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<title>Haaze.com / rasrasbimuir / All</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Darth Vader's personal Lego spaceship flies Sept. 1]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=darth-vaders-personal-lego-spaceship-flies-sept--1</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=darth-vaders-personal-lego-spaceship-flies-sept--1</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=darth-vaders-personal-lego-spaceship-flies-sept--1</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Lego will start selling a special Star Wars set featuring the personal spacecraft of Darth Vader. It will go on sale on September 1, and cost $400. It will be the longest Star Wars set in Lego history.(Credit:Lego)Lego said Friday that it will begin selling a new Star Wars model seat featuring Darth Vader's own personal ship, the Super Star Destroyer Executor. The set will go on sale on September 1 on Lego's Web site and in its branded retail stores.This will be the longest Star Wars Lego model at 50 inches, and it takes 3,152 bricks and pieces to put together. All told, it will weigh eight pounds. One feature will be a command bridge underneath a removable section of the top of the model. Inside will fit mini-figures of several Star Wars characters--Vader himself, and a few others. How Lego makes its bricks (photos) The set will cost $400 when it goes on sale.Another look at the new Darth Vader Lego model.(Credit:Lego)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Shuttle Discovery bids space station final farewell]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=shuttle-discovery-bids-space-station-final-farewell</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=shuttle-discovery-bids-space-station-final-farewell</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:11:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=shuttle-discovery-bids-space-station-final-farewell</guid>
<description><![CDATA[KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--The crew of the shuttle Discovery, given a &quot;Star Trek&quot; send off by actor William Shatner, undocked from the International Space Station early today to close out an extended assembly and resupply mission, the shuttle's 13th and final visit to the orbital outpost.With pilot Eric Boe at the controls, Discovery's docking system disengaged from the station's forward port at 7 a.m. ET as the two spacecraft sailed through orbital darkness above the western Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia.The shuttle Discovery&amp;39's crew gets a bird&amp;39's eye view of the International Space Station during a fly-around early today.(Credit:NASA TV)&quot;Houston and station, physical separation,&quot; commander Steven Lindsey called as the orbiter began backing away.Manually guiding the shuttle to a point about 400 feet directly in front of the lab complex, Boe kicked off a 360-degree fly-around, looping up over, behind, and below the space station to capture photographs and video showing a final U.S. module in place, along with a full complement of visiting spacecraft from Europe, Japan, and Russia.NASA managers earlier asked their Russian counterparts to consider undocking a Soyuz spacecraft for a fly-about to capture views of the station with Discovery attached. But Russian mission managers, citing technical considerations, declined.Discovery's fly-around took a little more than an hour to complete. At 8:09 a.m. ET, the ship's maneuvering jets were fired in the first of two maneuvers to break away and leave the area.&quot;Steve, as you guys are heading home, I wanted to say one last time that we really enjoyed your company onboard,&quot; radioed Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly, who is scheduled to return to Earth March 16 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. &quot;Doing something as complicated as this really takes a team effort and that's, I think, what we've proven here this last week. I'd like to wish you guys a safe rest of your fight and a safe landing. And I will see you all back in Houston here in about a week or so.&quot;The shuttle Discovery passes directly behind the International Space Station.(Credit:NASA TV)&quot;Hey Scott, I couldn't agree more, I think the team effort between our two crews and the larger ground team that planned this and put it all together enabled us to get well over 100 percent of our objectives,&quot; Lindsey replied. &quot;It's been a pleasure working with your team and I look forward to seeing you guys. Have safe travels for everybody on board and we will see you in about a week.&quot;&quot;OK, take care,&quot; Kelly called. &quot;Station out.&quot;Over the course of an extended docked mission, the Discovery astronauts delivered a new storage module, an external spare parts platform, an extra set of radiator panels and several tons of supplies, science gear, and other equipment. They also staged two spacewalks to perform a variety of maintenance tasks outside the station and helped out with work to service one of the station's oxygen generators and a carbon dioxide removal system.Throughout it all, Discovery performed flawlessly, allowing mission planners to extend the docked mission by two days.&quot;I think if I had to step back and characterize this entire mission, I would really call it an above-and-beyond mission.&quot; said Kenneth Todd, chairman of the space station Mission Management Team. &quot;The systems performed very, very well to the point where we were able to add a couple of extra days, which we just don't do that often...Being able to get that work behind us now with a larger crew was very, very helpful for us.