The Mistery Of Mask

In this world each person has at least three faces: his real one, the one that he shows to all people around and the one he thinks he possesses. And it is not the whole list, everything depends on the very person, his world outlook and his life philosophy. It’ a notorious fact that most of us don’t want to lay the heart bare and let other people become close to us and that is the reason for us to wear masks. Each of us has plenty of them for various cases and for all life emergencies. It is easier to put on a mask and pretend somebody else, to behave in the other way, to show the different conduct than to be own self. Of course, with the mask you can be at certain desired liberty, anyway you will think so. But you have to bear in mind that the way that you wear a certain mask and this thing itself can tell the truth and even more about your personality.

Source

Read More

Kristen Stewart Tops Forbes’ List of Hollywood’s Highest-Paid Actresses

Starring in the “Twilight” films has really paid off for Kristen Stewart. She ranks first on Forbes magazine’s new list of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.

According to the magazine’s calculations, Stewart earned $34.5 million between May 2011 and May 2012, thanks to her work on the last two “Twilight” movies, plus the current hit “Snow White and the Huntsman.” Cameron Diaz ranks second at $34 million, and Sandra Bullock rounds out the top three at $25 million.

Forbes considered the actresses’ salaries, residuals and endorsements in compiling its list. An interesting stat: the top 10 highest-paid actresses made a total of $200 million, compared to $361 million collected by the top 10 highest-paid actors.

Here are the top 10 highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, according to Forbes:

1. Kristen Stewart, $34.5 million.
2. Cameron Diaz, $34 million.
3. Sandra Bullock, $25 million.
4. Angelina Jolie, $20 million.
5. Charlize Theron, $18 million.
6. Julia Roberts, $16 million.
7. Sarah Jessica Parker, $15 million.
8T. Meryl Streep, $12 million.
8T. Kristen Wiig, $12 million.
10. Jennifer Aniston $11 million.

Source 

Read More

Parallel Zombies on Android: A lurch in the right direction

Zombie games are a dime a dozen on mobile devices these days. Just search the word "zombie" on the App Store or Google Play, and you'll be greeted with pages worth of zombie games. Throw in the fact that location-based gaming hasn't exactly taken off, and the odds seem to be stacked against games like Parallel Zombies for Android.

To meet such odds, luckily, the developers at PerBlue have stepped up their game with Parallel Zombies, set to launch exclusively on Android July 19. While much of the game is similar to what Android gamers--about 85 percent of PerBlue's audience, we're told--enjoyed with Parallel Mafia and Parallel Kingdoms before that, PerBlue has tweaked much of the formula so that it feels, well, more like a game than an app. A lot more. (In fact, we kind of wish we had an Android device handy right about now.)What players will notice immediately about Parallel Zombies is simply that this is the most gorgeous game in the series yet. Plenty more resources have been devoted to players' avatars, namely. Not only do they appear larger in the game world--which is your world, basically--but the customizations made to your character are far more visible as a result.

"Kind of a pain point that we learned along the way is that people are really, really attached to their avatars, and they want to be able to see the representation of their avatars in the game," PerBlue's Ellie Humphrey admits. "So we made the avatar almost 3x bigger for this game."In fact, almost everything is bigger in Parallel Zombies. The various buildings in the game world appear in 3D, strengthening the feeling of peering down on a world in ruin. Ain't that the truth: The streets and alleys around you will eventually be covered in zombie blood as you take the fight to 15 different types of carnivorous cadavers.

That's really what Parallel Zombies is all about, and the numerous changes PerBlue made to the game's systems shows it. For one, skill points have been fleshed into an all new class system that allows players to choose whether they'll be a soldier, a hunter or a doctor. Digging even deeper, those three classes can branch out into even more specialized roles as players level up, like zombie-charming for doctors, sneaking around for soldiers and a focus on pets for hunters.Almost more important is the combat itself, which is both real-time and turn-based. For example, players go blow-for-blow with zombies using either guns or melee weapons, but other baddies can easily join the fray in real time. (And yes, ammo is most definitely a concern.) Real-time combat laced with unique abilities is cool and all, but only if people are around to fight with.

You might not live in the most bumping area, so PerBlue has concocted a nifty solution to that problem. "We really wanted to hone in on the multiplayer aspect of the game for this title. We really wanted to make it easy for people to access the multiplayer," Humphrey tells us. "Right from the menu here, we have this button that says, 'group'."While players will come across tasks to complete in the world, real-time multiplayer missions separate from the map are where Parallel Zombies seems to shine best. With a matchmaking system, players can find folks to team up with on special zombie-slaying missions that offer numerous rewards.

A much needed visual boost, a focus on combat and easy real-time multiplayer could be just what the doctor ordered for PerBlue's "Parallel" franchise. But will it these improvements alone help it stand out among the hordes of zombie games on mobile? See for yourself on July 19. Until then, check out the official Parallel Zombies page for more info.

Source 

Read More

First Look: Saab Phoenix Concept

GENEVA -- Saab's Dutch chairman and CEO, Victor Muller, probably doesn't know and certainly doesn't care that to us, the Phoenix is a Pontiac compact from the '70s and '80s. He's named ex-Ferrari designer Jason Castriota's 9-3-sized concept hatchback coupe "Phoenix," a celebration of Saab's rising from the ashes of the GM sale. Company President Jan-Ake Jonsson called last week's celebration of the one-year anniversary of Saab's separation from General Motors "Independence Day."The Phoenix seems too stylized to say much about Saab's design future under Castriota, whom Muller announced as his new chief designer, at last year's show. The Phoenix has much more surface tension than the Saab Aero concepts designed under GM. As good-looking as those Aeros were, they now look like the bubble-wrap the Phoenix came in. The car may be a bit busy, but it is gorgeous, and hints that if nothing else, Castriota plans to use early Saab raindrop shapes as a design theme. It has been designed as a 2+2 coupe. The tail, with its many LED taillamp bulbs, looks like something designed for Spyker. While there's no sign on the Saab stand of Muller's 9-2 design proposal, the Phoenix concept riffs off its raindrop shape. Castriota calls the design theme for a "sporty three-door hatch" the "aero-motional" aesthetic, and the inspiration for the 9-5 and 9-4x. The Phoenix has a 1.6-liter turbo four rated 200 horsepower, Saab's new "V" all-wheel-drive system developed with supplier American Axle, and a Google Android-based Icon infotainment system.Muller has designated Phoenix as the name for Saab's flexible architecture, which debuts under the new 9-3 he promises for calendar 2012. The car started with GM's Epsilon platform, but Saab has made enough changes to call the platform its own, or Phoenix, and the new 9-3 "will show to you what an independent Saab organization can do.

Muller calls the coming Saabs, including the 9-5 SportKombi unveiled here, as "drivers cars" that will emphasize small-displacement, turbocharged engines. Muller has just sold his interest in, and Saab's connection to, Spyker, the independent sports carmaker that made it possible for Muller and his investors to buy Saab to Russian entrepreneur Viktor Antonov. Muller says he proposed the sale to Saab's board so the small sports carmaker could raise additional cash. If Muller and his board had held on to their interest in Spyker, he said, their shares would have been diluted to the point at which they would have lost control.

