, and they're going to sound excellent, and they're going to have really good battery life.
LAUREN GOODE: What are you hearing about immersive audio technology or speakers that are going to fill your home with really great sound?
MICHAEL CALORE: Yeah, one big trend that we see in audio this year is spatial audio or 3D audio. This is a technology that lets you take just one speaker, like a soundbar underneath your television, and then it can make it seem like sounds are coming from all around you. So it's like having surround sound system with just one speaker. It's really hard to find out if they're effective, but thankfully, within the next five or six months, people will start sending them to us so we can test them and listen to them.
LAUREN GOODE: Mike, one of the things that you and I have both covered in recent years at CES is the rise of the Frankengadget gadget. Tell us about this trend, and are we going to see more of it?
MICHAEL CALORE: This is like the coffeemaker that's also an alarm clock and a speaker. That weird category of like hybrid device. This year there's a really cool one that is like a bluetooth speaker that is built into a showerhead, and as the water flows through the showerhead, there's hydroelectric power that powers the Speaker. That's pretty cool. I mean, I want one. Don't you.
LAUREN GOODE: Maybe, question mark. It's probably my response for a lot of gadgets at CES. So let's go to Julian Chokkattu who's in New York, and he's been paying a lot of attention to what's going on in displays.
JULIAN CHOKKATTU: So Samsung has its big fancy microLED TV. This is this new competitor against OLED. OLED obviously has this organic LED, so it's basically going to give you much nicer blacks, because every single pixel is controllable. So when you're seeing black on the TV, it's actually perfectly pitch black. It's turned off. This new comparator is Samsung's microLED tech which is using millions of LEDs behind every single pixel to further give you excellent blacks and contrasting better colors.
It's positioned to be potentially better than OLED. We don't know yet, but it was just spectacular to behold, and that's the sort of way that I think Samsung is going to try and pivot to. You can actually buy this one, this 110-inch version in Korea for about $150,000. So at the moment a little out of reach but maybe one day.
LAUREN GOODE: So one of the things we saw this week was TCL, which is traditionally known as a TV maker, and one of the things the company showed off was a rollable phone. What is a rollable phone, and how is it different from a foldable phone?
JULIAN CHOKKATTU: Think a normal phone, and then you can essentially pull out the display, whether it's horizontally or vertically to enable more screen space. So when you want that extra screen space, maybe you're going to watch a movie or watch a TV show or just use two apps side by side, you can just pull out the display.
The benefit here over foldables is that foldables are pretty thick and chunky. With a rollable, you're basically using a similar normal phone that you can just extend that display out. It sounds like we are going to see some rollable phones actually come out this year at some point.
LAUREN GOODE: What are you hearing about chips in laptops so far?
JULIAN CHOKKATTU: There's, I think, this sense that we're all going to eventually shift a lot of these laptop processors to ARM-based processors, which is what Apple is using. And ARM-based processors are what we traditionally use in our smartphone chips. For the ability to use the same type of architecture in your laptop and your phone, that ideally would mean that transitioning from your laptop to your phone would be very, very seamless.
And I mean that if I pulled up a couple of applications in my laptop and then I switched back to my iPhone, I'll be able to pull up those exact same applications in the same way that I left them from the laptop. It's still early days even for Apple, so we still have to see a lot of the benefits outside of improved performance and efficiency-- so longer battery life. But I think the sense is that we're going to see laptop manufacturers sort of investing in ARM chips for their laptops rather than going Intel.
LAUREN GOODE: Right, I keep hearing about how all this experimentation and chips for laptops is going to lead us to AC-PCs, which sounds like a band but actually just means always-connected personal computers, but I have to say I like the idea of an AC-PC.
JULIAN CHOKKATTU: That I think it's just a natural thing that developers are going to really like, because it makes you stay in their app more often, I think, if you can just quickly seamlessly transition over from one device to the next.
LAUREN GOODE: Let's go to Alan Henry in New York, who has been covering everything that's going on in games. Hey, Alan. I like your blazer.
ALAN HENRY: I got to dress up for something.
LAUREN GOODE: That's right. Tell me what you're seeing so far in the gaming world at CES.
ALAN HENRY: Some of the big things, obviously, off the tail end of last year-- we got new consoles, PC hardware, we have new graphics cards, we have a ton of new games, right. So leading into the beginning of this year, we're seeing a lot of people kind of capitalizing on all of that new hardware. So there's a lot of software features around cloud streaming and game streaming and streaming not just games across different devices, but also like on Twitch and things like that. So there's some community advancements going on but not a lot of big hardware releases at the moment, because you know, they already announced a whole bunch of things.
LAUREN GOODE: One thing I'm hearing is that we're going to see more AMD chips in laptops. I'm wondering if you can tell us what this means for PC gamers.
ALAN HENRY: AMD has been manufacturing some really, really affordable CPUs, which means PC gamers are getting a lot of more bang for their buck when it comes to building their own gaming PCs. And companies that make their own gaming PCs as well are able to pack more power into the same price point. That's one thing.
Yeah, AMD has been firing on all cylinders, and that includes consoles too. Sony and Microsoft have been including AMD processors in the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, which has done a huge thing for narrowing that kind of PC console gap.
LAUREN GOODE: So this is getting really in the weeds, but another thing that I'm hearing about CES so far this week, HDMI ports on TVs are getting an upgrade to the point where they can now support the higher refresh rates. They're getting more high-powered so they can support the new gaming consoles. Talk about this.
ALAN HENRY: With an upgraded HDMI, you're getting frame rates on large screens that traditionally were reserved for smaller PC displays with really powerful graphics cards. The difference between 30 and 60 frames per second in a console game used to be like the big marker of whether or not your console was any good. And now, we're starting to see console developers start talking about developing their games in 120 Hertz, or like they do for PC games like 144 or something like that. They're starting to go up exponentially to the point where it's not so much about powering as many pixels as it is creating a very emotive seamless experience that doesn't stutter and doesn't load a lot.
LAUREN GOODE: Typically, at CES in Las Vegas every year, Nvidia puts on a pretty big event. They make a splash. They show all kinds of new technologies, but it doesn't appear like that's going to be possible this year because of the virtual nature of CES. What are you hearing from Nvidia?
ALAN HENRY: Every year Nvidia releases their brand new desktop graphics cards. They did that end of last year, now, it's their turn to kind of show off the chipsets based on that that are low power for laptops and other mobile devices. I don't see them with any announcements that are going to resolve the pipeline problems they've been having, but they will have some cool laptops cards to show off.
LAUREN GOODE: And what are some of the pipeline problems they've been having? Can you sum this up quickly?
ALAN HENRY: I mean, I shouldn't say that it's their problem specifically. It's just that they can't produce enough graphics cards to meet the demand.
JEFF FISHER: We know these products have been hard to find. I want to thank you for your patience as we continue to work hard to catch up.
ALAN HENRY: I'll just be over here salty that I can't get my hands on one.
LAUREN GOODE: All right, let's go to Adrienne So who's coming to us from Portland. Hey, Adrienne. You're keeping an eye on all the connected fitness stuff at CES this year. What are you seeing so far?
ADRIENNE SO: So a lot of the wearables that I normally cover during CES have opted not to come this year. So Fitbit won't be showing anything. Garmin isn't showing anything at CES this year. Other companies from smaller to larger ones are debuting similar fitness platforms.
Two of the ones that I'm interested in this year are Samsung Health is introducing a personalized AI coaching platform, and Bowflex has a platform called JRNY that's incorporated with the Bowflex bikes in the same way that the Peloton app is integrated with the Peloton Bike. We saw Peloton really blow up this year, and a lot of companies are hoping to lure even more people in, hopefully at a lower price point.
LAUREN GOODE: What kind of trends have you seen at CES so far this year that are reflective of this trend of all of us being home?
ADRIENNE SO: The one that I was really excited about that I definitely don't have room for in our closet was the Kohler Stillness tub, which is a meditation tub. And for a mom of two kids, I'm thinking of it as the escape tub. [LAUGHING] Things like a smart faucet that may have been of limited utility when most of us had kids that went to school, and I never realized how annoying it was to have to turn the faucet on and off for him every 30 seconds to wash his hands or rinse something off. And now I'm like, yeah, definitely getting a smart faucet. That might give me back half an hour at least of my life.
LAUREN GOODE: What a time to be alive.
ADRIENNE SO: [LAUGHING] I know.
LAUREN GOODE: If there's anything we've learned about CES over the years it's that there are a lot of great ideas and concepts presented, but they don't necessarily shift right away or help you out in the immediate future.
ADRIENNE SO: That's one of the main things about CES trying to fit itself into the timeline of COVID-19. Like these are devices that we're going to be seeing six months or a year or two years in advance, and who knows what the world is going to look like then.
LAUREN GOODE: All right, so let's go to my colleague Boone Ashworth, who's in San Francisco. Boone, I was really looking forward to chatting with you, because you're really focused this week on companies at CES that are involved in some way in hygiene tech-- technologies that are supposed to help us kill germs faster. Tell me what you're seeing this week.
BOONE ASHWORTH: Sanitization, disinfecting, antimicrobial tech is very much in this year. So we're seeing UV light in everything from wireless chargers to refrigerators to full on robots that automatically go around in stores or offices and disinfect everything. Air purifiers, antimicrobial materials and laptops, backpacks, phone cases, basically you name it. It's got clean tech on it.
LAUREN GOODE: What have you seen so far that you've said to yourself, I could see there being a use for that.
BOONE ASHWORTH: I could see there being a use for combination wireless charger and UV sanitizers. So you put your phone on this wireless charging mat, and it also sanitizes it with UV light, antimicrobial materials. Thinking about, you know, your phone being cleaner than the disgusting germ magnet that it is right now is always great.
LAUREN GOODE: We're also seeing some folks roll out touchless technologies, right?
BOONE ASHWORTH: I think voice and gesture controls are big, and weirdly, facial recognition as well. Touch screens in say a store or mall or something like that that you can just wave at or talk to and not have to touch would be great.
LAUREN GOODE: Boone, do you have a sense of how well these disinfecting antigerm technologies actually work?
BOONE ASHWORTH: So a lot of it is based on science that is sound. So things like air filtration and UV light protect against the virus or limit the flow of the virus through the air or on surfaces. The problem is that a lot of it really depends on context, right? So if you have an air purifier that you want to clean a room out with, it has to be big enough. It has to be efficient enough to get the airflow in the room to cycle through and get the virus out. If you have some of the small kind of handheld air purifiers that we've been seeing at CES, your context just might be too big for the tech that you're using.
LAUREN GOODE: Is there anything else that people should know about these sanitizing, disinfecting technologies?
BOONE ASHWORTH: I think just understanding how they actually work and how long some of them take to be effective. UVC light for instance has been shown to eliminate the coronavirus. In like a hospital setting, that UVC light is a lot more intense to the point where it could harm your skin or your eyes. A lot of gadgets that we're seeing now are coming out with something called far UVC light, and that is a shorter wavelength, therefore more gentle.
But at the same time, that light in order to properly disinfect something needs to sit on it for a long time. It's not going to be as simple as just beaming over your phone or your restaurant table, and then expecting it to be completely disinfected. So just understanding the limitations of this technology is important.
LAUREN GOODE: Thanks to all of you for watching this video and for following along as we cover our first ever entirely virtual CES. There are some interesting things coming out of the show this year no doubt, but it's been a pretty scaled down event. And we hope in the future, maybe, we can get back to Las Vegas and cover it in person. We've all kinds of stories about CES on wired.com, so go check those out when you get a chance. And thanks again for watching.


