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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50644368/
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
Video: PRESS Pass: Chris Hughes
A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3032608/vp/50640782#50640782
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Storage Options Scroll Essential II 7 Inch Android 4.0 Capacitive Tablet
Overview
| Product Name: | Storage Options Scroll Essential II 7 Inch Android 4.0 Capacitive Tablet |
| Product Code: | CC-55109 |
| Pack Size: | 1 |
| Condition: | Brand New |
| Warranty: | Yes: 1 Year |
| Despatch Time: | Usually ships same working day* |
| Availability: | IN STOCK |
| Category: | Tablets |
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Description
A sleek, stylish and multi functional table device, ideal for a wide range of applications.
Key Features- 7? Android 4.0 Tablet PC
- Quick and Simple to Use
- Intuitive, Capacitive Touch-Screen
- Great for Web, Games, Videos, eBooks, Music and More
- Choose from 1000?s of Great Apps with SlideMe Marketplace
Scroll Essential II is a capacitive, touch screen tablet PC designed for use both at home and on the move. Running the intuitive Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system the Essential II is a tablet well equipped for internet browsing, social networking, games, videos and much more!
Running fast, responsive hardware, a slick and enjoyable experience is guaranteed from this responsive device. Use the built in multimedia centre to play the latest video and music content, enjoy a wide range of games wherever you are and stay connected with social networking applications.?
A wide range of accessories are also available separately to enhance your Scroll Essential II, including a smart, powerful speaker dock, a stylus and protective cases to keep your device looking it?s best at all times.
Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) Tablet ? The Most Comprehensive Scroll Experience Yet
Scroll Essential II boasts the latest Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich operating system which is the first OS designed specifically for mobile devices, uniting Smartphones and tablets under one operating system. The new OS offers a wealth of innovative new features, all working together to create a smooth, engaging and simply superb experience on your Scroll. Android 4.0 takes all the best features of Android to a powerful new level, with greater interactivity, communication and sharing.
Many apps, such as the Browser, Email and YouTube have been redesigned with more options and offer a better overall look and feel. As far as Ice Cream Sandwich tablets go, the Scroll Essential II has an appealing combination of features that make it one the most comprehensive tablet experiences on the market.
Limitless Possibilities with 1000s of Apps Available
Make the most of your Scroll Essential II with wide array of apps. Popular Apps such as BBC News, Facebook, MSN Talk and Twitter come preinstalled and preloaded on the tablet, ensuring quick and easy access to some exciting content.
The Scroll Essential II also comes pre-loaded with our partner app stores to ensure that you are able to fine even more apps and enjoy the full Scroll experience with ease.
SlideME offers a broad range of apps in multiple mediums, while media marketplace 7digital is the ultimate companion for music lovers. WildTangent Games completes the package and offers a dazzling array of games in an easy to access and manage format.
Tap into a Vibrant Multimedia Powerhouse
Step into a bright new world of portable entertainment with the Scroll Extreme. Whether you want to take or view photos, watch your favourite movie, listen to the latest music or play a new game, Scroll Extreme?s powerful processor and Ice Cream Sandwich OS make for an impressive and satisfying experience
Your Social Media Companion
Scroll Essential II is the perfect companion for social networking, instant messaging and email. Stay in touch with your family and friends and share your experiences whilst on the move, chat, upload pictures and videos and keep up to date with the latest trends and stories online from wherever you are.
Get Lost in Your Favourite Book
Enjoy the latest bestseller, your favourite classics or keep up to date with the latest news from across the globe. Whatever you're reading, Scroll Essential II makes reading a joy with its crisp display and instant access to a virtual library's worth of material. The eBook reader app pre-loaded onto Scroll Engage gives you access to plenty of great reads to enjoy.
Highly Interactive and Customisable Display
Android lovers will benefit from a far slicker tablet experience with Android 4.0. Scroll Essential has a highly responsive multi-touch, capacitive screen that makes all the intuitive actions of Android such as ?pinch-to-zoom? and ?swipe? more natural and smoother than ever. The keyboard is consequently much softer and more comfortable to type with on the 7? screen.
You can easily dismiss apps and notifications with a swipe, keeping the most relevant information and content close to hand and fresh in your mind. The Apps folder has been re-designed with Widgets now integrated into the same location. You can move widgets and apps onto your home screens with fluid motions; a long-press of an app icon will also bring up options to uninstall the app or view app info. Swipe through live content using widgets on your home screen and also group apps into folders simply by dragging them on top of each other then giving the folder a suitable name.
Share Your Media using Micro SD
With its built in micro SD memory card slot the data storage potential of the Scroll Essential II is literally endless. Use Micro SD cards for up to 32GB of expandable extra space for your all your favourite media files, whether its video, music or photos. SD Card storage is also a really practical solution for exchanging files between your PC and Scroll ? a fantastic way to share all your favourite, movies, music or photos with family and friends.
Wi-Fi Connectivity
Wireless 802.11b/g/n is built into Scroll Pocket as standard, making it easy to connect to your home or work network for easy web browsing, checking your emails or posting updates on your favourite social networking sites
Source: http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?product_id=35682
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China's narrow focus on oil in South Sudan won't work -US envoy
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - China needs to move beyond a narrow focus on oil issues in South Sudan and help tackle that country's larger political disputes with Sudan, the outgoing U.S. special envoy to the two African states said on Wednesday.
Ambassador Princeton Lyman said he had worked closely with Chinese officials more than two years, during which time South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 to become the world's newest nation.
China is Sudan's biggest ally and is the largest investor in the oil industry there and in South Sudan - a position that Western diplomats say gives Beijing the best chance of defusing tensions between Khartoum and Juba over sharing oil wealth and ending violence on both sides of their shared boundary.
But Lyman said the disputes, which have shut down landlocked South Sudan's oil output, underscore the limits of staying aloof from political problems.
"They have weighed in very significantly on the oil issue. But what China doesn't like to do is to get involved in some of the underlying political problems that are keeping the oil from flowing," he told reporters in Washington.
"Without that stability and (with) the danger of conflict on the border, the chances of having a long-term productive oil sector is threatened, so they can't just concentrate on the oil and just pretend that the other things aren't bearing on it," he said.
