songbird ombudsman: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

iMore's best of the rest: Notable new and updated apps for the week

Every week we provide you guys with app reviews for iPhone, iPad, and Mac as well as give you the scoop on the hottest new and updated apps. No matter how much time we spend writing reviews or posting news on app updates, there's no denying that the App Store is a huge marketplace to dig through.

That's why we think these apps are worth mentioning even if we didn't have time to give them all full on reviews. This week we found a few weather apps, some children's apps for both parents and kids, some games for both Mac and iOS, and more.

Games

Must Keep Counting for iPhone and iPad

Must Keep Counting is a basic counting game where you'll need to tap on the tiles as fast as you can in order to count as high as you can. As you tap on a tile, it will be replaced by a different number. Count in order as high as you can while racing against the time. As you're tapping on tiles faster and faster, you'll gain more time but take too long and the timer starts counting down. When you get to zero, your game will end.

Must Keep Counting supports Game Center integration too so you can challenge and check out your friend's high scores.

$0.99 - Download Now

Word Slide for iPhone

If you're a fan of word games, Word Slide is an interesting twist on classic word creation games. You'll have to work against the clock in order to form words as fast as you can but there's a little catch, the letters move in turn making it more challenging.

You can either play solo or match up against friends in turns of three round games.

Free - Download Now

Golden Trails 2 for Mac

In Golden Trails 2, you'll play as Henry whose grandfather was accused of being a pirate. In order to save him you'll need to defeat bandits, find hidden items, and solve lots of puzzles. The graphics are also beautifully designed.

If you like casual RPG's that contain more puzzles and mini-games than they do hand to hand combat, Golden Trails 2 may be what you're looking for.

Free with in-app purchases - Download Now

Productivity apps

PasswordBox for iPhone and iPad

Password Box is a password manager that can store all your account information and login information in one place. With a built-in browser you'll be able to tap once and log in to all your accounts that you've got stored. The interface is surprisingly clean and well laid out. If you don't need or want to pay for a more extensive solution such as 1Password, PasswordBox may be a nice compromise.

PasswordBox is a universal download for both iPhone and iPad.

Free - Download Now

Actions for iPad

Actions allows you to create actions straight on your iPad in order to control and work more seamlessly with your computer. All your actions can wirelessly sync between the two for a much better workflow. If you like integrating your iPad and appreciate touch screen controls over basic computer controls, Actions is worth checking out. Actions works with both Mac and PC.

$3.99 - Download Now

Stocks for iPhone

There's no shortage of stock apps in the App Store but the quality of each one varies. Stocks for iPhone caught our attention because not only does it give you pretty detailed information, it's one of the best put together stock apps we've seen paired with a gorgeous interface. If you don't need a hardcore stock app that ties directly into your stock portfolios, Stocks makes a perfect app for just checking on things at a quick glance.

$1.99 - Download Now

Task Player for iPhone

Task management apps run rampant in the App Store and choosing one can be a hard decision. I personally use a couple different ones for different reasons. Task Player aims to make task management less work and more fun. With custom alerts and a great interface, Task Player allows you to think of tasks like an album. Choose tracks to go with certain tasks and go.

The creators of Task Player think it's an ideal app for activities such as circuit training, Yoga, and timing dishes in the kitchen.

$0.99 - Download Now

Photography apps

Modern Photo Editor for iPhone and iPad

If you can't get enough photo editing apps stock piled on your iPhone, Modern Photo Editor is another great one that's got a clean layout and lots of filter, edit, and sharing options. With lots of filters, adjustments, textures, and spot-editing options you'll be able to fully edit your photos and then share them to the social network of your choice including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, email, and text message.

$0.99 - Download Now

ProPhotos for iPhone and iPad

ProPhotos takes a new approach on how you view your photos. Instead of viewing them in a boring list, why not check out your best photos in different 3D shapes and slideshows? With six different views to choose from, you can view 3D models of your photos and expand on them as you'd like. ProPhotos also supports animations for transitions between photos.

$1.99 - Download Now

Social apps

Socialblend for iPhone

Socialblend combines all your social networks together in one feed including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The feed view is visually attractive and even lets you play YouTube videos native within the app. If you want to simply switching between apps in order to catch up on what your friends are posting, Socialblend is one of the best options we've found to be available.

Free - Download Now

Moment for Mac

Moment for Mac is a new way to share to Facebook directly from your Mac. Not only can you post status updates, you can also videos and photo galleries without ever having to log in to Facebook via a web browser. One of the coolest features is the ability to drag videos directly from Vimeo and YouTube right to Moment's status icon in order to upload them.

If anything, Moment is a super convenient way to share directly to Facebook without disrupting your workflow.

