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<title>Haaze.com / herman01 / Voted News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: Apple floats $4.5 million for iCloud domain]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-apple-floats-4-5-million-for-icloud-domain</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-apple-floats-4-5-million-for-icloud-domain</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sleniouminori</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-apple-floats-4-5-million-for-icloud-domain</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A cloud-based music service wouldn't be anything without a name. And Apple might have found a suitable choice.The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has acquired domain name iCloud.com from Sweden-based &quot;hybrid cloud computing&quot; provider Xcerion, GigaOm is reporting, citing an anonymous &quot;tipster.&quot; The publication's source says Apple paid $4.5 million for the domain name.Neither Xcerion nor Apple has confirmed a sale, and it's worth noting that the site's Whois data shows that Xcerion still owns the domain. However, Xcerion used to operate its cloud-based storage service on iCloud.com but, earlier this month, moved it over to CloudMe.com.Speculation abounds that Apple is nearing the launch of a cloud-based music service that would allow people to store their music libraries on the Web for access anywhere they can connect to the Internet. Last month, Amazon.com launched its own digital music locker, allowing folks to store their tracks on the Web. The Amazon service also lets people store video and e-books. However, the service launched without licensing content from record labels, potentially putting it at a disadvantage when compared with services that have licensed content and can thus deliver a more well-rounded, feature-rich offering.Last week, reports surfaced that Apple had signed a deal with Warner Music Group to license that label's content for its online service. Google, by contrast, may be partnering with streaming-music service Spotify to power its own cloud-based music platform.Neither Apple nor Xcerion immediately responded to CNET's request for comment.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft issues phishing alert for Xbox Live]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-issues-phishing-alert-for-xbox-live</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-issues-phishing-alert-for-xbox-live</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:10:56 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rettymo</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-issues-phishing-alert-for-xbox-live</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Modern Warfare 2 is suffering phishing attacks, it seems.(Credit:Screenshot by GameSpot)For the past week, Sony's PlayStation Network has been offline with no timetable as to when it will return. An external attack has compromised users' personal information and has left more than 75 million users unable to connect. Now Microsoft is experiencing its own online problems.Modern Warfare 2 is suffering phishing attacks, it seems.While the problem is not as wide-ranging as Sony's takedown, Microsoft today issued a Service Alert forXbox Live to warn users of a security risk. The alert states that matchmaking has been affected by a phishing attempt inside Infinity Ward's shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.&quot;Users may receive potential phishing attempts via title specific messaging while playing Modern Warfare 2,&quot; reads the message posted on the Xbox Support Web site.Read more of &quot;Microsoft issues phishing alert for Xbox Live&quot; at GameSpot. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Chrome getting Flash cookie protection]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-getting-flash-cookie-protection</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-getting-flash-cookie-protection</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>seascaseaa</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-getting-flash-cookie-protection</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Chrome lets people clear data stored by plug-ins such as Flash Player, helping to nip the idea of the &amp;34'evercookie&amp;34' in the bud.(Credit:Google)For privacy fans or others who want to keep their computers free of traces of what they've been doing online, Google's Chrome browser is getting an option to make sure Adobe Systems' Flash Player isn't getting in the way.Web sites often store details about a user in small text files called cookies that can record details such as usernames, browsing history, and advertisements that have been seen. But storage abilities in Flash mean that even if a person deletes regular cookies, a Web site could reconstruct particulars from Flash data. There are other storage mechanisms arriving in browsers, too, leading to the term &quot;evercookie,&quot; but Adobe is trying to take care of its responsibilities with a beta of Flash Player 10.3 that lets browsers delete that data.Now Chrome is getting a checkbox to take advantage of that feature.&quot;As of this week's Chrome Dev channel release, you can delete local plug-in storage data (such as Flash LSOs [local storage objects]) from within Chrome by clicking Wrench &gt; Tools &gt; Clear browsing data and selecting 'Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data,'&quot; said Chrome programmer Bernhard Bauer in a blog post yesterday. Chrome also can be set to delete such data when people shut down the browser.So far, Flash is the only known plug-in that takes advantage of the feature, Bauer said.Mozilla helped Adobe and Google develop the feature, so expectFirefox, too, to add support at some stage for the Flash data deletion feature.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Crave 41: Brew the dark side (podcast)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=crave-41-brew-the-dark-side-podcast</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=crave-41-brew-the-dark-side-podcast</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rebeccaece</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=crave-41-brew-the-dark-side-podcast</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Episode 41-Real-life Lego space helmet -Old-school Atari keyboard -Cobra Tag -DON-8r the panhandling robot -Star Wars coffee -New Star Tours merch<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[All 550 pounds of Lego USS Intrepid docks in NY]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=all-550-pounds-of-lego-uss-intrepid-docks-in-ny</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=all-550-pounds-of-lego-uss-intrepid-docks-in-ny</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 21 Apr 2011 07:10:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>parsirlim254</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=all-550-pounds-of-lego-uss-intrepid-docks-in-ny</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The 550-pound Lego USS Intrepid was built and unveiled recently aboard the real, 30,000-plus ton aircraft carrier.(Credit:Ed Diment)Built during World War II, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Intrepid served with distinction in several conflicts, and performed other duties, before being decomissioned in 1974. After sailing thousands of miles around the world, the massive ship eventually became a sea, air, and space museum in New York.Now, following all those decades of service, the Intrepid has been reimagined with Legos.About 250,000 pieces were used to construct the 550-pound model, which is now viewable to the general public in the museum through September 2011. The ship was built by artist Ed Diment, a 39-year-old Lego enthusiast and extraordinary British brick builder. Diment was inspired to build the ship after visiting the Intrepid on vacation from his home in Portsmouth, England. The dimensions are impressive, as this larger than life Lego model is 22 feet long, 4.5 feet tall, and 4.5 feet wide. There are even little planes, artillery guns, and sailor figures onboard for extra realism. An instruction manual, if one were to exist, would probably be as thick as the King James Bible.Diment has been building with Legos since he was three. (And here I was thinking that I was something special for having a Lego city as a child.)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Companies fear cybercrime more than insider threats]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=companies-fear-cybercrime-more-than-insider-threats</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=companies-fear-cybercrime-more-than-insider-threats</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:11:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>lasirbugdisignerhandbagsbag</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=companies-fear-cybercrime-more-than-insider-threats</guid>
<description><![CDATA[External attacks from cybercriminals will soon pose a greater risk to the corporate world than insider threats, according to the results of a Cyber-Ark survey (PDF) released yesterday.Polling more than 1,400 IT staffers and top-level executives around the world, Cyber-Ark Software's fifth annual &quot;Trust, Security and Passwords&quot; report tried to get a sense of the security dangers that concern the corporate world for now and in the near future. The survey found that 57 percent of the executives believe that over the next one to three years, cybercriminals will present more of a security risk than will any insider threats.The poll found particular concerns over certain security holes. Noting the recent security breach at EMC's RSA unit that targeted privileged accounts and passwords, Cyber-Ark discovered that a quarter of the IT pros surveyed admitted that their own privileged accounts are not being monitored or controlled.As always, insiders still pose a difficult security challenge at many corporations.Among the executives questioned, 20 percent said that their companies had been hit by insider sabotage, while 16 percent believe their competitors have gotten confidential and sensitive information from insider sources. Snooping also continues to be a problem at many organizations.Asked if they had ever retrieved information not relevant to their jobs, 28 percent of the IT staffers in North America and 44 percent of those in Europe and other regions said that they had. Futher, 20 percent of those in North America and 31 percent in other continents admitted using an administrative password to gain access to confidential or sensitive information.Among all of those surveyed, 48 percent pointed to IT staffers as those most likely to snoop, while 10 percent picked managers and 7 percent fingered the human resources department.&quot;Increased awareness that attack vectors can and do originate from both external and internal sources can be attributed in large part to the spectacular external-born breaches that drew headlines in the past year, including the NASDAQ and Gawker breaches,&quot; Adam Bosnian, a Cyber-Ark executive vice president, said in a statement. &quot;Regardless of the attack vector, the targets inside an enterprise remain the same--highly sensitive intellectual, financial and customer information.&quot;Conducted this spring, Cyber-Ark's survey included responses from 1,422 IT staffers and top executives from companies in North America and the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa).<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Amazon tops list for customer service]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazon-tops-list-for-customer-service</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazon-tops-list-for-customer-service</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sirrasmanpotz</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazon-tops-list-for-customer-service</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Amazon scored tops in customer service out of 143 different companies, according to the Temkin Group.Based on a survey of 6,000 different consumers in January, the 2011 Temkin Experience Ratings rated companies across a variety of industries based on recent dealings with customers. The survey looked at interactions online, in person, and over the phone, and asked consumers how their needs were met, how easy it was to do what they needed to do, and how they felt about the overall experience.Retail chains did well in the survey, with Amazon followed by Costco, Lowe's, and Sam's Club for the top five spots. With an experience rating of 81 percent out of 100, Amazon did especially well in meeting the needs of those customers surveyed and offering a positive experience overall.(Credit:Temkin Group)But other industries didn't fare as well.Noting that only nine companies took home a rating of &quot;excellent,&quot; the Temkin Group singled out PC makers in general as scoring poorly in the customer experience. Apple, which typically gets high marks for customer service, scored only 60 percent, which in Temkin's analysis put it in the bottom half of all companies rated. But even in Temkin's report, Apple did rank the highest in its industry, leaving other PC manufacturers, such as Acer, Dell, Gateway, HP, and Lenovo, further down the list.Wireless carriers, Internet service providers, and TV providers also were among those low in the rankings, according to Temkin. Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and AT&amp;T all wound up in the bottom half of all companies as did Time Warner and Cablevision. Cable TV giant Comcast was second to last among all 143 companies, while TV providers as a whole were at the very bottom of the list, just below health care providers.Overall, only 16 percent of all the companies ranked received an &quot;excellent&quot; or &quot;good&quot; rating with the rest graded as &quot;okay,&quot; &quot;poor,&quot; or &quot;very poor.&quot; A phone call to the Temkin Group to shed more light on its findings was not returned in time for publication of this post, however, the company explains some of the methodology behind rankings at its Web site.Related links&amp;149' Secrets of Apple's customer success&amp;149' Survey: T-Mobile tops in customer satisfaction&amp;149' Survey: Facebook fails at customer satisfaction<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[MacBook owner puts alleged thief's dancing on YouTube]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=macbook-owner-puts-alleged-thiefs-dancing-on-youtube</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=macbook-owner-puts-alleged-thiefs-dancing-on-youtube</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>undeletesk</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=macbook-owner-puts-alleged-thiefs-dancing-on-youtube</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Sometimes, when you lose something, you can gain something too. Sometimes, when you feel someone has wronged you, there might be an avenue down which you can discover a little solace--or even a touch of revenge.This seems to be the case with Mark Bao and his stolen MacBook Air.Bao, you see, might have not done well in leaving his laptop in a lounge at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., allowing an opportunist to swipe it earlier this year. However, he had already embedded a little wisdom inside of his machine by installing BackBlaze software.This, the way CBS News.com tells it, allowed him to enter his laptop remotely and see what might be going on there. Or, indeed, going down.And what a picture of humanity in the Facebook age was revealed.The first thing the alleged thief reportedly did was photograph himself. Then he filmed himself dancing to Tyga's &quot;Make It Rain.&quot; Bao, naturally, was impressed by the software's performance rather more than he was by the alleged thief's.&quot;From the files on the computer and some legwork, I was able to track down who [the alleged thief] was, his Facebook page, his e-mail, and the [now] infamous videos,&quot; he told CBS News.com in a story published yesterday.Why are the videos infamous Oh, Bao put one up on YouTube, where it has now enjoyed almost 1 million views.You might be stunned into abandoning your plans to waltz this weekend when I tell you that the alleged thief contacted Bao and begged him for mercy.With a gall that some might find just a little pathetic, he sent Bao a Facebook message that reportedly read, in part: &quot;I know I am in no position to ask you for favors but Can you please put down the videos that you have put up of me.&quot;I wasn't aware that one could inject a video with the same substance that a vet uses to euthanize a rottweiler. Bentley University spokeswoman Michele Walsh today told me: &quot;The person who stole Mark Bao's laptop did return it and admitted the theft to our university police. The alleged thief is not a Bentley student.