China has long held up as its foreign policy mantra non-interference in countries' internal affairs, a principle it first enunciated in 1954 - long before it was an economic power with interests around the globe. (Reporting by Paul Eckert; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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Source: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/chinas-narrow-focus-on-oil-in-south-sudan-wont-work--us-envoy
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Culture Gabfest: First, We Kill All the Cats Edition
Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 228 with Stephen Metcalf, Jody Rosen, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:
And join the lively conversation on the Culturefest Facebook page here:
The sponsors of today?s show are Shutterstock.com?and Audible.com. Go to Shutterstock.com and use the offer code ?SLATE1? for 30 percent off new accounts. Get a free audiobook from Audible?s collection of more than 100,000 titles and a subscription to a daily audio digest when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at www.audiblepodcast.com/culturefest.
Culturefest is on the radio! ?Gabfest Radio? combines Slate?s Culture and Political Gabfests in one show?listen on Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m. on WNYC?s AM820.
On this week?s Culturefest, Slate music critic Jody Rosen sits in to discuss the indie rap sensation Macklemore, the popularity of his hit single ?Thrift Shop,? and the mainstreaming of hipster culture. Then, the Gabfesters talk about the movie John Dies at the End, the popularity of low-budget, craft-conscious ?artisanal horror? films and their favorite horror movies of all time. Finally, our critics discuss an economist?s proposal to do away with the feline population of New Zealand, leading the Culturefest to confront the ultimate preference binary: dogs vs. cats.
Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:
Dana?s pick: The feature movie Girl Walk//All Day about dancer Anne Marsen?s one-woman flash-mob style public dance performances.
Julia?s pick: The action classic Die Hard With a Vengeance.
Stephen?s pick: Edgar Allan Poe?s masterful maritime thriller The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.
Outro: ?Thrift Shop? by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Julia Furlan. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.
Follow us on the new Culturefest Twitter feed. And please Like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4fe5b784a139fecbb64c771b97686bfc
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Pre-caffeine tech: Apple updates, winter pug!
4 hrs.
Our?pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning.
Apple just?released a software update?? iOS 6.1 ? which gives you the ability to purchase movie tickets through?Fandango using Siri, supports LTE?capabilities?for a bunch of carriers around the world?and adds the ability to download individual songs from iCloud.
Also,?Facebook updated its iOS app with voice messages, video recording and?sharing.
Meanwhile, we've heard plenty of rumors?about Apple's intentions to start offering a higher capacity fourth-generation iPad, but now the new gadget is official: You can snag a 128GB iPad with Retina Display beginning on Feb. 5.
Oh, darn??Twitter is making it less easy to find porn on its new video-sharing service, Vine.?
Oh, hey!?Canon's new point-and-shoot gets improved with both?Wi-Fi and zoom.
Check out this supersonic ping-pong gun fires balls at Mach 1.2?... because why now??
Google is?pledging to fight over government access to users' email.?
And?Twitter turns over user info to the U.S. feds in 69 percent of requests.
I don't know about you, but I'm super psyched about Gawker's old tech rumor blog, Valleywag, rising from the dead.?
In closing, a pug outsmarts winter! Go pug!?
Compiled?by?Helen A.S. Popkin,?who invites you to?join her on?Twitter?and/or?Facebook. Also,?Google+.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/pre-caffeine-tech-apple-updates-winter-pug-1C8156930
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5 Tips for Secure IT in a Mobile Computing Environment | Kaseya Blog
Ever evolving information technology (e.g. smart phones, tablets, cloud computing) deliver increased mobility, productivity and ROI? but they also provide growing mobile IT security concerns. Here are 5 tips to help guard against mobile IT security breaches and data loss:
Design Safe Systems for Mobile IT Security
Decrease exposure to hackers by limiting access to your technology infrastructure. Reduce points of failure by prohibiting unnecessary access to equipment, software and data. Minimize potential damage to your networks by using a unique set of domain names, logins and email addresses for each user, work group and department.
Screen New Hires and Conduct Background Checks
While external hackers get most of the attention, the majority of mobile IT security breaches occur from inside network firewalls. Screen all prospective employees. And after hiring, institute an initial trial period during which new employees are monitored for risky network activity.
Provide Basic Training
Most data losses occur as a result of human error or carelessness. Build a corporate culture that emphasizes computer and mobile IT security via training programs that communicate the risks of sloppy password practices and the careless use of devices and data. All security precautions, from proper records disposal to protocols for changing/sharing passwords, should be explained and enforced.
Deploy an Industrial Strength Virus Scanner and Keep all Software Up-To-Date
Keeping software of all types up-to-date is crucial. Schedule and install frequent downloads of security updates and patches to guard against new viruses and variations on older ones.
Use a Robust, Reliable, and Easily Managed Backup Tool
Being able to address multiple forms of data loss is critical. Is it a workstation or is it a server that needs a restore? Is a bare metal restore required? Is it a physical device that needs to be brought online quickly in a virtualized environment? All of these issues should be considered when choosing your backup tools.
A backup solution for computer and mobile IT security such as Kaseya Remote Backup provides real-time automated disk remote backup, disk imaging and bare metal restore for Windows servers and workstations. Unlike conventional file-based only products, Remote Backup creates an image of the entire system state (including operating system, business applications, user settings, drivers and data) giving administrators the framework to completely rebuild a downed system in less than an hour.
Learn more about integrating mobile IT security solutions into your overall MDM strategy here.
Source:
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-001.html
Source: http://blog.kaseya.com/blog/2013/01/29/5-mobile-it-security-tips-to-prevent-enterprise-data-loss/
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Convercent Raises $10.2M To Help Companies Promote The Good And Manage The Bad
Convercent has raised $10.2 million for its compliance software that helps companies promote the good and manage the bad. The round was led by Azure Capital Partners with Mantucket Capita participating in the round.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/cFRIjeGyvh4/
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The 9 Least-Boring Moments of the SAG Awards
Without lively performances or even a host, the SAG Awards are known for being more staid than its awards season siblings. While it may not be the most exciting television of the year, it is the most recent -- and an important! -- stop on that long red carpet that leads to the Oscars. On Sunday night, Hollywood's film and television elite glammed up and gathered for the ceremony, in which the winners are determined by members of the Screen Actors Guild (the actors' union).
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Rick Ross Confirmed As Drive-By Target In Florida Shooting
Fort Lauderdale police issue a statement which identifies Rozay as driver and girlfriend as his passenger.
By Rob Markman
Rick Ross
Photo: Chris McKay/ Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700932/rick-ross-drive-by-shooting-50-cent.jhtml
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Dodgers TV Deal: L.A. Club Inks $7 Billion Time Warner Pact, MLB To Determine Revenue-Sharing Impact
LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers formally announced a deal with Time Warner Cable on Monday to create a new TV channel that people familiar with the situation say assures the team more than $7 billion over 25 years. That is double what Major League Baseball thought the local TV rights were worth when the team was sold out of bankruptcy just last year.
