Apple announces iPad with double storage capacity

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said on Tuesday that it will sell a version of its iPad tablet computer with 128 gigabytes of storage, which is twice the capacity of its existing models.

Apple, which has sold more than 120 million iPads so far, said that the new iPad will go on sale February 5, in black or white, for a suggested retail price of $ 799 for the iPad with just Wi-Fi model, and $ 929 for the version that also has a cellular wireless connection.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Apple announces iPad with double storage capacity
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/apple-announces-ipad-with-double-storage-capacity/
Link To Post : Apple announces iPad with double storage capacity
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Mary J. Blige Talks Beyonce Super Bowl Performance

Mary J. Blige was one of the performers at Friday's Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, where the topic quickly turned to Beyonce's highly anticipated Super Bowl performance this Sunday.

Mary, who herself performed at the Super Bowl in 2001 alongside 'N Sync, Britney Spears and Nelly for one of the most memorable halftime shows ever, has nothing but high hopes for Beyonce's big performance.

Pics: Inside Beyonce's Super Bowl Rehearsals!

"I don't need to give Beyonce any advice, she's going to do her thing," she tells The Trend on Zappos Couture. "Beyonce's amazing and she's gonna do what she does."

However, Mary does admit that there's nothing quite like performing at the Super Bowl.

"[It's different] because there's millions and millions of people watching you on television, and in the arena. I mean it's crazy. The energy's crazy," she remembers about the experience.

Video: Alicia Keys Dishes on Her Super Bowl Surprise

Beyonce was also on the mind of her fellow performer Michael Bolton, who defended her vigorously in light of the lip-sync controversy surrounding her inauguration performance.

"The Beyonce thing ... Nobody should judge this because you don't know any of the conditions that took place and what transpired leading up to it," he says. "And at these kinds of events, people don't know what hearing is on stage, let alone singing in front of tens of millions of people around the world. What I heard is, there was no time for rehearsal and I thought she was phenomenal. And I know that was her voice. And I couldn't tell you right now -- and I still couldn't tell you -- whether she was live or not. If that was lip-syncing, that would be the best lip-syncing I've ever seen."

Click the video to hear Mary's thoughts on Beyonce and the Super Bowl.

Read More..

Father of ad exec killed in elevator suing repair company

The father of the Midtown executive who was killed in a gruesome elevator accident is suing the lift repair company over his daughter's death.

Alex Hart is suing Transel Elevator and Electric over the December, 2011 death of his daughter Suzanne, who was going to work at her advertising firm when the under-repair elevator suddenly rose as she stepped into it.

The suit, filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, claims that repairmen failed to re-enable a safety circuit after doing repairs. It also says that the workers did not post signs saying the elevator was being worked on; did not contact the Department of Buildings to inspect the lift before it was put back in service; and left a "jumper wire" in the elevator bypassing its safety circuit.

Facebook

Suzanne Hart

Transel employees Michael Hill, David O'Neill, Jason Torzilli, Robert Schroeder, Efrain Cardona and Transel co-owner John Fichera are all named in the suit, as well as Cushman & Wakefield, management of the Madison Avenue building.

"We don't have a comment at this point," said Robert Pitney, a Transel spokesman.

The suit comes after a February report by the city that found the workers did not follow safety protocols. The report led to the suspension of Transel's license over 23 violations.

City inspectors from January to October 2012 cracked down on elevator violations, issuing 753 of the most serious fines -- compared with 515 during that period in 2011.

A spokesman for Cushman & Wakefield did not immediately comment.

Read More..

Consumer confidence takes a dip in Florida

Florida can’t quite get in a good mood about the economy.

The latest consumer-confidence numbers from the University of Florida extend the overall trend of consumers inching away from their recessionary blues from several years ago. But the most recent numbers show a decline from the fall. In January, the parts of the survey that measure anxiety over personal finances took a turn for the worse, just as payroll taxes went higher.

The UF survey didn’t show the kind of plunge revealed by a similar poll of consumers nationwide. The Conference Board’s confidence index dropped to its lowest level since November 2011. The UF survey is about where it was in August.

Higher payroll taxes are taking a toll on consumers’ willingness to spend freely, analysts said. On Jan. 1, Congress and the White House let expire a temporary waiver on a 2 percent tax used to fund Social Security payments. The restored tax took an instant hit on paychecks across the country, which were issued at roughly the same time as the surveys were taken.

The pinched paychecks may help explain the biggest decliner in the UF survey. While the overall index dropped by about 3 percent, there was an 8 percent drop in the component that measures respondents’ outlook toward their finances a year from now.

DOUGLAS HANKS

Read More..