&quot; University police are pressing charges of larceny and trespassing, which were filed today, she said.Bao, though, still can't decide what to do about the YouTube video. Be a modern man, Mark. Monetize it.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[PayPal reinstates Bradley Manning support group account]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-reinstates-bradley-manning-support-group-account</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-reinstates-bradley-manning-support-group-account</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minnubugtae</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-reinstates-bradley-manning-support-group-account</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Bradley Manning Support Network)PayPal has unfrozen the account of a group helping to raise funds to defend U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been charged with leaking classified files to WikiLeaks. Accused of punitively banning the account of Courage to Resist, the mobile payment company said in a blog post yesterday that the move was instead triggered because the group had not complied with PayPal policy requiring nonprofits to associate a bank account with their PayPal accounts. Though PayPal said it typically doesn't comment on such matters, it felt it needed to clear the record in this case.On Wednesday, PayPal was labeled &quot;evil&quot; by the Bradley Manning Support Network, which is working with Courage to Resist to support Manning, currently being held on charges that he provided sensitive files to WikiLeaks. The groups accept donations to their causes from supporters through PayPal.In a press release, the Support Network claimed PayPal would not unfreeze the account of Courage to Resist unless the company received approval to withdraw funds from the group's checking account, something the network said was not possible.&quot;Our accounting does not allow for this type of direct access by a third party, nor do I trust PayPal as a business entity with this responsibility given their punitive actions against WikiLeaks--an entity not charged with any crime by any government on Earth,&quot; said Courage to Resist project director Jeff Paterson.&quot;While there may be no legal obligation to provide services, there is an ethical obligation,&quot; added Paterson. &quot;By shutting out legitimate nonprofit activity, PayPal shows itself to be morally bankrupt.&quot;In its defense, PayPal said that it will not withdraw funds from a checking account without the authorization of the account holder and had simply put a temporary limitation on Courage to Resist's account for not complying with the policy.After further review, PayPal said it decided to lift the temporary ban on the account, explaining that it now had enough information to fulfill its &quot;Know Your Customer&quot; guidelines, which the company uses to validate the identity of its customers.The Support Network cited PayPal backing down on the matter as a sign that it reacted to pressure from the group's supporters who had petitioned the company to reinstate the account.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Find your next flight with Hipmunk iPhone app]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=find-your-next-flight-with-hipmunk-iphone-app</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=find-your-next-flight-with-hipmunk-iphone-app</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>vaddfvbaa</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=find-your-next-flight-with-hipmunk-iphone-app</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A newiPhone app from Hipmunk aims to make it easier to find and book your next flight on the go.(Credit:Hipmunk)Known for its travel search site, the Hipmunk crew just launched its first app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch crowd. Letting you find and compare all the available flights to your destination, the free app aims to help you choose the best one based on price, time, and other factors.Taking the stage and wowing the crowds yesterday at the Launch 2011 event in San Francisco, the Hipmunk app is a snap to use.Just enter your starting point by city, airport name, or the three-letter airport code, and Hipmunk will find the right airport. Enter your destination the same way. Choose your departure date and, if needed, your return date from an onscreen calendar. You can also choose your seating area among coach, business, and first class. Select the number of people who'll be traveling. And then just tap the button to search for flights.In return, Hipmunk displays a colorful time line of all available flights, each one on a separate row showing you the cost, the departure and arrival times, and the name of each carrier.By default, the flights are sorted by price from cheapest to most expensive. But you can also sort the time line by departure time, length of flight, and even a fourth factor known as &quot;Agony,&quot; which Hipmunk describes as a combination of how pricey the flight is, how long you'll be stuck in the air, and how many layovers you have to make.You can tap on a flight to more clearly see all the details. Drilling down further displays all the details together in one screen. If the flight fits your needs, just select it, and a time line of all possible return flights will then pop up for you to choose one. After you've selected your return flight, you'll see a summary of the flights you chose, which you can then e-mail to yourself or someone else or book directly through Orbitz.Hipmunk saves each search you run, so you can return to any of them. I ran a variety of searches through the app, and it gave me a healthy range of flights from which to choose. The next time you need to travel, the Hipmunk app is a quick and easy way to help find the best (and hopefully least agonizing) flight.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Avast wants you playing in its sandbox]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avast-wants-you-playing-in-its-sandbox</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avast-wants-you-playing-in-its-sandbox</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>winmanmansdasd</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=avast-wants-you-playing-in-its-sandbox</guid>
<description><![CDATA[New security features designed to keep its more than 110 million users safe debut in Avast 6, released today exclusively from CNET Download.com. They also have the added benefit of raising the competitive bar in computer security by pushing more and better free options to users. Avast Free Antivirus 6, Avast Pro Antivirus 6, and Avast Internet Security 6 all feature the new AutoSandbox and the WebRep browser add-on. (Click the links to get to the download page.)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The great $500 laptop challenge]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-great-500-laptop-challenge</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-great-500-laptop-challenge</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>clememeeml</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-great-500-laptop-challenge</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We gave several CNET editors 500 virtual dollars to shop for the perfect laptop.It's a frequent question from readers and co-workers, as well as friends and relatives: &quot;What's the best laptop I can get for around $500&quot; A crisp William McKinley seems to be a psychological line in the sand for many: it will buy a reasonable set of components, but is still easy enough on the wallet to not be a life-changing decision. In previous years, we haven't been particularly happy with the choices available around $500. Most were either dumbed-down midsize systems that were going to feel out-of-date before the box was even opened, and others were dressed-up Netbooks that were hardly better than versions one could find for as little as $299. The winners of our great $500 laptop challenge (photos) But with a new generation of CPUs from Intel and AMD, and with PC makers ditching entry-level Netbooks for slightly more expensive systems, it's time for another look at the $500 laptop. To make this a practical exercise, we're setting a few ground rules. First, this isn't a spec-off. We're looking for systems that we generally think will be worthwhile, enjoyable purchases. Some will be 11-inch ultraportables, others bigger 15- or 17-inch machines. There will naturally be areas in which the CPUs, hard drives, and other components won't match up' we're talking apples, oranges, and a few honeydews, even. Second, we're giving the price a little flexibility, going from around $450 to $550, not including tax or shipping. Finally, we're looking through our own reviews, built-to-order online configurators, and brick-and-mortar retail shops. Also note that prices and models can change rapidly, so the exact models we pick may not be available when you look. I've compiled a handful of my favorites, and also I've asked a few of our resident laptop experts to each look at one particular channel (brick-and-mortar retail, custom configuration from Dell.com, and so on), and build or buy whatever they'd get if they had around $500 to spend. Obviously there are no MacBooks on our list' those start at $999, even for the white plastic 13-inch MacBook. One interesting possibility, though, is to take that same $500 and invest it in aniPad, which certainly fits our $500 budget, and also does much (but not all) of what you'd want a budget laptop to do. I'm willing to bet that even with all our suggestions, you've got a few different ones that could easily be on this list. Suggest them below, and the best ones will find their way into a follow-up post. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Developers show interest in Nokia-Microsoft tie-up]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=developers-show-interest-in-nokia-microsoft-tie-up</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=developers-show-interest-in-nokia-microsoft-tie-up</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:10:48 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rettymo</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=developers-show-interest-in-nokia-microsoft-tie-up</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A burst of activity inWindows Phone 7 projects may be a sign that developers see promise in a Nokia-Microsoft tie-up, according to analytics firm Flurry.Even before Nokia and Microsoft revealed late last week their proposed deal for Windows Phone 7 on Nokia phones, speculation about it apparently led to a surge in developer interest. Tracking the mobile platforms based on new projects started by developers, Flurry said it had seen relatively flat numbers for Windows Phone 7 for the month or so prior to last week.But with speculation making the rounds early last week about a possible Microsoft and Nokia deal, Flurry saw a 66 percent jump in Windows Phone 7 project starts ahead of the actual announcement.For comparison, Flurry noted how developer interest in Android has grown.When Android first started grabbing customers, there were still doubts among developers over whether Android apps could be lucrative. But over time, developers took to Google's OS and saw that they could make money, which has helped the Android market expand, according to Flurry. The same may now hold true for Windows Phone 7.The &quot;spike in Windows Phone 7 developer activity shows that developers not only believe Nokia has given Microsoft Windows Phone7 a shot in the arm, but also that Nokia and Microsoft together can build a viable ecosystem,&quot; Flurry said Friday in a blog post.Looking at other mobile platforms, developer interest in Android has remained relatively steady and risen a bit over the past several weeks, but RIM's BlackBerry OS has seen a marked downturn recently, according to Flurry's data.Flurry provides analytics tools that developers build into their apps to monitor how they're being used. The company can analyze interest in mobile platforms by tracking project starts, which occur when a developer adds Flurry's software development kit to a new app before it's released. Flurry says that 38,000 developers have so far created projects using its SDK.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[747-8 Intercontinental flight expected this spring]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=747-8-intercontinental-flight-expected-this-spring</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=747-8-intercontinental-flight-expected-this-spring</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:10:21 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>eladlickululk</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=747-8-intercontinental-flight-expected-this-spring</guid>
<description><![CDATA[EVERETT, Washington--Boeing expects to make the first flight of its next-generation 747-8 Intercontinental sometime in early spring of this year.Where Boeing's next-gen 747-8 comes to life (photos) That was the word from Elizabeth Lund, the 747 program's vice president and deputy program manager, at a media event here today.Of course, given lengthy delays with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner program, it would be fair to say that no &quot;expected&quot; date can be firmly counted on. Indeed, Boeing maintains that despite the expected schedule, the plane will take its first flight, and make its first delivery &quot;when it's ready,&quot; Lund said.Still, she said she was very confident about the schedule she announced.The plane is expected to be the world's most fuel efficient and can carry more passengers at a lower fuel cost-per-mile than the current generation 747-400.Stay tuned for much more from this weekend's 747-8 Intercontinental events.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft: Google's Bing test was 'good subterfuge']]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-googles-bing-test-was-good-subterfuge</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-googles-bing-test-was-good-subterfuge</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:10:37 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bernbeebeb</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-googles-bing-test-was-good-subterfuge</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft wants to make it very clear that Bing is no copycat. &quot;I want to make sure you understand that we were not copying results from any of our competitors, period,&quot; Bing Director Stefan Weitz told CNET in an interview this afternoon. &quot;It's almost insulting a little bit, because we've got all these guys and gals that are working their butts off to do this, and it's categorically not accurate. It's an illogical statement to make,&quot; he said.Following yesterday's claims by Google that Microsoft had been copying the company's search results in its Bing search engine, Microsoft denied the allegations publicly, both on stage at its Bing Farsight conference in San Francisco, as well as in a blog post by Harry Shum, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Bing. So why the follow-up post issued this morning by Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's senior VP of its Online Services Division, saying more of the same &quot;I think we were still seeing these reverberations,&quot; Weitz said. &quot;I think part of it is that we want to make sure people and engineers who worked on this project get credit for what they've done. And it's important to make sure people are clear about what's happening with this data.&quot;As for that click stream data, Weitz was adamant about pointing out that Google's &quot;honeypot&quot; test, which used a test batch of synthetic search terms in IE and the company's Bing bar, was not how Bing gets its ranking or overall search index. &quot;It's a constantly evolving set of signals that we use to weight it, so it's hard to even say how much any of this stuff weighs unless you run a particular query and run probes against it to see what's happening there,&quot; Weitz said. Weitz went on to explain that some of these minor queries can get weight in Bing's relevancy engine, even if they're something obscure, which is what happened during Google's copycat test.&quot;When the ranker looked at all the signals that we had and said, 'well OK, there might not be much there, and that might not only be one and returned that result,' the lesson we learned here is maybe we shouldn't be firing results at all if we only have one signal,&quot; Weitz said. &quot;One signal is too few to triangulate on, to do a decent job with results. In that sense, it's kind of nice to have them help us refine our algorithm, to go with their intent.