$3.99 - Download Now

Kids and Education

iMore's best of the rest: Notable new and updated apps for the week

First Years for iPhone

First Years is one of the most gorgeous ways we've ever seen to document and chronicle your child's life. Not only are the different ways beautiful, tilting your iPhone into landscape mode will bring up a calendar you can tab through in order to easily access moments on certain dates.

If you're looking for a way to organize and store photos of your kids, First Years is a great option. The built-in camera also makes it an all-in-one app for the times you want to snap photos and instantly add them.

$1.99 - Download Now

LittleLearner for iPhone and iPad

LittleLearner is a basic learning app for young children with an easy to use and navigate interface. It includes the ability to pull up letters and allow a child to trace over them with different colored crayons in order to learn the alphabet. There are several categories to choose from including numbers, letters, shapes, fruits, and music.

If you're looking for a discovery app to help your child discover the basics, LittleLearner is a great option.

Free - Download Now

Weather and Travel apps

Weathertron for iPhone and iPad

Instead of providing a detailed advanced forecast, Weathertron aims to make it easier to plan what you're doing right now by focusing on what today's weather will bring. With information such as whether it'll rain to cloud cover and more, Weathertron is not only beautiful, it can help you better plan your day around the weather that's currently happening and how it will develop over the course of the entire day.

$0.99 - Download Now

SimplyWeather for iPhone

There are lots of gorgeous weather apps available in the App Store and SimplyWeather has just made that decision even harder. WIth beautiful forecast and current condition screens to a well laid out list of information, SimplyWeather shows what you need to see beautifully.

SimplyWeather supports weather information for local weather, weekly forecasts, wind speed, humidity, visibility, and more. If you're looking for a replacement weather app, give SimplyWeather a look.

Free - Download Now

Travel Budget App for iPhone

If you're thinking about traveling, you'll probably want a good amount of travel apps on your iPhone before departure. If one of your goals is to budget yourself and be mindful of how much you're spending while you're done, Travel Budget App can do just that.

For business users, Travel Budget App makes a great way to track expenses since you can easily export them at the end of your trip to be sent or uploaded wherever you need them.

Free - Download Now

Your picks?

These are the apps we found to be notable throughout this past week but that doesn't mean we covered them all. If you found a new or updated app this past week that you think is worth mentioning, make sure you drop it in the comments below!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/LtsdDFTsEi8/story01.htm

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Toshiba will launch 84-, 65- and 58-inch 4K TVs in August, prices start at $4,999

We caught a glimpse of Toshiba's second generation 4K TVs at CES in January and at a European event in March, and now the company has announced it's delivering three versions of the L9300U series this fall. All feature its CEVO 4K Quad+Dual Core processor built-in to handle image processing and its suite of Cloud TV apps, plus built-in WiFi, Miracast and WiDi. It also announced Technicolor has certified its Blu-ray player and streaming media box for delivering HD content to its 4K TVs. The 58-, 65- and 84-inch models will all ship in August for $4,999, $6,999 and $16,999 respectively -- we'll see how they compete with similar Ultra HDTV options arriving from the likes of Sony, Sharp and Samsung.

Gallery: Toshiba L9300U 4K TVs

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/lpmbdKEia4Q/

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You Can Explore the Ghost Island That Inspired Skyfall on Street View

If this view looks familiar, it's because it was the inspiration for the Javier Bardem's cyberterrorist HQ in Skyfall. Now, you can explore the real-life island on Street View.

Feds: Boston suspect downloaded bomb instructions

BOSTON (AP) ? Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded bomb-making instructions from an al-Qaida magazine, gathered online material on Islamic jihad and martyrdom, and later scrawled anti-American messages inside the boat where he lay wounded, a federal indictment charged Thursday.

The 30-count indictment contains the bombing charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought against the 19-year-old Tsarnaev in April.

But prosecutors added charges covering the slaying of an MIT police officer and the carjacking of a motorist during the getaway attempt that left Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, dead.

"Tamerlan Tsarnaev's justice will be in the next world, but for his brother, accountability will begin right here in the district of Massachusetts," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, whose jurisdiction includes Boston, said at a news conference with federal prosecutors.

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded by the two pressure-cooker bombs that went off near the finish line of the marathon on April 15.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured four days later, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.

According to the indictment, he scrawled messages on the inside of the vessel that said, among other things, "The U.S. Government is killing our innocent civilians," ''I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished," and "We Muslims are one body you hurt one you hurt us all."

The Tsarnaev brothers had roots in the turbulent Russian regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, which have become recruiting grounds for Islamic extremists. They had been living in the U.S. about a decade.

But the indictment made no mention of any larger conspiracy beyond the brothers, and no reference to any direct overseas contacts with extremists. Instead, the indictment suggests the Internet played an important role in the suspects' radicalization.

Before the attack, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded onto his computer the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qaida, according to the indictment. The issue detailed how to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder extracted from fireworks, and lethal shrapnel.

