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Choosing to go vegan is a huge decision—one that comes with a slew of health pros and cons. But these days, plant-based eating is becoming more and more popular, and now, plenty of celebrities are switching to vegan diets.
As a refresher, vegans do not eat anything produced by an animal or with animal byproducts, including eggs, dairy, meat, and honey. Instead, plants make up 100% of vegans’ meals. Some vegans also avoid wearing clothing or using products made from or with animals. Vegan diets can bring plenty of health benefits including weight loss, according to researchers.
In fact, 9.7 million Americans are now vegan, according to a 2019 survey. Tons of celebrities are included in that figure—some recently, and some who have long promoted the plant-based diet. Many, like Lizzo and Michelle Pfeiffer, were motivated by health reasons. Others, like James Cameron and Sadie Sink, cite environmental factors. And plenty, like Joaquin Phoenix and Ruby Rose, are guided by animal rights. But all vegan celebrities can agree on one thing: Plants taste pretty darn good!
Hoping to finally make the switch to a vegan lifestyle? Here, celebrities share why they opt for plant-based eating, plus the amazing benefits that they’ve noticed since swearing off animal products. Suddenly, your choice doesn’t seem so difficult anymore—it might even be the huge change you’ve been waiting for.
Being vegan is “super-fun,” the Grey’s Anatomy star told People in 2018, soon after she started the lifestyle. “I don’t think it’s tricky at all—it’s actually easier, because meat, you have to cook it before it goes bad. Grains and lentils and rice and beans, everything’s in the pantry already. You just have to get vegetables, but vegetables stay good for a week—and I think we all feel better.”
“I’m vegan, so I generally have a very clean diet; I usually have oatmeal or avocado toast in the morning,” Portman told Harper’s Bazaar in 2017. “Lots of people make fun of anybody who cares about anything deeply, right? But I’m here to say it is always a great thing to care … Whether it’s environmental issues, animal rights, women’s rights, equality, never be afraid to show how much you care,” she told a group of students during a speech per PETA.
Yep, one of the world’s most accomplished athletes is plant-based. “I started eating raw and vegan for health reasons,” Williams told Women’s Health in 2020. “I needed to fuel my body in the best way possible.” However, she’s not super-strict: “I try to make the majority of my meals raw and vegan, but I’m only human, and am known to cheat a little bit. I joke that I’m a ‘chegan’ because sometimes I’ve been known to stray.”
Phoenix vividly remembers the moment he decided to go vegan at age 3, when he and his siblings saw fish being caught and killed. “It was clear to us, from a very young age, that what was happening was an injustice. It was an exploitation, a violence—an unnecessary violence,” he told VegNews in 2020. “When we were younger and we went vegan, it really wasn’t about health. ... It was really just about compassion. But now we’re becoming aware of the impact our consumption is having on the entire planet. And so it no longer feels like simply just a personal choice.”
“Eating a vegan diet, it’s just so much healthier, and you avoid a lot of toxins that could age your skin and your body,” Pfeiffer told Urbanette. “I really noticed a difference in my skin not too long after switching to fully vegan. And I needed to eat the fruits and vegetables to stay lean. It’s all about vanity, honestly.”
The Big Bang Theory star became a vegan at 19 and even wrote an entire cookbook of plant-based recipes. She’s raising her kids to be vegan, too. “I also tell my children that it is worthwhile to make sacrifices for a greater good,” Bialik said in a 2019 YouTube video. “I don’t know if my children will always be vegan … but what I hope I have instilled in them is an appreciation for reflection, for sacrifice and for ethical standards above what’s trendy or what's commonplace.”
“I love animals more than I love most people, not kidding,” Grande told The Mirror in 2014, soon after she became fully vegan. “But I am a firm believer in eating a full plant-based, whole-food diet that can expand your life length and make you an all-round happier person. It is tricky dining out, but I just stick to what I know—veggies, fruit, and salad—then, when I get home, I’ll have something else.”
The legendary musician went vegan in 2014. “We have to be about making our planet more greener, the urban areas more sustainable for the children,” Wonder told AOL in 2016. “We can’t just talk about it, we have to be about it. ... I’m motivating people to do something about how we are living on this planet.”
“I found myself going to veganism because a friend of mine had a two week vegan food delivery program she wasn’t going to use, so I used it, and immediately I just had more energy than I’ve ever had in my life,” Chastain told W in 2017. “I said, ‘OK, I’m going to just listen to my body now.’ Being vegan was not anything I ever wanted to be. I just really was listening to what my body was telling me.”
“I’m mostly vegan and raw these days for my health and peace of mind,” the Dopesick star told People in 2019. “I rest better, I feel better, with less inflammation and more flexibility. I feel full without feeling uncomfortable or tired afterwards. I love the energy.”
“I also choose to eat plant-based foods because not only is it healthy and yummy, but I feel ethically right,” Dewan told People in 2018. “We have become so off-balance with our animal consumption. Even one meatless meal a week helps!”
The “Good as Hell” singer went vegan in June 2020 and documented her journey on TikTok. “As a new vegan, I’m enjoying exploring flavors from plants and plant-based proteins!” she captioned one of her videos. “Every journey is personal and deserves to be celebrated.”
In a 2018 Instagram video, former Black Eyed Peas musician will.i.am called vegans “a group of people taking a hardcore gangster approach to wellness and [conscious] living.” He continued, “What I buy and buy into [affects] not only me, but the environment and all living things.”
Harrelson is a noted vegan evangelist. “I eat vegan, but I eat mostly raw,” The Hunger Games actor told InStyle in 2018. “If I have a cooked meal, I feel my energy drop. So when I first started shifting my diet, it wasn’t as much a moral or an ethical pursuit but an energetic pursuit.”
Speaking of Harrelson, the actor convinced his Solo costar Newton to go plant-based. “I think it’s good to have a vegan in the mix, a vegan in a position of power. I have been vegan since working with Woody,” Newton said in 2018. “It hasn’t done anything to my brain. I’m absolutely fine,” she finished with a laugh.
After eating vegetarian for ages, Eilish finally went vegan for animal rights reasons seven years ago. “Once you know that kind of thing and you see it, it's really hard to go back,” the pop star told British Vogue in May. “I don’t ever want to tell anybody what to do, [but] I just can’t go on in my life knowing what’s going on in the animal world and, like, not doing anything about it.”
Marvel’s Doctor Strange relied on vegan protein to bulk up before becoming a superhero. He calls his diet plant-based because he’ll still wear clothes made from animals, but Cumberbatch is strict about eating vegan foods.
When the Game of Thrones and F9 star went vegan for a week, she told Women’s Health, she slept better, woke up more easily, and even got compliments on how bright she looked. “Then I did it for two weeks and felt even more energized,” she recalled. “And then I was like, ‘That’s it; I’m going for a month!’” After lapsing and instantly feeling worse, Emmanuel has now been vegan for eight years.
“I ride longer distances on my bike, can do more pull-ups than ever, and my brain seems to have a larger capacity for new projects, problem-solving, songwriting, and fielding random questions,” Mraz wrote about becoming a mostly raw vegan. (He owns an avocado farm, so plant-based eating seems right for him.)
The Stranger Things star described herself as “a passionate vegan” to Just Jared in 2017. She shares one similarity with fellow vegan Thandiwe Newton: Woody Harrelson also convinced Sink to go plant-based. “I realized what goes on in the egg industry and the dairy industry, so then I was like, ‘That’s it! Going vegan!’ and I just kind of went cold turkey, basically,” she told Elle UK in 2018.
The Splash actress hasn’t eaten meat since she was 11 years old, when she met calves that were on their way to be slaughtered. “I mean, I really liked the taste of meat,” Hannah, a longtime vegan activist, recalled in a 2012 Q&A, “but I literally lost the ability to disassociate what was on my plate from the creature that it had been.”
The House of Gucci actor and 30 Second to Mars frontman has long avoided animal products. “I’m actually a chegan,” Leto told Rolling Stone in 2016, “a cheating vegan. I don’t eat meat ever. But if someone’s mom made a cookie and handed it to me, I’d probably take a bite, or if I’m in Alaska and there’s wild salmon out of the river, I’d probably eat it.”
A longtime advocate of plant-based eating, the Baywatch and Barb Wire star is passionate about the possibilities of vegan living. “Veganism is about more than choosing not to eat animal products,” she wrote on her site. “Veganism is bigger than that. Veganism is about saving animals, saving ourselves, saving our societies, and saving our planet!”
“I don’t miss my old lifestyle one bit. It’s like I’ve found this magical secret—except it’s no secret—that keeps me feeling both nourished and satisfied,” the Clueless actress told Food & Wine in 2014. “I adopted this diet for the animals, but the biggest surprise was how amazing I felt! … This way of eating transformed me.”
Brooklyn Nets basketball player Kyrie Irving has long followed a plant-based diet, crediting it with giving him higher stamina. “Been on more of a plant-based diet, getting away from the animals and all that,” he said on ESPN in 2017. “My energy is up; my body feels amazing.”
Soul icon Erykah Badu has eaten a vegan diet since 1997. “I wouldn’t call myself a vegan because I don’t subscribe to any type of organizations. It’s just what’s best for my body. If I was a Lamborghini I would want to put the best gas in it,” she told People in 2016. “I eat raw, mostly kale salad, avocados, fruits, vegetables and alkaline water.”
Dubbed one of PETA’s sexiest vegans alive in 2014, Page approaches veganism from an animal rights standpoint: “Why are vegans made fun of while the inhumane factory farming process regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit?” he tweeted in 2011.
The Bones actress became vegan after meeting farm animals, she said in 2015—and she’s even more committed to the cause for its environmental benefits. “I love to drink green juices and eat lots of salads. I also like to make a habit of eating as many different colors of vegetables as I can. As for treats, of course, there’s fruit, and you can even get vegan chocolate.”
Mara, who is partnered with fellow vegan Joaquin Phoenix, calls herself an “ethical vegan.” She became a vegetarian at 9, then switched to a plant-based lifestyle in 2011. “Someone sent me this horrible undercover video of a pig, which led me to another horrible video and another horrible video,” the Carol actress told Coveteur in 2018. “I went down the YouTube rabbit hole.”
“I just don’t like meat,” The Good Wife actor told Vegetarian Times in 2011. “Rotten carcasses don’t feel good inside my body. I’ve also seen some horrible documentaries about the hormones and things that go into meat. On a health level, meat is so scary. I used to eat fish, but with fish there’s that mercury awfulness.”


