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<title>Haaze.com / Shiree / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Jane McGonigal hits New York Public Library in new game]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=jane-mcgonigal-hits-new-york-public-library-in-new-game</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=jane-mcgonigal-hits-new-york-public-library-in-new-game</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=jane-mcgonigal-hits-new-york-public-library-in-new-game</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Find the Future is the newest project of famed game designer Jane McGonigal. Its players will be the first members of the public to ever spend the night in the landmark New York Public Library building in midtown Manhattan(Credit:Find the Future Game)What would you put in the Declaration of Independence if it was being written todayThat's an exercise that you and 499 other people could try out if you're one of the lucky few that will be chosen to take part in game designer Jane McGonigal's 100th anniversary ode to the New York Public Library, &quot;Find the Future.&quot;On May 20, 500 hand-selected gamers will get to spend the night in the world-famous Stephen A. Schwarzman Building--otherwise known as the main branch of the city's library system--immersing themselves in some of the most special artifact's in the institution's archives, including Charles Dickens' letter opener--made from the paw of his beloved cat' Jack Kerouac's glasses' and an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.Related links&amp;149' Author Jane McGonigal explains why 'Reality is Broken' (Q&amp;A)&amp;149' McDonald's is lead sponsor of Olympics-themed ARG, 'The Lost Ring'&amp;149' Jane McGonigal at SXSWi: Game developers can induce happinessIn &quot;Find the Future,&quot; the players--initially the 500 chosen to be on hand on May 20, and later anyone on the Web, will have to complete a series of quests designed by McGonigal, the author of the best-selling &quot;Reality is Broken&quot; and the creator of games like &quot;A World without Oil,&quot; &quot;The Lost Ring,&quot; and a regular keynote speaker at events like the Game Developers Conference, South by Southwest Interactive, and TED.&quot;For the first time in its history, the library will open the doors of its 42nd Street building all night starting at 8 p.m. to allow the players to explore [it] overnight and tackle a list of 100 quests,&quot; reads an introduction to &quot;Find the Future&quot; (see video below). &quot;Each quest will require players to be in the presence of and be inspired by objects from NYPL's collections. During the evening, players will be led into the stacks to unlock quests.&quot;The 500 chosen to play will be broken into teams of eight, and each team will have to finish as many as four of the quests. When all 100 quests have been completed, the players will create a book out of the responses the players write as part of those tasks. So, for example, faced with one of the many ancient menus in the library's collection, players will have to design their own ideal menu. Or, craft their own sections of a 2011-era Declaration of Independence. Players will be given &quot;missions&quot; to find the many artifacts in the collection via their smartphones, and they'll prove that they found them by scanning a QR code. At that point, they'll be assigned the writing part of the quest. They'll then submit their work to the game's Web site. The idea is that when all the quests have been completed and unlocked, the general public will be able to play them online and create a personalized &quot;book&quot; of answers. That access will begin on May 21.But in order to be one of the 500 chosen for the in-person running of &quot;Find the Future,&quot; would-be players need to go online starting today and complete an initial quest. A team of judges will pick the best entries. All players must be 18 years or older. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Is the Kin returning to Verizon]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-the-kin-returning-to-verizon</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-the-kin-returning-to-verizon</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-the-kin-returning-to-verizon</guid>
<description><![CDATA[PPCGeeks.com&amp;39's claims leaked Verizon road map shows a return of Microsoft&amp;39's failed Kin One and Kin Two devices to market.(Credit:PPCGeeks.com)Those who were wondering what happened to leftover Microsoft Kin devices that did not sell may have just gotten their answer. According to what blog PPCGeeks, and now Engadget claims to be a leaked road map of Verizon devices hitting store shelves in Q4 are two familiar faces: Microsoft's ill-fated Kin One and Kin Two.The phones, which lasted less than two months on the U.S. market before being pulled ahead of an international launch, were presented to consumers as something in between a smartphone and a feature phone, offering up things like social networking and Microsoft'sZune music player while omitting very basic features like a calendar.Before shelving sales of the device, Verizon--which had been the initial carrier for the Kins, cut the Kin's price by as much as 50 percent. Sources told CNET that sales had been somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 units. When contacted by CNET, both Verizon and Microsoft refused to comment.One very interesting twist on all this is that PPCGeeks says the devices will be making their return minus the need for Verizon's $30 data plan--something many attributed to be one of the Kin platform's weak selling points as a smartphone alternative. That said, features like e-mail, photo sharing, music streaming, and browsing social-networking updates would still demand some sort of data package.Also, assuming the Kin makes a return, the question of whether Microsoft would pool any sort of resources--marketing, software development, or otherwise--into something with no obvious future versus the freshly-launched Windows Phone 7 platform seems a tad thin. