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<title>Haaze.com / Simi / Voted News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:11:27 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: News Corp. taking bids for MySpace]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-news-corp--taking-bids-for-myspace</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-news-corp--taking-bids-for-myspace</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:11:27 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>drrecord</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-news-corp--taking-bids-for-myspace</guid>
<description><![CDATA[News Corp. is expected to begin entertaining bids for MySpace this week, with a minimum asking price of $100 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report.In addition to about a half dozen private equity firms expected to submit offers, a couple of Internet companies have also expressed interest in the foundering social-networking site, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. News Corp. representatives declined to comment on the report.News Corp. revealed in January that it was exploring the possibility of selling or spinning off MySpace after months of rumors and News Corp. dissatisfaction with MySpace's performance. News Corp. bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million as part of its purchase of Intermix. But the former social-networking sensation has fallen on hard times lately, losing more and more ground to Facebook until it finally underwent a massive redesign that left it focusing on pop culture media-sharing for young users rather than attempting to be a universally appealing social network. However, in the face of News Corp.'s public frustration with MySpace, those efforts were not expected to result in a major turnaround capable of saving the site. News Corp. revealed last November that quarterly revenue at MySpace was down $70 million compared with the same period the year before. During the earnings call at the time, Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey called out MySpace's poor performance and said &quot;current losses are not acceptable or sustainable.&quot; <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How to restore Android factory settings]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-restore-android-factory-settings</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-restore-android-factory-settings</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>beingriacici12</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-restore-android-factory-settings</guid>
<description><![CDATA[You've rooted your Android device, flashed a custom ROM, and reaped the benefits of better power management, extra features, and the radiant glow that comes from treating that phone like you own it. Because you do own it, right Now it's time to get a new phone. How can you make your old Android-powered hardware resalablerescue guides at DroidForums.net. The procedure requires caution, because just like when you rooted your phone and installed a custom ROM, there's a chance you can brick it by downgrading, too.Note that for these instructions, the phone being used is a first-generation Motorola Droid and that the steps are extremely device-specific. While the general idea of how to do it applies to all devices, you must research the exact instructions for your phone on your own.The first step is to grab three downloads you must have to restore a Droid. One is the Motorola desktop tool for updating phones, called RSD Lite (download). Next, you want the appropriate drivers for your phone. In this case, I want the &quot;Motorola Droid drivers&quot; for a 32-bit computer (download). (Also available for download: x64 drivers.) The third download you have to have is the SBF file. In this case, I want to downgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo, so I search for FRG22D.sbf Droid (Google search results).Next, install RSD Lite and the drivers, and connect your phone to your computer. Turn it off, then turn it on holding Up on the D-Pad. After a minute or so of holding it down, the Bootloader screen, a black screen with white text and no interface, will appear. Then run RSD Lite, and you ought to see your phone listed. If not, go to the menu bar, choose Config, then DeviceID, then choose either of the two options, and restart RSD Lite. Be sure to put the phone in bootloader mode before running RSD Lite.Last, browse to the SBF file. Hit Start and grab a tasty beverage as Froyo installs. The phone should automatically reboot. If you connect it to a network, either with 3G or Wi-Fi, it will soon ask to upgrade to Android 2.2.1 or whatever the most recent manufacturer-supported Android version is.That's one way you can restore your phone to its original, stock version of Android. There are several other methods out there, and remember that this procedure is nuanced and likely will change depending on your device.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Is your life EV compatible]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-your-life-ev-compatible</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-your-life-ev-compatible</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:11:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>nadav-be</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=is-your-life-ev-compatible</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The BMW Evolve app has settings that let you track a trip&amp;39's distance and &amp;34'get charged&amp;34' at destinations that offer EV recharging.(Credit:BMW)BMW launched an app that gives conventionalcar drivers a hypothetical taste of electric-car living, but without the real-world hassle of range anxiety. The free BMW Evolve app is available for iPhone and Android phones and you don't need an electric vehicle to try it out. In fact, that's the point--the app is a little like a Tamagotchi for electric cars.Using the app, each day you start out with a 100-mile range for your pretend EV. The app tracks your driving distance using the phone's GPS, and lets you &quot;get charged&quot; at destinations that offer electric car charging to increase your range. At the end of the trip, you park the hypothetical EV. The app tallies your trip length and distance, and tells how much time you spent while driving, parked, and charging. It will also tell you how much less CO2 emissions you would have added to the environment and how many gallons of gas you could have saved if you had actually been driving an electric vehicle. Is it exactly like driving an an electric car Hardly. While it's a decent estimate for tracking distances, it appears the app doesn't track speed, weather, or terrain, all of which impact driving range. But it looks like a fun exercise to see how often, if ever, you drive more than 100 miles a day. And it could tell you if you're ready to swap the gas pump for an electric cord when the BMW ActivE is released this fall.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Hands-on: Acer Iconia Tab A500 tablet]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hands-on-acer-iconia-tab-a500-tablet</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hands-on-acer-iconia-tab-a500-tablet</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>canufi</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=hands-on-acer-iconia-tab-a500-tablet</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Acer Iconia Tab delivers the specs of the Motorola Xoom tablet, but at a significant savings.(Credit:Donald Bell/CNET)Google'stablet-friendly Android 3.0 OS (aka Honeycomb) is arguably the biggest advancement for tablet computers since the introduction of theiPad. It delivers souped-up versions of Google's celebrated mobile apps (Gmail, Maps, Books, Talk, Navigation, and Market) to the big, multitouch-enabled screens of 10-inch tablets, and weaves Adobe Flash into a killer tabbed Web browser. There's only been one big problem: the OS has been trapped on a relatively hefty, high-priced tablet called the Motorola Xoom.The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is one of the first Android Honeycomb tablets we've seen to compete against the Xoom, and ultimately, the Apple iPad 2. It's promise, essentially, is all of the features of the Wi-Fi Motorola Xoom, priced nearly $150 less at $450. Is there a catch In the few hours we've had to play with the Iconia Tab, there's nothing obvious that jumps out as a &quot;gotcha&quot;. It's a little heavier than the already-heavy Xoom, weighing 1.66 lbs. The design feels a little more plastic around the edges where the tablet meets your hand. The photo and video quality don't seem to match up to that of the Xoom (and we weren't big fans of the Xoom's image quality to begin with). Acer's instinct to populate the home screen with its own app choices and bury Google's prime products in the app drawer seems like a needless makeover, but it's a move that's easily undone. Acer Iconia Tab A500 (photos) The big question is whether the Honeycomb experience itself is any different on the Acer Iconia Tab than on the pricier Motorola Xoom. From our perspective, the differences are too minor to notice. The touch screen is seemingly just as responsive, and sports the same 10.1-inch screen and 1280x800-pixel resolution of the Xoom. All of Google's core apps, including Marketplace, are installed out of the box. You do have to take an extra step to download a free version of Adobe Flash 10.2, but it takes only a minute and a shortcut link for the download is included within the app menu.Other specs include an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 1024MB of DDR3 dual-channel memory, 16GB of built-in storage (4GB of which is taken up by the OS), HDMI output, MicroSD memory expansion, and a full-size USB host port.The only obvious drawback to the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is that it's no lighter or slimmer than the Xoom. With the razor-thin iPad 2 out there shaping people's tablet expectations, the Iconia Tab is beefy by comparison (see our photo gallery for comparison shots). Still, we're happy to see some competition for the Xoom and we're elated that the price of Honeycomb tablets is racing toward affordability. Stay tuned for CNET's full, rated review of the Acer Iconia Tab A500.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Boston Acoustics reinvents the budget audiophile speaker]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boston-acoustics-reinvents-the-budget-audiophile-speaker</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boston-acoustics-reinvents-the-budget-audiophile-speaker</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:10:53 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>aaaronbaldwinu</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boston-acoustics-reinvents-the-budget-audiophile-speaker</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Boston Acoustics A 360 tower speaker(Credit:Boston Acoustics)In the early 1980s the Boston Acoustics A 40 and A 60 were the go-to speakers for audiophiles on a tight budget. They were hugely popular, and there are still vast numbers of them in circulation. Well, the smart folks at Boston Acoustics have brought the A Series back, but the new speakers don't share any technology with the original models. The engineers have learned a lot over the decades, and that was immediately obvious when I heard some of the new A Series speakers earlier this week. The little bookshelf model, the A 26 ($200 each), was sounding a lot bigger than I would have thought possible. For a speaker that measures just 13 inches by 8.25 inches by 10.5 inches, bass was punchy and deep, dynamics were wide open, and the treble was clear. Female vocals sounded especially natural.  These speakers don't need the assistance of a subwoofer to sound full and rich, so they would be a great fit for two-channel home theaters or hi-fi use. I also heard the A 360 towers ($400 each), which produced more and deeper bass, and played louder, but the same sound signature was evident over both speakers. The A Series also includes a smaller tower, the A 250 ($300 each)' two smaller bookshelf models, the A 25 ($150 each) and the A 23 ($140 each)' and the A 225C center-channel speaker ($250). A 5.1-channel satellite-subwoofer package, the A 2310 ($900), completes the line.  Build quality is exceptional for speakers in this price class, and the cabinets' high-gloss, scratch-resistant finishes with textured top panels and magnetically attached grilles looked great. Vertical and horizontal internal braces reduce cabinet resonances for enhanced audio quality, and all the speakers feature newly developed ceramic and glass fiber polymer woofer cones that allow for higher speed, reduced distortion, and improved sensitivity.  The crossover components in all A Series models incorporate low-loss film capacitors, and low-distortion laminated silicon steel cores for the inductors in all critical areas, and five-way gold-plated binding posts. The speakers also use a single 1-inch Kortec soft-dome tweeter. Two new powered subwoofers, the 300-watt ASW 650 and the 150-watt ASW 250 ($350), are also available. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPad 2 battery life results (or, where is my video loop feature!)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-2-battery-life-results-or-where-is-my-video-loop-feature</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-2-battery-life-results-or-where-is-my-video-loop-feature</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:10:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>hongchen</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-2-battery-life-results-or-where-is-my-video-loop-feature</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The real reason these battery results took so long to get.(Credit:Eric Franklin/CNET)Testingtablets can sometimes be a time-consuming endeavor, especially when a tablet like theiPad 2 can last for well over 10 hours on one charge while running video. To make matters worse, the iPad 2 has no loop option for video. This means that when running a movie like &quot;Toy Story 3&quot; to drain the battery, every 1 hour and 40 minutes, I am required to be standing in front of this thing to restart the movie.I have to basically plan my entire day around testing: when I take lunch, bathroom visits, meetings, Starcraft II matches, etc. It also means I have to be at work for more than 12 hours on the days the iPad is battery-tested. Being able to loop the video until the battery dies would be the obvious, desired solution, but unfortunately, there is no way (that I know of) to loop iTunes-downloaded video on the iPad. There are a few apps out there that claim to loop video, but I had little luck with them. Sure, one was able to loop video recorded by the iPad 2, but again, not with video downloaded from iTunes. Below you'll find new results for video battery life of the iPad 2 and gaming battery life on all three tablets featured here. Also, if you're privy to a workaround that allows iTunes downloaded video to loop on the iPad 2, do not hesitate to pass it along. You'll save me from some very long workdays.Tablet nameVideo battery life (in hours)Gaming battery life (in hours)Web site load time (in seconds' lower is better)Maximum brightness (in cd/m2)Default brightness (in cd/m2)Contrast ratioApple iPad 211.98.35432176939:1Apple iPad12.68.36388161881:1Motorola Xoom9.37.263121311,200:1How we test tabletsIn the CNET Labs, we currently run three different tests to evaluate the performance of non-Windows tablets. Battery lifeWe evaluated battery life in two ways. First, by continually running a movie file on the tablet until its battery died and also by running a game on the tablet until the battery died.We set each tablet to Airplane mode and adjusted its respective brightnesses to 150 candelas per square meter (cd/M2), or as close to that number as is possible. With movies, for the iPad, we run the iPad version of &quot;Toy Story 3.