He also downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including "Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation After Imam," which advocates "violence designed to terrorize the perceived enemies of Islam," the indictment said.

Another tract downloaded included a foreword by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaida who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Massachusetts said it will be up to Attorney General Eric Holder to decide whether to pursue the death penalty against Tsarnaev.

The indictment assembled and confirmed details of the case that have been widely reported over the past two months, and added new pieces of information.

For example, it confirmed that Tamerlan Tsarnaev bought 48 fireworks mortar shells containing about eight pounds of explosive powder from a Seabrook, N.H., fireworks store. It also disclosed that he used the Internet to order electronic components that could be used in making bombs.

The papers detail how the brothers then placed knapsacks containing shrapnel-packed bombs near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race.

The court papers also confirm that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contributed to his brother's death by accidentally running him over with a stolen vehicle during a shootout and police chase.

The charges cover the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who authorities said was shot in the head at close range in his cruiser by the Tsarnaevs during their getaway attempt. The brothers tried to take his gun, prosecutors said.

In addition, prosecutors said that during the carjacking, the Tsarnaev brothers forced the motorist to turn over his ATM card and his password, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev withdrew $800 from the man's account.

At the same time the federal indictment was announced, Massachusetts authorities brought a 15-count state indictment against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev over the MIT officer's slaying and the police shootout.

___

Tom Hays reported from New York.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-boston-suspect-downloaded-bomb-instructions-195945432.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Appetites: Expanding food and beverage pairing to cocktails ...

Appetites

by Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio

June 26, 2013

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ST. PAUL, Minn. ? Wine has been served with food for as long as vintners have been fermenting grape juice, but pairing a specific wine with a particular dish is a more contemporary practice. Interest in matching wine with food has spawned similar pairing of beer and food and, most recently, the development of pairing cocktails and food.

Rachel Hutton, senior editor of Minnesota Monthly magazine, speaks with Tom Crann of MPR News' All Things Considered about an innovative Minneapolis restaurant that is rethinking the notion of a mixed drink.

? Photos: Cocktails at The Bachelor Farmer

TOM CRANN: It sounds as if there is far more to food and beverage than the old wine adage: white wine with fish, red with meat.

RACHEL HUTTON: That's certainly the most popular rule. I consider it a basic rule-of-thumb for the idea that you generally want to try to match light-bodied wines with lighter foods, and full-bodied wines with heavier, richer foods.

A crisp, dry Sauvignon Blanc will pair well with a delicate white fish. A Cabernet Sauvignon is a great match for a well-marbled steak because the tannins in red wine --which are compounds from the grape skins that create a dry, astringent sensation -- cut through the fat.

CRANN: But rules are meant to be broken, right?

HUTTON:Sure, especially because some whites, such as oaky California Chardonnays can be fuller bodied than certain light reds, such as Pinot Noir. In rethinking these old adages, restaurateurs have been doing all sorts of creative things such as pairing oysters with stout beer, and, most recently, at the Bachelor Farmer in Minneapolis, creating food-pairing cocktails.

CRANN: Is this an update on the three-martini lunch?

HUTTON:That classic trope from the Mad Men era doesn't actually offer an optimal food-beverage combination -- most cocktails are far too strong to pair well with food. In developing these new food-friendly, less-alcoholic mixed drinks, the Bachelor Farmer's head bartender, Pip Hanson, downplayed spirits with dilution or replaced them with lower-proof beverages such as sake and hard cider.

CRANN: How would you describe the drinks?

HUTTON:They're served in wine glasses, which I think helps get the diner in the right frame of mind for food-pairing, though the drinks are really not like wine at all. They have more flavor complexity, like a cocktail, and yet they're far lighter and subtler than, say, a cosmo or a Manhattan.

CRANN: So a full-strength cocktail would overwhelm the food?

HUTTON:Yes, you wouldn't be able to really taste the flavors in the dish, much less how the flavors in both food and beverage are interacting.

CRANN: And how do they interact?

HUTTON:The drinks have enough acidity and brightness to complement dishes without dominating them. I sipped Hanson's cider and sherry cocktail with one of the restaurant's Scandinavian toasts with yellow split peas and I thought its crisp sweetness was a nice counterbalance to the thick, mild puree.

CRANN: Sounds very unique.

HUTTON:As far as I know, it's the first food-pairing cocktail menu in the Twin Cities, and maybe even the country.

Tom Crann

? ? ?Host, All Things Considered

Tom Crann is the host of All Things Considered for MPR News.

Source: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/06/26/appetites/rachel-hutton-food-cocktails

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Adapting To Different Golf Courses | Content for Reprint

Author: RoseannaLeaton | Total views: 59 Comments: 0
Word Count: 587 Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 9:17 AM

Even Tiger selects exactly which courses he chooses to play at, veering towards the ones where he has played his best, has good memories from and has enjoyed the most.? Different courses do inevitably provide their own unique challenges, some that suit our nature and others that do not.

