Biblioteka Familjare

Sweet laugh

2012-09-28T09:04:00.001-07:00

This Picture Is Worth Twenty Words: Tyra, Kim and Kanye Do Fashion

2012-09-17T08:56:00.003-07:00

Mobile Phone Internet Use On Rise

2012-09-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

Over half of all cell phone owners use their device to surf the Internet, according to a new survey out by Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The survey found that 17 percent of cell phone owners do most of their online browsing through their phone, rather than a computer.
The rise of Internet use on cell phones has been clear to the public, and Pew said that the rise has jumped in the past three years 24 percentage points.
Eighty-eight percent of U.S. adults own a cell phone as of April 2012, and 55 percent of them say they use their phone as an Internet tool of some sort.
Pew found that 31 percent of the cell Internet users say they mostly use their mobile Internet, rather than a computer.
When considering race as a factor, 51 percent of African-American cell Internet users do most of their online cruising on their mobile device, compared to just 24 percent of the white cell Internet users.
Those who have an annual household income of less than $50,000 per year are more likely to access the Internet primarily through a smartphone, rather than a computer.
As far as why, Pew found that 64 percent of cell Internet users who say they mostly use their mobile device claim it’s because it’s convenient and always available.
Eighteen-percent of cell-mostly Internet users say a cell phone is more compatible with their online habits than a computer.
The reason for some choosing to go mostly mobile when it comes to using the Internet is not due to a lack of computer access. Only 6 percent of the survey respondents that use the Internet to surf on more than any other device said it was because they do not have access to a computer, while just 4 percent admitted they do not have access to any source of Internet beyond their mobile phone.
Pew conducted the survey with over 2,250 adults during March 15 through April 3, 2012.

Profile Pictures On Facebook Influence Perceived Attractiveness

2012-09-15T16:24:00.001-07:00

Around the world, more than 850 million people use Facebook regularly to communicate. More and more employers also are using Facebook as a way to examine potential employees before making hires. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that comments left by users on Facebook profile pictures strongly affect the level of perceived attractiveness of the profile owner physically, socially, and professionally.
Facebook profile photos are the first photos visible on a user’s profile. Other Facebook users are able to post comments about each profile photo, which are visible to anyone who views the photo. MU researchers found that Facebook users whose profile photos include social cues, additional information about the user, and many positive comments on their profile photos are viewed much more socially and physically attractive than users who have fewer social cues and negative comments on their profile photos. Seoyeon Hong, a doctoral student, conducted the research along with Kevin Wise, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and other doctoral students.
“People tend to rely more on other-generated information than self-generated information when forming impressions,” Hong said. “In other words, opinions of other people matter more than the target person’s own self-presentation. Thus, for social networking users concerned about forming a desired impression, being aware of other-generated information about oneself is paramount in the goal of achieving a positive self-presentation.”

For the study, Hong showed different Facebook profile pictures of the same person to more than a hundred college students. Each picture varied in social cues and the quality of comments. Profile photos with social cues are photos of the profile user that include additional information about who they are and what they do. For example, a photo with a social cue of an athlete would be a picture of that person playing sports. Likewise, a social cue for a musician may be a photo of that person playing an instrument. Hong and Wise found that people with Facebook profile photos that include social cues were perceived to be more physically and socially attractive than people with profile photos that were plain headshots.
“These findings show how important it is to present yourself strategically on Facebook,” Hong said. “If you want to be perceived positively by people who view your profile page, including friends and potential employers, it is important to include profile pictures with positive social cues. No matter what the profile owner does to tailor their Facebook page, comments left on their page from other users should be monitored as well. Positive comments are very helpful, but negative remarks can be very damaging, even if they are silly or sarcastic. To maximize the effects of positive self-presentation on Facebook, I would recommend using profile pictures with extensive social cues to show who and what you are in a positive way while also keeping track of what others say about you.”

iCloud Is Out Of Beta And Ready For All

2012-09-15T16:13:00.002-07:00

Apple’s new “digital hub” has been working to keep Macs in sync with iOS devices and iOS devices in sync with one another for over a year now.
Introduced during last year’s WWDC in San Francisco, iCloud replaced Apple’s other attempts at cloud-based computing and cloud syncing, such as MobileMe, .Mac and iTools.
This year’s launch of Mac OS 10.8, or Mountain Lion, brought even more iCloud advancements to Apple desktop and laptop computers, keeping an iPad and iPhone users’ calendars, contacts, mail and notes all in sync across all Apple devices.
But what of those iPhone and iPad toting PC users who have yet to be brought in by the halo effect of iOS?
This summer, Apple rolled out a web portal of iCloud which gave these users access to their notes, calendars, contacts, etc. Though freely available to anyone with an Apple ID, this web portal of iCloud had remained in beta until yesterday.
Now, iCloud.com has been fully launched into the world, ready to be accessed and used by any and all.
Users only need to enter their Apple ID credentials to access this information from any browser. Once logged in, users will see those 7 icons (Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Find My iPhone and iWork) hovering above Apple’s now ubiquitous linen backdrop.

