Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

SUPER BOWL WATCH: Brotherly advice, Twitter buzz






NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Around the Super Bowl and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of everything surrounding the game:


___






BROTHERLY ADVICE: AARON RODGERS


Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh and San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh are hardly the only high-profile siblings who’ve squared off in their arena of expertise. The AP is asking some others who can relate how to handle going against a family member in the Super Bowl.


As the middle of three brothers, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers knows a thing or two about high-stakes competitions with siblings. It wouldn’t matter if he was facing one of his brothers in the backyard or the sport’s biggest stage.


“I’d want to beat them pretty bad,” the 2011 NFL MVP said. “I really would.”


Less than two years separates Rodgers and his older brother, Luke, now on Fuel TV’s “Clean Break,” and the two are “very competitive.”


“My older brother and I had a lot of great matchups, great one-on-one games. We competed a lot in sports,” Rodgers said.


There’s still a chance Rodgers could wind up facing one of his brothers on the field, maybe even at the Super Bowl. Jordan Rodgers led Vanderbilt to its first nine-win record since 1915 last season and is now preparing for the NFL draft.


“I hope so,” Rodgers said of the prospects of a “Rodgers Bowl.” ”And I hope we would win if that ever happened.”


— Nancy Armour — http://twitter.com/nrarmour


___


TWITTER BUZZ BUILDING


Americans on Twitter are already buzzing about the Super Bowl with about 6 hours until the game kicks off.


Four terms related to the game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers are trending in the United States: “Happy Super Bowl Sunday,” ”49ers,” ”Beyonce” and “Ray Lewis.”


None, however, are trending worldwide yet.


— Oskar Garcia — http://twitter.com/oskargarcia


___


GUN AD


Washington lawmakers watching the Super Bowl in the beltway are getting a 30-second visit from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group.


Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of more than 900 mayors in 48 states, paid six figures for the local spot, according to a Bloomberg spokesman.


The ad calls on lawmakers to pass rules requiring background checks on guns. It is narrated by children with “America the Beautiful” playing in the background.


___


QUICKQUOTE: ANDREW LUCK


Andrew Luck has high praise for San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, his old coach at Stanford. Even if he did pick an unusual way to express it.


“I always enjoyed playing under coach Harbaugh. He always brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm,” the Indianapolis Colts quarterback said. “He was the type of guy you’d want in an alley fight with you. You could tell he wanted to win just as bad as the next guy.”


— Nancy Armour — http://www.twitter.com/nrarmour


___


EDITOR’S NOTE — “Super Bowl Watch” shows you the Super Bowl and the events surrounding the game through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across New Orleans and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Here comes the PlayStation 4: Sony announces February 20th PlayStation event [video]






Here are the ps4 specs I found. I don’t know why they didn’t post them in the article. you can easily find them by searching ps4 specs.
PS4/Orbis (Speculated)
PS4 XrossMediaBar + Gaikai cloud service Redesigned to be more user-friendly and fluid
CPU: 4x Dual-Core AMD64 “Bulldozer”
2.5 inch SATA HDD (160 GB) hard drive (in Developer Console, not likely for the retail version)
8GB DDR5 RAM (speed unknown), VRAM {listed below in GPU}
AMD R10xx with 2.2GB of VRAM
2 x 512 KB (1024 KB)
480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
8x Blu-ray BD-ROM (54-128GB of data) at 36MB/s
Blu-ray 8x, DVD, Compact Disc, Download
Compatable with all past PS3 PlayStation Network Purchases (likely)
4x USB 3.0, 2x Ethernet;
Audio Output: HDMI & Optical, 2.0, 5.1 & 7.1 channels
PS Network (Free) + PlayStation Network Plus (paid service) + Gaikai cloud service
N/A
$ 499-$ 1000 USD


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News








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BlackBerry doesn’t need to catch up with Android and iOS overnight, it needs to live to fight another day






The biggest criticism of BlackBerry’s (RIMM) revamped mobile operating system and smartphone line so far is that they don’t give iOS or Android users any compelling reasons to switch brands. And this is certainly true — BlackBerry 10, for all its virtues, doesn’t do anything significantly better than the top two mobile operating systems and seems designed mostly to please the faithful and not win new converts. At the same time, I think this sort of criticism is based on somewhat unrealistic expectations for what a revamped BlackBerry would be able to achieve in its first iteration. Put simply, making its own loyal fans happy might have been the best that BlackBerry could do in this particular product cycle.


[More from BGR: GS: Ignore the chatter, BlackBerry rebound is coming]






Before we go further with this line of thinking, we should remind ourselves of the truly dire state that BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins found the company in when he took it over just over a year ago.


[More from BGR: Here comes the PlayStation 4: Sony announces February 20th PlayStation event [video]]


Longtime customers were fleeing BlackBerry for iOS and Android after BlackBerry repeatedly shot itself in the foot by releasing devices that featured outdated hardware (the first-generation BlackBerry Torch) or that lacked some of the core capabilities that BlackBerry customers had come to expect (the BlackBerry PlayBook and its lack of native corporate email without a “bridge” connection). The company also got caught completely flat-footed by the rise of mobile apps as a vital component of the global smartphone ecosystem and typically wouldn’t get big-name apps on its platform for more than a year after they’d been out on iOS and Android, if at all.


Let’s also recall that when Heins announced last summer that BlackBerry 10 would be delayed until the first quarter of 2013, many of us wondered if the new operating system would ever be released or if the company would simply collapse under the weight of competitive pressures. That Heins has been able to not only get BlackBerry 10 launched but also get more than 100 carriers on board with the new platform is a pretty impressive feat. Add in that Heins has been able to score commitments from some important apps such as Skype, WhatsApp and Amazon Kindle, and you begin to appreciate just how far BlackBerry has come from almost going over the brink.


Of course, none of this is even close to being enough to make BlackBerry a force in the mobile industry anytime soon. But if ardent BlackBerry fans buy up the new BlackBerry 10 handsets and if the company maintains its corporate clients, it may be enough to let the company live to fight another day.


Benedict Evans, a strategy consultant for Enders Analysis, has done some back-of-the-envelope calculations and estimates BlackBerry could sell as many as 20 million BlackBerry 10 smartphones in 2013, although he admits this number could be overly optimistic by as much as 50%. But even if BlackBerry sells just 15 million BB10 phones this year, that could be enough to give the company some breathing room while it works to recruit more app developers and generally improve its new operating system’s functionality.


This is not to say that BlackBerry has an easy road from here — the odds are still very much against it. But just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, no one should have expected BlackBerry to return to its former glory overnight. As much as BlackBerry fans would love to see their favorite devices rise up and crush iOS and Android, that sort of comeback was never in the cards. The best BlackBerry can hope is that they’ve stopped the bleeding and can continue building from here.


