Acer will beat Google to market with its own $99 tablet

Title Post: Acer will beat Google to market with its own $99 tablet
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Downton Abbey Cast Talk Shirley MacLaine

On January 6, Shirley MacLaine comes to Downton Abbey when the Oscar-winner joins the cast as Lady Cora's mother, Martha Levinson. And today, the cast stopped by Anderson Live to reveal what it was like working alongside another (props to original H.B.I.C. Dame Maggie Smith) living legend!

PHOTOS - Inside Downton Abbey Season Three

"We didn't know what to expect because this is a Hollywood legend," said Jim Carter, who plays Mr. Carson. "She just rolled up her sleeves and was one of the gang instantly, absolutely instantly. She was one of the gang but with much better quality of gossip."

Cooper also asked about Highclere Castle (which stands in as Downton Abbey) and found out that the owners are still very much living there. "It is lived in by the Carnarvon family," Hugh Bonneville (who plays Lord Grantham) said, adding, "So it's a little bit of life mirroring art, so it's a bit spooky some times."

RELATED - Is Maggie Smith Leaving Downton?

Julian Fellowes, who created Downton Abbey, knows the family and Elizabeth McGovern (who plays Lady Cora) says that Julian has "deemed many of the stories from the family."

But one story you couldn't make up involved the Egyptian exhibit Highclere castle was hosting during production of season three -- one that MacLaine, who has been very vocal about her past life experiences, felt was incredibly inaccurate.

Carter recalls, "At Highclere Castle, there is a big Egypt exhibition because Grandfather Carnarvon would discover King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt and Shirley went to visit it and thought a lot of it wasn't particularly authentic because she had lived there. She slept with Tutankhamun and she remembered it very well."

Anderson Live airs daily and Downton Abbey premieres January 6 at 9 p.m. on PBS.

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'Scammers' steal from Sandy Hook victim Noah Pozner's family: uncle

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The family of Noah Pozner was mourning the 6-year-old, killed in the Newtown school massacre, when outrage compounded their sorrow.

Someone they didn't know was soliciting donations in Noah's memory, claiming that they'd send any cards, packages and money collected to his parents and siblings. An official-looking website had been set up, with Noah's name as the address, even including petitions on gun control.

Noah's uncle, Alexis Haller, called on law enforcement authorities to seek out "these despicable people."

"These scammers," he said, "are stealing from the families of victims of this horrible tragedy."

AP

Six-year-old Sandy Hook victim Noah Pozner.

It's a problem as familiar as it is disturbing. Tragedy strikes — be it a natural disaster, a gunman's rampage or a terrorist attack — and scam artists move in.

It happened after 9/11. It happened after Columbine. It happened after Hurricane Katrina. And after this summer's movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo.

Sometimes fraud takes the form of bogus charities asking for donations that never get sent to victims. Natural disasters bring another dimension: Scammers try to get government relief money they're not eligible for.

"It's abominable," said Ken Berger, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, which evaluates the performance of charities. "It's just the lowest kind of thievery."

Noah Pozner's relatives found out about one bogus solicitation when a friend received an email asking for money for the family. Poorly punctuated, it gave details about Noah, his funeral and his family. It directed people to send donations to an address in the Bronx, one that the Pozners had never heard of.

It listed a New York City phone number to text with questions about how to donate. When a reporter texted that number Wednesday, a reply came advising the donation go to the United Way.

The Pozner family had the noahpozner.com website transferred to its ownership. Victoria Haller, Noah's aunt, emailed the person who had originally registered the name. The person, who went by the name Jason Martin, wrote back that he'd meant "to somehow honor Noah and help promote a safer gun culture. I had no ill intentions I assure you."

Alexis Haller said the experience "should serve as a warning signal to other victims' families. We urge people to watch out for these frauds on social media sites."

Consumer groups, state attorneys general and law enforcement authorities call for caution about unsolicited requests for donations, by phone or email. They tell people to be wary of callers who don't want to answer questions about their organization, who won't take "no" for an answer, or who convey what seems to be an unreasonable sense of urgency.

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Miami-Dade existing home sales, prices up again

Resales of Miami-Dade county homes are red hot.

Sales of existing homes rose 23 percent in Miami-Dade in November from a year earlier, even as the inventory of residential property on the market remained tight, the Miami Association of Realtors said.

The median price of an existing condominium in Miami-Dade surged 31.7 percent to $158,000 in November from a year earlier, while the median price of a single-family home jumped 15.9 percent to $195,000.

Median home prices in Miami-Dade have marched higher for 12 consecutive months, buttressing views that the recovery in Miami-Dade’s beleaguered housing market is on solid footing.