So automaker Muller has gone from being an automaker who made something like 300 cars in a full decade to an automaker who can build 80,000 per year. That's how many Saabs were sold worldwide in its first full year of independence. Eighty thousand per year, globally, would be total failure for most mainstream automakers. In its first year of independence, Saab has managed, one way or another, to stay out of the mainstream.
Source

Read More

Neverending Saab Story Youngman Lotus Refuses to Go Away

Official news of Saab's inevitable bankruptcy liquidation last December 19 broke too late for "Trend's" last deadline. After covering it at motortrend.com, we figured Saab's death would be nothing more than a brief "We Hear" item.

Saab has never been that easy. Between deadlines comes word that Youngman Lotus, the Chinese company that tried to buy Saab last year after the Swedish factory shut down when suppliers held back parts, is trying to pick away at the company. The news reports were accompanied by grainy, leaked photos of the stillborn new Saab 9-3.

"The receivers in Sweden have been talking to several groups," says Tim Colbeck, chief of Saab's post-GM North American marketing, a separate company from the automaker. Colbeck hoped one of the mystery groups would take over all of Saab, but says it's no clearer to him than to us. A parts company will likely rise from the ashes of Saab Cars USA, but warranty coverage for post-GM Saabs "is to be determined," Colbeck says. Former owner General Motors scuttled Youngman's attempt to buy Saab while it was still viable, by objecting to potential threats to GM's intellectual property. When Victor Muller's Spyker bought Saab from GM, the contract stipulated Spyker could not share GM platforms with another automaker. GM built just a couple hundred 9-4x crossover/utility vehicles for Saab in the Mexican plant that builds the Cadillac SRX.

So it was easy for GM to stop delivering the CUV to the Swedish brand. Saab built the GM Epsilon II-based 9-5 in Trollhättan for nearly a year. That’s the platform GM wants to keep from other manufacturers, especially in China, where SAIC builds Epsi II-based Buick LaCrosses in a joint-venture factory. So, Youngman Lotus swoops in and has an international brand to place on a relatively sophisticated sporty four-door hatchback, right?

Not so fast: The Chinese government still must approve the deal. As we’ve reported before, China is much more interested these days in reducing, not expanding, the number of automakers in the country. The only thing of which we can be sure is the Saab story simply will not go away

Source

Read More

2013 Ford Fiesta ST Ford's Sporty Subcompact to Hit European Streets Next Year

When we first saw the Ford Fiesta ST as a concept car at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show and later in five-door form at the L.A. show, it seemed like a no-brainer that the small, go-fast hatch would be built. Not surprisingly, Ford has made it official with the reveal of the production-spec version of the 2013 Ford Fiesta ST debuting at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show in advance of its in European showroom launch early next year.

As was the case in the Fiesta ST concept, the motivating force comes from an EcoBoost turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four engine, with 178 hp and 177 lb-ft of torque directed to the front wheels by way of a six-speed manual transmission. Ford says the Fiesta ST will hit 62 mph in less than seven seconds, with a top speed north of 136 mph. To help keep up with the power increase, the Fiesta ST also scores unique suspension tuning that is 0.6-in. lower than a regular Fiesta, Torque Vectoring Control, and a three-mode stability control system.

The Fiesta ST's mechanical upgrades are matched by a new body kit with a trapezoidal mesh grille, roof spoiler, new side skirts, lower front and rear fascias, and twin exhaust tips. Recaro seats with contrasting inserts that match the bodywork, metal sport pedals, and Sync voice recognition are all standard. The car looks like a scaled-down version of the Focus ST -- a move we're sure was deliberate.Based on what Ford has told us so far, we have high hopes for the Fiesta ST's performance character. Ford director of Global Performance Vehicles Jost Capito claims drivers "will be blown away by the new Fiesta ST." An engineer with Ford's Special Vehicle Team previously told us that the new car is "designed to reward excellent drivers, and flatter novices." The car was tested and developed at the Nurburgring in Germany.


One big question remains: Will the Ford Fiesta ST be sold in the U.S.? The version shown here is a two-door model that likely won't arrive on our shores because the American market only gets four-door Fiestas at present. But Ford received strong response to the four-door Fiesta ST concept at the L.A. show last fall and "remains open to the idea" of selling the Fiesta ST in America. That sounds like tacit confirmation to us that the hot hatch is destined for American market in four-door form sometime after the two-door launches in Europe next year.

Source

Read More

PlayStation Suite becomes PlayStation Mobile, HTC officially certified

When Sony introduced the PlayStation Suite a little over a year ago, their plan was to have other manufacturers jump in. So far the adoption has been slow, but HTC is one company that sees a benefit in getting PlayStation Certified. We heard rumors about this a few months ago, but it was just officially announced that HTC is now onboard. HTC might not be the biggest presence when it comes to Android, but they’re definitely a major contender. This deal can only help Sony get the PlayStation experience to more devices in the coming months. We can expect to see HTC One customers benefit from this deal.

Sony also announced that the PlayStation Suite has been renamed to PlayStation Mobile. This change reflects the fact that Sony is now positioned to bring the PlayStation experience to many mobile devices with this HTC deal along with other developers and publishers.

Full press release after the break

PLAYSTATION®SUITE RENAMED “PLAYSTATION®MOBILE”

Further Proliferate The PlayStation® Experience Across Mobile Devices

TOKYO, June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced HTC Corporation (HTC) will join the PlayStation™Certified license program(*1). By collaborating with HTC, a global designer of smartphones and the world’s first company to launch Android-powered devices, SCE aims to deliver the PlayStation® experience to even more users around the world.

“HTC is focused on delivering innovative mobile experiences for people everywhere and SCE’s immersive world of gaming will bring compelling entertainment to HTC One customers across the globe,” said Kouji Kodera, Chief Product Officer, HTC Corporation.

In addition to third party developers and publishers as well as a wide range of content developers who have agreed to develop content for PlayStation®Suite, SCE Worldwide Studios is developing attractive games. SCE is positioned to proliferate the world of PlayStation across mobile devices with the progress of content development and the expansion of PlayStation Certified devices. In conjunction with this development, SCE will rename PlayStation Suite to PlayStation®Mobile, and position it as a new platform.
SCE will further accelerate the expansion of PlayStation Certified devices and continue to collaborate with content developers to drive the delivery of compelling entertainment experiences through PlayStation Mobile.

source

Read More

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 review: Competitively priced but is it enough?

Samsung continues to be the leader in the number of tablets released by an Android manufacturer. They had the first mainstream tablet, the Galaxy Tab, and from there they continued to release various 7-inch tablets along with an 8.9 tab and a 10.1. This year they updated their tabs to the Galaxy Tab 2 by trying to be more competitive. I already reviewed The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, which is priced at $249. I found that one to be very competitive and a solid deal. This review is for basically the same tablet, but with a 10.1-inch display. The price is $399, but is it that competitive enough? Hit the break to get started, and you can also check out our initial hands on as well

Design

The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is very similar to the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. Other than display size, speaker placement and some button placement, it has the identical plastic case. I’ve never been a fan of Samsung plastics, but I did find these tabs to not be as slippery as in past offerings. For the 10.1, the speakers are on the front at the edges of the bezel. The good thing is they aren’t on the same side. The left one is on the left side and yes, you guessed it, the right one is on the right side.