Clicking the Mail icon will bring users to an interface which very closely resembles the OS X mail app. This web-based version of mail has also rolled out a new feature set to make an appearance in iOS 6: The VIP folder. Just as it sounds, any incoming mail from a person designated as a VIP will be stored in this folder, making it easy to find messages from contacts with whom you email regularly or from close friends and family.
Contacts on iCloud.com also closely resembles the skeuomorphic leather-bound address book from the iPad, displaying every contact currently stored within iCloud. Just as you can with any other device, users can add, delete or edit contacts from any web browser. Calendars, notes and reminders are all doppelgängers of their iOS counterparts as well, and each offer the same functionality as an iPad or iPhone in a web-based environment.
One incredibly useful and potentially digital lifesaving element of iCloud.com is Find My iPhone. This app is available on all iOS devices as well as any Mac running Lion or Mountain Lion. Should any of these devices go missing, Find My iPhone will allow users to send a sound to said device, helping them locate it, should the thing be lost in the couch cushions or laundry somewhere. However, if the device has been missing for a while or is thought to be stolen, Find My iPhone can lock the device and even completely wipe it remotely. This app works on all devices, of course, but putting this ability on the web can be a huge help in just the right situation.
For instance, anyone who has ever had their Apple trinity (iPad, iPhone, MacBook) tucked away in their bag at one time knows that a simple swipe from a passerby could render them absolutely vulnerable and without anyway to immediately track these devices.
Find My iPhone on the web lets users locate their devices (or the devices of their family and spouses, should they be registered with the same Apple ID) from the web as well.
Finally, iWork on iCloud on the web gives Keynote, Numbers and Pages users one place to instantly find these files and projects on any computer. From the iCloud web portal, users can find these documents, download them for editing or changes, then upload the changed version back to iCloud.com.
iCloud.com is up now and ready for your perusal. While it’s great to know your information is easily accessible from anywhere, it’s also important to make sure your Apple ID password is as secure as it can be.

Who's behind the anti-Islam video?

2012-09-15T16:05:00.002-07:00

Intrepid reporters and federal investigators seem to have found the man behind Innocence of Muslims — and he's almost as mysterious as his bigoted film

The hunt for Sam Bacile, the driving force behind the Islam-defaming movie sparking violent anti-U.S. protests in the Middle East, appears to be over. And he is not the Israeli real estate developer he claimed to be, or even named Sam Bacile. Instead, he's an Egyptian Coptic Christian ex-convict named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Who is Nakoula, what's his connection to the troublesome film, and what does he want? Here's a look:
What do we know about Nakoula B. Nakoula?He's a 55-year-old gas station owner in the Los Angeles suburbs with a rap sheet dating back to the 1990s and an impressive list of aliases. The Daily Beast, citing a source close to the Los Angeles D.A.'s office, says Nakoula pleaded guilty in 1997 to cooking methamphetamine and was sentenced to a year in county jail; he reportedly served another year after violating his parole in 2002. In 2000, he declared bankruptcy for his gas station. In 2010, he was convicted in federal court of a year-long scheme in which he created fake bank accounts with stolen Social Security numbers, then withdrew money on fraudulent checks before they bounced. He was ordered to pay $794,700 in restitution and stay off computers and the internet without explicit permission for five years, and served about a year of a 21-month sentence.

How certain is it that Nakoula is the filmmaker?The evidence is strong but largely circumstantial. Nakoula admits to offering logistical support for the company that created the film but denies — to both the AP and local Coptic Orthodox prelate Bishop Serapion — that he is Sam Bacile. Then again, "Nakoula says a lot of things," says Amy Sullivan at The New Republic. He claims to know Bacile, but it's pretty clear that no such person exists. AP and Wall Street Journal reporters separately traced the cellphone numbers they used to talk to "Bacile" back to Nakoula's house, journalists camping outside the house Thursday noticed striking similarities between Nakoula's property and scenes from the movie, and federal law enforcement sources told the AP they've concluded that Nakoula was the driving force behind the film. Also, the aliases Nakoula used in his financial fraud include different iterations of Bacily and Bassely.
Are there any alternate theories?Sort of. Jimmy Israel, a man who says he briefly worked on the movie as a producer, tells BuzzFeed's John Herrman that Bacile had him register the film with SAG under the name Abnob Nakoula Basseley, and an actor who worked on the film sent a check from the gig signed Abanob Basseley Nakoula — apparently Nakoula's 21-year-old son, according to California birth records. But Israel describes Bacile as in his 50s, like Nakoula, and given Nakoula's history with bank fraud and the terms of his probation, says BuzzFeed's Herrman, he "may have been using his son's name for legal reasons." So all in all, Israel's story is actually "consistent with the theory that Bacile is Nakoula."
Why did he allegedly make the film?With all the shadiness and deception, it's not clear. "Sam Bacile" told the AP that "Islam is a cancer," suggesting he was looking for a cure. A self-described adviser to the film, Christian activist Steve Stein, has said the purpose was to trick Muslims into learning the supposedly sordid "truth" about their Prophet Mohammed. "Sam said the intent of the film was to get extremist Muslims to stop killing," Klein told The New York Times on Thursday. If that's true, Nakoula couldn't have "thought through many details of his grand plan," says The New Republic's Sullivan. Ending Islamist violence by defaming Mohammed is "something even Wile E. Coyote would see couldn't possibly work," and all Nakoula has really done is put Egypt's Coptic Christians — his people — in mortal danger. On the other hand, "if it was a deliberate attempt to incite violence in the Middle East, then he was sadly successful," say Noah Shachtman and Robert Beckhusen at Wired. "What wasn't successful were the poor attempts at using fraudulent names to cover his tracks."
What happens to Nakoula now?The FBI is investigating the killing in Libya of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other U.S. diplomatic personnel, although it's not clear if Nakoula is part of that inquiry. Other than presumably violating the terms of his parole, it's hard to see what crime Nakoula has committed. The only thing that is clear is that we don't know the whole story, says BuzzFeed's Herrman, and what we do know is "phenomenally strange."

Are the Iran sanctions actually working?

