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Alhough the demand remains strong, the hospitality and second-home markets are still held back by a series of issues, preventing them from truly blossoming.
Troubles include the monotonous programmes which cannot keep tourists in Vietnam for longer visits and the low number of visitors returning to Vietnam.
“The sun, sea, and sand are not enough, Vietnamese tourism firms need to create more unique products and come up with novel experiences to compete with other holiday hotpots and keep tourists longer,” said Ha Van Sieu, deputy general director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). “Especially with Industry 4.0 taking over all sectors, local tourism needs to react to the demand for innovative offerings.”
With more than 22 years of experience in the Vietnamese tourism and hospitality scene, Kai Marcus Schröter, general director for Hospitality Tourism Management (HTM), agreed with Sieu, adding that plans for tourism development are still not synchronised, while tourism products are still far from new and unique.
He said that there are a great many tasks in front of the Vietnamese tourism industry to improve its competitiveness, highlighting ineffective promotions and the incomplete infrastructure system, adding that policies for foreign tourists, especially those related to visa issuance, need to be more open.
Moreover, the industry needs to refresh itself to meet the changing requirements of the global market.
“I have had the opportunity to participate in many investment seminars in Vietnam. Here, many projects call for investment, including casinos, racetracks, sports complexes, and so on. I believe that calling for new projects is good, but Vietnam needs to consider their feasibility in light of the new circumstances,” said Schröter.
Meanwhile, Adam Bury, senior vice president, Investment Sales Asia at JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group, said that Vietnam remains behind Thailand in tourism development, even though its advantages far exceed it.
Bury said that Thailand has three airports and hotspots [Bangkok, Phuket, and Kohsamui], while Vietnam has far more, like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, and Danang. However, in 2018, Vietnam welcomed 15 million tourists, while Thailand welcomed 38 million.
Bury highlighted limitations in visa extension and the lack of infrastructure. “Vietnam has invested in many new airports, however, it has many things to do to improve the services at these airports to attract tourists back for the second time,” Burry explained.
New, trendy experiences
Creating new experiences, products, and services are key areas of interest for second home and hospitality developers in a market that is growing more competitive by the day.
Developers are beginning to propose international mid-scale and focused service hotels, as well as giving priority to design and guest experience.
According to Mauro Gasparotti, director of Savills Hotels APAC, well-positioned hotels or resorts with ‘instagrammable’ design, quality F&B, unique facilities or services perform better with higher rates and occupancies than more standard products.
“We would love to see more of them as, along with the guest experience, they also increase the quality of the destination,” said Gasparotti.
Hotels now have possibility to clearly identify categories of travellers to serve their needs in a much more personal way than before. The consumer behaviour changes are due to new technologies and data analytics which have increased growth in solo travellers, experience seekers, groupies, Instagrammers, adventure seekers, last minute travellers, single parents, multigenerational families, as well as b-leisure and wellness travellers.
According to Bryan Chan, director of development, Southeast Asia & Korea of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), technology has permeated the entire spectrum of the IHG hotel experience from the initial property design to delivering on the brand promise every day.
“With constant innovation, the key is to pick the best technology to support owners, making things easier for colleagues, as well as lighting up the guest experience,” Chan said.
Guests can now use technology to facilitate their journey before, during, and after staying at the hotel. Energy and waste reduction technologies are expected to save costs by monitoring the ongoing performance of equipment in the building. Modular construction is considered an innovative methodology for fast and efficient construction with consistent quality.
Meanwhile, robot butlers, mobile keys, mobile check-in/check-out or smart guestrooms are being adopted more often in hotels to reduce operating costs and staff.
According to the General Statistics Office, in the first quarter of 2019 Vietnam welcomed more than 4.5 million international visitors, an increase of 7 per cent compared to the same period of 2018. The majority of tourists are coming from Asia, Europe, and the US.
“There is a wave of both foreign and domestic investors and developers rushing to get a piece of the market,” Sieu said, adding that the Vietnamese tourism industry is exceeding all targets. Previously, Vietnam planned to receive around 10 million visitors in 2020, which it reached in 2016. Similarly, the 2025 target was reached in 2018, and the 2030 target is expected to be reached this year – more than 10 years early.
According to Mauro Gasparotti, Vietnam still has one of the highest growth rates in the world in terms of international arrivals, new international brands, and project pipeline.
“The hospitality industry will continue to contribute greatly to the rapid growth of the economy and create more jobs. The market has witnessed an increase in hotel and resort rates throughout the country, with the performance of hotels in main cities being particularly strong,” Gasparotti said.


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Apple reported an incredible holiday quarter, with 47.8 million iPhones, 22.9 million iPads, and 4.1 million Macs sold in 14 weeks. This, however, failed to meet Wall Street's expectations, as investors and analysts are concerned with Apple's future, and especially its margins. Fact is, Apple's gross profit margin dropped in the span of one year from 44.68% to 38.63% in the fourth quarter of 2012.
However, the good news is Apple is working on an iPhone targeting the lower-end of the market, just as recent rumors suggested. Detwiler Fenton has additional information about how Apple plans to preserve its gross margin and launch this affordable iPhone.
According to the analysts at Fenton, Apple is working on a new product specially designed for the emerging market that'll use a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
“It is likely that the work with QCOM is being driven by AAPL’s concern regarding maintaining gross margins as well as the need to differentiate the product by performance,” the research firm (which shuns putting the spotlight on particular analysts) said in a research note. “AAPL would not want a value priced iPhone to offer the same kind of graphics and video support, processing power etc. that its premium priced device would, therefore a less powerful lower-end Snapdragon integrated solution would help segment the product.”
By using the Snapdragon chip and integrating Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the Cupertino company can merge the three chips used in the iPhone 5 (Qualcomm modem, the application processor and the Broadcom Wi-Fi & Bluetooth combo chip) into one single chip, driving down manufacturing costs and preserving its margin.Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback

domain: news


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Nearly 80% Participants Say Prices Have Increased: RBI Survey
According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Consumer Confidence Survey, the findings of which were unveiled in June 2020, the economic situation of the country might be deteriorating.
The survey reveals that consumer confidence has weakened, with both, the current situation index and the future expectations index, recording a decline. The survey gauges how Indians feel about the general economic situation, employment, prices and their own income and spending patterns. Participants from 13 Indian cities, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Trivandrum and Mumbai, took part in the survey.
Economic situation: In May 2019, 38.8 per cent of the participants said that the economic situation had improved while 23.6 per cent said that the situation was just the same. Another 37.7 per cent said that the situation had worsened. In May 2020, only 14.4 per cent said that the situation had improved while 74.4 per cent said that it had worsened. On the other hand, 39.6 per cent participants said that they expected the situation to become better than before.
Prices: In May 2020, 79.1 per cent participants said that prices had increased while only 17.5 per cent said that prices remained the same. Only 3.4 per cent of these participants said that the prices had decreased. As for the future, 75.8 per cent believe that prices will continue to increase, while only 9.4 per cent are hopeful that prices might decrease the next year. About 14.8 per cent say that the prices might remain the same.
How Indians feel about the way prices are moving is an important indicator in determining real estate trends. Over the past few years, owing to high property prices, unsold inventory has continued to pile up. Improved affordability could trigger fresh demand among consumers.
Income: More people felt that their incomes reduced, when compared to last year. As against 29 per cent participants in May 2019, only 12.6 per cent of the participants said that their income improved by May 2020. In 2020, the number of participants who said that their incomes fell, formed the majority, which is 53.4 per cent of the participants. This year, about 39.5 per cent of the participants said that they were hopeful that their income would go up by next year as against 39.1 per cent who said it would remain the same, one the year ahead.
Inflation: In May 2019, 74.4 per cent participants said they noticed inflation in commodity pricing. A year on, 74.8 per cent participants said that inflation had increased. About 18.6 per cent said that it had remained the same between 2019 and 2020, but 73.4 per cent felt that it will go up in the next one year.
Spending: Rising inflation levels have led to an increase in spending, say 56.1 per cent of the participants, while 31 per cent feel it has remained the same. Only 12.9 per cent people feel that spending has decreased.
Do note that 69.3 per cent people feel that spending has gone up for essential items while 13.9 per cent people feel that spending on non-essential items has increased in May 2020. About 73 per cent participants are of the opinion that spending on essential items will continue to increase even in the next year.


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Amazon.com Inc. has opened a new hair salon in East London to showcase augmented reality and “point and learn” marketing technology that lets customers point their phones at a product to get more information.The salon will initially be open to Amazon employees, before opening to the general public "in the coming weeks." For now, there are no plans to open other salon locations, Amazon said.
The 1,500 square-foot (139 square-meter) salon is set in London’s Spitalfields neighborhood, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. Customers will be able to try out new hair colors virtually and “capture their new look in a dedicated creative area,” the company said. Visitors will also be able to order products in the salon via Amazon by scanning QR codes.
"We want this unique venue to bring us one step closer to customers, and it will be a place where we can collaborate with the industry and test new technologies," said John Boumphrey, Amazon's UK country manager, in the blog post.