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Facebook, Google spar over data policies]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-google-spar-over-data-policies</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-google-spar-over-data-policies</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-google-spar-over-data-policies</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google's spat with Facebook over data portability and contacts isn't over. A few days after Google changed the terms of service for sites using Gmail contacts data to require two-way data exporting if they want to allow their users to automatically import Gmail contacts, Facebook figured out a way around the restriction. TechCrunch noticed that Facebook installed a button on its &quot;find your friends&quot; page that lets Gmail users automatically download their contacts as a CSV (comma-separated value) file and then import that file into Facebook. In response, Google e-mailed tech reporters an unsolicited statement on Facebook's move. &quot;We're disappointed that Facebook didn't invest their time in making it possible for their users to get their contacts out of Facebook. As passionate believers that people should be able to control the data they create, we will continue to allow our users to export their Google contacts.&quot; All this posturing is about whether or not Facebook should allow users to export all their data from the social network. Facebook currently lets you export things like photos, but doesn't let you export the list of friends--and the corresponding contact information--that make up your social network. Google has made data portability a key portion of its manifesto, while Facebook isn't sure that this is proper in social media, since a Facebook user hasn't necessarily given their friends permission to take that data outside of the service. What's really at stake is that both companies want access to the data found in Facebook. Google wants Facebook to be more open so it can index its pages and develop its own repository of socially tuned data, something that has long eluded the search giant. Facebook wants to keep that data behind closed doors as to keep Facebook users active on the site, forcing advertisers to come to Facebook in order to reach those people with highly targeted ads.  But yeah, data portability and privacy and stuff.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Supreme Court weighs law on violent video games]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=supreme-court-weighs-law-on-violent-video-games</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=supreme-court-weighs-law-on-violent-video-games</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 02 Nov 2010 07:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=supreme-court-weighs-law-on-violent-video-games</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Over the last decade or two, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly extended the First Amendment's formidable legal shield to the Web.In 1997, the justices tossed out the Communications Decency Act, saying Congress could not outlaw making &quot;indecent&quot; material available on the Internet. Last year, the law's benighted successor met the same fate, as did a law targeting animal cruelty videos that the court rejected in April.Today the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on whether to grant video games the same favored kind of laissez-faire treatment.Unlike those other cases, the law in question is a California statute, not one enacted by Congress. But it's received a flurry of attention from all around the country, with everyone from conservative advocacy groups and pediatric associations saying that the law is constitutional to Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, the Motion Picture Association, and payment-processor Vindicia arguing it is not.Sean Bersell, vice president of public policy for the Entertainment Merchants Association, which sued to overturn the California law, told CNET that upholding the California law would &quot;open the floodgates to a whole host of pernicious legislation&quot; around the country.&quot;We hope the justices will again reaffirm their commitment to the First Amendment,&quot; Bersell said.In April, the justices agreed to review a California law that a federal appeals court struck down in February 2009, saying at the time that even children and teenagers enjoy free speech rights that are protected by the First Amendment.California is one of a string of states that have enacted similar laws restricting minors' rights to buy violent video games--legislation that so far has been uniformly rejected by the courts. Laws in Illinois and Michigan were blocked by federal judges on First Amendment grounds in 2005, and earlier laws in Indianapolis and Missouri's St. Louis County were also shot down.A screenshot from Postal 2 for PCs. Click image for full GameSpot slideshow on the video game, which lawyers and states have singled out in the case to be heard by the Supreme Court today.