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Florida businesses may see a reduction in serial lawsuits brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the wake of a ruling by a federal appeals court last month, legal observers told the Florida Record.
The decision, handed down on Jan. 27, also sparked a call from business associations to the Federal Communication Commission to clarify its definition of an auto-dialer.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled in favor of Hilton Grand Vacations Co. and another defendant in a decision that strictly limited the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) within the scope of the TCPA. The U.S. Ninth Circuit, in contrast, has interpreted the TCPA to apply to a broader range of technology, and this has opened the door to multimillion-dollar legal actions on behalf of plaintiffs.
| Wikimedia Commons
The original 1991 legislation aimed to protect consumers from scammers and robocall abuses, according to business groups, but the TCPA’s reach has been expanded to legitimate businesses that simply want to send important communications to clients using stored phone numbers.
In the cases just decided by the 11th Circuit, the defendants making the unsolicited calls to plaintiffs were not using ATDS systems, according to the new definition.
“Because neither phone system used randomly or sequentially generated numbers and because the phone system in (plaintiff Melanie) Glasser's appeal required human intervention and thus was not an auto-dialer, the Act does not cover them,” Justice Jeffrey Sutton wrote.
Attorneys involved in the 11th Circuit case did not respond to the Record’s requests for comment.
Samantha Duke, an attorney with Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell P.A., in Orlando, said the 11th Circuit ruling would be good for businesses in the state.
“Up to this point, there was a lot of uncertainty as to how the 11th Circuit may rule with decisions from other Circuit Courts of Appeal being cited in favor of each side,” Duke told the Record. “But now, with the 11th Circuit weighing in, Florida businesses who are sued in a Florida, Georgia or Alabama federal court will have certainty that an auto-dialer only includes equipment that uses randomly or sequentially generated phone numbers.”
Florida businesses that communicate with clients using equipment that selects from a pre-existing list of contacts will no longer face risks of violating the TCPA, according to the latest decision, she said.
“That is, unless or until the U.S. Supreme Court of the FCC weighs in,” Duke said.
Becca Wahlquist, a partner with Snell & Wilmer LLP in Los Angeles, has also closely followed TCPA litigation.
“If you’re a Florida-based company and you’ve been facing this litigation or threats of litigation, this is going to be a helpful decision if you're making the kinds of calls that are targeting customers,” Wahlquist told the Record.
People can become understandably upset if their cell phones are being spammed with random calls, but many of the TCPA lawsuits involve transactional calls designed to relay important information to clients, she said.
“Ninety-five percent of my clients right now aren’t involved in marketing at all,” Wahlquist said. “It’s transactional messaging, and they’re getting sued for massive amounts of money.”
The current split between the 11th Circuit and the Ninth Circuit – the latter interpreted the TCPA’s language to apply to modern business equipment that wasn’t even around in 1991 – creates uncertainty for businesses, Wahlquist said.
“As businesses, we don’t know the definition of something that, if you’re using it, could be hundreds of millions of dollars in liability,” she said.
Businesses still need to be on alert despite the 11th Circuit ruling, Wahlquist said.
“This is something that hits all businesses,” she said. “It’s just not banks or collection agencies or travel. I can't think of a kind of business that hasn't been sued.”
In the wake of the 11th Circuit decision, a group of business associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, Consumer Bankers Association and the National Retail Federation, sent a letter to the FCC urging the agency to update its definition of an ATDS. The District of Columbia Circuit Court rejected the FCC’s previous definition in 2018.
“Consumers are harmed when they do not receive time-critical, non-telemarketing communications from health care providers, pharmacies, grocers, retailers, utility companies, banks, credit unions and other financial services providers because the business is discouraged from placing the call due to litigation risk,” the letter states.
Over the past 14 months, 3,000 TCPA lawsuits have been filed, with an average settlement cost of $6.6 million, an amount that can bankrupt a small business, according to the business groups’ letter.
The Florida Record is owned by the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform.


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L.A. Burgers Invade New York as Economy Rebounds: Retail
One of Nazarian’s Umami Burger restaurants will open this year in Manhattan, part of a national expansion of the Los Angeles chain. The chief executive officer of SBE Entertainment Group LLC ... cracking the New York market is never easy ...
GE Capital, Franchise Finance Provides $30 Million To Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen Franchisee, Shelton Restaurant Group, LLC
GE Capital, Franchise Finance provided a $30 million credit facility to Shelton Restaurant Group, LLC, a Popeyes ® Louisiana Kitchen franchisee. The financing is being used to acquire 29 Popeyes units in the Lafayette, Louisiana area.
Ex-Investment Adviser Allen to Plead Guilty, Lawyer Says
Scott Allen, a former investment adviser from Atlanta, will plead guilty today before U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts in New York, his lawyer said. Allen, who prosecutors said worked at Mercer LLC ... tips and reaped $1.1 million in profits.
ParknPool Builds New $1 Million "Green" Operations Center
restaurant furniture and much more. After spending the last five years in a 1,500 square foot office (where everyone was thankful to be such close friends!), the employees are thrilled at the space and beauty of the new 5,000 square foot facility.
While at Work or at Home, Fans Look to New Methods for Following the 2012 NCAA Tournament
There is an unsurprising rise in popularity of fast food restaurants during March Madness ... "Perfect March Madness bracket are 1 in 9223372036854775808." A blogger further adds that a New Jersey lottery worth a $12 million jackpot has 1 in 728 million ...

domain: news


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Tesla’s issues with faulty production and inconsistent quality extend outside the U.S. market: As first reported by Bloomberg, the automaker is set to recall close to 30,000 of its imported Model S and Model X cars from China, citing problems surrounding the vehicle’s suspension systems.
Per a statement from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation—a relatively new and broadly empowered agency with functions similar to the SEC, CFTC, FDA, and USPTO in the United States—Tesla’s Beijing branch issued recalls for 29,193 Model X or Model S cars made between September 17th, 2013 and January 15th, 2018. The vehicles built during that roughly four-and-a-half year window may have rolled off the factory line with major suspension defects.
Gizmodo staffer Sam Rutherford helped in translating the agency’s statement, which seems to state that the first issue concerns a connecting rod in the vehicle’s rear suspension, which are prone to warping or snapping off. The second potential problem involves the front suspension, which apparently had issues with ball studs developing small cracks that would cleave them apart overtime.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Tesla recall its vehicles from China. In 2018, the company pulled close to 9,000 Model S vehicles to replace faulty bolts in their steering components. A year later, it recalled more than 14,000 Model S cars as part of an auto-industry-wide crackdown on faulty airbags. Then this past February, it issued another recall of more than three thousand Model X cars, citing problems with steering that could result in a deadly crash.
Aside from those hiccups, Tesla’s track record in China has also included two of its imported Model S vehicles mysteriously exploding while parked—though this was later chocked up to a faulty battery module in the cars involved, rather than a system-wide issue for the line.
On the bright side, the Shanghai Gigafactory that Tesla debuted near the end of last year is still cranking along. Even though it’s only producing the Model 3 locally right now, these cars quickly became the number one pick for consumers across the country looking to pick up an electric vehicle.
We’ve reached out to Tesla about the Market Regulation order, and will update this piece when we hear back, although the likeliness of hearing from the former is effectively zero since the company dissolved its entire PR team.


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- Apple unveiled a new iPad Pro at its event in Brooklyn on Tuesday – and a new Apple Pencil stylus to go with it.
- The new devices fix the worst thing about the previous-generation products: the way the Pencil charged.
- Now, the Pencil charges wirelessly by snapping onto the top of the iPad. Before, you had to plug it into the iPad’s Lightning port, where it would stick out awkwardly.
The new iPad Pro has an entirely new design, including squared-off edges and a nearly edge-to-edge “liquid retina” display. But perhaps one of the niftiest changes comes in how it charges the Apple Pencil.
Now, your Pencil can snap on magnetically to the top of your iPad and charge up wirelessly, like so:
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) October 30, 2018
This is a total change from how the Pencil used to charge. The first-generation Pencil could only charge up one way: by removing the cap on the top and plugging it directly into the Lightning port on your iPad, where it would stick out awkwardly.
It looked like this:
While that charging method was a good idea in theory – you didn’t need a separate charger for your Pencil! – it clearly had some limitations.
If you brushed past the device too quickly while it was charging, the Pencil could potentially snap off, breaking the Lightning charger. Or worse, if left on the edge of a table, a little one walking by could have been poked with the pointy end of the Pencil.
At the very least, it was incredibly unwieldy, and looked a little silly to boot – not unlike Apple’s Magic Mouse 2, which faces a similar issue.
The new second-generation Pencil fixes one more issue: you have to worry less about losing the Pencil anymore. Before, there was no easy way to keep track of the Pencil unless you had a special iPad case, and its totally smooth, cylindrical shape meant it was often at risk for rolling right off your desk. Now that it has one flat edge and it’s magnetized, you can snap it onto your iPad and put the whole thing in your bag.
A pricier Pencil
The only downside: the new Pencil is more expensive, and it only works with a few iPads. The Pencil costs $US129, $US30 more than the previous model, and it only works with the new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
What’s different about the new version – beyond a tweak to the design and the wireless charging – is the ability to double tap on the device to change tools or brush sizes in whatever program you’re using, and tap to wake it up. Plus, you can now get your Pencil engraved.
While Apple now offers a new version of the Pencil, it does still sell the first-generation model – it costs $US99, and it’s compatible with the following iPads:
- iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation)
- iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation)
- iPad Pro 10.5-inch
- iPad Pro 9.7-inch
- iPad (6th generation)
Read more of our coverage from Apple’s October event:
- Apple just announced a brand-new MacBook Air
- Apple CEO Tim Cook says the iPad is ‘the most popular computer in the world’
- Apple will launch its new Mac Mini on November 7, starting at $US799
- Apple’s new iPad Pro features a new design that ditches the home button for Face ID
- After being delayed for a month, FaceTime will now support video chats with up to 32 people, as well as filters and animoji
- None of Apple’s latest laptops come with regular USB ports
- Here at the top 5 things Apple just announced at its October launch event
- Apple has a metallurgy team that’s discovered a new way to make its MacBook Air from 100% recycled aluminium
- It’s easier to plug Google’s Pixel 3 smartphones into Apple’s latest laptops than it is to plug in an iPhone
- Hands-on with Apple’s new redesigned MacBook Air: This could be the laptop that Apple fans have been waiting for