“It appears the Miami real estate market will set another record in 2012, exceeding sales levels at the height of the boom in 2005 and during the all-time record in 2011,” Martha Pomares, chairman of the Miami Association of Realtors, said in a statement. “Considering the shortage of housing inventory available, it is remarkable that sales remain this strong. This record demand coupled with extremely limited supply is driving strong and consistent price appreciation.”

Cash continued to drive residential sales in Miami-Dade in November, accounting for 63 percent of transactions.

The inventory of previously owned homes inched up 1 percent to 11,862 units in November from October, but that represented a 19 percent decline from November 2011.

Distressed sales comprised 43.4 percent of all residential transactions in Miami-Dade in November, down from 56 percent a year earlier and 47.4 percent the prior month.

Properties are selling faster in Miami-Dade, too. The median days on the market was 43 fro single-family homes and 51 for condominiums. A more typical period is 90 to 120 days, the Miami Realtors said.

For all of Florida, sales of existing single-family home also continued to improve in November, rising 24.4 percent from a year earlier and median prices rose 11.2 percent. Statewide condominium sales rose 18.3 percent year over year with the median price of a condominium soaring 23.1 percent to $112,000.

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New poll: Many Florida voters say they wouldn’t re-elect Scott as governor

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott continues to suffer from poor approval ratings despite an improving economy and lowering unemployment, and a majority of voters say they wouldn’t vote to re-elect him, a new poll shows.

The poll found, among other things, that many voters are crediting the Obama administration with an improving economy, rather than Scott.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Florida voters disapprove by 45-36 percent of the job Scott is doing, and 52 percent said he doesn’t deserve a second term, compared to just 30 percent who told pollsters Scott should be re-elected.

The poll also found that 55 percent of voters — including 53 percent of Republicans — say they’d like another Republican to challenge Scott for the GOP nomination in 2014.

Republican voters do give Scott a positive 63-19 percent job approval rating, however, and GOP voters say by a 55-26 percent margin that he deserves a second term.

“Obviously, the governor has almost two years to go until the election and anything is possible, but he faces a herculean task in changing public opinion to his favor,” said Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown.

Scott, who has struggled with negative approval ratings since being elected in 2010, plans to seek re-election next year. The only declared candidate challenging him is Democratic former state Sen. Nan Rich. Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now a Democrat, is considering a run, and Democrat Alex Sink, who narrowly lost to Scott in 2010, is thought to be mulling a rematch.

Crist, who was governor as a Republican from 2007 to 2011 and lost a bid as an independent in 2010 for the U.S. Senate, has a 47 percent favorable rating and 33 percent unfavorable mark among all voters, according to the Quinnipiac poll. His favorability among Democrats is 65 percent and among independents is 48 percent, but only 28 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Crist, compared to 56 percent who have an unfavorable view.

Crist on Wednesday said he has no timetable for deciding whether to run for governor. Of Scott’s poor rating he said, “I would attribute the downturn to this voting issue,” meaning the election law Scott signed that is still controversial.

Asked what factors he would use to decide, he said: “I love my state and my heart bleeds for the people of Florida right now. I think we can do better with education in our state, with the environment in our state. …”

Sink overall is viewed favorably by just 27 percent of voters and unfavorably by 14 percent, but 57 percent of respondents didn’t have an opinion.

Among four other possible Democratic challengers the poll asked about — Rich, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and South Florida businessman and former lawmaker Jack Seiler — none has a favorability score of more than 17 percent and the overwhelming number of respondents said they didn’t know enough about them to have an opinion.

The only other Republican the pollsters tested was Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, thought by many to be a likely candidate for governor in the future. But 80 percent of voters don’t have an opinion currently about Putnam, a longtime former Congressman and former state legislator.

Respondents said they dislike Scott’s policies by 52 percent to 32 percent, though nearly half of voters say they’re at least somewhat satisfied with the way things are going in Florida — the highest so far during Scott’s term. The poll didn’t ask specifically what policies voters don’t like.

Scott has staked his success on creating jobs, and has been able to boast about a falling unemployment rate for several months. Florida’s jobless rate fell in October to 8.5 percent, its lowest level since December 2008, and non-farm employment has grown for more than 27 straight months. When Scott got elected, unemployment in the state was at 12 percent, so he has made good to some degree on his main promise of getting people back to work.

Pollsters found, however, that many voters are crediting the Obama administration with the improving economy. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said the president deserves “a lot” of the credit for the improving economy, to just 16 percent who think Scott deserves “a lot” of the credit. Similarly, though, those voters who believe the economy is getting worse, overwhelmingly blame Obama rather than Scott.

The poll also found a 52-30 percent approval rating for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, and a 51-31 percent approval rating for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat. The Legislature, generically, is seen negatively by 44 percent of respondents with just 35 percent approving of lawmakers on the whole.