2012-09-13T03:55:00.001-07:00

Tehran says pressure from the international community is starting to hurt — raising fragile hopes that Iran will finally curb its nuclear program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad conceded this week that new American and European sanctions over his country's nuclear program are devastating the Islamic Republic's economy. Ahmadinejad said Tehran would weather the sanctions, which target the oil sales that keep his government afloat, but that they amount to an act of "all-out, hidden, heavy war" against his nation. Iran's oil exports to major consumers are down significantly since the beginning of the year and the Iranian government is facing public fury as food prices soar. Is a compromised Iran ready to dismantle its nuclear program, or are the sanctions just delaying an inevitable nuclear showdown with Iran?

Clearly, the oil sanctions are hurting: Though his ministers in Tehran claimed earlier than sanctions were having little effect, says Adrian Blomfield at Britain's Telegraph, Ahmadinejad is confirming that the oil export ban is working. Iranian crude exports to major customers have plummeted by half, to 1 million barrels daily, since the start of the year. The country's currency, the rial, is in "sharp decline," and ordinary Iranians are protesting the soaring prices of chicken, fruit, and other staples. Tehran is obviously feeling the heat.
"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad concedes Iran sanctions hurting economy"

Iran can still sell plenty of oil: Don't be fooled by the pouting, says Christopher Helman at Forbes. "Iranian oil is still getting out." Plenty of customers, even big ones like China, are happy to buy its crude, especially since it's having to sell at a discount. Iran has ways to sneak the oil out, such as trucking it over land and loading it onto tankers in foreign ports to disguise its origins. And tensions are keeping oil prices high, so even selling at a discount isn't hurting Iran's profits.
"Renegade pals help Iran dodge oil sanctions"

Tighter sanctions are too little, too late: Sanctions, painful or not, "no longer cut it," says Chuck Frelich at The Jerusalem Post. "Iran is just months from having sufficient fissile materials for its first bomb." Once that happens, it will be too late for Israel or the U.S. to do anything. Whoever wins America's November presidential election will have to decide, quickly, whether to start preparing to attack Iran, or to "accept Iran as a nuclear power."
"Too soon ... too soon ... too late!"

5 reasons Netanyahu is challenging Obama over Iran

2012-09-13T03:52:00.001-07:00

The Israeli premier slams the White House for being weak on Iran, thrusting himself into one of the most controversial foreign policy debates of the 2012 race

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the Obama administration to task for refusing to set "red lines" on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, arguing that the U.S. had forsaken its "moral right to place a red light before Israel" if it chooses to attack Iran. Netanyahu's tough words came after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. was "not setting deadlines" for a possible military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, angering an Israeli government that has grown impatient with Obama's strategy of allowing tough sanctions and international isolation to take their toll on the Iranian regime. While Netanyahu has long advocated a tougher approach to Iran, his attacks on the U.S.'s government's supposed moral laxity were seen as unusually vicious. Here, five reasons Netanyahu is challenging Obama:

1. He knows the election puts Obama in a tough spot
Netanyahu's blistering remarks "suggested that he is willing to use the pressure of the presidential election to try to force Mr. Obama to attack Iran," say David E. Sanger and Isabel Kershner at The New York Times. Netanyahu is "highly attuned to American politics," and knows that Mitt Romney has accused Obama of being soft on Iran and a bad friend to Israel. In demanding that Obama "effectively issue an ultimatum to Iran," Netanyahu is "making maximum use of his political leverage." Indeed, says Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, "Netanyahu knows that his leverage... grows each day the U.S. gets closer to election day. The day after election day it drops precipitously."

2. He is essentially endorsing Mitt Romney
Many see "Netanyahu's rhetoric as an implicit endorsement of Romney," who has argued that "Obama's biggest foreign-policy mistake was failing to halt Iran's nuclear program," says Uri Friedman at Foreign Policy. During the recent Republican and Democratic conventions, both sides used Netanyahu's previous "statements to argue that the Israeli prime minister was on their side." To come out so forcefully with a GOP-friendly line is a clear pushback against the Democrats.

3. He's getting desperate
In 2010, when Republicans swept the midterm elections, there was no end to Netanyahu "hectoring, lecturing, and loudly, if indirectly, ridiculing the Obama administration for being soft on Iran," says Bradley Burston at Israel's Haaretz. But Obama's "campaign appears to be surging," giving Netanyahu's latest over-the-top denouncement a whiff of desperation. "After all, it's not every day that the prime minister of an isolated Israel issues what amounts to an ultimatum to his most dependable, most indispensable ally."

4. He wants to distract attention from domestic issues
"You don't have to be a political strategist to realize that Benjamin Netanyahu can take advantage of the Iranian nuclear threat to divert attention from his failure to provide solutions for the economic troubles of his citizens," says Ron Ben-Yishai at Ynetnews. Instead of addressing Israel's high poverty rate and wide income gap, he is hoping that the Israeli public will "be distracted" and "focus on the looming Iranian threat."

5. Obama is too soft on Iran
Netanyahu's "specific anxiety is not unreasonable," says Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic. The Obama administration has pledged to "keep Iran from possessing a nuclear bomb," but hasn't specified what it considers a step too far. What if Iran is technically non-nuclear, but needs only "a month to put together a nuclear bomb?" Shouldn't that be a clear red line? Obama, disturbingly, hasn't answered that question.

7 things you need to know about Apple's iPhone 5 announcement

2012-09-12T18:31:00.002-07:00

At last! After months of waiting (and waiting), the new version of the best-selling handset is here — with a slimmer profile and a larger 4-inch screen

On Thursday in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook and a rotating cast of Apple executives raised the curtains on the latest addition to the i-family, the long-awaited iPhone 5. The phone boasts a number of the incremental hardware bumps the tech press had forecast during months of rumors and leaks. Does the new iPhone live up to the hype? Here, seven things you need to know:
1. Almost everything shrank
Smaller seemed to be the theme of the day. The iPhone 5 is 20 percent lighter than its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, and also 18 percent thinner. The body, available in either black or white, is made entirely of aluminum and glass. Also smaller: The iPhone's 30-pin dock connector is now just 8 pins (and known as "Lightning"), designed to work with next-generation Thunderbolt connections. Apple is including an adapter to make the new iPhone backwards-compatible with older accessories, like iHomes or car chargers.