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Olivia's Haven is introducing a limited edition cocktail candle collection based on three favourite drinks:
Articles in category: Non-food
Homebase is offering customers even more choice when it comes to decorating projects with the launch of two exclusive paint ranges.
ARTA Consumer Batteries UK, one of Europe’s leading consumer battery brands, has secured Which? Best Buy recommendation for its range of AA and AAA batteries.
Interior accessories manufacturer Rothley introduces a stylish new kitchen utensil rail kit, combining a number of top selling items to deliver a practical solution for DIY savvy consumers.
GUESS has created a special edition women’s sunglasses style for the holidays.
Leading quality pet, animal food and accessories manufacturer, Henry Bell (www.henrybell.co.uk), announces its launch of the brand new: Henry Bell Wildlife Collection. With the increasing importance and interest in caring for the wildlife in our environments, at the heart of
School pupils in the UK lost a third of education time during the pandemic, meaning it’s more important than ever for children to be ready and excited to learn.
Pioneering cordless vacuum cleaner brand, ROIDMI, is shaking up the premium floorcare market with its new flagship RS70 model. The brand’s premium model comes with a five-year motor guarantee as standard, with a two-year warranty on the battery, and is testament to the innovative and sleek
Valspar Premium Blend v700 Walls & Ceilings paint has been crowned king in the ‘Washable Paint’ test category by the Good Housekeeping Institute. Scoring 83/100 for application, consistency, coverage, washability and durability, Valspar took first place above renowned paint brands
Leading vacuum storage specialist, Packmate, has revamped its entire product range.
Consumer goods company, Henkel, has relaunched its famous Pritt stick, bringing some good news during lockdown for climate-conscious children, teachers and crafters. The new generation of Pritt sticks is even more sustainable and environmentally friendly than before; the glue is
SodaStream has announced today a major retail partnership with Nisa, to make it easier than ever for consumers to enjoy sparkling water at home. The move means customers don’t need to look further than their local shop to create freshly
Leading board games producer, Cartamundi, rounds up top choices of board and card games to everyone entertained during new lockdown
From boozy drinking games to fun for all the family during the national lockdown, Cartamundi’s top picks will bring a lot of laughs and lots of fun throughout the lockdown.
Ninja, the number one brand by value in the multi cooker category in the UK, has launched a raft of new kitchen appliances, with innovative new features borne out of consumer insights.
Delish, the fastest growing food media site on the internet, and the healthy-living experts at Dash, the fastest growing housewares company in the US, have teamed up to create a new line of cookware and appliances. In a deal brokered
With six cooking functions, the Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer is more than just a grill. Whether you want to Air Fry, Bake, Roast, Dehydrate, Grill or Reheat, the large capacity grill precisely cooks with perfect results.
Cartamundi is launching a new series of playing cards in a bid to raise funds for the NHS heroes working on the frontline in the nation’s battle against Coronavirus.
SodaStream, the world’s number one sparkling water brand, has entered into a major grocery partnership, launching this month in selected Asda stores and on Asda.com.
EVOLTA batteries showcase high performance and stability in children’s favourite battery-operated toys
Children benefit in many ways when they interact with battery-operated toys. They provide learning experiences and optimise physical and cognitive development in children. Such toys require high-performing batteries to run reliably and safely, and EVOLTA batteries have proven to be
Patlock, the fitted French door lock, has announced the launch of its 2019 autumn/winter advertising campaign featuring former professional boxer, Frank Bruno.
Euro-pro Europe, creator of the premium home technology brand SharkNinja, maker of Shark floorcare products and Ninja kitchen appliances, is investing in a new UK headquarters in Leeds.
Manchester City Women’s Football Club is delighted to announce a long-term partnership with DYLON Colour Catcher.
UK homeware supplier Scott Brothers has added more than 400 products to its catalogue with the acquisition of housewares product company H&L Russel.
SharkNinja has launched a range of electrical cooking appliances and is supporting the category with its first major advertising push in the autumn.
New baby accessories startup, Kura Organics, has launched a stylish and sustainably designed car seat wrap for babies. The wrap is a fashionable, practical alternative to a blanket or coat, offering a more comfortable and convenient solution to keep babies

domain: news


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Auto dealers in Cyprus are agreeing that the market is frozen and there is no prospect of a restart until the end of the year as car sales plummet due to stalled deliveries.
Cyprus registered 2,326 saloons in July, down 14.2% from the previous year’s 2,712, according to the National Statistics Office (CyStat).
New car registrations fell 6.8% to 1,108 from last year’s 1,189. In June he was down 6.5%.
Used car sales fell 20% in July, with registrations dropping from 1,523 to 1,218. Conversely, in June he increased by 12.8%.
Local car dealers are concerned about the growing trend, which threatens to freeze demand.
In the first seven months, passenger vehicle registrations fell by 3.3% to 16,427 from last year’s 16,979.
Of the total passenger cars, 7,240 (44.1%) were new and 9,187 (55.9%) were used.
Car rental purchases jumped 86.2% to 2,878 units.
In 2021, car sales will plunge to their lowest level since 2015, register Decreased for 3 consecutive years.
The reduction rate in 2021 was 12.8% from 18.4% in 2020.
The Cyprus Automobile Importers Association believes the drop in sales was due to delivery problems from manufacturers, slowing the market despite strong interest.
The industry is having trouble delivering to customers due to supply chain shocks.
In comments to the Financial Mirror, Dickran Ozounian, the Association’s treasurer and Toyota importer, said auto dealers were reluctant even though new car sales were up 5% from the previous month. said.
“The increase in sales is certainly positive and proves what we are seeing in our showrooms.
“Despite rising living and energy costs, there is strong interest from potential new vehicle buyers,” said Ouzonian.
But, as he explained, car importers are finding themselves unable to meet demand due to supply chain bottlenecks and shortages of raw materials, namely semiconductors.
“It’s great to see our showrooms fill up for the holiday season in August. 2 years of COVID and lockdown.
“Unfortunately, the lack of semiconductors and hold-ups in the delivery chain meant we had to sit back and wait for the crisis to end.”
He said auto dealers aren’t worried about people losing interest when they say there’s a long waiting list. Rather, they are more concerned about the worsening cost of living.
“Our concern is that the cost of living and the energy crisis will crush households, forcing us to postpone the dream of buying a new car indefinitely.”
higher interest rates
Uznian added that interest rate hikes introduced by the central bank to combat rising inflation could also hurt future sales.
The average auto loan interest rate is now 6%, up from 4.5% just a month ago.
A Toyota importer said the problem was paralyzing the industry at a time when the industry had turned to greener vehicles, boosting the government’s electrification efforts.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism incentive system The €8 million fund covered only 360 applications for brand new electric vehicles and 320 applications for used vehicles, with a limited number of applications in other categories such as taxis and disabled persons.
Ouzonian said the first cars covered by the scheme are expected to be delivered by the end of the year or early 2023.
By July, new hybrids totaled 2,636, up from 1,778 in 2021. The hybrid used was 1,075 compared to last year’s 776.
There were 377 new electric vehicles and 66 used electric vehicles. In the first seven months of 2021, there were 181 new electric vehicles and only 26 used vehicles.
According to Cystat, Cypriots prefer HYUNDAI, MG and NISSAN when it comes to new electric vehicles.
Among used electric vehicles, NISSAN and TESLA are highly preferred.
Toyota, Hyundai and Audi stand out when it comes to preference for new hybrid vehicles.
Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are the first candidates for used hybrids.
https://www.financialmirror.com/2022/08/13/car-sales-dip-as-demand-stays-high/ Declining car sales amid continued high demand


