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With a proclamation of sorts, Unthink, the newest start-up social networking site that plans to dethroned the evil chains of Facebook, launched last week. It claims to give users the right to own their data and asserts that freedom and emancipation are the keys to their site. Will Unthink give users the right to privacy and security?
Category: News & Features
When the billionaire founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, said concerns about privacy tend to be “old people issues,” maybe he didn’t know that it’s young people who run the greatest risk of becoming victims of identity fraud. Now studies show they’re finally getting worried enough about it to take action to protect themselves online. Whether you’re young or old or somewhere in between, find out why privacy protection needs to be part of your daily online routine.
In our bi-weekly social media privacy report we spend a lot of time discussing Facebook privacy and security concerns. Recent posts have included what we considered high priority issues: the network tracking logged out users , new features like the ticker and subscriptions and Facebook content being used for background checks. Yet despite Facebook’s reputation for pushing the envelope in terms of online privacy and security, most users, especially the ones that use the social site on a daily basis, are not worried about privacy.
PRIVATE WiFi, in conjunction with the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), is sponsoring a contest for Facebook users to help remind them to keep their online identities safe. Four lucky winners will receive a yearly subscription to PRIVATE WiFi and one grand prize winner will receive an iPad 2!
Wifi hacking has taken flight! Dubbed SkyNET, after the artificial intelligence villain in theTerminator, the new airborne robo Wifi hacking drone could take wardriving to new criminal heights. Find out what you can do to protect yourself from fly-by Wifi hackers.
It is hard to avoid the word Facebook in the news recently. At the company’s F8 conference two weeks ago, the network announced big changes to the user experience: the new Timeline profile, partnerships with music streaming sites like Spotify and the “open graph” concept. All of these alterations will, of course, have large implications on user privacy and security on the social networking site. However, we found it hard to focus on these changes, when just a few days after the conference, an Austrialian hacker revealed a huge security issue: Facebook was enabling cookies that continued to track its users even after they had logged out of the site.
What do a truck driver, an airline passenger, a company employee traveling on business and a naval reservist training for a Mideast mission have in common? According to complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission, all these consumers became unknowing Wifi hacking victims while they were using public hotspots. Find out what you need to do to avoid becoming a hotspot hacking statistic.
Just in time for the big F8 Conference yesterday, Facebook made some big changes to the user experience of the site earlier this week. As is the tradition in Facebook mythology, members aren’t happy and complaints are flowing through the News Feed like never before. But we aren’t here to talk about whether the new features on Facebook are good or bad; we want to discuss what they mean for your online privacy.
Hack attacks against corporate giants like Sony, Citibank and Google continue grab the headlines. But surprisingly, it’s small and medium sized businesses that are fast becoming cybercriminals’ favorite targets. If you’re a business owner, make it your business to find out how protect your company from digital data thieves.
The photo sharing social network, Flickr, is taking steps to ensure its users’ privacy. Last week the website introduced Geofences, which help mask the location of a photo and thus protect online security and privacy.
Cybercriminals are using social engineering techniques to hack humans on social networks in record numbers. Why? Because it’s often easier than hacking technology. And the rewards can be a lot bigger. Find out how you can avoid becoming a victim of some of the most common social media cons.
It may have been the pressure of the growing Google + social network and its “Circles” privacy feature; or maybe it was just Facebook actually listening to user concerns. But no matter what triggered it, on Tuesday the social giant, Facebook, announced a massive redesign of its privacy features that were rolled out just yesterday.


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Is BlackBerry getting into the Android business? So far BlackBerry hasn’t really confirmed or denied those claims, although recently the company did team up with Google to roll out security features for Android, thus improving its security for the enterprise. However according to a report from DigiTimes, it seems that BlackBerry has multiple plans for Android.
According to their sources in the supply chains, BlackBerry will reportedly roll out multiple Android handsets by the end of the year. DigiTimes claims that ODMs such as Foxconn, Compal, and Wistron will be serving as BlackBerry’s production partners. It’s interesting that they mention multiple devices because as it stands, we pretty much only know of two.
It wasn’t too long ago that there were rumors and a render that leaked online that supposedly belonged to that of the BlackBerry Venice, an Android-powered slider phone which is actually an interesting choice as far as design is concerned. Also there was mention of a BlackBerry Prague that is supposedly a low-end Android handset.
In any case with BlackBerry’s CEO stating that they would only consider Android if they could make it secure enough, perhaps this partnership with Google is just the first step in making that happen. Take it with a grain of salt for now, but how do you think an Android-powered BlackBerry phone will be received by the masses?

domain: news


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For Immediate Release
Luv’n the Loops Passport Wins Marketing Innovation Award from the BC Economic Development Association
March 12, 2021 – Tourism Kamloops received top honours in Marketing Innovation for the 2020/21 Luv’n the Loops Passport at the BC Economic Development Association’s annual conference and awards ceremony.
The BC Economic Development Association Awards distinguish top performance in marketing innovation, community project, and recovery and resilience across the province. The awards recognize organizations for their efforts in creating positive change in urban and rural communities. In 2021, the awards committee received a record-breaking number of applications.
“We are thrilled to be recognized as provincial leaders in marketing innovation on behalf of the Kamloops tourism industry,” notes Beverley DeSantis, Tourism Kamloops CEO. “Luv’n the Loops was launched to build resident ambassadorship and local support for tourism and, in 2020, the initiative swiftly pivoted from a monthly mystery bus tour to a digital passport with the onset of COVID-19. We have maintained momentum connecting Kamloops residents and visitors, when permitted, with tourism related experiences throughout the pandemic with great success.”
The Luv’n the Loops Passport is an innovative partnership with Kamloops This Week Digital and is free to use. The campaign highlights and supports small business and strives to reinvigorate Kamloops’ visitor economy by providing incentives that residents could engage with independently. To date, over 1,100 Kamloops-area residents have participated in the passport program to receive discounts at over 36 local businesses.
Seasonal prize packages encourage participants to visit several participating businesses in a certain period. The prizes include local experiences and showcase seasonal highlights.
“Our Tourism Kamloops team continues to explore and expand our marketing partnerships while elevating and innovating our marketing efforts,” adds DeSantis. “COVID-19 has delivered severe impacts to our organization, our tourism industry, and our businesses through the city. Luv’n the Loops provides a bold, agile, and fun solution to keep our residents engaged while supporting our local businesses.”
To participate, visit luvntheloops.com, create an account, visit participating locations, scan the QR code to access the discount or incentive, then receive a digital passport stamp to complete the transaction. Collect 10 or more stamps to be eligible for April’s prize package as well as the grand prize package at the end of June.
For more information on Tourism Kamloops, visit tourismkamloops.com.
Beverley DeSantis, CEO
Cell: 250.517.9094 | Email: email@example.com


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[insert the latest conservative boogeyman here]
The in-person event had been planned for Anchorage this October.
“The headwaters of Bristol Bay and the surrounding fishery are too unique and fragile to take any chances with.”
“A large drop in consumer spending is certain as tens of thousands of Alaskans will simply have less to spend.”
The progressive side of the race is getting packed.
Looking at their records, the decision was easy.


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The Center for Food Safety announced the release of Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, a book that takes an unprecedented look at our nation’s destructive farming practices, and offers positive solutions in support of a new vision of farming. Fatal Harvest shows how thousands of people are working to fundamentally reshape agriculture, to produce food in a way that respects farmers, communities, and the environment. With essays from more than 40 leading environmental thinkers and organic food and farming advocates including Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, David Ehrenfeld, Helena Norberg- Hodge, Vandana Shiva, Alice Waters, and Jim Hightower, and over 250 color photographs, Fatal Harvest illustrates the current state of America’s agricultural crisis.
“This book presents images that are stunning and often shocking, revealing industrial food production as a fatal harvest: fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff poisons our rivers and groundwater; and fatal to our rural communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms,” stated Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety.
“Global agriculture is not just a threat to U.S. farmers but is devastating families, communities, farm economies, cultures, the environment, and traditional knowledge systems around the globe,” said internationally renowned activist Dr. Vandana Shiva.
Ultimately, Fatal Harvest offers positive solutions to the model of industrial agriculture, by featuring safe and sustainable food and farming systems. “The choices we make when we buy food are serious choices, and today more and more people understand this,” said famed chef Alice Waters. “We all know that when people choose organic foods and avoid mass-produced and fast foods, they are voting for a sustainable future and against a network of supply and demand that destroys human health, local communities, and the environment.”
NATIONAL “ORGANIC & BEYOND” CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
Fatal Harvest will be a central organizing tool for a national campaign to promote alternatives to the current industrial agricultural system. The Center for Food Safety’s Organic & Beyond campaign is a broad coalition of environmental and agricultural organizations working to maintain strong organic standards and promote agriculture that is local, family operated, biologically diverse, humane, and socially just. In the coming months, the campaign will be taking direct action to ensure that the nation’s organic standards do not allow loopholes for factory farming, genetic engineering, or other unacceptable agricultural inputs. The campaign will also take legal and policy actions that seek to encourage “beyond organic” farming; educate consumers about these farms and their practices; and build demand in the marketplace for these “beyond organic” products.
“The national organic standards do little to protect the small-scale organic farmer,” said Jason McKenney, owner of Purisima Greens farm in Half Moon Bay, CA. “Consumers want and need information that will enable them to identify produce that is grown truly sustainably – produced locally, on a small family farm, and in a way that enhances the surrounding environment.”
For more information, please read:
Or visit, www.fatalharvest.org.
The genetic engineering of plants and animals is looming as one of the greatest and most intracta…


