Sunday, November 25, 2012

8 Weird Holiday Gift Ideas For Your Music-Obsessed Giftee | As Heard On... - Yahoo! Music

 

It’s never too early to start thinking about holiday gift-giving, especially if you’re like me who always waits ‘til the last minute (I swear this year I’ll get a head start!). While tons of people will post lists of cool, gadgety, box set-y things to get for you fave music fan this year, we’ve gathered eight weird and wild gifts that will make your lucky giftee freak—in both good and bad ways. 'You gotta hear my sick dubstep MeowReMix.' DJ Cat Scratching Pad – Thank you internet. Shaped just like a turntable complete with clever stickers, the cardboard “DJ Felix” record will give your cat a few minutes of claw sharpening pleasure, while giving cat owners hours of “awws”, YouTube video-taking and Instagramming. Admit it; this is really more a gift for the owner than it is for the cat. And the description is a real urbandictionary.com workout: “Kitty is mad pumped to kick it behind the wheels of steel and throw down a dope set of old skool joints, yo! Designed in London, the Cat Scratching Pad enables your furry homeslice to spin some phat, chillout beatz with hella catitude.” Felix da Housecat must be sick of getting these sent to him. $35.00, Uncommongoods.com

Pop Superstars Bum-Rush Retail! Rihanna, Nicki, Bruno, Alicia, Ke$ha, Kid Rock, Zep, and One Direction All Fit to Be Wrapped | As Heard On... (NEW) - Yahoo! Music

 