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Google's anticipated game streaming service Google Stadia releases tomorrow and early impressions have already gone out. While we haven't been able to test it out for ourselves — you can expect a proper review from us sometime later — most members of the press appear to think Stadia wasn't ready to hit the market just yet.
Vice's Patrick Klepek spent a week with the service and said it is "At times, a disaster. At times, a revelation," and encouraged people to stay away for now. His full review details that he tested out Stadia in less than ideal environments, like at a Starbucks, but emphasized that the purpose of Stadia is to work for people in these environments.
When he described using it at home, he said, "It's a service with a crappy UI and without games, but it works!" And for those who opt to do this, you'll need to be wary of data caps as Stadia can eat up to 20GB in an hour streaming at 4K.
Others, like Polygon's Chris Plante, called Google's decision to release Stadia today "a colossal mistake." It may be praised years down the line, but it is far from living up to its potential. Plante's current pitch for Stadia is even more damning.
Here's my pitch for Stadia at this moment: a digital storefront from which players can purchase games to stream on certain compatible devices with a number of complicated, sometimes confusing, limitations. This isn't a subscription service that unlocks hundreds of free games like Xbox Game Pass, nor is it as feature-rich as Sony's streaming service PlayStation Now. Players need to buy each game on Stadia at retail prices.
But we all knew this going into it. Google wasn't hiding what this service was. It just looks like after trying it out, most people are finding that the situation was as bad as it sounded. The good news is that some reviewers tended to not notice input lag when running at recommended internet speeds, though Plante did encounter brutal slowdowns and visual stutters. I guess take the little victories where you can.
However, Wired's Jess Grey stated in her review that input lag was noticeable while playing Mortal Kombat, making the fighting game an odd choice to include in its launch lineup. Grey was a bit warmer to the service than some others, but still recommended that people wait to try the free version instead of spending $129 on the Founder's Edition.
As for VentureBeat, Jeff Grubb actually considered Stadia to be a win for Google. The service worked consistently for him, and the worst he could say was that playing Mortal Kombat online felt a bit off.
It's proven that it can work in perfect conditions, meeting and even exceeding expectations. But no one is going to be playing in a perfect environment. That's not the service that Google got on stage and sold when Stadia was first revealed. It has a long way to go before becoming a viable product. Stadia is a service released too soon for its own good, but it may have helped propel the game streaming revolution.
The general consensus appears to be that Google Stadia still feels like just a beta, as The Verge put it, and not a particularly good one. When it works, it works well, but those moments are few and far between. Coupled with a meager launch lineup of games and missing features, it's hard to tell who the service is really for.
Stadia Founder's Edition
Rough waters ahead
This bundle includes everything you need to get started with Google Stadia like the controller, Chromecast Ultra, Destiny 2, and three months of the Stadia Pro subscription for you and a friend. Just be aware of the type of product you're getting, and don't have unrealistic expectations about its capabilities.
Pick up the parts
You can buy everything together or you can get just the basics for Google Stadia. The Chromecast Ultra is available to purchase now and lets you stream 4K TV as well as play games. This is probably the more appealing option since Stadia's base subscription is free.
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.


