FB solidifies grip on gaming business

SILICON VALLEY: Facebook on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) put its spin on cloud gaming by letting players instantly hop into an array of mobile games at the social network without downloading apps — but won't be offering the service for Apple iOS devices.

Vice president of play Jason Rubin noted that Facebook is not spinning off a cloud gaming service along the lines of Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud, which offer console-quality titles hosted online.

The new Facebook capability is designed to let players start games at the social network then switch to downloaded mobile apps without losing any progress it wouldn't synch with iPhones due to "control" exerted by Apple, according to Rubin.

"Unfortunately, we're not launching cloud games on iOS, so only Android and web players will enjoy integrated cloud games on Facebook while we work on alternative options for iOS," Rubin said in a blog post.

"Apple treats games differently and continues to exert control over a very precious resource. "

Excluding iPhones and iPads from the Facebook cloud games offering is the latest dig at Apple for its tight grip on the App Store, which is the sole source of content for the company's coveted mobile devices but takes a 30 percent cut of transactions.

Some developers say Apple takes too big a bite of the revenue and maintains rigid policies that may hamstring services competing with those of the iPhone maker. Fortnite-maker Epic Games has taken Apple to court over the practice.

Apple has argued its App Store delivers billions of dollars to independent developers, and that its practices are reasonable compared with other digital marketplaces. Only those playing with Android-powered mobile devices or through web browsers will be able to integrate with cloud games on Facebook for now, Rubin said.

Games made available in the cloud at Facebook can be accessed instantly in the application or in browsers, according to Rubin. Some 200,000 people per week played cloud-streamed games at Facebook during a trial run in a few regions, according to Rubin.

"We love console and PC gaming and both formats will be around for a long time," Rubin said. "We believe cloud gaming will increase—not replace—the options to jump into great games."

Gaming at Facebook dates back to its early days when "Farmville" by Zynga was an obsession for many users.

NYK acquires Gazocean shares from Total

NYK Line has acquired Gazocean, a ship management company from Total in what was seen as a move to strengthen its Liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier management in France.


An NYK-owned LNG carrier managed by Gazocean PHOTO FROM NYK
NYK's newly owned subsidiary, Gazocean, based in Marseille, France is responsible for the management of six LNG carriers.

NYK and Total, a leading oil and energy company headquartered in France signed a sales and purchase agreement (SPA), acquiring all the French company's shares in Gazocean on October 22.

"The move will strengthen NYK's ship-management system and expand the company's LNG transportation business in France. Before the purchase, NYK held 20 percent of Gazocean shares, and Total held 80 percent," NYK said.

Gazocéan's employee representatives reviewead the acquisition, as part of the regulatory information and consultation procedure. It also has the approval of the competent authorities.

Under its medium-term management plan "Staying Ahead 2022 with Digitalization and Green," the NYK Group is seeking to secure stable freight rates through long-term contracts, and the company will continue to encourage creative solutions in its effort to contribute to stable energy transport services.
TOKYO: Asian markets fell Tuesday following a sharp sell-off in New York and Europe that was fuelled by fears a coronavirus resurgence will force fresh economically painful containment measures.

Traders have also given up almost any hope for a new US stimulus package being passed before next Tuesday's election, with Democrats and Republicans blaming each other, though there are still expectations a new deal will be agreed afterwards.

The need for a big-spending rescue for hard-hit Americans is being highlighted by a big jump in new infections across the country that observers fear will deal a blow to an already shaky economic recovery.

Data this week is expected to show record US growth in the third quarter thanks to a multi-trillion-dollar stimulus agreed earlier this year alongside huge Federal Reserve support.

However, that follows a record contraction in the second quarter, while economists have tipped the economy to shrink this year.

"The second and third wave spread of Covid-19 is possibly triggering a point of no return for some industries as the economic damage borders on irreversible," said Axi strategist Stephen Innes. "The Covid-19 induced downward spiral continues accelerating."

With an eye on next week's vote, he added: "We should expect price action to remain choppy in the days ahead, with investors very reluctant to put on any significant risk ahead of what promises to be a headline heavy week or two."

David Kelly, at JP Morgan Asset Management, added: "A stimulus bill in the lame-duck session is urgently needed and could be supplemented by a more comprehensive measure when the new Congress meets, early in 2021."

On Wall Street, the Dow suffered its worst day since early September, dropping more than two percent while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also suffered sharp losses. That came after Frankfurt was hammered more than three percent, with Paris and London shedding more than one percent.