This article was originally published on BGR.com


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News




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CES gadget show host drops CNET as awards picker






LOS ANGELES (AP) — The industry group that hosts the annual gadget show known as International CES is dropping reviews website CNET as the picker of its “Best of CES” awards. It says CNET reviewers’ objectivity was compromised by the site’s corporate parent, CBS Corp.


The Consumer Electronics Association also elevated the CNET writers’ initial pick for the best gadget of the show, Dish Network Corp.‘s Hopper with Sling, to co-winner along with a gaming tablet called Razer Edge.






CBS had annulled an earlier vote by CNET staff to award the Hopper because it is in a legal dispute with Dish over the product. The Hopper allows users to automatically skip commercials from prime-time TV shows, undercutting a key source of revenue for CBS, advertising.


After CBS removed the Hopper from contention, CNET staff re-voted and chose Razer Edge as the winner.


The association says it is looking for a new partner for its awards.


The association’s president, Gary Shapiro, blasted CBS in an opinion article in the USA Today newspaper on Wednesday, saying its interference damaged its own editorial integrity. CBS also owns TV shows such as “60 Minutes,” ”CBS Evening News” and “Face the Nation.”


“It not only tainted the CES awards, but it hurt one of the world’s classiest media companies,” Shapiro wrote.


The association, which has hosted the gadget show since 1967, had contracted with CNET to pick the awards since the 2007 show. It normally chooses not to get involved, partly because of its relationship with its many exhibitors.


Mark Larkin, the general manager of CNET, said in a statement the website is “committed to delivering in-depth coverage of consumer electronics” and will continue to cover the show, as it has for more than a decade.


Dish appeared to bask in the controversy, which drew more attention to its device.


“We appreciate the International CES’ decision to stand with the consumer in the acknowledgement of this award,” said Dish CEO Joseph Clayton in a statement. “I regret that the award has come in the face of CBS’ undermining of CNET’s editorial independence.”


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Dr. Phil says Manti Te’o hoaxer admits to love for linebacker






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California man who has admitted to fabricating Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te‘o’s fake girlfriend in an elaborate hoax told talk show host Phil McGraw he felt a deep romantic love for the football player, McGraw said on Wednesday.


“Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love,” McGraw told the television morning show “Today” to discuss his two part interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, which will air on “Dr. Phil” on Thursday and Friday.






“I asked him straight up, ‘Was this a romantic relationship with you?,’ and he says yes. I said, ‘Are you then therefore gay?’ And he said, ‘When you put it that way, yes.’ And then he caught himself and said, ‘I am confused,’” McGraw told “Today.”


Te’o has said in a previous media interview he is not gay.


The fake girlfriend hoax involving Te’o, who was a finalist for college football’s highest individual honor the Heisman trophy, caused a sensation when it was revealed earlier this month on news website Deadspin.com.


Tuiasosopo says he played the part over the phone of Lennay Kekua, the fictitious woman who was Te’o's girlfriend in the hoax. Te’o, 22, had spoken about the woman in media interviews, and reports described her surviving a car accident and then dying of leukemia in September.


Te’o has said since the hoax was exposed that he was the victim of an elaborate prank, that he never met Kekua and that his acquaintance Tuiasosopo admitted to him that he was the one who played the part of Lennay.


Dr. Phil said in a segment on “Today” on Wednesday that after an extensive interview with Tuiasosopo, he believes Te’o had no role in creating the hoax.


“Absolutely, unequivocally, no,” McGraw said, in pinning the blame for the scheme on Tuiasosopo.


The NBC morning program also showed some comments Tuiasosopo made in his interview for the “Dr. Phil” daytime program.


“There are many times where Manti and Lennay had broken up,” Tuiasosopo told “Dr. Phil.”


“But something would bring them back together, whether it was something going on in his life or in Lennay’s life, in this case in my life,” Tuiasosopo said.


Tuiasosopo, 22, is from southern California and played high school football in 2005 at Antelope Valley High north of Los Angeles, according to media reports. Tuaisosopo’s attorney had previously told reporters his client was behind the hoax.


Before the hoax was exposed, a photo of a woman who was described as Lennay Kekua was presented in media reports about Te’o and his struggles to overcome her death and that of his grandmother, who actually did pass away.


But the photo of Kekua was taken from a Facebook profile of a California woman who said she was unaware of the scheme, according to Deadspin.com.


Te’o told Katie Couric in a broadcast of her show “Katie” last week that he received a telephone call from the person claiming to be Kekua on December 6 – two days before the Heisman presentation. But he said he was not really certain she never existed until Tuiasosopo’s later confession to him.


The linebacker, during the Katie Couric interview, presented a voice mail he received from the person he said he thought was Kekua. “Doesn’t that sound like a girl?” Te’o told Couric.


Te’o also told Couric he is not gay. “No, far from it,” he said.


(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Facebook Graph Search Still Doesn’t Speak Human






Despite hiring a couple of linguists to get its new search engine to move “beyond ‘Robospeak” and actually understand how people talk, Facebook hasn’t actually taught Graph Search how to do that very well just yet. And that’s a problem, no matter which way the social network spins it. Unlike Google‘s pattern-matching search engine, Facebook’s new recommendation-based social search platform tries to understand full sentences. And that takes context, something that’s very hard to teach even the smartest computers, as one of the linguists that worked on the project, Amy Campbell, told The New York Times‘s Somini Sengupta. 


RELATED: Why Facebook’s Graph Search Can’t Give Users What They’re Looking for… Yet






In order to think more like a person the Graph Search team taught the engine 25 synonyms for “student” so that when someone types in “Stanford Academics that work at Facebook” the engine knows to look for “students” — 275,000 different ways in fact. But it turns out that an English class isn’t the future of machine learning: a grammar and vocabulary lesson proves a lot easier than complex sentient thoughts, and that’s where Facebook’s new product breaks down in practice.


RELATED: Why Google Isn’t Scared of Facebook’s Graph Search


For example, Graph Search doesn’t get vague pronouns. My query today for “photos Elle Reeve likes that she commented on” confuses Facebook’s beyond-robo engine. Instead, Graph Search results track down photos that my Atlantic Wire colleague “likes” but that I commented on:


RELATED: The Bad News-Good News of Tech Trademark Infringement


But Facebook’s ambiguity problem extends beyond “I” and “she.” Graph Search also has problems with double entendres, or sentences with nuance. The phrase “sports fans that like Lady Gaga play” has multiple meanings, notes the Times, especially because the word “fan” has its own special meaning on Facebook. (People with “Pages” have “fans.”) 


fcff0  678605f19f5d7d273134dd61511d293e 492x211 Facebook Graph Search Still Doesnt Speak Human


It’s not impossible to fix these specific issues. Facebook can add more relevant “context” to Graph Search as more people use it (beta testing rolled out over the last week). But never once has a machine perfectly understood our natural language. IBM’s Watson has come close, but it still made an embarrassing mistake every so often, and newer robots like Georgia Tech’s Simon are still getting there. Messups are okay (and entertaining) for a computer on a gameshow, or robots that might end up really helping bridge the computer-human divide. But, if I’m really going to use Graph Search as a way to find things in my day-to-day life, right now, those kind of hiccups should happen rarely to never — and Facebook’s slow phase-in excuse isn’t cutting it. If Graph Search can’t understand what humans want, it’s simply not doing its job. 