&quot;As for why Google's 100 query honeypot test managed to make an impact on Bing's index, Weitz said the same procedure would not have an impact on more established search terms. &quot;What the Google folks did, as you probably saw, they choose words that would never be issued by a human, a bunch of gobbledygook basically, and then they artificially ranked those pages they indicated highly in the Google index, so they basically faked the ranking in Google,&quot; Weitz said. &quot;It doesn't scale up to a popular term in the same way that we have tremendously sophisticated systems to detect clickfraud, and they were pretty clever in how they did it. Good subterfuge.&quot;So does all this mean Microsoft is going to change how it uses click stream data Not necessarily. &quot;This is a very common practice because it has enormous user benefits,&quot; Weitz said. &quot;That's the whole point, right You're actually able to say 'I know 84 percent of people who go to AlaskaAir.com, the first thing they do is go to flight status.' So now, when I'm building a product like Bing, I can make flight status more prominent, and answer Alaska Air with a flight status answer.&quot;Ultimately, Weitz said that Google only getting back a handful of the 100 honeypot terms it sent out as part of its test verifies that Microsoft's system is not just a copy. &quot;If it was a copy you'd have 100 percent fidelity,&quot; he said. &quot;The 93 that didn't fire either we felt the signal wasn't strong enough or we had something else going on there, which is why they didn't fire. That's exactly the point. And that's why it's so perplexing that they keep using the word 'copy' when they know very well how ranking works, and how the system works, and that a signal like that is one of many. It's perplexing.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Can't find your car This mall knows where it is]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cant-find-your-car-this-mall-knows-where-it-is</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cant-find-your-car-this-mall-knows-where-it-is</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:10:53 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>suspicaan</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cant-find-your-car-this-mall-knows-where-it-is</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Kiosks to help shoppers locate their car were installed at Santa Monica Place shopping mall.(Credit:ParkAssist.com)For all the apps, gadgets, and gizmos on the market, a simple solution to finding a yourcar in a large parking lot is still a tall order. A Los Angeles mall seems to have figured out a way to reduce the number of wandering car owners with keys in hand searching for their vehicles, but it borrows technology normally reserved for government agencies.License plate scanners are widely used by police departments to help locate stolen vehicles, or by transportation agencies to snag drivers who breeze through tolls without paying. But a few shopping malls are now using them to help people remember where they parked their car. Santa Monica Place is one of the latest shopping malls in California to use license plate scanners. A system of networked high-resolution cameras record the license plate of parked cars along with their location. When a shopper can't remember where they parked their car, they can key in their license plate in a kiosk that will tell them on which floor and row their vehicle is parked. It's a high-tech solution to an age-old problem and reduces the demand for mall security to drive around forgetful owners until they finally spot their parked car, but some privacy advocates say that it's a little overkill.Users enter either a full or partial license plate on the kiosk screen, and the system shows where the car is parked.(Credit:Park Assist)Although the kiosk information is intended for car owners only, there's nothing stopping jealous exes or other stalkers from using the device to keep tabs on where drivers have been. I can see a valid use for this technology (especially in airport long-term parking), but just because there's no expectation of privacy on the open road, it shouldn't mean any Joe off the street can look up license plates to find out who's been where. In fact, the kiosk works with just a partial license plate, requiring only the first few letters or numbers to return matches. Adding a security layer, such as making the kiosk accessible only to security personnel, is needed to solve this dilemma. And license plate scanners aren't the perfect solution--they've been known to misread license plate numbers. It's also much harder to remember the numbers of a license plate than the floor on which you parked your car.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Toshiba to iPad: You're flashy, but you're lame]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=toshiba-to-ipad-youre-flashy-but-youre-lame</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=toshiba-to-ipad-youre-flashy-but-youre-lame</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Jan 2011 08:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>marmonli12</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=toshiba-to-ipad-youre-flashy-but-youre-lame</guid>
<description><![CDATA[There are ways of telling a rival that you don't respect them. You can shun them. You can rise above them. You can even steal their lover.Toshiba, however, has decided on a slightly different strategy when it comes to Apple. In a move redolent of the New Zealand haka war dance, Toshiba has decided to stick out its tongue, widen its eyes, and tell Apple that theiPad is, as they say in certain English quarters, pants.I am grateful to the sensitive eyes at AllThingsD who first spotted that Toshiba has created a Website for its newtablet computer.When you go to this sturdy site and happen to employ a device that isn't Flash-friendly--say an iPad oriPhone--Toshiba welcomes you with the words: &quot;Such a shame.&quot; Has the company somehow been tracking you with that new gorgeous Honeycomb software Does it know that you have endured a terrible haircut at the local nails, hair, and reflexology salonThe new Toshiba Flashiba has FaceTime. Or something like it.(Credit:Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Not quite. For the site continues: &quot;Add this to the list of interesting places on the Internet you can't see on your device. Of course, if you had a Toshiba Tablet, you would enjoy the entire Internet. Yep, Flash sites too.&quot;Naturally, there will be those who will be delighted that someone is assaulting the iPad's soft spots with a pickled pitchfork.However, perhaps others might sense a couple of drawbacks. One is that you can't actually buy one of these confident Toshiba tablets. At least until sometime in springtime, when there just might be a lot more iPad-o-likes to compete with. The even more pedantic might also be concerned that it doesn't even have a name yet, though the Toshiba Taunter is surely high up on the list, as is the Toshiba Flashiba. And then what happens if new tablets come out that have even better features than the Toshiba Taunter/Flashiba What if one of them is the iPadThat's often the problem with calling someone names. You have to know them very, very well. You have to know how they might react. And you have to be sure you have back-up, rather than just the ability to get people's backs up. It's like the playoffs. Taunting, gesticulating, trash-talking, even flash-talking, is all very well. But then you have to go out and play. Which is a little harder. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Nokero solar bulb stands up to Canadian winter]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nokero-solar-bulb-stands-up-to-canadian-winter</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nokero-solar-bulb-stands-up-to-canadian-winter</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Julrild</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nokero-solar-bulb-stands-up-to-canadian-winter</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Chill factor: the N200 solar bulb basks in the winter sun. (Credit:Tim Hornyak )The mercury reads 12 degrees outside, but it feels like minus 2 with the windchill. That's Fahrenheit--the numbers are depressingly lower in Celsius here in Canada. Still, when I hang Nokero's new N200 bulb on a tree, its solar cell recharges without a hitch.  Denver-based Nokero debuted last year with the N100 solar light bulb. It recently released an improved version, the N200, and I had a chance to try it out. First off, the Nokero bulbs are designed to replace homemade kerosene lamps, not standard bulbs. They're aimed at hundreds of millions of people in developing countries who have little or no electricity. Many burn kerosene for light, which, aside from costing money, is a fire and air pollution hazard.  The N200's light is only 13.5 lumens on the high setting (a 60-watt incandescent bulb is 850 lumens). That's very dim, but it's comparable to a kerosene lamp. It's also better than the 8.5 lumens of the N100 bulb.  Meanwhile, the N200 can last more than six hours on its low-intensity setting after a single-day charge in sunlight. The N100 was rated at four hours if charged in equatorial regions, where the sun is strongest. Nokero says typical kerosene lamp users burn their lamps for 1.5 hours every night.  Obviously, several of these solar bulbs are needed to effectively light a small room or tent. The N200 is priced at $20, which is $5 more than the N100. Nokero says it has lower bulk wholesale prices for both bulbs. The N200 is slightly larger than a conventional bulb. Its main design difference over the N100 is that it can swivel on a chrome-plated steel loop to best catch the sun with its single solar cell, which can capture more light. New Life Orphanage Co-Director Sherry Moseley with a tent city family in Haiti. (Credit:American Green)Power is stored in a replaceable AA-sized, 1,000 mAh Ni-MH battery, which is rated to last two years. The company says it can be replaced for about $1. The bulb has four LEDs, a switch for high or low settings, and a safety hook for hanging. It's rainproof and impact-resistant, and rated from minus 4 to 131 degrees. So I've been recharging it outside in the cold, including days when the windchill factor was about minus 5, and it worked fine, illuminating a dim corner of my kitchen. It also recharged to some extent on cloudy days.  One interesting feature is the bulb's auto-shutoff function. It will only shine when ambient light falls below about 200 lux. This power-saving feature is probably valued by those with the least electricity. A year after Haiti's devastating earthquake killed tens of thousands of people, the N200 bulb is being distributed there through American Green, a media group that brought the lights to the New Life Orphanage and a tent city outside Port au Prince.  According to Nokero, Haitian families often spend $10 to $30 on batteries, kerosene, or other lighting methods a month. For that amount, they can buy one or two solar bulbs that can last years. The company and American Green are trying to get Haitians interested in starting up businesses buying and selling them. The bulbs have been tested in countries like Pakistan and Kenya and are also being shipped to needy families by Project C.U.R.E., the world's largest distributor of donated medical supplies. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Start-up hopes to profit from Kindle lending]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=start-up-hopes-to-profit-from-kindle-lending</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=start-up-hopes-to-profit-from-kindle-lending</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sevenForuxxtyvi</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=start-up-hopes-to-profit-from-kindle-lending</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Kindle Lending Club)A small company called Kindle Lending Club plans to launch a beta site today or tomorrow that will let it profit from Amazon's e-book ecosystem.The five-person start-up has a simple business model. First, connect people who are willing to lend the electronic books to those who want to borrow them. Second, when the borrowers discover that they didn't finish with Amazon's 14-day lending window, offer a link to buy the e-book and share a portion of the resulting revenue through Amazon's affiliate program.It might not be enough to acquire Facebook, but site founder Catherine MacDonald--a 40-year-old Canadian mother of three who lives in Malta and Tunisia--believes it'll pay the bills. &quot;I'm anticipating that Martin (my husband) and I will be able to work on this full-time, so a full-time living for the family seems realistic,&quot; she told CNET News.And it could be enough to raise Amazon's eyebrows. It's no Napster, but the Kindle Lending Club probably has facilitated the lending of more than 1,000 books among strangers. At scale, it holds the potential to automate free book lending on a global scale when Amazon would prefer to see an actual sale.It's an interesting concept, one that's spun up rapidly since Amazon launched Kindle lending on December 30. MacDonald started with a Facebook group, quickly concluded that wouldn't accommodate the interest, raised an angel investment commitment of $12,500, signed up two Web developers, and is launching a site--all within two weeks.&quot;Last Thursday, December 30, I heard about the introduction of lending (I missed the October announcement) and I was thrilled,&quot; said MacDonald, who's worked in Web development and search marketing since 1998. &quot;While my husband and I were going to sleep that night, an idea suddenly occurred to me, and I told him, 'Martin, you have to remind me to start a Facebook page in the morning to get people together to lend each other books!' So, that's what I did, and it just took on a life of its own.&quot;A look at the Kindle Lending Club beta site (click to enlarge)(Credit:Kindle Lending Club)Time was of the essence, too, since others had the same idea, she said. &quot;It became apparent really fast that we had to move decisively and do social media and software development in tandem,&quot; she said. Another social media angle: The site will broadcast lending possibilities and desires through the KLCfeed on Twitter.She estimates that the Facebook site has facilitated more than a thousand loans. &quot;It seems that most of the book loans on offer are snapped within a day of being posted,&quot; she said.Amazon didn't respond to a request for comment. It can't have been a complete surprise, though, to a global-scale Internet-company. If nothing else, Barnes &amp; Noble beat Amazon to market with a sharing option on its rival Nook e-reader system, and that option has spawned Nook book-sharingsites.The existence of the Kindle Lending site sheds a revealing light on Amazon's move to add a lending option.E-book limitsFrom a customer point of view, one of the big drawbacks of e-books compared to physical books is that digital rights management (DRM) technology, including encryption, typically restricts a person's ability to lend or resell a book. If you buy a Kindle or Nook book, it doesn't become the sort of communal family property a physical book might. And of course systems such as Google Books, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes &amp; Noble Nook aren't compatible.Even though a physical book can be physically copied, it's a pain, and the results aren't likely to match the original. But digital content is famously easy to copy. That makes it tough for a company such as Amazon to strike the right balance between a totally locked down Kindle ecosystem and one that's got some measure of the freedoms of physical books.Amazon's 14-day lending constraint, along with a limit of one lending per book and the fact that publishers don't make all books available for lending in the first place, puts a pretty significant brake on those freedoms while still permitting a person trying to infect a friend with enthusiasm for the latest good read. But the Kindle Lending Club shows that there's a big appetite for free books and a corresponding urge that people have to share.&quot;I have seen people who have said that they will save their loans for friends and family, but the number of lenders who are just entirely altruistic has really impressed me,&quot; MacDonald said. &quot;We have seen it in action over hundreds of loans already, so I think it's reasonable to imagine that people will continue to be altruistic.&quot;MacDonald wants to keep money out of the core lending activity, too.