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CAMPBELL, CA - A major shopping center in California's Orange County, South Coast Plaza, has installed the ChargePoint Networked Charging Station for electric vehicles, manufactured by Coulomb Technologies.
The ChargePoint Networked Charging Station is located in the underground parking structure by the Crate and Barrel store at 3333 Bear Street in Costa Mesa, Calif.
The station was unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 24. Actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. joined local officials for the ceremony that featured several all-electric vehicles, including the BMW MINI E.
Coulomb's California distributor, Clean Fuel Connection, will provide support and maintenance for the ChargePoint station.
"Shopping centers are some of the perfect places for the installation of networked charging stations because people spend several hours shopping and dining," said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. "As the first installation in the nation of a networked charging station within a shopping center, we hope that other organizations will look to South Coast Plaza as an example and welcome this new wave of transportation."
"Having community charging stations is just one more green effort we're implementing at South Coast Plaza. For our customers who drive plug-in hybrids, it will be easy and convenient for them to charge while they're shopping and dining," said Debra Gunn Downing, executive director of marketing.
The South Coast Plaza charging station is a part of the ChargePoint Network, which is open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles and provides authentication, management and control for the networked electric vehicle charging stations.
According to Coulomb Technologies, ChargePoint Network features include:
- Charging status by SMS text or e-mail notification
- Location of unoccupied charging stations via smart phones
- Authenticated access to eliminate energy theft
- Authorized energizing for safety
- Smart Grid integration for utility load management with future V2G capabilities
- A ChargePoint iPhone application.
The network of electric vehicle charging stations is accessible to all plug-in drivers by making a toll-free call to the 24/7 number on each charging station, or by signing up for a ChargePoint Network monthly access plan and obtaining a ChargePass smart card. Other future payment options include using any smart (RFID) credit/debit card to authorize a session, or using a standard credit or debit card at a remote payment station (RPS) to pay for charging sessions. To locate available charging stations, visit www.mychargepoint.net and click "Find Staions."


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Leap Motion is one of several companies working on augmented reality technology like gloves that let you “touch” virtual reality objects.
Manufacturing an explosive material such as rocket fuel can be dangerous business. To lower the risk, engineers are taking a cue from nature with the design of their latest mixing method.
If Berlin-based startup BigRep has their say, we could be using 3D-printed bicycle tires instead of pumping them up. The company has taken to the streets of the German capital to show off their airless bicycle tires prototype.
Researchers at NASA, in partnership with Keystone Synergistic, are working on a trio of new additive and milling technologies in order to construct a 3D-printed rocket nozzle that has a simpler design and can still withstand extreme temperatures and


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HBL and NayaPay collaborate to boost international remittances to Pakistan
HBL, the largest and best bank in Pakistan, has partnered with NayaPay to facilitate real-time cross-border transaction flows into Pakistan. Customers can now receive foreign remittances through HBL’s partnering money transfer agents (MTOs) directly into their NayaPay account.
NayaPay, a leading E-Money Institution in Pakistan, enables users to open E-money accounts on their smartphones in a few simple steps and ...
UBL and NayaPay partner for fast international remittances to Pakistan
As the demand for fast, secure and simple digital payments across borders continues to grow,UBL and NayaPay have collaborated to enable users in Pakistan to receive ...Read More
#BetterTogether for Digitization: StormFiber and NayaPay Come Together
NayaPay, the first E-Money Institution in Pakistan, and StormFiber, the largest fiber broadband service provider in the country, have announced their partnership to accelerate digital....Read More
NayaPay partners with Euronet Pakistan to accelerate digital payment acceptance
NayaPay, the first E-Money Institution in Pakistan, has announced its partnership with Euronet Pakistan, a division of Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT), to revolutionize ....Read More


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The Bitcoin is a cybercurrency that has attracted a lot of press attention over the last couple of years, and continues to do so. Bitcoin was create by an unknown class or specific in 2009, who used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, following whom the smallest model of Bitcoin currency is named.
It is the initial and perhaps the most widely identified cryptocurrency. Actually just of fascination to the internet elite, the Bitcoin has received broader attraction in recent years and orders respect in its right on the foreign exchange.
The greater information on how the Bitcoin works could be challenging to know, since it is perhaps not below main get a handle on just like a traditional currency, but rather every deal is collectively approved by a network of users. There are no coins and no records, no bullion presented in a vault, but the Bitcoin offer is finite, it’ll stop at 21 million.
Every 10 moments, 25 Bitcoins are located by Bitcoin “miners”, and every 4 decades the amount of Bitcoins launched can halve until the limit is reached. Which means you will see no further discharge of Bitcoins following 2140.
The cost has traditionally been very unpredictable, with substantial peaks and slumps at intervals. Recently, the buying price of a Bitcoin leapt up significantly more than 10-fold in only two months.In 2013 a few Bitcoin Millionaires were created over night when the worthiness of these Bitcoin wallets improved dramatically.dark web wallet
In the event that you previously maintain some bitcoins in your electronic budget, or are thinking of dropping a toe into the water, then you really ought to keep up to speed with the Bitcoin News. Trading Bitcoin is definitely an increasingly popular option or add-on to mainstream foreign change trading, and is growing in help as more brokers get the plunge.
Inspite of the slowly slipping rate of Bitcoin discovery, the interest in Bitcoin media continues. There’s an actual and constant demand to up to the minute, reliable information about their value. Bitcoin received a powerful validation from PayPal lately which will undoubtedly improve confidence in their standing as a dependable alternative to main-stream bank card or money transactions on the internet and on the high street.
This could move some solution to please the experts of Bitcoin, who declare that the device used to agree or validate transactions, named Blockchain, and is unsecure and at risk of attack by hackers.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Amazon floats 'Prime Air' drone delivery plan
Copies Australian and Chinese companies with odd aerial-atom-delivery experiment
Hot from The Reg's department of perhaps-a-bit-too-obediently-reporting-the-tech-titans comes news that Amazon.com has floated a plan to deliver goods by un-manned aerial vehicle.
Amazon looks to have teed up a soft interview with CEO Jeff Bezos on US network CBS' flagship news magazine program 60 minutes. That interview “investigated” how the company can cope with the colossal levels of shopping that break out across the USA. Promotions for the story promised a “big surprise”.
Reg man Jack Clark, in the tweet below, had a guess at what that surprise would be.
Given Bezos's buy of Kiva systems, love of automation, and heavy Lab 126 investment, I reckon tonight's surprise will be an AMZN Drone.
— Jack Clark (@mappingbabel) December 1, 2013
And he was right, with Bezos showing off the drone depicted in the video below.
Everything's still very much, pardon the pun, up in the air, with Amazon saying it hopes the United States' Federal Aviation Administration sees fit to allow its plans by 2015.
An Amazon Prime delivery drone
Even if that comes about, the plan raises plenty of questions, courtesy of The Reg's department of hang-on-that-doesn't-make-sense.
For starters, an Australian company has already revealed plans to do pretty much the same thing. A Chinese company has also been trialling a similar service since September, according to the South China Morning Post. Has Amazon bothered to patent this?
Secondly, the drones depicted look wimpy. If one were to order, say, a DVD box set it doesn't look like they would cope. Is that really useful?
Third: The promised service would not reach many people because the footprint that could be served from Amazon's warehouses would almost certainly not cover all of the US population. Does that make this a token effort?
Fourth: The whole plan looks antediluvian. Amazon is not alone in realising that this internet thing is very good at delivering content. Why does Bezos want to deliver by drone when he could deliver by Kindle?
Fifth: The video is very pretty but leaves questions galore unanswered. What if, for example, one lives near a flightpath for an airport? Or in an apartment? Or in a home shaded by many trees?
We could go on. But we'll leave that to Amazon's PR team as Prime Air starts to waft closer to reality. ®


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Rumors have been swirling around the internet for quite some time regarding what this year’s entry in the Call of Duty series would look like. Now, publisher Activision has finally announced some early details on Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
Original rumors regarding the game suggested we would be seeing a more grounded approach than we saw with Black Ops 3. Those details seemed to hit the mark considering the somewhat negative response to 2016’s futuristic Infinite Warfare. The series returned to its roots in 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII and with the game going on to be the best-selling title in the US for that year, something more “grounded’ sounded like a smart approach.
With Activision’s triple rotation of development houses that are constantly working on future iterations of the game, it was easy to see Treyarch was up next and, in-turn, that we would be seeing the next Black Ops (or something like it).
Well, it looks like Eurogamer and those early sources were right on the money as Activision officially announced Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 this morning. It will indeed be a more grounded experience, but beyond that we have no direct details.
Here’s a quick teaser trailer from Activision’s Twitter:
While Activision continues to support Black Ops 3 with a new update coming this week, we now know this year’s Call of Duty will launch on October 12th, in its regular release window.
As usual, the game will be coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC, but if early leaks are any indication, the game will also come to Nintendo Switch. While nothing is officially confirmed for Nintendo’s hybrid machine, industry insiders have suggested it will support DLC, HD rumble and motion controls.
FTC: 9to5Toys is reader supported, we may earn income on affiliate links


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Supplier News Breaks Archives
Kimberly-Clark Corp. is bringing fashion sense to the diaper category.
A subsidiary of Watson Pharmaceuticals has begun shipping a generic version of Lipitor in Canada.
Axellia Pharmaceuticals has acquired a majority interest in Phoenix Global Supply Group Inc. to supply finished dosage over-the-counter pharmaceutical products in the United States and Canada.
Pfizer Inc. has unveiled plans to close eight manufacturing plants, reduce operations at six others and slash about 6,000 jobs.
Rexall drug stores in Canada are slated to carry the Hemocode System, a treatment for people with food intolerance.
Pharmavite's Nature Made dietary supplement brand has become a partner of the American Academy of Family Physicians Consumer Alliance Program.


