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Contents

1 2011 5

1.1 April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

10 Hilarious Vintage Cellphone Commercials [VIDEOS] (2011-04-03 11:42) . . . . . . . . . 5

U.S. robot to survey Japan plant (2011-04-03 13:18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

AT&T cuts off revenue for Jawa (2011-04-03 13:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

APS, SRP are providing $99 home energy audits (2011-04-03 13:21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Dish Network, billionaire may bid for Blockbuster (2011-04-03 14:02) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

13 Ugliest Phones of the Mobile Era - Yahoo! Shopping (2011-04-09 15:51) . . . . . . . . . 11

Dish’s Blockbuster buy may keep icon alive (2011-04-09 22:13) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Planned wireless Internet network threatens GPS (2011-04-09 22:15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Terror warnings will have 2 levels (2011-04-09 22:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

FCC rules aim to spur wireless-broadband competition (2011-04-09 22:28) . . . . . . . . . . 18

Valley company offers storage, organization (2011-04-09 22:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Flexible plastic screens edge closer to commercialization as Army, tech manufacturers collab-orate with ASU (2011-04-10 15:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Cisco plans to shut Flip business (2011-04-16 16:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Recipient: Stem-cell therapy is God’s will (2011-04-17 13:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Car-charging market is becoming competitive (2011-04-17 14:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

’PlayBook’ could redeem BlackBerry maker (2011-04-24 13:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Closed book: E-readers keep restrictive format (2011-04-24 13:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Apple’s earnings nearly double (2011-04-24 13:50) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Apple location tracking questioned (2011-04-24 13:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Amazon glitch hurts Web clients (2011-04-24 13:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

How to back up your Android phone - CNET (2011-04-24 15:23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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4

Chapter 1

2011

1.1 April

10 Hilarious Vintage Cellphone Commercials [VIDEOS] (2011-04-03 11:42)

If you remember the days when having a “transportable” telephone meant you had to carry around apowerpack the size of a beer cooler, then this collection of videos is going to send you down memory lane.

For anyone who doesn’t recall those golden years, this gallery is a fascinating insight into the cellphonetechnology of yesteryear. Commercials are like windows onto a society’s cultural mores. Here you can catcha glimpse of what was aspirational at the time.

Prepare yourself for some seriously retro tech, some cheesy commercial toons and some just plain awful hairand click through the gallery. Let us know in the comments below which ads are your favorites. [1]View AsSlideshow » 1. Ericsson Commercial Let’s face it. The only reason that woman can hide her humongousphone is because her hair is so big. [EMBED]

2. BT Cellnet Commercial Ex-Doctor Who Tom Baker sells out, sorry, advertises BT Cellnet phones bycomparing them to a Roman amphitheater. We don’t really get it either. [EMBED]

3. Radio Shack Commercial This phone is only ”transportable” in the very loosest sense of the word.[EMBED]

4. Nokia Advert Here, Nokia takes an unusual approach by promoting the cell phone as a high-tech littleblack book for sleazy yuppies. [EMBED]

5. General Electric Cell Phone Commercial If you ever wondered why General Electric never made it big inthe cell phone market, this advert from 1989 should help shed some light. [EMBED]

6. Motorola Flip Phone Commercial Motorola’s approach to flogging early cellphones was to highlight everysingle scenario in which such a device might prove useful. We get it already! [EMBED]

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7. BT Pagers Advert This ad is so bad it’s good. [EMBED]

8. Centel Commercial Billed on YouTube as the first cellphone ad, this ghastly video is all aspirationallifestyle and good looking, healthy and affluent people. It apparently didn’t do Centel much good in the longrun. [EMBED]

9. Qualcomm Commercial Now this is just plain scary. [EMBED]

10. Motorola DynaTAC Commercial We leave you with our favorite video of the lot. This informative clipfrom Motorola brings the news that eventually, ”seeing people using cellular phones may seem as commonplaceas someone checking time on an electronic watch.” Bring on the ”cellular revolution!” [EMBED]

by Amy-Mae Elliott Mashable April 3, 2011

[2]10 Hilarious Vintage Cellphone Commercials [VIDEOS]

1. http://mashable.com/2011/04/03/vintage-phone-commercials/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_

campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

2. http://mashable.com/2011/04/03/vintage-phone-commercials/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_

campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29#view_as_one_page-gallery_box1053

U.S. robot to survey Japan plant (2011-04-03 13:18)

TOKYO - Cool water powered by diesel generators or firetruck pumps continued to circulate around nuclearfuel rods in reactors at the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear-power plant Tuesday, limiting thepotential for further releases of toxic particles, as workers struggled to contain the spread of radioactivecontamination.Crews piled sandbags and concrete blocks around the mouths of flooded tunnels to keep contaminated waterfrom spilling into the sea and slowly pumped stagnant radioactive water out of dark turbine rooms.To help survey the facility, the U.S. Energy Department is sending a robot and several radiation-shieldedcameras, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. The tank-treaded robot, called Talon, is being dispatched from theIdaho National Laboratory and will scout the most radioactive areas of the plant with cameras and radiationsensors.At the same time, scientists - under orders from Japanese nuclear regulators - painstakingly increased theirdocumentation of the damage that explosions from the malfunctioning reactors and probable leaks from oneor more reactor cores have begun to inflict on the country’s food and water supply and its environment.”Monitor,” ”measure,” ”follow” and ”study” have become the mantras of government officials who have onlythe earliest glimpses of how the disaster will evolve.At a meeting of the Japanese parliament, Prime Minister Naoto Kan criticized plant operator Tokyo Electric

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Power Co. for failing to adequately protect the facility from disaster. The plant was flooded by a wave thateasily swept over its 20-foot-high protective wall.When asked about whether contaminated water on the site is continuing to spread, Hidehiko Nishiyama,director general for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said he had no data to show that it was.But Tokyo Electric should ”strengthen surveillance and monitoring,” Nishiyama said. The same goes fortracking the extent of plutonium found in five soil samples taken at the plant or the path of radioactiveiodine that has been traced in the ocean.On Monday, the utility reported that underground tunnels outside the building were filled with water.Radiation doses in both buildings near the second reactor measured in excess of 1,000 millisieverts per hour,potent enough to cause serious illness after several hours of exposure. The limit on workers there is 250millisieverts of radiation per year, which they would reach in 15 minutes at the most radioactive sites in thefacility.Government officials said they would work to improve conditions for the hundreds of workers who are riskingtheir lives to bring the plant under control. An inspector for the nation’s nuclear regulator on Mondayoffered a picture of harsh and chaotic work conditions: The workers eat only two meals a day because ofsporadic shipments of food and sleep in one large room or hallways at a headquarters near the plant. Theyhave limited fresh water and no outside phone lines.Nuclear regulators and Tokyo Electric officials say they still do not know the precise source of the leak. Theybelieve it is a broken pipe or a crack in a condensation chamber near the base of the reactor building, andthat seepage has come into contact with partially melted nuclear fuel rods in the reactor’s core.Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. officials expressed concern about the limited information shared by theJapanese. Citing ”many gaps in our knowledge,” Peter Lyons, acting assistant secretary at the Departmentof Energy, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, ”It appears all three reactor cores aredamaged” but to unknown extent.Washington Post Mar. 30, 2011 12:00 AM[1]U.S. robot to survey Japan plant

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/03/30/20110330japan0330.html

AT&T cuts off revenue for Jawa (2011-04-03 13:20)

A local company in the crosshairs of two lawsuits over how it charges for premium text-messaging serviceshas had its revenue cut off by two of the nation’s largest wireless networks.AT &T Inc., the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., said Tuesday that it will investigate Scottsdale-based Jawa for cyberfraud and that it has temporarily suspended the codes that allow the company to earnrevenue from the sale of its text-messaging services.Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 carrier in the U.S., filed suit against Jawa earlier this month and already termi-nated codes associated with the company. The lawsuit targets Jawa Chief Executive Jason Hope, five otherpeople and 20 limited-liability companies Verizon Wireless says are controlled by Jawa.Without citing Jawa specifically, Sprint Nextel, which ranks third in size, said it ”suspended a series ofpremium short codes earlier this month to provide an opportunity for obtaining additional information inlight of questions that have emerged.”In a statement, AT &T said it is aware of the suspected text-messaging scheme outlined in the lawsuit filedby Verizon.”Because we want to determine as quickly and effectively as possible whether or not the allegations areaccurate, we have retained a nationally recognized cyberfraud-expert team to investigate,” AT &T said.The carrier said Jawa has agreed to cooperate by allowing the independent investigators full access to dataand records.