The gap will be the subject of discussions going forward as the league attempts to haggle over how much of that extra money will go into a revenue-sharing pool to help out baseball's lower-revenue franchises.
MLB calculates that 34 percent of a team's local revenue, after subtracting costs, is available for redistribution throughout the league. When the Dodgers were mired in bankruptcy last year, the league agreed to value the potential TV rights of any future deal at $84 million the first year, rising 4 percent every year thereafter. Over 25 years, that estimated TV rights revenue of $3.5 billion.
The actual TV rights contract represents a huge mark-up from that initial forecast. It could be a boon to the league, depending on how much of that revenue its internal rules committee says is subject to sharing. The contract is also a big win for the owners, including Guggenheim Partners and Magic Johnson, who bought the team out of bankruptcy last year for $2 billion from Frank McCourt.
The broad strokes of the deal terms were confirmed by three people who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about them publicly.
MLB spokesman Pat Courtney wouldn't comment on the deal, but said the league would need to approve it. "We are still awaiting further information," he said.
If approved, fans in the Los Angeles area and Hawaii would have to switch from watching Dodgers games on Fox Sports' regional sports channel Prime Ticket after the 2013 season.
The high price tag also means monthly TV bills are likely headed upward ? in the Los Angeles market and elsewhere.
"There's no question that there's a huge problem with sports rights," said Derek Baine, a senior analyst with research firm SNL Kagan, adding that one big question is "when is this going to stop?" Baine also blamed higher TV bills on the proliferation of new channels and rising fees for once-free TV station broadcasts.
Time Warner Cable Inc., which agreed to pay the fees, is now aiming to cut deals with other local TV distributors to offset the cost, which could spread any fee hikes across the TV landscape, including in other markets.
The new channel, SportsNet LA, will be launched and operated by a subsidiary of the team formed in December called American Media Productions LLC.
Along with selling the channel to other TV distributors, Time Warner Cable will have the exclusive advertising rights and certain branding and programming rights. It will also offer production and technical services outside of regular game coverage, which will be handled by the team's subsidiary.
Ownership of the network was important, according to the people familiar with the situation, because the league allows teams to reduce their revenue-sharing contributions by the cost of running their own TV networks.
The contract marks the second major sports rights deal in three years for Time Warner Cable, which bought the rights to Los Angeles Lakers games in 2011 and launched regional sports networks covering them last year.
After paying an estimated $3 billion for the Lakers rights for 20 years, Time Warner Cable eked out higher fees from other TV distributors in Los Angeles, including DirecTV. The cable operator has said it is bidding for long-term sports carriage agreements to give itself certainty about rising sports costs.
"This deal, like our Lakers' deal, furthers our efforts to attain greater certainty and control over local and regional sports programming costs," David Rone, president of Time Warner Cable Sports, said in a statement.
However, Time Warner Cable is not the only network operator looking to recoup the cost of sports rights by hiking fees on other TV distributors.
The New York Yankees' YES Network, which is part owned by News Corp.'s Fox network, is also expected to seek a fee hike from Time Warner Cable when that agreement expires early next year.
Dodgers owner Mark Walter said in a statement, "we concluded last year that the best way to give our fans what they want ? more content and more Dodger baseball ? was to launch our own network."
___
Ron Blum contributed from New York.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/dodgers-tv-deal-time-warner-mlb_n_2570677.html
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Uncle Sam may soon be pointing at women, too
By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor
Ladies, for the first time ever, Uncle Sam soon may be pointing at you.
Days after the Pentagon cleared women to take certain combat roles, advocacy groups for military women say another new hour has arrived for all young female adults to register with Selective Service, the giant pool of names collected by the government should America ever opt to revive the draft.
The movement to require women ages 18 to 25 to sign up for Selective Service ? mirroring the law for all U.S. men in that demographic???is rooted in both active-duty and veteran circles.
The Service Women?s Action Network (SWAN), which strives to represent all women in the armed forces, believes such a change is simply the logical next step to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta?s decision last week to erase the long prohibition on females in combat.
?SWAN advocates for the inclusion of women into Selective Service,? said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of SWAN and a former Marine Corps captain. ?Lifting the ban on women officially serving in combat is about giving qualified women the opportunity to serve and making our military stronger, and that would include having women register for Selective Service."
?If you are going to say ?total equality? in the military, that has to include Selective Service registration,? agreed Cassaundra StJohn, founder and CEO of F7 Group, which provides resources, training and mentoring to female veterans. StJohn served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve between 1985 and 1998, reaching the rank of staff sergeant.
Amid his historic announcement last week, Panetta alerted administrators of the Selective Service System ?to exercise some judgment based on what we just did.?
Selective Service officials heard that remark. Since then the agency ? an independent office within the executive branch???has been conducting a "what-if drill" in case a Defense official or Congressional member asks what adding women to agency's workload would cost the country, said Pat Schuback, spokesperson for Selective Service.
Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
View images of the women deployed as the second Female Engagement team in Afghanistan
"We're not the policy-making group. We're kind of like mechanics. We just do what we're told to do. We have the mechanism. We don't hold a position on whether to draft women or not," Schuback said.?
Should that change occur, Selective Service ? which has about 130 full-time employees across the country???would "need to be probably resourced a little bit," Schuback added. "But we don't anticipate that it would be a lot because the machinery's the same. It would be in the man hours of answering the inquires, handling questions and doing direct mails out to people to remind them" to register.?
Panetta also set a May 15 deadline for each service branch to provide ?detailed plans for implementation? on how female service members will be placed into combat duties, said Nathan Christensen, a Pentagon spokesman.
?Following that, a formal notification to Congress will be made, detailing (combat) occupations that will be opened to women,? Christensen said. ?Selective Service requirements are determined by law, and we can't speculate on any changes to law.?
However, federal law does require DOD ? after making such sweeping policy changes???to provide a breakdown of the impact those shifts may have on the Selective Service Act, senior Defense officials said in a briefing last week. That analysis, they added, ?will be part of the notification to Congress? made by DOD after each branch reports back to Panetta in May.
One female veteran who was attached with an infantry team in Ghazni, Afghanistan, argues that with the female-combat ban gone, women should now be Constitutionally guaranteed the right to be eligible for Selective Service???and a possible military draft.