Miami Heat’s LeBron James at White House event: “Mama, I made it!”

Out of uniform and looking dapper, Miami Heat players were honored Monday at the White House by President Barack Obama, a basketball fan who gushed over the play of team stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

In the packed East Room of the White House just before 2 p.m., Obama recapped the team’s road to victory in last year’s NBA championship, as 25 players, Coach Erik Spoelstra and team owner Micky Arison stood behind him.

He singled out James’ performance during Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, describing it “as one of the best in basketball history.”

He also kidded Wade about his outfit, a gray suit worn with stylish-sneakers

At one point, James asked the president if he could say a few words.

“Hey, it’s your world, man,” the president answered.

James praised his team and expressed excitement at being at the White House.

“Mama, I made it!” he said.

Miami Herald staff writer Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.

Read More..

Crucial, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives

TORONTO (AP) — The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company.

Thorsten Heins, chief executive of Research In Motion Ltd., will reveal the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on Wednesday. Repeated delays have left the once-pioneering BlackBerry an afterthought in the shadow of Apple’s trend-setting iPhone and Google’s Android-driven devices.

Now, there’s some optimism. Previews of the software have gotten favorable reviews on blogs. Financial analysts are starting to see some slight room for a comeback. RIM‘s stock has nearly tripled to about $ 16.30 from a nine-year low in September, though it’s still nearly 90 percent below its 2008 peak of $ 147.

Most analysts consider a BlackBerry 10 success to be crucial for the company’s long-term viability.

“The old models are becoming obsolete quickly,” BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said. “There is still a big user base but it’s going to rotate off. The question is: Where do they rotate to?”

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, has been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. Corporate information-technology managers like the phones because they’re relatively secure and easy to manage.

The BlackBerry has also crossed over to consumers. President Barack Obama couldn’t bear to part with it when he took office. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her “favorite things.” People got so addicted that the device was nicknamed “the CrackBerry.”

But when the iPhone came out in 2007, it showed that phones can do much more than email and phone calls. They can play games, music and movies. Android came along to offer even more choices. Though IT managers still love BlackBerrys, employees were bringing their own devices to the workplace — a trend Heins acknowledged RIM was slow to adapt to.

Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.

Even as BlackBerry sales continued to grow in many parts of the world, many BlackBerry users in North America switched to iPhones and Android devices. BlackBerry’s worldwide subscriber based peaked at 80 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 1, before dropping to 79 million in the most-recent quarter. In the U.S., according to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. RIM initially said BlackBerry 10 would come by early 2012, but then the company changed that to late 2012. A few months later, that date was pushed further, to early 2013, missing the lucrative holiday season. The holdup helped wipe out more than $ 70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

Although executives have been providing a glimpse at some of BlackBerry 10′s new features for months, Heins will finally showcase a complete system at Wednesday’s event. Devices will go on sale soon after that.

RIM redesigned the system to embrace the multimedia, apps and touch-screen experience prevalent today.

“Historically there have been areas that have not been our strongest points,” Rick Costanzo, RIM’s executive vice president of global sales, said in an interview. “Not only have we caught up, but we may even be better than some of the competition now.”

Costanzo said “no one else can touch” what RIM’s new system offers.

The new operating system promises better multitasking than either the iPhone or Android. Simply swipe a finger across the phone’s display screen to switch to another program.

All emails and notifications from such applications as Twitter and Facebook go to the BlackBerry Hub, a nerve center accessible with a finger swipe even if you have another application open. One can peek into it and open an email, or return to the previous application without opening the email.

“You are not going in and out of applications; you’re flowing through applications with one simple gesture of your finger,” Costanzo said. “You can leave applications running. You can effortlessly flow between them. So that’s completely unique to us.”

That said, multitasking will be limited and won’t allow for extensive use of apps side by side, as is typically permitted on traditional computers. If you’re watching a video, it will still run while you check for email. But it will pause if you decide to open an email and resume when you are done.

The BlackBerry’s touch-screen keyboard promises to learn a user’s writing style and suggest words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals. See the one you want, and flick it up to the message area. Costanzo said that “BlackBerry offers the best keyboard, period.”

Gus Papageorgiou, a Scotiabank financial analyst who has tried it out, agreed with that assessment and said the keyboard even learns and adjusts to your thumb placements.

The first BlackBerry 10 phone will have only a touch screen. RIM has said it will release a version with a physical keyboard soon after that. That’s an area RIM has excelled at, and it’s one reason many BlackBerry users have remained loyal despite temptations to switch.

Another distinguishing feature will be the BlackBerry Balance, which allows two personas on the same device. Businesses can keep their data secure without forcing employees to get a second device for personal use. For instance, IT managers can prevent personal apps from running inside corporate firewalls, but those managers won’t have access to personal data on the device.