When holding the tab in landscape more, the power is at the top left and the volume rocker is to right of that. In the middle is the IR port and to the right of that is the microSD slot. Lastly, the microphone jack is all the way to the right. The bottom has the proprietary Samsung charging port, and both the right and left sides are free of switches and ports.

As far as thickness and weight, it comes in at 9.7mm thick and weighs 581 grams. The original Tab 10.1 came in at 8.6mm, which is much thinner, but the weight was a little heavier, 595 grams.

All in all it feels nice in the hands, much like the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0.

Hardware

The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 has a 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) PLS display, 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 3MP rear camera, VGA front camera, 16 GB of internal storage, microSD for up to an additional 32GB of storage, 7000 mAh battery, built-in IR blaster, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and WiFi. This is pretty much the same specs as the Tab 2 7.0 except for the screen size, resolution, and internal storage.

Performance

The performance is pretty much on par with the Tab 2 7.0. They both have the same processor, but with the 10.1-inch display, this one has to work a little harder. The obligatory AnTuTu benchmark gave us 4878, which is actually lower than the Tab 2 7.0, which scored 5006. With more display real estate and more resolution this isn’t a surprise. In real world use, it seemed to perform as well as the 7.0 though.

The real problem lies in that this is a 10.1-inch tablet so it can’t behave like a 7-inch budget tablet. Unfortunately that’s the case here, and even though it’s priced cheaper than previous Samsung tabs, it might already be priced out of the market with the likes of the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300.

The display on this 10.1-inch version is much better than the Tab 2 7.0 thanks to the 1280 x 800 resolution. It’s still a PLS display so no Super AMOLED like the Galaxy Tab 7.7. It’s still nice and it’s made for the mainstream consumer in mind.

The sound quality is dramatically better with the 10.1 versus the 7.0. With the 7.0, the speakers are on the side, but the 10.1 has speakers placed at the front along the right and left bezel. It gives you best separation possible and is something I wish more tablet manufacturers would implement.

Battery

The 7,000 mAh battery is 75% bigger than the Tab 2 7.0 so you would expect more time, which was the case. I conducted my usual video rundown test in which I run continuous video with the display turned up to 2/3′s brightness. I was able to get just about 10 hours, which is 3 hours better than the Tab 2 7.0. It’s about average for a 10.1-inch tablet and should satisfy most people.

Software

Just like the Tab 2 7.0, it has Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. Also unfortunately, it has the same TouchWiz interface which really takes away from the whole ICS experience. If you’re familiar with TouchWiz, you probably won’t complain, but if you’re new to Samsung, be aware.

Samsung includes the IR port and the Peel Smart Remote app, which is a nice touch. It’s one of those features that is most likely forgotten with 90% of the consumers, but I think if users take the time to set things up, they will enjoy it. When I reviewed Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, I spent a short amount of time with the software so if you want to see a glimpse of it, check out the video below. It starts around 4:20 in.

Dropbox is also included, but the big news is that you will get 50GB of storage for one year. This is double the space that HTC users get, but HTC users get their 25GB for 2 years. I would rather have the 25GB for two years, but I won’t complain about 50GB of free space.

As far as the bloatware, you get Amazon Kindle, Dropbox, Netflix, and the Peel Smart Remote. Samsung’s included app extras include All Share, ChatOn, Game Hub, Media Hub, Memo, Music Hub, Music Player, Photo Editor, Samsung Apps (app store), Screensaver, S Planner, and Video Player.

Camera

There really isn’t much to say about the camera. Samsung threw in a 3MP rear, but I would’ve rather them leave it out completely and put a better front-facing one. They only gave us a VGA (640 x 480) front-facer and I think a 1.3MP or 2MP would have been better. To be honest I don’t use either much, but I’m certainly more likely to use the front-facer for video chat as opposed to the rear-facing to take pictures.

I’m not including any example photos here since there’s nothing earth shattering here. If your looking to buy this device and plan on depending on the rear camera then move on to the next device. If you plan on needing it for an occasional emergency, which seems more likely, than don’t worry, it will get the job done.

Closing
Samsung has admitted tablet sales have been dismal. They are obviously trying to get things going with the Tab 2 line, which is more economical. Unfortunately the 10.1 version at $399 isn’t all that economical anymore. ASUS released the Transformer Pad TF300, which can be had for $389 and you get a NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and more storage. The 7-inch version really provides a solid deal, but unfortunately this version just didn’t get the job done. It really needs to be priced at $329 to $349 in order to wow anyone. If a great deal on a 10.1-inch tab is what you want, I have to recommend the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300, but if you don’t mind a 7-inch display, you can’t beat the $249 price on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0.

Source

Read More

Ernestine Shepherd: The 75-year-old bodybuilding grandma

The world's oldest female bodybuilder wakes up every day at 02:30 to fit in a 10 mile (16km) run before hitting the gym.

But 75-year-old Ernestine Shepherd insists that "age is nothing but a number".

"Miss Ernie", as she is known in the world of competitive bodybuilding, began training at the tender age of 71.

She says her true calling in life, however, is helping others to follow a more healthy lifestyle.

The BBC caught up with her at an exercise class at her church in the US city of Baltimore, Maryland, to find out why she started bodybuilding and what competitors say when they see they are up against a grandmother.

Source

Read More

Shooting in Auburn, Alabama, leaves three dead

A shooting at an apartment complex in the US city of Auburn, Alabama, has left three people dead and another three wounded, police say.

The attack happened during a party at the University Heights complex, home to many students from the nearby Auburn University.

Two of those killed were former Auburn University football players.

Police have charged a man, named as Desmonte Leonard, with murder but say he has not yet been captured.

At a news conference, Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson said former university football players Edward Christian and Ladarious Phillips were killed. He named the third victim as Demario Pitts.

Mr Dawson said current football player Eric Mack was among those wounded.

"This is a trying time, not only university students and athletes, but it's young people. It's six young people that have been shot. As you can tell, the community is shaken by this and grieving today," Mr Dawson said.

Witnesses said the shooting broke out following an argument at a pool party on Saturday night.

Emergency vehicles converged on the apartment complex and the building was swathed in yellow police tape.

Witnesses said the shooting appeared to have taken place in an archway near the apartment complex information centre, near the edge of a car park. Several uniformed police officers were guarding the area.

Auburn is the largest city in eastern Alabama with more than 50,000 people. Some 25,000 students attend Auburn University.

Source

Read More

Win 2 Free Tickets To Le Web London, Courtesy Of TechCrunch

Well, over 1,000 tickets have been sold to Le Web London, the gigantic tech conference hitting the UK shores on June 19-20.

You want to go right? Well, TechCrunch has two tickets to give away, as part of the “adopt an entrepreneur” programme backed by Silicon Valley Bank and LEPE Partners.

Here’s how you win the tickets: Explain why you deserve to go to Le Web in the comments below. Convince us why, e.g. you’re a student with an amazing product or you’re the next Zuckerberg etc etc – you get the drift. (For extra points share Le Web London on your social networks, make some content/video, use the tags #leweb #lepe and #svb). We’ll pick the winners randomly from a group of the best entries.