&quot;The International Space Station approaches the limb of the Earth.(Credit:NASA TV)But watching Discovery depart early Monday, he said, was a bittersweet moment.&quot;To see Discovery leave, she had done just a flawless mission for us in support of the program, and yet as she was backing away it was clear to us that that was the last time she was going to visit us,&quot; he said. &quot;So we bid her adieu and certainly Godspeed to Steve and the rest of the crew on the way home.&quot;Lindsey, Boe, and their crewmates--Nicole Stott, Michael Barratt, and spacewalkers Stephen Bowen and Alvin Drew--got in the proper spirit for undocking with a 3:23 a.m. ET wake-up song from Houston that was voted the second most popular in a NASA contest: the Alexander Courage theme from the 1960s television series &quot;Star Trek.&quot;As with the original, Shatner began with the familiar phrase &quot;Space...the final frontier.&quot; But the rest was a tribute to Discovery, making its 39th and final flight since its maiden launch in 1984.&quot;Space...the final frontier,&quot; Shatner said as the music played. &quot;These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery. Her 30-year mission: to seek out new science, to build new outposts, to bring nations together on the final frontier, to boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before.&quot;The shuttle Discovery, crossing the northwest coast of Africa, wraps up a 13th and final visit to the space station. Landing back at the Kennedy Space Center is planned for Wednesday.(Credit:NASA TV)&quot;And good morning, Houston,&quot; Lindsey replied when the music faded. &quot;And that was, I believe, the second most popular selection from the song contest for the space shuttle program and I'd like to thank William Shatner for taking the time to record that special introduction for us.&quot;The song voted most popular in the wake-up music contest--&quot;Blue Sky&quot; by Big Head Todd and the Monsters--will be beamed up to the astronauts Tuesday.The rest of the shuttle crew's day was devoted to carrying out a final inspection of the shuttle's reinforced carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels to look for any signs of impact damage from micrometeoroids or orbital debris since a similar inspection the day after launch.The so-called &quot;late inspection&quot; was completed around 3:45 p.m. ET. Analysts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will review photos and laser scans to make sure the heat shield is in good shape for re-entry.The astronauts plan to pack up and test Discovery's re-entry systems Tuesday before dropping out of orbit and landing back at the Kennedy Space Center around noon Wednesday.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How online tools spoil reality show secrets]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-online-tools-spoil-reality-show-secrets</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-online-tools-spoil-reality-show-secrets</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-online-tools-spoil-reality-show-secrets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For the producers of a reality show like &quot;The Amazing Race,&quot; the headaches probably don't get much bigger than those caused by the TAR Detectives.A global, loosely formed group of sleuths dedicated to uncovering and publicly revealing spoilers about TAR, or &quot;The Amazing Race,&quot; the detectives have proven what the producers of any number of reality shows have learned: It's nearly impossible to keep what happens during filming a secret from those determined to find out.And thanks to the growing number of online and social-media tools available, and the vast numbers of people who use them, ferreting out ahead of time what happens on reality shows appears to be getting easier and easier to do.'The Bachelor' is just one of many reality show whose fans can easily find accurate spoilers online any time they want.(Credit:ABC)For years, spoiler sites have been great at offering up informed guesses of what might happen--like who will be voted out, or who will perform, on the next episode of shows like &quot;Survivor,&quot; &quot;American Idol,&quot; &quot;The Bachelor,&quot; and the like. But bloodhounds who frequent popular fan sites and forums have shown how easy it is to exploit the fact that these days, widespread use of Twitter and Facebook can lead those who know where to look to all kinds of accurate conclusions about what will happen throughout a season of some of these shows.&quot;We can actually draw up our own map&quot; of where &quot;The Amazing Race&quot; contestants will go during a forthcoming season, said Boingo, a longtime member of the TAR Detectives. &quot;In fact, we actually have the entire course pretty well laid out.