2. The screen is larger
The iPhone's screen got a size bump, from 3.5 inches to 4 inches. The device's width is unchanged, but Apple made the iPhone "taller" to allow for widescreen movies and an extra row of apps. Apple says it's redesigned its apps to fit the new aspect ratio, and older third-party apps will get a black-box surround to make up for the space difference. It's a "skinny li'l fella," says Rik Myslewski at The Register, with a new 1,136-by-640 pixel "Retina display" that reportedly shows less glare in sunlight. Despite the increase, the iPhone 5 still offers less screen real-estate than the Samsung Galaxy S III, so "we can assume that the debate over how much display is practical in a pocketable device will now commence." (See a side-by-side comparison with the iPhone 4S here.)
3. It's faster
The iPhone got a faster A6 processor which puts it on par with the iPad. That's about "twice the performance" of earlier models, says Sean Hollister at The Verge. Unsurprisingly, Apple revealed that the new phone would be powered by 4G LTE on multiple carriers in the United States, including Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. T-Mobile, says Cory Gunther at Slashgear, was "nowhere to be seen."
4. New earphones
"Apple made a historic and much-needed step forward today," says Eric Limer at Gizmodo. It unveiled a set of new headphones called "EarPods." EarPods sit deeper and more securely in the user's ear than earlier models, and will come bundled standard with the iPhone 5. Thank goodness Apple's finally putting its "old, terrible headphones to rest."
5. Older models are now cheaper
Apple's new handset will start at $199 (with contract) for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for the 64GB model. The devices will be available for pre-order beginning on Friday, Sept. 14, and the phone itself will ship on Sept. 21. The older model iPhones will also see a price drop: The iPhone 4S is now $99 for the base model and the iPhone 4 is $0 with a new contract.
6. New iTunes
Apple broke news beyond the iPhone, as well. iTunes, Apple's music service, got a sorely needed update with a "simplified user interface, iCloud integration, and a new mini player [option]," says CNET. The new iTunes offers a more visually driven user-experience, with a new emphasis on big icons and album/poster art — "almost like a media-browsing interface." The new mini player will occupy an unobtrusive little box that users can easily move to any part of their desktop screen.
7. New iPods
The brand new iPod touch "inherits the same exact screen of the iPhone 5 as well as its extremely thin profile," says NBC News, "but has a softer, rounder back." It also runs iOS 6 and is compatible with Apple's virtual assistant, Siri. The iPod Nano also got a screen-size boost: Apple added a 2.5-inch display and a home button. Pricing starts at $299 for the 32GB iPod touch, and the iPod nano is $149 for the 16GB version. Both will be available come October.

The slaying of the U.S. ambassador in Libya: 5 talking points

2012-09-12T16:55:00.012-07:00

The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed late Tuesday when an armed Islamist mob stormed the American Consulate in Benghazi, blaming America for an amateurish film, promoted online by Koran-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones, that insults the Prophet Mohammad. Stevens was the first American ambassador to be murdered on duty in more than two decades, and three other American diplomatic staff members were also killed in Tuesday's violence. President Obama strongly condemned the "outrageous attack," and ordered beefed-up security for U.S. diplomats around the world. Leaders of Libya's government, who rose to power after the U.S. helped depose Moammar Gadhafi, promised to hunt down the killers. Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy in Egypt was also over-run by protesters angered by the anti-Islam film, and the Cairo embassy condemned both the attack and the video that provoked it. The White House later disavowed the Cairo embassy's statement, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was "no justification" for such "senseless violence," saying it was hard to comprehend how this could happen "in a country we helped liberate." What will the explosion of anti-U.S. violence mean for Libya, Egypt, Washington, and the world? Here, five talking points:
1. A mob killed Stevens — but the filmmaker is hardly innocent

After hearing the shocking news that Ambassador Stevens was dead, says Farah Stockman at The Boston Globe, I sat down to watch the trailer of the YouTube movie, Innocence of Muslims, that enraged the crowd that killed him. The video, made by Sam Bacile, an Israeli-American real estate developer, "felt like a Saturday Night Live spoof," with "terrible acting" and soft-porn-like scenes "depicting the Prophet Mohammad as a sexual deviant and an idiot." To be clear, the "despicable" mob alone is to blame for this senseless killing. "But shouldn't people who knowingly incite violence against the United States — as a crude, thinly-veiled publicity stunt — also be held accountable?"
2. Libya's experiment with democracy is in trouble
Stevens' death makes it impossible to ignore one of the fundamental problems in post-Gadhafi Libya, says Jonathan Marcus at BBC News: "The country is awash with weapons and armed militias" — some of them Salafist Muslim extremists. The Obama administration is going to want answers from the Libyan government about how such a security breach could happen. But the truth is, militia fighters never surrendered their weapons after the war to topple Gadhafi, and these guys now control entire chunks of the country. The fact that they can commit a crime like this, and the government is powerless to stop them, calls into question "the whole trajectory of Libya's democratic project."
3. This might not be the last attack on U.S. diplomats
The U.S. just "entered a new time of testing in the long war against Islamism," says John Podhoretz at Commentary. It's tempting to use this as an occasion to slam "Barack Obama's weakness and vacillation." But let's put behind us the "strange spectacle of the dreadful initial response" — the U.S. embassy's apology for something the U.S. didn't even do, and the White House's prompt disavowal. Chalk that up to the shock of the attack. From here on out, though, Obama has to react with clarity and resolve, "or there will be more of this. Much more."
4. Obama's options are limited
If Gadhafi were still in charge of Libya, says David Blair at Britain's Telegraph, these murders would be "just cause for a military strike." At the very least, Washington would hit Libya with harsh sanctions. But Libya now has a supposedly "friendly, pro-Western elected government, which owes its very existence to U.S. and Western military muscle." That leaves Obama with "little choice but to insist that America leads the investigation into the incident and that everything is done to hunt down those responsible." He should also insist on "free rein for the FBI and the U.S. military" within Libya. But that means Obama would have to "brush aside any concerns about the country's sovereignty."
5. Obama is actually handling this much as Bush would have
Republicans have predictably seized on the "weak initial statement" out of Cairo to "paint Obama as soft-on-Islam," says Adam Serwer at Mother Jones. Many Republicans, you see, live in a fantasy world where the U.S. "conducts diplomacy the way that Sean Hannity used to treat Alan Colmes." The reality, though, is that a Republican administration probably would have reacted no differently than Obama did. Look to the Bush years: When Western free speech was on the line in 2006, during the backlash to European editorial cartoons denigrating Islam's prophet Mohammad, Bush affirmed the right of free expression, but that the cartoons were "offensive, and we certainly understand why Muslims would find these images offensive." Sound familiar?