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Yahoo sees revenue climb this year, but long road ahead






(Reuters) – Yahoo Inc forecast a modest uptick in revenue for the current year as it revamps its family of websites but Chief Executive Marissa Mayer warned it would be a long journey to revive the Internet company‘s fortunes.


In Yahoo‘s first financial outlook since Mayer became CEO in July, the company outlined a plan to trigger a “chain reaction of growth” by overhauling a dozen of its online services to increase the amount of time users spent on its websites.






It also pointed to strength in its search advertising business and progress made in improving its internal operations.


Yahoo’s shares were 3 percent higher in after hours trade after the revenue projection was disclosed during an analysts conference call, shedding some ground after earlier rising as much as 4.5 percent.


But weakness in Yahoo’s display ad business, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of the company’s total revenue, caught some analysts by surprise.


“While the road to growth is certain, it will not be immediate,” said Mayer, a former Google Inc executive and Yahoo’s third full-time CEO since September 2011.


Yahoo said that revenue, excluding fees it pays to partner websites, will range between $ 4.5 billion and $ 4.6 billion in 2013, implying an annual growth rate of 0.7 percent to 3 percent.


Finance Chief Ken Goldman also warned investors to expect “an investment phase” in the first half of the year, which he said would impact profit margins.


“What was clear from the call is that this is a long-term turnaround story,” said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter. “We shouldn’t expect anything to just snap back and correct itself.”


During the fourth quarter, Yahoo’s net revenue increased 4 percent year-on-year to $ 1.22 billion, as search advertising sales offset a 10 percent decline in the number of display ads sold on Yahoo’s core properties.


Mayer said the decline was the result of less activity by visitors to its popular websites, such as its Web email service, and to a lesser extent due to users accessing the Web on smartphones, where Yahoo’s ad business is not as strong.


Efforts to revamp its mobile properties, begun last year with a redesign of the photo-sharing service Flickr, remain on track, said Mayer, noting that Yahoo now has 200 million monthly mobile users.


“From a monetization perspective this is still a very nascent source of revenue for us. With any platform shift, revenue always followed users and mobile will be no different,” she said.


Mayer took over after a tumultuous period at Yahoo in which former CEO Scott Thompson resigned after less than 6 months on the job over a controversy about his academic credentials and in which Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the board and cut his ties with the company.


Yahoo’s stock has risen roughly 30 percent since Mayer took the helm, reaching its highest levels since 2008.


Part of the stock’s rise has been driven by significant stock buybacks, using proceeds from a $ 7.6 billion deal to sell half of its 40 percent stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group, said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with B. Riley Caris.


Yahoo said it repurchased $ 1.5 billion worth of shares during the fourth quarter.


The company’s fourth-quarter net income was $ 272.3 million, or 23 cents per share, versus $ 295.6 million, or 24 cents per share in the year-ago period.


Excluding certain items, Yahoo said it had earnings per share of 32 cents, versus the average analyst expectation of 28 cents according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.


For the first quarter, Yahoo said it expects revenue, excluding partner website fees, of $ 1.07 billion to $ 1.1 billion, trailing the $ 1.1 billion that Wall Street analysts expect on average.


Shares of Yahoo were up 59 cents at $ 20.90 in after-hours trading on Monday.


(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Edwina Gibbs)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force






WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon plans to assign significantly more personnel in coming years to counter increasing threats against U.S. government computer networks and conduct offensive operations against foreign foes, a U.S. defense official said on Sunday.


The plan, which would increase both military and civilian staffing at U.S. Cyber Command, comes as the Pentagon moves toward elevating the new command and putting it on the same level as the major combatant commands.






The official said no formal decisions had been made on the expanding staffing levels or changing Cyber Command into a “unified” command like U.S. Strategic Command, which currently oversees cyber command and the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal.


Any changes to the combatant command structure would be made based on strategic and operational needs, and take into account the need for efficient use of taxpayer dollars, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.


The Pentagon was working closely with U.S. Cyber Command and the major military commands to develop “the optimum force structure for successfully operating in cyberspace,” the official said.


The Washington Post, quoting senior defense officials, reported late Sunday that the Pentagon had decided to expand Cyber Command’s current staffing level of 900 to 4,900 in coming years.


The official confirmed that Cyber Command planned to expand its force significantly, but said the specific numbers cited by the Post were “pre-decisional.”


The newspaper said senior Pentagon officials had agreed to increase the force late last year amid a string of attacks, including one that wiped out more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company. it said


The plan calls for creating three types of force under the Cyber Command, said the defense official.


“National mission forces,” would protect computer systems that undergird electrical grids and other kinds of infrastructure. “Combat mission forces,” would help commanders abroad execute attacks or other offensive operations, while “cyber protection forces,” would focus on protecting the Defense Department’s own systems.


Details were still being worked out, the official said.


(Reporting by Sarah Lynch and Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by David Brunnstrom)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Terrorists Knocked Off Twitter After Threats






The Twitter account belonging to a self-identified spokesperson for an al Qaeda-allied terrorist organization has been suspended.


The account, which began in late 2011 and is believed to belong to a representative of al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based terrorist organization, is currently out of service, days after it threatened the lives of Kenyan hostages, according to a report by The Associated Press.






Representatives for Twitter declined to comment on exactly when or why al-Shabaab’s account was suspended, due to “privacy and security reasons,” but under “Twitter Rules,” the company writes on its website that “you may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others.”


In addition to the reported threats against the Kenyans, earlier this month the same account posted a long missive about France’s failed attempt to rescue a French intelligence agent codenamed Denis Allex and posted images of another man it said was a French special operations soldier who was killed in the doomed raid. The statement said the group had reached a “verdict” on what to do about Allex and, a few days later, al-Shabaab said they planned to execute the spy. Then, using Twitter, they announced Allex was dead.


READ: Terrorists Say They’ll ‘Execute’ Spy Who May Already Be Dead


The account, along with those of other terrorist organizations, for years has provided a window, tinted by propaganda, into the group, its ambitions and inner troubles – a resource for journalists and, presumably, interested intelligence agencies.