Ok, go.

view the original artical here

Read More

Madagascar 3 (2012)

• Release Date: 06/08/2012
• Rating: PG
• Runtime: Not Yet Available
• Genre: Children's/family
• Director: Eric Darnell
• Cast: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith

By Kelsea Stahler

A kids’ movie without the cheeky jokes for adults is like a big, juicy BLT without the B… or the T. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted may have a title that sounds like it was made up in a cartoon sequel laboratory, but when it comes to serving up laughs, just think of the film as a BLT with enough extra bacon to satisfy even the wildest of animals — or even a parent with a gaggle of tots in tow. Yes, even with that whole "Afro Circus" nonsense.

It’s not often that we find exhaustively franchised films like the Madagascar set that still work after almost seven years. Despite being spun off into TV shows and Christmas specials in addition to its big screen adventures, the series has not only maintained its momentum, it has maintained the part we were pleasantly surprised by the first time around: great jokes.

Madagascar Afro CircusIn this third installment of the series – the trilogy-maker, if you will – directing duo Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath add Conrad Vernon (director, Monsters Vs. Aliens) to the helm as our trusty gang swings back into action. Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) are stuck in Africa after the hullaballoo of Madagascar 2 and they’ll do anything to get back to their beloved New York. Just a hop, skip, and a jump away in Monte Carlo, the penguins are doing their usual greedy schtick, but the zoo animals catch up with them just in time to catch the eye of the sinister animal control stickler, Captain Dubois (Frances McDormand). And just like that, the practically super human captain is chasing them through Monte Carlo and the rest of Europe in hopes of planting Alex’s perfectly coifed lion head on her wall of prized animals.

Luckily for pint-sized viewers, Dubois’ terrifying presence is balanced out by her sheer inhuman strength, uncanny guiles, and Stretch Armstrong flexibility (ah, the wonder of cartoons) as well as Alex’s escape plan: the New Yorkers run away with the European circus. While Dubois’ terrifying, Doberman-like presence looms over the entire film, a sense of levity (which is a word the kiddies might learn from Stiller’s eloquent lion) comes from the plan for salvation in which the circus animals and the zoo animals band together to revamp the circus and catch the eye of a big-time American agent. Sure the pacing throughout the first act is practically nonexistent, running like a stampede through the jungle, but by the time we're palling around under the big top, the film finds its footing.

The visual splendor of the film (and man, is there a champion size serving of it), the magnificent danger and suspense, is enhanced to great effect by the addition of 3D technology – and not once is there a gratuitous beverage or desperate Crocodile Dundee knife waved in our faces to prove its worth. The caveat is that the soundtrack employs a certain infectious Katy Perry ditty at the height of the 3D spectacular, so, parents, get ready to hear that on repeat until the leaves turn yellow.

But visual delights and adventurous zoo animals aside, Madagascar 3’s real strength is in its script. With the addition of Noah Baumbach (Greenberg, The Squid and the Whale) to the screenwriting team, the script is infused with a heightened level of almost sarcastic gravitas – a welcome addition to the characteristically adult-friendly, reference-heavy humor of the other Madagascar films. To bring the script to life, Paramount enlisted three more than able actors: Vitaly the Siberian tiger (Bryan Cranston), Gia the Leopard (Jessica Chastain), and Stefano the Italian Sealion (Martin Short). With all three actors draped in European accents, it might take viewers a minute to realize that the cantankerous tiger is one in the same with the man who plays an Albuquerque drug lord on Breaking Bad, but that makes it that much sweeter to hear him utter slant-curse words like “Bolshevik” with his usual gusto.

Between the laughs, the terror of McDormand’s Captain Dubois, and the breathtaking virtual European tour, the Zoosters’ accidental vacation is one worth taking. Madagascar 3 is by no means an insta-classic, but it’s a perfectly suited for your Summer-at-the-movies oasis.

source

Read More

WWE 13: Collapsing Ring and Other New Features in Forthcoming Title

Somebody call my momma, is that a collapsing ring?

Yes it is, and there are a few other goodies in store for fans of WWE gaming. WWE '13 is shaping up to be even more robust than WWE '12. It releases for Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 30, and I'm not ashamed to say I'm excited.

If you've played last year's version (who am I kidding, would you really be reading this if you haven't?), then you know there were tons of options.

What you see in the featured photo is an example of what THQ is calling an OMG moment. For those that are social-media illiterates, that means "Oh my God."

Cory Ledesma, the Creative Director for WWE games at THQ, offered to shed some light on this new feature:

That sounds amazing, and like something that will keep hardcore WWE gamers up late at night.

Here is a list of the features from Pasta Padre:

    WWE Live

    Experience the atmosphere, spectacle and fervor of a WWE live event through attention-grabbing Spectacular Moments, including ring breaks and barricade crashes, along with a brand new audio and presentation system designed to produce the most authentic and vibrant commentary, sound effects and crowd participation levels ever experienced in a WWE video game.

    

    The Attitude Is Back

    Return to an unparalleled and groundbreaking era in WWE history—a time of pure raucousness, grandiose personalities and colossal revolution—through a franchise-first single player campaign focused on eight purveyors of attitude during the famed television "Monday Night Wars," including WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

    

    WWE Universe 3.0

    Control the virtual WWE experience like never before in the popular career-style mode, as individual decisions throughout gameplay will dynamically introduce matches, alliances, rivalries and unpredictable moments along the path toward becoming a WWE Champion.

    

    Predator Technology 2.0

    Driven by new animations, transitions and modified controls, Predator Technology returns to deliver intelligent, fluid and engaging WWE action, resulting in a smoother gameplay experience than its predecessors.

    

    Create and Share

    Utilize the franchise's industry-defining Creation Suite to develop and customize Superstars, entrances, arenas, finishing moves, storylines, highlight reels and more, as well as share and download creations with others from around the world.

    

    Distinguished Roster

    Compete with a vast array of WWE Superstars and Attitude Era luminaries from the largest roster in franchise history, including cover Superstar CM Punk, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Sheamus, The Undertaker, Mankind, Chris Jericho, The Big Show and Mark Henry.

    

    Surprises in Store

    Live the Revolution through future announcements, including additional game features, a comprehensive roster reveal, downloadable content and big surprises.

Here is the rumored full roster, from the same source.

