text:
Google Current Affairs - 2020
For the first time in a landmark move to protect independent journalism Australia will force US tech giant Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay Australian media publishers for news content. Thus, Australia will become first such country which will help its native media company to gain royalty under the royalty-style system. If everything goes well between the stakeholders it will become law later this year.
What is the new move?
A recent 2019 study carried on Australian market estimated about 3,000 journalism jobs have been lost in Australia in the past 10 years, as traditional media companies pay advertising revenue to Google and Facebook which paid nothing in return for news content. As per Josh Frydenberg Australian Treasurer for every 100 Australian Dollar spent on online ads in Australia, excluding matrimonial and local advertisements, nearly a third goes to Google and Facebook.
Other countries had tried and failed to make the tech giants pay the royalty fees.
Various news publishers in, France Germany and Spain have implemented national copyright laws that force Google to pay licensing fees when it publishes any part of their news articles.
To curb this, in 2019, Google stopped showing news from European publishers on search results to its French social engine users.
What would be its Impact?
The move could see Australia going on to become the first country to force Google and Facebook to pay for news content. The move comes after meetings between the online platforms, ACCC and media companies failed to result in an agreement. Before it goes for debate in the Parliament the draft will undergo a month-long consultation. However, If it is passed, it is expected to be reviewed in a year’s time.
Though there is no clarity on how much the development will impact Google and Facebook’s revenues. On Thursday Google parent company Alphabet reported its first revenue decline amidst the global pandemic in its second-quarter earnings report, while Facebook posted 11% surge in revenues. Both the tech giants have been under the regulatory spotlight lately, with their CEOs appearing alongside the CEOs of Amazon and Apple in a Congressional antitrust hearing on Wednesday.
Tags: Australia • Australian News Agency • Facebook • Google
A new android malware has been discovered that steals data such as credit card details, password from 337 applications. This included some of the popular apps such as Amazon, Gmail, Uber, Netflix and more.
The malware was discovered by a mobile security firm Threatfabric. The malware is being distributed as fake Google update packages offered on third party websites.
The malware is capable of performing intrusive operations such as Perform SMS floods, start specific apps, show custom push notifications, perform SMS floods, sabotage mobile antivirus apps.
About the malware
The malware is based on the leaked source code of another malware Xerxes. Again, xerxes is based on the strains of other malwares.
Blackrock is completely enhanced with stealing passwords and credit card details. It collects data through overlays.
Working of the malware
The Malware asks for credit card setails and login credentials before the user enters the app. It asks for phone’s accessibility feature. It then uses Android DPC to access the admin.


text:
Berlin, Feb 7, 2019
Made in Nature: Scopri i valori del biologico europeo (Discover the principles of European organic agriculture) is the title of the project funded by the European Union and CSO Italy member companies that will involve Italy, France and Germany, sharing the principles of fresh and processed organic fruit and vegetable growing.
Made in Nature is the EU-funded project aimed at promoting the principles and culture of organic fruit and vegetable growing in Italy, France and Germany in the next three years (from 1 February 2019 to 31 January 2022). As stated in the title of the project (Discover the principles of European organic agriculture), the aim of the EU-funded project, totalling 1.6 million euros, will be to introduce the world of 100% natural produce through B2B meetings, trade fairs, press events and initiatives aimed at consumers in these three countries. The project stresses the importance of the principles of organic agriculture and of the producers who choose this form of business, often forgoing more than 40% of what their land produces. This is also referred to in the visual communication concept: The Great Wave off Kanagawa by painter Hokusai is transformed with an evocative interplay inspired by nature and the power of the sea, representing fresh and processed organic fruit and vegetables, which are now not only a nutritional choice but also a way of life that respects nature, which is its source.
In the last few years, in the organic industry, there has been a rise in the consumption and distribution of organic produce, with numbers increasing steadily. In this scenario, Italy is a leading market player (+153% compared to 2008) and exporting country (for a market reaching almost €2 billion), as are Germany (79% increase in consumption compared to 2002) and France (20% increase in consumption since 2016). Nevertheless, most European consumers know about organic agriculture and its requirements in general, but if we go into detail, a number of shortcomings emerge: Italians lag behind the European average when it comes to knowing about the “organic farming” label (16%), whereas France and Germany are better positioned (32%), but also need to help consumers actually understand the quality and safety implications of this certification. Made in Nature was created with this in mind and with the intention to share the basic principles of organic agriculture by implementing specific activities in all three countries, thus promoting widespread knowledge to be adapted to each situation in order to increase consumer awareness through targeted actions that will also involve the media (press, bloggers, etc.) and sector professionals. The goal is to reach 24 million consumers so as to enhance awareness of organic produce and trigger a further increase in consumption over the next three years.
All planned activities will be held on a regular basis over the next three years and are set to begin in Berlin during Fruit Logistica 2019, where the project will be officially presented to the international press at an introductory press lunch that will take place on 7 February 2019 at Fruit Logistica, in the area dedicated to Italy (A-07, Conference Room, Hall 2.2).
The launch in Berlin will be followed by other initiatives, such as in-store events, digital advertising and PR campaigns involving consumers from the three target countries, and by a series of events and workshops open to journalists and buyers from all over the world to be held at leading trade fairs (Sial, Anuga, Fruit Logistica, Macfrut and Biofach), which will highlight the principles of European organic agriculture.
The companies involved in this important initiative, which is aimed at the Italian, French and German markets, are major Italian players in the organic sector such as Brio, Canova, Conserve Italia, Veritas Biofrutta and Lagnasco, coordinated by CSO Italy, i.e. the Italian Fresh Produce Service Centre responsible for the Project.
Project implementation: SOPEXA Italia
+39 02 86 37 41
Press office: RP Circuiti Multimedia – Tel. +39 391 346 4629

domain: news


text:
Bundaberg-based Chef Dion Taylor from HSG at the Gardens has been chosen from applicants across the world to be the ‘featured chef’ in the up coming Global Travel Channel Food Series that will air online on Friday 22 May at www.globaltravelchannel.com
Dion will prepare dishes submitted by the Global Travel Channels listeners from some of the 97 countries across the world where the show is aired.
Dishes will range from Mexico to Italy, from Belgium to Tasmania, as well as plenty of local Bundaberg fare from Dion’s local region.
With a focus on fresh produce, and plenty of different styles of food, toss in a few fun travel tales and this monthly show threatens to ignite the appetite of foodies and travellers across the world.
The CEO and Host of the Global Travel Channel Mark Philpott says they are thrilled to have Dion on board.
“With Dion’s international experience and appetite to promote local Australian cuisine there is going to be plenty in it for our global listeners,” Mark said.
Dion said the opportunity came about through a chat he had with Global Travel Channel CEO Mark Philpott last year.
“I had an interview with Mark late last year and we got on really well,” Dion said.
“Not sure how he turned an hour of chat into a 30 minute podcast but he did.
“Mark interviews guests from all over the world and he’s always asking for listener feedback and I guess I must have tickled somebody’s fancy because I then got the call from Mark to be involved as a featured chef.
“I’m genuinely excited to be working alongside Mark with this 12 month program as we explore culture and commodities and exchange some amazing recipes.
“My goal is to make it feel like listeners are travelling to new countries each month from their very own lounge chair, without spilling their cuppa as the person in front reclines into their lap!
“With overseas travel off the agenda at the moment I feel this is the next best thing.”
Dion said Bundaberg was the perfect place to be based, with the amazing array of food grown in the region.
“I often find myself entrenched in appreciating the life of our local growers and food processors, learning and researching food truths about how our food is grown,” Dion said.
“I opened my own restaurant with the idea that we can co-educate our fellow diners at the same time they get to enjoy a meal based on ingredients that aren’t better travelled then the consumer’
The first show in the Global Travel Channel Food series will air on Friday 22 May at 10am AEST on www.globaltravelchannel.com.
- More HSG at the Gardens news


text:
IBC bills itself as the premier annual event for professionals engaged in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and news content worldwide. Since it attracts over 50,000 attendees from more than 170 countries, it’s hard to argue with that assessment. The show allows these attendees to check out state of the art electronic media technology, listen to invigorating discussions during conference panels and network with thought leaders from various corners of the industry.
So many companies have NAB and IBC as the bull’s-eyes on the schedules, but IBC has a very different feeling and atmosphere. Practically speaking, IBC has been described as the “NAB of Europe”, and you do see many Europe-based or focused companies here that do not make the trip to NAB in Las Vegas. Nonetheless, various companies use one or both events to setup their schedules for product announcements and releases. It’s been said that NAB is where companies announce their products and IBC is where they ship the products, and we might be seeing that scheduling in action this year with AJA. Back at NAB, the buzz of the show was around the CION and the rumor was that we’d have more details around shipping at IBC. It remains to be seen what company and product will elicit that sort of buzz at this year's show, but as you'll be able to see from the floor plan, there isn't a shortage of companies that will have something to talk about.
Whatever similarities the two shows might have, one of the stark differences between IBC and NAB is the location, as IBC takes place at the RAI in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Amsterdam RAI is a monstrous complex just like the Convention Center in Las Vegas, but it’s broken up in a much different way. And the differences between Las Vegas and Amsterdam are too numerous to count.
The locale took a back seat to the event today though as IBC officially kicked off with a full day of panels and sessions. The keynote was titled, “Assessing the health of broadcast TV”, and pulled in a diverse crowd of delegates, exhibitors and members of the press. That focus on diversity is evident across the conference portion of IBC, as the engagements throughout the event fall into one or more of five areas: Business Operations, Content Innovation, Industry Insights, Strategic Insights and Technical Steam. There's literally something for everyone.
Today’s discussions were all fascinating and engaging, but during the “The Proliferation of wireless technology: Expanding or destroying broadcast revenues” session, Nicol Verheem, CEO of Teradek, might have made one of the more interesting points of the day. He mentioned that he believed the creation of the smartphone was even more significant than landing on the moon. At first that might sound like hyperbole, but you don’t have to look around Amsterdam or around the show itself for very long to see someone on their phone, looking at their phone or taking a picture with their phone. Seeing how smartphones affect our everyday lives in a way the moon landing does not, he just might be onto something.
The panels and sessions run for the next several days and will end one day before the exhibitors close down, which lines up as the conference kicked off one day before the floor opens. Later this week panels such as “More pixels or better pixels? Making the case for 4K or Ultra High Definition”, “The death of SDI? The promise of complete IP-based production”, and “Who owns the audience now?” are scheduled and should be extremely relevant to the media & entertainment professionals who are in attendance. Numerous CEOs, CTOs, engineers, content creators, industry leaders and more are set to talk through what the present and future of M&E looks like for everyone.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to sit in on any of those as we’ll be all over the show floor, talking with exhibitors about what they’re showcasing this year. We’ve got exclusive interviews lined up with contacts from Sony, Panasonic, AJA and Atomos, just to name a few. We’re also looking to visit the TimeCodeBuddy, Sound Devices and DJI booths to see what kind of amazing updates and developments they have to show off.
Exhibitors were busy getting their spaces setup today, and we're already anxious to see what they've put together for attendees. The ProVideo Coalition team will be at IBC every day of the show and will be rolling out summaries of what we see and hear. IBC 2014 feels like it's going to be a special event, and we can't wait to discover what's going to make it memorable.
Stay tuned to PVC for more updates over the next few days…