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KILLEEN — As Staff Sgt. Maritess Keys’ two children approach their preteen and teenage years, she has amassed piles of used clothing and toys. She initially planned to send them to her family in the Philippines, but mailing costs were expensive.
“I thought, ‘What am I going to do? I feel terrible throwing them away,’” Keys said.
Keys found a home for the items when she took over a friend’s thrift store May 1. After returning to Fort Hood from Germany on July 23, Maritess and her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Steve Keys, opened Ganda’s Thrift Store and More at 1184 Kathey Drive, Suite No. 200, in Killeen beside popular lunch hangout Petty’s BBQ.
Ganda’s offers name-brand clothes for men, women and children, in addition to fashion handbags, shoes, books, toys, home decor and more.
“These are good, quality clothes,” Maritess Keys said. “We don’t want customers’ stains.”
The store’s name comes from the Filipino word for “beautiful.” The owners are seeking to challenge the stigma that thrift stores mean worn, secondhand merchandise.
“We’re trying to challenge the perception that secondhand means dirty,” Steve Keys said. “That’s what we want to get away from.”
But “name brand” is not synonymous with “expensive” at Ganda’s, as the couple aims to keep prices reasonable. A “free bin” sits near the counter at the front of the store, and for every purchase of $10 or more, customers can take three items.
“Once I was a young private that didn’t have anything,” Steve Keys said. “Now, as (noncommissioned officers), we see 19-year-old soldiers married with babies. We want them to come in here and not break the bank.”
After 19 years in the Army, Steve Keys plans to retire soon. Maritess Keys intended to end her six-year career in November until she unexpectedly received a promotion. But even once they’re out of uniform, the couple — who live in Copperas Cove — plan to stay in Central Texas.
“Hopefully the store will grow bigger,” Steve Keys said. “This is where we’re going to hang our hats.”


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South Africa is planning to introduce regulations on cryptocurrency after it had initially denied any involvement in this matter.
From now on, crypto is going to be considered a financial asset in South Africa, as said by Kuben Naidoo, deputy governor of SARB (South African Reserve Bank).
Sean Anders, CEO of internet platform Revix, said South Africa has been very slow in regulating the crypto industry.
💥JUST IN: South Africa Reserve Bank to bring #Bitcoin and crypto into mainstream with supportive regulation.
— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) July 13, 2022
South Africa has a history of Ponzi schemes
The company, called Mirror Trading Investments, embezzled over 23,000 bitcoins from the investors. The CEO of the company is rumored to have fled to Brazil.
Due to this, South Africa’s financial sector conduct authority (FSCA) is preparing a crypto regulatory framework. The framework will specify how the cryptocurrencies will be traded.
The commissioner of FSCA, Unathi Kamlana, says that they want to minimize investors’ risks as crypto is a very new and volatile asset class.
The regulations will come into effect in early 2022, but are brought forward now due to many scams. One such scam was done by a fraud investment firm, Africrypt, which disappeared with $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin.
South Africa wants to support crypto coming to the mainstream
Naidoo urged institutions to not ban cryptos as this space is full of good as well as bad apples. Blockchain technology has the potential to improve the way money is transferred around the world if it is used in the right way.
Naidoo has also assured us that these frameworks will put an end to Ponzi schemes, money laundering, and terrorist financing activities.
As the incorporation of cryptocurrency into traditional sectors becomes more widely accepted around the world, nations will have to look for ways to handle them carefully.


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Facebook can’t catch a break, remaining in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week, unable to hide behind its new name.
The social media giant that now goes by Meta has been accused of lying, and continuing to target advertising using their personal data, and prioritising profits over the wellbeing of children.
This appears to contradict the company’s announcement that it would limit how advertisers reach kids in an apparent bid to be a better corporate citizen.
A new report produced in Australia this week suggests that the social media behemoth has been targeting children for their perceived commercial vulnerabilities.
This includes collecting information and data on children such as browsing history, mood, insecurities, peer interests and more.
The research shows conversion APIs including Facebook Pixel and app SPK – two core machine learning tools in Facebook’s ad delivery system armoury – are still active on teens’ accounts.
This means they still receive advertising personalised to their interests.
The research has been led by Elena Yi-Ching Ho and Dr Rys Farthing of Reset Australia, an organisation that works to counter digital threats to democracy as part of a global initiative.
Leave them kids alone
It polled 400 young people aged 16-17 across the nation, which found that 82 per cent of young people have been served ads so targeted to them that it made them feel uncomfortable.
It also found that 67 per cent of teens want a complete ban on this sort of surveillance advertising.
Reset Australia first revealed that Facebook was allowing advertising to target young people on age inappropriate issues back in April this year.
This included ads for gambling, extreme weight loss, alcohol and smoking.
Facebook subsequently announced that it would stop the practice, instead adopting a more precautionary approach after listening to advocates for young people.
But research published this week accuses Facebook of lying, saying it has not limited its use of surveillance advertising to teens.
Facebook is simply allowing their AI to target teens, using all the same personal data.
“This is hardly a precautionary approach to advertising for children. Instead, it means the most private, intimate details of young people are still being harvested to fuel Facebook’s intrusive advertising system.
“All they’ve changed is the user facing interface for advertisers, but not changed their system at all,” Dr Farthing, director of data policy for Reset Australia said.
“The only thing that has changed is that advertisers themselves are no longer able to specify that they want to target children interested in weight loss, for example, but Facebook’s AI will do that for them,” he said.
The new research comes after the federal government’s privacy review announced plans for an industry-drafted code that better protects children’s data rights.
Reset Australia says it’s clear Facebook can’t be trusted to help draft a code which puts children’s interests’ first.
Data-driven advertising can be more misleading for children than traditional advertising and can increase commercial pressures leading to consumerism, disappointment and parent-child conflict, Reset Australia says.
“Given the power of their AI, this may actually be worst for children. For example, if you’re an energy drinks company wanting to target stressed out students, you can’t ask Facebook explicitly to find them, but you can trust their AI ad delivery system will,” Dr Farthing says.
The fact is that the result will be precisely the same, and Facebook knows this, he says.
The advocacy group is calling on Facebook to go on the record to end surveillance advertising.
It points out that multiple organisations around the world have passed regulations, or are in the process of enacting them, to address this.
Reset Australia accuses Facebook of putting its own interests first, saying the company is unable to act in children’s best interests.


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10:48 | 09/08/2018 Society
(VEN) - As of the end of June, the consumer price index (CPI) almost reached the four-percent growth limit set by the national assembly for 2018. Economists say efficient price management is the only solution to control CPI growth.
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), the CPI grew at an average monthly rate of 0.37 percent in the first half of this year, much higher than the 0.03 percent growth in the first half of 2017. The CPI rose 2.65 percent in January and 4.67 percent in June, the highest level over the past seven years. The CPI in the first half of 2018 increased 3.29 percent over the same period last year.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Domestic Market Department, after it bottomed in 2017, pork prices increased in January and February, and dropped slightly in March. They then rose sharply in April and May, as many livestock breeding households stopped pig farming, leaving big farms to supply most of the market needs. The increased pork price contributed to higher food costs, which in turn raised the CPI. In addition, the price of petrol, oil and health services increased the CPI.
At a recent seminar, Associate Professor, economist Dr. Ngo Tri Long said the CPI is likely to peak in July and fall below four percent or even three percent in the last several months of this year. If the price of health services is kept unchanged from now to yearend, the CPI will not rise too high, Long said.
It is necessary to review and balance supply and demand of such commodities as petroleum, food and pork, and properly use price stabilization funds to ensure market stability, Long said.
At a regular meeting of the Domestic Market Management Team in June, Nguyen Loc An, Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade will work with the Ministry of Finance to manage petrol and oil prices in the domestic market on a flexible basis. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue to review the state of various pork sources in order to take the initiative in preventing product shortages and price increases.
At an online national conference on the first half’s socioeconomic situation and tasks for the second half of the year,
Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said commodity and service prices must be monitored until the
end of the year. The state should also ensure stability and efficient management of prices fixed by the state, prevent
an increase in electricity prices, and only adjust educational and medical service prices if absolutely necessary.


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Part 28 & 29 of our BattleTanx: Global Assault playthrough feature me trying to destroy the Storm Ravens as they're flying in supplies and destroying rockets before they can be aimed at North America!
The next 3 parts in our BattleTanx: Global Assault playthrough features a lot of rescuing and a bit of escort duty as we get deeper into the story!
A look at 3D Realms new "classic" game
A reimagining of 5 disappointing video games and the masterpieces they could have been underneath other studios.
How EA's recent success and failures may be shaping the future of gaming for the better.
Today, Ubisoft announced that Bloodline, the final episode of the first post-launch story arc of Assassin’s Creed® Odyssey Legacy of the First Blade, is now available on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, the Xbox One family of devices including Xbox One X and Windows PC.