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Community activist harnesses the power of entrepreneurship to make progressive change in his community
Raised in an immigrant family of merchants, Alejandro Flores-Munoz learned about entrepreneurship from an early age. He watched his mother, a single parent living in Southern California, work a full time job, while juggling side hustles selling perfumes, jewelry, and desserts door-to-door. Today, he is an entrepreneur himself, with several gigs selling personalized buttons and sunglasses, and a proud co-owner of Stokes Poke, a Hawaiian food caterer and pop-up business in Denver, Colorado.
Alejandro worked for many years as a political campaign organizer for state and local elections in California before moving to Denver in 2016 to continue his work in politics. But in 2018, Alejandro decided it was time to invest his savings into a much more robust side hustle, and bought the rights and business plan for Stokes Poke. Along with a business partner, Alejandro worked part-time for about a year before taking the plunge and becoming a small business owner full time.
Alejandro shares, “After I left my 9 to 5 job to dedicate my full attention to Stokes Poke, I hired employees and worked tirelessly to provide for them, for my business partner, and myself. As an immigrant entrepreneur, I’m on a path to building generational wealth and want to encourage others to build businesses of their own.”
Prior to COVID-19, Stokes Poke served between 300-500 bowls a day, six days a week. “We were doing so well that we expanded our business from just Hawaiian food to creating a virtual kitchen called Combi Tacos, a catering branch serving Mexican tacos,” he says.
But with business down drastically after the pandemic stay-at-home orders took place, Alejandro is lucky if he serves 50 orders a day. His business model changed from self-serve to pre-packaged bowls, and he quickly enforced safety guidelines to keep his customers and his team safe.
Like most business owners, Alejandro has turned every rock he can in hopes to keep his business alive. He applied to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Emergency Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL). He was denied EIDL, but approved for a PPP loan.
“This was such an important step in our process,” he says. “This was our first time applying for capital, and I feel we would've never been approved for a loan prior to COVID-19.”
In every step of his journey, Alejandro has built a wealth of knowledge that allows him to understand and conduct business. “With my sunglasses business, I learned how to market small businesses, and how to import products from other countries.”
Now after applying for federal relief programs, he has a better understanding of how to do bookkeeping and accounting, thus putting him in a better position for future opportunities to access capital.
As time goes on and Alejandro continues to build his portfolio, he hopes to continue to find creative partnerships to work with organizations that are supporting underserved communities. He explains, “Undocumented immigrants like myself encounter an uphill battle to achieve success. Our journey starts at a disadvantage, as we often lack access to resources or lack the knowledge of existing resources. However, we’re also used to overcoming barriers and we can achieve success through hard work.”
In September, Small Business Majority is celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) by sharing stories of Latino entrepreneurs and how they’ve pivoted their business during the pandemic. Small Business Majority is sharing stories like Alejandro Flores-Munoz’s to educate policymakers about what small business owners need in order to survive this crisis. Help us spread the word that policymakers need to do more to support business owners in order for our economy to recover by sharing your story or signing our letter to Congress to ask for long-term relief.


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Canadian jewellery brand Hillberg & Berk partners with Canadian Women’s Hockey League
The Canadian Women’s Hockey League in association with Canadian jewellery company Hillberg & Berk is proud to announce a two-year partnership. Hillberg & Berk’s partnership will empower CWHL Live broadcasts across the 2016/17 season and into the future helping connect the league with its wider community of fans.
The CHWL five-team league is made up of mothers, wives, career women and women continuing their education. Their love for the game is evident throughout all activity and it is that passion that Hillberg & Berk relates to so profoundly. Following a hugely successful partnership with Olympic Ice Dancer Tessa Virtue, Mielke and the Hillberg & Berk team identified an opportunity to help in addressing the injustices women in sport face – out of this the partnership was formed.
“I’m so thrilled that we’re partnering with such a fantastic team of women,” says Rachel Mielke, CEO, Hillberg & Berk. “It’s such a joy to see our vision and passion on women’s empowerment come to life through the ladies on the CHWL team. Many of the women on the team are Olympic Gold Medalists and no one is talking about them – we are looking forward to raising the profile of the team through our partnership to highlight the amazing sportswomen they are.”
Rachel Mielke, CEO of Hillberg & Berk was recently named an Entrepreneurial Winning Woman in the 2015 Ernst & Young LLP’s North American Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ program. Hillberg & Berk differentiates itself through its unique and high quality product, exceptional shopping experience and its efforts to empower women through mentorship & philanthropy.
To celebrate the partnership, Hillberg & Berk recently gifted all 125 CWHL players and team staff with their very own CWHL Sparkle Balls as well as an additional pair to gift to deserving women they encounter in their day to day lives as a Random Act of Sparkle this festive season.
“We are thrilled to have such a growing company as Hillberg & Berk, who share our passion for empowering and celebrating women, become part of the CWHL family,” said CWHL Commissioner Brenda Andress. “Their support will enable us to continue bringing the world’s best female athletes to the hockey community via CWHL Live each week.”
About Hillberg & Berk
Using only the finest semi-precious stones, fresh water pearls, Swarovski crystals and more, Hillberg & Berk’s handcrafted pieces are designed to last throughout time. Celebrities such as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Carrie Underwood, Sarah McLachlan, Michelle Obama, Barbara Walters and Celine Dion have been spotted wearing Hillberg & Berk designs. Currently, Hillberg & Berk jewelry is wholesaled at 25 retailers across Canada and sold from the two retail locations in Regina and online at hillbergandberk.com, with expansion plans in Western Canada through 2015 and subsequent expansion to the US and globally.


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Second Mass pharmacy recalls all products
medwireNews: Ameridose LLC, a Massachusetts pharmacy owned and operated by the team that runs the compounding pharmacy at the center of the fungal meningitis outbreak, is voluntarily recalling all of its unexpired products in circulation.
"During the course of its on-going inspection of our facility, FDA [Food and Drug Administration] has notified Ameridose that it will be seeking improvements in Ameridose's sterility testing process," the company said in a "Dear Customer" letter.
"Ameridose and FDA agree that the use of injectible products that are not sterile can represent a serious hazard to health and could lead to life-threatening injuries and/or death. Ameridose has not received any adverse reports related to the products subject to this recall and neither Ameridose nor the FDA has identified impurities in any Ameridose products. Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, we are undertaking this recall to assure customers that when Ameridose products are shipped, they are fully in conformance with all of the FDA's recommendations.," the letter says.
Ameridose, based in Westborough, Massachusetts, is a "sister" pharmacy to the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts, which has been linked to the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.
"The FDA is advising health care professionals to stop using all Ameridose products and follow the recall procedures provided by the firm," the FDA said in a statement.
As of October 31, 377 fungal meningitis cases and 28 deaths have been reported in 19 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The outbreak has been traced to three contaminated lots of methylprednisolone acetate and possibly other products produced by NECC. FDA inspectors found sealed vials of product containing visible greenish-black foreign matter at the pharmacy. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is seeking to permanently revoke the pharmacy licenses of the company and the pharmacists who compounded the tainted drugs.
The Boston Globe reports that NECC internal tests found contamination throughout its laboratories. But the company still sent customers a "Quality Assurance Report Card" claiming that the facility met cleanliness standards.
A sample taken by NECC consisting of one 5 ml vial of bulk formulated methylprednisolone acetate tested sterile, but an FDA analysis of further samples confirmed the presence of viable microbial growth in each of 50 vials tested, the agency reports.
By Neil Osterweil, medwireNews Reporter