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”In the interim, we have suspended the short codes identified in the complaint and have identified and sus-pended additional related short codes,” the statement said.AT &T this month said it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a deal valued at $39 billionthat would make it the largest cellphone company in the U.S.Lawsuits filed by Verizon and the Texas attorney general allege that Jawa, a cellphone-applications devel-oper, used shell corporations, false business addresses, websites that did not comply with industry standardsand diversionary software to deceive customers to buy its services.The lawsuits demand that Jawa halt its alleged fraudulent practices. The lawsuits also seek punitive damagesand customer restitution.A spokesman for AT &T had no information on the amount of revenue the company makes from Jawacustomers. But he said that the company maintains a liberal refund policy and that customers with unau-thorized charges should request one.Jawa said Tuesday that it has been regularly communicating with AT &T regarding what it called false anddisparaging statements made by Verizon.”The evidence in the lawsuit will show that Verizon’s vicious attacks on Jawa are premised upon Verizon’sreckless reliance upon inaccurate information provided to Verizon by a disgruntled former Jawa employee,”the statement reads.In a complaint filed March 7 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, attorneys for Verizon detailed allegations ofhow customers conducting Internet searches could be duped into providing their cellphone numbers, whichtriggered monthly charges. Verizon Wireless claims Jawa used sophisticated techniques so that its auditorscouldn’t discover the deceptive marketing.The case centers on premium text-messaging services, which include ringtones, news and other content deliv-ered for a fee to a customer’s wireless phone. Once customers sign up, the costs are added to their monthlywireless bill.Hope denies the allegations. Verizon simply wants the revenue brought in by Jawa and similar companiesfor itself, he has argued. Jawa has filed a counterclaim to stop a preliminary injunction sought by Verizon.The hearing is set for April 13.Because the company is confident in the products and services, and in order to allay any concerns, Jawa saidit voluntarily agreed to AT &T’s independent audit.AT &T said it has put safeguards in place to protect its customers when they are considering purchasingthird-party content. They aim to help customers understand the product and possible charges before theyagree to buy it, the company said.”If third parties do not abide by our customer-protection policies, we can (and have) terminated their abilityto sell content to our customers,” AT &T said.by John Yantis The Arizona Republic Mar. 30, 2011 12:00 AM[1]AT &T cuts off revenue for Jawa

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/03/30/

20110330jawa-att-scottsdale-investigation.html

APS, SRP are providing $99 home energy audits (2011-04-03 13:21)

Home-energy expert Ken Pancost opened the ceiling grate for a Chandler home’s air-conditioner earlier thismonth, shone his flashlight inside and immediately spotted a gap where hot air from the attic was beingsucked into the air-conditioner.Instead of supplying the air-conditioner with air from inside the home, which is easy to cool, the unit wasworking twice as hard to cool the superhot attic air and blow it into the house.The small gap was costing the homeowner $50 to $80 a year in wasted energy.”Oh, that’s nice,” homeowner Theresa Boughton said when Pancost showed her the flaw, which also makes

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housework more demanding because it blows dusty air from the attic into the home.Boughton took advantage of a $99 deal from Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service Co. to haveenergy experts audit her home and report how she can make repairs to save on power bills.The audits help homeowners make the most cost-efficient home-energy repairs and not overlook simple stepsto save electricity.It might sound counterintuitive that electric companies would try to get customers to buy less of theirproduct, but utility officials agree that it is better and cheaper to conserve electricity than to build newpower plants to supply power as demand increases.The SRP budget for efficiency projects this year is $39.3 million, while the budget at APS is $60 million.Both utilities plan to increase that spending in their next budgets.Boughton’s audit paid for itself before the family made any repairs. Pancost and his partner, Ben Chao,from Arizona Energy Management and Remodel in Phoenix, showed her that reducing the run time on herpool pump to six from nine hours a day can save her about $200 a year.”All we had to do was change one setting on the timer,” she said. ”That pays for them to have come anddone the energy audit.”Both SRP and APS call the program Home Performance With Energy Star and base it on guidance fromthe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.The $99 cost is a discount from the $400 or more that contractors normally would charge for such an audit.The utilities also offer rebates for certain work if the auditors identify the need for it, such as insulation andair-duct sealing. Some rebates are available only if the problems are discovered through a certified audit.It takes about a week for the audit report to be complete, and the contractors then schedule a meeting withthe homeowners to discuss the results and the most cost-effective repairs that can be made.The homeowners have no obligation to make any repairs or pay for anything more than the $99 audit andare given 10 compact-fluorescent lightbulbs, a low-flow showerhead and faucet aerators, worth about $50, aspart of the deal.The auditors gave Boughton several repair ideas in a four-page report on her home, which looks much likethe report a home inspector provides on houses for sale.During the audit, Pancost and Chao sealed her front door to perform a blower-door test, in which air isforced out of the home with a fan and pressure readings are taken to determine where the home and its ductsare leaking.The test found a few major problems that prevent the air-conditioner from cooling the home efficiently.The home formerly had an evaporative cooler, and when it was removed a few years ago, the contractorssimply left the ductwork in place, creating wasted space in the ducts.Also, the connection on the roof between the air-conditioner and the home has a visible gap, allowing cooledair to get hot before blowing into the home.And the air-conditioner on the house is larger than needed, but the ductwork supplying it is sized for asmaller unit, making the air-conditioner work extra hard to supply air.”It has been a few years, and at this point, I don’t know if there is any recourse to go back to the contractor(who completed the ductwork),” she said. ”You assume somebody is doing a good job, and obviously theydidn’t.”The family has already decided to install a few hundred dollars worth of shade screens on the windows,which, like many of the repairs, qualify for rebates from the utility.And based on the report, they could hire contractors to make some of the other suggested repairs.”It validated some of the things we thought about,” Boughton said. ”It is all in scientific terms and some ofthe things we would not have known about.”The Boughtons’ energy bills are $100 to $120 in the winter and as high as $350 in the summer, even whenthey keep the thermostat set at 80 to 82 degrees in their 2,100-square-foot home.”This house was built in the 1980s, when they were just slapping them together,” Boughton said.Last summer was especially costly, with three college-age children spending their time off at the house.”Between the rates going up and the kids being home, you try to control things, but it’s just not going to

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happen,” Boughton said.A few years back, the family tried the time-of-use rate plan that charges more for energy used during peaktimes but discounts energy used at night or early in the morning.”Disastrous,” Boughton said. ”The kids did laundry whenever they wanted, ran the dryer. It just didn’twork.”The audits outline how many years it will take to pay off the investment of any work that is done to helphomeowners determine if the work is worth the investment.”The normal payback for duct sealing is one to five years,” Chao said. ”Usually, we don’t recommend anyrepairs that are beyond that 10-year mark (for payback).”When contractors are hired to fix the energy problems, the workers must test to ensure the fixes are savingenergy before they can collect rebate from the utilities.”They will set up the test equipment, and if it is not where they like it, they keep fixing and sealing andlooking for hidden areas,” Chao said.Chao said that the things he found in the Boughton home were typical of homes in the Valley.He said he has never audited a home without finding places to save money.”Even right now, I’m writing a report on a home built in 2005 in Peoria near Lake Pleasant, an extremelynice house,” he said. ”They told us they had comfort issues. When I got in the attic, they had crushed ducts,detached ducts.”by Ryan Randazzo The Arizona Republic Mar. 30, 2011 12:00 AM[1]APS, SRP are providing $99 home energy audits

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/03/30/20110330aps-srp-home-energy-audits.

html

Dish Network, billionaire may bid for Blockbuster (2011-04-03 14:02)

[1] NEW YORK - Several bidders are set to duke it out for Block-buster Inc. at a bankruptcy auction in New York on Monday. They reportedly include Dish Network Corp.and billionaire investor Carl Icahn.The movie-rental chain has received several bids other than the opening bid of $290 million from a group ofdebt holders made in February. Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September.Dish and Icahn have each submitted a bid, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing anonymous sourcesfamiliar with the matter.Dish Network declined to comment. Icahn could not immediately be reached for comment.Jay Indyke, attorney for the committee of unsecured creditors, says several bids had come in but did notspecify who they are from.Icahn has been expected to make a bid. He was part of the group of debtholders that provided Blockbusterfinancing to operate while in bankruptcy in September. Everyone in that group, except for Icahn, made anopening bid in February, known as a ”stalking horse” bid, to buy Blockbuster for $290 million.

