text:
Farmers, manufacturers and tourism operators might beg to differ, but if iPad prices are anything to go by, the Australian dollar’s current value is exactly where it should be.
According to CommSec’s iPad Index, which compares the price of the popular Apple product across 51 countries, the recent rise in the dollar has it hovering around fair value.
The currency has climbed from around 87 US since late January to be at almost 94 US cents.
With a sale price of around $A598 ($US561), Australia is the 13th cheapest place to buy the latest iPad, putting it roughly on par with the US and China.
“It suggests that the Aussie dollar is probably around fair value against the greenback,” CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian said.
“The iPad is priced in US dollars and manufactured in China and across both those economies the Australian pricing on an iPad is pretty similar.”
The cheapest place to buy an Ipad is Japan at $US480, while Argentina is the most expensive at $US974.
The index shows the cost of buying an iPad in Australia has increased by around $60 from six months ago, though the price increase coincided with the release of the new model iPad Air.
CommSec’s index is modelled on The Economist magazine’s well known Big Mac Index, and measures the purchasing power of consumers in different countries.
With inflation more or less in check in the US and further interest rate cuts unlikely in Australia, Mr Sebastian expects the dollar to remain roughly around its current level for the next few months.
“Over the near term it’s probably going to hold around these levels, we don’t see it heading back below 90 cents for some time,” he said.
“There’s really not much of a catalyst to suggest there is a need to push it in that direction.”
But while the currency may be fairly valued from a consumer point of view, Mr Sebastian said a lower dollar would help the economy by making Australian exporters more competitive.
“There’s no question that a lower currency would be a lot more beneficial in readjusting the Australian economy,” he said.


text:
Beyoncé joins Tiktok and gains a quarter-million followers instantly, hinting that her next era is about to begin.
We all know by now Beyoncé doesn’t do social media besides getting her fits off, and that’s not a bad thing. We will take every fit pic in her iPhone and be happy but of course, we want more.
Now it seems the singer is finally moving on to the latest trendy social media platform: TikTok. Last night, Bey joined the platform without any announcement and has already gained 250,000 followers instantly.
As for why she would join Tiktok and socialize with us regular folk, many quickly pointed out that a new era and album could be upon us. There was good reason for the speculation as an Instagram post was spotted claiming Beyoncé (with Hov by her side) took a trip to see what Vinyl colors were available. This could have been nothing, but it’s clearly about time for us to get blessed by the queen soon.
Now, HitsDailyDouble has confirmed Beyoncé will release new music in the first quarter of the year as assumed by fans on social media. How the album comes at us has yet to be seen but from her numerous deals, we doubt it will simply be a release on streaming services. We can expect a top-notch rollout as always.

domain: news


text:
Apple’s new iMac Pro will feature Intel Xeons and AMD’s Vega GPU, start at $5,000, and be available in December. It’s easily the most powerful all-in-one we’ve ever seen, but pricing for the top configuration remains unknown.
At WWDC today, Apple has finally unveiled its new iMac. All models receive upgrades to Intel’s 7th Generation Kaby Lake processors. They also get two Thunderbolt 3 controllers, brighter displays, much faster graphics, and USB-C ports for the first time.
Apple has updated its Mac Pro workstations with slightly improved processors, but the big news is a full platform redesign coming sometime next year. Why? Because the current Mac Pro can’t be meaningfully upgraded in its present form. Oops.
Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro products yesterday, shifted the positioning of its older MacBook Pro SKUs, and introduced new hardware featuring AMD’s Polaris GPU. The Mac Pro, however, is still stuck on 3.5 year-old chips.
Could Apple be prepping a near-term switch to an A7 class product for its future hardware needs? It’s not impossible — but we doubt it.
Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our


text:
Auctions accounted for 50% or more of sales across 13 Auckland suburbs last month as going under the hammer becomes the preferred method of selling in many parts of the city.
Figures from the Real Estate Institute (REINZ) for 20 Auckland suburbs revealed only seven locations recorded the percentage of sales by auction at fewer than 50%.
The highest proportion of auction sales was recorded in Blockhouse Bay at 77.8%, followed by Glendowie (72%) and Epsom (60.5%).
Browns Bay had the least amount of auction sales in March at 43.6%.
In total REINZ figures show almost 30% of sales in the region over March were completed by auction compared to 22% in March 2011 and just 11% five years ago, near the peak of the housing market.
REINZ chief executive Helen O'Sullivan said auctions are often a preferred method of sale when there is rapid change and uncertainty over values.
"Auctions are becoming the preferred sales method, particularly in higher priced suburbs. In 13 ‘leafy' suburbs more than 50% of the total sales in March were as a result of auctions," she said.
Harcourts auction manager Robert Tulp agreed there had been a huge increase in auction activity as both sellers and buyers become more comfortable with the process.
"There's definitely been an increase as both buyers and sellers definitely understand the process better, they see it's an easy way to achieve true market value," he said.
The data on auction sales shows that auctions tend to be more common in high priced suburbs, with the suburbs seeing 50% or more auction sales recoding a median price of just over $670,000 compared to $377,000 for suburbs with less than 20% of sales by auction.
The REINZ figures were supported by Harcourts MarketWatch data, which found a year-on-year rise in auctions across the whole of the country apart from the provincial South Island, which saw a 5.9% drop.
The Harcourts data found the largest rise in auctions was in Christchurch, up 141.9% on March 2011.


text:
Following the successful expansion of same-evening delivery in Germany, Zalando is now testing it in Switzerland. Since the end of June, the CO2-neutral cargo wheels of notime have been delivering Zalando packages to customers in the Zurich area.
In addition to speed, comfort and control over package delivery are becoming increasingly important for Zalando customers. Your private and professional life with its ever-changing priorities might determine your daily routine, but your parcel delivery shouldn’t. On the contrary, delivery service has to adapt to the customer and be integrated into their everyday life.
For Zalando customers, this means they can expect deliveries to take place when they are actually at home. Same-evening delivery is already offered in more than 20 German cities. "The higher level of satisfaction and loyalty due to fast evening delivery is reflected in our customers' purchasing behaviour: satisfied customers order more, and more frequently. We are therefore convinced that fast, flexible delivery and options such as same-evening or next-day delivery and returns pick-up will become the new standard in metropolises," says Lisa Miczaika, Vice President Central Europe and responsible for Zalando's Swiss business.
Swiss Post is partnering with business customers such as Zalando in order to meet the growing needs of its customers. During this collaboration, the Post will test how they can further improve, for example, the transport and delivery of orders on the same day. "We are delighted that Zalando has chosen us as its logistics partner and look forward to the results of the joint pilot project," says Dieter Bambauer, Head of PostLogistics at Swiss Post.
Premium same-evening delivery is made exclusively by bicycles and e-vehicles that are optimized for urban logistics. "In addition to time-flexible delivery down to the last mile, our climate-friendly transport system ensures a sustainable logistics approach that is forward-looking," says Berko Sierau, Head of Research and Innovation at notime.


text:
Household Services such as Housekeeping, Gardening, Landscaping and Auto Detailing may not require as many licenses as food and healthcare businesses, but they must be licensed nonetheless. Businesses that use a person’s home as their official address or office may also need a Home Occupation Permit from their city or county.
Businesses in Silicon Valley face a fair amount of regulation and licensing. San Jose’s police department licenses a fair number of businesses seen to have the potential to foster vice crimes. Additionally, in combination with Santa Clara County, San Jose keeps a firm hand on public health and businesses that can impact it. City and county websites make locating forms and fees somewhat difficult despite San Jose being known as the seat of the technology industry.


text:
(AP) — Caterpillar Inc. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit jumped 60 percent, boosted by pent-up demand for replacement equipment and continuing economic growth in developing countries.
The performance of the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment is an indicator of the strength of the global economy. Along with strong fourth-quarter earnings, Caterpillar issued rosy guidance for this year, saying it expects economic conditions and construction activity to continue to improve in most parts of the world.
Caterpillar, based in Peoria, reported net income of $1.55 billion, or $2.32 per share, up from $968 million, or $1.47 per share, in the same quarter last year.
Sales and revenue jumped 24 percent to $17.24 billion from $12.81 billion.
The results easily topped Wall Street predictions. Analysts polled by FactSet expected profit of $1.76 per share on $15.95 billion in revenue.
Caterpillar expects the global economy to grow about 3.3 percent this year, with the U.S. economy growing by at least 3 percent. In addition, U.S. construction spending, which has been on the decline since 2004, should finally begin to recover, the company said.
The company warned that while Europe's economic crisis probably won't trigger a global recession, economic growth in eurozone counties probably won't improve until the second half of this year.
Caterpillar sees China's economy growing by 8.5 percent in 2012, with more construction and rising demand for commodities bringing more machine sales.
Caterpillar estimates its 2012 profit will be $9.25 per share with $68 billion to $72 billion in revenue. The outlook includes about $6 billion in revenue from two acquisitions it made in 2011 — Bucyrus International Inc. and Motoren-Werke Mannheim Holding GmbH. Analysts polled by FactSet expect profit of $9.07 per share on $66.99 billion in revenue for Caterpillar this year.
The company said sales of new machines and equipment will improve as customers in developed counties rebuild their fleets. Low interest rates and the expected increase in construction activity are also expected to boost demand.
In addition, Caterpillar expects demand for its mining equipment to continue to be strong globally, as companies keep boosting capacity.
For the full year 2011, Caterpillar earned $4.93 billion, or $7.40 per share, up from $2.7 billion, or $4.15 per share, in 2010. Sales and revenue increased to $60.14 billion from $42.59 billion.
Excluding its acquisition of Bucyrus, which closed during the year, Caterpillar earned $7.79 per share and posted $57.61 billion in sales.
Shares rose $3.80, or 3.5 percent, to $112.85 in morning trading.


