Walt Mossberg Look Ahead to 2013 - Talk Gets Cheaper, TV Gets ...

Personal technology never stops changing. Some new products and services are game changers, like Apple?s iPhone and iPad. Others are clever twists or refinements, like each successive version of Google?s Android platform, which gets better and better. Others are bold gambles, like Microsoft?s new Windows 8, which hopes to combine both a tablet experience and a traditional PC environment in one operating system. But there?s always something new, from large companies and small ones.

So here are a few things consumers will likely see in technology in 2013. Many of these began to take shape in the past year, but will be stronger trends in the new year.

Tablets vs. PCs

While the iPad line, including the new Mini, continues to dominate the tablet market, Android-based tablets are finally gaining traction. But the bigger story is that tablets will continue to erode the role of laptop PCs.

Consumers are using tablets for more and more tasks formerly performed by laptops. Traditional computers aren?t going away?they still do certain tasks, like heavy content creation, better than tablets. But consumers seem, at the very least, to be replacing their laptops less often and spending discretionary funds on tablets, which are gradually replacing another device: the dedicated e-reader. Many analysts had expected Windows 8 to halt or reverse this trend, and it may yet do so. But early indications aren?t encouraging for that outcome.

Integrating Hardware and Software

Meanwhile, another big trend is emerging: Apple?s model of one company making the entire device?hardware, operating system, core apps and an online ecosystem?is beginning to take hold elsewhere. In October, Microsoft unveiled its first computer, the Surface tablet. The company will follow it up as soon as this month with a second, more powerful version. I wouldn?t be surprised if Microsoft also made its own smartphone this year.

Google is also moving in Apple?s direction. It now sells three devices?a smartphone and two tablets?under its Nexus brand. These products are built by partner companies, but designed by Google. Now that Google owns its own hardware company, Motorola Mobility, I expect it to get deeper into the integrated model. Motorola, freshly stocked with former Google executives, is reported to be building advanced new hardware devices tightly integrated with Android.

Rethinking Television

Samsung and others already make TVs that can connect to the Internet, and stream Internet video and run tablet-type apps, without any special set-top box. But I find them clumsy, and their ?smart TV? functions haven?t taken off with consumers yet. This may be the year they do.

The biggest expectation is that Apple, which has been working hard on the problem, will finally unveil its long-rumored TV this year, with the goal of greatly simplifying the TV and smoothly melding Internet and cable content. Many, including me, thought it might appear in 2012, but the company reportedly ran into difficulties in negotiating with media companies for content rights. Meanwhile, Apple?s tiny, $99 Apple TV box, while still a relatively small seller, is gaining popularity, partly because the company has built into its laptops, tablets and phones a feature called AirPlay which can use an Apple TV box to wirelessly stream audio and video to a TV.

Cheaper Smartphones and Plans

Smartphones are everywhere in the developed world, but most are still expensive?around $200 after a carrier subsidy that requires a two-year contract. And the monthly service fees can easily approach or exceed $100, especially if you use a lot of data, which is the very essence of a smartphone?s purpose.

There are already some smartphones, usually older, less capable or less popular models, available for $99 or $49 or even free with a contract. But I expect to see better smartphones at lower prices in 2013, especially those running the dominant Android platform, and the handsome, but low-selling Windows Phone platform from Microsoft.

In addition, some companies are beginning to offer really cheap monthly plans. One example: Republic Wireless, which offers unlimited voice, text and data for $19 a month on a small, Android phone, the Motorola Defy XT, using older software that has been modified to make voice calls where possible over Wi-Fi instead of a costlier carrier network.

Costlier, Better Music Players

Audiophiles and recording artists have never much liked the compressed music files that now fill every iPod and smartphone. They complain that the richness of the original recording is lost because the song files are optimized for minimum space and download time, and because they are often made from CDs, not from the master studio tapes.

So in 2013, there will be a push to sell a new kind of portable music player that can handle high quality music. The Korean electronics company, iRiver, has introduced the Astell & Kern AK100, a $700 player that can play much higher fidelity digital music. The legendary rocker Neil Young is backing a second venture, Pono, which is doing something similar. In addition to the price, there?s another downside: The files can be 10 to 20 times as large as standard digital songs, so many fewer tracks fit in a given amount of memory.