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ANGRY real ale fans are all frothed up amid claims a champion beer contest was rigged.
They are questioning how sponsor Greene King’s Abbot Ale won a coveted silver medal at this year’s Great British Beer Festival.
The Suffolk brewer’s pub staple was also named the UK’s best premium bitter.
Greene King is one of two backers of the festival, along with the JD Wetherspoon pub chain — where Abbot Ale is one of the biggest sellers.
Drinkers at London’s Olympia venue were outraged at the vote by the Campaign for Real Ale.
Beer blogger Mark Briggs, of Burnley, fumed: “I suspect some unfair influential intervention.
“I’m frustrated and saddened for all the immensely talented, small, independent breweries who work so very hard to produce such an exceptional range of cask conditioned beers.
“How the hell has the Camra judging system deemed Abbot Ale superior?”
Publican Duncan Borrowman posted online: “I am sure it is all above board but a lot of the chat among independent brewers, pubs and bottle shops is that there is something fishy.”
The champion beer of Britain was won by West Yorkshire brewery Elland’s 1872 Porter.
Camra dismissed claims of a fix and said the winners were chosen by a blind tasting.
Award director Laura Emson said: “Our winners are crowned purely on the quality of the beer judged on the day.”


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|By Business Wire||
|March 17, 2014 02:00 AM EDT||
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO:6503) announced today its dividend forecast for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2014 (fiscal 2014).
The company plans to pay a year-end dividend of 11 yen per share, as of the record date of March 31, 2014, with due consideration on performance and financial standing in the fiscal 2014. The actual dividend will be declared at the Board of Directors’ meeting when financial results for fiscal 2014 are to be approved.
|Dividend per share||Interim dividend||Year-end dividend||Annual dividend|
(previous announcement as of Feb. 3, 2014)
|6 yen (actual)||To be determined||To be determined|
|Fiscal 2014 (present announcement)||6 yen (actual)||11 yen||17 yen|
|Fiscal 2013 (actual)||5 yen||6 yen||11 yen|
|Note: The forecast above is based on assumptions deemed reasonable by the company at the present time, and actual results may differ significantly from forecasts.|
The Mitsubishi Electric Group is involved in the development, manufacture and sales in a wide range of fields including Energy and Electric Systems, Industrial Automation Systems, Information and Communication Systems, Electronic Devices and Home Appliances, and these operations stretch out globally, not only inside Japan, but also in North America, Europe, Asia and other regions. While the statements herein are based on certain assumptions and premises that the Company trusts and considers to be reasonable under the circumstances to the date of announcement, actual operating results are subject to change due to any of the factors as contemplated hereunder and/or any additional factor unforeseeable as of the date of this announcement. Such factors materially affecting the expectations expressed herein shall include but are not limited to the following:
|The Mitsubishi Electric Group’s operations may be affected by trends in the global economy, social conditions, laws, tax codes, and regulations.|
|(2)||Foreign currency exchange rates|
|Fluctuations in foreign currency markets may affect Mitsubishi Electric’s sales of exported products and purchases of imported materials that are denominated in U.S. dollars or euros, as well as its Asian production bases’ sales of exported products and purchases of imported materials that are denominated in foreign currencies.|
|A fall in stock market prices may cause Mitsubishi Electric to record devaluation losses on marketable securities, or cause an increase in retirement benefit obligations in accordance with a decline in the fair value of pension assets.|
|(4)||Supply/demand balance for products and procurement conditions for materials and components|
|A decline in prices and shipments due to changes in the supply/demand balance, as well as an increase in material prices due to a worsening of material and component procurement conditions may adversely affect the Mitsubishi Electric Group’s performance.|
|An increase in interest rates, the yen interest rate in particular, would increase Mitsubishi Electric’s interest expenses.|
|(6)||Significant patent matters|
|Important patent filings, licensing, copyrights and patent-related disputes may adversely affect related businesses.|
|(7)||Environmental legislation or relevant issues|
|We may incur losses or expenses owing to changes in environmental legislation or the occurrence of environmental issues. Such changes in legislation or the occurrence of environmental issues may also impact manufacturing and all corporate activities of the Mitsubishi Electric Group.|
|(8)||Flaws or defects in products or services|
|We may incur losses or expenses resulting out of flaws or defects in products or services, and the lowered reputation of the quality of all our products and services may affect the entire Mitsubishi Electric group.|
|(9)||Litigation and other legal proceedings|
|The Mitsubishi Electric Group’s operations may be affected by lawsuits or other legal proceedings against Mitsubishi Electric, its subsidiaries and/or equity-method affiliated companies.|
|Disruptive changes in technology, development of products using new technology, timing of production, and market introduction may adversely affect the Mitsubishi Electric Group’s performance.|
|The Mitsubishi Electric Group may record losses due to restructuring measures.|
|The Mitsubishi Electric Group’s operations, particularly manufacturing activities, may be affected by the occurrence of earthquakes, typhoons, tsunami, fires and other large-scale disasters.|
|(13)||Other significant factors|
|The Mitsubishi Electric Group’s operations may be affected by the outbreak of social or political upheaval due to terrorism, war, pandemic by new strains of influenza and other diseases, or other factors.|
About Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
With over 90 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation and building equipment. Embracing the spirit of its corporate statement, Changes for the Better, and its environmental statement, Eco Changes, Mitsubishi Electric endeavors to be a global, leading green company, enriching society with technology. The company recorded consolidated group sales of 3,567.1 billion yen (US$ 37.9 billion*) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013. For more information visit http://www.MitsubishiElectric.com
*At an exchange rate of 94 yen to the US dollar, the rate given by the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market on March 31, 2013
"LinearHub provides smart video conferencing, which is the Roundee service, and we archive all the video conferences and we also provide the transcript," stated Sunghyuk Kim, CEO of LinearHub, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Jan. 20, 2017 03:00 PM EST Reads: 1,630
When you focus on a journey from up-close, you look at your own technical and cultural history and how you changed it for the benefit of the customer. This was our starting point: too many integration issues, 13 SWP days and very long cycles. It was evident that in this fast-paced industry we could no longer afford this reality. We needed something that would take us beyond reducing the development lifecycles, CI and Agile methodologies. We made a fundamental difference, even changed our culture...
Jan. 20, 2017 02:30 PM EST Reads: 1,104
Things are changing so quickly in IoT that it would take a wizard to predict which ecosystem will gain the most traction. In order for IoT to reach its potential, smart devices must be able to work together. Today, there are a slew of interoperability standards being promoted by big names to make this happen: HomeKit, Brillo and Alljoyn. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Adam Justice, vice president and general manager of Grid Connect, will review what happens when smart devices don’t work togethe...
Jan. 20, 2017 02:15 PM EST Reads: 553
The 20th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, Microservices and WebRTC to one location. With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit your speaking proposal ...
Jan. 20, 2017 01:30 PM EST Reads: 5,228
@DevOpsSummit taking place June 6-8, 2017 at Javits Center, New York City, is co-located with the 20th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo New York Call for Papers is now open.
Jan. 20, 2017 01:30 PM EST Reads: 3,584
"There's a growing demand from users for things to be faster. When you think about all the transactions or interactions users will have with your product and everything that is between those transactions and interactions - what drives us at Catchpoint Systems is the idea to measure that and to analyze it," explained Leo Vasiliou, Director of Web Performance Engineering at Catchpoint Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York Ci...
Jan. 20, 2017 01:30 PM EST Reads: 5,722
SYS-CON Events announced today that Dataloop.IO, an innovator in cloud IT-monitoring whose products help organizations save time and money, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Dataloop.IO is an emerging software company on the cutting edge of major IT-infrastructure trends including cloud computing and microservices. The company, founded in the UK but now based in San Fran...
Jan. 20, 2017 01:00 PM EST Reads: 2,569
20th Cloud Expo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy.
Jan. 20, 2017 12:30 PM EST Reads: 4,343
Discover top technologies and tools all under one roof at April 24–28, 2017, at the Westin San Diego in San Diego, CA. Explore the Mobile Dev + Test and IoT Dev + Test Expo and enjoy all of these unique opportunities: The latest solutions, technologies, and tools in mobile or IoT software development and testing. Meet one-on-one with representatives from some of today's most innovative organizations
Jan. 20, 2017 12:30 PM EST Reads: 1,645
WebRTC is the future of browser-to-browser communications, and continues to make inroads into the traditional, difficult, plug-in web communications world. The 6th WebRTC Summit continues our tradition of delivering the latest and greatest presentations within the world of WebRTC. Topics include voice calling, video chat, P2P file sharing, and use cases that have already leveraged the power and convenience of WebRTC.
Jan. 20, 2017 12:30 PM EST Reads: 3,182
SYS-CON Events announced today that Super Micro Computer, Inc., a global leader in Embedded and IoT solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology, is a premier provider of advanced server Building Block Solutions® for Data Center, Cloud Computing, Enterprise IT, Hadoop/Big Data, HPC and E...
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Hardware virtualization and cloud computing allowed us to increase resource utilization and increase our flexibility to respond to business demand. Docker Containers are the next quantum leap - Are they?! Databases always represented an additional set of challenges unique to running workloads requiring a maximum of I/O, network, CPU resources combined with data locality.
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Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place June 6-8, 2017 at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, is co-located with the 20th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. @ThingsExpo New York Call for Papers is now open.
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WebRTC sits at the intersection between VoIP and the Web. As such, it poses some interesting challenges for those developing services on top of it, but also for those who need to test and monitor these services. In his session at WebRTC Summit, Tsahi Levent-Levi, co-founder of testRTC, reviewed the various challenges posed by WebRTC when it comes to testing and monitoring and on ways to overcome them.
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"This week we're really focusing on scalability, asset preservation and how do you back up to the cloud and in the cloud with object storage, which is really a new way of attacking dealing with your file, your blocked data, where you put it and how you access it," stated Jeff Greenwald, Senior Director of Market Development at HGST, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jan. 20, 2017 09:45 AM EST Reads: 5,509


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Food labelling is a confusing issue for most consumers. Time pressed shoppers are confronted with an array of logos at the supermarket, many of which they won’t know the meaning of. One of these is the Red Tractor label. From the logo itself it’s hard to tell what the label represents. What it certainly doesn’t represent is high welfare standards but this is exactly what recent adverts on billboards, social media and in the national press claimed.
Last week, Compassion learned our complaint against the adverts which claimed “Red Tractor pork is high welfare pork” has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which judged them misleading.
This is a positive thing for consumers, who deserve to be able to make an informed choice to buy meat from high welfare systems. It’s also positive that the adverts were even trying to claim high welfare standards in the first place, as surely this proves it is a powerful message that sells products.
Compassion objected to the claim for many reasons, which included the fact that Red Tractor allows slatted flooring and farrowing crates. You can read our complaint letter to see our reasoning in detail. But at the heart of our objection is the question of fairness. The claim was unfair to consumers because it mislead them and it was unfair to those pig farmers who do deliver high welfare on their farms and deserve to be able to use that as a point of differentiation in their marketing.
We all deserve to be given an accurate picture of what we are buying. Now that the ASA has ruled that the claim was misleading, we can only hope that those behind the adverts take note and work harder not to deceive consumers in the future.