    WWE

        Alberto Del Rio
        Alicia Fox
        Beth Phoenix
        Big Show
        Booker T
        Brie Bella
        Brock Lesnar
        Brodus Clay
        CM Punk
        Chris Jericho
        Christian
        Cody Rhodes
        Daniel Bryan
        David Otunga
        Dolph Ziggler
        Epico
        Eve
        Heath Slater
        Hunico
        Jack Swagger
        Jinder Mahal
        John Cena
        Justin Gabriel
        Kane
        Kelly Kelly
        Kevin Nash
        Kharma
        Kofi Kingston
        Mark Henry
        Nikki Bella
        Primo
        R-Truth
        Randy Orton
        Rey Mysterio
        Santino Marella
        Sheamus
        Sin Cara
        Ted DiBiase
        The Great Khali
        The Miz
        The Rock
        Triple H
        Undertaker
        Wade Barrett
        Zack Ryder

    

    Attitude Era

        Animal
        Big Bossman
        Big Show (Attitude)
        Billy Gunn
        Bret Hart
        British Bulldog
        Cactus Jack
        Chris Jericho (Attitude)
        Christian (Attitude)
        Dude Love
        Eddie Guerrero
        Edge
        Godfather
        Hawk
        Kane (Attitude)
        Ken Shamrock
        Lita
        Mankind
        Mark Henry (Attitude)
        Mike Tyson
        Mr. McMahon
        Road Dogg
        Shane McMahon
        Shawn Michaels
        Stephanie McMahon
        Stone Cold
        The Rock (Attitude)
        Triple H (Attitude)
        Trish Stratus
        Undertaker (Attitude)
        Vader
        X-Pac

That is a total of 77 roster members, an amazing amount of options providing tons of replay value.

Check out some of the other screenshots made available by THQ:

Source

Read More

Cassini Plasma Spectrometer Turns Off

ScienceDaily (June 6, 2012) — The Cassini plasma spectrometer instrument (CAPS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft was turned off between Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2, when a circuit breaker tripped off after the instrument experienced some unexpected voltage shifts.

Engineers are currently investigating this issue, which they believe is due to short circuits in the instrument. In June 2011, the instrument was turned off because of similar problems, but was switched on again in March 2012 once investigators determined that tin plating on electronic components had grown "whiskers" large enough to contact another conducting surface and carry electrical current, resulting in a voltage shift. At that time, it was believed that these "whiskers" were not capable of carrying sufficient current to cause any damage, and the voltage shifts didn't have any effect on normal spacecraft operations because the power subsystem is designed to operate in the presence of such shifts.

More details about whiskers on the CAPS instrument can be found here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-078 .

The cause is still under investigation, but engineers will be looking into this issue over the next few months.

Cassini launched in 1997 and has been exploring the Saturn system since 2004. The project completed its original prime mission in 2008 and has been extended twice. Cassini is now in its solstice mission, which will enable scientists to observe seasonal change in the Saturn system through the northern summer solstice.??

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

For more information about the Cassini mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

Source

Read More

U.S. Government & Military To Get Secret-Worthy Android Phones

The amount of stuff we trust to fly in and out of our smartphones is astounding. Just look at what happened when a couple of reporters got access to an unwitting (and rather unlucky) Apple employee’s iMessages alone — within days, they learned more about him than most people know about their closest friends.

Now, imagine all the stuff that could fly in and out of a government official’s phone, or that of a highly-ranked member of the military. Forget saucy texts and booty pictures — we’re talking about state secrets, here.

Looking to keep their secrets underwraps while on the go, the U.S government is working on a build of Android custom-tailored to meet their security requirements.

Word of the project comes from CNN, who notes that U.S. officials/soldiers aren’t currently allowed to send any classified data over their smartphones. If they need to transmit anything that might sink ships (so to speak), they currently need to find a secured (generally meaning hardwired) line hooked to an approved device.

Here’s the gist of the project:

    A limited number of soldiers will get the phones first, then federal agencies, then possibly contractors
    The U.S. won’t be building their own hardware — that’d be too expensive. Instead, they’ll be buying commercially available devices and reflashing them.
    They hoped to be able to offer iOS devices, but it’s not going to happen. CNN notes that federal officials met with Apple to request that they share their source — as you’d probably guess, Apple wasn’t too cool with that idea.
    Surprisingly, users of the handsets will be able to install new applications, though the handsets will put a specific emphasis on exactly what information the application can access and what it’s currently sending. Seems unlikely that they’d give these things full Android Market access, though — that’d be rather silly.
    The project is being funded by DARPA, with the NSA evaluating it as they go (while working on a version of their own, curiously.)

Most of the project’s details are still underwraps, but this is all still rather interesting. What hardware might they use? If DARPA makes any substantial security improvements to Android’s kernel, might that work make it back to the official branch? Might this work eventually be monetized (remember, Siri was born as a DARPA project) and offered to enterprises looking for a locked-down version of Android — and what does that mean for RIM/BlackBerry?

Source-techcrunch

Read More

The Wheel: What Is The Foxconn Debate Really About?

Thirty spokes meet at a nave;
Because of the hole we may use the wheel.
Clay is moulded into a vessel;
Because of the hollow we may use the cup.
Walls are built around a hearth;
Because of the doors we may use the house.
Thus tools come from what exists,
But use from what does not.
- Tao De Ching

There’s a carousel in a small Cape Cod town that we visited this summer and the kids rode it a few times. The carousel is quite old and quite handsome and it makes a great diversion of an evening. I’m reminded now of trying to take pictures of the kids while they rode the carousel. For a while I’d wave and try to get their attention as they roared past, their laughter dopplering around the edge of the curve, and then, after four or five tries I’d give up and just watch. It’s a wheel, an endless circle, designed to delight and enthuse and distract.

Reading the recent back and forth between Stephen Fry – an Apple apologist – and Mike Daisey – an Apple user/abuser – I’m reminded of that carousel. The gist is this: Mike Daisey woke up the NPR-listening world with his long piece of Foxconn for This American Life. It was a great piece – dramatic, educational, and eye-opening – but it’s definitely nothing we haven’t seen before. Some could say that it was The Jungle of Chinese manufacturing, a tell-all with just enough outrage to make us rethink a great horror. But the problem is this: Daisey is an actor and knows how to bring out the story, just as John Steinbeck was a writer and knew how to populate the Dust Bowl with Christ figures. That doesn’t make the story less effective – it makes it more so – but it does make the story less true.

The problem is the endless circle of blame and apology. Daisey is correct in many of his assumptions, but offers a way forward that is currently unenforceable. But if you argue against Daisey’s points, you’re an apologist. But, as Paul Krugman writes:
Such moral outrage is common among the opponents of globalization — of the transfer of technology and capital from high-wage to low-wage countries and the resulting growth of labor-intensive Third World exports. These critics take it as a given that anyone with a good word for this process is naive or corrupt and, in either case, a de facto agent of global capital in its oppression of workers here and abroad.

We keep going over the same ground here. The argument can be delineated like this: Foxconn is an evil sweatshop. Apple is a huge Foxconn customer. They should change things. Two of those things are true, a third is false.

To be clear, I’m with the crowd that says that Apple is, at best, ignorant of Foxconn’s problems and at worst ignoring them. I agree things must change and Apple is in a great position to do it. But I don’t agree with the first point. I’ve seen sweat shops and Foxconn is a factory. If many of the major brands (I recall that Ford was a customer at one factory I visited) knew that their promotional USB keys were made in a building that looked like a gulag, they’d be skewered. Here’s hoping they are, one day. However, Daisey’s Foxconn story – written outside of the factory – and my own research, written inside the factory – don’t jibe. His discoveries that people get sick or are injured in factories are naive and I suspect his sample size of employees who approached him is far smaller than we realize. To go into the Foxconn factory is to see a place staffed by college-age kids and engineers who work 10 or so hours a day building electronics. There is no great Dickensian work house nor are there sad-eyed madonnas of the assembly line chained to the soldering irons. This isn’t the mundanity of evil – this is just mundanity.