Playing any different course can pose a challenge to many people.? We are all, to a lesser or greater degree, creatures of habit.? It is more comfortable and therefore easier to play courses that we know.??

Think about driving your car for a moment.? When you first started to drive you had to think about absolutely everything and your knuckles were probably white upon the wheels due to tension.? These days it is totally different.? You barely have to think at all and your hands are nice and relaxed.? You probably drive one-handed most of the time!? But, if you happen to go abroad and have to drive a stick shift car on the wrong side of the road, you probably feel a little different, a little less comfortable?

Playing golf at a new course certainly makes you think more.? As you employ your conscious thinking brain more you can interfere with the smooth and automatic processing of your subconscious mind.?? This is why it is doubly or triply important to have a robust pre-shot routine that is absolutely set in stone.?

With this mental skill firmly packed together with your clubs into your golf bag, you are set to play your best possible golf.? You assess each shot option using your conscious thinking mind.? Once you have reached your shot decision and have firmly committed to it, then, and only then, you pull out your pre-shot routine and switch over to your subconscious mind.?? This is what allows you to play your shot smoothly in a state of relaxed and confident awareness.

If you fail to take your pre-shot routine with you to a new course you will end up trying to make a shot with a myriad of conscious thoughts still competing for each other in your conscious mind and your desired shot is unlikely to be released.? Lets face it, this indecision and lack of commitment happens for all of us from time to time at our home course.? But on a course that you know well, you are more likely to fall back upon a well-rehearsed shot simply by default.? On a new course, there is no such comfortable default tucked up your sleeve and that you can even semi-rely upon!

When assessing the importance of your pre-shot routine, think of it like a shot in itself.? You might have 36 putts, 18 tee shots, 10 chips, etc.? You have to employ your pre-shot routine for every single shot to be able to get the best out of it.? So never, ever, under-estimate it?s importance.? As the great golf teacher Jim Flick is quoted as saying, ?Golf is 90% mental, and the other 10% is too?.

Roseanna Leaton, golf addict and specialist in golf hypnosis mp3s and author of the GolferWithin golf mind training system.

P.S.? Discover how to focus your golf mind and play winning golf through mental golf training.? Check out my website now.

Grab a free hypnosis mp3 from http://www.RoseannaLeaton.com and check out the acclaimed GolferWithin series of golf mind training aids.

1: It's Golfing Galore in St. George, Utah

If you are an avid golfer, then you have probably heard of St. George, Utah. It's one of the premier places to play these days, or even retire in style.

2: How To Choose The Right Golf Tournament Format

There are many formats that have become popular for golf tournaments. In this article we go over the most popular formats.

3: Simple Steps To Hitting A Hybrid Golf Club

Now here's a golf tip that has been asked a lot on the golf message boards and golf blogs.How do you hit a hybrid golf club?The hybrid or utility golf club has been a big hit in the golf community for

4: Five Decisions To Make Before Opening A Driving Range

In opening any busines there are many things that you need to think through prior to opening your doors. Here are a few that you need to think about before you open a driving range.

5: How To Drive A Golf Ball Farther More Consistently

Learning how to hit the driver can be a significant challenge. Discover some useful golf driving tips to help you learn how to become a better golfer.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/recreation-and-leisure/sports/golf/adapting-to-different-golf-courses.htm

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Pope names commission of inquiry into Vatican bank

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis took a key step Wednesday toward reforming the troubled Vatican bank, naming a commission of inquiry to look into its activities amid a new money-laundering probe and continued questions about the very nature of the secretive financial institution.

It was the second time in as many weeks that Francis has intervened to get information out of the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR. On June 15, he filled a key vacancy in the bank's governing structure, tapping a trusted prelate to be his eyes inside the bank.

On Wednesday, he named a commission to investigate the bank's legal structure and activities "to allow for a better harmonization with the universal mission of the Apostolic See," according to the legal document that created it.

Francis named five people to the commission, including two Americans: Monsignor Peter Wells, a top official in the Vatican secretariat of state, and Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard law professor, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See and current president of a pontifical academy.

American cardinals were among the most vocal in demanding a wholesale reform of the Vatican bureaucracy ? and the Vatican bank ? in the meetings running up to the March conclave that elected Francis pope. The demands were raised following revelations in leaked documents last year that told of dysfunction, petty turf wars and allegations of corruption in the Holy See's governance.

Francis, who has made clear he has no patience for corruption and wants a "poor" church, has already named a separate commission of cardinals to advise him on the broader question of reforming the Vatican bureaucracy as a whole.