For instance, in March 2012, Twitter was the forum al-Shabaab used to deny it had arrested or was trying to kill its most high-profile member, Omar Hammami, a rapping American jihadist who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Mansoor al-Amriki. Hammami had taken to the internet to describe, in detail, a fissure within the terror group. He may himself be operating another Twitter account with which he engages in long exchanges about the state of jihadism in Somalia.


In September 2011, ABC News reported on a curious public spat that emerged between NATO forces and the Taliban – all over Twitter. Lebanon-based Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, also has a media arm that Tweets frequently.


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Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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New PlayStation 4 details emerge: 8-core AMD ‘Bulldozer’ CPU, redesigned controller and more






2013 is a huge year for gamers. Nintendo (NTDOY) just launched the Wii U ahead of the holidays and both Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT) are expected to issue next-generation consoles before the year is through. We’ve seen plenty of rumors about both systems over the past few months, and the latest comes from Kotaku and focuses on Sony’s PlayStation 4.


[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 said to be overhyped, RIM’s comeback chances remain slim]






The site claims to have gotten its hands on documents describing Sony’s developer system given to premier partners so they can build games ahead of the next-generation console launch. The specs, if accurate, will obviously line up with the release version of the system. Included in the specs Kotaku is reporting are an AMD64 “Bulldozer” CPU with eight cores total, an AMD GPU, 8GB of system RAM, 2.2GB of video memory, a 160GB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive, four USB 3.0 ports and more.


[More from BGR: Apple: ‘Bent, not broken’]


Sony also reportedly has a redesigned controller in the works that will include a capacitive touch pad.


This article was originally published on BGR.com


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News




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Siri was supposed to be a key feature on Verizon’s DROID lineup until Apple swooped in







Since the release of the iPhone 4S, Apple (AAPL) has touted its intelligent voice assistant Siri as a key feature of the iOS ecosystem. The startup company behind the app originally launched Siri as standalone program on the App Store and had plans to release Android and BlackBerry versions in the future. Siri was quickly acquired by Apple, however, and plans to expand the app were cancelled.


[More from BGR: Apple reports Q1 results: $ 13.1 billion profit beats estimates, iPhone sales and Q2 guidance miss big]






According to a report from The Huffington Post, Verizon (VZ) had actually signed a deal with the creators of Siri to feature the voice assistant on its DROID line of smartphones several months before the company was approached by Apple. The wireless carrier even created commercials touting the unique feature, although they never saw the light of day.


[More from BGR: As data gets cheaper for Verizon to transmit, customers are paying more]


After two months of availability on the App Store, Apple acquired Siri in 2010 and the rest is history.


This article was originally published on BGR.com


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News




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FTC study taking aim at online marketing of booze and kids






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans this summer to recommend ways that the alcoholic beverage industry can better protect underage viewers from seeing its advertisements online.


Distillers, brewers and wineries pour millions of dollars into brand promotion on Twitter, Facebook and other social media, and industry critics contend they are not doing enough to prevent young consumers from receiving these messages.






“We’re doing a deep dive on how they’re using the Internet and social media,” said Janet Evans, a lawyer with the FTC, which is conducting a year-long study due to be released by early summer. “We’re focusing on underage exposure.”


She would not elaborate on any potential recommendations that might come out of the study, which began in April 2012.


The FTC is reviewing data from 14 big producers, Evans said, including Beam Inc, the maker of Jim Beam, Diageo Plc, home to Johnnie Walker, and Constellation Brands Inc, which makes Robert Mondavi and Ravenswood wines.


The FTC report “is something we take seriously and place at high priority,” said Karena Breslin, director for digital marketing at Constellation.


The FTC has made two requests for information since the study began, she said.


The regulatory agency has not said it intends to impose restrictions on liquor company social media advertising but it can make recommendations to the industry.


The FTC is empowered to file suit to ensure consumers are protected from deceptive marketing practices, Evans said, but she stressed that studies of this nature are meant to promote better self-regulation, not provide a basis for a case.


Executives say alcohol makers and distributors voluntarily adhere to the same industry-set standard for marketing to underage viewers on social media sites that the industry set for its ads on TV and other medium. That requires that at least 71.6 percent of an audience consists of adults 21 and older.


“No one in their right mind would want to advertise to people who can’t legally buy their product,” said Frank Coleman, senior vice president for Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the trade group that sets the industry’s advertising codes.


In June 2011, DISCUS revised its code upwards to 71.6 percent from 70 percent, after the FTC recommended it review the standard to better reflect U.S. Census population data.


Industry critics, including David Jernigen, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University, and Sarah Mart, research director of the advocacy group Alcohol Justice, contend the industry didn’t go far enough and should raise the standard further.


Jernigen says it needs to be at least 85 percent to effectively protect youth, so there would be no more than 15 percent exposure to the underage drinking population.


“The industry says its self-regulating but it’s ineffective and social media opens up a whole new set of problems because their ads are everywhere,” said Sarah Mart, research director for the San Rafael, Calif.-based group Alcohol Justice.


The industry group’s Coleman said the group now requires members to install age-checking tools via instant-messaging as a gateway to Twitter feeds and other branded Web platforms that ask the user for a birth date before admitting them.


In the first nine months of 2012, beer, wine and spirits manufacturers’ spent an estimated $ 35 million for paid Web display advertising, but industry executives estimate many millions more were spent on Web site creation, video production for platforms like Google’s YouTube and social media marketing efforts.


“We’ve significantly adjusted more money to digital for online video, Web sites, Facebook and Twitter content,” said Kevin George, global chief marketing officer for Jim Beam, which he says spends 30 percent of its media spend for online outlets, up from 10 percent in 2008.


Many companies are expanding their digital staff. Wine maker Constellation hired Breslin three years ago to initiate digital marketing and now has a team of five reporting to her.


Many alcoholic beverage companies flocked to Facebook because it requires users to post their birth dates when signing up. Last year Twitter partnered with Buddy Media to offer a more effective screening tool that sends a direct message to fans who click on a brand. The message sends the fan a link to a site that asks for date of birth, which has allowed Twitter to grab some more of the sector marketing. Salesforce.com bought Buddy Media last June, which is now folding the platform into its marketing cloud portfolio.


Health advocates and industry critics are crying foul. “Facebook and other interactive platforms are poorly monitored and not well age protected,” said Jernigen of Johns Hopkins University. “Anyone can say they’re 21 and click yes.”


(Reporting By Susan Zeidler; Editing by Ron Grover and Alden Bentley)


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No sympathy for Armstrong on social media






LONDON (Reuters) – Lance Armstrong’s televised doping confession has done nothing to restore his shattered reputation, a study of responses posted to the Twitter social media site showed.


“What was particularly noticeable in our analysis of the Armstrong revelation was the sheer lack of sympathy out there,” said Charlie Dundas of sports market research company Repucom.