And the selling continued in Asia, though the retreat was not as painful. Tokyo and Shanghai fell 0.3 percent, along with Taipei and Singapore. Hong Kong sank 0.4 percent, while Sydney, Wellington and Manila were all down more than one percent.

Seoul edged up slightly, though, after data showed the South Korean economy grew more than expected in the third quarter thanks to a big jump in exports. "The Covid case news flow has clearly resonated," Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, said in a note.

"The reflation trade which was working so beautifully is being part unwound—not because of election re-pricing, but due to the new wave of Covid cases."

Chinese e-payments giant Ant Group was planning to stop taking orders for the Hong Kong leg of its $34 billion mega-IPO owing to it being massively subscribed, Bloomberg News reported.

The dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai is tipped to be the biggest in history and would value the firm at about $315 billion, bigger than Wall Street financial titans Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. Its shares are slated to debut on November 5.

EU backs Nigerian bet as WTO head

LAGOS: Nigerian finance ministrer Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala picked up crucial backing from the European Union (EU) on Monday (Tuesday in Manila), sources said, giving her bid to become the first African head of the WTO a major boost.

The World Trade Organization will announce its new director general next month, but sources said the EU will publicly announce its support for the 66-year-old economist on Tuesday.

Okonjo-Iweala was Nigeria's first female finance minister and has long career at the World Bank as a development economist. She has emerged as the favourite to replace Brazil's Roberto Azevedo at the WTO, and to become the first director general from Africa and the first woman to lead the institution.

There is no leading European candidate for the post this time round, but some of the 27 EU member states backed South Korea's trade minister Yoo Myung-hee, the other candidate still in the race.

A first meeting on Monday failed to find consensus around the choice, but member state representatives reconvened and agreed to back Okonjo-Iweala.

One European source said that seven member states had asked that their preference for Yoo be recorded in the statement, but another said backing Okonjo-Iweala was "a clear signal to Africa and a sign of mutual trust."

The WTO's consultation process ends on Tuesday and the new leader is expected to be named in November.

If Okonjo-Iweala is confirmed she will join the WTO at difficult time, with the world facing a deep post-coronavirus recession and a crisis of confidence in free trade and globalization.

A trade war is brewing between the world's anchor economies—the United States and China—and the European Union will see G7 member Britain leave its single market at the end of the year.

US President Donald Trump faces a tough battle for re-election early next month, but under his leadership Washington's relationship with the WTO has suffered.

His administration has appealed a WTO ruling that faulted US duties imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese goods. Usually, the WTO Appellate Body would have three months to rule on any appeals filed.

But that process has been complicated since the WTO Appellate Body—also known as the supreme court of world trade—stopped functioning last December as the US blocked the appointment of new judges to the panel.

AIG names new CEO, splits operations

LEIPZIG: Insurance giant AIG announced a multi-part shake up on Monday (Tuesday in Manila), naming a new chief executive officer and splitting its business in two.

Once the world's largest insurer, which needed a US government bailout to survive the 2008 global financial crisis, named Peter S. Zaffino to lead AIG starting March 1, 2021, in addition to his current role as the company's president.

Current CEO Brian Duperreault will become executive chairman of the board, the company said in a statement. "Peter has been instrumental in the significant turnaround and transformation at AIG and his vision, determination and pursuit of excellence will help ensure the company's future success," Duperreault said.

AIG also announced plan to separate the Life & Retirement business from the General Insurance unit, simplifying the corporate structure to allow each to become more profitable. Zaffino said the decision came after a long review.

"Our businesses can be further strengthened by separating Life & Retirement from AIG, which we believe will enable each entity to achieve a more appropriate and sustainable valuation," Zaffino said.

Once the world's largest insurer, AIG was teetering on the verge of collapse under tens of billions of dollars of souring, unhedged derivatives contracts in September 2008 when it sought liquidity from the New York Fed.

The government saved AIG with a controversial $182 billion bailout that was later repaid in full by the insurer, which shed numerous units in years after the crisis.

The group also said Monday that it expects a third quarter pre-tax loss of $790 million in its catastrophe division, $185 million of which is related to Covid-19, including travel and event cancellations.

Another $605 million of losses come from storms in the Americas and Japan, as well as fires in the western United States. The company is set to releases its quarterly results on November 5.

Education in the new reality

One day, we will go back to our pre-coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) lives, but it will take a while even after the discovery of a vaccine. As we try to bring back "normalcy" in our society, we sense that our way of living, working and learning will never be the same.

This forced schools to shift their courses to online learning and that has been very problematic. With this new reality, educators all over the world have an opportunity to re-think about how education is to be delivered to succeed.