Fitness and Health Monitors

In 2012, sensor-packed wristbands like the Nike+ FuelBand and the Jawbone Up were introduced to measure how many steps people take in a day, how well they sleep, and other indicators of health and fitness. I expect this trend to continue in 2013, in different forms and with more sophisticated sensors. One new product, the Basis, is a watch with sensors on the back that measures resting heart rate. All of these devices tie into mobile apps or Web-based dashboards to track progress and offer advice.

Internet-Controlled Everything

Another trend I expect to see in 2013 is an expansion of apps and devices that let people wirelessly control many everyday objects, from light bulbs to appliances, using low-powered networks and smartphones or tablets. And we?ll likely see more smart devices with such intelligence built in, similar to the Nest intelligent thermostat, which is Wi-Fi powered.

These are just a few of the trends likely to mark the consumer tech landscape in 2013. Others will also be prominent, most notably the continued reliance on the cloud, or remote servers, to store content and work collaboratively. One thing is sure: There are certain to be developments that will surprise us all, and can?t be forecast here.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20130101/2013-talk-gets-cheaper-tv-gets-smarter/

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Is This The Most Spoiled Girl In Britain? Meet Gina Rio, The 23-year-old Who Lives At The Savoy Hotel

www.dailymail.co.uk:

Most twentysomethings have long been dropped from their parents' pocket money payroll.

But one - who some are calling the most spoiled woman in Britain - still receives a massive 10,000 pound payout each month from her mother - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Gina Rio, 23, who lives in a suite at the five star Savoy hotel despite owning a house in London's King's Cross, is handed the money by her mother, Theresa, who took over the monthly payments after Gina fell out with her father, a successful businessman, in 2003 and he stopped the 20,000 pound allowance he used to provide.

Read the whole story at www.dailymail.co.uk

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/is-this-the-most-spoiled-_n_2397361.html

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semiofficial verina: High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) | Fitness ...

High blood pressure, the pressure in the vessels is increased. This increases the risk for stroke, vascular disease and other serious heart condition

Classic blood pressure: pressure cuff on the upper arm, listening to the sound when you release the pressure (Sphygmanometrie and auscultation)

Survey

Normal blood pressure is below 140/90 mmHg. High blood pressure (or hypertension also called arterial hypertension), these measurements are repeated or consistently exceeded.

High blood pressure occurs mainly as primary hypertension, ie high blood pressure ?in itself.? This means that it is not caused by other diseases. Only about ten to fifteen percent of people with specific diseases, such as kidney, adrenal or thyroid glands are the cause (secondary hypertension). With the treatment of these diseases is often regulated, the increased blood pressure.

However, the problem is that high blood pressure often initially makes no complaints. He usually remains undetected once. The health consequences are long term, however severe. Constantly high pressure strain on the heart. It also constricts the blood vessels, accelerating atherosclerosis (arteriosclerosis) and deteriorated to the circulation.

Therefore, high blood pressure is a leading risk factor for stroke and the next Diabetes (diabetes mellitus) and dyslipidemia a major cause of heart disease such as heart attack and heart failure. The risk of disability and death is high blood pressure increased significantly with these complications.

Also, kidney and eye disease are often based on high blood pressure. As a result, it can lead to kidney failure, and vision impairment, worst come to blindness.

Symptoms:

Over time usually occur initially only general symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, palpitations or stumble, nervousness and insomnia. Other symptoms depend on the possible vascular and organ damage. Sudden blurred vision, double vision can also, for example, be a warning sign of a stroke: Immediately go to the doctor!

Diagnosis:

?

epeated pressure measurements can confirm the diagrnosis. In addition, the heart, the metabolism, the kidneys, the eyes may also be checked. Rarely even further investigations are necessary.

?

?

