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<title>Haaze.com / Luisa01 / Voted News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[D'oh! D'oh! Homer Simpson now on TomTom]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=doh-doh-homer-simpson-now-on-tomtom</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=doh-doh-homer-simpson-now-on-tomtom</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mkapahuuuh</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=doh-doh-homer-simpson-now-on-tomtom</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:TomTom)&quot;Doughnuts. Is there anything they can't do&quot; OK, that isn't one of the famous Homer Simpson quotes drivers will now find on the TomTom GPS app for theiPhone. But with Homer as a co-pilot, drivers need to get in the spirit of Homer-isms: &quot;Make a U-turn. Ha ha, you've goofed. D'oh!&quot;TomTom today announced that the voice of Homer Simpson, (Dan Castellaneta) of the long-running TV series &quot;The Simpsons,&quot; can be downloaded for $5.99. The Homer Simpson voice requires version 1.7 of the TomTom App (available for $49.99) installed. &quot;Homer's skills will help keep drivers and fans entertained in a light-hearted and familiar way. It's exciting to have him onboard!&quot; said Alain Pakiry, senior vice president of marketing at TomTom. The Homer Simpson voice for the TomTom App is available in the U.S., as well as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and Sweden. And, of course, Springfield.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Canadians who tweet election results face jail]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=canadians-who-tweet-election-results-face-jail</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=canadians-who-tweet-election-results-face-jail</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2011 07:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Iloerika</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=canadians-who-tweet-election-results-face-jail</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It's lovely when old laws try to prevent new ways. It's like your grandma trying to take yourPlayStation away.Canada, for example, has section 329 of its Elections Act. It tells anyone who happens to be insensitive or insensate enough to transmit election results that they will be fined 25,000 quite valuable Canadian dollars--and, perhaps, be offered a mere five years in jail.So along come those bespectacled nerdy types who go and invent things like Twitter--mechanisms that allow you to be a town crier to an especially large and populous town. Now a Canadian in Montreal can broadcast an election result there before the polls have closed in Vancouver. Such a heinous act could clearly influence some hemp-adoring resident of the Canadian west coast to change his or her vote--or perhaps not even bother to wander to the polling station.John Enright, a spokesman for Election Canada, told The Huffington Post: &quot;We're not blind to the fact that social media has taken on its own dimension, especially among youth. As it stands now, 329 is still on the books. People should act in consequence to 329 and the possible repercussions.&quot;(Credit:Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Oh, but surely it could not be that tweetly enthusiastic electors will be confronted by mounties and led off to solitary confinement, deprived of their locally produced BlackBerrys.Well, it could. The law, you see, doesn't stop you from phoning a friend to tell them that some candidate favoring breaking ties with the U.S. and moving Canada to the rainforest has beaten out the local conservative.That would be mere communication. What 329 stands against is transmission. Yes, the mass loud-hailering of election results is a threat to democracy.Canadian broadcasters CBC and CTV have tried to get courts to erase this law before Election Night on May 2. But the courts won't hear of it before that date.And a blogger called Paul Bryan deliberately broke the law in 2000. It took seven years for the Canadian court system to decide that he was a bad boy and should be fined $1,000 (he also incurred rather large legal costs).You will be frozen like a margarita on discovering that there are now more tweeting dissenters in Canadian ranks. For there is a new Twitter hashtag--tweettheresults--which will create a community of resistance around the results-transmitting renegades.As one rebel, Susie Erjavec Parker--who describes herself as &quot;wife, Momma, baker consultant and leader--tweeted: &quot;How ignorant are CDN voters if tweettheresults would influence someone's vote Are we that uninformed, easily swayed, and immature really&quot;Ah, ignorance. Now, that would be a topic for another day. In the meantime, I am sure that additional Canadian jail cells have been readied for the mass arrests that will, no doubt ensue May 2.Perhaps they'll open a special jail camp and call it Guantweetamo.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comcast brings 105Mbps service to major markets]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comcast-brings-105mbps-service-to-major-markets</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comcast-brings-105mbps-service-to-major-markets</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jereljrrjr</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comcast-brings-105mbps-service-to-major-markets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Comcast is now delivering ultra high-speed Internet service to more than 40 million homes around the U.S., the company announced today.Dubbed Extreme 105, the offering provides customers with 105Mbps download speeds and up to 10Mbps upload speeds. The service is available in several major markets, including San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, the cable provider said. It plans to roll it out in other markets going forward.Reports of Comcast's 105Mbps service cropped up on the Web last year when a forum user posted what was claimed to be a bill from the cable provider marketing the new offering. A company spokesman told CNET today that the company has been &quot;quietly rolling this out for several months.&quot;Comcast said that it will be offering Extreme 105 to new and existing customers for &quot;an introductory rate of $105 per month for 12 months.&quot; The deal is available as part of the company's Triple Play bundle, which includes Internet, phone, and television service. The company spokesman said the cable provider will offer Extreme 105 as a standalone service for $199.95 per month. In addition, those who sign up for Extreme 105 will receive a wireless gateway for the home. As one might expect, opting for Extreme 105 will deliver vastly improved download speeds. According to Comcast, a 4GB HD film will download in five minutes over Extreme 105, compared to 1 hour and 30 minutes over 6Mbps service. A music album containing 10 songs will take just three seconds to download on Extreme 105, the company said.Customers living in the supported markets can sign up now.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[LinkedIn updates developer access]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=linkedin-updates-developer-access</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=linkedin-updates-developer-access</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>raphaelhea</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=linkedin-updates-developer-access</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The new LinkedIn Company Insider module lets Web users see who they know at a company they&amp;39're reading about.(Credit:LinkedIn)LinkedIn is releasing today an update of its tools for developers. New functions will allow Web developers to embed member or company profiles on Web sites, including listings of who the user knows in common with other people, or who he or she knows at a company. The Sign In with LinkedIn feature has been updated to be callable from Javascript.To differentiate from that other, much larger social network, LinkedIn is strongly pushing the professional nature of its network. As LinkedIn vice president of product management Adam Nash says, &quot;There are a lot of apps where it's valuable to come in with your professional identity.&quot; Likewise, he says, there are content sites that people read primarily in a professional capacity, and making a story connect to a reader's professional network could be a big benefit.  The LinkedIn Open Platform launched more than a year ago. Popular apps that use it include Tweetdeck, Microsoft Outlook 2010, and Xobni.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Firefox for Android gets it mostly right (video)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firefox-for-android-gets-it-mostly-right-video</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firefox-for-android-gets-it-mostly-right-video</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>gonzaloles</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firefox-for-android-gets-it-mostly-right-video</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Message in a bottle, high-tech style]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=message-in-a-bottle-high-tech-style</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=message-in-a-bottle-high-tech-style</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jacelynwyl</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=message-in-a-bottle-high-tech-style</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Plastiki skipper David de Rothschild prepares to release the bottle into the Pacific Ocean last April. The bottle has a special satellite tag inside that allows it to be tracked on a daily basis.(Credit:The Plastiki Expedition)For nearly a year, a glass bottle has been heading west on the high seas, bringing with it a message of the precariousness of the oceans. And at every step of its long journey, it has told the world where it is. Meet the message in a bottle, high-tech edition.For 17 years, California artist Jay Little has been putting traditional messages in standard bottles and sending them seaward, hoping that they would one day encounter someone and create a new relationship. But for each of more than 200 attempts, it was all analog: Until someone found one of the bottles, Little had no idea where they were or even if they were still afloat.But last year, Little set out to throw some technology at the problem, and in a partnership with David de Rothschild, the skipper of the Plastiki Expedition, a new bottle was tossed into the North Equatorial Current, and it has been phoning home every day since.Little said that with the help of a biologist friend who regularly tracks penguins in the wilds Antarctic, this new bottle was put into the Pacific Ocean complete with a satellite tag that is constantly sending its location and direction to the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Each day, Little gets that information and each afternoon, he uploads it to a Google Map on the Plastiki Web site that shows the public precisely where the bottle is.The bottle, including its satellite tag(Credit:The Plastiki Expedition)As of yesterday, Little said, the bottle--a nine-liter, 20-inch-long glass behemoth complete with the satellite tag, an antenna, and some ballast to keep it upright, was making steady progress west and was just onshore of the Philippine island of Mindanao. Little is offering a $250 bounty for its recovery.Little, who lives in California's Marin County, worked with the crew of the Plastiki, the all-recyclable plastic catamaran skippered by de Rothschild, since both are trying to raise awareness of the ongoing dangers to ocean ecosystems by garbage and other waste polluting the seas. De Rothschild took the bottle with him when the Plastiki launched March 20 from Sausalito, Calif., and last April 24, he launched it while about 840 miles south of Hawaii.Since then, according to the data it's been sending out, we know that the bottle has been heading steadily west, except when it got stuck in a gyre and spent five weeks going in circles between two opposing currents. Eventually, though, the bottle broke free and resumed its westward path, Little said.Little told CNET that it was &quot;appropriate&quot; that the bottle got stuck in the very gyre--complete with huge amounts of garbage--that the crew of the Plastiki had set out to study on its 5,000 mile journey from California to Australia.He explained that while the bottle has gotten to within 2.5 miles of the island of Mindanao, there's still only a 1-in-10 chance of someone finding it. But Little is hoping that by getting the word out that the bottle is approaching land, those odds may increase. &quot;It's the first time I know where my bottle is while it's [moving] around,&quot; he said.If the bottle escapes detection in the next few days, Little said, it could probably keep on sending out data about its location for another year or so, and the bottle itself can probably stay afloat for several more years.Previous bottles he's sent into the oceans have tended to get weighed down by algae, but Little said that he engineered this one to stay tighter in order to protect the satellite tag inside. Still, he said, it wouldn't likely survive a collision with a rock, and if it does go underwater, the mission is probably over.Over the years, Little has put more than 230 bottles into the oceans, and just 22 have been discovered. Each has been stuffed with a two-page, hand-decorated note asking for help with his long-term project to help get the word out about the oceans. He's basically a non-digital guy who realized it was time to give technology a chance.&quot;I've been the anti-tech guy for years, using these bottles,&quot; Little said, &quot;and I finally thought it would be a good change to have a Web-based system to follow it. The bottle itself catches me up on technology. It's definitely harder to watch a bottle than it is to release it and let it go.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[RIM says it will pull drunken-driving apps]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-says-it-will-pull-drunken-driving-apps</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-says-it-will-pull-drunken-driving-apps</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mark876611</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-says-it-will-pull-drunken-driving-apps</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Following yesterday's letter from four U.S. senators that asked Apple, Google, and Research In Motion to remove applications that could help drunken drivers evade police checkpoints and other law enforcement efforts, RIM has agreed to the request, saying such applications will soon be removed from its BlackBerry App World.&quot;RIM's decision to remove these apps from their online store proves that when it comes to drunk driving, there should not be an app for that,&quot; Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement this morning. Schumer had been joined in the effort by fellow Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.).The group didn't name specific apps in its letter, which was addressed to Google CEO Eric Schmidt' Scott Forstall, Apple's senior VP ofiPhone software' and James L. Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis, co-CEOs of RIM. It did, however, cite an application with a database of DUI (driving under the influence) checkpoints, and one that crowdsourced finding those same checkpoints and sharing them with a user base of &quot;more than 10 million.