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Best Buy: Is This What mindSHIFT Signed Up For?
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) founder Richard Schulze has has resigned as chairman and is exploring options for his 20 percent stake in the big box retailer, according to a statement Schulze released. Reuters believes Schulze may surface again in a bid to take Best Buy private. Whatever the case, Best Buy’s continued struggles and management changes beg the question: Is this what mindSHIFT had in mind when the managed services provider sold its business to Best Buy in 2011?
Of course, my question is rhetorical. Multiple sources tell me mindSHIFT’s operations have not been impacted amid Best Buy’s management and financial changes.
While mindSHIFT remains focused on managed services and cloud services, parent Best Buy’s business has suffered on multiple fronts.
- CEO Brian Dunn left the company roughly two months ago amid personal conduct questions from Best Buy’s board.
- Best Buy itself has struggled to compete with online retailers, discount retailers and various cloud services providers. Best Buy’s sales at stores open at least 14 months, or same-store sales, have fallen in seven of the last eight quarters, according to Reuters.
Schulze was expected to step down as chairman in late June though he was expected to retain a board seat. His departure is a clear change of plans.
But sources say the mindSHIFT strategy remains in place, as does Best Buy’s effort to expand the Geek Squad business with a channel partner program.


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Co-working spaces have boomed since the pandemic and the associated normalisation of hybrid working.
These businesses offer a sensible solution that makes good economic sense to businesses that want to reduce their overheads. If your staff aren’t in the office for even 3 days a week, you can see why getting rid of the office entirely and instead renting a desk somewhere, no-strings-attached, might be tempting.
But this has created a new market, and these co-working spaces are competing. One of the benefits of this competition is new trend: the hotelification of the office.


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Apple's WWDC 2012 keynote time and date confirmed
30 May, 2012 | Web design
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2012) has confirmed that its keynote will take place on June 11th at 1pm San Francisco time (9pm UK time).
Even an official WWDC 2012 app is now available. The App has a schedule to allow attendees to keep up with the various events going on during the conference.
From WWDC 2012 we are expecting Apple to reveal the iCloud as well as an unveiling of the iOS 6 software. However the main focus of the event will be the hype around whether or not Tim Cook (Apple’s CEO) will surprise us with the unveiling of the iPhone 5!
Hopefully we will have some exciting news for you come June 11th but for now why don’t you check out some of the rumours we have heard about the iPhone 5...
By Troy Stanley


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It's hard for Uber and Lyft to discredit a study that they funded.
Ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft are directly responsible for making traffic in cities worse.
That's not new: studies have arrived at the same conclusions again and again. What's different this time around, though, is that Uber and Lyft actually funded the study that came back to point the finger at them, according to The Verge — which makes it more difficult than usual for the two companies to discredit the research.
Bumper To Bumper
Uber and Lyft jointly commissioned the transportation consultant firm Fehr & Peers to compare app-caused traffic to the rest of the traffic in a city. The results, shared online last week, show that rideshare trips are vastly outnumbered by personal vehicle use, but that they still account for a big chunk of metropolitan traffic.
Most damning: Uber and Lyft cause one to three percent of traffic in major cities' surrounding counties, but seven to 14 percent of traffic in dense city centers.
Ironically, the app-funded study estimated that Uber and Lyft are responsible for twice as much traffic as independent studies that the two companies sought to discredit, per The Verge.
What the study didn't answer is what would happen if Uber and Lyft vanished overnight. Sure, there would be fewer cars idly circulating the streets in search of a passenger, but for all we know those people would just drive themselves instead of dutifully riding public transit.
READ MORE: Uber and Lyft finally admit they’re making traffic congestion worse in cities [The Verge]
More on ride-hailing: Uber and Lyft Caused Half of San Francisco's New Traffic Congestion Since 2010
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NetApp could gain 25%, Barron's says NetApp shares look very cheap, with a 14% free cash flow yield, and shares could rise over 25% this year, Barron's contends in a feature article. The company could be a takeover target and shares could reach $50 in a takeover, the paper adds. Reference Link
Dot Hill Systems initiated with a Buy at Maxim Maxim says its analysis of Dot Hill Systems' (HILL) intellectual property indicates the company is unlikely to lose its business with HP (HPQ). The firm adds that Dot Hill management believes NetApp's (NTAP) slow exit from Engenio's OEM business brings at least a $200M incremental revenue and $40M operating profit opportunity. Maxim started shares of Dot Hill Systems with a Buy rating and $7 price target.


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European- and Asian-style pedestrian safety features are coming to North America, says Steve Kozak, Ford Motor Co.'s chief engineer for safety in North America.
Although no regulations are on the books here, Kozak believes it is only a matter of time before domestic automakers will have to build vehicles that comply with standards similar to those enacted in Japan and Europe.
Kozak spoke recently with Automotive News Staff Reporter Richard Truett.
Do you think that eventually you'll have to design vehicles that take pedestrian safety into account?
Absolutely. I believe pedestrian safety standards are heading this way.
As we continue to what I call "drain the swamp" of all the pressing issues here in the United States, the agenda will then fill with the pedestrian discussion.
Is Ford already starting to think of future vehicle design in terms of improving pedestrian safety standards? And what will you use - energy-absorbing hoods, external air bags or some other technology?
Volvo is our expert on this, and they are blazing the trail, because they are in Europe filling European market needs.
Because we are all together, they share technology with us and we share technology with them. We already have a pyrotechnically deployable hood available on a Jag in Europe.
Volvo has some passive counter measures in the hood and front-end design.
Will pedestrian safety standards change the styling of vehicles significantly?
I don't know enough about it yet. But with the proposed rule-making going on, you will see some changes in the appearance of the vehicle. But that's based on future rule-making, not what is on the books now.
What other safety issues are on your radar screen?
Roof crush standards are being debated for all vehicles. The government has proposed rule-making on that, and you'll see that come to fruition real soon.
Probably by the first or second quarter of next year we'll have a law that changes the roof strength standards.
How costly and complex will that be to implement?
Actually it's not that impossible to do.
There is some debate going on, but there is not a lot technology required to change the roof strength.
Primarily is it just a brute strength kind of thing based on the size of the pillars that hold up the roof. We've been looking into it.
The technology is there. It's nothing I need to invent.
Since Volvo is Ford's in-house safety expert, does that mean Volvo has responsibility for all brands in the company?
No. Ford has the much larger research division. The way we work technology is we have centralized advanced research, and the company has money set aside to do that development.
"Big-bang" technologies allow us to have different divisions in Ford to put in for the kinds of technologies they'd like to have developed. Those monies are approved at the executive board level.
Primarily, whoever has the need and desire gets the resources to develop it.
Volvo, because they are the safety leader, generally is the first implementer of the new technologies, and then it cascades down into the Ford products as well. They get to be the guinea pigs on a lot of this stuff.
Can you give an example?
Many of the safety items in the 2006 Ford Explorer, such as the adaptive steering column - that is straight out of the (Volvo) XC90. They developed the technology, and we brought it into our vehicle.


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Millions of bank customers are receiving weighty booklets containing revised terms and conditions, and they could be forgiven for overlooking sneaky changes buried deep in the small print.
From November 1, the Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, will regulate how banks and building societies deal with their customers, forcing them to speed up payment times and give prior notice of rate changes. The FSA will fine any that fail to comply.
However, many are using the FSA's demand that they produce clearer terms and conditions as an opportunity to introduce variations on their accounts. Barclays is the latest culprit in a line-up that includes Halifax, American Express and Santander Cards.
In a document sent out to Barclays customers in the past few weeks, a…


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TRENTON - New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is recommending a ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes as part of the state's response to a nationwide outbreak in illnesses tied to vaping.
The Democrat announced the proposal Thursday as part of a public report by a task force he commissioned to study vaping. One death associated with vaping has been reported in New Jersey, with more than a dozen in other states.
Murphy says the flavor ban would include menthol, in addition to other flavors that are aimed at young people. He also called for barring the online sale of e-cigarettes and vaping supplies as well as increasing penalties for retailers who knowingly sell to underage buyers.
The ban would require legislation before taking effect.