&quot;Boingo, a technology industry professional from Northern California who asked that his real name not be used, is a longtime member of the TAR Detectives and a habitue of the Reality Fan Forum, a site where spoilers about &quot;The Amazing Race&quot; and other reality shows are given prominent play.He explained that in the early days of &quot;The Amazing Race,&quot; those interested in figuring out and disseminating spoilers were limited to keeping an eagle eye on previews for upcoming episodes and using services like Flickr and Photobucket to try to make assumptions based on what little the producers of the show offered up. But over the years, Boingo explained, a succession of new online tools have made it possible to uncover more and more about what will happen on the show. First services like Google Earth and Google Street View allowed the detectives to figure out where certain buildings shown in previews might be--and therefore, where the show would be heading next. &quot;The way it worked was that, in previews, you'd [be able] to identify a building behind the contestants,&quot; Boingo said, and using Google Earth or Street View, &quot;that would give you a location, and then you could narrow it down to a city, or even a street, and you could glean a lot of information about where the contestants were&quot; going.More recently, however, it's become harder and harder for producers to keep information about even entire seasons under wraps. For one thing, given the fact that &quot;The Amazing Race&quot; is filmed in public places around the world, it's hard to keep people from tweeting or posting to Facebook that they just saw the show come through their town. &quot;People post, 'Oh, I happened to see a camera crew going by my house,'&quot; Boingo said, &quot;so we knew approximately where racers were...after [filming] but before airing.&quot;And because of Twitter, it's become easy, Boingo said, for TAR Detectives in the Los Angeles area--where the show's producers are based and where it usually starts from--to find tweets from random people about the show's producers and crews getting ready to depart from the airport there and quickly rush out to see where they're headed. &quot;With Twitter, you could just sit there and search for the phrase 'The Amazing Race,'&quot; Boingo said, &quot;and someone would invariably tweet, 'Oh, I just saw [a film] crew, and someone in LA would run to the airport to take pictures of the crew and cast, and track them in real time.&quot;The upshot, Boingo continued, is that by keeping a close eye on social media mentions about the show and about where its crews and cast are spotted, it has become a simple matter for those intent on doing so to track the show's developments almost in real time and piece together a complete map and outline of an upcoming season as much as five or six months before it airs.'American Idol'To be sure, &quot;The Amazing Race&quot; is hardly the only reality show whose producers must grapple with a steady flow of spoilers being posted online. Shows like &quot;Survivor,&quot; &quot;The Bachelor,&quot; and &quot;American Idol&quot; are also popular among spoiler sites, and in the case of each, it's easy for those who are interested to go online and find out what will happen on the show in the future. Thankfully, most spoiler sites place such information in sub-sections of forums that warn off unwary visitors with language like &quot;Spoiler Alert&quot; and red text, or all-capital letters. This usually makes it possible for people to visit fan sites to read about current episodes without discovering unwanted information about what will happen on as-yet unaired episodes.&quot;Survivor&quot; and &quot;The Amazing Race&quot; are broadcast by CNET parent company CBS. An &quot;Amazing Race&quot; publicist at CBS did not return a call and e-mail from CNET. For those particularly adept at collecting spoiler information, the news often comes from a mix of sources, and being savvy at both social media and other online tools and old-fashioned good source development may be crucial to being king of the spoilers hill.According to M.J. Santilli, who runs the &quot;American Idol&quot; fan site MJ's Big Blog, a key to uncovering the identities of contestants on an upcoming season is mixing some well-informed tips about who has tried out for the show with clever detective work on Twitter and Facebook.Santilli explained that by following known would-be &quot;Idol&quot; contestants on Twitter or friending them on Facebook, it's often possible to find out which have made it on to the show through those people's less than stealthy posts, or by putting two and two together from things they might say on one social media site or another, or by following their friends and seeing what they have to say.According to Michael Slezak, a senior editor at TVLine.com, it can be nearly impossible to keep a lid on what will happen on reality shows, in large part given how many people are involved. &quot;I think when you're putting together a show the size of any of these franchises,&quot; Slezak said, &quot;it requires a lot of staffing of people, and some freelance types. I think it's just hard to contain that much information when you're dealing with that&quot; many people.Of course, while most reality show fans want to maintain the mystery of what will happen on their favorite programs, there are clearly enough who savor spoilers to make sites that cater to that desire profitable. &quot;Spoiler sites are dealing with a hard core group of fans [who go] on the Internet and seek out information about the shows,&quot; Slezak said. &quot;Some people just like to know what's going to happen.&quot;That's a notion to which Reality Steve, one of the leading purveyors of spoiler information about ABC's &quot;The Bachelor,&quot; clearly subscribes. And even though Reality Steve, whose real name is Steve Carbone, said he gets most of his &quot;Bachelor&quot; spoiler information from inside sources who are right 98 percent of the time, he doesn't really know why the people who give him his information do so.SurvivorSucks.com is just one of many sites devoted to revealing advance information about the hit CBS show.(Credit:SurvivorSucks.com)Indeed, Carbone said that he doesn't enjoy spoilers, particularly for shows that like &quot;Survivor,&quot; depend more on drama than does &quot;The Bachelor.