Sometimes companies do stupid things to market their products. A silly commercial here. A ridiculous junket there
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ZlqY6xeCbjM/samsung-just-got-fined-340-000-for-paying-people-to-ba-1451367955
FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2012 file photo Singer Kanye West and girlfriend Kim Kardashian attend Gabrielle's Angel Foundation 2012 Angel Ball cancer research benefit at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. Marriage is coming after the baby carriage for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. E! News reports West proposed to Kardashian Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, on Kardashian's 33rd birthday, in front of family and friends at the AT&T Park. Kardashian gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter North West, in June. Representatives for 36-year-old West and Kardashian didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment about the engagement. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2012 file photo Singer Kanye West and girlfriend Kim Kardashian attend Gabrielle's Angel Foundation 2012 Angel Ball cancer research benefit at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. Marriage is coming after the baby carriage for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. E! News reports West proposed to Kardashian Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, on Kardashian's 33rd birthday, in front of family and friends at the AT&T Park. Kardashian gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter North West, in June. Representatives for 36-year-old West and Kardashian didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment about the engagement. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2013 file photo, Kanye West, left, and Kim Kardashian leave after attending Givenchy's ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2014 fashion collection in Paris. Marriage is coming after the baby carriage for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. E! News reports West proposed to Kardashian Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, on Kardashian's 33rd birthday, in front of family and friends at the AT&T Park. Kardashian gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter North West, in June. Representatives for 36-year-old West and Kardashian didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment about the engagement. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)
FILE - In this May 6, 2013 file photo, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit celebrating "PUNK: Chaos to Couture" in New York. Marriage is coming after the baby carriage for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. E! News reports West proposed to Kardashian Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, on Kardashian's 33rd birthday, in front of family and friends at the AT&T Park. Kardashian gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter North West, in June. Representatives for 36-year-old West and Kardashian didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment about the engagement. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2013 file photo, Kanye West, left, and Kim Kardashian arrive to attend Givenchy's ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2014 fashion collection in Paris. Marriage is coming after the baby carriage for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. E! News reports West proposed to Kardashian Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, on Kardashian's 33rd birthday, in front of family and friends at the AT&T Park. Kardashian gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter North West, in June. Representatives for 36-year-old West and Kardashian didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment about the engagement. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer, file)
Kanye West speaks on stage at the 17th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Marriage is coming after the baby carriage for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Kardashian's publicist, Ina Treciokas, confirmed Tuesday that the couple are engaged.
E! News first reported that West proposed to Kardashian Monday — her 33rd birthday — in front of family and friends at the AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.
Kardashian gave birth to the couple's first child, daughter North West, in June.
A photo posted on Instagram shows a screen at the stadium that reads "PLEEEASE MARRY MEEE!!!" — in typical West font — above a black-clad orchestra. Another shows Kardashian showing off a diamond ring with a smiling West behind her.
The Kardashian clan has a series of reality shows on E!, and, after initially saying it didn't have cameras at the stadium, the network said late Tuesday it did have cameras there to capture the moment.
Khloe Kardashian seemed to celebrate on Twitter when she wrote: "Tears of JOY!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!" She also tweeted: "Wow!!!!! Am I dreaming??!?!" Kimye were quiet on Twitter.
Kardashian was previously married to NBA player Kris Humphries. Their divorce was finalized in June after they were married for 72 days in 2011. Her first marriage was to music producer Damon Thomas in 2000.
West is currently on a tour with Kendrick Lamar. "The Yeezus Tour" will visit the SAP Center in San Jose on Tuesday night. Earlier Monday, he attended the Hollywood Film Awards in Beverly Hills, presenting Steve McQueen with the Hollywood Breakout Director Award.
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Follow Mesfin Fekadu at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin
Associated Press
Motorola, as it's done for the other carriers, has released the full changelog for the most recent update to Verizon's Moto X. The camera improvements are the big strokes, of course, but there's a good bit more to the update.
Here's what's new in version 139.15.1:
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/pXWRWAYpb8U/story01.htmNEW YORK (AP) — The end of the year looks busy for Carrie Underwood, and she couldn't be happier.
The six-time Grammy-winning singer will host the Country Music Association Awards for the sixth time. You can see her singing the opening on NBC's "Sunday Night Football." And for one night in December, she'll star in a live television version of "The Sound of Music."
The 30-year-old star told the Associated Press on the red carpet Tuesday night at the TJ Martell Foundation gala, where she was one of the night's honorees, that she nervous doing something she's never done before. But then she realized, "None of us have. This is a live show on TV. So this is definitely a challenge for all of us."
She said the live singing and acting was like "going to a Broadway show, but you're in your living room."