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With the completion of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) a little over one year ago, investors who’ve purchased and held shares of Shopify Inc. (TSX:SHOP)(NYSE:SHOP) have done very well.
Although the expectation from investors is to buy a well-performing company at the time of an IPO, the reality is, the experience is not always an easy road like this one. In actuality, most IPOs are overpriced, and investors will oftentimes lose money throughout the first year. Additionally, there are studies that have shown a general underperformance of the company being offered in an IPO in comparison to the performance of the general market.
Shopify stock has performed very well over the past year. In fact, it offers a return in excess of 250%, so investors can argue the stock did better than very well. Following the increase of the stock price was an increase in revenues by close to 75% (when evaluating the first quarter of 2017 to the same quarter one year prior). The fantastic news is the cash flow from operations, which was barely positive for the first quarter one year ago, has grown to $4 million. Cash flows for the entire year have been fairly consistent year over year.
If the increase in revenues and cash flows are a sign of things to come, then investors may want to take a good look at Shopify. As was established in 1999 and 2000, the internet (and the ability to sell goods online) was going to be a very important and high-growth segment of the economy. The company is currently in the business of assisting small- and medium-sized businesses in bringing their products and services to the online platform for sale. Basically, the company enables others to derive revenues from the internet.
Let’s consider the technical indicators when looking at this name. With a share price which has continued to run after breaking out almost one year ago, shareholders are experiencing a perfect example of watching simple moving averages (SMAs) trying to catch up to the share price. Going back to the 10-day SMA, the share price has settled on only a small number of occasions in the past year, allowing the SMA to catch up.
If we take the 50-day and 200-day SMAs under consideration, the share price has not paused long enough to cross over either SMA in the past six months. At the very end of 2016, the 50-day SMA and the share price moved sideways in tandem, only to see the share price break out.
While investors have reaped large rewards from holding this investment, it is important to understand that momentum can turn very quickly. Like any other investment, it is the company and industry fundamentals that will drive the share price further instead of just the momentum continuing.
5 stocks we like better than Shopify Inc.
When investing Guru Iain Butler and his shrewd team of analysts have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they began just three years ago, Stock Advisor Canada, is already beating the market by 9.6%. And their Canadian picks have literally doubled the market.
Iain and his team just revealed what they believe are the five best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Shopify Inc wasn’t one of them! That’s right – they think these five stocks are even better buys.
*returns as of 5/30/17
Fool contributor Ryan Goldsman has no position in any stocks mentioned. Tom Gardner owns shares of Shopify. The Motley Fool owns shares of Shopify and SHOPIFY INC. Shopify is a recommendation of Stock Advisor Canada.


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As one of the UK’s favourite reality dating shows, ITV’s Love Island has produced a string of attractive and savvy stars into the limelight following their appearances on the show.
But with strict new rules for incoming cast members – such as a ban on updating their Instagrams during the series – it's getting harder for them to attract the big deals.
In the past, after having tried their hand at finding love in the public eye, the islanders' growing fanbases have helped them go on to rake in the cash once they exit the villa.
From seven-figure roles and lucrative branding deals with major brands, which former islanders have gone on to earn the most money and how did they stack up the millions?
Let’s look at the top earning stars from the popular show and who’s currently topping the rich list…
Molly-Mae, who entered the show back in 2019 and found love with Tommy Fury, is now reported to be worth a whopping £6million.
The YouTuber's fake tan brand Filter made £848,000 profit and she banked £1.2million at her company MMH Group Holdings.
Having made her mark in the fashion world releasing two clothing lines with online fashion retailer Pretty Little Thing, Molly went on to become the Creative Director of the company, snagging a tidy seven-figure salary.
Alex Bowen and Olivia Buckland
Olivia and Alex captured everyone's hearts when they got together on the 2016 series and cemented their place as a power couple when they married two years later.
The stunning couple has proved staying together certainly can be lucrative, racking up an estimated £4.5 million since leaving the villa.
They landed a £25K magazine deal for their wedding and are rumoured to get paid around £2K per post on Instagram.
The couple are reported to land a cool £950K for their clothing line with Exempt Society.
They also had their own TV show on TLC, which followed the pre-wedding prep and cemented their place as the richest couple to ever have come out of the ITV2 show.
The gorgeous star was already set for stardom after revealing she was the daughter of TV legend and EastEnders star, Danny Dyer.
Dani Dyer danced her way into the public's hearts as she fell in love with Jack Finchman in season four of the dating show.
But since their split, she's estimated to now be worth £2.2million through her multiple deals and ventures such as partnerships with In The Style and Cadbury's.
She is also rumoured to charge £15K per Instagram post and in 2019 released her book What Would Dani Do? My Guide to Living Your Best Life.
She has also landed a role as a presenter for MTVUK True Love or True Lies.
As well as launching her own eyelash products with make-up brand SOSU By SJ, proving she really is a woman of many talents.
More recently, Dani has done a lot of work with Channel 4 and launched a podcast with her dad Danny Dyer, so is sure to be rolling in it.
And all at the perfect time, as she just welcomed twin daughters, making her son a big brother.
After snagging the Love Island crown with her short-lived romantic partner Greg O'Shea in 2019, stunning Amber landed a £1 million deal with clothing line Miss Pap right off the bat.
The Geordie star is said to have banked another million due to various sponsorships and endorsements for brands including Maybelline, British Airways and Just Eat, to name a few.
At just 25, she is by far one of the most successful islanders ever.
Megan Barton-Hanson has taken on a string of lucrative endorsement deals since leaving the villa, joining fellow Love Islander Molly-Mae Hague as an ambassador for Pretty Little Thing.
She’s also cemented her place as a sexy symbol after joining lingerie retailer, Ann Summers for a long-standing partnership.
In addition to her branding deals, Megan has reportedly racked up over a million pounds in earnings in the last year after joining x-rate site OnlyFans.
The 29-year-old joined in March 2020 after becoming 'bored during lockdown' and has been raking in the cash ever since after selling her sizzling images.
Kem took the coveted Love Island crown alongside ex-Amber Davis in 2017 and showed off his earning potential with a string of lucrative opportunities.
Kem developed a bromance with fellow Islander Chris Hughes and went on to star in multiple formats together, including the ITV2 spin off show Straight Outta Love Island with his pal.
Kem scored a nice paycheck when he appeared on Dancing On Ice and then landed a role as a backstage reporter the following year.
He then landed a role with the This Morning team as a showbiz reporter and was later revealed in 2019 as Primark’s first-ever male ambassador.
Just like most Love Island cast members Kem also makes money on social media, getting paid a whopping £8K per post. He is estimated to be worth around £1.4million.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.


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Hearts on Fire Creates Diamond Noise
A new campaign uses humor and enthusiasm to reach first- and second-time diamond buyers
Hearts on Fire diamonds launched a $30 million, 27-month advertising campaign that adds significantly to the increased promotion of the diamond category. The ad campaign comes as De Beers Diamond Trading Co. is asking clients worldwide to promote diamonds more heavily.
HOFs brand advertising initiative, called the Wow campaign, combines the financial resources of the Boston, MA, diamond manufacturer and its partners and retailers in 45 markets across the country. HOF makes and markets what it calls the worlds most perfectly cut diamonds through a network of more than 400 retailers worldwide.
The Wow campaign is based on what the company says is the reaction people have when viewing HOF diamonds, either through a special Proportion Scope or from across the room. The campaign is designed to reach two audiences: the first-time buyer who may be interested in an engagement ring and the second time buyer who may be celebrating a special event or renewing his or her love. HOF calls the second-time buyers same girl, second diamond buyers.
The campaign uses an integrated media program including television, radio and outdoor advertising. TV ads run with Wow retail partners on network affiliate stations, with 40% of the spots in prime time. The goal in the 45 markets is to reach 96% of the target audiences with a 16-time frequency. In addition, retailers receive materials for print advertising, direct mail and point-of-sale displays.
Two 30-second TV commercials will reach the two HOF demographic segments. Cake Topper is aimed at the younger engagement-ring audience. The ad features a wedding-cake ornament bride who comes to life briefly to say Wow! when she notices the real brides Hearts on Fire diamond ring. The second commercial, Mom/Wow, targets more established couples. Billboards, radio, print and point-of-sale material reflect the theme of the commercials.
||Hearts on Fires Wow campaign uses TV, radio and print ads to reach 96% of the target audience.


