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<title>Haaze.com / Khushi / Voted News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Apple sees another big quarter]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sees-another-big-quarter</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sees-another-big-quarter</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>kaiserbook</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sees-another-big-quarter</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Following last quarter's record setting revenues, Apple once again beat expectations led by strongiPhone andMac sales.Apple's second fiscal quarter revenue came in at $24.67 billion, or $6.40 per share. That's way above the $23.34 billion and $5.36 per share that Wall Street analysts had been expecting, and it puts revenue growth at 83 percent compared with the same quarter last year.&quot;With quarterly revenue growth of 83 percent and profit growth of 95 percent, we're firing on all cylinders,&quot; Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. &quot;We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year.&quot;Leading the way was the iPhone, of which Apple said it sold a whopping 18.65 million units, 113 percent more than in the same quarter last year. This was the first quarter to include sales of the iPhone compatible with Verizon Wireless' network, which went on sale in February. Verizon's CEO had rebuffed reports that sales had been underwhelming. Data from a Comscore study earlier this month also suggested Verizon sales had been strong, pushing the gadget to the position of top-acquired phone for that month.And in the news most of the tech world had been waiting for, Apple revealed it sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter. Much as Hollywood does with box office figures, Apple has a habit of announcing opening weekend unit sales, though it had stayed mum oniPad 2 numbers, with analysts pushing estimates in the 5 million to 9 million units range for the quater. This number comes well under those estimates, and does not include a breakdown of how many of the units were the iPad 2, which went on sale in early March--just two weeks before the end of the quarter.Apple said it sold 3.76 million Macs during the quarter, representing a 28 percent growth from the same quarter last year. Included in that number is the new MacBook Pro refresh with Intel's Thunderbolt technology, which was released in late February. The quarter also included the second-generation MacBook Air, which had its refresh back in October. On the decline were iPods, of which Apple said it sold 9.02 million units during the quarter, a 17 percent drop from the same quarter last year. During the company's earnings conference call, Apple Senior Vice President and CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that more than half of those units were the iPod Touch. Oppenheimer also pointed out that the company still had more than 70 percent of the MP3 player market cornered according to data from the NPD group, and that the iPod continued to be the top-selling MP3 player in most countries the company tracks.  On the sunny side of the music picture, Apple's iTunes business raked in more than $1.4 billion in sales during the quarter, up $1.1 billion from the same quarter last year. The company does not provide a breakdown of how the digital products that make up the store, like music, videos, and applications sold, so it's difficult to tell where the boost came from. During the earnings call, the company noted that it was up to 189 million iOS devices sold through the end of the quarter, no doubt helping to push digital content purchases up.Apple said it continues to see big gains in Asia, where the company saw its greatest growth with a profit increase of 151 percent during the quarter. Oppenheimer said the company's Mac sales in the Asia-Pacific market grew 76 percent year over year, with greater China pushing sales of the iPhone up to three times previous levels. The company's retail business, which turns 10 in May, is set to receive its 1 billionth visitor. During the earnings call, Oppenheimer said sales in Apple's retail stores were up 32 percent during the quarter, with the average revenue of the 323 stores sitting at $9.9 million. The retail stores continue to be a place where the company can increase its market share, Oppenheimer said, noting that nearly half of the Macs sold there were bought by customers who were not Mac users. Apple said it plans to open an additional 40 stores in fiscal 2011, with the majority of those being outside the U.S.Apple's stock was going for $355.72 a share in after-hours trading. Some tidbits from the company's conference call:Update at 2:25 p.m. PT:On Japan: Apple COO Tim Cook said the earthquake and subsequent tsunami were a tragedy, but as a result of the company's supply chain, there was no supply or cost impact during the second quarter. Cook said the disaster would affect next quarter's revenue to the tune of $200 million, but that's been factored into the company's guidance. Cook said that Apple sources &quot;literally hundreds of items&quot; from the country, including LCDs, optical drives, and NAND flash drives. Greater China saw iPhone sales increase three times year over year. iPhone U.S. sales grew 155 percent year over year.iPod, iPad, and iPhone combined, Apple now has just under 189 million iOS devices sold.This is the 20th consecutive quarter Apple has outgrown the PC market, according to data from IDC.Apple's retail stores turn 10 years old on May 19th. Apple has 65.8 billion in cash.On phones with 4G LTE: Cook said first-generation LTE chipsets &quot;force a lot of design compromises&quot; the company is unwilling to make. Cook added that the company is extremely pleased with the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS. Update at 2:40 p.m. PT: On iPad 2 stock meeting demand: Cook said he couldn't say when the two would reach equilibrium. He did say Apple was continuing to produce a large number to help meet the &quot;staggering&quot; demand.On Steve Jobs' day-to-day involvement with the company, Cook said: &quot;We do see him on a regular basis. And as we've previously said, he continues to be involved on major strategic decisions, and I know he wants to be back on full-time as soon as he can.&quot; Update at 2:48 p.m. PT: Cook noted that the end of this quarter was just two weeks after the iPad 2 went on sale, and that the company produced many more iPad 2s for that launch compared with the ramp up for the original iPad. Cook said he was so confident in the company's supply chain, that Apple is making the iPad 2 available in 13 more countries next week.Cook on why there was no breakdown of iPad 2 vs. iPad 1 units in the total sales number: Cook said &quot;we've purposefully left it out&quot; to keep competitors from getting an idea of how it was selling. &quot;I wish we could have produced a lot of iPad 2s,&quot; he said.  Cook on iPad and iPhone in the enterprise leading to Mac sales: &quot;It clearly seems to be creating a halo effect for the Mac.&quot; Update at 2:58 p.m. PT:Cook flung off a question about the next iPhone not arriving during its usual June time frame.On supply and demand for other products: Cook said the iPhone is now in a supply and demand balance in almost all Apple's major markets. Same goes for the Mac and iPod. The iPad however has the &quot;mother of all back logs,&quot; Cook said. On the freshly filed Samsung lawsuit, Cook said Samsung was a very valued component supplier, and that he expected the relationship to continue. However, the mobile communications division had done things Apple did not like, and after attempting to talk it over with Samsung, Apple took the issue to court. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[What Japan's nuclear crisis means for public health (Q&A)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-japans-nuclear-crisis-means-for-public-health-qa</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-japans-nuclear-crisis-means-for-public-health-qa</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:11:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>IzzyStarr</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-japans-nuclear-crisis-means-for-public-health-qa</guid>
<description><![CDATA[By far, the biggest danger from the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant is to the workers who are trying to control a still-volatile situation. But with the crisis likely to play out for months, people are beginning to wonder what the release of radioactive material actually means. Very low levels of radioactive material have been found in the water supply in Tokyo, for example, and those same particles are being carried by the wind elsewhere in the world. Workers at the plant are being exposed to radiation coming directly from the core and spent-fuel cooling pools. For people living far from the source of the radiation, exposure can come from the radioactive material that entered the air or water during efforts to stabilize the cooling systems. Radioactive versions of elements such as cesium, iodine, and strontium can enter the body either through the lungs or by eating and drinking affected food. A standard precaution is to prevent people, particularly growing children, from drinking milk in the area of a nuclear accident, since cows can eat grass with radioactive iodine and pass it on to people.(Credit:Tokyo Electric Power via Martyn Williams)The Environmental Protection Agency is monitoring and publishing data on the radioactivity in water and milk from Japan in the U.S. and the levels are &quot;far below levels of public-health concern.&quot; But some argue that being exposed to even a small dose of the radioactive materials already released--iodine-131 and cesium-137 are the most prevalent--can be significant. If ingested, radioactive iodine can be absorbed by the thyroid gland, with children at the most risk. Cesium-137, which can also lead to cancer by affecting many types of cells, is more worrisome because it has a half-life of 30 years, versus 8 days for iodine-131. Radioactive strontium, which also has a long half-life, is linked to bone cancer and leukemia.If there is a large-scale release of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichi reactor or spent-fuel pools, then the risks will rise substantially. But in the current situation, how should people evaluate the health risk How do academics and scientists view this problem Are sufficient safeguards being put in place To get a better understanding of these questions, CNET spoke to two experts in the field to get their views the same week that the Fukushima Daiichi was raised to the highest level possible for a nuclear power accident.Below is an edited transcript of a discussion with David Brenner from Columbia University's Center for Radiological Research. My CNET colleague Elinor Mills conducted an interview with Ira Helfand, the former president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a group firmly opposed to nuclear power, which it says poses unacceptable risks. That Q&amp;A can be found here.In a nutshell, the view of Brenner, who recently testified to Congress on radiation from backscatter X-rays at airports, is that the individual risks are extremely low for people outside the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. At the same time, a large number of people will be exposed, which means that over the long term, that minute risk becomes more significant. Q: What is the difference between what workers are exposed to and the rest of the populationBrenner: It's simply a matter of the radiation dose. It's relatively low for people away from the plant. While we don't know what the doses are, the workers are clearly getting relatively high doses.There have been traces of radioactive material detected in food and milk here in the U.S. Should people be concerned Brenner: In the U.S., the levels of radioactivity in the water and milk both on the West Coast and the East Coast have been exceedingly low. I don't think there are any significant health issues with the level of radioactivity in this country. It was inevitable that once radioactivity was released in Japan, that some of it would be blown here. What was fortunate is that most of the radioactivity released into the air was blown into the sea but it was inevitable that it would end up in this country...Very little indeed has gotten here because it got heavily distributed. The fact that you can measure it here doesn't mean that it's a high health risk, at least in the short term. That's the situation in the U.S.In Japan, the doses are still pretty low outside the exclusion zone. Again, the further away people are from reactors, the lower the dose, such as the folks in, say, Tokyo. In Kyoto, it's even lower.What about the longer-term effectsBrenner: The health consequences are actually very small for any individual. That being said, there are longer-term issues. The two main isotopes that were released are iodine-131 and cesium-137. The half-life for half the radioactive material in iodine to decay is eight days, so by a month or two later, it's essentially all gone. There's no long-term effect. Whatever cesium was released will get into the food chain, into the ecosystem, and it will gradually get dispersed. So there will be some in the food and water for generations to come. It will be at some level but it will be at a very low level. What we really have will be a prolonged exposure to very low levels of radioactive from the Fukushima event. That's really what we're stuck with. But the risk for any individual will be tiny. Although individual risk is low, an awful lot of people exposed to it. Think of the lottery. An awful lot of people will [be involved] because somebody's going to win...[In this case] one would expect some extra cancers in the long run but everybody's individual risk is low.Some people say that even a tiny bit of exposure should be avoided because it could cause a specific type of cancer, such as thyroid cancer in children. Brenner: You can think about risk in two different ways. There's the risk of an individual and certainly the risk is very small. You can also think about the lottery analogy. How many tiny individual risks affect a population It's two complementary ways of looking at it.From an individual's point of view, one doesn't have to worry. When you're starting to think about what is significant from the point of view of the population and how do we proceed with nuclear power, we need to think about the population.Should we be restricting food importsBrenner: Most of radioactivity being seen in food, water, and fish is almost certainly from iodine. I would expect in a month or two months, those restrictions will probably go away. But what will be left will be much lower levels of cesium in food [in part because less cesium than iodine was released]. It's more than appropriate that Japan and the U.S. and any other country should be monitoring the food. It's not hard to do. I don't expect this will be long-term except in a broader sense.How do people in your profession decide what's an acceptable risk Brenner: We try to think about risk and benefits. Having a CT scan, there's a small radiation risk, but there's a benefit to hopefully getting an accurate diagnosis. It's another story whether we get that balance right since there are alternatives to CT scanners.You could argue, one should be doing the same estimations for nuclear power. The risk, unfortunately, is the scenario like what we have in Fukushima. What are the benefits of power without oil or use of fossil fuels It's up to society to make the risk-benefit analysis as best they can. You need to understand risks as well as you can and different folks will come up with different conclusions. One thing that's pretty clear is that we have in this country and Japan a pretty aging fleet of nuclear reactors. The Fukushima plant was built in the 1970s and there are plenty of similar reactors also built at the same time in the U.S.It seems to me we're at that point where we have to make decisions about replacing older reactors with more modern reactors that have more defense mechanisms built into them. We can never say anything is 100 percent safe, but they can be a lot more safe. Are you pro nuclear powerBrenner: My job is to try to understand the risks. It's for society in general to determine how to balance risks. I'm all in favor of safe nuclear if it can be achieved. Some risks do always exist. The question is do they counter-balance the benefits. The two extremes around nuclear power are either that it's extremely unsafe and it should be abolished, but that is not true. The other extreme is that it's entirely safe. That's not true either. The reality is in the middle. It seems that there isn't agreement on the ultimate health impact from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Does that disaster provide much guidanceBrenner: Most of the epidemiological studies that should have been done haven't been done for political and economic reasons. The Soviet Union broke up shortly after so was difficult to have Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia work together on it.The studies that have been done are the low-hanging fruit--studies about thyroid cancer and leukemia which you would expect to see first. There's no question there was a tremendous increase in thyroid cancers and it's pretty clear for [an increase in] leukemia too. Studies on the more common cancers like lung cancer and breast cancer have not been done. And that's a shame, to put it mildly. Lacking those, people are having to estimate what consequences were because we don't know enough about the effects of very low levels or radiation.It's still not appropriate to compare