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London - New York Fashion Week marks the month-long ready-to-wear calendar of a global showcase of fashion design.
The NYC shows are generally more commercially and economically focussed than its European counterparts, but accessibility to its week long extravaganza is the same as in other cities - which in plain language - is not for everyone. The schedule for most shows are clearly: “Entry by Invitation Only. Not Open to the Public.”
With the exception of Givenchy, who this week allocated hundreds of free tickets to its catwalk presentation, and fuelled a longtime debate whether fashion week should be more inclusive, most shows will not have public attendance.
Catwalk seating has its limitations
Of course the obvious answer to why members of the public cannot attend shows is the issue of capacity. Seating is extremely limited per show, and are allocated according to priority to the world's media, buyers, clients, investors and celebrities. Between these five categories there is an over-subscribed demand to fill the chairs, without having to allow every Tom, Dick and Harriet with an interest in fashion to be given a free seat. But times, like fashion, are changing.
Accessible luxury has been a key influencer in today's commercial world of fashion. Where once upon a time consumers had to wait six months to see images from the shows or indeed the clothes themselves, today, thanks to the digital revolution, show images are online within minutes of a catwalk presentation.
Today's culture is intricately connected to fashion
With the rise of bloggers, fast-fashion and e-commerce, today's culture is intricately connected to and fascinated by the fashion industry, much more so than in the past. While the aspiration and dream to be a part of the fashion world hasn't lost its lustre, it is no longer just the designers that dictate the hemlines. There are no hard and fast rules about what is or isn’t in vogue in an era where anything is possible and indeed accessible.
Just like designers, consumers also create trends, it is they who provide inspiration of what is 'hot on the street,' captured by bloggers and photojournalists, who then feed back their images as inspiration to the designers. The conversation, thus, is flowing both ways.
Similarly, everyone from Timbuktu to Tokyo can comment on a designer's collection minutes after the photos become available, so there is no issue of proximity any longer. And these opinions, when uploaded on the world's social media, have influence, however elitist the fashion industry may be.
Accessible luxury is good for business
Back to accessible luxury, it is brands like Michael Kors, Victoria Beckham and now Marc Jacobs, who understand the commercial value of having a luxury image but a retail empire with entry prices. If everyone wants to be part of the fashion conversation, good business may mean offering something for everyone.
When Chanel has increased its prices nearly 50 percent over the past few years, it has in fact driven its luxury consumer to lower-tier brands. Whilst that is not likely to have affected Chanel's bottom line, it has certainly enriched other companies. A 2,500 pound handbag is expensive by any means, but 500 pounds, while still pricey, has wider affordability. American designers have embraced this business model much more than the Europeans, and this inclusive-yet-exclusive feeling has turned mid-tier fashion brands like Tory Burch and Michael Kors into billion dollar empires.
So a little inclusivity can have a great impact on brands, and making fashion week accessible may only encourage the end result, which is profitability and sales.
Still, it seems unlikely that the LVMH and Kering's portfolio of brands will be opening its doors to Tom, Dick and Harriet this season. And perhaps we should all be grateful that not every front row is open to a Kardashian-like public. Some brands are in the business of selling dreams.


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All jokes aside, this is a bit scary. ESA, the US games trade association, has filed a request to the US govenment to threaten sanctions against countries "where piracy runs rampant". Way to go on the mindless rhetoric there, American people.
"The report singles out Canada, China, Malaysia, Russia, and parts of Europe as being extreme problem areas where piracy runs rampant," said this IGN story. Canada?
"'Countries that support computer and videogame piracy discourage publishers from establishing viable and legitimate markets,' said Michael Gallagher, ESA's CEO. 'The Special 301 process sends a strong message to them to clean up their act to avoid damaging trade sanctions.
"'In 2007, our industry had a record-breaking year with receipts totaling $18.85 billion, but piracy closes off promising markets, artificially limiting our industry's ability to contribute even more economic growth to the American high-tech economy and economies of our trading partners.'"
Just to get this straight: ESA's asking for a threat of trade sactions to be foisted at Canada if it doesn't "clean up its act" on game piracy? Reading on, it appears so.
"Legal and enforcement deficiencies in Canada," are cited as a major problem. "Pirated copies of games and circumvention devices have permeated retail markets in Canada, due to legal deficiencies and that IPR enforcement remains a low priority for public officials."
Please read the rest of that story. ESA's finally lost it. They'll be building bunkers in the Rockies, stockpiling copies of Madden and chopper-lifting SEAL hit squads into Thai DVD-burning "compounds" next.


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Meet the Kia Carens, which was shown off a week before its official scheduled debut at the 2012 Paris Motor Show.
Read This Article
The $70,000 Kia K900 will debut at this year's L.A. Auto Show.
Kia announces pricing information for its most expensive model in North America.
About a month ago, Kia previewed its Geneva-bound compact concept car.


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With the holiday buying season just around the corner, we're starting to hear and see evidence of some fun iOS-related accessories to pick up this year. Brookstone has started off by supplying us with a Rover 2.0 App-Controlled Spy Tank (US$149.99) to test. Come along for a ride! The Rover ...
Deals of the Daymore deals
Software Updatesmore updates
- Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Update 14.3.4
- Pixelmator 2.2 available with over 100 new features and improvements
- DabKick for iPhone lets you share photos, watch videos and now listen to music in real-time
- Google Now added to search app on iPhone, iPad
- GateGuru for iPhone has been updated and greatly improved
- Twitter updates its OS X client
Featured Storiesmore stories
I'm never leaving home without my pogo connect again. Love this thing.


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VOL. 129 | NO. 8 | Monday, January 13, 2014
Shelby County Posts Most Home Sales in 5 Years
By Amos Maki
Shelby County posted a five-year high in home sales and average sales prices in 2013, according to real estate information company Chandler Reports.
(Daily News/Andrew J. Breig)
The uptick in sales activity and strong pricing increases point to a slow, steady rebound for the industry, which slogged through a five-year slump following the onset of the recession, real estate agents said.
“The housing market continues to recover after a brutal five to six years,” said Doug Collins of Prudential Collins-Maury Inc. “Fortunately, the gains are steady, and I believe sustainable, in 2014.”
The county netted 15,892 homes in 2013, up 6 percent from 14,936 homes sold in 2012, according to Chandler Reports, www.chandlerreports.com.
The average home sales prices in Shelby County jumped 11 percent in 2013 to $138,072, up from $123,870 in 2012, and total sales volume for the year was $2.19 billion, up 19 percent from $1.85 billion in 2012.
According to Chandler Reports, 21 of Shelby County’s 34 ZIP codes experienced an increase in sales in 2013. Home sales reached their peak in August when 1,705 homes were sold with an average price of $139,559. The slowest month for sales in 2013 was February, when 918 homes were sold with average price of $115,363.
Real estate professionals said improved housing market fundamentals finally aligned in 2013 to produce the increase in activity. Attracted by still historically low interest rates, buyers began entering the market again, while homeowners who may have been wanting to sell for a while were drawn in by rising home prices fueled by low inventory.
“Lower inventories create upward pricing pressure, which in turn helps undo the damaged caused since 2008, thereby helping underwater homeowners get back to having an equity position in their homes,” said Collins. “This, in turn, allows more people to be able to sell who may need to due to any number of considerations.”
Collierville’s 38017 ZIP code had the highest number of sales in 2013 with 1,032, according to Chandler Reports. The 38016 Zip code of Cordova North was second, with 973 homes sold. Next was Cordova South’s 38018 Zip code, which netted 896 home sales.
Collierville led the way in sales volume in 2013 at $300.9 million. Eads’ 38028 ZIP code had the highest average sales price at $481,830, followed by Germantown East’s 38139 ZIP code with an average sales price at $400,119.
Bank, or foreclosure, sales plummeted in 2013. There were 3,030 bank sales recorded in 2013, down 21 percent from 3,818 bank sales in 2012. The average sales price of a foreclosed home was $74,243, up 10 percent from $67,497 in 2012.
Collins said he believes the market has finally worked its way through a massive glut of foreclosed homes. As foreclosures continued to mount, the federal government and lenders stepped in and created programs to help people remain in their homes. Those efforts, combined with the sheer number of foreclosure sales that occurred over the last several years, finally started to have an impact on foreclosure inventory.
“We had the financial collapse of 2008 and as a result of that we had an abnormally high number of foreclosures,” Collins said.
“I think we finally just stemmed the tide of foreclosures.”
There were 12,862 nonbank sales in 2013, up 16 percent from 11,118 nonbank sales in 2012.
There were 15,030 existing homes sold in 2013, down 6 percent from 14,140 existing homes sold in 2012. The average sales price for an existing home in 2013 was $130,923 up 12 percent from $116,530 in 2012.
There were 862 new homes sold in 2013, up 8 percent from 796 new homes sold in 2012. The average sales price for a new home in 2013 was $262,721, up 3 percent from $254,262 in 2012.
“The increase in new home sales and the decrease in the number of bank-owned sales is positive for our local market,” said Greg Glosson, president of the Memphis Area Association of Realtors.
Chandler Reports is a division of Memphis Daily News Publishing Co. Inc.