With Balance, “you can just switch from work to personal mode,” Papageorgiou said. “I think that is something that will attract a lot of people.”

RIM is also claiming that the BlackBerry 10′s browser will be speedy, even faster than browsers for laptop and desktop computers. According to Papageorgiou, early, independent tests between the BlackBerry 10 and the iPhone support that claim.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10′s advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won’t have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android. RIM has said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, including those developed for RIM’s PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011. Even so, that’s just a tenth of what the iPhone and Android offer. Papageorgiou said the initial group will include the most popular ones such as Twitter and Facebook. But RIM will have to persuade others to make a BlackBerry version, when they are already struggling to keep up with both the iPhone and Android.

Like many analysts, Papageorgiou recently upgraded RIM’s stock, but cautions that longtime BlackBerry users will have to get used to a whole new operating system.

He said RIM can be successful if about a third of current subscribers upgrade and if the company can get 4 million new users overseas, especially in countries where the BlackBerry has remained popular. IDC said smartphone shipments grew 44 percent in 2012. If those trends continue, it will be possible for the BlackBerry to grow even if iPhone and Android users don’t switch.

“This doesn’t have to be the best smartphone on the planet to be a success for RIM,” he said. “I think the big question though is, if it fails, is it just too late? Are the other two ecosystems just so advanced that no one can catch up? That’s a big risk.”

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Crucial, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/crucial-long-overdue-blackberry-makeover-arrives/
Link To Post : Crucial, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Seven Psychopaths Deleted Scene

A stare from Christopher Walken is worth a thousand words. The eccentric veteran star stands by while Colin Farrell and Sam Rockwell hash it out in this exclusive deleted scene from the Seven Psychopaths Blu-ray, in stores starting tomorrow. Watch the video!

Pics: Six Most Devastating TV Deaths

In Bruges writer-director Martin McDonagh rounds up usual suspects Farrell, Walken and Rockwell alongside Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits, Olga Kurylenko, Abbie Cornish and Željko Ivanek for this twisted comedy about a struggling screenwriter (Farrell) who inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends (Walken and Rockwell) kidnap a gangster's (Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu.

Video: The 'Seven Psychopaths' Happy Accident

Bonus features on the Seven Psychopaths Blu-ray and DVD include deleted scenes, multiple behind-the-scenes featurettes and UltraViolet digital copy.

Read More..

Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge opens for entries

Entrepreneurs, please don’t let the name of our contest scare you.

As we launch our 15th annual Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge today, we are putting out our annual call for entries. But we aren’t looking for long, laboriously detailed business plans. Quite the contrary.

More and more, today’s investors in very early stage companies want to see a succinct presentation of your concept and how you plan to turn it into a success. We do, too.

If you have a business idea or an operating startup that is less than two years old, you can enter the Challenge, our annual celebration of South Florida entrepreneurship. Sponsored by the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center at Florida International University, our contest has three tracks — a Community Track, open to all South Floridians; an FIU Track, open to students and alumni of that university; and a High School Track, co-sponsored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Your entry may be up to three pages and you may attach one additional page for a photo, rendering, diagram or spreadsheet if you wish. Think of it as a meaty executive summary. Experts in all aspects of entrepreneurship — serial entrepreneurs, executives, investors, advisors and finance specialists (see judge bios on MiamiHerald.com/challenge) — will judge your short plan. In doing so, they will be looking at your product or service’s value to the customer, market opportunity, business model, management team and your marketing and financial strategies. See the rules on page 22, which also include tips on preparing your entry.

Your entry is due by 11:59 p.m. March 11. Entries should be sent to challenge@miamiherald.com, fiuchallenge@miamiherald.com or highschoolchallenge@miamiherald.com.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help!

“Frame your business from your customer’s perspective and not yours. Rather than diving into a detailed explanation of your product or service, a more compelling way to tell your business story is to clearly share the problem that you are solving for your customers and how your business is different, better, faster, cooler, cheaper, smarter,” says Melissa Krinzman, managing director of Venture Architects and a veteran Challenge judge.

On Feb 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Miami Dade College, we’ll host a free Business Plan Bootcamp, where you can bring your working plan with you for advice from experts, including Krinzman. Find the sign-up link on MiamiHerald.com/challenge.

And each week in Business Monday and on MiamiHerald.com/challenge, we’ll be bringing you advice and answering your questions. You can post your questions on the Q&A on MiamiHerald.com/challenge or email your questions to me at ndahlberg@miamiherald.com. Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter.