&quot;I do not want to associate money or even credits with book lending on our platform,&quot; she said. &quot;I like the idea that someone who does not have access to a credit card, for whatever reason, can still borrow a book from someone--I could imagine someone in a developing country borrowing a book on business start-ups from someone in America. We enable people to do something simple: just lending a book like we've all been doing for years' but the scale and reach now makes this action potentially transformational on a global level. That gives me a great feeling when I lend an e-book, and I trust that the majority of our community members will feel the same.&quot;Publishers might not get a warm feeling of happiness pondering the possibility of free exchanges of their books. But one factor that doubtless weighed into Amazon's calculations is how often lending actually hurts sales directly. It's not clear how often book borrowing supplants book purchasing, but it's not hard to imagine people might read a free book that they wouldn't pay for.Bear in mind also that the ease of copying isn't just a threat to publishers. It also drastically lowers their production costs, giving them an incentive to embrace the e-book revolution as long as it's not Napsterized.And even if 100 percent of the lending replaced actual Kindle e-book book sales, the idea still might be good for Amazon in the big picture. Here's why.Expanding ecosystemKindle is an ecosystem. Amazon sells Kindle e-readers as well as books, and some number of freely available Kindle books makes a Kindle more valuable. And of course, once somebody has bought a Kindle, they're more likely to buy future e-books through Amazon.Even if a person doesn't buy a Kindle reader, using Amazon's free Kindle apps fortablets, phones, and computers instead, that's another customer in the ecosystem. The more books in a person's Kindle library, the less likely that person is to jump ship for a Nook--and probably the more likely that person is to purchase or upgrade a Kindle reader.&quot;In our view, as the Kindle ecosystem expands, Kindle device users will not only continue buying more e-books but also subscriptions, accessories, hardware warranties, and eventually use Kindle's wireless and computing capabilities for other data and content consumption (e.g. pictures, music, videos, e-mail, etc.),&quot; said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Caris &amp; Company, in a Kindle report today.Last, don't forget that the site is funded by sales of Amazon products, and a lot of Kindle customers will be using her site.&quot;I borrowed [Jonathan] Franzen's 'Freedom' on December 30,&quot; she said. &quot;I know I'm not going to get it finished, so I'll have to purchase a copy.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[CES: Tiwi from Inthinc prevents texting while driving (podcast)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-tiwi-from-inthinc-prevents-texting-while-driving-podcast</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-tiwi-from-inthinc-prevents-texting-while-driving-podcast</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jan 2011 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mariedelexz</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-tiwi-from-inthinc-prevents-texting-while-driving-podcast</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Device attaches to windshield and connects to car&amp;39's electrical system(Credit:Inthinc)A 2009 study (PDF)  from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that truck drivers who were texting were 23 times more at risk of a &quot;crash or near crash event&quot; than &quot;nondistracted driving.&quot; As reported by CNET's Jennifer Guevin, the study also found that &quot;texting took a driver's focus away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds--enough time...to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.&quot; Teenage drivers are especially vulnerable. In addition to being less experienced drivers, they are more likely to text than adults. A Federal Communications Commission consumer advisory on texting while driving quotes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as reporting that driver distraction was the cause of 16 percent of all fatal crashes in 2008, resulting in 5,800 fatalities and 515,000 injuries. The American Automobile Association says that &quot;taking your eyes off of the road for two seconds doubles your risk of getting into a crash.&quot;Inthinc, a Salt Lake City company, was at the Consumer Electronics Show with a solution for parents and companies whose employees have company issued phones. The product, which is called Tiwi and costs $299 plus a $29.95 monthly subscription fee, can disable a cell phone for calling or texting, according to CEO Todd Follmer. It can also report the person's speed, whether they're engaged in aggressive driving, and even if they're using their seat belt. Parents or employers can check in via an Internet portal. Inthinc CEO Todd Follmer(Credit:Inthinc) To learn more, I spoke with CEO Todd Follmer at the Showstoppers press event atCES 2011.Listen now:Download today's podcastSubscribe now:  iTunes (audio) |  RSS (audio)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[CES: RIM launches Built for BlackBerry]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-rim-launches-built-for-blackberry</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-rim-launches-built-for-blackberry</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>lawannumelly</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-rim-launches-built-for-blackberry</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The logo that would appear under BlackBerry-certified cases and accessories. RIM has just launched the Built for BlackBerry program, which promises to let consumers know if a particular accessory or case was specifically designed for a BlackBerry product via a Built for BlackBerry logo. This is similar to Apple's own Made foriPhone program. Companies that are in line to have Built for BlackBerry products in the coming year include Case-mate, Speck, Incipio, Otterbox, Tru Protection, iGrip, Vaja, Dicota, and Trexta. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Dell to acquire SecureWorks]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-to-acquire-secureworks</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-to-acquire-secureworks</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Brierliaisy</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dell-to-acquire-secureworks</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dell today beefed up its security efforts with the acquisition of SecureWorks, a company that provides information-security services.Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.With the acquisition, Dell said in a statement that it would use SecureWorks' security-as-a-service applications--managed security, risk consulting and threat intelligence--to bolster its software lineup. SecureWorks provides security information management, log monitoring, intrusion prevention, vulnerability scanning, and other services.Read more of &quot;Dell acquires SecureWorks&quot; at ZDNet's Between the Lines. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Friday Poll: Most divisive tech battle of 2010]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=friday-poll-most-divisive-tech-battle-of-2010</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=friday-poll-most-divisive-tech-battle-of-2010</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 Dec 2010 08:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>pnomabeqw</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=friday-poll-most-divisive-tech-battle-of-2010</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Motion control systems were just one battleground in 2010. (Credit:CNET)So here we are, looking at the end of 2010, a year that's been fairly exciting in the personal-technology world. Led by theiPad, tablets became a common sight, sounding a warning call to the Netbook business. E-readers got more affordable and more widespread, and many phone makers stepped up to take on theiPhone 4, which was leaked in the spring, dramatically, after an Apple tech left a prototype in a bar.  But where there's innovation there's often conflict. Companies like Apple and Google and Microsoft are again going head-to-head in many markets. Motion control gaming systems, digital TV, and even e-books were competitive battlegrounds. The comments on Crave have at times been like combat zones, too, with our wonderfully engaged readers going back and forth over which tech is best, worst, most promising, dumbest, and so on. It's said that you pick your battles, and this is your chance to do just that. Which of these tech battles of 2010 got you most riled up Or maybe there's one we missed. If so, let us know in the comments section. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Lookout raises $19.5 million for smartphone security]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lookout-raises-19-5-million-for-smartphone-security</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lookout-raises-19-5-million-for-smartphone-security</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>gumueges</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lookout-raises-19-5-million-for-smartphone-security</guid>
<description><![CDATA[John Hering, co-founder and chief executive of Lookout(Credit:James Martin/CNET)Lookout Mobile Security, which specializes in armoring smartphones from hackers, said today that it's raised an additional $19.5 million in funding.The San Francisco-based startup says it now has nearly 50 employees and about four million registered users of its software, which includes a spyware scanner, remote backups, and a stolen phone locator. That's up from a reported two million users in September and three million in November.Lookout's security apps currently are available for Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. In an interview with CNET, Lookout CEO John Hering said aniPhone version will be &quot;coming very shortly&quot; and customers should expect to &quot;see something in 2011.&quot;New features in Apple's iOS 4 operating system, announced in April and made available a few months later, aid development, Hering said. Those changes &quot;enable us to do quite a bit more,&quot; he said.Some of Lookout's features, like remote wipe and and a more comprehensive remote backup, are available only to customers who purchase the premium version for $3 a month. (Here's our review of the Lookout Premium service from last month.)Today's funding round came from Index Ventures and existing investors Accel Partners and Khosla Ventures.CNET's Elinor Mills contributed to this report.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[More iOS games on sale--and this time, it's charitable]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=more-ios-games-on-sale-and-this-time-its-charitable</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=more-ios-games-on-sale-and-this-time-its-charitable</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sufmanmar1s36</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=more-ios-games-on-sale-and-this-time-its-charitable</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Like games Here&amp;39's your chance to save a few bucks on six indie champs--and support a worthy cause in the process.(Credit:Screenshot by Rick Broida)'Tis the season to scoreiPhone,iPod, andiPad games on the cheap. First, Electronic Arts cut some 70 games to 99 cents each, a promotion that's likely to run through the holidays. Next, Gameloft and Namco got in on the 99-cent act, as CNET's Joe Aimonetti reported earlier today. Now, even indie developers are extending some 99-cent love, as evidenced by the Indie iPhone Holiday Sale. But in this case, there's more to it than just a price drop: the six participating developers plan to donate a third of the proceeds to charity. The games on sale include Canabalt, Drop7, Eliss, Osmos, Solipskier, and Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. Not exactly well-known titles, admittedly, but each one has a user rating of at least four stars in the App Store. (Osmos is an App Store Hall-of-Famer, and both Drop7 and Spider appeared on several &quot;top-10&quot; lists.) Prior to the sale, which runs until Dec. 31, each game sold for $2-4 apiece. The developers will donate a third of the net proceeds (i.e. what's left after Apple takes its share) to Child's Play, which collects toys, games, books, and cash for kids in children's hospitals around the world. So in addition to scooping up some great games on the cheap, you can give a little extra cheer to sick kids. While you're at it, why not check out the Windows Holiday Bundle, which also supports a very worthwhile cause (Charity:Water). It's not iPhone-related, but it does give you $220 worth of goodies for just 19 bucks. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[More details about sale of Apple, Dell secrets]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=more-details-about-sale-of-apple-dell-secrets</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=more-details-about-sale-of-apple-dell-secrets</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Jasmine01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=more-details-about-sale-of-apple-dell-secrets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[CNET has obtained a copy of the FBI's complaint against four men who had access to vital trade secrets belonging to such tech companies as Apple, Dell, and AMD, and are accused of repeatedly violating securities laws by selling this information to hedge funds, according to the FBI. Shame shame: Decade's 10 biggest tech scandals (images) As a result of a sophisticated sting operation that involved wiretaps and recorded phone conversations, FBI agents have arrested the four men on a score of charges that include securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy. The government's complaint, filed this week with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses the suspects of acquiring and selling a shocking amount of trade secrets involvingApple's iPad,iPhone, andiPod, as well as sales figures, sales projections, and revenue data for the other companies. The government alleges that the case centered on Primary Global Research, a company that sold consulting services to investors about the tech industry. The government accuses James Fleishman, a exec at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, of creating a reservoir of insider information by paying three men employed at top tech firms. &quot;[Apple,] you know, they're very secretive, right So I don't have an exact time frame but I've concluded we'll start building modules probably in March.&quot;--Walter Shimoon, former Flextronics employeeThose insiders allegedly are Walter Shimoon, (Flextronics International)' Mark Anthony Longoria (Advanced Micro Devices) and Manosha Karunatilaka (U.S. division of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing).The operation was simple, according to a copy of the complaint against the men. Hedge fund managers paid big bucks to Fleishman to speak with the &quot;consultants.&quot; According to the government's complaint, here's a sample of the kind of information--taken from recorded conversations--the hedge funds received for their money: Later in the call [from an October 1, 2009 conversation] Shimoon told [cooperating witness from a hedge fund] that Apple was going to be producing a new iPhone...that would be &quot;coming out early next year,&quot; and that the new iPhone &quot;is gonna have two cameras.&quot; When Shimoon told [the cooperating witness] this information, [the cooperating witness] asked when the new iPhone was coming to market. Shimoon replied: &quot;I was being asked the same question by my boss this morning. Um, cause we're working with them on the camera. They [Apple] you know, they're very secretive, right So I don't have an exact time frame but I've concluded we'll start building modules probably in March. Um, so you give it one to two months, April, May. So probably sometime in May, um, they'll have a big you know big launch.&quot; Later in the call Shimoon explained, it'll be a neat phone cause it's going to have a five megapixel autofocus camera and it will have a VGA forward facing video conferencing camera.Later in the call Shimoon told [the cooperating witness] about an Apple product in development &quot;[Apple has] a code name for something new,&quot; Shimoon explained. It's totally...it's a new category altogether. And, uh, I speculate, it doesn't have a camera in it, what I figured out. So I speculated that it's probably a reader...something like that...I believe it's called K, K48. You can get fired for saying K48...outside of a meeting that doesn't have K48 people in it. It's important to remember that the above conversation took place about eight months before the iPhone launched in June. Some of what Shimoon spoke about, was by that point being speculated about by the tech press but nothing was certain. And nothing was publicly known about K48, which was Apple's code name for the iPad, the computing tablet Apple launched in April. &quot;I am sending this e-mail as a gentle reminder to all of us that [Flextronics] and Apple are covered under...a nondisclosure agreement.