text:
Busy, dual-income households increasingly demand time-saving meals, but don't want to sacrifice quality. For many, meal kits have been the go-to solution, which marketers have touted as healthy, convenient alternatives to traditional home cooking.
According to Packaged Facts, US meal kit retail sales hit $3.10 billion in 2018 and is expected to rise to $5.50 billion by 2023, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.2%. While healthy, it doesn’t even match the expected growth rate for total ecommerce.
Convenience, particularly in the form of timesaving, is a strong driver of this trend. Meal-kit subscription app usage reached a modest 6% of US mobile device users in February 2019, according to Bizrate Insights. Usage skewed more female (8%) than male (4%) and toward those ages 18 to 34 (7%) and 35 to 54 (8%).
There is a use case for subscription meal kits, though perhaps not as strong as once thought. A few years ago, several startups flooded the space, attracted sizable venture funding and spent heavily to acquire customers—only to discover they had a leaky-bucket problem. Subsidizing trial to acquire new customers with discounts was easy, but the model has proven unsustainable for many players.
According to a 2018 Market Force Information study, HelloFresh edged out Blue Apron (38.8% vs. 34.7%) as the most-used primary meal-kit subscription service among US grocery buyers. Home Chef followed in third place (9.3%), while other players maintained a share of 3.1% or lower. While many meal-kit companies were funded, it appears there is room for only a handful to survive.
Why didn’t meal-kit adoption achieve its once lofty expectations? According to Market Force Information, the No. 1 reason cited by subscribers who stopped using these services was value for the money spent. It was fine to use the service with discounts subsidizing the cost. But once customers were faced with paying full price, the value proposition eroded.
It also turns out that, for many customers, meal kits weren’t especially convenient. Other leading reasons for discontinuing their use included amount of prep time (9.3%), number of steps required (8.9%) and total cooking time (8.3%).
“The phenomenon of meal kits tried to capitalize on the trend of younger adults wanting convenient but healthy home-cooked meals, which is a real need for a certain segment of consumers,” eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman said. “But clearly the opportunity isn’t as big as once thought. Getting trial was easy for a lot of the meal-kit startups, but full-price meal kits carried a premium that, for many consumers, didn’t really justify such a modest improvement in convenience.”


text:
07 Oct 2015
Fraunhofer-devised method halves energy bill by removing need for oven and vacuum technologies.Laser Technology (ILT) and Ceramic Technologies & Systems (IKTS) – have joined forces to develop a new laser-based drying technique to improve the production of batteries while significantly cutting power costs. The research partnership will be showing off the technology next week at the exhibition Battery + Storage, as part of World of Energy Solutions 2015 in Stuttgart, Germany (October 12-14).
The joint project “DRYLAS - Laser-based Drying of Battery Electrode Slurries” focuses on the energy-efficient drying of electrode layers, so-called slurries, which are applied in a wet-chemical process to the current-conducting metal foils during battery production. Until now, continuous furnaces have been used, which remove the solvent contained in the slurry during the drying process.
Dr. Dominik Hawelka, a scientist at the Fraunhofer ILT, explained, “In these furnaces, the energy deposition is not very efficient as compared to a laser treatment. That is why we have decided to use the precisely controllable laser radiation as the drying tool for this application.”
Energy consumption halved
The two institutes have designed an in-line process and a fiber-laser based drying module, which has already proven itself in initial tests in a so-called roll-to-roll plant of the Fraunhofer IKTS in Dresden.
Hawelka added, “The laser radiation is absorbed directly in the slurry and minimizes heat losses to the surroundings. Our drying process uses about half of the energy that the continuous furnace needs.” The two institutes have also demonstrated that the fiber-laser dried electrodes can be used to build sound battery cells that work just as flawlessly as components treated conventionally in a continuous furnace.
The Fraunhofer ILT is also using its expertise in laser technology to put photonic process and plant engineering into practice: in particular, in the project ProSoLitBat, which is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research and coordinated by Schmid Energy Systems.
This project focuses on the industrial, continuous production of lithium, solid-state batteries in thin film technology. The aim of the current project, which will run until 2017, is to make a so-called roll-to-roll process chain viable as an alternative to the vacuum method previously used.
“In contrast, continuous production can produce significantly higher quantities at a lower cost, which will help the solid-state lithium batteries to find wider applications,” said Dipl.-Ing. Christian Hördemann, a scientist at Fraunhofer ILT, based in Aachen. “We have built a pilot plant that works with an inert gas atmosphere, and with it we can now pattern and decollate batteries with integrated ultrafast lasers.” The company SCHMID Energy Systems will adapt the process from Aachen for series production.
The timing of the Fraunhofer centers’ new energy-efficient battery production method is fortuitous as a new maket report has just been published showing that demand for lithium ion batteries is set to mushroom.
Market analyst IDTechEx Research, Cambridge, UK, is predicting that “advanced and post lithium-ion batteries” will achieve sales of $14bn by 2026.
The new report, entitled, Advanced and Post Lithium-ion Batteries 2016-2026: Technologies, Markets, Forecasts sees new battery technologies disrupting the global market. But the analyst warns that there will need to be certain improvements in lithium ion battery design and performance for it to realize its true potential.
The report states, “Although lithium-ion is the best battery technology we have ever seen, it will not achieve transformative factors of five in cost and performance due to inherent material limitations. Therefore, a new generation of battery technologies will be required in order to address the existing and future challenges of the increasingly complex energy systems in our society. Better batteries will be essential not only in electric cars and consumer electronics but also in wearable electronics, electric boats and aircraft, and throughout the built environment.”
The report focuses on a variety of new advanced and post lithium-ion battery technologies: silicon anode, solid state, sulphur, lithium air, sodium-ion and magnesium batteries. It notes that existing battery technologies, such as lead acid and conventional lithium-ion types, will continue to dominate the battery market in the comining 10 years, but that advanced and “post lithium-ion” batteries can potentially take a considerable dent of about 10% of the whole battery market, accounting for $14 billion by 2026, stating, “This is mostly because some of them are already in use in niche segments that will present high growth in the next 10 years.”
About the Author
Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to optics.org.


text:
E-commerce giant Amazon announced on Friday that it will launch an online pharmacy in India, serving the city of Bengaluru.
“Amazon Pharmacy” will provide both over-the-counter and prescription-based drugs, basic health devices as well as traditional Indian herbal medicines, according to a company statement.
Regulations for e-pharmacies providing online drug sales are not yet finalised in India. However, there has been a rise of online sellers such as Medlife, Netmeds, Temasek-backed PharmEasy and Sequoia Capital-backed 1mg.
In July 2020, Amazon decided to open 10 new warehouses in India, started offering auto insurance and even got clearance for alcohol delivery in one Indian state, as per Reuters.


text:
Alcohol brand SKYY Vodka and Universal Pictures are teaming up for a marketing campaign ahead of the July 22 release of the Jordan Peele film “Nope.”
“The whole idea behind this campaign is that the movie ‘Nope’ is like looking up in the sky, trying to see what’s going on, what’s happening there,” said Sean Yelle, senior category marketing director at Campari America, parent company of 30-year-old SKYY Vodka. The new work asks people what’s in the sky, tying the partnership into the spirits brand’s name and messaging.
The partnership includes out-of-home and social media ads, as well as sweepstakes designed to expand SKYY’s reach and mission. The sweepstakes will run until August 5 and will give entrants a chance to win tickets to see the movie. There will also be a series of signature cocktails inspired by the movie’s ominous themes that will be served at select theater chains across the country.
Through the campaign, SKYY is looking to connect with a new generation of vodka drinkers and tout the relaunch of its liquid and bottle design. “We thought this might be an opportunity on where to engage the promotion of the movie and the promotion of the product,” said Yelle. SKYY parent Campari now plans to take a more holistic approach to marketing with all of its divisions. Rather than have one team for each brand’s customer, the company wants to find ways to promote several products to a wide range of consumers.
It is unclear how much of Campari’s advertising budget is allocated to the campaign as Yelle would not share overall budget specifics. According to Pathmatics, the company spent $460,000 in 2021 on marketing efforts. Yelle noted that the spend was seven figures and most of it went toward digital over OOH advertising, which includes Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter as well as connected TV. Yelle also shared that 80% of the ad split on social platforms went to Instagram and Facebook.
It has become increasingly popular for marketers to work with movie studios like Universal Pictures to increase their audience reach. As previously reported by Digiday, Liberty Mutual, Bushmills and Booking.com have also recently partnered with film studios on co-marketing efforts to boost brand awareness.
After spending so much of the last few years isolated, Gen Z consumers are especially craving occasions worthy of dressing up and going out — hence SKYY’s tie-in with Universal Pictures.
“Jordan Peele’s movies are the ultimate conversation starters, and something like the NOPE x SKYY cocktails offer the perfect companion for a post-movie debate,” said Hannah Hickman, svp of client strategy and head of youth culture practice at Omnicom’s cultural consultancy Sparks and Honey. “This will be especially appealing for a generation that loves peeling back the layers and finding hidden meaning.”
It has become increasingly common for consumers to expect more from theater experiences, especially because they are leaving their homes for such experiences. “This particular co-branding benefits from a surprisingly-rare interest in driving genuine, practical types of engagement, particularly SKYY cocktails at theaters and an opportunity to win tickets to see the film,” said Brady Donnelly, global CMO of the integrated, tech-enabled, omnichannel global distribution platform for beauty and wellness brands PCA Group.
Member ExclusiveMarketing Briefing: While World Cup is a ‘uniting event,’ sponsors play through branding fouls
As issues continue to come to the fore during the World Cup, which will run until December 18th, some marketers and agency execs expect sponsor positions will become even trickier.
‘Away from tactical media buying’: Advertisers shifting in-housing efforts in to gain more ad spend control
There's been a pivot on the things advertisers take in house. It's not biddable media anymore -- i.e the stuff that isn’t scalable, doesn’t deliver much competitive advantage and is riddled with hidden costs.
Member ExclusiveDigiday+ Research: Marketers are split on customer retention and acquisition heading into the holidays
Marketers are split 50/50 between focusing on customer retention and new customer acquisition heading into the holidays this year.
SponsoredPublishers are adapting advertising strategies for a privacy-first world
Tina Iannacchino, senior publisher director, Seedtag So much of the attention around the death of third-party cookies and its impact on the digital advertising industry is focused on the implications for brands and consumers, which is far from the complete picture. The digital publishing industry in the U.S. is massive and set to be shaken […]
Por qué el Mundial de fútbol agrava, en lugar de aliviar, todo lo que le pasa a Twitter
Twitter suele recibir una tonelada de dólares de publicidad gracias a la Copa del Mundo. Pero 2022 está lejos de ser un año normal: para la economía, para el torneo y, sobre todo, para la propia red social. Los dólares de los anuncios están en contracción en Twitter (normalmente una de las principales arterias del […]
Why Shutterstock is betting on generative AI for the future of stock images
Shutterstock has begun experimenting with using generative AI, an emerging innovation that lets people enter text-based “prompts” to generate unique computer-made digital images.