&quot; For Android tablets, a 720p version of &quot;Toy Story 3&quot; was run. The reason we chose 720p for Android was that not every tablet can run 1080p video just yet, and we wanted to make sure we tested Android tablets under the same methodology.On the iPad, we ran the movie through itsiPod app' for Android, we used the movie player mVideoPlayer, as it provides a much needed repeat video function that not all native Android movie players include. For gaming, we used Dungeon Defenders First Wave. We started the game, kept the default visual settings, walked our character over near the fireplace, and let it sit idle until the battery died.  We understand that this is different from actually playing and interacting with a game. While playing a game, the processor and memory would be accessed more frequently, likely increasing its power draw. However, the impetus for this test was our desire to determine what kind of difference gaming graphics would have on battery life versus watching a movie.  Site-loading speedWe used GiantBomb.com as our Web site of choice, as it doesn't use Flash or have many dynamic elements. Each tablet was connected to the same closed network with no other devices on it, with the router about 5 feet away. The test began the moment we pressed Enter, with the end of the test signified by the disappearance of the browser's blue progress bar. We measured speed in seconds, with a lower number indicating faster performance.  We used the latest version of iOS for the iPad, and the Xoom is, of course, using Honeycomb, with all other Android tablets using Android OS 2.2. Contrast ratio and brightnessWe also tested the maximum brightness, default brightness, and contrast ratio for each tablet. We conducted these tests using the Minolta CA-210 display color analyzer. With each screen at full luminosity, we placed the sensor in the middle of the screen. We used a completely white screen to test the brightness and a completely black screen to test the black level. We then divided the maximum brightness by the maximum black level to get the contrast ratio. ConclusionThe iPad 2 battery lasted only a little less than the iPad, but their duration was equal in the gaming battery test. Both iPads lasted longer than the Xoom in gaming, which is likely to translate to users being able to game on their iPads longer than on their Xooms, but not too much longer. Look for more tablet tests later this week.  The following products are available: On Sale Now: $599.00 - $919.96  View the latest prices for Apple iPad (64GB)  On Sale Now: $599.00 - $849.99  View the latest prices for Apple iPad 2 (32GB, WiFi, black)         Eric Franklin     Full Profile E-mail Eric Franklin   E-mail Eric Franklin If you have a question or comment for Eric Franklin, you can submit it here. However, because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests, we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.   Submit your question or comment here: 0 of 1500 characters       Eric Franklin refused to update his bio, saying, &quot;No one actually reads these things anyway, do they Well, do they Why are you not answering me Oh, you've left the room. Curses!&quot; E-mail Eric.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Geek's guide to Route 66, part 1]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=geeks-guide-to-route-66-part-1</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=geeks-guide-to-route-66-part-1</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 09 Apr 2011 07:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jusufresppdd</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=geeks-guide-to-route-66-part-1</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I&amp;39'm getting my gadget kicks on Route 66, beginning tomorrow.(Credit:Amanda Kooser/CNET)It's packing time. A jumble of tech gadgets will be my road companions as I head out on the highway, looking for adventure, and whatever comes my way. Beginning tomorrow, I'll be traveling in my Toyota Prius from Albuquerque, N.M., to Chicago on Route 66, with a side trip to Carbondale, Ill. Route 66 screams retro. It whispers Elvis' name. It reflects long, chrome-laden cars and poodle skirts at the local drive-in. It comes from a land before cell phones. That might make some high-tech gadget hounds feel a little out of place, but I've always been happy to park my Prius right behind my 1956 DeSoto and call it harmony. I'm taking a small pile of gadgets to get me through. Notably, I'm going to attempt to navigate, work, book hotels, shoot video, and amuse myself with a 32GB iPad 2 with Verizon 3G. I was going to leave my cranky old Asus Netbook at home, but it's coming with me because I'm worried about running into limitations with the iPad 2. I'll let you know after I get back if that turns out to be the case.  Other geeky goods I'm taking along for the ride are: the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS Digital Elph and the Sony Cybershot DSC-T100 digital cameras' an Olympus DS-30 digital voice recorder' an Asus Eee PC 1000HE' a Samsung Convoy phone' an Apple Camera Connection Kit' an Apple Wireless Keyboard' a CaseCrown Vertical Neoprene Skin Case for iPad' and Vibram Fivefinger KSO shoes. The changing times haven't completely left Route 66 in the dust. Many of those neon motels now offer free Wi-Fi. The Big Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla., has a page on Facebook (where it's listed as &quot;self employed&quot;). Roadside America has become an online repository for road trip buffs to share sightings of giant fiberglass muffler men and the world's largest rocking chair, map, totem pole, etc. I'll be posting updates from the road over the next few weeks. Let me know in the comments if you have a recommendation for an iPad app I should test out. Got any special Route 66 requests Would you like a report on the Cadillac Ranch in Texas or the Bucky Dome in Carbondale I'm all ears. See you on Route 66!<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[AVG launches cloud-based storage service]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avg-launches-cloud-based-storage-service</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avg-launches-cloud-based-storage-service</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rockyraj631</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avg-launches-cloud-based-storage-service</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Security firm AVG is doubling down on cloud storage.The company today announced LiveKive, a service that allows people to upload data to the cloud that can then be downloaded to other computers or Android- and iOS-based devices with the LiveKive mobile app. It works on both Windows andMac.AVG is currently offering two packages: a $49.99 per year option that gives customers 25GB of online storage and a $79.99 a year plan with unlimited data. In either case, people can upload files, folder, and multimedia content. The service also supports automatic syncing for those who don't want to manually choose what should and should not be saved in the cloud.At first glance, AVG's LiveKive closely resembles Dropbox and Box.net. Both of those services allow people to sync content with the cloud and share files on other products, including mobile devices.Dropbox offers 2GB of backup for free and charges $10 per month and $20 per month for 50GB and 100GB, respectively. Box.net offers up to 5GB of storage at no cost to its &quot;personal&quot; users, but charges $15 per user per month for 500GB of Web storage.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[NASA MoonBuggy race swept by Puerto Ricans]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nasa-moonbuggy-race-swept-by-puerto-ricans</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nasa-moonbuggy-race-swept-by-puerto-ricans</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:11:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sleniouminori</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nasa-moonbuggy-race-swept-by-puerto-ricans</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A Puerto Rican moonbuggy team in action.(Credit:NASA/MSFC)The space shuttle program may be drawing to a close, but a little bit to the south of the Kennedy Space Center, some young Puerto Ricans could represent our greatest hope for the future of the space program.Teams from the island territory swept the top honors in NASA's 18th annual Great Moonbuggy Race held over the weekend. Teams representing Teodoro Aguilar Mora Vocational High School of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, took the top two places in the high school division, and the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao won its second straight title in the college division. NASA describes the competition as challenging &quot;students around the world to build and race lightweight, human-powered buggies--demonstrating the same innovation and can-do spirit that put the first Apollo-era lunar rover on the moon four decades ago.&quot; Check out this footage:The Puerto Rico delegation brought its A-game to the space engineering geekfest held at the U.S. Space &amp; Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., besting more than 70 teams from 22 states, Canada, Germany, India, and Russia. Teodoro Aguilar Mora racer Isadora Matta also added glory to injury, receiving an award of special recognition for emerging bloody and bruised from one of the weekend's more spectacular crashes. Put simply, the Puerto Ricans are nuts for moonbuggy racing--the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao is the only school to enter a buggy in every race since the beginning in 1994.High school teams from Jupiter, Fla., and college entries from the University of Utah, Ohio State, and the University of Alabama-Huntsville were also among the top finishers. Best moonbuggy design awards went to Jupiter High School and Rhode Island School of Design, which documented some of the process of creating the vehicle online--as far as I can tell, the custom paint job seems to be a critical element.Student racers from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City tied for third place in the college division of the Great Moonbuggy Race held over the weekend.(Credit:NASA/MSFC)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Starz to delay new series on Netflix]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=starz-to-delay-new-series-on-netflix</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=starz-to-delay-new-series-on-netflix</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>megatwitter</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=starz-to-delay-new-series-on-netflix</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Starz follows Showtime in putting limits on original series&amp;39' availability via Netflix streaming.(Credit:Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)Cable channel Starz says it will no longer allow its original series to stream on Netflix the day after airing. Instead, the channel is requiring a 90-day waiting period for all episodes.Starz says the new policy will go into effect on April 1, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. Eventually this policy will also apply to movies Starz supplies to Netflix, though an exact date for that wasn't given. Netflix seemed to take it in stride.&quot;It's just their new series, and 90 days is fine. We still have existing series the day after,&quot; said spokesman Steve Swasey. &quot;Movies are not impacted contractually. We've said publicly, the deal with Starz runs through mid Q1 2012.&quot;The move by Starz comes just days after Showtime said some of its own original programming will no longer be available via streaming to Netflix customers when their contract expires this summer. (Showtime is owned by CBS, publisher of CNET.)It's perhaps more evidence that Hollywood executives have begun to view Netflix as a threat. The video rental service, however, is not backing down. Last week it announced it had acquired its first original series, called &quot;House of Cards,&quot; that will be available via its streaming service.Update, 5:42 p.m. PT:with comment from Netflix.<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[TripAdvisor: E-mail addresses stolen in data breach]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tripadvisor-e-mail-addresses-stolen-in-data-breach</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tripadvisor-e-mail-addresses-stolen-in-data-breach</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Nadia01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tripadvisor-e-mail-addresses-stolen-in-data-breach</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If you use TripAdvisor you may soon be getting more spam. The travel site told customers in an e-mail today that someone had breached its network and stolen e-mail addresses for an undisclosed number of its members. &quot;This past weekend we discovered that an unauthorized third party had stolen part of TripAdvisor's member email list,&quot; Steve Kaufer, co-founder and chief executive, wrote in the e-mail. &quot;We've confirmed the source of the vulnerability and shut it down. We're taking this incident very seriously and are actively pursuing the matter with law enforcement.&quot; He did not divulge how many e-mail addresses were exposed, but said it was &quot;only a portion of all member e-mail addresses.&quot; Meanwhile, passwords remained secure, he said, adding that the site does not collect credit card or financial information and does not sell or rent its member list. In an FAQ on the TripAdvisor site the company said it is still investigating the incident and could not say when it occurred. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Windows Phone 7 update rolls out, slowly]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-update-rolls-out-slowly</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-update-rolls-out-slowly</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Mar 2011 07:10:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>eernsterte</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-update-rolls-out-slowly</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft wanted to take some extra time to release the latestWindows Phone 7 update to iron out problems of a February update that rendered some Samsung phones temporarily unusable. Problems solved, mostly, Microsoft says. The update has begun to trickle out, first to phones in Europe that don't have mobile carrier brands.