From the flood of superstar releases hitting stores in late November and early December, you'd almost imagine there's still a viable industry devoted to the making and selling of audio recordings geared toward young people. Yes, Virginia, there is a music business! The two weeks leading up to Black Friday have, as always, been the busiest of the year for new albums. Among the stars who joined the competitive fray with releases just in the Nov. 13-20 time frame: One Direction, Phillip Phillips, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Kid Rock, Pitbull, Christina Aguilera, Susan Boyle, Kelly Clarkson, Keyshia Cole, Coldplay, AC/DC, Green Day, Soundgarden, Lana Del Rey, and, just for true old time's sake, Led Zeppelin. But the makeup of the new release bins won't sit unaltered in the weeks that follow Black Friday. Although things won't be quite as busy in early December, music fans can still look forward to post-Thanksgiving product from Alicia Keys, Ke$ha, Bruno Mars, T.I., The-Dream, Wiz Khalifa, Big Boi, and hot country newcomers Florida Georgia Line. Here's our breakdown of some of the season's freshest releases, along with some initial critical and sales reactions to those albums that are already out: ONE DIRECTION, Take Me Home The group's sophomore release just debuted with 540,000 copies, the third-best opening of 2012, trailing only Taylor Swift (who, coincidentally, is said to be dating Harry Styles… again) and Mumford & Sons.  They are, as Yahoo! Music charts columnist Paul Grein noted, "the first boy band in chart history to land two #1 albums in a calendar year." How is it? Rolling Stone's three-star review sees the One Direction glass as half-full: "Their second album rivals the best of Backstreet and 'N Sync when the material pumps…But when it doesn't (i.e., most of the ballads), a certain amount of douchiness creeps in." Entertainment Weekly's C-grade review thought the eight-month wait between releases could have been a bit longer: "Catchy new tracks 'Kiss You' and 'Heart Attack' would've fit right in on March's Up All Night. But the rush shows: Most of Take Me Home is filler with barely enough zip to keep the kids up past dinner." RIHANNA, Unapologetic The dirty sales secret is that Rihanna has always been able to move a lot more singles than album units. But that may change this time, with her seventh album (and fourth November album release in a row). After the first day of sales, Hits estimates that this one will debut with around 250,000 copies, far, far more than she's ever managed in an opening frame to date. So all the seemingly bad publicity generated by her seven-city 777 plane tour obviously had no dampening effect on sales, even if it does cause a few journalists to boycott the album in sympathy with their suffering compatriots on the jet from hell. How is it? Naturally, her defensive duet with Chris Brown has been as effective at drawing critical barbs as it has been as garnering massive amounts of publicity. Said the A.V. Club, "Rihanna's much-discussed duet with Brown, 'Nobody's Business,' forms the rotten core of Unapologetic, a fiery pop album that's unfortunately coated in the icky residue of unearned defiance that has marked Brown's recent output." The Los Angeles Times' two-star review said, "It's a little sickening, because for the first time since the incident, her addressing the complicated issue feels not like a defense of love but a marketing maneuver, a way of turning a negative into a positive." But the same review approvingly notes the album's move further into dubstep territory and contends that "musically, Rihanna has evolved into one of the more forward-thinking pop divas." BRUNO MARS, Unorthodox Jukebox (out Dec. 11) This late entry in the Christmas sweepstakes could be a real December surprise, blockbuster-wise. Mars' highly lauded host/musical guest stint on Saturday Night Live only sweetened the anticipation for a sophomore album that was heralded by the Police-evoking single "Locked Out of Heaven." With genre-spanning star producers like Mark Ronson and Jeff Bhasker on board, it's any fan's guess as to how Mars might be stretching his stylistic boundaries. PHILLIP PHILLIPS, The World From the Side of the Moon The doubly monikered American Idol winner may sell about 150,000 copies of his album during Black Friday week, per Hits' estimates. If so, that would put him behind the 197,000 that previous winner Scotty McCreery bowed with, but well ahead of a lot of other recent champions from the show. He co-wrote most of the songs, though the single "Home" is an exception. How is it? In a B-grade review, Hitfix cites as commercial advantages "his natural, warm growl and the mixed blessing of always sounding like somebody else. Namely, Phillips splits time on The World between Dave Matthews Band rockers and Mumford & Sons roots numbers." EW also cites both Mumford and Matthews—and also gives the album a middling B—but calls it "still the most relevant debut album the Idol machine has cranked out in years." KID ROCK, Rebel Soul If you can't beat 'em, very belatedly join 'em—and Kid Rock has finally signed up with iTunes after being a nearly lone dissenter. That won't hurt sales, which Hits estimates will be in the 160-180K range when first-week results are announced. Kid Rock self-produced this time after having Rick Rubin helm Born Free two years ago, and he also brought more of the missing rowdiness back into the proudly redneck mix, as titles like "Cocaine and Gin" may indicate. He hasn't abandoned his serioso side, though: "Let's Ride" is a war anthem ("Keep your heads up for roadside bombs"), and "3 Catt Boogie" finds the Mitt Romney supporter doing a vaguely libertarian protest song. How is it? A New York Daily News review says Rock seems "seems pale, cranky and small" and bemoans dropping the "looser country-rock direction" of the previous album for "mainline rock" this time. Rolling Stone gave a more enthusiastic three and a half stars to this "sprawling disc of storytelling, pop history and partying." ALICIA KEYS, Girl on Fire (out Nov. 27) Billboard got a preview of the album—as did thousands of fans, when she played excerpts in a Google + hangout two days before Thanksgiving—and said "the album ranges from balladry and bedroom talk to more upbeat, inspirational music, including the Nicki Minaj-featuring title track." Maxwell duets with her on "The Fire We Make," which also includes contributions from neo-bluesman Gary Clark Jr. Frank Ocean co-wrote a track, and other collaborators Emeli Sandé, Bruno Mars, and Babyface. Her last album bowed with a whopping 417,000 copies in 2009. Will as many fans be whipping out their Citi cards this time? KE$HA, Warrior (out Dec. 4) Her single may be called "Die Young," but Ke$ha has to be hoping that won't be what happens to her official sophomore album (or third release, if you count the hybrid Cannibal as an original). Mentor Dr. Luke is back as an executive producer, as are A-level co-producers like Max Martin, Shellback, and Benny Blanco. As for what departures are in stores, "Some will also be excited to know that I don't just do silly white-girl rap," she's said. Though it's not a rock record per se, Ke$ha is claiming T. Rex and Iggy Pop as influences—and though the former wasn't able to make her party, Pop does show up for a duet. She also has a new memoir out— My Crazy Beautiful Life—which, at her age, we can only guess will be the first of many. LED ZEPPELIN, Celebration Day It took five years, but these greats finally managed to put their one-time-only 2007 reunion show out on CD and DVD/Blu-Ray for home consumption. Industry site HitsDailyDouble.com estimates it will sell close to 100,000 when the first week of sales is up. Of course, many fans already saw the film when it premiered in theaters worldwide for a one-night-stand in October. How is it? EW went churlish with a C-grade review, saying "many of the band's crunchiest classics are pitched down to accommodate Robert Plant's aging pipes." Other notices have been more enthusiastic, like the San Francisco Chronicle's, which lauds "the late John Bonham's son Jason filling in on drums, firing on all cylinders, tapping into the vintage stomp and menace of the band's glory years with an unimpeachable set list. The passing of time has made the group sound leaner and more efficient, giving well-worn classics such as 'Black Dog' and 'Kashmir' new life." NICKI MINAJ, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded—The Re-Up A reissue of Minaj's seven-month old sophomore album adds eight new tracks. And she's taking shots at Mariah Carey and referencing Idol aplenty: "I'll take it, sign on the dotted line/But I'm quick to the check a b---- if she outta line/Shout out Mike Darnell and Nigel/Why these bums so mad that the queen on Idol, huh?" She also reminds everyone that she made the presidential news circuit—"I did a freestyle and got a shout out from Obama"—on the way to weighing in with not-ready-for-the-White-House fare like "I Endorse These Strippers." How is it? The Los Angeles Times offered a three-star review that likes this "re-up" better than the original, writing, "Minaj is at her best when offering acid-soaked tongue lashings." Will Idol producers and contestants feel the same way? KELLY CLARKSON, Greatest Hits—Chapter One That mullet she had on the American Music Awards didn't kill her, it made her stronger. Clarkson put three new tracks on her best-of, two of which are singles—"Catch My Breath" for pop radio and "Don't Rush" for country. You may have seen the former on the AMAs and the latter on the CMAs, where she was joined by duet partner Vince Gill. The just-released collection is foreseen by industry site Hits as selling in the area of 45-50K its first week. GREEN DAY, Dos! (already out) and Tre! (out Dec. 11) The second album in the band's rapidly sequential trilogy just bowed with 69,000 copies, considerably less than the 139,000 that Uno! debuted with in October. Will the third time be the charm when Tre! hits stores just two weeks before Christmas? And will Billie Joe Armstrong, MIA and last reported headed to rehab, make it home, if not back to the album-promoting circuit, for the holidays? How is it? No reports yet on Tre! But Dos! seemed to get about twice as many good reviews as its predecessor. Wrote the L.A. Times, "The good news is that it's a far better record than 'Uno!' In fact, it's an excellent Green Day album — one of its best — a catchy, revealing work… If 'Uno!' seemed to be a closed system, with Green Day working to flex its '90s punk muscles, on No. 2 the group has gone open-source, allowing in a much wider range of sounds and styles." CHRISTINA AGUILERA, Lotus She's not on the upswing. Her last album debuted with 111,000, but this follow-up bowed with a lesser 73,000… and this is her first one since she joined The Voice, proving that mass exposure doesn't always boost sales. It wasn't as if nobody saw it coming, since the lead single from the album, "Your Body," peaked at No. 34. Still, with her show in full swing, it's hard to say for sure that this one couldn't blossom into a bestseller with a hotter single. How is it? In a very mixed review, the New York Daily News criticized her for not doing more vulnerable material in the wake of her divorce. "Even when Aguilera means to shed real blood, the sheer force of her vocals cauterizes the wounds before any red can flow. She's a bully of a singer, pummeling the notes into the ground as she rails in triumph." Yet the paper found her more upbeat material "improved" and said, "Lotus contains some of the catchiest, danciest, and funniest songs of the singer's career." T.I., Trouble Man: Heavy is the Head (out Dec. 18) This one will barely have time to make it beneath Christmas trees, but T.I. seems to have faith that word will not trickle slowly to his audience about his first post-prison album being out. Guests on the obviously Marvin Gaye-inspired album include Cee-Lo Green (on the Pharrell Williams-produced "Hello"), Lil Wayne, Pink, Akon, Andre 3000, and ASAP Rocky. That's quite a coming-home party. THE-DREAM, 1977 (out Dec. 18) Experiencing some déjà vu? The-Dream released 1977 as a free mix-tape in 2011 under his given name but decided to put it out officially a week before Christmas 2012. Reviews were good enough for the project at the time of its unofficial unveiling that fans aren't too upset about being asked to dole out cash for it now, even if that means a further push-back for his next album, already announced under the hard-to-remember title Love IV MMXII... which is probably due for a 2013 name change.

Seven robbers shot dead in South Africa - Yahoo! News

 

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - An elite South African police unit shot dead seven men when they tried to rob a cash depot in western Johannesburg on Saturday evening, a spokesman for the unit said. Nine others were injured and under police guard in hospital, a spokesman of the unit known as Hawks told Reuters. Police also confiscated 11 vehicles and four firearms. "We believe we got the kingpin down. We are convinced that we got all the robbers - dead or arrested," Paul Ramaloko said. The depot belonged to Protea Coin, a security company which runs a cash-in-transit business. Crime is a chronic problem for South Africa. It has one of the highest murder rates in the world outside a war zone. About 40 percent of the adult population is jobless - a percentage expected to rise substantially in the coming years - and this is seen driving crime and widening economic inequality.