Despite the technological advancements, educators still largely favor the traditional face-to-face approach. As technology becomes an integral part of our daily lives, it is hard to imagine that it will not have a dominant role in our education system. In emergent situations like the Covid-19 pandemic, educators must totally embrace educational technology and online learning.

What is online learning and what is not?

Online learning is described as an emerging approach where students access education anytime and anywhere using a range of technology tools either asynchronously or synchronously.

Many schools resort to emergency remote teaching by lecturing online via Zoom or MS Teams. This is essentially not online learning since students cannot learn at their own pace. Our school curriculum is simply not designed for online delivery and bring it online using web-conferencing platforms will not work over the long term.

Technology integration in schools

Understanding technology integration is important because schools tend to select technologies that are inappropriate or unfitted. Technology integration is the well-coordinated use of digital tools for problem-solving, deeper learning and understanding. It facilitates access to curriculum but is not the curriculum itself. Educators must guide learners in using technology as a tool for accessing and understanding educational content.
Successful technology integration in the classroom lies in understanding technology's role in the classroom and placing our students — not the technology and the teacher — at the center of instruction. Technology is merely the vehicle that makes these things happen.

The need for a single digital learning platform

To succeed in online education, schools need to use a range of technologies, including a learning management system and content authoring tool. While it is tempting to use educational technology (ed-tech) tool out there, schools need to have a single digital platform that students can always visit to access content, tools, activities and assessments.

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application that provides the platform to manage all aspects of the learning process from content to assessments; while a content authoring tool is a software used to create content. These systems are quite expensive, difficult to implement, and unaffordable by smaller schools.

There are "free" LMS platforms that schools can use like the Google Classroom, but "free" is not true to its word as it misses a lot of the great things that paid LMS has to offer, such as gamification, microlearning and other engaging features.

When investing in an LMS, choose the authoring tools to allow educators to create interactive and engaging content. These will help educators spice up their usual teaching slides and videos by adding interactive elements, such as quizzes, multi-media or embed external resources.

Training teachers to successfully teach online

Many schools rush to move instruction online, leaving many educators unprepared and unfamiliar with online teaching. This is not an ideal, but educators must fly and reach for the sky.

Educators are doing their best in an extraordinary and endlessly changing situation, but their lack of training to successfully teach online has created a patchwork of quality and gaps in accessibility. The biggest challenges facing schools are the lack of financial resources and educators lack enough time for training to understand how to teach online.

Planning, designing and implementing an online course take time and the best training is
tailored to meet educators where they are and build on their knowledge.
Rethinking about assessments

Another challenge of online education is the teacher-students setup is no longer in the same room to collectively learn. In a virtual setting, most of learning time is driven by tasks that require a high level of self-direction.

In a traditional setting, countless policies and procedures put in place to maintain the integrity of assessments process, while in a virtual environment, things are very different. Teachers are not physically present to monitor their students when conducting activities and assessments. Now, everything is possible, and schools can never deliver assessments in the same way they have before.

Educators must rethink about assessments and start moving away from the multiple-choice exam design. Educators can instead prioritize longer, student-driven assignments and tasks, such as collaborative projects, online presentation, case studies or even blogging.

Effective assessments in a virtual environment require schools to map and choose the right technology to use for assessments.

Educators on the other hand should provide authentic assessments that mimic more real-world interactions and design assessments that measures actual learning outcomes.

Blended learning as the new normal in education

In the new reality, more classrooms will adopt and implement blended learning, which has emerged as a far more flexible model for learning. The use of education technology has led to the rise of this new approach.

Why is blended learning the future of education?

This is because it caters to the strengths and weaknesses of each student than traditional face-to-face approaches to education. Blended learning is beyond the barriers of space and time.

An important step in effective implementation of blended learning in schools is to choose the right digital learning platform (i.e. LMS). This will enable personalized learning for every student, allowing them to learn at their own pace, and access multiple content types so that they can choose the format that best helps them understand complex concepts.

By the time the world returns to "normal," schools would have adapted to online learning, invested in digital learning platforms, and discovered how much more cost effective it can be than traditional education.

So, which do you prefer? Traditional or blended? Take your pick.

40 PH firms to showcase healthy, natural food exports in China expo

Forty Philippine agencies are set to exhibit diverse healthful and herbal meals alternatives in the u . S . A .'s 1/3 participation inside the China International Import Expo (CIIE) on the National Exhibition and Convention Center, Shanghai, China on November 5 to 10, 2020. In a assertion on Tuesday, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) stated the Philippine delegation will awareness on healthy and herbal meals merchandise to tap into the growing call for for nutritious culmination, snacks and substances in China. The delegation is beneath the FOODPhilippines banner led by way of DTI thru the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem).