"The Sound of Music" airs Dec. 5 on NBC with Underwood playing Maria alongside "True Blood" vampire Stephen Moyer. He portrays Captain von Trapp. Broadway veterans — and Tony winners — Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle round out the cast as Mother Abbess, Elsa and Max.
While the Nashville, Tenn.-based Underwood is no stranger to performing before millions of people on live television — she won the fourth season of "American Idol" — she felt she needed more preparation, so she showed up in New York three weeks early.
"I wanted to be here and have all my lines memorized and everything and be ready for it. It's been really wonderful," Underwood said. "Audra and Laura are incredible. Stephen's great. It's nice to be surrounded by that much talent."
Before doing that show, the multiplatinum-selling artist returns to her hosting duties on the CMAs. She's nominated for three awards, including album of the year and song of the year. While she and co-host Brad Paisley have it down to a science, she doesn't see the experience as old hat.
"You never know what's going to happen with us hosting," Underwood joked.
She added: "I think being nominated — especially when hosting the CMAs — you just never know."
The CMAs take place Nov. 6 in Nashville.
Underwood also spoke about recording the opening number this season for "Sunday Night Football." She claims doing it was a no-brainer.
"It's a lot of fun. I grew up watching football. I'm from Oklahoma, it's what we do," she said with a big smile.
The conversation then turned to hockey and her husband Mike Fisher's team, the Nashville Predators.
"They got off to a little bit of rocky start, but definitely getting some momentum. I feel like my husband right now. I know what he feels like now. I feel there's some really great, new young talent," Underwood said.
And what about the team's star center?
"My hubby, he's been out for the past couple of games with a foot fracture thing. But he'll be back on the ice, ASAP. I hope he does, because that's the only way I get to see him, other than iChat."
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Follow John Carucci at —http://www.twitter.com/jacarucci
In this April 12, 2013, file photo, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee on President Barack Obama's budget proposal for fiscal year 2014, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Three weeks after the nation's new health care law went into effect, President Obama said there was "no excuse" for the cascade of computer problems that have marred the rollout of a key element in his health care law, but declared he was confident the administration would be able to fix the issues. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
In this April 12, 2013, file photo, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee on President Barack Obama's budget proposal for fiscal year 2014, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Three weeks after the nation's new health care law went into effect, President Obama said there was "no excuse" for the cascade of computer problems that have marred the rollout of a key element in his health care law, but declared he was confident the administration would be able to fix the issues. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gets into her car after she and cabinet received the dismissal documents from German President Joachim Gauck at the Bellevue palace in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. Following the Sept. 22, national election Angela Merkel and her cabinet will stay in charge as acting government. Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian parties' block start coalition talks about a new government with the Social Democratic Party on Wednesday. ( (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Philip Chism, 14, stands during his arraignment for the death of Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer as his attorney Denise Regan speaks on his behalf in Salem District Court in Salem, Mass., Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. Chism has been ordered held without bail. (AP Photo/Boston Herald, Patrick Whittemore) MANDATORY CREDIT
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday:
1. WHY ANGELA MERKEL CALLED OBAMA TO COMPLAIN
Germany says it received information that the U.S. may have targeted the chancellor's cellphone.
2. DEMOCRATS FRUSTRATED WITH HEALTH CARE WEBSITE WOES
"I think the president needs to man up, find out who was responsible and fire them," Rep. Richard Nolan, D-Minn., says.
3. WHAT DEFENSE THE BOSTON MARATHON SUSPECT MAY USE
Tsarnaev's lawyers may try to save him from the death penalty by arguing he fell under the influence of his older brother, experts say.
4. TESTS SUGGEST BABY BORN WITH HIV IN REMISSION
A report says the Mississippi girl, now 3, shows no active infection after she was treated aggressively 30 hours after birth.
5. HOW NORWAY TRIED TO STOP THE KENYA MALL SUSPECT
The country's domestic intelligence service attempted to prevent one of the suspected gunmen from joining Somali militants more than three years ago.
6. KENNEDY COUSIN SKAKEL WINS NEW TRIAL IN 1975 DEATH
A Connecticut judge rules his attorney failed to adequately represent him when he was convicted in 2002.
7. SOFT-SPOKEN MASS. TEEN ACCUSED OF KILLING TEACHER
Officials recovered the remains of the 24-year-old victim in the woods behind the school.
8. WHO HASN'T PAID MILLIONS IN BACK TAXES
Nearly 700 employees of Internal Revenue Service contractors owe $5.4 million, a report says.