&quot; But he knows that his readers often want to hear what's coming. &quot;I've had so many people email me and tell me, 'I love reading the end of a book first,'&quot; Carbone said. &quot;'I like to see it play out leading up to that...It would seem confusing, you don't know who any of these people are. I guess they just want to be out in front of it. They just want to tell their friends, 'I know something you don't know.'&quot;To Slezak, one of the most impressive examples of spoilers was the advance spilling of the list, in the proper order, of &quot;Survivor: Nicaragua&quot; contestants being voted off. That feat of spoiler accuracy came courtesy of a famous &quot;Survivor&quot; spoiler perpetrator known as MissyAE. Sued by &quot;Survivor&quot; production company Mark Burnett Productions for his efforts, MissyAE, whose real name is Jim Early, revealed that he had gotten his information directly from one of the show's most notorious contestants, Russell Hantz. In a widelypublished statement, CBS addressed the Hantz scandal, and &quot;Survivor&quot; spoilers by saying that, From the beginning, &quot;Survivor&quot; has been blessed with a rabid fan base, including a fanatical group online which, from the show's early days, initiated one of television's first organized campaigns to predict and speculate results in advance of a reality show broadcast. As the show has progressed in years and the Internet has grown in scope, the number of these sites has increased with periodic claims of unauthorized leaks from people connected to the show.We've investigated some of these claims. Each time, we've peeled back the curtain to find a subculture of the show with fans/bloggers simultaneously networking and competing with each other for spoiler information while hurling accusations of unfair practices against each other.The fervent activity of these sites often generates a confusing web of backstabbing, claims of misinformation and Internet alliances. It's almost like an underground game-within-a-game of &quot;Survivor&quot; that plays out with the melodrama of a daytime soap and the complexity of Dungeons and Dragons.Outwit, outplay, outlast. It happens more than just on the air.Oddly, given how much online tools help with developing good spoiler information, Early told CNET that he used to compile his spoilers by dutifully tracking Google Alerts for anyone associated with the show--since many contestants or people who know them inadvertently give away information in interviews, often in their hometown newspapers--he now relies on a much more old-school method for getting his information: the phone.It used to be &quot;fun because it was like detective [work],&quot; Early said, &quot;but the new...way is 100 percent accurate.&quot;And how does it work Early said that he gets phone calls all the time from &quot;Survivor&quot; insiders who want to fill him in on what will happen on the show. Indeed, he said that Hantz--who was a contestant on the season of the show currently being aired--was his most reliable source. And other players reach out to him as well, often because they want to set the record straight about how something was presented to the viewing public.&quot;It sounds like a joke, but it's not,&quot; Early said of how he gets his information these days. &quot;I just pick up the phone and say hello. Sources call me up and tell me everything.&quot;        Daniel Terdiman     Full Profile E-mail Daniel Terdiman   E-mail Daniel Terdiman If you have a question or comment for Daniel Terdiman, you can submit it here. However, because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests, we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.   Submit your question or comment here: 0 of 1500 characters       Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[LG rep: Windows Phone 7 launch underwhelmed]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lg-rep-windows-phone-7-launch-underwhelmed</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lg-rep-windows-phone-7-launch-underwhelmed</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:10:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lg-rep-windows-phone-7-launch-underwhelmed</guid>
<description><![CDATA[LG&amp;39's Quantum, one of the first Windows Phone 7 devices.(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)In an interview with blog Pocket Lint, James Choi, LG's marketing strategy and planning team director, reportedly dubbed the launch of Microsoft'sWindows Phone 7 late last year to be underwhelming.According to the site, Choi said that while Microsoft's handset OS was &quot;very intuitive and easy to use,&quot; and appealed to &quot;certain segments,&quot; the platform failed to live up to the company's expectations of grabbing consumer attention.&quot;From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected,&quot; Choi told Pocket Lint.That said, Choi noted that LG likes to balance out its lineup of phones on various carriers with more than one operating system, and that Microsoft had gone a long way towards helping LG to fulfill that goal.&quot;There is a need and demand from the operators saying there is too much 'Android' in the portfolio. In that sense, LG always tries to balance our portfolio, and that's not just in sense of hardware but OSes as well,&quot; Choi reportedly said.Microsoft launched its Windows Phone 7 platform in Europe and Asia back in late October of last year, with the U.S. launch in the second week of November. In late December, the company announced that it had sold 1.5 million of the devices to mobile operators since the platform's launch.