?It can be hard to adapt to new customs. There will be some feathers ruffled,? said Courtney Witt, a former Air Force senior airman, who also served in Iraq. ?... It is a little difficult, for some, to see our daughters, sisters and wives go off into war.
?I can?t explain the feeling you have when you have fought alongside brothers and sisters in arms. It?s a bond that can never be broken ... It?s an amazing patriotic feeling,? Witt said. ?Shouldn?t any man or woman be a part of that??
The drawdown of U.S. forces and the pullout from Afghanistan make the chances of a draft reinstatement far less likely than, say, even eight years ago when Coalition forces were battle-thin and bogged down in Iraq, experts say.
But there are some in Washington who still favor bringing back the draft???as a deterrent to war.
In 2010, Rep. Charles Rangel, D.-N.Y., reintroduced a bill that would require all U.S. men and women between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either in the military or in a civilian service that helps national defense. The bill died in committee.
At least four times before, Rangel has written similar bills that would have restored the draft.
?There's no question in my mind," Rangel told the New York Times in 2007, "that we wouldn't be in Iraq ... if indeed we had a draft, and members of Congress and the administration thought that kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way."
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Randy Houser and West Bond over Bedtime Routine
"The biggest thing he's doing right now is hollering 'Dada,'" Houser, 36, tells PEOPLE.
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/DpeCYK8vixM/
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Sepia Saturday: shops and genealogy mazes | Family history across ...
Daniel (38) and Winifred O?Brien arrived in Queensland on board the Florentia on 29 April 1853. Accompanying them on the voyage were their children Mary 18, Ellen 16, Denis 13, Sarah 12, Hanora 9 and Daniel 2. The family came from Tipperary and on the immigration lists Daniel stated his parents were Denis and Mary O?Brien (mother still alive) and his wife?s parents were Thomas and Ellen Carter (both dead). Daniel apparently went on to become a blacksmith near the current Amberley airforce runway. This photo of his shop, with staff, and possibly family standing outside, is reminiscent of this week?s Sepia Saturday theme. The photo has been digitised by Picture Ipswich.
Ipswich Library &? Information Service, Ipswich City Council, 1860-1869 ??oai:picture.ipswich.qld.gov.au:8704
An Ancestry family tree indicates that Daniel was born c1801 at Bishopswood near Dundrum, Tipperary. This is a slightly longer distance from Limerick than my O?Brien?s home in Ballykelly near Broadford, Co Clare. From time to time, I?ve wondered if my Mary O?Brien Kunkel somehow emigrated with the Daniel O?Brien family, but this remains conjecture or fantasy rather than fact. Daniel and Winifred?s daughter, Ellen O?Brien, married a John Collins and son Daniel married Anne Brennan from Maitland. There is nothing whatsoever to suggest that this family is any way connected to my O?Brien family from County Clare?BUT?
So why do I say ?BUT?? Well there are a number of connections between my O?Brien-Kunkel family and this family.
Daniel O?Brien /Picture Ipswich/People/Families/ARCHIVE/qips-2010-10-24-0003p.jpg
I believe it?s likely that the Sarah O?Brien who witnesses George Kunkel?s and Mary O?Brien?s marriage in Ipswich Queensland in 1857 is the daughter listed above, although I have no strong evidence that she?s the right one, rather perhaps than any other.
The link to one sister is stronger however. Sarah?s sister, Mary O?Brien, married a James McGrath and this couple witnessed the baptism of the Kunkel?s second child, Joseph.
So is there a relationship connection between my Mary O?Brien from Co Clare to the Daniel O?Brien family? Unfortunately I just can?t say.
Winifred O?Brien nee Carter. Picture Ipswich/People/Families/ARCHIVE/qips-2010-10-24-0002p.jpg
There?s yet more confusion to add to this O?Brien maze because a Kate O?Brien witnesses the baptisms of the Kunkel daughters Mary Ellen and Elizabeth (later known as Louisa). ?Is Kate a ?ring-in? or is she really my Mary?s sister, who oral history says came with her older sisters Bridget and Mary? If she was a sister, and they arrived together, surely she would have witnessed Mary?s marriage as well? I?d previously discounted this because of no clear links, because Kate marries in Sydney in 1871. Would she have waited that long if she?d arrived in Moreton Bay circa 1855? She?d have been quite young, about 14, on arrival but that?s far from impossible too.
Just to add to the confusion, there?s yet another O?Brien strand to add to the mix. Bridget O?Brien, daughter of Patrick O?Brien and Mary Latchford of Limerick appears regularly in my Kunkel-O?Brien history. Bridget married a Robert Mullen and one of the witnesses to the wedding was my George Kunkel. Bridget?s husband Robert then witnesses Mary Ellen and Louisa Kunkel?s baptisms (together with Kate above). Bridget is later the sponsor at the baptism of Bridget Catherine Kunkel. My Mary O?Brien Kunkel is in turn the sponsor at the baptism of baby Mary Alice Mullen who dies in 1865. My working hypothesis is that Robert Mullen may also worked on the development of the railway line to Toowoomba. The families appear to have remained in contact over the decades as evidenced by the loan of a wedding gown by their daughter to Mary O?Brien Kunkel?s granddaughter. Robert Mullen died within a year of his old friend George Kunkel on 7 July 1915.
This interwoven story comprises several O?Brien strands:
Strand 1: My Mary O?Brien from Ballykelly near Broadford, County Clare
Strand 2: Sarah O?Brien who witnesses the Kunkel-O?Brien marriage ?is she a relation of my Mary?s? Daughter of Daniel and Winifred? Or someone else altogether?
Strand 3: Kate O?Brien who witnesses baptisms (a relation or a friend?)
Strand 4: Bridget O?Brien married to Robert Mullen who we know is not obviously related to any of these families. However the Mullen family continues their links with the Kunkels over many years.
Strand 5: Mary O?Brien, daughter of Daniel and Winifred, who married James McGrath and who witnesses the Kunkels? second child?s baptism.
This is something of a muddled link to the theme of shop and staff for this week?s Sepia Saturday, but it does show the importance and complexity of FANs (friends/family, Associates, Neighbours) in relation to our family history. Maybe something will come of this post to make the connections less ambiguous.
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Source: http://cassmob.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/sepia-saturday-shops-and-genealogy-mazes/
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Breast-conserving surgery may top mastectomy for cancer survival
Over the past decade, women with early-stage breast cancer have increasingly?opted for mastectomy over lumpectomy despite evidence that breast-conserving therapy plus radiation is as effective as removal of the breast.