Therapy:

Numerous effective and safe drugs can lower high blood pressure. New is a catheter treatment, deserted in the renal nerves by supplying radio frequency power are (initially only in intractable hypertension, the method is not yet widely implemented). ?Universal medicine? is a healthy lifestyle. It depends mainly on two points: a balanced, not the metabolism onerous, as a low-salt diet and regular exercise. Low stress, moderate alcohol consumption and not smoking do the rest. If you are overweight, you should lose weight permanently. All this helps to keep the blood pressure in the ?Grunen area? ? a good prerequisite to remain cardiovascular fit.

Following our expert Professor Dr. Wolfram Delius answers common questions about high blood pressure. More about the possible causes, risk factors, diagnosis and treatment read in the respective chapters of this guide (see the review above or Chapter bar below).

from your own site.

Source: http://fitnesshealthpoint.com/?p=1205

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Source: http://semiofficial-verina.blogspot.com/2012/12/high-blood-pressure-hypertension.html

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How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?

Since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, we at Slate have been wondering how many people are dying from guns in America every day.

That information is surprisingly hard to come by. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, for example, has a tally atop its website of ?people shot in America.? That number, though, is an estimate, based on the number of gun injuries and deaths recorded by the CDC in 2008 and 2009, the most recent years for which statistics are available. It seems shocking that when guns are in the headlines every day, there?s no one attempting to create a real-time chronicle of the deaths attributable to guns in the United States.

Well, someone is. Since this summer, the anonymous creator of the Twitter feed @GunDeaths has been doing his best to compile those statistics, tweeting every reported death he can find. He was inspired, he told us in a phone interview, by the Aurora, Colo., shootings and simply wanted to call daily attention to the toll that guns take. Now Slate is partnering with @GunDeaths to create this interactive feature, ?Gun Deaths in America Since Newtown.?

Deaths since Newtown:

Age:

All

Adult

Teen

Child

Each victim under 13 years of age is designated "child"; from 13 to 17: "teen"; 18 and older: "adult."

Of course, this data is incomplete. Not all reports get caught by @GunDeaths? news alerts or his followers. Suicides, which are estimated to make up as much as 60 percent of gun deaths, typically go unreported. Nevertheless, we at Slate want to assemble this data as best we can.

And the more people who are paying attention, the better the data will be. You can help us draw a more complete picture of gun violence in America. If you know about a gun death in your community that isn?t represented here, please tweet @GunDeaths with a citation, and he?ll add it to his feed. (If you?re not on Twitter, you can email slatedata@gmail.com.) His data feeds our interactive feature.

And if you?d like to use this data yourself for your own projects, it?s open. You can download it here.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=69ac6522a826ffe41ff70e9f2b4324be

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Should Cities Ban Fracking?

A hydraulic fracturing site in South Montrose, Penn.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Twelve years ago, the International Energy Agency predicted increased U.S. imports of natural gas and oil. This year, it claimed the United States will soon be a net exporter of natural gas and oil. Why the change in outlook? The United States figured out how to tap its unconventional energy resources by blasting chemical-laced water into ?hydrocarbon kitchens? deep underground?a process you probably know as fracking.

But the United States has not figured out how to regulate this new era of fossil fuel extremism. Exemptions, trade secrets, and nondisclosures have allowed profit-making to proceed without adequate monitoring. At the state level, the same agency is often responsible for both regulating and promoting mineral development. The Texas Rail Road Commission?s first priority is to get minerals out of the ground. Commissioners survive on campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry and host Facebook pages that openly demonize the EPA. Texas? inspectors are each responsible for more than 1,000 wells, and in 2010 nearly 140,000 out of 260,000 wells in the state went uninspected.

With a vacuum of leadership from the top, cities and towns have sought to fill the void. But they face a thorny question: What rules could make fracking compatible with the health, safety, and welfare of those who live nearby?

In the movie Promised Land, due out in theaters soon, a small town tears itself apart over this question. For more than two years, my home of Denton, Texas, has been acting out this script in real life as it rewrites its drilling ordinance. I have attended umpteen city council meetings in which I use my three-minute public comment to make wonkish analyses of the 54-page ordinance that is now in its fifth draft. I tend to say things like: ?Section 35.22.5.A.2.p.i should have the phrase ?if this is infeasible? removed.? It?s really dry stuff.