Forex: Euro Extends Losses Ahead of ECB Meeting - ForexNews.com

 

 

Risk-aversion has been the prevailing theme this week, with the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar continuing to outpace their respective counterparts while high beta currencies and risk-correlated assets, in particular the Euro and the S&P 500, have struggled to retain any footing in November. The causes for concern have been two-fold in nature: a worsening European sovereign debt crisis; and the notion that the US fiscal cliff is right around the corner. While these events have stoked demand for safety, in particular lower yielding currencies and precious metals, our focus today is on the European Central Bank, which has its monthly Rate Decision meeting today at 07:45 EST / 12:45 GMT, followed by President Mario Draghi’s press conference at 08:30 EST / 13:30 GMT. The ECB has yet to be active in Italian or Spanish bond markets following President Draghi’s promise to save the Euro via “whatever it takes,” but this isn’t a surprise given that neither country has sought an international bailout yet. With no new measures expected to be announced today and Spain continuing to sidestep the idea of a bailout – something that looks necessary to keep a lid on investors’ fears but will be nothing short of self-mutilation for the Rajoy-led government – the investment climate is looking fragile this morning. Nevertheless, if the market was in true panic mode, there would be a greater shift into the Yen and the US Dollar, with Gold and Silver selling off as well as investors hoards liquidity; this hasn’t happened. Finally, as noted in the technical section below, the S&P 500 has held fairly significant trendline support, and without a catalyst, a further breakdown may be staved off in the near-term. Taking a look at credit, weakness in periphery yields continues to weigh on the Euro. The Italian 2-year note yield has increased to 2.118% (+1.8-bps) while the Spanish 2-year note yield has increased to 3.102 % (+6.1-bps). Likewise, the Italian 10-year note yield has increased to 4.951% (+5.6-bps) while the Spanish 10-year note yield has decreased to 5.770% (+10.7-bps); higher yields imply lower prices. RELATIVE PERFORMANCE (versus USD): 10:30 GMT JPY: +0.23% AUD:+0.06% CAD:+0.02% CHF:-0.13% NZD:-0.17% GBP:-0.20% EUR: -0.22% Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index (Ticker: USDOLLAR): +0.04% (+0.54% past 5-days)

Forex: Sentiment Remains Vulnerable as Euro Retraces Gains on Light News - ForexNews.com

 

The FX majors were on pace to finish the week strong – the AUDUSD near 1.0500, the EURUSD above 1.2900, and the GBPUSD above 1.6000 – but amid some light but potentially significant developments out of Europe, risk-appetite has completely broken, with the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar surging in the early hours of European trading on Friday. Mainly, as summarized earlier, the concerns out of Europe are for two main reasons: slowing growth in the core European (not just Euro-zone) countries; and further stagnation in Greece on the policy side of things. To start: French and Swedish Industrial Production came in worse than expected in September, triggering worries that weakening growth prospects are making their way into the traditionally stronger European countries. Alongside some not-so-enthusiastic comments from German officials on growth and further delays in Greek bailout measures, the Euro has been pressured lower for the past four or five hours. Follow through today is up in the air as it is Friday, meaning that liquidity is drastically reduced by the second half of the US trading session, with Asian and European markets offline until Monday. From the technical side of the market, the breakdown in the S&P 500, which has not be entirely unexpected following the ascending channel break off of the June 4 and July 25 lows, may be nearing a stalling point. Although the broad measure of risk has now fallen out of an ascending channel off of the October 4, 2011 and June 4, 2012 lows, the most significant lows in the S&P 500 in recent memory. Coupled with the fact that the index is starting to resemble the charting pattern from mid-1987 (right before the October crash), I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t starting to get worried about high beta currencies and risk-correlated assets. We’ll explore setups for this trade next week. Taking a look at credit, Euro weakness has not been reflected in peripheral bond yields. The Italian 2-year note yield has increased to 2.338% (+1.0-bps) while the Spanish 2-year note yield has increased to 3.126 % (+0.2-bps). Similarly, the Italian 10-year note yield has decreased to 4.998% (-0.8-bps) while the Spanish 10-year note yield has decreased to 5.809% (-1.1-bps); lower yields imply higher prices. RELATIVE PERFORMANCE (versus USD): 11:05 GMT JPY: +0.29% NZD:+0.17% CAD:+0.01% AUD:-0.01% EUR:-0.20% GBP:-0.21% CHF: -0.22% Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index (Ticker: USDOLLAR): +0.03% (-0.24% past 5-days)

Europe Reaches Budget Deal on Space - NYTimes.com

 

LONDON — While European government chiefs were grandstanding in Brussels this week in what turned out to be a vain attempt to hammer out a common budget, their science ministers were quietly celebrating a deal to secure Europe’s prospects in space. At ministerial negotiations in Naples of the 20-member European Space Agency (E.S.A), the usually parsimonious British actually agreed to contribute extra funds to ensure Europe’s place in deep space exploration. And Germany and France, in a spirit of compromise that was sorely lacking in Brussels, ironed out their differences on upgrading Europe’s workhorse Ariane rocket. As European space chiefs hailed the outcome of the November 21-22 meeting, Jean-Jacques Dordain, the E.S.A.’s director-general, said the level of funding agreed was a significant achievement given current economic difficulties. Praising the agreement to spend €10.1 billion, or $13 billion, on space exploration over the next three to five years, Mr. Dordain said: “Member states recognize that space is not an expense, it’s an investment.” The successful deal, which was slightly less than Europe’s space officials wanted but at least matched current spending, was a recognition that the economies of European states could ultimately lose out if scientific research is slashed in an era of austerity. David Willetts, the British science minister, announcing an extra £300 million ($480 million) contribution to the E.S.A. earlier this month, said: “It will drive growth, create extra skilled jobs and help the U.K. to realize its ambition to have a £30 billion space industry by 2030.” As part of the Naples deal, Britain agreed for the first time to put money into a manned spaceflight program by agreeing to fund a European project to provide the propulsion unit for NASA’s new manned capsule, Orion. As a result of a Franco-German compromise, the E.S.A. will continue to pursue Germany’s preferred option for an upgraded version of the Ariane, the Ariane 5ME, which can carry heavier payloads and put them into higher orbit. However, the Naples meeting also agreed to fund France’s favored solution to build a new Ariane 6 that it says would be cheaper to launch and more competitive. “We are not talking about victories,” said Johann-Dietrich Wörner, chairman of the German space agency. “We are talking about European solutions.” The funding agreed this week pegs spending at current euro levels, so space development will lose out in real terms and some projects will have to go. Italy, France, Spain and Britain had already decided not to participate in a German-sponsored lunar lander project before the Naples meeting, meaning the E.S.A. will have to shelve plans for an unmanned landing on the south pole of the moon. The Naples meeting may have been good news for space fans and European aerospace, but scientists remain concerned about the overall impact of budgetary restraint. The Guardian newspaper reported this week that some of the world’s leading research organizations had written to warn José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, that cuts to the European Union science budget would threaten the Continent’s economic recovery. European heads of state were supposed to make a decision on science funding this week. But, as a result of the Brussels budget debacle, that is just one more decision that will have to wait.