(Credit:GameSpot.com)The California law slaps anyone who sells or rents a &quot;violent video game&quot; to a minor with a $1,000 fine. That's defined as a game in which the player has the option of &quot;killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being&quot; in offensive ways. Parents or guardians are still permitted to buy those games for minors.The U.S. Supreme Court has not squarely addressed this topic, but it has said in other cases that even minors have some free-expression rights.James Steyer, president of Common Sense Media, which helped to draft the California law, called it &quot;a very fair and First Amendment-friendly effort to try to limit the sales of ultraviolent video games to minors.&quot;&quot;From the standpoint of balancing the best interests of kids with the best interests of the First Amendment, this is a reasonable case,&quot; he said.California-based Activision Blizzard, whose portfolio includes the Call of Duty series and Guitar Hero, has told the court that the existing Entertainment Software Rating Board rating is sufficient to give parents enough information about the content of video games. The rating symbols include E (suitable for early childhood) to T (ages 13 and over), M (17 and over), and A (adults only).The political fault lines exposed by this case have been difficult to predict in advance. Washington state, Georgia, Utah, South Carolina, and six other states filed a brief saying &quot;quick fixes such as the California statute cause more practical and constitutional problems, in expanding unneeded regulatory activity and hindering law enforcement, than they solve.&quot; But 11 states, including Texas and Michigan, separately argued that governments &quot;may--consistent with the First Amendment and this court's longstanding precedents--prevent minors from buying or renting without parental approval&quot; certain types of violent video games. (The conservative Eagle Forum, founded by Phyllis Schlafly, goes even further and says that video games &quot;do not constitute free speech&quot; at all.)Although California's law doesn't target a specific game by name, lawyers for the state have singled out Postal 2, which allows players to go on murderous rampages, by name. (The Federal Trade Commission has separately targeted the makers of &quot;Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas&quot; for including sexually explicit content.)The pro-regulation states also cite Postal 2, saying that the game encourages players to &quot;burn people alive with gasoline or napalm,&quot; &quot;decapitate people with shovels and have dogs fetch their severed heads,&quot; and &quot;kill bald, unshaven men wearing pink dresses.&quot;&quot;We hope the justices will again reaffirm their commitment to the First Amendment.&quot;--Sean Bersell, Entertainment Merchants AssociationCalifornia attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has said the state should be able to place &quot;reasonable restrictions on the distribution of extremely violent material to children.&quot;The Entertainment Software Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that filed many of the lawsuits and has posted many of the legal documents online, says it thinks the justices will agree with the lower courts.&quot;We're hopeful that the court will uphold the lower court's ruling,&quot; said ESA spokesman Dan Hewitt. It's important for video game players to sign up for the Video Game Voters Network, he added. (The VGVN is currently organizing a mail-in protest against state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat who represents part of San Francisco and sponsored the California law.)California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the law in October 2005, but a federal judge blocked (PDF) it from taking effect a few months later. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision.One reason why the case has attracted an unusual amount of attention is that the Supreme Court's recent rulings, including the Citizens United decision, have been generally pro-free speech. Unless the court wanted to nudge First Amendment law in a more restrictive direction, the thinking goes, there would be no reason for it to accept the case in the first place.Another reason is the precedent set by this case, Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, could have repercussions far beyond video game producers, gamers, and retailers.Which is why groups as diverse as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Future of Music Coalition are siding with the video game industry. The coalition warns that if the California law is upheld, it &quot;would lead inexorably to the enactment of new statutes prohibiting violent depictions or descriptions in other artistic media&quot; as well.Update 10:45 a.m. PT: Here's a report from SCOTUSblog saying that, based on the oral arguments, &quot;the court appeared poised to nullify&quot; California's law. The Wall Street Journal reported that &quot;several justices suggested the law violated free-speech protections of the First Amendment.&quot; But CNN.com believes it's a closer call, with the justices appearing &quot;genuinely torn as they heard oral arguments.