This trend has seemed particularly prevalent among younger, more affluent women from urban areas. New research suggests such decisions may be particularly unwise.
Many women with breast cancer in one breast choose to have the other breast removed as well. Shown here, a microscopic image of breast cancer carcinoma. (Credit: Duncan Smith)
In a study published online Monday in the journal Cancer, researchers found that??early-stage breast cancer patients who undergo breast-conserving therapy ??lumpectomy and radiation ? instead of mastectomy may actually live longer.
?In light of the reports showing renewed interest in mastectomy, and because there have been few opportunities to observe long-term, treatment-associated outcomes in the general population, we asked whether the comparable survival outcome of BCT compared with mastectomy as seen in randomized controlled trials could be generalized to the non-clinical trial population,? wrote lead author E. Shelley Hwang, M.D., M.P.H., Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"There are lots of women who think the more [treatment] they do, the better they will do," she told HealthDay News. "This refutes that."
Monday, January 28, 2013
Luxury cars buy into the downsizing trend
19 hrs.
For those attending the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month, Mercedes-Benz has rolled out an all-new version of its big E-Class line-up. But for reporters who came into the Motor City early for the show?s media preview, Mercedes offered a sneak peek at the new CLA model it will formally introduce later this year.
Sharing a similar silhouette with the current CLS coupe-like sedan, the CLA will be the smallest model the German maker has ever sold in the United States, representing a significant shift not only for Mercedes but for the rest of the luxury car market.?
A quick survey of high-line manufacturers including Lincoln, Land Rover, BMW and Audi shows they?re all taking aim at downsized segments. That reflects some significant trends in the luxury market as buyers come to grips not only with rising fuel prices but increasingly crowded urban environments, analysts and industry planners suggest.
?If we want to grow and don?t want to lose our customers, we have to downsize,? contends Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG and chief of its Mercedes-Benz brand.
It?s not the first time the maker has pushed down-market. Mercedes made waves when it introduced its original C-Class ?Baby Benz? more than three decades ago. And in the ?90s, it tried pushing even lower with the stripped down C-Coupe. The C-Class is now one of the maker?s most popular products, though the smaller, lower-priced Coupe proved a flop and was quickly pulled from the lineup.?
Buyers were equally uninspired by the smaller, stripped-down version of the classic BMW 3-Series, the 318 Coupe.
Whether buyers will welcome even smaller models today remains to be seen, especially in the U.S. where ?it has always been bigger is better,? and buyers have measured luxury ? and the concurrent price tag ? by the inch and pound, said George Peterson, of consulting firm AutoPacific, Inc.
The C-Coupe and the BMW 318 were little more than econoboxes bearing luxury badges.? The new Mercedes CLA, however, will offer much more traditional luxury accoutrements, including leather seats, wood trim and the latest high-tech safety and infotainment systems, the maker promises.
That?s already a formula that works in Europe, said?Peterson. ?The idea that you make a statement by having the biggest car around isn?t quite the case anymore.? Now it?s more about the technology and features of the car.?
European makers have all added new downsized models, such as the BMW 1-Series and the Audi A2. The trend is apparent even in the luxury crossover segment where downsizing might once have seemed an oxymoron. BMW has had a hit with its X3 and now is offering the even smaller X1.
Slideshow: The 2013 Detroit Motor Show
Buick dealers are just taking delivery of the maker?s new Korean-made compact crossover, the Encore, which the General Motors mid-luxury brand hopes will help it attract an entirely new cohort of young, hip and increasingly affluent buyers.
Lincoln has the same idea in mind for the new MKC, one of four new models it is planning to bring out between now and 2014. The broader compact crossover segment has grown 200 percent over the past five years, including a 60?percent spurt in 2012 alone, notes Matt VanDyke, Lincoln?s new global marketing chief.?Yet while they account for a solid 11percent of the overall American automotive market, they?ve now jumped to an even more impressive 25?percent of the luxury segment.
While young, first-time buyers make up much of the market for compact CUVs and other downsized luxury products, VanDyke says it is equally significant that customers are also ?coming from other premium segment vehicles,? trading in larger, more traditional luxury products.
So, as with the CLA, the new Lincoln MKC will be offered with the sort of up-market features that normally wouldn?t be found on something nearly that small. In fact, the concept vehicle unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show featured a more lavishly appointed interior than Lincoln?s larger MKZ sedan, which made its debut late last year.
While it will help to load up these new products with plenty of luxury accoutrements, industry stylists are also working to give these downsized products more upscale designs.? Murat Gueler, who oversaw the exterior work on the MKC, and Soo Kang, who focused on the interior, put a particular focus on making the compact crossover look a lot larger than it really is.?
Particularly for the next generation of luxury customers, the idea of downsizing is not something they naturally shy away from.? If anything, they?re used to paying more for compact smartphones and tablet computers.?
And the industry is hoping that they?ll feel the same way about the latest generation of small luxury cars. The key, said analyst Peterson, will be to deliver all the features they?d traditionally expect on a bigger vehicle ?so they don?t feel like they have to sacrifice.?
Copyright 2013 The Detroit Bureau
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/luxury-cars-buy-downsizing-trend-1C8087460
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95% Chasing Ice
All Critics (64) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (3)
Global Warming? "Seeing is believing."
The most important documentary of the year.
"Chasing Ice" is a grand adventure, a visual amazement and a powerful warning.
If you're looking for eye-popping evidence that the world's glaciers are melting, don't miss the small-scale but spectacular documentary, Chasing Ice.
The rapid disappearance of ice mountains, filmed over a period of years, is compressed through time-lapse technology into minutes and seconds. The speeded-up effect is harrowing and also, disturbingly, eerily beautiful.
The movie might have given us a bit less of Balog and a bit more of the startling sequences he produced.
Chasing Ice will open your eyes to a world you've never seen before and it will make you think. But whether any of us can change anything is a different matter altogether.
While skeptics continue to doubt global warming is a man-made phenomenon - Rush Limbaugh called warnings about it "garbage science" - "Chasing Ice" leaves little doubt it is occurring.
It's an absorbing and vital watch.
It's like watching our world disappear.
A few scientists pop their heads in here, a few charts are deployed, but Chasing Ice is powered primarily by the imagery, stark, irrefutable evidence that the planet is warming, not in one or two isolated places but everywhere.