Civil rights leader Lawrence Guyot dies in Md. at 73; endured beatings, prison during ‘60s - The Washington Post

 

A Mississippi native, Guyot (pronounced GHEE-ott) worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and served as director of the 1964 Freedom Summer Project, which brought thousands of young people to the state to register blacks to vote despite a history of violence and intimidation by authorities. He also chaired the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which sought to have blacks included among the state’s delegates to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. The bid was rejected, but another civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, addressed the convention during a nationally televised appearance. Guyot was severely beaten several times, including at the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary known as Parchman Farm. He continued to speak on voting rights until his death, including encouraging people to cast ballots for President Barack Obama. “He was a civil rights field worker right up to the end,” Guyot-Diangone said. Guyot participated in the 40th anniversary of the Freedom Summer Project to make sure a new generation could learn about the civil rights movement. “There is nothing like having risked your life with people over something immensely important to you,” he told The Clarion-Ledger in 2004. “As Churchill said, there’s nothing more exhilarating than to have been shot at — and missed.” His daughter said she recently saw him on a bus encouraging people to register to vote and asking about their political views. She said he was an early backer of gay marriage, noting that when he married a white woman, interracial marriage was illegal in some states. He met his wife Monica while they both worked for racial equality. “He followed justice,” his daughter said. “He followed what was consistent with his values, not what was fashionable. He just pushed people along with him.” Susan Glisson, executive director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi, called Guyot “a towering figure, a real warrior for freedom and justice.” “He loved to mentor young people. That’s how I met him,” she said. When she attended Ole Miss, students reached out to civil rights activists and Guyot responded. “He was very opinionated,” she said. “But always — he always backed up his opinions with detailed facts. He always pushed you to think more deeply and to be more strategic. It could be long days of debate about the way forward. But once the path was set, there was nobody more committed to the path.” Glisson said Guyot’s efforts helped lay the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state in the country, and that’s a direct tribute to his work,” she said. Guyot was born in Pass Christian, Miss., on July 17, 1939. He became active in civil rights while attending Tougaloo College in Mississippi, and graduated in 1963. Guyot received a law degree in 1971 from Rutgers University, and then moved to Washington, where he worked to elect fellow Mississippian and civil rights activist Marion Barry as mayor in 1978. “When he came to Washington, he continued his revolutionary zeal,” Barry told The Washington Post on Friday. “He was always busy working for the people.” Guyot worked for the District of Columbia government in various capacities and as a neighborhood advisory commissioner. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told The Post in 2007 that she first met Guyot within days of his beating at a jail in Winona, Miss. “Because of Larry Guyot, I understood what it meant to live with terror and to walk straight into it,” she told the newspaper. On Friday, she called Guyot “an unsung hero” of the civil rights movement. “Very few Mississippians were willing to risk their lives at that time,” she said. “But Guyot did.” In recent months, his daughter said he was concerned about what he said were Republican efforts to limit access to the polls. As his health was failing, he voted early because he wanted to make sure his vote was counted, he told the AFRO newspaper. Funeral services are pending. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Gradius ReBirth (WiiWare) Review

 

WiiWare was undeniably a shelter for a lot of old school genres that would have required a lot more investment if released at retail. Indeed, it has become quite hard to sell a game that can be beaten in a matter of two to three hours at full price like some old genres could...namely shoot 'em ups. The first of a series of three games -- the other two being Contra ReBirth and Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth -- Gradius ReBirth harks back to the roots of the franchise it belongs to, ignoring the advancements of technology that were used most efficiently by the teams of Treasure Co., Ltd. in Gradius V for PlayStation 2, but rather offering an experience closer to the original Arcade titles. Developed by M2, who also worked on the Gradius, Salamander, Twinbee and Parodius collections for PSP, the game certainly was put into good hands. How did it turn out, though? Read on to find out. One of the most distinctive aspects of this specific Gradius episode is its emphasis on a storyline. A lengthy intro, done in the style of the older MSX entries that were already notable for this aspect of things, sets the stage for the rest of the game. Planet Antichthon, Protectorate of the Gradian Empire, has suddenly fallen silent. It is feared that the Bacterians, the main villains in the Gradius series, may have infected their mother computer. It's now up to a single squadron of small spaceships, of which yours is going solo, to go out there and defeat the enemy leader to put an end to hostilities before it's too late. It's one of the most cliché pretexts for the action happening inside the game but in others of the same genre the storyline is often relegated to a mere mention on the game box art or the instruction booklet. Here, a text-based introduction is dedicated to setting the story, which is a nice thing, especially since the whole Gradius series has a quite complex story by genre standards when all episodes are taken together. Staying true to its roots, Gradius ReBirth has the player taking control of the Vic Viper spacecraft, initially armed with a sole cannon shooting forward an infinite flow of tiny bullets.

A Hyperfocus Balance Sheet: Is Hyperfocus Worth It? | ADHD from A to Zoë

 

- completed a major project - finished the project faster than if I did it in short bursts; it takes me a long time to get back on track if I leave a complex task even for a short period of time - hyperfocusing helped me remember details in a complex, multi-faceted task - felt a sense of satisfaction sacrificing other things for a worthy goal - proud of my self-discipline and commitment to a goal in saying “no” to a lot of opportunities - chose long-term over short-term gratification – not easy for someone who’s impulsive - super-motivated to get back in shape now that the project is over, and excited about that - aware that I was hyperfocusing and conscious that I’d need to catch up on other things when the project was done Con - out of touch with my friends - other activities sacrificed: exercise, bass practice, other interests - physical and spiritual well-being compromised (no time for exercise, yoga, meditation, contemplation) - forgot about some important commitments at the expense of the larger project (e.g. this Wednesday’s blog post, part three of a series which, by the way, I intend to make up next Wednesday) - feeling guilty about missed commitments - lost track of a bill thrown in a pile of papers and snapped at the employee when they called to remind me to pay it - feeling out-of-balance Could I have gotten this project done without hyperfocusing? Honest answer: doubtful. I’m reminding myself that this year was exceptionally challenging. Time-robbing life events culminated in sabotaging my ability to establish a steady work routine. With the deadline looming, I had to pull out all the stops to make it to the finish line. Chemistry Whenever I’m hyperfocusing, I’m also aware of the toll it’s taking on my body. I worked late into the night, and got up early the next morning to finish the project. Three days later, I’m aching all over. I have a headache. I’m exhausted and I think I’m coming down with the flu. On the other hand, the adrenaline rush of a deadline always sharpens and keeps my focus (hyperfocus), gives me a rush of energy, and helps me meet my goals. It’s the same way before a performance. I’ve always suffered intense stage fright, but three or four minutes onstage, and hyperfocus kicks in. My nervousness evaporates. Will working in spurts of hyperfocus have a long-term negative effect on my health? I worry about that. Do I think I can change this pattern of hyperfocusing to achieve major goals? When I first started reading about ADHD, I was stunned when I discovered several writers who described people with ADHD as going full-out, giving 100% in short bursts of productivity. This is contrasted with the more usual, 20 to 30% effort over the course of the day, day in and day out.  In Tom Hartmann’s book Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception, he describes people with ADHD as “hunters,” with short bursts of energy, focused on the hunt, followed by lulls. This describes the way I’ve always worked to a tee. No wonder we get exhausted. If, as some authors suggest, we have a genetic predisposition to work this way, how can I hope to change it? In spite of all the tips, guidelines, books, articles, and other time management tools written for people with ADHD, I feel like I’m swimming against the current if I try to force my natural energy flows through a contrived system of dams and channels. As long as it doesn’t kill me (I need to do more research on the physiological effects of hyperfocusing) I like the idea of literally going with the flow. My goal is not to fight it, but to make sure (if at all possible) the rest of my life doesn’t get quite as out of balance as it has recently. I need to keep reminding myself that the past year has been exceptionally overwhelming, and see what the new year holds. Now, before I snuggle in bed with a hot toddy, a good book, and the hope that sleep will fend off illness, let me ask you this: do you use hyperfocus to accomplish big goals? Do you use it consciously? Have you tried to change that? Why or why not? I’d love to hear your stories. Be well.