9. WHAT'S SECRET ABOUT MITT ROMNEY'S NEW HOUSE IN UTAH
The home's study has a bookcase that swivels open and leads into a hidden room, according to plans obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
10. STUDY RECOMMENDS HIGH-DOSE FLU SHOTS FOR ELDERLY
Experts say regular flu shots tend to be only about 30 to 40 percent effective in people 65 and older.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-23-10%20Things%20to%20Know%20for%20Thursday/id-1ce81cc21f804a26bdf4b800b457eacdBy Laura Zuckerman
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The body of a missing hiker has been recovered at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in central Idaho after a month-long search hampered by the recent U.S. government shutdown.
The remains of Jodean Elliott-Blakeslee, 63, were spotted on Tuesday evening during a helicopter search of the vast lava fields at the National Park Service site where she and her hiking partner, Amelia Linkert, were reported missing on September 24.
Searchers last month found Linkert dead from exposure. An Idaho coroner is determining how Elliott-Blakeslee perished, park officials said.
At its height, the search for the Boise-based physician drew helicopters, dog teams and as many 100 individuals from other U.S. parks, but those efforts were scaled back in part because of a congressional budget impasse that halted government operations on October 1. The government reopened last week after Congress passed a temporary spending measure that President Barack Obama signed into law.
Ted Stout and several other Craters of the Moon workers furloughed during the shutdown nevertheless continued to search for Elliott-Blakeslee across the Idaho park's 750,000 acres of volcanic rifts, cinder cones and underground tunnels carved by ancient lava flows.
"We can't let her down now. This needs to continue," Stout, the park's chief of interpretation and education, said the day after he and park officials were laid off.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Lisa Shumaker)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/idaho-hikers-body-found-search-hampered-government-shutdown-045834953.htmlPhil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, introduces the new iPad Air on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, introduces the new iPad Air on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage before a new product introduction on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple, speaks on stage before a new product announcement on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage before a new product introduction on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple, speaks on stage before a new product announcement on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple Inc. is refreshing its iPad lineup in hopes of reclaiming lost ground in the tablet market and slashing the prices of its Mac computers to intensify the pressure on the beleaguered makers of PCs running Microsoft's Windows.
Tuesday's unveiling of Apple's latest products primes the company for a holiday shopping season onslaught aimed at a list of rivals that includes Google Inc., Samsung Electronics, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
A thinner, lighter and faster-running tablet computer called the iPad Air highlighted the event in San Francisco. Apple Inc. also showed off a souped-up iPad Mini that boasts a faster microprocessor, a high-definition display screen and a higher price than its predecessor.
The iPad upgrades, coming a year after the release of the tablet's previous generation, fell largely in line with analyst expectations.
In a surprise, Apple is introducing slightly revamped MacBook Pros at prices 9 percent to 13 percent below the previous versions. What's more, Apple is giving away its latest Mac operating system — Mavericks — for free, as well as several pieces of software, including programs called iWorks and iLife that provide many of the same tools as Microsoft's Office.
"We are turning the industry on its ear," Apple CEO Tim Cook said of the company's strategy.
Technology analyst Patrick Moorhead predicted the discounted MacBook Pros will force personal computer makers to cut the prices of their machines by at least $100 for the holidays.
And Ovum analyst Jan Dawson thinks Apple's giveaway of the operating system and software programs "is now teaching people to expect both of those things to be free. While this won't disrupt Microsoft's business overnight, it will create further pressure on Microsoft to bring down prices."
If that happens, it would be another blow for Microsoft, which has seen its Windows revenue suffer in recent years as personal computer sales sink amid a shift to smartphones and tablets.
Apple triggered the upheaval with the 2007 release of the first iPhone followed up with the 2010 introduction of the iPad.
While both products have a fierce following, Apple has been losing market share to rivals who primarily make mobile devices running on Google's Android software. As Apple is now doing with its Mavericks software for Macs, Google gives away Android to device makers who can afford to undercut the prices for iPhones and iPads.
Despite the competitive pressure, Apple has steadfastly refused to cut prices on its top-of-the-line products. Instead, it has sold older versions of its Phones and iPads at slight discounts to consumers who are willing to settle for something less than state-of-the-art technology.
The Cupertino, Calif. company is hewing to that philosophy with its latest tablets. The iPad Air will start at $499, just like its predecessors, while the new iPad Mini will sell for $399 — a 21 percent increase from the price of the first Mini. The price of the original Mini, which runs at slower speeds and lacks a high-definition display screen, is falling from $329 to $299.
As it has done for more than year, Apple will continue selling the iPad 2 — a tablet that came out two-and-half years ago — for $399.
"Apple doesn't want to play in the mud with declining prices" on iPads, Moorhead said.