&quot;--Walter ShimoonThe FBI also alleges that Shimoon provided a hedge fund employee with a sales forecast for the iPhone 4. AMDThe FBI accuses Longoria of selling out his own employer. On July 21, 2009, the FBI alleges that Longoria, 44, told a cooperating witness, who at that time worked for a hedge fund, that he worked with AMD's processors and was privy to such information as forecasts, build plans, and original equipment manufacturers and boasted that he had &quot;quite a bit of insight into how things are trending.&quot; Longoria told the hedge fund employee that demand for AMD's products were strong and to prove it Longoria told the man he would &quot;rattle off some numbers...because I have my report.&quot; The FBI alleges that Longoria provided the hedge fund employee with specific sales figures for sales of desktop PCs, notebooks, servers and embedded processors to the hedge fund employee. None of the information had been made public, the FBI said in its complaint. Longoria also gave up revenue figures, according to the FBI. He allegedly told the hedge fund employee that he thought revenue for the then upcoming quarter would be $1.18 billion. The hedge fund employee allegedly asked if Longoria was confident in that number and Longoria responded: &quot;Yes, I've got a buddy that works in finance that, uh, gives, uh, me all the nitty gritty details, probably more than I understand.&quot;According to the Associated Press, a U.S. magistrate judge ordered Longoria released on $50,000 unsecured bond. Karunatilaka's bail was set at $250,000, and Shimoon has yet to appear before a judge. Daniel Devore, a former Dell employee, pleaded guilty December 10 to wire fraud and conspiracy charges. The FBI showed that the defendants allegedly knew the kind of information exchange they were engaged in was unlawful. For example, Shimoon sent an e-mail in November 2009 to employees of Apple and those that worked at a specific Flextronics business unit. &quot;I am sending this e-mail as a gentle reminder to all of us that the [Flextronics business unit] and Apple are covered under both a nondisclosure agreement and [Master Development and Supply Agreement] This...will protect the work we have done with them up until now as well as the joint work we are doing with Apple...on process improvements for the [next generation] of iPhone.&quot;  Shimoon Et Al Complaint                  Greg Sandoval     Full Profile E-mail Greg Sandoval   E-mail Greg Sandoval If you have a question or comment for Greg Sandoval, 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       Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Periodic table gets weighty update]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=periodic-table-gets-weighty-update</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=periodic-table-gets-weighty-update</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:11:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Pamela01</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=periodic-table-gets-weighty-update</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Let me tell you, this baby comes in handy...well...almost never.(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)In the biggest development to rock the popular-science world since Pluto got demoted, 10 elements will see their atomic weights changed on the periodic table.With the news, oversize posters and textbook inserts around the world (not to mention the tiny periodic table I've been carrying around in my wallet since the ninth grade) are about to become outdated.The reason for the change is that atomic weights are not always as concrete as most general-chemistry students are taught, according to the University of Calgary, which made the announcement, and the snappily named International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights, which oversees such weighty matters. Certain elements have more than one stable isotope, which means they can appear in nature with different weights. In its statement today, the organization gave the example of sulfur, which is typically listed as having an atomic weight of 32.065 but which can actually weigh anywhere between 32.059 and 32.076, depending on where it is found.As a result, the Table of Standard Atomic Weights will now show a range of weights--rather than one fixed atomic weight--for hydrogen, lithium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, chlorine, and thallium. While this change will make the periodic table a more accurate reflection of how elements exist in nature, it could make teaching basic chemistry a little more complicated.&quot;Though this change offers significant benefits in the understanding of chemistry, one can imagine the challenge now to educators and students who will have to select a single value out of an interval when doing chemistry calculations,&quot; said Fabienne Meyers, associate director of the IUPAC.&quot;We hope that chemists and educators will take this challenge as a unique opportunity to encourage the interest of young people in chemistry and generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry.&quot;The man who dared to invalidate giant posters in chemistry classes around the world, Michael Wieser, a scientist from the University of Calgary who is helping to update periodic table.(Credit:Riley Brandt/University of Calgary)So, other than those of us who startle at the notion of such a staunch figure in the chemistry world being changed (and the schools that now have to replace their posters), what does this announcement mean for the average Joe Probably not much, if the frequency with which I whip out my trusty mini-periodic table is any indication.  But, as Meyers says, it could give teachers an opportunity early on to school students in the nuances of basic chemistry. As an example, in today's announcement, the University of Calgary explained how atomic weights are much more than another data point for high school chemistry students to memorize.  In fact, the ability to measure isotopes can be used to determine the purity and source of food, such as vanilla and honey' to trace pollutants in streams and groundwater' and to identify performance-enhancing testosterone in the human body. I think I'll still hang on to my card, though--just for old time's sake.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Yahoo confirms much-rumored layoffs]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-confirms-much-rumored-layoffs</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-confirms-much-rumored-layoffs</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:10:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>vanessarice</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-confirms-much-rumored-layoffs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Several weeks after rumors began to spread that the beleaguered Yahoo was on the cusp of announcing a round of layoffs before the end of the year, the company has confirmed &quot;personnel changes&quot; of several hundred employees across its offices worldwide.&quot;Today's personnel changes are part of our ongoing strategy to best position Yahoo for revenue growth and margin expansion and to support our strategy to deliver differentiated products to the marketplace,&quot; a statement from the company confirming the layoffs explained. &quot;We'll continue to hire on a global basis to support our key priorities. Yahoo is grateful for the important contributions made by the employees affected by this reduction. We are offering severance packages and outplacement services to these employees.&quot;AllThingsD reported on Monday night that the layoffs would be Tuesday and could affect up to 700 employees. The final carnage looks to be slightly less than that, about four percent of employees, or about 560 people in total.About three months after current CEO Carol Bartz took over from predecessor Jerry Yang, the company cut about 5 percent of its workforce. A month prior to Bartz's arrival, the company had cut about 10 percent, and another 1,000 early in 2008.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[A unique GPS app and an arcade golf game: iPhone apps of the week]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-unique-gps-app-and-an-arcade-golf-game-iphone-apps-of-the-week</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-unique-gps-app-and-an-arcade-golf-game-iphone-apps-of-the-week</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:15:48 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>joeysyjeoy</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-unique-gps-app-and-an-arcade-golf-game-iphone-apps-of-the-week</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:CNET)A news item this week over at AppleInsider uncovered a troubling practice by a developer at the iTunes App Store. Apparently, users who downloaded a free massive multiplayer online game from a Chinese developer complained of unauthorized in-app purchases, running up the bills on their iTunes accounts. One user reported the situation to Apple resulting in him getting a refund for the fraudulent purchases and Apple promising to investigate the claims.Even with a closed system like iTunes, apparently it is still possible for dishonest people to find a way to steal our money. Let's hope that Apple gets to the bottom of this case and finds a way to prevent these unauthorized purchases in the future. Until there's more news about this problem, be sure to regularly check your iTunes receipts (sent to the e-mail address attached to your iTunes account) for strange charges and report the issue to Apple if you have any problems.This week's apps include a unique location-based social network app and an arcade golf game where you flick to win.Locate Wi-Fi hot spots and view a map to find the nearest location.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)GeoGroups (Free) is a location-based social network service (like popular app Foursquare) but adds a few new wrinkles to make it both unique and useful. Like other apps in this genre, GeoGroups uses youriPhone's GPS capabilities to locate both commercial- and user-entered stores, cafes, pubs, and landmarks relative to your current location. You also can create your own group based around anything--not just stores and coffee shops, but the popular bench by the lake in your favorite park, for example. In other words, you can create a location anywhere for other users to discover so they can join the group and add their own content.GeoGroups has all the features of similar location-based social network apps such as map views, directions to locations, and the ability to &quot;check in&quot; once you arrive. You also can snap pictures of locations to add to a post, send the post to Facebook, or send location info to another GeoGroups user or friend via e-mail. Particularly handy is the ability to create a private group (with friends or family members, for example) that tracks your locations in real time. You can even set up the real-time tracking to turn off after a specified amount of time so it's OK if you forget to turn it off.GeoGroups offers 500 public groups (and counting) so you can get started right away and check out popular fishing spots, Wi-Fi hot spots, lighthouses, and waterfalls, as examples. With the ability to create your own locations, the possibilities are truly endless. Overall, if you've been thinking about diving into the world of location-based social network services, GeoGroups offers tons of content and lots of flexibility that will make it useful to just about anyone.During Quickshot games, you really need to hit that middle circle because you get an extra time bonus.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Flick Golf ($2.99) is a unique arcadelike take on golf, focusing on single shots and ball control to score points at one-stroke holes. Those looking for a complete golf game should look elsewhere, but Flick Golf has plenty to offer as a quick pick-up-and-play arcade game. Beautiful graphics make the courses of one-shot holes a joy to behold, and you'll be playing in landscapes from sunny California to wind-swept Scotland. Choose between two game types including World Tour, where you play nine-shot tournaments to try to advance to the next course' or Quickshot, where you'll try to score as many points as you can in 90 seconds.True to its name, Flick Golf requires that you flick or swipe the screen upward through the ball to send your ball to the green. While in the air, you can swipe to add spin and actually change the direction of the ball before it hits the ground. Scoring is measured by where you land the ball in the target (a scoring area with concentric circles around the hole). You also get bonus points for how much spin you used to get the ball to your target and whether you hit the pin with your shot.As you progress through the game, you'll be challenged by difficult courses with gail-force winds you'll need to account for every time you take a shot. Fortunately, the ability to spin the ball while it's in the air will save your less than perfect shots, but a good shot makes it easier to get high-scoring hole-in-one shots. So far I have only hit one perfect shot (a &quot;swish&quot; shot directly into the hole) so even with all the ball control, there is plenty of challenge in this game.Overall, Flick Golf is a great pick-up-and-play arcade golf game with beautiful graphics, precise controls, and plenty of challenge when you just want to waste a little time. You can also buy Flick Golf for iPad ($4.99).What's your favorite iPhone app Do you like the added flexibility for locations in GeoGroups Have you hit a perfect shot in Flick Golf Let me know in the comments!<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Samsung's Galaxy Tab red flag for Intel]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsungs-galaxy-tab-red-flag-for-intel</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsungs-galaxy-tab-red-flag-for-intel</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>udanikaspencerb</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsungs-galaxy-tab-red-flag-for-intel</guid>
<description><![CDATA[No. 2 chipmaker Samsung is showing Intel how to succeed in the brave new world of tablets and smartphones. Samsung's Galaxy Tab is competitive with Apple's iPad: Samsung makes the device and supplies the main chip inside. Here, Intel is playing catch-up.(Credit:Samsung)While Intel is the largest chipmaker in the world, Samsung is No. 2. And, unlike Intel, it also has a large and successful affiliated consumer arm that churns out products like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Not surprisingly, many of those products use Samsung silicon too.That's a vertically integrated strategy that Intel can't match. And that's not all. Samsung also supplies chips to outside customers (Intel's business model) like Apple which use its chips in outrageously popular products like theiPhone andiPad. The scary part is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab is a solid product and worthy competitor to the iPad, even besting it with features like front and back cameras--a feature you won't see until the iPad 2, most likely. (I test drove the Android-based 7-inch Galaxy Tab for about 30 minutes and was very impressed). That puts Samsung in two of the leading tablet designs on the market--one its own product. Before I go too far, let me back off a bit by saying that Intel's dominance in the hundred-billion-dollar-plus annual PC market has given it an almost unassailable lead in chips. Intel is also the leading chip supplier for the tens of millions of servers worldwide that power the Internet. The latter a nontrivial point often obscured by the glare of glitzy end-user products like the iPad (which uses Intel-powered servers when accessing Web sites worldwide).That said, Intel is obviously racing to play catch-up in tablets and smartphones, two of the fastest-growing computing markets. The chipmaker has formed a new business unit for Netbooks and tablets and CEO Paul Otellini spent a lot of time at a technology conference today explaining how it's going to eventually be competitive. &quot;It's important to keep a perspective in the early days of any market. Things change. Markets change,&quot; Otellini said today. &quot;It wasn't too long ago--2003--where virtually all of the silicon in a storage system was custom. It's grown dramatically over the intervening seven years to where we now are the predominate architecture for storage vendors,&quot; he said, implying that Intel will could eventually become a big player in tablets and smartphones. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Live blog Tuesday: Google Chrome event]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=live-blog-tuesday-google-chrome-event</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=live-blog-tuesday-google-chrome-event</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 06 Dec 2010 08:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=live-blog-tuesday-google-chrome-event</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google has invited us to an obscure corner of San Francisco tomorrow for a special announcement concerning Chrome. It all starts at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time, and we'll be live-blogging the event from Dogpatch Studios. What the announcement will be, exactly, we don't know yet. Chrome OS is Google's browser-based operating system that runs Web applications only. It's unlikely that Chrome will be ready for Netbooks this year as earlier promised, but the Chrome team might be demonstrating a near-final version for us. Or, it's possible Google is ready to take the wraps off its Web-based version of an app store, called the Chrome Web Store.Be sure to come back here tomorrow morning, or sign up below for a reminder e-mail.Google Chrome event<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Mexico urges higher ambitions at climate talks]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mexico-urges-higher-ambitions-at-climate-talks</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mexico-urges-higher-ambitions-at-climate-talks</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>parriaminkak</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mexico-urges-higher-ambitions-at-climate-talks</guid>