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Some of the best things we saw at CES weren’t, in fact, gadgets. One was actually just a box. Yes, a box.
In an effort that was almost like something out of a childhood gift giving ceremony, we came away from CES wanting not the stuff in the box, but the box itself.
This year at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, smartphone case maker for both the “Otterbox” and “Lifeproof” brands revealed that it had been working on a proper box developed from the case designs used in its durable “Defender” range of Otterbox products, essentially transforming its brand into more than a mere case brand, and closer to that of lifestyle.
In essence, its gear had already found a way to shift the smartphone into being merely protected, and now phones encased in its durable designs could be used in the outdoors for camping and the like, so it could focus its attention on doing that for the everyday, as well.
And Otterbox had started in a way that made sense, at least to this writer: it had disassembled its name, and built a box.
They call it a “cooler” overseas, but in talking to Otterbox’s Sean Murphy, we were introduced to the Venture Cooler as an esky, because given what it could do, that’s what it was.
An esky is kind of like the Google of portable coolers, mind you. “Esky” was a brand name for one such item, but much like how commonly used items become the vernacular — how we refer to all searching as “Googling” for instance and all cola-based soda as “Coke” — Australians now call portable cooler’s an “esky”, regardless of Coleman’s ownership of the name.
And so Otterbox has made an esky, and while it lacks electronics, CES is no longer solely the “Consumer Electronics Show”, since it doesn’t merely provide electronics or consumer tech. Most headphones are passive, and quite a few speakers are, too, meaning it qualifies for the show. Plus it has been made by a smartphone accessory maker, so bonus.
The Otterbox esky — which is what we’re calling it, since it’s so obviously an esky — is a little bit different from the usual CES-fare. Introduced at a show like this, you might expect the box to roll around on the floor, to make be-boop noises Ike R2D2, or have some sort of smart app associated with it to monitor the contents inside.
But it’s none of that. Instead, it’s just bloody well designed, much like the cases Otterbox has been making to stop your phone from breaking when it lands hard on the harsh Australian asphalt, cement, or those rocks you didn’t mean to accidentally drop your phone onto from such a great height.
The case is heavy, built with an immense amount of plastic and silicone seals, with a design that is so reminiscent of the sealing ports used in smartphone casings, we’re not surprised Otterbox tried it. It looks like it would survive a trip to the bottom of the ocean, and given that they can hold ice for up to two weeks, Otterbox has shown just how ideal for ice the whole thing is.
Inside, there’s nesting grooves for a cutting board, a storage tray, components to store your food, or if you decide to use the thing as a replacement for a camera case, the cameras that you don’t want going mouldy during a rainy season.
But most interestingly is that it’s also certified as bear-resistant, because that’s actually a thing.
Locally, we suspect Australians would call a local resistance wombat or kangaroo-proof, but since we don’t have the stats on the amount of times our local fauna have tried to break into a box, have no idea how this would play. Our guess is that the most “bear resistance” you’d need locally would be from a cranky koala sleeping on the thing, and it’s not technically a bear, it just looks like one.
Despite this, Otterbox’s esky was one of the more curious highlights, likely because it speaks to you as an Aussie. At our core, we’re folks that like to go outside, whether it’s to the beach to have a casual surf-side lunch with family or friends, outside in the backyard, or going camping, and so to see an esky made to survive, well, everything, it’s about as direct a calling to being Australian as democracy sausage is (locally, none of this writer’s places off democracy every offer democracy sausage).
There is but one caveat, however: Otterbox’s famed esky isn’t coming to Australia, at least not yet.
If finding the Otterbox esky was one of the delights of CES, then hearing that it wouldn’t be making an appearance was one of the let downs, and no joke, we spent the better part of half an hour pleading to Otterbox’s important people why Australia should be on the list.
The one thing going for its design that we had going against us was that it was so durable, it was also awkwardly heavy, a fact we can attest to when we found through our geeky lack of muscle that an empty Otterbox 65 quart esky couldn’t be picked up easily by one person. That’s roughly 61 litres of esky space available in a box that is a lot of highly compressed and durable plastic, and it may as well be a tank as far as the category is concerned.
That heavy box makes it difficult to bring over, especially since right now it is made in the US, increasing delivery costs, and likely blowing out this already $400 USD cooler.
But we’re still arguing it, because staring at this actual Otterbox — which presumably is otter-proof, as well (not that you’d need to protect against that cute species) — was one of the absolute delights of the show, and made us yearn to go outside even more.
We’d need a friend to help us move it, mind you, but hey, that’s what packing the thing full of ice and beverage is all about, right? Sharing, because sharing is caring, especially when the technology is shared between drop-proof cases and the thing protecting your lunch-time drinks.
Leigh :) Stark travelled to CES in Las Vegas as a guest of Dell.


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1. Drink up! The brave new world of the British pub
Branded pubs have chalked up a 35% increase in visits YE June 2016 vs YE June 2010. Independent pubs have suffered the reverse, with visits diving over 27%. As of June this year, the 838m visits to branded pubs over the previous 12 months were close to double the 429m visits recorded for the independents. That’s not all. Pubs of all kinds are seeing servings of alcohol drop while soft drink servings rise. Alcohol servings are down to 483m for YE June 2016 from 614m in YE June 2010. Soft drinks have jumped from 577m to 647m.
2. Britain’s love affair with tea has gone off the boil
The great British cuppa? Not anymore. Our thirst for tea is lukewarm at best while our demand for coffee is robust. Over the period YE June 2010 to YE June 216, servings of tea in Britain’s out-of-home (OOH) foodservice market dropped some 20% from 1.07bn to 861m. Coffee consumption over the same period was stable at around 2.1bn servings, with a clear shift from traditional coffee to specialty coffees – Americano, Cappuccino, Latte, Espresso, Mocha and Macchiato.
3. Imagine burgers replacing fish and chips
The decline in visits to fish & chip outlets is steady, down nearly 8% YE June 2016 vs YE June 2010. Out of 11.3 billion visits to OOH outlets for YE June 2016, over 9% were to fast-food burger restaurants while less than 3% were for fish & chips. Significantly, our hunger for burgers far exceeds the expansion of the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector serving fast food. Visits to fast-food outlets generally were up nearly 7% YE June 2016 vs YE June 2010, but visits specifically for burgers grew by a massive 25% over the same period.
4. Ethnic restaurants could do with spicing up
In the quick service sector, restaurants serving Chinese or Indian food as well as kebabs, have seen visits drop by 5% between YE June 2010 and YE June 2016. In full-service restaurants, serving more formal Chinese, Indian, Greek, French, Mexican or Spanish food, the decrease in visits is bigger at 6%.
5. We’re hungry for meal deals
But we still like to feel we are getting a bargain when eating away from home. For YE June 2016 (and the previous year to June 2015), 28% of OOH foodservice visits involved meal deals or promotions. Meal deals are big in the casual dining sector and were used in 40% of visits in YE June 2016.
6. Do kids make the decisions?
Do you love it when your kids are happy? The foodservice world loves your kids. For YE June 2016, nearly one quarter of OOH visits where at least one child was present (22.6%) were motivated by the fact that ‘the kids like it there’. NPD’s data show that kids ‘choosing’ an outlet are driving some £3.8bn of foodservice business each year.
7. Casual dining is red hot
Britain has got casual dining fever. For YE June 2016, casual dining outlets did £5.07bn in sales, up nearly 35% on YE June 2010. Consumers notched up around 502 m visits to Britain’s numerous casual dining outlets for YE June 2016; that’s 26% more (or nearly 104m visits) than YE June 2010.
8. Signs of guilt about snacks
Chocolate bars are still our favourite snack, followed by crisps, but servings of each have decreased in recent years. For YE June 2010, Britain bought 334m servings of chocolate and 288m servings of crisps. But by YE June 2016 those numbers had tumbled by 14% and 30% respectively.
9. Breakfasts are getting bigger
Some say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s certainly a growing part of the foodservice industry, accounting for 11.2% of Britain’s eat-out visits – up from 9.5% six years ago.
10. London is the engine of Britain’s foodservice industry
London accounts for around 19% of eat-out sales nationally and nearly 16% of visits. But London foodservice prices are 17% higher than the rest of the country. The writer Samuel Johnson said ‘there is in London all that life can afford’. But can you afford to eat in the British capital?
Cyril Lavenant, NPD’s director of foodservice for the UK, said: “When was the last time you bought all the ingredients for a fancy meal at home, and spent hours preparing dishes for family or friends? Or how often do you pack a simple lunch for the office or even think of making a flask of tea or coffee? We all know preparing meals, snacks and drinks can be hard work so buying food and beverages outside will never lose its appeal and that’s why Britain’s out-of-home (OOH) foodservice market is big business. It could be worth £53.5bn by the end of 2016, not so far behind the value of the UK auto industry. But food and drink bought away from home is a fast-changing business too, with new brands and concepts changing the look and feel of our town centres and our high streets, and even changing the way we enjoy our free time.”