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Ask Maggie: On smartphone battery life and rural wireless broadband]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ask-maggie-on-smartphone-battery-life-and-rural-wireless-broadband</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ask-maggie-on-smartphone-battery-life-and-rural-wireless-broadband</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ask-maggie-on-smartphone-battery-life-and-rural-wireless-broadband</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Have you ever noticed that your old flip phone held its charge for days, even weeks sometimes, but a half-hour spent surfing the Web or watching a video on your new smartphone and the battery is deadYou aren't alone. As cell phones get more sophisticated, all those bells and whistles come at the cost of heavy power consumption. Sure, we all like the convenience of hitting Google on the go or getting turn-by-turn navigation on our smartphones, but when the battery life is drained almost instantaneously, those new features become a drag.In this week's Ask Maggie I answer one reader's question about how the new speedy dual-core processors in smartphones will affect battery life. I also explain how to take an unlocked BlackBerry to a new carrier, and offer some thoughts on whether wireless broadband will ever come to rural America.Ask Maggie is a weekly advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. If you've got a question, please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put &quot;Ask Maggie&quot; in the subject header.Battery LifeHi Maggie,Verizon Wireless just announced some cool new phones at the Consumer Electronics Show this week for its 4G network, including the Motorola Droid Bionic that has a dual-core processor. I would like to know how these new dual processors will affect battery life on the phone. All the power is good to have but ONLY if you have the battery life to support it. I think most people would rather have the cell phone function all day (and more) with less power than a highly powered device that gets only a couple of hours of battery life.Thank you for your time,StanDear Stan, The move to dual-core processors will make mobile devices significantly more powerful than they can be if they use a only single-core processor. But the challenge for chip manufacturers and device makers is balancing the more powerful hardware with battery life concerns.Crappy battery life is a major issue for many smartphones already. Most users are lucky if they can get a full day's use out of a single charge on their smartphones. As so-called &quot;super phones&quot; become more sophisticated, they will require higher-power processors, which consume more power. Motorola Droid Bionic (photos) View the full galleryUnfortunately, battery technology has struggled to keep pace with demand for all the new features that are being added to smartphones. So it's very likely battery life will suffer on phones using more sophisticated dual-core processors, at least in the early days. The problem is compounded for the Droid Bionic, because it also operates over Verizon's new 4G LTE network. This is a challenge for battery life because the phone's battery has to support several radios in a single device. In addition to supporting a Wi-Fi radio and a 3G radio, now it has to accommodate a 4G radio, too. Chipmakers and phone manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to make power usage more efficient. Users can also help manage power consumption by adjusting settings, such as turning off multiple radios or applications that are running in the background, or using their phone in places where there is a strong cell phone signal. Tony Melone, CTO of Verizon Wireless, acknowledges that managing battery power can be tricky. But he said he thinks device makers and chip vendors have worked through these issues for the new lineup of dual-core processor 4G phones that will eventually be introduced on Verizon's network. He also said there are things that the carrier can do to help alleviate the problem. For example, it can have devices scan less frequently for new cell towers. He said the new 4G phones that the company introduced atCES should have battery life that is comparable to the battery life on most of its other smartphones.The new 4G phones were just announced this week at CES, so CNET hasn't yet reviewed them. But even after the reviews are out, you might want to wait until the phones are out in the market for a couple of months if battery life is a major concern for you. Early adopters using the phone day to day will discover shortcomings, such as poor battery life. Also, battery performance can vary greatly based on usage and other factors, such as signal strength. So getting more input from regular users might help you make a better decision on which phone is right for you. Servicing an unlocked BlackBerry Dear Maggie,First of all I wanted to tell you what a fan I am of yours. I have an unlocked BlackBerry Bold, and I want to know what my best options are to get BlackBerry service. Also, once the phone is unlocked, can I use it on different carrier networks How easy is it to switch carriersThanks a million,MendyDear Mendy,First, thanks for the compliment! I'm so happy someone is finding this column useful!Now to answer your questions. If your BlackBerry has a SIM card in it that can be removed and inserted into another phone, switching providers will be very simple. Phones with SIM cards use GSM network technology. If you want to switch carriers, all you have to do is switch the SIM card and voila, you can hop amongst carriers. On the other hand, phones based on CDMA do not use SIM cards. So it is more