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Industry insider news for New Zealand's technology resellers
These search results are from across the Techday network of sites
Fujitsu releases three new D Series enterprise PC models
All of these models are equipped with the latest Intel processor and Windows 10.
GALLERY: HPE recognises six local partners at its latest principal conference
The conference brought together partner principals and senior sales managers to hear from HPE executives, industry experts and thought-leaders.
Fujitsu Labs takes network control approach IoT security
Fujitsu Technologies has developed a new kind of network control technology that is able to secure IoT devices installed in the field.
Fujitsu chooses Box to strengthen collaboration on internal communication platform
Box announced that Fujitsu has adopted Box as its content collaboration tool on its global communication platform.
Fujitsu launches new GS21 mainframe models
The CPU performance of the new models has been improved by up to 20%.
Fujitsu commences sales of PRIMERGY x86 server
Fujitsu announced that it is launching Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY CX1430 M1, a new multi-node server model.
Not every cloud has a silver lining - the challenges of managing public data in Australia
Fujitsu assesses the challenges that exist with the Australian government's digital transformation initiatives and the public storage of data.
Veeam recognises A/NZ partners at ProPartner awards in Sydney
The annual awards dinner saw a variety of partners recognised over 14 categories.
Fujitsu Australia rolls out 12-month Reconciliation Action Plan
“The ICT industry at large has been challenged by concerns around diversity and inclusion for some time."
AR/VR headset market forecast to rocket 48.5% in 2018
After its brief hiccup in 2017, the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets market is set to offer opportunities aplenty.
Fujitsu launches global on-site operations in 180 countries
This will enable uniform IT device operations across locations outside Japan, supporting Fujitsu customers in enhancing their global IT governance.
Fujitsu to deliver base station hardware to NTT DOCOMO
Fujitsu announced that it has agreed to provide NTT DOCOMO with base station hardware that it intends to commercialize for 5G.
Fujitsu launches SAP S/4HANA ERP conversion and migration service
Fujitsu can support migration to SAP S/4HANA, regardless of customer's operating system, database management system, or SAP ERP system.
Fujitsu rolls out Biometrics-as-a-Service to Australian enterprises
Fujitsu's cloud-based multimodal biometrics-as-a-service solution will enable Australian organisations to deploy biometric authentication.
Fujitsu rolls out biometric palm vein authentication in Japan offices
Fujitsu is rolling out its biometric palm vein authentication solutions within its own company to replace passwords used by around 80,000 employees.
Fujitsu & Microsoft set their sights on AI to improve employee wellbeing
The duo will build “human-centric” innovative solution with the goal of transforming the way people work.
Fujitsu develops WAN acceleration technology utilizing FPGA accelerators
It’s able to provide the industry's fastest effective transfer rate of up to 40Gbps, over a 10Gbps line.
Fujitsu rolls out world's smallest, battery-free IoT sensor
Another notable feature of the sensor is that it eliminates the need to replace batteries as it uses solar cells instead.
Fujitsu and Citrix expand cloud collaboration, launch virtual desktop service
This is not the first time Fujitsu and Citrix have collaborated. The two companies have collaborated on VDI technology for around two decades.
Lenovo buys majority stake in Fujitsu PC business
Lenovo has acquired a controlling stake in Fuitsu’s PC business in a JPY 17.85 billion-plus deal as it seeks to shore up its PC business.
Fujitsu creates $17m dispatch system for Tasmania Police
“We look forward to rolling this out to all emergency services groups in Tasmania.”
Fujitsu’s digital transformation pact shows skill gaps in the AU workplace
“It is also clear that organisations worldwide including Australia are feeling the need to ramp up their skillset across all areas of digital in order
Fujitsu's first end-to-end service for network security
Fujitsu will offer total support for NIST SP800-171 compliant security measures...
Fujitsu calls in Silver Peak to get new SD-WAN solution off the ground
"The new partnership between Fujitsu and Silver Peak provides service providers with a path to fast-track the delivery of SD-WAN services."


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North America is proving particularly interesting for the company. ‘We are working to have a presence in the US to start production in the longer term,’ Pozzi said. ‘This will probably be with technical and commercial support, and then assembly.’
The plan is to grow step by step, he explained. ‘There are several possibilities,’ he claimed. ‘We could go it alone, or work with our agent, Foam Supply. We are evaluating this. Or we could find an arrangement with a local producer. It depends on the opportunities.’
In the UK, Shane Wooton of CTM, Hennecke’s agent for the UK and Ireland, said: ‘We had a purple patch in domestic hot water cylinders. A big UK player decided to move factory, looked at his equipment and decided it needed to be refreshed. We pitched for the work and won three high pressure machines as well as an automatic line.’
He explained that the equipment included two fairly simple applications, and another was a fully automatic cylinder foaming line. ‘The client’s budget was not large enough to supply a part from Germany, and CTM was not prepared to make the handling side,’ he said. ‘The customer put us in contact with a company that could make the handling side. We now have a new contact, and the system is due to be installed in April or May this year.’
Singapore-based RIM Polymers said it used 2019 to reinforce its PU foaming plant design team. It claims to have built up a strong global talent team, with German, Japanese and other Asian designers.
Oei Han Tjing, executive vice president at CEH Group, said: ‘[We] made many innovative equipment and foaming process developments in the year.’ These allowed the company to gain customers at both automotive and cold chain OEMs who have adopted RIM Polymers’ new process.
A key development for RIM Polymers is its Smart Factory Solution. In common with other such systems, the company said, it can generate and integrate relevant PU production data, via its in-house tailored software to help production and finance departments collect and analyse data.
‘This can be used to identify production shortfalls, and make quick feedback and improvements to raise productivity and cut cost,’ the company said. It believes this could help users improve their cash flow by 5–10%, and cut costs by a similar percentage.
According to Philip Hindson of AutoRIM, 2019 was a year of consolidation, particularly with an impending Brexit. ‘2020 started off very positively, with a lot of business already placed, particularly from those bringing manufacturing back to the UK to avoid import tariffs and potential port delays.’
A good year
Philippe Jeantin, global head of Covestro Elastomers’ machines division, said that 2019 was a very good year for the company. ‘In fact, in the past three years we had double digit growth each year on average, so we really contribute to Covestro Elastomers.’
At UTECH 2018, the company launched a new concept, with the the Baule alpha and Baule omega machines. ‘These were developed after two years of engineering effort,’ Jeantin said. ‘The ranges have been very well received by moulders. We have sold a lot of machines.’
He explained that the Baule alpha machines are built to meet clients’ current needs, and are easy to modify as those needs change in the future. ‘There are a lot of variants and options, and these have all been predesigned,’ he said. ‘For example, a moulder could be processing a two-component system and buys a two-component machine. A couple of years later, they may need to run a three or four component system, or add a pigment injection device. The machine can be easily adapted on site using pre-designed components. We think we are the only machine manufacturer to have pushed this flexibility so far.’
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This week UK retailer TESCO launched a bid to grab a share of Britain’s £3billion-a-year toy sales. With the launch of their very own Private Brand toy line, Carousel.
They hope to take on the big toy makers such as Fisher Price and Mattel, and take business from established retailers including Argos and Toys R Us.
The Carousel brand, which is being launched online, features nearly 100 toys for children aged six months to four years. Prices range from £1 to £50.
Tesco said their “exciting new brand” is a response to demand from their customers.
According to their website:
Carousel is a new range of pre-school toys. Encouraging your child to learn and develop through play.Exclusive friendly characters and brightly coloured features will ensure children love playing with Carousel. Full range launching in store and online in November.
Many of Carousel toys are packaged with no wire ties, screws or plastic moulds making them simple to open and easy to recycle. We are working to ensure all Carousel toys use this type of packaging.


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Handset maker companies keep looking for partners to assemble their devices in the Indian market. Let us tell you that the first 4G smartphone of Mukesh Ambani’s telecom company Reliance Jio remains in the headlines for a long time. The company has joined hands with UTL Neolync to assemble this device. According to new information, Reliance Jio with UTL Neolync can bring 5 million units in the market in the next 6 months. Recall that Reliance Jio has tied up with Google to develop its upcoming Jiophone Next and now according to the report of The Economic Times, the company can bring all 5 million units in the next 6 months. The report also claims that Jio is also aware of the lack of chipsets. JioPhone Next handset is going to arrive on 10th September 2021.
JioPhone Next Specifications (Expected) Mukesh Ambani’s telecom company Reliance Jio has not yet made any announcement regarding the company’s affordable 4G smartphone JioPhone Next Features. But it is being said that the phone will work on Android 11 and it can have 2 GB / 3 GB RAM and 16 GB / 32 GB storage with entry-level Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 chipset. Talking about JioPhone Next Features, then you would also like to know how big the display will be, it is being said that 5.5 inch screen can be given in the phone. Apart from this, 2500 mAh battery can be given to bring life to the phone, 13-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front camera sensor can be given on the back panel.
(hope)There is no information about the price of JioPhone Next at the moment, but it is being said that the price can be Rs 3,499. It is worth noting that for a long time no handset maker company has launched any of its affordable handsets in this price segment.
Trying to pull 2G customers
The purpose of Reliance Jio behind bringing the affordable 4G phone JioPhone Next is to bring more and more 2G users to the 4G network.
[Attribution to NBT]