&quot; Each of the three mobile-application marketplaces has its own set of rules and guidelines. Apple formally introduced its guidelines in September, following criticism that its approval process did not clearly spell out what application makers were and were not allowed to include, short of the code itself. RIM's rules are viewable here, and they prohibit anything &quot;that is illegal (e.g., against any criminal, civil, or statutory law or regulation).&quot; As for Google, its Android Market policies take a similar stance to RIM's, putting the kibosh on apps that engage in the &quot;promotion of dangerous and illegal activities.&quot; Google denies such apps and can also terminate the creator's publishing account.A Google spokesperson told CNET that it would remove apps that violate its Android content policies, but that the note from the senators had not named specific applications. However based on the description of functionality alone, the company said that the apps do not appear to violate those policies.Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the original letter.According to the announcement by Schumer's office, the apps in question--which remain unnamed--will be removed by RIM within the next day or so. What's unclear is if the application developers have been given a heads-up or a chance to remove features prior to any action. CNET has not yet heard back from RIM about whether that's the case. Updated at 2:34 p.m. with comment from Google.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Android still No. 1 smartphone OS on ad network]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-still-no--1-smartphone-os-on-ad-network</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-still-no--1-smartphone-os-on-ad-network</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:11:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Leeta</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=android-still-no--1-smartphone-os-on-ad-network</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Millennial Media) Android led smartphone platforms last month with a 51 percent share of all ad impressions tracked by mobile ad network Millennial Media, according to its Mobile Mix report released today. That number was down a few percentage points from January but still surpassed the 27 percent grabbed by Apple's iOS. But Apple and iOS took the top spot in other areas.Among other major players, Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS claimed 17 percent of all impressions, leaving Nokia's Symbian with 2 percent and Microsoft's Windows Mobile with just 1 percent.Beyond its standard findings, Millennial Media has kicked off a new category for Connected Devices, which looks specifically attablets and gadgets such as theiPod Touch and certain game consoles rather than smartphones. And in this category, Apple led the pack.Thanks to the popularity of the iPad, Apple's iOS took home 80 percent of all ad impressions in the new category last month. That compared with Android, which accounted for 17 percent, due largely to the growth of Samsung's Galaxy Tab.Looking specifically at the device makers, Apple again won the top spot with 28 percent of all ad impressions. Among the 30 mobile devices tracked by Millennial Media, the iPhone took first place with a 16.5 percent share, while the iPod Touch trailed in second place. TheiPad found itself sixth on the list. Ten of the top 30 devices(Credit:Millennial Media) How did the newly-launched Verizon iPhone fare in February Tracking the phone for a total of two weeks last month, Millennial Media found that it scooped up 4.5 percent of all ad impressions among U.S. iPhones, with AT&amp;amp'T accounting for the rest. Android device makers also did well for the month. Samsung reclaimed second place over HTC with a 23 percent share of all ad impressions, a 50 percent boost from January. In total, Samsung accounted for seven of the top 30 mobile devices, with its Galaxy Tab tablet and its Fascinate, Forte, and Captivate smartphones hitting the list for the first time. Dropping to third place, HTC captured slightly more than 11 percent of all ad impressions for the month and also saw seven of its mobile devices on the top 30 list. RIM followed closely in fourth place, with a share of around 11 percent and six of its BlackBerry phones among the top 30 devices. Among all the devices tracked by Millennial Media, smartphones captured 62 percent of all ad impressions last month, leaving 24 percent for feature phones and 14 percent for other connected devices. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Crazy Zediva streams movies only out on DVD]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=crazy-zediva-streams-movies-only-out-on-dvd</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=crazy-zediva-streams-movies-only-out-on-dvd</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bimabbugTurkBotSX</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=crazy-zediva-streams-movies-only-out-on-dvd</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Zediva rents you DVDs, keeps them, and plays them on its network-connected DVD players. Unfortunately, at launch, many of its marquee films were not available.(Credit:Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)Want to stream a movie over the Internet that's not available for streaming on a service like Netflix or Amazon Zediva can stream films that you can only get on physical DVDs--through a goofball workaround that actually has strong legal precedent. Zediva rents you a DVD but keeps the DVD in a player in its own facility. You then control this player remotely from your computer, and the output is piped over the Net to you. Think of it as a wall of Slingboxes, available for rent. If you want to watch a movie online that's only available on disc because it's in the pre-streaming, DVD-sales-only &quot;window,&quot; this will punch through that restriction.Or will it The service just launched today, and in my quick test, at about 5 p.m. PT, only 6 of the 49 &quot;new releases&quot; on the site's main movie selection screen were available for viewing. The marquee title, &quot;The Fighter,&quot; was available, but &quot;127 Hours,&quot; &quot;Megamind,&quot; &quot;Due Date,&quot; and most other titles were marked as &quot;rented out.&quot; Unlike services such as Netflix, which can stream as many copies of a single video as it has bandwidth to support, Zediva only has so many copies of each DVD, and each lives in its own dedicated DVD player. When all the players holding a given movie are in use, nobody else can rent the film.Zediva founder Venky Srinivasan says the balance sheet on this mechanism works out, and the company can grow to support demand, but he does acknowledge that there will be periods of high load that may make some films unavailable to some users. An e-mail (and later, SMS) alert system will tell users when the movies they want become available again.The Zediva streaming experience is, by nature, much more like watching a DVD in your living room than streaming from other services. The service can try, on your behalf, to skip past the annoying previews and FBI warnings on a DVD you've rented. You can see it trying. It's just like when you angrily mash the buttons on the remote yourself, trying to get... to... the damn... movie.In my trial, unfortunately, just as my movie (&quot;Dinner for Schmucks&quot;) was starting, Zediva threw me a connection error and disconnected me from my player. When I tried to play it again, it told me my film was rented out. Not an auspicious early experience.Launch-day capacity issues can be solved, of course. What we may be more concerned about is Zediva's future fighting the movie studios. But there is at least precedent for this idea. Zediva buys retail DVDs, and the first sale doctrine lets them rent those DVDs to consumers.  Furthermore, the place-shifting service Slingbox is legal, and so is the concept of the &quot;networked DVR,&quot; which is conceptually similar. Media industry disruptor Michael Robertson explains a key place-shifting ruling: As long as the consumer is pressing the buttons--even remotely--it doesn't matter where the video stream comes from. This argument may be extended to include the playback of rented DVDs. Zediva has not yet be challenged in court, Srinivasan says, but his company is &quot;adequately capitalized&quot; to mount a legal defense if necessary. (He would not disclose details of his financing).&quot;We are confident that the law allows consumers to watch DVDs that they have rented. We hope the studios will see us a partner,&quot; Srinivasan says, adding that he makes sure Zediva stays in &quot;strict compliance&quot; with the law, that there's no back-room caching going on to boost availability of services. There are consumer benefits to the service, not the least of which is the (theoretically) instant gratification of being able to stream a film that's not available any other way except via physical DVD. Rental prices and terms are competitive. Movies cost $2 to rent and users have two weeks to watch each one. (Some other streaming rental services, like iTunes, only give you 24 hours once you press play.)Zediva is crackpot, but appropriately so, as it highlights how crackpot current laws and contracts are in the movie industry. It makes a reasonable person's head hurt to think that streaming content from a physical DVD player instead of from a identical electronic copy of the DVD somehow makes it legal. We don't know yet how the movie industry will react to this service. In an uncommon display of reasonableness, it has not so far done anything.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Failed phone calls: Reaching Sendai feels futile]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=failed-phone-calls-reaching-sendai-feels-futile</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=failed-phone-calls-reaching-sendai-feels-futile</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 13 Mar 2011 08:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>gatlomensa</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=failed-phone-calls-reaching-sendai-feels-futile</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The search for people in the tsunami-ravaged areas of Sendai, Japan is almost impossible if you're overseas. Here's my brief account. Let me preface this by saying that I lived in Japan for 10 years. Most of that time was in Tokyo (eight years), but two were in Sendai. And I visited Sendai coastal areas fairly often in the summer when I lived there. Yamashita is near Yamamoto-cho, which is south of Sendai. In short, ground zero for the Tsunami. (Credit:Google Maps)But there is one place that is special. An area near the tiny Yamashita train station (see map), not much more than a mile from the Sendai coast, where I spent many happy days with Japanese friends and family. To give the reader a better sense of its location, it is a little more than 20 miles due south of Sendai in Yamamoto-cho in the Watari district. To say that it was potentially in the path of the Tsunami is an understatement. It was ground zero. By sheer coincidence, I was trying to contact someone (Japanese) who lives near Yamashita station--Thursday night my time, Friday Japan time. And by even greater coincidence, I was trying to contact this person just before the earthquake hit. The last communication I received was an e-mail. And it seemed (though I can't confirm this) that the earthquake hit after this person began composing the response. After some small talk, it stops suddenly, then reads (translated from Japanese) as follows: &quot;Just now a giant earthquake hit. Very scary. Everyone running into the street.&quot; That's where the communication ended and that was the last communication I received. I repeatedly called this person's cell phone and sent e-mail. Nothing. (This person is not on Facebook.) I then tried other resources. For example, I called the Miyagi Prefecture police (Sendai is in Miyagi Prefecture). The police officer didn't mince words. Translation: &quot;We know nothing about what happened to residents in that area. We just don't know.&quot; Calls to other facilities, such as the Miyagi Prefecture office and Yamamoto-cho town office have been futile. Either no one answers or the calls just aren't going through (the latter I suspect is the most likely answer). Meanwhile, I have been scouring the Japanese-language media trying to find any news on this area (it's too small to be of significance to the U.S. media). One of the Japanese-language reports I found was very short--only three sentences--but chilling. It begins by stating that the incident happened as a result of the tsunami and that a &quot;massive piece of debris was carried far inland.&quot; It continues. &quot;A three-car train at Yamashita station was derailed and overturned. One of the Japan Railway crew in the leadcar escaped to safety.&quot; What happened to the passengers or the people at the station is not revealed as the article is only three sentences. That's not a lot to go on. So, my search continues. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[China to track cell phones for traffic reasons--really]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=china-to-track-cell-phones-for-traffic-reasons-really</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=china-to-track-cell-phones-for-traffic-reasons-really</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:11:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>marcelmmlc</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=china-to-track-cell-phones-for-traffic-reasons-really</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A Chinese government committee announced plans this week to try to ease vehicle traffic congestion by monitoring the whereabouts and movement of millions of mobile phones.&quot;Aha!&quot; you might say, cynically thinking it's a ruse by the government to conduct surveillance on its citizens. But that kind of surveillance is already being done there (as it is in the U.S.).If you had been in the gnarly 62-mile traffic jam that took nine days to clear up near Beijing last August you wouldn't be so suspicious of the news. Beijing, an urban hub in northern China, has a population of more than 22 million.&quot;In Beijing, where [I'm from], the traffic is a nightmare,&quot; Andrew Lih, an associate professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, told CNET today. &quot;They are going from the 1930s to the 1980s in one-fifth the time.... It's a genuine announcement and there's a real need for it, but it seems creepy in American eyes.&quot;The announcement from the Beijing Science and Technology Commission talks about publishing real-time information based on cellular base station technology that can determine how far and in what direction the phones are traveling. The system can target specific congested areas and include public transit systems. Eventually, commuters will be able to get specific information about their routes that can be used to make more efficient travel plans.It's not clear from the announcement exactly how the system will work, but it likely involves triangulating an approximate location of a phone based on signals between the device and cell towers in the area. This may or may not involve the GPS (Global Positioning System) in the phone itself.&quot;GPS is useful, but isn't necessary at this stage' if the cell tower wants it, it can get it,&quot; said Don A. Bailey, a senior security consultant at iSec Partners.&quot;Overall, what they're doing (in China) is not at all strange. They can get as much location information as they want now, so they wouldn't have to create some new program to get it. They'd just get it,&quot; he said.Sure, there is the potential for misuse, but, again, that's nothing new. Telecom providers can see the phone number associated with a phone and get access to the billing information, all of which must be turned over to the government if agents come knocking on the door, according to Bailey.&quot;Not everything China does is underhanded and shady,&quot; he said.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Fight Night Champion for iPhone: It's a knockout]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fight-night-champion-for-iphone-its-a-knockout</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fight-night-champion-for-iphone-its-a-knockout</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sallyrm</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fight-night-champion-for-iphone-its-a-knockout</guid>