text:
After a year-long negotiation, the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed Sunday on a revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
The new trilateral trade deal, now called USMCA—short for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement—included new rules to have more automotive parts manufactured in North America, to open Canadian markets to U.S. dairy producers, to improve labor rights and to increase intellectual property protections.
The deal will still have to be adopted by all three countries.
Trump championed the new trade deal in remarks at the White House, saying he followed through on his campaign promise to create jobs and generate profits for Americans.
Despite the changes, the new agreement is largely similar to NAFTA, said Frederick Mayer, public policy professor and the author of “Interpreting NAFTA: The Art and Science of Political Analysis,” published in 1998. According to him, the changes are “significant, but far from a radical overhaul.”
“The agreement—being hailed as a triumph for President Trump—is a good thing, but it needs to be seen not as a major departure, but as a modest revision that largely preserves the core,” Mayer said.
Under the new agreement, the Trump administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Canada will stay in place—at least temporarily. U.S. negotiators said that tariff issues will be addressed separately from a broader trade deal.
Trump’s attitude toward a trade deal among the three countries has shifted since his campaign in 2016, when he denounced NAFTA as the “worst trade deal ever.” On Monday, he said USMCA has "got a good ring to it.”
“Having portrayed NAFTA as a disaster [when] it wasn’t, President Trump now claims that he has rescued it,” Mayer said. “A good story, but wildly overblown.”
Given that the essence of the new trade deal remains intact, the recent renegotiation is not so much a transformation but rather a continuation of existing rules, Mayer said.
“If you thought that NAFTA was good policy then, and that it has, on balance, served us well in the intervening years, you should be happy that we have largely stayed on course,” he said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.


text:
Americans’ digital data consumption keeps on rising fast, growing 104% over the 12 months to July 2012 and surpassing 1.1 trillion megabytes (MB), CTIA-The Wireless Association reports in its semi-annual report, which was released October 11 at MobileCON 2012 in San Diego.
Rapid growth in US consumer smartphone adoption also continues. At 131 million, smartphones made up 41% of the nearly 322 million wireless subscriber connections over the 12-month period. The number of media tablets rose to 22 million, nearly 17% of all wireless connections.
In addition, the number of prepaid wireless subscribers increased nearly 10%, from 68.4 million to 74.9 million—23.3% of total U.S. wireless subscribers. Subscribers’ average monthly wireless bill dropped 7 cents to an average $47.16 despite increased voice, data and text usage, according to CTIA.
Other results from CTIA’s semi-annual 2012 survey include:
- Wireless subscriber connections: 321.7 million (101 percent penetration); June 2011: 306 million (5 percent increase).
- Active smartphones and wireless-enabled PDAs: 130.8 million; June 2011: 95.8 million (37 percent increase).
- Number of active data-capable devices: 300.4 million; June 2011: 278.3 million (8 percent increase).
- Wireless-enabled tablets, laptops and modems: 21.6 million; June 2011: 15.2 million (42 percent increase).
Comparing figures from 2012 with those from 2011, CTIA found:
- Wireless network data traffic: 1.16 trillion megabytes; June 2011: 568 billion megabytes (104 percent increase).
- Minutes of Use (MOU): 2.321 trillion; June 2011: 2.251 trillion (3 percent increase).
- SMS sent and received: 2.273 trillion; June 2011: 2.206 trillion (3 percent increase).
- MMS sent and received: 58.3 billion; June 2011: 52.7 billion (10.6 percent increase).
- Average local monthly wireless bill (includes voice, data and text): $47.16; June 2011: $47.23 (0.2 percent decrease).
Looking to cope with burgeoning mobile data demands, the number of cell tower sites put up by wireless telecom providers continues to grow, thanks in large part to the FCC’s 2009 “shot clock ruling on tower siting,” CTIA points out. There were 28,641 cell sites added this year, bringing the total number to 285,561 nationwide.
While a greater number of cell towers helps reduce the strain on mobile telecom providers’ networks, additional spectrum is “the true answer to meet demand,” according to CTIA.
Wireless service providers also continue to invest in improving mobile services, putting more than $25 million of capital expenditure to work in this area over the past 12 months. As well as adding more cell towers, such efforts include network upgrades from 3G to 4G. Wireless providers have invested more than $230 billion in capital expenditures since 2002, which excludes what they’ve invested in buying spectrum from the U.S. government.
“As our survey proves, today’s wireless industry offers consumers not only the world’s best products and services, but also the best value. Americans are using more voice, data and text than ever before, but are paying less for their wireless usage than even a year ago,” CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent stated in a press release.
“Thanks to the fiercely competitive wireless industry, consumers have a variety of choices from which provider to contract or prepaid plans to devices. With the persistent increase in usage, this survey is another proof point for why our members need more spectrum to meet consumer demands. We appreciate the FCC’s NPRM on the incentive auction of broadcast television spectrum and hope that it’s brought to market quickly so that our members may continue to innovate and invest in our nation’s economy.”
A summary of CTIA’s 2012 semi-annual report is available via this link.


text:
Ola, the ride sharing and rental vehicles provider firm, has raised half a billion led by the investment giants Temasek, and Warburg Pincus. This is one of the major funding raise event before Ola’s initial public offering(IPO).
$500 Miliion Funding Raise by Ola
Ola, the ride hailing giant, has concluded a new funding round recently let by the top investors Temasek and Warburg Pincus. Existing investors also actively participated to make it a $500 million funding event.
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder of Ola, has also shown interest in investing some undisclosed amount in his personal capacity.
Ola has raised over $4 billion in different financing events concluded to that. SoftBank, Tencent, Steadview Capital, Sailing Capital, and others are the major existing investors of Ola.
Talking about the last 13 months journey of Ola, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said that the firm has made necessary changes in the Ola business model to make it more efficient, robust, and user friendly. The startup has also recorded good recovery post pandemic. The firm is in a stable position to provide better mobility services to its customers.
Ola IPO and Valuation Decline
Founded in 2010, the online ride service firm had been planning to start its initial public offering since 2019. To do that, it also completed all set up including pre-IPO trust in September 2019. The firm also started restructuring itself including laying off the employees, hiring more managerial level staffs, optimizing different departments and others.
As per Reuters report published in 2019, Ola had plans to start its IPO in March 2021. Covid pandemic disturbed all business activities globally and the riding services were the most affected due to national lockdown. It forced Ola to postpone the IPO plans.
During first two months of Covid-19 emergency, Ola’s operations was badly hit and it has no other option except firing 1400 staffs in May 2020. The company also reported that its revenue dropped by 95% during first wave of Covid-19.
Millions of Ola drivers lost their livelihood due to the sudden emergency due to the decline in transport operations.
Ola is also in the news due to its recent announcement of largest electric two wheeler factory establishment in Chennai, India worth Rs 2400 crore. Not only that, but Ola Electric also plans to install the World’s largest electric vehicles infrastructure in India. Both projects are on-going. The company will also export electric two wheelers to UK and other parts of Europe.
Ola valuation also saw a continuous decline since the beginning of Covid-19 emergency. As per Capital Quest report, there was a 45% define in its valuation from $6 billion to $3.3 billion from December 2019 to June 2020. The valuation was again slashed by 9% and it was valued $3 billion in March 2021.


text:
It's been nearly 50 years since the last time Lincoln offered rear-hinged doors (a.k.a. suicide doors). That's about to change with a limited-edition run of the 2019 Continental. Lincoln will build 80 of these cars with the old-style doors to commemorate the model's 80th anniversary.
The Continentals from the 1960s are still cool, and that's partly because of their unusual rear doors. Today, the only other cars that have non-clamshell rear-hinged doors are Rolls-Royces. Are rear-hinged doors really that difficult to engineer?
Not really, says Tim Sterling, chief program engineer for the Continental. The standard Continental already uses electronic "e-latches with cinch closing," which quells the notion that your door might fly open on the highway because you didn't quite latch it.
More From Popular Mechanics
It's true that you need to beef up the C-pillar to handle the hinges. But really, it's more a question of whether your customers are interested and you've got a car that makes sense for the coach-door treatment. "It seemed right for this vehicle, and the look of it," Sterling says. A stretched Lincoln LS wouldn't have been able to pull this off. A Continental can.
To build the initial 80-car run (and presumably whatever comes after), Lincoln sends a fully loaded 400-hp Black Label Continental straight from its Flat Rock plant to Cabot Coachworks, an upfitter in Massachusetts that builds MKT limos and Transit vans. There the cars are stretched six inches, most of which goes into rear-seat legroom. The door hinges are designed for a favorable tip angle, meaning they'll be easy to close. And while they're not full-power like a Rolls or Tesla, the doors will pull themselves shut if you get them close to the latch. No slamming required.
The price will be around $100,000—about $25,000 more than a Black Label—when the first cars hit the street next June. Once the 80-car run is spoken for, Lincoln will examine how many cars to build for 2020 and where they might go. China, where cars like this are driven by chauffeurs while the owners ride in back, seems like a natural market.
Even if Lincoln drops the crazy-door option after a single year, it's encouraging for the brand that it got the go-ahead for such an audacious project. For years, Lincolns have been fancier Fords without much by way of differentiation, other than extra equipment or power. The cool thing isn't just that they're doing this. It's that it makes sense.
Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He's now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.