Fukushima to Chernobyl, where the containment blew up entirely and large amounts of the core were emitted high into the atmosphere. There was no ocean. I heard a statement that Fukushima was one tenth as hazardous as Chernobyl but I think it is far less.You testified in Congress about backscatter X-rays at airports. For most people, this is the day-to-day question: how much low-level radiation is OK. Do we knowBrenner: The argument's a little bit the same [as Fukushima]. The individual risk is miniscule. I didn't hesitate to go through [security] on my flight home. The concern is the population risk because an awful lot of people fly, about 700 million a year in the U.S. If the TSA wants to scan every passenger, you got a scenario where you have a tiny risk and you take that tiny risk [and multiply it], you do get significant population risk. You could argue that there's risk but it's OK as there is a benefit. But there are alternative technologies, such as millimeter scanners that don't have this X-ray risk.An individual who lives in Tokyo doesn't have that choice and there are no individual benefits. Fortunately, for an individual the risks are extremely low.You readers may or may not know this but 40 percent of them are going to get cancer, so the sorts of increases we're talking about are miniscule. It's a tiny addition to a very large problem. You've been working on a system where people can do individual testing with a blood test (called the RABIT, for rapid automated biodosimetry tool for radiological triage). Is the goal to get away from statistical estimates for whole populationsBrenner: Yes. The motivation is [a response to] a large-scale radiological terrorist event [from a dirty bomb]. In many senses, that scenario is quite like the scenario in Japan with a very small number of people exposed to high doses. And a very large number of people exposed to very small doses and not believing what they are being told. There is a great deal of skepticism in Japan and I'm sure that would be true in this country too. The goal is to have some very high-throughput way of estimating one's dose. So you can try to find the folks who did get high doses who need to be treated. The other part is to reassure people. We're developing a finger stick approach where you take a drop of blood, something that can be done by nonexperts. You'd have many centers, such as hospitals and railway stations, where you can go have your finger sticked, give a drop of blood, and it would get transported to more centralized machines. An individual estimate will mean that you won't clog up the emergency services. What sorts of precautions should someone in the U.S. and Japan take right now Brenner: You don't need to be doing anything. The EPA is testing the water and milk and the levels are all pretty low and will get a lot lower as iodine decays. There's no reason to avoid any food or drink. The same goes for Japan. Yes, there will be some contaminated food [and they are being monitored with spot checks] for the moment. That's what the government is and should be doing [to watch that] it is going to be at reasonable levels.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The end of comity in IT]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-end-of-comity-in-it</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-end-of-comity-in-it</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jusufresppdd</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-end-of-comity-in-it</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Comity (noun):A state or atmosphere of courtesy, considerate behavior, and mutual respect towards others' harmonious relations.Friendly understanding and mutual recognition between entities such as corporations, organizations, and nations.Something increasingly scarce in the IT industry.IT started as a vertically integrated industry. Companies like DEC and IBM built almost everything from CPUs to application software themselves. But the last 30 years moved IT to a &quot;horizontal&quot; business model. Most vendors built components that would be later integrated by systems vendors, implementation partners, or customers themselves into &quot;the complete solution.&quot; The rise of networking and &quot;industry standards&quot; meant that customers started expecting everything they bought to work increasingly well together.(Credit:Licensed from VectorStock)Economically, &quot;horizontal integration&quot; worked stunningly well. Companies like Cisco, EMC, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP each rose from component providers into titans. They grew and grew, then grew some more. After owning large swaths of their original turfs, they expanded eagerly into adjacent product areas. They expanded so much they bumped into each other's areas. Coopetition became the rule of the road. They'd cooperate on a lot of areas, even while competing in others.But eventually they grew so big they couldn't remain out of each other's patches at all, nor out of those of systems companies like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM they've long depended on as routes to market. And so wholesale encroachment began. Cisco and Oracle entered the server business. EMC got into data management. HP ramped into networking. Et cetera. Some of these shifts happened gradually and by degrees, but by 2009 they were happening in large, chaotic chunks. Once-warm alliances between various players frayed and frazzled first into a cold peace, then into a cold war. Now it's becoming a hot war.Exhibit &quot;A&quot; is how Oracle announced it was stopping development for Intel's Itanium processor--the lion's share of which are sold by HP as part of its Integrity server line. HP and Oracle used to be the best of friends and business partners. You can still read about their putative alliance, but it's nothing like the warm, happy place it once was. In 2009, Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, HP's direct competitor, to further its ambitions of having customers buy &quot;the complete stack&quot;--from systems and storage through middleware and application software--from Oracle. In gamer lingo, &quot;All your base are belong to us.&quot;A significant portion of HP's enterprise business depends on Oracle software, especially its database engine. Oracle full well knows that--yet HP doesn't seem to have been given even the minimal courtesy of a heads up before Oracle declared it will stop all software development for Intel Itanium microprocessor--including the jab &quot;Intel management made it clear that...Itanium was nearing the end of its life.&quot; By &quot;stops all development,&quot; they really mean &quot;all.&quot; It's not just &quot;no major new versions,&quot; but &quot;not even the next dot release.&quot; This, despite recently calling HP a &quot;key strategic partner,&quot; their thousands of joint accounts, and HP itself being one of Oracle's largest global CRM customers. In Internet parlance, Oracle just defriended HP--and it made sure to do so in the most abrupt and painful way possible.Related links&amp;149' Oracle declares Intel's Itanium deadBoth Oracle and HP have vowed to support their customers, of course. And we've not heard the last of this. It's entirely possible that the parties will kiss and make up--or at least come to some practical arrangement and hug awkwardly. Anything's possible. But the pattern Expect to see this kind of behavior again.The vendors are simply too large, too powerful, too few, and too ambitious for relationships and cross-support agreements to not break down. This is extremely troubling for customers. Cooperation and comity are the linchpins of a horizontally integrated industry. Without them, all the assumptions enterprises have made about &quot;this stuff will work together&quot; and &quot;the investments we make in your joint solutions will continue to be relevant, updated, and supported in the years to come&quot;--all those assumptions become faulty and dangerous.HP may not be Oracle's only erstwhile partner. What about Oracle running on IBM's Power Systems Oracle running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Oracle running on Dell or Fujitsu gear Are those at risk next It's certainly possible. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has described the mainframe era and model in glowing terms' if he's hell-bent on going there, and on pulling customers into Oracle's &quot;full stack&quot; fold, then Oracle's traditional commitment to heterogeneous multi-vendor support goes by the wayside. If I were an Oracle customer running on any non-Oracle hardware, I'd be asking for long-term support and software update assurances, in writing, with clear and enforceable penalties for non-performance. Verbal reassurances would no longer be sufficient.You can very rationally argue that too much money is made on platform X or with partner Y, for a company like Oracle to stop doing business there. You could credibly argue that companies like Oracle have too many precious joint customers, accounting for too much revenue and profit, for such stoppages. But you probably could have made very similar arguments about Oracle supporting HP and Integrity servers, too. &quot;That can never happen here&quot; is like last month's assurances about the safety of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plants--arguments begging to be disproved as facts on the ground change.And it's not just about Oracle. It won't be the only one tempted to play fast and loose with partner and customer investments. The oligarchs will continue to aggressively jump their former boundaries. They all want to be, if not providers of complete top-to-bottom IT stacks, certainly broad-based, inclusive providers. As the oligarchs get bigger, broader, and bolder, each will seek to grab as much revenue and account control possible. Naked power plays and once-unthinkable defriendings will continue. Purchase and partnership agreements need to be bulletproofed against such eventualities.The re-verticalization of IT will continue to erode the expectation, requirement, and willingness of market-making providers to genuinely cooperate even with sometimes-competitors. The end of comity is here. For those affected, it won't be at all funny.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Paramount, Netflix ink streaming deal in Canada]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paramount-netflix-ink-streaming-deal-in-canada</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paramount-netflix-ink-streaming-deal-in-canada</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:10:52 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>y4ypeter</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paramount-netflix-ink-streaming-deal-in-canada</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Netflix announced today it has signed a deal with Paramount Pictures to bring the studio's content to its streaming service in Canada.The five-year deal will deliver more than 350 movies to the service. Some of Paramount's more recent hits, including &quot;Iron Man 2,&quot; will be available, as well as those dating back generations, like 1954's &quot;Sabrina.&quot;The deal with Paramount also includes &quot;exclusive subscription television rights to all first-run films.&quot; That means Netflix will be able to stream Paramount's content before HBO, Showtime, and other subscription providers can.Netflix's addition of Paramount content is a boon for Canadian customers. Since the launch of Netflix in Canada in September, the company has been adding more content providers as it tries to catch that service up to its streaming platform in the U.S. (Netflix's service in Canada is streaming only.) This partnership will go a long way in helping it achieve that goal.Currently, some Paramount content is available to U.S. customers. However, to bring it to the service, Netflix had to sign a reported $1 billion deal last year with Epix, a joint venture among Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate, for access to some of those studios' content. Currently, Epix is offering &quot;Iron Man 2,&quot; &quot;Shutter Island,&quot; and many other recent releases for streaming on Netflix.The deal with Paramount follows a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, saying that Netflix was close to signing a five-year, $100 million deal with movie studio Miramax. If the deal is signed, Miramax could be bringing up to 700 movies to Netflix.In a bid to further improve its offering, Netflix has also acquired its first original series, &quot;House of Cards&quot; starring Kevin Spacey. It has so far committed to 26 episodes of the show.As Netflix adds more content, recent reports suggest it will lose some, as well.Last week, CNET reported that Showtime is planning to remove its series, including &quot;Californication&quot; and &quot;Dexter,&quot; from Netflix in a new deal following the companies' current arrangement, which expires over the summer. Showtime is owned by CBS, the parent company of CNET. For its part, Netflix told CNET that it was still in talks with Showtime, and it fully expects to &quot;renew&quot; its deal with the company.It's a similar story from Starz. Last week, the network said that as of April 1, it will no longer allow its original series to stream on Netflix the day after they air on its channel. Going forward, the company said that Netflix customers will need to wait 90 days to stream its content on the service.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The 411: Family plans and headphones while driving]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-411-family-plans-and-headphones-while-driving</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-411-family-plans-and-headphones-while-driving</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>shyhhyhhhh</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-411-family-plans-and-headphones-while-driving</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Should you switch to the Verizon iPhone to save money Maybe not.(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)Welcome to the 411, my column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have similar queries, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers if I'm stumped. Send your questions and comments to me at nicole.lee@cnet.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, let me know in the e-mail.Question: I am in a family plan with my brother and mom through AT&amp;T. I have an iPhone 3GS and the other two are not smartphones. Our bill is $185 with me=$78 mom=$85 bro=$23 with 1,400 minutes and 2 of us have 200 texts per month. The bill is high, seeing as my mom doesn't text and my brother only calls and texts. I have unlimited data and never go over 2GB, but I don't want to lose it just in case. I've been waiting for the newiPhone to come out but I've read it may be a nano iPhone, which I wouldn't want. What do you suggest we do to get a cheaper bill Should I switch to Verizon for the iPhone 4 My mom wants me to get my own plan so the bill is cheaper for them even though I pay my portion every month. I don't want to get another phone' I love the iPhone, but alone it will cost at least another $30 more. -- Peter, via e-mail$185 is a lot to pay a month, Peter, especially if you can get something cheaper. I looked over what the current AT&amp;T family plan pricing is for 1400 minutes ($89.99), a 200 messaging plan for two people ($20), and a legacy unlimited data plan ($30), and it should still add up to around $139.99 a month, not the $185 that you quoted. Perhaps there are additional fees that your family has incurred, or maybe you need to call AT&amp;T and negotiate a new deal.Aside from that, I would look into your monthly calling habits. If most of the calls your family make are to other mobile phones, then I would suggest looking into a cheaper minute plan. AT&amp;T offers unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls to any carrier, so the monthly minutes you buy only apply to landline calls. If you don't make a lot of landline calls, I think you can get away with a 550- or 700-minute plan that costs $30 to $20 less. Also, I know you like unlimited data, but if you never go over 2GB, then you could also consider going to a $25 monthly plan to save some extra money. If you're running into overage charges with texting, I would suggest moving up to an unlimited family messaging plan, which is only $30 for everyone.As for whether you should switch to Verizon, that's completely up to you. In the overall scheme of things, I don't see it saving you much money. As you say, you have to pay around $30 more a month anyway, and Verizon has even said that it won't likely keep its unlimited iPhone plan for very long.P.S. And about that nano iPhone rumor: Please note that it's just a rumor. Nobody aside from Apple really knows what the next iPhone will be just yet.Question:What would be the best headphones to use while driving I drive a truck over-the-road and would like to listen to myiPad, but can't find any that allow you to drive while using them. -- Bob, via e-mail Bob, I hope you didn't mean to write that! You absolutely should not use headphones while driving--it's dangerous! Now, if you're asking about a mono Bluetooth headset, I can certainly recommend a few from our Best Bluetooth headsets list--the Jawbone Era is good, as is the Plantronics Voyager Pro Plus. You could even go the wired headset route, as long as you remember to only use one earbud. Even then though, I suggest not listening to your iPad that way' it's safer if you use some kind of an auxiliary jack or an FM transmitter, so you don't need to fiddle around with the headset.   