"Chasing Ice" is a beautiful film to watch, especially on the big screen. But the documentary's visual pleasures come with a heavy dose of guilt.
It's sobering stuff but the film's impact is somewhat diminished by Orlowski's reverential profile of Balog, who continues to crusade despite the toll his endeavours have taken on his body.
The documentary feels a little slight but the images speak for themselves ...
Is this about the hazards of global warming or the awesomeness of James Balog? Not entirely sure...
If any film can convert the climate-change sceptics, Chasing Ice would be it: here, seeing really is believing.
While more detailed scientific analysis and greater discussion of impacts would have been welcome, the film's visual rhetoric is solid.
National Geographic photographer James Balog illustrates climate change with time-lapsed records of glacial retreat.
A project of heroic, Herzogian endeavour. Mad, you might say. But probably not as mad as what the rest of us are doing about climate change: namely almost nothing.
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chasing_ice_2012/
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'Argo,' Lawrence, Day-Lewis win at SAG
Ben Affleck accepts the award for outstanding cast in a motion picture for ?Argo? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)
Ben Affleck accepts the award for outstanding cast in a motion picture for ?Argo? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)
Actor Daniel Day-Lewis arrives at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Jennifer Lawrence accepts the award for outstanding female actor in a leading role for ?Silver Linings Playbook? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)
Daniel Day-Lewis accepts the awards for outstanding male actor in a leading role for ?Lincoln? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)
Jennifer Lawrence, left, and Robert De Niro kiss as she accepts the award for outstanding female actor in a leading role for ?Silver Linings Playbook? at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The CIA thriller "Argo" continues to steamroll through awards season, winning the top honor for overall cast performance at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
SAG's lead-acting honors Sunday went to Jennifer Lawrence for her role as a troubled widow in a shaky new relationship in the lost-souls romance "Silver Linings Playbook" and Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War epic "Lincoln."
Anne Hathaway of "Les Miserables" and Tommy Lee Jones of "Lincoln" won the supporting-acting honors.
"It occurred to me ? it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln," said Day-Lewis, a solid front-runner to join an exclusive list of three-time acting Oscar winners. "And therefore, somehow it is only so fitting that every now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again."
It was a brisk, businesslike and fairly bland evening as the actors union handed out honors to a predictable lineup of winners who generally had triumphed at earlier Hollywood ceremonies or past SAG shows.
The SAG cast win came a day after "Argo" claimed the top honor from the Producers Guild of America, whose winner often goes on to claim best picture at the Academy Awards. "Argo" also was a surprise victor two weeks ago at the Golden Globes, where it won best drama and director for Ben Affleck.
The awards momentum positions "Argo" for a rare feat at the Feb. 24 Oscars, where it could become just the fourth film in 85 years to be named best picture without a nomination for its director.
"To me this has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the incredible people who were in this movie," said Affleck, who also stars in "Argo" and accepted the SAG prize alongside his cast.
Affleck plays CIA agent Tony Mendez, who masterminded the daring rescue of six U.S. embassy workers in Iran after the 1979 hostage crisis erupted. The Americans were brought out of Iran masquerading as crew members of a fake Hollywood sci-fi movie scouting locations.
A directing nomination at the Oscars usually goes hand in hand with a best-picture win. When Affleck was snubbed for a directing slot, awards analysts initially were counting "Argo" out for the best-picture Oscar, along with Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables," which also missed out on directing nominations.
Only once in modern times has a film won best picture without a directing nomination, with 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy." The other two times came in the show's early years, at the first Oscars in 1929 with "Wings" and for 1932's "Grand Hotel."
But "Argo" has proven a resilient crowd-pleaser, dominating at awards shows since then over Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," which leads the Oscars with 12 nominations.
The cast prize at SAG adds some weight to the Oscar prospects for "Argo," though the guild honor has a spotty record at forecasting eventual best-picture winners. Only eight of 17 times since the guild added the category has the cast winner gone on to take the best-picture Oscar. "The Help" won the guild's cast prize last year, while Oscar voters named "The Artist" as best picture.
The next playoff round before the Oscars is Saturday's Directors Guild of America Awards, where Affleck, Bigelow, Spielberg and Hooper all are nominated, along with Ang Lee for "Life of Pi." The winner there typically goes on to triumph with directing and best-picture Oscars, but only Spielberg and Lee are nominated for both the Directors Guild and Oscar prizes this time, throwing the awards picture into a muddle.
Sunday's acting prizes solidify those categories, though. "Silver Linings" star Lawrence won a Golden Globe and has become one of Hollywood's hottest talents, with part two of her blockbuster franchise, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," due out in November.
"Now I have this naked statue that means some of you even voted for me, and that is an indescribable feeling," Lawrence said after explaining she earned her SAG card at age 14 by filming a spot for MTV.
Hathaway won for her role as a doomed single mother forced into prostitution in the adaptation of the stage musical based on Victor Hugo's epic novel. Her win came over four past Oscar recipients ? Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Nicole Kidman and Maggie Smith.
"I'm just thrilled I have dental," Hathaway said. "I got my SAG card when I was 14. It felt like the beginning of the world. I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor. ... Thank you for nominating me alongside incredible women and incredible performances."
Jones, who was not at the show, won for his turn as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens in the Civil War epic. The win improves his odds to become a two-time Academy Award winner. He previously won a supporting-actor Oscar for "The Fugitive."
Day-Lewis, a two-time Oscar winner for "My Left Foot" and "There Will Be Blood," could become the fifth actor to earn three Oscars, along with Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan. Katharine Hepburn has the acting record with four Oscars.
Backstage at SAG, Day-Lewis was hardly ready to predict a third Oscar win.
"There's a good chance I won't. I feel the same way at all these occasions. Mostly, we're traveling as a group, the fellow nominees, give or take one here or there," Day-Lewis said. "I would happily recognize any single one person whose name is called."
On SAG's television side, with "30 Rock" ending its run, its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin won the SAG awards for best comedy performers. It was Baldwin's seventh-straight win, while Fey earned her fifth SAG prize.
"Oh, my God. It's ridiculous," Baldwin said. "It's the end of our show, which is sad. Everybody is sad about that. It was the greatest experience I've ever had."
Fey gave a plug for the show's finale airing Thursday, noting that it's up against "The Big Bang Theory."
"Just tape 'The Big Bang Theory' for once, for crying out loud," Fey said.
"Modern Family" won for best overall cast in a TV comedy show. Accepting for the cast, "Modern Family" co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson offered thanks to the makers of "30 Rock" and another departing series, "The Office," saying "you all have set the comedy bar so high."