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The concept of innovation is often misunderstood. Cameron Cooper surveys some successful exporters who understand it is not just radical invention but a carefully planned culture that permeates the whole company.
Suzie Wright is proud of her export company’s $5 million state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at Yatala on the Gold Coast. Not just because of the scale of the investment, but for what it says about her company’s management focus.
"As owners we don’t rape and pillage the business," says Wright, CEO of Digga Australia, a leading manufacturer of construction and earthmoving attachments.
"Where a lot of businesses go wrong is, they want a return on their investment too fast. They want to take their profits out. Well, we use the profits to expand the business."
Digga is regarded as one of Australia’s more innovative exporters, a status that has not come cheaply. The Yatala plant aside, Wright and her management team have injected millions of dollars into new technology and the company has a dedicated R&D (research and development) division that "looks like a CSI lab". Such spending, Wright says, is crucial to create an innovative, world-class business that exports to more than 50 countries. International sales represent about 22 percent of the business, including annual delivery of about $3.5 million worth of gearboxes to the US.
Since its launch in 1981, Digga has grown from a one-person operation into a company with 135 staff, and the commitment to R&D has never wavered. It’s paying off: Digga’s patented Swing Control System, a safety initiative that stabilises drilling machinery during operation, has won an Australian Design Award and export growth has been rapid over the past decade.
Product development is not the only obsession. To be effective, Wright says, a culture of innovation must encompass the entire business. "You must be innovative in the way you approach your management style. You’ve got to be able to create synergy between everything that makes the business tick."
Over the years, Australian companies have exported many winning concepts—penicillin, bionic ears, and the black-box flight recorder system among them. Innovation, however, is about more than products and services. There is a growing awareness that strategies around entrepreneurship, labour management, marketing, financial planning, and customer development, build the platform for success.
Tim Harcourt, chief economist at Austrade, believes exporters by their very nature are an inventive lot who use their creative power to take on world markets. "They are naturally into design and creativity and trying new things," he says. "They are under more competitive pressure perhaps than somebody who is in a closed sector."
Harcourt says exporters must understand business lead times and treat international growth as a long-term game—"not something that you do quickly and pull out of".
Exporters have a long-term commitment, he says, and that supports a type of organisation that is into innovation because they are prepared to wait for the benefits.
A survey of Australian exporters by logistics giant DHL shows that nine in 10 businesses regard innovation as the key to survival. Harcourt adds that most economists agree that international competitiveness depends on using innovation and R&D to raise productivity. "I don’t think anyone in Australia now advocates a low labour cost approach to international competitiveness."
ANCA, a Melbourne-based designer and manufacturer of high-precision grinding tools, has had a vision from day one to be an international leader. General manager, Linsey Siede, says the company’s founders, Pat Boland and Pat McCluskey, have always equated innovation with being at the forefront of international trends.
"It’s absolutely critical if companies are to remain here in Australia, they have to be globally competitive, and if you are globally competitive it is fairly easy to export," he says. "So, to me the objective is not to export, it is to be globally competitive—you have to do that to survive."
Founded in 1974, ANCA has delivered exports worth about $500 million over the past six years and is number one in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Asia-Pacific region, for Computer Numerical Control tools and cutter grinders. Exports account for more than 98 percent of sales.
Siede, too, is an advocate of R&D expenditure, saying it is imperative if Australian manufacturers are to compete internationally. ANCA injects about 7 percent of sales revenue back into R&D, a proportion that ranks among the highest in the country based on a Melbourne University R&D scoreboard.
Reflecting on the Bayswater North company, which has more than 300 employees and offices in major cities around the world, Siede agrees that a culture of innovation is required across an organisation. "It can only happen with a team-based approach," he says. "I think the autocratic manner of management is long gone."
There has been a line of argument, pushed by the Australian Business Foundation think-tank among others, that Australia has a historically poor record of commercialising its research. John Steen, a lecturer in strategic management at the University of Queensland Business School, has no doubt that Australia has a very "old view" of innovation and says it is vital that businesses move forward. "The language of innovation equates to invention, with the inventor being an isolated character," he says. "What we tend to forget in transforming invention into innovation is that there has to be a business model built around the innovation."
Steen says a recent preoccupation in Australia with all things hi-tech or biotech has confused what is required to be an innovative international exporter: great science, experienced management, and a robust business model.
He cites three examples of clever Australian exporters: Plantic, a producer of biodegradable trays for chocolate boxes; Predrill Stresses International, which provides deep-drilling solutions for international mining companies; and Optalert, a drowsiness detection technology for airforce pilots and truck and train drivers.
A common denominator with these businesses, Steen says, is that the products evolved from dedicated research over a long period.
"Sometimes these things look like they are instantaneous magic innovations but if you look at them carefully you’ll see they’ve been built up after decades of research, and the business model is built around that."
Steen adds that while companies fear the cost of R&D, the price of taking the easy route is usually much higher. "Innovation is risky and managing innovation is hard, but the risk of not innovating is huge because we are in an internationally open economy and if we don’t make progress we’ll be caught with yesterday’s products and services."
The lure of cost-cutting has convinced many companies to outsource or go offshore to find cheaper production options. While ANCA understands the motivation, it believes innovation and offshoring should go hand-in-hand.
"We’re looking for smart ways to do it rather than just outsourcing or offshoring to reduce costs," says Siede.
ANCA has set up a plant in an industrial estate in Rayong province, Thailand, as part of a strategy to improve its overall o
perations, not just to cut costs. It has moved its high-labour, low-skill area of assembly to Rayong while upskilling its Bayswater employees to fill talent gaps.
Siede says the upshot is that Australian and Thai staff are happy with their jobs and productivity has more than doubled in the past two to three years. China is also part of the equation. ANCA opted to open a Shanghai office about three years ago. It is now the number one supplier of grinding machine components to China.
For its efforts, ANCA won three export awards last year, including the 2006 Victorian Exporter of the Year title and the gong for innovation excellence.
Siede says businesses must focus on the use of technology and innovation to help product development and customers. "Without the customers you’ve got no business, and if you haven’t got a product that is cost competitive then you’ve really got nothing."
Flexibility is also crucial. ANCA has broadened the target market for its high-precision grinders to cover sectors such as general manufacturing, defence, pharmaceutical, medical, and woodworking.
Siede says the move came in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US after which "our business really fell in a hole" because it relied too much on automotive, aerospace, and aeronautical business. "If another September 11, god help us, does happen, then our business is well placed."
On the back of its resources boom, Western Australia is an example of how businesses can bring new solutions to old concepts. Peter Viney, deputy director general of the Department of Industry and Resources, Office of Science, Technology and Innovation, notes that state exports exceed $50 billion and exports per capita are approaching $30,000, well above other states.
He says creative SMEs are connecting with government and big business to improve their operations and target export opportunities. In particular, Viney says smaller businesses are benefiting from dealing with the big miners such as Rio Tinto, Woodside, and BHP Billiton, which have huge operations in the west.
"They definitely see innovation as a key driver of their competitive advantage. If they get that wrong, they’ll be in big trouble. They have to get it right, and they understand that and invest enormously."
Viney says the role for SMEs in the resources export business is clearly acknowledged by the big corporations. "Part of their strategy is clearly to engage with the SME community that can support their operations and sustain their competitive position—not just this year, not just next year, but in 10 years’ time."
At Digga, Suzie Wright is also a benefactor of construction and mining growth.
While business is driven by an innovative culture and market booms, she says Digga gets the basics right too. That means engaging with and training staff, ensuring internal systems are efficient, and focusing on the customer.
"We’re trying to take a different approach and I think it’s something that our country lacks enormously—service," Wright says. "Instead of trying to go down the route of having the cheapest possible product on the market, we’ve got an innovative and very competitively priced product, and I don’t think anybody else can provide the sort of service that we do for our customers."


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The Game Fanatics is a gaming and geek culture blog, and we write about video games with a fanatical passion. Everything from gaming news, video game reviews, to eSports news and coverage as well as VR news. We’re always on the lookout for the best gaming deals to share with our readers as well – Black Friday deals, blowout specials, you name it. We love deals just as much as our readers do!
The Dark Souls franchise has been a booming success for From Software, both critically and commercially, amassing more than 8 million copies sold since 2015.
This morning, during the Pokemon Direct, Nintendo has officially announced the eighth generation of Pokemon, to be named “Sword and Shield,” for the Switch. It
Kingdom Hearts 3, Apex Legends, Overwatch, and other games are becoming really hard to put down. While there’s nothing wrong with have a marathon session
The release of Crackdown 3 is finally upon us and while we are happy, we are also cautious. The game has been in development for
This week we have to address the sexual harassment claims against voice actor Vic Mignogna.