The poll included 1,261 registered voters and was taken Dec. 11-17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

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Wii U finally gets Nintendo’s TVii service on December 20th

After a month-long delay, Nintendo (NTDOY) will launch its Nintendo TVii service for the Wii U on December 20th in the U.S. and Canada. Nintendo TVii is the company’s take on organizing all of the various video streaming and DVR services a user might subscribe to and then displaying them in an easy-to-navigate touchscreen-based interface on the Wii U GamePad. With Nintendo TVii, Nintendo hopes to make content discovery an easier task, rather than a chore. At the same time, Nintendo TVii will offer new “second-screen” experiences (similar to Xbox SmartGlass) with built-in social sharing options to Facebook (FB), Twitter and the Wii U console’s Miiverse.

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Nintendo TVii will support Amazon (AMZN) Instant Video, Hulu Plus and cable and satellite providers on Thursday, but Netflix (NFLX) and TiVo (TIVO) support won’t hit the U.S. until “early 2013.” Nintendo didn’t state when TVii support for the latter two will hit Canada.

For the consumer’s sake, we hope the download for Nintendo TVii doesn’t take as long as past system updates.

Nintendo’s press release follows below.

Nintendo Makes TV Smart and Social – Nintendo TVii Launches Dec. 20

New Wii U Service Gives Every Member of the Family His or Her Own Personalized, Easy-to-Use Second-Screen Viewing Experience

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The company that changed how we play is about to change how we watch. On Dec. 20, Nintendo will introduce Nintendo TVii, a free, integrated service for the recently launched Wii U console that combines what you watch and how you watch into one seamless, second-screen experience on the revolutionary new Wii U GamePad controller.

The rapid increase in both the quality and availability of video entertainment content – hundreds of satellite and cable channels, a seemingly endless amount of video-on-demand options – has made finding something to watch a complex and occasionally frustrating process. The solution to this problem is coming from perhaps an unexpected place: a video game console.

“After Dec. 20, you’ll never look at your TV the same way again,” said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. “Wii U owners have already experienced the transformative effect that the GamePad has on game play and social interaction. Nintendo TVii shows how the integrated second screen of the GamePad can also transform and enhance the TV viewing experience. Welcome to the new world of TVii.”

Nintendo TVii maximizes Wii U owners’ current cable, satellite and video-on-demand services by pulling all of their available content sources – such as a Comcast cable package or Hulu Plus subscription – into one place. This empowers Wii U owners to focus on whatthey want to watch and not how they want to watch. And once users find the show, sporting event or movie they want, they press an icon and Nintendo TVii does the rest.

In addition to greatly simplifying finding and watching video content, Nintendo TVii also includes a series of social features that enable Wii U owners to share experiences and exciting moments with friends as they are happening on live TV. People can engage with others by commenting and sharing on Miiverse, Facebook and Twitter. Or they can comment, post or tweet about an incredible touchdown, a remarkable performance or a shocking plot twist, all using the personal screen of the Wii U GamePad.

Nintendo TVii requires no additional equipment and can be enjoyed with very little setup, demonstrating what’s possible when the second screen is truly integrated with the TV. Wii U owners can also discover more information about what they’re watching by easily accessing information on the GamePad via an Internet connection, including cast details, movie reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and sports data such as live stats and scores.

Nintendo TVii launches in the United States and Canada on Dec. 20. At launch, the service will support cable and satellite providers in both regions, as well as direct integration with Amazon Instant Video and Hulu Plus subscriptions in the United States. Further integration with Netflix subscriptions and TiVo are expected in early 2013 in the United States. Wii U owners with a Netflix subscription can still access the Netflix application from the Wii U system’s main menu and enjoy their favorite content accordingly.

All elements of the Nintendo TVii service are included in the purchase price of the Wii U system. Users will define which services they currently subscribe to – including the channel lineup in their cable package and video-on-demand service subscriptions – as part of the setup process.

Nintendo TVii observes the Wii U system parental controls, and additional options specific to the Nintendo TVii features can be chosen in the Nintendo TVii settings. Every member of the family can create a different viewing profile. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu.

This article was originally published by BGR

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Wii U finally gets Nintendo’s TVii service on December 20th
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Victoria Beckham to Launch Online Shopping Site

Victoria Beckham, who's become a style icon thanks to her celebrity favorite clothing line, is taking her fashion career to the next level. The 38-year-old mother of four is set to launch her own e-commerce website next spring.

The site will sell her accessories, eyewear, denim, her Victoria Beckham collection as well as its sister label Victoria, Victoria Beckham.