The strategy hasn't been a hit with investors who are unhappy with the Cupertino, Calif. company's slowing growth as it loses sales to lower-priced alternatives. Wall Street also is disillusioned with Apple's lack of another breakthrough product since the death of co-founder and chief visionary Steve Jobs two years ago.
Apple's stock dipped $1.49 to close at $519.87 Tuesday. The shares remain about 25 percent below their peak reached 13 months ago.
The iPad Air's main appeal is a more svelte design and a faster microprocessor, the same kind of chip in the iPhone 5S that Apple released a month ago. The new tablet weighs just 1 pound, compared with 1.4 pounds for the previous version. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller hailed it as a "screaming fast iPad," noting that it is eight times faster than the original model that came out in 2010.
The iPad Air will go on sale Nov. 1. The new iPad Mini will be available at a still-to-be-determined date later in November.
They are coming out at a time when Apple needs to reassert itself in a tablet market. Google, Amazon.com and Samsung have been winning over consumers with flashy tablets that sell for $200 to $400. None of the rivals boast the 475,000 apps that Apple says are made for the iPad, but that vast selection hasn't mattered to many cost-conscious consumers.
The research firm Gartner Inc. estimates that Android tablets will end 2013 with a 50 percent share of the worldwide market versus 49 percent for the iPad. Just two years ago, the iPad commanded a 65 percent market share compared to 30 percent for Android tablets.
Apple sold 14.6 million iPads during the three months ending in June, down 14 percent from the same time last year. It marked the first time Apple has posted a year-over-year decline in iPad sales.
It might have happened again in the latest quarter ending in September. Although Apple isn't scheduled to report its results for the latest quarter until next Monday, a statistic released at Tuesday's event gave a hint of how the iPad fared in the period.
Cook said Apple's total iPad sales since the device's inception surpassed 170 million units earlier this month. Given that Apple sold 155 million iPads through June, that means fewer than 15 million were sold in the quarter ending in September. Apple sold 14 million iPads in last year's quarter ending in September.
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Ortutay reported from New York.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-22-US-TEC-Apple-Event/id-aacb1e53d77d46bda1e6493421b1a5d1Do you have an exit strategy for you and yours in place, should a major earthquake, terrorist attack, or similar large scale disaster occur? You should. And with the help of San Francisco's new social emergency preparation website, you will.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ov9j7xODn1s/san-francisco-launches-a-website-to-prep-for-the-big-on-1448746040Dennis Coffey.
The Motor City's own Dennis Coffey joins us for this installment of Sense of Place: Detroit. The veteran musician holds strong ties to the city's R&B and soul sound. As a guitarist and producer, Coffey spent a good amount of time in Motown's Studio A, which artists dubbed "the snake pit."
On Wednesday's episode of World Cafe, Coffey talks with host David Dye about getting on producer Norman Whitfield's good side at Motown after playing the wah-wah pedal in the classic opening of The Temptations' "Cloud Nine." Coffey also takes a moment to describe the creation of his huge instrumental hit, "Scorpio."
BOSTON (AP) — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers may try to save him from the death penalty in the Boston Marathon bombing by arguing he fell under the murderous influence of his older brother, legal experts say.
The outlines of a possible defense came into focus this week when it was learned that Tsarnaev's attorneys are trying to get access to investigative records implicating the now-dead brother in a grisly triple slaying committed in 2011.
In court papers Monday, federal prosecutors acknowledged publicly for the first time that a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev told investigators that Tamerlan participated in the unsolved killings of three men who were found in a Waltham apartment with their throats slit, marijuana sprinkled over their bodies.
The younger Tsarnaev's lawyers argued in court papers that any evidence of Tamerlan's involvement is "mitigating information" that is critical as they prepare Dzhokhar's defense. They asked a judge to force prosecutors to turn over the records.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction, in the twin bombings April 15 that killed three people and injured more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gunbattle with police days later.
The government is still deciding whether to pursue the death penalty for the attack, which investigators say was retaliation for the U.S. wars in Muslim lands.
Miriam Conrad, Tsarnaev's public defender, had no comment.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the defense may be trying to show that the older brother was the guiding force.
"If I was a defense attorney and was seeking perhaps to draw attention to the influence the older brother had in planning the bombing, I would use his involvement in other crimes to show that he was likely the main perpetrator in the Boston bombing," Dieter said.
"I would take the position that my client, the younger brother, was strongly influenced by his older brother, and even if he is culpable, the death penalty is too extreme in this case."
Similarly, Aitan D. Goelman, who was part of the legal team that prosecuted Oklahoma City bombing figures Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, said the defense may be looking to minimize the younger brother's role in the bombing.