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The Marketplace Fairness Act, if signed into law, will empower state governments to require out-of-state online retailers and mail order companies to collect sales tax, or more specifically use tax, on interstate sales. To date, online retailers have been required to collect sales tax only if the business has a presence (e.g. warehouse or store) in the same state in which the consumer resides. Currently, if an online retailer sells a product to a consumer living in a different state, the consumer is expected to pay the tax. Many consumers usually do not pay use tax on their Internet purchases because they are unaware of the requirement or they know it is difficult for states to enforce. Brick-and-mortar retailers say this gives online retailers a price advantage over local sellers. Online retailers say the fact that there are more than 7,500 tax jurisdictions in the U.S. places an unreasonable burden on Internet-based businesses. Hence, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have been debating for years about how to allow states to require online retailers to collect sales and use taxes.
Highlights of the Marketplace Fairness Act
The Marketplace Fairness Act, introduced November 9, 2011, is the third U.S. federal bill proposed this year dealing with sales tax collection and out-of-state retailers. It was sponsored by five democrats and five republicans. The first two bills, the Main Street Fairness Act and Marketplace Equity Act stalled due to disagreements on requirements for tax code simplification and exemption criteria for smaller businesses. If enacted, the Marketplace Fairness Act will:
- Give states the option to collect the sales taxes they are owed under current law from out-of-state businesses, rather than rely on consumers to pay those taxes to the states—the method of tax collection to which they are now restricted.
- Streamline the country’s more than 7,500 diverse sales tax jurisdictions and provide two options by which states could begin collecting sales taxes from online and catalog purchases.
- Exempt sellers who make less than $500,000 in total remote sales in the year preceding the sale to qualify for an exemption and not be required to collect the tax.
(Source: press release, U.S. Senator Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.).
Regarding the second item, streamlining the collection process, the bill offers states two methods of simplification. They can join the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement or they can adopt a set of simplification guidelines listed in the bill. Those options are discussed in more detail later in this post.
Why is Congress involved in a State Sales Tax Issue?
You might be wondering why the federal government is involved with state tax rules. The answer stems from two U.S. Supreme Court cases:
In both cases, the top court reversed a lower court ruling allowing a state to require an out-of-state company to collect sales tax from customers. Essentially, the same reasons were given for both reversals:
- If a business does not have a physical presence (substantial nexus) in a state (e.g. warehouse, store, employees) it should not be required to collect taxes for that state.
- The administrative and record keeping complexities involved with variations in tax rates and allowable exemptions across many states would place an undue burden on interstate commerce. The Supreme Court justices said that, under the Constitution, Congress has the ultimate power to resolve this issue.
Potential Financial Impact of the Marketplace Fairness Act
According to Forrester, an independent research company, U.S. online retail sales grew 12.6% in 2010 to reach $176.2 billion. Moreover, their forecast calls for continued double-digit growth through 2015. While they identified several reasons for the trend, one factor is the increasing consumer familiarity with and preference for online shopping (and the cannibalization of store shopping). Due to the abovementioned Supreme Court rulings, as retail sales continue to shift from brick-and-mortar to online, a portion of state revenue in the form of sales tax is essentially rendered uncollectible when the consumer and seller reside in different states. The question is how large is the revenue loss? A study by the University of Tennessee published in April, 2009, attempted to answer that question. Under current law, it projects that annual sales tax losses arising from remote e-commerce could amount to $10.4 billion by 2012. (That is a net number after accounting for the small business exemption threshold of $500 million as specified in the Marketplace Fairness Act.) The focus of the study was e-commerce, not all remote sales. Other types of remote commerce include mail order, telephone orders, and deliveries made across state lines by unregistered businesses. The authors point out that when considering all remote commerce, revenue implications were much larger than what they estimated in the report for e-commerce. In response to the findings published by University of Tennessee, a similar analysis was funded by NetChoice, a coalition of trade associations and e-commerce businesses promoting convenience, choice, and commerce on the Internet. Members include AOL, eBay, and Overstock.com among others. NetChoice is opposed to the Marketplace Fairness Act. The NetChoice study, conducted by Jeffrey Eisenach, projected that total uncollected state revenues for 2012 could amount to $4.7 billion, considerably less than the $10 billion estimate in the University of Tennessee analysis. Contrary to the NetChoice opinion and beyond the University of Tennessee estimate, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has reported that if the Marketplace Fairness Act becomes law, “in FY 2012 alone, states stand to gain $23.3 billion in revenue from sales taxes that currently exist but cannot be collected.” (Source: NCSL news release.)
Supporters and Opponents
Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, endorsed the Marketplace Fairness Act in a press release stating: “Amazon strongly supports enactment of the Enzi-Durbin-Alexander bill and will work with Congress, retailers, and the states to get this bi-partisan legislation passed,” said Paul Misener, Amazon vice president, global public policy. “It’s a win-win resolution – and as analysts have noted, Amazon offers customers the best prices with or without sales tax.” This may have been a surprise to many because for years Amazon has opposed this type of legislation. According to Publishers Weekly, “while Amazon staunchly opposed state-by-state tax initiatives, it would back a national policy.” While the Marketplace Fairness Act is not a national requirement, it is a solution focused on standards and simplification. But that apparently is not the only motivation for the Amazon turnaround. In an article published in the Los Angeles Times, Marc Lifsher writes “the company is now looking to profit – by hiring itself out as an Internet tax collector.” (See Amazon offers to serve as tax collector – for a price.) On the other side of the debate, eBay, the largest online auction and shopping site, opposes the Marketplace Fairness Act. In a press release of their own they said: “This is another Internet sales tax bill that fails to protect small business retailers using the Internet and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business competitors. It does not make sense to expand Internet sales tax burdens on small businesses at a time when we want entrepreneurs to create jobs and economic activity.” The bill has wide support from brick-and-mortar retailers such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Target. They believe online retailers (with minimal or no infrastructure in most tax jurisdictions) have an unfair advantage by not having to charge sales tax.
How will Online Retailers Collect and Remit Taxes with over 7,500 Jurisdictions in U.S.?
As cited above, the first time the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a state’s decision to require an out-of-state business to collect sales tax was over 40 years ago. It is interesting that their opinion still very relevant in today’s debate. To quote:
For if Illinois can impose such burdens, so can every other State, and so, indeed, can every municipality, every school district, and every other political subdivision throughout the Nation with power to impose sales and use taxes. The many variations in rates of tax, in allowable exemptions, and in administrative and record-keeping requirements could entangle National’s interstate business in a virtual welter of complicated obligations to local jurisdictions with no legitimate claim to impose a fair share of the cost…
That opinion was rendered in 1967, two years before ARPANET was created – the precursor of the Internet. Today, more than four decades later, in a world in which small startups can compete with multinational companies due to the wonders of the World Wide Web, the logistics concern is still valid. Without standardized, scalable, quality software for collecting and remitting tax funds across many jurisdictions, along with developers committed to ongoing software maintenance and support, the Supreme Court opinion of 1967 will still apply. Time will tell.
States must Streamline and Simplify
In order to require non-exempt out-of-state retailers (including online retailers) to collect sales tax, the Marketplace Fairness Act stipulates that a state must first implement certain minimum simplification requirements. A state can achieve compliance by joining the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) or by implementing Alternative Minimum Simplification Requirements which are specified in the bill. The minimum simplification requirements enumerated in the bill are listed here but in some cases are abbreviated:
(1) A single State-level agency to administer all sales and use tax laws and a single sales and use tax return for remote seller;
(2) Provide a uniform sales and use tax base within a state;
(3) Require remote sellers and providers to collect sales and use taxes pursuant to the applicable destination rate, which is the sum of the State rate and any applicable local jurisdiction rate;
(4) Provide adequate software and services to remote sellers and providers that identifies the applicable destination rate for sales sourced to the State, and provide certification procedures to providers to make the software and services available to remote sellers and hold providers harmless for errors or omissions due to information provided by the State;
(5) Hold remote sellers using a provider harmless for any errors and omissions by that provider;
(6) Relieve remote sellers from liability (including any penalties or interest) to the State or locality for collection of the incorrect sales or use tax if it is the result of information provided by the State;
(7) Provide remote sellers and providers with 30 days notice of a rate change.
Local rate changes may only be effective on the first day of a calendar quarter. A remote seller or provider will be held harmless for collecting tax at the immediately preceding effective rate during the 30-day period. Each state must provide updated rate information as part of the software and services required under the previous paragraph.
Regarding item 4 in the above list, six certified service providers are listed on the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) website. According to the SST FAQs page, at the time of this post, twenty-four states so far have passed the necessary conforming legislation to be eligible to require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax. Nine states have introduced the conforming legislation. It seems reasonable to assume that more states will get on board if the Marketplace Fairness Act is enacted. If that happens, it looks like there will be some real benefits for businesses to use the Streamlined Sales Tax Registration System. See the registration section of the SST website for more information. But remember, the Marketplace Fairness Act excludes businesses that generate $500,000 or less in out-of-state sales in the U.S. in the preceding calendar year.
Video: Introduction of Marketplace Fairness Act on the Senate Floor
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a co-sponsor of the Marketplace Fairness Act says the bill would “close an online sales tax loophole.” He presents his case in this YouTube video.
What do you think? Should online retailers generating more than $500,000 in out-of-state sales be required to collect sales tax? Feel free to leave a comment below.