US aircraft carrier strikeforce readies in case of war with Iran - Telegraph

 

The flagship $4.5 billion carrier, a 100,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,000, was despatched four months earlier than planned to bolster the United States Navy's already formidable force in the region, the Fifth Fleet. Its mission is to keep some of the world's busiest shipping lanes open in its most combustible region; at any moment America's standoff with Iran could escalate into a crisis. "Could there be a threat?" asked Rear Admiral Mike Shoemaker, the man who would command any mission to force open the sea lanes. "Yes is the answer. Is it manageable? Also yes." Admiral Shoemaker, a wiry man with a Navy buzz cut, runs through the likely threats: anti-ship cruise missiles; midget submarines; speedboats on suicide missions. Iran's conventional air force and navy are clapped out and no match for the US Navy, but they had years of practising mine-laying. "If they sunk a tanker, that could shut the Strait for a couple of days or a week," Adm Shoemaker said. "But we could deal with that quite quickly. A massive mine-laying effort, though, would take a while to clear.

$325 million Powerball jackpot draws Springs ticket-buyers | tickets, powerball, buy - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

 

THE GAZETTE The fourth-largest jackpot in the history of the multi-state Powerball drawing meant lots of Colorado Springs dreamers were buying tickets Saturday. “Between 6 and 7 p.m. we’ll get slammed,” said Rene Green, manager of the 7-Eleven store on Garden of the Gods Road in the hours leading up to the Saturday night drawing. Colorado has never had a full Powerball winner. But, when the jackpot gets massive, people who won’t normally buy tickets will buy at least some, and others buy a lot more than usual, she said. “We never buy lotto tickets, and my husband came in and bought some,” Green said of the $325 million jackpot. The last time the Powerball jackpot was really high, the store sold more than $1,000 in tickets in a single day, she said. By 6 p.m., a steady stream of Powerball ticket buyers lined up in the Diamond Shamrock at Delmonico Drive and West Rockrimmon Boulevard. Ticket-buyers were cheerful and optimistic, with the general thought being “why not give it a shot.” “I’ll be selling tickets until the machine turns off,” said clerk Jared Conrad. “I’ll have a lot of customers come in and throw $10 or $20 on tickets.” The big jackpots always boost sales, he said. The Powerball website said odds of winning were less than one out of 175 million, but that didn’t slow down buyers. Some customers plunk down $300 to $400 in tickets in one shot, Green said. The store has seen a few small winners, but nothing major. The jackpot for Saturday night’s 42-state Powerball drawing was up to $325 million, with the winning ticket worth an estimated $212.8 million in cash. If there is no jackpot winner Saturday, the next drawing on Wednesday Nov. 28 could be worth $425 million — the highest Powerball jackpot ever. The King Soopers on Centennial Boulevard also had a steady stream of people buying tickets Saturday afternoon. “I bought two tickets and usually I only buy one,” said Janie Rawlings. Rawlings said she occasionally buys a ticket, but the big jackpot is a big draw. “Somebody’s going to win it,” she said, adding that if she won, some of the money would go to charity and she would buy a house. “I would take care of my family,” she said.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Earnings and revenues can't diverge forever: James Saft

Just about halfway through the U.S. third-quarter corporate reporting season and we find that 59 percent of S&P 500 companies have beaten their earnings estimates, down a bit from last quarter but still an upbeat number.

 

And yet about 60 percent have missed their sales targets, meaning that corporate America is somehow extracting more profit than promised despite bringing less money into the tills than expected.

 

That's admirable, but perhaps a bit disturbingly close to magical.

 

On many readings, all is rosy in the land of equities. Not only does the market have crucial support from central banks bent on forcing money into risk assets (and hoping some of the profits get spent), earnings are at record highs and the amount investors will pay for a share of those earnings is going up.

 

Analysts are forecasting fourth-quarter earnings to grow at a near 9 percent clip, down from the 17 percent they were penciling in earlier but still enough to take the earnings of the S&P 500 to almost $27 per share, in what would be yet another record.

 

And next year analysts are looking for growth of about 12 percent. That optimism, combined with quantitative easing fever and complacency over the euro zone, has allowed price-to-earnings multiples to expand, and not just in the United States.

 

On a global basis, forward-looking P/E valuations have gotten richer since early June, according to Morgan Stanley analysis, most notably for companies in mining, materials, energy and even finance.

 

That's all well and good, but very hard to square with the increasing number of companies saying they haven't been able to deliver promised growth in revenues. The huge majority of S&P 500 companies giving revenue or earnings guidance for the coming quarter have guided downwards, according to data from FactSet.

 

Third-quarter revenue for chemicals company DuPont dropped 9.2 percent from the year-before quarter, to $7.4 billion, below the $8.15 billion analysts expected, a miss the company blamed on global drops in demand. DuPont slashed its full-year earnings estimate to between $3.25 and $3.50 a share from about $4.20 before.

 

Similarly, farm and construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc lowered its forecasts for the second time in a year, citing economic weakness and uncertainty.

 

WHERE'S THE GROWTH?

 

So, we have a trend towards lower revenue growth, a dwindling number of companies beating expectations and yet a world in which investors see this combination as growing in value.

 

In some ways this is reminiscent of the housing market in the middle years of the last decade, where prices, year after year, outpaced wage and income gains. The argument then was that incomes would soon catch up and that housing was cheap on a financing basis.