“The tone of the discussion around the Oprah Winfrey interview highlighted the level of disappointment and anger that exists. It’s clear the public are far from ready to forgive Lance Armstrong,” he added.


In the interview, Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs on his way to his seven Tour de France titles. The Texan also said he hoped a lifetime ban would one day be lifted to allow him to compete in events like marathons.


The Armstrong interview generated 1.9 million Twitter posts between January 14-20, Repucom said. America accounted for more than a quarter of these, with Australia the second most active nation on the site.


(Writing by Keith Weir, editing by Mark Meadows)


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Notre Dame hoax tip was emailed: Deadspin.com editor






CHICAGO (Reuters) – The tip that led to the revelation that one of the most widely recounted U.S. sports narratives of the past year was a hoax came to the editors of an online sports blog as many of their news tips do: an unsolicited email.


That email led Deadspin.com assignment editor Timothy Burke on the hunt of a story that exposed the heart-wrenching tale of standout Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o's dead girlfriend as a fabrication, Burke said on CNN on Thursday.






Te’o sprang to national prominence last fall when the senior co-captain was seen heroically leading the Fighting Irish to an underdog victory against the Michigan State Spartans within days of learning his grandmother had died. Moreover, it was widely reported, Te’o's girlfriend had died of leukemia just hours after his grandmother’s death.


From that point, Te’o's narrative was a prominent feature in coverage of the team, which has a dedicated following and whose games are televised nationally each week.


Notre Dame went on to an undefeated regular season, culminating in a berth in the national championship game, which the Fighting Irish lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide on January 7.


“We got an email last week at Deadspin.com that said ‘Hey, there’s something real weird about Lennay Kekua, Manti Te’o's allegedly dead girlfriend. You guys should check it out,’” Burke said.


The email prompted Burke and co-author Jack Dickey to begin searching online for background on Kekua. “So we start Googling the name Lennay Kekua. We can’t find any evidence of this person that wasn’t attached to stories about her being Manti Te’o's dead girlfriend.”


Their investigation led about a week later to a 4,000-word expose, published Wednesday under the headline “Blarney,” that painstakingly debunked the story of Kekua’s existence. The story went viral online.


Within hours of its publication, officials at Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in college football and U.S. collegiate athletics overall, held a hastily organized press conference to assert that Te’o had been duped in a hoax perpetrated by a friend of his.


The girlfriend, who called herself Kekua and claimed to be a Stanford University graduate, was merely an online persona who “ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia,” university spokesman Dennis Brown said in a statement.


Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said the university learned of the hoax from Te’o on December 26. Te’o answered questions forthrightly and private investigators uncovered several things that pointed to Te’o being a victim in the case, Swarbrick said.


Deadspin’s Burke said he remains skeptical of this being a hoax perpetrated on Te’o rather than by Te’o.


“Ask yourself why and what incentive a person would have to execute such a lengthy, time-consuming and expensive con that would involve multiple people and essentially consume his entire life just to screw around with a guy that he knows?” Burke said on CNN.


Deadspin.com said the woman whose photograph was frequently shown on TV and in news reports about Kekua was actually a young California woman who had never met or communicated with Te’o. The website declined to identify her by name.


On Thursday, TV newsmagazine “Inside Edition” said the woman in the photograph was a 23-year-old marketing professional in Los Angeles named Diane O’Meara. Inside Edition, which is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution, said O’Meara was a former classmate of one of Te’o's friends. It Aredid not give the friend’s name.


In the expose published Wednesday, Deadspin.com said a friend of Te’o's named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was “the man behind” the hoax.


Outside Tuiasosopo’s home in Palmdale, California on Thursday, a member of his family who did not identify himself told reporters, “Please, we have no comment. Please respect that.”


The Te’o hoax is the latest black eye Notre Dame’s legendary football program has suffered in recent years.


In 2011, the school was fined $ 42,000 by an Indiana agency over the death of football videographer Declan Sullivan, 20, who died in October 2010 after a hydraulic lift he was using to record practice toppled over in high winds.


In 2010, Elizabeth “Lizzy” Seeberg, a freshman at nearby St. Mary’s College, killed herself ten days after accusing a Notre Dame football player of sexual battery. Her family began questioning the campus police department’s reluctance to gather evidence and a 15-day delay in interviewing the accused.


After a federal investigation into the matter, the school agreed to revise its policies on sexual misconduct.


(Additional reporting by Dan Burns, Dana Feldman, David Bailey and Mary Wisniewski.; Editing by Vicki Allen, Greg McCune and Andrew Hay)


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10 awesome new (and old) things you need to know about in 2013






We’re just three weeks into 2013 and it’s surprising what a difference a year can make. RIM (RIMM) is on the rise as Apple (AAPL) is getting crushed, Samsung (005930) is supposedly generating Apple-like hype, and connected home appliances outshined smartphones at CES. It’s a brave new world indeed, but here are 10 awesome new (and old) things to keep you grounded in 2013 while you put 2012 behind you and try to forget Gangnam Style ever happened.


[More from BGR: Samsung’s latest monster smartphone will reportedly have a 5.8-inch screen]






1. Digg: Digg? In 2013? Yup — it’s back and it’s awesome.


[More from BGR: Paid apps are history]


The old Digg is dead and a fantastic river of curated news can now be found in its place. The site has done away with user submissions and the unending sea of obnoxious comments, leaving behind a platform that is infinitely better than its predecessor.


Topics covered range from technology and business to world events and interesting morsels people are unlikely to dig up on their own.


The redesigned site is fantastic and clean, the iOS app is terrific, and I consistently discover great stories there long before they being to gain steam elsewhere on the web.


http://digg.com


2. Evernote: There are a few Web services that I regularly recommend to friends and family where after I do, I get a note a few weeks later with the question, “How did I ever live with this?” Evernote is among those services.


In a nutshell, Evernote is a Web-based service that lets users create and organize notes that automatically sync across all their computers, smartphones and tablets. Despite its popularity on tech blogs, I still find a lot of people who have never heard of the service.


The beauty of Evernote is that everyone uses it in his or her own unique way. It can be used to house Web page clippings, store ideas as they come to you, keep recipes in order, hold to-do lists, make grocery lists, or perform any number of other functions.


http://evernote.com/


3. BlackBerry 10: Whether it ends up being RIM’s comeback catalyst or its last hurrah, BlackBerry 10 is going to be a big deal in 2013. Investors are excited, BlackBerry fans are excited, and we’re excited.


The show kicks off on January 30th and BGR will be there live to cover all the action as it unfolds.


http://global.blackberry.com/


4. Outgrow.me: Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great crowd-funding sites for entrepreneurs, but they’re also very trendy right now. For every awesome product on each site there are dozens of, well, not-so-awesome products.