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Blockbuster used to dominate the U.S. movie-rental business. But it lost money for years as that businessdeclined because customers shifted to Netflix Inc., video on demand and DVD rental kiosks.Prospective bidders are either after Blockbuster’s assets, such as its name, kiosks and movie-download ser-vice, or the money they can make from liquidating the brand, analysts said.”The prospective bidders would have to believe that they can generate sufficient cash to provide paybackplus a return on their investment,” said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. ”I am skeptical that a sale willoccur at a price higher than was offered a few weeks ago.”When it filed for bankruptcy protection in September it was down to 3,000 stores, less than a third of thepeak of 9,100 in 2004. In December, the chain said it planned to close 182 more in the next few months.Following the auction, a sale-approval hearing is scheduled for Thursday.by Mae Anderson Associated Press Apr. 2, 2011 12:00 AM[2]Dish Network, billionaire may bid for Blockbuster

1. http://media.cnbc.com/j/CNBC/Sections/News_And_Analysis/__Story_Inserts/graphics/__PEOPLE/blockbuster_AP.

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2. http:

//www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/02/20110402biz-blockbuster-bankruptcy0402.html

13 Ugliest Phones of the Mobile Era - Yahoo! Shopping (2011-04-09 15:51)

[1] ©Nokia/TheStreet illustrationNokia 7600

Attractive [2]cell phones are easy to find.

Ever since [3]Motorola’s Razr and, later, the [4]Apple iPhone, manufacturers have had to work hard on pleas-ing designs. Gorgeous, giant glass fronts framed in elegant black, sleek steel or shiny chrome, [5]smartphonespack brains and beauty.

But not always. Before the mobile phone industry got all busy with design makeovers and tummy tucks,there were – and still are – some delightfully hideous phones that represented the other side of the beautytrend. The Street has gone back through the past decade to dig up some of the best examples of designsthat make you wince and stare in disbelief. The clueless stylings, the flights of fancy into odd shapes, theobsession with square versus rounded – it is a wonderfully colorful history.

Here are 13 of the ugliest phones ever in this century:

No. 1: [6]Nokia 7600

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. While Apple was changing the phone industry with a super-slimtouchscreen iPhone in 2007, Nokia came out with this gem. (Shown above) It’s not clear what inspiredthe small screen and the pig’s ear shape, but it gets top honors in this contest. Any wonder why Apple iscleaning up in mobile, while [7]Nokia is clearing out.

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[8]Samsung Cleo©Samsung/TheStreet illustration

No. 2: [9]Samsung Cleo

Ah yes, the ”lady” phone. The [10]Samsung Cleo really hit the mark with this one. Pink is bad enough, butdoes square really speak to the female phone buyer? What a cute, ah ... cigarette case? um ... makeupcompact? Oh, look at that, it’s a phone!

[11]Research In Motion BlackBerry 8700©BlackBerry/TheStreet illustration

No. 3: [12]Research In Motion BlackBerry 8700

Business folk cherished this squat, homely little phone. Who cared that it was pudgy and unapologeticallyplastic? One redeeming feature was the thumb wheel, which allowed hard-chargers to scroll through emailswith one hand and, you know, master the universe with the other.

[13]Nokia 3620©Nokia/TheStreet illustration

No. 4: [14]Nokia 3620

Not to be outdone by those pesky Swedes, Finnish phone giant Nokia totally turned the tables on the [15]SonyEricsson T61z and made the 3620 with an oval bottom and a square top. Take that Ericsson.

[16]Sony Ericsson t61z©Sony Ericcson/TheStreet illustration

No. 5: [17]Sony Ericsson t61z

It was a radical move by Sony Ericsson with the T61z phone. Do people want corners or curves? Let’s givethem both. Sony Ericsson made the T61z square on the bottom and oval on top. Brilliant. Who wouldn’tlike a phone shaped like a shoe-print?

[18]Motorola Nextel i500©Nextel/TheStreet illustration

No. 6: [19]Motorola Nextel i500

Police-tape yellow and shaped a lot like a firefighter’s walkie-talkie, the [20]Motorola Nextel i500 wasn’ttrying to be one of your pretty phones. It was aimed at first- responders of business. Tech crews and workersout in the field needed a rugged-looking phone on their belt; the i500 was the perfect accessory.

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[21]Motorola Flipout©Motorola/TheStreet illustration

No. 7:[22]Motorola Flipout

Is there a demon whispering ”make it square” in the ear of phone designers? Even the new Motorola couldn’tresist the temptation. [23]The Flipout, launched earlier this year, brings a whole new approach to squarewith its interesting corner hinge. Foxy? No. Weirdly boxy? Oh yes.

[24]Microsoft Kin©Microsoft/TheStreet illustration

No. 8: [25]Microsoft Kin

Teen phones are a questionable move by any company, but ugly teen phones like [26]Microsoft’s Kin beg thequestion: What were they thinking? At least the Sidekick, the Danger-made predecessor to the Kin, had acool look. The boxy shape of the Kin almost assured Microsoft’s phone failure. It only took two months ofsales for Microsoft to kill the Kin.

[27]HTC Apache©HTC/TheStreet illustration

No. 9: [28]HTC Apache

Before [29]HTC made sleek black phones, they cranked out clumsy, silver bricks like the Apache. The Apachewas part of a pioneering smartphone effort by Sprint, Microsoft and HTC. The phone was hot, but not ina good way. And it was pocket-straining heavy. Let’s just say HTC has done well not to follow the silverbrick road.

[30]LG VX9800©LG/TheStreet illustration

No. 10: [31]LG VX9800

Two big speakers inside LG’s horizontal flip phone didn’t really compensate for the two puny display screens.[32]LG, which had a decent track record with phones, apparently put aside its talents and let Verizon takeover the design decisions. The VX9800 was intended to be a big vehicle for Verizon’s VCast media offerings.Any wonder why Apple wouldn’t play ball with Verizon all those years?

[33]Palm Treo 700p©Palm/TheStreet illustration

No. 11: [34]Palm Treo 700p

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Palm, now a division of HP, arguably invented the smartphone. But the signs of [35]Palm’s eventual demisewere evident with this later generation Treo. While its contemporaries were slimming their designs, Palm’sTreo 700 arrived not only thicker but heavier than its Treo 600 predecessor.

[36]LG VX8300©LG/TheStreet illustration

No. 12: [37]LG VX8300

Like the [38]Samsung hand grenade, the [39]LG VX8300 was a lot of hardware all folded together.

A camera, music buttons, an external screen, twin side speakers and an antenna that Verizon required at thattime – the LG VX8300 had a lot going on. You can sort of see how the clutter made Motorola’s follow-upwith the clean, ultra-slim Razr so popular.

[40]Samsung SGH X800©Samsung/TheStreet illustration

No. 13: [41]Samsung SGH X800

Folding phones offer a compact and winning design.[42]Samsung’s SGH X800 got the folding part right, butit missed on the compact part. Open the phone was fine, but folded? It was like a fat little hand grenade.

by Scott Moritz The Street.com April 9, 2011

[43]13 Ugliest Phones of the Mobile Era - Yahoo! Shopping

1. http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/sh/33.jpg

2. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/

3. http://shopping.yahoo.com/7833960-motorola-razr-v3-black-cell-phone/

4. http://shopping.yahoo.com/791527801-iphone-4-32gb-black-smartphone-att/

5. http://shopping.yahoo.com/smartphone--shop/

6. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/nokia--brand/

7. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/nokia--brand/

8. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/samsung--brand/

9. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/samsung--brand/

10. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/samsung--brand/

11. http://shopping.yahoo.com/19957534-blackberry-8700g-blue-smartphone-unlocked/

12. http://shopping.yahoo.com/19957534-blackberry-8700g-blue-smartphone-unlocked/

13. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/nokia--brand/

14. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/nokia--brand/

15. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/sony-ericsson--brand/

16. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/sony-ericsson--brand/

17. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/sony-ericsson--brand/

18. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/motorola--brand/

19. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/motorola--brand/

20. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/motorola--brand/

21. http://shopping.yahoo.com/813229309-flipout-black-smartphone-att/

22. http://shopping.yahoo.com/813229309-flipout-black-smartphone-att/

23. http://shopping.yahoo.com/813229309-flipout-black-smartphone-att/

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24. http://shopping.yahoo.com/electronics/microsoft--brand/

25. http://shopping.yahoo.com/electronics/microsoft--brand/

26. http://shopping.yahoo.com/electronics/microsoft--brand/

27. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/htc--brand/

28. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/htc--brand/

29. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/htc--brand/

30. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/lg-electronics--brand/

31. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/lg-electronics--brand/

32. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/lg-electronics--brand/

33. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/palm--brand/

34. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/palm--brand/

35. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/palm--brand/

36. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/lg-electronics--brand/

37. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/lg-electronics--brand/

38. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/samsung--brand/

39. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/lg-electronics--brand/

40. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/samsung--brand/

41. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/samsung--brand/

42. http://shopping.yahoo.com/cell-phones/samsung--brand/

43. http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/576/13-ugliest-phones-of-the-mobile-era/