 

Housing, of course, was brought down with a thump when people finally worked out that the two numbers - cost and the amount of money available to service the debt backing that cost - could not forever drift further apart.

 

So it may prove for shares.

 

Surely some of the growth of earnings is a credit to company managers, who are proving unrelenting in wringing efficiencies from corporate structures, allowing for earnings growth even in challenging times.

 

Earnings are, on some level, an opinion. There is art to it as well as just math. Think about a bank which values assets and that drives earnings: those marks are ultimately subjective. While earnings may be more or less than meets the eye, a dollar in revenues is always a dollar.

 

Try this: compare earnings on an economy-wide basis and compare to overall economic output. On this measure, corporate America does not have a lot of room to expand its share of the pie, because earnings as a percentage of GDP are at near-record highs and are about half as high again as the kinds of figures we saw in most of the past 50 years.

 

The upside is, if the growth of earnings is confirmed over time by growth in the economy, this would send money flooding into corporations and allow for equity prices to rise even more relative to earnings. That, of course, depends on the fiscal cliff, the euro zone, China and any number of other tough-to-call macro issues.

 

The downside, of course, is that earnings revert to mean in terms of their share of overall output. When you track U.S. wages against profits, you see where most of the expanding share is coming from.

 

It may well be, especially if the government is not going to become much more leveraged, that profits will be limited by wage growth within a context of low overall growth. That particular scenario is only an outside chance, but one which would cause a big fall in shares.

 

Ultimately, the pie is going to have to grow for equities to hold their ground, much less gain more.

 

(At the time of publication James Saft did not own any direct investments in securities mentioned in this article. He may be an owner indirectly as an investor in a fund. You can email him at jamessaft@jamessaft.com and find more columns at blogs.reuters.com/james-saft )

 

(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

 

(Edited by Chelsea Emery)

Election Proving a Cliff-Hanger for the Dollar

This year's presidential election in the U.S. is probably the most important in years, not only for the U.S. economy but also for the dollar.

The outcome on Nov. 6 will dictate who will be in the White House for the next four years, how much power he will have to resolve the country's immediate and long-term fiscal problems and whether the U.S. will lose the key triple-A rating that has made the dollar a safe haven for many years.

The market's focus on the election will be even more intense as it comes as the economy continues to struggle out of recession, after a couple of previous false starts, and as a way to prevent the reversal of previous tax cuts due to take place on January 2, 2013--the so-called fiscal cliff--has yet to be found.

Now, it is all in the hands of the U.S. electorate.

The problem for financial markets is that the election is becoming too close to call, with the latest polls showing the Democrat incumbent Barack Obama neck and neck with his Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

This in itself is starting to pose a threat to current market stability, especially if the final vote is too close to allow an immediate declaration and negotiations on the fiscal cliff have to be delayed even further.

As President Obama's previous attempts to resolve the issue with a Republican-led House of Representatives have shown over the last year, the issue is highly divisive and unlikely to lend itself to a quick resolution.

For financial markets, and the U.S. economy, probably the best near-term solution would be either a clear victory for Mr. Romney, keeping the House with him, or a clear victory for President Obama. In either case, that would probably mean at least a short-term extension of the existing tax cuts while negotiations on a longer-term solution take place.

But given the state of current polls, other, more messy, results are more likely. President Obama could be returned to the White House, retaining the status quo of a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the House. Or, he could lose the Senate as well and face an even more implacable task trying to reduce the tax cuts for the very rich.

Similarly, a close result with Mr. Romney in the White House but no backing in the Senate would reduce the chances of swift progress.

Whichever, the chances of a tax-cut extension will be considerably smaller and the U.S. economy could find itself falling over the infamous fiscal cliff.

A protracted stand-off between the White House and Congress would not only introduce fresh uncertainty to financial markets but bring new fiscal tightening to a U.S. economy that is already very fragile.

How this affects the dollar could prove difficult to predict. For much of this year as the global, and U.S., economies have stumbled, the dollar has remained relatively firm as investors have preferred safe havens.

But the dollar's role as one of these havens could well come under threat if the political uncertainty in Washington continues to threaten the U.S. recovery and if concern about the country's longer-term ability to deal with its gigantic deficits starts to undermine investor confidence.

Rumors once again surfaced this week that Fitch would remove the country's triple-A credit rating, a move that could make U.S. assets less attractive than they appear now, although Fitch said its rating is unlikely to change before late 2013.

Hints of what could come were already evident in U.S. Treasurys, where an auction of seven-year paper this week proved the weakest since 2009.

And there's still more than a week to go until the election.

(This is an opinion column by Nicholas Hastings, who is a Senior Correspondent in London for Dow Jones Newswires and has written about foreign exchange for more than 20 years. He previously covered a variety of markets, including equities, fixed income, commodities and energy. He can be contacted on +44-20-7842-9493, by email at nick.hastings@dowjones.com or on Twitter @NickHastingsDJ)

Friday, September 14, 2012

Clara Schumann: Famous wife but a musician in her own right

In the world of classical music, Clara Schumann's husband, Robert, is widely known. Yet Clara was not just wife and mother, but a virtuoso pianist.  Clara is getting worldwide attention Thursday, on the occasion of her 193rd birthday, with a Google Doodle.

Though Robert was 10 years older than Clara, her career started flourishing before his.

She was born Clara Josephine Wieck in Leipzig, Germany. Her music-teacher father taught her to play piano and she was performing by age 9.

INTERACTIVE: Fall Arts Preview

Around that time, Robert Schumann was in the early stages of a musical career and took piano lessons from Clara's father. But Robert became so obsessed with developing his playing technique that he damaged a finger badly enough that he had to give up playing and turn to composition. At 19, Clara became infatuated with him.

Even before it began, their marriage wasn't easy. Believing an unknown composer unfit for his talented daughter, Clara's father tried to keep them apart; when they wanted to marry he refused to give permission. They ultimately wed a day before she turned 21 and settled in Leipzig.

As he became musically proficient, she continued to perform both alone and on tour with Robert. She had their first child a year after they married and became pregnant nine more times, bearing eight children over the next 14 years.

ARTS PREVIEW: Classical music

In the mid 1840s, Robert was suffering from bouts of depression that would continue to plague him and their marriage. In 1854 he attempted to drown himself in the Rhine river and was committed to an asylum, where Clara could not visit him. She finally saw him once before he died two years later at 46. 

Clara lived for 40 more years, outliving several of her children.

She continued a long career as a concert pianist and editing her husband's works.  In her later years she taught piano in Frankfurt, where she died following a stroke at age 76, in 1896.

[For the record, 8:48 a.m., Sept. 13: An earlier version of this post had incorrect years for events in the Schumanns' lives. Robert was suffering from depression in the 1840s, not the 1940s, and Clara died in 1896, not 1986.]