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Online purchases soften compared to 2007, but revenue impact grows
by Jaime Guillet
Following anemic consumer spending leading into the holiday shopping season, retailers locally and nationwide say they will capitalize on their largest entry to potential customers — the Internet — by marketing themselves online via dot-com tools such as Facebook and MySpace.
More New Orleans area retailers say they are expanding their use of the Internet and online advertising to reach customers during what many economists expect to be an uncomfortably lean holiday period.
“Online sales are higher because we have the universe to choose from and the store is just who’s here (in town),” said Vicki Moran, marketing director for Orient Expressed, an Uptown purveyor of specialty children’s clothing, linens and home décor.
Orient Expressed branched to the Internet about 10 years ago and only sells its children’s clothing online. Although in-store sales remain competitive with its Internet and catalog purchases, online sales for Orient Expressed during the 2007 holidays trumped the other options.
“Those sales have been good and last year was extremely strong, although I don’t expect (online sales) to be as strong this year just because of what’s going on,” Moran said.
Down the road from Orient Expressed, Silk Road Collection owners Donald St. Pierre and Robert Turner say their online sales have more than doubled in 2008. The Chinese antique furniture store specializes in one-of-a-kind pieces dating back to the 17th century, as well as original New Orleans artwork.
In 2007, Internet sales represented 15 percent of Silk Road’s total sales. In the first 10 months of 2008, Internet sales comprised 36 percent of the store’s overall sales. In-store sales also increased 8 percent between January and October over the previous year. But without the growing success of online sales, the store wouldn’t be making it, Turner said.
“Online sales are the only thing keeping us alive,” Turner said. “Summer was awful. I can’t change the local economy, and the New Orleans market is a finite market.”
But even within a limited market, the Internet helps capture more business close to home, Turner said.
“Our first very Internet sale was to a lady in Algiers who had never been in the store,” he said. “It’s a very valuable tool. Our sales have been steadily increasing — it’s not huge — but fully attributable to the Internet.”
Turner and St. Pierre launched their Web site in mid-2006. They started with an electronic newsletter that has now built up to 4,000 addressees. With the growing success of e-commerce, Silk Road has stretched its online marketing to include listings in Google Shopping, Yahoo Shopping, eBay and last month, the social online networking site MySpace, which Turner describes as being in its “infancy.” The store will eventually expand to Facebook as well.
According to a National Retail Federation survey, 25 percent of the 60 online retailers polled said they added a Facebook page in 2008, 43 percent are adding product videos and 33 percent are posting customer reviews.
Moran said Orient Expressed doesn’t have a Facebook or MySpace page “yet.”
Independently owned apparel stores in New Orleans, such as Rubensteins, aren’t falling in line with the survey’s results. Whitney Guarisco, a Rubensteins spokeswoman, said maintaining a Web site for apparel is very labor intensive because the inventory and sizes must be constantly updated. With the current economy, retailers may find it’s not the best time to invest capital to develop a site and increase labor, she said.
And although retailers are expecting their online sales to be their strongest sector, reports show online sales are slowing. Last week comScore Inc., a digital retail research company based in Reston, Va., found online consumer spending in October grew by only 1 percent over October 2007, the smallest monthly growth rate since it began tracking e-commerce in 2001.
Curtailed spending across mid to lower income segments “with households earning less than $50,000 exhibiting negative spending growth compared to a year ago” influenced the overall softness in online retail spending, according to comScore Inc.
Still, many retailers are issuing glowing responses about their online sales.
Denise Incandela, president of Saks Direct, Saks Inc.’s online sales division, said online sales were up 30 percent in the first six months of 2008 over the prior year and fall numbers are “still running positive.”
Although Saks does not have pages on Facebook or MySpace, the company “has participated fairly aggressively in social media for the past year,” Incandela said.
“We have all our videos on YouTube and we’re pushing content rather than banner advertising,” Incandela said. “We’re very pleased. We’ve reached a younger audience, and we continue to have a marked dedication to reaching out online.
“It’s the wave of the future and we want to participate.”
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Those huge actions behind all of his big dollars and all of his cents were never making a heck of a lot of common sense. Large-size soft drinks are another sip closer to a huge comeback in the Big Apple.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants, fast-food outlets, sports arenas, movie theaters and other outlets has now been rejected by New York Appellate Court ruling the plan was illegal.
His honor points to health issues proposing the ban the sales of 16-ounce sugary beverages. He claims to counter obesity in NYC. Soft-drink makers and businesses challenged the law, saying it violated consumer's freedom.
Last March, a New York Supreme Court Judge ruled that New York City could not enforce the ban, which came a day before it was set to be enforced. Today the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division upheld Tingling's ruling, saying the law was unconstitutional and violated the state's principle of separation of powers.
Large-sized drinks sold at convenience stores and groceries were exempt from the ban, as were milk-based and alcoholic beverages. Not so fast...
NYC attorneys promise a massive appeal process.


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Multi-chain metaverse game aggregator GamerHub has partnered with Esports platform IKONIC in a deal which will see both sides look to grow further into the crypto space.
IKONIC is the first dedicated marketplace for NFT-based collectibles from esports. The platform offers gamers the opportunity to mint iconic moments from their gaming as NFTs for earning passive income.
Meanwhile, GamerHub gives users access to metaverses, games, guilds, and NFTs from multiple chains. GamerHub also features inter-metaverse contests in which users can participate in sharing some of the biggest prize pools in the crypto space while monetizing their brand through merchandise and other assets on the platform.
(All information was provided by CryptoNewsZ)
Check out the industry-leading META Business podcast where we discuss the intersection of business and the metaverse


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New York (AP) — The recommendation to invalidate the results of the Amazon union vote in Bessemer, Alabama is breathing new life into the labor movement.
The recommendation was issued by a hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board on Monday. He said Amazon may have blocked the April elections, when warehouse workers overwhelmingly rejected the union proposal.
Labor experts say that hearing officers rarely demand new elections, but in the case of Amazon, it is quite possible that this will happen because the NLRB regional director usually sticks to hearing officers’ guidance. ..
In addition, Labor Relations Commission standards in deciding new elections favor unions rather than Amazon. According to the preliminary opinion on page 61 submitted by the hearing officer, the board of directors rationalized the company’s “free and unforced choices of employees in elections,” rather than whether the company actually forced employees. You need to determine if you have a tendency to interfere with the situation. Kirstin Myers.
“They are investigating whether there was any act that prevented employees from choosing freely,” said William Gould, a law professor at Stanford Law School and former chairman of NRLB from 1994 to 1998. Stated. Believe that your employer controls the process. The process is controlled by the government, a fair third party, not the employer. “
In a submission to NLRB in April, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Coalition, which led the union campaign in Bessemer, threatened workers with layoffs and closed warehouses if workers joined the union. He said there was even. Amazon also said it had fired an employee in favor of the union, but did not reveal the person’s name.
Many of the union’s other claims revolve around mailboxes that Amazon has set up in the parking lot of the Bessemer warehouse. The mailbox said it created the false appearance that Amazon was holding an election and threatened workers to vote against the union. According to retailers, parking security cameras may have recorded workers going to the mailbox, giving the impression that workers were being monitored by the company and their votes were not private. I have.
Myers wrote that in making her nominations, the NLRB must consider several factors, including the number of cases. The seriousness of the incident and whether they can cause fear to the employees of the voting unit.
“Evidence shows that employer behavior interfered with the laboratory conditions needed to conduct fair elections,” Myers wrote.
Still, labor experts predict that the final result can take months, and there are many complaints from both sides. And for many, Amazon still wins, given the high turnover of workers in company warehouses, making it difficult for union efforts to gain momentum, even if there is a redo. I believe I will.
Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, said: “But it will still be a difficult battle to secure an election victory.”
Alexander Corbin, a professor of labor relations, law and history at Cornell University, said Amazon could appeal even if the union wins.
“They could somehow claim that the elections were polluted,” he said. “They have many abilities to procedurally pull it out and not engage in negotiations.”
The process of drawing conclusions is expected to be lengthy.
Both Amazon and RWDSU may provide answers to the hearing advisor’s recommendations. Next, the NLRB Regional Director needs to review the recommendations and make a decision as to whether a new election will be ordered. According to the Labor Relations Commission, the decision can take weeks, and both parties can appeal the decision to Washington’s full NLRB Commission.
So far, Amazon has shown that it’s ready to fight, and at the end of Monday, employees said they “overwhelmingly voted in favor of direct connections with their bosses and the company.” Announced. Their voice should be heard above all else, and we will urge it to be done. “
The Democratic Workplace Union, which represents more than 600 major corporate organizations, including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association, has condemned NLRB’s preliminary recommendations that could overturn the will of Amazon workers.
“It’s a shame that the NLRB is considering setting aside the will of American workers to support Big Labor,” Kristen Swaringen, chairman of the coalition, said in a statement.
RWDSU President Stuart Applebaum was not surprised by the hearing’s recommendations and said the union was more likely to win if another election was held. He says the union is still on the scene in Bessemer and is seeing further union pro-growth among workers.
“Amazon may have won the first vote, but they’re losing debate around the world,” Applebaum said.
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In its survey of national restaurant sales TDn2K’s Black Box Intelligence, a restaurant sales and traffic- tracking company, reported national restaurant Q1 2017 revenues declined by 1.6%. This was the fifth consecutive quarter of negative sales results nationally. Restaurant traffic declined 3.6% nationally in Q1.
Robert Wagner, NetFinancials president states that, “Established Atlanta restaurants were under significant sales volume pressure in Q1 2017. That pressure is not economic as evidenced by the fact Metro Atlanta unemployment dipped in March 2017 to an unprecedented 4.6%. Since March 2016 total Metro Atlanta jobs have grown by 103,100 according to the Georgia Department of Labor. Rather the pressure on established Atlanta restaurant sales is competitive. Carl Muth of FoodService Resource Associates LLC who tracks restaurant activity in Atlanta notes that 500+ new restaurants opened in Atlanta in 2016. Even though there has been robust growth in good paying jobs in Atlanta, there has also been substantial growth in the number of restaurants bidding for consumers’ dining-out dollars.
At the moment, Atlanta has not reached an equilibrium where solid, thoughtful restaurant operators can expect to grow their sales as we typically saw before 2016. Eventually job growth and restaurant unit growth will attain equilibrium. At that point restaurant comp sales growth will return. We just do not know when that equilibrium will reappear.”
The Sample: The 118 non-franchise restaurants were drawn from the metro Atlanta market. Total survey sales volume was $81 million for Q1 2017. The survey includes restaurants in Atlanta’s fast- casual, casual and fine-dining segments opened at least 15 months.


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Skrill תפעל בארה
The exchange will cooperate with the payment platform, providing services to U.S. residents
Paysafe wallet will become a white label-solution for American customers of the payment system Skrill. It will be available to residents of 37 U.S. states, including Washington, Texas, Ohio, Georgia and others.
So now Skrill is represented in another country, in addition to thirty others, which operates a convenient tool for cryptocurrency payments.
Skrill, as part of its partnership with Coinbase, provides services related to Skrill Visa. For example, it activates a prepaid card, simplifies money transfers. These popular features in combination with the simplicity of the interface are sure to interest users from the United States, the CEO of Skrill confirms.
From the first day of the program's launch, all interested clients can buy, sell, store cryptocurrency (BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC), for Bitcoins on Coinbase and you can buy another cryptocurrency. According to the commercial director of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, intends to build a long-term partnership with Skrill.