"I think the mostly likely reason is that if they are arguing some kind of mitigation theory that the older brother was a monster and the younger brother was under his sway or intimidated or dominated by him," he said.
Investigators have given no motive for the 2011 slayings. One victim was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's.
Federal prosecutors said in court papers that Ibragim Todashev, another friend of Tamerlan's, told authorities that Tamerlan took part in the killings. Todashev was shot to death in Florida in May by authorities while being questioned.
Prosecutors argued that turning over the records would damage the investigation into the killings.
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Smith reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writer Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's economy grew 6.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2013 from 6.4 percent in the same period a year ago, but weakened compared with the first quarter, official data showed on Wednesday.
The economy grew by 7.5 percent in this year's first quarter, according to the state-run National Bureau of Statistics.
East Africa's second-largest economy is targeting GDP growth of 7 percent this year, slightly higher than the 6.9 percent achieved in 2012. Growth in the second quarter was driven by growth in financial services and communications sectors, while the fishing sector lagged, NBS said in a report.
Financial services grew fastest at 15.2 percent, from 11 percent in the same quarter in 2012.
Tanzania's economy has been growing at more than 5 percent a year for nearly a decade but infrastructure spending has lagged, with poor transport links and energy shortages blamed for uneven growth.
Transport and communication grew at 14.8 percent compared with 13.6 percent in the same period in 2012, but was at a slower rate than the 22.2 percent it attained in the first quarter of this year.
Construction grew by 12.3 percent, compared with 4.3 percent in the year-ago period, while mining and quarrying in Africa's fourth-largest gold producer rebounded to 4.3 percent from a negative growth rate of 5.1 percent a year ago.
Gold output fell to 9.827 tonnes in the second quarter of 2013 compared to 9.963 tonnes a year ago.
"The growth rate (of the mining sector) was attributed to increased production of diamonds and Tanzanite," NBS said.
Tanzanite is a blue/purple mineral found only in Tanzania.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tanzania-says-gdp-growth-rises-6-7-pct-120030022--sector.htmlOctober 23, 2013
By Florence Ion | TechHive
It's not even Hump Day yet and already we're salivating over Apple's new arsenal of gadget releases. The iPad Air made a particularly big splash in Apple's hour-long event with the news that it features the 64-bit A7 processor and a 48 percent thinner chassis, while dropping the weight to a measly one pound.
Its body and build quality alone reinforces the fact that Apple's penchant for product design is its strongest weapon in the gadget wars, but its the specs and content offerings that will determine whether or not you shell out $499 for it come November 1. Here's a quick overview of how the iPad Air stacks up to the three latest large tablets out on the market, including Microsoft's recently launched Surface 2, Nokia's just-announced Lumia 2520, and Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, which was announced earlier this month.
[ Also on InfoWorld: The new iPads: Want thrills? Look elsewhere. | See InfoWorld's recommendations for a road warrior's must-have mobile toolkit, and discover the best productivity apps for your iPad. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobile Edge blog and Mobilize newsletter. ]
The latest tablet landscape and the affordable price points make choosing a device to bring home perhaps one of the hardest buying decisions. The question is no longer which tablet gives you the most bang for its buck, but which will meet your needs the best.
Thin is in
You certainly wouldn't want to lug around a bloated, too-thick tablet, would you? Apple's new iPad Air is the thinnest of the latest tablets. At 0.29 inches, its almost paper-thin chassis makes the Surface 2, Lumia 2520, and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 look and feel like antiquated hardback books. But it's not the most compact: the HDX 8.9 is smaller and weighs less than the iPad Air, making it the most stowable device of the bunch. Of course, its screen is smaller, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is going into uncharted waters. It is deep-sixing the giant paper nautical charts that they've been printing for mariners for more than 150 years.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday that the traditional paper charts won't be printed after next April.
NOAA's Capt. Shep Smith said the agency will still chart the water for rocks, shipwrecks and dangers, but mariners will have to see the information using private on-demand printing, PDFs and electronic maps.
The 4-by-3 foot roadmaps of the oceans won't be printed because of the Federal Aviation Administration. Smith said the FAA took over federal chart-making in the 1990s and recently told NOAA it will stop making the charts to save money.
Detroit officially makes its case for bankruptcy before a federal judge on Wednesday. The city is currently saddled with $18 billion in long-term debt, and officials see bankruptcy as their only choice.
Detroit officially makes its case for bankruptcy before a federal judge on Wednesday. The city is currently saddled with $18 billion in long-term debt, and officials see bankruptcy as their only choice.
In Detroit on Wednesday, a federal trial begins that will determine whether that city is eligible for the nation's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy.