 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Jerry Lawler

In what was one of the scariest scenes in the history of live television, longtime wrestling announcer and former in-ring performer Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack on Monday Night Raw. The event continued during the episode that saw paramedics immediately respond to the fallen announcer and administer CPR. Lawler was brought to the locker room and transported to a local Montreal hospital. During the telecast, Lawler's broadcast partner,  Michael Cole, updated the WWE Universe on the health status throughout the remainder of the show. At the conclusion of the telecast, Cole announced to the WWE Universe that "Jerry Lawler's condition is stabilized, he is breathing on his own."

 

WWE statement sent out in the early morning hours revealed that the 62-year-old Lawler did indeed suffer a heart attack.

"Jerry "The King" Lawler suffered a heart attack while commentating during last night's broadcast of Monday Night Raw in Montreal. We are hopeful Jerry makes a full recovery and returns to WWE in the near future. Our thoughts are with Jerry and his family."

As Cole stated during his commentary following the incident, Lawler is a fighter and won't be stopped by anything. I would expect that he would stay away from the announcing table for the time being and depending on how severe the heart attack was, he may be forced away forever. As someone who grew up watching him in a "kiss my foot" match with Bret Hart to being a part of the greatest announce team in the history of professional wrestling with Jim Ross, that would be a terrible thought.

Michael Strahan, Kelly Ripa’s rumored new sidekick on ‘Live! With Kelly,’ was living it up in Jamaica when he got the news

Michael Strahan, who was vacationing in Jamaica when he got the news he was the new co-host of 'Live! With Kelly,' gets an eyeful.

Michael Strahan was living it up in Jamaica when he found out he was Kelly Ripa’s new TV sidekick, TMZ reported Saturday.

The ex-Giants star was vacationing with fiance Nicole Murphy when he got the call confirming he was joining “Live! With Kelly,” the gossip site said.

ABC has refused to confirm that Strahan, 40, landed the coveted spot.

But numerous reports last week said Strahan won the coveted slot vacated by Regis Philbin.

Ripa’s new co-host will be announced Sept. 4 on the show.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/michael-strahan-kelly-ripa-new-sidekick-live-kelly-living-jamaica-news-article-1.1144674#ixzz26LyPamWn

Chris Brown Tattoo

When it comes to tattoos, Chris Brown and Rihanna are clearly on the same wavelength.

The "Don't Judge Me" singer showed off some fresh ink Monday hot on the heels of debuting a new neck tattoo resembling his former lover - and this time, it looks as though Brown has chosen the same spot that Rihanna got her own new tattoo.

PHOTOS: CELEBRITY INK

"About to go in on this #fighterjet #f16 #plane #tattoo on #chrisbrown," tattoo artist John Petro captioned a shot of a tattooed Brown, 23, with the beginnings of a fighter jet etched onto his torso.

BROWN13F_2_WEB
Brown’s tattoo of fighter jet is in same place as Rihanna new tattoo. (f--kyopictures/via Instagram)

The finished jet, which points nose-first toward Brown's belly button, sits across the singer's abs, just below his chest.

Rihanna's latest ink, of an Egyptian goddess, is similarly etched into her midsection with the wings spread just below the "We Found Love" singer's breasts.

"Goddess Isis - Complete Woman - Model for future generations - #GRANGRANDOLLY," she wrote on her Twitter Sunday. "Always in and on my heart."

RIHANNA_WEB
Rihanna’s latest tattoo could be seen during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games on September 9, 2012 in London, England. (via Instagram; Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Earlier this month, Brown showed off another new piece of body art, with a sketch of a woman's face imprinted onto the right side of his neck.

Fans and the media noted that the tattoo bore a striking resemblance to a bruised and battered Rihanna, but Brown defended his ink against haters on Tuesday.

"I'm an artist and this is art," he wrote on his Twitter account. "Dia de los Muertos."

BROWN13F_1_WEB
Chris Brown with tattoo artist John Petro. (Johnpetro/via Instagram)

Brown's rep confirmed to E! News that the drawing is a cross between "a sugar skull (associated with the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead) and a MAC cosmetics design he saw," rather than a nod to the explosive night back in 2009 when he beat up then-girlfriend Rihanna.

The pair have had a tumultuous relationship but still remain friends, and earlier this month, even sparked rumors that their romance is back on after the two locked lips at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Rihanna, 24, called Brown the "love of her life" in an emotional interview on Oprah Winfrey's talk show last month, and admitted that they "love each other and we probably always will."

Brown is currently linked to model Karreuche Tran.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/chris-brown-new-tattoo-fighter-jet-spot-rihanna-tribute-tat-grandmother-article-1.1157569#ixzz26Lxvad6X

Sons Of Anarchy

 

The fifth season of "Sons of Anarchy" premiered on Tuesday (September 11) in bloody fashion, with one of the lingering plot threads from season four — badass biker Tig Trager's accidental killing of a powerful criminal's daughter — immediately heightened in an even gorier fashion than fans have come to expect from the FX biker drama.

Towards the end of the premiere (titled "Sovereign"), SAMCRO's former Sergeant at Arms, Tig, came face to face with the father of the innocent girl he accidentally killed in the season four finale — Damon Pope, a ruthless gangster played by "Lost" and "Oz" actor Harold Perrineau. No amends were made between the two. Quite the opposite in fact: Tig, handcuffed to a chain, was helpless to watch as his own daughter, Dawn, was burned to death by Pope.

"It was a pretty tough place to go to in my head," actor Kim Coates, who plays Tig, told MTV News about shooting the gut-wrenching scene. "What happens to him and his daughter, I can't even imagine. Kurt told me [about it] back in March. We were in New York together, and when he told me, I actually got the chills. I didn't break down or anything, but I did tear up. I can't even imagine that happening."

The death of Dawn was shot over the course of two brutal nights, Coates said. The actor credits his performance to "Sons" director Paris Barclay, writer and creator Kurt Sutter, as well as the show's props department.

"They built this device where they saved my wrists from being ripped off by the shackles," Coates said of the props work in that scene. "Those were real handcuffs and that was a real chain. Without this propped, leather, rubberized thing underneath my shirt, I wouldn't have been able to do that scene without ripping my hands off. What they were able to let me do was to be in it, be real, and pulling at those chains constantly without ripping my hands off. That saved my entire performance."

"In some ways, it was the easiest acting I've ever had to do," he added. "It was so real. So violent. The tears didn't stop flowing for two nights. When I went home after that second night, I just poured myself a big drink. It was about seven in the morning, and my wife just left me alone. I still have a hard time talking about it now. It's what we do this business for, to be given [material] like that."

Tig has had no shortage of enemies to go up against over the past several seasons of "Sons," but with one flick of a cigar, Damon Pope is now at the top of the list.

"Harold did such a great job. I think he smoked about 40 cigars that night. He was frightening," Coates said about Perrineau's performance. "Pope is the kind of guy that Tig has never been up against before in his life. This is the kind of mobster who is so svelte, money and stealth that you don't even know he's around, but you feel him, always. You could be shot coming out of a bakery at any second. He has that kind of fear factor in him."