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Beginning next year, Sanrio will collaborate with the NFT startup Recur to provide digital collectibles starring the iconic mascot.
Fans of the beloved figure (who, according to common perception, is not a cat) will be able to buy and trade digital collectibles of Hello Kitty starting next year, thanks to a cooperation launched on Thursday between Sanrio and Recur, a leading NFT startup.
“To explore this new and innovative business is for us a big challenge,” Silvia Figini, the COO for Sanrio’s EMEA, India and Oceania regions, said. “For Sanrio, stepping into the NFT space adds a new way of being part of contemporary culture and provides our fans a new way to enjoy our brand.”
Users will be able to acquire the Hello Kitty NFTs using their credit or debit cards in US dollars, like with other collectibles sold on the Recur platform, or in cryptocurrency, the latter of which is more common for collectibles sold on the blockchain.
“We understand that we’re welcoming millions and millions of new fans across all the IP that we have into this ecosystem, into crypto, and we can make sure they can enter it in a way that they understand,” Zach Bruch, co-founder and CEO of Recur, told The Hollywood Reporter.
While it’s unclear how many artefacts will be made as a result of the Sanrio collaboration, Recur co-founder and co-CEO Trevor George stated that it will be an “entire Hello Kitty world of many treasures,” however other Sanrio characters will not be participating at this time.
The Hello Kitty NFTs will join other well-known characters in Recur’s NFT collection. ViacomCBS and Recur announced a partnership last month to transform IP, such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Spock from Star Trek, into NFTs based on the company’s content library across CBS, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, Showtime, and BET.
Lionsgate has also reached an agreement with the NFT platform Autograph to mint and sell collectibles based on content from films such as John Wick and Mad Men. But, in the midst of Hollywood’s NFT cash grab, litigation has unavoidably ensued: Miramax sued Quentin Tarantino this week over his plans to release NFTs based on Pulp Fiction, citing the fact that the film studio is in the process of forming its own NFT partnerships based on the Miramax collection. (According to Tarantino’s attorney, the director’s contract grants him “the right to sell NFTs of his hand-written script for Pulp Fiction.”)


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- Infowars - http://www.infowars.com -
NY Fed intervenes in Yen currency trade
Posted By aaron On March 18, 2011 @ 1:10 pm In Economic Crisis,Old Infowars Posts Style | Comments Disabled
NY Fed confirms intervention in currency markets for first time in more than a decade
AP / Canadian Press
March 18, 2011
WASHINGTON — The New York Federal Reserve Bank is confirming that it has intervened in currency markets for the first time in more than a decade.
Fed Intervenes; Buys Dollars, Sells Yen In New York Trading
March 18, 2011
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–The Federal Reserve intervened in the currency market Friday, buying dollars and selling yen as part of a coordinated effort by Group of Seven nations to weaken Japan’s currency.
It was the first coordinated currency intervention since 2000. The intervention began in Tokyo with the Bank of Japan intervening. The Bank of England, Bundesbank, Banque de France and Bank of Italy all intervened during European trading, and the Bank of Canada also intervened.
The initial intervention from the Fed came right at 8 a.m. EDT, the start of the New York trading day. Three U.S. banks familiar with the intervention told Dow Jones Newswires the Fed’s trades early in the New York day totaled about $50 million.
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/ny-fed-intervenes-buys-dollars-sells-yen/
Copyright © 2015 Infowars. All rights reserved.


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Were you on Team #DeleteUber but never actually deleted the app? Or are you just now realizing that Uber is a company full of many damning problems?
Well, you're in luck. Uber is making it easier for you to delete the app from your smartphone.
Uber users can now delete the app directly from their smartphone without having to contact support. According to TechCrunch, this process was called "Dear John" internally and was designed over the last year (therefore long before #DeleteUber was trending across social media).
Uber is still putting a fail safe in. Uber will retain a user's data for 30 days after they opt to delete their account. So, if you change your mind (as in perhaps someone from Harry Potter uses a pensieve to pull your memories of all the corrupt things they have done), you can restore your account.
Prior to this update, Uber users had to contact Uber and customer service representatives had to deal with each request individually. There was no automated system, like exists now. That became a massive problem when 500,000 people requested to delete their accounts following the company's actions during a protest over President Donald Trump's travel ban, The New York Times reported.
Beyond making it easier to delete Uber, the app is introducing more privacy features. Users can now choose, within the app, to no longer receive notifications for ride updates or for discounts.
Uber is also making it easier for users to understand, again within the app, how much of their location data Uber knows. No, it's not letting you limit that. You can either select always or never for location tracking (but you need it on to use the app — so good luck checking never). Uber users also can decide if they want friends to be able to access their location data, as in use Uber's people to people feature.
Each of these features will become available to users over the coming weeks, according to TechCrunch.
RELATED: #DeleteUber trends on Twitter
More on AOL.com:
McDonald's and Uber just made a huge announcement, and it's a complete game-changer
Apple CEO Tim Cook once personally threatened to kick Uber out of the App Store
Uber employees help create tone-deaf '#undelete' mural


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Swatch Group AG has announced the availability of their smartwatch within the next three months. The release of the watch will pit the watchmaker against Apple, who is also releasing their smartwatch in April. According to Swatch’s representative, the device will utilize a technology known as near field communication (NFC) and the watch itself won’t need to be charged, much like the rest of their watches. Swatch will also allow their consumers to make mobile payments via the smartwatch and access Windows and Android platform based apps through the device. This would offer a decent degre..
The latest news on everything that is trending in the world of SmartWatches. New product releases, market outlooks, applications for your SmartWatch and the ever evolving research and development of future Wearable Technology. Feel our passion and expertise on the next generation of the wrist watch.
The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, in a rare announcement at an earnings call confirmed the status of the highly anticipated Apple watch, which is right on track and should become available in stores by April. While speaking at a conference call with the shareholders of the company, Cook confirmed plans to ship the Apple Watch, a smart watch which will be made available during 2015’s second quarter. The announcement came at the height of anticipation and excitement at a glamorous event. The Apple Watch was initially announced at Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which took pl..


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Slaithwaite Office: 01484 847700
On Saturday 18th February 2017, at 11 am.
Wm Sykes & Son held two successful property auctions in July. The results were as follows.
Wm Sykes & Son had a successful auction at The Huntsman Inn, Holmfirth on Tuesday 7th June.
Saturday 20th August 2016
Happy New Year! 2016 is a landmark year for Wm Sykes & Son. It marks our 150th year in business.
Click through for our Christmas opening hours.
We are delighted to announce we scooped a silver award at the Negotiator Awards for Yorkshire & the Humber Agency of the Year.
On Saturday 10th October 2015 at 12 Noon Sale by Auction of Vintage farm Machinery and Effects
We are delighted to announce we have been shortlisted for two prestigious awards. The Negotiator Awards are recognised as the Oscars of the residential property industry. We have have been shortlisted for two awards; ‘Yorkshire and The Humber Agency of the Year’ and ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year'.
Dispersal Sale of Farm Machinery & Effects. Wednesday 12th August 2015
On behalf of R Pears, deceased. Sale by Auction of 3 tractors, range of farm machinery etc., on Saturday 30th May 2015, at 12 Noon.
We gained 16 (145%) more instructions than our nearest competitor last month. We've also sold one third of all properties available since January. Wm Sykes & Son are proud to be the no1 agency in Holmfirth.
5 newly built high spec three storey homes released to the market on St George's Road Scholes.
Wm Sykes & Son have been named as the number one estate agent according to Rightmove Intel. Over the past year we have gained more instructions and agreed sales than any other estate agent in 2014.
We are delighted to have launched our new look and Prestige service. By now you may have seen our new ‘for sale’ and ‘to let’ boards, or even noticed the new signage at our Huddersfield Road.
Wm Sykes & Son first opened for business almost 150 years ago. This week we have unveiled a new look and have launched a brand new service aimed at helping our customers to sell their prestigious properties.


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Planning to focus on its commercial and industrial business, an HVAC mechanical contractor in Lancaster County has sold its residential division to a company that wants to expand service to homes.
Robert H. Ranck Inc., which does business as Ranck Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning, said today it has purchased Triangle Home HVAC, the residential division of Triangle Refrigeration Co.
Terms of the deal, which closed Monday, were not disclosed.
Based in East Hempfield Township, Ranck serves customers in Lancaster, York and Berks counties. The company will pick up eight service technicians from Triangle, officials said. The deal brings Ranck’s total employee count to about 70.
“Triangle customers are in the same geography that we serve,” said John Michel, Ranck’s president and CEO. “This will make us more efficient and allow us to provide Triangle customers with our first-class service.”
Triangle, based in Manheim Township, will continue providing HVAC, plumbing and refrigeration services to commercial and industrial customers. The company’s customers include factories, restaurants and other food-service providers. Triangle’s service business is mostly in Central Pennsylvania, while the company’s installation work extends into several surrounding Mid-Atlantic states.
“Ranck excels in residential heating, cooling and plumbing, so it makes sense for Ranck to serve our residential customers while allowing us to focus on our commercial business,” Triangle President Dave Neslund said.
Neslund said the residential division accounted for less than 10 percent of Triangle’s total business.
Triangle, which was founded in 1969, has about 120 employees. The company finished 2017 with $20.5 million in revenue, according to Business Journal records. Ranck, founded in 1953, does not disclose revenue figures.