&quot; (Unfortunately, I'm at a privacy conference in Canada today and couldn't be at the Supreme Court.)Update 11:30 a.m. PT: The transcript (PDF) of the oral argument is online. It doesn't clearly show either side as prevailing, but it does seem like the justices reserved their sharper questions for Zackery Morazzini, a California deputy attorney general, and interrupted him more often. Justice Stephen Breyer seemed to be most inclined to view the law as constitutional, saying that if asked whether a legislature could reasonably view video games as harmful, &quot;the answer is yes.&quot; Morazzini did say that he believed Postal 2 to be covered by California's law, and Mortal Combat is &quot;a candidate.&quot; And it was Justice Sonia Sotomayor who seemed to be the most conversant with video games, asking whether a video game showing a Vulcan &quot;being maimed and tortured&quot; would be covered by the act (answer: no) and whether an &quot;android computer simulated person&quot; would be covered by the act (answer: no). Justice Antonin Scalia was sharply critical of the law, but on more traditional grounds: saying that &quot;it has never been understood that the freedom of speech did not include portrayals of violence.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Mitsubishi to unveil 2011 i-Miev at LA auto show]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mitsubishi-to-unveil-2011-i-miev-at-la-auto-show</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mitsubishi-to-unveil-2011-i-miev-at-la-auto-show</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mitsubishi-to-unveil-2011-i-miev-at-la-auto-show</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Sketches from Mitsubishi&amp;39's global corporate site show a wider bodied i-MiEV that could be what the carmaker will unveil at the 2010 LA Auto Show.(Credit:Mitsubishi Motors via Autoblog)Mitsubishi announced on Twitter the U.S. version of its 2011 Mitsubishi i-MiEV will be unveiled at the 2010 Los Angeles auto show next month. Could a wider version of the i-MiEV mean the four-seater will become a 5-seater(Credit:Mitsubishi Motors via Autoblog)Earlier today Autoblog posted online sketches  it snagged from Mitsubishi's global corporate site of a wider bodied i-MiEV. They're guessing that these drawings could be the beefed up version of the compact EV that will enter the North American market next year. The all-electric compactcar that we've been seeing up to this point is the Japanese model that seats four and has a 100-mile range. The i-MiEV is expected to be upgraded for the North American market, though details on its new features have not been released. The wider body allows for better side impact protection, such as stronger cross-beams, letting it meet U.S. crash protection regulations. The car is expected to sell for under $30,000--less than the $32,780 MSRP for the Nissan Leaf--before the $7,500 federal tax credit.Source: Autoblog<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google Sky, Slooh bringing users live astronomy]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-sky-slooh-bringing-users-live-astronomy</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-sky-slooh-bringing-users-live-astronomy</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:24:51 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-sky-slooh-bringing-users-live-astronomy</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A view of a new Google Sky layer, which shows the location on a sky map of dozens of user-created photographs of deep-space objects.Deep-space stargazing, meet crowdsourcing.For some time now, Google Sky has enabled users to view a wide range of imagery from high-level sources like the Hubble Telescope, NASA satellites, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. But the service has never provided a method for users to view community-created imagery, or to participate in the viewing of live events like eclipses.Until now.On Friday, Google announced a partnership with Slooh, a New York company that offers the public Internet-based access to a global network of observatories, and a diverse and constantly growing collection of telescopic viewing and photography &quot;missions.&quot;Google Earth tackles the universe (photos) Under the terms of the partnership, Slooh will now provide data that will allow anyone using Google Sky to view a new map layer showing thousands of user-taken photographs of deep space, as well as to access imagery from observatories of eclipses and other significant celestial events.&quot;What [Google Sky] doesn't have is images from people, 'Hey I took this image,' or images taken recently, or images taken right now, or last week, and...Slooh is all of those things,&quot; said Noel Gorelick, the technology lead for Sky in Google Earth, the service's official name. &quot;There's a whole group of enthusiasts on [Slooh] who follow comets [and who take] a whole group of images, and that's very attractive to us. We like people wanting to use the tool to get better access to something they already have.