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Take-Two Interactive’s Private Division publishing label has announced it will be working with Pokémon franchise creators Game Freak.
The pair will team up on a brand-new action-adventure IP currently going by the codename Project Bloom. Although few other details have been shared about the upcoming game, a piece of concept art for the title (as seen above) has been shown publicly, and it makes Project Bloom seem very different from other non-Pokémon titles the game studio has put out in the past, including the likes of Drill Dozer, Pulseman, HarmoKnight and Tembo the Badass Elephant.
Game Freak is made up of two internal teams, and regularly has developers on Game Freak Production Team 1 take part in an initiative called the Gear Project, where they can work on original ideas and new intellectual properties. The most recent of these games to release was a role-playing video game named Little Town Hero for the Nintendo Switch and PC.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to create a new IP that is bold and tonally different from our prior work,” said Kota Furushima, director at Game Freak. “From the beginning, Private Division was the publisher we wanted to work with on our new game. Their track record and global expertise give us all the confidence to create a sweeping new action-adventure game that we can’t wait to share more about in the future.”
“Over the past three decades, you’d be hard pressed to find a studio which has released more iconic hits than Game Freak,” added Michael Worosz, chief strategy officer at Take-Two Interactive, and head of Private Division. “We’re ready to help Game Freak unleash their potential and we’re honoured to be the first Western publisher to work alongside this exceptionally talented and proven team to bring a bold new IP to market.”
Take-Two has confirmed that Project Bloom is expected to launch in the 2026 fiscal year.


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The UK is home to the highest number of European unicorns, privately held startup companies valued at over $1 bln, with a total of 47 unicorn start-ups, according to MoneyTransfers.
Germany takes second spot with 30 firms, while France is in third slot with 28. Sweden (8) and the Netherlands (7) follow a distant fourth and fifth, respectively.
The UK’s prominence here is due to several factors, according to MoneyTransfers CEO Jonathan Merry.
“One reason is that the UK has a very strong start-up sector. This is thanks to London’s status as a global financial centre, as well as its strong tech sector. Different businesses have been able to tap into these advantages leading to some major successes.”
Merry added that the UK has a robust entrepreneurial culture. The country has a well-developed venture capital market, meaning ample start-up funding is available. Consequently, firms can achieve high valuations relatively quickly.
Europe’s top 10
MoneyTransfers’ analysis showed that the UK and Germany are clear front-runners regarding the top ten unicorns in Europe. They dominate the list with six and three unicorns, respectively.
Additionally, another survey by the UK’s Checkout.com tops the list with a roughly $40 bln valuation.
So, what’s behind this domination?
Merry explains that both countries have large economies and vibrant tech sectors. They also have a history of successful start-ups, with a lot of experience and funding available to help new companies get off the ground.
Another important factor is access to capital.
Both the UK and Germany have a lot of venture capitalists who are willing to invest in high-growth start-ups. This enables companies to grow quickly and reach a larger scale.
Finally, both countries have a robust infrastructure for start-ups. That includes good laws and regulations and a supportive ecosystem of incubators, accelerators, and mentors.
All of this helps entrepreneurs to succeed and grow their businesses.


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Nine Entertainment has developed an automated TV trading platform to help agencies cut 80 percent of the work associated with buying TV ads.
With the shift in consumer viewing habits, advertisers are becoming increasingly reluctant to buy commercial spots based on large potential views and instead are moving towards an audience-based buying model and targeted demographics.
For the past two years, Nine Entertainment Company, parent to Australia’s Nine Network, has been developing an automated, cloud-based TV trading platform called 9Galaxy that is helping media agencies remove 80 percent of the manual tasks associated with buying TV ads by moving away from spot-based sales. Company executives say it will automate the buying and selling of television inventory and guarantee 100 percent delivery of campaigns. It also removes the need for “make goods” and improves efficiency on an ad-buying system that historically has required a lot of hand holding.
Nine has publicly stated that by 2020 all of its inventory will be available to advertisers and brands in an automated way that delivers value and reach. If it all goes well, many broadcasters in the U.S. could adopt the same model.
Key to the 9Galaxy platform is its predictive modeling technology, called 9Predict, which allows Nine to forecast the ratings of its linear TV inventory, using big data and modeling techniques to improve the accuracy of our ratings predictions. The 9Predict algorithm uses the past 10 years of historical data paired with machine learning to assess what audience a show can deliver for a client.
The 9Predict tool draws together commercial tools including Landsberry & James’ Genesis campaign optimization platform, Imagine Communications’ xG GamePlan inventory optimizer, MapR for big data processing, and Tableau for data visualization.
Nine’s 9Galaxy has several core components, so its engineers brought them together under one interface to make it easy for the sales team to use.
Dave Fowler, partnerships director at UM Australia’s Sydney, a communications council that represents media agencies down under, said that automation has allowed his members to focus on tangible results for their clients. It offers an opportunity to get ad agencies to refocus their efforts away from the traditional schedule and into what can actually help their clients.
“TV has been trading the same way for decades,” Fowler said. “It was a system designed for three stations and now it’s 14, meaning four times the amount of inventory. This resulted in traders spending 80 per cent of their time buying spots, which really only account for a small percentage of the reach.”
To support this initiative, Nine is using a cloud-native booking optimizer from Imagine Communications to deploy an audience-based approach to ad inventory management and deliver campaigns as efficiently as possible. Imagine has worked with Nine in the past support the free-to-air broadcaster’s multichannel playout operations.
Imagine Communications’ xG GamePlan is a booking optimizer that helps broadcasters, service providers and content providers work with advertisers to ensure that all opportunities are monetized without over-delivery, allowing even last-minute campaigns and enhancing relevance by automatically adjusting campaigns when projected viewer demographics shift.
Imagine Communications’ xG GamePlan is a booking optimizer that helps content providers work with advertisers to ensure that all opportunities are monetized without over-delivery.
“We spent a lot of time researching all the tech vendors in terms of what would enable us to do put together 9Galaxy,” said Stephen Kyefulumya, Group Director, Enterprise & Data Solutions for Nine. “To meet what we wanted to achieve from 9Galaxy, not one vendor could tick all of the boxes. We made the decision technically to include the best of breed we could buy, and build things we could not buy ourselves.”
Creating a seamless experience for Nine’s sales team was one of the biggest challenges, according to Kyefulumya. Nine’s 9Galaxy has several core components, so its engineers brought them together under one interface to make it easy for the sales team to use. Another key challenge was that they didn’t have a way of predicting audiences, so the team built a machine-learning engine [9Predict] to forecast how many people watch our shows. They built these ML algorithms from scratch and integrated the various components.
Nine is using xG GamePlan to optimize advertising inventory across four channels, each with five regional variations. Some of the system capabilities now being used include:
Smooth to reduce manual processes by analyzing spots booked into programs against business rules such as sponsorship agreements, product clash, program-based ad restrictions and more to best place a spot within breaks contained in the booked program.
Inefficient Spot Removal to accommodate ratings predictions changes during the life of the campaign. When this occurs, a spot previously placed for a specific demographic by the optimizer may no longer be the most effective placement; the placement is canceled with campaign targets adjusted to reflect the cancellation and fed back into the optimizer.
RightSizer to address campaigns that are over delivering on ratings delivery targets by a certain percentage. The least efficient campaign spots are canceled until the campaign delivery is reduced to within the desired percentage range.
Warwick Sharp, Sales Operations Manager for Nine, said that the xG GamePlan system in particular provides benefits in automation and inventory optimization.
“Looking at automation, clearly we’ve been able to chase headcount reduction within our sales team,” he said. “There is some automation now taking care of log smoothing. But probably the best advantage for a broadcaster and someone in sales and revenue yield management is the inventory optimization we’ve been able to achieve. In terms of delivering audiences, GamePlan is looking at all times in terms of the entire audience delivered for every spot. This translates to good efficiency of our inventory that hopefully sells all the way through.”
“We know that audience-based buying is the future of TV trading and built 9Galaxy to lead the market to a near-term destiny where platform-agnostic ad buying was a reality,” said Mat Yelavich, CIO at Nine.
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The Fiat or Abarth-badged MX-5 equivalent was originally slated to be released as an Alfa Romeo this year but the decision was taken last minute to switch brands in order to keep the premium feel of the Alfa product.
The head of Fiat Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, told the media at today’s Detroit Motor Show that the switch between Alfa and Fiat had indeed delayed the project by some time.
“Yes it did have an effect.” Marchionne said. “We had to go back and change some parts on the Mazda vehicle. Adding three months or four months [to the release date].”
Marchionne justified this decision by pointing out that the convertible would simply not have worked as an Alfa Romeo.
“I think it would have been unfair if we had done that car as an Alfa, given the direction we have taken Alfa, it would have been very unfair.”
It’s an ironic twist of fate for the brands to switch cars, as CarAdvice understands from Italian sources that the Alfa Romeo 4C was originally intended to be an Abarth sports car, before it was nabbed by Fiat’s more premium brand.
Whether this convertible will carry a Fiat or Abarth badge still remains to be seen. Nonetheless, a standalone Abarth sports car has been expected for some time, though another possibility is that the MX-5 exported to Italy and beyond morphs into a modern-day Fiat Barchetta.


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Growing up as Irish teenagers, many of us covered and concealed our natural freckles with foundation layered an inch thick.
However, the tide is turning for the sun speckles, with mega-models, bloggers and superstars like Kylie Jenner embracing their natural look.
Faux freckles have been a major beauty trend this year, with hundreds of tutorials springing up online instructing the freckle-less to embellish their complexions.
Most tutorials preach dotting on the freckles one by one using an eyebrow pencil, which can be painstaking work.
One entrepreneurial brand has caught onto the trend, and launched Faux Freckles.
Remember the flash tattoo trend? Well these freckles work the same way, using a water activated transfer to pepper some pigmentation across your features.
However, not everyone is impressed with the finished look.
"They look like the beads from the antibacterial hand soap…" commented one Instagrammer.
"You cannot fake freckles… if they're not meant for your face then don't bother. Looks odd," said another.
So fake freckles is now a thing?! pic.twitter.com/Q85CoqhJfN
— Sarah (@QueenSBea) December 1, 2016
"So obvious it's fake!" added another commentator, suggesting that the plaster-like shape of the transfer didn't convey an air of authenticity.
The video of the Faux Freckles has since gone viral, racking up over 1.3 million views.
While the transfers may not be well received, any excuse to embrace our pasty, freckled complexions is good enough for us.