<description><![CDATA[&amp;34'He&amp;39's gettin&amp;39' killed out there!&amp;34'&amp;34'No, he&amp;39's gettin&amp;39' mad!&amp;34'(Credit:Screenshot by Rick Broida)I've always been a fan of the Fight Night series of console games, so I couldn't wait to strap on the virtual mitts for EA's new Fight Night Champion foriPhone. After going a few rounds with Ali, Tyson, and 18 other boxing legends, I can safely say this: the game lives up to the Fight Night name.Which is to say, it's fun but flawed. Fortunately, it's roughly a 90/10 split between the two. Anyone familiar with the console versions is sure to have a ball with this one.The app probably comes closest (in gameplay, not graphics) to Fight Night 4. It gives you 20 famous boxers (and two from &quot;the console storyline,&quot; to quote EA) to fight as and against, but you can also create your own character and build a career. This is no arcade-style boxing game a la Beast Boxing 3D--there's real depth here. Your character actually ages and faces eventual retirement.As with its console counterparts, half the battle in Fight Night Champion is learning the controls. EA did a commendable job leveraging the touch screen, with actions that logically correspond to moves: tap to jab, swipe sideways to throw a hook, swipe up for an uppercut, tap and hold both thumbs to block, and so on.But there's a lot to remember, so give yourself some time to learn everything. It took me three or four matches before I felt like I'd mastered the controls. And even now there's one area that gives me trouble: movement. You move your boxer by tilting your iPhone, and I find it really hard to multitask that alongside the various screen controls.As for the actual gameplay, it's fast and furious, though I do have one gripe: when you block or slip a punch, there seems to be some lag before you can answer it. What's the point of good defense if you can't take advantage of itAlso, the game crashed the first time I ran it. After resetting my iPhone, it worked--but this time with no audio. (Awesome crowd noises and ringside commentary accompany each bout.) Eventually it ran properly, but obviously EA has some bugs to iron out.I wasn't able to test Fight Night Champion's multiplayer modes, which support head-to-head boxing over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. (Note: multiplayer requires a third- or fourth-geniPod or iPhone.) In an ideal world, EA would add online multiplayer, as all the Fight Night games are best when played against other humans.A few minor gripes aside, this is my favorite iPhone fighting game to date. All that's missing is aniPad version. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta to hit mid-April]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gears-of-war-3-multiplayer-beta-to-hit-mid-april</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gears-of-war-3-multiplayer-beta-to-hit-mid-april</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:10:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sonia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gears-of-war-3-multiplayer-beta-to-hit-mid-april</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Gears of War 3 creator Cliff Bleszinski, left, talks about his new game at the February Xbox Showcase event in San Francisco.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--Fans of the Gears, put a big circle around April on your calendars: the public multiplayer beta of Gears of War 3 will be opening up around the middle of that month.At Microsoft'sXbox February Showcase event here today, the company announced the timing of the Gears of War 3 beta opening, as well as a slew of other game-related new items. Among them: that on March 15, the Halo: Reach &quot;Defiant Map Pack&quot; would go on sale' the availability of Halo Waypoint, a mobile stat-checking feature for the mega-hit franchise that will be accessible online or forWindows Phone 7' new add-ons for Fable III' the March 22 release of Crysis 2 3D' and much more.Each year, Microsoft hosts a showcase event like this one to reveal the games and add-ons that it will be highlighting in coming months. With the Game Developers Conference set to start Monday here as well, one thing is clear: the video game industry is in full swing as winter fades away and spring gets ready to emerge.Although Microsoft has sometimes used the Xbox showcase event in the past to release news about the console itself, today's event was entirely about games.The Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta &quot;will give fans a chance to experience three new Versus Multiplayer modes on four new maps,&quot; Microsoft and Gears developer Epic Games said in a release. The full version of the game is expected to be released September 20 worldwide, except in Japan, where it will hit on September 22. And Microsoft and Epic said that fans of the game will get a chance to help decide which maps will appear in the beta. They can do so by visiting the Gears Facebook page.The Halo: Reach Defiant Map pack will introduce players to three new battlefields, the release said. &quot;Set in the heat of the legendary Battle of Reach, the three new warfronts--Condemned, Highlands, and Unearthed--are primed for nonstop action in Firefight and all competitive multiplayer modes.&quot;And since Halo is so crucial to the success of Xbox, Microsoft couldn't resist more news about the franchise. The Halo Waypoint will let players share all their game stats and let them &quot;compare against friends from the palm of your hand.&quot;Another big upcoming release is that of Lionhead Studios' Fable III, which will be available for PCs in North America on May 17. The game will bring players &quot;back to Albion.&quot;Other games and add-ons announced at the event included:&amp;149' Homefront, from Kaos Studios and THQ, which &quot;asks civilians to stand united, fight back, and defend their 'Homefront.&quot; The game and all add-ons will be available on Xbox Live and in stores on March 15.&amp;149' Child of Eden, from Q Entertainment and Ubisoft. This is a &quot;multi-sensory shooter from the mind of...Tetsuya Mizuguchi that will send players diving into a kaleidoscopic matrix of synchronized music and mind-bending visuals.&quot;&amp;149' Batman: Arkham City, from Rocksteady Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and DC Entertainment. Expected to be released this fall, the game follows on the original Batman: Arkham Asylum, &quot;sending players into Arkham City, the new maximum security home for all of Gotham City's thugs, gangsters, and insane criminal masterminds.&quot;&amp;149' Age of Empires Online for Windows, from Gas Powered Games. &amp;149' Shift 2: Unleashed, from Slightly Mad Studios and Electronic Arts. This is the 17th game in the Need for Speed series, and according to Microsoft, this version features an all-new rendering engine as well as a full graphics overhaul. The game will launch on Xbox on March 29.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple could be working on television]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-could-be-working-on-television</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-could-be-working-on-television</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Feb 2011 08:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>davidclarl</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-could-be-working-on-television</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Is Apple working on turning Apple TV into an Apple-branded television from a tiny set-top box(Credit:Apple)We know Apple already sells Apple TV. But it might be working on an another kind of Apple TV--as in an Apple-branded television, not a set-top box that hooks up to your TV.Eagle-eyed bloggers at 9to5 Mac noticed a job listing today that Apple posted that leaves little doubt it's something the company is at least exploring.The listing asks, rather benignly, for someone who wants to work on &quot;new power management designs and technologies.&quot; But in what will Apple use this new power-management technology The listing goes on to say that it will be used for &quot;Apple's next-generation Macintosh platforms spanning from notebook computers, desktop computers, servers, standalone displays, and TV.&quot;It's safe to say that if Apple were going to advertise a job listing to work on generic product types, it would use the term set-top box or something similar to describe Apple TV in its current incarnation, since &quot;TV&quot; in any other context refers to a display, not a box. But it specifically says &quot;TV.&quot;Making and selling a TV really wouldn't be that much of a stretch for Apple. Everyone has a television, so there's a built-in set of customers already. Apple makes some of the most well-regarded monitors on the market, and what are monitors but (basically) TVs without a TV antenna Plus, Apple's got a growing video empire in iTunes, and though it likes to call it a hobby, with Apple TV it shows the company is interested in being in the living room, not just the office, car, coffee shop, or your backpack or purse.You might wonder, rightly, who in their right mind would want to enter the television business these days. Rapid commodification, easily copied features, and being forced to find new ways to display content that make people buy a new TV every couple years (HD, 3D, Internet-connected TVs) all make it a rough industry to be in right now. Of course the same could be said about PCs and mobile phones, but Apple has demonstrated it knows how to reap profits in both those industries in ways its competitors haven't. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Analysts mull how many iPhones Verizon will sell]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=analysts-mull-how-many-iphones-verizon-will-sell</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=analysts-mull-how-many-iphones-verizon-will-sell</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sirrasuck252</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=analysts-mull-how-many-iphones-verizon-will-sell</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Verizon Wireless)How many iPhones could Verizon sell now that the long-awaited device has hit the shelves As expected, that question has prompted the usual collection of analysts to gaze into their crystal balls, as reported by Bloomberg and other news sources.Looking at the short term, Verizon Wireless could sell more than 1 million units in the first week beginning today, forecasts analyst Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Market, a number that he believes may even cause the carrier to run out of stock, according to Barron's.Focusing on the current quarter, projections vary. Analysts Rick Franklin from Edward Jones, Jennifer Fritzsche at Wells Fargo Securities, and Ashok Kumar from Rodman &amp;amp' Renshaw, all are forecasting that Verizon may sell 2 million iPhones from now until March 31, according to Bloomberg.In a phone call with CNET, Kumar confirmed the 2 million number for the current quarter. But Abramsky is looking for more, says Barron's, projecting that as many as 3 to 4 million Verizon iPhones could fly off the shelves by the time the quarter ends.For 2011 as a whole, Kumar told CNET that he's estimating sales of around 8 million iPhones from Verizon. But again, Abramsky upped the figure, eyeing sales of at least 9 million iPhones and as many as 11 million as forecast by Verizon, according to a January 25 conference call. Abramsky also noted that the company believes it could sell even more barring any supply issues.Verizon Wireless is selling the 16GB iPhone for $199.99 and the 32GB model for $299.99. CNET reporter Maggie Reardon is camped out in a frigid New York City today to cover the launch of the iPhone and the crowds braving the 20-degree temperatures to get their first shot at it.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Lawsuit claims AT&T overbills for iPhone data use]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lawsuit-claims-att-overbills-for-iphone-data-use</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lawsuit-claims-att-overbills-for-iphone-data-use</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Julia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lawsuit-claims-att-overbills-for-iphone-data-use</guid>
<description><![CDATA[One of the biggest problems that consumers have faced with mobile phone billing in recent years is that there's really no way of independently measuring the amount of data that's being consumed by a mobile Web session. Consumers are at the mercy of the wireless carriers and have put their trust in these providers to accurately bill them.Now, AT&amp;T finds itself at the center of a class action lawsuit that alleges that the provider's bills &quot;systematically overstate the amount of data used on each data transaction.&quot; Granted, the overstatement that's being alleged is small--somewhere in the range of 7-14 percent monthly, according to a post on the Electronista blog.What's especially telling is how a consulting firm that was hired by the lawyers of the plaintiff conducted its own test of the data billing. Instead of using data and trying to measure it independently for comparison against the bill, the consultant did the exact opposite. The firm bought a newiPhone and immediately turned off all push notifications and location services, made sure that no apps or e-mail accounts were active and then left the iPhone idle for 10 days.AT&amp;T billed the account for 2,292 kilobytes of data over 35 transactions.Read more of &quot;Lawsuit: AT&amp;T 'systematically overstates' data usage on iPhone bills&quot; at ZDNet.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Dell Streak 7 review]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-streak-7-review</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-streak-7-review</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>lifleisher</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-streak-7-review</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Conn., Google reach agreement over Wi-Fi data]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=conn--google-reach-agreement-over-wi-fi-data</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=conn--google-reach-agreement-over-wi-fi-data</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>hilfemedizin</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=conn--google-reach-agreement-over-wi-fi-data</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google and the state of Connecticut have reached an agreement that won't force a courtroom showdown over Google's Wi-Fi spying scandal.Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen(Credit:State of Connecticut,Office of the Attorney General) Last year former Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (now representing the state in the U.S. Senate) started an investigation of Google over its admission that its Street View cars had collected so-called &quot;payload data,&quot; including e-mails and passwords, during the years it mapped the country's streets. In December Blumenthal issued a civil investigative demand that would have compelled Google to turn that data over to Connecticut, but Google protested the order and the two parties reached a settlement over that dispute, the attorney general's office announced today. &quot;The stipulation will allow Google and the state of Connecticut, and the 40-state coalition it is leading, to begin negotiations to resolve the data collection issue without going to court to enforce the Civil Investigative Demand, equivalent to a subpoena, issued in December on behalf of the state,&quot; current Attorney General George Jepsen said in a statement (PDF) released by his office. As part of the settlement, Google confirmed that it had collected private information during its Street View project, although that's something it admitted long ago. The settlement means that Google and the attorneys general led by Connecticut will likely hammer out another agreement regarding the data, which Google has resisted turning over to government authorities in the U.S. The company has repeatedly apologized for the Street View program but that hasn't deterred countries around the world from attempting to punish Google as well as a class-action lawsuit pending in California.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Intel bankrolls Sulfurcell, a solar thin-film outfit]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intel-bankrolls-sulfurcell-a-solar-thin-film-outfit</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intel-bankrolls-sulfurcell-a-solar-thin-film-outfit</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riauckli1</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intel-bankrolls-sulfurcell-a-solar-thin-film-outfit</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Sulfurcell&amp;39's thin-film solar modules can be fitted into roof-top panels or used as part of a building&amp;39's facade, as seen here at the Ferdinand Braun Institute for High Frequency Technology in Berlin.(Credit:Sulfurcell)Intel's venture investing arm has led a $25 million investment in Berlin-based Sulfurcell, one of many companies staking a claim in the solar business with CIGS thin-film technology. Sulfurcell makes CIGS/CIGSe thin-film solar cells that incorporate a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium or sulfur. Last year, it started manufacturing in a facility able to turn out 35 megawatts' worth of panels a year.The capital will allow Sulfurcell to scale up its production and improve the efficiency of its modules, the company said in a statement. Since 2008, the company has raised 85 million euros from European and U.S.-based investors. Intel Capital was one of the early investors in Sulfurcell, which was spun out of Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Energy in Germany.The efficiency of converting solar energy into electricity is typically lower for thin-film cells, but the cells use less material and tend to be cheaper to make.In the CIGS area, there are dozens of companies now seeking to manufacture at larger scale to bring down costs and compete with the dominant solar cell technology, polycrystalline silicon.Rather than go after the utility business with rack-mounted panels, Sulfurcell is designing its panels for rooftops. Its flexible cells can also used for building-integrated photovoltaics, in which solar panels are used as part of a building's facade.The company claims that the efficiency of its cells will rival that of silicon cells. It has been able to achieve 12.6 percent efficiency (although its current products are lower) and is targeting 14 percent efficiency in the next 12 to 18 months, it said in a statement. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Redbox quarterly performance disappoints]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=redbox-quarterly-performance-disappoints</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=redbox-quarterly-performance-disappoints</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Putz-seotons</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=redbox-quarterly-performance-disappoints</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Redbox owner Coinstar had a worse-than-expected fourth quarter as it severely underestimated the impact 28-day delays on movie availability, among other factors, would have on its operation.The company said yesterday that it expects to make between $78 million and $82 million when it announces fourth-quarter earnings next month. Coinstar initially estimated that it would generate a profit of $84 million to $90 million. Moreover, it has revised its 2011 revenue outlook down from $1.85 billion to $1.70 billion.&quot;Overall, the performance of the Redbox business during the fourth quarter was not in line with our forecast,&quot; Coinstar CEO Paul Davis said in a statement. &quot;This was Redbox's first holiday season with 28-day delayed titles, and we underestimated the impact that the delay would have on demand during the fourth quarter.&quot;Davis also said that his company &quot;expected much better performance from Blu-ray and had purchased to a higher level of demand.&quot; The company first started offering Blu-ray rentals in July.Even though it didn't live up to expectations, Redbox still performed quite well in the fourth quarter, Coinstar said. The company said its rental business was up 38 percent year-over-year with 144 million movies rented during the quarter.Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter was quick to point out that Redbox's lower-than-expected performance in the fourth quarter does not indicate trouble at Coinstar. He said in a note to investors today that the rental company's fourth quarter &quot;was a hiccup attributable to overly aggressive guidance.&quot; And he specifically blamed Coinstar management for the mistake.&quot;We believe today's preannouncement is more a reflection of management's inability to accurately forecast than of a serious deterioration in the Redbox business,&quot; he said.Pachter was especially critical of Coinstar management's underestimation of the impact 28-day delays have on the rental company's operation.Last year, Redbox inked deals with Warner Bros., Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Twentieth Century Fox to offer the studios' titles 28 days after they were made available at retail. He said that the studios &quot;took full advantage of their head-start,&quot; and helped contribute to his estimate that Redbox had 14 million fewer rentals during the quarter than it expected.&quot;Prior to yesterday's preannouncement, we believed that the typical Redbox and Netflix customer is unaware of, or doesn't mind, the 28-day window for the majority of the year,&quot; Pachter wrote. &quot;It is now clear that the 28-day window can make a difference in spending patterns at the holidays.&quot;Redbox's other issue on the quarter, according to Pachter, was its inability to manage its &quot;rent and return anywhere&quot; offering. The program lets users rent a movie from a Redbox kiosk in one location and return it to another when they're done. He said that the program &quot;caused over-supply of key titles in some kiosks and under-supply in others.&quot; The impact of that shift could have turned some customers away.On Redbox's Blu-ray woes on the quarter, Pachter offered up a solution: &quot;Those selecting Blu-ray should be shown only Blu-ray titles, and those selecting standard definition should be shown only standard definition.&quot; Currently, Redbox lets users browse Blu-ray and DVD titles at the same time.Going forward, Pachter sees strong performance from Redbox. He told investors that Coinstar should &quot;deliver sequential earnings growth throughout the year,&quot; and perhaps most importantly, he believes that &quot;management has learned its lesson.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[CES: Lessons from a smartphone talk]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-lessons-from-a-smartphone-talk</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-lessons-from-a-smartphone-talk</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>davidpanama77</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-lessons-from-a-smartphone-talk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Motorola Atrix&amp;39's laptop dock breaks new ground this year. What's next for smartphones(Credit:Nicole Lee/CNET)LAS VEGAS--I was lucky enough to moderate a smartphone panel at CES this year. Experts from four companies, including Mozilla and BlackBerry-maker RIM, got together to discuss the future of smartphone apps, fragmentation, HTML 5, payment, and more.Since not all of you could be there, I thought I'd share the pundits' perspectives on what we can expect from smartphone apps and services in the next two to five years. Keep in mind, of course, that these are educated guesses, not gospel.QUESTION: Will native apps largely fade from viewANSWER: Largely for many tasks, but not entirely. HTML 5 gives developers the ability to build very rich Web apps and take them across mobile platforms. With the exception of deeply integrated apps, like multimedia and gaming, mobile Web apps will largely replace apps for everyday tasks, such as e-mail and music streaming. At the end of the day, consumers will go with whichever app offers the better experience, regardless of its cloud or device-specific location. Web apps will be especially important for smartphone owners who frequently switch to the latest, greatest new phone after six to nine months.QUESTION: How easy will it be to take content from one platform to anotherANSWER: Web apps make transferring content quite easy because your info is already stored online under your account. As for the stuff stored on your device, this is a logistical problem of scale, not a technical one. Technology already exists to transfer content that users &quot;own&quot; among separate operating systems, but it's not yet implemented at scale. In the future, content will be a user right.QUESTION: How will mobile operators deal with mobile OS fragmentation going forwardANSWER:: Carriers don't want fragmentation, because they want loyal, happy customers. But the carrier wish of unifying different versions of a mobile operating system is at odds with business decisions about which phones to upgrade, and when. Pushing out upgrades takes resources, which leaves carriers gambling on which phones will sell like hotcakes.QUESTION: What trends will we see in smartphone hardware and software in the next two to five yearsANSWER: We're going to see quad-core processors and 3D. Gaming will really take off with much better processing speeds and hardware acceleration. Battery technology will also have to improve to handle the much richer multimedia. In terms of hardware, NFC (near-field communication) chips will proliferate as one way that smartphones will largely replace physical wallets.QUESTION: Is there new technology on the horizon to change the way app developers and carriers monetizeANSWER: We're going to be seeing many more Wi-Fi only devices, which could reduce the carrier's cost load for maintaining its data network. (And carriers will pass the savings to consumers.) Carrier billing and NFC will turn the smartphone into a mobile wallet, which leads the way for carriers, and not banks or credit card companies, to handle billing. This is especially true of developing nations, where many more people own smartphones than have credit cards or bank accounts.App makers will draw on more location-based transactions--think Groupon--and microtransactions such as we already see when players pay to unlock extra weapons in games. Advertising will also become much more interactive. You might play a game, for instance, in which &quot;winning&quot; gets you a coupon or a redemption code for the advertised product. You'll think you're getting a deal, but you're actually buying right into the ad. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft shelves Office Genuine Advantage tool]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-shelves-office-genuine-advantage-tool</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-shelves-office-genuine-advantage-tool</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>carrolploo</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-shelves-office-genuine-advantage-tool</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In what can be considered a small victory for those who dislike additional security checks after purchasing software, Microsoft has quietly discontinued the use of its Genuine Advantage checker tool forMicrosoft Office.The antipiracy measure, called Office Genuine Advantage (OGA), required that users verify the legitimacy of their Office software before being able to download add-ons and templates from Microsoft, as well as download software updates Microsoft deemed &quot;non-critical.&quot; The OGA program had been put into place in late 2006 as a follow-up to Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage tool, which does similar checks to make sure copies of Windows are not pirated in order to receive updates and security patches.ZDNet's Ed Bott, who discovered the end of the OGA program via a reader tip over the weekend, notes that Microsoft has done little to alert users to the end of the program besides mentioning it at the top of a knowledge base article. Additionally, a page called &quot;Benefits of genuine Office&quot; remains up on Microsoft's Office site, detailing what the company considers advantages of using genuine software. One program that's not being shelved as part of OGA's end of life is Microsoft's policy of replacing counterfeited software with genuine copies in cases where customers believed they were buying the real thing. That program, which also began in 2006, aimed both at helping people who had accidentally bought good fakes, as well as giving Microsoft leads on where it was coming from.The removal of OGA does not mean a lapse in the front-line security Microsoft employs to keep software pirates at bay. Users still need to enter in a 25-character activation key when first installing the software in order to unlock its license. Just like in its Windows operating system, users who skip this step are still able to use the software, but with reduced functionality.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[WikiLeaks' Assange granted bail in London]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wikileaks-assange-granted-bail-in-london</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wikileaks-assange-granted-bail-in-london</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>duoutras</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wikileaks-assange-granted-bail-in-london</guid>