The TV drama acting awards went to Claire Danes of "Homeland" and Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad." ''Downton Abbey" won the TV drama cast award.
Julianne Moore's turn as Sarah Palin in "Game Change" earned her the TV prize for best actress in a movie or miniseries. Kevin Costner won for best actor in a movie or miniseries for "Hatfields & McCoys."
Receiving the guild's life-achievement award was Dick Van Dyke, who presented the same prize last year to his "The Dick Van Dyke Show" co-star, Mary Tyler Moore.
After waiting on stage for a prolonged standing ovation to end, Van Dyke said, "That does an old man a lot of good."
___
Associated Press writers Beth Harris, Christy Lemire and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
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The Biggest Thing That Happened in the Real Estate Market This ...
There was a huge real estate market development recently that surprisingly has attracted little media or market attention. But it will. It?s going to have a huge impact on our New York City real estate market because it affects the basics of how real estate financing works and how existing mortgages are serviced. What?s more, many peoples? intuitive reaction about how this will affect the market will be wrong. Here?s a summary of what?s happening and my analysis as an attorney active in real estate law, and actively representing buyers, sellers, developers, owners, and condo and coop associations, about what the impact is likely to be.
And for the really good news: this time the glass is (more than) half full!
Two weeks ago the newly minted Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPC) started down a road that will lead to fundamental real estate change and an incredible impact on the real estate market throughout America. The CFPB proposed, and will be proposing more, ?rules? for mortgage lenders to prevent future ?risky mortgage lending? of the kind that contributed so mightily to the 2008 housing market collapse and the recession that followed, which still impacts the housing market and America?s economy.
Before I get into the proposed ?rules? I should say that though this will have a market impact right now, it won?t actually go into effect until at least January of 2014. Even then, the best bet is that the rules will be phased in probably over a seven-year period. Nonetheless, I think the impact will be immediate and almost universal.
The proposals aren?t for hard and fast rules ? they really create a sort of ?safe harbor? provision for lenders, and aren?t actually prohibitions. But what bank or mortgage lender would dares to not follow these ?rules?? If they go into effect next year, and I think you can be pretty certain they will, complying with these provisions will mean the resulting loans will be ?qualified mortgages.? That means the bank, mortgage company or other mortgage lender who follows the rules for ?qualified mortgages? will gain legal protection against being successfully sued by borrowers or those who would buy mortgages from the original mortgage issuer. Put another way, failure to issue qualified mortgages will virtually assure law suits because the failure to comply with the ?qualified? standards will become the road map for asserting claims.
Failure to use the ?qualified? provisions would be like committing malpractice in the lending business. It will certainly become an industry standard.
You might think mortgage bankers or others involved in the business of real estate lending would oppose more regulation. But you?d be wrong. Actually, after billions-and-billions in legal settlements, litigation costs and loads of claims still pending or lurking in the future, lenders in the mortgage business and especially those involved in packaging and selling mortgage backed securities are eager for the bright line rules the CFPB rules could provide. The prospect of a safe harbor where they can do business with little or no exposure to legal claims will likely induce greater lending.
It?s a safe bet the rules for ?qualified mortgages? will quickly become minimum standards for virtually all government loans and related programs. How can the federal government support, insure or back mortgages based on practices the CFPB claims are misleading, unfair or predatory? How can state or local governments? How could regulators not require these standards as a minimum for bundling mortgages to create mortgaged backed securities; and even if the regulators somehow didn?t require it, mortgage security buyers in the marketplace surely would.
Failing to comply will be like flying a flag for state attorney generals, federal prosecutors and consumer protection agencies loudly proclaiming ?come investigate me?.? Different tax treatment for mortgages that do not comply with the CFPB standards won?t be far behind. And that?s not attractive to anyone.
Why wait? And few in the industry will wait. Failure to adopt these ?best practices? immediately would put a mortgage lender, and their shareholders, in peril. So it?ll be a dramatic, almost universal, market-place impact and an immediate one.
So what are the new ?rules??
The new standards will do away with ?interest only? loans, curtail large up-front fees, limit ?balloon payments? and set standards for income-to-loan ratios in an effort to prove potential buyers seeking financing can actually afford the mortgages they are getting. The proposed rules adopt a very top debt burden limit of not-more-than 43% of gross income. The requirements absolutely guarantee no more so-called ?no docs? loans (loans without supporting document, which believe it or not were widespread even in the subprime market back in pre-recession 2008) if the lender wants the qualified certification that provides the safe harbor litigation protection.
The rules may require that loans be amortized over not more than 30 years, and many who have been following the process think there will eventually be proposed rules setting specific percentage down payment requirements. They may prohibit ?seller financing? based on longer amortization periods but with pay offs required in 3 to 7 years, or with significantly higher than market interest rates ? though the standards won?t be directly applicable to individuals who finance only one or a few ?deals? a year (though as an attorney I?d advise my clients to be very careful, and protective of their own interests, if they aren?t in compliance with these rules if they become the industry standard as I believe they will). ?Negative amortization? loans, amortized with very low initial payments and structured so that the borrower actually loses equity in the home early in the transaction, will probably be prohibited for ?qualified mortgages?.
The CFPB says about 75% of mortgage loans issued in 2011 would already have met the new ?qualified? provisions, but that?s largely because credit markets have been very tight, and requirements very strict, since the 2008 meltdown. Far, far fewer than 75% of the mortgages issued in 2007 would have complied.
Most consumer advocates have long claimed the practices being targeted by the CFPB were unfair, disreputable or bad practices that never should have been allowed. Kathleen Day, of the Center for Responsible Lending, hailed the new proposals and particularly called interest only and balloon payment loans ?predatory practices.? Guy Cecela, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance Borrower, an industry publication, said no-interest loans were ?a recipe for disaster? and predicted a ?huge number of these? existing interest-only and balloon payment ?loans are going to default.?
The CFPB also adopted rules for mortgage service companies requiring them to issue clear monthly billing statements that indicate how much of each payment goes to principal reduction, interest and fees and requirements to warn borrowers well in advance of any payment increase due to automatic adjustments or rising interest rates. Mortgage servicers will also be required to promptly credit loan payments and swiftly correct errors, and be prohibited from pursuing foreclosure at the same time they are discussing loan modification with a borrower. They?ll also be more closely regulated to prevent abuses of so-called ?force insurance? premiums, where mortgage servicers place a borrower in a high premium insurance policy if they ?believe? a borrower?s required insurance coverage may have lapsed. The rules on mortgage servicers are also set to go into effect next January 1st.