At these meetings, there are always Denton ?fracktivists? demanding a ban. They have read aloud a short story featuring Denton citizens besieged by a greedy corporate Grinch. They have equated fracking with terrorism. One student donned a mask to personify death and thanked the city council for allowing fracking to claim more souls for the underworld. Say what you will, but that is not dry.

This is the divided heart of the anti-fracking movement. Pragmatists working to reform the system, idealists to eliminate it. The former accused of being unprincipled, the latter impractical. This schism in American environmentalism is rooted in the broken friendship of Gifford Pinchot and John Muir. When Pinchot said in the early 1900s that damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley was its highest use, Muir shot back: ?[N]o holier temple has ever been consecrated by the hearts of man.?

I loved reading Muir when I was in college, and I had no doubt that Pinchot was a feckless weasel. Muir would have written his own anti-fracking literature?although he would have done so from atop a Giant Sequoia in a thunderstorm. His American romanticism galvanized my early, nameless worries about the planet. You can imagine my horror when sitting in council chambers I was visited by the sickening thought: ?My God, I?ve become Pinchot!?

Like Pinchot seeking to harmonize dams and valleys, I have been trying to harmonize fracking and communities. I assumed there is some answer to the question about which rules would make fracking compatible with city life. That?s what I keep hunting for in thickets of legalese. But I have to admit that I don?t know what those rules would look like. And that might be because they don?t exist.

That, anyway, has been the answer offered by a growing list of cities and towns that have banned fracking. In November, Longmont became the first city in Colorado to join the list. Its charter amendment is a simple one-page document.

But here is where the impracticality comes in: Longmont is being sued. The city is likely to lose. Not only will this cost them lots of money, but it may set a bad precedent for other cities seeking more cunning ways to use local control to curtail fracking in their jurisdiction. Many industry-friendly state representatives are hoping for this kind of excuse to push through an agenda that would further erode municipal sovereignty.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=482ec2094f19a0a9d216e557c813cb10

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Car Finance ? Using Payday Cash Loans To End An Emergency But ...

Get fast $ 300 instant approval payday loans online Nashville- Davidson Tennessee no credit check .

It?s dependent on reality that payday loans use a poor status. Every person has observed the terror tales of when these services go awry along with the costly results that arise. Nevertheless, from the correct conditions, payday loans may possibly be advantageous for your needs. Here are a few recommendations you need to know just before stepping into this particular deal.

Get fast $ 300 instant approval payday loans online Nashville-Davidson, TN no credit check .

In case you are possessing a difficult experience figuring out if you should utilize a pay day loan, contact a client credit specialist. These pros generally help no-profit businesses that provide free of charge credit and financial help to buyers. These people will help you find the correct pay day lender, or perhaps even help you rework your funds so that you do not need the financing.

When you are completing your application for payday loans, you are sending your personal details over the internet to an unidentified destination. Knowing this could enable you to guard your details, much like your societal safety number. Shop around about the lender you are looking for just before, you give anything at all over the Internet.

Whenever you are filling out a software for the pay day loan, it is recommended to look for some sort of writing saying your details will not be marketed or shared with any individual. Some pay day financing internet sites will give information apart including your street address, societal safety number, and many others. so make sure you steer clear of these firms.

By no means take out a pay day loan on behalf of somebody else, regardless of how close up your relationship is that you simply have using this type of particular person. If a person is struggling to be entitled to a pay day loan independently, you should not believe in them sufficient to put your credit on the line.

If you are taking out a pay day loan, make certain you is able to afford to spend it rear inside of 1 to 2 months. Online payday loans needs to be employed only in emergencies, if you really do not have other alternatives. If you take out a pay day loan, and cannot spend it rear immediately, 2 things happen. Initially, you need to spend a cost to help keep re-extending your loan up until you can pay it back. 2nd, you continue receiving incurred more and more attention.