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Today Samsung announced that they will start pushing Ice Cream Sandwich to select GALAXY devices in Canada. This will continue through the next couple months. Android 4.0 bring tons of new features with an all new user interface. There are nine devices in total that are eligible for this update. Of course the availability of ICS will vary depending on the wireless carrier, but be patient, own a GALAXY device, live in Canada, and you’ll get your Ice Cream Sandwich. Hit the jump for the full press release.
Today Motorola announced that the budget friendly Motorola MOTOLUXE will be heading to Canada in Q2 of this year. As a friendly reminder, the Motorola MOTOLUXE is currently a Gingerbread powered device (ICS update under evaluation) and features a 4-inch touchscreen with a 480 x 854 resolution, an 800 mhz processor, 512mb of RAM, and an 8MP camera.
“With its stylish design and media features, MOTOLUXE is the perfect smartphone to complement our busy lives,” said David Petrou, sales director, Motorola Mobility Canada. “Not only does MOTOLUXE have the power of Android, it also has a fun, adaptive and easy-to-use user interface, a big vibrant screen and a sharp camera to help you capture your everyday life.”
No word on which carrier/s will offer the device or if the white version will be available but Q2 is just around the corner so we should have more details soon. We will fill you in as we learn more. To see the full press release jump past the break. Read more
We saw Sony’s Xperia S at CES this year, and even heard it would be arriving in Canada at some point. Well, in a press release today, Sony announced that “a limited number of Xperia S smartphones will be available exclusively at Sony Stores across Canada, beginning April 17th.” This is a page right out of the Apple handbook: release a phone in your retail stores first, then give it to the carriers. This type of staggered availability certainly helps increase the hype and demand for a device since everyone wants what is hard to get. It also helps perpetuate the illusion of high demand when the news covers the lines that form outside retail locations. With smartphones, retail locations make sense since most people want to feel what a phone is like in their own hands before making a buying decision. Even Samsung is toying with the concept of a store within a store. Is this a trend?
As for carriers, Sony says the Xperia S is “compatible with the Rogers wireless network” but doesn’t mention it’s exclusive. This could mean that the device is unlocked and could be compatible with other networks, but we don’t know that for sure yet.
The Xperia S will ship with Android 2.3 Gingerbread but is slated for an update to Ice Cream Sandwich later this year. It sports a 4.3-inch Reality Display at 1280 x 720, a whopping 12MP camera that can take 1080p HD video, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 32GB of internal storage, NFC, and HDMI. All this can apparently be had for $99.99 on a 3-year plan with Rogers.
Check out the full press release after the break.
The Samsung Galaxy Note is about to get some sexy in its life… well for the version in Canada at least. Sammy has announced it will bring the device in a ceramic white color across the major Canadian wireless carriers. That means you’ll get to view and use all the noteworthy features in white casing. Here’s Samsung Canada VP of Mobile Communications sharing his thoughts:
“GALAXY Note continues to delight customers with its incredible versatility and unique user experience and we are excited to introduce a new colour of the popular Samsung Galaxy Note to Canadians.”
Hit the break for the full press release. Read more
We’ve seen various confirmations of devices getting the coveted Android 4.0 update this year from wireless carriers throughout the U.S., but what about our neighbors to the north? While most Canadian mobile users still do not know of when they will receive the ICS update, Canadian wireless carrier Bell has gone ahead and confirmed it will be pushing out the update to several select devices. While Bell specifically highlights “support for some features vary by manufacturer”, it’s provided a specific list showing the concrete dates of updates for the following devices:
- Samsung Galaxy S II – April 2012
- Samsung Galaxy Note – April 2012
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 – May 2012
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE – June 2012
- HTC Sensation – June 2012
- HTC Raider – June 2012
- LG Optimus LTE – July 2012
If you’re on Bell and own one of those devices, be prepared for an enhanced Android experience.
source: Mobile Syrup
LTE growth in Canada has really picked up this past year with all the major carriers joining the party. Rogers, Bell, Telus and most recently Virgin Mobile have all launched their own 4G Networks in the last twelve months. If Canadian tech site MobileSyrup is correct, and it normally is, Fido (a Rogers sub-brand) could be next to offer LTE services up North. An anonymous tipster armed with their trusty blurrycam (of course!) sent in the above screen shot from the Fido employee system and it clearly shows the option to add ‘LTE Voice and Data Sharing Bundles’
I’ll definitely be filing this particular story as a rumour for the time being as there’s no official statement from Rogers or Fido. If it turns out to be correct it’s great to see yet another LTE option in Canada, this UK based writer is still patiently waiting for the UK’s first LTE network!
Sony has really upped its game this year as it looks to go toe-to-toe with Android kingpins Samsung, HTC and Motorola. The latest flagship device, the Xperia S, was revealed to the world at the CES show back in January and the device is picking up critical acclaim throughout the tech world. It seemed this morning that Canada would be the next country to pick up the device as the Sony Mobile Facebook page posted the above image early this morning. The admittedly genuine looking advert suggested that Xperia S is ‘coming soon’ to Rogers Canada however all may not be as it seems. Just as quickly as the image was posted it disappeared again in a cloud of mystery.
Canadian tech site MobileSyrup contacted Rogers who confirmed that while the device will certainly be compatible with its network, there are no specific plans to offer it directly. It looks like any Canadian Xperia S fans might need to pick up this new flagship device sim-free.
Just in case you’d forgotten, The Xperia S boasts a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4.3″ 720p display, and a market leading 12MP camera. The device ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread however Ice Cream Sandwich will follow shortly thereafter. Definitely a device worth getting your hands, whether it’s sim-free or otherwise!
source : mobilesyrup
The dust is still settling over in Barcelona after the Android-fest that was Mobile World Congress 2012. We saw devices of all shapes and sizes and covering a mass range of budgets, so inevitably one or two devices have flown quietly under the radar. One such device is the ICS toting, LG Optimus L7 which is now winging its way over to Canada by way of Rogers Wireless. Canadian mobile website, mobilesyrup has received a tip suggesting that the device is set to join Rogers “Smartphone Lite” budget phone line-up.
As a quick reminder, the Optimus L7 is a mid-range, Android 4.0 ICS phone with a 4.3″, 480 x 800 display, 1 GHz single-core processor and a 5MP, LED equipped camera. There’s no word on price or launch date just yet however we’ll be sure to update you as soon as there is.
source : mobilesyrup
Is there a sweeter notification than the pop up telling you there’s a software update waiting for you? Well it’s time to wake up Canada and check your Galaxy Nexus as they’re about to join the 4.0.2 party!
This latest update is certainly great news for our Canadian friends however, it doesn’t help unravel the mystery of the various ICS variations currently doing the rounds. It was only last week that we brought you news of 4.0.4 and 4.0.5 updates surfacing as well.
So how about it Bell customers, was your Galaxy Nexus update waiting for you this morning? If not, perhaps it’s time to start spamming the ‘check now’ button!
Source : androidcentral
What better way for Quebec mobile carrier Videotron to step in the world of Android than to begin selling the hottest Android on the planet? Yup you read right folks, Videotron is all set its first Nexus device, the Galaxy Nexus smartphone. That means the lucky French-speaking Canadians will finally be able to enjoy what the rest of Canadians have been able to enjoy for a few months now. Pricing will start at 149.99$ (with a monthly plan of 40$ or more) to a “meager” 599.99$ if you purchase it outright. Of course the price doesn’t quite match up with what the rest of the Canadian carriers have to offer but hey, beggars can’t be choosers at this point. If you’re living out in the Quebec area and have been drooling over the Galaxy Nexus, now’s the time to get it as it’s available in Videotron stores today.