(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)The new update was supposed to be unleashed to the masses in the first two weeks of March. But a series of glitches with software updates in February led Microsoft to revise the schedule. Back then, Microsoft pushed software out to the phones to prepare them for updates that would add new features. That brought the first batch of problems, rendering some Samsung devices unable to update their system software, and some other Samsung devices unusable. Microsoft stopped the update to fix the bugs. But even the follow-up update caused some glitches.Winrumors first reported the latest update, noting that Microsoft is gradually distributing this update. Phones that sport carriers' brands will likely receive the updates in coming weeks, presumably as those carriers test the software to avoid the February snafus.With the problems apparently solved, the new update includes perhaps the most anticipated feature for Windows Phone 7, the ability to copy and paste text. Microsoft originally unveiled the feature in October. Of course, other phones, notably the rivaliPhone, already has copy and paste.The update also includes some performance improvements, notably the speed with which apps load. It's also streamlined searching its Marketplace, making it easier to hunt specifically for games, applications, or music in the store. And Microsoft still plans a larger update in the second half of the year that will include so-called third-party multitasking that lets users run applications in the background while working in another, and support for Internet Explorer 9.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[AT&T and T-Mobile--listen before you judge]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-and-t-mobile-listen-before-you-judge</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-and-t-mobile-listen-before-you-judge</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>banely</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-and-t-mobile-listen-before-you-judge</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The usual suspects are already sharpening their knives against AT&amp;T's announced acquisition of T-Mobile's U.S. business.Within hours, the Media Access Project announced that &quot;if approved, this deal would further increase costs and decrease choices for the public.&quot; Media reform group Free Press headlined its press release, &quot;Consumers lose when there's less competition.&quot; And Public Knowledge condemned the deal as &quot;unthinkable.&quot; That sort of rhetoric is par for the course inside-the-beltway where, for some reason, every combination of business assets is presumed to be hostile to consumers. These groups are so convinced of the evils of mergers that they no longer feel the need for bothersome facts and time-wasting analysis. But out here in the real world, thinking things through is actually still considered a rational way to analyze a problem. So let's think about the &quot;unthinkable.&quot; Of course, the details of the planned merger haven't been made public yet, so it's hard to say specifically how the combination will affect consumers, influence market dynamics, or change the landscape for communications services--mobile and otherwise.But at the same time, I don't understand the line of non-reasoning that opposes any combination of two companies in the same industry on the theory that any loss of competition, no matter how theoretical, translates to higher prices and reduced service to consumers. For starters, it assumes that the sole purpose of any merger is to gain economic leverage over one's customers and to translate that leverage into consumer harm. That, in any case, isn't what managers tell investors, who like the rest of us don't see what a company would have to gain from intentionally fouling its own nest. From the standpoint of investors, the whole point of mergers of this kind is to give the merged entity economies of scale and other efficiencies that allow it to operate at a lower unit cost. That is, to make it more competitive.That's especially important in the wide-open and fast-evolving mobile industry. Assuming the deal is ultimately approved, there will still be significant competitors to AT&amp;T in every U.S. market--competitors who will be eager to take advantage of inevitable distractions for AT&amp;T in both pursuing and implementing the merger. Companies regularly underestimate the costs and time it takes to complete a merger, by the way, which can also be helpful to competitors. And mergers of this scale may fail to ever deliver the benefits to investors that inspire them, perhaps because technological advances in the interim undermine the assumptions that made the merger seem attractive. Witness America Online and Time-Warner, which similarly and incorrectly terrorized consumer advocates in 2000. (Adam Thierer, now with The Mercatus Center, wrote a brilliant paper in 2009 (PDF) analyzing both the fear-mongering and sober realities of media and communications mergers over the last decade that is well worth rereading.)More, not less, competition In opposing mergers without any analysis (which requires thinking, after all), facts pose little obstacle for the true disbelievers. But for those who care about such details, it simply isn't true, as the Media Access Project says in its press release, that &quot;The FCC's National Broadband Plan, issued last year, warned about the absence of sufficient competition in the wireless market.&quot; Actually reading the FCC's plan, I find just the opposite. There is no hint of a warning about insufficient wireless competition. According to the FCC, rather, as of last year over 77 percent of U.S. homes had access to three or more providers for 3G mobile services.  related coverage AT&amp;T-T-Mobile: By the numbers   On the cusp of a historic mobile operator merger between AT&amp;T and T-Mobile, a look at some key stats.  In fact, the FCC believes that expanding and accelerating the deployment of next-generation 4G services has the potential to increase competition, not just in mobile but in the broader category of all communications services. As higher-speed and more efficient 4G services are implemented, the FCC notes, LTE services have the &quot;potential to be a closer competitor to wireline broadband&quot; than existing 3G services. Making 4G available to more U.S. consumers, in other words, is not only good for mobile competition but also makes mobile a viable alternative to wired service, where some consumers currently have fewer options.And the U.S. Department of Justice, who along with the FCC will need to give approval for the merger, agrees. In its submission to the FCC as part of the development of the FCC plan, the Department of Justice said nothing about a lack of competition in wireless service. Quite the contrary, it found that robust competition was spurring the kind of innovation that was making wireless a viable competitor to wireline. &quot;Emerging fourth generation ('4G') services,&quot; the Department wrote, &quot;may well provide an alternative sufficient to lead a significant set of customers to elect a wireless rather than wireline broadband service.&quot;Which is precisely the point of the proposed merger. According to AT&amp;T, &quot;Because of the scale, spectrum and resources resulting from this transaction, AT&amp;T can expand 4G LTE to 95 percent of U.S. population or 294 million people.&quot; By bringing together complementary spectrum from AT&amp;T and T-Mobile, the combined entity will be able to compete more effectively with Verizon in the 4G space, improve overall network performance, and speed up what the Justice Department described as &quot;encouraging signs&quot; that mobile is beginning to compete effectively with wireline service. (Already, significant numbers of U.S. consumers have abandoned wireline telephone service, for example.) How else can wireless providers improve serviceThat, of course, brings up another myth about mergers, which is that they inevitably lead to declines in service quality. Again, let's do the &quot;unthinkable&quot; and hash that through for a moment. Quality of service even in the 3G market is a principal issue on which the competitors compete today--witness the funny (or not-so-funny) commercials all the wireless companies run denouncing the performance of everyone else.If AT&amp;T or any other provider genuinely wanted to improve their coverage, speed, fidelity or any other quality measure consumers value, how else besides a merger can they do it Adding or upgrading existing infrastructure--cell towers, for example--is entirely constrained by federal, state, and local regulatory approval. And most of these regulators have proven themselves to be too slow, incompetent, and/or corrupt to allow the infrastructure investments the carriers want to make.Another alternative is to expand coverage by using more of the radio spectrum. But spectrum is a limited resource, and the FCC has not held a significant auction since 2008. (At that auction, AT&amp;T spent billions to acquire key blocks of the 700MHz frequency, presumably for use in deploying its future 4G service.)As everyone knows, there are vast tracks of spectrum which are inefficiently allocated today. The National Broadband Plan, in fact, called for the FCC to identify and reallocate some 500MHz of spectrum in the next 10 years--300 MHz of it for mobile services in the next five years. So far, however, that effort has gone nowhere. On the first anniversary of the its plan, the FCC is still splitting hairs over whether it has even gotten around to preparing an inventory of the existing allocations, as mandated last summer by President Obama.In the absence of meaningful spectrum reform or cell tower siting rules, what else can a service provider do but acquire more frequency through merger While the FCC dithers, industry is taking action. Mergers may not be the best way to reallocate the mess of current spectrum allocations. But waiting for the FCC will mean a slower roll-out of 4G services, and decline in overall quality as spectrum demand continues to outpace supply. The reality of merger review is complicated Without mergers, in other words, costs are likely to increase and consumer choice is likely to decline--not the other way around.Again, this is also the view of the Department of Justice. In evaluating the proposed transaction, the department will continue to recognize that putting available spectrum to its best use is essential to promote, not damage, competition. In its letter to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan, the Department wrote:Reallocating spectrum that is being underutilized would encourage the deployment of wireless services and could help to make such services more competitive with wireline offerings. First, an increase in the amount of spectrum that firms could devote to broadband would lower the cost of providing wireless broadband services and encourage entry. Second, more spectrum would allow providers to increase the capacity and reliability of their offerings, thereby bringing them closer to cable modem and fiber-based broadband. Third, the increased capacity in the systems would help support new applications. We urge the Commission to give priority to making more spectrum available to wireless broadband providers so as to maximize their potential to compete against the established wireline ones. As these quotes suggest, the unthinking, knee-jerk rejection of any proposed combination as an antitrust violation has little to do with the reality of how the FCC and Department of Justice should--and usually does--review proposed mergers. There is no magic formula for deciding what percentage of a relevant market an individual competitor is permitted to control. Defining the market itself is complicated, especially given different conditions in different parts of the U.S. and the potential for mobile service to compete with wireline alternatives. The influence a company has over price is affected by other factors besides direct competition, including potential substitutes and regulatory constraints.And in a market with high fixed and sunk costs, such as mobile services, even the most aggressive antitrust review does not mean, to quote the Department of Justice once again, &quot;striving for broadband markets that look like textbook markets of perfect competition, with many price-taking firms.&quot; Rather, the department says, &quot;promoting competition is likely to take the form of enabling additional entry and expansion by wireless broadband providers, applying other appropriate policy levers, and spurring competition among broadband providers by improving the information available to consumers...&quot;The real risk here is that between the FCC and the Department of Justice (it isn't clear yet which agency will take the lead in reviewing the proposed merger), the deal won't be closed quickly, slowing the combined company's ability to deploy new 4G service to nearly everyone. The FCC's review of the Comcast-NBC merger, for example, took more than a year, despite the fact that the agency has a self-imposed (but unenforced) 180-day shot clock. After fits and starts, the approval resulted in a nearly 300-page document rife with irrelevant hand-wringing and unrelated conditions on the merged entity, including a promise to abide by the FCC's notorious net neutrality rules even if Congress or the courts ultimately overturn them. Indeed, reviewing the sorry history of the Comcast review, FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker recently noted with characteristic understatement, &quot;the current FCC merger review process is ripe for overhaul.&quot;This is just a start to what will be, in the best of circumstances, a long and complicated conversation about the AT&amp;T-T-Mobile deal. But when opponents line up to preemptively reject the deal before the details are even announced, you can count on a longer and largely pointless slog. Thinking--and actual economic analysis-- about proposed mergers is certainly harder than blustering about the &quot;unthinkable.&quot; But if the Washington advocacy groups actually want to do something to improve the consumer experience in mobile, they might give it a try.