Outgrow.me makes it easy to view the best products these two sites have to offer using a great design that is easy to navigate.


As an added bonus, Outgrow.me addresses one of the biggest problems among crowd-funded products. Since a lot of great (and well-funded) products don’t ship on time, the site has an option to only view items that are “orderable” today.


http://outgrow.me/


5. Windows Phone: Look, Microsoft (MSFT) has been giving it the old college try for more than two years now, but things are getting serious in 2013. Maybe.


Windows Phone 8 is a supercharged version of Microsoft’s initial reimagining of the smartphone experience. It’s faster, smoother, more versatile and it supports better hardware.


There are two great flagship Windows Phones on the market right now — Nokia’s Lumia 920 and HTC’s Windows Phone 8X — as well as a number of solid low- and mid-range options.


http://www.windowsphone.com/


6. Jawbone UP: Fitness gadgets are getting trendy now, but I’ve yet to see anything that looks more appealing than Jawbone’s second iteration of the “UP” bracelet.


The simple device is worn on your wrist at all times (it’s waterproof, so you can even shower with it) and it tracks your daily activity including your sleep. It’s paired with a fantastic app that features a gorgeous UI and plenty of great functionality.


UP’s companion app tracks your steps, calorie burn and sleep to create a “Lifeline.” You can also track the food you eat by scanning barcodes, taking pictures or inputting items manually, which helps you keep tabs on your calorie intake.


The kicker for the Jawbone UP over rivals is the fact that it doesn’t include wireless connectivity, believe it or not. Yes, that means you have to take the band off, pop the cap and connect it to your iPhone’s audio jack to sync, but it also means the battery lasts between nine and ten days on a charge.


UP is only compatible with iOS for the time being, but Jawbone says it’s working on an Android app.


http://jawbone.com/up


7. Republic Wireless: Did you know you can get unlimited smartphone service for $ 19 a month? Really, truly unlimited calling, messaging and data for $ 19 a month?


We’ve been testing Republic Wireless’ $ 19 unlimited smartphone service for several weeks now and so far we’re impressed. The service is not for power users — there’s only one smartphone available right now (Motorola’s Defy XT) and you won’t have access to 4G data speeds — but anyone looking for basic smartphone service at a ridiculously low price would be remiss to not give Republic Wireless a look.


http://www.republicwireless.com/


8. HTC: It’s time to get acquainted with the little smartphone vendor that could.


HTC (2498) took a beating in 2012 while Samsung and Apple grew bigger than most could have imagined. HTC might not have billions of marketing dollars to constantly slap consumers in the face with ads, but it has a ridiculously talented team that churns out one gorgeous smartphone after another.


With hardware that is second to none and handsets ranging from affordable low-end phones to premium flagship devices, HTC is a brand to watch in 2013.


http://htc.com/


9. Wirecutter: Founded by former Gizmodo editor Brian Lam, Wirecutter is “a list of great technology.”


The site is basically a gadget buying guide without the stomach-turning, Google-gaming, SEO machine aspect. Instead, it’s simply a collection of technology products the site’s staff enjoys. Imagine that!


Wirecutter is definitely a site worth checking out and this is a good place to start.


http://thewirecutter.com/


10. Skype: Sure, everyone knows about Skype on computers and smartphones. I never use it on either. Instead, there’s another aspect of Skype not everyone knows about: Home phone service.


Using compatible handsets, Skype can be set up to work just like any other VoIP home phone service. The only difference is that Skype is much, much cheaper than comparable offerings. Unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada can be had for less than $ 2.60 a month plus $ 30 each year for a phone number.


In other words, a year of Skype service costs a little less than two months of Vonage or cable company phone service.


I’ve been using Skype for my home phone since last May and I couldn’t be happier. The quality is excellent, on par with similar offerings from Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, and the price can’t be beat.


I should note, though, that dealing with one of Skype’s retail partners — eBuyNow — was an awful, awful experience. They took forever to get back to me when one of my handsets died and after two months of trying to get a replacement, they just ended up refunding my entire purchase. If you choose Skype for home phone service, buy your handsets elsewhere.


http://skype.com/


This article was originally published on BGR.com


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How Your Great-Grandmother’s Hobby Is Transforming One Alabama Town






Natalie Chanin’s life-changing epiphany struck while standing on a New York City street corner.


For days, she had traversed throughout the city with a trash bag of her deconstructed T-shirts, seeking a manufacturer to help her make them. None of them, however, understood what kind of stitching she wanted on her creations, which had become popular in New York fashion circles after she made one on a whim and wore it to a party. Chanin was frustrated.






But then, she remembered a group of women who constructed hand-made quilts with bold stitching passed down through the generations. Chanin envisioned those stitches on her deconstructed T-shirts, She believed that those women could help her fuse the past with the present.


So, like a modern-day Scarlett O’Hara, Chanin knew where her immediate future lay, and it was back home in Florence, Ala. When Chanin returned to Florence in 2000, it was a much different place than when she left it in the 1980s. Then, the historic quaint town was the T-shirt capitol of the world, thanks to a thriving textile industry that employed thousands.


But a decade later, that industry had nearly vanished. People were unemployed in the town of 40,000 and warehouses were closed. The cotton once used for T-shirts was now shipped aboard. Chanin squarely blames NAFTA for these changes.


Public Citizen, a non-profit grassroots organization, cites that Alabama lost 118,125 manufacturing jobs from 1994 to 2012. The Bureau of Labor Statistics stated in a 1995 report that while the textile industry was seeing employment decline in the 1980s because of technology and overseas jobs, but it noted, “Future employment levels will be affected by the North America Free Trade Agreement” and that job loss would be “incremental” over the years.


NAFTA was touted as a good thing by many people because it would ease trade regulations and increased investment between the United States, Canada and Mexico. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the legislation, saying at the time: “NAFTA means jobs, American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t support this agreement.”


Chanin doesn’t proclaim to be an expert on NAFTA, but the trade agreement angers her, and she blames Clinton for it.


“I often wonder if he regrets NAFTA,” Chanin says. “NAFTA helped to put a nail in the coffin of manufacturers in America. It created fear and anger, and we didn’t get the open commerce we wanted.”


The unemployment and the textile industry’s death in Florence haunted Chanin. She says she did what she knew how to do – sew – and never had a plan to become an eco-friendly fashion leader, a cheerleader for artisan seamstresses or a poster girl for Made in the USA. But that’s exactly what happened.


Chanin’s handcrafted, organic couture line – Alabama Chanin – has become emblematic of what’s possible when someone focuses on community commitment, sustainability and local traditions.


“I believe in ‘Made in America’ where at all possible,” Chanin says. “I see it almost as a matter of national security. It’s disturbing when you see that there are no steel mills in the South anymore. Food, clothing, shelter, right? Those are essential to sustaining life. Sewing was once a vital necessity for men and women.”


