Kraft is using its cream cheese shortage as a marketing opportunity.
For just a few days this holiday season, a limited number of people will be able to spend $20 on dessert and charge it to Kraft, owner of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The premise: People who can’t bake cheesecakes because they can’t find cream cheese can get another baked good on Kraft’s dime.
For a brief moment, their worlds had changed.
On Tuesday afternoon a Coinbase “display issue” changed the balances of an untold number of customers’ accounts — making many of them billionaires in the process. Billionaires on paper, that is, because as Coinbase hastily pointed out in a statement on Twitter, no real trading was affected by the glitch.
“We’re aware some customers are seeing inflated values for non-tradable crypto assets on Coinbase.com and Coinbase Wallet,” read the Coinbase statement acknowledging the error. “This is a display issue only and does not impact trading.”
Americans will likely soon find it easier to do things like file taxes, renew their passport, manage student loans, change their address and more, as President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday that will improve customer service infrastructure across 17 federal agencies.
The order will direct government officials to “account for the experiences of the public in seeking government services” by making 36 customer service improvements across the federal government, according to a fact sheet released Monday.
The Biden administration won’t extend student loan relief and confirmed student loan payments restart February 1, 2022.
Here’s what you need to know.
With less than three weeks remaining in 2021, you still have the opportunity to get a piece of the $100 billion left in Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and grants. December 31 is the last day applications will be accepted for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Targeted EIDL Advance. And the Supplemental Targeted Advance applications must be turned in no later than December 10, 2021.
$100 Billion in SBA Loans and Grants STILL Available for Small Business
One of the benefits of applying for government loans is the great rates. As a small business with less than 500 employees, you can apply for an EIDL loan of up to $2 million. The loan comes with a 3.75% interest rate if you are a for-profit company. And if you are a not-for-profit organization, the rate goes down to 2.75%. What makes it even more attractive is, these are 30-year loans.
The Adobe Digital Economy Index revealed consumer spending for Cyber Monday was down 1.4% year-over-year (YoY). And for Black Friday it was down 1.3% YoY at $8.9B vs $9B (2020). Even though the numbers for Thanksgiving Day didn’t go down, spending, however, stayed flat at $5.1B.
Consumers Spent Less on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2021
Considering the events of the past couple of years, which were primarily driven by the pandemic, the data is not as bleak.
The Adobe Digital Economy Index provides a comprehensive view of U.S. e-commerce. It does this by analyzing direct consumer transactions online covering over one trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, 100 million SKUs, and 18 product categories. According to the company, this is more than any other technology company or research organization. Based on Adobe Analytics, the data is the final online shopping figures for Cyber Monday and Cyber Week 2021.
Ubisoft has made itself the first major company in gaming to bring NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to the medium. Through a new service called Ubisoft Quartz, players will be able to earn playable NFT cosmetics in games, with the first such game being Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.
According to a trailer posted to Ubisoft’s YouTube page, players who sign up for Ubisoft Quartz will earn Digits, the publisher’s own name for its NFTs. These Digits are unique cosmetic collectibles that make no difference in gameplay aside from changing how a player character or a player’s weapon appears. Each Digit has a serial number and carries the names of its owners for “years to come,” according to Ubisoft.
Multiple users reported issues with the speeds of their NVMe SSDs in the past few months, and it seems that the problems can be traced back to Windows 11.
The reports have appeared on various online forums and on Reddit. Several benchmarks support the credibility of these claims.
Various users reported several different issues with their NVMe drives, and Neowin compiled a list of some of the reports found all over the internet. It seems that the nature of the problem varies from drive to drive, depending on the model, but the one common factor is that all of these systems use Windows 11.
Scientists have discovered marine animals living on plastic debris in an area of the open ocean dubbed “the Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. Many of the creatures are coastal species, living miles from their usual habitats, on a patch halfway between the coast of California and Hawaii. Plants and animals, including anemones, tiny marine bugs, molluscs and crabs, were found on 90% of the debris. Scientists are concerned that plastic may help transport invasive species.
The US has announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
The White House said no official delegation would be sent to the Games because of concerns about China’s human rights record.
But it said US athletes could attend and would have the government’s full support.
China has previously said it will take “resolute countermeasures” in the event of a boycott.
Dispatches From The Front 