4 ways that Apple's iPhone 5 might disappoint customers

2012-09-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

If you've been frothing at the mouth for months hoping to get your hands on the next iPhone, rest easy: The seemingly interminable wait is almost over. Apple is expected to unveil the most anticipated phone of the year, the iPhone 5, in San Francisco on Wednesday morning, less than a year after the company pulled the curtains off the iPhone 4S. Of course, frenzied Apple fans are hopeful that the company's new handset will be the "best phone ever." But what if it's not? Here, four ways the iPhone 5 announcement could leave hungry Apple fans feeling less than full:
1. If it's the same size as the iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S, despite industry-changing innovations like Siri, was initially met with a collective sigh — largely because the device looked exactly like the iPhone 4. If Apple "wishes to retain its title as the king of smartphones," the company will "finally have to admit that its 3.5-inch display is too small," says Sebastian Anthony at ExtremeTech, and that the larger screens of Androids are the future. Expect at least a 4-inch display that's slightly taller, but not much wider, says Erica Ogg at GigaOm. "The result may mean an extra row of apps on the home screen, and an overall larger area to view apps, ebooks, web content, and videos."
2. If it doesn't run on 4G LTEImplementing a faster 4G LTE data network has been a huge headache for Apple. That's why Verizon's iPhone 4S still enlisted the standard 3G network. "Apple frustrated some would-be buyers by failing to include [4G LTE] in the iPhone 4S built for Verizon," says Chris Davis at Slashgear. But because 4G LTE is now an option on the latest iPad, says GigaOm's Ogg, we all assume that it'll be offered on the new iPhone, too. If it's not, expect some angry customers.
3. If the battery still stinksEveryone wants longer battery life, says Charles Arthur at Britain's Guardian. But for some reason, the iPhone 4S demonstrated shorter standby battery life than the iPhone 4. Already, rivals like Samsung, RIM, and Nokia do a better job than Apple of managing their devices' power capabilities, and the new iPhone's larger screen and 4G LTE network would put a huge strain on the gadget's battery life. Let's hope that a couple of hours of use doesn't leave the new iPhone "gasping across the threshold as you arrive home." Indeed, a better battery is a "necessity" for this year's model, says Ogg.
4. If there isn't "one more thing"
Steve Jobs used to love ending his keynotes with a surprise — "one more thing" to whip the crowd into a frenzy. (In 2008, the first MacBook Air was introduced this way.) But to the dismay of many fans, Apple has been restrained with this tactic of late, says Michael J. Miller at PC Mag. Well, many "tech pundits — even some with a good track record — say that the iPad Mini is coming and that it could be Tim Cook's 'one more thing'" on Wednesday, says Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDNet. But I'm not so sure. Announcing a new tablet along with the iPhone 5 could put a "severe dent in iPhones sales," as Apple fans will face an "either-or decision" when figuring out which gadget to purchase.

iPhone 5 Officially Announced at Apple Event

2012-09-12T16:47:00.001-07:00

“Today we’re introducing the iPhone 5″
With those words, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller dropped the bomb everyone was waiting for.
Despite most of the smartphone’s specs having been leaked ahead of time, the iPhone 5 announcement managed to impress the audience of tech journalists in attendance at Apple’s big event today. The phone rose up from the stage and rotated, giving everyone a good view of the device as Schiller called it the most beautiful product Apple has ever made.
The iPhone 5 is made entirely of glass and aluminum. It is the thinnest and lightest phone Apple has ever made, at 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S.
Apple has doubled-down with its retina technology, and the iPhone 5 will have a 326 PPI retina display. The display will also be, as predicted, 4-inches. It has a 1136 x 640 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Schiller commented on why the phone isn’t as large as Android phones are getting, saying that it’s because it should fit in the customer’s hand. Apps that haven’t been updated to take advantage of the phone’s extra length will be displayed in their native size, with black bars on the side of the app.
Schiller also confirmed that the iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE capability. As a result, in the U.S. the iPhone 5 will be coming to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. As rumored, T-Mobile seems to be left out of the loop.
The iPhone 5 also has upgraded Wi-Fi, allowing for 2.4ghz and 5ghz on 802.11n. It should, Apple announced, give customers speeds of up to 150 Mbps.
The CPU in the iPhone 5 is twice as fast as the one found in the iPhone 4S. Apple claims that while its performance is a huge leap, the new A6 chip is 22% smaller.
Despite the better performance of the new processor, Apple also claims that the battery life of the iPhone 5 will actually be better than that of the iPhone 4S. The claim is that the new smartphone will have up to 8 hours of 3G talk time or LTE browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing or Video, and up to 40 hours of music playback.
The iPhone 5 “iSight” camera, as with all parts of the phone, has also gotten an upgrade. The 8 MP backside camera is 25% smaller than the iPhone 4S camera. Schiller announced that it has better low-light performance and is 40% faster on photo capture. It will be able to capture 1080p video with “improved” video stability and face detection.
The iPhone 5 has three microphones – on the bottom, front, and back of the smartphone. Its speakers are 20% smaller than those found in the iPhone 4S.
The rumors of a new cable have also turned out to be true. Apple calls the new connector “Lightening,” and it features an all-digital, 8-signal design. The cable is also reversible, and Apple claims it is more durable. An adaptor will be available for those who still use the old-style connector.
The iPhone 5 will come in classic iPhone colors: black and white. The smartphone will sell for the same price as the iPhone 4S. Preorders begin on Friday, September 14th.
The iPhone 5 will ship on September 21st.
Those hoping to upgrade from an “ancient” iPhone model or those looking jump into the Apple ecosystem for a low price will be happy to hear that the 8GB iPhone 4 will now be free with a 2-year contract. The iPhone 3Gs, however, will no longer be sold.