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Global investors poured money into the UK’s fintech sector last year, almost doubling the amount invested here between 2018 and 2019 — despite the rest of the world suffering a slight downturn in funding.
British fintech companies attracted $48.5bn (£37.4bn) of investment in 2019, up 91 per cent from $25.4bn a year earlier. Data released by KPMG today also revealed the number of deals in the UK reached a six-year high, defying the amount invested globally where overall fintech fundraising fell just short of 2018’s record at $135.7bn.
Across Europe, the UK accounted for half of the top 10 deals and netted more than 80 per cent of the continent’s record-setting total of $58bn.
The largest funding round in UK history occurred last year, when fintech lender Greensill raised $800m from Softbank. Other standout deals included funding rounds from the likes of Oaknorth, Monzo and Starling Bank, while startups Checkout.com and Sumup entered the unicorn ranks as their valuations surpassed $1bn.
KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report showed cross-border transactions around the world remained high last year, despite ongoing geopolitical tensions. Cross-border deal value surpassed $50bn in 2019, with 138 deals.
“As a number of UK fintechs hit their high-growth phase, they’re inevitably seeking both scale and profitability; they’re coming out of their niche and going deep by providing a wider range of services or going wide by becoming international,” Starling Bank boss Anne Boden told City A.M.
“The incumbents are in real danger of being left behind on both fronts.”
Data from Tech Nation and Dealroom last month showed the sector more than doubled its 2018 total in venture capital funding alone to reach $5.4bn last year, comfortably outpacing the rest of Europe.
In 2020 the funding boom is set to continue, as the UK’s three most prominent digital retail banks seek additional investment.
Revolut is in the process of raising $500m in funding at a pre-money valuation of $5bn, according to documents seen by City A.M., while Monzo is said to be in the market for another £100m in capital. Starling closed a $60m funding round earlier this month.
Frederic Court, founder and managing partner at Felix Capital, said recent deals in the US such as Morgan Stanley buying digital stockbroker E-Trade for $13bn are a sign that consolidation is on the horizon for British fintech firms.
“There will be a lot of value shifting from the established players to some of the emerging startups such as Monzo and Revolut,” said Court.
“Consumers have spoken, and they want to lead their financial life the way they lead the rest of their life: using their mobile phone, and having simple products and apps that they find as easy to use as social media. That’s where the incumbents have a lot to improve.”
Eileen Burbidge, partner at Passion Capital, added: “The UK is currently the leading fintech hub in the world, thanks to extensive financial services experience, digital technology talent, and progressive regulators and policy makers supportive of increasing competition and accelerating innovation in such a crucial sector.”
“As the government continues to recognise the importance of fintech and immigration initiatives such as the Global Talent Visa programme unveiled last week, I’m optimistic that the UK will continue to be the best place in the world for fintech companies to start, scale and grow.”


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The new Netflix streaming app for Android and iOS is bad for all users.
Netflix will get rid of its “best of” section on its homepage, and users will be redirected to its own curated video catalog rather than the curated content that it has been using for years.
It’s the first time that Netflix has made a move that directly affects the way users browse its apps.
And it’s a step backwards for the streaming service.
Netflix’s app is now the one people are actually searching for and searching for the content they want, not the curated video on Netflix’s own website.
Netflix has been trying to make the experience of streaming video better for years, with an app that has been the go-to streaming video platform for millions of people.
But the company has been slow to make this switch, and its biggest move was a move to stream movies directly from Netflix in 2012.
It was the best option available to Netflix customers.
The problem with this change was that Netflix users were unable to easily access the content on their own website, but now Netflix will only show videos directly from its own catalog, not from other sources like Google’s Play Movies and TV app.
Netflix users have long complained about the quality of the streaming videos they were seeing on its website.
And the new app changes the experience for everyone by making it harder for Netflix users to find and search for the videos they want.
If you search for “The Great Wall” on Netflix and the results show “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the first thing you’ll see is a YouTube video of a clip of a short animated sequence of clips.
In the Netflix catalog, the video you’ll get will be the original version of that clip.
If it was from an independent production, the original clip would be the one that appeared in the video.
But if it was a movie from Netflix’s catalog, it’ll show the video as the movie that appears in the Netflix catalogue.
Netflix is the first to make such a move.
It’ll be the first major streaming video service to have a “best” section that redirects users to a curated video collection rather than a curated site.
This is the biggest change to the way people watch video, and it has the potential to disrupt the way streaming video is watched by millions of Netflix customers around the world.
Netflix wants to make a huge difference for the streamers and their families.
Netflix says it’s trying to “create a smarter, better experience for consumers.”
This change makes sense.
The best of Netflix content is a collection of movies and TV shows.
The “best videos” section of the Netflix app lets users search for that content on its own website and find it in the curated videos section.
If users don’t like the content, they can remove it from the list of curated videos and watch it in their own personalized video section.
Netflix said it is also adding an option for people to view “the best of” video from other Netflix catalogs.
This has always been the default feature on its home page, and Netflix users can access their favorites list by clicking the “top movies” tab and selecting the other Netflix videos that they want to watch.
But with the change to its “top videos,” people will have to go to Netflix’s home page and select the video they want from the curated playlist.
Netflix already shows users curated videos, but the curated section will no longer be displayed in the home screen.
Netflix also made the decision to make its own videos more appealing.
The Netflix app on the iPhone and iPad has long been an easy way for users to search for and view video content.
But Netflix has slowly introduced more curated video content to its iOS and Android apps over the years, but its main focus has always seemed to be its original content.
The new redesign of the homepage makes it harder to find content in Netflix’s curated section.
There’s also no way to search directly for Netflix videos directly on the home page.
Users are redirected to Netflix.com, the Netflix home page where they can search for video content and then view it on their home screens.
This new design also makes it more difficult for users who search for Netflix content on Google Play to find it on Netflix.
This redesign also makes Google Play the first place that people will find and view Netflix content, which makes it much more difficult to find curated content on the other platforms that Netflix uses to distribute its content.
There is also no option to watch videos directly directly from the Netflix site on Android and the iOS App Store.
This change means that users will have a much harder time finding content they actually want.
People will be more likely to choose the “best movies” section if they know that they’ll be watching a movie they don’t want to see.
There will also be fewer people who will have access to the curated collections on YouTube, Netflix’s streaming video app, and other streaming video services.
The redesign will make it harder and harder for users of these platforms to find a curated


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Walmart Canada investing $3.5 billion over five years, notably on technology
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- Walmart Canada plans to invest $3.5 billion over the next five years to improve service in stores and on the web, renovate 150 stores and build two new distribution centres.
The retail giant says the investment will create hundreds of construction jobs in Canada and forge partnerships with Canadian high-tech companies.
Future technology initiatives include the use of payment on mobile devices so that customers can pay for purchases anywhere in the store.
The company also aims to soon offer a complete merchandise pick-up service at about 270 branches, or 70 per cent of its locations in Canada.
Renovations to more than one-third of its stores will be completed over three years.
Walmart is also planning to spend $1.1 billion to speed up the flow of products by building two new distribution centres, in Vaughan, Ont. and Surrey, B.C., as well as renovating an existing centre in Cornwall, Ont.
"Today's significant investment will position us for future growth and make Walmart Canada even better for our associates and our customers," says Horacio Barbeito, president and CEO.
The Canadian Press
- Walmart Canada to hire 10,000 workers and introduce other measures amid COVID-19
- Walmart to Stop Accepting Visa Cards in Canadian Stores
- Big Changes Coming to Numerous Walmart Locations
- Walmart launches brand new (and super fast) delivery service in Mississauga
- Two Mississauga students awarded scholarships from Walmart
- Top 5 Chicken on the Rocks in Mississauga
- Region providing money to residents who want to build basement apartments in Mississauga
- Some university students in Mississauga are dating older partners to pay off debt
- Very long-awaited Dollarama finally opens in Streetsville Mississauga
- Two COVID-19 cases reported at Mississauga grocery stores