&quot;Since its founding in 2003, Slooh has built a community of 50,000 members, some who pay for premium access, and some who access its free services. And over that time, those members have used the telescopes in its observatories in Chile, Australia, and the Canary Islands to take more than 1.4 million photographs of the sky.At the heart of Slooh's service are so-called &quot;missions,&quot; which are essentially pre-determined viewings of specific features of deep space, be they comets, nebulae, galaxies, or the like. The site always has a list of upcoming missions--for example, as of this writing the next few missions will be viewings of Globular Cluster M2, Globular Cluster M15, the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), and the Coccon Nebula (IC 5146). Anyone can take part in any of those missions, and anyone can use Slooh's interface to take and share photographs based on what the telescopes are showing during the missions. Those using the free version of the service can only access the first four photos they take, while those who pay get unlimited access.Paying members can also reserve time to direct one of the telescopes to look at a spot in the sky of their choosing--either from a pre-selected list of targets, or by choosing from astronomy catalogs, or by entering coordinates that they wish to focus on. And anyone can participate in missions that are community-directed, all of which are listed on the site's roster of upcoming events.In addition, many of the missions are accompanied by audio narration from experts, most prominently Bob Berman of Astronomy magazine.&quot;Slooh&quot; is a play on the phrase to &quot;slew a telescope,&quot; meaning to control, or change, its direction, said Patrick Paolucci, Slooh's executive vice president for sales and marketing.Paolucci explained that Slooh is targeting both kids and adults with different membership packages. Children can buy $10 packs of trading cards at Radio Shack or Toys 'R Us that allow them to direct nine missions, while adults can pay annual or monthly fees for similar controls.Almost all images are available for viewing within five minutes, Paolucci said.Only photos taken by paying members will be included in the data that is sent to Google Sky.Users of Google's service will be able to see maps of the sky that have little Slooh logos sprinkled throughout the constellations. Each instance of the logo indicates a user-taken photograph, and in each case, clicking on it brings up a window with a label for what is being shown, along with thumbnails for the available images of that element.A partnership between Google and Slooh will allow Google Sky users to see live astronomy photographs.(Credit:Slooh/Google)One feature that has Gorelick excited is the potential for Google Sky users to take part in viewings of important live space events, like the appearances of comets, or lunar and solar eclipses. In those cases, Slooh's telescopes will feed near-real-time data to Google's servers, allowing large numbers of people to watch as the event develops. As with missions on Slooh's site, those taking place live on Google Sky will also feature audio from astronomy experts like Berman. The first of these will be a lunar eclipse on December 21, and Paolucci said he expects Google to promote them when they happen.Replacing the home telescopeTo Michael Paolucci, Slooh's chairman and founder--and Pat Paolucci's brother--Slooh's service is about picking up where the home telescope leaves off. He said that many people buy such equipment expecting to take them home and be able to see the sky in exquisite detail.But the reality, Michael said, is that instead of seeing nebulae or galaxies, people usually can't pick out objects beyond our own solar system with their telescopes with just the naked eye.And that's where Slooh's patented instant imaging technology comes into play, he said, since its observatory-quality telescopes are designed to allow users to capture such images.For Google, partnering with Slooh is mainly about opening up new possibilities to Google Sky users, said Gorelick. He hopes that people enjoy using the new layer, and figure out things to do with it that no one previously envisioned. &quot;It would be awesome if someone discovered a new asteroid using these images through Google Sky,&quot; Gorelick said.Gorelick said that there are other Internet-based telescope services that compete with Slooh, but which are geared mainly toward educational institutions. Gorelick said that he preferred working with Slooh because, although it also has plenty of users in schools, it is geared mainly toward individuals. For the Paolucci brothers, teaming up with Google helped Slooh solve one major issue it didn't on its own have the resources for: serving live imagery of events to large numbers of people. Google's infrastructure, on the other hand, can easily handle things like that. &quot;Those loads are very easy for us to accommodate,&quot; said Gorelick. &quot;So I look forward to an event with a million people looking at an eclipse in Google Sky. I think that would be fantastic.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Facebook&'s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On&nbsp'Monday]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebookrsquos-gmail-killer-project-titan-is-coming-onnbspmonday</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebookrsquos-gmail-killer-project-titan-is-coming-onnbspmonday</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebookrsquos-gmail-killer-project-titan-is-coming-onnbspmonday</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Back in February we wrote about Facebook&amp;'s secret Project Titan a4&quot;a4sa web-based email client that we hear is unofficially referred to internally as its &amp;''Gmail killer&amp;''. Now we&amp;'ve heard from sources that this is indeed what&amp;'s coming on Monday during Facebook&amp;'s special event, alongside personal @facebook.com email addresses for users.This isn&amp;'t a big surprise a4&quot;a4sthe event invites Facebook sent out hinted strongly that the news would have something to do with its Inbox, sparking plenty of speculation that the event could be related to Titan. Our understanding is that this is more than just a UI refresh for Facebook&amp;'s