text:
“Achche din aane wale hain” was the refrain that was heard throughout the campaign that led to the BJP’s landslide victory in the recent union elections. In an echo of their promise of ‘good’ days, for the masses, the Union Budget of 2014-15, has lived up to the expectations of at least one community, the start-ups and entrepreneurs of this great land.Over the past decade or so there has been a surge of entrepreneurial activity across the country, on the back of several positive steps to encourage the movement from the government. This year’s budget, took an even greater stride in this direction, when Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley announced the formation of a Rs. 10,000 crore (USD 1.7 Billion) fund to back entrepreneurs and start-ups across the country.
“This will place India right after Silicon Valley and ahead of China in terms of early-stage capital,” said Sateesh Andra, a managing partner at Venture East Tenet Fund, an early stage investor in Little Eye Labs, that was acquired by Facebook earlier this year.
According to sources, this step has buoyed the expectations and hopes of young entrepreneurs pan-India. Considering that this is going to be the largest ever government initiative to form the biggest pool of rupee capital in India and among the largest venture funds in the country. Only Sequoia Capital, that handles close to Rs. 12,000 crores has more money than the proposed national venture capital fund.
“Of course, this is a positive step for entrepreneurs, it is almost like validation of the efforts of the entrepreneurial community and a huge fillip in bringing us into the centre of the national economic discourse,” says Rahul Mahtani, the owner-operator of an online gaming company.
In a country where nearly 2 start-ups are launched every single day, this comes as a huge step of recognition and encouragement for people who are looking to branch out on their own. The move opens up possibilities for local financial institutions to participate in the surge of entrepreneurial activities across the country. This year, funding for early stage companies rose nearly 40% with Rs 3,630 crore invested so far. But over 90% of such venture capital comes from foreign funds.
Other significant steps proposed by the Finance Ministry include the setting up of an “entrepreneur-friendly legal bankruptcy framework” that will allow failed startups to down shutters with ease. Promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship on a national level seems to be the mantra of new finance minister Arun Jaitley, who also announced the setting up of a network of incubators and accelerators across districts and a Rs 200-crore fund for Dalit entrepreneurs, which will be managed by IFCI.
While the impact of the proposed national venture capital fund remains to be seen. For the time being, it seems like it is the best possible time to be an entrepreneur in India.


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Sign Up for the Buffalo Business First Afternoon Edition Newsletter
Send this story to a friend
RIM looks to sell 2.6 million BlackBerrys on its home ground
- Staff Business First
Research In Motion has big hopes for smartphone sales on its home turf.
The Waterloo, Ont., company, which recently unveiled the new BlackBerry 10, expects to sell as many as 2.6 million of the devices in Canada this year, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail.
The projections are based on a poll by Forum Research Inc., which found that 8 percent of Canadians are "almost certain" to buy a BlackBerry 10, while another 19 percent are "very likely" to buy one.
RIM is in the process of renaming itself after its leading product -- and will soon be known as BlackBerry itself.
- Regional Office Manager Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC | Buffalo, NY
- Electrical Technician Adecco Technical | Rochester, NY
- Bookeeper- Accounting Clerk Adecco | Rochester, NY
- Accounting Manager/Supervisor Robert Half Finance & Accounting U.S | Alden, NY
- Property Manager AppleOne | Lockport, NY
- Most popular
- Hamburg eyed for FedEx distribution site
- Ex-HealthNow CEO collected $6.4M upon retirement
- Seneca's 4th WNY casino eyed outside Rochester
- Turn out the lights, the party's over
- Reviving Buffalo’s manufacturing legacy
- Uniland getting to work on downtown building
- LPCiminelli bid accepted for UB med school work
- Sweet Polish tradition catches on in WNY
- Frankel to step down as Synacor CEO
- USA Hockey moves amateur tourney to Amherst from San Jose
Email Newsletter Signup
Start your morning with business news essential to Western New York's leaders.


text:
WILMINGTON – As the fate of Hanjin Shipping, South Korea’s largest shipping company, is up in the air, officials at the Port of Wilmington are waiting for more details to see if there will be any local impact on the port.
Hanjin Shipping Co. filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. That came one day after company creditors ended financial assistance. According to numerous national and international news reports, some ports have reportedly rejected incoming Hanjin vessels.
A Hanjin vessel left the Port of Wilmington late Tuesday night, according to North Carolina State Ports Authority Senior Manager of External Affairs Cliff Pyron. Cargo from the vessel is being stored at the port. But the percentage of Hanjin’s cargo that makes up the Port of Wilmington’s container storage was not available at the time of this report.
“At this point, we are working with all the appropriate parties to make sure their equipment is being handled in an efficient and safe manner,” Pyron said. “We don’t know how it’s going to impact us, yet.”
The vessel Seaspan Efficiency left the Port of Wilmington on Tuesday, Aug. 30, headed for Garden City Terminal in Savanna, Georgia, according to Hanjin’s port schedule.
“As far as the actual impact today, operations are unaffected,” Pyron said. “Longer-term, we are waiting, much like the rest of the maritime industry, to see how Hanjin’s financial situation unfolds.”
Hanjin is one of the world’s top shipping companies. Four other Hanjin vessels were scheduled to arrive at the Port of Wilmington in September, including the Hanjin Baltimore, which docked at the port for the first time in July.
At the time of its dock, the Hanjin Baltimore — a 983-foot long, 140-foot wide vessel — was the largest cargo ship ever received by the port. The arrival of the vessel in Wilmington was touted by officials as a boost in the port’s global trade. The ship’s container capacity was 63 percent larger than any other ship that has docked in Wilmington. It was the first of many such vessels that were expected to make stops at the port. The next arrival of a Hanjin vessel at the Port of Wilmington is scheduled for Sept. 6.
Hanjin Shipping is a member of the CKYHE Alliance that services the Port of Wilmington, Pyron said. The alliance includes other Asia carriers such as COSCO, K-Line, Yang Ming, Evergreen and Zim, which also share slots on the AW1 service at the port. There’s also container carriers servicing Latin/Central America and North Europe (Maersk/SeaLand and ICL) who call the Port of Wilmington, Pyron said.
This story has been updated to include other shipping carriers received by the Port of Wilmington.
Christina Haley is a reporter for Port City Daily. She can be reached at email@example.com or (910) 772-6306. Follow her on Twitter @TinaHaley8


text:
Admission24 – India’s leading online education hub announced the launch of its new mobile app in order to make this admission time far simpler and more exciting for students as well as parents.
The mobile app has been designed to create extensive awareness on every significant factor that helps students to set up the right foundation of their promising career.
One of its interesting features is its Comparison Tool that provides an opportunity to students or parents evaluating and assessing all potential study avenues available such as colleges, schools, vocational courses, etc. for them to have the best-desired start of their career.
The app also offers post-admission convenienceto parents and students. The app is one of the most convenient sources of engagement for parents with schools. Now, parents can avail all the services of educational institutions such as paying fees, accessing online study materials for their kids, along with live tracking feature where they can monitor and manage the performance of their kids by getting a real-time update on Home Works, Assignments, etc.
With its LIVE CHAT feature, the app helps schools to easily track the inquiries and sort the queries of parents and students, pertaining to different aspects in no time.
Admission24’s new app is thus a platform that has the best of interests for both students and institutions in the plan.


text:
It’s a shame to see such a nice flow of traffic going waste. So we decided to put the domain name and website up for sale, so that somebody else with a better business model could bank on it
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) June 18, 2011
http://www.ZapTunes.com, a free music downloads service that got very controversial as soon as it launched has gone up for sale. The website was brought down almost immediately after launch by numerous lawsuits because it offered the visitors to download free music. ZapTunes tried to survive by changing its business model, but could not hold the ground for a long time.
However, according to company officials, ZapTunes.com has a very good page rank in Google with over 2 million pages indexed. At its peak, it saw more than 45,000 visitors a day. “It’s a shame to see such a nice flow of traffic going waste. So we decided to put the domain name and website up for sale, so that somebody else with a better business model could bank on it,” said Anand Patel, a company spokesman. Not too long ago, the site was among the top 100,000 websites visited around the globe, according to its Alexa Ranking. In April, the site’s Alexa rank was even lower than 60,000.
He further said that anybody who has tried Search Engine Optimization would know how difficult it is to get such a good page rank in Google with such a steady flow of traffic. To validate the traffic claims, he said, the company was ready to share the Google Analytics and Quantcast data with anyone who is interested.
The domain name, and the website source code is available for sale at a price of USD 100,000. Interested parties may contact the owner at info(at)zaptunes(dot)com with an offer.


text:
On March 22, an online meeting with representatives from the Government of Morocco, the Delegation of the European Union and stakeholders from Morocco’s fish processing industry., launched a project that will focus on improving the resource-efficiency and waste valorization along the value chain of fish products in Morocco.
Following the European Union’s “blue growth” strategy, the second phase of the SwitchMed program includes a Blue Economy component that supports the adoption of sustainable business practices in marine-related economic activities, such as the fish processing industries. The overall objective of the Blue Economy component is to ensure that economic activities in marine regions do not negatively impact ecosystems and livelihoods while supporting and improving associated economic sectors for future operations.
“The blue economy has enormous potential to contribute to the green recovery. This desire for green recovery materializes in the green partnership on which the EU and Morocco are working to realize a common ambition in the fight against climate change,” said Jean-Christophe Filori, Head of Cooperation of the European Union in Morocco.
In partnership with the National Federation of Seafood Processing and Valorization Industries (FENIP), UNIDO will in 2021 conduct an in-depth study of the fish processing value chain related to key players in the industry.
Hassan Sentissi, President of FENIP, said: “It is imperative to protect natural resources and adopt sustainable production methods to reduce the carbon footprint of our activities.”
The Blue Economy project will analyze regulatory and market barriers and the potential for optimization to reduce the environmental impact of industrial sites. In addition, the project will study the potential of applying eco-innovative SMART technologies and industrial synergies in Morocco’s fish processing industry.
In a message sent by Mr. Abdelmalek Faraj, Director General of the National Institute for Fisheries Research affirmed that: “SwitchMed’s objectives are perfectly in line with the vision of the Moroccan blue economy designed around economic development in accordance with the preservation of the oceans and marine biodiversity.”
The SwitchMed program, funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), will until 2023 demonstrate the creation of new business opportunities and jobs while reducing the footprint environmental impact of existing economic activities in Morocco and seven associated countries.
Mohamed Benyahia, Secretary-General of the Department of the Environment at the Ministry of Energy, Mines and the Environment, said: “The transition to a green economy is a major issue in the Kingdom of Morocco’s strategy. The second phase of SwitchMed will thus support the country in this transition process towards more responsible consumption for our natural ecosystems.”
Hanan Hanzaz, UNIDO Representative in Morocco, recalled Morocco’s efforts in promoting circularity. Thus, “the Country Partnership Program (PCP) between UNIDO and the Kingdom of Morocco includes a” circular economy “component which aims to contribute in particular to the recovery of waste.”
07/02/2023 · INDUSTRY AND SERVICE PROVIDERS
Until 2023, the two projects will demonstrate production models that can reduce the inefficient use of resources and improve the environmental footprint of Morocco’s fish processing sector. See more
10/01/2023 · INDUSTRY AND SERVICE PROVIDERS
On 17 January, a regional hybrid event to present results from pilots in Lebanon on the valorization of whey in the dairy sector. See more
03/11/2022 · INDUSTRY AND SERVICE PROVIDERS
UNIDO to demonstrate circular business models that can reduce and re-loop plastic waste from Israel's agriculture and packaging sector. See more
29/09/2022 · INDUSTRY AND SERVICE PROVIDERS
Under the lead of UNIDO, a pilot project will demonstrate production practices that can lead to more sustainable and resource-efficient aquafarming in Tunisia and the region. See more