text:
Apple has a habit of filing bizarre patents, but sometimes they end up paving the way for products like the Touch Bar on the 2016 MacBooks Pro. One such patent published on Thursday could end up making its way into a future MacBook Pro, or even your clothes.
The patent in question describes a “woven display” made out of individual light transmissive fibers woven together to create a display on a fabric-like surface. This is not just any flexible display though.
These light transmissive fibers create “light pipes” which differ from embedded LEDs in that they are not actually generating the light themselves. The fibers receive light from the electronic devices and just “pipe” it to the woven display area. So, when it is off, presumably it would behave just like a tightly woven fabric — there are not any electronics in the woven fabric itself.
“Light tubes or light pipes are optical waveguides used for transporting or distributing natural or artificial light for the purpose of illumination,” the patent application reads. “The light pipes receive light from LEDs in the electronic device at the point of connection. … The light pipes can function as an electronic display.”
The images accompanying the patent show some potential uses including bands for the Apple Watch, with embedded fabric displays, and even a laptop with a secondary display made of woven fibers.
That all sounds great, but will Apple actually do anything with this patent? That remains to be seen but there are some indications we could see this light fabric be put to use. For instance, this is not the first light-fabric patent Apple has filed. This application is a follow-up to an earlier patent filed in May 2014 — building on a technology Apple has apparently been working on and incorporating newer methods for using the fabric.
- Mac Pro 2022: M2 Extreme, a familiar design, new displays, and more
- Apple mixed-reality headset: Everything we know about Apple’s VR headset
- This weird touchscreen keyboard shows Apple how it’s done
- Apple rolls out fix for Studio Display audio issue
- Data recoverers finally crack the highly secure Apple M1 chip


text:
Continuing its tradition of April product announcements, today Cloudflare announced that its WARP VPN is entering beta for macOS and Windows.
For three years, router firmware OpenWRT has been vulnerable to remote code execution attacks.
The researcher also found that it was trivial for attackers with moderate experience to bypass digital-signature checks that verify a downloaded update as the legitimate one offered by OpenWTR maintainers. The combination of those two lapses makes it possible to send a malicious update that vulnerable devices will automatically install.
This is especially concerning because OpenWRT is commonly recommend by privacy advocates as an alternative to built-in proprietary router firmware.
Hotel chain Marriott International has suffered a second data breach, exposing the personal data of up to 5.2 million guests.
The breach, which began in mid-January 2020 and was discovered at the end of February 2020, saw contact details, including names, addresses, birth dates, gender, email addresses and telephone numbers exposed. Employer name, gender, room stay preferences and loyalty account numbers were also exposed.
Marriott has also said that at present it does not believe passports, payment details or passwords were exposed in the data breach.
It sounds like login credentials of two employees were stolen, likely through a social engineering attack.
Andrew found seven Apple alternatives to use if you don’t want your data shared with the FBI, including Bitwarden, Cryptomator, and more.
There’s a bug that’s been in iOS since version 13.3.1 that prevents VPNs from encrypting network traffic and could leak some of your data.
Forensics company Cellebrite, mainly known for its iPhone hacking capabilities, released a report of top digital intelligence trends for 2020. One thing that stuck out at me:
…over 70 percent of officers are still asking witnesses and victims to surrender their devices…However, most people do not want to have their primary communication device taken away for an indefinite period. To combat this issue, 67 percent of agency management believe that mobility technology is important or very important to the agency’s long-term digital evidence strategy and 72 percent of investigators believe it is important to conduct in-the-field extractions of this data.
In other words, it sounds to me like LE wants the capability to extract data from devices on site, instead of sending it to a lab. Fast action is important for LE, but it may also be too fast for people to think about those pesky rights they have before handing their phone over.
iOS forensics company Grayshift was forced to raise its prices last year, noting that “Forensic Access to iOS continues to increase in difficulty and complexity.”
“I think it’s going to get harder and harder to find these kinds of unlocking flaws, because Apple does control the entire stack,” Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and former Facebook chief security officer, previously told Motherboard. “I think a couple more hardware revisions of understanding the ways that these unlocks are happening and [Apple is] going to make it extremely difficult. Which then will bring this debate back…”
It’s a complex issue. On one hand it’s good news for Apple customers. On the other hand, it makes the government is fight tooth and nail to take away our security.
Researchers found an insecure database thought to have belonged to Advantage Capital Funding and Argus Capital Funding. It contained over 500,000 records of personal and professional information.
- 'The Matrix Resurrections' Now Available to Rent or Buy on Apple TV
- AirGuard Lets You Detect AirTags on Android Smartphones
- Apple TV+ Makes 'The Afterparty' Premiere Episode Available on YouTube
- Apple TV+ Releases Trailer For "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” Starring Samuel L. Jackson
- PSA: Neil Young Still on Apple Music, Amidst Joe Rogan Spotify Row [Updated]
- 'Tweetbot' 6.9 Update Adds Widgets for Tweet Stats, More
A small nonprofit organization called Shadowserver helps keep the web safe. It scans almost the entire internet to create activity reports for network operators. It also hosts a database of 1.2 billion malware samples, freely accessible to everyone. But it needs to raise money to stay in operation.
For more than 15 years, Shadowserver has been funded by Cisco as an independent organization. But thanks to budget restructuring, the group now has to go out on its own. Rather than seek a new benefactor, founder Richard Perlotto says the goal is for Shadowserver to become a fully community-funded alliance that doesn’t rely on any one contributor to survive. The group needs to raise $400,000 in the next few weeks to survive the transition, and then it will still need $1.7 million more to make it through 2020…
I had never heard of Shadowserver but it’s clear the organization is important. You can become a sponsor to donate money here.


text:
"Trade deals such as NAFTA and now the TPP are being used to smuggle through a new set of transnational corporate rights, trapping nations in a web of treaties that further trump their own laws. All too often, these agreements fail to deliver on the promise of prosperity and only serve to accelerate the path towards economic enslavement. Globalization has meant sacrificing self-sufficiency and sovereignty for foreign dependency which is a sure path to world government."
Both Canada and Mexico have been invited to join the U.S., along with other countries already engaged in negotiations which will deepen trade and economic ties within the Asia-Pacific region. Such a deal would surpass NAFTA in size and scope. The U.S. led talks which have been criticized for their secretive nature, could be used to update aspects of existing trade pacts among member nations. This would provide the perfect opportunity for a backdoor renegotiation of NAFTA without officially having to open it back up.


text:
Clearwire's board of directors has unanimously recommended its shareholders reject the takeover bid by Sprint Nextel, which owns roughly half of Clearwire, and instead accept a buyout offer from Dish Network.
SoftBank has sweetened its bid for Sprint Nextel, increasing its total offer to about US$21.6 billion and boosting the amount of cash Sprint shareholders would get.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday it has no objection to Softbank acquiring Sprint Nextel, a decision that clears the way for the Federal Communications Commission to rule on the deal.
Dish Network has boosted its bid for Clearwire to US$4.40 per share, 29 percent above Sprint Nextel's most recent offer, and said it is prepared to buy up the stock of a minority of shareholders.
Government panel the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has given its approval for Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank to acquire a majority stake in Sprint Nextel in a US$20 billion deal.
SoftBank has received all the necessary state approvals for the Japanese mobile carrier to acquire a majority stake in Sprint Nextel for US$20 billion, the companies announced.
The U.S. government is in negotiations with SoftBank for greater control over equipment purchases by Sprint Nextel and the selection of one of the Japanese company's nominee to the U.S. carrier's board, according to a news report.
Sprint Nextel has increased its offer to buy out Clearwire, bidding US$3.40 per share, to counter a competing offer by Dish Network.
Sprint Nextel said it had received permission from SoftBank to negotiate a rival acquisition offer from Dish Network.
Sprint Nextel's network partner Clearwire hasn't been able to find any other big wholesale customers nor sell any of its spectrum, so selling out to Sprint is the only real option for its shareholders, the company said Monday.
Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen said Wednesday that his is an American company, and the modernization of Sprint Nextel's network will have to be done from the U.S. with operations control in the country, and English speaking staff.
Softbank's CEO, in a battle with Dish Network to acquire U.S. mobile operator Sprint Nextel, slammed a US$25.5 billion offer made by Dish, saying it is based on "imaginary" numbers and would create a company with "insane" amounts of debt.
Intel has backed SoftBank's bid for Sprint Nextel, citing that the deal would bring needed competition in the wireless space in the U.S.
Dish Network has made a US$25.5 billion bid to acquire wireless operator Sprint Nextel, hoping to edge out a rival bid from Japanese operator SoftBank.
Sprint Nextel and Softbank have pledged to keep Huawei Technologies products out of the Sprint network and try to replace Huawei gear that is already in Clearwire's network, according to a U.S. lawmaker.
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Sony Xperia Z3 review: The no-frills flagship
- 2 Samsung's Galaxy Alpha review: A peek into the Galaxy S6
- 3 Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review: The busiest, biggest and best Samsung phablet
- 4 Aldi's $279 Bauhn Sphere review: Disappointing
- 5 Nokia Lumia 735 review: Perfectly ordinary
Best Deals on GoodGearGuide
Latest News Articles
- Critical vulnerability in Git clients puts developers at risk
- Hands-on with Sony's latest smartglasses
- Think North Korea hacked Sony? Think about this
- Uber temporarily suspends service in Portland
- The 'grinch' isn't a Linux vulnerability, Red Hat says
GGG Evaluation Team
First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.
For work use, Microsoft Word and Excel programs pre-installed on the device are adequate for preparing short documents.
The Fujitsu LifeBook UH574 allowed for great mobility without being obnoxiously heavy or clunky. Its twelve hours of battery life did not disappoint.
The screen was particularly good. It is bright and visible from most angles, however heat is an issue, particularly around the Windows button on the front, and on the back where the battery housing is located.
My first impression after unboxing the Q702 is that it is a nice looking unit. Styling is somewhat minimalist but very effective. The tablet part, once detached, has a nice weight, and no buttons or switches are located in awkward or intrusive positions.