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Daimler and its largest shareholder Geely are keen to bring the Chinese-made Smart to market in the coming year. “We are making very good progress,” said Hubertus Troska, member of the board of directors of Daimler. Daimler previously sold the Hambach Smart plant in eastern France to British off-road vehicle maker Ineos. In September, a study of the new Smart was presented to the IAA – the small car became an SUV.
July 29, 2021
September 27, 2021


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CREWE and Nantwich MP Edward Timpson has paid tribute to a recession-busting firm actively recruiting staff.
Sales and marketing firm ROI, based at Pepper House in Nantwich, enjoyed a phenomenal 2009 in which it created 25 new jobs and beat London-based agencies to business from blue-chip clients.
Now managing director Nigel Sandiford is launching a recruitment drive while celebrating a contract with car manufacturer Kia.
A total of 25 new posts are up for grabs over the coming months, swelling the workforce to 100.
He said: “Last year was an incredible year for us and we are pleased to say our prospects for 2010 are looking even brighter.
“The contract with Kia is excellent news. Once again we’ve secured this business against competition on the company’s doorstep in the South.
“On top of that we continue to work alongside some of the biggest names in car manufacturing, including Honda, Land Rover and Skoda.
“In just six years we’ve become one of the UK’s top sales and marketing agencies within the automotive sector and it’s thanks to a loyal workforce who have shown incredible commitment, pulling together to not only ride out the recession but beat it hands down.”
The MP, whose family shoe repair business has an outlet round the corner from Pepper House, made a special visit to pay tribute to their commitment and congratulate Nigel on the firm’s incredible growth.
He said: "I congratulate Nigel and all of his team at ROI on their tremendous efforts. To have a local business thriving and growing during a severe recession is a real boost to our local economy in Crewe and Nantwich."


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Every skeptic says the same thing: the bitcoin price is too volatile to be a real currency. And they’ve got a point. Bitcoin’s huge swings make it risky as an investment and difficult as a day-to-day payment method. But it’s slowly changing. As more money flows into bitcoin, it’s becoming less volatile. And that means it’s becoming better money. Continue reading This Bitcoin Chart Destroys the Argument That BTC Can’t Be Money
Global financial crises are on the rise, thrusting bitcoin into the spotlight. Legendary investor Warren Buffett called bitcoin “rat poison squared,” but it turned out to be nectar, nevertheless. Continue reading Bitcoin Can Be a Hedge During Persistent Liquidity Crises
Intercontinental Exchange’s high-profile Bitcoin project, Bakkt, has faced severe pushback from the CFTC due to a fundamental concern about how its cryptocurrency assets will be stored. In response, Bakkt is looking to obtain a BitLicense and manage custody of the coins themselves. Continue reading Bitcoin’s Most-Hated Regulatory Regime Could Be Bakkt’s Last Hope
Bitcoin’s gains may not be parabolic, but the price is moving steadily higher. With BTC currently hovering at the $5,300 level, the mood around crypto has improved tremendously. Nonetheless, the bitcoin price continues to trade 75% below its peak. Continue reading Undervalued Bitcoin Will Be a ‘Multi-Trillion Dollar Asset Class,’ Says Analyst
Since 2017, the world of blockchain based cryptocurrency is going through the revolution of classical fiat industry and taking a considerable portion of the market share by attracting more and more investors in the sector. Continue reading Cryptoxygen would be the first integrated digital assets platform in notebooks in 2019!


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WHITE MILK INVESTMENTS – FONTERRA ON THE NZX IS A GOOD DEAL FOR INVESTMENT
Theo Spierings a gifted and clear thinker who writes well in a visionary capacity is pictured raising a toast. Theo is Fonterra’s Dutch CEO.–APN photo.
Memo to Fonterra: Given the current climate – it’s a given that many Maori and Pacific Island Kiwis who are New Zealand citizens won’t be able to buy into Fonterra’s trading scheme at the time of the float.
That’s really quite sad as the shares are great. An exciting investment…. White milk then. Makes NZ real strong.
Fonterra Status of a partial float are: Farmersoptions heading to the sell & And the good news: Fonterra unveils $500m NZX offer that will be by far the biggest issue to hit the NZX this year when it lists on November 30.
The offer will allow non-farm investors access to the cooperative dairy giant’s dividend flow. Units in the Fonterra Shareholders Fund will be pitched between $4.60 and $5.50 a unit, according to offer documents released by the dairy cooperative today. See the Fonterra presentation here. The final price will be announced on November 27.
It would be a good idea: if Fonterra staff can have some sort of buy in deal too. They work so hard for the company.
[What is needed is a whiskey flavored milk for India's market among 200 products that could evolve the idea of turning NZ water and sunlight via farming into the next level of diversifying investment for Fonterra - Butterscotch milk placement in Bollywood movies, should be a good start. The Fonterra phone Apps (under the Fonterra tag -see it) also a good idea for global sales growth too].
~Posted by Horiwoodblog, Aotearoa New Zealand, Polynesia Asia-Pacific. 26.10.12~


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The concept Alpine driven up the Goodwood hill by Lord March last year – marking not only the opening of the 2015 Festival of Speed, but also the renaissance of the charismatic but sadly long-absent French sports car firm – will be ready for the showrooms next year, the company has confirmed.
And this is what a production version of the mid-engined two-seater coupe will look like. Exactly the same then, minus a few stickers, as it did at FoS last year, as these pictures released today show. But the workers at Alpine haven’t been wasting the past eight months.
They have finalised the new car’s interior – it is shown here for the first time – decided on a power unit – a four-cylinder turbo – and confirmed the new car will be built in Alpine’s spiritual home of Dieppe, in a factory currently being refurbished for the job. The first cars are due to roll out the doors for spring next year.
There has even been time to take the original blue Goodwood car and its new white prototype twin to the Col de Turini in the eponymous Alpine area for a photo opp to recall various Monte Carlo triumphs of the past.
Despite all that the car is, officially and somewhat disappointingly, still a concept. When we saw it last it was called Celebration concept, to mark Alpine’s 60th anniversary; the car you see here is called Vision concept. Give it its production moniker – the rumour is Alpine A120, a natural follow-on from the Monte-winning A110 – and you’d think it was ready for the showroom now, but Alpine is adamant it’s still 20 per cent show car. We surmise maybe wheel size will come down an inch, the ride height will be a little more sleeping policeman friendly, and any last remnants of showcar glitz be removed. But other than that – it’s the finished article.
Which is? An Alfa 4C, Porsche Cayman rival with a coupe body overflowing with Alpine styling cues from the past, and a claimed emphasis on an immersive driving experience rooted in light weight construction and maximum agility. Pretty much then as his lordship found when he drove the blue car up the hill last year… see more on that and our chat with the car’s designer, Antony Villain, at FoS last year here.
Power outputs of 250bhp in the base car and 300bhp in a higher performance version have not so far been confirmed by Alpine. But the firm is saying the car will dispatch 0-62mph in under 4.5 seconds. We might not know engine size (maybe a 1.8) but we do know it will be hooked up to a dual clutch transmission with shift paddles behind the steering wheel and gear selector push buttons on the centre console.
The dash is an all-digital affair with a TFT touch screen that’s configurable in a host of ways, including the likelihood of many motor sport-inspired functions – witness, as well, the nice throwback touch of a giant stopwatch on the centre of the dash. The engine start button is a big red knob under a lift-up flap. By the look of the heavily bolstered seats there will be no lack or cornering support; notice too the racing harnesses.
Materials such as aluminium, quilted leather, microfibre ‘technical’ fabrics and carbon all feature inside, in what Alpine says is a balance between heritage and modernism with a dash of motor sport influence thrown in. The chunky three-spoke steering wheel gets a Sport button which along with the metallic-look chunky switches and air vents are backlit with, you guessed, Alpine-blue illumination.
After a 20-year absence from the market, however, Alpine’s renaissance and its avowed intent to ‘carve out a clear niche in the premium sports car market’ will take far more than just enthusiasm. Alpine may be well known in France but to be a success the new model must sell well in North America and Asia, as well as Europe – where the UK and Germany are expected to each take four times as many cars as France itself. Ironically France has gone off cars like this.
Alpine is known for its ‘David vs Goliath’ sporting successes in the past, but this could be its biggest challenge yet. We will know more when the car at last sheds its ‘concept’ tag and we see what it can really do – fingers crossed at the Festival of Speed this year.


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For comic book readers, smartphones and tablets have introduced ways to interact with their favorite comic book series without having to go out and buy a new one every time an issue is released. Having all of your comics available to read on your smartphone or tablet devices is certainly a treat, although buying them individually doesn’t make it a cheap hobby.
Marvel is announcing today it’s subscription-based Marvel Unlimited, which offers access to the company’s catalog of over 13,000 published comics that span a period of over 70 years, is now available for iOS. The subscription costs $10 a month or $60 for a yearly subscription, although in order for newer comics to be included in the Marvel Unlimited subscription, it needs to be available for six months, which we know could put a damper on your weekly comic book discussions with your friends at your local Applebees.
Marvel’s original comic book app will continue doing what it does as its purpose is to deliver new comics in a digital format, although we hope one day Marvel decides to bring both apps together into one unstoppable comic book-serving application.