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NIOSH has published new recommendations for controlling workers’ exposures to engineered nano materials when such materials are used industrially. The agency’s new document, “Current Strategies for Engineering Controls in Nanomaterial Production and Downstream Handling Processes,” DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2014-102.
The recommendations follow the standard hierarchy of controls, and the document is well illustrated with photos and diagrams of ventilation equipment, fume hoods, PPE, and other protective equipment. More than a thousand consumer products already on the market contain nano materials, including makeup, sunscreen, food storage products, appliances, clothing, electronics, computers, sporting goods, and coatings, according to the agency’s news release.
“As we continue to work with diverse partners to study the health effects produced by exposure to nano materials, particularly as new materials and products continue to be introduced, it is prudent to protect workers now from potential adverse health outcomes,” NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard said. “These recommendations represent the kind of science-based guidance that our partners have requested, as a vital component for supporting the safe growth of nanotechnology and U.S. leadership in the global market.”
The section on engineering controls – local exhaust ventilation, isolation, and dust suppression methods — are likely to be the most effective control strategy for nano materials, but it also advises using elimination and substitution first if they are feasible. Administrative controls and PPE “may be less expensive [than engineering controls] to establish but, over the long term, can be very costly to sustain” and are less effective, the document states.
Its recommendations on PPE discuss chemical-resistant gloves and respiratory protection. Controls are recommended for reactor operations and cleanout processes, small-scale weighing and handling of nano-powders, intermediate and finishing processes, and maintenance tasks.
For more information, visit http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/nanotech/


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November 19, 2018
Sleep Number and Healthier Generation Tackle Youth Sleep Crisis with “Sleep Smarter. Perform Better.” Digital Resource Center
Equipping teachers and parents with tools to achieve better sleep
(NEW YORK, N.Y.) November 19, 2018 – Today, Sleep Number, the leader in sleep innovation, and Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation), a nationally-renowned non-profit leader in children’s health, launched Sleep Smarter. Perform Better., a digital resource center featuring information and tools to help youth achieve better sleep and improve their health, well-being and academic performance.
Sleep Number and Healthier Generation developed the resource center in response to the sleep deficit affecting kids today. A recent survey found that 70% of youth don’t get enough sleep – seven hours or less on school nights versus the recommended eight to nine hours. This shortage adds up to almost a full night of sleep lost each week and can lead to health issues including obesity, diabetes, and problems with attention and behavior. Developing quality sleep habits can help reduce these risks and improve our kids’ mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
“We must address the serious sleep deficiency among our youth,” said Melissa Barra, Chief Strategy and Customer Relationship Officer at Sleep Number. “The ‘Sleep Smarter. Perform Better.’ digital resource center will arm community change-makers, parents, and youth themselves with the tools they need to improve sleep, setting our kids up to reach their full potential.”
Sleep Number recently announced a commitment to improving the lives of one million youth by 2025 through better sleep. Partnering with Sleep Number on this commitment is Healthier Generation – an organization that works with community leaders to ensure the environments that surround youth provide and promote good health. Through the digital resource center, Sleep Number and Healthier Generation will reach thousands of educators and parents across the country.
"This partnership is an exciting step in the children’s health movement and highlights both organizations’ dedication to enhancing the lives of youth across the United States,” said Brian Weaver, Chief Program Officer at Healthier Generation. “By partnering with Sleep Number and integrating sleep into our programming, we are able to have an even greater impact on overall health and academic performance of kids today.”
To learn more and access the Sleep Smarter. Perform Better. resource center, visit HealthierGeneration.org/SmarterSleep.
About Sleep Number Corporation
As the leader in sleep innovation, Sleep Number Corporation delivers the best quality sleep through effortless, adjustable comfort and biometric sleep tracking. Sleep Number’s proprietary SleepIQ® technology platform -- one of the most comprehensive databases of biometric consumer sleep data – is proving the connection between sleep and wellbeing. With breakthrough innovations such as the revolutionary Sleep Number 360® smart bed, Sleep Number is redefining the future of sleep and shaping the future of health and wellness. To experience better quality sleep, visit one of the over 560 Sleep Number® stores located in all 50 states or SleepNumber.com. For additional information, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.
About the Alliance for a Healthier Generation
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation believes every child deserves a healthy future. For more than a decade, Healthier Generation has been empowering kids to develop lifelong healthy habits by ensuring the environments that surround them provide and promote good health. Driven by our passion that all young people deserve a chance to live healthier lives, our work has helped up to 28 million kids across the country. Make a difference at HealthierGeneration.org and join us on Facebook and Twitter.


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"The insights that marketers can gain from local web search patterns are extremely valuable to identify trends in a local market. These are key to helping marketers create effective and forward-looking go-to-market strategies to help improve audience engagement," said Graeme Beardsell, chief customer development and marketing officer, Experian Asia Pacific. "Businesses can use online intelligence, such as visits to popular shopping categories, to keep track of what products are interesting to consumers when developing content and forecasting product demand."
"We see a strong increase in the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in Singapore. Brand owners can effectively use these platforms to capture consumer attention by running digital marketing campaigns. However, before they can do that, knowledge of online behaviour is critical to developing targeted campaigns that will resonate with local audiences," added Beardsell.
Sign up for CIO Asia eNewsletters.


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Cukui release a new series of goods for Spring 2011. All feature hand-drawn graphics from Sam Rodriguez, who recently opened his tandem show Mano Y Mano in Hong Kong this past month, in addition to a set of 5-panels featuring original tribal artwork from Orly Locquiao. All of these new drops are now available for purchase through the Cukui online store as well as participating brand retailers.