difficult to get the phones unlocked and to use them on another carrier's network. I wrote about this topic in a previous Ask Maggie column. That said, a reader pointed out to me in an e-mail that it is not impossible to unlock and use a CDMA phone on another carrier's network. But it does require some know-how. You have to &quot;flash&quot; the phone's radio so that it communicates over another CDMA carrier's network. While swapping out SIM cards on an unlocked GSM phone is fairly simple, one thing you must check is that the phone you are using supports the GSM radio frequency in the country where you are using the phone. A quad-band world phone should cover all your bases.In the U.S., your options for GSM mobile phone service are AT&amp;T and T-Mobile USA. AT&amp;T sells the BlackBerry Bold, so this is likely your best bet for service. The phone can also be used on T-Mobile, but the phone may not support the frequency band that T-Mobile uses for 3G service. (It's different from the frequency band that AT&amp;T uses for 3G service.) As for which carrier offers the best service, it really depends on where you are using the phone. AT&amp;T has a much wider footprint than T-Mobile, so in some places, T-Mobile may not even be an option. But if it is available, it might offer a better deal than AT&amp;T, depending on usage and the plan you select.  Rural wireless broadbandDear Maggie,I live in the country in Texas. I have wireless Internet service, but it is not very good. Most of the time, the speeds are barely above dialup. What's the outlook for us country people when it comes to high-speed Internet service. Thank you for your consideration in responding.MikeDear Mike,It's difficult to say whether wireless broadband service will improve significantly for you anytime soon, because I don't know exactly where you live. I also don't know specific regional plans for upgrades for each carrier in the U.S. But I will try to answer your question more broadly, because I think this is an important topic that policy makers at the Federal Communications Commission and in other parts of the government are grappling with today.Let's start with the good news. Getting broadband access to every American is a priority for President Obama and the FCC. And for the first time in the U.S. there is a comprehensive policy plan in place for achieving this goal over the next decade. Last year, the FCC submitted a National Broadband Plan to Congress, which outlined a 10-year plan for getting broadband service to every American. Within that plan, the FCC highlighted wireless as a key technology for providing broadband service to rural communities. As part of this plan and as part of the economic stimulus package passed by Congress in 2009, wireless operators have been given millions of dollars to invest in building networks in rural communities. The FCC has also taken measures to speed up the process for approving the construction of new cell phone towers and for freeing up more wireless spectrum, which should also help stimulate further infrastructure deployments. Another piece of good news for rural wireless subscribers is that all four major U.S. wireless carriers are in the midst of major network upgrades to 4G wireless broadband, which provide average download speeds between 3Mbps and 12Mbps.Two of the largest carriers, AT&amp;T and Verizon Wireless, are using 700MHz spectrum to build their new networks using a technology called LTE or Long Term Evolution. The 700MHz spectrum they are using is ideal for serving rural communities because signals can travels long distances over this band. It was previously used to provide broadcast analog TV service. What this means for rural subscribers is that wireless carriers can reach more geographically dispersed subscribers with fewer cell towers.The main reason that infrastructure of any kind is limited in some rural communities is because it's often difficult for private-sector companies to make a return on their investment. In some cases, there are simply too few subscribers to justify the upfront capital investment in the infrastructure. This is where the bad news comes in. Even though the major wireless operators are upgrading their networks, they are still likely to concentrate most of their investments in densely populated regions, because that is where they can get the biggest returns. This means that cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago are more likely to get 4G service quicker than a rural community in, say, west Texas. The federal grants from the stimulus package should help encourage investment in some regions of the country, but it won't be enough to encourage investment in every rural community. That said, Verizon Wireless, which bought a nationwide swath of 700MHz spectrum, is striking deals with regional rural carriers to lease its 700MHz spectrum, so that these companies can roll out service more quickly to more people. Verizon Wireless CEO Daniel Mead said at the company's press conference at CES that Verizon is making progress with rural carriers interested in leasing its spectrum.Hopefully, your community in Texas will be among those to benefit from either Verizon or AT&amp;T's expansion or the expansion by a rural carrier.         Marguerite Reardon     Full Profile E-mail Marguerite Reardon   E-mail Marguerite Reardon If you have a question or comment for Marguerite Reardon, you can submit it here. However, because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests, we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.   Submit your question or comment here: 0 of 1500 characters       Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Good heavens! SEC could take aim at super angels]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=good-heavens-sec-could-take-aim-at-super-angels</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=good-heavens-sec-could-take-aim-at-super-angels</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=good-heavens-sec-could-take-aim-at-super-angels</guid>