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SaaS firm Vtion Digital Analytics raises $1.3 million funding led by YourNest
It plans to use the funds to accelerate its India growth by scaling its advertising activation strategy and panel enhancement while driving global market expansion. Founded in 2018 by Manoj Dawane, Vtion provides real-time analytics data and media consumption measurement techniques for broadcast radio, bringing together various stakeholders of the ecosystem.
“Vtion platform generates more than 20 million unique events every day and is used by marquee brands in India for sharper segmentation and efficient message delivery,” Dawane said in a statement on Wednesday.
Vtion plans to increase its market share in the consumer behaviour intelligence & programmatic activation space, Dawane added. The brand has offerings for companies across industries such as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), ecommerce, travel, education, fintech, finance and real estate. It had raised $750,000 in two seed rounds $500,000 from angel investors in India and investors from Sweden, US and Dubai, and $250,000 from Mumbai-based Core 91 VC.
“We find tremendous potential in Vtion, with its privacy-first and strong patent-protected technology stack, especially in the cookie-less world, and firmly believe that the platform will be able to corner a disproportionate share of the digital advertising activation market within the next five years,” said Girish Shivani, executive director and fund manager, YourNest Venture Capital.


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I recently heard about a New York Times article that talked about a new trend in tactical clothing. It’s being called “Covert Fashion”. The big idea behind it is taking everyday clothes like a pants, a jacket or shirt and including pockets on the inside that can hold a handgun. This is also known as concealed carry. While you won’t see this sort of fashion on your local supermodel, it has become quite the trend lately.
As evidence, we found that since 2005, google searches for the phrase “concealed carry” have more than doubled.
Harry’s Army Surplus has recently started carrying the new concealed carry vest which can function both as an every day vest or a concealed carry vest. In addition, you can now buy the 3 Season Concealed Carry Jackets in both Black or Khaki on our website.
We plan to add more concealed carry items this fall. Sign up for our newsletter and keep your eyes pealed on this blog to hear about them soon.


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Last night according to Asian time and afternoon as per the US and other parts of the world, it was believed that a new Google update was going on. Now, we know that it is useful for Google to release updates unannounced and it is just from the last year that they have started to pre-announce their major algorithm updates.
However, the strange thing about this alleged update was that there was a lot of volatility in the search results and people saw extremely strange behaviour which resulted in hurting the quality of search results.
Just to give you an example, Google’s search results for “keyword research” showed an article which had an exact match of the keywords in the URL in its first position. Others reported that their sites are literally “dancing” and that means they are going up and down in SERP.
Now, it has been revealed that this was not a Google update but rather a major glitch that took place at Google. So we know that most SEOs would breathe a sigh of relief as their work has not been increased. This confirmation came from Google’s John Mueller as he tweeted that “I don’t have all the details yet, but it seems like this was a glitch on our side and has been fixed in the meantime.”
Yes, it is also true that the glitch was fixed because most people reported that their sites were back to normal in under an hour. Some thought this was a weird update which got rolled back but now we know this was a “bug and not a feature”. The funniest search result of them all was one SEO tweeting that “A Minnesota company ranking for Dallas SEO” keyword. Almost everyone said this is a big update but now we all know the real reason.
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Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest congregation for the tech industry, has been cancelled over the concerns centring Coronavrius epidemic. The Global System for Mobile Communications, popularly known as GSMA, announced on Wednesday that the tech exhibit had to be called off, mainly because major tech companies pulled out of MWC 2020 as a preventive measure amid the outbreak. The decision comes a day ahead of the meeting that was scheduled for February 14 by GSMA to observe the situation for MWC to take place this year. The Mobile World Congress was slated to run between February 24 and February 27.
In a statement, GSMA CEO John Hoffman said, "With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event." Mobile World Congress attracts a footfall of over 100,000 attendees from all over the globe. The event also gives a colossal boost to the economy of Barcelona, Spain.
The cancellation of MWC throws the ambitions of companies such as Realme, which was debuting this year, into jeopardy. But only a few companies were going ahead to attend the MWC anyway, while a major fraction of them had already decided to skip the event.
As we said, the withdrawal of major tech companies from the MWC gave weight to GSMA's decision. Amazon, Sony, LG, Ericsson, Nokia, Vivo, Intel, Facebook, and Nvidia are among the top tech companies that previously announced to skip this year's tech conference in the wake of Coronavirus fears. The companies cited a major health risk as a reason for their absence from the conference.
Coronavirus has crippled the functioning of businesses and events throughout the world. The outbreak originated from the city of Wuhan in China, claiming more than 1,100 lives in the country and outside it. A large number of companies had already issued stringent directions over international travel of their employees and trade happening with China and the neighbouring countries.
The GSMA was also among the bodies to have responded to the concerns of the companies attending the MWC. It had said that some strict measures, such as no-handshake policy and fresh microphones for all speakers, were to be put in place. But it seems these measures were not convincing enough for the attending companies, causing their fear to balloon.
At this point, the smartphone companies that were still attending the MWC, including Xiaomi and Realme, are still to decide what they will do about the decision of GSMA. Realme was set to launch its second 5G phone, the Realme X50 Pro 5G at the MWC event - it would have been the brand's first entry to the event. Xiaomi was also supposed to showcase new smartphones at the event. For now, we are not sure when these launches will take place.


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Final Fantasy VII was an iconic video game and its one title that fans really put on a pedestal for the Final Fantasy franchise. Over the years, we’ve seen several attempts from the fan base to get the development studio Square Enix to develop a remake for the title. After originally released on the PlayStation, there are not only veteran fans that would love to replay the game once again while there is also plenty of newcomers to the franchise that has yet to experience the narrative adventure featuring Cloud Strife.
While the remake was announced years ago, it took a long time before we got an official release date of this year. Likewise, the iconic game was pushed back from a recent delay which is a tough pill for some to swallow. Thankfully, it wasn’t a drastically long delay as gamers can still pick up a copy this year in April.
Despite being delayed, Square Enix is making sure to hype the title up as much as possible. A brand new trailer was released today in order to celebrate the 23rd-anniversary date of when the original Final Fantasy VII title launched. This new trailer features the song Hollow by Nobuo Uematsu and throughout the trailer, we get glimpses of the game including some iconic moments like Cloud posing in a dress.
You can check out the trailer in the video embedded above. For now, the game is set to launch on the PlayStation 4 this April 10, 2020. Unfortunately, there is no word on if the game would see a release on the Xbox One or the PC platforms. Likewise, if the game would see a release for the upcoming generation platforms of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.


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Industrial property, especially logistics, has become one of the hot spots in China's property investment in recent years, according to the white paper published by the world's largest commercial real estate service and investment company. In recent years, the rise and flourish of China's online retail market not only affect and change the traditional retail market pattern, but also bring about the development of the third party logistics, which has a great and far-reaching impact on the modern logistics facilities market in China.
Current situation of China's modern logistics market the logistics facilities in China are mainly to meet the needs of export and manufacturing warehousing.
With the growth of personal consumption, the maturity of retailing market and the booming of e-commerce, the demand of retail industry for logistics facilities, especially high standard warehousing, has grown rapidly in recent years although China already has considerable logistics storage stock, the volume of domestic high standard storage facilities is still relatively limited. According to the China Warehousing Association estimates that by the end of 2012, the total operating general warehouse nationwide amounted to 698 million square meters. According to the relevant statistics, by the end of 2013, by 12 major national logistics professional developers developed a high standard of storage facilities of only about 13 million square meters, accounting for the total area of the national storage facilities are very little.
In terms of demand, the rapid development of E-commerce in recent years and the growth of third-party logistics demand and other factors, high standards of storage property leasing and customized demand continued to flourish.
Driven by the development of retail industry and other sources of demand, the market size of China's logistics industry will continue to expand. And as the maturity level increases, industry development will be increasingly refined, professional and diversified, reverse logistics, cold chain logistics will become a new development of logistics warehousing issues; Horizontal is presented from a single business to the direction of integrated logistics development trend, China's private LTL industry and express industry or will appear mutual infiltration.


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• The RIAA has released new data showing continued strong growth in virtually all recorded music formats, including streaming, vinyl and even CDs, which jumped 21% last year. This strong and broad growth – which includes TikTok music revenue for the first time – has pushed overall music revenue to an all-time high. $15 billion last year, the highest number ever reported by our industry (although, after adjusting for inflation, it is still nearly 40% off the 1999 peak). This data shows how artists and labels working together are reaching new heights of creative and commercial success and driving opportunities and revenue streams for songwriters, publishers, platforms, services and apps.
Following this good news, the President and CEO of the RIAA Mitch Vitrier released a statement that read: “The incredible string of strong industry-wide growth documented in this report and previous reports is testament to the vibrant and dynamic creative and business relationships that labels today hui have built with their artist partners. Labels haven’t just reinvented themselves, they’ve helped transform the entire process of creating, discovering, and distributing music to empower creative freedom and artistic expression while seamlessly meeting fans everywhere. and wherever they want to be. The result has been an incredibly dynamic time delivering new opportunities, platforms and experiences – from music-based fitness apps and live concerts on the gaming platform, to must-have vinyl exclusives and surprise releases. world of digital albums. Creative genius was unleashed in new ways, resulting in shared commercial success and record payments to artists.
Glazier added: “No industry in history has embraced changing technologies and innovations faster than music over the past decade – taking streaming from novelty to ubiquitous in the blink of an eye. eyeing and working now to drive a new generation of social apps, immersive shared experiences, and blockchain/NFT opportunities in the future. The RIAA’s full 2021 Recorded Music Revenue Report is posted online for your perusal. .