 Photo: Alabama Chanin


Chanin, 50, has certainly stitched her own path with a needle and thread.


On this January day, Chanin wears a black skirt, white boots and a white long-sleeve shirt with a black overlay T-shirt. Her trademark white hair frames her ageless face. Sitting at a long white table, she weaves her story like any good Southern storyteller. To fully grasp Chanin’s role in the Slow Fashion movement that promotes quality over quantity, you have to absorb Florence’s history and Chanin’s connection to it.


In the 1800s, Florence, a river town, had an abundance of water and streams that made it geographically suited as a cotton mill town. Villages soon cropped up where men, women and even children made underwear, union suits and undershirts for paltry wages. It was a rough life, dependent on soil, water and the seasons. Cotton was king, and it supported generations through the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II.


Chanin’s Alabama roots cross many decades, and her family tree goes back seven generations in the area. Her great-grandmother knitted socks in east Florence’s Sweetwater Mill. Both of her grandmothers were avid quilters. Her parents still live around Florence and her 30-year-old son, Zachariah, moved to the town five years ago. Six years ago, Chanin’s daughter, Maggie, was born, and five months ago, her son became a father to Chanin’s first grandchild, Stella Ruth.


“There are five generations of my family alive and living here now,” she says. “It’s home, and that’s why I came back. It’s home.”


Sweet Home Alabama


When Chanin returned to Alabama, she set up shop in a three-bedroom brick house “10 miles as the crow flies” from Florence in a community known as Lovelace Crossing. “We say it like ‘loveless’,” Chanin says.


There, she began what she considered “just an art project” with the recycled, reworked T-shirts. She visited the quilting circle, and the women still met weekly, sold their completed quilts and reinvested the money into the community center – just as Chanin remembered. She told the women that she wanted to hire them for her project. But she hit a deadend.


“They said, ‘This is something we do for the community, we don’t want a job,” Chanin recalls. “They had gardens, grandchildren and they didn’t want the responsibility.”


Chanin persevered.


She placed an ad in the local newspaper seeking part-time seamstresses. Sixty people responded; she locked in 20 of them as independent contractors, creating a cottage industry that allowed women to work on their own terms and time. Many of these women lived in rural areas, had limited, if no, transportation and children to care for during the day.


The idea worked and evolved into the company Project Alabama. Eventually a few hundred stitchers sewed for her Project Alabama line. But, then the U.S. Department of Labor entered the picture in 2003 and investigated the independent contractor methods.


“We lost 90 percent of our workforce from one day to the next,” she says. “We refined the system because the Department of Labor was instrumental in showing us how the independent contractor system could work.”


The Birth of Alabama Chanin


“There are no rules; that is how art is born.” That’s the greeting on a lighted sign inside the front door of the Alabama Chanin spacious office and work space. Another handmade fabric sign states, “Waste Not Want Not.” On the back of two chairs, the words “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify” are carved into the natural wood. All of these sum up Chanin’s ethos.


Chanin left Project Alabama in 2006 amid differences about the company’s future regarding retaining jobs in her home town.


She soon started Alabama Chanin, leaving the house in Loveless and renting a 5,000-square-foot warehouse in Florence with a long history in the textile industry. The space was once part of a larger 100,000-square-feet complex that housed wall-to-wall sewing machines and workers who dyed fabric and made T-shirts.


Now a rack of Chanin’s designs – beautiful white coats with red stitching, appliqué skirts, stenciled T-shirts – has replaced the machines. Wire shelves hold Chanin’s white swatch books with hundreds of appliqué designs. Southern books, including the three she wrote, are displayed along with her examples of her jewelry and ceramic lines. Vintage Alabama quilts, which Chanin has “stabilized” with remnant fabrics and embroidery that tells stories, hang on one wall.


 Photo: Rinne Allen/Alabama Chanin


Unlike most clothing companies, Alabama Chanin doesn’t mass produce hundreds of items for retail, in an effort to maintain a policy of zero waste. Instead, each piece is a work-of-art, an item to be treasured, and like art, an Alabama Chanin garment is expensive – some range upwards of $ 5,000 and beyond. Fans often save for two or three years to own one.


Chanin uses only 100 percent organic cotton grown in Texas. It is spun into yarn in North Carolina, knitted into fabric in South Carolina and dyed in Tennessee and North Carolina. In the best case scenario, Chanin says, she attempts to use 100 percent American products, but occasionally organic domestic cotton is not available.


She no longer shows her designs at New York City Fashion Week, instead developing her brand through trunk shows, word-of-mouth and the Internet. While many designers keep their designs secret, Chanin does not. She is a zealous believer in the DIY and open-source movement. A significant part of her business is now centered on teaching workshops, writing books and her blog and selling custom sewing kits that allow others to create their own clothing and accessories.


It’s the operation of her business, however, that is most innovative.


Chanin employs only eleven people at the warehouse, but 30 seamstresses work as independent contractors. Over the years, Chanin estimates that more than 500 seamstresses in the Florence area have contributed to her design business. Her system is now similar to a cottage industry.


The concept hearkens to the Industrial Revolution when workers couldn’t travel from rural areas to urban ones. It allowed workers to have employment and also flexibility, something that is still needed in the 21st century.


“I’m just as proud of the system [we’ve developed] as for the designs that have been in Vogue,” she says. “Women are the primary caregivers whether it is a sick child or a caregiver for an elderly parent. They can work when they want, where they want and it empowers them to set their own schedule.”


A product isn’t made until a customer places an order. A bidding sheet for projects is sent to the 30 seamstresses via email and is also available at the warehouse. Seamstresses bid on projects, quoting Chanin a price that they think is fair depending on the project’s complexity with design, beading and appliqué. The bid may be in the thousands of dollars and take several months to complete as every piece is hand-sewn with not one stitch made on a machine.


 Photo: Rinne Allen/Alabama Chanin


The seamstress then invests her money into the project by purchasing the unassembled raw materials (fabric panels, thread, an Alabama Chanin label and other supplies) in person at the warehouse.


“When everyone is invested, you have a better ratio for success,” Chanin says. “They work by the project not by the time,” she explains. “We don’t ask. That’s their business. It’s totally up to them how they want to do it.”


When the project is finished, the seamstress initials the label and sells the creation back for the value she thinks it is worth. Rarely does an item fail to meet standards or a deadline. Ever conscious, Chanin tries to ensure everyone has a project during slow periods.


“We are always looking for ways to keep our artisans busy, and if we don’t, they will try to find other jobs because they have to feed their families,” she says. “These people are like our families. We care about them. We know their kids. We know who they are. We have become grandmothers together. We have broken bread together. We have prayed together. Keeping them in work is one of the responsibilities I have as a business owner.”