Nicole Lee     Full Profile E-mail Nicole Lee   E-mail Nicole Lee If you have a question or comment for Nicole Lee, 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       Nicole Lee is a senior associate editor for CNET, covering cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, and all things mobile. She's also a fan of comic books, video games, and of course, shiny gadgets.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Gadget review aggregator Retrevo opens own store]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gadget-review-aggregator-retrevo-opens-own-store</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gadget-review-aggregator-retrevo-opens-own-store</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:10:01 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>garretkrgr</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gadget-review-aggregator-retrevo-opens-own-store</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Retrevo will now sell some items directly. Instead of linking out to other stores, it will have its own &amp;34'Buy&amp;34' buttons.(Credit:Retrevo)Tech hardware advice site and reviews aggregator Retrevo is opening its own online store. The company has struck deals with 10 online resellers that will fulfill orders for Retrevo, but buyers will conduct all their business on Retrevo.com itself. Retrevo is also taking on the support role for customers who need help with products they purchase on its store.Retrevo's main function, to date, has been to provide tech buying advice to consumers. It aggregates reviews data from professional sites (like CNET) as well as consumer reviews (from sites like Amazon) and generates reviews scores and other analytics to help users make buying decisions. There's also a strong editorial hand at work at Retrevo to come up with the criteria that the site's algorithms use to rank products.Retrevo has always linked out to online stores for people who want to purchase a product they read about. Today's new store function replaces the links to other stores with Retrevo's own &quot;Add to Cart&quot; button for select items.The ethical wallThere is a barrier at good reviews sites between opinion and commerce, for one big reason: If a site is recommending a product and then turns around and makes a direct profit from selling it, one could think the site's recommendations are tainted by potential profits. Retrevo CEO Vipin Jain says you can still produce a trustworthy editorial service even if you are helping readers close the loop in commerce.  Reviews sites like CNET also engage in consumer commerce, but at a different scale. When a user clicks on a price link on a reviews page, we earn a referral fee, which is a small fraction of an item's selling price. When a user buys a product directly from Retrevo, though, the company books the entire purchase price of the item. It does then have to buy the item from its reseller or manufacturer partner, but actually reselling items opens up avenues to Retrevo to negotiate for more attractive profit margins. These profits may vary by product, and the user won't know which items are more profitable for Retrevo, adding to the potential perception that the site's recommendations may be slanted. To be clear, I do not expect Retrevo to juggle its recommendation algorithms so it sells more of the items that make it the most money. That would lead to only a momentary financial gain, at the cost of killing the site's credibility and ultimately its ability to do any business at all. Retrevo won&amp;39't sell items determined by its algorithms to be bad deals. (Credit:Retrevo) Jain feels that making commerce easy for the reader can be a service itself, especially if the content itself remains pure. Retrevo takes this position a step further and aims to &quot;own the customer experience,&quot; Jain says. All products available from the Retrevo store will ship free and come with 30-day return privileges, which Retrevo will handle.Prices, not profits, can affect Retrevo's recommendations, but in a consumer-friendly way. In some cases, for products that are overpriced, over the hill technologically, or just outmatched by competing products, even when Retrevo has access to sell the product directly it may put a &quot;Do Not Add To Cart&quot; flag on a product page instead of a Buy button. Jain says this feature will reinforce his service's editorial independence and customer service philosophy. Users can still buy such products from other stores' Retrevo will provide links. Currently, only a small percentage of the products on Retrevo are available on the Retrevo store, since the resellers Retrevo has deals with are on the small side. Over time, additional partnerships could give Retrevo more items for direct sale. Jain still has to close these deals, however. He's banking that resellers will be more interested in incremental sales than in the fact that they'll be losing direct contact with customers who buy via Retrevo itself. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google to crack down further on ads for fake goods]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-to-crack-down-further-on-ads-for-fake-goods</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-to-crack-down-further-on-ads-for-fake-goods</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:11:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>SlamForBamzz</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-to-crack-down-further-on-ads-for-fake-goods</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google is promising a few improvements to its online ad system to help stop the spate of advertisers hawking counterfeit items.In a blog posted yesterday, the search giant tallied the number of advertisers using AdWords at more than 1 million spread across at least 190 different countries. As a result, finding specific accounts that advertise phony products can be a challenge. Google was able to shut down around 50,000 such accounts just in the second half of 2010, but the company admits that more needs to be done.To help stop the proliferation of fake items sold through AdWords, Google is promising three new improvements to its online ad system.Offering an online form in which brand owners can file complaints over counterfeit goods, Google now says it will respond to such complaints within 24 hours.The company is also pledging to do a better job of catching AdSense ads that link to phony items. AdSense allows other companies to earn revenue by placing Google ads on their own Web sites. Specifically, Google says it will work more closely with brand owners to catch advertisers who don't play by the rules and will kick them off the AdSense program. Finally, Google has set up a new help page for people to read the policies against counterfeit goods and report complaints over different types of abuse.Over the years, Google has been the target of lawsuits by brand owners upset about the use of certain keywords in AdWords, in part arguing that such a policy allows non-brand owners to more easily advertise counterfeit products. Google has always maintained that it works with brand owners and is quick to clamp down on any misuse of its ad system.Following a series of lawsuits, Google was cleared last year in a suit filed by luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton and other companies. The European Court of Justice found that Google was not liable for violating the trademarks of advertisers by offering keywords identical to those trademarks. But the court did find that Google is obligated to remove such ads if the brand owners complain that their rights have been violated.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google Docs upgrades collaboration tools]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-docs-upgrades-collaboration-tools</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-docs-upgrades-collaboration-tools</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>svetalach</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-docs-upgrades-collaboration-tools</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google Docs lets you address particular comments to people. They&amp;39're notified of comments by e-mail, and responses sent by e-mail appear in the discussion thread.(Credit:Google)The ideas behind Google Wave, a real-time communication technology the Net giant ditched, are making something of a comeback as a collaboration tool in Google Docs and Gmail.Google announced discussions in Google Docs today, a new ability to automate the communications part of collaborations. Google Docs already let multiple people edit a document at the same time and to append comments to a document, but the discussions feature advances those abilities.(Credit:Google)For one thing, comments now can be hidden once they've been addressed, not just deleted, and they can be resurrected if necessary.For another, comments are adorned with the commenter's photo, and they can be addressed to specific people. Such a comment automatically generates an e-mail to the person, who can open the document with a link in the e-mail. Simply replying to that e-mail will insert the response to the comment in the document itself.Wave users will recognize some of its features in these changes. Wave was a hybrid of e-mail, instant messaging, and group chat rooms. Though it ultimately failed at Google, the idea of collaboration--with both store-and-forward and real-time communications--has a lot to recommend it.&quot;Now you can easily tell who made a comment and when--with timestamps and profile pictures--and you can keep track of the conversation with e-mail notifications and reply to comments directly from your e-mail,&quot; said Scott Johnston, Google's group product manager for Google Docs, in a blog post.For details about how it all works, check the Google Docs blog post. Google Docs discussions can notify collaborators of changes to documents.(Credit:Google)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[T-Mobile adds new 10GB mobile data plan]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=t-mobile-adds-new-10gb-mobile-data-plan</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=t-mobile-adds-new-10gb-mobile-data-plan</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>vladdylaof</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=t-mobile-adds-new-10gb-mobile-data-plan</guid>
<description><![CDATA[T-Mobile has unveiled a new data plan that gives mobile broadband users up to 10GB each month and no overage costs for a price of $85.Launched yesterday, the new &quot;10 GB Web access + Unlimited T-Mobile HotSpot&quot; mobile broadband plan is designed for T-Mobile 3G or 4G cellular subscribers who hop onto the Internet via theirtablets, Netbooks, and notebooks.With overage costs sometimes giving customers a nasty surprise when the bill is due, T-Mobile is promising no overage fees. Instead, the carrier will throttle back on the data speed until the billing cycle ends for anyone who goes beyond the 10GB allotment.Like similar plans, this one requires a two-year commitment to qualify for the $85 monthly fee. But since T-Mobile offers a discount for users who bundle the plan with their voice service, the price could reach as low as $68 per month.Beyond the 10GB of data, the plan also gives subscribers free access to any T-Mobile hot spot available at hotels, airports, coffee shops, and other public locales. For users whose download needs are lower, the company offers a 5GB plan that costs $50 a month and a 200MB option for $30 each month, both with the same lack of overage fees.In comparison, Verizon Wireless offers a 10GB monthly broadband plan for $80 and a 5GB plan for $50, but in both cases charges $10 per gigabyte for anyone who crosses over the limit. AT&amp;amp'T sells a 5GB plan for $60 for 3G users and charges an overage fee of 5 cents per megabyte. It also offers a 4G data plan with hot-spot access for $50 a month and overage costs of $10 per gigabyte.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[New, updated apps optimized for iPad 2]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-updated-apps-optimized-for-ipad-2</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-updated-apps-optimized-for-ipad-2</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:11:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cinematime</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-updated-apps-optimized-for-ipad-2</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Got aniPad 2 Then get these apps. Each one takes advantage of at least one of thetablet's new features: faster processor, built-in gyroscope, dual cameras, etc. And while you're at it, be sure to check out 10 must-have apps for iPad 2 owners. They're not necessarily iPad 2-optimized, but they're awesome just the same.Apps optimized for the iPad 2 (screenshots) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: AT&T already shipping iPad 2]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-att-already-shipping-ipad-2</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-att-already-shipping-ipad-2</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>svetalaxq</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-att-already-shipping-ipad-2</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Apple)In what may have been nothing more than a minor footnote to Friday's launch ofApple's iPad 2, shipping times on Apple's Web site quickly jumped from 3 to 5 business days to 2 to 3 weeks.Interestingly, according to a report from AppleInsider, AT&amp;T is already shipping iPad 2s to customers, with some expecting to see theirs as early as Monday.As of the writing of this article, shipping times on Apple's Web site are 3 to 4 weeks for all models of the iPad 2. The photo below, from AppleInsider, shows the customer's shipping date as March 11th, a solid month before Apple expects to ship its inventory of iPad 2s.Does AT&amp;T have better shipping times than Apple for iPad 2 It appears so.(Credit:AppleInsider)As Apple has often noted, the success of the iPad has been tied to customers' ability to actually touch the device in the many retail stores in which Apple's products now appear, including Best Buy, AT&amp;T, Verizon, and Wal-Mart.So, if you're looking to order your iPad 2 online, perhaps the smart move is to check out AT&amp;T.Have any of our readers ordered their iPad 2 from AT&amp;T or Verizon What's your expected ship date Let us know in the comments.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Better Place a good deal for Danish drivers]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=better-place-a-good-deal-for-danish-drivers</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=better-place-a-good-deal-for-danish-drivers</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:11:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>aliciaway2011</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=better-place-a-good-deal-for-danish-drivers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A Better Place taxi station in Tokyo.(Credit:Better Place)Better Place, which offers battery service for electric vehicles, opened today its first European retail station in Copenhagen, Denmark.Better Place stations offer battery swaps for electric vehicles as an alternative to waiting to recharge the batteries. Commercial stations are already running in Israel and Japan. Until now, though, Better Place had only been testing pilot stations in the U.S. and Europe.Most of the stations offer fast-charging plug-in spots for EVs, as well as battery swaps for subscribing members. The battery swap is a convenience for drivers because it takes only a minute to make the switch, according to Better Place. The swapped batteries are then recharged and used in othercars.It takes 15 to 30 minutes to recharge an EV battery pack to 80 percent capacity from a rapid-charging station depending on the vehicle, which is why some chargers are partnering with retail stores.The Denmark opening marks the first commercial Better Place center in Europe. It opened in partnership with Renault and the release of its Fluence Z.E., the EV version of the Fluence. The battery pack in the Fluence Z.E. gets about 185 kilometers (115 miles) per charge, according to Renault.When people purchase or lease the Fluence Z.E., they'll have the option of signing up for one of five Better Place subscription packages. The most expensive package is for an &quot;all you can drive&quot; service of unlimited battery swapping for 2,995 Denmark kroner per month ($560). On the modest end of the scale, they'll also offer packages between 1,495 kroner ($299) and 1,895 kroner ($354) per month that covers up to 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles) per year. All subscriptions will also require a one-time 9,995 kroner ($1,869) installation fee for a home-charging station, according to Better Place.Is that a good dealTaking Better Place's most modest plan and assuming it covers about 20,000 kilometers, it would cost 17,904 kroner ($3,346) a year to power your EV not including the one-time installation fee for a home charger.Even given the hefty price for gas in Europe, the subscription service seems pricey.Contrast it with what it might cost to fuel a gas-powered car in Denmark. The best-selling model in Denmark for January 2011 was the Chevy Spark, according to the Danish Car Importers Association.The Chevy Spark with 1.2-liter engine has combined fuel efficiency of about 20 kilometers per liter (47 mpg), according to the Chevrolet Denmark spec sheet. The average price per liter (including VAT) in Denmark is currently 12.23 kroner ($2.29) per liter for Unleaded95 gasoline, according to the European Union's Energy Portal.Bottom line: It costs roughly 12,230 kroner ($2,286) to power the Chevy Spark for 20,000 kilometers in Denmark, in contrast to 17,904 kroner ($3,346) using the Better Place battery-swap service for the Renault Fluence Z.E.While pricing is bound to come down as the service scales up, Danish drivers looking to save money may rather wait the 15 to 30 minutes to recharge their EV, or decide to opt for a highly-efficient gas-powered car. Stil, there is certainly a difference as the Renault Fluence Z.E. is a midsize car while the Chevy Spark is a subcompact.