Hundreds of the city's creditors are lining up to oppose the bankruptcy, arguing that Detroit is violating Michigan's constitution and that if officials tried harder they could find enough savings to pay the city's bills.
Officials here say a declining population, decades of mismanagement and at times corrupt city government has cost Detroit a lot of tax revenue, leaving it drowning in red ink.
So much so that in March, the governor appointed Kevyn Orr to be an emergency manager and take control of the city's finances. He spent months crafting payment arrangements with some creditors, but hundreds of others rejected offers that amounted to accepting pennies for every dollar they were owed by Detroit.
Orr says that leaves Detroit with roughly $18 billion in long-term debt, and no other option but bankruptcy.
"There's no way out," Orr says. "The mountain of debt we have to climb over simply is insurmountable without some kind of process to resolve it. We simply cannot pay it. That's it."
Where Business Stands
Detroit's business community overwhelmingly agrees with Orr.
Dan Gilbert owns Quicken Loans, the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and in recent months has bought more than $1 billion worth of buildings in Detroit's downtown. He's betting that Chapter 9 protection will allow Detroit to get out from under its crushing debt load and pour money back into city services, which would help make his investments pay off.
"As hard as that is to sort of suspend democracy, for a short period of time if you will, my view is, let's get it over with," Gilbert says. "Let's get it done. Let's stop talking about it [and] go through the pain and then move forward, and I think it will fade into the background."
But some of Detroit's longest-standing creditors are fighting a bankruptcy declaration, arguing that it would create big problems for them.
At the headquarters of AFSCME Council 25, the union representing the majority of city workers here, a half-dozen retirees are making phone calls. Juanita Scott says Detroit's potential bankruptcy puts her pension, her health care and her future on the chopping block.
"Because they're going to cut my medical, that's going to really hurt me bad," says the 86-year-old Scott. "Right now I'm under three different doctors' care and trying to stay in my neighborhood."
Scott says she has to have a burglar alarm because all the houses around her are going vacant. "This whole thing of bankruptcy, it's just bad," she says.
The union leadership argues Detroit's bankruptcy filing itself violates state prohibitions against cutting public pensions. Union attorney Herb Sanders even questions if Detroit is truly insolvent, because the state forbade city officials from approving tentative labor agreements that he says could have saved millions annually.
"When you think that the purpose of bankruptcy is to restructure debt, is to save the city money, and if that is your true intent then why wouldn't you sign the collective bargaining agreement with the unions that would indeed do that?" Sanders says.
The Possibility Of Lawsuits
The union will argue in court Wednesday that Detroit did not bargain in good faith. But bankruptcy attorney Douglas Bernstein says the judge may see things differently.
"There's no bright line which says what constitutes good faith and what isn't good faith," Bernstein says. "There's isn't an awful lot of precedent in Chapter 9."
Bernstein's firm worked with several of Detroit's creditors who decided not to fight the city's bankruptcy filing. He says those creditors and the city will be thrown into financial turmoil if the court finds Detroit is not eligible for Chapter 9 protection. The likely result would be a flood of lawsuits, he says.
"So they'll be fending off all the creditors in a variety of courtrooms where everybody in the creditor body is trying to get the best deal for themselves rather than in an organized, unified setting in the bankruptcy court," he says. "So you would have chaos."
And chaos is the last thing Detroiters need in a city that has seen more than its share of it in recent years. Former officials sent to prison for corruption, high unemployment and crime rates, faltering city services and now a fight over what's left in the city's coffers.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple Inc. is refreshing its iPad lineup in hopes of reclaiming lost ground in the tablet market and slashing the prices of its Mac computers to intensify the pressure on the beleaguered makers of PCs running Microsoft's Windows.
Tuesday's unveiling of Apple's latest products primes the company for a holiday shopping season onslaught aimed at a list of rivals that includes Google Inc., Samsung Electronics, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
A thinner, lighter and faster-running tablet computer called the iPad Air highlighted the event in San Francisco. Apple Inc. also showed off a souped-up iPad Mini that boasts a faster microprocessor, a high-definition display screen and a higher price than its predecessor.
The iPad upgrades, coming a year after the release of the tablet's previous generation, fell largely in line with analyst expectations.
In a surprise, Apple is introducing slightly revamped MacBook Pros at prices 9 percent to 13 percent below the previous versions. What's more, Apple is giving away its latest Mac operating system — Mavericks — for free, as well as several pieces of software, including programs called iWorks and iLife that provide many of the same tools as Microsoft's Office.
"We are turning the industry on its ear," Apple CEO Tim Cook said of the company's strategy.
Technology analyst Patrick Moorhead predicted the discounted MacBook Pros will force personal computer makers to cut the prices of their machines by at least $100 for the holidays.