The top six finalists in the Community and FIU Tracks will present their 90-second elevator pitches for our popular video contest. Last year our People’s Pick contest drew more than 18,000 votes.

On May 6, in a special section of Business Monday, we will profile the winners — the judges’ top three selections in each track plus the People’s Pick winners. Along the way, we will unveil semifinalists and finalists to keep the suspense building.

Today, though, we are looking back on the entrepreneurial journeys of our 2012 winners. Funding was a nearly universal challenge, and many faced setbacks in developing their platforms. Throughout the entry period, we’ll also look back on other winners from the past 14 years.

Show us what you’ve got. Let’s make this the best Challenge yet.

Read More..

Alleged check-dodging tourist settles beef with Smith & Wollensky - pal vows boycott

Italy is saying basta! to Smith & Wollensky, the pal of an accused tab-dodging tourist huffed this morning, after the misdemeanor case was disposed of in a Manhattan court.

"In Italy, no one will go to Smith & Wollensky again!" the pal, who gave his name only as Mario, announced to reporters in a courtroom hallway after the brief proceeding this morning.

Tourist Graziano Graziussi — charged with theft of services last week after he forgot his wallet back at his hotel and couldn't pay his $208 bill — was less committal.

"I will think about it," the Naples-based lawyer said, when asked if he'd ever eat another steak at the renowned Third Avenue meat mecca.

REUTERS

While the friend of an accused tab-dodging tourist is vowing to boycott Smith & Wollensky, Graziano Graziussi said he was just glad to have it settled.

"It's done — of course I'm happy," he told reporters after paying a total $219.21 in restitution and surcharges.

Graziussi has insisted that he'd have been willing to leave his iPhone behind as collateral, and just needed to fetch his wallet. But cops threw him in jail overnight.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, asked about the international incident during a press conference last week, noted that Graziussi had been carrying $118 on him when he claimed poverty, and "simply did not want to pay."

Not so, Graziussi countered today.

“I am always the one to pay for everybody, which is unfortunately true,“ he said as he left court.

In fact, five years ago during another trip to New York, he went to a hot dog vendor at Sixth Avenue, and tried to pay with a $50 bill -- the smallest bill he had on him, Graziussi told reporters.

The dog vendor couldn't make change, and said don't worry about it, Graziussi said.

"I went back there the following day [to pay] and he could not believe his eyes," he said.

Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Erika Edwards told Graziussi that the misdemeanor theft of services case will be dismissed and sealed if he is not rearrested for six months.

Read More..

ING Miami Marathon winner Luis Carlos Rivero Gonzalez inspired by father’s murder

Guatemala’s Luis Carlos Rivero Gonzalez has been a professional runner for more than two years — mainly at distances of ten to 21 kilometers – but he had never raced 26.2 miles until Sunday’s ING Miami Marathon.

Toeing the front of the starting line with about a dozen elite marathoners from Africa, South America, Europe and the U.S., the 26-year-old law student ran away from them and never saw them again until after he broke the tape in Bayfront Park in 2:26:14 – two minutes ahead of runner-up David Kipkoech Tuwei, 29, of Kenya (2:28:15) and third-place Tesfaye Girma Bekele, 30, of Ethiopia (2:28:22).

“Yeah, I had expectations of winning,” Rivero Gonzalez said through a translator. “It felt good to be able to represent my country in the marathon. My dream is to be in the Olympics. I’m going to fight to reach that goal.”

He collected $2,000, plus a colorful race medal. Tuwei and Bekele won $1,000 and $500, respectively.

Rivero Gonzalez said as a child, he ran with his dad — a lawyer in the town of San Marcos. But five years ago, his father was killed by “criminals,” and it spurred him to train harder in his dad’s honor.

Rivero Gonzalez admitted when questioned by reporters that his coach falsified his best marathon time as 2:23:08 on his application for elite runner status for the ING.

Top runners get to start at the front of the pack, along with other perks.

With 25,000 runners in the marathon and half-marathon lined up in front of AmericanAirlines Arena for the pre-dawn start, Gonzalez did not want to be slowed by the huge crowd. The strategy worked; runner-up Tuwei said he didn’t have the leader in sight for long after the starting gun.

Women’s marathon winner Mariska Postma Kramer of the Netherlands – had been registered as an elite competitor for the half-marathon, but decided at the last minute Saturday to enter the double-distance race instead.

It turned out to be a good decision, as the 38-year-old professional runner cruised to a 2:46:07 victory in her first Miami race – more than two minutes in front of runner-up Tezata Desaign Dengersa ofTurkey and Ethiopia (2:48:43).

Third-place Kir Selert of Brooklyn, N.Y. finished in 2:57:32.

Read More..