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Credit: Google News
You know the conventional wisdom about shopping around before buying? Machine learning may be turning that truism on its head, at least in one industry.
Smarter technology is serving up relevant products in the blink of an eye, anticipating your needs before you have a chance to ask a question. Companies hope personalization engines operating behind the scenes can power their way to winning your business.
“Companies are beginning to use artificial intelligence technologies to engage with users,” says Bret Greenstein, vice president and global head of artificial intelligence at Cognizant Digital Business. They’re doing it by optimizing their back-end technology to make it faster and easier for customers to use.
Consider how travel insurance company Allianz Travel Insurance has quietly upgraded its systems. In the last few months, the company has put the finishing touches on an ambitious project to add personalization features to its online storefront and its partners.
The goal: to ensure that travelers get the most appropriate product for their trip and don’t overpay for coverage. Allianz added machine-learning and artificial intelligence technology to offer real-time personalization that delivers the product recommendation in less than a second.
That’s right, one second.
The Allianz case study offers a peek behind the curtain of a company that’s trying to compete with other travel insurance providers and fighting a perception among experts that a travel insurance partner such as an airline or online agency isn’t the first place — or even the best place — to buy an insurance policy.
What you don’t know when you buy through an aggregator
“There is a prevailing philosophy that the best place to buy travel insurance is through an aggregator,” says Allianz spokesman Daniel Durazo. Travel insurance aggregators are sites that offer a variety of travel insurance products. “While the ability to compare products is often mentioned, never mentioned is the lack of visibility into the insurance providers behind the products being offered.”
For example, when you’re buying insurance online, it’s impossible to know whether the company offering a product has 24/7 customer service or is only there 9 to 5, Durazo says. You also can’t tell whether it adjudicates its claims or if that’s handled by another company. Nor can you tell whether the company manages its own travel assistance services or whether it farms out those duties to another company. That information is available online, but it takes time to find it.
“You don’t know if they have an in-house medical team to manage emergencies and evacuations or whether they use a third party,” he says. “You don’t know if they have a mobile app that has the ability to access policies, file and track claims and get access to local resources.”
What Allianz did to improve its online buying experience
Allianz set out to deliver “the most appropriate” products within a partner booking path in less than a second and to answer questions about the reliability and availability of its products. The insurance company’s partners include airlines and online travel agencies that sell coverage as an add-on during the booking process. In a world where lengthy delays are the norm, that was a tall order.
To pull it off, Allianz embraced contextual personalization to consider several factors for the trip. Those included:
The booking window.
The period between booking and departure is a critical factor. The longer the period, the higher the probability of an event that would cause customers to cancel their trip. On the other hand, a trip booked on the day of departure makes cancellation coverage unnecessary. By quickly determining the booking window, customers who don’t need cancellation coverage can purchase a product that only covers post-departure travel problems such as travel delay, delayed or lost baggage or medical emergencies. That can result in cost savings to the customer, potentially offering a product that is significantly less expensive than standard products. Post-departure products are often 30% cheaper than comparable products offering cancellation coverage and may cost as little as $19 for a trip.
The longer a trip lasts, the greater the probability of an event that affects the trip. That’s why post-departure benefits such as coverage for travel delays, baggage delay or loss, and medical emergencies become even more important for longer trips. Shorter trips cost less to insure — that’s more money saved for the customer.
Knowing the origin and destination of a trip can help determine what coverage may be needed for common events at those airports. For example, travel delay coverage and baggage loss may be more important at one airport than another. A vacation trip to the Caribbean may require less coverage than a trip to Asia or Africa, where potential delays, interruptions and medical emergencies may be more of a concern.
Itineraries with connecting flights are more likely to experience travel delays, missed connections and lost or delayed baggage. This makes post-departure benefits that cover these events even more important.
Trips that include a significant investment in nonrefundable travel payments should include cancellation coverage that will refund those payments in the event of cancellation for a covered reason.
Other variables that affect the insurance product you see
Allianz identified other variables that it could hand over to its machine-learning algorithms.
- The number of people traveling — The bigger the group, the greater the chance of a cancellation or trip interruption. The right travel insurance policy can protect against those losses.
- Age of travelers — Families with children or older adults may have different needs than other travelers. Children or older adults are more likely to become sick before a trip. This makes cancellation coverage and coverage for medical emergencies and emergency medical transportations even more important.
- Paying with miles — Travelers using frequent flyer miles to pay for their trip can purchase a policy that covers the fee to redeposit those miles if the trip is canceled. This saves money over the cost of a policy that includes traditional cancellation coverage. Policies covering redeposit fees may cost as little as $16.
- Reason for travel — Business travelers often have different needs than leisure travelers. They may require coverage for the business equipment and devices they are carrying.
- Your connections — International travel makes emergency medical coverage even more important. Overseas medical providers often demand upfront payment for hospitalizations and other serious medical situations. A large travel insurance company like Allianz can guarantee payments to medical providers so that customers don’t have to pay large medical bills out of pocket.
- One way, round-trip or multi-city trips — One-way trips may not require post-departure benefits, such as emergency medical coverage. Itineraries with multiple stops are more likely to experience delays and baggage issues.
- Timing of trip — Trips booked for the winter months or hurricane season may be more likely to experience severe weather events that could cause a missed connection or delay.
The machine-learning systems take all of these factors into account, meaning that buying an insurance policy through an airline or online travel agency might be a traveler’s top choice.
“The products offered in travel provider booking paths are highly personalized for the traveler’s trip,” says Durazo. “The consumer gets the appropriate coverage for their trip and doesn’t overpay for coverage they don’t need.”
How Allianz made travel insurance smarter
The technology behind this customization is impressive. Allianz collects anonymized information to power a personalization engine from a partner like Priceline to help it find the right product for the customer. That reduces the time spent researching companies and products and virtually eliminates the chance that customers will pay for coverage they don’t need.
That’s a sharp contrast to insurance aggregators and other providers, which place the burden on the consumer to sift through many offerings to find the product that is most appropriate, according to Allianz.
“Products offered through personalization do this work for the consumer, allowing them to focus on the more enjoyable aspects of their trip,” says Durazo.
The engine itself takes multiple trip and traveler attributes into consideration, selecting from about 100 different products. What’s more, the personalization engine gets smarter every day. Allianz makes more than a billion offers every year, so its personalization engine has learned which products offer the best value for each traveler’s itinerary.
Machine learning is the future
Experts say the type of machine learning that Allianz is doing represents the future of targeted marketing.
“Big data and artificial intelligence can build very accurate user profiles and offer custom benefit configurations for each of these profiles,” says Dana Adam, a vice president of marketing at RedFalcon.ai, an artificial intelligence company. “Artificial intelligence enables the personalization of packages like trip cancellation insurance, instead of bundled, predefined packages.”
Joseph Wilck, the faculty director for business analytics at William & Mary’s Mason School of Business, says machine learning like this can be helpful.
“I think this is actually useful from a planning perspective,” he says. “For example, I have children and in January and February was looking at summer vacation options, so the travel sites that used artificial learning, machine learning, and analytics to watch me offered family-oriented travel options and advertisements.”
But are people ready for this kind of personalization? Wilck says yes. Consumers expect a company to offer an appropriate product.
“For travel purchases, I don’t think this technology is overreaching,” he says. “However, more private topics — like politics, religion, health — and topics surrounding children may anger consumers if they knew that they were being targeted and watched for those purposes or to those demographics.”
So the next time you see a travel insurance policy offered after you book an airline ticket, you might want to give it strong consideration. It might be the best policy for your next trip.
Credit: Google News


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The winner for the 2009 European Car of the Year will not be announced until three weeks from now, but Fiat insiders announced that the Alfa Romeo MiTo has been voted European Car of the Year 2009 by a panel of sector journalists.
The Fiat group also took silver with the Lancia Delta. And proving that the Italians are not the only ones with soul, the Ford Fiesta is taking home third place.
A statement from the Fiat group said that the MiTo was the first time that Alfa Romeo has produced a subcompact sports car and that this project was ’’aimed at recruiting a new generation of Alfa-lovers’’. Now all they need to do is bring the MiTo across the Atlantic so that there can be a new generation of American Alfa-lovers.


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The first major patch has been released for Horizon Forbidden West. Here's what you need to know.
Guerrilla's latest RPG epic has so far proven to be a hit with fans. With a massive open world to explore, plenty to craft and collect, and so much more, it's easy to lose hours to a game like Horizon. For the most part, it's a pretty polished game, though some players have reported a number of visual bugs that just slightly dampen the experience.
Fortunately, Guerrilla was quick to get on the case. Now the studio have released a brand new patch aiming to tackle these issues, along with a few others. Check out the full list of patch notes below.
Horizon Forbidden West Patch 1.05: Full Notes Detailed
- The team is investigating with high priority, several graphical issues reported by players regarding shimmering, sharpening and screen saturation when moving the camera.
- Some players are experiencing an issue with infinite loading screens when attempting to load into Melee Pits.
- Some players are experiencing an issue where Aloy’s outfit appears blurry in Photo Mode.
- Some players are experiencing an issue in main quest ‘Reach for the Stars’ where Aloy can’t interact with a machine carcass, blocking progression.
Fixes and Improvements
- Fixed an issue in main quest ‘Reach for the Stars’ where reloading a certain auto-save after completing the first quest could block progression.
- Fixed an issue during interlude ‘The Eye of the Earth’ where Aloy could fall out of the world after skipping a cinematic.
- Fixed an issue in main quest ‘Cradle of Echoes’ where Varl would wander off on a reload from save.
- Fixed an issue in main quest ‘The Sea of Sands’ affecting several grapple points.
Side Quests and Errands
- Fixed an issue in side quest ‘Blood Choke’ where Atekka would appear to fall out of the sky.
- Fixed a progression issue in side quest ‘In The Fog’ related to fast travel during the quest.
- Fixed an issue in errand quest ‘Night of Lights’ where a pullable box could get stuck and block the quest progression.
- Fixed an issue where Relic Ruin: The Daunt could not be started in certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue in salvage contract The Greenswell: Plowhorn and the Plants where an optional objective could not be completed if the required item was sent to the player stash.
- A rogue Tallneck near The Sand of the Sentinels that would sometimes change the direction of its route has been disciplined.
- The Second Chance skill should now work correctly.
- Fixed an issue where the camera had an unintended position when using certain weapon techniques.
- Image oversharpening in HDR mode has been corrected.
- Fixed an issue where some settlements would stream in, then stream out in certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue where the HUD would flicker when the player performs a loot action.
- Fixed an issue where rapidly opening and closing the map could cause graphical anomalies.
- Fixed an issue where Aloy's animation would sometimes jitter rapidly when climbing after picking up a plant has been fixed.
- Fixed a global issue where the direction of Aloy's gaze, or that of certain NPCs, was incorrect.
- Fixed several instances where Aloy, NPCs or enemies could get stuck in geometry.
- Fixed an issue where roads and icons on the map would sometimes appear with a delay.
- Fixed several streaming issues and unintended loading screens.
- NPCs that seemed to suffer from insomnia and would gather in large groups at night in settlements should act more naturally now.
- Petra will no longer teleport into her seat inside the Chainscrape brewery if followed immediately after the initial conversation with her.
- Fixed several crashes.
- Various performance improvements.
- Various other minor fixes and cosmetic improvements.