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[White House pushes for online privacy bill of rights]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=white-house-pushes-for-online-privacy-bill-of-rights</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=white-house-pushes-for-online-privacy-bill-of-rights</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:10:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>danitarosd</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=white-house-pushes-for-online-privacy-bill-of-rights</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The White House is urging Congress to enact a new &quot;privacy bill of rights&quot; that would provide clearer guidelines to online users and businesses about the collecting of personal information over the Internet.Speaking in Washington yesterday at a special hearing devoted to online consumer privacy, Assistant Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling acknowledged that the ability to store information about customers helps make online companies more efficient. But he said that consumers are growing increasingly uneasy about how their personal information is being collected and used.With the lengthy privacy policies now offered by Web sites proving confusing and ineffective, Strickling said that a new &quot;consumer privacy bill of rights&quot; is needed. Based on responses from consumer groups and industry members to the Commerce Department's Green Paper, which offered a set of initial recommendations, such a bill would aim to protect the privacy of individual consumers without stifling innovation from online companies.The protections in the bill itself would be legally enforceable, according to Strickling, but still flexible enough to adapt to new technologies. He added that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should be given the authority to enforce that bill and that the White House would work with other countries and trading partners to ensure that the protections would be consistent across different borders.&quot;Working together with Congress, the FTC, the Executive Office of the President, and other stakeholders, I am confident in our ability to provide consumers with meaningful privacy protections in the Internet economy, backed by effective enforcement, that can adapt to changes in technology, market conditions, and consumer expectations,&quot; Strickling said.Strickling also called for a federal law to alert consumers in the event of a data breach that would expose their personal information. Such a law would be intended to set the same standards across the country, clear up inconsistent state laws, and give state authorities the ability to enforce it.Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which held the hearing, also urged Congress to act.&quot;Congress can no longer sit on the sidelines,&quot; Rockefeller said. &quot;There is an online privacy war going on, and without help, consumers will lose. We must act to give Americans the basic online privacy protections they deserve.&quot;Yesterday's hearing was the second in an ongoing series looking at how information is captured and stored by online businesses and advertisers and what Congress can and should do to better protect U.S. Internet users.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[New power line could cool Japanese reactors]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-power-line-could-cool-japanese-reactors</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-power-line-could-cool-japanese-reactors</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:12:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Bonessemn</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-power-line-could-cool-japanese-reactors</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Japanese authorities tried pouring water on overheated reactors from a helicopter but abandoned the effort because of radiation risks.(Credit:NHK/screenshot by Stephen Shankland)Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the collection of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant suffering major problems after an earthquake and tsunami, hopes a new power line will alleviate cooling difficulties.The plant has been without power since Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake, and backup generators to keep the nuclear fuel from overheating failed after the tsunamis. But the power company is working to connect new power lines, according to media reports, a move that could restore cooling systems.The power line is almost complete, Canada's Globe and Mail quoted Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Naoki Tsunoda as saying. He didn't predict when it would be finished, though.This illustration, based on a GeoEye satellite photo viewed through Google Earth, shows the locations of the six Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors.(Credit:Photo from Google and GeoEye' graphic by Stephen Shankland/CNET)High radiation levels prevented workers from connecting the lines to the power plant facilities using a &quot;makeshift switchboard,&quot; NHK, Japan's state broadcaster, said Thursday. (NHK broadcasts over Ustream for those who want live updates from Japan.)Wednesday's efforts at cooling reactor buildings included an aborted attempt to drop water from a helicopter. Another plan involves spraying water from a water cannon.Fukushima Daiichi has six reactors. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 were operating when the earthquake struck, while numbers 4, 5, and 6 had been shut down for an inspection. All have cooling requirements, since even when not operating nuclear fuel can be extremely hot. Excess heat, if not removed with circulating water, can cause fuel rods to melt, leading to much greater risks of contamination.Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake and its resulting tsunamis have killed thousands, with thousands more missing.Steam rising from a nuclear reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.(Credit:NHK/screenshot by Stephen Shankland)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[AT&T offers free calling, texting to Japan]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-offers-free-calling-texting-to-japan</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-offers-free-calling-texting-to-japan</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ramadariversid7</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-offers-free-calling-texting-to-japan</guid>
<description><![CDATA[AT&amp;T is offering free service to people who want to communicate with friends and family in Japan.The carrier announced today that postpaid subscribers won't be charged for calls or text messages to Japan through the end of March. The free service started Friday, the day that a magnitude-8.9 earthquake rocked the northeastern part of the country and sent tsunamis out into the Pacific. Customers will either find no charges on their monthly bill or a credit for the amount they would have spent. AT&amp;T is only offering the deal on phone calls that originate in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Text messages to Japan can only originate from a U.S. number.&quot;We want to help our customers connect with loved ones in Japan in any way we can,&quot; Mark Collins, senior vice president for Voice and Data Products at AT&amp;T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said in a statement. &quot;Connecting with family and friends is most important at times like this--we want to make it as easy and worry-free as possible for our customers.&quot;Following the earthquake and the tsunamis, the death toll has been estimated in the thousands, with tens of thousands more people still missing or uprooted from their homes. Damage to property has been astronomical.Meanwhile, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider Skype has announced (Google Translate page) on its Japan blog that it's giving Japanese customers 25 minutes worth of free calls to landlines in the country. In addition, the company's Skype Access, a Wi-Fi service in Japan, will be free across the country for an indefinite amount of time.Verizon Wireless confirmed to CNET today that it's also offering free calling and text messaging to Japan. The carrier's service will be free to customers until April 10. Sprint said that it's doing the same, but did not reveal how long the service will be available to customers for free.T-Mobile has not responded to our request for information on services it might be offering to Japan. However, all the major carriers are waiving text-messaging fees for customers who donate from their mobile phones to the Red Cross for the Japan relief effort.Updated at 1:51 p.m. PTto include new information from Verizon Wireless and Sprint.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Study: Negligence cause of most data breaches]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-negligence-cause-of-most-data-breaches</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-negligence-cause-of-most-data-breaches</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:10:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>catwhitenet</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-negligence-cause-of-most-data-breaches</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Breach costs and ranking by type of breach, 2009 and 2010.(Credit:Ponemon/Symantec) Negligence is the biggest cause of data breaches at corporations, but criminal attacks are growing fastest, a study released today concludes.  The average cost of a data breach for a victimized organization increased to $7.2 million, and the average cost per record came to $214, up $10 from the previous year, according to the 2010 Annual Study: U.S. Cost of a Data Breach, which was conducted by the Ponemon Institute and based on data supplied by 51 U.S. companies across 15 different industry sectors.  The costs associated with a breach involve detecting the incident, investigation, forensics, customer notification, paying for identity-protection services for victims, business disruption, and productivity losses, said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. A record can contain only one piece of information on an individual or multiple pieces of data, including social security number, contact information, driver's license number, purchasing habits, and account number, he said. Malicious or criminal attacks are the most expensive and make up the fastest-growing category, with 31 percent of all breaches involving malice or crime. Negligence was the most common threat, with 41 percent of all breaches, according to the study, which was sponsored by Symantec. The most expensive breach reported in the study was $35.3 million, and the least expensive was $780,000.  The companies have devised an online Data Breach Calculator for helping estimate how likely a breach is and how much a breach would cost based on an organization's size, industry, location, and security practices. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Why my friends hate Google Voice]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-my-friends-hate-google-voice</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-my-friends-hate-google-voice</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dergtyuibdw</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-my-friends-hate-google-voice</guid>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;I have too many different phone numbers for you.&quot; &quot;I never know where to reach you.&quot; &quot;Calling you is so confusing!&quot;I wish I could label the words above a hyperbolic chorus that merely points to the perils of being a cell phone reviewer with friends outside of the tech world. Instead, it is a torrent of discontent rushing from the throats of six of my closest friends at a party (my birthday party, no less), gathering momentum as it crashes toward its inevitable destination: me. &quot;It's not my fault,&quot; I demur. &quot;It's Google Voice!&quot;I can see that you're itching to interject. I'm clearly scapegoating poor Google for my own spamming of too many numbers from all my review phones, right That's certainly part of it, but it's not the entire story. Well, then, I must be doing it wrong--especially if you don't have the same issues. And what about now that you can port your mobile number to a Google Voice account The latter will certainly obviate the sticky entanglements I'm about to describe, but dropping carrier support and switching over completely to Google Voice isn't a plunge everyone's prepared to take, myself included.I use Google Voice on the iPhone and multiple Android phones I carry with me, grabbing whichever phone has the strongest signal or battery life, or simply whichever one happens to be in my hand when I need to place a call or answer a text. Google Voice on Android has the bonus of being able to dial out on the native dial pad using the Google Voice number, which certainly makes it less confusing for my friends.That's assuming, though, that the GV app doesn't freeze, and that it ferries text messages back and forth without much delay. After using Google Voice on a daily basis with other heavy Google Voice users, our general consensus is that texting is slower than with conventional SMS since Google routes messages through its servers. If we need to reach others quickly, we GV users, we'll text the old-fashioned way--which means we're back to jockeying more than one number.TheiPhone problemGoogle Voice for iPhone has this neat view of recent and priority contacts.(Credit:Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)Until the official Google Voice app for iPhone came into being last November (after a year and a half of waiting), usability on the iPhone app was limited to a Web-optimized site. Thanks to the app, things are much more smooth and convenient--but still far from perfect. Even four months on, the app frequently freezes, is slow to load new messages, and experiences a delivery delay often enough to cause frustration. As I was writing this article, a GV text landed on the AT&amp;amp'T iPhone 4 about 10 minutes after I received it on Verizon's Android-based Droid Pro. I'm not certain how much is the app's responsibility, and how much is the carrier's.In addition to the delays, Apple won't give third-party developers the kind of deep access to the iPhone's address book that Google gives its own Android apps. As a result, you can't automatically dial out from a GV number using the phone's native dial pad. You can dial out from the GV dialer, but you have to remember to first open the app. If it's acting up, as it is wont to do, I wind up abandoning ship and calling out from the iPhone's default number--it's just simpler and more reliable. My friends will have to deal.Google hasn't significantly upgraded the GV iPhone app since our initial review, but I'm hoping there are new performance enhancements riding high up some coder's sleeve.Cold comfortAll these explanations, while perfectly understandable from the point of view of somebody following the development of Google Voice on mobile, continue to flummox my friends. They don't care about iterations, development cycles, the differences between Google Voice apps on separate platforms, and weaknesses in app implementations. They just want to know which one phone number they can use to reach me every single time, a sentiment made clear during the Jessica's Crazy Phone Numbers Bashfest.&quot;There is!