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Maersk on Wednesday posted a record third-quarter profit but warned of ‘dark clouds on the horizon’ as shipping container demand weakens.
Andrew Matthews | PA Images | Getty Images
Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping firm, on Wednesday, posted a record profit for the third quarter on the back of high ocean freight rates but noted a slowdown in demand.
The Danish giant, widely seen as a barometer for global trade, reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $10.9 billion for the quarter, above consensus analyst projections of $9.8 billion and up around 60% from the same period a year ago.
The company confirmed its full-year guidance for underlying EBITDA of $37 billion and free cash flow above $24 billion.
Maersk’s CEO, Soren Skou, attributed this year’s “exceptional results” to the continuous surge in ocean freight rates. However, he anticipates a normalization in the fourth quarter as demand decreases and supply chain congestion eases. Skou expects a decline in earnings for Maersk’s ocean operations in the upcoming months. This reflects the dynamic nature of transport logistics.
“With the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis in Europe, high inflation, and a looming global recession there are plenty of dark clouds on the horizon,” Skou said in a statement Wednesday.
“This weighs on consumer purchasing power which in turn impacts global transportation and logistics demand. While we expect a slow-down of the global economy to lead to a softer market in Ocean, we will continue to pursue the growth opportunities within our Logistics business.”
In its second-quarter report, Maersk flagged an impending slowdown in global shipping container demand amid weakening consumer confidence and supply chain congestion.
The company said Wednesday that global container demand is expected to contract between 2% and 4% in 2022, down from a previous projection of +1% to -1%, noting that freight and charter rates declined in the third quarter as demand moderated and Chinese Covid-19 restrictions diminished.
Maersk shares were down 6% during early trading in Europe.
Source by www.cnbc.com


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GRAPEVINE -- It's a North Texas city with a growing reputation.
"It's quaint. Really neat," said Kristi Mears, who's visiting from Frisco.
"We've had people from Russia come in," said Cindy Stover, who works at a clothing and gift store on Main Street. "France is a big one."
But reputation isn't the only thing growing these days in Grapevine.
Tuesday night, Grapevine City Council approved an incentive package estimated around $9 million to bring in a new resort and water park on a plot of land off Grapevine Mills Highway. The money will come from the city's hotel occupancy tax.
"[It's] a perfect spot for a family/tourist destination such as Stand Rock," said Jon Regnerus, director of development for Stand Rock Hospitality, which is poised to build and run the not-yet-named resort.
According to information from Stand Rock and the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau, the resort will include an indoor and outdoor water park, laser tag, a ropes course, a spa, meeting space, and more. It'll create more than 1,000 jobs each year in the area as well, a press release said.
The first phase, which the incentive helps cover, will include 420 hotel rooms and 170,000 square feet of water park amenities. The first phase will cost $170 million.
"We target bona fide family tourist destinations, and that's what Grapevine is," Regnerus said.
The city already attracts a large number of tourists, officials said.
"We actually welcome more than 20 million visitors per year," said Leigh Lyons of the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau.
But Lyons says the demand is there for a third resort, as the city builds its image as a vacation destination. She said the three resorts not only offer different choices to different consumers, they give visitors reasons to come back.
Regnerus said his company did its due diligence, and doesn't believe it will be an over-saturation of the market.
"Knowing what Grapevine has going on here, that’s what kept us here," he said.
It's what appears to keep visitors here, too.
"I think you can’t have too many water parks in Texas," said Marcus Mears of Frisco, who's visited the Gaylord. "It's hot."
"There’s always room for growth. Lots of people live here," his wife, Kristi, said.
If all goes as planned, the city says Stand Rock will break ground some time in 2017, and the resort could be open in 2019.


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According to a variety of reports, it seems that the Sony PlayStation Network has been hit with connectivity issues. Players who are playing from their PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, or PS Vita from Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan are all reporting that they have trouble connecting to the service.
Many of these gamers are reporting the “cannot connect to the server” error message. So far Sony different region’s divisions have yet to comment on the matter, save for Sony PlayStation Japan who had recently posted a message apologizing for the issue and claiming that they are investigating the matter.
At this point in time it is unclear as to why the PlayStation Network is down, especially since no maintenance or planned downtime was announced. Hopefully it is just a glitch and nothing too serious. The last time Sony was attacked it was back in August where the PlayStation Network was hit with DDoS attacks. Sony wasted no time in restoring the servers.
Those attacks were not limited to the PlayStation Network as there were reports that the DDoS attacks had affected the likes of Xbox Live and Battle.net services as well. In any case we will be keeping our eyes peeled for more information regarding this downtime, so do check back with us later on for the details. In the meantime any of our readers still experiencing connectivity issues on their end?


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Helsinki-based Huuva, a startup that builds delivery-focused restaurant cohorts to bring new quality restaurant options to unserved neighbourhoods, announced on Wednesday that it has secured €4.9M in a Seed round of funding.
The round was led by General Catalyst. The round also saw participation from Lifeline Ventures along with several angel investors, including Laurel Bowden and Ilkka Paananen.
The announcement comes eight months after securing €1M in a pre-Seed round led by Lifeline Ventures.
Huuva says it will use the funds to ramp up its expansion in Central Europe and recruit more than 100 business and operations talent.
Huuva: What you need to know
Founded by Ville Leppälä and Ville Lehto in 2021, Huuva provides a turn-key service for restaurants that seek to expand and grow their business.
The Finnish company builds delivery-focused restaurant cohorts that gather three to ten restaurant brands under one roof around cities and suburbs, offering consumers the option to order multiple brands in one go.
Ville Leppälä, the co-founder and CEO of Huuva, says, “Restaurant offerings outside city centres are close to non-existent. We’re on a mission to revolutionise the restaurant offering in underserved neighbourhoods. We believe that the trendiest, most popular restaurants shouldn’t be the privilege of city centres or certain hot spots – and that the neighbourhoods in the city outskirts should have other high-quality options than the average multinational restaurant chains.”
The company aims to help restaurants make food delivery a sustainable business and bring better delivery food options to the consumer. Since September, 2021, Huuva has opened six kitchens around the greater Helsinki area.
Huuva says that its kitchen spaces are located close to areas of significant delivery demand, which is also easily accessible for couriers.
Ville Leppälä adds, “Before setting up a new Huuva kitchen, we analyse the local trends and current restaurant selection to bring the most fitting restaurants for the people. It’s also important to consider delivery operations and put the neighbourhood’s comfort first.
Huuva’s commission-based virtual food court offers end-to-end services with proprietary technology, from ordering dishes to cooking them.
“Our kitchens are designed for delivery, from software that enters delivery orders for cooks to the way the kitchens are located around the cities,” says the company.
Huuva has already partnered with several top restaurant brands in Finland, such as Via Tribunali, Green Hippo, and Pupu.
Based out of Cambridge, General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that provides early-stage and growth equity investments. The VC is known for their investments in Rapyd, Deliveroo, Airbnb, and Stripe.
Adam Valkin, Managing Director at General Catalyst, says, “Since their launch in September 2021, Huuva has made impressive progress. Their unique approach in Europe has significantly improved the food selection for the end customer in a number of neighbourhoods while making food delivery more profitable for restaurants. At the same time, couriers get to pick up from delivery optimised locations minimising delivery times.”
Based out of Helsinki, Lifeline Ventures is a venture capital firm specialising in startups, growth capital, and early-stage investments. The firm seeks to invest in healthcare, games, web-based, and general high technology sectors.
Timo Ahopelto, Founding Partner at Lifeline Ventures, says, “Huuva is a prime showcase of an ambitious, fast-moving startup with a distinctive offering in an exciting new market. Huuva is able to cater to all stakeholders, from restaurant entrepreneurs to food-loving end-customers and delivery operators – a unique position to be in. We are excited to continue to be a part of Huuva’s growth journey.”


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Electric cars in UAE: A sparking idea or a dud?
Dubai - Here's a quick guide to help you make an informed decision
It's only been five months since Tesla decided to launch their electric cars in the UAE.
Tesla opened its first-ever showroom in the Middle East with much fanfare, in cosmopolitan Dubai, as the UAE has quickly turned into one of the biggest prospective markets for the Californian electric car-manufacturer.
With the electric car market booming exponentially in such a short time, it's only natural that potential consumers are pondering the pros and cons of investing in an electric vehicle (EV).
Here's a quick guide to help you make an informed decision:
Perhaps the biggest appeal of electric vehicles is their convenient recharging capability. No more waiting in queues at a fuel station! Once you invest in a home charger, all you need do is pull into your garage or driveway, plug in your car and voila, you are done! Wake up the next morning to a fully recharged vehicle ready to drive for more than 130 kilometres, depending on the model.
When it comes to public charging, the good news is that Dubai Electric and Water Authority (DEWA) has installed nearly 200 charging stations across the Emirates, some in key shopping malls like the Dubai Mall and The Beach in JBR. At some of these stations, full charging takes only 20-40 minutes.
The rate for public charging is 29 fils per KWh according to DEWA's CEO, Saeed Al Tayer. Even in an oil-rich country like the UAE, electric cars still deliver "competitive" mileage (0.18 per km) compared to traditional fuel-dependent cars (0.15 per km). Considering DSOA (Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority) free charging stations the numbers for EV are even more favourable. Their maintenance costs are exceptionally low.
Smooth and Noiseless Ride:
Traditional cars may seem noisy in comparison with electric cars which barely make a sound. Considering that these cars are surprisingly quick as well, that may come as a surprise. With electric vehicles power is delivered immediately to the wheels resulting in an exhilarating ride
No Carbon Emissions:
Generation of electricity to run the electric car will, of course, produce some emissions but given that the UAE is gas-dependent, electricity generation at grid level is more efficient and eco-friendly than independent car burn.
As the government invests in more green energy sources, electric cars will automatically become even more sustainable
CONSLong Refuelling Time:
For an average electric car, an hour of charging from a 240-volt source of electricity yields 30-40 km of runtime. If the user remembers to plug in the car every night before going to sleep, that fact won't put a damper on their daily plans.
What's more, public DC quick chargers capable of adding around 80kms of range with 20-25 minutes of charging are increasingly becoming available so this con will diminish over time
Given that a fully charged electric car typically runs around 130-160 kilometers, users sometimes experience what has been termed 'Range Anxiety'.
Long trips are likely more difficult in an electric vehicle (EV) given the limited number of recharging stations in the UAE, however with advance planning a challenge that can be managed.
Lack of Choices:
Sadly, there are not that many electric vehicles in the market to choose from. Several auto manufacturers have set up aggressive production goals now to introduce electric cars at scale (e.g., Volvo announced mass scale EVs by 2019).
Higher Upfront Cost:
Currently, most electric cars are priced in the range of $30k-$40k meaning they are considerably higher in cost compared to gas-powered vehicles in similar categories. The flagship Tesla model S (sedan) has a starting cost of Dh275,000 for the basic trim. However, the latest Tesla 3 model, which will be available later this year, starts at Dh128,000.
Given the many advantages of electric cars over traditional fuel-dependent vehicles, one can expect to see a lot more of them running around the roads of the UAE in the coming years.