Nor am I saying that Daisey’s interviewees are malingerers with an axe to grind. I’m sure their lives are ruined or much harder thanks to Foxconn. The value of Daisey’s efforts is his ability to give these people a voice in an environment that would normally quash that voice. He’s doing what artists must do – reflecting a time and place through his own lens.

My own opinion is simple: Apple needs to do more for the people in its manufacturing chain. I will not pretend that Apple can simply wave a magic wand and make every Foxconn employee rich and happy, but it has the cash and the wherewithal to further disrupt the Chinese supply chain and improve the lot of Foxconn’s employees. But I also agree with what one Gawker commenter said: “I believe Tim Cook will do more good for those employees (and already has, in point of fact) than Mike Daisey ever will.” Apple on the aggregate couldn’t care less about our existence nor does it deserve our undying respect and admiration. On an personal level there are plenty of folks inside Apple working and worrying about worker’s rights in China, but as an entity we are talking supply chains and price management. Apple makes excellent tools for our digital age, that’s it. To defend or excoriate the company is like screaming into the wind. However, through their constant rejiggering and improvements, they have essentially created a Western, ISO-compliant factory environment in a corporate culture that used to force underperforming employees to stand outside wearing a sign that said “I am a bad worker.”

What Daisey did is made us think. Did he do it the right way, using the right tools? Absolutely not. Will he improve the lot of the workers he interviewed? I doubt it. But will his efforts – and the efforts of many who came before him – help bring the Chinese worker out of penury? Sure, eventually.

I opened this piece talking about a carousel in Cape Cod, a delightfully bourgeois setting for a piece on poverty wage labor practices. I get to go to Cape Cod and put my kids on a carousel because my job involves dicking around on the Internet all day (I suspect Daisey’s does too). My one wish is that every Foxconn employee, at some point in their lives, will be able to sit down to an unhurried meal, chat with family, and maybe ride a carousel. I think it’s in Foxconn’s best interests to ensure that that happens – and soon – and I think that we’re nearly there. Things will get better, I’m sure of it, and I also feel that they already have.

Source-techcrunch

Read More

You Can Also Spy On Someone’s iPhone If You Kidnap Them And Lock Them In Your Basement

Yesterday, Gizmodo ran a story about a supposed bug in iOS, specifically related to iMessage. The title: The Apple Bug That Let Us Spy on a Total Stranger’s iPhone. Essentially, Gizmodo got ahold of an iPhone that was receiving iMessages not intended for that phone. The fact that some of these messages were quasi-sexual in nature and that the phone belonged to a teenage boy made the story more salacious. But here’s the thing, fear mongering aside, this “bug” is something that is so convoluted that it’s almost not worth even addressing. Almost.

Here’s what happened: a kid was having trouble with his iPhone. His mother took that iPhone to an Apple Store. When there, an Apple Store employee screwed up. Rather than following protocol and using a test SIM to debug the phone (Apple has test SIMs in their stores for this exact purpose), he oddly used his own SIM. This essentially turned the kid’s phone into the retail employee’s phone. The employee probably thought this was fine since it would only be temporary while he fixed the phone. The problem — which one has to assume he didn’t realize — is that even after you take the SIM out of the phone, the pairing leaves behind an imprint of that SIM. In this case, the iMessage account.

iMessage has made a lot of headlines in the past few months as it’s Apple’s brilliant way of helping to destroy the rip-off that is SMS. One key element of iMessage is the ability to pin an Apple account to the service alongside your phone number. This needs to happen in order for users to take full advantage of iMessage. Because of this connection, Apple can automatically figure out whether to use standard SMS or iMessage within the iMessages app. And iMessages has a bonus: the ability to work with many devices at once, ensuring your messages stay in sync.

These upsides — trying to make something that’s somewhat complicated as user-friendly as possible — lead to a downside like this. If you happen to be swapping SIM cards, you might transfer your iMessage credentials over to this other phone. But let’s be honest, how many people are going to do that? In the U.S., most people have no idea what a SIM card even is. And if they do, it doesn’t matter since most iPhones are locked. In other countries, SIMs are obviously popular, but this issue would involve you swapping SIMs with someone with an unlocked phone (and not wanting to set up your own iMessages account when you swap back).

But none of that is even what happened here. In this case, an Apple retail employee simply made a mistake. Reached for comment, an Apple spokesperson acknowledged this:

    “This was an extremely rare situation that occurred when a retail employee did not follow the correct service procedure and used their personal SIM to help a customer who did not have a working SIM. This resulted in a temporary situation that has since been resolved by the employee.”

The bigger issue here is if your phone is stolen. Ars Technica actually addressed this about a month ago. This is still an edge case (as the vast majority of phones aren’t stolen), but Apple should come up with a way to remotely disable iMessages on a per-device basis. The way to do it right now seems to be to disable your Apple account, which is unfortunate (see: update). Of course, having your phone stolen in the first place is unfortunate. And unless it’s remote-wiped immediately (which rarely happens), any crook can get access to things likely much worse than your iMessages. This is a downside of life and scumbags.

Speaking of scumbags, it sure was nice of Gizmodo to run several of this Apple retail employee’s private messages and images along with the name that everyone knows him by. Part two of this story will probably involve kidnapping him, locking him in a basement, and liveblogging his emails — which were not secured because Apple doesn’t have a security feature to auto-lock and wipe phones when someone is hit over the head by a two-by-four.

Source-techcrunch

Read More

Motorola Injunction Kicks 3 iPhones And An iPad Off Of Apple’s German Site

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a website called Apple.de. And on this website, in historical Deutschland, there lived three iPhones and an iPad. They were a happy bunch: some wise but slow with old age, others quick and lean, but they all had one tragic flaw in common.

According to a court in Germany, all four of them are infringing on Motorola patents related to embedded 3G/UMTS wireless technology, FRAND standards essential patents to be specific. This means that the technology within the patents is now a standard across the industry, and the company that owns said technology is required to license it to competitors under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.

That said, the Mannheim Regional Court has enforced a permanent injunction on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and the iPad 2 3G. Luckily for German fanbois, the ban only affects Apple’s online presence. Customers can still purchase all four products in various retail locations, including Apple brick-and-mortar stores.

This all comes back to a ruling in December, where the Mannheim court issued a preliminary injunction against Apple’s infringing products.

  
German: “Derzeit nicht verfügbar”
    English: “Not currently available.”

You may notice one wireless Apple device — the one that speaks — missing from the list. That’s likely because the iPhone 4S uses a Qualcomm chip as opposed to an Infineon/Intel chip. FOSS Patents suggests that Moto and Qualcomm have a licensing deal already in place, which would mean that Apple is covered by extension with regards to the 4S.

In other Apple/Motorola/Germany-related news, Moto also won a permanent injunction today against Apple’s iCloud push email feature. This means Apple customers in Germany will likely be forced to revert back to the old method of push email, rather than using iCloud.