&quot; I always exclaim, pointing to my Google Voice number in their phone's address books, nestled among the other numbers my friends have saved, just in case. &quot;But how am I supposed to know the difference,&quot; they retort, &quot;between that number and any of the other numbers you call me on&quot; Um...That's when the specialized nature of my particular profession comes in. If I had most other jobs, I'd have only one cell phone and only two phone numbers for friends and family to juggle--the phone's default, carrier-given number and my Google Voice line. I could dispose of my confusing phone numbers and streamline to one. Since I'm lucky enough to see many smartphones, my case gets a little more complicated than that of the average Google Voice user, and also harder to solve.Still, I think my particular situation reflects a very real frustration that vexes some recipients who, for whichever reason, are confounded by the free service, especially if that user, too, has a less conventional need of or use for the service. For me, Google Voice apps may be a perfectly useful solution on my end, thanks to its comprehensive visual voicemail and call forwarding features, but only if I'm prepared to guide close friends and family through the initial haze of my multiple phone numbers, particularly if the app freezes and I need to make calls from a phone's default number. One of the reasons I started using Google Voice in the first place was to give out a single number that could reach me on any number of phones that I test. Or, I give up my carrier's network reliability entirely and switch over completely to Google Voice, a system I still find extremely promising, mostly enormously useful, and still buggy.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Samsung Suede with Muve Music (review): Slightly off-pitch]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-suede-with-muve-music-review-slightly-off-pitch</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-suede-with-muve-music-review-slightly-off-pitch</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>gamesflasheb2acom</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-suede-with-muve-music-review-slightly-off-pitch</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)The Samsung Suede is attuned to music, that we know. In fact, its bundling with Cricket Wireless' Muve Music service is what made us nominate it as a Best ofCES contender, and makes the Suede one of the best music phones around. In terms of offering all-inclusive music for a great monthly deal, the Suede and Muve Music deliver. Yet the combination falls short on the finer points of speed, usability, and general luster. Check out our full review of Muve Music and the Samsung Suede--with video!--to see why.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[WeatherBill insures farmers from extreme weather]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=weatherbill-insures-farmers-from-extreme-weather</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=weatherbill-insures-farmers-from-extreme-weather</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jusirbim1</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=weatherbill-insures-farmers-from-extreme-weather</guid>
<description><![CDATA[WeatherBill, a company that uses high-end computing to reduce risk in agriculture, yesterday said it raised $42 million from Khosla Ventures, Google's venture arm, and existing investors.(Credit:Gevo)The San Francisco-based company, founded by two former Google employees, provides insurance plans to farmers to hedge against lost income due to extreme weather. WeatherBill has built an application that continuously analyzes reams of weather-related data from multiple sources, including short-range forecasts, seasonal effects such as El Nino, and long-term trends. The same cloud-based platform is also used to provide insurance for travelers.Vinod Khosla, which heads a green technology venture fund over $1 billion, said the technology can fundamentally change the risks associated with weather in agriculture. &quot;Now WeatherBill can help farmers globally deal with the increasingly extreme weather brought on by climate change,&quot; he said in a statement.In the case of losses from weather-related problems such as floods or droughts, farmers receive money from WeatherBill. People in agriculture can use the company's Web site to get an estimate of their premium based on their location and the crops they are growing. In a conference call to announce the funding, Khosla and Bill Maris from Google Ventures said the deal with WeatherBill represents growing interest among investors in agriculture. &quot;Helping farmers protect their financial futures and protect the global food supply is something I think we all can be passionate about,&quot; Maris said, according to a New York Times article. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[FlyRuby aims to make booking a private jet easier]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flyruby-aims-to-make-booking-a-private-jet-easier</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flyruby-aims-to-make-booking-a-private-jet-easier</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:10:48 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>fafuab</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flyruby-aims-to-make-booking-a-private-jet-easier</guid>
<description><![CDATA[FlyRuby says it is essentially creating Expedia for charter jet travel.(Credit:FlyRuby)PALM DESERT, Calif.--If you're going to spend the cash to charter a private jet, shouldn't it be easy to book the planeYou would think the industry would simplify things for the wealthy, but that's not the case, according to start-up FlyRuby, which unveiled its service at the Demo Spring conference here today. Indeed, company CEO Michael Leek says that it can often take hours to figure out a suitable private plane charter between two cities. And that's just not efficient.That's where FlyRuby comes in, Leek said. A former U.S. Marine with a passion for the aviation industry, Leek said he wanted to identify the inefficiencies in the industry--and he realized that one of the biggest was that there was no simple way to quickly identify the specific plane that makes the most sense for a flight.Here's the problem, he said: There are thousands of small private jet operators, all of which are vying for business, but there's not been a system that aggregates the availability of all those planes. Now, thanks to a nine-year, $95 million DARPA and Air Force research program licensed by Carnegie Mellon University--and which FlyRuby is incorporating into its software--there's a way. It's an artificial intelligence-based dynamic scheduling system that can pinpoint, what Leek said, is the best available plane that a customer could use to get between two cities, or even make a round trip.To start with, Leek explained, FlyRuby's system tries to find any jets known to be empty that are flying in the same direction as a customer. If none is quickly identified, the next step is to look for planes that are going to be flying empty back to the destination city. If that doesn't return results, then the next step is to look for planes that are already sitting on the ground in the departure city. The result of these searches is that FlyRuby can return as many as 5,000 possible flights in as little as 5 seconds, Leek said. All in all, the idea is to make it as easy to identify and book a private plane flight as it currently is to book a ticket on a commercial airline. And lest you think that there isn't a big enough market to support such a business, Leek said that there is currently about $50 billion a year spent on private jet travel in the United States.Of that, the flight costs alone amount to about $30 billion, he added. Yet about 40 percent of all the flights are empty, meaning that there are many, many millions, if not billions, of dollars that are being lost to inefficiency, Leek said.While FlyRuby says it is the first to put together a system for aggregating private jet charters, anyone who remembers Richard Branson's ill-fated Virgin Charter will know that there have been similar efforts in the past. Then again, Branson's initiative couldn't figure out a way to solve the problem. This isn't necessarily a low-cost play, Leek said. In fact, FlyRuby isn't talking about price, or how much money it can save its customers on the cost of flights, or even if it can do so. The problem FlyRuby is really solving, Leek said, is how hard it is to identify appropriate charter flights. The company is offering potential customers the ability find the right flight in a matter of minutes, not hours. And while it would seem likely that it's usually the assistants of the people doing the flying who are doing the research, it would probably still be a major improvement for these customers if FlyRuby can do what it says.This, of course, is a market that most of us won't ever be taking part in. Even if flights are less expensive, or easier to find, than they've been in the past, private jet travel is still going to be too costly for most. But for those who do fly this way, or for those who own or operate the planes, it's certain that finding ways to streamline the process will be a major benefit. So if FlyRuby can in fact deliver on this promise, it's likely to be a plus across the board--in terms of a reduction in lost potential revenue, lost hours of time searching for flights, and even in greenhouse gases.The next step To find a way to make this industry efficient enough that even those who fly commercial can take advantage of charter jet travel.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft Answers to rework look, reputation tools]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-answers-to-rework-look-reputation-tools</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-answers-to-rework-look-reputation-tools</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>inxemiol</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-answers-to-rework-look-reputation-tools</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft this weekend plans to roll out a redesign of its Answers site, which gives users a place to seek unofficial tech support on Microsoft products and services.As part of the redesign, Microsoft says it's now easier to find answers through both an improved search tool and a new layout that puts its various product directories in a clearer order.Along with the new look, Microsoft is also overhauling the site's reputation system, which is how its members are rewarded for answering other users' questions. The new one awards authoring answers, as well as marking other people's answers as helpful. Microsoft says the existing user reputation system, which had made use of points that went towards an aggregate rating (in the form of medals), will be no more.Even though that point and medal system is going away, other existing ratings information about the posts is not, according to a Microsoft representative with whom CNET spoke. &quot;To ensure a smooth transition, we will be migrating existing users and the existing information about their posts (those marked as answered and helpful posts) to the new reputation system so that users who have provided helpful posts in the past will already have some reputation in the new system,&quot; the representative said. In other words, some longtime users with a high rating may be chagrined to find their insignia gone, but their answers will continue to get highlighted on pages, and their profiles will reflect that information.A shot of the Microsoft Answers redesign, which will take place this weekend. (Credit:Microsoft)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Can Amazon push Netflix out of limelight]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=can-amazon-push-netflix-out-of-limelight</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=can-amazon-push-netflix-out-of-limelight</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:10:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Exarlropalier</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=can-amazon-push-netflix-out-of-limelight</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For years, Amazon appeared to be a big pushover when it came to delivering Web entertainment.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos(Credit:CBS)During the early part of the Internet Age, Amazon shipped CDs and DVDs to customers who ordered them via the Web and CEO Jeff Bezos' company was synonymous with Web music and movies. Then Apple's iTunes, and Netflix, laid waste to physical discs by delivering digital downloads or streaming video and Amazon quietly drifted to the back of the pack. But today Amazon flexed some muscle of its own by announcing it would stream movies for free to people who subscribe to the e-tailer's Prime service. Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to log on to the Web from Internet-connected devices to instantly access a pool of 5,000 films and TV shows. For $79 a year, Amazon Prime subscribers receive unlimited free two-day shipping without being required to meet any minimum-purchase requirements. Plenty of commentators in the blogosphere are noting that Amazon's video service isn't a Netflix killer yet, and they're right--but this is just the merchant's first volley as it prepares to take on Netflix, Apple, and others in the growing streaming media sector. The imagination runs wild when one considers what Amazon could do if the Web store throws its considerable retailing and financial girth into marketing a streaming-video service. Consider that Amazon must pay the film studios and TV networks for the rights to offer the streaming video, but so what Amazon has loads of cash. The company reported $3.7 billion of cash and cash equivalents for the 12 months ended December 31, 2010. With a snap of their fingers, the Amazonians now offer an unbeatable subscription price. Amazon can keep ads in front of the 65 million online shoppers that visit the company's site each month. The video service could be promoted and bundled with all kinds of other product offerings. Dan Rayburn, an analyst covering Web video for consulting firm Frost and Sullivan, said Amazon could conceivably sweeten its offer by selling deeply discounted set-top boxes that enable Prime subscribers to watch streaming video on their living-room TV sets. Heck, Amazon's deep pockets might allow the company to give those boxes away. Another advantage Amazon has over Netflix is that the company has the horsepower to stream its own video to Prime members without having to pay a third party. Netflix can't say this. On the contrary, the company overseeing that chore for Netflix is Amazon's Web Services (AWS). That's right, Netflix is dependent on a rival for some of its back-end operations. But as full of potential intrigue as that sounds, it's doubtful Amazon would ever undermine AWS' reputation by torpedoing Netflix that way. Wall Street apparently believes Amazon could cause Netflix some hurt. Netflix's stock tumbled more than $13, or 5 percent, in afternoon trading. Netflix shares have risen steadily over the past year and the stock posted an all-time high last week when it topped $247. Investors should factor in that Amazon is not likely to unseat Netflix anytime in the near future. Netflix has more than 20 million subscribers, a far larger selection of films and TV shows than Amazon, and has already shown that it can outmaneuver larger players. Experts once thought Blockbuster, the brick-and-mortar video-rental chain, would smash Netflix. The opposite happened. While Blockbuster was still charging late fees and engendering a deep well of consumer bitterness, Netflix was delivering videos to customers' doors via the U.S. Postal Service--creating an entirely new delivery model--and telling users to hang on to the DVDs as long as they liked without charge.