<description><![CDATA[WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was granted bail today by a London judge, but prosecutors said they will appeal the decision.In a media-mobbed hearing today, a U.K. judge decided to release Assange on bail of 200,000 pounds, or about $317,000, on the condition that he surrender his passport, wear an electronic tracker, provide a U.K. address, and report to police daily.U.K. prosecutors, acting on behalf of the Swedish government, told the court that they will file a formal appeal within 48 hours. This follows some confusion about whether an appeal will take place, with an ABC News correspondent posting a note on Twitter saying no appeal would happen.Even if the appeal fails, it may take a few days for the money to be raised. Mark Stephens, an attorney at the London-based FSI law firm who is representing Assange, said, according to the U.K. Guardian: &quot;The problem is that 200,000 [pounds] can't be paid in by check because checks take seven days to clear. We have to go around to find money in cash. Until this court is in possession of 200,000 [pounds], an innocent man stays in jail.&quot;Today's developments are the newest twists in a high-profile story that combines the Swedish case with Assange's central role in releasing information about U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thousands of often-secret diplomatic cables.Assange was arrested last week in London by police acting on behalf of Swedish authorities that accused him of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation, and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010, according to British police. Sweden is seeking his extradition' Assange has denied the charges.The situation has produced a polarized reaction. WikiLeaks critics say the organization's actions harm U.S. security and undermine a legitimate need for diplomats to communicate confidentially. Supporters say WikiLeaks has helped shine necessary light on many countries' true motivations and behavior.A CNET legal analysis shows that Assange could be vulnerable to prosecution under the U.S. Espionage Act, which has previously been applied extraterritorially to a German citizen, even though he holds an Australian passport. An attorney for Assange said a grand jury is being formed in in Alexandria, Va., a possible mechanism for bringing such charges.Also today:&amp;149' Activist filmmaker Michael Moore said he will contribute $20,000 toward Assange's bail. &quot;I am publicly offering the assistance of my Web site, my servers, my domain names, and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving, as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars,&quot; Moore said.&amp;149' The Sunlight Foundation's Ellen Miller and Mike Klein, the group's co-founders, denounced calls for the &quot;persecution of Julian Assange&quot; but stopped short of an outright endorsement of WikiLeaks' approach. &quot;Some secrets about ongoing military operations and security activities should not be revealed to the public,&quot; they wrote. &quot;Some debates over public policy can and should be done behind closed doors to allow for confidential negotiations, as long as there is public review.&quot;&amp;149' Assange has been barred from receiving correspondence while in jail, according to a BBC report.&amp;149' Rep.-elect Allen West (R-Fla.) has said, according to a radio interview posted on YouTube by ThinkProgress, that U.S. media outlets (and presumably blogs) writing about WikiLeaks should be muzzled: &quot;Here is an individual that is not an American citizen, first and foremost, for whatever reason, you know, gotten his hands on classified American material and put it out there in the public domain. And I think that we also should be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to be able to do this and then also supporting him and applauding him for the efforts. So that's kind of aiding and abetting of a serious crime. Because of the fact that he's a foreign citizen, this is espionage.&quot;&amp;149' Columbia University's journalism school faculty is telling President Obama that prosecuting anyone involved in WikiLeaks &quot;will set a dangerous precedent for reporters in any publication or medium, potentially chilling investigative journalism and other First Amendment-protected activity.&quot;&amp;149' The invaluable Steven Aftergood notes that nobody seems to have any idea how many government employees and contractors hold security clearances. His ballpark estimate is 2.5 million.And this evening:&amp;149' The Washington Post is running a simple but provocative cartoon titled &quot;Prosecuting WikiLeaks.&quot;&amp;149' Twitter-ing is allowed in the London court, according to chief magistrate Howard Riddle. Not all judges are that enlightened.&amp;149' The Air Force is blocking personnel from visiting the Web sites of the New York Times and other publications that have reproduced some of the classified WikiLeaks cables, the Wall Street Journal reports. (CNET was the first to report last week that some federal government installations were blocking access to WikiLeaks and its mirrors.)&amp;149' FoxNews.com is running an odd opinion article by psychiatrist Keith Ablow titled &quot;Inside the Mind of Julian Assange.&quot; Representative excerpt: &quot;Lots of secrets may have marred Julian Assange's development.&quot;&amp;149' Arbor Networks has an intelligent description of the attempted denial of service attacks swirling around l'affaire Wikileaks. &quot;Most of the attacks over the last week were both relatively small and unsophisticated,&quot; it says. &quot;In short, other than than intense media scrutiny, the attacks were unremarkable.&quot;Last updated at 11 p.m. PT with information about the status of the appeal and additional news. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Book takes aviation fans inside Dreamliner project]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=book-takes-aviation-fans-inside-dreamliner-project</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=book-takes-aviation-fans-inside-dreamliner-project</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ledesmartQ</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=book-takes-aviation-fans-inside-dreamliner-project</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In the new book The Birth of the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing photographer Edgar Turner gives aviation fans a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the making of one of the most anticipated planes of all time.(Credit:Ed Turner/Boeing)commentary It's been eight years in the making so far, and has gone through any number of delays and problems, but Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is still one of the most-anticipated commercial airplanes in history. And with the plane's testing program under way for almost exactly a year, it is edging closer and closer to carrying its first passengers.Now, fans of the innovative plane--it is made from 50 percent composite material and is expected to offer carriers up to 20 percent savings on fuel--can get a fix unlike any offered before. With Edgar Turner's new book, &quot;The Birth of the 787 Dreamliner,&quot; anyone interested in the 787--or in commercial aviation in general--can get a great look at what it takes not only to make a major new airplane, but to get a program like the 787 off the ground to begin with.In his book, Turner--a Boeing photographer with terrific access to the entire program--uses his pictures to showcase the entire eight years of development of the 787. He traveled to Boeing facilities throughout the world, as well as to supplier partners, in order to illustrate as much of the process of building the Dreamliner as possible. Divided into sections on the plane's unusual components, its assembly, and &quot;The Dream,&quot; or the program's current era, the book offers an education into major aviation development and manufacturing.To be sure, the timing of the book's release is less than ideal, given that the 787's test program is currently grounded due to a recent on-board control panel fire. But while the 787 has had more than its share of problems and delays--from manufacturing issues to strikes to supply shortages, and more--it is still expected to be carrying its first commercial passengers sometime in 2011. And there's no doubt that the book is a very large and prominent promotional effort for the new plane.The 787 made its first flight on December 15, 2009, from Boeing's Paine Field, in Everett, Wash.Stunning photographyWhen you pick up Turner's book, the first thing that strikes you is its heft. This is a big, heavy book, and it comes with a matching price--$85, though it's available on Boeing's site for $49. But when you open the cover, it's the photographs that will transfix you.I would challenge anyone, aviation buff or not, to not get lost in this book. Turner's pictures are stunning, and his access is unlike anything I've seen before. While Boeing makes countless images available on its Web site, it doesn't offer anything like what is in Turner's book--though a few of the same pictures appear in the official 787 imagery.But it's images like those, which offer detailed and intricate looks at just about every element of the airplane, that will keep anyone turning the pages--and turning them slowly. That, plus, pictures of things like the 787's painting process, the Dreamliner Production Integration Center--where Boeing keeps real-time track of the plane's worldwide supply chain--the first flight, the loading of parts of the plane's fuselage on the specially-made 747 Dreamlifter, and much, much more are what make the book worth its price.I wish I could show you more pictures. But it seems the publisher wants you to buy the book for that.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google ad: Nexus S is better than your car's nav]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-ad-nexus-s-is-better-than-your-cars-nav</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-ad-nexus-s-is-better-than-your-cars-nav</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:10:28 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jaredkerrj</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-ad-nexus-s-is-better-than-your-cars-nav</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Stating bluntly what many automotive manufacturers are starting to realize, Google released an ad that says the future of navigation and infotainment is probably on your phone.The ad depicts a boy reiterating directions from Google's new Nexus S smartphone, with the subliminal message being that the new phone's navigation application is so easy a child can use it. Actually, most kids are probably better than adults at using any computer, phone, or in-dash navigation system, but that's beside the point. Some manufacturers, such as Smart, BMW, and MINI, are turning to mobile phones as a way to bring in the newest entertainment and navigation applications, such as Trapster (which was just acquired by Nokia), cheaply and quickly. Phones have the advantage of being upgraded more quickly than vehicles, and because people use them every day there's no learning curve. The trend is even catching on to the aftermarket space: French audio manufacturer, Oxygen Audio, will begin selling the first aftermarket entertainment system that uses an iPhone as an interface.To be fair, Google Maps is probably better than most OEM's navigation system. But that's not the only reason you spring for that option--the 6- to 8-inch screen is easier to see, is integrated with the vehicle's entertainment system, and visually facilitates a host of other features. And before you decide to forgo the pricey navigation upgrade, keep in mind that you could be left high and dry if you lose your phone or can't get a signal. And it sucks when your navigator holding the phone has to take a call.(Source: Telematics News) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Clearwire scores funding, adds Wi-Fi modem]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=clearwire-scores-funding-adds-wi-fi-modem</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=clearwire-scores-funding-adds-wi-fi-modem</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>TheBestHawaiiSite</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=clearwire-scores-funding-adds-wi-fi-modem</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As competition in the 4G wireless market heats up, Clearwire has finalized a deal to create more funding so it can continue building its nationwide 4G wireless network.It also has released a new product. The company said today it plans to sell more than $1.1 billion in a debt offering. The company has spent months negotiating and looking for ways to inject more money into the business. The company said last month that without new funding it might not be able to continue building its nationwide WiMax 4G wireless network.  Clearwire is majority owned by Sprint Nextel, the nation's third largest wireless provider. Cable giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable also own stakes in the company, as do Google and Intel.The Clear modem with Wi-Fi(Credit:Clearwire) Clearwire had also considered other avenues of funding, such as a bigger investment from Sprint. It was even talking with rival T-Mobile USA about an investment in the company. Clearwire executives had also said the company was considering selling some of its spectrum. So far, the company has not said whether these options have been taken off the table with the new round of debt issued. But analysts believe the company will still need more money in the coming years to continue building its network. How much Some analysts estimate the company will need another $3 billion in the next couple of years to continue building its WiMax network.Clearwire said recently that it now covers 103 million people around the U.S. in 68 markets. The service is already available in cities such as Washington, D.C., New York, and Seattle.The news of additional funding comes as Verizon Wireless announced the launch of its 4G wireless network. Starting Sunday, Verizon will begin offering its next-generation wireless service in 38 markets across the country. Verizon is currently the largest wireless operator in the U.S., and its service will be available to 110 million potential customers on day one, the company has said.Clearwire claims its network offers download speeds between 3Mbps and 6Mbps, while Verizon, which uses a competing technology called LTE, claims average download speeds between 6Mbps and 12 Mbps. Clearwire's choice of technology could become a problem for the company, although executives say the company is also open to adopting other technologies, such as LTE.With most of the world's carriers using LTE, there will likely be fewer WiMax-enabled devices on the market. To combat this problem, Clearwire has embraced Wi-Fi, a widely adopted technology that is finding its way into everything from smartphones to printers. In an effort to make its service more flexible and more appealing to consumers, Clearwire has been announcing products that incorporate Wi-Fi technology. Today, it released the Clear Modem with Wi-Fi. The device enables people to get the Clear WiMax service to their home and then connect laptops, tablets, iPods, smartphones, and whatever Wi-Fi enabled devices they have to the Clear broadband network.The Clear Modem with Wi-Fi supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi capable devices and supports Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista 32/64,Windows 7 32/64 andMac OS8 or higher. The modem costs $120 or can be leased for $7 a month. Monthly data service starts at $35. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[New browser RockMelt oozes into beta]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-browser-rockmelt-oozes-into-beta</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-browser-rockmelt-oozes-into-beta</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 07 Nov 2010 07:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>chdresource</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-browser-rockmelt-oozes-into-beta</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A look at social sharing on the new RockMelt browser.(Credit:RockMelt)Little has been known about stealth start-up RockMelt except that it's a browser, specifically (and yet ambiguously) a &quot;Facebook browser,&quot; and it's backed by browser godfather Marc Andreessen. Well, now RockMelt has crept out of the woodwork into a limited beta forMac and Windows, and the world can get a peek at it.RockMelt is indeed a &quot;Facebook browser,&quot; if only because Facebook is the social-media service that's best integrated into it at launch. It's clear that ultimately the browser's team plans to make it more customizable with other services. The ultimate goal, you could say, is revamping the traditional browser many of the Web-browsing behaviors that have popped up in the past few years--social-media sharing, Twitter clients, RSS alerts, and speedier search--and works them into an interface that aims for convenience rather than confusion. While it may still have too many bells and whistles for the average Web user, it's likely to attract some curiosity from hardcore social-media users, obsessive multitaskers, and efficiency geeks who see an opportunity to cut down on the number of browser tabs and desktop applications that they may have open.