And Ovum analyst Jan Dawson thinks Apple's giveaway of the operating system and software programs "is now teaching people to expect both of those things to be free. While this won't disrupt Microsoft's business overnight, it will create further pressure on Microsoft to bring down prices."
If that happens, it would be another blow for Microsoft, which has seen its Windows revenue suffer in recent years as personal computer sales sink amid a shift to smartphones and tablets.
Apple triggered the upheaval with the 2007 release of the first iPhone followed up with the 2010 introduction of the iPad.
While both products have a fierce following, Apple has been losing market share to rivals who primarily make mobile devices running on Google's Android software. As Apple is now doing with its Mavericks software for Macs, Google gives away Android to device makers who can afford to undercut the prices for iPhones and iPads.
Despite the competitive pressure, Apple has steadfastly refused to cut prices on its top-of-the-line products. Instead, it has sold older versions of its Phones and iPads at slight discounts to consumers who are willing to settle for something less than state-of-the-art technology.
The Cupertino, Calif. company is hewing to that philosophy with its latest tablets. The iPad Air will start at $499, just like its predecessors, while the new iPad Mini will sell for $399 — a 21 percent increase from the price of the first Mini. The price of the original Mini, which runs at slower speeds and lacks a high-definition display screen, is falling from $329 to $299.
As it has done for more than year, Apple will continue selling the iPad 2 — a tablet that came out two-and-half years ago — for $399.
"Apple doesn't want to play in the mud with declining prices" on iPads, Moorhead said.
The strategy hasn't been a hit with investors who are unhappy with the Cupertino, Calif. company's slowing growth as it loses sales to lower-priced alternatives. Wall Street also is disillusioned with Apple's lack of another breakthrough product since the death of co-founder and chief visionary Steve Jobs two years ago.
Apple's stock dipped $1.49 to close at $519.87 Tuesday. The shares remain about 25 percent below their peak reached 13 months ago.
The iPad Air's main appeal is a more svelte design and a faster microprocessor, the same kind of chip in the iPhone 5S that Apple released a month ago. The new tablet weighs just 1 pound, compared with 1.4 pounds for the previous version. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller hailed it as a "screaming fast iPad," noting that it is eight times faster than the original model that came out in 2010.
The iPad Air will go on sale Nov. 1. The new iPad Mini will be available at a still-to-be-determined date later in November.
They are coming out at a time when Apple needs to reassert itself in a tablet market. Google, Amazon.com and Samsung have been winning over consumers with flashy tablets that sell for $200 to $400. None of the rivals boast the 475,000 apps that Apple says are made for the iPad, but that vast selection hasn't mattered to many cost-conscious consumers.
The research firm Gartner Inc. estimates that Android tablets will end 2013 with a 50 percent share of the worldwide market versus 49 percent for the iPad. Just two years ago, the iPad commanded a 65 percent market share compared to 30 percent for Android tablets.
Apple sold 14.6 million iPads during the three months ending in June, down 14 percent from the same time last year. It marked the first time Apple has posted a year-over-year decline in iPad sales.
It might have happened again in the latest quarter ending in September. Although Apple isn't scheduled to report its results for the latest quarter until next Monday, a statistic released at Tuesday's event gave a hint of how the iPad fared in the period.
Cook said Apple's total iPad sales since the device's inception surpassed 170 million units earlier this month. Given that Apple sold 155 million iPads through June, that means fewer than 15 million were sold in the quarter ending in September. Apple sold 14 million iPads in last year's quarter ending in September.
__
Ortutay reported from New York.
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/GAv8Lgn5_oo/BOSTON (AP) — Slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was named as a participant in an earlier triple homicide by a man who was subsequently shot to death while being questioned by authorities, according to a filing made by federal prosecutors in the case against his brother, surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
According to the filing made Monday, Ibragim Todashev told investigators Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in a triple slaying in Waltham on Sept. 11, 2011.
In that case, three men were found in an apartment with their necks slit and their bodies reportedly covered with marijuana. One of the victims was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, was fatally shot at his Orlando home during a meeting with an FBI agent and two Massachusetts state troopers in May, authorities said. He had turned violent while being question, according to authorities.
The filing is prosecutors' attempt to block Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from getting certain information from authorities, including investigative documents associated with the Waltham slayings.
"The government has already disclosed to Tsarnaev that, according to Todashev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in the Waltham triple homicide," prosecutors wrote.
According to prosecutors, the ongoing investigation into the 2011 slayings is reason not to allow Dzhokhar Tsarnaev access to the documents he's seeking.