<description><![CDATA[New financial regulations proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will fall most heavily on super angels, a lawyer who specializes in the industry told VentureBeat this week.Angel investors are wealthy individuals who put money in startups, often providing a company&amp;'s first funding. Super angels, unlike regular angels, also manage other people&amp;'s startup investments &amp;8212' putting them in a different class from regulators&amp;' perspectives.Jeff Bloom, partner and chair of the venture capital and private equity fund formation group at tech law firm Fenwick &amp;amp' West, said that although most of the new rules will not have much impact on venture-capital financings overall, the fastest-growing segment of the venture capital industry is definitely taking notice.Higher regulatory risk is just another reason for super angels to back off their torrid pace of investments, as higher startup valuationsthreaten to diminish their rewards.a4AAngel investors that were considering raising a discretionary fund [could now choose to] remain independent or to invest in a club format instead,a4 said Bloom.Under the new proposed rules, venture-capital funds will for the first time be subject to public information reporting requirements. That&amp;'s something that has never before been mandated and which will demand funds adapt their back office functions in order to handle the day-to-day work of meeting those benchmarks.Super angel funds, which typically have been able to run with very small or completely outsourced back-office teams, will feel a definite sting from those new rules.Similarly, Bloom added that the additional reporting requirements likely to be required by the SEC will place a burden on newer, smaller funds.a4A[They] will have to manage more administrative overhead, [which is] very difficult in a smaller fund,a4 said Bloom. a4ASo perhaps some relief after public comments will help on that front.a4Still, the SEC clearly did its homework, said Bloom, because although new rules requiring registration and disclosure will affect chunks of the VC industry, the majority of the new proposed regulations probably will not have a material negative impact on the venture-capital a4Aecosystema4 as a whole.With the SEC still defining the venture-capital fund exemption from the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, most traditional venture capital funds will remain exempt from registration under the proposed rules if adopted in their current form.a4AThe SEC has developed rules that work well for historical practices in the industry and is soliciting very specific commentary for purposes of making the exemption conform as closely as possible with current industry standard practices. That is a real positive sign that they want to &amp;8216'get it right,&amp;'a4 he added.Next Story: Hatsize raises $5M to let businesses try new tech before they buy it Previous Story: Could Mickey Mouse be the next video game starPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: angel investors, regulation, SEC, super angelsCompanies: Fenwick &amp;amp' West          Tags: angel investors, regulation, SEC, super angelsCompanies: Fenwick &amp;amp' WestRiley McDermid is a contributing reporter to VentureBeat. She was previously the online editor at institutional investing and trading forum Markets Media, which she joined in 2008 from Dow Jones/MarketWatch in New York. Her work has appeared in the The New York Times, the Associated Press, Portfolio Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Barrona4a4s. She has won awards from the American Society of Business Publishers and Editors, the Magazine Association of the Southeast, the Mississippi Press Association and the Atlanta Press Club, and was a finalist for the Pacemaker Prize for excellence in news reporting.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Betterment raises $3M to give casual investors a more accessible portfolio]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=betterment-raises-3m-to-give-casual-investors-a-more-accessible-portfolio</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=betterment-raises-3m-to-give-casual-investors-a-more-accessible-portfolio</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=betterment-raises-3m-to-give-casual-investors-a-more-accessible-portfolio</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Online investing service Betterment announced today that it has raised $3 million in a first round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners.Betterment lets users transfer money to their accounts and decide how much of it they want invested in the stock market and government-backed treasury bonds. Stocks are typically a little more volatile in the short term, whereas treasuries have a guaranteed yield but generate a much smaller return. The idea is to let users pick just how much risk they want to take on their savings.The company, which is an SEC and FINRA licensed investment advisor, chooses which stocks to buy and puts the individual securities into each usera4a4s account. Betterment does not charge its customers a per transaction fee like most online brokerage accounts. Instead, it charges a management fee of 0.9 percent of the average annual balance. Betterment accounts are as liquid as a savings account, with the money transferring directly to and from usersa4a4 checking accounts.The New York, N.Y.