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hug digital has secured the digital marketing account for American cable television channel, Home and Garden Network (HGTV). The 21-year-old channel specialises in creating content on home improvement, DIY, design, real estate and landscaping. hug will be utilising it’s digital expertise and insights to handle HGTV‘S new MENA website as well as its social presence, set to launch in the MENA region this year.
“We went into the pitch with a clear digital strategic vision of where HGTV needs to be as a brand,” says Hussein M. Dajani, COO, hug digital. “I can’t wait to implement the rollout, establish the HGTV brand in the MENA region and grow their business.”


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Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced the opening of Hyatt Regency Thrissur in the cultural capital of Kerala. With 77 well-appointed guestrooms, this contemporary hotel aims to bring the brand’s signature hospitality to business and leisure guests travelling to the region.
The hotel marks the continued growth of the Hyatt Regency brand in India and joins more than 195 hotels under the brand, including 12 locations across the country. Sunjae Sharma, vice president of India operations at Hyatt said: “The Hyatt Regency brand caters to leisure as well as business travellers, which are steadily growing in the state. This launch underlines the importance of the globally celebrated Hyatt Regency brand in India, which is now present in 13 cities across the country.”
With offerings tailored to suit both leisure and business travellers alike, the hotel aims to provide guests with a seamless, stress-free experience in Kerala. Conveniently located near prime cultural centers, the Thrissur IT Park, iconic monuments, museums, galleries and shopping at the Kalamandalam Centre, an hour away from Cochin International Airport and 10 minutes from the railway station, it will allow guests to seamlessly conduct business.


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Garmin in a blog post has confirmed that it is going to discontinue support for its Vivoactive 3 fitness watch with Windows Phone. In a query to one of the users, a Garmin support executive confirmed that the company will no longer be supporting Windows Phones.
This news does not come as a surprise to many since the market share of Windows platform is not at all convincing and hence the company decided to discontinue its support and concentrate more on platforms with more market share.
Garmin’s Vivoactive 3 Fitness watch basically lets users monitor key aspects of their fitness levels and let them know how their body responds under various circumstances. The device makes you know about your physical and emotional sources which cause your stress level to rise and it also helps users in letting them know the way to relieve the pressure.
If you are a Vivoactive Fitness 3 user then you would no longer find any of the Windows Phone devices listed on the compatibility list on the company’s website. You would now need to move to any other fitness band like Fitbit to continue enjoying the services.


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Longtime Obee's owner retires, sells sandwich shop after 17 years in Fort Collins
After 17 years, Obee's, 1606 S. Lemay Ave., is under new ownership.
Lou Jerome, who opened the only Obee's store in Fort Collins in 2002, retired and sold the shop to Jeremy and Shari Block in mid-January.
Much like Jerome, who worked in the tech industry before opening Obee's, Jeremy Block worked in corporate sales and Shari worked in social services before deciding to move from Eugene, Oregon — to be closer to family in Iowa — and work for themselves.
"We didn't want to go all the way back to Iowa," Jeremy Block said. They settled on Colorado, where they lived several years ago. "After spending time in Fort Collins, we fell in love with it," he said.
More:Sandwich day poll: What is your favorite Fort Collins sandwich shop?
Jeremy Block ate at Obee's 14 years ago en route to a concert at the Mishawaka Amphitheatre. "I remembered it," he said. When he saw a "for sale" listing for an independent sandwich shop in Fort Collins "I realized it was one of two places and hoped it was Obee's."
The rest, he said, is history.
"Knowing the patronage Lou built is another reason why this was an easy decision for us," Jeremy Block said. "There were myriad positive reviews ... (because) of the hard work and dedication he put into the business."
Block retained all employees and does not plan any major changes to the menu or hours. An interior refresh is on its way, however. Gone are the Jumanji and Trivial Pursuit game boards in favor of local art. And soon, Obee's could add signature salads to its soups and sandwiches.
Obee's has also invested in NoCo Nosh, a local delivery service that launched this week with more than 30 restaurants. Most of its members will transition to the new platform by July.
"We are trying to gravitate away from third-party delivery services that are unsustainable," Block said.
NoCo Nosh got its start after D.P. Dough franchisee Anthony Bartolone solicited the help of Jon Sewell, a fellow D.P. Dough franchisee in Iowa who started a third-party delivery service for local restaurateurs.
As former Iowa residents, the Blocks were familiar with NoCo Nosh's predecessor. "Once approached about it, we were among the first investors," Jeremy Block said. "This is the type of town that wants to support independent, local business."
Pat Ferrier is a senior reporter covering business, health care and growth issues in Northern Colorado. Please support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by subscribing: See Coloradoan.com/subscribe to learn how.


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MADISON Robin Lynn of Joyful Occasion, a shop on Main Street in Madison, joined the Madison Farmers' Market festivities on a recent Thursday with a merry group of vegetable balloons, which were an instant hit with children of all ages.
The Madison Farmers' Market, a project of the Downtown Development Commission (DDC), is continuing from 2 to 7 p.m. each Thursday through October. At the market today, Thursday, Aug. 30, Begum Palace, located in the Madison Plaza on Main Street in Madison, will provide delicacies of India for market-goers to familiarize themselves with flavors ranging from delicate to spicey.
The market today, Aug. 30, will be the final Farmers' Market held at Madison High School off Ridgedale Avenue this year. On Thursday, Sept. 6, the market will move to its fall location at the Madison Community Pool off Rosedale Avenue, and will continue there each Thursday through Oct. 25.
Broccolini's, a Park Avenue restaurant in Madison, will be featured at the market on Sept. 6 at the Community Pool location, and Madison's Rose City Bakery Cafe will continue to offer a variety of pies and baked goods for sale at the market through the fall season.


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As turkey season begins to close in some states and remain open in others, the Mossy Oak crew is still in hot pursuit of turkeys across the country to bring the latest realtime turkey hunting action
OT Sports and Mossy Oak have partnered to add the camouflage patterns of Mossy Oak into professional sports markets for retail opportunities.
Mossy Oak GO, the camouflage brand’s all-new 100% FREE television and mobile digital streaming platform, has shared the latest and greatest Can-Am S3 Powersports “Visions of Victory”
Versacarry® has a new pistol holster that addresses two of the main problems associated with carrying inside the waistband, sharp edges against the wearer and sweat on the firearm.
Howard Communications, Inc. continues to update its popular Online Pressroom Photo Library with new lifestyle images. Lifestyle images from our recent waterfowl photo shoots have been added to…
Can-Am is expanding its popular Defender Farm Test Program, which allows farmers and landowners to personally experience how a Can-Am Defender can help them on their property.
VetCare is proud to partner with Mossy Oak GameKeeper Kennels to offer hunting dogs one of the best in-class products when it comes to speeding up healing process of wounds received in the field.
The Mossy Oak crew is still in hot pursuit of turkeys across the country to bring the latest real-time turkey hunting action.
Mossy Oak GO is now presenting the third short film documenting Fox Haas’ annual spring turkey pursuit in the short film “Mr. Fox’s 72nd Turkey Season.”
Mossy Oak GO is now streaming the latest episodes of “The Obsessed,” featuring founder of Primos Hunting, Will Primos and Mossy Oak’s Ronnie “Cuz” Strickland.
Known for holsters made with premium water buffalo leather, Versacarry has created a double ply construction in the Compound Series with Kydex infused between leather.
From now until June 30, 2019, Can-Am is offering approved agriculture businesses a rebate worth up to $1,500 on select 2019 Can-Am Defender models.
Mossy Oak GO is now streaming the latest episode of “Family Tree,” featuring Chris, Hunter and David Hawley of Mossy Oak.
Honor Defense has introduced an all-new lineup of pistols in Mossy Oak OVERWATCH, the Official Camouflage Pattern of the NRA.
Mossy Oak and Savage are teaming up to give away nine Savage rifles featuring Mossy Oak OVERWATCH, the Official Camouflage Pattern of the NRA.
Panteao Productions, LLC, in conjunction with Nighthawk Custom, is proud to announce a short film on Amazon Prime – Up Close with Sheriff Jim Wilson.
Attendees at the 148th NRA Annual Meetings in Indianapolis, Indiana, will have the opportunity to see the Official Camouflage Pattern of the NRA, Mossy Oak OVERWATCH.
Mossy Oak GO is now streaming “The Disease,” an all-new short film produced by Slate and Glass Productions.
Mossy Oak and American Buffalo Knife and Tool Company have teamed up to bring hunters a trio of new knives with Mossy Oak patterned handles.
Mossy Oak GO is now streaming “HONOR: Omar ‘Crispy’ Avila,” the latest episode of the popular series paying tribute to the American heroes of the United States military and public service.
Mossy Oak GO is now streaming “NRA Country Spotlights,” a brand new series to the free digital streaming platform.
SCI is finalizing arrangements to hold the 2020 Annual Hunters’ Convention February 5-8 in Reno, Nevada, rather than the previously scheduled dates of January 15-18.
Mossy Oak Fishing is excited to congratulate Westin Moss and Josh Willis from Whitwell High School in Whitwell, Tennessee, on their Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Southern Open win at Alabam
Midland USA is pleased to announce the X-Talker T295VP4 Two-Way Radio, offered in Mossy Oak Break-Up Country. The radios are immediately available.
Mossy Oak GO is now streaming “Modern Vintage,” an all-new short film presented by Timney Triggers and produced by Slate and Glass Productions.