<description><![CDATA[CANCUN, Mexico--Mexico is pushing parties at the United Nations climate change meeting to strive for the best possible deal, although even the most ambitious agreement will fall short of what is needed to deal with climate change. Acknowledging that thorny issues such as agreeing to a second round of greenhouse gas emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol are unlikely to be resolved at the talks at the beach resort of Cancun, Mexico's top climate change diplomat told reporters that he feels a major step forward could be made. &quot;The big challenge is not to just capture in a United Nations document the commitments and actions of developed and developing countries, but to find a way on one hand to increase these...and find a mechanism to keep going,&quot; said Luis Alfonso de Alba at a news conference. Progress on a new global climate change agreement has been slow as developed countries complain that the United Nations' 1992 climate convention is outdated, focusing too much on them when China's rapid economic growth has made it the world's top carbon emitter. Most countries agreed on a formula at last year's Copenhagen summit whereby industrialized countries would cut their emissions while emerging economies took &quot;climate actions&quot; to slow growth in greenhouse gases. Objections by some nations prevented it, however, from being formally adopted by the U.N. &quot;Kyoto covered at most 28 percent of global emissions and had goals that barely surpassed 5 percent of global emissions,&quot; de Alba said. &quot;In Cancun we are hoping to come out with a package of emissions reductions that will certainly, if what countries have announced is made concrete, will surpass 18 or 19 percent on a global level.&quot;Deal needed The cuts envisioned by parties at Cancun fall short of what scientists say is needed to limit the rise in average global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius, de Alba said, but a deal would breath new life into the multilateral process. The Cancun meeting has seen so far little of the rancor and inflexibility that marked the Copenhagen summit as negotiators appear to have accepted that an incremental approach is the best that can be hoped for at this time. The most controversy has come from Japan's claim that extending the Kyoto protocol is &quot;meaningless&quot; without a broader pact that includes China and the United States, the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases. The stance of Japan, and some other countries including Canada and Russia over Kyoto, has prompted accusations by environmental groups and some developing countries that rich nations are trying to shirk their commitments. &quot;Everyone is for the continuity of Kyoto, but in some manner this is linked to complementary or additional efforts. What we have to be aware of is that we have a brief period to take decisions but this period ends in 2012, not the end of Cancun,&quot; de Alba said.Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The 10 best games of 2010]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-10-best-games-of-2010</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-10-best-games-of-2010</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>pestcontrolguildford</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-10-best-games-of-2010</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:GameSpot)For a gaming year that started out with a bang, 2010 has stumbled to the finish line. Of course, it's impossible to ignore the outrageous success of the recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops--but aside from that title, most of the second half of 2010 remains forgettable. A reason for this lull in quality console games is likely the bombardment of motion-gaming initiatives from Sony and Microsoft. In a way, these product launches ostensibly carved out a release window that saw plenty of Kinect and Move-friendly titles but forced conventional &quot;button-games&quot; to take the backseat. Was this the reason for the sharp drop-off in the fall of 2010 The top 10 best games of 2010 (screenshots)  Regardless of when in the calendar year these top-notch games were released, 2010 did see some excellent efforts for each platform as well as few surprises along the way. Like in 2009, sequels seem to highlight our list, with a few new franchises breaking into the top 10, too. We also think portable gaming suffered in 2010, with only a few titles being released that are even worth mentioning. Of course, no top-10 list is complete without honorable mentions, so please click through to view some titles we'd like to recognize but that didn't quite find their ways into top-10 placement. As always, be sure to sound off in the comments section if your list is different from ours! Honorable mention:Bayonetta (360,PS3)Super Meat Boy (XBLA)Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)NHL 11 (360, PS3)God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)Fallout: New Vegas (360, PS3)Vanquish (360, PS3)Alan Wake (360)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Vudu coming to Panasonic Blu-ray players]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vudu-coming-to-panasonic-blu-ray-players</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vudu-coming-to-panasonic-blu-ray-players</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Susan01</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vudu-coming-to-panasonic-blu-ray-players</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Coming soon to Panasonic Blu-ray players.(Credit:Vudu)Add Panasonic to Vudu's growing list of hardware partners.As of Wednesday, Vudu's streaming video service will be available on all of Panasonic's 2010 Blu-ray player models. It will join a panoply of other online entertainment options already available through the VieraCast menu on those players, including Netflix, Amazon Video-on-Demand, YouTube, and Pandora. Also of note: Panasonic becomes only the third vendor (besides Samsung and Vizio) to offer both Vudu and Amazon, both of which offer similar subscription-free, a la carte online video streaming services. (Vudu emphasizes the video and audio quality of its 4,000-plus HD movie titles, while Amazon offers movies and a strong slate of TV shows as well.) Vudu will be going live on the Panasonic devices the same day as it becomes available on the Sony PlayStation 3. As with thePS3, new Vudu subscribers on the compatible Panasonic devices will be offered a $5.99 credit on Vudu, giving them a free HD movie on the service. For now, VieraCast TVs and Blu-ray home theater systems will not be getting the Vudu update. We wouldn't be surprised to see it added in the future on those 2010 devices as well, but there are no guarantees.The full list of Panasonic Blu-ray players getting the Vudu upgrade is as follows: Panasonic DMP-BDT350Panasonic DMP-BDT300Panasonic DMP-BDT100Panasonic DMP-BD85Panasonic DMP-BD65PanasonicDMP-B500Related reading: CNET's quick guide to Internet TVUpdate (9:45a.m. PT): This post has been updated to reflect the fact that some Vizio products also offer both Amazon and Vudu. (Thanks to CNET commenter mjweston for this assist.) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Tripping tackles travel safety with video interviews]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tripping-tackles-travel-safety-with-video-interviews</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tripping-tackles-travel-safety-with-video-interviews</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>grydarmon89</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tripping-tackles-travel-safety-with-video-interviews</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Would you bring your entire family to a stranger's house, in a strange country, on a Web site's promise of a cultural exchange Or invite a backpacker to your homePerhaps when you were 22, on your Wanderjahr, the appeal of connecting with strangers in strange lands overrode concerns for your own safety. And, it's true, most people, in most places, are actually nice. But if the thought of connecting with people from other parts of the planet via the Web, either to stay in their house (AirBnB' CouchSurfing) or just to meet them strikes you as foolish, you might be interested in what the cultural exchange Web site Tripping.com is cooking up. Tripping.com helps travelers set up &quot;play dates&quot; with locals at their destinations, to get a more genuine experience of the culture they're heading into. Likewise, it helps hosts meet people from around the world so they can show off their city or community.  If you're connecting with a stranger, though, you do want to know you're dealing with someone who is who they say they are' and who can be checked up on, read up on, and so on before a connection happens.Tripping lets hosts around the world invite travelers to hang out with them. The new hospitality network sites (that's what they're called) like AirBnB and CouchSurfing have various methods to check into their customers' identities and weed out the creepiest. All the sites rely on community feedback and a system where respected users vouch for each other. CouchSurfing asks for a small financial donation. Tonight, Tripping.com is launching an experiment where it will actually interview users who want to earn their &quot;validated&quot; badge. The new video interviews will occur over a Webcam. Applicants will need to hold up a passport or other verifiable ID, which the Tripping.com operator will examine, over the Webcam, to verify that the user is who they say they are, as well as to record information to find this user in the future, if necessary. There will be a $10 fee for this service.Leveraging the trendTripping.com is a smart take on the business of circumventing usual travel sites. While it doesn't collect direct revenue as a peer-to-peer lodging site AirBnB does, it's also unlikely to get taxed or regulated out of business. Under the hood, it's more like a dating site, except it can benefit from the large travel advertising business and from affiliate click-through programs. There's also a good business-to-business angle on this person-to-person service: Tripping.com can run branded exchange networks, in particular for colleges and universities, to help people within already-trusted networks connect with each other. Tripping.com may charge a fee to institutions for this service. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Nielsen: RIM, Apple vying for smartphone lead]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nielsen-rim-apple-vying-for-smartphone-lead</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nielsen-rim-apple-vying-for-smartphone-lead</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 02 Nov 2010 07:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>BeekQueeste</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nielsen-rim-apple-vying-for-smartphone-lead</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Nielsen)Research In Motion and Apple are duking it out for the top spot in the U.S. smartphone market, according to the &quot;Global Smartphone Report&quot; released yesterday by Nielsen.Among the 13,243 smartphone owners polled by Nielsen, Apple's share has grown steadily over the past year, with theiPhone grabbing 28 percent of them all in the third quarter. On the flip side, RIM has seen its share for the BlackBerry drop to 30 percent for the same period. Those numbers include all people in Nielsen's panel who own smartphones.The difference in demand between the two platforms also breaks down by age, according to Nielsen's numbers. Apple has the highest number of smartphone users under 44, while RIM has captured the most customers 45 and older.In terms of sheer momentum, Android is the one heating up the market. Though still in third place among all of those surveyed who own a smartphone, Google's mobile OS has grown from a 4 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2009 to a 19 percent share in the quarter just ended, according to Nielsen. Among customers who picked up a smartphone over the last six months, Android did take the top spot during the quarter, said Nielsen, with BlackBerry and the iPhone battling for second place.Other recent reports also point to Android's growing popularity. Another Nielsen report, from early October, found that 32 percent of the smartphones purchased from January to August were powered by Android, compared with 25 percent for Apple and 26 percent for RIM. And reports this week from NPD Group and Canalys showed that among people who bought smartphones just in the third quarter, around 44 percent of them opted for an Android device, leaving Apple and RIM with figures hovering in the mid-20 percent range.Among other mobile operating systems, Microsoft's Windows Mobile has declined in demand over the past year and is now hanging onto a 15 percent slice of the market. The company is hoping to recapture some of that lost share with its new Windows Phone 7.The Palm OS, now owned by HP, has also shed share over the past year. And Nokia's Symbian OS, though still the worldwide smartphone leader, has failed to take hold in the United States and has hung onto the same small share of the U.S. market since last year.Smartphones in general continued to carve out a bigger chunk of the mobile phone market. As of the third quarter, 28 percent of all U.S. mobile phone subscribers own smartphones. Among consumers who bought a new mobile phone over the past six months, 41 percent of them chose a smartphone over a standard feature phone, up from 35 percent in the second quarter.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Cochlear implant could help wearers find balance]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cochlear-implant-could-help-wearers-find-balance</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cochlear-implant-could-help-wearers-find-balance</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Elsa</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cochlear-implant-could-help-wearers-find-balance</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Jay Rubinstein and Jennifer Hsia implant a new vestibular device via microscope at UW Medical Center on October 21.(Credit:Clare McLean/University of Washington)For those who have never suffered from a bout of vertigo, the condition might evoke thoughts of Alfred Hitchock and a dizzying fear of heights. Those people would be misguided.Imagine instead that, for anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 minutes, you are both falling and spinning, and yet you are also lying perfectly still in bed. It is not only nauseating and terrifying, but the disconnect is also completely frustrating.Millions of people around the world are thought to suffer from one of a number of balance disorders, some of which are still poorly understood (do the problems stem from the ear, brain, or some combination of the two). However, a new device could help those who suffer from one such problem, called Meniere's disease, avoid symptoms the moment an attack begins.The device will be manufactured by Australia-based Cochlear Ltd.