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Is China heading for a secret recession?
The shutdown sparked by the coronavirus outbreak could put China at risk of a “secret recession”.
Could the Covid-19 shutdown have put China on course for a “secret recession”? asks Tom Rees in The Daily Telegraph. Freya Beamish of Pantheon Macroeconomics predicts an “unprecedented” 0.9% quarter-on-quarter GDP fall. GDP expanded by 6.1% last year, but there are persistent questions about the official figures. The true impact of this outbreak will “be a closely guarded state secret”.
“It is hard enough to understand China’s economy and its global ramifications at the best of times,” says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Daily Telegraph. Those banking on a stimulus-led rebound later this year must first wait for the outbreak to be contained. Meaningful fiscal stimulus is impossible so long as the spending channels are blocked by health curfews and factory closures.
“It is hard to overstate” the economic impact of the current shutdown, says The Economist. Chinese coal consumption is more than a third lower than normal; factories are shut or running at low capacity in provinces accounting for more than 90% of exports. The global economic impact could be severe. Unlike during the 2003 Sars outbreak, China’s factories are today enmeshed “in supply chains of mind-boggling complexity”. The closure of a factory in Wuhan could have consequences for a manufacturer in Stuttgart and a retailer in Michigan.
Evidence of an impact on neighbours has already emerged, says Neil Shearing of Capital Economics. Korean imports from China fell almost 50% year-on-year in the first ten days of this month. The coronavirus will prompt more multi-national businesses to question the wisdom of complex supply chains. We are already living in an era of deglobalisation in the wake of Trump’s trade wars. The Covid-19 outbreak will only accelerate the tre


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Facebook has introduced a new gift card service that allows friends to send each other gift balances from multiple stores on one reusable card. Target is participating in the launch, along with Jamba Juice, Olive Garden and Sephora.
The Facebook Card is an extension of the Facebook Gifts program. To send gifts and gift cards, users can click on the “gifts” icon on their friends’ Facebook pages or alongside birthday notifications. Once purchased, Facebook notifies the recipient that a gift is on its way, and a plastic Facebook Card arrives in the mail a few days later, preloaded with dollar amounts to any of the participating stores. The reusable card can be used in most U.S. Target stores and functions like a standard gift card.
The Facebook Card program is yet another way Target is providing guests with convenient, creative shopping opportunities through the use of social channels and technology.
Don’t miss out on the latest Target news and behind-the-scenes happenings! Subscribe to our newsletter and get the top stories from A Bullseye View delivered straight to your inbox!


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NVIDIA HAS SAID 'NO' to businesses wanting to uses its consumer-grade GeForce graphics cards in their data centres.
By changing its licensing agreements on its software packages and drivers, Nvidia has moved to push companies away from GeForce cards to its Tesla graphics accelerators.
The increase in performance of consumer GPUs, alongside their relatively wallet-friendly prices, have made GeForce cards more appealing to businesses running data centres.
Previously, the artificial imitation of double-precision floating point capabilities of GeForce GPUs made Nvidia's enterprise-grade Quadro workstations and Tesla products more appealing to companies looking for good performance with data centre workloads reliant on common general-purpose GPU acceleration.
But the shifts in the workloads have meant half precision not double precision is more appealing, which bypasses the issue of limited performance and has seen companies turn towards cheaper consumer GPUs.
Naturally, Nvidia doesn't want big businesses buying its cheaper cards when it has enterprise-grade tech to shift.
So a change in licensing terms looks to shift businesses back to Tesla GPUs.
"No Datacenter Deployment. The software is not licensed for data centre deployment," Nvidia's updated driver licence agreement notes, laying down the law.
However, it adds: "Except that blockchain processing in a data centre is permitted", which suggests Nvidia still wants people to use its cards for mining cryptocurrency
How Nvidia will enforce this new licensing agreement will have to be seen, but we expect that it will be a major pain in the posterior for companies making use of GeForce cards in their data centres, potentially resulting in them pulling a load of graphics cards from their server arrays when Nvidia's legal eagles come swooping in.
For people making use of Nvidia GPUs in their personal computing, this move will mean very little but should help prevent companies from snapping up GeForce cards and potentially driving prices up. And it will prevent Nvidia from throttling performance of GeForce GPUs to limit their data centre appeal.
That being said the strength of the parallel processing found in GPUs for crunching machine and deep learning algorithms means Nvidia GPUs have a strong appeal for developers working on artificial intelligence and smart systems.
As such, this could be the reason why the previously enthusiast-level GeForce Titan GPUs have dropped the GeForce branding, seen pricing hit a hefty £2,700, and get marketed for AI-powering use.
While Nvidia's graphics tech all share a common architecture, it would appear that the previously blurred lines between enterprise and consumer-grade cards are becoming more tightly defined for better or worse. µ
Store will be shuttered over the 'coming weeks'
But devs will need to wait until 2021, supposedly
Now you can hack with confidence
Promises that it wasn't used without permission


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CHICAGO — CHICAGO -- Sara Lee Corp. yesterday unveiled an extensive three-year plan to sell some manufacturing businesses and cut costs, aiming to raise $3 billion for a stock buyback.
Sara Lee, whose brand-name products include Hanes underwear and Sara Lee frozen desserts, plans to take a fiscal 1998 charge of $1.6 billion to sell some textile mills and other businesses with less than $1 billion in annual revenue.
Sara Lee's restructuring follows similar share-boosting moves by competitors Campbell Soup Co. and H. J. Heinz Co. Sara Lee's stock has been hindered by the company's investment in low- profit operations such as the mills.
Now, Sara Lee plans to concentrate on marketing brands including Jimmy Dean sausages, Playtex bras and Coach handbags.
"They're focusing on the business that they know best. The key thing here is brands, worldwide brands," said Marvin Roffman of Roffman Miller Associates, a Sara Lee shareholder for more than 12 years.
Sara Lee's shares rose $6 to a 52-week high of $48.56. About 9.63 million shares changed hands -- more than 10 times its three-month daily average -- making it the third-most-active stock in U.S. markets.
The cash generated from the asset sales and cost-cutting will be used for the largest buyback in Sara Lee's history. The company plans to buy back about 15 percent, or 70.5 million shares, of its outstanding stock. The amount is based on Friday's closing stock price and 480.3 million shares outstanding.
The company plans to sell most of its U.S. yarn and textile business related to its knit products: It has 13 knitwear mills. The former senior vice president in charge of knitwear, Jack Ward, is interested in buying some of the mills, the company said on a conference call.
Sara Lee also plans to sell other businesses with revenue of less than $1 billion. Sara Lee had fiscal 1997 revenue of $19.7 billion.
Sara Lee said it is handling the sales itself.
"We are going to look at all of the fixed assets around the world -- meat, bakery, intimate apparel and other operations related to -- our personal-products business," said President Steven McMillan.
As part of its plan to exit the manufacturing business -- which has high fixed costs and low returns -- it will farm out some of its work to other companies. It wasn't more specific about its cost-saving plans.
"They are responding to pressure to streamline their operations," said Tim Ramey, an analyst with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. The magnitude of the restructuring "is a total surprise."
The moves allow the company to focus on building and marketing its leading brands, the company said. The company also sells Ball Park franks; Hillshire Farm sausages; and the clothing and hosiery lines Champion, L'eggs, Bali and Wonderbra. Personal products account for about 40 percent of Sara Lee's annual revenue, while meats and bakery items accounts for 35 percent, according to Hoover's Inc.
"We are strategically a better company being organized around brand-building rather than manufacturing," said McMillan.
The company said the $1.6 billion charge is mostly related to the sale and write-down of assets that the company has decided it doesn't need. The size and composition of the write-down will be determined by the end of the fiscal third quarter.
The sale of the yarn business would increase its cash flow $500 million in three years. The company said after-tax savings from the restructuring and cost-cutting program will be $25 million to $50 million in fiscal 1998 ending in June, rising to $100 million to $125 million by 2000.
Pub Date: 9/16/97