Dish’s Blockbuster buy may keep icon alive (2011-04-09 22:13)

NEW YORK - Dish Network Corp.’s agreement to buy Blockbuster Inc.’s assets out of bankruptcy couldkeep Blockbuster’s blue-and-gold logo from disappearing.But whether Dish can use Blockbuster’s brand, stores and streaming-video capabilities to create servicesmore relevant to the age of Netflix and Hulu remains to be seen.Dish, headed by billionaire Charles Ergen, won a two-day bankruptcy auction for Blockbuster that stretchedinto the early hours of Wednesday morning with a bid valued at $228 million in cash.Dish has so far been mum about specific plans for Blockbuster, but in its announcement, the companyhighlighted the 1,700 stores that will remain and ”multiple methods of delivery.”Dish spokeswoman Francie Bauer said the company, based in Englewood, Colo., would not comment furthersince the deal must receive court approval.A hearing for that approval is set for Thursday. Dish expects the deal to close in the second quarter.Satellite TV providers have been losing subscribers as cheaper alternatives such as Hulu and Netflix becomemore popular.Ergen has in past calls with analysts praised Netflix, which offers unlimited streaming video at a monthlyprice along with a DVD-by-mail service.Acquiring Blockbuster will make Dish a more viable competitor in streaming video online. It’s doing so ata price easily affordable for Dish, which had nearly $3 billion in cash as of Dec. 31.Dish also recently picked up satellite provider DBSD North America, which was also reorganizing underbankruptcy protection, for $1 billion.”Ergen continues to look for distressed assets selling at bargain prices,” said RBC Capital Markets analystRyan Vineyard. Blockbuster ”could transform Dish into a much more viable online competitor than it isnow.”Dish beat out billionaire investor Carl Icahn and a group of debt holders for Blockbuster, which filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September.Icahn had teamed with a group of liquidators. Analysts say it was likely he would have liquidated the

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company. Dish has more of a vested interest in keeping Blockbuster a going concern, but analysts are splitabout whether Dish will keep the stores open.Some thought Dish would keep at least some stores open.”In order to get the most from the investment, Dish Network needs to keep the Blockbuster brand top ofmind with consumers, and that means in kiosks in drug stores and physical store locations,” Wall StreetStrategies analyst Brian Sozzi said.But others thought a total liquidation might be a possibility.”Dish has zero retail capability at present, and therefore lacks the scale or synergies to benefit from theoperation of Blockbuster retail stores,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said.Either way, Dish and Ergen, who also chairs former Dish parent EchoStar, is gambling the deal can helpreinvent Dish as consumers’ TV and movie-watching habits evolve.by Mae Anderson Associated Press Apr. 7, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Dish’s Blockbuster buy may keep icon alive

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/07/20110407biz-dishnetwork0407.html

Planned wireless Internet network threatens GPS (2011-04-09 22:15)

WASHINGTON - A new, ultrafast wireless Internet network is threatening to overpower GPS signals acrossthe U.S. and interfere with everything from airplanes to police cars to consumer navigation devices.The problem stems from a recent government decision to let a Virginia company called LightSquared build anationwide broadband network using airwaves next to those used for GPS. Manufacturers of GPS equipmentwarn that strong signals from the planned network could jam existing navigation systems.A technical fix could be expensive - billions of dollars by one estimate - and there’s no agreement on whoshould pay. Government officials pledge to block LightSquared from turning on its network as scheduled thisyear unless they receive assurances that GPS systems will still work.The stakes are high not only for the GPS industry and its users, but also for those who would use Light-Squared’s network. In approving it, the Federal Communications Commission seeks to boost wireless com-petition and bring faster and cheaper Internet connections to all Americans.LightSquared and the FCC both insist the new network can co-exist with GPS systems. But device makersfear GPS signals will suffer the way a radio station can get drowned out by a stronger broadcast in a nearbychannel.The problem, they say, is that sensitive satellite receivers - designed to pick up relatively weak signals comingfrom space - could be overwhelmed when LightSquared starts sending high-power signals from as many as40,000 transmitters on the ground using the airwaves next door.”The potential impact of GPS interference is so vast, it’s hard to get your head around,” said Jim Kirkland,vice president and general counsel of Trimble Navigation Ltd., which makes GPS systems. ”Think 40,000GPS dead spots covering millions of square miles in cities and towns throughout the U.S.”One of the biggest risks is to the GPS navigation systems used by about 40 percent of commercial and privateplanes. Backup systems that rely on ground-based radio signals are not as accurate and have coverage gaps.With GPS interference, a pilot ”may go off course and not even realize it,” said Chris Dancy of the AircraftOwners and Pilots Association.LightSquared’s network could also undermine the Federal Aviation Administration’s multi-billion-dollar pro-gram to upgrade the nation’s air-traffic control system, which is based on World War II-era radar technology.The new GPS-based system is more precise and lets planes fly more direct routes. That will save airlinestime, money and fuel and cut pollution.Public-safety officials, too, are nervous about LightSquared because they rely on GPS to track and dispatchpolice cars, fire trucks and ambulances.Even the Pentagon has expressed concern as it relies on GPS to guide planes, ships, armored vehicles,

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weapons and troops.LightSquared plans to compete nationally with super-fast, fourth-generation wireless services being rolledout by the likes of AT &T and Verizon Wireless. It won’t sell directly to consumers, though. Instead,LightSquared will provide network access to companies including Leap Wireless, parent of the Cricket phoneservice, and Best Buy, which will rebrand the service under its own name.LightSquared won’t be allowed to turn on its network until the government is satisfied that any problemsare addressed, FCC spokesman Rob Kenny said.”We have every reason to resolve these concerns because we want to make sure there is a robust GPS system,”LightSquared executive Jeffrey Carlisle said.by Joelle Tessler Associated Press Apr. 7, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Planned wireless Internet network threatens GPS

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/07/20110407biz-GPSthreats0407.html

Terror warnings will have 2 levels (2011-04-09 22:17)

WASHINGTON - Terror alerts from the government will soon have just two levels of warnings - elevatedand imminent - and those will be relayed to the public only under certain circumstances. Color codes areout; Facebook and Twitter will sometimes be in, according to a Homeland Security draft obtained by theAssociated Press.Some terror warnings could be withheld from the public if announcing a threat would risk exposing an in-telligence operation or an ongoing investigation, according to the government’s confidential plan.Like a gallon of milk, the new terror warnings will each come with a stamped expiration date.The new system, replacing the five color-coded levels, is expected to be in place by April 27.A 19-page document, marked ”for official use only” and dated April 1, describes the step-by-step process thatwould occur behind the scenes when the government believes terrorists might be threatening Americans. Itdescribes the sequence of notifying members of Congress, then counterterrorism officials in states and cities,then governors and mayors and, ultimately, the public.It even specifies details about how many minutes U.S. officials can wait before organizing urgent conferencecalls to discuss pending threats. It places the Homeland Security secretary, currently Janet Napolitano, incharge of the National Terrorism Advisory System.The new terror alerts would also be published using Facebook and Twitter ”when appropriate,” the plansaid, but only after federal, state and local leaders have been notified.The government has struggled with how much information to share with the public about specific threats,sometimes over concern about revealing classified intelligence or law-enforcement efforts to disrupt an unfold-ing plot. But the color warnings that became one of the government’s most visible anti-terrorism programssince the September 2001 attacks were criticized as too vague and were sometimes mocked by TV comedians.The new advisory system is designed to be easier to understand and more specific, but it’s unclear how oftenthe public will receive warnings. The message will always depend on the threat and the intelligence behindit.by Eileen Sullivan Associated Press Apr. 8, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Terror warnings will have 2 levels

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/04/08/20110408colorcoded-threats0408.html

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FCC rules aim to spur wireless-broadband competition (2011-04-09 22:28)

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators adopted rules Thursday to drive more competition in wireless broadbandas more people access the Internet using iPhones and other popular mobile devices.The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday to require big wireless carriers to opentheir data networks to smaller regional operators in places where they don’t have their own systems.The large carriers have to offer network access at reasonable prices, and the FCC would resolve any disputes.The so-called data roaming rules are a response to consolidation in an industry dominated by two nationwidecarriers, AT &T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.And they come just weeks after AT &T, the nation’s second-largest wireless company, announced plans tobuy T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest, in a $39 billion cash-and-stock deal.Existing voice roaming rules already allow regional competitors to use the big carriers’ networks to handlephone calls outside their own service territories.That enables Leap Wireless, for instance, to offer nationwide calling service. Leap Wireless pays othercarriers for access to their systems when customers make calls outside Leap’s service area.But smaller wireless providers say they need to be able to do that with data, too, as subscribers increasinglyuse smartphones not just to make phone calls but to send pictures, watch online video and access bandwidth-hungry mobile applications.”Consumers ... expect to use their mobile phones throughout the nation for voice calls or data - like emailor mobile apps,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat.Parul Desai, policy counsel for the consumer watchdog group Consumers Union, said the new rules shouldhelp lower prices by giving consumers more choices for nationwide data services.by Joelle Tessler Associated Press Apr. 8, 2011 12:00 AM[1]FCC rules aim to spur wireless-broadband competition

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/08/20110408biz-wirelesscompetition0408.