-based company&amp;'s founders invested $640,000 to pay staff, create technical infrastructure, and build capital reserves required by the SEC. It launched at TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this year and is already managing millions of dollars in investments. The newest round of funding will be used to expand the size of the team and prepare for new product launches later this year.Betterment also launched a new government-backed treasury bond portfolio that is supposed to be less sensitive to interest rate changes. When the economy turns south, many investors typically flock to treasuries in order to keep their money safe. That drives interest rates down. The newest addition to its investment portfolio is likely a response to the current investment environment, which is at best a complete snafu.Previous Story: YouTube launches ad format that lets viewers skip or choosePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: bonds, Investment, stock market, stocks, treasuriesCompanies: Betterment          Tags: bonds, Investment, stock market, stocks, treasuriesCompanies: BettermentMatthew Lynley is VentureBeat's enterprise writer. He graduated from University of North Carolina, where he studied math and physics, in May 2010. He has reported for Reuters. He currently lives in San Francsico, Calif. You can reach him at mattl@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @logicalmoron.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comcast to fend off Google TV with &8230' something]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comcast-to-fend-off-google-tv-with-8230-something</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comcast-to-fend-off-google-tv-with-8230-something</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rasrasbimuir</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comcast-to-fend-off-google-tv-with-8230-something</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Perhaps tired of seeing its customers dump traditional cable service in favor of online video (a process known as cord cutting), telecom giant Comcast is testing a new service that will combine web video content with traditional TV.The service utilizes a next-generation set-top box that can deliver web video alongside traditional TV programming and digital video recorder (DVR) functionality, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. It&amp;'s currently in limited testing in Augusta, GA and is known to participants as &amp;''Spectrum&amp;'' (internally, Comcast is calling it &amp;''Xcalibur&amp;'').Whatever it ends up being called, the service is an attempt by Comcast to fight off other companies that pose a threat to its cable hegemony with products like Google TV, Roku&amp;'s set-top boxes and Apple TV. The service won&amp;'t allow Comcast customers to browse the web freely, and it&amp;'s still unclear what sort of web content they&amp;'ll have access to. Comcast still hasn&amp;'t decided if it will launch the service officially, or what sort of pricing model it would pursue.Competitors like Direct TV, Verizon and AT&amp;amp'T already offer web-enabled boxes in multiple forms.Over the past two quarters, cable subscriptions fell for the first time since the technology was introduced, falling by about 335,000 households from 100 million, the WSJ reports based on data from the research company SNL Kagan. Cable companies believe those users are mostly opting for free over-the-air programming instead of moving entirely to online video (I ended up doing the same thing when I dumped cable years ago).Comcast, the largest paid TV provider in the US, lost around 275,000 subscribers (out of around 23 million) in the third quarter of this year. The new service has been in the works for over a year, the WSJ reports, and is being spearheaded by Sam Schwartz, a senior executive who previously ran the company&amp;'s investing arm, Comcast Interactive Capital.With the service, we can also expect a more modern user interface from Comcast. The WSJ writes: &amp;''A menu displays a strip of images representing recently watched channels and programs, which expand when selected. A redesigned &amp;8216'guide&amp;' displays a cleaner grid of programs by network and airtime so that it&amp;'s possible to watch TV on part of the screen while browsing.&amp;''Comcast recently launched its Xfinity services to symbolize its move to an all digital network. With Xfinity, Comcast users can get access to cable TV content on their computers, and it will eventually make its way to the iPad and other tablets.It sounds like Comcast specifically has Google TV in its sights, as it also offers similar integration between web and TV content. But given that Comcast&amp;'s business is entirely centered around making its users pay for TV content, whereas Google is less concerned about the survival of paid TV plans (it just wants a new platform for ads), it doesn&amp;'t seem like Comcast will ever wholeheartedly support web content.Photo via FlickrNext Story: After big layoffs, can Yahoo find its focus Previous Story: Legendary network exec Silverman to launch social video-streaming sitePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Apple TV, cable, Google TV, set-top box, TVCompanies: Apple, Comcast, Google, Roku          Tags: Apple TV, cable, Google TV, set-top box, TVCompanies: Apple, Comcast, Google, RokuDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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