The iPhone 5 With Rubberband Electronics

2012-09-12T16:41:00.002-07:00

Next generation iPhone mock-up videos are a dime a dozen these days. But occasionally one comes along that steps away from the throng and commands your attention. That’s the case with the video below from the folks at Aatma Studio, which out-Apples Apple and sets the shores of the imagination a little wider in the process.

Apple Gets Ready for iPhone 5

2012-09-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

With just a few days to go until the debut of its next-generation iPhone, Apple is finishing preparations for the event at which the device will be unveiled. Earlier this weekend, the street-facing facade of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was cloaked in a vast, colorful Apple banner. And, already, diligent Apple kremlinologists are analyzing it for hidden meanings.
One developing theory to come from their work: The vertical bands of color on the banner are actually stretched iPhone icons that suggest the device Apple plans to introduce will be a taller, stretched version of its predecessor. Here’s some potential supporting evidence from the folks at MacRumors:

iPhone 4S Now Only $99, iPhone 4 Now Free

2012-09-12T16:33:00.002-07:00

The news everyone was waiting for today was the iPhone 5. And though Apple put on a good show and will no doubt sell millions of iPhone 5′s, not everyone who wants one can afford the high up-front cost of a new iPhone.
Luckily for them, Apple also today announced price drops for both the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4. Customers looking to upgrade from iPhones even older than these models, or customers looking to jump into the Apple ecosystem on a budget, will certainly appreciate the price: free.
The iPhone 4, specifically will soon be free for customers who sign up for a two-year contract with a wireless carrier. The iPhone 4S, which most die-hard Apple fans will still have in their pockets for at least 9 more days, will only cost $99 with a two-year contract. The lower prices are sure to lure in customers looking to get their first smartphone.
One of the side effects of these lower prices is that the iPhone 3GS will no loger be sold. The 3GS is now a big part of Apple’s legacy, and was the pinnacle of the original iPhone design. It was also one of the last smartphones Apple released while still fully on top of the smartphone market in terms of hardware, and has now been relegated to dustbin of history. Apple has made it clear iPhone 3GS owners that they are living in the past, and that their thinner phones are the future.

Apple and hackers Identity parade

2012-09-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

HACKERS love to be party-poopers, as Apple has just discovered. A group dubbed “AntiSec”, which is affiliated with Anonymous, a prominent group of hackers, has leaked a file containing over 1m unique device identifiers (UDIDs) from the tech giant. UDIDs are sequences of letters and numbers assigned to specific iPhones, iPads other gizmos made by the company. AntiSec claims to have purloined over 12m of Apple’s during a hacking attack it says it staged in March.
Quite where it got the identifiers from remains something of a mystery. The hackers say they penetrated the laptop of an agent of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and discovered the UDIDs in a file on it. But the FBI has publicly pooh-poohed this claim in turn, saying it never had the identifiers and that reports that one of its laptops has been compromised are “totally false”.
Some IT specialists who have checked the data released by AntiSec say it is genuine. The hackers have claimed that, in some cases, personally identifiable data, such as people’s names and mobile-phone numbers, were linked to some of the UDIDs it purloined. This is worrying. Aldo Cortesi and other security researchers have been giving warning for some time that hackers who get hold of UDIDs and personal information associated with them could use the data to create fake user accounts on social-media sites, say. Mr Cortesi has called the AntiSec leak a “privacy catastrophe”.
AntiSec's move seems to have been timed to embarrass Apple, which is due to launch its latest iPhone and other iGadgets at an event in San Francisco on September 12th. However, the company may not be the source of the stolen data. Plenty of app developers and online-advertising networks also collect UDIDs as part of their activities. So it is perfectly possible that the hackers managed to nick files from one or more of these outfits—or that the FBI collected data from them, only to have it swiped by AntiSec’s crafty programmers. (The latter scenario raises the question of why the FBI might be gathering UDIDs of Apple devices in the first place.)
Whatever the case, the furore will inevitably lead to a crackdown on access to UDIDs in general. Apple had already signalled earlier this year that it intended to stop appmakers from using identifiers as a way of tracking users flipping between apps. This episode is likely to stiffen its resolve. The leak is also a sign that hackers are becoming increasingly bold, even as governments hunt them down more energetically. On September 4th McAfee, a tech security firm, reported that in the second quarter of 2012 it had seen the biggest increase for some time in malware (viruses and the like), which can be used to break into laptops and other devices. Apple and other firms have been warned.