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Valley company offers storage, organization (2011-04-09 22:40)

A Scottsdale startup that offers data storage, syncing and organization services has a notable benefactor:Google CEO Eric Schmidt.Schmidt, who has made a career out of organizing and distributing information, is a major investor in thecompany, a cloud-technology startup that launched this year.Schmidt’s investment firm TomorrowVentures, in cooperation with Hanna Capital, financed the company,Cx.com.Cx.com CEO Brad Robertson said the Arizona office could reach 100 employees as the company grows.Cx.com provides a way to back up, sync, access and share files from any device or operating system - forexample, Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android or BlackBerry. Using cloud technology, the business allowsclients to access videos, documents, photos and a variety of other files from any of their remote devices, evenif it’s not the device on which the file is stored. This technology is also meant to protect information shouldthe original device be damaged or destroyed.Cloud technology involves using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage andprocess data, rather than a local server or personal computer.”’Cloud’ is a buzz word,” said Robertson, whose beta version launched in early January.Robertson, a 20-year veteran of technology startups, served as the chief operating officer and chief technologyofficer of Colorado-based Intern Inc., a company also in the TomorrowVentures portfolio. Robertson, 40,also co-founded and was CEO of Bizavo, a deep-web-search engine, which launched in 2008.He is enthusiastic about the emerging cloud-software market and the opportunities for the new company.

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”The space is pretty well open for whoever wants to grab it. At some point, there will be market consolidation,and it will boil down to a few key players,” he said.Since its launch, Cx.com has reached about 100,000 users and is acquiring about 15,000 more each week,using a free 10 gigabyte storage service as an attraction. Within a month, Robertson hopes to begin addingmore features to attract more users.The company has online advertising campaigns, including advertisements on Yahoo and Google. Ultimately,Robertson plans to charge for features and possibly for additional devices that users register for the service.For now, he just wants to get costs down and continue to improve the design.TomorrowVentures, which has offices in Palo Alto, Calif., and Buenos Aires, Argentina, plans to expand theScottsdale office. Robertson said that adding 100 jobs in Scottsdale ”is a very achievable goal,” and thatthere were a number of advantages to being in Arizona.”In the Bay Area it’s so competitive and there are a million people doing the same thing,” he said.Critics of cloud technology have cited privacy concerns, an issue Robertson has tried to address. Cx.comallows the user complete control of all files and information and allows users to block the company fromseeing anything. Cx.com is still able to monitor activity but won’t necessarily have access to user files.However, concerns about information safety do still exist. In a 2009 survey by Information TechnologyIntelligence Corp., 85 percent of corporate customers around the globe said they would not implement acloud-computing infrastructure in 2009 because of fears that sensitive corporate data cannot be adequatelysecured.According to a report from Alcatel Lucent, a technology company, cloud computing is considered a form ofoutsourcing and could pose threats to existing structures within companies and people’s jobs. Because ofthis, many enterprises are faced with internal resistance to adoption, the report said.Others offer great optimism that the technology will take off.Merrill Lynch dubbed 2011 as ”the year of the cloud,” and estimates the market value of the technology willreach $113 billion.”We believe that Cx will change the way that people interact with their multiple devices with all data storedin a central location,” said Court Coursey, managing partner of TomorrowVentures.”We believe Cx has the potential to capture large market share in this growing sector with the potential tobe a multibillion-dollar stand-alone company.”Some of the key players in the area now are Microsoft and Dropbox, an online hard drive service. Cx.comhopes to differentiate itself because it is open to all platforms and product lines.”We will be your digital command center, through which you can take control of all your files from any ’net’device,” Robertson said.by William D’Urso The Arizona Republic Apr. 8, 2011 03:13 PM[1]Valley company offers storage, organization

1. http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/04/08/20110408arizona-company-offers-storage-organization.

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Flexible plastic screens edge closer to commercialization as Army, tech manufacturerscollaborate with ASU (2011-04-10 15:52)

A plastic screen that rolls up and doesn’t crack when you drop it may sound like science fiction, but theFlexible Display Center at Arizona State University is investing millions to liberate electronic devices fromthe constraints of rigid glass.And reality could come sooner than you think.The project was initiated by the U.S. Army in cooperation with a number of companies, including Boeingand Hewlett-Packard, to expedite the development of the technology.”Flexible ... black-and-white screens for e-readers are very close to commercialization,” said Nick Colaneri,

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Flexible Display Center director. Black-and-white screens are less complicated to create, and he estimatesflexible screens capable of rolling up and displaying color images are three to five years away.Manufacturers see vast potential for consumer applications. DisplaySearch, an industry research company,says the market for flexible screens will likely surpass $1 billion this year and reach $8.2 billion by 2018.From the beginning, the project has been pushed along by the U.S. military, which is interested in flexiblescreens for their portability, durability and miserly use of power.The military, high-tech manufacturers and academia have made Arizona ground zero for bringing the technol-ogy into mainstream use. They are pinpointing key materials and testing manufacturing techniques neededto make the sophisticated screens at the Flexible Display Center.Colaneri, who has been director of the project for two years, said about $90 million has been spent on theproject since the center was launched in 2004 under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army, and about$10 million more will be needed for completion.Projects of this scale generally take at least 25 years to complete, Colaneri said. Even though flexible screensface manufacturing hurdles, because many companies have come together to collaborate, the process hasbeen streamlined.Carl Taussig, director of the information-surfaces lab at HP Labs, said, ”If you can do it all yourself, itwould be ideal. In practice, the risk-reward tradeoff does favor mitigation of the risk by defraying costs andtasks to partners. This also speeds the development, which is an increasingly important aspect in today’smarketplace.”The development of color screens is highly coveted, because black-and-white screens typically show less de-tail.Jennifer Colegrove, DisplaySearch vice president, believes the technology will be widely adopted, especiallyonce it is available in color.Because one of its hallmarks is its light weight, Colegrove believes the technology will find its greatest valuein devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and laptops.”It will not have a huge market share in TVs and computer monitors,” she said.HP recently demonstrated a lightweight wristwatch designed for soldiers in the field to view digital mapsand other data on a flexible plastic screen that won’t shatter or crack. The device uses E Ink front-planetechnology, which is used in digital book readers like the Kindle and has better visibility in sunlight. It doesnot consume a lot of energy and requires no power to hold an image. And the screen is flexible enough thatit can be sewn to fabric.Taussig said HP also has been considering uses for the technology and ways to market it.”We started thinking about all kinds of commercial applications for this military demonstrator,” he said.”There are many uses for an inexpensive, super-lightweight, mechanically rugged hands-free display. Thinkabout all the people that need to have their hands free but could use simple maps, schematics or otherinstructions available.”He said the technology would be particularly useful to first responders.Armband displays for the military could be widely used in the not-too-distant futureColaneri said the complex nature of the project has demanded collaboration. One of the problems has beento find adequate ways to seal the screens to prevent them from degrading.”The organic molecules we use are very sensitive to oxygen and moisture,” he said. ”Plastic is like a hugeopen netting, and oxygen and moisture just pass right through it.”Finding ways of attaching the electronics has also proven to be a problem because the electronics are toohot and melt the screen.A major challenge has been figuring out how to avoid damaging the plastic during manufacturing becauseexisting equipment is made to handle glass.Researchers tried gluing sheets of plastic to glass plates and other hard surfaces and running the platesthrough traditional machines. But temperature variances caused the plastic to stretch. The center had toresearch and create a special kind of glue, Colaneri said.by William D’Urso The Arizona Republic Apr. 10, 2011 12:00 AM

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[1]Flexible plastic screens edge closer to commercialization as Army, tech manufacturers collaborate withASU

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/10/

20110410asu-army-tech-manufacturers-flexible-plastic-screens.html

Cisco plans to shut Flip business (2011-04-16 16:12)