text:
Compact SUVs are set to overtake premium small cars to become the top-selling segment in the Indian passenger vehicle market this fiscal year ending March 31. More than one in every two passenger vehicles sold in the country now is a utility vehicle, driven by the strong demand for SUVs.
The introduction of new SUV models costing under Rs 10 lakh over the last few years, availability of finance and supply chain disruptions that impacted the production of hatchbacks more, meant higher-priced SUVs marched ahead of small cars in FY22.
According to data sourced from industry players, close to 600,000 entry-level SUVs — like the Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Tata’s Punch and Nexon, Renault Kiger and Hyundai Venue — were sold in the first 11 months of FY22, making up for 22% of India’s passenger vehicle market. Sales of premium hatchbacks totalled about 540,000 units, or 19% of the market.
Shashank Srivastava, Maruti Suzuki’s senior executive director (sales and marketing), cited three key reasons for the faster growth of the entry-level SUV segment: an increasing preference among consumers for the SUV design, the upright driving stance and high ground clearance that make them more suitable to drive in Indian conditions, and price points that overlap to a large extent with the premium hatches and compact sedans.
“This segment has seen a slew of new launches which have further galvanised consumer interest,” he said.
Maruti Suzuki’s Brezza is the top-selling model in the compact SUV category, Srivastava said.
SUVs account for more than half the sales at Hyundai Motor India and Tata Motors, while Mahindra & Mahindra, Jeep, Kia, MG Motor and Nissan have a pure SUV portfolio.
Over three dozen new SUVs have hit the Indian roads in the last three-four years. The share of entry-level SUVs in the overall SUV market is 60%.
For Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle division, a key reason for the segment’s growth was new model launches, especially at the affordable end of the SUV market.
"The number of new models in the compact SUV segment has more than doubled to about 14, however the product action in the hatchback space has been very limited. The launches of entry SUVs have ensured more options in the sub-Rs10 lakh range and it has eaten into the hatchback space as well as sedans," Chandra said.
While the average price has moved up in the rest of the market, it dropped a little in the entry-level SUV segment over the last two years, said Chandra. This also brought in a lot of first-time buyers into the segment. For Tata Nexon, he said, half the customers were first-time buyers.
SUVs have not only added to the volume of the automakers, but also to their profit since they offer wider margins than hatchbacks
Ravi Bhatia, managing director of consultancy firm Jato Dynamics India, said SUVs had saved several automakers from financial crises and were now a key source of profit for them. An SUV body on the hatchback platform allows companies to earn a bigger profit, which is evident from the SUV launch activity, he said.
“OEMs recognise that entry-level SUVs allowed them to sell more car value per car. The customers are happy to pay more for packaged attributes and this drives profitability for OEMs,” he said. “Customers like the higher driving position, ground clearance and aggressive design. The body style is perceived to be more capable in all driving conditions.”
- Front Page
- Pure Politics
- ET Markets
- Smart Investing
- ‘India to See Dramatic Rise in FDI Over Next 10 Years’
Emerging from a Canadian industrial conglomerate, Brookfield is today among the top three alternative asset managers in the world with over $800 billion in assets under management (AUM) across real estate, infrastructure, renewable power, private equity and credit.Banks Set to Pilot Dollar Clearing & Settlement at IFSC
JP Morgan & others to work on a system with lenders at GIFT City under the sandbox regime.Adani Puts Coal-to-PVC Mundra Plant on Hold
Executives say $4-billion petro chemicals unit suspended indefinitely; fundraising plans also scrapped.
Read More News on
Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
ETPrime stories of the day
3 mins read
Under the lens
A 65-page resignation, INR100 crore loss, a truthful man: Independent director flags muck at Modulex
10 mins read
Amid the thrill of speed, why 5G could put you at risk. (Hint: cybersecurity loopholes).
11 mins read


text:
With the start of the weekend, we've rounded up the best deals on 4K smart TVs from Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. If you're looking to pick up a new 4K TV from top brands like Sony, LG, Samsung, VIZIO, and more, now is your chance to get something great and save a lot of money.
No pain, no grain. Since YouTube's first video was uploaded in 2005, the video sharing platform has come a long way. At the beginning, it was a place for anyone and everyone to post whatever — a digital mosh pit teaming with grainy clips of people doing random things. Now, 14 years later,
Used smart home devices might be tempting because they're cheaper. But be careful: the original owner may be able to spy on you. According to Wirecutter,
If you have an older MacBook Pro, you might need to get its battery replaced. Apple is recalling 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops sold between between September 2015 and February 2017 over a battery issue it says poses a "fire safety risk.""Apple has determined that,
TL;DR: This waterproof GoPro camera makes sharing footage easy, and it's on sale for just $258.The Fourth of July weekend is a veritable gold mine for Instagram content, but let's be real for a sec: Everyone and their brother is going to post an ~aRtSy~ picture of some pyrotechnics,
Isn't it the best when celebrities break the fourth wall and acknowledge the wild rumors about themselves?Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, who are married with two kids, took to Kutcher's Instagram to hilariously mock an InTouch Weekly cover filled with made-up facts about themselves.
Aah, wedding season. It's a time for buying expensive gifts, coping with awkward seating arrangements, and strapping your flesh vessel into the worst bridesmaid or groomsman outfits known to humankind. There are a whole bunch of rules when it comes to being a wedding guest.
No records were broken in the making of this video. Said The Whale, a Vancouver based pop-rock band, just debuted an epic music video for their song "Record Shop." The clip features 129 records, all covered with carefully cut out photos of the band as they play guitar, sing,
If we learned anything from Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” music video, it’s that the Beats Pill makes for a bumpin’ speaker. (We also learned how to twerk with giant teddy bears strapped to our backs, but we’ll save that for another time.
While it might be gross, it's probably worth it. Read more...More about Science, Mashable Video, Diet, Insects, and Eco Friendly
At a hotel in Maryland, about 15 miles outside of Washington D.C.,hundreds of gamers gather to play (and watch people play) over a hundred games as quickly as they can, back-to-back, at all hours of the day and night, for a week straight.This is Awesome Games Done Quick,
Yahoo's efforts to reinvent its search reportedly have some grand ambitions.CEO Marissa Mayer wants to supplant Google as Apple's default search on mobile products, according to a report from Re/code.See also: Yahoo's New Long Game: Contextual SearchIf successful,
FrnkMit writes: Challenging a previous Code.org story on tech diversity, a Forbes.com writer interviewed 716 women who left the technology field. Her conclusion: corporate culture, and the larger social structure, is the primary cause for these women leaving the industry and never looking back.
當《GTA V》提供 4K 遊戲畫質技驚四座，原來一山還有一山高。日前開發商 Slightly Mad Studios 宣佈，在稍後推出的汽車遊戲《Project Cars》上，將會支援 12K 高清解像度。
This is the story that has everything: America's favorite sport, the intrinsic connections that makes us love these silly games, a venerable tradition, some hardball business negotiations and — most importantly — a crazed, bearded man on a purple motorcycle.
玉兔月球车勘测发现月球表面一种玄武岩样本非常特殊，与此前美国阿波罗任务发现的样本不一样。 目前，中国玉兔月球车在月球表面勘测到一种从未发现过的玄武岩样本，这是一种富含钛的岩石，通过分析这种岩石有助于 ... ...
Fans of Harry Potter have been laying flowers at Platform 9 3/4 to pay tribute to actor Alan Rickman.Rickman, who played professor Severus Snape in the film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's book series, died on Thursday at the age of 69.See also:


text:
Reliance Jio is gearing up to launch India’s cheapest 4G VoLTE smartphone at a price of Rs. 1,000. According to a report revealed by a leading news portal, Reliance Jio is scheduled to launch the cheapest 4G VoLTE smartphone before the end of Q1 2017.
According to a study conducted by a leading research firm, nearly 7 out of 10 smartphones shipped in India are 4G LTE capable. In a similar way, nearly 8 out of 10 handsets are VoLTE ready.
The launch of Reliance Jio 4G services has created a huge demand for smartphones with VoLTE capability. In fact, the demand for 4G LTE phones doubled when compared to 2015. This is indeed a good signal for other competing 4G operators in India such as Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, and Idea.
Reliance Jio 4G VoLTE smartphone specifications
There are reports that Reliance Jio is planning to launch a new smartphone between Rs. 1000 and Rs. 1500. Based on reports available so far, the handset will be powered by a Spreadtrum 9820 processor, 2GB RAM, 16G internal storage, 8MP rear camera and 5MP front-facing snapper.
Moreover, you can expect an improved camera and a large display. We expect Reliance to integrate a 4-inch or 4.5-inch display. Since the budget is low, you can expect a 4-inch display.
Reliance Jio 4G speeds decreased
The speed offered by the Reliance Jio 4G decreased by about 20 percent in October across 17 circles. As per reports, Reliance Jio posted 20 percent decline in speeds from 7.2Mbps in September 2016 to 6Mbps in October 2016.
Industry analysts are of the opinion that the decrease in speed in due to the huge number of customers signing up for the free service. As many as 17 out of the 22 markets reported fall in speeds.
Reliance and Airtel fiasco
Recently, Reliance Jio and Airtel had entered into a fierce battle regarding the allocation of interconnection points. Meanwhile, TRAI has imposed huge penalties to Airtel because they declined to provide adequate points as per agreement.
While the Reliance Jio 4G provides a speed of 6Mbps, Airtel offers 11.47Mbps. Hence, when it comes to quality Airtel will retain the market share. Airtel has blamed Reliance by stating that the Mukesh Ambani-owned company is not capable of providing services as per latest technological standards.
To recall, Reliance is already selling a wide range of LYF 4G-enabled handsets starting from Rs. 2999. The addition of a budget 4G VoLTE smartphone will be a big boon for the people in rural areas.
What do you think about the upcoming Reliance Jio 4G VoLTE smartphone? Post your comments here. Stay tuned with PC Tablet.


text:
FACEBOOK revealed on Saturday that its internal network was hacked last month.
The attackers were able to access the tech giant's computer network after employees visited a mobile developer's website which downloaded malware - software often used to steal information - onto employees' laptops.
"As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day," the company wrote in a blog post.
The staffers whose laptops were infected were found to be running up-to-date anti-virus software. But the attackers used what is known as a "zero-day" exploit, software that exploits previously unknown flaws in computer software, making it almost impossible for anti-virus software to detect.
The flaw was found in a piece of Java software, and Facebook said it has reported the vulnerability to Oracle, the company that makes the software.
Java has been the centre of a global security scare.
Last month the US Department of Homeland Security urged people to disable Java software after hackers figured out how to install software that enabled them to steal users' identity, credit card and banking information and attack other websites.
Facebook said it was not alone in the attack and said "others were attacked and infiltrated recently as well", though it did not name the affected companies.
"We plan to continue collaborating on this incident through an informal working group and other means," the company said.
The social network is adamant that no user data was compromised.
Java was contacted for comment.
technology top stories
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson National Technology Editor AN Australian online retailer claims its new smartphone is the cheapest 4G handset in the world. But shopping around suggests that claim is untrue.
JAMES LAW THE days of downloading your favourite TV show for free are numbered. Here’s how the piracy crackdown could cost you.
James Billington Technology Reporter IS THERE a heap of extra brain power ready to unlock in all of us or is it one big myth? Scientists put their grey matter to use to find out.


text:
Tuesday 28 April, 2015 Strasbourg, 28.04.2015 - The head of Europe's 47-nation human rights organisation has called on Indonesia not to carry out the execution by firing squad of 9 people which is expected to take place in the coming days. "The death penalty is a terrible injustice which can never be put right," said Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland. "I urge the Indonesian authorities to refrain from carrying out these ex
A Chinese fashion designer has used complex sensory technology to create a dress that moves, changes shape and even lights up when it is looked at. Montreal-based designer Ying Gao installed her high-fashion creations with eye-tracking technology so that they activate when they sense someone’s gaze.
We are in website design and development service provider under the brand name Budget Website UAE, to provide website design, development and ecommerce website design services to small businesses and startups at a substantially lower cost. Our ecommerce website design dubai packages start from AED 6000/- and we are capable to handle any and all requirements for your e-commerce website. http://budgetwebsiteuae.com/e-commerce-website-packages.html


text:
Retailers are using Instacart to compete against Amazon on last mile delivery. We visualize Instacart's prominent retail partnerships below.
Instacart just raised a $600M Series F round of funding from D1 Capital Partners, valuing the startup at $7.6B. The new round underscores Instacart’s growing popularity among grocery retailers.
Last month, discount grocer Aldi announced it would expand its online delivery partnership with Instacart nationwide by Thanksgiving.
Earlier in September, Kroger announced it would expand Instacart delivery to 1,600 of its 2,800 stores in the US. That same week, Walmart Canada said it would launch Instacart delivery in Toronto.
What’s driving retailers to partner with Instacart?
The delivery service is positioning itself as a necessity for grocery retailers that need to compete against Amazon and others, especially following Amazon’s Whole Foods acquistion in mid-2017.
Below, we created an infographic to highlight the breadth of retailers now partnering with Instacart.
Note: The infographic below contains retailers that are subsidiaries of other retailers featured in the image. The infographic does not include all Instacart partnerships. Retailers are grouped by their number of total locations.
Since Whole Foods’ acquisition by Amazon, Instacart’s partnerships have expanded under other major retailers like CVS, Albertsons, Costco, and Publix. The startup now partners with over 300 retailers, and serves 4K cities across North America.If you aren’t already a client, sign up for a free trial to learn more about our platform.


text:
Mango Materials was named the #5 Hottest Emerging Company in the Bioeconomy 2016-17 by Biofuels Digest. In 2014-15, Mango Materials was ranked #33 and in 2015-16 was #37.
Biofuels Digest hosts their annual Hot 40 and Hot 50 rankings to recognize biotechnology innovation and achievement in fuels, biobased chemicals, nutrition, health, genetics, and materials. The rankings are based 50 percent on votes from an invited panel of distinguished international selectors, and 50 percent on votes from subscribers of The Digest andNuu. Overall, more than 100,000 individual company ratings were received from panelists and voters in the annual Hot 40 and Hot 50 rankings. The Hot 40 recognizes smaller, emerging companies founded in the past 7 years.
To see the full list of Hot 40 companies, click here.
Bloomberg reports on several initiatives to make textiles and other consumer goods more environmental. Many companies, such as Levi Strauss & Co. are looking at safer, more green alternatives to make their signature jeans. The article includes some insight from Monica Becker of the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council (GC3) and describes the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry group which involves Levi’s, Patagonia, Steelcase, and Mango Materials. Students at the center are working with these companies to develop safer materials.
To read the entire Bloomberg article, click here.
Molly will be presenting at the High Water Women (HWW) fourth annual Symposium on Impact Investing in New York at the City of New York Graduate Center on October 18. 2016. HWW is a not for profit volunteer organization with a focus on empowering women and youth.
This year’s Symposium builds on the themes which HWW has been developing since it first launched its impact symposium program in 2013: the practical realities of building an impact portfolio, the opportunities, challenges and latest developments in impact investing and women in the impact investment market-place and will feature keynote speaker Elizabeth Littlefield, President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
To read more about the event, click here.
Biomass Magazine featured 5 companies that received funding from the Department of Energy as part of the Small Business Vouchers program. According to the article, these “bioenergy collaborations will focus on cleaner methods of producing biochemicals, including developing biodegradable substitutes for conventional, oil-based plastics, as well as developing more energy efficient and carbon-conserving methods of producing biofuels.” The companies featured include Avatar Sustainable Technologies, HelioBioSys, Mango Materials, Virent Inc., and ZymoChem.
To read the full article, click here.
The Daily Californian features eight companies working with Berkeley Labs as part of Small Business Voucher Program
Mango Materials was among the companies featured in the Daily Californian article from August 22, 2016. These businesses will be assigned to work with two to five scientists from the Berkeley Lab along with obtaining access to the lab’s equipment. For the round 2 of the Small Business Vouchers program, the DOE awarded a total of $1.1 million to the businesses, with each voucher between $50,000 and $300,000. Mango Materials’ CEO, Molly Morse, provided background for the article and discussed how important a program like this is to small businesses in manufacturing.
Read the full Daily Californian article here.
Five companies receive $1M total for Round 2 of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Small Business Vouchers Pilot
Mango Materials was one of five companies featured in the EIN News press release surrounding the DOE’s Small Business Vouchers program. Other companies featured include ZymoChem (Berkeley and Emeryville, CA), HelioBioSys (Woodside, CA), Virent (Madison, WI), and Avatar Sustainable Technologies (Syracuse, NY). Each of these companies are partnered with national labs in order to advance their technology and promote commercialization.
Read the press release here.
Mango Materials is one of eight companies awarded funding to work with Berkeley Lab as part of the Department of Energy’s Small Business Vouchers program. A total of 43 small businesses around the country were awarded vouchers in the second round of this award.
“We are thrilled to be working with the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU) at Berkeley Lab,” said Allison Pieja, Chief Technology Officer of Mango Materials. “Their expertise will help us accelerate commercialization while exploring downstream processing options.”
To read more about the program and Mango Materials’ involvement, click here.
“Think of a farmer and what do you see? Most probably say something like: “An older, white man, dressed in overalls and a flannel shirt.” And the truth is, most would be right. The average United States farmer is a white male around 58 years of age. But there’s a new contingent rapidly claiming a stake in the industry: women.”
Women@Forbes recently released an article about women in agriculture which included Mango Materials’ participation in the 2015 Ag Innovation Showcase. Other awesome female run companies in the article include Stony Creek Colors, Micronic Technologies, Whole Trees, and Blue Apron.
To read the article, click here.
Terrapin Bright Green’s blog listed Mango Materials as one of the new technologies added to their market readiness chart in Tapping into Nature. Other technologies include squid-inspired self healing polymers, fully recyclable shoes, engineered silk, and non-toxic hair dyes. Click here to read Terrapin Bright Green’s blog post about these exciting technologies.
Mango Materials is honored to be featured in Larta Institutes’ 2015 Annual Report. Larta’s mission is “to energize the transformation of technology ideas into solutions that elevate economic opportunities and make lives better for people around the world.” We have been part of Larta’s network since our original NSF Phase 1 award and more recently participated in sponsored events such as the 2015 Ag Innovation Showcase in St. Louis, MO and 2016 Women in Food & Ag panel in Palo Alto, CA. We are grateful for all of the continued support the Larta Institute has provided! To read the full annual report, click here.