text:
With digitisation on the rise in India, one of the world's largest and fastest growing economies, cryptocurrencies can provide an edge to companies that have a global business model transgressing boundaries.
Rohit Dahda, BitBay India Head mentions, “We are bringing BitBay in India to facilitate the exchange and trade of multiple cryptocurrencies at our platform with 24/7 support to users, which is not available in any other platform right now."
"We are taking all necessary steps to adhere prescribed rules for BitBay India. In fact, we are offering demo trading for users before using real currency to bring a level of confidence in common people. Very soon, we will be bringing more features on the platform to cater to requirements of common people on a day-to-day basis. We are following a high-security model and following two-fold authentication models for safe transaction.”
BitBay aims to add more advanced features to its trading platform and over the next six months, extend its domain up to 17 cryptocoins.The company has set up customer support via many channels: calls, online chats and e-mails.


text:
NAIROBI, Kenya — In recent years, a money-sharing app in Kenya has expanded opportunities for economic growth and development. M-PESA is an app made for basic phones that can send and receive money, schedule regular bill payments and top up phone credit. All over the world, people are stuck in poverty because of inaccessible and inadequate financial services. Without banking, people cannot invest in health, education or business ventures, and the economy stagnates.
In 2007, M-PESA was launched by Vodafone in Kenya and Tanzania. In a recent study, economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgetown University partnered with nonprofit Innovations for Poverty Action to analyze the impact of M-PESA in Kenya. The study found that the app is used in 96 percent of households in the country, making the money-sharing app one of the most successful in the world.
When M-PESA was in its early stages of development, its goal was to allow for microfinance loans to be paid by phone. The project quickly broadened to include more general money transfer services. Now, the system operates smoothly throughout Kenya. Users can deposit and withdraw money from an M-PESA account at a Safaricom network location, and transfer money to other users by sending a text from their phone. The app caters to older models of phones as well as smartphones, making it accessible to a larger amount of people.
Since the spread of M-PESA, women have been empowered to control their own finances and economic contributions. In this sense, the study conducted by Innovations for Poverty Action has also added insight to research on gender dynamics regarding household finances in developing countries.
Overall, the introduction of this money-sharing app in Kenya has made the handling of finances easier for a large majority of households and continues to encourage economic growth. The app is affordable and has proven essential to Kenya’s impoverished as they move toward a more economically stable future.
– Peyton Jacobsen


text:
CHICAGO (CBS.MW) – Call it a holiday tradition for the New Economy. Since hitting a low of $27.88 on July 31, Amazon.com Inc.’s shares have rebounded strongly, up more than 68 percent. And at least one analyst thinks this is just the beginning.
Amazon shares were trading actively Wednesday, up more than 4 percent at $47.94 at mid-day.
That’s still a mega-byte away from Amazon’s 52-week high of $113, reached last December. But J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. analyst Tom Wyman says not to worry.
“The party is not over,” he said in a research note Wednesday. A consistent bull on the stock, Wyman said Amazon (AMZN) should gain at least another 30 percent for a price target of $60.
“We believe Amazon.com has begun its annual holiday run-up,’ he said. His research: in 1997, Amazon rose 108 percent from August through December; in 1998, it gained an amazing 412 percent in the same period; and last year, the share run-up in the back half of the year was 90 percent.
“You don’t have to be a genius to see the pattern repeating itself once again,” Wyman said.
Of course, it’s the holiday shopping season that does it. It starts about now with pre-holiday stories about what to expect, how certain online retailers are gearing up and what’s hot for merchandise.
Because Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer, it gets mentioned in nearly every story. Not bad publicity for free.
But there’s more, Wyman insisted. It’s the “simple fact that many investors go online to do their holiday shopping and experience first hand the quality of the Amazon.com specialty online store,” he said.
Amazon’s new stores, such as its partnership with Toys ‘R Us, are performing well. As Amazon.com steps up cross-selling – letting consumers know there’s more to the site than books, compact discs and videos – sales will pick up.
Plus, he thinks Amazon will not only bring on new stores, such as apparel, sporting goods, luxury products and office supplies. But it will add branded services like Travelocity, E-Trade or Charles Schwab. “We see this as low-hanging, high-margin fruit ready for harvesting in the near future,” he said.
“Using a 25 percent discount rate, the stocks’ theoretical value by Holiday 2000 is $61,” he projected. “We see Amazon as a stocking stuffer at today’s price.”


text:
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said its Hema grocery store unit has reached agreement with several dozen restaurant chains to temporarily hire their employees. It’s reported that Hema is hiring nearly 2,000 employees from more than 30 restaurant chains including Mystic South Yunnan Ethnic Cuisine and Youth Restaurant, Xibei Restaurant, South Memory, and Shudaxia Hotpot.
These employees will work in Hema stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing and other Chinese cities. The first batch comprising more than 500 workers have already reported to Hema. They will be assigned to shopkeeping, sorting and delivery positions after body check-up and brief training.
Many Chinese have been stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak. As a result, numerous restaurant chains including Haidilao and Jiumaojiu have suspended operation. But restaurant chain operators are forced to keep paying their employees, as laying off staff is politically wrong at this critical moment.
Meanwhile, Hema grocery store has benefited from surging demand for delivery. It now has over 200 stores across the nation. And Hema has pledged to keep its stores open with no price increase during the outbreak. However, the firm was struggling with staff shortage to meet soaring demand.
The agreement with restaurant chains to hire their workers as temporary help will enable Hema tackle the labor shortage, while also allowing the restaurant chain operators to save labor costs during the period. It’s a win-win solution for both employees and customers.
Hema’s deal with restaurant chains shows how creative and flexible Chinese entrepreneurs are. In the meantime, Beijing may also learn a lesson and come up with some new initiatives to mitigate the crisis.
Given the possibilities, we can say China’s economic prospects would remain promising despite the current troubles.
This article appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Journal on Feb 5
Translation by Julie Zhu
[Chinese version 中文版]
– Contact us at [email protected]


text:
A new Nokia smartphone, identified as Nokia Lumia 830 smartphone, has been spotted by an Italian Windows Blog. The blog has posted an image of the smartphone on its website.
Nokia is basically iterating the Lumia series smartphones at the hardware level and releasing them as the successor to the existing set of devices. For instance, the Lumia 630 is the successor of the Lumia 620. Albeit, Nokia is working actively to change the design along with hardware as well.
As the name suggests, Nokia Lumia 830 is the direct successor of the Lumia 820. The so-called Lumia 830 is said to arrive with a 4.5-inch touchscreen and a 13 megapixel PureView technology trotting camera at the rear. Codenamed as McLauren, the Lumia 830’s camera is labelled to have Carl Zeiss optics.
While we are still uncertain of the authenticity of the leaked image, we suggest to take the details with a grain of salt.
Nokia certainly is working closely with Microsoft to introduce new Windows Phone 8.1 based smartphones for rest of the year.


text:
Borderlands 2 arriving for a new round of loot and shoot in September
Borderlands will return this autumn and it will be "bigger, better and more badass" according to 2K Games.
In a colossal follow-up to Gearbox's hit shooter-RPG, Borderlands 2 features a whole array of new characters, weapons, enemies and a whole range of unique missions over new exotic locations on the planet of Pandora.
The storyline steps away from the hunt for legendary items as players are embroiled in a plot to take down the notorious boss of Hyperion Corporation, Handsome Jack.
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford said, "Borderlands 2 is a passion project, through and through. The result is a sequel that has improved every successful aspect of Borderlands while innovating with an all-new experience."
Borderlands 2 will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on September 18th in North America and September 21st in Europe.
- Microsoft doubles down for April's Games With Gold
- Every wondered what it would be like in James Bond and Joanna Dark met? Cara Ellison and Irene Koh have answered that question
- Dirty Bomb beta is back online
- Obsidian's saviour Pillars Of Eternity launches today, Watch it streamed live here later today
- Infinite Crisis launches fully today on Steam
- Here's what the new Hunters and the Behemoth for Evolve look like in action
- Blood and Burning and Celts Culture DLC Packs arrive for Total War: Attila
- F1 2015 coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One this summer, first screenshots released
- Ubisoft introduces Alex Parizeau, the new head of Ubisoft Toronto


text:
Chingari, the world’s fastest-growing on-chain social app has launched the first-ever video-NFT marketplace called Creator Cuts. The marketplace adds to Chingari’s commitment to fostering and proliferating the creator economy.
Speaking at the launch of the NFT marketplace, Mr Sumit Ghosh, who is the Co-founder & CEO of Chingari and GARI token said:
“At Chingari, empowering and enabling creators to engage effectively and intrinsically with their community has been the cornerstone of our success since our inception. We believe in the immense potential of the Creator Economy and are wholly committed to its growth and democratisation across the spectrum. Towards this, we are always innovating and creating unique programs and propositions which lie at the cross-section of popular culture, ecosystem growth and our business priorities. The introduction of Creator Cuts is one such unique initiative which empowers the creators as well as the community to not only form deeper connections but also grow together in the truest sense of the term.”
Creator Cuts is the first ever video-NFT (V NFT) marketplace and it will allow marquee videos from Chingari’s top creators to be minted as video NFTs.
How Creator Cuts will work
Besides empowering creators with a unique financial and community engagement opportunity, Creator Cuts will also enable the community to connect with their favourite creators by owning a piece of their exclusive art while also being able to derive some monetary benefits.
Buyers of the video NFTs will earn 10% of the daily income in the GARI token that the creator receives. That means the revenue generated by the videos is shared between the creators and the buyers of the NFTs.
Creators on the Chingari app can mint their videos and sell them on the Creator Cuts to increase their revenue. A unique price is assigned to each video depending on the activity of its creator on the Chinagri app.
The minted video NFTs can be bought by anyone; either a Chinagri use or non-user.