Source-techcrunch

Read More

For It Before They Were Against It: Google Spent $400K On SOPA Lobbying

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Google spent approximately $390,000 (out of $3,760,000.00 total) on SOPA and PIPA lobbying including efforts to educate lawmakers on SOPA and the DMCA. The question, then, is whether the massive search and advertising giant was for or against the bill – and why so much money was spent to argue the case.
The document, available online in PDF here, is fairly succinct and covers a number of topics, thereby explaining the massive cash outlay. Here’s the specific mention of SOPA:

S. 968 – Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011; S. 978 -
Commercial Felony Streaming Act; S. 2029 – Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act; H.R. 3261 -
Stop Online Piracy Act; Digital Millennium Copyright Act service provider safe harbors; Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The document also mentions a number of other lobbying topics including “Regulation of online advertising; privacy and competition issues in online advertising” and “Renewable energy policies” so it’s not all SOPA all the time over at Google’s New York offices. However, there is a key word missing in the filing – whether Google was for or against the bill and what, if any, opinion they injected into the lobbying effort.
Google was unavailable for comment for this piece but it’s clear that most organizations with a dog in the fight spent some money on lobbying. Wikimedia spent a mere $10K on their efforts, at least according to documents we found. The MPAA made its interests clear in the media but less clear in FEC filings, pouring in $850,000.00 in lobbying money while mentioning nothing of its stance.
According to one reader who performed a bit of data mining on the documents, top spenders are, in order:

RIAA	$535,750
The Information Technology Industry Council	$390,000
Google	$312,500
CSC Holdings	$295,000
Comcast	$265,816

These numbers are clearly elusive. There’s no value in admitting your position in these documents and clearly there’s no requirement. All we have is a trail of cash going from company to lobbyist to politician. What is said during these glad-handing sessions is unclear, but given the predilections of some of the filers, assumptions can be made.
More interesting are these numbers on the aggregate. While we don’t know what was said, the $1,799,066 represented above talks and it’s clear big business has more resources to pass favorable legislation than any nerd army massing online at SOPA’s gates.
Source-techcrunch 

Read More

Android Can No Longer Be Ignored, And The Crunchies Prove It

While sitting at the Crunchies last night something became quite apparent: almost all the big guys — even the ones who were stubborn about it — are currently available on Android.

And what do you know? They won at the Crunchies!

Interestingly enough former Google CEO Eric Schmidt made a bold comment about the future of Android apps just a month ago at LeWeb, stating that the platform would be preferred among developers in the next six months.

    Ultimately, application vendors are driven by volume, and volume is favored by the open approach Google is taking. There are so many manufacturers working so hard to distribute Android phones globally. Whether you like ICS or not, and again I like it a great deal, you will want to develop for that platform, and perhaps even first. Think of it as a transition over the next 6 months.

To say that developers will launch on Android first is still a bit of a leap. Developers tend to prefer building for iOS (likely since iOS apps generate more revenue) and if we look at the most popular apps available today, almost all of them launched on iOS before Android.

Now, the Crunchies doesn’t necessarily determine the success or lack thereof at a company, but that’s not to say it isn’t a great indicator. I mean, it’s you guys, the users, who vote for the winners and who else to tell the tech world what works and what doesn’t.

A couple mobile apps that have made quite a splash are still holding out on Android: Instagram and Flipboard.

Update: This post originally discussed Square, but it is, in fact, already on Android. My apologies for that.

Flipboard and Instagram seem concerned with presenting a unified UI experience across platforms. Since both apps focus so much on the UI experience, a migration to Android would be difficult if both companies want to maintain their high-quality status in the UI department. I hate to say it, but let’s face it, Android apps are uglier than iOS apps.

The point is that these apps — exclusively available on the iOS platform — came in second in their respective categories. Meanwhile, apps like Google+ stole the crown from Instagram for best social app, and Evernote stole the top spot from Flipboard for best mobile app.

Google+ beating out Instagram speaks volumes, mainly because Instagram’s marketing strategy that integrates Facebook and Twitter is killer. Even though Google+ is a Google property, the search giant still saw fit to put the application on the iOS platform. Meanwhile, Instagram taunts Android users through Facebook and Twitter, showing off awesome pictures easily shared, and then offering nothing for them after a search through the Android Market.

Dropbox, which won best overall startup, was loved by many well before it hit Android. In fact, it launched on the iPhone in 2009 and didn’t make the transition over to Android until May of 2010. In January, just months before the Android app went live, Dropbox boasted over 4 million users coming off of a 2009 Crunchies win for best internet application. After a little over a year on the new platform, the company reported it had reached 25 million users. More users means more voters.

Evernote had around 2 million users at the time it launched an Android app, in December of 2009. By May 2010, the company had extended that to 3 million, then to 4 million in August, and jumped to 5 million users in November. By June 6 in 2011, the company boasted over 10 million users. Flipboard, runner up for the best mobile application category, still isn’t on the Android platform and reported 5 million+ users in December 2011. Granted, Evernote took a bullish approach entering the mobile space launching on as many platforms as possible, not just iOS and Android. But Flipboard did the exact opposite, and has forced people to either buy an Apple device or use Google Currents.

Just from the results of last night’s Crunchies awards, it’s clear that Eric Schmidt was right. With 700,000 activations daily, Android simply can’t be ignored any longer.

Source-techcrunch

Read More

WiGig: Panasonic Tablet Wirelessly Transmits A Full DVD Video In 60 Seconds (Video)

WiGig, a multi-gigabit speed wireless communications technology, was first announced back in 2009, but it’s taking companies like Panasonic quite a while to come up with applications that make use of it. Via WiGig, devices can communicate with each other at multi-gigabit speeds using the 60 GHz frequency band.

Panasonic has developed a prototype system, in which WiGig is embedded in a tablet that can wirelessly transmit data like photos or videos to displays mounted in the passenger seats of a car. That car has to be nearby: while Wi-Fi typically has a transmission range of about 30m, WiGig’s range is just 1-3m (Bluetooth: around 10m).

The tablet you can see in the video embedded below transmits a “full DVD video” in 60 seconds, according to Diginfo TV (which shot the video). WiGig, in the 1.1 specification, boasts a data transmission rate of up to 7 Gbit/s.

Panasonic is currently in the process of developing WiGig SD cards that are supposed to be commercialized in summer next year. WiGig-compatible phones are apparently on their way, too.

Here’s the video (in English):

Source-techcrunch

Read More

Apple Overtakes Samsung As World’s Largest Smartphone Vendor In Q4

According to the latest report from Strategy Analytics, Apple has now overtaken Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume. Apple achieved 23.9% market share during Q4 2011, narrowly beating out Samsung’s 23.5% share.

In addition, Apple shipped 37 million units in Q4, again going neck-and-neck with Samsung and its 36.5 million units shipped during the same time.

However, notes Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, “while Apple took the top spot in smartphones on a quarterly basis, Samsung became the market leader in annual terms for the first time with 20% global share during 2011.” Apple’s annual share, meanwhile, was 19%.

In other words, Apple won the quarter, not the year.

Smartphone global shipments reached nearly half a billion units in 2011 (488.5 million units), the firm found, turning the smartphone battle into a two-horse race between Apple and Samsung in terms of units shipped.

Nokia, the one-time smartphone leader, is still holding onto a top spot, in position #3, with 19.6 million units shipped during Q4 and 77.3 million shipped during 2011. But Nokia’s global share has been halved from 33% in 2010 to just 16% in 2011, indicating its ongoing decline.