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The smell of processing tomatoes marks the summer season for many Hollister residents as the San Benito Foods Cannery begins packaging its product in early July.
The cannery has existed in the same location in downtown Hollister for more than 90 years, according to San Benito Foods Plant Manager Kent Rounds, outlasting several owners as well as another cannery that used to be across the street. The cannery has been processing tomatoes each year at the site since the 1920s.
During the peak tomato-processing season, San Benito Foods employs 500 people at the cannery, located at 110 Hawkins St., and an average of 90 employees during the rest of the year.
“Roughly 70 to 80 percent of the employees who work for San Benito Foods live in this area,” Rounds wrote in an emailed statement to BenitoLink. “A number of employees’ parents worked at this cannery.”
“We have a great working relationship with the City of Hollister,” Rounds added, “The mayor and city council have been very supportive of the cannery over the years.”
“We’re happy to have them,” said Hollister Mayor Ignacio Velazquez, calling San Benito Foods and the cannery, “part of our history” as well one of the area’s largest employers.
The City of Hollister operates the industrial waste treatment plant that San Benito Foods uses for its waste produced during the summer weeks when it processes tomatoes. In turn, San Benito Foods pays the majority of the cost of operating the plant. Last summer, foul odors from the treatment plants brought complaints from residents, but the city and cannery officials have pledged to work to avoid a repeat of that issue this year.
San Benito Foods produces canned tomato products packaged into No. 10 cans, including whole peeled tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and paste, catsup, pizza sauce and other fully-prepared pasta sauces. These products are then sold to food service distributors such as US Foods and Sysco, as well a number of regional distributors on the east coast. San Benito Foods also processes custom products for a number of chain restaurants.
The company doesn’t grow its own crop of tomatoes, but purchases its raw ingredients from growers in San Benito County, Santa Clara County and the Central Valley.
“We have an excellent group of local tomato growers who have delivered to this cannery for decades,” Rounds said.
San Benito Foods is now a subsidiary of the Neil Jones Food Company. During the 1960s and early 70s, the cannery was owned and operated by Contadina/Carnations Foods. San Benito Foods took over operations shortly after this period and continues to grow its business.
A Tri-Valley Growers Cannery used to stand adjacent to the San Benito Foods site as well, but the group went bankrupt in 2000. In 2001, the San Benito Foods Cannery was able to make a major expansion by acquiring the Tri-Valley Growers Hollister cannery assets.
As for volume processed each year, “The tons processed and cases produced vary from year to year based on a number of factors, including the prices we receive in the market place, the price of tomatoes, and what our competitors are doing,” Rounds wrote.
At this point, “We have seen growth in exports to Asia and Australia, as well in certain high-end products, such as our Italian Pear Tomatoes,” Rounds added.
San Benito Foods continues to make investments in the plant each year, Rounds reports, “whether in labor, yield or resource efficiency.”
According to Rounds, “It is an absolute necessity to survive in this very competitive business.”


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Earn and collect points, and stand a chance to win daily, weekly, and monthly prizes with U Mobile’s biggest giveaway campaign yet – We Want U Giveaway. The 100-day campaign runs from now until 8 January 2020. Stand a chance to win a total of MYR3 million worth of prizes which include the Proton X70, Proton Iriz, Modenas Kriss motorcycles, Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G, iPhone 11 Pro smartphones, as well as Shopee vouchers.
The nation’s major telecommunication companies—Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile, and Telekom Malaysia (through unifi Mobile) are extending access to the daily free 1GB “Productivity Internet” offer to 24 hours. Previously, the access to the daily free data was limited to between 8AM and 6PM. The extended hours will be effective from July 2020 until 31 December 2020.
U Mobile has announced an enticing offer for its Unlimited Hero P139 plan subscribers. They will be able to register up to three Share 20 postpaid lines for just MYR1 per line monthly. This would otherwise cost MYR20 per shared line per month.
The race to “unlimited” supremacy amongst the local telcos has heated up in recent weeks, with Hotlink and Celcom rolling out new products. The “O.G.” or originator of this strategy—U Mobile, has responded. Aimed at supporting customers in the “new normal” and as part of its GilerBagiLebih campaign, the agile telco has enhanced its Giler Unlimited Prepaid plans, delivering more value, for free.
As part of its new Giler BagiLebih campaign, U Mobile is offering GoInsure 3—a Personal Accident (PA) insurance product, free for 30 days to all its eligible customers who are Malaysians or Permanent residents. This includes all eligible existing and new customers, on its postpaid and prepaid plans.


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When Trina Landlord was 7 years old she moved to Anchorage from Mountain Village, a small Central Yup'ik community founded by her great-grandfather. It was the late 1980s, and she learned a cruel lesson fast: In Alaska's biggest city, it wasn't cool to be Native.
"I figured out very quickly that if I didn't want to be ridiculed, I needed to get rid of anything that identified me as Native," says Landlord. "That meant not speaking with a village accent, and not wearing any clothes that looked Native in any way."
Twenty-five years later, Landlord, 35, is the executive director of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation that promotes the work of established and emerging Alaska Native artists from around the state. This includes a growing number of fashion designers who are demonstrating cultural pride by putting contemporary spins on timeless materials, garments and symbols.
"Polar bear fur pants. Cedar bark fedoras. Moose hide dinner jackets. Sealskin halter-top dresses," says Landlord, detailing a few of the fashion items that have been on display at the foundation's downtown Anchorage gallery. "There was also a really sleek seal intestine raincoat, and my personal favorite – a sealskin power suit."
The success of the gallery event led foundation to organize its upcoming first-ever Alaska Native "wearable art" fashion show, "Wear Art Thou?," scheduled for this fall in Anchorage.
"We'll have a 60-foot runway, awesome lighting, indigenous music, and a sort of lounge-y seating array of half-circle tables," says Landlord. "Basically, I've gone from not wanting to wear Native clothes as a kid to organizing a major fashion show of clothing by Native designers. A lot's changed. The tone of how cool it is to be Native is shifting in the right direction, especially among the youth."
The new wave of indigenous fashion in Alaska, Landlord says, "both represents that shift and helps drive it."
Similar fashion movements have been vibrantly evident in Denmark, Greenland and northern Canada for about a decade, with indigenous designers utilizing sealskin, often dyed funky colors, to create alluring evening gowns, as well as handbags and overcoats, boots and other forms of beautiful, distinctly modern outerwear suitable for life in the Arctic.
"Ten years ago, I saw a fantastic sealskin dress on the runway during fashion week in Copenhagen, and I thought, 'Wow. We need to bring that kind of sensibility to market in Alaska,'" says Landlord. "It's been a slow infiltration, but it's finally trending here."
Alaska Native designers have come on strong at high-profile fashion events in Anchorage during the past two years. Examples include the mid-winter 2011 and 2012 Object Runway events organized by the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, which sold out the Bear Tooth Theatrepub, and the 2011 and 2012 Clare to Clare summer benefit shows. The latter spotlighted works by Alaska Native designers – selected by ANAF and the Alaska Native Heritage Center – alongside clothing by non-Native designers that edgy local boutiques submitted.
"The standard concept of Alaska Native fashion used to be mukluks and parkas and kuspuks, which are beautiful, but very traditional," says Teeka Ballas, editor and publisher of Anchorage-based F Magazine, which covers art, culture, and fashion in Alaska. "These (Alaska Native) designers are clearly moving beyond that standard concept, but they're doing so with flairs of originality that reference traditions rather than reject them."
Ballas cites one tradition in Alaska Native clothing design as key to the rising popularity of contemporary Native fashion among Natives and non-Natives alike. It's one that's been essential to Alaska Native clothing since time immemorial: recycled and locally sourced materials.
"Locally produced Alaska Native fashions are about as far from 'Made in China,' as you can get," she says.
David Holthouse is a freelance writer who lives in Anchorage.
The preceding report was first published in First Alaskans Magazine, a publication of First Alaskans Institute. Used with permission.