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"My new website has been in the making for a very long time," Beckham says via The Telegraph. "It was so important that the concept, tone and look of it were true to me and my aesthetic and that the shopping experience was the very best that it could be for my customer. The site will be ever evolving, featuring never seen before insights into my world through the medium of film. I'm incredibly excited with what I have created and the unique access to the brand I am now able to offer."

Victoriabeckham.com will also have "unprecedented access to the designer's ideas and creative process", as well as personal picks by the former Spice Girl.

Related: Victoria Beckham Gushes Over Her 'Beautiful Baby Girl'

The news comes on the heel of her 10-year-old son Romeo Beckham making his own fashion headlines this week when he was announced as the new face of Burberry's Spring/Summer 2013 campaign. According to The Daily Mail, the second eldest Beckham son was hand-picked by the label's Chief Creative Officer, Christopher Bailey.

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South Florida startup .CO Internet to star in Super Bowl lineup

.CO Internet, the fast-growing Miami company behind the .CO domain name, will be featured in a 2013 Super Bowl commercial, through a partnership with leading Web hosting and domain name provider Go Daddy, the companies said Wednesday.

The 30-second spot is set to feature Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick. The story will revolve around how easy it is to create your own business online and use the Internet to grow it quickly. “We get to share our message with more than a hundred million people,” said Juan Diego Calle, founder and CEO of .CO Internet. “We’re going to inspire people to seize the moment – to actually launch their big ideas online.” The commercial is being shot in Los Angeles in early January and was developed by Deutsch. Costs were not disclosed.

This will be the third year for the Go Daddy-.CO partnership. Last year’s "Body Paint" Super Bowl ad drove significant traffic, the companies said. In 2011, .comedienne Joan Rivers was revealed as the "surprise" new Go Daddy .CO Girl, triggering a 466 percent increase in domain name registrations within 15 minutes of airing. There are now more than 1.4 million .CO domain names.

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Miami-Dade commissioner proposes six gun-control measures for Congress, Legislature

Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Jordan made a late addition to Tuesday’s board meeting: six gun-control proposals, following last week’s mass shooting in Connecticut.

Jordan, a Democrat in a non-partisan post, sponsored six resolutions urging Congress and the Florida Legislature to take a variety of steps, ranging from reinstating a federal assault-weapons ban to allowing the county to keep a registry of privately owned guns.

Separately, Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican, said he and Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho are planning a joint effort to examine security in the Miami-Dade school district.

“It’s very difficult to guard against a madman who is willing to die at the end,” Gimenez acknowledged. “We want to make sure we do whatever we can at our facilities.”

Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo said the issue is particularly important as Miami-Dade prepares to rebuild schools, following a bond issue voters approved last month.

“A lot of our older schools are wide open,” he said.

Commissioners are scheduled to take up Jordan’s measures later Tuesday.

Jordan’s six proposals urge:

• the state to increase criminal penalties for people who use certain assault-weapon ammunition when they commit certain felonies;

• Congress and the state to require someone purchasing ammunition, other than law-enforcement officers and members of the military, to provide a driver’s license or other picture ID;

• the state to increase the minimum mandatory prison sentence to 25 years from 15 years for people who have certain semiautomatic assault weapons in their possession when they commit certain felonies;

• Congress to close a “loophole” allowing gun-show sales to avoid background checks of gun purchasers, and the state to require those types of gun sales to require a background check;

• the state to allow local governments to register privately owned guns; and

• the state and Congress to ban possession or sale of gun magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

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Inside Hailee Steinfeld's Sweet Sixteen

Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld recently celebrated her sweet 16 with pals like Victoria Justice and Willow Smith, and ET is taking you inside the fun-filled Sally Hansen and vitaminwater-sponsored bash.

"It's my sweet 16, I'm so excited -- I'm so happy," a giddy Hailee said. "You know, to be honest, I've been away from home for a long time, so to just have all my friends and family here together in one night is all I could ask for."

Video: Matt Damon Admires Hailee Steinfeld

The always fashionable star -- who was the face of Miu Miu at just 14 years old -- was clad in a checkered Louis Vuitton romper and ankle-strap heels on her big night, which was attended by the who's who of young Hollywood including Lucy Hale, Willow and Jaden Smith and Twilight's Booboo Stewart and MacKenzie Foy.

Inside the big party, which included vitaminwater mocktails and manicures, Victoria revealed her previously unknown shared modeling past with the birthday girl.

Pics: Hailee Steinfeld Models for Miu Miu

"We actually modeled together for a Guess shoot when we were like, really little," she smiled. "So I'm really happy for her. This is a huge milestone ... I think she's awesome and really talented."

Check out the video for Victoria's update on her new music and tour, as well as Willow's birthday wishes for Hailee!

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