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Getting to grips with aflatoxin in Ghana with Aflasafe
Aflatoxin is a major threat to health, food security, and trade but positive change was heralded in Accra recently, at the official launch of Aflasafe GH02. Aflasafe offers a powerful solution to the aflatoxin threat which is amplified when combined with other good practices and with up to 100% aflatoxin reduction in more than half of the tests, Ghana sets a brand-new Aflasafe record.
Besides celebrating the advent and outstanding performance of Aflasafe in Ghana, participants at the launch came to grips with aflatoxin, deliberating on the need for greater awareness, incentives for farmers, and the potential for Aflasafe to transform access to markets.
In his opening remarks, Managing Director of IITA’s Aflasafe Technology Transfer and Commercialization initiative (aTTC) Abdou Konlambigue said: “What we are celebrating today is really a joint effort of many years by different kinds of actors at the national, regional, and global level.”
The all-natural Aflasafe GH02 is tailored specifically for Ghana and was developed by IITA in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS), and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
The local Ghanaian farmers also made a vital contribution testing Aflasafe on their farms.
With the registration of Aflasafe GH02, Ghana is now the latest of six nations where Aflasafe is on sale. Aflasafe GH02 is distributed in Ghana by our new partner, Macrofertil Ghana Limited, a company established in Ghana by Louis Dreyfus Company to take over its agriculture input business in the country. Louis Dreyfus Company Group is a world leader in agroprocessing and in marketing agro-commodities and agricultural inputs, so it brings proven expertise in reaching farmers.
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, was represented at the launch by the Deputy Director of Crop Services in the Ministry, Harry Bleppony, who decried the lack of awareness on aflatoxin, particularly at the grassroots. He emphasized the need for evidence-based information saying: “When people see how hard aflatoxin hits them, they will take it seriously. I describe aflatoxin as a ‘slow poison’—language that Ghanaians understand well.”
In his keynote address, Professor Richard Tuyee Awuah of KNUST spoke on the challenges of aflatoxin contamination in Ghana, and the parts we can all play in tackling them. This was followed by a lively panel discussion on the event’s theme— Aflatoxin control: Whose responsibility?
For the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Aflasafe GH02 comes at an opportune time as it can open up export markets, but also premium domestic ones with urgent unmet demand for aflatoxin- safe grain. According to the Director for Agricultural Export Development, Erasmus Ashun: “We were trying to find solutions to concerns raised by our trade partners, especially the European Union. We hope this product is going to support GEPA in executing its national mandate as we are currently unable to participate in the US$32.5 billion maize world trade, primarily because of excessive aflatoxin in our maize products.”
Read Aflasafe media release for details.


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Starting today, Twitter is testing a new ad format in Tweet conversations on both iOS & Android where it’ll show you ads after the first, third, or eighth reply under a Tweet.
We see a big opportunity to build an ad offering that creates value and aligns incentives for creators and advertisers. But first…we test! 🧪
— bruce.falck() 🦗 (@boo) October 13, 2021
This is part of new ad features and a revamped algorithm that decides which ads users see, as part of an effort to lay the groundwork to launch future eCommerce features, the social networking company told Reuters.
The new features come as Twitter is pushing to grow its performance advertising business, a strategy that aims to quickly generate sales, and constituted just 15% of Twitter’s business last year. The effort could help Twitter reach its goal of doubling annual revenue by 2023.
The San Francisco-based company is positioning itself to eventually allow brands to sell products through the service by first improving on its ability to show users relevant ads and increasing the likelihood they will click the ad.
“Performance ads are a very large opportunity … that’s relatively untapped for us,” said Kamara Benjamin, group product manager at Twitter, in an interview. “Ultimately, this is going to lead to people installing apps, visiting websites, and finding products that meet their needs.
Ads that promote downloads for mobile games and other apps will now allow users to initiate the download without leaving the Twitter app, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Twitter states it is working on new tools that will let companies run ads to find customers who are more likely to make in-app purchases.
Twitter also says Slide-show ads that feature multiple products will now send users to different websites when they click the ad, whereas previously brands could only choose one destination. This will increase the number of clicks by 25 on ad campaigns that set a goal of driving website visits.


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While there is a shortage of virtually all high-tech workers, the demand for chip designers is off the charts.
Norris Palmanteer, staffing manager for Santa Clara, CA-based Intel’s Architecture Group, says the company needs about 1,500 designers. The company employs 78,000 staffers worldwide, including 8,000 chip designers. “We’re always looking for them,” Palmanteer said.
It’s the same story at Dallas, TX-based digital signal processor manufacturer Texas Instruments, according to Senior Vice President of Human Resources Steve Leven. The company employs 22,000 staff members in the United States, including roughly 3,000 chip designers. If Leven could find 500 candidates with the right credentials, he’d hire them on the spot.
“This year will mark our most aggressive hiring year,” he said. “We are expanding rapidly in the marketing, design, and manufacturing of chips.”
If you would like Bob Weinstein’s TechWatch sent to you each week, sign up for our TechMail that features Bob’s weekly column.
Why the intense shortage?
Leven attributes the shortage of chip designers to the falling number of graduates who have electrical engineering (EE) degrees: “In the 1980s, colleges turned out 25,000 engineers annually with EE degrees,” Leven said. “That number has dropped to 12,500 a year.”
Part of the reason is demographics. There are fewer college-aged students than in the past. There is also a lack of information about the education required to work in high-tech industries. This shortage can be viewed as both a problem and an opportunity.
The shortage of designers has only intensified the race to turn out the newest and hottest chips. “We try to get a new chip on the market every 18 months,” says Palmanteer. “We have people working on the existing generation of chips as well as the next generation.”
It’s a race to the finish line to design the perfect chip that will control the market.
What kind of candidates do companies want?
Ideally, companies prefer candidates with an electrical engineering background, either a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in electrical engineering.
“The perfect candidates have five years of chip design experience,” said Palmanteer. “They can see an entire project through every stage from beginning to end.”
Typically, designers work in teams. The definition of a team varies from company to company. At Intel, for example, a team consists of 15 to 20 designers. At another chipmaker, a team could be as few as five or as many as 30 people.
The next step up is a chip architect, who serves as a senior designer and has at least 10 years of experience. The architect is in charge of a team of designers and is the guiding force throughout a project.
Since there is a shortage of experienced chip designers in the United States, companies like Intel are hiring high-profile college grads, preferably with electrical engineering degrees, but also those with computer science degrees.
Whatever your background, you have to enjoy debugging things, finding out why things work, and solving problems.
Palmanteer wouldn’t discuss salaries for chip designers at Intel but, rest assured, they’re more than competitive.
Texas Instruments is also flexible when it comes to hiring potential designers. “If someone possesses close to the skills that we need, which is an understanding of the fundamentals of circuit design, we’ll do the rest and invest in training,” Leven said.
What’s the best way to get into the field?
Since companies are so desperate for chip designers, entry into the field is flexible. If you’re already working in one of the technical disciplines, Palmanteer suggests going back to school and getting a degree in computer science with an emphasis on hardware. But, he also suggests working for a company like Intel in an ancillary job such as program manager.
The program manager works closely with the marketing people and chip designers to create time lines and schedules.
“They’re coordinating many different aspects of a project,” Palmanteer said. Program managers “matrix manage,” which means they’re not directly managing but are coordinating all aspects of a project so things are completed on time.
“It’s a challenging job, because you have to keep tight control of a project and motivate people so everything gets done,” he said.
Typically, program managers have an applications background and want to get more involved in the hardware side of the business. The job is a great transition into chip design, especially if you’re also taking EE courses.
Palmanteer also suggests attending conferences and trade shows attended by major chip designers. It’s an opportunity to learn about the newest and hottest trends in chip design.
How hard is it to land a qualified chip designer? If you are a chip designer, are companies willing to offer handsome compensation packages to get you in the door? Post your comments or send them in an e-mail.


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Blockchain database technology has the potential to be a major disruptor in the world of banking and financial services over the next few years, with a growing number of companies having either already adopted the approach or made plans to do so.
A system of distributed database collation that involves maintaining a continuously growing list of data records hardened against tampering and revision, the technology has gone from being a niche area of interest a few years ago to teetering on the cusp of widespread mainstream adoption today.
This news will be welcomed by those companies that are ready to take full advantage of the benefits blockchain can offer – but for many other financial institutions, this development could represent a paradigm shift for which they are unprepared, meaning they are at risk of being left behind.
FinTech startups threaten traditional banks
According to research from PwC, 83 per cent of leaders at financial services firms believe dedicated FinTech companies could pose a risk to some aspects of their business. Traditional banks, which tend to operate on a large scale and rely on many complex procedures, are under pressure from start-ups that are able to design their operations from the ground up, operating more efficiently thanks to new technology like blockchain.
The onus is on established retail banks to catch up to the techniques their challenger counterparts are using, and preparing properly for implementing blockchain is crucial to that. Santander is leading the way in the UK, with Reuters reporting that the Spanish bank is using blockchain to record international payments. Around 6,000 staff across its British retail operations are trialling the technology and Santander hopes it will make it easier and faster to move money overseas.
Head of innovation, technology and operations at Santander UK Ed Metzger said the transparency of when payments will be completed is a key advantage of blockchain.
“The main customer benefits are certainty of timing, so you know when the payment is going to arrive and certainty of value,” he stated. However, Mr Metzger acknowledged that until all banks have migrated from legacy systems over to blockchain technology, the “last mile” of its blockchain system will rely on older, slower links between banks.
Faster international payments are not the only reason why banks should be looking to embrace blockchain. PwC notes that moving mortgage data to blockchain will make it easier to keep a full electronic trail of legal agreements, as well as speed up the process in which funds are released to buyers, bringing down the time between contracts being exchanged and a house purchase being completed.
Banking reward schemes for customers will also benefit, with blockchain making it possible for reward points earned – for example on credit card purchases – to become available to consumers instantly. Merchants would also no longer be liable for issuing the points, as blockchain would automate the process.
With challenger banks set to benefit from building their operations around blockchain, the race is on for traditional banks to incorporate it into their existing systems.


