It may have been cold outside recently, but inside Britain’s homes punters have been devouring Domino’s hot dog stuffed-crust pizza in huge numbers.
Domino’s Pizza today hailed this and other new products for driving UK underlying sales up by 6.6 per cent in its first quarter, as the recent, near-Arctic conditions showed few signs of impeding the progress of its army of delivery mopeds.
The tasty update reassured investors after an initial slow start to the quarter and shares in Domino’s jumped by more than 6 per cent today.
The group said its recent trading had also been boosted by a successful short price promotion and flattered by being up against weaker comparable sales during the same period last year.
Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram said: “After a relatively lacklustre first few weeks of the year, quarter one finished strongly.
“New products and the continued growth of the ecommerce channel continue to provide encouragement, as does the momentum in European markets.”
The company is expected to announce a new HTC smartphone running a special Facebook-centric version of Android on Thursday, according to numerous rumors and leaks on tech sites and major publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and 9to5Google.
Expanded smartphone integration is a logical step for the social media company, which has been working hard to increase its mobile presence and make more money off of mobile advertising.
The only official hint doled out by Facebook so far is that the announcement has something to do with Google's Android mobile operating system, with the invite asking press to "Come see our new home on Android" at its Menlo Park, California headquarters.
Armstrong, who in January confessed to doping throughout most of his cycling career, is slated to compete at the Masters South Central Zone Swimming Championships this weekend in his adopted hometown, Austin, Tex. He has been training for the event for several months and plans to swim in the meet’s three longest races.
Some sporting officials, however, are warning him not to dive into the pool just yet. Though Ed Coates, the director of this weekend’s masters meet, and Rob Butcher, the executive director of U.S. Masters Swimming, said Armstrong was free to compete in the event, officials from the International Swimming Federation on Thursday morning were reviewing their rules to determine Armstrong’s eligibility.
This weekend’s masters event, in which Armstrong would compete in the 40-44 age category, is sanctioned by South Texas LMSC, an arm of U.S. Masters Swimming, which is a member of United States Aquatic Sports. And therein is the potential problem for Armstrong, who came clean several months ago partly to try to reduce his lifetime ban because he so badly wants to compete again.
United States Aquatic Sports is a member of the International Swimming Federation, which goes by FINA, its initials in French. FINA oversees Olympic swimming and so it follows the World Anti-Doping Code under which Armstrong is serving his ban.
Armstrong, 41, did not return a text message for comment.
The phone was a prototype that would later be introduced to the market as the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x. Weighing “just” 2.5 pounds, it could also double as a weight for a user’s morning powerwalk. The best part about this phone – which sported an LED screen capable of a one-line, text-only display – was that it was available for the low price of $4,000.
All kidding aside, the introduction of this phone paved the way for the modern, ultra-thin, super-light smartphones of today. We do so much with our phones nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a time when cell phones were exclusive symbols of wealth and importance.
We can remember a time when we were plopped down on our couches, watching TV, and someone pulled out their giant cell phone, and we stared in awe as they were able to make a phone call…walking down the street! How could it be? What sorcery is this?!
Oh how we longed to get our hands on one.
Fast forward to today, and instead of being in awe, we hardly notice. Except, of course, when someone is talking exceptionally loud in a restaurant or on a crowded train…
Yes, the times certainly have changed, and we’ve come a long, long way.
In honor of this day, we ask you: when did you get your first cell phone? Do you remember the model? The size? The cost?
In his first start of the season, Rangers starter Yu Darvish threw 8 2/3 perfect innings against the Astros in Houston in a 7-0 win for Texas. The 26-year-old Darvish struck out 14 batters in the game.
With his pitch count escalating, Darvish got designated hitter Jason Castro to ground out to the shortstop to start the ninth inning. Catcher Carlos Corporan followed with a ground out to second base. But on Darvish's first pitch to shortstop Marwin Gonzalez -- his 111th pitch of the evening -- Gonzalez smacked a ground-ball base hit up the middle. Rangers manager Ron Washington pulled the pitcher after he allowed the first Astros' hit of the night.
The Astros were on the wrong end of a perfect game last June, when the San Francisco Giants' Matt Cain victimized them in one of the most dominant pitching performances ever.
Rangers catcher A.J. Pierzynski caught Philip Humber's perfect game at Safeco Field in Seattle on April 21, 2012 while a member of the Chicago White Sox. He also caught Mark Buehrle's no-hitter on April 18, 2007.
To date, there have been 23 perfect games in major league history. The most recent came from the Mariners' Felix Hernandez on Aug. 15, 2012.
Darvish signed a six-year, $56 million contract with the Rangers last offseason after pitching in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league for five seasons. He went 76-28 with a 1.72 ERA for his career in Japan.
Apple is also working on a cheaper iPhone model that could win it market share in developing countries, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report was in line with analysts’ expectations.
The iPhone 5 costs about $600, and while Apple maintains older iPhones in production, even those aren’t cheap enough to compete effectively against low-end smartphones that run on Google Inc.’s Android software.
Apple does not comment on products before its launch events. Its executives usually emphasize that the company’s goal is to make the best products, not the cheapest ones.
The Swiss creators of the Solar Impulse are announcing Thursday which U.S. cities the experimental plane will visit during its "Across America" tour that kicks off in May.
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will display the aircraft and discuss the cross-country trip at a news conference at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
Pizza Hut has found a new way to feed Americans more cheese — a pizza crust made of little cheese-stuffed bread bowls.
The chain on Wednesday is introducing a new pizza that comes surrounded by 16 semi-circles of cheese that can be pulled off and eaten separately. The "Crazy Cheesy Crust," which will be available for several weeks, isn't the first time Pizza Hut has incorporated cheese into its crusts.
In 1995, the chain introduced its Stuffed Crust Pizza as a limited-time offer but the pies were such a hit that they soon became a permanent part of the menu.
Even as fast-food chains increasingly look to cater to health-conscious diners, Pizza Hut's latest invention shows Americans still have an appetite for indulgent new creations. Burger King, for example, recently rolled out its first turkey burger as part of a limited-time spring menu. But the menu also included a burger stuffed with bacon and cheddar cheese, as well as tater tots stuffed with bacon and sweet onions.
Pizza Hut has also offered variations of the cheese-stuffed crust with pepperoni and other toppings hidden inside. Fast-food fanatics may also notice that the latest pizza has a similar shape to the chain's "Crown Crust" pie that was introduced in the Middle East a year ago. That pie, which comes surrounded by mini-cheeseburgers, isn't available in the U.S. but images of it have circulated widely online. In Japan and Thailand, Pizza Hut has also offered pizzas with hot dog-stuffed crusts.
Sidney Crosby has a broken jaw and is out indefinitely after being hit in the mouth with a puck during a win against the New York Islanders on Saturday.
The Pittsburgh Penguins said on the team website Sunday that Crosby had surgery Saturday night, and there will be an update on his status later in the week.
Crosby, the NHL's leading scorer, was struck in the face during the first period of the Penguins' 2-0 win. Slow-motion replays showed multiple teeth flying out of his mouth after the puck struck him during his first shift. The team said Crosby had "major dental work" and will have more done later in the week.
The ballpark sold nearly 20,000 of the monster hot dogs during the 2012 season — the Boomstick's inaugural year — raking in an estimated $500,000 in sales.
"We knew it was going to be a fun novelty type item, but it just really took off," said Shawn Mattox, the general manager for Delaware North Sportservice, which runs food operations at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. "It quickly became a fan favorite."