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Blue Flamingo, a nonprofit thrift store and program of United Methodist Ministries, celebrated the grand opening of its new Midtown Omaha location on 1909 Leavenworth St. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 13th. The store, a project of the Greater Omaha Chamber’s community development, has recently moved to the Midtown area from its previous South 10th St. location.
Blue Flamingo is Omaha’s largest supplier of Fair Trade items which will be on display alongside its thrift and vintage goods. Store profits are used to support community gardens and neighborhood outreach programs.
For additional information about Blue Flamingo, please call Cydney Franklin, community development manager, Greater Omaha Chamber at (402) 233-7152 or visit their website at www.blueflamingo.org.


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CO2 production resumed
Production of CO2 at CF Industries’ plant in Teesside will be resumed in the next few days, as the government is set to cover full operating costs to run the plant for three weeks. The plant is due to become operational again in three days’ time. CF Industries’ second plant, located in Cheshire, will still remain closed for now.
US-owned CF Industries has recently stopped production of CO2 in two sites that produce 60% of the country’s carbon dioxide supplies due to rising natural gas prices.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the "exceptional short-term arrangement" would ensure industries that rely on a stable supply of CO2 "have the resources they require to avoid disruption".
Meanwhile, Tony Will, chief executive at CF Industries, commented: “We look forward to working with Secretary Kwarteng and the UK government on developing a longer-term solution, including the development of alternative suppliers of CO2 for the UK market.”
The move has been welcomed by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), although Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC said the timetable to restart CF Industries' factory and start producing carbon dioxide "will still be tight".
Potential impact on food supply
A recent rise in natural gas prices in the UK and Europe has caused a shortage of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is used to stun animals before slaughter, prolong food’s shelf life and to put the fizz in beer, cider and soft drinks.
According to the UK’s largest poultry supplier, the current shortage of CO2, coupled with an acute shortage of workers, may impact supplies for some time to come.
The jump in natural gas prices, which comes at a time where winter is at our doorstep and demand for heating increases, has also led to the shutdown of two large fertiliser plants in Teesside and Cheshire that produce CO2 as a by-product.
Prior to yesterday’s announcement, Nick Allen, the head of the meat industry’s lobby group has warned that some of Britain’s meat processing factories may run out of CO2, meaning they will not be able to operate, while the Food and Drink Federation chief executive Ian Wright said CO2 was essential to many production processes and warned there could be "serious consequences" for supplies within a matter of days.
In addition, retailers were also highlighting potential impacts. The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents retailers including the major supermarket groups, said the CO2 crisis added to existing pressures on production and distribution. Andrew Opie, the BRC's director of food and sustainability, said: “Retailers are working with their suppliers to resolve this issue, but government must investigate this issue as soon as possible and work with industry to ensure a solution is found quickly and problems don’t escalate further.”
This is not the first time that natural gas prices have soared. The graph below shows the evolution of natural gas price indices across the last 20 years. Similar, if not higher prices have been observed in 2014, 2008 and 2005.
Issue exacerbated by the already existing shortage of lorry drivers
The shortage of CO2 puts additional pressures onto the food industry, particularly in light of the current shortage of lorry drivers which is already causing food supply issues.
The supply of CO2 has been an issue in the recent past, partly due to poorly planned maintenance routines of plants that produce CO2 for the food industry. There are also concerns that a shortage of agrichemicals may occur in the future, which might compound food supply issues.


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The city of Longview, Texas, is located off Interstate 20, a little over a hundred miles east of Dallas. It’s a city of about 70,000 people, and lately a lot of them have been talking about what’s going on at a local business called Don’s Fly Thru Beer Barn.
You see, Don had a problem. His business requires people to sit in their car and drive through a long, garage-like building where customers can buy beer without getting out of their car. But when the traffic slowed down a bit, people got impatient and left, not buying Don’s beer.
Don must have sat down and thought about what he learned at Disney World. Now those people have a system. If you’ve been there, you know that the stagnant lines for rides and other attractions are made more bearable thanks to television monitors with things to see, and even cartoonists and other acts that distract people in the crowd while they are in line. Disney rule: If you entertain the people in line, they are not so irritable about how long it is taking them.
So Don put in a jacuzzi. A very nice one, from the look of the photos. Then he got some girls in the tub so now the people waiting in line would have someone to talk to. Or at least mind you, if they were shy about that kind of thing.
Now this is strictly a G-rated hot tub, no naked women, just very attractive women in swimsuits, straw hats, and big, friendly smiles. The ladies are known as “Don’s Darlings” and they are causing a stir in the city, as well as improving Don’s business. He says the hot tub trick is making him a lot of money.
A local TV station even posted a video feature on Fly Thru Beer Barn and of course the local newspaper is happy to provide some images.
If you’re interested in seeing Don’s new marketing idea in action, we have links to the hot tub video and images on our website.
Don Talley is the very creative owner of Beer Barn. She says that most of the women are single mothers and she is helping them by offering them honest work. An ad in a local newspaper said it was offering health benefits and even cosmetic surgery. They work eight hours a day, and Don seems to have no problem finding women who are willing to fill the bathtub. And no wonder, how many jobs can you find where you get paid to sit all day in a hot tub in the sun, tanning and flirting with men?
It turns out that sex sells, or at least keeps male customers long enough to buy beer. But this is not a hot tub, no one is naked and is considered quite harmless by most people in the area. You will probably see more skin in a pool.
Always an entrepreneur, Don says that sometimes his Fly Thru Beer Barn clients get a gift too: once a week he gives the women a day off and tends to the bathtub with handsome men.


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The volatility of crypto assets’ values has always been one of the roadblocks for their widespread adoption. To solve this issue, the first stablecoin was born — USD Tether. Soon after, as the reputation of USDT grew in scandals, many new alternatives started emerging in the market. In fact, there are more than 57 new arrivals, according to a recent report by Blockchain.
What exactly are stablecoins and how do they help?
The simplest way to put it is that a stablecoin’s value is pegged to a stable asset, such as US Dollars, Euros, gold, or other assets with stable values. They represent safe heaven for crypto investors’ portfolio holdings in the case of a market crash as we’ve witnessed in the past year. Not all stablecoins are the same, though.
There are various types of stablecoins, depending on what keeps their price stable. The report from Blockchain summarizes them in two main categories — asset-backed and algorithmic. As the name might suggest, the asset-backed stablecoins are mostly centralized and backed by fiat, cryptocurrencies, other stable assets, such as gold and silver. On the other side, algorithmic stablecoins, also known as seigniorage-style, are decentralized by nature and rely on no real-world collateral. Instead, the value of the coin is determined solely by its algorithm.
The fiat-backed stablecoins solve the volatility challenge by pegging one-to-one each coin with a certain amount of some stable asset. An example would be Tether, each USDT is backed by $1 or so they claim. Algorithm-backed cryptocurrencies seek to solve this problem by controlling their money supply through monetary policy. Basically, they rely on the software to adjust the available coin supply on the market, essentially ensure its price remains stable. One could argue that algorithmic stablecoins are technically digital central banks.
USDT: Clouded in mystery
Until recently, the predominant player in the game was USD Tether, initially known as “Realcoin.” As the coin and the company behind it have been in many scandals throughout their short lifespan, people began to ask questions and dig deeper into. After the most recent dispute at nearly $3 billion market cap, Tether’s total supply, and market dominance began to decline as a clear contrast to its competitors’ rising circulating supply. Right now, the market cap of USDT is about $1.8 billion.
Beyond USD Tether: A More Stable Future?
As the dominance of USDT declines, new players enter the game. According to data from The Block, the most used stablecoins after USDT are TrueUSD, USDC, PAX, followed by Gemini Dollar and Dai. While TrueUSD has been around for a while, other more recent coins, such as USDC, issued by Circle, and PAX have grown at a much faster rate.
Unlike Tether, some of these new market entries comply with certain regulations to ensure their safety. Some of the requirements that projects, who have acquired permission from the New York Financial Regulator to launch a stablecoin, such as PAX and Gemini Dollar, will include strict recordkeeping and monitoring as well as adopting “risk-based controls.” These requirements prevent money laundering and various other illicit activities.
Recently, Binance, one of the cryptocurrencies’ biggest exchanges announced they would be creating a new stablecoin market, essentially renaming their USDT section to USD? and adding new stablecoins as base pairs for trading. One of the platform’s newest entries is namely PAX.