&quot;A growing market attracts competitors,&quot; said Netflix representative Steve Swasey.While Amazon has several businesses to distract management's attention, Netflix thinks exclusively about delivering movies and TV shows. The company has posted a team of dealmakers in Hollywood so they can insert the company into the studios' future plans. Netflix has deals with such content suppliers as Warner Bros. Pictures, Relativity, Starz, and Epix, and just today it added TV shows from CBS, parent company of CNET. And consumers are already streaming video from Netflix via more than 200 different kinds of Internet-connected devices, such as video-game consoles and Web-enabled TVs, which are compatible with the service. Even if Amazon did offer a Roku-like box for free, it would likely take the company a while to cut enough of the deals to make itself as widely available as Netflix. The real loser could be Hulu, the joint venture operated by Disney, NBC Universal, and News Corp. that has recently suffered from internal strife. Hulu offers some content for free but the service requires users to pay $7.99 to access a growing number of shows. In addition, Hulu's pay service also forces viewers to watch ads. Amazon's new video service is ad free.  Regardless of which company takes over, with all the price cutting and scrambling to add programming, the real winner--for the time being at least--will be consumers. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Nokia X2 makes its way to T-Mobile prepaid]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nokia-x2-makes-its-way-to-t-mobile-prepaid</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nokia-x2-makes-its-way-to-t-mobile-prepaid</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Feb 2011 08:11:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Fernada</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nokia-x2-makes-its-way-to-t-mobile-prepaid</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Nokia X2(Credit:T-Mobile)Even as Nokia makes its deal with Microsoft, it still has older Nokia phones to sell. This Nokia X2, for example, is a candy bar QWERTY phone that still runs on Symbian Series 40, and has just showed up on T-Mobile USA's prepaid site. Features include a 2.4-inch display, text and multimedia messaging, e-mail, Opera Mini, a microSD card slot, and only a VGA camera. It will go on sale for $79.99 without a need for a contract.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Inside Microsoft's science fair]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=inside-microsofts-science-fair</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=inside-microsofts-science-fair</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sanysan</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=inside-microsofts-science-fair</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The .NET Gadgeteer snaps a photo of Microsoft&amp;39's Channel 9 mascot.(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)REDMOND, WA.--It would seem to be just another day here on Microsoft's campus. In one building the next version of Windows is being built in secret, and in another the next version of Office. But this day is a little different from the rest. In a closed off auditorium, a gathering of Microsoft employees are showing off their latest science projects.Most may never see the light of day, but some could go onto to become real products, or at least features in products of the future. This is all a part of what Microsoft calls its &quot;science fair,&quot; a event that takes place every six months or so, and looks a lot like--well--a science fair. There are poster boards with glued on diagrams, candy to attract passers by, and a myriad computers running code cooked up during employee off-time. Microsoft's Research group holds a similar event on its main campus, and on its other campuses each year called TechFest, which CNET has visited in the past. The event itself is hosted and funded by &quot;The Garage,&quot; a group within Microsoft that acts as an incubator for technology implementations dreamed up by its employees. Anyone can come to The Garage with their idea in the hopes of getting others to collaborate on it with them, or get it realized with the group's resources, which include both engineering and technical know-how. The idea behind the fair is to get some of those ideas out there, as well as for groups to possibly come together and collaborate on projects of an even grander scale.During today's fair I get to see just three of 50 exhibits that make up the fair. The first is made by four employees and called &quot;Human Beatbox.&quot; It makes use of Microsoft's hit Kinect peripheral and its skeletal tracking and depth sensing prowess to turn your body into a giant input device that can punch or kick beats from a virtual set of drums, keyboards and cymbals. There's even a hip hop mode where your flailing arm can simulate a record scratch. The Human Beatbox project makes use of Kinect to let users hit virtual instruments with their hands and feet.(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)Alongside the play area, where co-creator George Perantatos (who also happens to be a senior program manager for Office Labs) is hitting the virtual instruments, is a secondary display showing users what the Kinect is seeing--complete with working skeleton tracking that people on the side can watch in real time. The second exhibit is one that's actually on its way to being a real consumer-facing service through Microsoft's Office Labs site. Called &quot;seamless desktop,&quot; this software tool lets you connect the mouse and keyboard together from multiple machines, and send that information in the cloud. The idea is nothing new per se, with consumer products like Synergy and MaxiVista that can do the same trick, but seamless desktop promises to scale beyond those products one day.Seamless Desktop lets users share a single mouse, keyboard, and clipboard with multiple machines (click to enlarge)(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)Known internally as &quot;magic mouse,&quot; seamless desktop is currently used by around 10,000 Microsoft employees. Besides sharing the mouse and the keyboard, it has a few other tricks up its sleeve, like bringing your clipboard across machines--that includes any images, which come along for the ride. It's also got a neat feature, that CNET was told will probably be cut from the final shipping tool, that can automatically grab the latest photo from Bing.com, and turn it into your desktop background. The third and final tool, called .NET Gadgeteer is one that fans of Bug Labs' Bug are likely to latch onto. The Gadgeteer is a small device with an ARM7 processor and a logic board full of ports that users can plug various devices into, in order to change the kinds of things it can do. The technology itself is a collaboration between Microsoft Research and .NET guru Colin Miller, and has been shown in public before in places like Maker Faire. Today the device is being hooked up with a small display in one of the plugs, with a camera module being plugged into the other. With that combination, you suddenly have a camera. With different accessories, you can turn that same board into a security camera, and a Wi-Fi controlled robot with wheels. The idea is to let developers, and enthusiasts alike ways to come up with their own add-ons, and find new creations that can take advantage of the platform's extensibility, while making use of Microsoft's own tools like Visual Studio.Like any science fair, there is a judging panel, which deems one of the displays a winner. Microsoft employees who attended the three hour open house were also able to put in their nominations for their favorite product. What does the winner ultimately get A sticker to put up on their office door or cubicle wall, as well as the chance to grab some time with someone in Microsoft's senior leadership to pitch their idea into the makings of a future product or service. During today's fair, both the Gadgeteer and Seamless Desktop pick up the honors, winning the coveted &quot;golden volcano&quot; award, which CNET was told is not actually a volcano or made out of gold.Microsoft's next big science fair, TechFest, happens in March, and will include demos from Microsoft's research teams around the world. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Motorola's new 15 seconds of anti-Apple 1984 ad]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=motorolas-new-15-seconds-of-anti-apple-1984-ad</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=motorolas-new-15-seconds-of-anti-apple-1984-ad</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jaqueline401</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=motorolas-new-15-seconds-of-anti-apple-1984-ad</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If you had thought, or even hoped, that a Motorola ad released earlier this week, railing at Apple's alleged controlling of the world, was the real thing, then you will be disappointed.However, if you live your life believing that Apple's bells, whistles, balls, and chains prevent you from walking and thinking, you may rejoice a little more.For Motorola has released 15 seconds of the ad the company will actually run to launch its Xoomtablet during tomorrow's big game.What an extraordinary, moving, revolutionary ad it promises to be. Perhaps. The company wants you, who have been so silly as to buy aniPad, to understand that you are merely one big woolly sheep. You have been duped into conformity, uniformity, perhaps even psychological deformity, by Apple's wicked Big Brother brainwashing.Motorola understands you. It knows you are desperately reading &quot;1984&quot; on your iPad. It knows you like wearing your tie down like Johnny Depp (or Rupert Everett in &quot;Another Country&quot;). It knows you like a tight gray sweater to encircle your lean, fit frame. It knows you like flowers.One can only hope that, when this ad finally airs, the whole of America will utter a relieved roar, leap from its sofa, and applaud a new beginning, a new magic, a new revolution. Personally, I am hoping for a little humor in the midst of all this Xoom-peddling doom-mongering.But then I always thought &quot;1984&quot; was a comedy.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Wal-Mart DRM reminder: The nightmare returns]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wal-mart-drm-reminder-the-nightmare-returns</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wal-mart-drm-reminder-the-nightmare-returns</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>garnersteen12</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wal-mart-drm-reminder-the-nightmare-returns</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This afternoon, an e-mail popped into my inbox that--at first glance--looked ripe for immediate deletion. The word &quot;Wal-Mart&quot; in the subject was what set me off. But in that split second before my finger went down to send the message into oblivion, something else caught my eye. And, well, I'll let the e-mail do the talking: Coming upon this note today--in January 2011--made me chuckle, sigh, and shake my head all in the span of about 30 seconds. Really, it's quite depressing to be reminded that there are still people out there who are stuck dealing with outdated copy-protected WMAs. In fact, I bet I still have a couple on my hard drive someplace, and the mere thought of them aggravates me.Of course, I suppose it's nice that Wal-Mart has the courtesy to remind its customers how they can still listen to that music (and continues to provide support). Still, the e-mail serves as a brutal slap in the face as to how far off the music industry was just a few short years ago.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Netflix reports big profits, subscriber gains]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=netflix-reports-big-profits-subscriber-gains</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=netflix-reports-big-profits-subscriber-gains</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>kiaraahlleey</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=netflix-reports-big-profits-subscriber-gains</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Netflix went a long way to answering skeptics today by reporting big jumps in profits and subscriber growth.The nation's top video rental service reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $47 million or 87 cents per share, on $596 million in revenue. These figures represent a sharp climb from the same period a year ago. Income for the quarter, which ended December 31, rose 52 percent and revenue grew 34 percent from the year-ago period. The big news came in the form of subscriber growth. Netflix reported that the total number of Netflix subscribers is 20 million. For the quarter, the company added 3.08 million subscribers. In October, Netflix predicted it would add 2.7 million subscribers for a total of 19.7 million. Those 3 million new subscribers mark a 166 percent jump from the 1.1 million the company added in the same period last year. The number of total Netflix subscribers rose by 63 percent from a year earlier. The fear on Wall Street was that Netflix would begin showing signs that the cost of content would empty its coffers. Either that, or the company would be unable to afford enough films and TV shows to attract new customers. None of that apparently occurred in the fourth quarter. All the signs indicate that Netflix is more popular than ever. A consensus of financial analysts expected Netflix to report earnings of 71 cents a share on revenue of $598 million. Netflix's total revenues were slightly below what analysts expected but far exceeded profit expectation. Investors didn't appear overly confident that Netflix would see a big quarter, or at least one that could continue justifying its lofty stock price. Netflix shares closed trading today at $183.03, down $3.71 or 2 percent. The stock has tripled in price this year. In after-hours trading however, Netflix shares traded at $198.40, up 8 percent. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google closing door on real estate in Google Maps]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-closing-door-on-real-estate-in-google-maps</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-closing-door-on-real-estate-in-google-maps</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>enochkeonc</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-closing-door-on-real-estate-in-google-maps</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Real estate for sale around CNET&amp;39's downtown San Francisco headquarters, as listed in Google Maps. Google will be retiring the feature in a few weeks.