The bank commission's members have the authority to gather documents, data and information about the bank's legal status and activities, even overriding normal secrecy rules to do so. Members can receive information from anyone in the Vatican bureaucracy as well as people who spontaneously volunteer information, and the commission can refer to outside advisers if necessary, according to the terms.

The bank's administration continues to function as normal, as does the Vatican's new financial watchdog agency which has supervisory control over it.

The commission will report back to Francis ? presumably with both information and recommendations ? and then will be dissolved, the document states. No timeframe was given but the commission is to start working soon.

The Vatican bank was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage assets destined for religious or charitable works. Located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, it also manages the pension system for the Vatican's thousands of employees.

The announcement of the committee came amid a new embarrassment for the Vatican in which prosecutors in the southern city of Salerno have placed a senior Vatican official under investigation for alleged money-laundering.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed Wednesday that Monsignor Nunzio Scarano had been suspended temporarily from his position in one of the Vatican's key finance offices, the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. Scarano has said he did nothing wrong, though in an interview with the local daily, La Citta di Salerno, he acknowledged he received bad advice from his accountant.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported over the weekend that Italy's central bank had asked the Vatican's financial watchdog agency for information about Scarano's Vatican bank account as part of the probe. Lombardi said he didn't know if the Vatican had responded to the request.

Such exchanges of financial information are the hallmark of the financial transparency that the Vatican has committed itself to as part of its efforts to join the "white list" of countries in the fight against money-laundering and terrorist financing.

The Vatican in November must submit a progress report to the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee on the steps it has taken to comply with such international financial transparency norms. The Vatican passed Moneyval's key test on its first try last summer but received poor or failing grades for its bank and its financial oversight agency.

There have long been questions about just what the IOR actually is and does ? questions which the commission presumably will try to iron out for Francis. Vatican officials have long insisted it's not even a bank, since it doesn't perform key banking activities like making loans.

It does however take deposits, transfer money and invest for its clients, performing asset management services that in 2012 helped earn it 86.6 million euros in profit on 7.1 billion euros in total assets under management.

Some cardinals have questioned if the Vatican needs such a financial institution and whether its activities are even in keeping with church teaching.

In 2010, Italian financial police seized 23 million euros from an IOR account and Rome prosecutors placed the IOR's then-president and general director under investigation for alleged violations of Italy's anti-money laundering norms after they conducted a transaction from an IOR account at an Italian bank. The money was eventually unfrozen. The men technically remain under investigation but nearly three years on, haven't been charged.

The Vatican bank's workings have long been shrouded in secrecy. Most famously, it was implicated in a scandal over the collapse of Italy's Banco Ambrosiano in the 1980s in one of Italy's largest fraud cases. Roberto Calvi, the head of Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in circumstances that remain mysterious.

Banco Ambrosiano collapsed following the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans the bank had made to several dummy companies in Latin America. The Vatican had provided letters of credit for the loans.

While denying any wrongdoing, the Vatican bank agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano's creditors.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-names-commission-inquiry-vatican-bank-110114498.html

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Minn. lawmaker apologizes for 'Uncle Thomas' tweet (The Arizona Republic)

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Edition Hands-On: The Best Got Better

For years, one of Android's biggest problems has been Android skins that weigh down the best hardware the platform has to offer. But now the two best Android phones in the world?the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4?come in pure, stock Google Editions. And after spending some time with both, we can confirm that ditching the skins has made them better than ever.

Since you can buy them as of today, we've broken down how the two compare with each other, and with the skinned versions of themselves.

HTC One: Stock Android vs. Sense

The One with Sense enabled was already pretty much the snappiest phone we've ever used. With stock Android, it's even faster. Apps open just a little bit quicker and swiping around the UI is just a little bit smoother. The biggest difference you'll notice, though, is that it's just cleaner. Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) is a very minimal OS. Apps like the calendar, the clock, and even the apps drawer are more pared-back and easier to use. Desktop customization, for example, is much simpler.

You still get the same great phone on the hardware side. From a design standpoint it's still our favorite phone ever, and it's by far the most satisfying to hold. The screen is incredibly sharp and looks just as good as it did on the skinned version. The dual, front-facing speakers still sound incredible (best sounding phone ever), and when you have headphones in you have that same Beats by Dre EQ, which focuses on the bass a little more and sounds very good (the HTC One has a dedicated pre-amp to help with this). Unfortunately, it's not all good news.

The only significant drawback in the Google Edition unit we tested is that the camera doesn't work nearly as well anymore. You might recall how the HTC One's "ultrapixel" sensor took the win in our smartphone camera battle. Clearly, HTC's camera software had something to do with balancing that rather unique sensor, because the stock Android camera app doesn't do nearly as good of a job. Photos tend to be washed out, over-exposed, and under-saturated. Even in low light, it isn't as good.