existing messaging service with POP access tacked on. Rather, Facebook is building a full-fledged webmail client, and while it may only be in early stages come its launch Monday, there&amp;'s a huge amount of potential here.Facebook has the world&amp;'s most popular photos product, the most popular events product, and soon will have a very popular local deals product as well. a4sIt can tweak the design of its webmail client to display content from each of these in a seamless fashion (and don&amp;'t forget messages from games, or payments via Facebook Credits).a4sAnd there&amp;'s also the social element: Facebook knows who your friends are and how closely you&amp;'re connected to them' it can probably do a pretty good job figuring out which personal emails you want to read most and prioritize them accordingly.Oh, and assuming our sources prove accurate, this explains the timing of thea4sGoogle/Facebook slap fight over contact information.We&amp;'ll keep digging for more details and will have full coverage on Monday.Image by SpencereholtawayCrunchBase InformationFacebookInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Avvo Adds Doctors To Their Professional Ranking&nbsp'Service]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avvo-adds-doctors-to-their-professional-rankingnbspservice</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avvo-adds-doctors-to-their-professional-rankingnbspservice</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avvo-adds-doctors-to-their-professional-rankingnbspservice</guid>
<description><![CDATA[While my own doctor, Shaky McSliceyhands MD, doesn&amp;'t appear in their rankings, Avvo.com has added medical rankings to their already popular lawyer ranking service.The rankings, based on user reviews and ratings, are completely ad independent and, while I don&amp;'t like trusting the general public to rank the men and women who will either get me out of that murder rap or will take a scalpel to my lower intestine, I suppose it&amp;'s nice to know who&amp;'s who in the medical and legal professions.The service offers listings for over 800,000 physicians based on public records. Users can rank their doctors anonymously, something that has brought not a few lawsuits to Avvo in the past. Think of it as Yelp for human beings.The site also offers free medical advice in addition to its free legal advice. Again, while I trust Angie to steer me right when it comes to folks who can clean up my gutter, I&amp;'m loathe to trust free medical advice on the Internet. That said, the service is free, anonymous, and could be a good first step for those with weeping sores, etc.The site, according to the Seattle Times, sees 2 million visitors per month hand has raised $23 million in funding.CrunchBase InformationAvvoInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[MindJolt Partners With BIM To Bring Games To 900 Local News&nbsp'Sites]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mindjolt-partners-with-bim-to-bring-games-to-900-local-newsnbspsites</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mindjolt-partners-with-bim-to-bring-games-to-900-local-newsnbspsites</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mindjolt-partners-with-bim-to-bring-games-to-900-local-newsnbspsites</guid>
<description><![CDATA[MindJolt, the game distribution company that was acquired by MySpace founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe earlier this year, has landed a big new parter: Broadcast Interactive Media (BIM).That name probably doesn&amp;'t ring a bell, but BIM helps run the online presences for hundreds of local television networks, newspapers, and radio stations across the country (here&amp;'s an example Fox station out of Illinois). Now, BIM is going to offer these 900 publisher partners access to MindJolt&amp;'s library of casual games. And those sites represent a lot of eyeballs: MindJolt says that it&amp;'s going to be exposed to 110 million people per month through the partnership.MindJolt has a catalog of 1,300 casual games, which it distributes across partner sites as well as its own game portal MindJolt.com and a Facebook application that has over 10 million monthly active users. Between these channels MindJolt reaches 20 million players per month.MindJolt COO Colin Digiaro says that the goal with the BIM partnership is to help these local news sites boost engagement a4&quot;a4smany people only visit them when local news is breaking, and these sites want to change that. Games may not be the first thing you think about when you head to a local news site, but Digiaro  says that there&amp;'s a &amp;''high degree of overlap&amp;'' between people who visit these local news sites and those who play MindJolt games. That said, it will be up to the publisher sites to determine how prominently they want to feature the games, so the impact will likely vary a lot from site to site.MindJolt also recently launched a monetization product called AdJolt, which includes ads and a virtual goods system. These revenues get split between the game developer, MindJolt, and the publisher parter site, but MindJolt declined to get into specifics as far as how much would be going to BIM in this partnership.The company did say that since launching AdJolt, it has increase the revenue of game developer partners by 50-70%, and that it&amp;'s doubled MindJolt revenue in 90 days.MindJolt has a few competitors, including HeyZap and Mochi Media, both of which also let publishers embed a large library of casual games and monetize them.CrunchBase InformationMindJoltInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[TechCrunch TRON LEGACY Screenings In New York And San&nbsp'Francisco]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=techcrunch-tron-legacy-screenings-in-new-york-and-sannbspfrancisco</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=techcrunch-tron-legacy-screenings-in-new-york-and-sannbspfrancisco</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=techcrunch-tron-legacy-screenings-in-new-york-and-sannbspfrancisco</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Longtime TechCrunch readers know we like to have movie screenings on opening day for cool science fiction type blockbusters. Sometimes we get into legal trouble, but let us worry about that. It always works out in the end.TRON LEGACY officially opens this Friday, December 17. We&amp;'ve reserved and prepaid two big theaters for the 3-D version of the movie, one in New York (470 seats) and one in San Francisco (404 seats). Movies in both locations start at 11:15 pm (EST or PST, depending on the theater) Thursday night, December 16.Want to go We&amp;'re releasing tickets starting right now. We&amp;'re asking for a minimum donation of $10 per seat, 100% of which will be donated to the UCSF Benioff Childrena4a4s Hospital (and we&amp;'re matching donations up to $10,000), but you can donate more (or less) if you like. The normal ticket price is $16 or $17.50, depending on the city.If you arena4a4t attending, please do not purchase a ticket. Charitable donations to the UCSF Benioff Childrena4a4s Hospital can be made HERE.  But no-shows mean an empty seat and someone else misses out. Send us an email if you cana4a4t attend so we may fill that spot later. Take a break from the holiday madness, wea4a4ve got your ticket to a great sci-fi escape.  See you Thursday night!Details and tickets for each venue are below. This is the first batch of tickets. More will be released later, so keep checking back.If youa4a4d like to co-sponsor the event by buying attendees popcorn and drinks, email us at sponsors [at] techcrunch.com and put TRON in the headline (this is a very inexpensive and easy way to make people love you).NEW YORK:Thursday, December 16 at 11:15 pm EST (check-in)Regal Union Square Stadium 14  &amp;8211' House  (TBD)850 Broadway  (at 13th)New York, NY 10003 BUY NEW YORK TRON TICKETS HERESAN FRANCISCO:Thursday, December 16 at 11:15 pm PST (check-in)AMC Metreon 16  &amp;8211' House 13101 4th St  (at Market)San Francisco, CA 94103Get Driving DirectionsBUY SAN FRANCISCO TRON TICKETS HEREPS &amp;8211' we keep a small number of tickets in reserve as well. So if the tickets sell out and you really, really, really want to go, leave a comment below and an appropriately sad or funny story, whether true or not, may get you reserve seat!<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How to publicly embarrass yourself with the Nintendo 3DS (hands-on video demo)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-publicly-embarrass-yourself-with-the-nintendo-3ds-hands-on-video-demo</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-publicly-embarrass-yourself-with-the-nintendo-3ds-hands-on-video-demo</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-publicly-embarrass-yourself-with-the-nintendo-3ds-hands-on-video-demo</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I&amp;'ve never been shy about publicly embarrassing myself while playing video games. If you thought the Nintendo Wii was great for embarrassing yourself in front of your friends in your living room, the Nintendo 3DS will let you do that in public while on the go.Emphasizing the silly side of the 3DS might actually be the right way to properly market the new handheld, which arrives on March 27. If Nintendo can show people how they will look silly playing this device, that might actually motivate a lot of people to give it a try while hamming it up with their friends.There&amp;'s a lot of anticipation building for the March 27 launch of the Nintendo 3DS. The device lets you play stereoscopic 3D portable games and represents Nintendo&amp;'s big effort to keep sales of gaming devices going strong in the face of competition from smartphones and tablets. If it succeeds, then the hardcore video game industry will have something to cheer about, even as tons of free games take mindshare away from hardcore games.We&amp;'ve played around with the device for a few days. I&amp;'ve already noted how eye strain is a big problem with this device. The stereoscopic 3D makes your eyes tired, and you really have to rest after a relatively short period of time. Nintendo recommends a 10-minute break every half hour and says kids under six shouldn&amp;'t play it at all.Those are pretty big limitations. The battery life is also fairly weak and most likely shorter than the five hours that Nintendo says it can last. We can all overlook these limitations if the games are fun. In this video demo, we show a few of the possibilities. In the first part, I show you how to create a Mii, or cartoon character that serves as your avatar. In the second part, I do a demo of the Pilotwings Resort game that lets you fly around on Wuhu Island, which is familiar to players of the Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit games.As you can see from the third part of the video, Nintendo&amp;'s Face Raiders is where the embarrassment comes in. The Wii made us all make fun of ourselves in our living rooms with our friends. In a brilliant stroke of marketing, Nintendo&amp;'s ads showed how much fun people had with Wii games not by showing