(Credit:Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)Google is taking the real-estate listings in Google Maps off the market. Citing &quot;low usage, the proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real-estate Web sites, and the infrastructure challenge posed by the impending retirement of the Google Base API,&quot; Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Earth and Maps, said today that the listings would disappear by February 10. For a few years Google has allowed Google Maps users to search for both rental and for-sale listings in a given area, relying on listings uploaded by real-estate companies.Search Engine Land notes the comment of a U.K. real-estate company, PropertyPals.com, which said it saw &quot;minimal traffic from maps&quot; during its participation in the service, despite Google's attempts to promote it across search results pages. But many top-tier real-estate companies simply didn't participate in that process, preferring to attract users to their own sites during the initial shopping process by simply relying on regular Google searches. McClendon didn't rule out an eventual return to this type of service, but Google will first have to figure out a way to allow the easy upload of real-estate listings now that Google Base has been dropped in favor of Google Shopping APIs, which don't support listing types such as real estate or jobs. The larger challenge might be convincing the real-estate industry that they would see increased sales from allowing their listings to appear on Google Maps. Other Google services used by real-estate companies, such as implementing Google Maps on their own sites, will not change, McClendon said.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: Nokia eyeing Microsoft's phone OS]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-nokia-eyeing-microsofts-phone-os</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-nokia-eyeing-microsofts-phone-os</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ceciliaemi</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-nokia-eyeing-microsofts-phone-os</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft and Nokia are said to be working together on bringing to market Nokia-made smartphones that run Microsoft'sWindows Phone 7 operating system.The report, which is the second such rumor in the past three months, comes from Eldar Murtazin--editor in chief of Moscow-based Mobile-Review.com, who some of you might remember making headlines earlier this year for a review of Nokia's N8 long before the device ever came out. This was followed shortly thereafter by Nokia reportedly going to the Russian police to get the prototype unit back. Murtazin's post, which was picked up earlier this morning by blog Unwired View, goes into some detail about Nokia's new management (which includes former Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop as CEO) initiating discussions with Microsoft about creating a Nokia-made device that will blend technologies from both companies--specifically Microsoft's recently released Windows Phone OS running on Nokia's hardware. Murtazin says the move (roughly translated) is desperate--especially for Nokia, which he compares to a diving plane with pilots who don't know what to do. This would not be the first time rumors of Microsoft and Nokia discussing a phone collaboration have cropped up. In September, VentureBeat had a report from several sources saying that Nokia was planning to use Windows Phone 7 as &quot;an additional platform,&quot; for its phones. This was refuted by Nokia a day later. At the same time, these rumors do not exactly jibe with the company's talk of continuing to use Symbian and up-and-coming mobile OS MeeGo. Earlier this month, Nokia Vice President of Eseries Ilari Nurmi told ZDNet UK that the company would stick with Symbian for use on its business phone platform as a &quot;primary&quot;--that's even after MeeGo OS begins its mainstream roll-out in 2011. &quot;It's very important to note that Symbian is the primary platform today and will also be the primary platform in the future,&quot; Nurmi said in that interview.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPhone now fifth most popular in Japan]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-now-fifth-most-popular-in-japan</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-now-fifth-most-popular-in-japan</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Kimsky99</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-now-fifth-most-popular-in-japan</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Here is a metric for skeptics who predicted theiPhone would fail in Japan: Apple's handset is now the fifth-best-selling smartphone in the country, with 12.2 percent of the market, according to IDC.This is the first time Apple has cracked 10 percent in the Japanese market since the iPhone debuted there, so this is something of a milestone. More so when you consider that the company is now in spitting distance of incumbent Kyocera (12.7 percent) and not too far away from market leaders Sharp and Panasonic, which hold about 18.8 percent and 16.6 percent of the market, respectively.And people said the iPhone would never be big in Japan....Story Copyright (c) 2010 AllThingsD. All rights reserved.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Visa, Mastercard fail Web shoppers again]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=visa-mastercard-fail-web-shoppers-again</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=visa-mastercard-fail-web-shoppers-again</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mariacosmm</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=visa-mastercard-fail-web-shoppers-again</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Beware: The New York Times reported that the man who operates DecorMyEyes.com racked up scores of complaints but that Visa and Mastercard did little to stop him.(Credit:Screen shot by Greg Sandoval/CNET)commentary Internet shoppers once again have reason to question whether Visa and Mastercard are the best means for buying online. People have taken to Twitter and online forums to express shock about a compelling expose published in The New York Times on Friday. The story focused on an online retailer with a dubious history of customer service that included responding to complaints from unhappy patrons by allegedly threatening their lives. The newspaper reported that Vitaly Borker, a resident of New York, had generated so many complaints from selling eyewear on his site, DecorMyEyes.com, that all the negative comments had served to raise his site higher in Google's search results. Besides finding potential problems with Google's search algorithms, David Segal, the story's author, unearthed all kinds of e-commerce collateral damage. Among the companies that should be embarrassed by the report for either failing to protect customers or an inability to track down rogue retailers were eBay, Citibank, and the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The reputations to suffer most were those of Visa and Mastercard, two of the nation's largest transaction companies. Among the many complaints about Borker was that he refused to issue refunds and one of the ways he got away with it was due to an apparent flaw in Visa's and Mastercard's security systems. Red flags go up at Visa and Mastercard if a merchant generates too many &quot;charge-backs,&quot; the term used to describe when a customer successfully disputes a transaction and obtains a refund. This is what the Times wrote: &quot;Precisely how many of these charge-backs is too many is one of the few business subjects that Mr. Borker deems off the record, but suffice it to say he tracks that figure carefully and dials down the animus if he's nearing his limit.&quot;Deja vu. A year ago, I heard about how some merchants with ill intent game Visa and Mastercard's systems. I was speaking to a source who once worked at some of the so-called post-transaction marketing companies that were investigated by the U.S. Senate last year as part of one of the worst online retail scandals in history. Shame shame: Decade's 10 biggest tech scandals (images) Companies such as Vertrue, Webloyalty, and Affinion paid a large number of top e-tailers, including Orbitz, Buy.com, and Priceline to allow them to charge the credit cards of their customers even though the customers never supplied the card number. A shopper would be nearly done completing a transaction and would be presented with an ad that typically offered some free service. Often the ad appeared to be coming from the merchant. Plenty of people didn't see the tricky small print buried in the mass of ad copy. A Senate subcommittee found that maybe as many as a million people were duped by this &quot;scam&quot; and were unknowingly paid these companies every month. The retailers and marketers walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars. The source, who continues to be employed in online marketing, said that one of the reasons managers at Webloyalty and competitors were able to operate under the noses of Visa and Mastercard was that it was so easy to game the system. They knew exactly the number of charge-backs they could acquire before having to scale back operations, the source said. To be fair to the credit card companies, this isn't an easy problem to solve, as people like Borker are well aware. The Internet offers a perfect way for unsavory characters to mask their identity. Borker told the Times: &quot;If Visa and MasterCard ever shut me down, I'd use the name of a friend of mine. Give him 1 percent.&quot;To Mastercard's credit, the company did shut down Borker, at least for a little while. Noah Hanft, a Mastercard lawyer told the Times that it booted Borker for going over his charge-back number. Nonetheless, the company has no idea how Borker was allowed to continue accepting Mastercard transactions. &quot;No system is perfect...keep in mind, millions of transactions are conducted on our system every day, with 30 million merchants,&quot; Hanft told the Times. That is almost exactly what Visa and Mastercard representatives told me during the post-transaction marketing scandal. In the wake of the Senate investigation into that mess, Visa and Mastercard promised to do more to protect shoppers. It doesn't appear they've done enough. For now, all consumers can do to protect themselves is look for safer ways to buy online. Earlier today, Peter Pham, a venture capitalist and former Photobucket exec, posted a note to Twitter that included a link to the Times story. Pham wrote: &quot;Why I only use Amex.&quot; <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Thunderbird 3.3 alpha drops PowerPC Macs]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=thunderbird-3-3-alpha-drops-powerpc-macs</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=thunderbird-3-3-alpha-drops-powerpc-macs</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>kimberlysexy</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=thunderbird-3-3-alpha-drops-powerpc-macs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Mozilla)Mozilla has released its first alpha version of Thunderbird 3.3, an update to the e-mail software code-named Miramar that drops support for PowerPC-basedMac. Miramar is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.The new software includes the Gecko browser engine used inFirefox, and with version 3.3, Thunderbird moves to the Gecko 2.0 engine that's the core of the upcoming Firefox 4. Firefox 4 is dropping support for Macs using PowerPC processors, too, to ease the arrival of new features such as a more secure and crash-proof plug-in design.Apple announced its intention to drop PowerPC chips in June 2005 and released only an Intel version of its current operating system Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard. But older machines inevitably linger in the real world. For those customers, software companies often maintain older versions of their software for a time.According to the Miramar release notes published yesterday, one aspect of Thunderbird 3.3 is &quot;support for Mac 32/64 bit Universal builds (Miramar Alpha 1 will no longer support PowerPC on Mac).&quot;Also coming: the new software also gets updated interfaces for managing add-ons and extensions, the ability to show the size of files being downloads, user interface improvements on Windows Vista andWindows 7, and many stability and performance improvements.The current version of Thunderbird is 3.1.6. Mozilla is still debating whether to release Thunderbird 3.2, which would include an earlier version of the Gecko browser engine.Firefox is the better known and more widely used software from Mozilla, but the Thunderbird group is working to make its software more useful. In particular, there's a long list of Thunderbird experiments designed to bring fresh ideas to the software. Those ideas include Thunderbird Sync, to synchronize user information across versions of the software installed on different machines' Contacts for Thunderbird to ingest contact data from Web services such as Facebook' data miners to extract useful information such as package shipping numbers from e-mail' and Thunderbird Air to revamp the user interface for small Netbook screens.In addition, according to notes from a planning meeting yesterday, Thunderbird programmers are working on a feature to emulate Gmail's conversation view, which compresses back-and-forth e-mail discussions into a single item. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comedy Central, MTV now blocking Google TV]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comedy-central-mtv-now-blocking-google-tv</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comedy-central-mtv-now-blocking-google-tv</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>hyipmonitoring</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=comedy-central-mtv-now-blocking-google-tv</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)The Google TV platform was already struggling after Hulu and every major TV network started blocking its devices from streaming video, and now things are getting worse.  Viacom properties, including Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon, are now also blocking Google TV, with users receiving a message that the content &quot;is unavailable for your device.&quot; The loss of Viacom content is a major blow to Google TV, as shows like &quot;The Daily Show&quot; and &quot;The Colbert Report&quot; were some of the few high-quality TV shows that allowed streaming. The last we checked, &quot;Conan&quot; is still available, but there's no guarantee TBS won't begin blocking Google TV too.We felt Google TV had a lot of potential when we reviewed the first wave of products, but it's going to be difficult for the platform to get any traction if major content providers continue to block Google TV devices.(Via GTVHub via Engadget)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[WiLAN sues Comcast, Time Warner, Charter]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wilan-sues-comcast-time-warner-charter</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wilan-sues-comcast-time-warner-charter</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:10:28 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Doreen93</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wilan-sues-comcast-time-warner-charter</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Canadian wireless company WiLAN is firing up another round of lawsuits, this time against leading cable companies.Alleging patent infringement over technology in cable modems, WiLAN said today that it has has launched suits against Comcast, Time Warner, and Charter Communications in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.Ottawa-based WiLAN, which patents wireless products, asserts that the cable trio has been violating U.S. patent No. 5,761,602 by marketing and selling cable systems and modems. Issued in 1998, the patent in question covers &quot;hybrid multichannel data transmission system utilizing a broadcast medium,&quot; which specifically covers the broadcasting of data to a number of remote networks and computers.WiLAN said that it's being represented in its legal action by U.S. law firm McKool Smith, which is also handling the company's other patent infringement cases in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas--a popular court for filing such claims because of its reputation as being friendly to patent plaintiffs.WiLAN has a history of filing patent infringement suits against leading technology companies. Last month, WiLAN announced suits against Alcatel-Lucent, Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics, and several others involved in mobile communications. The lawsuits claim patent infringement over certain wireless technologies.In April, WiLAN sued Acer, Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and a host of other top tech players over alleged patent infringement regarding the use of Bluetooth in PCs and mobile phones. A lawsuit filed in 2008 went after wireless handset makers, while a suit in 2007 targeted laptop and router manufacturers.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Five air travel apps for the holiday weekend]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=five-air-travel-apps-for-the-holiday-weekend</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=five-air-travel-apps-for-the-holiday-weekend</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>neoopposition</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=five-air-travel-apps-for-the-holiday-weekend</guid>