The new camera app itself is very cleanly laid-out and easy to use, but you lose a lot of the advanced shooting features found in the Sense camera app (though many of these reappear in the editing menu in stock Android's Gallery app), in addition to the specialty modes, though you do gain Google's mega-panoramic PhotoSphere, which is fun but is ultimately a small consolation.

There's a chance, though, that the fault may lie in our unit. A Google spokesperson responded to our inquiries about it as follows:

"The camera hardware and underlying software (image processing, etc.) are the exact same between the Stock and Sense UX versions of HTC One, so there should not be any differences. Our camera tests show that the quality is consistent between the two."

That said, the Google engineers saw what we were talking about in our photos, and they are doing more testing, but they believe we have a faulty device. So who knows! Hopefully it's just a glitch with our One. We'll be getting a new one shortly and will update.

There are a few other quibbles, too, some small things you may have taken for granted with Sense that you don't get with stock. In HTC Sense's dialer app, you can start punching a friend's name into the number pad (using the superscript letters) and it will quickly pull up contacts. The stock dialer doesn't do this, so you have to scroll through your long list of contacts.

HTC Sense also offers built-in profiles?an easy way to switch between Normal, Vibrate, and Silent modes. Not so in stock. Also, the HTC One has a built-in IR blaster for using your phone as a remote control. Not only does the stock version not come with a preinstalled app that lets you use it, but as of right now there are no apps in the Play Store that can take advantage of it, either. We were told that capability would be coming in the next software build, though APIs will still have to be released, and someone will still have to make an app that uses them.

There's also the rather steep sticker price of $600, but that sounds like a bigger number than it actually is. For an unlocked, unsubsidized phone it's pretty standard. If you're used to paying $200 for a high-end phone and have your wireless carrier subsidize the rest (as a part of a two-year contract, typically) may experience some sticker-shock.

That might sound like it all adds up to a lot of negative, but it's really negligible, especially assuming we were dealing with an abnormal camera. And we haven't even mentioned the biggest advantage of a Google Edition phone yet: Updates. The stock version of the HTC One will all but certainly be upgraded to the newest version of Android right along with (or at least close to) the Nexus program. The One with Sense, by contrast, is still running Android version 4.1.2, which is now more than a year old. For people who want the latest and greatest coming out of Google HQ, this is huge. And trust us, you want the latest and greatest.

The stock HTC One runs on AT&T, T-Mobile, and other GSM carriers (i.e. not Verizon or Sprint), and yes, LTE works. We tested it on AT&T's network in NYC, and when we had four bars of LTE we averaged download speeds of over 20Mbps and upload speeds of over 12Mbps. We did have some problems with our radio, initially, but after talking with Google it appears that was unique to our particular test unit. And once we worked out the bug (it chose the wrong APN, for you geeks out there), it performed flawlessly. So, really, our only major gripe here is the camera. We've reached out to Google about it, and will update if we hear anything back.

Galaxy S4: Stock vs. TouchWiz

In our initial review of the Galaxy S4, almost all of our complaints about it were software-related. So you would think that replacing TouchWiz with stock Android would fix almost all of its problems, right?

Yep. That's pretty much true.

Samsung's TouchWiz is such a heavy skin that it slows things down despite the super-fast 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor in its belly. But while stock Android makes the HTC One a little faster, it's a serious change in the Galaxy S4. Scrolling through menus and across screens is faster and smoother. Apps generally open more quickly, and most importantly, there is now almost zero shutter lag on the camera, whereas the TouchWiz version can lag behind by as much as a second.

TouchWiz is also just a clusterfrak of settings and bells and whistles, most of which sit there unused, clogging up menus. Stock Android is starkly minimalist by comparison. The stock apps look better and are more intuitive to use almost without exception. Desktop customization is way simpler. We were also able to install and use Google Wallet on it (not so on the HTC One Google Edition), which is typically blocked by AT&T. Why it worked on the S4 and not the One despite using the same SIM card for both, we do not know.

On the hardware side, thankfully, photos the 13MP camera took look almost identical to those on the TouchWiz version. Again, the camera app is much simplified, and though you gain PhotoSphere and easier access to HDR, you do lose a lot of the fun camera modes that Samsung came up with, like Drama Shot (which superimposes several images of a subject in motion into a single shot) and animated GIFs. As you know, the Galaxy S4 features a micro SD card slot, and while you can read files off of it (photos, etc.) you can't take full advantage of it. For example, there is no native way to move apps over to your SD card, as there is in the skinned versions of Android.

There are, of course, things you lose that you will miss. Again, TouchWiz's dialer lets you punch in numbers to get to your contacts quickly, stock Android's dialer doesn't (please fix this, guys!), and you lose TouchWiz's profiles feature as well. TouchWiz has some handy shortcuts to settings within the notification screen and some people may miss those, but for our money, the way stock Android handles it is better, and keeps your notification panel looking cleaner and easier to read. Also, while the IR blaster is technically ready to be used, the API hasn't been released yet, and so there are no downloadable apps that can take advantage of it yet.