Even if Pope delivered the killing blow, there's a strong argument to be made Clay Morrow is also responsible for Dawn's death. Clay was shot by a fellow club member at the end of season four, but rather than outing his fellow Son (and himself), he blamed the shooting on rival gang the One-Niners. That led Tig to seek immediate vengeance, which directly resulted in the death of Pope's daughter. If Clay hadn't lied, Tig wouldn't have gone after the Niners, and Dawn would still be alive. That connection is very much not lost on the grieving, vengeful father.

"Last season, [Ron Perlman's character, Clay] was turned into a monster. Things got out of control," said Coates. "Tig and Clay have been on the outs for a couple of seasons now. But that lie was the gravest mistake for me to hear, for what I ended up doing, for what happens to me. You gotta see what happens between Clay and Tig this year, man."

No matter who's to blame for what, one thing is clear: Tig is at an all-time low. Not only is his daughter dead as a consequence of his own actions, but he's not even the Sergeant at Arms of SAMCRO anymore. Key parts of Tig's identity have already fallen away, and to hear Coates tell it, the turbulent ride is far from over.

"Tig doesn't know where he fits anymore. He's so lost," said the actor. "He's completely off the leash ... his world is free-falling for sure. I think people are going to be absolutely shocked and saddened. Wait until you see what happens."

iPhone 5: No Steve Jobs, no sizzle

Now I'm beginning to wonder if Amazon does better Apple keynotes than Apple does. This riff isn't a knock on Apple per se, but discipline is lacking. First, Apple saw most of its iPhone 5 features leaked ahead of time. Then, there's a question of editing. Would Jobs have combined an iPhone 5, iPod, and iTunes revamp, which happens to resemble Microsoft's Zune service, in one shindig?

Probably not.

Without the showmanship and Jobs' reality distortion field, these Apple announcements look like really nice upgrades -- for Apple users. A 4-inch screen is nice, but I already have one on my Android device. LTE is nice too, but I have that already. Apple execs today don't have me salivating over the iPhone 5. Jobs would have told me I had to give a crap and I would have.

The mesmerization routine is gone. Apple has solid engineering and gave you the iPhone you should have had last year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will tell you that the company is firing on all cylinders. And it is. Apple's reality distortion field isn't at 100 percent these days, but the financials are. Apple's lock on an ecosystem is in place too. And oh by the way Apple will sell a zillion iPhone 5 devices around the world.

Cook said at Apple's powwow via CNET:

When you look at each of these, they are incredible industry leading innovations by themselves. But what sets them apart, and what puts Apple way out ahead of the competition is how they work so well together. Only Apple could create such amazing software hardware and services and put them together into such a powerful, integrated solution. Apple has never been stronger, and that's because of the dedication of our employees... they are doing the best work of their lives.

Cook is right to some degree, but he said the one word that makes me cringe: Solution. The word "solution" is what enterprise vendors say all day long. Solution is the word companies to sell you an integrated stack of stuff. Jobs would have never used a word like solution. Solution didn't sell and wasn't magical. "Solution" is used when you can't put in English what your products actually do. In Apple's messaging a word like solution is the equivalent of lobbing a nuclear missile into a force field. Perhaps the force field -- reality distortion field in Apple's case -- holds, but it'll be damaged.

This story was first published as "I miss Apple's reality distortion field" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

iPhone 5: What we didn't get

Of course, whether it truly lives up to expectations won't matter to millions of people with older iPhones (and other smartphones) who've been waiting to upgrade to the next iPhone no matter what. But for those who have an iPhone 4 or 4S and are on the fence about upgrading, here's a look at some key features Apple left out of this model that may find their way into the next iPhone (let's call it the iPhone 5S for now).

Get a Vizio 14-inch ultrabook for $598

Ultrabooks -- often regarded as the Windows camp's answer to the MacBook Air, but really just a marketing term to describe thin, lightweight laptops. (In my day they were called ultraportables, but whatever.)

Most ultrabooks start at $799, a hard price to swallow given that non-"ultra" laptops packing just as much power often sell for half as much.

So on paper, at least, today's deal is looking mighty sweet: While supplies last, Wal-Mart has the Vizio Thin+Light CT14-A0 ultraportable for $598, with free store pickup. Obviously you'll be on the hook for sales tax as well.

The CT14 features an Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB solid-state drive (yum), and a 14-inch LED-backlit screen. It's also packing Bluetooth, a Webcam, two USB 3.0 ports, and an HDMI output.

Of course, the really sexy specs are these: the unit measures 9.2 by 13.3 by 0.67 inches (translation: it's mighty thin) and weighs 3.2 pounds. Sure, the MacBook Air still has it beat, but the MacBook Air starts at $1,000.

Like I said, all this sounds pretty good on paper. But according to CNET's review of the Vizio CT14, not everything here is as "ultra" as it should be.

Specifically, the reviewer dinged its battery life and touch pad, both important considerations in any laptop purchase. Other demerits came from the non-backlit keyboard and curious lack of an SD slot.

On the plus side, the CT14 was praised for having "an excellent consumer-electronics-inspired design" and being "enviably thin and light." No mistake about it: this baby's a looker.

It's also the single most affordable ultrabook I've seen to date. If you don't need an all-day battery but do need an extra $200 in your pocket, this might be worth a look.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Apple debuts iPhone 5, new iPods, and more

 

During the Apple event today, the company announced the latest version of the operating system that powers its popular mobile devices. Scott Forstall, Apple's SVP of iOS, promises that iOS 6 will bring 200 new features, including tighter Facebook integration, an empowered Siri voice assistant, and the capability to conduct FaceTime calls over a cellular network.

Yet, it's Apple's new Maps app that was easily the star of the show. Created by the company, the app finally adds turn-by-turn directions along with info cards for businesses, a "flyover mode" when searching for an address, and a full 3D satellite view that displays buildings, terrain, and landmarks. There will be much more, of course, but even at this early point it's clear that Apple has filled a few gaping holes on our iOS wish list.

iOS 6 will become available on September 19 to the iPhone 3GS and later models and tosecond- and third-generation iPads. Note, however, that not all of the new features will be available for all iOS 6-compatible devices (more on that below). And, now, here's a breakdown of the features talked about today.

iPhone 5

 

Now that the feverish iPhone 5 anticipation is simmering down into the reality of the announcement, it's time to see what the initial reactions are to the news.

Here's the big summary. The glass and aluminum iPhone 5 sports 4G LTE, a 4-inch Retina display, an upgraded camera, iOS 6, and a fast new A6 chip. It's also 7.6mm thick and weighs 20 percent less than the iPhone 4S. One of the biggest changes is the new, much-smaller Lightning connector. An adapter will make it work with older connectors, but it's quite a departure for both consumers and accessory makers.