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CNET Networks’ Q2 revenues came in at $58.4 million, a two percent increase compared to revenues of $57.2 million in the year-ago period. Operating loss was $9.8 million, versus an operating loss of $35.1 million; net loss was $11.6 million, compared to a net loss of $25.8 million, in the year-ago quarter.
In other news, Art Fatum, chief corporate officer, will be leaving the company at the end of July. His responsibilities will be distributed among other members of the executive team.
Conference call: CEO Shelby Bonnie claims they are the biggest original content publisher on the Internet..”Trends in advertising are good, but build up is slow…corporate news sector (for us, CNET News.com, TechRepublic etc) remains slow…we are going very aggressively for the consumer electronics sector.”
Shelby is playing up the editorial…”we will focus on proprietary content. That builds barrier to entry.”
GameSpot: We made two small acquisitions for it…we are seeing good traction on advertising side for it. For our premium GameSpot Complete subscription service: 53.5 thousand subscribers in Q1, rose to 58.4 thousand subscribers in Q2. [this was the first renewal cycle...]
Marketing campaign: CNET is going to go for a marketing campaign for the second half of this year, more aimed at consumers…”we have an ability to grow some share in consumer electronics: what to buy side of things”.
Internationally, UK is going strong and contributed significantly in the $2 million international revenues in Q2. We also launched operations in Japan and Korea. Asian countries are doing well…all of them are profitable. France and Germany remain sluggish, but we are doing re-structuring of those operations.


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Department of Health sponsors The Simpsons in Change4Life initiative
By Matt Williams, campaignlive.co.uk, Monday, 05 October 2009 10:30AM
LONDON - The Department of Health has agreed a deal with Channel 4 to sponsor The Simpsons, as part of its £75 million Change4Life initiative, which aims to reduce obesity in the UK.
View all eight Simpsons idents, plus credits
Created by M&C Saatchi, the idents will see the Aardman Animations-created Change4Life characters recreating the familiar image of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie sitting on the sofa at the beginning of each episode of The Simpsons.
The characters will at first be eating junk-food snacks including pizza and ice-cream, but these items will then disappear and be replaced with healthier alternatives such as fruit and vegetables.
The ads, which cost around £640,000, will be screened for the first time tonight, and will continue to run until Christmas Day.
The sponsorship deal was brokered by Manning Gottlieb OMD.
Earlier this year, the communications regulator Ofcom ruled that Domino's Pizza's sponsorship of The Simpsons breached the broadcasting code because it advertised junk food to children.
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
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Businesses across the East of England, including Herts, are being invited to sign up for an international matchmaking event in the Czech Republic in April.
Enterprise Europe Network and UKTI are organising a visit to Brno where delegates can visit an international trade fair, take part in pre-arranged business-to-business meetings and attend a networking reception organised by Brno Chamber of Commerce.
EEN European trade advisor, Mark Hofman, said: “The Czech Republic is one of the UK’s largest European export markets, with sales of goods reaching £1.75 billion last year. Every year this event draws around 800 delegates from the Czech Republic and beyond, we hope this visit will help local companies build their contacts in one of central Europe’s most prosperous and highly developed economies.”
The delegation will travel to Brno Building Fair, a global event covering the building industry. A Timber Construction Fair is also being held. Phone Mark Hofman on 01707 398069 or email firstname.lastname@example.org


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We’re thrilled to land this spot during the most-watched sporting event of the year.
New York (PRWEB) January 25, 2017
It’s a 10 Haircare, the go-to hair care brand for salon professionals and clients across the globe, has announced that the company’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial will air during Super Bowl LI on Sunday, February 5th. Slotted into a coveted spot during this milestone 51st matchup, the ad will take the game’s commercial break to the next level.
Owned by renowned hair stylist and entrepreneur Carolyn Aronson, It’s a 10 Haircare is the first privately owned, professional hair care company to lock in a prime-time Super Bowl ad spot. Simultaneously, Carolyn and her husband, Jeff Aronson, are the first and only couple to launch two Super Bowl ads independently of one another, for their own respective companies. Jeff Aronson, founder and former CEO of Cash4Gold, aired an infamous Super Bowl commercial for the brand featuring MC Hammer and Ed McMahon in 2009. The spot was one of the Top 10 Most Recalled Super Bowl ads according to Nielsen IAG data, and was described by AdAge as an ad that “will generate, by far, the biggest ROI of the Super Bowl.”
The commercial will creatively showcase It’s a 10 Haircare’s core philosophy and also promote its expansion into the male hair care category. The brand is currently launching the new “He’s a 10” Collection, a high-performance grooming line of multi-tasking products offering immediate results.
“We’re thrilled to land this spot during the most-watched sporting event of the year,” said Carolyn Aronson, Founder and CEO of It’s a 10 Haircare. “There is no better way to reach a captive audience of men and women, not to mention their hair stylists and barbers, simultaneously. At It’s a 10 Haircare, our products are for all hair types and create instant miracle results, exceeding industry norms and consumer expectations. This commercial will do the same, and we can’t wait for the world to see it.”
It’s a 10 Haircare has enlisted the expertise of Havas Edge and Hungry Man Productions to produce the commercial, a dream team responsible for some of the most memorable Super Bowl ads from companies like GoDaddy, Anheuser-Busch and Cash4Gold. The spot will be directed by Oscar-nominated Bryan Buckley, dubbed the “King of the Super Bowl” by The New York Times.
For media opportunities and interviews requests for Carolyn Aronson, please contact Itsa10(at)5wpr(dot)com
About It’s a 10 Haircare:
It's a 10 Haircare is an established, professional hair care line offering exceptional multipurpose products via salons and beauty supply stores worldwide. As one of the only female-owned professional hair care brands in the world, It’s a 10 Haircare is dedicated to providing customers with the best hair experience possible. It’s a 10 Haircare’s collections include exceptional 10-in-1 multi-purpose products perfected and simplified to one unique lineup, providing solutions to all possible hair care needs.


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Dolce & Gabbana will open its first North Texas store at NorthPark Center, the shopping destination announced on its Instagram account.
Kristen Gibbens, NorthPark’s executive director of marketing and strategy, told People Newspapers that the shopping center is under a lease agreement with the boutique, which is scheduled to open in the fall. No other updates were available, she said in an email.
The opening, though, has had its fair share of controversy following the announcement on social media. Concerns arose due to some questions about the brand’s recently being accused of leaked racists commentary and body-shaming.
According to a Dallas Morning News blog post (click here to read the whole story), NorthPark’s marketing coordinator said “given the feedback” the mall was going to address the issues raised with the brand.
NorthPark said the following before removing the post:
“While NorthPark Center is first and foremost a shopping center, we aim to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment for all visitors. Our core values as a company are separate and not based in those of our tenants. We hear your feedback and look to Dolce & Gabbana to address the concerns surrounding their brand.”
Per the photo posted, it appears the location would have been in the former Williams-Sonoma store between Tiffany & Co. and David Yurman and near Neiman Marcus.


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The Samsung Galaxy F62 smartphone launch date has come out.
The company can launch this smartphone on 15 February. Know what is the specifications and features of the Samsung Galaxy F62 smartphone.
The launch date of the Samsung Galaxy F62 smartphone has come out. This smartphone will be launched in the Indian market on 15 February.
The phone will be available on the e-commerce platform Flipkart .com, where it has been listed. The official picture of the smartphone has also been revealed, which raises the curtain from its design.
Several features of the Samsung Galaxy F62 listed on Flipkart have also been revealed. The device will launch with a quad rear camera setup. Also Read – Flipkart is offering many opportunities to buy POCO M3 today
The smartphone has a small punch hole, which is present in the center. We will get to see the flagship processor in the Samsung Galaxy F62 smartphone.
The company will be given Exynos 9825 processor in it, which was seen in the company’s flagship smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series.
That is, this phone is going to come in the mid-range budget with the flagship specifications.
This smartphone has been spotted on many certification sites including BIS. According to the reports, this smartphone can come with a 7,000mAh battery.
Additionally, the 6.67-inch AMOLED display can be found on the device. The smartphone will come with the flagship Exynos 9825 processor, which is confirmed.
This processor was also seen in Galaxy Note 10.
The smartphone can have 6GB RAM + 128GB storage option. On the rear side, we can find a quad rear camera setup, whose main camera sensor can be 64MP.
Apart from this, 13MP ultra wide-angle sensor and 5MP other sensors can be given in the phone. At the same time, a 32MP camera can be given in the front.


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Drastic Price Increment Of Cement Bag To Be Initiated By Next Week. Check Out New Price Tag
According to Joy Business News, the increase is due to the weakening of the Ghana cedi, recent increases in transportation costs, and the Russian-Ukraine war, which has affected logistics and the transport of some raw materials from overseas for local manufacture.
According to information received, the price of a 50-kilo bag of cement is likely to climb from 45 Ghana cedis to 55 Ghana cedis.
In the short term, the development may have an impact on house prices and the personal budgets of many people who are now constructing homes in the country.
Recently, manufacturers pressed the government to reconsider input taxes and port fees
They hoped it would help the situation, especially last year.
The administration, on the other hand, paid no heed to this. These producers believed that by forgiving some of these port fees, the recent price hikes would be mitigated