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Performance Food Group Co (NYSE:PFGC) – Stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group cut their Q2 2019 earnings per share estimates for Performance Food Group in a report released on Wednesday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group analyst C. Mandeville now forecasts that the restaurant operator will post earnings of $0.39 per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $0.42. Jefferies Financial Group also issued estimates for Performance Food Group’s Q3 2019 earnings at $0.34 EPS, FY2019 earnings at $1.74 EPS, Q1 2020 earnings at $0.37 EPS, Q2 2020 earnings at $0.44 EPS, Q4 2020 earnings at $0.73 EPS, FY2020 earnings at $1.90 EPS, FY2021 earnings at $2.14 EPS, FY2022 earnings at $2.61 EPS and FY2023 earnings at $2.79 EPS.
Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Co raised their price objective on Performance Food Group from $40.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “$38.15” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 18th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 price objective on shares of Performance Food Group in a research report on Friday, July 20th. Zacks Investment Research raised Performance Food Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 20th. Loop Capital raised their price objective on Performance Food Group to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Performance Food Group from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.45.
Performance Food Group (NYSE:PFGC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 7th. The restaurant operator reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.05. Performance Food Group had a return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 1.15%. The company had revenue of $4.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.54 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year.
In other news, insider Craig Howard Hoskins sold 4,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.63, for a total transaction of $149,653.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 125,526 shares in the company, valued at $4,221,439.38. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider George L. Holm sold 3,340 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.00, for a total value of $110,220.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,739,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $57,404,919. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 68,294 shares of company stock valued at $2,263,070 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.
Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in Performance Food Group in the second quarter worth about $219,000. NumerixS Investment Technologies Inc grew its stake in Performance Food Group by 57.5% in the second quarter. NumerixS Investment Technologies Inc now owns 6,300 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in Performance Food Group by 620.4% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 5,528 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in Performance Food Group in the first quarter worth about $200,000. Finally, Signition LP acquired a new position in Performance Food Group in the third quarter worth about $234,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.51% of the company’s stock.
Performance Food Group Company Profile
Performance Food Group Company, through its subsidiaries, markets and distributes food and food-related products in the United States. It operates in three operating segments: Performance Foodservice, PFG Customized, and Vistar. The company offers a range of frozen foods, including meats, fully prepared appetizers and entrees, fruits, vegetables, and desserts; canned and dry foods; fresh meats; dairy products; beverage products; imported specialties; fresh produce; and candy, snack, and other products, as well as beef, seafood, shortenings and oils, baked goods, salad dressings, teas and cocoas, pork, and others.
See Also: Intrinsic Value
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(This is Part 2 of an editorial series by Malayala Manorama. Read Part 1 here)
Fruit-growing in Kerala will witness a revolution if the legal hurdles are removed. That revolution will then spread to the agro-based industries and the employment sector.
Farmers have been demanding that rambutan, avocado, mangosteen, durian, jackfruit, breadfruit, pineapple, lychee, dragon fruit, longan, and achachairu (Garcinia humilis), also be included in the list of plantation crops under the Land Reforms Act.
Government in favour
The state government is in favour of including fruit farming under cash crops. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself has said that the government is considering allowing the cultivation of fruits without affecting the basic nature of plantations.
The government intends to introduce scientific changes in the Land Reforms Act to enable cultivation of crops that are suitable and profitable for different types of land, agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar had earlier stated. The Department of Agriculture is planning to allow a fixed percentage of plantation land to be used for fruit and vegetable cultivation without affecting the job security of plantation workers.
James Mathew, MLA, had raised the issue of allowing farmers to cultivate fruits through submission in the Assembly.
Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan had then said that matters, including amending the Land Reforms Act, were being considered. If that amendment is made, it will be the most historic change in a law related to agriculture and land use to come into effect after the Land Reforms Act of 1963. The important thing is that there is no need for any drastic changes in the land use law to make the amendment. All that is needed is to add fruits to the list of cash crops.
Partial cultivation not profitable
During discussions to include fruit farming under cash crops, the suggestion that emerges is that approval can be given for partial use of plantation land. That is, only 20% of the land. But farmers say this will never be profitable. For example, if a person with 10 acres is allowed to use only two acres for fruit crops, farming will not be profitable. How can a farmer make a profit if the annual income is not even Rs 1 lakh per acre?
Very few plantations in Kerala have irrigation facilities. And fruit cultivation is possible only on such land. Therefore, approval for only partial conversion will result in a loss for many plantation owners.
When an expert committee was appointed to look into granting concessions, only those with more than 1,000 acres were seen as plantation owners. Those with 50 or 60 acres were not considered. No one thought about these people facing loss and crisis due to cash crops being limited to just seven varieties.
Plantation owners say fruit cultivation can open up great possibilities for Kerala. Even small farmers can reap good profits, which can put an end to the constant refrain that farming is a loss-making business.
Small farmers can sell fruits to processing facilities and plants making value-added products in the public sector or of large plantation owners. Small farmers' associations will also be able to set up such factories on a cooperative basis. Industries allied to agriculture will grow.
In addition to the existing workforce, many others will find employment.
When it becomes profitable, it will attract a large number of young people in agriculture and business.
Food processing and marketing will also reach new heights.
Kerala's foreign exchange earnings will increase through exports.
Most of the fruits that reach the Gulf today come from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The flight distance to the Gulf from Kerala is half of that from those countries.
Farm tourism will expand
There are many people who have returned from abroad due to the COVID crisis and are not sure what to do next. There are also those in Kerala who lost their jobs due to the pandemic and are in crisis.
Opportunities can be made available to at least some of them not only in agriculture but also in many other sectors such as marketing, exporting and processing.
Nurseries offering fruit saplings also have great potential. The potential for farm tourism is also huge. In this regard, too, Vietnam and Thailand can be considered as the model.
The figures speak for themselves
The cultivation of many cash crops is declining in Kerala mainly because it is not profitable.
The income for Kerala from the plantation sector during the financial year 2012-13 was Rs 21,000 crore. By 2018–19, it had fallen to Rs 9,945 crore. Things got so bad that 13 plantations had to be closed. Workers had to starve because the crop was unprofitable. Such figures are enough to give a picture of the ground reality.
While in many other crops, the average annual income is Rs 25,000 per acre, in fruit cultivation, it is around Rs 4 lakh. This is in addition to the revenue that can be generated from the sale of value-added products and farm tourism.
It would be a grave mistake if the land use law that was made decades ago is not reviewed, says James Mathew, MLA, who sought the inclusion of fruit cultivation in plantation crops through a submission in the Legislature on November 18, 2019. Fruit cultivation is very important at a time when farmers are suffering the most. Fruit cultivation can fetch good prices in the domestic and foreign markets. It is a great source of income for the country, farmers and workers, he says.
According to James Mathew, employment opportunities will increase significantly. Just one worker is enough to tap a block of rubber. But, a two-acre fruit farm will require at least two people to pick the fruit. The same number of people are required to apply fertilizer. A worker can get employment for 20 to 25 days at Rs 800 per day. It will not be difficult for the employer to pay the wages as there will be profit, he says.
PC Cyriac, the former chairman of Rubber Board and former additional chief secretary of Tamil Nadu, said the state government should come forward to save the diseased plantations and small farmers who cultivate horticultural crops and help in creating new jobs.
Rambutan, jackfruit, mango, mangosteen, wild jackfruit, coconut and oil palm can also be included in the list of horticultural crops. There should be no stipulation that only a certain percentage of plantation area will be allowed for new crops. If the existing crops are not profitable, then the new crops included in the list should be allowed to be cultivated. The restrictions on the cultivable area will not help anyone’s cause, he says.
Earnings can be guaranteed by allowing projects such as animal husbandry on a certain portion of the plantations.
In a responsible democracy, it should be the responsibility of the government to ensure small farmers don’t suffer because of legal hurdles. Legislation should be enacted to prevent plantation owners from losing, after three generations, the land that was purchased for a price, Cyriac says.