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Remington Firearms announced this week it is moving its headquarters from Ilion, NY, to Georgia. Plans include opening a factory and research operation at a site in LaGrange, GA.
Investment required for move, which is southwest of Atlanta, is estimated at roughly $100 million. A total of 856 people are anticipated to be hired for the operation over the next five years.
Remington CEO Ken D’Arcy said in a press release announcing the relocation that, “We are very excited to come to Georgia, a state that not only welcomes business but enthusiastically supports and welcomes companies in the firearms industry.”
Roundhill Group purchased the Remington firearm manufacturing business for $13 million during Remington Outdoor bankruptcy proceedings in late 2020. The corporation, which included Remington Ammunition, Barnes Bullets, Marlin, Bushmaster and many others was sold in separate pieces to various high bidders.
“Georgia’s firearms industry is responsible for thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of investment in our communities,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R). “I am a proud owner of some of Remington’s first-class product, and now, I am excited to welcome them to their new home in the Peach State."
A union spokesmen for workers at Remington’s Ilion, NY, factory said he had no information whether any staff at the site would be affected. The company has recently called back 200 employees—who were laid off during bankruptcy proceedings—and resumed manufacturing. Its first 870 pump shotguns rolled out of the factory in late summer.
Remington’s one of many gun company’s leaving the northeastern United States for more Second Amendment-friendly business environments. Smith & Wesson announced in late September that a significant portion of the company was relocating to Tennessee.
One building has already been secured by Remington in LaGrange, according to the city’s economic development director. Plans include expansion into various renovated and new facilities in the city.


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The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD Co. (BYDDY), according to a Bloomberg article, has no immediate intentions to join the US passenger car market and faces fierce competition from the US-based Proterra in the US bus battery electric vehicle market. This is partially due to the anti-Chinese mentality prevalent today. Nonetheless, BYD is increasing its activities in Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Thailand, and Australia. Also, the corporation is expanding its inventory of new-energy vehicles in China.
BYD has announced a considerable increase in its fourth-quarter profit, from 602 million in the same period last year to 7.3 billion. In addition, the company’s net income for the entire year of 2022 rose by 446% year-over-year to 16.6 billion. BYD sold around 1.86 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2018, accounting for nearly 30% of China’s new-energy vehicle sales, whereas Tesla delivered 1.31 million EVs globally in 2022.
BYDDY Stock Forecast:
Investors may ask if BYDDY is a suitable stock to purchase. The efforts made by the company funded by Warren Buffett to develop new EVs and attract customers are positive, and the company was able to expand deliveries despite a difficult financial climate. But, the pricing war begun by Tesla in China may have some effect on BYD’s bottom-line growth. As of 2023, BYDDY stock has increased by almost 7%.
BYD Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of automobiles and related products in the People’s Republic of China and internationally.
The company operates through three segments: Secondary Rechargeable Batteries and Photovoltaic; Mobile Phone Components, Assembly, and Other Products; and Automobiles, Automobile-Related Products and Other Products. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China.


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Comcast Offers Thousands of Grants, Equipment, Marketing and Tech Resources to Small Businesses Hardest Hit by COVID
New York, NY
Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) today launched Comcast RISE, an initiative created to help strengthen and empower small businesses hard hit by COVID-19. The Comcast RISE program will help thousands of small businesses over the next three years.
The multi-faceted program offers grants, marketing and technology upgrades, including media campaigns and connectivity, computer and voice equipment, as well as free marketing insights to all applicants.
U.S. small businesses have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the number of U.S. active business owners dropped from 15 million to 11.7 million from February to April. The study cited that Black-owned small businesses were hardest hit, suffering the steepest decline (41 percent), followed by Hispanic and Asian American-owned small businesses.
Small businesses have always played an integral role in our nation’s growth and future. In the midst of the pandemic, these entrepreneurs provided many of the services and resources that keep our communities up and running.
The program will roll out in waves, and starting today, U.S.-based Black-owned small businesses can apply for marketing and technology support and equipment to jumpstart and help them sustain business operations. In addition, all small businesses are able to sign up for free marketing insights and resources. The next wave of the program will open up eligibility to include Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), those next hit hardest by the effects of the pandemic.
“There’s this old saying, ‘When America catches a cold, black America catches pneumonia.’ Black Businesses, which never recovered from the great recession, have been ravaged by COVID-19 with Black-owned businesses twice as likely to close as their white counterparts. While many businesses have responded by moving online or retrofitting to allow for social distancing, many Black business owners have had to halt their operations completely,” said Ron Busby, President/CEO, U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. “Comcast RISE will help Black businesses adapt to the changing landscape and position them to be leaders in America’s burgeoning online to offline economy. USBC commends Comcast for starting this program and for their hands-on support of Black-owned businesses, because advancing Black businesses advances us all.”
Comcast decided to launch Comcast RISE, which stands for “Representation, Investment, Strength and Empowerment,” to help the hardest-hit small business owners get a fresh start and boost their operations during this difficult time. Comcast RISE brings together two of the company’s brands —Comcast Business and Effectv, both with expertise in the small business space — to help empower business owners with the tools, expertise and resources needed to navigate the economic effects of the pandemic.
“We see and know firsthand how vital small businesses are in powering economic growth, recovery and innovation. Now more than ever, driving awareness and maintaining a strong digital presence are crucial for these businesses to succeed,” said Teresa Ward-Maupin, SVP for Digital and Customer Experience at Comcast Business. “We created Comcast RISE to give these business owners access to the tools and resources they need to survive the pandemic and thrive.”
“Small businesses have always played an integral role in our nation’s growth and future. In the midst of the pandemic, these entrepreneurs provided many of the services and resources that keep our communities up and running,” said Comcast Advertising Chief Marketing Officer Maria Weaver. “We’re proud and humbled to support those hit hardest by the pandemic, and provide them with marketing and technology support at a time when they need it the most.”
Comcast RISE consists of the following main components:
Comcast RISE is part of a larger $100 million Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative that Comcast launched this summer. In June, Comcast NBCUniversal announced the development of a comprehensive, multiyear plan to allocate $75 million in cash and $25 million in media over the next three years to fight injustice and inequality against any race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or ability.
In the future, the program aims to expand to other small and diverse business owners. Visit http://www.ComcastRISE.com for more information on eligibility requirements, and the latest updates.


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Consumer Portfolio Services chairman and chief executive officer Brad Bradley not only summarized how his company navigated the fourth quarter, but the outspoken industry veteran also perhaps gave a concise assessment of what’s happening at other subprime auto finance companies and the deal
VisionMenu, a provider of software selling solutions to automotive and powersports dealers, recently released Remote F&I- a remote menu, disclosure and document signing web application that uses vSignature technology to control what a customer views on their smartphone and allows eSigning of
The latest TransUnion Industry Insights Report found that 80 million consumers held a vehicle lease or retail installment contract as of the close of 2016.
With Valentine’s Day here, research showed individuals who might be married or in an exclusive relationship and perhaps sending applications to your finance company or walking into your dealership showroom, aren’t together just because of physical attraction or engaging conversation.
Automotive and asset finance software solutions provider White Clarke Group recently released its latest publication titled, “Global Technology Report 2017: Auto Finance in the New Digital Ecosystem.”
Specialty auto finance company Exeter Finance Corp. announced on Monday that it appointed company veteran Brad Nall to be chief financial officer in a move that was effective Feb. 1.
GWC Warranty — a provider of used-vehicle service contracts and related finance and insurance products sold through dealers — and Carleton, a provider of compliant financing calculation and digital document software solutions, each made personnel moves this week.
Consumers are relying more on retail installment contracts and leases to acquire cars than they were eight years ago, yet many might not be as prepared as they should be going into the purchase.
Wise F&I, which offers a full suite of finance and insurance products, announced on Monday that its products are now available to automotive retailers operating on the Reynolds and Reynolds dealership management system (DMS).
When the Federal Open Market Committee’s first opportunity to make another interest rate adjustment arrived this week, the Federal Reserve unanimously passed on making another increase, maintaining the target range for the federal funds rate at 0.50 percent to 0.75 percent.