And as with the HTC One, the sticker price might be tough to swallow. At $650, it ain't exactly cheap, but again, that's not bad for a high-end, unlocked, unsubsidized phone. As we suspected, putting stock Android on the Galaxy S4 made one of the very best smartphones even better.

Stock Galaxy S4 vs. Stock HTC One

So, if you've decided you're going to go with one of these stock phones. Now that the software is essentially identical, here's how they compare.

Build

The HTC One is still arguably the best-designed phone we've ever used, and its build quality is unmatched. It was cut from a solid block of aluminum and it feels amazing. The Galaxy S4 is by no means bad, but with its slippery plastic back, there's no comparison. The One is slightly narrower and is a bit easier to handle, too.

Winner: HTC One

Screen

The screens are definitely two different looks, as you can see in the video above. They're both 1080p. The S4 is a full 5 inches which gives you a little more real estate, whereas the One's 4.7-inch screen means the pixel density is every so slightly higher, making it look very slightly sharper.
In the whites HTC One skew a bit on the rosy side, whereas the whites on the Galaxy S4 skew blueish-green. Which is "better" is more a matter of personal preference, though we slightly prefer the One.
In the blacks, there's no contest. The Galaxy S4 is like looking into the cold, black vacuum of space, even at full brightness. At full brightness, the HTC One's blacks are very slightly gray. It's still very good, but it's definitely not as good as the S4.

Winner: Tie

Camera

As you can see in the video above, the stock HTC One locks focus and snaps shots faster than stock Galaxy S4. But, as we mentioned above, the camera on the stock HTC One was under-performing compared to the original. As a result, the camera on the Galaxy S4 is much sharper, has better color, and better contrast. The One does, however, still stomp the S4 in low light. Hopefully we just got a bum HTC unit, but for now the Galaxy S4's camera is better. Click here for a gallery of comparison shots.

Winner: Galaxy S4 (pending)

Audio

The HTC One is the hands down winner here. It's not even close. The stereo front-facing speakers are loud and clear. The S4's external speaker (on the back) is quiet and terrible by comparison. Also, the pre-amp in the HTC One makes listening to music through headphones noticeably better.

Winner: HTC One

User Interface

Unlike full on Nexus phones, the One and the S4 both have hardware navigation buttons. The One has two capacitive buttons: One for Home, and one for Back. You double-tap home to bring up the task-switcher, and you long-press it to bring up Google Now.
The Galaxy S4 on the other hand has three navigation buttons: Back and Menu are both capitative and there's a home button in the center which is press-able. You press it once to go home, twice quickly for multitasking, and long press for Google Now.
The capacitive buttons on the HTC (for home and task switching) are simply faster and easier to use. Also, because there is no physical menu button, that puts the menu options on screen in apps, which we find to be more intuitive.

Winner: HTC One

Speed

Navigating around the OS, the HTC One is just a hair quicker. Considering it has the same software and the same processor but it's clocked 0.2 GHz slower than the S4, that shouldn't be the case. But it is. Go figure. We're talking about a very small difference, though. In benchmarks the S4 wins, but that doesn't really matter unless you're playing a very serious game, and even then, you're probably not going to see the difference.

Winner: HTC One

Battery Life

Too soon to tell. More testing required.

Winner: TBD

Options

You want expandable storage? The S4's got it, the HTC One doesn't. Want a removable battery? Ditto. If you like to tinker, you're going to get frustrated fast with the HTC One's lack of fungibility.
Similarly, while there are some accessories available for the One, Samsung has built itself a much more robust third-party ecosystem. If you want your phone with a side of stuff, the S4 is the way to go.

Winner: Galaxy S4

Price

Last but not least, the price. The HTC One is $600, and the Galaxy S4 is $650.

Winner: HTC One

Overall

Honestly, these are both terrific phones, and you'd be happy with either. If an SD card slot and removable battery are a big deal for you, go ahead and get the Galaxy S4. Otherwise, the HTC One is our favorite by a nose. Most of all, though, just be glad that you can finally get the best possible versions of the best possible phones on Android. It's about time.

You can get the stock Android HTC One here and you can get the stock Android Samsung Galaxy S4 here. They should ship out by July 9th.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/galaxy-s4-and-htc-one-google-edition-hands-on-the-best-586723181

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Russia, China reject U.S. pressure over Snowden

By Thomas Grove and Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - China and Russia rejected U.S. accusations they helped a former U.S. spy agency contractor escape prosecution in the United States, deepening a rift between powers whose cooperation may be essential in settling global conflicts including the Syrian war.