&quot;We're reinventing the browser for how people user the Web today, which is dramatically different from how people were using the Web only a few short years ago,&quot; RockMelt co-founder Tim Howes told CNET.First of all, you log in with Facebook Connect upon launching RockMelt. There's a left sidebar of easy Facebook access, including a row of &quot;top friends&quot; that you can select, and you can drag or drop content from the main browser (like links or videos) to immediately share it with one of them in Facebook Chat. (Unfortunately, there is not yet support for other instant-messaging clients.)Then, on the right side bar, is a customizable list of favorite sites and services, with yellow indicators to tell you when there's new content from a blog you read or the people you follow on Twitter. There's a browser button to share content on Facebook or Twitter (and more services to come)' the company even has its own URL shortener, http://me.lt.The search box at the top is also different than your average browser's. It loads up a list of results in a drop-down menu, and begins &quot;preloading&quot; all of them so that you can flip back and forth between individual results at maximum speed.&quot;It changes the way you search because it makes it so much faster and so much lighter-weight,&quot; co-founder Eric Vishria explained.The term &quot;social browser&quot; has been thrown about before, namely three years ago with the launch of Flock, aFirefox-based browser loaded with a dizzying number of social features. RockMelt certainly looks a lot cleaner. Built on Chromium, the foundation of Google Chrome, it aims to be fast, too.Will people actually switch over to it Vishria raised a statistic that in the past three years, 500 million people have switched browsers, so that getting them to switch again may be less difficult than it sounds.RockMelt employs about 30 people, has been in the works for two years, and has raised about $10 million in funding from the Andreessen Horowitz venture firm as well as other investors like Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital and ubiquitous angel investor Ron Conway.And its odd, vaguely geology-evoking name It &quot;came out of a three-week brainstorming sesion where we had a million different names,&quot; Howes said. Added Vishria: &quot;Easy to spell, easy to remember, and the domain was available.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Study: Algae biofuels need 10 years of R&D to compete]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-algae-biofuels-need-10-years-of-rd-to-compete</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-algae-biofuels-need-10-years-of-rd-to-compete</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:11:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Lamecheag</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-algae-biofuels-need-10-years-of-rd-to-compete</guid>
<description><![CDATA[You could run acar and even an airplane using fuel made from algae, but it will take on the order of 10 years before the technology is mature enough to make a dent in petroleum use, according to an academic study. The Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California at Berkeley earlier this week released an analysis of the state of the algae biofuels industry and projected some of its future needs. Its overall conclusion is that a significant amount of research and development is needed, even with the progress of the many algae biofuel companies now active in the field. Specifically, more biology research is needed focused on cultivating algae strains and genetic engineering to boost algae growth rates. Testing facilities are also needed to gain expertise in converting lab-scale research into production systems. &quot;It's clear from this report that algae oil production will be neither quick nor plentiful--ten years is a reasonable projection for the R&amp;D to allow a conclusion about the ability to achieve relatively low-cost algae biomass and oil production,&quot; according to the report's authors. (Click for PDF of full report.)The potential of microalgae for making liquid fuels has led to the creation of hundreds of companies in the field and many research efforts. In addition to being a replacement for petroleum oil, algae consume carbon dioxide, can be used to treat wastewater, and can be grown in different environments in both fresh and salt water.There are a handful of efforts which are close to pilot-scale production of fuels, including Sapphire Energy and Cellena Oil, which is backed partially by Shell Oil, the report notes. Another high-profile algae company is Solazyme, which has a unique fermentation-driven process for making oil and other chemicals, rather than the open pond and bioreactor approaches addressed in the report.But the total output from experimental open-pond facilities over the past year has been only a few tons of biomass and less than a hundred gallons of actual algae oil, the reports says. The primary problem is the costs. Making animal feed as a supplemental product after the oil is harvested from algae does not dramatically lower the costs, according to the Energy Biosciences Institute.&quot;Even with low capital charges, it is not possible to produce microalgae biofuels cost competitively with fossil fuels or even other biofuels without major advances in technology,&quot; it concludes. Even with its sobering assessment of the state of algae biofuels, the institute argues for continued research and development because algae biofuels can make a &quot;vital, even if modest, contribution to the US biofuels industry.&quot; The minimum research program should be five years, it said. Updated at 4:30 p.m. PT with correction to spelling of Solazyme and clarification on its technology. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Firm finds security holes in mobile bank apps]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firm-finds-security-holes-in-mobile-bank-apps</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firm-finds-security-holes-in-mobile-bank-apps</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Nov 2010 07:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>restaurantlancpa</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=firm-finds-security-holes-in-mobile-bank-apps</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A security firm disclosed holes today in mobile apps from Bank of America, USAA, Chase, Wells Fargo and TD Ameritrade, prompting a scramble by most of the companies to update the apps. &quot;Since Monday (11/01/2010), we have been communicating and coordinating with the financial institutions to eliminate the flaws,&quot; research firm viaForensics wrote in a post on its site. &quot;The findings we published reflect testing completed on 11/03/2010. Since that time, several of the institutions have released new versions and we will post updated findings shortly.&quot;  The company had reported its findings to The Wall Street Journal earlier in the day. Yesterday, viaForensics went public with problems in PayPal'siPhone app, spurring the online payment provider to action.  Specifically, viaForensics concluded that: the USAA's Android app stored copies of Web pages a user visited on the phone' TD Ameritrade's iPhone and Android apps were storing the user name in plain text on the phone' Wells Fargo's Android app stored user name, password, and account data in plain text on the phone' Bank of America's Android app saves a security question (used if a user was accessing the site from an unrecognized device) in plain text on the phone' and Chase's iPhone app stores the username on a phone if the user chose that option, according to the report.  Meanwhile, the iPhone apps from USAA, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Vanguard and PayPal's Android app all passed the security tests and were found to be handling data securely. As a result of the report, Wells Fargo released an update to its Android app yesterday, USAA updated its Android app today, TD Ameritrade's apps will be fixed in the next version, and Bank of America is addressing the issue in its apps in the next few days, according to the newspaper report. A Chase spokesman declined to provide CNET with comment. Spokespeople from several of the financial institutions told the newspaper that the supposed holes, in and of themselves, would not necessarily put users at risk because other safeguards are in place and that an attacker would need to know the user ID and password in many cases to access accounts.  ViaForensics did not immediately return a call and e-mails seeking comment late today. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Oracle to buy ATG for $1 billion]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=oracle-to-buy-atg-for-1-billion</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=oracle-to-buy-atg-for-1-billion</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 02 Nov 2010 07:10:21 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Lillian</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=oracle-to-buy-atg-for-1-billion</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Oracle plans to spend about $1 billion to buy software company Art Technology Group.The acquisition, announced today, will be a cash deal for $6 per share of Cambridge, Mass.-based ATG and is expected to close by early 2011, pending shareholder and regulatory approval.Oracle said that it sees ATG's e-commerce software as complementary to its own array of CRM (customer relationship management), ERP (enterprise resource planning), retail, and supply chain applications, and that ATG also offers on-demand commerce optimization applications that would help provide a seamless online retail experience.&quot;More than 1,000 global enterprises rely on ATG's solutions to help increase the value of their online customer interactions,&quot; Bob Burke, president and CEO of ATG, said in a statement. &quot;This combination will enhance the ability to bring all their commerce activities together--creating a more consistent and relevant experience for their customers across all interaction channels, including online, in stores, via mobile devices and with call centers.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Vimeo gets 'couch mode' for Google TV, HTPCs]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vimeo-gets-couch-mode-for-google-tv-htpcs</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vimeo-gets-couch-mode-for-google-tv-htpcs</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Abiabeo</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vimeo-gets-couch-mode-for-google-tv-htpcs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Vimeo&amp;39's &amp;34'couch mode&amp;34' has been designed so Google TV and home theater PC users can watch Vimeo&amp;39's video content from across the room.(Credit:Screenshot by Josh Lowensohn/CNET)Watching Web videos on your couch is nothing new, but with Google TV's rollout now in full swing, having a big-screen-friendly version of your video site is very much in vogue. The latest site on that growing list is Vimeo, which has just released something it's calling &quot;couch mode.&quot; Users who point their browser toward Vimeo.com/couchmode get a full-screen video player, with big buttons and straightforward navigation to various video playlists. The idea is that you can hit the site from your Google TV, home theater PC, or even laptop and veg out to full-screen videos without UI distractions. Included in couch mode are things like Vimeo's HD playlist, its staff picks, any videos registered users have uploaded to the service, new videos from channels they subscribe to, and a list of favorites. Couch mode also integrates Vimeo's recently introduced &quot;watch later&quot; feature, which lets users bookmark videos without adding them to their favorites list. This can be especially useful if you're video surfing and find something you may want to watch, but others in the room don't particularly care for. Another nice touch worth mentioning is the ability to dig into extended information about a video and its author, all without leaving the couch mode interface. This is very different from Google's own leanback experience, which fires you off to a new, regularly formatted tab in your browser. To use couch mode, users need to be running Chrome orSafari, Vimeo says. Related: Some networks blocking Web shows on Google TV<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Study: Bees are smarter than computers]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-bees-are-smarter-than-computers</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-bees-are-smarter-than-computers</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:26:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Marek</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-bees-are-smarter-than-computers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I know that, for some, bees are something of an irritant. The same, however, can be said of computers.While bees sometimes pester us with their proximity and noise, computers pester us by making us believe in the proximity of something we're missing, somewhere out there.However, new research suggests something both powerful and profound about these two pesterers: bees are allegedly far smarter than computers. For, the Guardian informs me, bees are swiftly able to solve the &quot;traveling salesman problem.&quot;My mother's solution to this was to never open the door or, if she did, to pretend she couldn't speak English. However, when it's put in quotation marks, it refers to the conundrum of choosing the shortest route between a multitude of locations.Are these the coders of the future(Credit:CC Aussiegall/Flickr)I had always assumed that Google Maps and Mapquest had this thing covered. Oh, no. The researchers at Royal Holloway College in London feel that bees are the champions, especially given that their brains are far smaller than naval fluff.A computer will solve the &quot;traveling salesman problem&quot; by comparing the length of all possible routes and then computing which one is the shortest. This might take some time.A bee, by contrast, relies on its instincts rather than aMac. The research, which used artificial flowers controlled by computers, showed that bees do a quick fly-by of the flowers and then work out the shortest route in their extremely tiny heads.One of the Royal Holloway College experimenters, Nigel Raine, told the Guardian: &quot;Despite their tiny brains, bees are capable of extraordinary feats of behavior. We need to understand how they can solve the traveling salesman problem without a computer.