Rather than further slow a tight credit market, these bright line rules aiming to create an industry standard are likely to loosen credit and allow more potential buyers to obtain mortgages. It?s likely to create more mortgage money in what has been an artificially tight credit environment, which will serve to kick-start real estate sales. Predatory mortgage practices will be gone, and good riddance to them; but money will begin to flow again to credit-worthy buyers to finance proper deals on fair terms. That?s a win-win outcome for mortgagors, mortgagees, the real estate market and the economy.
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
IRL: HTC 8X, Google Now and the iPod shuffle
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.
We swear we didn't plan it this way, but it looks like we've got a little trifecta this week, with write-ups pertaining to Apple, Google and, last but not least, Microsoft. On the pessimistic end of the spectrum, Dana would rather have the third-generation iPod shuffle than the model she's using. Terrence is hooked on Google Now and Jon likes the HTC 8X -- just not as much as the Lumia 920.
HTC 8X
What's this? Another Windows Phone 8 test? Yes, while I was trying the Lumia 920 and before I reviewed the ATIV S, I felt it was only fair to give the third flagship of the platform, HTC's Windows Phone 8X, a proper shakedown. I spent a few weeks with one to gauge the differences and came back with the impression that HTC has a worthy flagship -- but not necessarily the one I'd choose for myself.
If you talk solely about ergonomics, the 8X is undoubtedly my first pick. It's much lighter and grippier than the Lumia 920, and the smaller screen makes it easier to reach every corner with one hand than the ATIV S. About the only reservations I have are that hard-to-press power button and the relatively sharp edges. The stand-out appearance can't help but sway me, too. If you get the phone in one of the bolder colors (read: not black), it's simply iconic. No one will mistake an 8X for another phone, while both the ATIV S and Lumia 920 have familiar-looking peers.
Yet there are a few ingredients missing that make it hard to call HTC's creation my perfect Windows Phone 8 device. Simply speaking, the camera just isn't as good as it needs to be in early 2013. While the 8X is sometimes a better pick for up-close photography than the Lumia 920, it falls apart in low-light situations where the Lumia is a champ. Apps matter, as well. Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps aren't vital, but I missed their navigation when I switched devices. And I'll have to admit that being Canadian skews my preferences towards the Nokia phone's glove-friendly screen: it's great to avoid the binary choice of making a phone call versus preserving my fingers. While I'd be inclined to choose the 8X over the ATIV S as long as storage wasn't a priority, I would still give Nokia the ultimate nod as the most relevant to real-world use.
-- Jon Fingas
Google Now
Pretty much from the moment I first launched Google Now it changed the way I interacted with my phone. I've used Siri and toyed with S Voice, but Now is the only virtual assistant that seems like more than an occasionally useful gimmick. Truth is, at this point I unlock directly into it almost as often as I go to the home screen. Sure, in the early days its functionality was fairly limited (and still is), but there was enough information presented by default to keep me coming back. When Gmail was added to its repository of information, the app became a true game-changer for me. While other "assistant" apps are little more than voice commands with personality, Now actually helps track information for you and presents it at valuable times. I don't have to ask what the weather is like or how long it'll take me to get to my next appointment -- it just tells me without prompting.
Of course, things aren't perfect. Now still has a lot of rough edges to work out. For one, the mobile boarding pass feature has yet to work as advertised for me, though, its flight tracking feature turns out to be quicker and more accurate than United's own app. It also stumbles a bit on tracking packages. I like that it recognizes tracking numbers and presents them to me with a quick link, but Now doesn't actually do any tracking itself. Instead it simply shows the card to you for a predetermined amount of time. That's fine if you're enjoying free two-day shipping thanks to Amazon Prime, but if your delivery takes more than a couple of days the card disappears before the box hits your doorstep. It also has an unfortunate habit of presenting me directions to a "new place" almost any time I perform a web search. Oh, and some higher-res icons for the sports score cards would be greatly appreciated.
None of that is enough to ruin the experience, however. If I need to know when my bus is coming, what the temperature is, if my flight is on time or even how many steps I took this month I simply swipe up on my Nexus lock screen and let Google do the work for me. What's more, things can only get better as the company improves its algorithms, opens up new sources of data and, hopefully, develops an API to let other apps tap into the power of Now.
-- Terrence O'Brien
iPod shuffle (fourth generation)
We runners are a superstitious bunch. In my training group, "Nothing new on race day" is our mantra, and it's one to which I've adhered earnestly. It goes without saying that new shoes, running shorts and Snozberry-flavored energy gels are out of the question, but I even get antsy about wearing my Spibelt around my waist instead of my hips. Yeah, I'm neurotic, but running 26.2 miles is scary, yo.
So I was none too pleased when I had a gadget emergency the week before the 2011 New York City Marathon. I'd been training with the Sansa Clip Zip for two months when it abruptly began having mood swings. It started repeating songs, even when I had set my library to shuffle. Sometimes, if it encountered a song it didn't like, it just froze. On a good day, I could side-step the issue by selecting a different artist or song. At its worst, the only way to revive it was to perform a hard reset.
Obviously, that wasn't going to cut it for my epic run, so I did what any desperate person would do: I went to Best Buy and spent $50 on an iPod shuffle. Truly, I would have preferred something like the nano, which would have let me choose specific songs, but I wasn't about to drop $149 on what was essentially an impulse buy. Fifty bucks was about as much as I was willing to spend without having had the opportunity to hem and haw over my purchase.
So I used it. And it was okay. The clip doesn't feel as strong as on the third-generation model. Also, it came with regular headphones (i.e., ones without inline controls), which meant I had to press the player on the device to pause the music and skip tracks. To this day, I find the keys a bit too small, and I often hit the wrong one, mistaking pause for fast-forward, etc. Fortunately, I've since subbed in a pair with an inline remote, which means I barely have to touch the device anymore (except, perhaps, to reposition it in a place where the clip will stay put). Battery life was initially awesome -- I got through that nearly six-hour marathon (oof) with plenty of juice to spare. It's since seen better days, though, to the point where I now have to recharge it several times a week. Faint praise, if ever you've heard it, but at least it doesn't force me to listen to the same Madonna song over and over. That would just be cruel.
-- Dana Wollman
Filed under: Misc, Apple, HTC, Google
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/OgdAIHqtN2o/
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