NEW YORK - Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer-networking gear, said Tuesdaythat it’s killing its Flip camcorder business as it moves away from the consumer-products market.The about-face comes after several quarters of disappointing results. Analysts say Cisco has been trying todo too many different things.The San Jose-based company said it expects its consumer-business shake-up will result in the loss of 550jobs, or less than 1 percent of its workforce of about 73,000.It also expects to take restructuring charges of no more than $300 million spread out over the current quarter,which ends April 25, and the following one.Cisco bought Pure Digital Technologies Inc., maker of the Flip camcorder, for $590 million in 2009, just twoyears after the San Francisco-based company made its first camera. It quickly became a top seller becauseof its ease of use.A signature feature was a USB connector that flipped out of the case, letting the user connect the cameradirectly to a computer. The camera even contained video-editing software that fired up on the computer.Cisco appears to see no point in selling the business - Tuesday’s announcement said Flip will be closed down.Cisco will continue to support the sharing of Flip videos online.The company said it will realign its remaining consumer business to support four of its five priorities - routersand switches, corporate communications, collaboration equipment, servers for data centers, and video.Cisco shares closed down 3 cents, or 0.02 percent, to $17.44 on Tuesday.Associated Press Apr. 13, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Cisco plans to shut Flip business

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/13/20110413biz-mktsector0413.html

Recipient: Stem-cell therapy is God’s will (2011-04-17 13:52)

CHATOM, Ala. - When Timothy J. Atchison regained consciousness, he was drenched in blood and pinnedin his car on the side of a dark rural road.”I was just pouring blood,” said Atchison, 21, who recoiled in pain when he tried to drag himself through awindow of the wrecked Pontiac he had gotten for high-school graduation. ”I didn’t know if I was going tobleed to death or not.”Then, Atchison realized that his legs felt strangely huge - and completely numb. He was paralyzed from thechest down.”I was just praying - asking for forgiveness and thanking God for keeping me alive,” said Atchison, who wastrapped at least an hour before rescuers freed him. ”I said, ’From here on out I’m going to live for you andnothing else.’ I never got down after that. I figure that’s what must have kept me up - God keeping me up.”That sense of destiny propelled Atchison when he faced another shock just seven days later: Doctors askedhim to volunteer to be the first person to have an experimental drug made from human-embryonic stem cellsinjected into his body.

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”We were just stunned,” said Atchison, who was with his mother and grandfather when researchers ap-proached him. ”We were like, ’Woo, really?’ We were all just kind of in awe.”Atchison, known to friends and family as T.J., described the events during an interview Tuesday with theWashington Post - his first detailed account since disclosing his carefully guarded identity to the Post. Atchi-son’s story reveals provocative insights into one of the most closely watched medical experiments, includingwhat some may see as an irony: that a treatment condemned on moral and religious grounds is viewed bythe first person to pioneer the therapy, and his family, as part of God’s plan.”It wasn’t just luck, or chance,” said Atchison, who thinks, six months after the treatment, that he may befeeling the first signs that the cells are helping him.”It was meant to be.”Atchison, whose Sept. 25 crash occurred while visiting home during his second semester at the University ofSouth Alabama College of Nursing, had heard about embryonic stem cells’ potentially revolutionary powerto morph into almost any tissue in the body, as well as their infamy because days-old embryos are destroyedto get them.”I didn’t know as much about it then as I know now. I did know that stem cells could be used to cure allkinds of things,” Atchison said, swiveling in his wheelchair, which like his car and many other belongings isthe University of Alabama football team’s crimson. ”I was thinking like 50 years down the road or somethinglike that.”Raised Baptist in a small town where the main road has more churches than fast-food restaurants, Atchisonnonetheless has no moral qualms about launching the first U.S. government-sanctioned attempt to studya treatment using embryonic stem cells in people. The cells implanted into his spine were obtained fromembryos being discarded at fertility clinics, he notes.”It’s not life. It’s not like they’re coming from an aborted fetus or anything like that. They were going to bethrown away,” he said. ”Once they explained to me where the stem cells were coming from, once I learnedthat, I was OK with it.”While undergoing surgeries and other treatments to repair his shattered spine, broken collarbone and pinkyfinger, and nearly severed ear at the University of Alabama Medical Center in Mobile immediately afterthe accident, Atchison was befriended by the pastor of a local Pentecostal church. When he found out thefollowing week what Atchison had agreed to do, the pastor was uncertain how his community would respond.”I said, ’This is not going to be popular with some people. You might face death threats. You don’t knowwhat the reaction is going to be,’ ” said Troy Bailey of the Reynolds Holiness Church later in the day.Bailey realized he had to sort out his own stance, given that some people who, like him, oppose abortionalso consider embryonic stem-cell research to be immoral. But Bailey concluded that he too believed theexperimental treatment is acceptable because the cells were obtained from embryos that had never beenimplanted in a woman’s womb and so had no chance of developing into a fetus.”I am adamantly against abortion in any form. It did cause me some searching and researching biblicallywhat is the proper answer,” he said. ”I don’t really see a baby’s life was destroyed for this to take place.”Bailey announced his conclusion to his parish the Sunday after Atchison’s Oct. 8 procedure and invitedhis congregation to come to him with any objections. But he said he has never heard any complaints fromanyone in town, which has rallied around Atchison and his family, including building a ramp around hismother’s house and laying a concrete walkway for his wheelchair.Bailey then devoted three weeks of Sunday school lessons to stem cells and issues he thought were related,such as birth-control pills and ”designer babies.””I’m definitely not wanting to encourage harvesting embryos for all kinds of crazy reasons,” Bailey said. ”Andthat definitely led some people to have some hesitancy about some of these things.”Critics raise concernsIf Atchison’s role in the research has not provoked any overt objections among his friends, family, neighborsand fellow churchgoers, the study that he began has prompted denunciations from critics who oppose theresearch on moral grounds as well as an intense debate among scientists, bioethicists and others who supportthe research.

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Some worry that not enough basic studies and tests in animals were done before injecting cells into recentlyparalyzed patients. Many fret the cells could be harmful, with the biggest dangers being that they will causetumors or tortuous pain. Still others wonder whether patients who are still struggling to come to terms withtheir devastating injury can make that kind of risky decision just two weeks after such a trauma.Many proponents fear that if something goes wrong - or even if the cells fail to show any sign of helpingpatients - it could be a major blow for the field at a time when federal funding for the research is underattack in court and in Congress.Atchison dismissed such concerns and praised his care at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where he wastransferred for rehabilitation. Shepherd is one of seven centers recruited by the Geron Corp. of Menlo Park,Calif., which is sponsoring the trial to test the cells on 10 patients.Three days after arriving at Shepherd, doctors invited Atchison to undergo tests to see if he met the study’sstrict criteria.Waiting for resultsAfter the procedure, Atchison spent three months undergoing the center’s standard program, learning howto care for himself. But he had to keep his involvement in the study secret, even when a friend in rehabwished aloud he could get stem cells so he could walk again.”I kind of wanted to tell him, ’Hey, you know it could be closer than you think? Because it’s already hap-pened,’ ” he said. ”I just didn’t want him to feel upset about me getting it or anything like that. I didn’twant him to think I was going to be able to walk because of this.”And although his doctors have stressed that they gave him a very low dose primarily to look for any adverseside effects, Atchison believes the cells may already be helping him. In studies involving rats, partially par-alyzed animals that received the cells regained the ability to move.In recent weeks, after months of feeling or being able to move nothing below his chest, Atchison said he hasbegun to get some very slight sensation: He can feel relief when he lifts a bowling ball off his lap and discerndiscomfort when he pulls on hairs on some parts of his legs. He has also strengthened his abdomen.”That’s something that just happened recently. It’s just slowly progressed more and more,” he said, notingthat rodents that received the cells did not start to regain movement until nine months after being treated.Geron would not discuss Atchison’s case. The company is keeping the results of its tests on Atchison andother study subjects confidential for now.”It’s driving everybody crazy not to know,” said James Shepherd, who founded the Shepherd Center. ”At thispoint it’s way too early to have a feel if it’s going well or if he’s getting anything back. The whole communityand the patients in chairs are just curious and banging on doors and saying, ’Tell us what’s happening.’ ”Spinal-cord injury experts stress that patients can regain some sensation and movement on their own, andthat it is simply impossible to know whether the cells are helping based on a single subject. Advocates forspinal-cord injury patients, while thrilled by the study, worry about raising false hope.”I caution people: Don’t expect miracles that these patients are going to automatically jump out of theirwheelchairs and run all over the place,” said Daniel Heumann, who is on the board of the Christopher andDana Reeve Foundation.Atchison’s accident occurred on the birthday of Reeve, the actor who was paralyzed in a horseback-ridingaccident and advocated for stem-cell research.Several times a week, Atchison exercises his legs with a special stationary bike that delivers electrical stimu-lation to his muscles, and pulls himself to a standing position on another contraption to retrain his frame tostand erect. He learned to drive a car he can operate with his hands and has resumed hunting and fishing.He plans to return to school in August.”I pray about it every night. I think I’ll be able to walk again. I think it will help me. I’ll keep riding mybike and exercising and one day I’ll be able to walk again,” he said. ”You want to let the stem cells see whatthey can do.”After demonstrating how he mounts an all-terrain vehicle and operates his specially equipped Chevy Cruze,Atchison wheeled himself around the side of the house. His year-old Yorkie, Lilly, shot out of the door andscurried over to greet him, running slightly askew.