"Any benefit to Tsarnaev of knowing more about the precise 'nature and extent' of his brother's involvement does not outweigh the potential harm of exposing details of an ongoing investigation into an extremely serious crime, especially at this stage of the proceeding," prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors also said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is not entitled to the information because his brother's criminal history will be relevant, if at all, only at a possible future sentencing hearing.
A phone message left for a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office was not immediately returned Tuesday night. A message left for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's federal public defender was also not immediately returned.
Authorities allege that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, and 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens from Russia, planned and carried out the twin bombings near the finish of the marathon on April 15. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction and 16 other charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gunbattle with police as authorities closed in on the brothers several days after the bombings.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-22-Boston%20Marathon%20Bombing/id-cda270a2cb51498191db55eac4d8deff![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t2X3RbNSpw5TGuGiy0Ou9KQFQIiBHyuTUnT3TUu1ju7LjB3-osA-Fs-H-HZA89p3IiDTZyex_vlPqGOt2SCwij6viV6tKIoFHoG8jnWnU=s0-d){kind=small}
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 22-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Jason Socrates Bardi
jbardi@aip.org
240-535-4954
American Institute of Physics
WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 22, 2013 -- Researchers modeling how changes in air flow patterns affect wind turbines' output power have found that the wind can supply energy from an unexpected direction: below.
According to the researchers, who report their results in the journal Physics of Fluids, many wind turbine array studies overlook the fact that important airflow changes occur inside the array.
"We discovered that a typical measure of the significance of flow changes was rather deficient," says Jensen Newman, co-author of the paper and a graduate student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Mathematical Sciences. Inspired by a desire to describe the flow experienced by realistic wind turbine arrays in greater detail, the team created a model of how flow affects wind turbines' output power.
The researchers introduced a mathematical way to measure changes in the flow that gives a more accurate representation of the magnitude of these changes than other current measures. "It shows that in addition to energy being made available to the turbines from above, energy is also transferred from below," Newman explains.
The tools and methodologies developed by the team for calculating changes in the flow can now be applied to other studies -- for any type of flow with a repetitive pattern. Since they were also able to show that energy comes from below the rotors, it may be possible to exploit this by developing wind farms that draw more heavily on this previously unidentified source of energy.
Going forward the researchers plan to further expand the scope of their model. "We'll apply this analysis to the case of two-bladed vs. three-bladed turbines to identify the critical differences in flow patterns and how these affect turbine power production," says Newman. "Similar analysis will be performed using much larger turbines to examine how the physics discovered here scale with turbine size so that the extrapolation of the results to full-scale wind farms can be better understood."
###
The paper, "Streamwise development of the wind turbine boundary layer over a model wind turbine array" by Andrew J. Newman, Jose Lebron, Charles Meneveau, and Luciano Castillo, appears in the journal Physics of Fluids. See: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4818451
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex or multiphase fluids. See: http://pof.aip.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 22-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Jason Socrates Bardi
jbardi@aip.org
240-535-4954
American Institute of Physics
WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 22, 2013 -- Researchers modeling how changes in air flow patterns affect wind turbines' output power have found that the wind can supply energy from an unexpected direction: below.
According to the researchers, who report their results in the journal Physics of Fluids, many wind turbine array studies overlook the fact that important airflow changes occur inside the array.
"We discovered that a typical measure of the significance of flow changes was rather deficient," says Jensen Newman, co-author of the paper and a graduate student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Mathematical Sciences. Inspired by a desire to describe the flow experienced by realistic wind turbine arrays in greater detail, the team created a model of how flow affects wind turbines' output power.
The researchers introduced a mathematical way to measure changes in the flow that gives a more accurate representation of the magnitude of these changes than other current measures. "It shows that in addition to energy being made available to the turbines from above, energy is also transferred from below," Newman explains.
The tools and methodologies developed by the team for calculating changes in the flow can now be applied to other studies -- for any type of flow with a repetitive pattern. Since they were also able to show that energy comes from below the rotors, it may be possible to exploit this by developing wind farms that draw more heavily on this previously unidentified source of energy.
Going forward the researchers plan to further expand the scope of their model. "We'll apply this analysis to the case of two-bladed vs. three-bladed turbines to identify the critical differences in flow patterns and how these affect turbine power production," says Newman. "Similar analysis will be performed using much larger turbines to examine how the physics discovered here scale with turbine size so that the extrapolation of the results to full-scale wind farms can be better understood."
###
The paper, "Streamwise development of the wind turbine boundary layer over a model wind turbine array" by Andrew J. Newman, Jose Lebron, Charles Meneveau, and Luciano Castillo, appears in the journal Physics of Fluids. See: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4818451
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex or multiphase fluids. See: http://pof.aip.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