Although Strategy’s numbers paint the Samsung vs. Apple battle as a tight race between mobile giants, there’s a big difference between the numbers being reported here. As MacRumors points out, Samsung no longer reports its mobile phone sales numbers, while Apple discloses its units sold each quarter. That means analysts are estimating Samsung’s numbers, but Apple’s numbers are provided by the company itself. It could be that Apple’s lead is even greater than what’s seen here.

Update: A report from the analysts at Canalys has just come in, and confirms the same thing – it’s an Apple vs. Samsung battle.

According to the firm’s latest findings, Apple’s record shipment of 37 million iPhones shipped in Q4 beat the previous record held by Nokia of 28.3 million phones shipped in Q4 2010. Another shocking figure: the huge volume of iPhones shipped exceeded the size of the entire market of 4 years ago, when 35.5 million smartphones shipped globally.

The firm also noted Nokia’s shipment of 19.6 million smartphones, calling it “a decent performance given its current transitional state.” However, Canalys stopped short of estimating Samsung’s phone shipments at this time, saying that the company doesn’t disclose these numbers publicly. They did say that Samsung’s quarterly smartphone growth was around 30% and mobile phone shipments were up 10%, though.

Says Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst Chris Jones, “the numbers are still coming in, but our early take on the state of the smartphone market is that, while Apple and Samsung clearly saw phenomenal performances, many other vendors have struggled. The full impact of this difficult quarter on hardware and software vendors will become clearer over the next week, when final results from the likes HTC, LG, Huawei and ZTE are announced, and Canalys publishes its full Q4 2011 worldwide country-level databases.”

 Source-techcrunch

Read More

Twitter Puts Its DMCA Takedown Requests Up For All To See

Yesterday’s announcement that Twitter would be selectively censoring tweets based on country was not well-received. But part of that announcement was the assurance that the process would at least be transparent. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

They also mentioned that they were working with Chilling Effects to make notices and orders sent to Twitter publicly available. At the time of the post yesterday, the site wasn’t up yet, but you can now browse it at chillingeffects.org/twitter.

It’s a good thing, certainly, though not quite a successful saving throw versus the localized-censorship piece. The database has several thousand DMCA takedown requests right now, but is not quite up to date — it isn’t clear at what rate they’re updating the database, but there aren’t many from this month so it seems to be something less than weekly.

Browsing the listings is a good way to waste 15 minutes, looking at the different ways people tend to provoke a DMCA takedown request. There’s a lot of cricket being linked to, apparently. And there are the inevitable copyrighted avatars.

What’s interesting to me is that there are a number of requests that in themselves request dozens of tweets to be taken down; this one, for example, points out a number of pirated movies being linked to, and the accounts are clearly bots. The DMCA request is only for the movies the rightsholder is concerned with — which is at once both correct and perverse. The account only exists to link to copyrighted material and has done so thousands of times, but everyone involved would rather snip out individual tweets one by one. Talk about a Sisyphean task.

Presumably this database will also house the official requests by governments who wish to restrict tweets based on content. While most won’t agree with Twitter’s decision to accede to these repressive entities’ wishes, it can at least be hoped that it will be done so with maximum transparency. The best thing Twitter users can do, perhaps, is to make sure this database is up to date and reflective of the restrictions being placed on tweets. Until a solution comes along, reducing the harm this new policy does and making sure it’s well understood should take priority.

 

Source-techcrunch 

Read More

Kaiser Permanente Takes Millions Of Medical Records Mobile With New Android App

We’ve recently written about some exciting new ideas and technology that will transform medicine in 2012, how mobile technology is playing a role in this transformation, and lauded investor Vinod Khosla addressed the question of whether or not algorithms (and technology) will replace doctors.

Younger, smaller companies have flexibility, and can often have a greater impact on innovation and evolution of industries than giant corporations that have been around for decades. When we talk about innovation and technology touching the health industry, it’s hard not to mention electronic medical records (EMRs). As recently as 2009, The New England Journal of Medicine found that only 1.5 percent of U.S. hospitals have a comprehensive electronic medical health system. Practice Fusion, a venture-backed startup we’ve covered recently, has become one of the biggest providers of EMRs in the country, with 25 million digitized to date.

While the free web-based system for physicians is making some great progress in this area, and is catalyzing change, it has to be tempered by the prior statistic — there’s still a long way to go. That’s why it’s such great news for the industry, when older, giant corporations — the big kahunas — jump on the bandwagon and show they’re willing to help push their industries forward.

Founded in 1945, California-based Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest not-for-profit managed care consortiums and health plan providers in the country, with 9 million members, nearly 170K employees, 15K physicians, 35 medical centers, and 430+ medical offices under its fold. Yesterday, the health care organization announced the release of a free Android app and mobile-optimized website through which its millions of members can access their own medical information on the go.

This means that Kaiser Permanente patients can get full access to the company’s health record system and all that comes with it, which they already could do through kp.org, from their mobile devices. In 2011, Kaiser more than 68 million lab test results available online to their patients, and through the Android app and mobile web app, patients can now get 24/7 access to lab results, diagnostic information, direct and secure email access to doctors, schedule appointments, and order prescription refills.

The company plans to release an app for iOS in the next few months, but in the meantime, non-Android users can get access to the same set of secure tools through its new mobile-optimized website through their devices’ browsers. What’s more, the apps also make it possible for family members and other care providers to get access on behalf of patients and accomplish the same tasks that they could at kp.org. This is great for people who are traveling and need to receive care from non-Kaiser Permanente providers.

The company’s data on how people are accessing its site is very telling, too, as it validates the notion that mobile technology has become an essential part of healthcare, as Kaiser told us that 14 percent of visits to its website now derive from mobile devices, a 46 percent growth since January 2011.

The health plan provider has previously released mobile apps for the iPhone, one that helps patients locate KP facilities and another app that encourages people to walk and pursue healthy activities, and while both are great tools, neither have the implications that giving broad access to EMRs does through Android, and soon iOS. Kaiser Permanente has made some great strides in HealthIT, and is set on pushing forward in mobile technology as well. If the other big health plan and healthcare providers follow suit, this can have an enormous effect on the health industry and patient care. It’s already further validation of the importance of EMRs.

You can find the Android app here.

Additional note: Those looking for more info on the security and privacy policies of KP in regard to personal health info on the Web, check these links out here and here.

As to security for its mobile website and apps, Kaiser Permanente says that it aims to protect the privacy and security of personal health information and has “implemented effective programs for information security and compliance … supported by multiple layers of security involving technology, policies, physical security, awareness and identity authentication.”

Members will be required to log on to mobile.kp.org, just as they do on kp.org today. “Security for mobile access includes (but is not limited to) user authentication, automatic log-out of ‘My Health Manager’ after a period of inactivity, and secure internet connections. Personal health information will remain on Kaiser Permanente’s secure servers, and no personal health information will be stored on a mobile device.”

At Kaiser Permanente, we think of the quest to maintain a secure environment as a journey, rather than a destination. As new technologies and threats emerge, Kaiser Permanente will continue to expand our security solutions, while enhancing care delivery through timely access to information.
Source-techcrunch

Read More