text:
MAL Vs MDV | Match 2 Jun 25, 2019
MAL 0/0 (0.2)
Latest News on New Orders
Showing of 0 - 10 from 6 results
New Orders - Total results - 6
Dec 26, 2016
L&T Construction bags orders worth Rs 3,039 croreIn the water and effluent treatment sector, the company won orders worth Rs 1,422 crore, L&T said in a filing to BSE.
Nov 22, 2016
L&T bags Rs 1,926 crore projects in various biz segmentsIn the power transmission and distribution segment, it bagged orders worth Rs 571 crore.
Sep 20, 2016
Larsen and Toubro bags orders worth Rs 1,726 croreInfrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has bagged orders worth Rs 1,726 crore across various business segments.
Sep 01, 2016
Factory output jumps to 13-month high in August on surge in new ordersNikkei India manufacturing PMI went up to 52.6 last month, from 51.8 in July
Jan 27, 2016
Rise in new orders: India business confidence picks up in Jan, finds surveyArray
Nov 02, 2015
October manufacturing PMI slips to near 2-year low amid shrinking new ordersNikkei India Manufacturing PMI stood at 50.7 in October, down from 51.2 in September, reflecting a weaker improvement in business conditions across the sector


text:
Last week, at the EGaming Review 2012 Operator Awards, BetDash took home the Innovation in Gaming award. Presented to the company with the most disruptive innovation, the award is a great testament to the contributions of everyone on the BetDash team and within the Paddy Power organization.
Three years ago, we had an early prototype, some grand visions, but very little background in what is a huge industry outside of the US. Now we are poised to disrupt a part of that industry. Lots of exciting potential for BetDash!


text:
Canada seeks $3B in retaliatory tariffs against U.S. over meat labelling
U.S. requirement for country-of-origin labelling considered protectionist industry
Canada is seeking permission from the World Trade Organization to impose more than $3 billion a year in tariffs on products imported from the United States in the latest move in a trade battle.
Ottawa is taking the action because the U.S. has failed to repeal a contentious law requiring stringent country-of-origin labelling to identify where livestock was born, raised and slaughtered before being sold in the U.S.
Canada's meat industry says the law violates trade agreements and has cost producers billions of dollars. On May 18, the trade body agreed with that argument for the fourth time, and sided with Canada and Mexico over the issue.
Labelling called protectionist
Backers of the labelling say consumers have a right to know where their food comes from.
But industry groups, Canada and Mexico call it a thinly disguised protectionist measure that complicates the sorting process for Americans who import foreign meat and quietly compels them to use U.S. suppliers.
U.S. out of options after latest WTO meat labelling ruling
After the most recent win, which the government called "final and without the possibility of further appeal," Canadian officials vowed to pursue the matter further by seeking permission to slap a tariff of up to 100 per cent on U.S. imports on a slew of products, including:
- Baked goods.
- Prepared food.
"Despite the WTO's final ruling that U.S. country of origin labelling measures are discriminatory, the United States continues to avoid its international trade obligations," Trade Minister Ed Fast said in a statement Our government will now move ahead under the WTO process and seek authorization for over $3 billion in retaliation."
"The WTO has ruled that the United States is out of options and out of time," Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz added. "The only way for the United States to avoid billions in immediate retaliation is to repeal [the law]."


text:
TORFAEN Leisure Trust has announced it will be increasing customer prices — and the news has received a mixed response from residents and leisure centre users.
A hike of three per cent is set to be introduced from April 1 to “ensure leisure services in Torfaen are sustainable in the long term”, a trust spokeswoman said last week.
It will see junior lesson prices increase from £3.89 to £4.00, and peak fitness suite prices at Pontypool Active Living centre and Cwmbran Stadium go from £5 to £5.15.
But the rise will not affect the direct debit fitness membership fee, while residents who meet the existing leisure concessionary scheme criteria will continue to be eligible for the discounted rates.
Alun Williams, chair of Torfaen Leisure Trust, said: “All Torfaen Leisure Trust leisure centres will remain excellent value for money and still be far less expensive than many facilities managed by neighbouring councils or by private organisations. It will still be possible to use our facilities for less than a pound a day.”
Leisure centre user Nicky Malson said facilities had “to be affordable, or government initiatives for health and fitness are pointless”.
John Beavan, chair of the Blaenavon Swimming and Leisure Trust, said he worried it would deter some users: “Speaking for people from Blaenavon, by the time you pay for bus journeys to and from the centre, as well as the entry fee, you have paid a fortune.”
But Pontypool Paralympian John Harris called it a “necessary evil”. “Such facilities are too important to lose, and if prices have to go up a bit so that doesn’t happen I think it’s a small price to pay.”


text:
Tel Aviv based cleantech company UBQ Materials, which develops technologies to transform waste into sustainable materials, announced that it will partner up with multinational retail solutions provider Mainetti. The joint venture will see the companies collaborate on introducing eco-friendly and sustainable raw materials for the global fashion industry and retailers.
Leading sustainable change
Founded in 2012 by Chairman Yehuda Pearl, who also founded Sabra, the leading hummus brand in the U.S.; and CEO Jack Bigio, UBQ’s proprietary technology converts residual household waste into a sustainable bio-based substitute for oil-based plastics. By diverting landfill-destined waste, UBQ’s solution helps prevent methane emissions, groundwater contamination and other social and environmental harms associated with the proliferation of landfills, all while creating a novel raw material with climate-positive impact. Essentially, the company turns your unwanted leftovers and trash into turtle-friendly materials for the retail world.
“Industries like retail and fashion are ripe to lead sustainable change,” stated Jack Bigio, Co-Founder and CEO, UBQ Materials Israel. “It is easy to overlook the impact of a hanger, but when we zoom out, we understand that hangers are the common denominator across all brands, across the globe. The beauty of manufacturing products with a climate positive material such as UBQ is the ability to significantly impact carbon footprints while leaving no impact on consumers’ experience.”
With billions of hangers produced globally each year, the impact that this retail mainstay alone can have on the environment is significant. . The development of Mainetti garment hangers containing UBQ material has resulted in hangers with a significantly reduced carbon footprint. These sustainable products are currently pending Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) certification, which is a globally recognized measure for the production of safe and eco-friendly products.
“Just as we pioneered hanger and plastics recycling, having introduced sustainable supply chain solutions for customers nearly six decades ago, Mainetti is proud to be driving meaningful change with this new, innovative offering,” explained Roberto Peruzzo, CEO, Mainetti. “UBQ’s best-in-class technology, paired with our global footprint as the leading retail solutions provider, will allow us to help the fashion industry revolutionize sustainable practices and have a lasting impact on the planet.”
Mainetti’s exclusive collaboration with UBQ for hangers offers brands across the fashion and retail industries a cost-effective method to significantly reduce their carbon footprint and a new way to put action towards the current waste crisis. It also provides these brands with another route to connecting with consumer audiences who are armed with information and whose buying habits are an extension of their own environmental values.
“The fashion industry is receiving a lot of attention for its contributions to pollution and climate change,” said Marc Abeles, Global Marketing Director, Mainetti. “Together with UBQ, we are empowering our clients to do something about the important issues that experts, decision-makers and consumers alike are concerned about right now. By providing products such as our innovative, sustainable hangers, we enable retailers and brands to design more responsibly and achieve their sustainability objectives.


text:
ClassNK has released its new Guidelines for Electronic Logbooks, with the publication specifying basic requirements for the approval of electronic logbooks used on ships.
The classification society says that it expects electronic logbooks for decks, machinery, and other items to become more widespread in the near future as shipping companies transition to more paperless systems.
However, under the current conventional framework, only logbooks required by MARPOL have their electronic specifications defined, with unified requirements for electronic logbooks in other areas not yet established. As a result, the use of electronic logbooks in those other areas currently requires individual approval from flag states.
ClassNK’s guidelines specify technical and operational requirements for this approval process for electronic logbooks, as well as product testing recommendations for their functional requirements incorporating existing IMO guidelines and international standards.
The Guidelines for Electronic Logbooks are now available to download on ClassNK’s website.


text:
There are fashion companies using technology. There are technology companies that focus on fashion. And then there are technology companies that bring true innovation to the fashion industry, and TripleLift is one of those companies.
With a new $2.1 million seed round lead by True Ventures, TripleLift is expanding their social advertising campaigns that look to leverage social sharing. Last October they worked with Gucci to create banner ads with “Pin It” buttons allowing the images to go viral and have since worked with major brands like Martha Stuart, Puma, H&M and Armani Exchange.
“The web is increasingly dominated by images, and images are quickly becoming the primary currency with which brands communicate with their potential customers,” CEO Eric Berry tells TechCrunch. “TripleLift identifies how consumers engage with brands across the web and uses that data to create more relevant and effective advertising.”
Push vs. Pull Marketing
This reactive advertising capitalizes on two important shifts in fashion. First, it recognizes the difference between push and pull marketing. Fashion brands have always tried to maintain a tight control on the image and use of their products. But with social media sites like Polyvore, “users” have taken brands into their own hands. Luxury companies like Gucci once tried to fight these platforms and even once blocked Polyvore from using their catalog photos.
But when Gucci’s “Pin It” Fall/Winter 2012 digital campaign went live last year, Polyvore was included along with WSJ.com, Style.com, Lifestyle Mirror and New York Magazine’s fashion blog The Cut. The campaign showed that the company was opening its doors to consumers taking the brand as their own.
Of course this isn’t to say that Gucci really gets it yet. As Mashable points out, their Pinterest profile only had 3,100 followers with 432 pins while Michael Kors has 53,000 followers and 1,200 pins. And interesting enough, the ads did NOT include “Clip It” buttons for Polvore users to create sets with. Perhaps they still aren’t cool with the “collage.”
Instant Ads For Instant Trends
With millions of people able to instantly react to content, fashion trends are quickly changing faster than ever. With Twitter, a style can be “so 60 seconds ago” and innovations in manufacturing have allowed “Fast Fashion” companies like H&M to get the newest runway trends into their stores within weeks, often before the original designers can manufacture them for their own luxury retail buyers.
But now there’s a technological solution for that.
TripleLift’s newest innovation allows advertising campaigns to react and respond to what images and products are trending. By using image recognition, the company monitors 10 million engagement points per day on social media platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram to figure out what is being shared.
The company can then use face detection and color analysis to crop images and generate a new banner ad that focuses on the newly trending product. So while a brand might start with a planned and orchestrated campaign for a new product line, they can instantly tweak it and react to what specific items people like the most.
TripleLift CEO Eric Berry says that they are trying to “tie together owned, earned, and paid media.”
Berry along with his co-founders — CTO Shaun Zacharia and Chief Strategy Officer Ari Lewine — all worked together at AppNexus, a advertising platform for mobile developers.
The round was led by True Ventures and iNovia Capital, with participation from NextView Ventures, Laconia Ventures, MESA+, the Social Internet Fund, Pinterest investor William Lohse’s Social Starts, former DoubleClick executive Paul Olliver, and Liberty City Ventures.