(Credit:Cochlear Ltd.)The implantable device consists of a cochlear implant and a processor with new software and electrode arrays designed by University of Washington researchers who specialize in head and neck surgery, signal processing, brainstem physiology, and vestibular neural coding.It has been designed specifically to treat Meniere's disease--which affects an estimated 615,000 people in the U.S., typically between ages 40 and 60 and which typically affects one ear--because the disease is well understood. (The attacks result from rupturing of the inner-ear membrane, causing a sensation of spinning in the direction of the failing ear.)The most common way for those with Meniere's to fight the symptoms of a vertigo attack is to lie very still for hours or, in severe cases, to elect for surgery that essentially shuts off that ear altogether, permanently affecting hearing and balance.&quot;We have a variety of existing treatments for Meniere's disease, and any time there's a variety it's because none of them are optimal,&quot; says Dr. Jay Rubinstein at UW's Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, who himself has never experienced vertigo--&quot;other than from drinking too much in college&quot;--but who for years has seen first-hand how debilitating it can be. &quot;In theory this is potentially an optimal therapy that could really change how we treat Meniere's.&quot;The device, implanted last week in a 56-year-old patient who is the first of 10 to be involved in the first clinical trials, is essentially an override, Rubinstein explains. &quot;It doesn't change what's happening in the ear, but it eliminates the symptoms while replacing the function of that ear until it recovers.&quot;The processor lives behind the ear and transmits signals wirelessly to the implanted device almost directly beneath it in the temporal bone. The device responds by transmitting electrical impulses through three electrodes inserted into the superior semicircular, lateral semicircular, and posterior semicircular canals of the inner ear.Because the design and surgical implantation of cochlear devices are already FDA-approved, the team was able to get approval for this variation in June, leapfrogging past researchers who have been working on other types of devices for years.Its initial studies on primates showed that the device did not result in any loss of hearing or vestibular function, and if the team can demonstrate safety and functionality in the first 10-person trial, it will then study 50 to 100 patients to try to demonstrate efficacy and bring the device to market.&quot;Meniere's is not just a target in and of itself, but a stepping stone to get at other disorders,&quot; Rubinstein adds.The first patient's device will be turned on when he returns to the lab November 4' the moment he experiences the first signs of vertigo, testing can truly begin.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google&'s Nexus One successor revealed: Meet Samsung&'s Nexus S]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=googlersquos-nexus-one-successor-revealed-meet-samsungrsquos-nexus-s</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=googlersquos-nexus-one-successor-revealed-meet-samsungrsquos-nexus-s</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>anyannucci</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=googlersquos-nexus-one-successor-revealed-meet-samsungrsquos-nexus-s</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dear Google, please announce the Nexus S already so I can dump my iPhone 4.We finally have a clear glimpse of the Nexus One&amp;'s successor, Google&amp;'s next major Android superphone, thanks to a product listing slip-up by Best Buy and a report from gadget blog Engadget.The phone is currently being tested by Google employees, and is apparently called the Nexus S (instead of the Nexus Two). Best Buy&amp;'s product listing mentioned that the phone features a &amp;''Pure Google&amp;'' experience (meaning it runs Android, and no third-party interface &amp;''enhancements&amp;'', like the original Nexus One), and that it would be available on T-Mobile for the holidays. The product listing has subsequently been removed.Engadget&amp;'s photos from a Google tipster reveal that the phone sports the curvaceous design we previously speculated on and that it looks a lot like Samsung&amp;'s current Galaxy S phones. The Nexus S looks like it&amp;'s using the same 4-inch Super AMOLED screen as its Galaxy cousins, and previous reports say that it&amp;'s using the same 1-gigahertz Samsung Hummingbird processor as well. There&amp;'s also a visible front-facing camera for video conferencing, which is only available on one Galaxy S device, Sprint&amp;'s Epic 4G.The Nexus S certainly isn&amp;'t leaps and bounds ahead of other Android phones like the Nexus One was. Samsung&amp;'s Galaxy S phones were launched just a few months ago, and as we just mentioned, they&amp;'re likely not that much different from the Nexus S internally. Other Android manufacturers like Motorola and HTC have also continued iterating on their hardware with devices like the Droid X and Incredible, which are about on-par with Samsung&amp;'s hardware. It will likely be the first phone to run Google&amp;'s Android 2.3 update, but other high-end Android phones should be receiving that update over the next few months as well.Just like the Nexus One, the Nexus S doesn&amp;'t appear to be for everybody. Instead, it will appeal to hardcore geeks who are looking for the best possible Android phone for this holiday season. That same crowd will appreciate that the Nexus S only runs pure Android, without the cruft of other software slowing it down. Google will probably also sell it without contract.Honestly, I can&amp;'t wait for it. Despite reports that AT&amp;amp'T&amp;'s New York cellular network has been improved, my iPhone 4 experience has only gotten worse when it comes to voice calls. I love the platform and hardware, but I need to get on another network stat. With T-Mobile&amp;'s faster HSPA+ speeds, and free Wi-Fi calling, it&amp;'s certainly tempting to move over. Now I just need the right smartphone to make it worth the move.Next Story: Facebook heads back east with a relatively green data center in North Carolina Previous Story: Comcasta4a4s Tunerfish social TV app gets a new facePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Android, Galaxy S, iPhone, nexus one, Nexus S, Nexus TwoCompanies: AT&amp;amp'T, Google, Samsung, T Mobile          Tags: Android, Galaxy S, iPhone, nexus one, Nexus S, Nexus TwoCompanies: AT&amp;amp'T, Google, Samsung, T MobileDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Ngmoco&'s Neil Young foresees multibillion-dollar mobile game companies]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ngmocorsquos-neil-young-foresees-multibillion-dollar-mobile-game-companies</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ngmocorsquos-neil-young-foresees-multibillion-dollar-mobile-game-companies</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>laminrasa</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ngmocorsquos-neil-young-foresees-multibillion-dollar-mobile-game-companies</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Neil Young is the chief executive of Ngmoco, the mobile game publisher that was acquired by Japan&amp;'s DeNA for up to $403 million last fall. But Young says that wasn&amp;'t just the end point for his company and its success as a publisher of iPhone games. Rather, Young and his parent company are on a quest to create a multibillion-dollar mobile entertainment company. The centerpiece of that is Mobage and NG Core, two technologies that will be combined into a worldwide mobile social network.Mobage, as the social network will be known, is based on DeNA&amp;'s Japanese mobile social network and centers around an &amp;''interest graph,&amp;'' or an organization of people based on what their interests are. Ngmoco is spearheading the creation of this platform and will launch it in the coming weeks in the U.S. on Android phones. Once it does so, we&amp;'ll learn more about whether DeNA got its money&amp;'s worth when it bought Ngmoco and whether Young&amp;'s prediction about multibillion-dollar mobile social gaming companies will come true.We got the chance to interview Young recently about where the Ngmoco is headed under its new parent company and what we can expect from Mobage:VB: Can you gives us an update on Ngmoco under DeNANY: Let me back up and give you the history that led to the acquisition and then talk about where we are, and where we are headed. In May, 2009, our management team at Ngmoco sat down and we contemplated what trajectory were on.We had done that the prior year, when we made the shift from paid downloads to free-to-play games. The free-to-play business was good. As we projected where we thought business would be, one, two, or three years away, we thought about the value that we could create. We were quite happy with the trajectory the company was on. We saw we could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues.But given the impact that the iPhone and Android were making on the market place, and the impact of tablets, we felt maybe we were missing something. Maybe there was a bigger opportunity out there. And so we sort of started looking at what our competitors were doing. In the U.S. and in the West, we didna4a4t really see anything that made us feel like we were missing out. We felt that in the free-to-play market, we were doing a really good job. And with the Plus+ social network, we felt we were doing a good job. We had a very different approach to it where we focused only on the highest quality software. At the time, we had about 10 million registered customers, and now ita4a4s closer to 20 million.We looked at the landscape and felt like we were in a pretty good position. We had been hearing for a year that Zynga was going to come in and eat our lunch. We had survived the launch of their FarmVille and we had survived their launch of Mafia Wars. We had unique skills and knowledge. We started looking outside of the U.S. and Western markets at companies like Tencent in China, which was succeeding with its QQ service. We also saw the success of Nexon and NHN in Korea and the success of DeNA and Gree in Japan.And as we looked at all of these different markets and companies, we asked ourselves what the similarity was between the conditions on the ground in those markets that enabled those companies to succeed versus the conditions on the ground in the West. The conditions on the ground in China were fairly unique. In Korea, the market was very PC-centric. But the conditions in Japan were really similar to ours. In the early 2000s, Japan had already done what was happening in the U.S. in 2010. They had low-cost or unlimited data plans, 3G penetration, and critical levels of usability and functions. They had frictionless payment systems. That was all driving huge usage patterns.VB: They were way aheadNY: Yes. They had direct carrier billing in those markets. Basically, they had the equivalent of iTunes as a default billing mechanism for online purchases. We started studying DeNA and Gree more closely and we reached the conclusion that there was an opportunity to essentially create the Western DeNA. That would require us to do another kind of investment in our company and go from being an application developer with an affiliate network to a platform company with great first-party and third-party development.If we wanted to replicate the model that DeNA had pioneered in Japan but adapted for the Western markets, it was going to be essential for us to make a new technology framework. We had to create a customer aggregation framework. And we had to produce new levels of hit products. There are a lot of moving pieces to this puzzle. But when we looked to the assets that we had, we saw we had the pieces of a puzzle. We had the Plus+ network, our first-party game studios, the network of developers or affiliates we had on the Plus+ network, the physical infrastructure we built to support those things, and some internal technology. We could offer native-quality applications in Javascript by binding our native applications programming interfaces to Javascript so that you can write game logic in Javascript and move your content very quickly across different devices and device configurations. We could do that with fast iteration speeds. The analogy is that it was like editing an app rather than submitting changes to the App Store.We felt like we had the pieces of a puzzle. So we went out and we started raising money against that vision. We talked to a lot of different financial investors and we got great interest to raise a big round that would help us fund that transition. We wanted to go off and build a multibillion dollar company in that space, the Western DeNA. As we were doing that and putting together that financing, we sort of asked ourselves a question. [Can we do this globally] Japan, and Asia in general, is a very big and vibrant market. But realistically, we would be able to execute that effectively.We would have to build a successful Japanese operation that could compete with DeNA. We considered a partnership with one of these Asian companies. Maybe we could do a technology swap. Maybe we could find a strategic investor. And so we approached the players in those territories.VB: You already knew DeNA&amp;'s managementNY: Yes. When we met again with Tomoko Namba (CEO of DeNA, pictured right), she said they share the same vision. She said they believe that the market is going to grow the same way, and she said Ngmoco&amp;'s technology framework will help DeNA manage a transition in its local market from feature phones to smartphones.She said DeNA hadn&amp;'t been successful in the West yet and needed to be to continue its expansion as a company. She said she could invest in Ngmoco but wanted to explore the idea of acquiring the company. Over the course of the next weeks, we came to an agreement on an acquisition. That closed in November and we have been working on integrating the companies.We are working on the roadmap, technology, and business frameworks to bring Mobage-town (DeNA&amp;'s mobile social network, which will be known as Mobage in the future) to the global market with a focus on smartphones. On Dec. 15, we announced the roadmap for a Japanese release of our software development kit with a limited set of launch partners. About 40 companies from the U.S. and Japan are participating in a private beta test. We also announced our partnership with Samsung where Mobage will power Samsung&amp;'s devices. It will be preloaded on all Samsung Android devices around the world. Over time, it will evolve into a service that we are going to introduce.So, fast forward to today, and in March we will open the sandbox for developers in Japan. In April we will launch the Mobage smartphone service in Japan, the Apple smartphone service in Japan. Later in the second quarter, we will release the sandbox for the rest of the world and the Mobage service for the Western markets. That&amp;'s the overview of our opportunity to build a future entertainment network.VB: Tell us more about MobageNY: Ita4a4s basically got a world-class network when it comes to monetization of a social games service. And it is used by millions of people every day to play games in consumer entertainment on their cell phones and, to a lesser degree, on PCs in Japan.And it is a rough blueprint for what you can accomplish in the rest of the world. There is an opportunity to build something that will impact this mobile generation in the way that MTV impacted rock-and-roll fans a generation ago. It can be something that is culturally relevant, something that you know isna4a4t just linear programming. Ita4a4s interactive programming that you know isna4a4t just a solo experience but a social experience. I think the really big companies of the next decade are going to be companies that are focused on some of the &amp;''interest graph.