&quot;This is merely the latest in the subtle battle between bees and technology. Research in India seems to suggest that the dwindling of the world's bee population may be caused by cell phone radiation, which confuses the bees' sense of direction home.However, if these London scientists manage to discover just how it is that bees are so clever, might some enterprising entrepreneur find a way to teach bees to code, thereby creating new growth opportunities among the bee population Now that would change the nature of the Valley, wouldn't it<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[BlackBerry PlayBook readies for Adobe AIR apps]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blackberry-playbook-readies-for-adobe-air-apps</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blackberry-playbook-readies-for-adobe-air-apps</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:23:37 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Lilly01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blackberry-playbook-readies-for-adobe-air-apps</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:AP)About a month after RIM announced its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the company is releasing its BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR, a software developer kit that can be used to program apps and games for the PlayBook. The SDK specifically targets Adobe AIR, a tool that allows developers to create software that can work on a variety of platforms, including Windows,Mac, and the BlackBerry PlayBook. Working with the cross-platform Adobe AIR is part of RIM's strategy for getting more Web developers to generate PlayBook apps, who might not ordinarily create applications for the smaller BlackBerry smartphones.In particular, RIM hopes its SDK will encourage developers familiar with Adobe's tools to program for RIM's contender to the iPad and GalaxyTab.In late September, RIM outlined its goal to woo traditional Web developers in addition to mobile programmers by delivering tools like the Adobe AIR SDK. The PlayBook will also integrate the contentious Flash Player 10.1 in addition to Adobe AIR applications. The SDK is available beginning today, with RIM accepting app submissions by the end of 2010, in time to get BlackBerry App World ready for the PlayBook's projected release date in early 2011--although there's no specific sale date yet named. Read more from RIM.Related BlackBerry PlayBook storiesEverything we know about the BlackBerry PlayBookUp Close with RIM's `PlayBook' (Photos)RIM's 'PlayBook': Enough to Slow Down the iPad<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Social game developers earn a seat at traditional game conferences]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=social-game-developers-earn-a-seat-at-traditional-game-conferences</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=social-game-developers-earn-a-seat-at-traditional-game-conferences</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dustephan</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=social-game-developers-earn-a-seat-at-traditional-game-conferences</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For a while, the makers of hardcore games belittled social game developers. While the hardcore game designers commanded budgets of $30 million, the social game folks &amp;8212' and their mobile game brethren &amp;8212' were viewed as second-class citizens working with shoestring budgets.But the video game industry has changed. Facebook, the iPhone and Android devices have made social and mobile gaming into big businesses. Once greeted with outright hostility, social game developers are now commanding more respect, and social and mobile game speakers will be prominently featured at two of the traditional video game industry&amp;'s premiere events, the Dice Summit in Las Vegas next week (Feb. 9 to Feb. 11) and the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco (Feb. 28 to March 4).This kind of tension happens in any industry undergoing change, where the old guard don&amp;'t always welcome the upstarts who are both trashing tradition and breathing new life into the industry. The social and mobile game developers, from Zynga to Ngmoco, were easily dismissed when they were small. But now Zynga&amp;'s valuation (as determined on private exchanges) is bigger than Electronic Arts, which is one of the oldest and most venerable game companies. Smartphone and tablet game companies are also proving themselves by generating real revenues on platforms that are now selling by the hundreds of millions.&amp;''The social and mobile developers are a new piece of the interactive industry,&amp;'' said Martin Rae (pictured right), president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, which stages the Dice Summit, a sold-out and exclusive event for 700 of the key publishers, developers, and executives of the game industry. &amp;''They&amp;'re a piece of the business that is not going away.&amp;''Adds Simon Carless (left), executive vice president of the UBM Techweb Game Group (which puts on the GDC), &amp;''There&amp;'s a lot less tension than there used to be. The social developers are using more game design concepts, and their games are more fun than they used to be. And the core game developers are learning how to create more social experiences.&amp;''The summit includes speakers such as Zynga chief designer Brian Reynolds, Electronic Arts Mobile worldwide studio chief Travis Boatman, Google engineer Bill Budge, Facebook game company chief Richard Garriott, and Booyah CEO Keith Lee. Social and mobile game developers are also baked into the main speaking roster of the GDC' they&amp;'re not just relegated to the mini-event summits that precede the main GDC.When Zynga&amp;'s Mark Skaggs, a former EA veteran, accepted an award at the GDC&amp;'s Game Developers Choice Awards a year ago, I heard a lot of boos from the audience. One speaker at the GDC held a &amp;''rant&amp;'' against social games because they were so backward from the eye of a game developer.But so much has changed in the past year. Zynga found huge audiences on Facebook among middle-aged women and others who had never played games before. Lots of seasoned game developers made the leap to the new companies, which became hot tickets because they promised riches in the form of valuable stock. Reynolds launched FrontierVille, a carefully designed game that was much more playable than its predecessor FarmVille. Virtually overnight, FrontierVille amassed an audience above 30 million, far more than the typical console game. And then Zynga launched CityVille late in the year and saw it soar above 100 million users in less than two months after its debut on Facebook. Carless said developers recognize that these social games are becoming better and more fun to play.&amp;''If you look way back in history to the 8-bit game platforms, these social games are a lot like them,&amp;'' Rae said. &amp;''You have to realize it&amp;'s early in the industry&amp;'s evolution. We&amp;'re finding that there are fascinating ways to be creative, no matter what the platforms are.&amp;''This year, one of the finalists at the Dice Summit&amp;'s awards program is Angry Birds, the hot mobile game that has dominated the charts for the top iPhone games for the past year. Angry Birds wasn&amp;'t formally nominated, but a write-in campaign helped push it into the finalist list at the awards show, which happens on Feb. 11 at Dice. Rae said, &amp;''My mom plays Angry Birds, and she never played a game in her life.&amp;''Another reason social and mobile are more accepted is that social and mobile game companies are creating most of the new jobs in the video game industry, while console game studios are still laying off people by the hundreds. In a couple of years, Zynga has grown well beyond 1,500 people, while just recently Disney laid off more than 200 console game makers as it steered its strategy into social and mobile games.This year, Brenda Brathwaite is giving a rant on behalf of social game companies at the GDC. She is a game industry veteran who became the creative director at social game maker LOLapps, which recently published Ravenwood Fair, a game designed by Doom creator John Romero, who has opened his own social game studio.One of the interesting bridges between the two industries &amp;8212' hardcore and social &amp;8212' is Bing Gordon (right), former chief creative officer of Electronic Arts and a current partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp;amp' Byers, which has funded Zynga and Ngmoco (the latter bought for $403 million by Japan&amp;'s DeNA). Gordon is getting the lifetime achievement award at the Dice Summit. And he&amp;'s getting it not just for his 25-year career at EA, but also because he helped create and navigate the fledgling social and mobile game industries.&amp;''With social games, you  also had to have a thick skin,&amp;'' Gordon told us in an interview. &amp;''A few years ago, a  lot of gamers despised  social games. It was never as bad as the 1980s  in terms of the  disregard for games as a legitimate business. But it  was still  contrarian. Ita4a4s always nice to overcome that.&amp;''Previous Story: How one researcher helped the U.S. government slip news past China&amp;'s censorsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, Dice Summit, Game Developers Conference, GDCCompanies: DeNA, Electronic Arts, Ngmoco, ZyngaPeople: Bing Gordon, Brian Reynolds, Keith Lee, Martin Rae, Simon Carless          Tags: Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, Dice Summit, Game Developers Conference, GDCCompanies: DeNA, Electronic Arts, Ngmoco, ZyngaPeople: Bing Gordon, Brian Reynolds, Keith Lee, Martin Rae, Simon CarlessDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google calls out Beijing for messing with Gmail]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-calls-out-beijing-for-messing-with-gmail</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-calls-out-beijing-for-messing-with-gmail</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Fveoslskes</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-calls-out-beijing-for-messing-with-gmail</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google today officially accused the Chinese government of intentionally messing with its Gmail email, perhaps in an effort to head off any attempts by its citizens to ride a recent global wave of dissent and jumpstart their own revolution, the company confirmed today.&amp;''Relating to Google there is no issue on our side. We have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail,&amp;'' said a Google spokesman in a statement sent to VentureBeat and other media outlets.As part of the crackdown, Google said that its users in China had seen a marked slowdown in their Gmail service, including problems sending messages, marking messages as unread and accessing all the tools Gmail offers in other countries.The search engine behemoth also hinted that Chinaa4a4s government had blocked an online tool created by Google to help people find friends and relatives missing after the recent tsunami and earthquake disaster in Japan.Spokesmen for the Chinese embassies in San Francisco or Washington, D.C., did not return requests for comment.The fracas is certainly not the first argument between Google and China over Gmail.Two weeks ago Google blogged about a4Apolitically motivateda4 attacks that authorities had made on specific targets but did not name who or what those targets were:Wea4a4ve noticed some highly targeted and apparently politically motivated attacks against our users. We believe activists may have been a specific target. Wea4a4ve also seen attacks against users of another popular social site.Google may also be particularly sensitive about the issue given the criticism heaped upon it by human rights activists after it was revealed in January 2010 that the company had been allowing Chinese authorities at least some form of censorship by directing users in the country to Google.cn.But after an outcry from the international community, both on the tech and diplomatic sides, Google changed its access rights so that any user in the country was then redirected to the non-censored Google.com.hk.That change only came, however, after Google discovered that attacks on human rights activistsa4a4 Gmail accounts had originated in China.How Beijing will respond to this latest round in what appears to be a battle with a lot more fight in it remains to be seen &amp;8212' but you can be sure it won&amp;'t be the last time the two butt heads over the issue of free speech and access to information.Previous Story: Justin.tva4a4s social video bet pays off with 150K downloadsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Companies: gmail, Google          Companies: gmail, GoogleRiley McDermid is a contributing reporter to VentureBeat. She was previously the online editor at institutional investing and trading forum Markets Media, which she joined in 2008 from Dow Jones/MarketWatch in New York. Her work has appeared in the The New York Times, the Associated Press, Portfolio Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Barrona4a4s. She has won awards from the American Society of Business Publishers and Editors, the Magazine Association of the Southeast, the Mississippi Press Association and the Atlanta Press Club, and was a finalist for the Pacemaker Prize for excellence in news reporting. 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[YouMail&'s free iPhone app adds to Apple&'s voicemail]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youmailrsquos-free-iphone-app-adds-to-applersquos-voicemail</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youmailrsquos-free-iphone-app-adds-to-applersquos-voicemail</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>parwinrestalk</dc:creator>
<category>Science</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youmailrsquos-free-iphone-app-adds-to-applersquos-voicemail</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple&amp;'s built-in voicemail app gets raves for allowing users to pick and choose messages from a list, like email rather than being forced to listen to them in order like a 1980&amp;'s tape-cassette answering machine. But there are extra steps still to be taken to make voicemail as powerful as email.YouMail&amp;'s free iPhone app is, business-wise, a loss leader for the company&amp;'s transcription service, a subscription that starts at $3.99 a month. The app ties into YouMail&amp;'s Web-based service, which allows users to manage their voicemail from a browser.I caught YouMail CEO AlexQuilici on the phone Tuesday. A few minutes after we got off the phone, he sent me a transcription of our talk. Clever.Q: How isYouMail different from what iPhone offersA: With iPhone, the basic idea is that you can see who calls and pick what voicemail you play and in what order.YouMail has provided users with the ability to unlock voicemail and give you more choice a4&quot; play or read it, have transcription embedded in app a4&quot; very useful in meeting, etc. Q: Is transcription a paid featureA: Yes. If you want to be able to read your voicemail, transcription is a premium service. Q: What are the biggest differentiators betweenYouMaila4a4s app and what iPhone offers:A: Three big differentiators: Transcription. We offer users the ability to read their voicemails.  