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She, too, had been in a car accident and had recovered except for one lame rear paw.by Rob Stein Washington Post Apr. 17, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Recipient: Stem-cell therapy is God’s will

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/04/17/20110417stemcell0417.html

Car-charging market is becoming competitive (2011-04-17 14:12)

The competition is heating up for Phoenix-based Ecotality North America, which got a $115 million stimulusgrant to roll out electric-car chargers in several cities nationwide.Thousands of people will get free Ecotality chargers when they buy Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt vehiclesthanks to the stimulus grant. The recipients must share their charging data with the company and thegovernment in exchange for the $2,000 chargers.Company officials hoped that the EV Project would give them a jump start on the competition from othercompanies hoping to sell car chargers as automakers release electric vehicles in the next couple of years.But competitors are getting big deals to be the exclusive providers for some of the automakers, so Ecotalitywon’t have the market to itself.Nissan North America has a deal with Aerovironment Inc. so that people who buy the company’s cars, anddon’t qualify for the free Ecotality charger through the stimulus project, are referred to Aerovironment tobuy chargers.Ford Motor Co., which said last week that Phoenix and Tucson would be among the first cities to sell thenew Focus Electric later this year, has a similar deal with Leviton. And the company will partner with BestBuy for home installations, said Mike Tinskey, Ford’s manager of vehicle electrification and infrastructure.Electric cars can be charged with a standard wall plug, which can take eight to 10 hours to replenish abattery, or a Level 2 charger that is 240 volts that can charge them in four to six hours.”The beauty of that (Leviton charger) is that it has a larger capacity than most competitors,” Tinskey said.”It can charge the car in just over three hours.”Ecotality also will make some Level 3 chargers for the EV Project that can recharge a car’s battery in about20 minutes, but those chargers are much more expensive to install and not all cars will be capable of receivingthat much electricity without an additional charging port.Campbell, Calif.-based Coulomb Technologies also makes chargers, and the company got a $15 millionstimulus grant.Some readers no doubt will also consider Better Place a competitor. The company promotes public-servicestations to swap out depleted electric-car batteries, although the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Focus Electricwon’t have batteries that can be swapped out with Better Place’s technology.by Ryan Randazzo The Arizona Republic Apr. 17, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Car-charging market is becoming competitive

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/17/20110417biz-insider0417randazzo.html

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’PlayBook’ could redeem BlackBerry maker (2011-04-24 13:17)

This isn’t quite hell freezing over, but it’s close: The makers of the BlackBerry have come out with somethingyou might love.It’s the PlayBook tablet, and for Research In Motion, the stakes could hardly be greater. With market sharefor its pioneering smartphones falling, the company desperately needs the PlayBook to be a success. And itdeserves to be, once the software catches up to the hardware.The PlayBook, which arrives in stores Tuesday, is initially available only with a Wi-Fi connection. It’s pricedthe same as the Wi-Fi-only models of Apple’s iPad 2: $499 for 16 gigabytes of storage; $599 for 32 GB and$699 for 64 GB.But it really shouldn’t be compared to the iPad, whose bigger screen makes it better for watching moviesand Web surfing but also makes it 40 percent heavier.The PlayBook’s true competitors are the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Dell’s Streak 7, in a categorythat might be considered pocket-sized as long as you’ve got good-sized pockets. In that realm, the PlayBookraises the bar.Like those competitors, the PlayBook is compact enough to be held in one hand. It’s roughly the size ofa half-sheet of paper and weighs about 14 ounces. Along its top edge are a too-small power button andmedia-playback controls; the bottom has a micro-USB connection and an HDMI video port.The beautiful display measures 7 inches diagonally with a 1024 by 600 resolution, the same as the GalaxyTab and much better than the Streak. Unlike the iPad 2, the PlayBook runs videos that use Adobe’s Flashtechnology. Its cameras are also better than the iPad’s: three megapixels facing front and five megapixelsfacing rear. It’s also capable of capturing video in full high-definition.RIM says it expects the PlayBook battery to provide eight to 10 hours of use, which seems about right basedon my experience. After two days of using it for a variety of tasks, including Web surfing, watching YouTubevideos and editing documents using the included Documents to Go suite of Microsoft Office-compatibleproductivity apps, I had plenty of juice left.While the Galaxy and Streak use a version of Google’s Android software that was designed for mobile phones,the PlayBook uses a new operating system called the BlackBerry Tablet OS. It’s fast and easy - once I gotused to the unusual fact that the border as well as the screen is touch-sensitive. You navigate by startingwith your finger on the frame and then swiping it across the viewing area. Open apps can be dismissed fromthe screen with an oddly satisfying flick gesture.The new operating system is strong on multitasking. If you’re watching a video and bring up the PlayBook’sdesktop, the video continues in a smaller window. Connect it to a high-definition TV or projector, and youcan continue to access the Internet or files on the tablet while your content plays uninterrupted on the bigscreen.The main drawback is that the PlayBook feels unfinished. That’s because it is: A number of critical featuresand applications, while promised, aren’t yet available.For starters, there’s currently no software for accessing all your e-mail, calendars or contacts in one place.RIM says it will be available in the summer; in the meantime, you can expect to be doing a lot of logging

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into websites to access your personal information.Perhaps the most important missing feature, which won’t show up until later in the year, is software thatRIM says will allow the PlayBook to run a limited selection from the vast universe of Android wireless-phone applications. The mobile marketplace is increasingly a battle of app-fueled ecosystems, and whileRIM says the PlayBook is launching with about 3,000 apps, offering Android compatibility hedges the riskthat developers won’t continue to write for it if the tablet isn’t an immediate hit.It’s impossible to say whether RIM’s bet-the-company strategy will pay off. Still, who would have thoughtthat the maker of some of the world’s least-exciting smartphones would have produced a product this slick?The PlayBook makes BlackBerry relevant again.by Rich Jaroslovsky Bloomberg News Apr. 17, 2011 05:14 PM[1]’PlayBook’ could redeem BlackBerry maker

1. http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/04/17/20110417blackberry-maker-playbook-tablet.html

Closed book: E-readers keep restrictive format (2011-04-24 13:40)

I’ve done my part to prop up the consumer-electronics industry in recent years: a flat-panel TV downstairsand one upstairs, his and hers smartphones, not-too-obsolete digital cameras, a desktop computer upstairsand an iPad 2 for downstairs (once it gets off back order).But missing from this electronic inventory is a Kindle or a Nook e-book reader.That’s not an accident. The e-book business seems determined to repeat the early mistakes of the musicindustry with ”digital rights management” restrictions. But this time around, I don’t feel compelled to backtheir early investments with my own money.Think back to how the first good mass-market music-download store worked. Apple’s iTunes Store seemed likea revelation compared with earlier, listener-hostile efforts, simply because it let you listen to your purchasesin most cases.All you had to do was consent to listen to songs bought off iTunes only on the five computers you wouldauthorized with your account, plus any iPods or iPhones you owned.Those restrictions started to grate on some users. Then Steve Jobs admitted he wasn’t a fan of DRM himself,one major label decided it could do without it as well, Amazon launched an entirely DRM-free MP3 store .. . and less than two years later, DRM vanished from iTunes, too.Somehow, the recorded-music business did not perish. Digital sales should finally pass CD sales next year.E-books haven’t come as far along. If you buy a title from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble’s Nookbookstore or Apple’s iBookstore, among others, the DRM attached to it will prevent you from reading thatbook on another company’s software or hardware.That might not seem like a problem today. Amazon makes a pretty good e-book reader today in the Kindleand has since shipped software for a growing variety of computers and smartphones. But do you trust it tolead that category of hardware and software for as long as you’d want to reread that book?E-book DRM also disables many functions common to paper books or other electronic documents. Moststores don’t let you copy text from a book to quote elsewhere, although Barnes & Noble is a welcomeexception. Printing? Forget it, unless you go to the trouble of placing an e-reader face down in a copier, onepage at a time.Lending is limited to those titles for which a publisher has authorized it and comes with condescendinglystrict limits that most librarians would not recognize. For example, Amazon permits only one 14-day loanper authorized title, ever.Reselling an e-book? Forget it.All those limits and lock-ins make an e-book with DRM a dubious deal. Why would I want to pay almostas much as for a paper book - in some cases more - and then have my purchase constrain its usefulness andtherefore cut its value?