&amp;'' If Facebook&amp;'s social graph is about your friends and the location graph is about some places you know, the interest graph is about what people want to do.Games and entertainment is a really big piece of what people want to do. And so the learning and the knowledge from DeNAa4a4s implementation in Japan, when combined with our view of the Western market, will be a perfect combination.NG Core is a technology framework that is available to developers today. We are almost at the 1.0 version of the release of NG Core.VB: What are some of the features Are they things like the leaderboards, achievements, friend requests, and multiplayer challengesNY:  No. We have all of those things. To put it to perspective, the Plus+ functionality is what you described. We need on top of that the functionality to build a true social network. Youa4a4ve got friends, followers, leader boards, awards, something like messaging, match making or challenges, personalizing avatars. When you have all of those things, that&amp;'s about 10 percent of the puzzle.You also need community services, you need gamer card (identity) functionality, the ability to get a message inside an application. For a game to have its own graph thata4a4s part of a larger graph, a virtual graph versus a real graph, we think that is a really important piece of this puzzle. That allows you to meet new friends based on who you meet inside the interest group, or inside the game. Then you also have to have bank currency management, virtual goods, provisioning systems.VB: You cana4a4t just sort of take Plus+ and relabel it. You are actually building a bunch of stuff on top of itNY: On top of that yes. A lot of that is what DeNA has built with Mobage in Japan. A lot of that will be common with what we are building here. Plus+ and everything else is all being rebranded as Mobage. Some of it will work in the West. Some parts will not.VB: How key is Mobage to how well DeNA is doingNY: Mobage is perceived as and understood as the essential glue that keeps people coming back to DeNA&amp;'s games. And Mobage itself is the technology framework, but ita4a4s also a whole set of services that sit on top of the games both for communication and content delivery or commerce. There are things like celebrity blogs, which attract a lot of people and get them to use a lot of features. It&amp;'s all tied together through this kind of social entertainment network framework.VB: And is there an analogy for it in the WestNY:  I dona4a4t think so. The closest thing is the virtual graphs that exist in World of Warcraft, [the biggest massively multiplayer online game]. It has its own economy and way for allowing you to communicate with people who have the same interests as you.VB: So when you introduce it here, you&amp;'ll call it a social networkNY: It absolutely is a social network. It is a social entertainment network.VB: And that then becomes the thing that everybody has described as whata4a4s missing from things like the iPhone. For instance, Facebook is a social network by itself. If there was something like that on the iPhone itself, then the amount of activity on the iPhone would go up dramatically.NY:  Yeah, I think so. I think there are specific implementations for specific platforms. So there are business rules and business conditions that exist in iOS [Apple's operating system]. There are different business rules and conditions that exist on Android and then still other rules on other mobile devices and different rules again on the web.And so ultimately, when we are trying to build this type of network, we need to be device agnostic and operating system agnostic to some degree. I think really about humans at the end of the day. Our customers are humans and so we have to be able to get service into the hands of humans. But we have to start with the platforms.VB: And can you implement Mobage fully on the iOS, or can you only do that on AndroidNY: Android is probably the place that we can implement it fully today completely. That is, we can create one destination application that binds many of these experiences together in conjunction with individual applications that surface on the market place. Those individual apps can then invoke the functionality of that larger service application. On iOS, you still have a great experience but your experience is a little less integrated. You can have the individual applications, the actual games. They are the fuel for the ecosystem on the iOS. To realize the full potential there, we need to think about user-centric services versus distribution point centric services.So we need to figure out how to connect customers together, so that they feel like they are part of a really rich and vibrant ecosystem that they are committed to coming back to. And we have been able to do that in individual games, to build communities within games that persist over time. Then the next step is to build communities in services over time that actually feel an affinity to the service and affinity to others inside the service.VB: How would you make money from thisNY: There are a couple of ways. The first is from our own first-party products, our own games. The second is by sharing revenue with the developers that participate inside the network. Then, lastly, we can make money on advertising. Those are the basic mechanisms to monetize that framework in that platform. VB: And will you charge a 30 percent fee for developers participating in your network, as Facebook and Apple do on their platformsNY: I can tell you we are in the first year going to focus on putting together frameworks that will incentivize people to come to the platform. We want them to deliver their intellectual property [games and other entertainment] on the platform and we are going to be very friendly. Developers at the end of the day need an audience and they need monetization.And we think we can give them access to a big audience in a global market, a market certainly in Japan where they are not even present now. That&amp;'s already a multibillion-dollar industry. We would increase their opportunity to access customers and increase their ability to monetize their products. The case we have to make in a compelling way is that anything they would be losing in revenue share they will be more than making up for in volume.VB: And then are there some interesting things you can do with the analytics and recommendation services. You can help the developers and users with the discovery of contentNY:  Yeah, certainly.VB: So then the opportunity here is a lot like pay-per-engagement, like when a bank rewards a service that can put it in touch with someone who will be a customer for lifeNY: Absolutely. I think thata4a4s very powerful and we have the ability to improve the eCPMs [advertising revenues per number of users] from the ads because they can be a lot more effective than ordinary ads. We are poring through terabytes of data already from our clients every single month. We process that and can infer the buying habits of a customer and how likely they are to come back.And thata4a4s valuable to advertisers. Now we have to be able to protect the privacy of our customers, but we think that if we are recommending the right brands or applications to our customers, that is going to be a win-win for everyone.VB: Will you do this right out of the gate, or will this develop over timeNY:  Well, we are certainly offering a rich set of analytics at launch that will enable developers to understand the full performance profile of their products. And we will certainly be working with our ad partners to make sure that we have the very best eCPMs. Ngmoco has been serving ads in its games now for quite a long time and wea4a4ve learned a lot about how to optimize those eCPMs.We have also been able to produce new types of advertising units called incented ad units, which are really important to brand advertisers that want to reach our audience. We say that you can watch this video and receive free gold inside the application.VB: Do you think you will be able to launch Mobage on iPhone at the same time you launch on Android or do you have to go one at a timeNY: We will probably be out on Android first for the integrated service. The individual application is something that could be launched on both platforms right away. Our goal is to not actually produce the same application on both platforms. Our goal is to quickly make use of the specific hardware that goes with each platform.VB: Is it weird that you started as an actual iPhone shop and now, by the business path you have chosen, you have to become an Android shopNY: I think we are both. We have to be platform agnostic if we want to build a big company. We certainly love iOS, and we love the ecosystem, and we love the quality of the hardware and the quality of the customers and the quality of the payment mechanisms. There is a lot to love about iOS. But I think wea4a4d be doing our business a disservice if we ignored Android given the momentum Android has.VB: But can you become the Mobage of the West on the iPhone, or is there an obstacle to thatNY: The single biggest obstacle is that we can&amp;'t build an integrated application.VB: You said that quickly, what does that meanNY: In the integrated service application, you could launch Mobage, the social network, and that place would house your complete experience. Now you can come to the experience by using an individual application that is part of the overall network. You launch a game and then come to the network. You can then join the network and go directly to the network. In the case of our Samsung partnership, we have an application that is on the home page of every telephone they build on the planet and every tablet they build. It&amp;'s like a channel unto itself that leads to a great social entertainment network.On iOS you cana4a4t actually have that single application that houses everything because the business rules dona4a4t allow you to aggregate content together.So you have to have individual applications that run on iOS. Now, that doesn&amp;'t stop you from having a really rich experience. We can still deliver a lot of the pieces. But there are limitations.VB: So on the iOS, an app has to be an app. It cana4a4t be a portal to other things like a social networkNY:  Correct. We are at the very beginning here right now. There are going to be a lot of changes that happen. We have just seen how much the changes happen around subscriptions and publishing content, and I am sure that there will be a whole bunch of changes as the market evolves. I do trust that Apple absolutely does have the best interest of the customers at heart. They have time and time again demonstrated to me that is actually the core of their business concerns. So I believe that, as they evolve their platform, they are going to invent and allow some really progressive ways of delivering content. And this is a marathon.VB: And you can kind of say that what you are doing is just creating a folder for applications, not a portalNY:  Yeah, thata4a4s certainly one way you can look at it. I mean there are lots of considerations, and I wouldna4a4t want to speak for Apple. I think only Apple really understands all its considerations. But I am hopeful that, over time, we will evolve to models that allow the delivery of channels. Like, for instance, ABC should be able to aggregate a lot of shows together and deliver a channel on the iPhone just as they deliver that on TV. If it&amp;'s a great experience for users, why notI dona4a4t control that. I can control what we do. We share the desire of Apple and Google to deliver great experiences to customers, so we are going to focus on doing that. We trust that, as the market evolves, we will be able to take advantage of the platforms and their features.VB: Is Mobage the equivalent of Xbox Live, or something elseNY:  No. I think it is more like a Facebook for games and entertainment. I think there is a fundamental issue for Facebook, and it sounds kind of crazy. Facebook has some limitations. You have to think on this scale of innovation if you want to take advantage of the real opportunity here. Sometimes you want an anonymous experience or to select a small group of friends to share things with. If I have 1,600 friends on Facebook, I don&amp;'t want them all to know that I just did great in a game. Only the people who care about that should know.VB: I think I see now the connection between the broader ambition you have and the price that DeNA paid for Ngmoco, which some people said was very high.NY:  This is very important to how you value the company. The overall ambition is very large. I think the valuation of Ngmoco was driven by a few factors. One was the NG Core technology framework. Second, we have a track record of consistently producing successful products on the iPhone platform. And third, if you are a Japanese company and you want to get a global footprint, one of the biggest challenges is getting a management team that can execute that as quickly as possible. Lastly, there is the Plus+ network, which has 20 million registrations in the West. We&amp;'ve had more than 120 million installs of Plus+ products. There are 60 million friend connections. We operate a server network that keeps it altogether. And we own all of our own intellectual property. Right now, DeNA does not own much of the intellectual property on its network.VB: The question for the mobile gaming market is, how soon does its momentum catch up with the amazing momentum of companies like Zynga on Facebook Right now, mobile games have lagged, and that is why Zynga&amp;'s valuation is so much higher. How far behind is the mobile industryNY: In Japan, DeNA is doing $1.3 billion in revenue with way fewer customers than Zynga. That shows you the tremendous opportunity in front of us. You have the No. 1 company in mobile games and the No. 1 company in social games. On Facebook, if you are not in the top five game companies, you really don&amp;'t matter. You may be a nice lifestyle game business. But you can&amp;'t support 40 or 50 people. In that environment, it will be tough for multiple companies to get into the billions of dollars in revenues.I think the mobile game space is different. I think ultimately mobile and mobile operating systems will be more ubiquitous than Facebook games. And I think there is going to be a much bigger market and much bigger opportunity out there, so I hope there will be multibillion-dollar companies in the one, two, and three spots. If you are a top 10 company, you are going to have a great, exciting business. How far away from that are we I think by 2014 we will see multibillion-dollar Western mobile game companies with social game platforms. We hope to be one of them.Next Story: Zynga prepares launch of expansion game FarmVille English Countryside Previous Story: After popular demand, Rdio announces an API at SXSWPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Mobage, Xbox LiveCompanies: Apple, DeNA, Google, NgmocoPeople: Neil Young, Tomoko Namba          Tags: Mobage, Xbox LiveCompanies: Apple, DeNA, Google, NgmocoPeople: Neil Young, Tomoko NambaDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Square eliminates its credit card transaction fee]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=square-eliminates-its-credit-card-transaction-fee</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=square-eliminates-its-credit-card-transaction-fee</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>arrefrity</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=square-eliminates-its-credit-card-transaction-fee</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Square took another step toward simplifying the credit card payment process today by getting rid of its 15-cent transaction fee. That means businesses who accept credit card payments using the Square reader just pay the company a 2.75 percent fee across all their payments.The San Francisco startupa4a4s chief operating officer Keith Rabois told me last month that Square is signing up between 30,000 to 50,000 merchants every month, many of them businesses who were previously cash-only. The advantage of Square is its simplicity and the fact that therea4a4s no upfront financial commitment, so therea4a4s very little risk for merchants who want to try it out. Todaya4a4s announcement adds another reason why merchants can get over their credit card qualms (or switch over from an existing system). Previously, Square charged both a per-transaction fee and a percentage fee.  This doesna4a4t just reduce the overall cost &amp;8212' it also means that smaller purchases, where the 15-cent fee might feel more significant, are more feasible. After all, those transaction fees are one reason why many stores won&amp;'t credit cards if your purchase is less than (say) $5 or $10.Square has created a fun video highlighting some of the confusion over credit card fees, which Ia4a4ve embedded below. This also gives it an advantage over Intuita4a4s GoPayment, which has a more complicated pricing structure and includes a transaction fee of at least 15 cents.This will presumably put an initial dent in Squarea4a4s revenue, but right now ita4a4s more important for the company to get as many merchants using its devices as possible. Thata4a4s why Square is giving out the card readers (which merchants can connect to iPhones, iPads, and Android devices) for free.Square has raised $37.5 million from Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital.Previous Story: Social games maker Digital Chocolate raises $12MPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: credit cards, transaction feesCompanies: SquarePeople: Keith Rabois          Tags: credit cards, transaction feesCompanies: SquarePeople: Keith RaboisAnthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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