84 Million iPads, 400 Million iOS Devices and More Big Numbers From Apple

2012-09-12T16:20:00.002-07:00

Apple’s special events aren’t simply showcases for the company’s newest products, they’re state of the union addresses for the company, opportunities to tout its successes in public in a parade of big-number metrics. And the numbers bandied about at this morning’s iPhone 5 unveiling were large indeed.

There are currently 380 Apple Stores.

Today, they are in 12 countries. When a new Apple Store opens in Sweden on Friday, they will be in 13.

Apple’s retail stores collectively had some 83 million visitors last quarter.

That’s nearly 1 million people per day.

7 million Mac users have upgraded to Mountain Lion so far, making it the fasting selling Mac OS of all time.

The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro together have become the No. 1 notebook in the U.S. in the last three months, with 27 percent market share.

The Mac has experienced 15 percent year-over-year growth.

That growth has outpaced that of the PC for six consecutive years.

Apple sold 17 million iPads between April and June. That’s more iPads than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line.

And it sold 84 million iPads through June.

The iPad had a 62 percent share of the tablet market a year ago.

Today it has a 68 percent share.

The iPad is responsible for 91 percent of the Web traffic from tablets.

94 percent of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPad.

There are 700,000 apps in the iTunes App Store.

250,000 of them are iPad-specific.

90 percent of the apps in the App Store are downloaded every month.

The average customer has about 100 of them.

By the end of June 2012, Apple had sold 400 million iOS devices.

There are 200 million customers using iTunes in the cloud.

There are 435 million iTunes accounts (with associated credit card numbers).

There are iTunes Stores available in 63 countries.

Together they have served up 15 billion media downloads.

Apple has sold 350 million iPods to date.

Intel’s Promise to Reinvent the PC Falls Flat

2012-09-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

If you were going to reinvent the PC, what would it look like? Don’t answer until you’ve heard what plans Intel has for it.
Reinventing the PC was the promise that the world’s largest chipmaker made from the stage at its annual Intel Developer’s Forum in San Francisco on Monday. And if ever there was a moment when Intel needed to generate some excitement, this was it. Last week, Intel slashed its sales forecast for the September quarter, as demand for PCs lagged around the world.
In remarks before an audience made up primarily of product engineers and software developers, Intel’s chief product officer, Dadi Perlmutter, went through a batch of almost-interesting new capabilities for the personal computer, and showed off a handful of designs for new mobile PCs, aimed at dislodging that iPad or smartphone in your hand with something small and light that contains an Intel chip.
There were PCs that were small, PCs that were light, PCs with displays that detached from their bodies, and PCs that folded and twisted over the keyboard. All of them look like reheated concepts from the Tablet PC era circa 2002, their sole physical advantage being that they’re thinner and lighter than before, and touch-ready. Like an iPad.
Then came demos of two features around the personal computing experience from Nuance, maker of the Dragon line of voice control applications — one showing how soon you’ll be able to search Google, tweet and play digital media files with voice commands, a la Apple’s Siri, and the other, 3-D gestures a la Microsoft’s Kinect system for the Xbox. If this was Intel’s idea of generating excitement about the future of the PC, it didn’t work.

And what about Moore’s law? Certainly, the trend in computing power — enabled by the ability to shrink and thus double the number of transistors on a chip every two years or so — first observed 47 years ago by the Intel co-founder would enable some super-awesome new feature set that will make the PCs of 2013 seem quaint and silly and less awesome than PCs from before?
Not so much. Here’s a startling-when-you-think about it fact about Haswell, the code name for the new chip Intel plans to release next year. Moore’s law essentially allows you to make one of two fundamental choices as the transistor sizes on individual chips shrink with each successive generation. You can either build a chip that gets twice as much work done using about the same amount of power as the previous generation. Or you can build a chip that gets the same amount of work done using half the amount of power. Which choice do you think Intel made with Haswell? Same work, less power.
Of course, there are a lot more finely grained details about what Haswell will do (Anand Lal Shimpi has a detailed rundown on its many technical details here). Since mobile devices of every flavor and form factor imaginable are in, concerns over battery life have overtaken raw power on the list of priorities for Intel’s customers, the PC makers. For years, the need was always for more power, and Intel was ready to oblige. Now, computing power is so plentiful on a PC that most routine applications don’t even come close to taking advantage of it all.
And I wasn’t the only one who came away with this impression. At an informal gaggle of chip industry analysts after Perlmutter’s speech, the consensus was that the biggest benefit of Haswell is the improved power performance.
Patrick Moorhead, a former executive with Intel’s main rival, AMD, and now an industry analyst, put it to me in starker terms: “Intel has a week to show that the PC has a bright future over the next five to 10 years,” he said. “It’s all about usage models that can be done on a phone platform with wireless display and peripherals versus a PC platform.”
I don’t know that we’re quite that far along; I still rely on my home PC (okay, it’s a Mac), enhanced by a few external hard drives for backup purposes, to be the central storage and retrieval spot for all my digital stuff — my photos, my music, my videos, and many, many documents. And when I want to get some real work done, I turn first to that machine. The iPad I use to catch up on episodes of “Breaking Bad” and to read The New Yorker. I have a hard time imagining a world were PCs and tablets don’t coexist in most households in a long-term digital symbiosis, but it’s clear that those PCs will be replaced less frequently and will become more marginalized as consumer attention shifts to tablets and smartphones, devices where, at least to now, Intel isn’t strong.
PCs as we know them may in time go out of style, but there’s one thing that Intel can count on: It will still be called upon to build the best and most powerful chips it can for the millions of servers that will be needed to power the cloud-based services all those smartphones and tablets will be using. Battery life doesn’t matter in servers, though the need to use less power in data centers, and thus do more while operating at a lower cost, is always in style. The data center is at least one place where the one thing that Intel does better than anyone else — deliver ever more computing muscle for lower cost on an almost annual basis — will never go out of style.