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Japanese company, KYB Corporation acquired 50% stake in Vadodara-based Conmat Systems Pvt Ltd. KYB which made slightly above Rs 100 crore investments to acquire the stake, is investing for the first in India targeting India’s Rs 30,000 crore construction equipments market. Talking to ET, Premraj Kashyap, managing director of Conmat Systems, “The Japanese company not only wants to target domestic market, but also make India its global export hub for construction equipments”. Conmat Systems has 60% domestic market share in Canal Concrete Machine and holds 15% market share in Ready Mix Concrete Plant in India.
The Japanese company plans to bring in technology of Truck Concrete Mixer in India, which would be manufactured by Conmat’s facility in India. According the company, KYB Corporation is one of the largest shock absorber manufacturers in the world. The 94 year old Japanese company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has 34 manufacturing units, 26 sales locations and over 12,000 employees worldwide. It has annual turnover of more than Rs 20,000 crore. KYB is also the largest truck mixer producer in Japan, having 85 % market share, and has entered into this strategic partnership with Conmat to become a major player in the Global Construction Equipment market, says the Conmant official. According to the company, this strategic partnership will also accelerate Conmat’s growth in term of market position, brand building and product portfolio, well supported by Japanese technology, quality and production systems. The new Joint Venture will be used as a global sourcing hub for construction equipment.


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Should I buy Enjin Coin (ENJ) right now? Looking at the future of gaming products on the blockchain
On June 23, Enjin ENJ/USD spiced things up by presenting an intro to scalable and programmable NFTs at the Azure blockchain meetup.
It was a pleasure presenting an intro to scalable, programmable #NFTs at the @Azure blockchain meetup (and minting some cookies in the process)💻— Enjin (@enjin) June 23, 2021
Thank you Microsoft and @AzureHeroes for having us!https://t.co/ba309nKuc8#AzureHeroes #Azure pic.twitter.com/mXukEV9laX
On June 24, Enjin joined the Crypto Climate Accord in an attempt to decarbonize its footprint and add further credibility to the industry’s environmental concerns. Furthermore, the Crypto Climate Accord is actually backed by 20 firms from the blockchain, fintech, and Greentech industries, with names such as Ripple, CoiNShares, ConsenSys, the Web3 Foundation, Zodia, Canopi, and many, many more.
Enjin is proud to join the @CryptoClimAcc! 🌎— Enjin (@enjin) June 24, 2021
As part of the mission to decarbonize the crypto industry, JumpNet is now officially carbon-negative.
Create #NFTs with no cost to you—or our planet.
Learn more: https://t.co/qFnxswv5bL#makecryptogreen #decarbonization pic.twitter.com/x8xkmTqPUX
On June 25, Pandemic Games joined the Enjin ecosystem. Pandemic games rebranded from Tron Game Center and are building 2 games on JumpNet with shared NFTs which can be used in both titles. The first game will be Pandemic Shooter, and the second will be Space Combat.
Please join us in welcoming @Pandemic_Games_ to the Enjin ecosystem, rebranding from Tron Game Center!☢— Enjin (@enjin) June 25, 2021
Pandemic is building 2 games on JumpNet, with shared #NFTs that can be used in both titles.
Pandemic Shooter launches Sunday, June 27 📅
Learn more: https://t.co/DlyzCP3BIc pic.twitter.com/CTaCOws9Y5
The video game industry and how Enjin fills in the blanks
The Global Gaming market was valued at $173.70 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach a value of $314.40 by 2026.
Enjin is a company that provides an ecosystem of interconnected as well as blockchain-enabled gaming products. It currently holds a market cap of over $833 million and a circulating supply of over 800 million ENJ tokens.
On June 25, ENJ had a value of $1. On June 21, it fell under $1 to $0.93 for the first time since May 23, where it dropped to $0.95.
One of the highest values it managed to achieve was on April 9, where it got up to $3.94.
Should you buy Enjin Coin (ENJ)?
Will Enjin Coin go over the $3 mark in the near-term? Probably not, but this doesn’t mean that investors can’t record strong returns. We feel confident in saying that the $1 level will provide strong support and it’s highly doubtful that it will remain under the $1 mark. The current price comes at a time when more and more blockchains are moving to more eco-friendly solutions, something that is praised by mainstream media.
Furthermore, the collaboration with the Crypto Climate Accord will translate to headline attention and hype.
The fact that more studios such as Pandemic Games are joining the ecosystems and making games that will use NFTs powered by the Enjin Network showcases that there’s interest.
So, you have active development, a switch to a greener solution, and increased usage of the ENJ token as a result of all of this.
Despite the fact that the value has dropped a bit, it’s nothing too drastic, and at $1 it might be a worthwhile investment.
This is especially the case if you do so before the newest titles come out.
When they gain mainstream appeal, the price of ENJ is bound to go up, especially during the end of July, as the game Pandemic Shooter launches on June 27.


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LAS VEGAS -- Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers said his company is primed to begin what could be one of the most aggressive new product launch periods in its history.
During a Tuesday roundtable discussion with members of the media at the company's Networkers 2005 customer and partner conference, Chambers said the San Jose, Calif.-based vendor will release a new "emerging" technology every three to four months for the next year.
Cisco classifies an emerging technology as a brand new but significant initiative that has yet to be tied to the company's revenue projections, such as the application-oriented networking (AON) product strategy announced this week.
While he declined to offer specifics, he said upcoming emerging technologies would include those that focus on the data center in both physical and virtual capacities, and convergence products.
Chambers admitted that despite his company's success in recent years, the spate of emerging technologies is meant to correct strategic missteps made in years past.
"About two and a half years ago, we realized we weren't taking enough risks," Chambers said. He noted that Cisco's recent success in markets such as enterprise wireless, security and storage proved that the best approach is often an aggressive one, especially when a market is in transition.
Chambers said it typically takes between five and seven years for a product area to achieve an annual run rate of $1 billion, and the initiative is partially intended to incubate more product lines capable of achieving that mark.
Will Cisco augment its emerging technologies with more acquisitions? Most likely, said Charles Giancarlo, Cisco's chief technology officer. Giancarlo was quick to point out, however, that an acquisition isn't necessarily a sign that Cisco was slow to react to an emerging trend.
To the contrary, Giancarlo said the purchase of a smaller company often allows Cisco to gain the technology and people skills necessary to move into several markets faster than it could on its own.
Giancarlo said Cisco isn't afraid to use any resource at its disposal to innovate, because "Nobody gives you a prize for thinking about being first."
Regarding the AON product line, Chambers said the new products increase the intelligence of the network so that it can assume many of the functions performed today by middleware.
Even though it will take time for partners and customers to get up to speed with the proper education and training, Giancarlo said Cisco is bullish on AON's potential.
"If we saw significant stumbling blocks outside of the traditional go-to-market challenges, we probably wouldn't be sitting here today," Giancarlo said. "We would have been much more cautious."


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As the first closing bell of 2018 rang, Wall Street finished well into the green. After opening higher 115 points this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Tuesday up about 80 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 gained more than 0.6% and the Nasdaq shot higher over 1% as tech stocks led the index to its best day since November.
Apple Inc. (AAPL - Get Report) shares were higher Tuesday after the company announced its iPhone battery replacement discount will go into effect immediately, instead of later this month. The company had come under intense criticism after it was discovered older iPhones were slowing down as a result of a software fix to protect the aging batteries in the units.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX - Get Report) stock also rose Tuesday after analysts at Macquarie upgraded shares to outperform from neutral. Macquarie said changing consumer preferences in favor of advertising-free television are an obvious plus for the streaming service. Netflix also has potential upside for revenue as its most recent round of price hikes goes into effect. Also Tuesday, Citi said Netflix has about a 40% chance of be acquired by Apple.


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Businesses forced to nix plans after Tokyo Olympic spectator ban
The spectator ban at most Tokyo Olympics events has forced Japanese businesses to take abrupt measures.
Travel agencies JTB Corp., KNT-CT Holdings Co., and Tobu Top Tours Co. have canceled package tours that included tickets to Olympic events.
The travel agencies are now seeking to refund those who have already paid for the packages.
East Japan Railway Co. will cancel plans to increase nighttime and early morning services, which had been timed to coincide with Olympic events.
Meanwhile, All Nippon Airways decided not to distribute tickets it acquired as a sponsor benefit.
Several companies said the decision to ban spectators should have been made sooner, as businesses, including hotels and restaurants, are now expected to experience a wave of cancellations.