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Home / Local / FM Global urges action on supply chain weaknesses
29 June 2020
Australia’s geographic remoteness should not prevent moves to diversify supply chains as the coronavirus outbreak highlights risks from global shocks, FM Global says.
Operations Manager Lynette Schultheis says current supply chain disruptions, production delays and distribution slowdowns are having a significant impact on revenue and loss of market share for businesses globally.
“While the pandemic played its part in showing just how important supply chain diversification is, other world events also continue to make clear just how easily other factors, such as political tensions between countries, can impact trade and the availability of goods and services,” she told insuranceNEWS.com.au.
Ms Schultheis says Australia’s remoteness compared to other regions amplifies its dependence on China and Japan as trading partners, while the country also has extra vulnerability as it imports most of its machinery and equipment.
“This concentration in our supply chains also exists in the opposite direction, with Australia exporting a relatively more narrow range of goods – focused on natural resources, such as iron ore, coal and natural gas,” she said.
“For all of these reasons, there’s a need for Australia to diversify the countries it trades with. While our geographic remoteness will mean that sourcing and sending goods to other markets across the globe will be more costly, the cost of not building in this resilience will be far greater.”
Ms Schultheis says businesses should be routinely evaluating contingency plans to make them more resilient, minimising damage from unexpected events.
“Businesses need to understand the risk within their tier one suppliers, as well as having visibility of the extended supply network,” she says.
“In addition to identifying who alternate sources of supplies are, businesses need to know who their alternate logistics partners might be, ensuring they have diversification built into their plans.”
FM Global highlights the dangers of responding to the current situation in a “reactive and uncoordinated way” and stresses the importance of data-driven planning and taking a two-to-five year view into consideration.
A multi-faceted contingency plan will give businesses the best chance of surviving a viral outbreak or a natural disaster with minimal immediate or long-term damage, Ms Schultheis says.


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Northwest Pipe gets largest order in company history
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Northwest Pipe Co. on Monday announced a $69 million order, the largest in the Vancouver company's history.
The pipe was sold to a water district in Texas. Production of the 34,000 tons of pipe will begin in August and last until 2013.
"Northwest Pipe Co. is delighted to be a participant in this major pipeline delivery system," CEO Rich Roman, said in a news release. "The project is a significant part of our plans for 2012-2013."
Northwest Pipe makes large-diameter pipe used in infrastructure projects.
The company announced the order after the market closed. Shares (NASDAQ: NWPX) closed Monday at $22.81. They had a 52-week range between $18.87 and $30.92.
Matthew Kish covers footwear, apparel, banking, finance and general assignment news.
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Sent as an email newsletter March 14, 2021. Sign up to receive future dispatches in your inbox.
👋 Hi friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
Image of the week, above: “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS,” by Beeple. (More on this below…)
🗞 My latest in The WSJ:
My newest story, out Wednesday with my colleague Drew FitzGerald:
Facebook Drops Plan to Run Fiber Cable to Hong Kong Amid U.S. Pressure. The story begins:
A Facebook Inc. consortium withdrew its bid to build a new internet conduit between California and Hong Kong after months of pressure from U.S. national-security officials, the latest sign of a deepening rift between the two governments.
Click through for more.
Here are 10 items worth your time this week:
1) 🎨 Art-meets-tech story of the week: Beeple – the digital artist I mentioned a couple weeks ago – sold an NFT of his work for $69 million in an auction at Christie’s. That’s the third highest price tag for any living artist’s work.
2) 💰 …Wait, sold a what? NFT stands for non-fungible token; it’s a kind of digital certificate of authenticity based on a blockchain. For an explanation, check out this episode of Planet Money’s Indicator podcast, and this episode of our Tech News Briefing podcast.
3) 📷 “More than 100 employees at security camera startup Verkada Inc. could peer through the cameras of its thousands of customers, including global corporations, schools and police departments, according to three former employees aware of the company’s security protocols,” Bloomberg News’s William Turton and Ryan Gallagher report.
4) 🇲🇽 Mexico is set to pass a bill legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, which would make it one of the world’s biggest regulated markets for the drug.
5) 🎵 RIP Lou Ottens, the Philips engineer who invented the cassette tape in the early 1960s. He was 94.
6) 🗺 From Singapore to Paris to the U.S. Virgin Islands, this New York Times interactive shows how people in global tourists destinations have been dealing with the pandemic, one year on.
7) 👏 Twenty-five-year-old Truman Cheng, a graduate student here in Hong Kong, successfully proposed a unique new Lego set: Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”
8) 🐻 Sentence of the week, in Hollywood Reporter: “Universal is behind Cocaine Bear, which is based on an untitled spec written by Jimmy Warden, inspired by events that took place in Kentucky in 1985.”
9) 🗣 An excellent resource, with tons of links to new services and apps: “How to learn a language (and stick at it),” by University of Leeds lecturer John Gallagher.
🐶 Dog-related video of the week: A classic from 2014 that is worth revisiting. “Run Walter, RUN!!”
💡 Quote of the week:
“There is no better teacher than history in determining the future…There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.” – Charles T. Munger
👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,


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Scandinavian Carrier SAS Files for Bankruptcy in U.S.
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, officially filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in a move to cut its debt.
SAS made the move as the major union that represents its pilots continue striking, adding to the travel chaos that has been plaguing European travel this summer.
SAS said that the process will have “no impact on our customers or our relationship with you as a partner and we will continue to operate our business as usual,” including to its loyalty program EuroBonus.
“As a Travel Agent you may continue to book flights. SAS’ reservations and all other customer services and systems are fully expected to continue as they have been,” SAS’s message reads.
What is having an impact, however, is the pilot strike—according to FlightAware, 76% of SAS flights have been canceled on Wednesday, a day after 74% of the carrier’s total schedule was scrapped. SAS has also already canceled close to 30% of its schedule.
Those issues may worsen, too. The union, which is striking over wage issues, said that nearly 1,000 pilots will join the strike, making it one of the biggest pilot walkouts since 2019.


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TheStreet's Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio Manager was disappointed with HP Inc.'s latest quarter.
Can super smart economists explain supply and demand so that a five-year-old can understand? We put them to the test.
Netflix would make a lot more money if it could stop the sharing of passwords, says Jim Cramer
Guess shares were higher Thursday after the company easily beat second-quarter profit forecasts but missed sales estimates.
Shares of Tiffany were higher Thursday after posting second quarter results which beat on the bottom line, but missed on the top line.
Dollar Tree's earnings are a sign that consumers are feeling better about their financial situation, according to Jim Cramer.
Stocks turned higher by late morning as Federal Reserve members headed to Jackson Hole, Wyo., for their closely-watched summer summit.