text:
If you want to hear about real-life examples of how a historic, trusted but largely regional publication can adapt to and thrive in digital, Ray Faust is one of those people you’d want to talk to. The VP, National and Emerging Sales at the Star Tribune Media Company helped lead the charge into programmatic on the digital properties of this Twin Cities newspaper. By his account, that programmatic push opened up previously unforeseen potential for the Star Tribune’s inventory, because it allowed advertisers to buy the publication’s audience, not just their websites.
Beyond that, Faust has explained, taking a holistic approach to the Star Tribune’s inventory has allowed the publication to better discover and value demand. That full understanding of demand helped...
Just what is the state of ad ops? It’s complicated. Literally.
As AdMonsters Publisher Rob Beeler suggests in his executive summary to the State of Ad Ops 2015 (sponsored by Sizmek), complexity is more foe to a digital publisher than competing sites. Indeed, that’s why digital pubs are willing to band together to determine best practices for monetizing an ever-increasing amount of screens, channels, devices, gadgets, widgets, thingamabobs, wackadoodles… You get the idea.
Thought leaders in the ops field across a wide range of digital media (digital-only, digital plus TV, digital and print, etc.) paint an oft-contradictory landscape:
- Around 32% consider...
As consumers of digital media, the connected device revolution has been a wonder, giving users the ability to experience the entire Internet virtually whenever, wherever and on whatever they choose.
For digital publishers, it’s been a bit more of a pain.
Publisher audiences are consuming content on a wealth of devices: desktop, smartphones, tablets, over-the-top devices, video game consoles, even watches. Currently, NPD estimates that the average U.S. household boasts 5.7 connected devices. Cisco estimates that the majority of US individuals will have five connected devices for every consumer by 2017.
Device fragmentation has had a complicated effect on publisher efforts to understand and target their audiences. Where once a publisher could easily track user behavior...read full post
When it comes to media, video is a near universal medium. It’s the foundation of television, the hottest thing on desktop web and an emerging star on smartphones and tablets. And video is video is video on whatever screen it may appear on – for the most part, viewers don’t discriminate, so why should the digital advertising industry? Advertisers love video because it possesses the storytelling qualities of television (sight, sound and motion, baby!) while publishers are enamored with video’s ability to drive engagement and time spent on site (and revenue too, while we’re at it).
About the only place you can’t find video is in print publications… And that’s just for the moment.
Digital video monetization is top of mind for both advertisers and publishers, having risen to a level of prominence close to (if not higher than) display. The ease with which viewers can access digital video, on demand and on any device, throughout any point of their...read full post
We’re two months past Sept. 1, the date when Google Chrome started detecting and pausing any Flash content it deemed “unimportant” to a page’s main content — in other words, Flash ads. Mozilla’s own Flash-blocking practices preceded Chrome’s, in practice.
And yet, not only has the internet not broken itself, but creatives are still building ads with Flash. So what happened? Why aren’t agencies and publishers getting the message that Flash is dead?
Browser and device compatibility be damned, a whole lot of creative people are still building with Flash because it’s what they know. Flash has been around for a lot longer, there are more toolkits and tutorials out there for Flash than there are for HTML5, and some creatives simply prefer Flash’s animation functionality. And of course there’s the issue of file size, and pushback from creative agencies about building in significantly weightier HTML5 formats. Publishers are seeing a continuous...read full post


text:
FabFitFun Lays Off 137, Slashes Production Arm
Rachel Uranga covers the intersection of business, technology and culture. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.
The subscription box service FabFitFun has laid off around 20% of its employees as the company looks to sharpen its "focus on areas that drive the most value" and build itself as a launchpad for brands.
The 137 cuts to its staff of 600 employees will largely come from the FabFitFunTV production team, which creates on-demand wellness videos and daily lifestyle content for subscribers that pay $50 for a curated box of products.
"We've made the decision to pull back certain initiatives and streamline our core business efforts. As a result, we've had to make the extremely difficult decision to reduce the size of our team," founders Katie Rosen Kitchens, Daniel Broukhim and Michael Broukhim said in a memo to employees on Feb. 13 that the company provided to dot.LA. FabFitFun declined to comment further.
FabFitFun is offering laid off employees severance packages and "outplacement services."
The decade old venture-backed service that's nearing a billion-dollar valuation had recently seen a growth spurt after it scored an $80 million Series A round last January. The funding was led by Kleiner Perkins, and included Upfront Ventures and NEA.
Earlier this year it hired Louisa Wee, a vice-president of marketing strategy, analysis and programmatic media for Netflix to lead its brand, content and creative programming. Recently, the company has made a push to ramp direct sales, offering "flash sales" to subscribers as it positions itself as a place for discovery as shoppers shift away from brick-and-mortar stores.
This year, we're excited to introduce more member-exclusive flash sales to your FFF experience. These themed sales are an opportunity for us to bring you more products & brands to help you discover, explore, and empower your daily life! Learn more at https://t.co/bMlcvwBz7H. pic.twitter.com/AVMz7opjRo
— FabFitFun (@FabFitFun) February 26, 2020
Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.
It's almost 90 degrees outside in Los Angeles as lines of cars pull up to Dodger Stadium, home to a mass vaccination site that opened Friday.
"Please make sure that they're not under the sun in the cart," Edith Mirzaian is telling a volunteer as she directs the person to put ice packs on coolers that hold up to 20 COVID vaccines. Mirzaian is a USC associate professor of clinical pharmacy and an operational lead at one of California's largest vaccination sites.
- Healthvana Sends Vaccination Records to Apple, Google Wallet ... ›
- Curative will Administer Vaccines at Dodger Stadium - dot.LA ›
Despite — or in many cases because of — the raging pandemic, 2020 was a great year for many tech startups. It turned out to be an ideal time to be in the video game business, developing a streaming ecommerce platform for Gen Z, or helping restaurants with their online ordering.
But which companies in Southern California had the best year? That is highly subjective of course. But in an attempt to highlight who's hot, we asked dozens of the region's top VCs to weigh in.
We wanted to know what companies they wish they would have invested in if they could go back and do it all over again.
Hottest
Boiling
Simmering
Warming Up
- Los Angeles' Tech and Startup Scene is Growing. - dot.LA ›
- The dot.LA/ Pitchbook Top 50 LA Startups for 2020 Q2 - dot.LA ›
- dot.LA/Pitchbook 50 Hottest Los Angeles Companies - dot.LA ›


text:
The president's fuel-efficiency regulations for heavy trucks are part of his climate action plan.
Opinion: The presidential candidates carry weight over the future of fuel efficiency standards.
Calls for new alternative-fuel-vehicle incentives.
The rules are expected to reduce oil consumption by about 530 million barrels, the administration says.
Sources say agencies will suggest rules improving fuel economy up to 6 percent per year.
Dump this clunker? No way, say thrifty lawmakers.
The Senate Thursday rejected an attempt to strip a $1 billion program aimed at spurring flagging car sales from a pending $106 billion war funding bill.
Low gasoline prices and rising optimism about the economy boosted U.S. driving in April.
After rising nearly every day for the past two months, it looks like gasoline prices may be ready to take a break.
GM says there's been a slight uptick in market demand, mostly for vehicles with good fuel economy.
Car shoppers could take advantage of incentives to send their gas guzzlers to scrap heaps in favor of fuel-efficient cars.


text:
The giant social network refreshes its data policy to make it shorter and less complicated, leading the way with a new how-to and tips guide.
Google released its 64-bit Chrome Windows first, but it's moving Mac users to the new version faster. The promise: a memory, security, and performance boost.
Three Apple employees spoke to The New York Times about the company's secretive internal training program, revealing some of the lessons the tech firm tries to impart.
From sweating through P90X in the morning to snoozing through a full night of sleep, we put the Microsoft Band through its paces for a full month to see how it held up.
Simple robots that identify and move toward each other could open the way to armies of machines that measure pollution, pollinate plants, or fly through our bodies.
Ford's Sync in-car infotainment is about to turn eight, making it one of the most well-established on the market. With version three, it's been completely rebuilt from the ground up.
As far as free theft-deterrent and motion-notification systems go, Salient Eye has the lock on simplicity.
Pricing not available
Premium toasters can cost anywhere from $100 to $500. Are they simply expensive to appeal to the high-end market, or do they actually offer more bang for your buck?
Shopping for a smartwatches or fitness band? Need help telling the difference? CNET breaks down what you should look for, and what you should know before buying. (Hint: it's a messy, muddy place.)
Headed to all users in the coming months, the new app for iOS and Android will offer a redesigned interface and new ways to navigate radio stations and other features.


text:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is recalling almost 100,000 of its popular new 2011 model year crossover SUVs because the front seatbelts could come loose in a crash.
The models involved in the recall are the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX compact crossover SUVs. A total of 97,843 vehicles are involved in the recall.
The problem was discovered during seatbelt development tests in September. The two incidents that occurred during the tests were on the driver's seatbelt, but the same seatbelt buckle anchor that failed in those tests is also used on the passenger side seatbelt.
While the seatbelts won't fail on a first impact, GM spokesman Alan Adler said, they could fail during a secondary impact. Car crashes frequently involve more than one impact.
Chrysler owners that haven't fixed their recalled cars are eligible for some incentives -- find out if your car is included. More
China's market is spreading investor anxiety around the world and putting Europe -- its biggest trading partner -- on edge. More


text:
McDonald’s may be the “official restaurant” in Sochi, but not everyone thinks the Golden Arches mixes with gold medals.
A coalition of public-health advocates is calling on Olympic medalists to resist the temptation to sign lucrative endorsement deals with McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) should the hamburger giant come calling. In an open letter Wednesday, Corporate Accountability International (CAI) -- along with the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood -- asked medalists to make a pledge not to take money from a company that “drives the worldwide epidemic of diet-related disease.”
“By aligning itself with athletes who represent the epitome of health, the fast-food corporation deflects public health criticism. Sponsoring the Olympics and high-profile athletes enables McDonald’s to mislead people worldwide into thinking that its brand is healthy.”
The letter is part of CAI’s Value [the] Meal Campaign, an initiative to call attention to the fast-food industry’s role in the obesity epidemic and the myriad health problems that accompany it. The effort reflects a growing consensus among nutrition and health advocates that the public’s perception of health-related issues is tainted by the marketing manpower behind companies that trade in empty calories.
McDonald’s began its relationship with the Olympics in 1968 when it airlifted hamburgers to American athletes competing in Grenoble, France. It’s been an official sponsor since 1976. For 10 consecutive games, including the winter games in Sochi, the company has bought the right to be dubbed “official restaurant” of the Olympics.
Hanna Saltzman, campaign organizer for Value [the] Meal, said in an email that this year’s crop of athletes can do their part to send a more health-oriented message, letting the next generation of Olympic hopefuls know that a path to the games is not paved with Happy Meals. “We believe Olympians have an opportunity to help curb, not drive, our nation’s epidemic of diet-related disease by standing up to misleading junk food marketing and saying ‘no’ to any deals with McDonald’s,” she said.
In 2012, McDonald’s announced that it would continue to be a top worldwide partner of the Olympics through 2020. The XXII Olympic Winter Games continues through Feb. 23. Read CAI’s full letter here.


text:
DENNIS ROBERTSON SNP WELCOMES RECORD NUMBER OF BUSINESSES THAT ARE BENEFITTING FROM SNP’S SMALL BUSINESS BONUS SCHEME
SCOTLAND ‘MOST COMPETITIVE PLACE TO DO BUSINESS IN UK’
Welcoming new figures showing that the number of businesses benefiting from the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) has reached a record high, the SNP has said that Scotland remains the most competitive place to do business in the UK.
The number of small businesses across Scotland benefiting from reduced or removed rates through SBBS has reached a record high of 99,559. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has also already announced that the scheme will continue throughout the next parliamentary term if re-elected, meaning thousands of more business can benefit with another SNP term in government.
The figures came a day before control of business rates were given to Scotland’s Local Authorities, as announced by Deputy First Minister John Swinney at SNP conference.
Commenting, Dennis Robertson MSP Deputy Convener of the Energy, Economy and Tourism Committee said:
“Because of the SNP government’s Small Business Bonus Scheme, almost 100,000 small businesses are prospering and continuing to make Scotland the most competitive place to do business in the UK.
“Small Businesses are the lifeblood of communities and a key driver of the economic growth we need to deliver a fairer society. The SNP understands their importance, and as Nicola Sturgeon has pledged, it will continue to support them if the SNP is re-elected in May.
“While other parties argued against the bonus scheme, the SNP is well aware of the importance small businesses play in communities, as employers and in creating growth in our economy.
“Whilst other parties seek to strip away support, small businesses should know that they will always have an ally in an SNP Government.”
Contact: SNP Press 0131 348 5740
· There are 99,559 recipients of Small Business Bonus Scheme relief in 2015-16, an increase from 96,265 in 2014-15.
· The Small Business Bonus Scheme provided £174m in relief in 2015-16, an increase of £9m from £165m in 2014-15.
· The number of properties receiving SBBS relief over the past 7 years has increased by 55% from 64,179 in 2008-09 to 99,559 in 2015-16.
unsubscribe from this list <http://snp.us10.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=4fae14f57a18ee08253ffc251&id=0890c62137&e=3c75319c89&c=ce05995698> update subscription preferences <http://snp.us10.list-manage.com/profile?u=4fae14f57a18ee08253ffc251&id=0890c62137&e=3c75319c89>


text:
Cameroon’s Banana Association (ASSOBACAM) on Monday revealed that Cameroonian banana exports estimated at 59,149 tons declined in the first quarter of 2018 against 78,610 tons last year in the same season.
In relative terms, this is a decrease of 19,461 tons, as a result of the poor performance of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the country’s second largest exporter.
Based on the figures compiled by ASSOBACAM, the CDC exported at the end of the first three months of the year 11,631 tons of bananas against 26,840 tons in the first quarter of 2017.
This represents a 15,209 tons drop “related to the effects of climate,” which has affected all domestic production on the global market, it said.
For its part, the PHP Company, a local subsidiary of the Compagnie Fruitière de Marseille, leader in banana production in Cameroon, exported 45,064 tons in the first quarter of 2018, although down compared to the same period last year when exports reached 48,755 tons in the first quarter.
According to ASOBACAM, bananas are Cameroon’s third export product after oil and timber, accounting for more than 40 percent and 15 percent exports, respectively.


text:
The Dubai government announced new measures to lift restrictions on businesses, allowing gyms, movie theaters, leisure venues, educational and training institutes, child learning centers and all retail and wholesale establishments to reopen at varying limited capacities.
The emirate of 3.3 million, the UAE’s commercial capital, is pushing ahead with reopening its economy after a grueling two months of lockdown that included a three-week stretch in April of some of the strictest measures imposed anywhere in the world, requiring residents to apply for a police permit in order to leave their homes. Since late April, the restrictions have eased, allowing malls, restaurants and hotels to reopen at reduced capacity and under stringent sanitation and social-distancing rules.
“Under the directives of @HHShkMohd, @HamdanMohammed announces the gradual reopening of business activities in Dubai from Wednesday, 27 May. There will be no restrictions on movement between 6.00 am and 11.00 pm,” the Dubai Media Office tweeted this week, citing Dubai’s ruler and crown prince.
People above the age of 60 and below the age of 12 aren’t allowed to enter malls, sports facilities, educational institutes and movie theaters, and mask-wearing and the maintenance of two meters of social distancing are mandatory.
Curfew across the emirate had expanded from a 10 p.m. start for much of May to an 8 p.m. start during the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid, the multi-day celebration to commemorate Ramadan’s ending. The two-hour curfew expansion coincided with an uptick in coronavirus infections to around 800 new cases per day, and was believed to be aimed at stopping people from gathering to celebrate what is traditionally one of the most important holidays for the Muslim world.
The UAE has had just over 32,500 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 258 deaths.
“IT’S GAME TIME — WE ARE REOPENING!” an email from one popular Dubai gym read on Wednesday. The robust sports community in the emirate, which has attracted celebrity athletes, fitness influencers and high-end gym franchises from around the world, is gearing up to serve customers again, but will be doing so under strict new safety guidelines.
“A physical distance of at least 2 meters must be maintained, and separators/partitions (e.g. acrylic dividers) shall be installed between sports equipment, if the nature of the sports activity requires it, to ensure protection of people,” a memo from the Dubai Sports Council read. It outlined regular sanitization procedures for equipment and workout areas, as well as a no more than 50% capacity in gyms and sports centers. Enclosed areas like locker rooms, showers, changing areas and saunas are to be closed off.
Entertainment and leisure venues like the Dubai Ice Rink and Dolphinarium are able to reopen as well.
Dubai’s public beaches remain closed, likely helping boost hotel bookings over the holiday weekend as residents flocked to local resorts for “staycations” as the only legal means of getting beach time.
Dubai relaxing measures faster than Abu Dhabi
It’s worth noting the reopenings so far do not apply across the UAE: neighboring Abu Dhabi, the country’s oil-rich capital, remains largely shut down in terms of business and leisure venues. Some local analysts attribute this to Abu Dhabi having stronger financial means to support its companies, most of which are owned by locals who won’t leave the country in a prolonged downturn.
Dubai, by contrast, has a higher expatriate population, and economists have forecast a potential population contraction of more than 10% by the end of this year if business fails to sufficiently rebound. During Dubai’s strictest lockdown period in April, a survey of roughly 1,200 businesses found that 70% of them expected to close within six months if the lockdown persisted.


text:
Café Coffee Day is showing signs of recovery after posting a fourth quarter profit and reducing store closures, indicating that the Indian coffee chain is turning a corner following previous debt challenges and the devastating impact of Covid-19
Indicating that trading conditions have improved in India, Café Coffee Day’s average daily sales rose nearly 12% in its fourth quarter | Photo credit: ALensAndSomeLuck via Shutterstock
India’s largest coffee chain appears to be on a steadier financial footing following a sustained period of store closures and challenging levels of debt.
The Indian café chain, which is owned by Coffee Day Enterprises posted a net profit of Rs 66 Crs ($8.5m) for the fourth quarter ended on 31 March 2022 compared to a Rs 95 Crs ($12.3m) loss in the final quarter of 2021.
Revenue from coffee increased 5% to Rs 149 Crs ($19.3m), helping to offset a 4% fall in revenue from hospitality services.
Indicating that trading conditions have improved in India, which was rocked by several waves of Covid-19, CDEL said Café Coffee Day’s average sales per day had risen nearly 12% during the quarter against the same period in the last fiscal year.
For the full fiscal year, average daily sales increased 33%.
The apparent improvement is also evident in Café Coffee Day’s store count, which appears to have stabilised following a sustained period of mass store closures.
Founded in 1996, Café Coffee Day operated more than 1,752 outlets across some 243 cities in the India at the start of 2019, before heavily shrinking its footprint in the wake of spiralling debt and the apparent suicide of the chain’s founder V. G. Siddhartha.
Café Coffee Day now operates 495 stores in India, 77 fewer than during the same period in 2021. However, only six stores were closed in the most recent quarter.
Additionally, the number of vending machines operated by the company increased by more than 1,000 to 45,217 between Q3 and Q4. However, this figure remains below the 45,959 a year ago and substantially lower than the 56,799 machines it operated in 2018.
The appetite for coffee and café culture in India is gathering pace with the coffee shop market becoming increasingly competitive.
International brands are targeting India for expansion, with Tata Consumer Products Starbucks licensed stores closing in on Café Coffee Day’s previous market dominance. Tata Starbucks operates around 270 stores across India, while UK-based competitor Costa Coffee opened 18 net new stores in 2021 to reach 50 stores across the country.
Elsewhere in the market, Reliance Retail, the retail venture of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, is reportedly negotiating with UK food-to-go and coffee chain Pret a Manger for a new franchise partnership in India, whilst Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons signed an agreement with a joint venture in March to open its first Indian store as part of a plan to target more than 250 stores within five years.