pictures of the game screen, but pictures of the people playing, as you can see in this photo.Similarly, Face Raiders on the 3DS also lets you make a fool out of yourself by making you spin around and shoot balls at flying heads with your own face on them. Can you imagine doing this while riding on the bus or walking down the streetLike the Wii, the 3DS can be social, particularly through multiplayer over a wireless connection.Clearly I&amp;'ve made a fool out of myself in this video, but it gives you a good idea of the silly possibilities for fun with the 3DS.Check out the video below.Next Story: Globecomm opens door to 4G for hosted wireless carriers Previous Story: Is a &amp;''huge wave&amp;'' of M&amp;038'As, financing deals about to hit Silicon ValleyPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: 3DS, DSi, Face Raiders, Mii Maker, Nintendo 3DS, Pilotwings Resort, stereoscopic 3DCompanies: nintendo          Tags: 3DS, DSi, Face Raiders, Mii Maker, Nintendo 3DS, Pilotwings Resort, stereoscopic 3DCompanies: nintendoDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat 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[Countries And Companies Talk Climate Change At COP 16 In&nbsp'Cancun]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=countries-and-companies-talk-climate-change-at-cop-16-innbspcancun</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=countries-and-companies-talk-climate-change-at-cop-16-innbspcancun</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Shiree</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=countries-and-companies-talk-climate-change-at-cop-16-innbspcancun</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP16 kicked off yesterday in Cancun, Mexico. Delegates from 192 nations are attending through December 10 hoping to determine a collective, international approach to slowing and preparing their countries for an increase in global temperatures. Conference goalsa4&quot;  laid out at an opening address by Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)a4&quot;&amp;nbsp'include the establishment of: commitments from countries to stop deforestation, a fund worth approximately $100 billion-a-year by 2013 to help poor people cope with climate change, and mechanisms that facilitate technology transfer between nations.  Last year&amp;'s COP 15 conference in Copenhagen failed in its primary mission to draw countries into a legally binding agreement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. After the event, however, seventy countries signed the Copenhagen Accord, a voluntary political agreement to address climate change. As part of the accord, the U.S. said it hoped to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 but made no firm promises. Studies published today by the Royal Society&amp;'s Philosophical Transactions A journal predict that world temperatures could rise by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2F) as soon as 2060 if humanity&amp;'s contributions to climate change go unchecked. The effects of warming that aggressive would include everything from drinking water shortages, to the loss of marine life (and important seafood supplies) as oceans become more acidic. The costs for nations to cope with such changes&amp;nbsp'would be astronomical.  Climate change deniers continue to shrug off studies illustrating how people exacerbate climate change. Although the heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century, skeptics still believe a rise in global temperatures is all natural, or that there&amp;'s little we can do about global warming save to accept it and adapt.NASA rsearchers, however, have confirmed that the world has been warming up more quickly in the last thirty years than ever before, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years, thanks in measurable part to greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human energy consumption and industries.The executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) in Washington D.C., Carol Werner, says that even climate change deniers should hope for some COP 16 outcomes: We would like to see a formal agreement between countries and companies to curb black carbon, or soot, produced from diesel, inefficient cookstoves and open burning heat and energy sources. And we would like to see continued, respectful negotiations led by the United States and China that will shape the way that countries agree to monitor, report and verify their energy consumption, production and emissions.Transparency helps businesses and trade policy makers not just environmentalists, while soot in the air has preventable negative health impacts besides contributing to climate change, Werner notes.If nations do not make concrete promises and legally binding agreements to address climate change, the private sector may outpace them quickly enough to make an impact. Hundreds of c-suite level executives are attending COP 16 and ancillary summits such as The World Climate Summit, Green Solutions, the World Business Council For Sustainable Development&amp;'s Building Bridges event, and the Climate Group&amp;'s Climate Leaders Summit. EESI&amp;'s Werner says the COP has become a place where companiesa4&quot;&amp;nbsp'perhaps even more than countriesa4&quot; now go to showcase their own clean technologies and environmental best practices, while lobbying for policies that will benefit, or at least not adversely effect their industries. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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