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Tim Cook, the C.E.O. of Apple, which has been ordered to help the F.B.I. get into the cell phone of the San Bernardino shooters, wrote in an angry open letter this week that "the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create." The second part of that formulation has rightly received a great deal of attention: Should a back door be built into devices that are used for encrypted communications? Would that keep us safe from terrorists, or merely make everyone more vulnerable to hackers, as well as to mass government surveillance? But the first part is also potentially insidious, for reasons that go well beyond privacy rights.
The simple but strange question here is exactly the one that Cook formulates. What happens when the government goes to court to demand that you give it something that you do not have? No one has it, in fact, because it doesn't exist. What if the government then proceeds to order you to construct, design, invent, or somehow conjure up the thing it wants? Must you?
The F.B.I.'s problem is that it has in its possession the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters, but the phone is locked with a passcode that he chose. (The phone, which investigators found while executing a search warrant for Farook’s car, is actually the property of the San Bernardino County Health Department, Farook’s employer, which has consented to its search—and so, as Orin Kerr points out, on the Washington Post blog the Volokh Conspiracy, there is no Fourth Amendment issue there.) If the F.B.I. enters the wrong passcode ten times, the data may be turned to gibberish. And if the F.B.I. disables that feature, allowing it to enter every possible passcode until it hits the right one, it may still come up against another barrier: a built-in delay between wrong entries, so that typing in five thousand possibilities, for example, might take thousands of hours. Both sides agree that Apple has given significant technical assistance with the San Bernardino case already; in response to a separate warrant, it gave the F.B.I. the iCloud back-ups for Farook’s phone (the most recent was from some weeks before the shooting). In the past, in response to court orders, Apple has helped the government extract certain specific information from older iPhones—perhaps seventy times, according to press reports. But there is apparently no way for the company to do so on the newer operating system, iOS 9, which the shooter was using and which was built without a "back door." In other words, there is no set of instructions or a skeleton key in a drawer somewhere in Cupertino that Apple could give the F.B.I. to allow it to get in.
And so Sheri Pym, a California district-court magistrate judge, has ordered Apple to come up with a new software bundle that can be loaded onto the phone and, in effect, take over the operating system and tell it to let the F.B.I. in. (Apple will have a chance to object to the order in court.) As an added point of convenience, this bundle is also supposed to let the agents enter passcodes electronically, rather than tapping them in, which is one of the many points on which the government seems to have moved from asking for compliance with a subpoena to demanding full-scale customer service. In its request for the order, the government says that “Apple has the exclusive technical means which would assist the government in completing its search," for a number of reasons. One is that iPhones look for a cryptographic signature before accepting operating-system software as legitimate. But the government, again, is not asking for a signature or even for the equivalent of a handwriting guide (which would be problematic, too) but for an entire ready-to-run bundle. It has said that it wants Apple to put in a code that makes the bundle usable only on Farook’s phone—but that is a desire, not a description of an existing, tested, software protection. (The government also says that it will pay Apple for its work.) The other reasons that the government says that Apple should be compelled to do this work come down to Apple being Apple—being a smart company that designs this kind of thing. What is the government's claim on that talent, though? Would it extend to a former engineer who has left the company? The government's petition notes that the operating system is "licensed, not sold," which is true enough, but conveys the darkly humorous suggestion that Apple's terms of service are holding the F.B.I. back.
It is essential to this story that the order to Apple is not a subpoena: it is issued under the All Writs Act of 1789, which says that federal courts can issue "all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law." Read as a whole, this simply means that judges can tell people to follow the law, but they have to do so in a way that, in itself, respects the law. The Act was written at a time when a lot of the mechanics of the law still had to be worked out. But there are qualifications there: warnings about the writs having to be "appropriate" and "agreeable," not just to the law but to the law’s "principles." The government, in its use of the writ now, seems to be treating those caveats as background noise. If it can tell Apple, which has been accused of no wrongdoing, to sit down and write a custom operating system for it, what else could it do?
In the motion filed on Friday, the government dismissed Apple’s objection by saying that it “appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy," and that writing new code shouldn’t be an “undue burden”—one of the standards for applying the All Writs Act—since Apple writes a lot of code. This particular use of the All Writs Act is fairly novel, however. The precedent the government's supporters cite is the use of All Writs in a 1977 Supreme Court decision involving telephone taps, called pen registers. In that case, the F.B.I. wanted New York Telephone, which was already helping it to set up a tap in an illegal-gambling sting, to let it use some spare cables that were, physically, in the same terminal box as those hooked up to the suspect’s phone. The telephone company told the F.B.I. to get its own wires and string them into the apartment of one of the alleged gamblers some other way. When the F.B.I. objected that the suspects might spot the rigged cables, the Court agreed that it could legitimately ask the telephone company for its technical help and “facilities.” But the F.B.I. wasn’t asking New York Telephone to design a new kind of cable.
If a case involving a non-digital phone network could be applied to smartphones, what technologies might an Apple precedent be applied to, three or four decades from now? (The N.S.A. used, or rather promiscuously misused, another pen-register case from the same era to justify its bulk data collection.) It no longer becomes fanciful to wonder about what the F.B.I. might, for example, ask coders adept in whatever genetic-editing language emerges from the recent developments in CRISPR technology to do. But some of the alarming potential applications are low-tech, too. What if the government was trying to get information not out of a phone but out of a community? Could it require someone with distinct cultural or linguistic knowledge not only to give it information but to use that expertise to devise ways for it to infiltrate that community? Could an imam, for example, be asked not only to tell what he knows but to manufacture an informant?
This is the situation that Apple is in, and that all sorts of other companies and individuals could be in eventually. There are problems enough with the insistence on a back door for devices that will be sold not only in America but in countries with governments that feel less constrained by privacy concerns than ours does. And there are reasons to be cynical about technology companies that abuse private information in their own way, or that jump in to protect not a principle but their brands. But the legal precedent that may be set here matters. By using All Writs, the government is attempting to circumvent the constitutionally serious character of the many questions about encryption and privacy. It is demanding, in effect, that the courts build a back door to the back-door debate.


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LOS ANGELES — Marie and Kelly Gray, the mother-daughter duo and former head designer and chief executive officer of St. John, respectively, have launched a new company called Grayse. The casual luxury line, retailing between $200 and $1,100, will be introduced at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue on Feb. 1.
Marie and her husband, the late Robert “Bob” Gray, founded St. John in 1962, growing it into one of the largest global brands in Southern California, while Kelly became its ceo and the face of its iconic print ads.
Bob retired in 2002; Marie and Kelly stepped down from their day-to-day roles in 2005 and have acted as consultants at St. John since 2007. Marie continues to sit on the board and the family retains a minority stake in the privately held company.
In the years since leaving full-time jobs at St. John, Kelly founded the lifestyle label Royal Underground with Nikki Sixx, bass player for Mötley Crüe and Sixx:A.M. She decided to step away from the line when she started Grayse, while Sixx will continue with Royal Underground.
Meanwhile, Marie was spending most of her days on the golf course. But she never lost the design bug and found herself becoming more involved in her daughter’s line. The seeds of a new company took root when mother and daughter realized how much they enjoyed working together again.
“The minute we started bouncing things off each other we go kinetic, like we have a combustible energy,” said Kelly, who added that their aim to do design is something “completely different from St. John.” To that end, there is not a single knit piece in the collection. The focus is on separates, with tops and dresses featuring high-tech embellishments, laser-cut Italian leathers and innovative woven fabrics.
“I’ve always loved a sequin,” said Kelly, “but there have been so many advances in technology. I spent a lot of time in Asia sourcing heat epoxy transfer stones and other treatments.” The results are studs that look like Lucite and thin metal plates that look like patent leather, giving the classic shapes a modern sparkle.
The line, which sits in what Kelly calls the “fun luxury” price point, “presents as a special occasion line but is not necessarily eveningwear or red carpet. It’s more event dressing for book parties, luncheons, pool parties. There are no more rules of what to wear here and there anymore.”
While the Grayse woman likes glamour and sex appeal, there are no head-to-toe gold looks here. Styles range from a pink embellished minidress to a gold short-sleeve leather jacket paired with a studded mesh tank and softly tailored dark tan shorts. “It doesn’t have to be loud because it’s full of rich textures and colors,” said Marie. “We think this will appeal to some customers we’ve known and we hope to meet some new ones.”
To that end, the Grays, who were known for their personal approach with customers that earned St. John a cult following, plan to build the same type of relationship, beginning with their retailers.
“We intentionally kept this under wraps since starting it last summer,” said Kelly. “We wanted to strip it down to the dirt and work our way back to the customer starting with the retailers. Until now, they’ve only gotten a few photos, and this month we are doing sales associate breakfasts across the country. We are old school in that we recognize your sales associate is your direct line to the customer and if they get your message, it can be conveyed seamlessly.”
“We’re having a good time,” said Marie of coming out of semiretirement to work with her daughter again. There’s now a greater appreciation for one another’s talents.”
“I can’t imagine the torture I put Mom through when I was learning the business and thought I knew what I was doing when I didn’t,” said Kelly.
In addition to Neimans and Saks, the line will also sell on mkgrayse.com. As for future Grayse stores, “The aesthetic side of me says yes and the business side of me says, ‘Hell, no.’ I remember how hard it is to make money at them so I’m not sure,” said Kelly.
From overseeing America’s fastest-growing speciality retailers to codifying cool, WWD talked to the women who are leading the way for the future of beauty. Check out our Instagram Stories to see how these women built today and are creating tomorrow. (📸: @hannah_khymych) #wwdbeauty
For @laperlalingerie's spring 2018 show, the brand chose to host their event at @thevenetianmacao. With Chinese megastars @bingbing_fan and @hubing in attendance, La Perla debuted a rock ‘n’ roll-inspired collection. The show marked the start of Sands Macao Fashion Week, which runs from October 19 to 24 — the city’s first such event. Pictured here are models backstage with glimmering eyes. #wwdfashion (📷: Cheuk-Yin To)
Trending for spring 2018: top stitch design. Gone are the days of stitch just for seams — designers are using the once-minimal detail to create strong decorative elements. (📷: Paola Testa; Styled by @andrew_shang) #wwdfashion
@tradesy is turning the concept of a showroom upside down with its new space in Santa Monica. Here, the company plans to hold events, art exhibits and a showcase rare fashion pieces like this Louis Vuitton boxing set. Get all the details on Tradesy’s first showroom on WWD.com. #wwdnews
Spotted last night at the @erdem x @hm launch event: Kate Bosworth, Rashida Jones, Kirsten Dunst and Selma Blair. The party, which took place in LA, also marked the opening of their pop-up shop. “I was interested in creating a collection that wasn’t in any way disposable. It was about pieces you’d create and keep forever, things that have a permanence to it,” designer Erdem Moralioglu said. #wwdeye (📷: Katie Jones)
Renee Zellweger in yellow in 2001 and again in 2017. Chosen as one of the 12 @pantone Leading Spring Colors (and dubbed “Meadowlark”), it only makes sense that the bright hue stands the test of time and is making a resurgence this season, seen already on stars like @blakelively and @gigihadid. (📷: Donato Sardello & @rexfeatures) #wwdfashion #tbt
Dior’s 70th anniversary celebration continues with a new exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. “Christian Dior,” which is scheduled to run through March 18, takes a look at the founders tenure from 1947 to 1057 and feature 40 designs. Pictured here is an evening gown from the Ailée, fall 1948-49 haute couture collection. #wwdfashion (📷: Brian Boyle)