text:
Gameloft has announced that it plans to bring a total of 15 games to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in the next year.
The first game titles announced by Gameloft will be,“Asphalt 8: Airborne” and “Dungeon Hunter 4″ both released simultaneously for the Windows platforms this autumn. Other Gameloft titles scheduled for release on Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 before the end of the year include “Despicable Me: Minion Rush,” “Six Guns,” “Total Conquest” and “Uno & Friends.”
Some of the games will feature cross-platform play between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, though the company did not say if all 15 games would feature the capability.
Gameloft’s announcement follows a commitment made last year to bring 12 of its most popular games to Windows Phone, including “Asphalt 7: Heat,” “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour.” The game studio has released 17 games for Windows Phone, though “Shark Dash” remains its only Windows game released so far.


text:
The biggest negative for Dell as a private firm "is probably the lack of transparency customers have into private companies, an issue Dell competitors, including HP have been trying to exploit," said King.
But King said the transparency issue is "more than a little overblown," and notes there many successful private IT firms.
One customer of Dell, Ryan Hayes, IT manager at Park City Mountain Resort, is using Dell blades to run his large, 3,300 acre operation. He says Dell's privatization had no impact on him, or on his Dell account team, which was particularly important.
The only difference, said Hayes, after going private, is he has noticed that the quarters aren't as important as they once were.
Before going you private, "you knew it was the Dell end of quarter, you knew as a customer," said Hayes.
Sign up for CIO Asia eNewsletters.


text:
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
Car after car pulled into the parking lot of the flower shop both Feb. 13 and 14, with regular customers getting out to buy flowers for Valentine’s Day.
Except there were no flowers to be bought at Keizer Florist.
Lisa Vasquez and her husband Rich bought the business from Julie Wallace earlier this year, with the sale closing on Feb. 4. Lisa is busy getting things up and running for a reopening on March 2. The store closed shortly before Christmas.
The new opening date means Keizer Florist was closed for Valentine’s Day – traditionally the busiest day for a flower shop.
“It was torture,” Lisa said of not having flowers to sell. “For so many of the people, for years they pull up and pick up flowers for Valentine’s Day. I lost count of how many people came up and saw the store was closed.”
With the sale closing shortly before the big day, Lisa said there wasn’t time to get things like taxes, flower accounts and a myriad of other details arranged in time.
“We didn’t want to open when we weren’t ready,” said Lisa, who noted she has hired three of the store’s former employees. “All of these things have to happen before you can start. Last Friday was the worst. It was the same on Saturday. People didn’t see the signs and just came up to the door. There wasn’t much I could do. Whenever we saw them pull up, I would open the door and greet them.”
If there was a silver lining, Lisa found out something about her customer base.
“My belief is there’s a large, loyal following,” she said. “Most people said they would be back. That made me feel good. I will have to do something nice for the loyal people who come back. A lot of the loyalty is due to the staff that was here.”
An information technology consultant whose husband is retired, Lisa has always been on the lookout for business opportunities.
“I have always been pushing to own my own business,” she said. “This wasn’t on my list, to own a floral shop.”
Lisa saw an ad on Craigslist in early January about the business being for sale, then soon met with Wallace and her realtor.
Lisa and Rich, who moved to Keizer in 1996, had some familiarity with the business. Rich became a regular customer shortly after that and got to know previous owners. Once the opportunity came up, it was Lisa pushing forward.
The couple will be an FTD florist, while also selling local flowers. In the days since the sale, they have been getting up to speed.
“Rich has been reading up on FTD systems,” Lisa said. “He will be our driver at first. He will be the support system. The business side I have down. I’ve been a government employee and I worked for two large companies, but I have to be schooled on flower arrangements. My team will school me. I can be trained on the job or FTD offers courses. They have courses on the business side, classes on how to arrange flowers and they have webinars. FTD has been around for a long time, so I’ll take advantage of that.”
In talking with her team, Lisa has decided not to continue the drive-through coffee window.
“They did coffee and baked goods, but the team said it was slow,” she said. “It was a lot of effort, so we’re not going to keep it. I told them to just focus on awesome flowers. There is a higher expectation here (for flowers), because you will pay more. I want it as close to perfection as a human can get.”
In addition to flowers, other items like vases, truffles, small gifts and cards will be available. Eventually Lisa wants to give the store at 631 Chemawa Road NE a more contemporary look.
“The real point is the flowers,” she said.
One focus for Lisa will be different price ranges.
“I want to focus on affordability,” she said. “I want to have it where a customer can still buy something nice even if they don’t have a lot of money to spend. We will run the gamut. That is very important here because this is a working community, not a luxury community. I don’t want people to come in and not be able to buy anything.”
Along those lines, Lisa has a picture in mind of the perfect customer.
“I look forward to the first time a little kid comes in with change and wants to buy a flower for mom,” Lisa said. “That will be the best sale.”


text:
Gasoline Prices Remain Steady For Holiday Weekend
Gasoline prices continue to fall nationwide, sending good news to Americans as they prepare for the Fourth of July holiday.
California gas prices have dropped ten cents after hitting record high around Memorial Day
AAA officials say they expect more than 5.4 millionCalifornians will travel during the holiday weekend. That´s up more than 2.5 percent from last year. Of those, 4.5 million will travel by car
But analysts says any relief from soaring gasoline prices will be short lived.. Cynthia Harris with AAA says recent problems at several California refineries may cause gas prices to spike once again.
The national average price of a gallon of regular-unleaded gasoline is $1.91. Wholesale prices for gasoline have fallen at a steeper rate than retail prices, which suggests there is more room for even lower prices at the pumps. Crude oil declined to almost 36 dollars per barrel, the lowest level in two months, following the transfer of power in Iraq.


text:
We love digital
Call 0845 485 1219
We love digital - Call and say hello - Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm
The world of football has learnt two important lessons about the Internet in as many days. After yesterday’s announcement that Tranmere Rovers were available to buy on eBay, Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent made the kind of Twitter faux pas that would shame Habitat.
First up Tranmere Rovers though. The small Wirral based club with a big reputation for giant killing may be League 1 also-rans, but they came into focus when their owner reacted furiously to their attempted sale on eBay. At $10m for an opening bid you wouldn’t have thought it would be much of an issue, but Chairman Peter Johnson thinks differently suggesting it’s “not a second hand bike we’re selling.”
The Internet Advertising Bureau have announced that Twitter is in the process of finalising their brand partners before launching this new service. First launched in the US in April last year, brands will now have the opportunity to pay for promoted tweets, trends and accounts, which will be displayed on UK pages.


text:
As Malta puts its best foot forward to establish itself as the Medical Cannabis Capital of Europe, Parliament enacted the Production of Cannabis for Medicinal and Research Purposes Act, which Parliamentary Secretary Dr Deo Debattista described as “once again place[s] our citizens’ health and dignity top of the agenda”.
The Act allows entities holding the necessary license by The Medicines Authority to cultivate, import, process and produce cannabis intended for medical and research purposes under a controlled and supervised environment, provided they comply with all necessary regulations. In fact, the Malta Medicines Authority has also issued general guidelines to the industry, to expand on the Act and lay down best practices.
An approval/authorisation from the Medicines Authority may only be granted where the intended use of cannabis and/or products deriving therefrom is for medicinal and/or research purposes only. Furthermore, cultivation that does not form an integral part of a production process intended for production of products for medicinal and/or research purposes is expressly prohibited.
It is worth pointing out here that cultivating or importing/trafficking cannabis for recreational use is a crime punishable with imprisonment in Malta, yet the regulation of the production of cannabis for medicinal purposes has generally been welcomed. Companies applying for a license to grow and/or process cannabis for medical and/or research purposes will need to employ manpower and resources, boosting the Maltese economy. Similarly, the export of and taxes on this commodity can bring a considerable amount of income to the country.
As of May 2019, a preliminary agreement to establish a laboratory of excellence in Malta to test cannabis medical products was signed between Malta Enterprise and the prestigious Italian University of La Sapienza. Members of Parliament and Malta’s Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, Dr Chris Cardona said that 17 companies have been approved by Malta Enterprise to produce cannabis medical products, and that these regulatory changes will help make Malta the fastest growing economy in the EU in 2019. [ TVM.com ]
The Medicines Authority is currently working to establish an Academy on Regulatory Sciences to strengthen the emphasis on the production of high-quality products, including medicinal cannabis products, and in November 2018, Malta hosted the first-ever edition of the Medical Cannabis World Forum; a conference that featured industry leaders, academics, and researchers who are experts in the medical cannabis field. It would seem that while still rather niche, the industry is here to stay. In fact, the forum is set to be hosted in Malta once again in November 2019, and the number of attendees is expected to be greater than last year.
About the Author
The article has been authored by Dr Ursula Farrugia, Advocate at CSB Legal, who specialises in Company Law, Financial Services, Compliance & AML and the Fintech Industry.