Learn about the go into default repayment plan for the lender you are looking for. You could find your self with no cash you must pay back it when it is expected. The loan originator could give you the option to spend simply the attention quantity. This may roll above your borrowed quantity for the following two weeks. You will end up sensible to spend one more attention cost the next salary as well as the personal debt owed.

If you are looking for the pay day loan, you must understand that there are plenty of misinformation and common myths linked to them. The common myths are that payday loans are simply for lower-cash flow clients and misconceptions that they are only for use as being a last resort. Both of these are not real. You can now get this particular bank loan, and if they are handled appropriately, they can be really practical.

Before you decide to take out a pay day loan, talk with any friends members who have previously done so. Question them concerning their experience and find out which pay day lender they chose. The greater number of research one does in advance, the more likely you may be to steer clear of engaging in additional financial difficulty.

Make every single consider to settle your pay day loan on time. In the event you can?t pay it back, the loaning firm could force you to roll-over the financing into a fresh one. This another one accrues its unique set of charges and financing fees, so officially you are having to pay all those charges two times for the same cash! This can be a critical strain in your banking account, so intend to pay for the bank loan off right away.

If you make application for a pay day loan, make certain you apply to an individual lender as opposed to numerous ones. You increase the probability that your application will get turned down if you apply to numerous loan providers at the same time as it can certainly be observed as irresponsible from the loan providers.

In the event you require a pay day loan, you really should think about reevaluating your finances or financial practices. Even though a pay day loan can really become a existence-series, you should not be according to them too often. You must learn to deal with cash wisely, and in a fashion that contributes to financial power, and never continuing hardship.

Do not picture you are able to steer clear of repaying a pay day loan by shutting down the banking account your examine was published on. Performing that would build a condition where you could take place responsible for very high charges and attention. In addition to receiving you into legal difficulty, and even more expense.

To conclude, financial concerns will often need that they can be dealt with in an urgent approach. For this kind of scenarios, a simple bank loan may be required, say for example a pay day loan. Just keep in mind the pay day loan advice and tips from earlier in this post to obtain a pay day loan for your requirements.

Source: http://yumiwa.com/using-payday-cash-loans-to-end-an-emergency-but-not-make-the-up-coming-one-particular/

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Mountaintop Rallies Around Fire Victims | WNEP.com ? Scranton ...

Posted on: 10:53 pm, December 23, 2012, by Dave Bohman, updated on: 10:56pm, December 23, 2012

A community in Luzerne County Sunday night rallied around a Mountaintop family whose home burned down two weeks ago.

At the party, Jack and Amy Gentilesco, and their five children aged 14-22, were the guests of honor.

?I think it may be the nicest holiday we`ve ever had,? said Amy, doubting she?d have said something like that two weeks ago.

The Gentilesco`s home in Mountaintop burned to the ground in a spectacular fire.

No one was hurt, but the family lost everything inside.

?It`s just a terrible thing to happen to such a wonderful family,? said Kara Maloney, a friend of the Gentilesco?s oldest daughters.

Their friends had to do something to help their friends who lost so much.

?Our house burned down years ago,? said family friend Gary Buczynski.? ?I know what they`re going through.?

That?s why friends put together a pre-Christmas party at the ?Touch of Class Palace.?? The money raised will help the Gentilescos rebuild.

?It?s bad they lost a lot of mementos, things like that.? The house will be rebuilt, and they will get through it,? said Gary Buczynski.

?We`re lucky to be here to celebrate,? added Amy Gentilesco.? ?We`re lucky that we`re in this community.?

Lucky on many levels.

Their family?s helpless feelings of watching fire destroy their home passed quickly.

Two days after the fire, something far worse happened with the murder of 26 young students and teachers at a Connecticut elementary school.

That?s why the Gentilescos see their situation as a setback, not a tragedy.

?And we know that our kids are here, with us, and everything is going to be just fine,? Amy said.

The Gentilescos are staying with relatives for the holidays, and plan to rebuild their home in Mountaintop.

Source: http://wnep.com/2012/12/23/mountaintop-rallies-around-fire-victims/

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