text:
This company has signed the 'Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh', a program endorsed by Bangladeshi and international unions and labor rights organizations. The ground-breaking program includes independent safety inspections with public reports, mandatory factory building renovations, the obligation by brands and retailers to underwrite the cost of repairs, and a vital role for workers and their unions â all in a legally-binding, enforceable agreement.
Source: Bangladesh Accord (2019)
The 2022 Fashion Transparency Index reviewed 250 of the world's largest fashion brands and retailers and ranked them according to how much they disclose about their human rights and environmental policies, practices and impacts. Brands owned by this company scored 44%, signifying that it is making significant efforts in the given areas, and has made some or most of this information publicly available. The average score was 24% and the highest score was 78%.
Source: Fashion Revolution (2022)
This company received a score of 5.5/100 (retrieved 10-Oct-2020) in the Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI), a system for evaluating supply chain practices in China, particularly in regards to environmental management and water pollution. Scores are calculated using government compliance data, online monitoring data, and third-party environmental audits, as well as trends in the environmental performance of factories in the company's supply chains.
Source: IPE (2020)
The Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge (Transparency Pledge) helps demonstrate apparel and footwear companies' commitment towards greater transparency in their manufacturing supply chain. Transparency of a company's manufacturing supply chain better enables a company to collaborate with civil society in identifying, assessing, and avoiding actual or potential adverse human rights impacts. This is a critical step that strengthens a company's human rights due diligence. This company is not aligned with the Transparency Pledge and has made no commitment to publish supplier factory information.
Source: Transparency Pledge (2019)
Greenpeace launched its "Detox My Fashion" campaign in 2011 to expose the direct links between global clothing brands, their suppliers and toxic water pollution around the world. As a result, many companies, including this one, committed to Greenpeace's Detox Program. The 2016 Detox Catwalk report focused on implementation, assessing the steps taken by fashion brands to fulfil their commitments using three criteria: Detox 2020 plan, PFC elimination and Transparency. This company is "committed to Detox and has made progress implementing its plans, but its actions need to evolve faster to achieve the 2020 Detox goal".
Source: Greenpeace (2016)
This retailer has committed to being a fur free retailer, as recognised by the International Fur Free Retailer Program.
Source: Fur Free Retailer (2019)
This company has taken angora items off the shelves and promised not to use angora again, following a PETA campaign launched in Dec 2013 which revealed the cruelty inflicted on angora rabbits in Chinese factory farms, where 90% of the world's angora is produced.
Source: PETA (2018)
This company is a member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in March 2011 by a group of global apparel and footwear companies and non-profit organizations (representing nearly one third of the global market share for apparel and footwear). The Coalition's goals are to reduce the apparel industry's environmental and social impact, and to develop a universal index to measure environmental and social performance of apparel products.
Source: Sustainable Apparel Coalition (2021)
This company is a member of The Fashion Pact, a global initiative of companies in the fashion and textile industry (ready-to-wear, sport, lifestyle and luxury) including their suppliers and distributors, all committed to a common core of key environmental goals in three areas: stopping global warming, restoring biodiversity and protecting the oceans.
Source: The Fashion Pact (2022)
This company is a member of the amfori Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), an industry-driven movement that aims to monitor and assess workplace standards across the global supply chain. Participating companies are expected to follow a code of conduct which has 11 principles including no bonded labour, no child labour, fair renumeration, decent working hours and ethical business behavior.
Source: amfori (2023)
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre digital platform presents news and allegations relating to the human rights impact of over 20,000 companies. Their enhanced Company Dashboards also include financial information, key data points based on corporate policies, and scores from prominent civil society benchmarks. Follow the link and use the search function to view this company's dashboard.
Source: BHRRC (2022)
Products / BrandsMango
Mango Womens Fashion


text:
Bentley Murdock, a professional musician and resident of San Luis Obispo for 18 years, has been picked to be the city's first social media ambassador.
As such, it will be his job to promote the city through social media and build a community of online users that will be self-sustaining. He will also lead the city's Tourism Business Improvement District 's social media efforts, promote local hotels through social media marketing, and attend local events and then showcase them online.
His job, simply put, is to be everywhere, said Ermina Karim, president of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce. The announcement about Murdock's hiring was made Thursday morning at the chamber's Good Morning San Luis Obispo breakfast meeting.
Murdock will work under a one-year, $50,000 contract and be employed by Rosetta, which is the marketing agency hired by the tourism district.
Forty-four people vied to become the ambassador, submitting videos for consideration and online voting. The top 10 applicants were then interviewed by a panel of representatives from the tourism district, the city, local marketing agencies and the tourism industry.
Murdock said he was excited to be picked. "This city has such an amazing atmosphere and buzz," he said.
He plays in a band called Bentley Murdock and the Soul Purpose. Murdock is also writing poetry that he is compiling for a book he hopes to publish this year.
Most Popular Stories
- Cantwell Targets Gender Gap in Small-Business Loans
- Chrysler Gets Nod as a Top Employer for Hispanic Women
- Hispanic Entrepreneurs Set Pace in Florida
- Perry's Lawyers Try to Close Abuse Case
- South Korea's Kia to Invest $1 Billion in Mexico
- FBI Probes JPMorgan Hack
- What's the Law for Kids at Gun Ranges?
- Apple Loses Bid to Block Sales of 9 Samsung Phones
- Mario Lopez Inks New Clear Channel Deal
- Health-care Deal Aids Port Contract Talks


text:
this young moroccan designer is reclaiming his arab identity
Anwar Bougroug's unisex fashion label mixes traditional Moroccan handcraft with Scandinavian minimalism.
what’s dating like as a young muslim woman?
"I feel like people have a certain preconception of what a Muslim girl believes about herself and I think it's a shame."
sza opens up about why she stopped wearing a hijab
"Kids were very sure about how they felt about me and how they felt about Islam."
hijabi model halima aden on her hopes for fashion and the future
'I say I'm different, but really, aren't we all different?'
muslim blogger hoda katebi on the connection between your closet and the revolution
The ethical, anti-capitalist blogger behind JooJoo Azad discusses whitewashed representations, the radical work of Muslim creatives, and her hopes for the representation of Middle Eastern women.
moma re-hangs works by artists from muslim countries to protest trump's ban
Each work comes with a new description making the museum's intentions very clear.
muslim teen competes for miss minnesota in hijab and burkini
19-year-old Halima Aden is the first fully-covered Muslim contestant to participate in the Miss Minnesota USA competition.
people are pledging to register as muslim to protest trump’s islamophobic database
'If this new administration requires Muslims to register but not the KKK, #IWillRegister.'
muslim teen crashes anti-muslim rally with epic selfies
Zakia Belkhiri, unintentional activist and Leonardo DiCaprio fan, had the perfect response to hateful protesters.
exploring the backlash against high-fashion hijabs
Though French government minister Laurence Rossignol is facing criticism for comments she made comparing veiling to slavery, her position has been echoed by her countrymen in the fashion industry including YSL co-founder Pierre Bergé and designer Agnes...
uniqlo introduces its first hijab collection in the united states
The Japanese retailer and UK born designer Hana Tajima team up again for a comfort-first and culturally sensitive collection.
a call for creativity in muslim modest wear
As Western retailers and design houses fight for the growing hijabista market, we examine the subtleties of this very specific fashion universe.
Sana Anoshe Malik


text:
Amid growing cryptocurrency adoption in the Philippines, the country’s central bank is seeking measures to better protect investors by raising local crypto awareness.
The Philippine central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), wants to promote crypto education as the authority sees many benefits associated with crypto and blockchain, the BSP said in a statement to Cointelegraph.
“The focus of the BSP is on the ability of virtual assets to improve the provision of financial services, in particular payment and remittance services, as it has the potential to provide a faster and cheaper transfer of funds, both for the environment nationally and internationally”, affirmed the BSP.
According to the BSP, the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the Philippines has increased in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes in the Philippines hit new highs on some peer-to-peer crypto exchanges in July 2021.
“During the pandemic, we have seen consumers’ willingness to explore the virtual realm, particularly online platforms that promise to offer revenue-generating opportunities or gaming apps to win,” the BSP said.
In response to growing adoption, the Philippine central bank is not planning to adopt any significant limits on cryptocurrency investments or trading at this time. Instead, the BSP is seeking to implement a regulatory approach aimed at providing an “enabling environment” through “proportionate and risk-based regulations,” the central bank, stati, said:
“The BSP will continue to enhance and expand our financial consumer awareness campaigns designed specifically to educate relevant stakeholders about virtual assets, both in terms of the benefits and risks involved.”
Despite pointing to an “enabling environment” for cryptocurrencies, the BSP has a very negative stance on the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method. “Virtual assets, in particular cryptocurrencies, whose values are derived from user community agreement, are not inherently designed to serve as legal tender,” the bank noted.
According to the BSP, cryptocurrencies cannot serve as a means of payment due to risks such as high volatility and a high potential for illegal use or theft due to increased anonymity and “weak cyber and digital identity security protocols.” Among other risks, the bank mentioned the irreversibility of crypto transactions, meaning that no central authority would be able to cancel a Bitcoin transaction or restore said funds.
The BSP also noted that the regulator considers cryptocurrencies to be virtual assets rather than a currency. “Since the price of most virtual assets is driven by speculation, virtual assets expose users to price volatility and risk of loss,” the BSP noted. To address this, the central bank issued guidelines for virtual asset service providers as part of Circular No. 1108 in January 2021.
Related: Philippines Halts Virtual Asset Provider License Applications
The BSP still sees great opportunities in utilizing blockchain technology to improve the security and efficiency of financial services in the Philippines. The central bank is currently exploring the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The BSP plans to undertake the CBDCPh Project, a pilot project that will enable inter-institutional fund transfers using a wholesale CBDC platform. According to the bank, a retail CBDC is not very relevant for the country in the short term.