Food segments that will be featured are tropical fruits and greens, processed end result and nuts, wholesome snacks, seafood and marine products, and other top class food selections. "Exciting products so as to be featured from the Philippines are our deltamarket scam   luscious mangoes, sweet bananas, flexible coconuts, and tangy pineapple. We want the Chinese marketplace to look the Filipino ingenuity and creativity in transforming those end result into scrumptious snacks, clean juices, and different flavorful offerings," said Citem Executive Director Pauline Suaco-Juan. The FOODPhilippines pavilion may also show off emerging tropical culmination along with durian, calamansi (Philippine lime), guava, and ardour fruit. Seafood merchandise together with tuna, milkfish, squid, and shrimp may also be to be had in exceptional packaging, together with frozen cuts, in can and sausages.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued the hints at the conversion of groups both to a one person company (OPC) or to an ordinary inventory organization (OSC) via SEC Memorandum Circular 27, Series of 2020 (SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020). This is in line with Sections 131 and 132 of Republic Act No. 11232 or the "Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines" (RCC), which permits the conversion from an OSC to an OPC, and an OPC to an OSC respectively. SEC MC 20, s. Of 2020 took impact on Oct. Sixteen, 2020.

SEC MC No. 27, s. Of 2020 is divided into 3 components: the primary element pertains to conversion from OSC to OPC; the second component, conversion from OPC to OSC; and the 0.33 part on provisions commonplace to each sorts of conversion. Below are a number of the salient features of SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020.

Conversion from OSC to OPC

A herbal man or woman of felony age, a believe, or an property (unmarried stockholder) may also observe for the conversion of an OSC to an OPC if he has received all the OSC's exceptional capital shares and has received the required certificate authorizing registration or tax clearance from the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The conversion may also then be processed as an amendment of the articles of incorporation (AOI) thru the submission of the required files to the SEC (Section 1, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

Once the SEC problems the certificates of submitting of the amended AOI reflecting such conversion to an OPC, the OSC's AOI and Bylaws shall be deemed superseded (Section 2, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020) and the OPC transformed from an OSC shall be successful the latter and be legally chargeable for all the latter's notable liabilities as of the date of approval of the conversion (Section four, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020). Please take note that the authentic SEC registration variety will still be retained however the corporate name will bear the OPC suffix (Section 3, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

Conversion from OPC to OSC

Once the shares in an OPC ceases to be entirely held by a unmarried stockholder, a conversion to an OSC can also come into region. This can be finished after due notice to the SEC of such facts and of such instances leading to the conversion, and after compliance with all of the requirements for an OSC. The commission determines, after assessment of the documentary requirements, if such conversion is applicable (Section 7, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

Following the transfer/s of shares in an OPC in which there are now as a minimum  stockholders in what changed into once the OPC, a notice of conversion of an OPC into an OSC will be filed with the commission within 60 days from such transfer/s of stocks. The duration for submitting the attention will be discovered even though the conversion will be carried out for, or will take region, later on (Section eight, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

However, if the awareness is filed beyond the 60-day length from the switch of shares, the conversion into an OSC may still be approved however is already concern to prior fee of penalty if located answerable for the violation of Section 132, in relation to Section 158 of the RCC on administrative sanctions, after due observe and listening to (Section 10, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

The OPC's AOI shall be deemed superseded as soon as the SEC problems the certificate of filing of the amended AOI reflecting such conversion to an OSC (Section eleven, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020) and the OSC converted from an OPC shall be successful the latter and be legally responsible for all the latter's first-rate liabilities as of the date of conversion (Section 13, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

The certificates of submitting of amended AOI and bylaws shall nonetheless endure the original SEC registration wide variety. Please notice additionally that the "OPC" suffix must be removed (Section 12, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

Provisions common to both varieties of conversion

Below are the not unusual provisions to each sorts of conversion:

The signatory or signatories within the AOI of the transformed business enterprise must genuinely country that they voluntarily agreed to the conversion applicable to them (Section 15, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

The cause of the character of the conversion from an OSC to OPC shall be deemed as optional; while for the conversion from an OPC to OSC, that is considered mandatory, except when the winding-up and dissolution are suitable (Section sixteen, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).

In case of competition or dispute springing up from the conversion, the aggrieved birthday celebration may also document a demonstrated petition for cancellation of the issued certificates with the SEC's Company Registration and Monitoring Department (CRMD), on the floor of fraud inside the procurement, according with the SEC's applicable legal guidelines and different rules or issuances (Section 18, SEC MC 27, s. Of 2020).