Forward your voicemail to anyone. Wea4a4ve unlocked voicemail so you can forward it to anyone you want a4&quot; you can click forward and it generates a URL for voicemail that you can email, post or do whatever a4&quot; completely unlocked from carrier a4&quot; do whatever you want with the voicemail. Status greetings. With one click, you can change your greeting to let callers know you are in a meeting, on a plane or out surfing. Select your own personal recorded greeting or select fromYouMaila4a4s massive library of pre-recorded greetings.Finally, it&amp;'s important to note thatYouMaila4a4s Visual Voicemail Plus app is a small part of theYouMail desktop online service. If you are at your PC, you can pick up a voicemail and surf for greetings on the computer. The app is simply a convenient entry point for the other functionalities. Standard iPhone voicemail does not offer this. Q: Give me idea of pricing:A: The basicYouMail app is free andYouMail lets you store 100 voicemaila4a4s, which is perfect for most people. The transcription services start as low as $3.99/month, which gives you up to 50 transcribed voicemails /month.YouMail transcribes the first 10 seconds of the voicemail, which is the most critical. There are different plans that range from 9.99/month to $27.99/month which provides unlimited, full-length, high-quality voicemail transcriptions. Q: Who do you consider your competitorsA: Other companies that provide transcription offerings or voicemail. Q: What about Skydeck How are you differentYouMail is focused on providing the best possible voicemail experience. We&amp;'re not interested in other things like low cost phone calls or texts. Everyone gets voicemail and we can make people like it. Q: What about multiple phones DoesYouMail provide support for multiple numbersA: We do. We started off as a replacement voicemail mail box a4&quot; a lot of people asked to forward work and landline or multiple lines intoYouMail. We do this, though it&amp;'s more of an added value for a small portion of our users. The mobile phone is most peoplea4a4s primary communication device. Q: Can you tell me more about forwarding a voicemailA: When forwarding a voicemail, it automatically generates a web link that you can send to anyone. There is no password, it just plays. Ita4a4s a link to a page with an embedded payer, and it automatically plays a4&quot; no attachments, nothing else required. Next Story: iPhone envy IBM launches $100 million mobile research intiative Previous Story: iPhone 3.0: A guide to what doesn&amp;'t work yetPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: iPhoneCompanies: Youmail          Tags: iPhoneCompanies: YoumailPaul wrote for VentureBeat until July 2010. To reach VentureBeat's current writers, email tips@venturebeat.com.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[You know whata4a4s cool 8 Oscar nominations for The Social Network]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=you-know-whatâÂ€Â™s-cool-8-oscar-nominations-for-the-social-network</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=you-know-whatâÂ€Â™s-cool-8-oscar-nominations-for-the-social-network</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>resmarmarasdf</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=you-know-whatâÂ€Â™s-cool-8-oscar-nominations-for-the-social-network</guid>
<description><![CDATA[a4AThe Social Networka4 snagged eight Oscar nominations this morning, including the coveted Best Picture Award and the Best  Actor award for Jesse Eisenberga4a4s portrayal of Facebook co-founder and  CEO Mark Zuckerberg.That  the film was well-received by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and  Sciences comes as no surprise &amp;8212' The Social Network was a critical  darling, and it also walked away with four Golden Globe awards,  including Best Picture. (Check out my podcast review of the film with VentureBeata4a4s Anthony Ha.)  It was beat out in nominations by a4AThe Kinga4a4s Speecha4 and a4ATrue Grita4,  and it was also noticeably absent from a few key categories. For one,  Andrew Garfield received no Academy love for his portrayal of Facebook  co-founder Eduardo Saverin.In  addition to Best Picture and Best Actor, director David Fincher was  nominated for Best Director' screenwriter Aaron Sorkin landed a nod for  Best Adapted Screenplay (the film was based on Ben Mezricha4a4s book a4AThe Accidental Billionairesa4)'  Nine Inch Nailsa4a4 Trent Reznor and his musical collaborator Atticus Ross  were nominated for Best Original Score' and Jeff Cronenweth was  nominated for his gorgeous cinematography. The film also landed  nominations for Film Editing and Sound Design.When  it comes to the Best Picture category, The Social Network has some  major contenders to fend off, including a4ABlack Swana4, a4AThe Kinga4a4s  Speecha4, and a4ATrue Grit.a4 Eisenberg meanwhile will be facing off against  renowned actors like Javier Bardem, Colin Firth, and Jeff Bridges.  Personally, I think the film has a good shot at landing the major awards  &amp;8212' unless the Academy decides to fall back on safer choices (as it often does) like a4AThe  Kinga4a4s Speech.a4Next Story: Can new startup resu.me succeed in being the &amp;''LinkedIn killer&amp;'' Previous Story: Facebook CTO: 2011 is all about mobile and HTML5PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Academy Awards, movies, Oscars, the social networkCompanies: FacebookPeople: Aaron Sorkin, Atticus Ross, David Fincher, Jeff Cronenweth, Jesse Eisenberg, Trent Reznor          Tags: Academy Awards, movies, Oscars, the social networkCompanies: FacebookPeople: Aaron Sorkin, Atticus Ross, David Fincher, Jeff Cronenweth, Jesse Eisenberg, Trent ReznorDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra. 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[Facebook Vies To Become Your Homepage &8211' And Why That&'s A Big&nbsp'Deal]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-vies-to-become-your-homepage-8211-and-why-thatrsquos-a-bignbspdeal</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-vies-to-become-your-homepage-8211-and-why-thatrsquos-a-bignbspdeal</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sypecease</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-vies-to-become-your-homepage-8211-and-why-thatrsquos-a-bignbspdeal</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It&amp;'s a very old trick, and arguably a mighty effective one. Ask people to set your website as their homepage, and it will become their entry point to the Web, the very first thing they&amp;'ll see when they open their browser. Venturebeat noticed that Facebook started prompting visitors to set the site as their homepage before the weekend, by means of a bar at the top that actually shows some pictures and names of your Facebook friends.Others have reported to see the bar popping up as well, and reader Ryan Merket from Appbistro just checked in to tell us that he&amp;'s seen it as well. You can see two other pop-up messages below, and you&amp;'ll notice that they differ from the one embedded above.From the looks of it, Facebook is A/B testing this with a small subset of users, and trying out a variety of messages and pop-up layouts to figure out which one yields the best results.This is undeniably a significant move, particularly when it will roll out to the site&amp;'s roughly 500 million active users in full. Keep in mind that Google and other search engines benefit greatly from being a genuine starting point to the rest of the Web, which is why so many people select such services to come up as soon as they open their Web browser.Being people&amp;'s homepage is good for branding, great for &amp;8216'stickiness&amp;' and phenomenal for traffic.But for many people, social networking sites are slowly taking over at least part of the role of search engines, which is mainly to retrieve information. When you can tap your entire social graph for answers to your queries, sites like Facebook have the ability to push aside search engines like Google as the first site that springs to mind when people think about surfing the WWW to find information, connect to other people, communicate with friends, and so on.I can easily see why more and more people would eventually switch to Facebook as their homepage of choice, and actively prompting them to do so might be just what some Facebook users need to actually configure their browsers to do just that.Come to think of it, I&amp;'m wondering why Facebook hasn&amp;'t been doing this forever.Facebook&amp;'s traffic is still very much not going anywhere but up, but the social network could still see a massive bump in total pageviews and time spent on the site if they can convince even just a tiny percentage of their total user base to set Facebook.com as their homepage.That said, you&amp;'ve set TechCrunch as your homepage, rightCrunchBase InformationFacebookInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Who&'s afraid of young startups An increasing number of venture capitalists]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=whorsquos-afraid-of-young-startups-an-increasing-number-of-venture-capitalists</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=whorsquos-afraid-of-young-startups-an-increasing-number-of-venture-capitalists</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>teringbeadred</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=whorsquos-afraid-of-young-startups-an-increasing-number-of-venture-capitalists</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Venture-capital investors, apparently spooked by declining returns over the past ten years, raised less money for investment in early- and mid-stage startups in 2010 and flocked to late-stage startups.Funding available for startups was down 14 percent in 2010, to $11.6 billion, from $13.5 billion in 2009, according to a report by Dow Jones. 119 funds raised money for investing in startups last year, compared to 133 funds in 2009.Despite some positive activity in the exit market, it looks like investors are still less willing to take significant risks on early- and mid-stage startups that havena4a4t found some significant traction yet. Exit activity was up 25 percent in 2010 when compared to 2009, but the average size of each exit was lower than what was paid out before the recession began in earnest in 2008.Eight late-stage funds a4&quot; geared toward startups that have already seen some success and become established a4&quot; accounted for $1.5 billion worth of venture capital investment last year. Thata4a4s up 68 percent from $887 million in 2009. Venture capital firms raised around $390 million for late-stage investments in the fourth quarter last year alone.Multi-stage funds, which are a little more flexible and account for the majority of fundraising in 2010, raised $5.4 billion in 2010. Venture capital fundraising was still down 26 percent, from $7.3 billion in 2009. Thata4a4s largely a result of most major firms downsizing their funds, such as Menlo Venturesa4a4s $400 million fund thata4a4s about a third the size of its earlier funds.Early-stage investment funds raised $4.8 billion across 73 funds. Fundraising for early-stage investment funds was down 12 percent from $5.5 billion in 2009. A sizable chunk of last yearsa4a4 early-stage investment fundraising can be attributed to Andreessen Horowitza4a4s latest fund, which racked up $650 million, in part on the promise of partner Marc Andreessen&amp;'s deftness with picking early-stage startups. But Andreessen Horowitz invests across a range of startup sizes, including its blockbuster investment in Skype.The other sizable cunk of early-stage investment fundraising came from angel investors turning to venture funds, according to the report. Angel investors are wealthy individuals that are typically responsible for a companya4a4s first batch of seed funding or institutional fundraising. Angel funding has become increasingly popular lately a4&quot; so much so that the SEC is even reconsidering its rules for disclosure of funding by angel investors.But with exit activity increasing, 2011 looks better for venture capital funds. A survey conducted by Dow Jones indicates that most venture capital firms and angel investors plan to push additional funding into startups this year. More than half of them expect venture-capital funding to pick up this year. It looks like cloud computing, which lets developers offload programs that require heavy-duty computing firepower onto remote servers and deliver the results through the Internet a4&quot; will help usher the venture buzz back in this year, according to the report.Previous Story: a4AFlipboard for sportsa4 startup Hitpost comes to the Web (invites)PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: early-stage startups, Venture CapitalCompanies: Dow jones          Tags: early-stage startups, Venture CapitalCompanies: Dow jonesMatthew Lynley is VentureBeat's enterprise writer. He graduated from University of North Carolina, where he studied math and physics, in May 2010. He has reported for Reuters. He currently lives in San Francsico, Calif. You can reach him at mattl@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @logicalmoron.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Will eBay reveal street artist Banksy&'s secret identity]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=will-ebay-reveal-street-artist-banksyrsquos-secret-identity</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=will-ebay-reveal-street-artist-banksyrsquos-secret-identity</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>tduncannac</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=will-ebay-reveal-street-artist-banksyrsquos-secret-identity</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Secret identities are pretty valuable. Street-artist Banksy knows that pretty well, having never revealed his (or her) own.But not all things can stay secret in the age of the internet. Anintrepid seller on eBay is offering the identity of the anonymous artist for a cool $1 million.Banksy is the pseudonym for a British street artist known for painting traditionally satirical and black humor paintings on the walls of buildings across the world. The artwork relies on a stencil-like style and has become a bit of a cult phenomenon, even spurring the creators of the Simpsons to commission an opening couch gag from the eccentric artist.But Banksy&amp;'s identity has never been revealed. Even when creating the couch gag episode, the Simpsons creators went through a series of representatives for the artist and never had direct contact with him (or her). That&amp;'s actually been part of the appeal of the enigmatic artist a4&quot; that, and Banksy&amp;'scontempt for auctioneers that try to sell his art for profit.The eBay seller, Jaybuysthings, claims he has confirmed Banksy&amp;'s identity by matching the price he sold his artwork for with some tax records. That&amp;'s a pretty crafty way to go about doing it, although the seller didn&amp;'t give any additional details about how he came by the tax information.Regardless of the validity of the claim, it&amp;'s already attracted 38 bids and the price has gone all the way up to a cool $999,999.00. The auction started just last week and ends on Wednesday. The winner will receive a piece of paper that will have the name of Banksy on it a4&quot; because eBay originally wouldn&amp;'t let Jaybuysthings sell something that wasn&amp;'t a physical object.The seller has a 100 percent positive feedback rating, but then again, he only has 9 reviews in the past 12 months. Mad props to Jaybuysthings if the sale actually goes through without a hitch a4&quot; that&amp;'s quite a way to generate a cool $1 million for some extra work.To the rest of the Internet (especially those bidding on the identity) a4&quot; seriously The identity of Banksy is probably worth that much, but eBay doesn&amp;'t seem like the most productive way to go about discovering it.At least Jaybuysthings is offering free shipping.[Photo: Leeks]Next Story: Plastic Logic announces $700M investment to make its plastic e-readers in Russia Previous Story: Goldman cuts US investors from Facebook deal, blames the mediaPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: internet detective, secret identity, street artPeople: Banksy          Tags: internet detective, secret identity, street artPeople: BanksyMatthew Lynley is VentureBeat's enterprise writer. He graduated from University of North Carolina, where he studied math and physics, in May 2010. He has reported for Reuters. He currently lives in San Francsico, Calif. You can reach him at mattl@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @logicalmoron.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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