Edward Snowden, charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday. The U.S. State Department said diplomats and Justice Department officials were holding discussions with Russia, suggesting they were looking for a deal to secure his return to face espionage charges.

An airport source said the 30-year-old American, who has asked for asylum in Ecuador, had flown in on Sunday and had been booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday but had not got on board.

Journalists camped out at the airport have not spotted him inside, or leaving, the transit area, and say a heavy security presence has been relaxed for the past 24 hours. He has not registered at a hotel in the transit zone, hotel sources say.

A receptionist at the Capsule Hotel "Air Express", a complex of 47 basic rooms decorated predominantly with grey carpets and grey walls, said Snowden had turned up on Sunday, looked at the price list but then left.

U.S. officials admonished Beijing and Moscow on Monday for allowing Snowden to escape their clutches but the United States' partners on the U.N. Security Council, already at odds with Washington over the conflict in Syria, hit back indignantly.

"The United States' criticism of China's central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing, also dismissing U.S. criticism of Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, for letting Snowden leave.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied suggestions Moscow had helped Snowden in any way, including by allowing him to fly into Sheremetyevo.

"He chose his itinerary on his own. We learnt about it ... from the media. He has not crossed the Russian border," he said. "We consider the attempts to accuse the Russian side of violating U.S. laws, and practically of involvement in a plot, to be absolutely groundless and unacceptable."

Lavrov's insistence Snowden had not entered Russia implies he has not left the airport transit area, used by passengers flying from one non-Russian airport to another without going through passport control or requiring an entry visa.

The transit area is Russian sovereign territory, but it could be argued that in staying there Snowden had not formally entered the country - a move that could implicate President Vladimir Putin in helping a fugitive.

Interfax news agency quoted a source "in the Russian capital" as saying Snowden could be detained to check the validity of his passport if he crossed the Russian border.

Snowden is travelling on a refugee document of passage provided by Ecuador, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said.

Putin is not shy of celebrating people who challenge Washington, but has an interest in keeping relations with the United States on track as both sides try to improve security cooperation and arrange a peace conference on Syria.

U.S. DISCUSSES SNOWDEN WITH RUSSIA

Jay Carney, a spokesman for the White House, said it was Washington's assumption that Snowden was still in Russia.

Snowden, whose exposure of the surveillance raised questions about civil liberties in the United States, flew to Moscow after being allowed to leave Hong Kong even though Washington had asked the Chinese territory to detain him.

Snowden, until recently a contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, had been expected to fly to Havana from Moscow on Monday and eventually go on to Ecuador, according to sources at the Russian airline Aeroflot.

There is no direct flight from Moscow to Quito, which has said it was considering Snowden's asylum request.

Ecuador, like Cuba and Venezuela, is a member of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials. The Quito government has been sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its London embassy for the past year.

The airport source confirmed Snowden was travelling with Sarah Harrison, a legal researcher working for WikiLeaks.

"She (Harrison) came together with Edward Snowden from Hong-Kong on June 23 around 5 p.m.," the source said. "He had a ticket to go to Havana on the 24th, but he did not use it. She also had one, but she didn't use it either."

DEFIANCE

With Snowden's whereabouts a mystery, U.S. President Barack Obama, may face prolonged embarrassment from a young man leading the world's lone superpower on a global game of hide and seek.

Obama told reporters his government was "following all the appropriate legal channels working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed".

But U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were concerned that they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had in his possession and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated.

He could publish more documents or they could get into the hands of foreign intelligence. The Kremlin denies knowledge of any contacts between Russian officials and Snowden, despite media speculation the security forces could be questioning him.

Carney said his escape would damage U.S.-China relations and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden's activities could threaten the security of China and the United States.

"People may die as a consequence to what this man did," he told CNN. But to his supporters, Snowden is a whistle blowing hero who exposed the extent of U.S. surveillance activities.

(Additional reporting Gabriela Baczynska and Lidia Kelly in Moscow, Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington and Katya Golubkova in Havana, Writing by Elizabeth Piper and Timothy Heritage, editing by)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-presses-russia-mystery-over-snowden-deepens-015914306.html

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Show Us Your Photos of Last Night's Giant Supermoon

Last night, the moon came as close to the Earth as its elliptical orbit will take it. That means we didn't get just any old moon?we got a ginormous, glowing supermoon that was about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than normal. Did you get pictures of the bright, shining orb? We want to see them!

The supermoon happens once a year when two cycles converge. Here's a good explainer from NASA that gives a little more background on how that works. One thing we know? The biggest, brightest moon of the year makes for some great skywatching and fantastic photos. Show us yours below.

Image credit: NPS/Jacob W. Frank

Source: http://gizmodo.com/show-us-your-photos-of-last-nights-giant-supermoon-559556701

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