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Sub du jour goes all-electric]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sub-du-jour-goes-all-electric</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sub-du-jour-goes-all-electric</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:11:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Eleen</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sub-du-jour-goes-all-electric</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Battery pack lets Ego cruise for up to eight hours.(Credit:Raonhaje)This sub could make even Philippe Cousteau, with so many water toys at his disposal, a little jealous.The Ego &quot;compact semi-submarine&quot; from Raonhaje--showcased at the Miami Boat Show last week--functions as both a motor boat and as a sub that seats two just below the water's surface.Instead of using a rudder and outboard motor, both the Ego LE (luxury edition) and the Ego SE (standard edition) are run by electric podded propulsion with a battery-powered BLDC (Brushless DC electric motor).The completely battery-powered sub uses a Trojan T-890 battery pack--a golf-cart battery--that allows the boat to run for up to eight hours at moderate cruising or about four hours at top speed between charges, according to company specs.But the owner better be able to dock it near an outlet overnight as Raonhaje specs also say it takes about six to nine hours to fully recharge the battery pack.The Ego is both a motor boat and a sub.(Credit:Raonhaje)Other accessories on the boat include an LED battery gauge, a digital depth sounder, and a front/back switch to cruise in both directions.It also has an LCD screen fed by an onboard camera for viewing your above-board surroundings when you are down below.Offered in such colors as Persian Pink and French Rose, the Ego seems to be marketed as a leisure toy and not the kind of boat for scientists. But Korea-based Raonhaje says the vessel can be fully outfitted with equipment for research purposes.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Online banking hit by thieves]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=online-banking-hit-by-thieves</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=online-banking-hit-by-thieves</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>smopzefeNeuse</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=online-banking-hit-by-thieves</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A new Trojan dubbed &quot;OddJob&quot; is stealing people's money by taking over their online banking sessions after they think they've logged off. The Trojan, which targets Windows-based computers, is being used by criminals in Eastern Europe to steal money from accounts in the United States, Poland, and Denmark, Amit Klein, chief technology officer of Trusteer, writes in a blog post today.  Klein said in an e-mail that he could not identify the banks being targeted or provide an estimate on the number of victims.  &quot;It is early days for this malware,&quot; he said. &quot;It appears to be a work in progress, so we expect the code to become more sophisticated over time.&quot; The Trojan intercepts communications that customers have with banking sites via Internet Explorer orFirefox, stealing or interjecting information and terminating user browser sessions when done, Trusteer said.  When a bank customer is on the bank site, the Trojan takes advantage of the session IT token to impersonate the customer, riding the coattails of the existing authenticated session. It then bypasses the logout request of the customer so that the session is not actually terminated when the customer thinks he or she is logging out. To avoid triggering security software, the malware's configuration is not saved to disk, but a fresh copy is fetched from the command and control server each time a new browser session is opened.  Web surfers can protect themselves by installing software security updates, refraining from clicking on URLs in e-mail messages, and using software that secures Web access, like Trusteer's Rapport product, the company said. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Stuxnet expert: other sites were hit but Natanz was true target]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=stuxnet-expert-other-sites-were-hit-but-natanz-was-true-target</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=stuxnet-expert-other-sites-were-hit-but-natanz-was-true-target</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>megamix1tech</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=stuxnet-expert-other-sites-were-hit-but-natanz-was-true-target</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Symantec&amp;39's report includes a graphical representation of Stuxnet infections linked to organizations in Iran.(Credit:Symantec)Stuxnet may have hit different organizations, but its main target was still the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant in Iran, an expert who has analyzed the code said today. Ralph Langner, who has been analyzing the code used in the complicated Stuxnet worm that used a Windows hole to target industrial control systems used in gas pipelines and power plants last year and possibly earlier, said the initial distribution of Stuxnet was limited to a few key installations. &quot;My bet is that one of the infected sites is Kalaye Electric,&quot; he wrote in an e-mail to CNET. &quot;Again, we don't have evidence for this, but this is how we would launch the attack - infecting a handful of key contractors with access to Natanz.&quot; Langner was responding to a report (PDF)released late last week by Symantec that said five different organizations in Iran were targeted by a variant of Stuxnet, several of them more than once, dating back to June 2009.  &quot;We have a total of 3,280 unique samples representing approximately 12,000 infections,&quot; the Symantec researchers write in a blog post about the report. &quot;While this is only a percentage of all known infections, we were able to learn some interesting aspects of how Stuxnet spread and where it was targeted.&quot; The Symantec researchers, who have made other important discoveries in the quest to de-code Stuxnet, don't name the organizations they suspect as targets. As of September 2010, they had estimated there were more than 100,000 infected hosts, nearly 60 percent of them in Iran. &quot;Unfortunately Symantec doesn't tell the geographic location of the targeted organizations,&quot; Langner said. &quot;My theory is that not all may be in Iran since chances are that at least one significant contractor is a foreign organization (this is something we are researching presently).&quot; Langner said he and partners have been able to match data structures from one of the parts of the multi-pronged Stuxnet attack code with the centrifuge cascade structures in Natanz.  &quot;The significance of this is that it is now 100 percent clear that Stuxnet is about Natanz, and Natanz only,&quot; he said. &quot;Further evidence (that matches with the recent discoveries of Symantec) suggests that Stuxnet was designed as a long-term attack with the intention not only to destroy centrifuges but also to lower the output of enriched uranium.&quot; Langner, based in Germany, offers more technical details of Stuxnet on his blog. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Harvard, Mitre cook up programmable nanoprocessor]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=harvard-mitre-cook-up-programmable-nanoprocessor</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=harvard-mitre-cook-up-programmable-nanoprocessor</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>wannula5</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=harvard-mitre-cook-up-programmable-nanoprocessor</guid>
<description><![CDATA[On the electron microscopy drawing board: programmable nanowire nanoprocessors.(Credit:Photo courtesy of Charles M. Lieber/Harvard SEAS Communications)Researchers at Harvard University and Mitre have detailed the architecture for a programmable nanoprocessor built out of ultra-small nanowires.The nanoprocessor, outlined in a Nature article published this week, is formed of 496 non-volatile field effect transistor (FET) nodes arranged in a 960-micrometer-square area, overlaid with semiconductor materials.&quot;This work represents a quantum jump forward in the complexity and function of circuits built from the bottom up,&quot; said Harvard's Charles Lieber, who led the research, in a statement. &quot;[The work] demonstrates that this bottom-up paradigm, which is distinct from the way commercial circuits are built today, can yield nanoprocessors and other integrated systems of the future.&quot;Read more of &quot; Researchers detail programmable nanoprocessor&quot; at ZDNet UK.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Road Trip Pic of the Week, 2/10: What is this]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=road-trip-pic-of-the-week-210-what-is-this</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=road-trip-pic-of-the-week-210-what-is-this</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>breannavfd3</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=road-trip-pic-of-the-week-210-what-is-this</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If you know what this is and where this photograph was taken, you could win a prize in the Picture of the Week challenge.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)That's a lot of lights for one building, isn't it But what building is that, and where is it locatedIf you know, you could win a prize in the CNET Road Trip Picture of the Week challenge.If you have the answer, please e-mail it to me no later than 6 p.m. PT Friday (to daniel--dot--terdiman--at--cnet--dot--com, and PLEASE include &quot;Picture of the Week&quot; in the subject line). I'll choose a winner at random from among everyone who sends in the correct answer by the deadline. Please forgive me if you don't hear from me if you're not a winner. I get dozens of responses for each challenge. Also, I've turned off comments because some people would post the correct answers there. I hate to shut down discussion, but I want you to figure out the answer on your own.One caveat: no individual can win more than two prizes. However, now that it's 2011, I'm resetting the tally, and past two-time winners are eligible again. The Road Trip Picture of the Week challenge takes place each Thursday, and the photos could come from anywhere, not just Road Trip 2010 locations. Plus, they might be related to stories I've written in the past. So, please have fun playing today, and then come back each Thursday. For most of last summer, Geek Gestalt was on Road Trip 2010. After driving more than 18,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last four years, I drove 5,266 miles this summer looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation, and more throughout the American Northeast. You can follow me on Twitter at @GreeterDan and @RoadTrip and find the project on Facebook. And look for Road Trip 2011, which will be heading to Europe, coming this summer.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Best Buy strikes with HTC Thunderbolt]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=best-buy-strikes-with-htc-thunderbolt</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=best-buy-strikes-with-htc-thunderbolt</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Feb 2011 08:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Kandifhhb</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=best-buy-strikes-with-htc-thunderbolt</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft's Windows Azure turns one]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsofts-windows-azure-turns-one</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsofts-windows-azure-turns-one</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:10:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>superip</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsofts-windows-azure-turns-one</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Today marks the one-year anniversary of Microsoft's Azure platform being available for public consumption.To celebrate, Microsoft has announced two additional companies that have made use of the platform for consumer- and business-facing services. One of those is T-Mobile, which used Azure to speed up the development time for its Family Room collaboration tool for mobile phones. The other is Xerox, which used Windows Azure and SQL Azure to help build its cloud-based printing service dubbed Cloud Print. Microsoft first unveiled its Windows Azure platform a little more than two years ago at PDC 2008. Then chief software architect for Microsoft, Ray Ozzie, positioned the cloud services platform as both a transformation in the company's software as well as in its overall strategy.The product, which lets developers write programs that live inside Microsoft's data centers, competes with similar offerings from cloud heavyweights like Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, and Google. Microsoft has pushed it to both developers and customers alike, as a way to get the latest version of its server technologies on demand, and in a way that can be scaled up or down depending on the size of their business, or the needs of their applications.Azure had stayed under Ozzie's leadership until the Azure and Server teams got wrapped into Microsoft's Servers and Tools Business in late 2009. Since then, Microsoft has continued to make improvements and additions to the service, as well as to work toward moving Azure beyond its own data centers, with plans to let businesses run their own private clouds with on-premises Azure appliances. As far as Azure uptake, or how many companies the technology platform has attracted, Microsoft has opened up on those metrics as the platform has continued to evolve. Shortly after the free trial for businesses ended, Microsoft had said that many of the free-trialers had stayed on as paying customers, but it would not go into specifics. According to The Seattle Times, the official number now stands at 31,000 customers, up from 20,000 last July' that's a 55 percent increase inside of seven months. Prior to that, Microsoft said during its fiscal first-quarter earnings call that it had seen Azure subscriptions grow 40 percent quarter-over-quarter.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Al Jazeera calls for bloggers to spread Egypt news]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=al-jazeera-calls-for-bloggers-to-spread-egypt-news</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=al-jazeera-calls-for-bloggers-to-spread-egypt-news</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>fredericko</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=al-jazeera-calls-for-bloggers-to-spread-egypt-news</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Al Jazeera)With its own news outlet cut off in Egypt, Al Jazeera is urging the country's citizens to use blogs, social media, eyewitness accounts, and videos to tell the world what's going as the protests against President Hosni Mubarak continue, according to the Associated Press.Yesterday, the Arab news network's Cairo office was closed down and its broadcast signal cut off to some parts of the Middle East following complaints by Egyptian authorities that Al Jazeera's 24-hour coverage of the uprising was slanted toward the protesters and as such could incite more unrest.Along with the office's closure, six of its journalists were briefly taken into custody before being released today, however, their camera equipment has been seized by the Egyptian military, according to Al Jazeera. The journalists are part of Al Jazeera's English-language channel, a sister operation to its core Arabic service.On Sunday, Al Jazeera expressed &quot;utter disappointment&quot; of the blockage of its broadcast signal and said today following the arrests of its journalists that &quot;if anything, our resolve to get the story has increased.&quot; So far, Al Jazeera said it has been able to maintain coverage of the situation in Egypt with fixed-position cameras and news reports by phone, said the AP report.Al Jazeera has been one of many news networks and outlets trying to provide live video coverage of the wave of protests against the Egyptian government. But that effort and the efforts of citizens trying to spread the word through social media have been stymied by the government's shutdown of the Internet and other critical lines of communication.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Sony Ericsson sues Clearwire over logo]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sony-ericsson-sues-clearwire-over-logo</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sony-ericsson-sues-clearwire-over-logo</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Abiabeo</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sony-ericsson-sues-clearwire-over-logo</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson is suing wireless broadband provider Clearwire for trademark infringement. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. district court in Virginia on Friday, Sony Ericsson said that Clearwire's green and white swirl logo is confusingly similar to its own green and white swirl logo.Sony Ericsson said that it became aware of Clearwire's plans to use a similar logo in late 2009. And in January 2010 it contacted Clearwire to express its protest. Clearwire is building a nationwide wireless broadband network using the technology called WiMax. It sells fixed and mobile broadband services and in May 2010 it announced it plans to sell a mobile phone that uses its WiMax service. In November, the company said that the plan to offer its own mobile phone had been delayed. Sony Ericsson, which makes mobile phones, says that Clearwire's plans to sell mobile phones that use the Clearwire network and sport the Clear swirl logo will confuse customers, since Sony Ericsson also sells mobile phones.Sony Ericsson has been using its green swirl since 2001 when it was established as a company by its parent companies: Sony and Ericsson. The company says that its trademark swirl is well recognized in Europe, but it says that in the U.S. where the Clearwire service and products are sold, that it's not as recognizable. Sony Ericsson is asking the court to stop Clearwire from infringing on its trademark and copyright. It's also asking for at least $150,000 in damages as well as legal fees.A Clearwire representative declined to comment.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: iPhone to cost Verizon billions this year]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-iphone-to-cost-verizon-billions-this-year</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-iphone-to-cost-verizon-billions-this-year</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mandidmdda</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-iphone-to-cost-verizon-billions-this-year</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Apple)Verizon Wireless obviously wants theiPhone, but it will pay a hefty price to get it.Speaking to several industry analysts, Bloomberg found that Verizon could pay billions of dollars this year in subsidies.According to UBS analyst John Hodulik, Verizon could sell 13 million iPhone units this year and subsidize each device by $400. Overall, that could mean Verizon will pay $5.2 billion in subsidies.Barclays analyst James Ratcliffe told Bloomberg that he isn't as bullish on iPhone sales. He expects Verizon to sell about 9 million iPhones and subsidize the smartphone at $350, forcing the company to take a $3.2 billion subsidy expense in the year.Subsidies are commonplace in the mobile market. Carriers acquire phones from vendors at a specific price, and typically sell them for much less. By subsidizing a phone's price, carriers hope to attract more customers and recoup that investment through monthly service plans.Later this morning, Verizon is holding a press event in New York City where it is widely expected to announce support for the iPhone. The event starts at 8 a.m. PT, and as you might expect, CNET will be there to live-blog every second.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[CES: Verizon plays up Android angle (live blog)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-verizon-plays-up-android-angle-live-blog</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-verizon-plays-up-android-angle-live-blog</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Anjali01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-verizon-plays-up-android-angle-live-blog</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Verizon showed off the Motorola Xoom at its CES keynote speech. (Credit:CNET )Editor's note: This live event has concluded. For a brief rundown of what was announced, check out our summary post here. You can also replay our live blog in the Cover It Live module below.LAS VEGAS--Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg will take the stage Thursday morning to deliver a keynote address here at the Consumer Electronics Show.Rumors have been swirling for months that Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless operator in the U.S., will introduce its own version of the Apple iPhone. Will Seidenberg use hisCES keynote to make the big announcement It's unlikely, but the company is expected to push its newly launched 4G wireless broadband network. Insiders say Verizon is expected to announce at least four new 4G smartphones and a tablet PC. Much of Verizon's news is expected to be announced at the company's press conference Thursday afternoon. But Seidenberg, who doesn't give many press interviews, may have some news up his sleeve about the new 4G products during the keynote. To stay on top of all the news, CNET will be live blogging the keynote starting at 8:30 a.m. PT. The link below will take you to the live blog. Verizon CEO to address CES attendeesEditors' note: The original pre-event version of this story was published January 5 at 9:28 a.m. PT.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Dell to acquire SecureWorks]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-to-acquire-secureworks</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-to-acquire-secureworks</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Brierliaisy</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-to-acquire-secureworks</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dell today beefed up its security efforts with the acquisition of SecureWorks, a company that provides information-security services.Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.With the acquisition, Dell said in a statement that it would use SecureWorks' security-as-a-service applications--managed security, risk consulting and threat intelligence--to bolster its software lineup. SecureWorks provides security information management, log monitoring, intrusion prevention, vulnerability scanning, and other services.Read more of &quot;Dell acquires SecureWorks&quot; at ZDNet's Between the Lines. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Online holiday shopping bumps up]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=online-holiday-shopping-bumps-up</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=online-holiday-shopping-bumps-up</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 08:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>enrtunrrut</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=online-holiday-shopping-bumps-up</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The amount of money spent shopping online during the holiday season increased this year compared with last, say two recent reports, another sign of the Internet's continuing permeation of American life.SpendingPulse, a report from MasterCard, pegged the year-over-year rise at 15.4 percent. The report, released this week and covering the period from October 31 to December 24, looks at sales in the MasterCard payment network and combines those figures with survey-derived estimates of non-credit-card purchases.According to the report, apparel sales led the field among e-commerce categories, a sign, perhaps, that shoppers are becoming more comfortable with buying clothing sight unseen. Electronics also made a showing, and jewelry managed to log an increase as well.In general, the results show that the Web seems to be continuing on its way to becoming as American as apple pie--or the shopping mall. Though according to various sources online sales still make up only 10 percent of all purchases, that seems likely to change.&quot;Today e-commerce accounts for a much larger share of overall retail sales compared to a few years ago,&quot; Michael McNamara, vice president for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, said in a statement. &quot;And during this holiday season, it registered double-digit growth for six out of seven weeks.&quot;The SpendingPulse report said that this year, the Monday after Thanksgiving saw $999.3 million in e-commerce receipts, a 25.3 percent increase over that same day last year. And six days in this year's holiday shopping season saw online sales of more than $1 billion, compared with three days in 2009.ComScore served up its own batch of figures this week, with its report covering November 1 through December 20 and based on surveys of consumers. The analytics company reported a 12 percent increase in e-commerce spending during that time frame versus the same frame last year.In a statement, ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said a 17 percent year-over-year rise in e-commerce receipts during the last weekend before Christmas &quot;capped the heaviest online spending week of all time at $5.5 billion.&quot;The company also singled out other significant dates:Thanksgiving Day totals rose 28 percent over last year,Cyber Monday (November 29) logged a 16 percent rise,Free Shipping Day (December 26) saw a whopping 61 percent growth figure,and Black Friday (November 26) saw a 9 percent increase year over year.A report last month from Coremetrics, which derives its data differently from ComScore, put the Black Friday figure at 16 percent. That report also pointed to the increasing importance of mobile devices and social-networking sites in the e-commerce cyberscape.&quot;We're watching online retail, and increasingly social media and mobile, become the growth engines for retailers everywhere, as consumers embrace online shopping not only for its ease and convenience, but as a primary means of researching goods and services,&quot; John Squire, Coremetrics' chief strategy officer, said in a statement at the time.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[FCC to approve Net neutrality rules Tuesday]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fcc-to-approve-net-neutrality-rules-tuesday</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fcc-to-approve-net-neutrality-rules-tuesday</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Nisha</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fcc-to-approve-net-neutrality-rules-tuesday</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on official Net neutrality rules tomorrow, which the agency claims will provide consumers, service providers, device makers, and application developers clear rules of the road for the Internet. With the support of all three Democrats on the FCC, the regulation is set to pass. And the vote will mark the next step in what has been a politically charged debate between telephone and cable companies and consumer groups advocating for a free and open Internet. The five-member commission, which is made up of three Democrats and two Republicans, has been working on developing these official rules of the road for more than a year. In September 2009, Chairman Julius Genachowski suggested adding to the original Internet Openness principles adopted by the commission under former Chairman Michael Powell. The debate of what should be included in the new rules has raged ever since. Democratic supporters and consumer advocates along with some Internet companies have pushed for more stringent regulations. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans and major telephone and cable companies have lobbied for lighter regulation.Genachowski, who offered a preview of the plan earlier this month, has attempted to give each side a little of what it wants in the new rules, but neither camp has said they are completely satisfied. In fact, the two Democrats on the commission, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, have been reluctant to go along with the chairman's plan because they believe it may be too favorable to major broadband providers. But FCC officials say the chairman has worked closely with these commissioners to satisfy their concerns. And now it looks as though the two Democrats will support the new rules, albeit somewhat reluctantly.Clyburn released a statement today stating she will vote in favor of the new rules. Copps also said he'd vote for the rules, but in a statement today he noted that he believes things are missing from the order. &quot;While I cannot vote wholeheartedly to approve the item, I will not block it by voting against it. I instead plan to concur so that we may move forward,&quot; Copps said in a statement.Meanwhile, Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell, who has long opposed Net neutrality regulation, said in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on Monday that the new rules are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist. &quot;On this winter solstice, we will witness jaw-dropping interventionist chutzpah as the FCC bypasses branches of our government in the dogged pursuit of needless and harmful regulation,&quot; McDowell wrote. &quot;The darkest day of the year may end up marking the beginning of a long winter's night for Internet freedom.&quot;He went on to say:&quot;Nothing is broken and needs fixing, however. The Internet has been open and freedom-enhancing since it was spun off from a government research project in the early 1990s. Its nature as a diffuse and dynamic global network of networks defies top-down authority. Ample laws to protect consumers already exist. Furthermore, the Obama Justice Department and the European Commission both decided this year that Net neutrality regulation was unnecessary and might deter investment in next-generation Internet technology and infrastructure.&quot;Senior representatives from the FCC held a press conference this afternoon to provide an overview of what the order will actually say. At a high level, there are three provisions that will become official FCC regulation. The first rule is about transparency. Network operators of both fixed and wireless networks will be required to disclose to consumers, content providers, and device makers information that will be necessary for them to deploy services. In other words, if a broadband network operator is using network management techniques that affect an application or if a wireless broadband network provider doesn't allow a certain type of application, the service provider must provide information about the requirements for its network.The second Net neutrality rule prohibits the blocking of traffic on the Internet. The rule applies to both fixed wireline broadband network operators, as well as to wireless providers. But the stipulations for each type of network are slightly different.For wired networks, operators will not be allowed to block any lawful content, services, applications, or devices on their network. For wireless providers, the rule is somewhat limited and only prohibits the blocking of access to Web sites or applications that specifically compete with a carrier's telephony voice or video services. The blocking rule for wireless and wireline networks also includes allowances for reasonable network management. This means that wireline and wireless broadband providers will be able to reasonably manage their networks during times of congestion to ensure every user can adequately access services.And finally, the last rule applies only to fixed broadband providers. It prohibits fixed wireline broadband providers from unreasonably discriminating against traffic on their network.  Net neutrality zealots have already expressed dismay in Copps' support of the new rules.&quot;Internet users across America will have lost a hero if Commissioner Copps caves to pressure from big business and supports FCC Chairman Genachowski's fake Net neutrality rules--rules written by AT&amp;T, Comcast, and Verizon, the very companies the public is depending on the FCC to regulate strongly,&quot; Jason Rosenbaum, the senior online campaigns director for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement.But not everyone is upset that a compromise appears to have been reached.Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), released a statement today applauding the three Democratic commissioners for reaching a consensus on the rules. &quot;While he (Commissioner Copps) and Commissioner Clyburn, as well as many of the champions of network neutrality, including myself, would have supported a stricter order, I commend them for rising to the moment and making possible very meaningful progress to preserve the freedom to communicate and compete over the Internet,&quot; he said in the statement. &quot;I also join them in commending Chairman Genachowski for his inclusive, thoughtful, and creative work in bringing parties together, airing all points of view, and finding a principled center.&quot;The FCC meeting will be broadcast live starting at 10:30 a.m. ET.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Soyuz spacecraft delivers trio to space station]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=soyuz-spacecraft-delivers-trio-to-space-station</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=soyuz-spacecraft-delivers-trio-to-space-station</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:10:56 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>nathaliebui</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=soyuz-spacecraft-delivers-trio-to-space-station</guid>