text:
“Ramaphoria” boosted the rand and revived investor sentiment on South Africa. But deep underground in the country’s platinum mines, there’s very little cause for optimism.
Producers in South Africa, which accounts for about 70 percent of the world’s mined platinum, are closing shafts and cutting thousands of jobs as a stronger rand combines with stagnating prices for the metal in squeezing profit margins.
The future looks equally bleak, as reduced demand for diesel engines and the rise of electric cars threatens to erode the need for the metal used to cut pollution. Continue Reading →


text:
Tencent pledges tough new rules as China cracks down on gaming addiction
- Thursday, September 6th, 2018
- Share this article:
Chinese tech giant Tencent is set to introduce new age controls to its most popular mobile game franchise as the Chinese government pushes for stricter measures aimed at combating video game addiction.
From mid-September, the firm, which also operates the WeChat messaging platform and social network, will introduce a real-name registration system to its Honour of Kings games, which will link directly to Chinas public security database. The connection will be used to identify children playing the game, and limit the time they spend on the game.
Honour of Kings has proved hugely popular in China, especially among younger consumers. The mobile-first game is a multiplayer role-playing battle game based on historical figures from China, and while free-to-play, users can pay real money to upgrade their characters and purchase in-app cosmetic items. Last year, government-owned newspaper the Peoples Daily attacked the games addictive nature,calling it “poison” and a “drug”.
Following the criticism, Tencent restricted the time children could play, with those under 12 limited to one hour per day and those aged 13 to 18 limited to two hours per day. The new connection with the official government database will ensure that children using the app are held to those limits.
Gaming addiction has become a growing concern in China, with President Xi Jinping speaking out about the need to address the problem, and raising concerns about how it was affecting childrens developing eyesight. Following his comments, Chinas Ministry of Education announced plans to curb the number of online games available to children.
Tencent posted its first profit decline since 2005 this summer, and cited increased regulations as the reason behind the fall, in particular pointing to the approval process that enabled companies to monetise mobile games. Earlier this month, another Tencent game, Monster Hunter World, was banned in China just days after going on sale. The reason behind the ban has not been revealed, but the Chinese government has a history of blocking the release of games in the past, often due to excessive violence, drug references or sexual content.


text:
A brand new budget supermarket which has been coined the 'Russian Lidl' is coming to the UK and plans on opening an outlet an hour's drive from Surrey.
It has just announced its first UK outlet will open in Preston on August 14, with hundreds more expected to follow including in Southampton, the Mirror reports.
For Surrey residents in the south-western corner of the county seeking a cheaper deal, the Hampshire city store will be located just over an hour's drive away.
But there is still hope for those wishing for an outlet closer to home; the discounter has said it wants to open 300 sites in the UK in the next eight to ten years, and at least one of those could be in Surrey.
Where would you like to see a Mere store open in Surrey? Join the conversation with other SurreyLive readers here .
Mere UK business development manager Aleksandr Chkalov told The Grocer: "On August 14 we will be glad to present our new retail model: a real hard discounter, with no shelves, no service, no convenience, just the lowest prices."
According to the Mirror, Mere trades as Svetofor in Russia and has 3,200 stores internationally. It opened its first European Mere store in 2018.
Countries it now operates in include Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine.
Mere stores are expected to double up as warehouses, with images from other sites across Europe showing items displayed on pallets.
Bake On Bake Off newsletter
If you're obsessed with The Great British Bake Off and all things baking, you're in luck as we are too!
Our Bake On Bake Off newsletter is jam-packed with gossip and reaction from the famous TV show.
Plus, it's stuffed with super quick and easy recipes, anyone can try at home.
It's free and it takes seconds to sign up - simply press here and enter your email address.
Changed your mind? There's an 'unsubscribe' button at the bottom of every newsletter we send out.
Shoppers pick items directly from these pallets, saving Mere time and money on stacking shelves.
Suppliers are also expected to deliver straight to the shops, which will each be about 10,000 square feet.
Each must have parking spaces for 30 to 40 cars and a community population of 60,000 or more.
As well as fresh food, Mere shops across Europe also have chilled and frozen ranges. They won’t sell items such as newspapers, magazines and other premium, branded goods.
Each store in the UK will have just eight staff, to keep costs down.
Of course, we won't really be able to compare the Lidl and Aldi prices with those of Mere until the first shop opens.
In January 2021, price comparison website Which? declared Lidl the cheapest supermarket for a trolley of groceries in 2020.
The discount supermarket was just 34p cheaper than its nearest rival Aldi when Which? totted up a trolley of 45 branded and own-label groceries.


text:
Netflix Inc. NFLX-Q soared during the pandemic as people flocked to the video-streaming giant to occupy themselves at home amid widespread public-health restrictions. But now that much of the world has reopened, Netflix has staged a reversal of fortune.
The company forecasted a loss of two million subscribers Tuesday in the second quarter this year, on top of a loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter – its first drop in 10 years. Shares in Netflix plunged 35 per cent on the news Wednesday, erasing about US$54-billion in market value.
It’s a sharp contrast from the past two years, when tens of millions of viewers signed up with the streaming service during the pandemic to catch hits such as Outer Banks, The Queen’s Gambit and Squid Game.
Today, however, Netflix is facing a number of headwinds. The company partly blamed its declining subscriber count on password sharing, where people watch the service using someone else’s account, and said it’s working to address the problem.
In addition, some customers have balked at successive price increases in recent years. And competing services offered by Disney, Amazon, Paramount and others are racking up customers with different content and pricing. Netflix also lost 700,000 subscribers in March as it shut down its service in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
Netflix said it’s taking steps to address its problems, such as working on a lower-cost ad-supported option. However, the streaming service didn’t provide any details about how such a service would work or how much it would cost. Another rival, Hulu, has long offered an ad-supported tier.
For some Netflix customers, the problem is simply a lack of engaging shows. Toronto resident Ryan Chatterjee, 28, said he cancelled his subscription in March, 2021, after one year of having a basic membership plan. Prior to that, he was sharing his former roommate’s account for a year.
“The content there wasn’t very good,” Mr. Chatterjee said. “A lot of the Netflix original stuff just isn’t for my taste. I always look at reviews, too … because I don’t want to waste hours of my life, then realize it’s bad.”
Louis-Etienne Dubois, professor of creative industries management at Ryerson University, said the subscriber losses so far aren’t a major problem, given Netflix’s global total of nearly 222 million paying customers in more than 190 countries. What is concerning, however, is the downward trend.
In recent years, Netflix’s “growth came at a time where all the competitors weren’t really there or operating at the same scale as today,” Prof. Dubois said. “But now they’re seeing many other competitors.”
Richard Powers, associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, said there is also a degree of saturation in the North American market. Netflix’s subscriber count in Canada and the U.S. has been static for several quarters.
Netflix, however, still has many loyal customers.
Ottawa resident Mickey Roy, for example, has had a premium membership with Netflix for five years.
“Why would anyone dump it? My 88-year-old father-in-law that lives with us loves the variety of Netflix and it keeps him entertained,” Mr. Roy said. “I consider what I’m paying to be a decent price for 365-day entertainment. It’s worth every penny.”
Echoing Mr. Roy’s sentiments is Christopher Robin Lai of Stouffville, Ont. “There are now two other streaming services I have purchased but to be honest I keep going back to Netflix because of the variety and the Netflix Originals. It’s still the king of streaming in my opinion.
“My brother bought a Netflix account years ago,” Mr. Lai added, “and ever since, I mooch off of him.”
When it comes to password sharing, Prof. Powers, who has a standard plan, says Netflix has structured its service to accommodate sharing.
“So you can’t have it both ways,” he said. “Any attempt to limit sharing will encourage people to jump to other services.”
“The password-sharing problem is more of a side story,” Prof. Dubois added. “It might look extensive to them, but it’s about cracking down to get a few dollars here and there. This isn’t growth. I can’t think of a business model that implies growth through disciplining its users.”
The key to improvement for Netflix is getting past being a one-trick pony, Prof. Dubois said, and perhaps expanding into video games, music, podcasts or other entertainment.
“If you look at Apple or Disney, they still have theme parks and computers. Netflix doesn’t have another business to fall back on.”
With a report from the Associated Press
Your time is valuable. Have the Top Business Headlines newsletter conveniently delivered to your inbox in the morning or evening. Sign up today.