Usain Bolt returns to Jamaica

2012-09-12T16:03:00.003-07:00

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) Eschewing delirious crowds at the airport, Olympic sprinting champion Usain Bolt returned to Jamaica in uncharacteristically low-key style.
There were no adoring throngs, none of his signature skyward points or other antics. There was just a quietly organized news conference Tuesday at Bolt's restaurant and night club in Kingston with a few dozen journalists, business people, and politicians in attendance.
Bolt's publicist, Carole Beckford, said the 6-foot-5 superstar quietly returned home Saturday, and nobody but his inner circle knew he was back in his Caribbean homeland, which adores him yet wants a piece of him at almost every turn.
Last week in Belgium, hours after his last race of the season, Bolt said he was a bit nervous about returning to Jamaica, where his countrymen celebrated each of his three victories at the London Olympics with intense enthusiasm. Crowds of impassioned Jamaicans danced, shouted and embraced in the streets as he dominated the competition.

"I've seen what Jamaican fans are like when I go back home. That is more scary than anything else," he told reporters in Brussels.
At the news conference in Jamaica's capital, the world's fastest man thanked his coach, his family and his fervent fans for their support, saying "there were a lot of doubters" after a sometimes challenging season. Speaking to the cameras, a subdued Bolt added, "I have one thing to say: Never doubt a champion."
For weeks before the Olympics, Jamaicans had been debating whether Bolt or his rival and teammate Yohan Blake would win in London. Blake, Bolt's blisteringly fast workout partner, had beaten Bolt in the 100- and 200-meter finals at Jamaica's Olympic trials and Bolt's subsequent withdrawal from a meet in Monaco set up one of the most anticipated story lines of the 2012 Olympics.
But Bolt delivered electrifying performances in London, just as he did at the Beijing Games in 2008. He said he accomplished exactly what he hoped. He competed in three events - and won gold medals in all three: the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4-by-100 relay.
"I am the best and will always be the best," he said Tuesday at Tracks & Records, his restaurant and night club, which features a DJ booth where he sometimes spins records, a 200-seat main floor with TVs, a bar, a few "VIP" areas and even a shop to buy Usain Bolt merchandise.
In more than a century of modern Olympics, no man had set world records while winning the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay - until Bolt did in Beijing in 2008. None had won the 200 meters twice, let alone completed a 100-200 double twice - until Bolt did it in 2008 and 2012.
Bolt repeatedly said his goal in London was to win three gold medals again and come home from London as nothing less than a "living legend."
Natalie Neita-Headley, Jamaica's Cabinet minister with responsibility for sports, compared him to the island's most revered son, reggae icon Bob Marley.
"Like Bob before him, he has achieved that legendary status," Neita-Headley said.
Asked if there is any downside to being a "living legend," Bolt responded: "I've just become a legend so I'll let you know in a few days."

Verify

2012-09-11T09:15:00.003-07:00

google-site-verification: google11ae24c4dec0deda.html

Do Everything Faster with Shortcuts

2012-09-09T09:46:00.002-07:00

Do Everything Faster with Shortcuts

The great thing about computers is that they can do a lot of things much faster than a human. Say you're looking for a specific word on a web page. Instead of scanning it yourself, all you need to do is press Ctrl+F and type the word you're looking for. There are mountains of shortcut like this, from pressing Ctrl+S to instantly save the file you're working on, Ctrl+P to print it out, or Ctrl+T to open a new tab in your web browser. It may seem like more trouble than its worth at first, but after you use a shortcut one or two times, you'll wonder why you ever did anything with the mouse. Check out our list of six shortcuts everyone should know, as well as our shortcut of the day series for even more tricks.

Cute :P

2012-09-09T05:08:00.001-07:00

President Barack Obama Full DNC Acceptance Speech 2012

2012-09-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

Amazing

2012-09-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Apple Plans a Move Into Streaming Music

2012-09-08T03:14:00.002-07:00

In a move that could shake up the growing field of Internet radio, Apple plans to develop a service that would compete with Pandora Media and similar services by sending streams of music customized to users’ tastes, report Ben Sisario and Nick Wingfield on Friday in The New York Times.
Apple, which has already dominated the field of digital music with its iTunes store, is in the early stages of negotiating with the major record labels for the service, and the full scope of its plans were not clear, according to these people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations were private.
Apple’s service is likely to take the form of a preinstalled app on Apple’s devices like iPhones and iPads and might be able to connect to users’ iTunes account to judge their tastes.

Most services that offer customized streams of music operate under limited licenses that restrict what they can do with the music, for example, limiting the number of times songs by particular artists can be played in an hour. But Apple is seeking direct licenses with record labels that would give the company more flexibility in using music, according to the people briefed on its plans.
Like Pandora, Apple’s radio service would have advertising, carried through Apple’s own platform. Whether Apple would then share part of the ad revenue with labels or pay them some other licensing fee was unclear. It was also unclear whether Apple’s service would be free or be a subscription service.
The move by Apple perplexed some analysts, who noted that the Internet radio business seemed too small — accounting for less than $1 billion a year in revenue, by some estimates — for Apple to bother with. Still, Apple’s clout in music through iTunes could come to seem antiquated. As Megan Guess wrote on Ars Technica, “Apple’s bid for a radio-streaming service might be a defensive measure against the growing popularity of Pandora and Spotify.” But it might not, she said, “be a guaranteed money maker for the company” because Pandora has yet to report a profit.