<description><![CDATA[After a two-day orbital chase, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station Friday, bringing three fresh crew members to the lab complex and boosting its full-time crew back to six.With rookie commander Dimitry &quot;Dima&quot; Kondratyev at the controls, flanked by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli to his left and NASA astronaut Catherine &quot;Cady&quot; Coleman to his right, the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft glided to a smooth docking with the station's Rassvet mini-research module at 3:11 p.m. EST as the two vehicles sailed 224 miles above Western Africa.The Expedition 26 crew fields questions from dignitaries and family members in Moscow. Three fresh crew members, dressed in blue flight suits, arrived aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Friday (left to right): Catherine Coleman, Dmitry Kondratyev, and Paolo Nespoli. Back row (left to right): Alexander Kaleri, commander Scott Kelly, and Oleg Skripochka.(Credit:NASA TV)A few moments later, after residual motion damped out, hooks and latches engaged to pull the Soyuz firmly into place for extensive leak checks. Thee hours later, at 6:02 p.m., hatches were opened and Expedition 26 commander Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri, and Oleg Skripochka, launched October 7, welcomed their new crewmates aboard.Gathering in the Zvezda command module, the Expedition 26 crew took a few moments to chat with dignitaries and family members at the Russian mission control center near Moscow.&quot;Hi, Mom, it's Jamey,&quot; Coleman's 10-year-old son radioed. &quot;I miss you a lot, and I'll take care of Dad.&quot;&quot;I know you will, I miss you too,&quot; Coleman replied from orbit. &quot;I wish you could have come up in the Soyuz with us. It was really pretty amazing to look down and see the Earth. And now we're in the space station and I almost got lost on my way to this place from the Soyuz. It's so big here!&quot;&quot;We are so glad you're on the space station,&quot; Coleman's husband, Josh Simpson, called. &quot;For the last three years, we have been trying to figure out where you are, whether it's in Germany, or Moscow, or Star City, or Japan, or Canada, or Texas. And now, we know exactly where you are! We can find out at any moment precisely where you are. And you're only, I don't know, 200 miles away. So you seem close to us now. Our hearts are with you.&quot;&quot;I love you guys,&quot; Coleman replied. &quot;And we won't have to even figure out time zones. It'll be the same time zone for six months.&quot;Veteran cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who now runs the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City near Moscow, urged the crew to &quot;enjoy your flight. I envy you. Congratulations on the successful docking and I wish you every success. Good luck to you.&quot;The crew faced a light weekend schedule, giving the new arrivals a chance to get familiar with the station's layout and operation.&quot;As soon as they get on board, my primary goal is to get them acclimated to the environment and get them comfortable enough to where they can work up here efficiently,&quot; Kelly said in a recent media interview.&quot;One of the first things we do is a safety briefing, make sure they're aware and reminded of all the safety training they've had, but see it from the perspective of being on board here. Really, just to get them comfortable and ready to work starting the following Monday.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[A hack on Big Mac]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-hack-on-big-mac</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-hack-on-big-mac</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:10:36 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Gugen</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-hack-on-big-mac</guid>
<description><![CDATA[McDonald's has disclosed that one of its customer databases was hacked but insists that no financial information was stolen in the breach.The fast food chain reported yesterday that the hacker was able to grab e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, and other customer information of people who signed up online for special promotions. In a statement e-mailed to CNET, the company said that no credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive financial data were compromised.McDonald's said it was informed of the breach by one of its business partners, Arc Worldwide, which had collected customer information related to certain McDonald's Web sites and promotions. A database storing that information and maintained by a third-party database management provider was hit by the breach. McDonald's said that it is working with Arc and the third-party company to understand how security was bypassed and that it has been notifying customers affected about the breach via e-mail.&quot;The incident has resulted in an investigation by law enforcement authorities,&quot; McDonald's said in its statement. &quot;Arc and McDonald's are cooperating with the appropriate authorities as we work to protect our valued customers. We have attempted to notify all of our active subscribers, who voluntarily provided information in connection with the websites and promotions involved in this incident.&quot;Though no financial details apparently were stolen, the perpetrators do have e-mail addresses and other personal information. As a result, McDonald's is urging people who signed up for online promotions to be suspicious of anyone claiming to be from the company asking for personal or financial information by e-mail. Customers who receive such messages are advised to contact McDonald's directly.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Bad time for Netflix CFO to resign]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=bad-time-for-netflix-cfo-to-resign</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=bad-time-for-netflix-cfo-to-resign</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:10:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>carecraige889</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=bad-time-for-netflix-cfo-to-resign</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Barry McCarthy, Netflix's chief financial officer and one of the linchpins of the company's management team, has stepped down. Barry McCarthy, Netflix&amp;39's former CEO. (Credit:Netflix)In a statement today, Netflix said that McCarthy is moving on to &quot;pursue broader executive opportunities outside the company.&quot; David Wells, a Netflix's vice president of financial planning and analysis, will succeed McCarthy, who has served as Netflix's CFO for 11 years. The change officially occurs on Friday. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement that: &quot;Over the last few years, Barry has balanced his affection for Netflix and the excitement all of us have felt by the tremendous growth of the company--with his personal desire for broader professional opportunities. Barry concluded that now is the right time to seek out those opportunities, and we will be cheering for him.&quot; Efforts to reach McCarthy were unsuccessful, and Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said McCarthy would not be making any comment. The news comes at an inopportune time for the movie-rental company. In a year that has seen Netflix record a big increase subscribers, generate scores of positive headlines, and strike two large deals to license content from Hollywood studios, the company is again generating buzz in the entertainment sector, but now it appears to be mostly negative. Some at the big film studios and TV networks have said in recent weeks that Netflix is a threat to more profitable revenue sources and the company will have to pony up much more money to obtain high-quality content. It's either that or Netflix's streaming service will have little more than the video dregs to offer subscribers. The cable industry appears to be fanning the flames of much of this Netflix bashing. The latest example came yesterday at the UBS investor conference in New York. Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner's CEO, predicted that media companies would start to squeeze out aggregators like Netflix. According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Bewkes referred to the $100,000 that Netflix is reportedly offering to pay makers of in-season TV shows for each of their episodes &quot;a measly little offer.&quot; Bewkes' criticisms aside, Netflix has had a sensational year. The fight, however, for Web TV and digital distribution of films and TV shows isn't anywhere near over. It remains to be seen how much McCarthy's departure will affect Netflix as it switches from delivering physical goods to delivering digital media and as questions swirl around the company's ability to obtain high quality content. One thing to keep in mind is that a big part of the Netflix's success has been the nearly flawless execution by the company's management team which the CFO helped anchor. The successes the company has notched goes back to the little red envelopes. Netflix, headquartered in Los Gatos, Calif., delivered movies via the U.S. mail service and did it much more cost effectively than Blockbuster could rent videos out of brick-and-mortar stores. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year. When it came to the company's streaming service, Netflix linked the Web to living-room TVs by partnering with a score of Web-connected set-top boxes, TVs and handhelds. They didn't do this last week. They started doing this two years ago, long before their rivals. As for the &quot;broader executive opportunities&quot; McCarthy might be pursuing, it's easy to guess that the CFO of one of the most successful digital media companies would generate plenty of interest. Certainly, the Vudus, Boxee's or Google TVs of the world could use someone with McCarthy's skills and background. We'll have to wait and see where McCarthy turns up. It will also take time to determine how much his loss affects Netflix. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Android-themed bar opens in Tokyo]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-themed-bar-opens-in-tokyo</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-themed-bar-opens-in-tokyo</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maralyn45</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-themed-bar-opens-in-tokyo</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Asiajin)Looks like Tokyo's Cafe Ease, which offers aniPad for use on every table, has some competition. Bar Android (Facebook page in Japanese) has just set up shop as what appears to be the first Android-themed watering hole in Tokyo. Located in Shibuya, a few train stops from Cafe Ease, the pub is strangely open only on Mondays from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. But that's Japan for you.So if you're in that part of town, check it out. You'll find gingerbread cookies, possibly even frozen yogurt, eclairs, and doughnuts on the menu, with drinks and snacks at a reasonable 500 yen ($6) and meals going for 1,000 yen ($12). Though whether little green androids serve up the food, well, let us know.  In addition to hanging with other Android fans, patrons can charge their Android phones and chill out playing Angry Birds on their devices. Fortunately, rumor has it the bar also welcomes non-Android users. (Source: Crave Asia via Asiajin) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Senior Democrats rebuke TSA over screening rules]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=senior-democrats-rebuke-tsa-over-screening-rules</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=senior-democrats-rebuke-tsa-over-screening-rules</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Imminkamumb</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=senior-democrats-rebuke-tsa-over-screening-rules</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In a sign that the new airport screening procedures may be altered, two key politicians told the Transportation Security Administration today that the rules may be unconstitutional and a waste of government resources.&quot;We are concerned about the new enhanced pat-down screening protocols and urge you to reconsider the utilization of these protocols,&quot; Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the influential chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), chairman of a transportation subcommittee, told the TSA in a letter (PDF). They asked TSA to turn over internal documents, studies, and traveler complaints by December 1.As the Thanksgiving travel season nears, the reaction to TSA's new procedures has been visceral and sharply critical, driven by cell phone recordings of security line incidents, privacy and health concerns, and Web sites including the Drudge Report, which published a photograph of a hands-on examination of a nun with the caption: &quot;THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON.&quot; Monday's Colbert Report called them machines &quot;that X-ray your X-rated parts,&quot; and a software engineer from Oceanside, Calif. became an Internet sensation after telling a TSA screener: &quot;If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested.&quot; (The procedures announced late last month include pat-downs that can touch genitals and full-body scanners that use X-rays.)The letter demonstrates how some of the agency's political cover is evaporating and could signal a turning point in the protest among Washington politicians. On the other hand, it focuses only on the police-style physical searches, and neither Thompson nor Jackson Lee mentioned the controversial X-ray scanners.For its part, the TSA shows no visible signs of backing down. It declined to answer questions from CNET this afternoon.A statement from TSA chief John Pistole said, &quot;All pat-downs are done professionally and are designed to detect hidden explosives that could bring down a plane. Only a small percentage of passengers end up needing them. Pat-downs have long been one of the many security measures TSA and virtually every other nation has used in its risk-based approach to help detect hidden and dangerous items.&quot;Today's letter from the two House Democrats is an abrupt-about face from hearings held just a few days ago, in which Senate Democrats steadfastly backed the Obama administration.&quot;I think you're doing a terrific job,&quot; Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate committee overseeing air travel, told Pistole, a former FBI agent who's had the job since July. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, said a few minutes later that Americans &quot;have to understand that this is being done for their best interests and their safety.&quot;That echoed what Sen. Joe Lieberman, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said a day earlier. As CNET previously reported, he said the TSA is &quot;doing the right thing,&quot; and that the scans and more invasive pat-downs are &quot;necessary for the security--homeland security--of the American people.&quot; (Lieberman is an independent senator from Connecticut who caucuses with Democrats.)Since those pair of hearings, though, the public outcry has continued to grow, with new reports of Americans' encounters with TSA screeners popping up on the Internet, grabbing news headlines, and providing cable TV hosts with a series of anecdotes and poor-quality recordings of security line incidents. Amateur videos posted on YouTube, including one of a screaming 3-year-old (apparently not even a recent one) being treated none too gently by an airport screener, and bloggers describing how they were &quot;sexually assaulted&quot; after vaginal and labial touching, have put the agency in an unusually difficult position. A Washington Times editorial was titled &quot;Big Sister's police state,&quot; and a Forbes writer called for abolishing the TSA outright.This image of an adult man was taken using a Rapiscan Secure 1000 backscatter X-ray scanner.(Credit:John Wild (johnwild.info))One Web site, OptOutDay.com, is recommending what might be called strict civil obedience: it suggests that all air travelers on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving, choose &quot;to opt out of the naked body scanner machines&quot; that amount to &quot;virtual strip searches.&quot; Nudeoscope.com, DontScan.us, and StopDigitalStripSearches.org are organizing their own protests.Thanks to the federal stimulus legislation, TSA has been able to buy nearly 400 whole-body scanners and install them in approximately 70 airports around the country. A few weeks ago, with only a one-paragraph mention on the TSA's Web site, the screening procedures were changed to offer air travelers a choice of either full-body scans or what the TSA delicately calls &quot;enhanced pat-downs.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[RIM needles Apple on tablet browser speeds]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-needles-apple-on-tablet-browser-speeds</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-needles-apple-on-tablet-browser-speeds</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Pamela01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-needles-apple-on-tablet-browser-speeds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We're not saying Research In Motion's PlayBook tablet has a better browser thanApple's iPad (after all, it hasn't come out yet). We're just saying that RIM is saying its tablet has a better, or at least faster, browser. Surprised We're not. In a video posted Monday on RIM's official BlackBerry YouTube channel, the PlayBook and the iPad are placed side-by-side. Then Matthew, a member of the browser group at RIM, takes the tablets to the same sites on the same connection at the same time. The PlayBook appears to load the first site, a soccer site, notably faster than the iPad. Next up, he takes the tablets to CBS.com (hey, that's us!) and notes that the PlayBook runs Flash. Oh yes he did!But it should be noted that this is RIM showing off its browser in what's almost certainly a best case scenario for the PlayBook' we can't tell what the exact environment is, so we're not calling this one for RIM or Apple, we're just saying that RIM is getting all up in Apple's grill, meaning that this tablet war might get entertainingly ugly. At least on video. Of course, when the PlayBook comes out in the first quarter of next year, we'll be getting our hands on it for all sorts of tests of our own. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Experience Miles Davis' music with all five senses]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=experience-miles-davis-music-with-all-five-senses</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=experience-miles-davis-music-with-all-five-senses</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 14 Nov 2010 08:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>winmansufes</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=experience-miles-davis-music-with-all-five-senses</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Miles Davis' music has always been a feast for the ears, but now it can reach all five senses: hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting.It's the release of Miles Davis' &quot;Bitches Brew&quot; in a &quot;40th Anniversary Collector's Edition&quot; box set that inspired the album's new sensory explorations. The set comes with a 48-page book' three CDs (two CDs containing the original 94-plus minutes of music with six bonus tracks)' a third CD with a previously unreleased concert by Davis' group with Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira, and Gary Bartz at Tanglewood in August 1970' a DVD of a previously unreleased show with the Miles' Quintet lineup in Copenhagen in November 1969' and a pure analog (no digital processing whatsoever) 180-gram double-LP set. There's also a reprint of a terrific Rolling Stone magazine interview with Davis from December 13, 1969, and Miles had a lot on his mind. The man didn't hold back!The &quot;40th Anniversary Collector's Edition&quot; packaging is sumptuous, and the DVD's performances are really exciting, but it was the LPs that really got my mojo working. Man, the sound is reach-out-and-touch real' vinyl is the best way to connect with Davis' special magic. That said, I think the new CDs sound a bit better than the CDs in my 1998 &quot;The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions&quot; set. So you could touch, see, and hear &quot;Bitches Brew&quot; for 40 years, but now, thanks to Dogfish Head Craft Brewery you can smell and even taste it! Right, it's the &quot;Bitches Brew&quot; brew, which they describe as &quot;...a bold, dark beer that's a fusion of three threads imperial stout and one thread honey beer with gesho root.&quot; I guess that's beer connoisseur lingo for great beer, but when I checked it out while listening to the record, the deep-brown brew was the perfect complement to the music. It's powerful stuff, and it tasted just as fine with White Stripes blasting from the hi-fi. What can I say, everything sounds better after drinking the brew.The Brew&amp;39's brew(Credit:Dogfish)I suppose you could download the &quot;Bitches Brew&quot; album and just hear the music, but you have to buy the 40th Anniversary set to get the graphics and other extras. The Dogfish Brew is definitely not a downloadable, instant-gratification deal, but it'll taste great with or without musical accompaniment. &quot;Bitches&quot; is just one album, but the new box, &quot;The Genius of Miles Davis&quot; collects 43 CDs from the &quot;Metal Spine&quot; series in a custom-made, individually numbered limited-edition trumpet case. Only 1955 (the year Davis signed to Columbia Records) box sets will be available worldwide. The box also includes a trumpet mouthpiece replica of the 'Gustat' Heim 2 model used by Davis' a fine art lithograph by Davis' and a &quot;boutique-worthy&quot; T-shirt with an image of Davis playing his horn. Davis never made a bad record, and the box would be a great holiday gift for any serious jazz fan. The Genius box set comes in a real trumpet case!(Credit:Columbia Records)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Voter uses hand stamp on touch screen]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=voter-uses-hand-stamp-on-touch-screen</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=voter-uses-hand-stamp-on-touch-screen</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 03 Nov 2010 07:10:21 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>parwanresoh25341</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=voter-uses-hand-stamp-on-touch-screen</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Oh, yes, you all take your iPads everywhere with you. You love them. They are so simple even a child can use them without a manual.But not everyone is familiar with touch screens like theiPad's.You may be moved to democratic howling when I tell you that a voter in Washington, D.C., walked up to a touch-screen voting machine yesterday and didn't use his or her fingers.(Credit:Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)No, instead, he or she thumped down a hand stamp bearing the name of Adrian Fenty, the current mayor of D.C., who lost his re-election bid in the primary. According to DCist, it seems that some candidate organizations handed out these hand stamps in order to make things easier for voters who wanted to elect a write-in candidate.They don't happen to mention that the stamps work rather better when you're writing in on a paper ballot rather than an electronic voting machine.You might think that this is an apocryphal story that has been peddled by supporters of one party or another to discredit Fenty (who garnered nearly 28,000 write-in votes but didn't win). But might I say that you need only to go to the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics' Twitter feed to see confirmation of this story for yourself.Or you can just look at my screenshot.One day, everyone will grasp technology's nuances. That day is still a touch away.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Does Kinect hate your small apartment]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=does-kinect-hate-your-small-apartment</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=does-kinect-hate-your-small-apartment</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 03 Nov 2010 07:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Yara</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=does-kinect-hate-your-small-apartment</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Kinect might force those with small living rooms to make adjustments.(Credit:Russ Frushtick)In many ways, Microsoft's Kinect for theXbox 360 is an innovative concept: ditch the controller and let your body interact directly. Sounds great on paper, but the Kinect is a bit more greedy with its space requirements than either theNintendo Wii orPlayStation Move, and that could hurt folks with small apartments. Folks like me. I've had a rough experience with the Kinect in New York City, mainly because my living room has only about 6 feet between my 32-inch TV and the edge of my sofa. The Kinect requires a good 6 to 10 feet of space between the user and it, according to documentation in the games we received. That's a huge amount of room in most urban apartments, especially as that space also needs to be open and unobstructed. The Kinect's setup process suggests you move furniture if necessary, a task that's impossible for me, and an unkind expectation for most people. My living room is the controller (and it's tiny) I was able to get my sensor to recognize me and record my movements, but at the distance I had set it up I had to practically stand against the edge of my sofa. If I moved a foot closer, the Kinect would ask me to back up again, which amounted to a narrow landing strip of room to play in. And with at least 5 feet of space between myself and the Kinect needed to be maintained at all times, any freedom of mobility while playing was killed. What started as a promise of controller-free comfort slowly turned into a sensation of restraint. By comparison, Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort allows me to move anywhere, since its movement-sensing doesn't involve the IR component. I can stand up close or off to the far side of my TV, or even play sitting down. In the case of the Kinect, my background lighting also became a factor. The Kinect's wide-angle view covers an entire half of my living room' it's inevitable that the sensor would encounter a light in the background. Any seated people behind me, such as my wife reading a book on the sofa, also risk being recognized by the Kinect camera and ruining my game. Bright daylight also posed a problem' in midafternoon, my southern-exposure apartment floods with light that blinds can do little to remedy. The Kinect was noticeably worse under these conditions. Why I have to play alone Multiplayer games, based on our first round of launch games, are played side by side...provided you have the space for that, too. Games like Kinect Adventures delineate two play zones: &quot;Good&quot; and &quot;Best.&quot; Two-player games are possible only in &quot;Best,&quot; a strip of playing-space a good 2 feet behind &quot;Good.&quot; My living room's front-of-sofa zone is &quot;Good&quot; only. I could only get to &quot;Best&quot; by standing on my sofa. Some titles, such as Joy Ride, allow multiplayer at closer ranges, but it's a hit-and-miss affair. Even worse, the Kinect's fine-tune settings involved focusing on a face icon on an included card that I needed to press up against my far wall. Clearly, I don't have enough space. I'm not the only one. We asked other people about space limitations with the Kinect, and found city commiseration. MTV's Russ Frushtick said, &quot;Ideally, you need 8 square feet of wide-open space. I don't think anyone in New York has that. I basically had to make a makeshift shelf behind my TV, since it wouldn't rest on top of my TV, which is sloped. With that, I just barely had enough space.&quot; My fellow CNET gamer Dan Ackerman had the same problems in his living room, except he balanced his Kinect on the back of a Halo: Reach Collector's Edition case: &quot;I had about 6 feet from the front lip of the couch to the camera. This allowed for the 'good' but not the 'better' play space for most games, although I had to lean backward over the couch to even get that to register. I'm sure the space requirements seem less onerous in areas better suited for spacious suburban living rooms--Redmond, perhaps.&quot; Small TVs not invited Since 6 feet is the bare minimum of space needed between a player and the Kinect, there's also some subtle discrimination against small TVs. According to CNET's TV buyer's guide, 6 feet of distance equates to a 42-inch screen. Seated a foot back on a sofa, that screen size should even be larger. That's a judgment made in terms of ideal home theater immersion' you could play games on a smaller screen from that distance, but it'll be a challenge on your eyes. My 32-inch HDTV was hard to make out even at 6 feet away' I'm normally sitting closer when I play games. I'm sure most owners of small TVs naturally set up their living spaces more tightly as well, adding even more potential problems to Kinect setup. Another consideration for people with kids: as CNET's David Katzmeier pointed out, the Kinect assumes you're playing in a living room, or some other spacious family entertainment zone. What if the Xbox 360 is in a kid's bedroom While a Wii or a PlayStation Move could make do with smaller spaces (the Move's minimum recommended range, 3 feet, is half the distance), the Kinect would be rendered useless. More than half the world's population already lives in cities. If these people have apartments my size or smaller, they'll all have problems. The Kinect could be the game industry's first space-discriminating peripheral. Kinect, I want to use you' you're just making it awfully hard for me. Read CNET's review of the Kinect, and read our hands-on opinion of the six launch games. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Ask Maggie: On 4G future-proofing and buying prepaid traveler plans]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ask-maggie-on-4g-future-proofing-and-buying-prepaid-traveler-plans</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ask-maggie-on-4g-future-proofing-and-buying-prepaid-traveler-plans</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:23:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sophia001</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ask-maggie-on-4g-future-proofing-and-buying-prepaid-traveler-plans</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A tech consumer's worst nightmare is buying a hot new device today only to find that it's obsolete or outdated within a few months or a year.With the quick pace of innovation in wireless technology these days, it's a dilemma that is hard to avoid. This week I break the hard news to a reader that 3G phones of today won't be compatible with the ultra fast 4G networks of tomorrow.I also try to help a Canadian reader, who travels to the U.S., figure out the best option for buying prepaid voice and data services to be used on his existing phone. Surprisingly, it's not as easy as you think it would be. And finally, I answer a question about using the Motorola Droid X as a wireless modem.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.Future-proofing for 4GHi Maggie,I recently called AT&amp;T's cancellation department and informed them that, due to my broken HTC Fuse being out of warranty, I was seriously considering canceling my 2-year contract 10 months early, paying the $125 early termination fee, and going to Sprint's cheaper pricing, highly rated 4G phones, and new 4G network.AT&amp;T offered a pretty good deal to get me to stay. They said they would essentially make me eligible for a new customer offer that is $25 less than the pricing that was advertised, with the exception of iPhones. This sounded good to me, but I was concerned about when AT&amp;T would deploy 4G. I indicated to them that I wasn't crazy about being locked into a new phone for two years that couldn't support AT&amp;T's new 4G network when it eventually gets rolled out. The cancellation department told me that as long as the device I selected worked off AT&amp;T's HSPA or HSPA+network, my device would be 4G capable once AT&amp;T made the jump.Is that true In reading your recent column about what 4G means, I see no mention of AT&amp;T, and, from what I gather, when they do deploy 4G it will be using LTE.The Samsung Captivate is a phone I am considering buying and the specs indicate that it does work on an HSPA+ network. Any help you can provide as soon as possible would be appreciated, as I am stuck in limbo and need to make a decision very quickly.Thanks so much,Will Dear Will,Congratulations on negotiating a better deal with AT&amp;amp'T. That's terrific. Unfortunately, the sales representative you were talking to is misinformed about whether existing 3G phones can be upgraded to 4G. First, let me explain where AT&amp;amp'T is in its network upgrade cycle. AT&amp;amp'T is currently testing 4G LTE technology. The company expects to begin deploying the LTE service next year. It plans to cover 70 million to 75 million people with the 4G LTE service by the end of 2011.Meanwhile, the company has been upgrading its current 3G network with HSPA+ technology. HSPA+ is a 3G wireless technology that offers speeds similar to so-called 4G technologies, such as LTE and WiMax. Theoretical download speeds for HSPA+ are 21Mbps. And real life speeds are comparable to LTE and WiMax, which offer speeds somewhere in the 3Mbps to 10Mbps range. AT&amp;T is expected to have the HSPA+ upgrade completed by the end of 2010 and the network should cover about 250 million potential customers. So in terms of coverage, AT&amp;T is expected to offer HSPA+ speeds throughout most of its network this year. And it will offer LTE service to a portion of its footprint by the end of 2011.But even though the network will be completed this year, AT&amp;T does not actually have any handsets that can take advantage of the new technology. Currently, AT&amp;T does not offer any HSPA+ handsets. The Samsung Captivate that you mentioned in your question is not HSPA+ compatible. The only HSPA+ handsets I am aware of are offered on T-Mobile USA's network: the HTC G2 and the HTC MyTouch. (T-Mobile USA is also upgrading to HSPA+).The 3G handsets that AT&amp;amp'T offers today will not be compatible with either the HSPA+ network nor will they work on the future LTE network. That said, AT&amp;T has announced an HSPA+ laptop card that is HSPA+ compatible and is supposedly software upgradeable to LTE.This is very confusing for consumers. And it doesn't help that you are getting misinformation from the AT&amp;T sales representative. But in general, most technologies can be designed to be backward compatible, meaning that a phone designed for LTE or HSPA+ networks will also work on AT&amp;T's older networks. But it's very rare for a device to be able to work on future technologies, such an HSPA phone working on an LTE network.In the case of LTE, the technology is still evolving. There is currently only one handset on the market that supports LTE. It's being used on MetroPCS's network. Verizon Wireless executives have said they expect to launch LTE-capable handsets in the first quarter of 2011.In the future, AT&amp;T may work with a device maker to put the software upgradeable technology in new phones, which would future-proof HSPA devices. But that hasn't happened yet. So all current AT&amp;amp'T phones do not have this capability.In summary, if speed is really important to you, you might want to wait a little longer for an HSPA+ phone from AT&amp;T. That said, I wouldn't get too hung up on waiting for an LTE phone. AT&amp;T's HSPA+ network will be plenty fast. And it will cover a much wider footprint. It's very likely you won't live or work in an area that has consistent LTE coverage for some time. Another thing to consider is that the first LTE phones will likely suck tons of battery juice, so you might want to wait a couple of years anyway for device models that have better battery performance.Roaming in AmericaDear Maggie,I travel from Canada to the U.S. regularly and am looking to purchase a prepaid SIM card to use in my unlocked GSM phone. Are there plans where I can buy a bundle of minutes for both calling and data that are good for about a year What I'm trying to avoid is roaming charges that I'm incurring when using my phone in the U.S. Any suggestionsThanks,TedDear Ted,For such a simple question, you'd probably expect a simple answer. But unfortunately, U.S. carriers don't want to make it too simple for people to get low-cost services for occasional use.That said, there is a way to get the service you want and need, but it might take a little work to figure out a plan that works best for you. First, I suggest looking at AT&amp;T and T-Mobile USA. These are national U.S. carriers with large footprints, and good to decent coverage in most large U.S. cities. So the coverage will likely be sufficient for most areas you'd likely visit in the U.S. AT&amp;T and T-Mobile also happen to use the SIM-based GSM cell phone standard, which means you can swap out your SIM card and put in a new one.Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, along with some other well-known prepaid brands in the U.S., such as MetroPCS and Cricket, are CDMA-based. If you use their pay-as-you-go services, you'll have to get a new phone. And it sounds like you'd rather use the phone you already have.Unfortunately, figuring out how to get a SIM for an unlocked phone on either AT&amp;T's or T-Mobile's Web sites is difficult, so I called representatives from AT&amp;T and T-Mobile to find out the best options for you. Depending on how often you visit and how much you plan to use your phone, there are several options.T-Mobile:T-Mobile said you can buy a prepaid SIM card for an unlocked phone for $6.99 over the phone or online. If you buy it in the store it will cost closer to $25. With this prepaid SIM, you have the option of selecting from several different plans. You can get prepaid plans that allow you to add money for voice and texting starting in $10 increments. The money must be used within a certain time period, such as a month or three months. You can also add $100 to your service, and service will be good for a year. Money is deducted from your account depending on how long you talk.The T-Mobile representative I spoke with said that you could not add smartphone data services to a prepaid phone unless it was on a monthly basis. Instead, he suggested buying a monthly Talk, Text, and Data plan for $30 a month. It gives you 1,500 minutes of talk or texting and 30MB of data for the month. The service does not require a contract. You can use it for one month or for multiple months. Unless you sign up to have your credit card automatically charged, the service will only be active for the month you paid for it.The only thing to be careful about with this plan and all prepaid plans is that the account must be active every three months or so or you forfeit your phone number. This means you have to add money to the account in regular intervals to avoid losing your number and the value of your account. If you let your account and phone number expire, you can still sign up for service. But you'll just have a different phone number, which may or may not be an issue for you.AT&amp;TAT&amp;T's plan is more complicated. And what complicates it further is that two different sales associates gave me conflicting information on how you can get a prepaid SIM card. AT&amp;T's PR team also did not respond by press time to my request to clarify the situation.So here is what I was told the sales reps. One sales representative told me over the phone that you could buy a $5.99 SIM card over the phone that will work in your unlocked phone from Canada. Then you can sign up for a GoPhone prepaid voice service. She said you could sign up for a separate pay-as-you go data service called MediaNet.Another sales representative, who I chatted with online, contradicted this and said that the $5.99 SIM card is only for monthly AT&amp;T customers. He said you cannot buy the GoPhone prepaid service without buying an actual GoPhone phone. He also said he wasn't sure that a GoPhone SIM would work in an unlocked phone.If the second representative is correct and you need a special GoPhone SIM to get prepaid service, then I'd suggest buying a cheap GoPhone online and using that SIM card. Refurbished GoPhones are as cheap as $9.99 online. The other option is to go to an AT&amp;T store and ask to buy a GoPhone SIM or a GoPhone.But even the sales rep said you'd likely pay less buying the GoPhone than buying the GoPhone SIM card separately. This makes no sense to me, but my guess is that AT&amp;T is trying to discourage people from buying prepaid SIM cards to plug into their own devices.Once you have a prepaid-ready SIM card that will work on your phone, you can sign up for the GoPhone services. Like T-Mobile's prepaid plans, AT&amp;T offers a range of prepaid voice options. The amount of time that you can use the service before it expires depends on the amount of money added to the account. There is a $100 option that offers service for a year. If you want to add data to the service, you can buy a separate MediaNet data service package. For $4.99, you can get 1MB of data for the month. And $19.99 gets you 100MB of data for the month. I hope this information is helpful. Because this is such a confusing topic, and because even the operator offers customers conflicting information, it would be great if people shared their thoughts and experiences. So please feel free to share your comments in the section below or send me an e-mail and I will add the useful tips to the story.Tethering DroidsDear Maggie,Is it possible to use the Motorola Droid X smartphone to connect my laptop to the Internet How much would that costSincerely,Donald Dear Donald,Yes, the Droid X is one of several phones from Verizon Wireless that allows you to turn the phone into a mobile hot spot and connect up to five devices to it. The cost of the plan is $20 a month on top of your voice and data service fees. This plan gives you 2GB worth of data for all the tethered devices and overages are 5 cents for every megabyte you exceed over the 2GB limit.I doublechecked with CNET Reviews editor Bonnie Cha, who tests smartphones, and she put together a quick list of other smartphones on Verizon Wireless that offer this capability:BlackBerry Curve 8530Palm Pre PlusBlackBerry Bold 9650Motorola Droid XMotorolaDroid 2Samsung FascinateSprint also offers a couple of phones that offer this capability, including the HTC Evo 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[In race with Nvidia, AMD launches its fastest new graphics chips]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-race-with-nvidia-amd-launches-its-fastest-new-graphics-chips</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-race-with-nvidia-amd-launches-its-fastest-new-graphics-chips</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>acaiberriesfx</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-race-with-nvidia-amd-launches-its-fastest-new-graphics-chips</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advanced Micro Devices is introducing its fastest new graphics chips today for enthusiast gamers who want split-second 3D graphics performance on their gaming PCs. The move is part of AMD&amp;'s latest efforts to stay in the graphics horse race with Nvidia and Intel.The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker is launching its AMD Radeon 6900 series of graphics cards with its second-generation of graphics for Microsoft&amp;'s DirectX 11 architecture. (DirectX 11 enables computers to run the coolest 3D graphics special effects). The series includes the new AMD Radeon HD 6970 and AMD Radeon HD 6950 graphics cards, which house the graphics chips in an add-in card in a computer. Prices for the cards start at $299. For gamers, that means that they can buy screaming-fast graphics chips at prices that aren&amp;'t going to completely bust their budgets.The new chips show that AMD is still dedicated to launching stand-alone graphics chips under the Radeon brand name. Meanwhile, AMD is forging ahead with combo chips, which combine a microprocessor and a graphics chip on the same piece of silicon. Those chips will begin selling early next year under the AMD Fusion brand name and will compete with Intel&amp;'s combo chips, code-named Sandybridge.While the combo chips will take some time to take off, the stand-alone chips like the ones AMD launched today will be critical for high-end gaming PCs, which are racing ahead of the game consoles in terms of what they can display.The new stand-alone AMD graphics cards will compete with Nvidia&amp;'s recently launched GeForce GTX 580 and 570 graphics chips, which sell for list prices of $519 and $349, respectively. The AMD chips feature Eyefinity, which allows a single graphics card to display images on as many as six different monitors at the same time. AMD says more than 60 games now take advantage of Eyefinity.The new chips have more tessellation, a special effect that makes surfaces of objects appear to look more realistic. The new chips have about 2.9 times the performance of AMD&amp;'s earlier AMD Radeon HD 5870 graphics chip. Tessellation is the feature that most distinguishes Nvidia&amp;'s graphics cards. AMD&amp;'s new chips also have other image quality and power consumption improvements, resulting in a 10 percent improvement in performance.Overall, the high-end AMD Radeon HD 6970 graphics chip offers 2.5 times the game performance of AMD&amp;'s fastest graphics chip from 2008. The new Radeon chips also have non-graphics features, such as parallel processing that allows for better video playback quality.These kinds of graphics chips are among the most complicated in the technology world today. The AMD Radeon HD 6970 has more than 2.64 billion electronic components known as transistors, which are the microscopic building blocks of chips. Nvidia&amp;'s GeForce GTX 580 chip has 3 billion transistors.The AMD chip runs at 880 megahertz, has 1,536 processing cores, and has a compute performance of 2.7 teraflops and can push pixels through the chip at a rate of 28.2 gigapixels per second. By comparison, the Nvidia chip runs at 772 megahertz, has 512 processors, and has a compute performance of 1.58 teraflops. It can process pixels at a rate of 37.1 gigapixels per second.Previous Story: Oodle&amp;'s upgraded marketplace is all about friendsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: AMD Radeon, graphics chips, RadeonCompanies: advanced micro devices, Amd, Intel, Nvidia          Tags: AMD Radeon, graphics chips, RadeonCompanies: advanced micro devices, Amd, Intel, NvidiaDean 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.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[Did Facebook just hint at its answer to Groupon]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=did-facebook-just-hint-at-its-answer-to-groupon</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=did-facebook-just-hint-at-its-answer-to-groupon</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Pamela01</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=did-facebook-just-hint-at-its-answer-to-groupon</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Facebook just revealed that ita4a4s testing a new feature called a4ABuy with Friendsa4 for its site, which will allow users to share their deals on virtual goods &amp;8212' and I&amp;'m starting to wonder whether Facebook could bring something similar to non-virtual deals.Commerce product marketing manager Deb Liu described the feature on-stage today at the Inside Social Apps InFocus conference in San Francisco. (Ia4a4m at the conference, but I was busy writing about other news, so for this story Ia4a4m relying on the coverage from Forbes and All Things Digital.) The idea is to let users tell their friends about virtual goods purchases that theya4a4ve made in Facebook games. Most interestingly, if a user unlocks a deal, they might be able to share it with their friends.Facebook has constantly worked to find the right balance in allowing developers to promote themselves in users&amp;' newsfeeds without users feeling that they&amp;'re being spammed. (Chief technology officer Bret Taylor said earlier today that Facebook has reduced spam by 95 percent in the past year.) Buy With Friends offers a possible solution to that problem, because a message about a random Facebook game will probably seem much less annoying when it actually benefits you, say if it tells you, a4AYour friend has unlocked this deal for you &amp;8212' get 40 percent off this special monster food.a4More than 50 percent of users in the test program elected to share their purchases, Liu said.Again, this is all about virtual goods for now, but it might carry over nicely into the Deals product that Facebook announced last November. Right now, businesses can offer different kinds of deals as a reward for check ins on Facebook Places. What if you could then share those deals with your friends For example, you might win a discounted pair of jeans if you check in to Levia4a4s often enough, then you could offer your friends a similar discount. It would be a way for Facebook to compete with popular group-buying site Groupon in a way that doesn&amp;'t just copy Groupona4a4s features.Next Story: Kongregate takes another crack at launching online arcade on Android Previous Story: Can there be a tech bubble without an IPO frenzy (video)PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Buy With Friends, Facebook Deals, Facebook PlacesCompanies: FacebookPeople: Deb Liu          Tags: Buy With Friends, Facebook Deals, Facebook PlacesCompanies: FacebookPeople: Deb LiuAnthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter. 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[Missed out on Crunchies tickets Here&'s your second chance]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=missed-out-on-crunchies-tickets-herersquos-your-second-chance</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=missed-out-on-crunchies-tickets-herersquos-your-second-chance</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>fredericko</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=missed-out-on-crunchies-tickets-herersquos-your-second-chance</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We&amp;'re releasing the second wave of tickets right now for the fourth annual Crunchies, the startup awards co-hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm, and VentureBeat.The first set of tickets sold out in 90 minutes, so if you want one, you should move fast. Again, the ceremony will be held on the evening of January 21 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco. Tickets cost $75 and include both the ceremony (which is always packed with big names from the tech world) and the afterparty at the Exploratorium next door.Buy your tickets here.If you&amp;'re too slow today, there will be two more chances to buy tickets in January. (That&amp;'s what I said last time, but today&amp;'s release is apparently a last-minute decision in response to all the ticket requests).Meanwhile, you really, truly, are running out of time to nominate your favorite startups and entrepreneurs for the Crunchies. You can nominate once per category per day, but the nominations close at 11:59pm Pacific time on December 24. Submit your nominations here.Next Story: Sony launches its music-streaming service Previous Story: TV app Tunerfish checks in to AndroidPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: crunchies, Crunchies 2010          Tags: crunchies, Crunchies 2010Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.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[Is RIM flexing its muscles by kicking out popular chat app Kik]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-rim-flexing-its-muscles-by-kicking-out-popular-chat-app-kik</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-rim-flexing-its-muscles-by-kicking-out-popular-chat-app-kik</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>restaurantpaoli</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-rim-flexing-its-muscles-by-kicking-out-popular-chat-app-kik</guid>
<description><![CDATA[[Updated:RIM has responded with a vague statement, below]In an odd move of aggression, RIM has yanked the popular chat application Kik off its Blackberry phones, and has wiped its hands of anything to do with the young company.All with no reasonable explanation, according to Kik.The apparent aggressive move against a developer is strange, because RIM is trying to recover from the blow to its lead in the smartphone race &amp;8212' and the actions against Kik may ruffle the feathers of the developer community RIM is trying to court. Both Applea4a4s iPhone and Googlea4a4s Android have gained popularity at RIMa4a4s expense, in part because RIM has been slow to offer an engaging interface with cool mobile applications.Perhaps more troubling, RIM appears to be wielding its strength against a small company that had worked with RIMa4a4s engineers closely over almost two years. RIM executives had even used Kik&amp;'s beta version over the summer, and hadna4a4t expressed any concerns about it at that time, according to Kik chief executive Ted Livingston &amp;8212' himself a former RIM employee.Moreover, RIM had invited Kik to be part of its developer event when RIM unveiled its Playbook tablet, and Kik had even vetted most of its press announcements with RIM to make sure the bigger company was content. Only when Kik became an overnight success &amp;8212' seeing unprecedented growth in its first two weeks &amp;8212' did RIM take action against it. Could it be because RIM now sees Kik as a competitor to RIMa4a4s own BlackBerry Messengera4ABang, they have a problem with it,a4 Livingston told me in a phone call, referring to the sudden about-face in attitude. Livingston <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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