<description><![CDATA[America will be on the move this Thanksgiving week as millions crowd airports, highways and trains in search of that tasty turkey or Tofurky meal. Though travel rarely stresses me, I know the prospect of braving the tired masses and the TSA pat-downs can be daunting. So to help you navigate from home to holiday, and complete your journey with as little pain as possible, I've pulled a few must-have smartphone apps. Being the aviation nut that I am I'll focus on air travel, but I'd love to hear your titles for braving the roads and rails. And please tell me about your favorite flying apps as well.FlightTrack(Credit:Screenshot by Kent German/CNET)FlightTrackWhether you're picking Mom up at LAX or flying to O'Hare as I am, a flight-tracker app is essential. There are quite a few options available in both the iTunes App Store and the Android Market, but FlightTrack by Mobiata is one of my favorites. You get a lot of information in a clean and easily digestible format and the maps are the best I've seen. Cheaper titles are available, but I think FlightTrack is worth the money.Before a flight departs you'll see the scheduled departure time and any delay information. And once a flight is in the air FlightTrack shows the airspeed, arrival gate, baggage carousel number, present altitude, a shortcut to the airline's phone number, and the local time and temperature of the departure and arrival cities. Availability:iPhone and AndroidPrice: $4.99Point InsideThough it's not devoted solely to air travel, Point Inside  is the perfect app during a long airport layover or when you're delayed. For most major airports around the country, and a selection in Europe and Asia, it shows maps of everything you'll need, including shops and restaurants, departure gates, baggage claim carousels, ticketing desks, airline lounges, and related services.Other airport map apps exist, but this is the most comprehensive title I've found, and I love its individually designed maps. Also, if you plan to shop on Black Friday, Point Inside includes maps of major shopping malls with all of the relevant shops, restaurants, and attractions.Availability: iPhone and AndroidPrice: FreeTripcase(Credit:Screenshot by Kent German/CNET)TripCaseIf you're trying to keep track of a flight, acar rental, a hotel booking, and a dinner reservation, TripCase can be a great tool. Developed by Sabre, it acts as a diary for all aspects of your itinerary. It can even store a meeting, an event (like a theater date), and plans to go sightseeing. The best thing about TripCase is that as your flight departure time nears, the app will display your airport gate and you'll receive push and e-mail notifications in case of a delay. That feature has saved me a lot of airport waiting on previous trips.Availability: iPhone and AndroidPrice: FreeFAA Airport StatusIf only Thanksgiving were in summer then we wouldn't have to worry about winter weather. But being as it is in late November, delays caused by snow and rain are a very real possibility in the northern half of the country. Though the above apps, and an airline's Web site, can keep you informed about a delay for your specific flight, this app shows you the real conditions affecting many major airports. For example, when I looked at San Francisco International Airport on Monday night, it showed me that all flights destined for Seattle wouldn't be allowed to depart until after 6:30pm. You also get a weather map of the 48 states.Availability: iPhone onlyPrice: FreeKayak(Credit:Screenshot by Kent German/CNET)KayakIf you still haven't made travel plans for turkey day, I wish you all the luck in the world. You'll have to open that wallet pretty wide and be flexible about your schedule, but there are a few apps that can help you on your way. Kayak is a top Web site for finding great fares, and you can get all that functionality on the go.You can search for flights, hotels and rentals cars' book your desired ticket' research luggage fees' organize your itinerary' and track flight status. You can get an ad-supported version for free or you can ditch the ads by shelling out just 99 cents for the Pro version (the features are the same).Availability: iPhone and Android, but Pro version is only on the iPhonePrice: Free to 99 cents<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Expert: Next Congress may slow green job growth]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=expert-next-congress-may-slow-green-job-growth</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=expert-next-congress-may-slow-green-job-growth</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:10:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>footballtshirts1</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=expert-next-congress-may-slow-green-job-growth</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Republican gains in the next Congress will likely curtail spending on green construction projects, but the sector promises to be a source of job growth for an economy that sorely needs it, advocates said on Tuesday.&quot;America needs 30 million jobs. Our mission ought to be to make those green jobs,&quot; David Foster, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of nine labor unions and four environmental groups, told the Greenbuild Expo in Chicago.Foster predicted that Republican gains in the November 2 election mean there will be little government investment in green projects next year. But the year after that, Americans will still be clamoring for jobs, and government will have to act, he said.A study done for the U.S. Green Building Council, organizer of the trade show, estimated that green construction projects had created 2.4 million American jobs between 2000 and 2008.The Booz Allen Hamilton study projected green building projects will support or create 7.9 million jobs between 2009 and 2013 and will contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product.Weatherization of existing buildings, rehabilitation of older buildings to save energy, renewable energy projects, and a host of other green construction efforts would all be a source of jobs, Foster and other advocates said.The nearly exhausted federal stimulus program included $80 billion in funding to promote a &quot;green energy economy&quot; and had been effective, Foster said.&quot;There's a great record of job creation (with green projects). The problem is you can't do it just once in a little package. These are big, long-term investments,&quot; Foster said.China has generated a million green jobs in the past five years, and Foster said it had overtaken the United States in solar and wind energy.&quot;China's going to steamroll us if we don't get into the game,&quot; he said.Foster expressed regret that the newly elected Republican governor of Wisconsin had promised to halt funding for a high-speed rail project. And New Jersey's governor halted a project to build another train tunnel between his state and New York City.Locating the trade show in Chicago seemed appropriate. Chicago has more building projects--40--certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and more space devoted to green roofs than any other U.S. city, a spokesman said.Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[EU wants stronger online privacy rules]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=eu-wants-stronger-online-privacy-rules</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=eu-wants-stronger-online-privacy-rules</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:11:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Anila</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=eu-wants-stronger-online-privacy-rules</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The European Union wants stronger rules that would give people more control over how their personal information is used by online companies like Google and Facebook.The EU has directed its European Commission arm to draft proposals for new rules governing online data, looking to address a variety of questions: What happens to your personal data when you board a plane, open a bank account, or share photos online How is this data used and by whom How do you permanently delete profile information on social-networking Web sites Can you transfer your contacts and photos to another serviceThe new rules could require online companies to clearly explain to their users what personal information is collected, what happens to that information, and how people can modify or delete that information.Both Google and Facebook have found themselves once again in hot water over privacy issues. Google admitted last month that it grabbed e-mails and passwords while taking photos for its Street View service. Facebook recently revealed that some of its app developers had been selling user information to a data broker.Beyond addressing key questions and concerns about online data, the EC is also looking to set up a common set of rules that all 27 members of the EU would follow. The goal is to cut down on the current red tape and confusion that exists among businesses and law enforcement officials over online data collection.Released yesterday, the EC's proposals (PDF) are expected to drive further discussion and debate on the topic of online data. These proposals will be the basis for the new rules that will be proposed next year to revise and modernize the EC's 1995 Data Protection Directive, which laid out regulations for protecting personal data and allowing the free flow of that data.European citizens and other stakeholders have until January 15 of next year to comment on the new proposals.&quot;The protection of personal data is a fundamental right,&quot; EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement. &quot;To guarantee this right, we need clear and consistent data protection rules. We also need to bring our laws up to date with the challenges raised by new technologies and globalisation. The Commission will put forward legislation next year to strengthen individuals' rights while also removing red tape to ensure the free flow of data within the EU's Single Market.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[EnergyGuide labels coming to TVs next year]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=energyguide-labels-coming-to-tvs-next-year</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=energyguide-labels-coming-to-tvs-next-year</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bobmarley</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=energyguide-labels-coming-to-tvs-next-year</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The familiar yellow EnergyGuide labels seen on home appliances will be attached to televisions in stores, giving consumers a better idea of how TVs stack up on power consumption.The Federal Trade Commission yesterday announced that televisions manufactured after May 10, 2011 will need to have an EnergyGuide label, which are now used for white goods such as dishwashers and refrigerators.Consumers will be able to get an estimate of the cost to power a TV for a year and how those costs compare to other TVs of a similar size. The labels must be displayed on the front of the TV. Starting in July next year, Web sites will need to display an image of the label online.&quot;Unlike many years ago, before flat screens and plasma, today's televisions vary widely in the amount of energy they use,&quot; said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. &quot;By comparing information on the EnergyGuide labels, consumers will be able to make better-informed decisions.&quot;A sample EnergyGuide label for TVs which shows estimated annual energy use based on five hours of use a day and the national average price for electricity. (Credit:FTC)With more households buying larger, flat-screen TVs to replace CRTs, power consumption from TVs can in many cases increase. (See CNET's TV energy efficiency guide here). Electronics, such as TVs, computers, and DVRs, are the fastest growing source of energy consumption in homes, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.  The FTC was tasked with created the EnergyGuide label for consumer electronics in the 2007 federal energy law.Industry group the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) which fought implementation of California's TV efficiency mandates, lauded the labels. &quot;CEA has long supported efforts to provide consumers with more information about the energy use of the electronics they purchase, and we look forward to working with the FTC as it considers similar measures for other product categories.&quot;Senior scientist at the NRDC, Noah Horowitz, said that the labels for TVs are particularly important because one TV could consume double another one. He said the FTC did a good job on the labels and encouraged them to take on other electronics products.&quot;It's really important to get this information in front of consumers who want to know what they are buying as they try to lower their electric bill,&quot; Horowitz said.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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