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Some smaller publishers haven’t bought into DRM, just as independent record labels never saw the point ofit. Tech publisher O’Reilly and Associates of Sebastopol, Calif., sells titles on its own site and through suchoutlets as the Kindle Store without any ”protection.”Has the company lost any sales? In a nutshell, no. E-book sales had grown to more than 10 times print saleson O’Reilly’s site by the end of 2010, wrote Vice President Andrew Savikas.The mainstream sites are showing some signs of being open to removing DRM. Amazon, Apple and Barnes& Noble now all allow publishers to opt out of DRM. Apple even defaults to omitting DRM, although ittakes only one click for a publisher to restore that.But good luck finding out whether a potential purchase comes with the usual digital locks. Apple and Barnes& Noble provide zero indication of an e-book’s DRM status in their stores. On the Kindle Store, you mightget lucky and find that a book’s title notes that virtue, or that a publisher has thought to tag that page witha DRM-free label.But most publishers don’t give their own authors that option. Agent Michael Congdon said major publishersdon’t negotiate that.Maybe most authors would choose DRM anyway. Dan Pacheco, chief executive of Boulder, Colo.-basedBookBrewer, wrote that his Internet-publishing startup will provide an author’s work without DRM, ”butno author has done that to date.”There is a way to settle this discussion.Give customers a clear choice, let the market work, and the book business might discover that it can readthe recording industry’s sheet music.by Rob Pegoraro Washington Post Apr. 19, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Closed book: E-readers keep restrictive format

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2011/04/19/20110419ebooks0419.html

Apple’s earnings nearly double (2011-04-24 13:50)

NEW YORK - Apple Inc. on Wednesday reported another exceptional quarter, nearly doubling its netincome and far exceeding analyst estimates on the strength of the seemingly unstoppable iPhone.However, sales of Apple’s big new product, the iPad tablet computer, came in below expectations. The secondversion of the tablet launched three weeks before the end of the quarter, and manufacturing constraintsprevented Apple from selling more of them.Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said progress is being made on expanding iPad production, andthe company is expanding the number of countries in which it sells the tablet.Apple said net income for the fiscal second quarter, which ended in March, was $5.99 billion, or $6.40 pershare, up 95 percent from $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per share, a year ago. Analysts expected earnings of $5.37per share. Revenue was $24.7 billion, up 83 percent from $13.5 billion a year ago. Analysts were expecting$23.4 billion.The results were lifted by the record sale of 18.65 million iPhones, millions more than analysts had expected.Verizon Wireless started selling the phone in the quarter, ending AT &T Inc.’s 3 1/2-year period of beingthe only U.S. iPhone carrier.Earlier Wednesday, AT &T reported strong iPhone sales, as it continued to upgrade many existing subscriberseven in the face of competition from Verizon.For the current quarter, Apple said it expects revenue of $23 billion and earnings of about $5.03 per share.Both figures are below analyst expectations of $23.9 billion and $5.26 per share, respectively.Apple shares rose $4.55, or 2.4 percent, to close at $342.41.Associated Press Apr. 21, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Apple’s earnings nearly double

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1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/21/20110421biz-mktsector0421.html

Apple location tracking questioned (2011-04-24 13:52)

SAN FRANCISCO - Privacy watchdogs are demanding answers from Apple Inc. about why iPhones andiPads are secretly collecting location data on users - records that cellular service providers routinely keepbut require a court order to disgorge.It’s not clear if other smartphones and tablet computers are logging such information on their users. Andthis week’s revelation that the Apple devices do log information wasn’t even new - some security expertsbegan warning about the issue a year ago.But the worry prompted by a report from researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden at a technologyconference in Santa Clara, Calif., raises questions about how much privacy you implicitly surrender bycarrying around a smartphone and the responsibility of the smartphone makers to protect sensitive datathat flows through their devices.Much of the concern about the iPhone and iPad tracking stems from the fact the computers are logging users’physical coordinates without users knowing it - and that that information is then stored in an unencryptedform that would be easy for a hacker or a suspicious spouse or a law-enforcement officer to find without awarrant.Researchers emphasize that there’s no evidence that Apple itself has access to this data. The data apparentlystays on the device itself, as well as computers the data is backed up to. Apple didn’t immediately respondto a request for comment by the Associated Press.Tracking is a normal part of owning a cellphone. What’s done with that data, though, is where the controversylies.A central question is whether a smartphone should act merely as a conduit of location data to serviceproviders and approved applications - or as a more active participant by storing the data itself, to makelocation-based applications run more smoothly or help better target mobile ads or any number of other uses.Location data is some of the most valuable information a mobile phone can provide, since it can tell advertisersnot only where someone’s been, but also where they might be going - and what they might be inclined tobuy when they get there.Allan and Warden said the location coordinates and time stamps in the Apple devices aren’t always exact,but they appear in a file that typically contains about a year’s worth of data that when taken togetherprovide a detailed view of users’ travels.”We’re not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it’s clearly intentional, as the database is being restoredacross backups, and even device migrations,” they wrote in a blog posting announcing the research.Alex Levinson, a security expert, said the tracking Apple’s devices do isn’t new - or a surprise to those inthe computer-forensics community.The Apple devices have been retaining the information for some time, but it was kept in a different formuntil the release of the iOS 4 operating software last year, Levinson, technical lead for the Katana Forensicsfirm, wrote on his blog.Through his work with law-enforcement agencies, Levinson said he was able to access the location data inolder iPhones and warned about the issue over a year ago. The location data is now easier to find becauseof a change in the way iPhone applications access the data, he said.”Either way, it is not secret, malicious or hidden,” Levinson wrote. ”Users still have to approve locationaccess to any application and have the ability to instantly turn off location services to applications insidethe settings menu on their device.”Charlie Miller, a prominent iPhone hacker, said a security change that Apple made last month would makeextracting the file from the phone in a remote attack very difficult. Even if an attacker were to break intosomeone’s phone looking for the file, he wouldn’t have the right privileges to access the file.

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The data is ”pretty well-protected on the phone,”Miller, principal security analyst with Independent SecurityEvaluators, said in an interview.But it’s a different matter when the data is transferred to another computer in a backup. If the backupcomputer is infected with malicious software, the file could easily be located and sent to the hacker. A wayto protect against that is to encrypt the iPhone backup through iTunes, the researchers said.by Jordan Robertson Associated Press Apr. 22, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Apple location tracking questioned

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/04/22/20110422apple-iphonetracking0422.html

Amazon glitch hurts Web clients (2011-04-24 13:54)

NEW YORK - Scores of websites and Internet services like Foursquare and Reddit crashed or had limitedavailability Thursday because of problems at a data center run by Amazon.com.The problems revealed widespread reliance on Amazon Web Services, which rents out computers and datastorage on a self-service basis over the Internet.The service generally is considered reliable because it uses vast numbers of computers, spread out in differentdata centers, making Thursday’s failure unusual.Amazon officials said the trouble started early in the morning at a data center in northern Virginia, but thecompany provided no details. The problems were ongoing Thursday afternoon.Foursquare, which lets people tell others where they are with the help of cellphone GPS chips, was stillexperiencing technical issues.HootSuite, which provides a ”dashboard” for social media like Twitter feeds, was down completely, as wasquestions-and-answers site Quora.Reddit, a ”social news” site owned by Conde Nast Digital, was in ”emergency read-only mode.”Amazon.com Inc. is the leading provider of this type of ”utility” computing, in which customers pay only forthe computing power and storage they need. Anyone with a credit card can begin using it.Amazon competitors include Rackspace Hosting Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s Azure platform.Seattle-based Amazon has big plans for its Web services. CEO Jeff Bezos said last year that it eventuallycould be as large as Amazon’s retail business.Associated Press Apr. 22, 2011 12:00 AM[1]Amazon glitch hurts Web clients

1. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2011/04/22/20110422biz-mktsector0422.html

How to back up your Android phone - CNET (2011-04-24 15:23)

[EMBED]

[1]How to back up your Android phone - CNET

1. http://cnettv.cnet.com/back-up-your-android-phone/9742-1_53-50103299.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=CNETTV

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BlogBook v0.4,LATEX 2ε & GNU/Linux.

http://www.blogbooker.com

Edited: May 9, 2011