text:
Card Connection, a leading greeting card publisher and franchisor, announced last month that it has appointed former finance and operations director, Michael Johnson, as its new managing director. Johnson replaces Robina Every who retired at the end of June.
“As part of UK Greetings, the largest public greeting card publisher in the world, Card Connection commands effectively £12 million of a £2 billion industry,” confirms Michael Johnson, managing director of Card Connection. “Over the nine years I have worked at the company, I have developed a thorough appreciation of both Card Connection’s successful franchise business model and the greeting card market itself. We are at an exciting point where the demand for our franchises remains high and the potential for franchisees to continue to grow their businesses, despite the economic downturn, is a very real proposition.”
Card Connection Appoints New Managing Director
September 14, 2009 by Mark | 0 Comments


text:
Par for the Course
Tiger Woods isn't the only recent comeback in golf. Duffers will find more cotton than has been seen in years thanks to the natural...
Easing Apparel Sourcing Cost Pressures
Market forces inside and outside of China that have kept cotton prices higher in recent years...
Load More Posts
- Commodity Economics
- Consumer Comments
- Fiber Preferences
- The Americas


text:
From: Shenzhen Daily | Updated:2023-09-07
Shenzhen's key economic indicators, including industrial production, fixed asset investment, market sales and exports, all displayed positive growth trends from January to July, marking a sustained recovery and a steady improvement in development quality.
According to data released by the Shenzhen Municipal Statistics Bureau, during this period, the added value of industries at and above the designated scale increased by 3.8% year on year.
Among major industry categories, automotive manufacturing registered a staggering 86.1% increase in added value, followed by electricity and heat production and supply at 20.8%, and specialized equipment manufacturing at 9.3%.
Shenzhen’s strategy to nurture emerging industries and industrial clusters paid off, particularly in the new energy vehicle sector. From January to July, the production of new energy vehicles and charging piles surged by 160.1% and 26.8%, respectively.
Fixed asset investment increased by 13.5% during the first seven months, which was 0.4 percentage points higher than the first half of the year. Investment in high-tech manufacturing grew substantially by 62.3%, while investments in culture, sports and entertainment increased by 26% year on year.
From January to July, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the city reached 587 billion yuan (US$80.49 billion), posting a 10% year-on-year growth, which was driven by various factors including the “first-store economy,” “performance economy,” tourism-related spending, the booming milk tea sector, and spending by Hong Kong residents in Shenzhen.


text:
Facebook aims to give its users a more personalized experience. That is why the platform is continually enhancing its news feed. The most significant measure it has made is enabling news feed control bars and filters. For better ad targeting, the platform also added category labels for Pages and dynamic ads. Today, Facebook is exploring a more feedback-driven news feed.
A major part of Facebook feed ranking is user survey. This survey aims to ask Facebook users what posts they think are worth their time. Around 10 thousand users filled out these surveys every day. Facebook now launches an updated survey and response queries to better understand what users want to see on their news feed.
Facebook will also run various feedback solicitations to better understand what types of posts they find inspirational on news feeds. The platform will now include inspirational insights as a news feed ranking signal. Also, Facebook will ask people what topics they want to see and avoid on their news feeds. Facebook will then rank these topics based on the collective feedback they will gather.
More Direct Responses
Facebook now makes it easier for users to hide posts they don’t want to see on their news feeds. A new post design will make the hide option more prominent. This is an “X” sign in the upper right corner of a post. Once a user taps the “X” sign, Facebook will start hiding similar posts in that user’s news feed.
Facebook explores a more feedback-driven news feed as of 22 April 2021.
Implications for Marketers:
Facebook’s more feedback-driven news feed will have a big effect on billions of users. The platform hopes that the effect is a positive user experience. For marketers, such an approach can help brands maximize their reach. By customizing Facebook news feed, a brand’s ads and the content will most likely show among users with higher buying intents.


text:
Dynamic glass producer View announced it has named Brett Murray vice president of marketing.
Murray, who brings nearly 20 years of leadership experience in marketing technology products, will lead the company’s marketing efforts.
“As View expands its market position, we are continuing to build a strong team of capable and experienced executives that can propel our growth,” says Dr. Rao Mulpuri, CEO of View. “Brett’s proven abilities, creative mind and experience introducing game-changing technology products will help lead the company forward as we continue to change the way people think about and approach architectural design.”
Prior to joining View, Murray served as the head of global marketing campaigns for NVIDIA. He also previously held positions at several high-profile consumer technology companies, including Nokia, TiVo and Apple.
“View already has an amazing team in place, and I couldn’t be happier to be working alongside the group that has lifted the company to where it is today,” says Murray. “It’s exciting to be able to join an organization with such a clear vision of the future, products that deliver on that vision, and a remarkable growth path in front of it. I look forward to amplifying View’s mission to dramatically change the way people experience the spaces they live and work in.”


text:
1. Facebook bans ‘Page Like’ incentivisation
Facebook has made an important change to its Platform Policy: brands can no longer run competitions or develop apps that ask users to ‘like’ a page in order to enter, play or use. Brands have until 5th November to amend any apps currently in use. Facebook clearly wants pages to grow organically – or they have a new advertising plan in development!
2. Pay rent via Facebook
Advances in payment technology continue. Salix Homes, a Salford-based housing trust has launched a secure Facebook app which allows tenants to pay rent as well as report damage and raise issues. The tool has been developed in recognition that while the majority of its tenants are not that active on the web in general, over 40% are extremely active on Facebook.
3. Drivers use dashboard to pay for services
The drive towards the connected car – a future where motoring brands can continue to make money after the vehicle has been sold -has cranked up a gear. JustPark, which lets customers find and pay for parking spaces, has just launched the first app that lets drivers buy services from their dashboard. BMW is one of their biggest investors.
4. Brits use smart devices for longer than they sleep
Led by the “millennium generation”, the average adult spends eight hours and 41 minutes on communication devices. Ofcom’s study found that because people use several devices at the same time, total use of media averages more than 11 hours a day. This is an increase of more than two hours since Ofcom first conducted equivalent research in 2010.
5. The rise and rise of instant messaging
300 billion instant messages are expected to be sent throughout 2014 in the UK alone – double the amount sent last year. While texting is still popular, with the average Brit sending seven texts a day, instant messaging is now prolific with Brits sending 46 instant messages every 24 hours. What’s more, almost a quarter of smartphone owners are using five or more messaging apps to achieve this communication steam.


text:
SAN DIEGO (CBS.MW) -- Personal computer maker Gateway said late Wednesday that it would not meet Wall Street income and revenue estimates for the fourth quarter due to weaker-than-expected consumer holiday sales of PCs. Shares of Gateway closed $1.98 lower to $29.02 ahead of the announcement and after Merrill Lynch came out with negative comments on the stock earlier in the day
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - The Dow Industrials flexed its muscles Wednesday, energized by gains in many of its drug, consumer and retail stocks. But the Nasdaq remained in tatters, registering a fresh low for the year and falling for eight out of the past 10 trading days. The Dow Jones Industrials Average swelled 121.53 points, or 1.2 percent, to 10,629.
See full story.
Asia markets retreat on tech worries
TOKYO (CBS.MW) - Tokyo stocks rebounded Thursday but other Asian markets fell because of worries over the outlook for the global tech sector following the Nasdaq's retreat and Gateway's earnings warning.
NTT DoCoMo buys 16% stake in AT&T Wireless
TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- Japan's biggest mobile phone firm NTT DoCoMo announced Thursday that it will buy a 16 percent stake in AT&T Wireless for $9.8 billion, giving it entry into the U.S. telecom market.
Verizon backs away from NorthPoint deal
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- In another blow to independent suppliers of high-speed Internet connections, Verizon on Wednesday backed out of a deal to buy a controlling interest in DSL operator NorthPoint Communications. Verizon, which agreed in August to pay $800 million for a 55 percent stake, cited the deteriorating financial condition of NorthPoint. Shares of the onetime high flier, which once topped $45, shriveled 9 cents to $2 before trading was halted.
Lernout & Hauspie files for bankruptcy
IEPER, Belgium (CBS.MW) -- Lernout & Hauspie said Wednesday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, scrambling to find a rescue strategy in the wake of an accounting scandal that has rocked the Belgian-based speech-recognition technology company. The filing in Wilmington, Del., enables L&H to continue addressing its past problems, while developing a new strategic plan and return to profitability.
Barnes & Noble won't merge
PASADENA, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc. announced Wednesday they won't merge, but instead will pursue business opportunities in the online book arena.
Worried about the U.S.? Try Europe
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Some time soon, the law of gravity is bound to catch up to the euro, and Europe's beleaguered currency will find stability and probably even strengthen. When that happens, investors who sought safety from the U.S. bear market in European mutual funds will thank their own foresight.
Banks may want to get back to basics
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- With the economy doing so well, and unemployment low, why are high-cost "payday loan" companies doing such great business on so many street corners?
StockWatch: European Net use is up
LONDON (FTMW) -- Technology markets are downright gloomy. Yet Internet users are flooding the world with page reads and with good ideas. A new report this week says Internet use across Western Europe is soaring. The heady numbers might be a dose of good news for European Internet stocks, which have been as besieged as their American counterparts.
Autos hit a speed bump
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Nearly a half-century ago, "Engine" Charlie Wilson, the head of General Motors asserted in congressional testimony that "what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa." If this is still the case then you have to believe that when autos downshift, the rest of the country will soon follow.
Bull market lives -- outside of technology
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Since March 2000 the technology sector has been in its own private bear market. The NASD Composite is down 50% from its March highs. Many investors who enjoyed the tech upside over the last few years have also endured the recent decline. This gives investors the perception that the entire market has entered a bear market.
The honeymoon is over
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- For all the newfangled, personalized perks companies created to win employee loyalty in the tightest job market in 30 years, it seems more and more workers are gravitating to the old-fashioned benefit of collective bargaining.
Giving a start-up business wings
SANTA MONICA (CBS.MW) -- Most finance involves careful analysis, expected returns and calculations. Yet, as on 34th Street, miracles can happen on Wall Street. They just require a little angelic intervention. The angels that exist in the investing realm shun the traditional methodology and trust a good idea. They have faith.