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However, the overall import of vegetable oils in the first nine months of the current oil year (November 2018 to October 2019) has gone up by 5% to 11,280,972 tons compared to 10,766,076 tons during the same period of last year
During the last few months, due to duty advantage given to Malaysia for Palmolein under India-Malaysia CECA Agreement, the country flooded with RBD Palmolein from Malaysia following reduction of duty difference from 10% to 5% between CPO and Palmolein sourced from Malaysia with effect from January 1, 2019, This has seriously affected working of domestic refiners of CPO and capacity utilization further reduced.
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Lenders of Reliance Capital will hold an e-auction later this month for Anil Ambani’s insolvent financial services company to identify the highest bidder, two people aware of the development told ET.Premium Models Drive Car, TV, Smartphone Sales in Diwali Season
Indian consumers have purchased more premium cars, smartphones, televisions and appliances than ever before during the week leading up to Diwali this year.
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The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) is partnering with Double Mountain Brewery & Tap Room on the pilot phase of a new refillable beer bottle program.
The pilot combines the refillable operations at Double Mountain and the collection capabilities of BottleDrop Redemption Centers. The new pilot program launched on March 23, 2017 at Milwaukie BottleDrop, in Milwaukie, Ore.
Double Mountain beer bottles will be accepted at any BottleDrop Redemption Center in the Portland metropolitan area and returned to the brewery.
“A refillable bottle program is a progressive step in responsible materials management for Oregon’s craft brew industry,” OBRC President John Andersen said in a statement. “The beverage industry is committed to not only upholding the legacy of the Oregon Bottle Bill, but expanding stewardship efforts through new and innovative programs like this one.
Refillable beer bottle programs, if developed properly, can be more cost effective and a better use of resources than traditional glass recycling, according to OBRC. The lack of partner networks and necessary infrastructure have been common road blocks to creating refillable systems beyond a single brewery.
“I'm excited to partner with OBRC on a larger refillable beer bottle initiative,” Matt Swihart, Founder and Brewmaster of Double Mountain Brewery, said in a statement. “Customers of our current system love the softer environmental footprint and know they are part of a solution to sustainability.”
OBRC is a member-owned, cooperative that collects and processes nearly all containers sold and redeemed in Oregon. OBRC counts, sorts, crushes, bales and recycles 1.2 billion containers each year, and operates BottleDrop Redemption Centers across the state.


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Shares of major Chinese EV makers are ticking upward in the pre-market session today after the announcement of vehicle sales for April.
NIO’s (NYSE:NIO) vehicle sales during the month shot up 31.2% year-over-year to 6,658. The company has delivered 37,699 vehicles so far this year pointing to a 22.2% growth. While a major chunk of April sales was made up of ET5 and ES7 models, NIO has begun the production ramp-up of its flagship coupe SUV EC7 as well.
Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) set a monthly record of 25,681 deliveries in April, notching a massive 516.3% year-over-year growth. The company delivered more than 10,000 Li L7s in April and continues to make gains in the SUV market segment with pricing of above RMB 300,000.
Further, the company also plans to expand autonomous driving to more than 100 cities in China by the end of 2023.
XPeng (NYSE:XPEV) delivered 7,079 vehicles for the month while its P7i sports sedan continues to see a robust order uptick. Additionally, the company unveiled the Ultra Smart Coupe SUV G6 last month and plans to officially launch it in the second quarter of this year.
Wall Street continues to see an upside in Chinese EV makers with analysts expecting NIO and Li Auto to rise by 89.6% and 58.7% over the next 12 months. XPeng is expected to post modest gains of 6.2% during this period.
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But should you?
Let's be honest here: the BMW M4 (and its M3 sedan sibling) is still the benchmark high-performance luxury coupe. Yes, the Mercedes-AMG C63 S brings a hell of a loud bark to the battle but at the end of the day, it also falls a bit short of its Munich rival. And then there's the 2017 Cadillac ATS-V Coupe, the subject of today's unboxing review. Powered by a twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6 with 464 hp and 445 lb-ft of torque, the 2017 ATS-V is also a Nurburgring-tuned track toy that's at home on twisty and potentially life taking pavement as well as luxurious cruising.
You know, just like the M4. But Cadillac (and Mercedes-AMG, for that matter) has been gunning after the M3/M4 for years now and the American luxury brand has no doubt put the Germans on notice.
In a relatively short period of time, Cadillac has proven that it too has a team of driving engineers who are just as nuts about shaving every possible tenths of a second off track times as their German counterparts. Things like that matter in this segment. But here's the thing about the ATS-V Coupe that could be the deciding factor for us: it's cheaper than the M4 and C63 S. By several thousand. Really, those tenths of a second and lack of a more premium interior don't matter that much. Or do they? Special thanks to Woodland Motors for letting us film the car.


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First on Fox: New York City's largest business group held a second meeting with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday, as crime continues to surge and he faces mounting pressure following his controversial memo that has been branded as "soft-on-crime."
Kathryn Wylde, the president and CEO of Partnership for New York City, told FOX Business that the meeting with Bragg went well and said he was attentive. He announced a Manhattan small business alliance aimed at reducing shoplifting and commercial robberies. She said some of the stories shared at the meeting were disturbing.
Wylde said that the focus was largely on retail and included representatives from luxury brands as well as department stores and banks, who expressed how crime in their places of business has terrified employees and customers alike.
According to Wylde, Bragg heard about crimes happening at businesses in the city that were not hitting the press, and business owners told him that conditions in the city were worse than many realize.
Wylde said Bragg acknowledged that the crime surge in New York is not just about guns and shoplifting. She says the stories shared are "very concerning" and that employees and customers alike are frightened about the new trends.
One restaurant owner told the prosecutor about a valued employee who did not show up to work one day. The concerned owner went to find the dependable worker, who is an Asian woman, and found that her face was badly bruised.
The employee revealed that a suspect pushed her into a train – not onto the tracks, but into the side of the train itself ahead of her trip to work. She said the incident left her scared and that she was afraid to make her commute, acknowledging that she did not report the crime.
Another issue was the rise in shoplifting – but not just any shoplifting. The attacks are calculated, coordinated, and brazen.
Retailers talked about how, for instance, if a homeless person steals a muffin, it's something they would let go assuming that the person is hungry and it's not a situation worth reporting. Now, a new trend has emerged.
"Organized groups come in. Saunter in. Take whatever they want." Wylde told FOX Business. "That's what seems to have everyone spooked – this is just civil disorder."
The business owner of a computer repair shop shared that they had now resorted to keeping their storefront locked and only allowing customers in on an appointment basis. Larger retailers said they had hired off-duty police officers to serve as security for their stores, but the computer shop owner said they ran the numbers and they simply couldn't afford it.


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Hungry? Ayesha Curry might be able to help you out.
The wife of Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry has launched Gather, a startup food delivery company. Not unlike other food delivery services like Blue Apron, Gather will deliver ingredients and recipes directly to your door on a weekly basis.
Although the website just serves as a landing page, it promises to “begin delivering seasonal ingredients and delicious recipes created by Ayesha Curry directly to your doorstep.” The recipes will be inspired by meals she cooks for her family, including home-cooked baby food, according to TechCrunch.
Unlike Blue Apron and Plated that deliver nationwide, it’s unclear if Curry’s startup will serve customers nationwide or just in San Francisco. Gather has yet to announce its cost structure, but competitors like Blue Apron cost $59.94 per week for three recipes, while Plated costs $72 per week for three meals.
Although the delivery model isn’t new, Curry’s high-profile status may help her wife’s startup stand out amongst the competition. Despite this, Blue Apron is killing the food delivery game. In early June, Blue Apron was said to be considering an IPO, with the company being valued around $3 billion in an offering.
This isn’t Curry’s first time cooking, either. Earlier this month she paired with chef Micheal Mina to open a pop-up barbecue themed restaurant in San Francisco. She also has a cookbook and a YouTube channel with cooking demos.


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Best Buy shareholders easily pass 'say on pay' vote
Best Buy shareholders apparently believe the company's new management team is worth the money.
About 83 percent of shareholders voted to approve a non-binding, advisory vote on executive compensation, the Richfield-based retailer announced at its annual meeting on Thursday. Last year, only 38 percent supported the "say on pay" resolution.
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) gave 10 current and former executives compensation packages worth $63.6 million during its last fiscal year, with new CEO Hubert Joly leading with the way with a deal worth $19.6 million.
The company's executive compensation has drawn mixed reviews from national proxy advisers.
Institutional Investors Services recommended that shareholders vote against the resolution this year, criticizing the large signing bonus awarded to CEO Hubert Joly and massive retention payments given to other executives who agreed to stay on board amid the transition.
Meanwhile, Glass Lewis & Co. recommended a favorable vote, noting that Best Buy probably had to pay big in order attract and keep top talent.
Last week, Target Corp.'s "say on pay" resolution narrowly passed with only 53 percent of shareholders supporting it.
Minneapolis-based Target (NYSE: TGT) says it appreciates the feedback and its board "will carefully consider next steps and will work with management to evolve strategies and practices with the best interests of shareholders in mind."
John Vomhof Jr. covers retail, hotels, sports business, advertising, public relations and media. He's also on the air on WCCO-AM 830 with Dave Lee daily at 8:45 a.m. and on Fox 9 TV Fridays at 5:30 a.m. & 6:30 a.m.
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Solar energy technology provider Nextracker Inc. filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This comes as a growing amount of potential listings indicates a warming of the U.S. energy market.
According to the company’s listing, Nextracker has an annual revenue in the region of $1.5 billion with a net income of $51 million over the last fiscal year.
Nextracker supplies integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in ground-mounted and utility-scale distributed generation solar projects. The company’s products assist solar panels to follow the sun’s movement across the sky, thereby optimizing performance.
The company’s decision to go public follows the passing of a landmark U.S. climate law that provides tax credits to solar institutions, including those that make use of panels that use Nextracker’s product.
Nextracker’s backers include TPG, while parent company Flex Ltd. will retain control of the company following the IPO. The public offering is being led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., followed by 12 other underwriters. The company is planning to trade under the ticker NXT on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.