The Future Is Bright


Along back roads of the South, cotton fields extend for miles. The fluffy white bolls remain an integral part of the Southern economy and culture. No one knows this better than Southerners like Chanin and Florence fashion designer, Billy Reid, and his staff.


“This whole conversation sprang up about two years ago because there is an organization interested in bringing manufacturing back to the South,” Chanin says. “We were saying that it would be amazing if we could have vertical manufacturing here from growing the cotton to cutting and sewing it.”


Chanin gives credit to K.P. McNeill, who works for Billy Reid, for finding the six-acre untouched and unfarmed spot for the organic cotton experiment. From there, Chanin calls the farming adventure “a miraculous journey.”


“We found two sacks of seeds after we couldn’t find any,” she says. “We didn’t have a tractor and suddenly we had a tractor. We didn’t have a planter and then we had a planter.”


A severe drought threatened to kill the cotton crop, but amazingly, the cotton grew. Last October, Chanin closed her warehouse for the day and headed to the cotton patch to attend Alabama Chanin and Billy Reid Cotton Picking Party and Field Day. Family, friends and the community were invited to join Chanin. She hoped that people would learn about organic farming and the future possibilities that exist for Florence textile industry. While the acreage only produced a bale and half of cotton, it offered hope for the next season.


For Chanin, growing jobs was once her primary concern, but she has expanded her mission to include cultivating DIY ingenuity and, now, tackling the land. Her latest farming project should not surprise those who know and admire Chanin. After all, she believes that other businesses and designers should simply follow their heart.


“It’s about making the right decisions which aren’t always the easiest decisions,” Chanin says. “But every time I’ve made the right decision, I’ve been rewarded.”



Suzi Parker is an Arkansas-based political and cultural journalist whose work frequently appears in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of two books. @SuziParker | TakePart.com 


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You Can Use Facebook for Free Cellphone Calls Now






Wait, what?


RELATED: Facebook’s Faster iPhone App Isn’t Fast Enough






Yes, theoretically you can kis those talk-time minutes from your cellphone data plan goodbye — as long as you’re content to have all your voice conversation with other Facebook users over data or Wi-Fi by way of your Messenger app. It’s called Voice Over Internet Protocol talking, and it’s the same thing that was supposed to help Skype take over the world last decade, and it might end up being a lot more useful to the savvy consumer’s pocketbook than the Graph Search, which Mark Zuckerberg called the “third pillar” of Facebook yesterday.


RELATED: Everything There Is to Know About That Facebook Phone


To make a call, all Facebook users have to do is tap the little “i” at the top right corner of the revamped app, which leads to the screen pictured above at right. As long as the other caller has the Messenger app, U.S. users can now tap Free Call, and, well, it’s just like making a phone call, really — except that instead of ringing, a push notification pops up: “You have a call from Carly.” (Seriously! We just tried it! It was free!)


RELATED: What Can Apple’s Acquisition of Chomp Mean?


Of course, this isn’t a Facebook-branded piece of hardware, or even the full-scale cellphone OS many have been drooling over as the social network figures out its mobile future. But this software could replace the traditional way we make calls. As we’ve explained before, Facebook has a lot of things going for it in taking VoIP calls to the masses in the way the Skype never really could: Messenger’s got all the right contacts, it costs almost nothing, and it even works in areas with terrible reception. Not to mention it works over data plans for everyone and not just people with compatible phones — Apple’s FaceTime feature only works on the iPhone 4S or 5, even if it’s more available now. Still, Facebook doesn’t have video chat for Messenger. But, hey, one world dominating step at a time, right?


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Apple scoops PBS on “Downton Abbey” episodes, but PBS is cool with it






NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Apple is making the entire third season of “Downton Abbey” available on iTunes before every episode airs on PBS – and that’s just fine with PBS.


Fans who buy a season pass on iTunes beginning January 29 will get to see three episodes before they air on PBS. The Season 3 finale airs February 17.






But PBS CEO Paula Kerger isn’t worried that viewers will watch the show online, then tune out PBS. In fact, she says, Apple isn’t the only place Americans can see “Downton” before they can see it on her network.


“You can also buy the DVD sets. They’re being shipped at the end of January, and the DVD sets and Apple are going up at the same time,” Kerger told TheWrap. “I think that for people who are really passionate and want to have it, it’s a great thing.”


Kerger says she hopes more viewers will discover “Downton” on whatever format they like best – and then watch it on PBS next season.


“At the end of the day, my interest is just in seeing it get to the widest possible audience, and there are people that would pick it up on Apple that may not pick it up anywhere else,” she said.


The first episode of the third season premiered to a record 7.9 million viewers earlier this month. Many of those viewers, no doubt, caught up on the previous seasons online or through DVD viewing.


“Downton” airs in the U.K. in the fall but on PBS in January, which means PBS viewers must shield themselves from spoilers. That has led to some grumbling from American fans.


But Kerger said airing the show in January allows the show to get more attention domestically than it might otherwise receive in the crowded fall season.


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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PlayStation 4 could be unveiled in May









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E-Ink on a Smartphone? This Android Phone Has 2 Displays






Times Up


You can use the rear of the YotaPhone as a clock, or to display wallpapers.


Click here to view this gallery.






[More from Mashable: Hands On With Pebble, the Internet’s Favorite Smart Watch]


LAS VEGAS — What if your phone had two displays? Announced in mid-December, YotaPhone aims to change how people use their smartphones by bringing together a full-color LCD display on one side of the phone and an e-ink display on the other.


I caught up with Yota Device’s Vladislav Martynov at CES to give the phone a closer look.


[More from Mashable: 5 Chinese Tech Brands You’ll Be Hearing From in 2013]


In essence, the two displays on the handset each have their own unique purpose. The front display is used just as you might your traditional smartphone screen to run apps, browse the web or watch videos.


The rear display on the YotaPhone is what makes it stand out. An electronic paper display, it shows content you push to it from the front of the device. Less for interacting with and more for reference information, you can use the display for a map to your next destination, a clock, or a place to keep the boarding pass for your flight handy.


Martynov showed me a few applications designed specifically to use with the screen as well, including an app that shows low long you’ve kept a particular goal, such as not smoking. The company plans to release an API for other developers to make applications that take advantage of the dual-screen functionality as well.


Running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Martynov says that he plans to keep Android as vanilla as possible, something he feels is very important. He also wants to make sure that the phone is on-par with high-end Android smartphones, spec-wise. The current iteration uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8960 platform, and Corning’s 3D Gorilla Glass. It’s also a multi-band LTE handset that can run on LTE networks anywhere in the world.


YotaPhone is expected to go one sale during the second half of 2013.


What uses do you see for an e-ink second screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comment.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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