HTC Reports Lowest Sales Since Jan 2010, Worst Revenue Decline In 4 Months, As February Sales Fell 44% To $384M

The new HTC One unveiled last month is increasingly feeling like last-chance saloon for the troubled Taiwan handset maker. Today HTC noted that its sales for the month of February fell by nearly 44% to 11.37 billion Taiwan dollars ($384 million), from NT$20.3 billion for the same month one year ago, down nearly 44%, Looking at the bigger picture, that NT$11.37 billion is barely higher than what HTC made in January 2010, when it reported NT$11.12 billion in sales.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mUl3jCJSKGE/

Lisa Robin Kelly Nexus 4 Girl Meets World Jason Babin Nolan Daniels angus t. jones monday night football

# IV Commandment on Not Messing up Your Kids

IV: Never talk about your child to other people in front of them, unless it is to praise your son or daughter.

You need to be their number one confidant, not a blabber mouth ?sharing? what they did and saying it?s ?cute? ?(let alone saying they did something bad) or laughing at what they did and making them self conscious.

You can?t feel safe with a parent who seems to think you?re an entertainment experience.

And, sure, post a picture or two online (if you must) but your child isn?t a show and tell for your friends.

If your child?s privacy isn?t safe with you who can they trust?

(to be continued in this space tomorrow?)

To book Frank Schaeffer to speak at your college, church or group?contact?him at?Frankschaeffer.com?

Frank Schaeffer?is a writer and author of?Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back .

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankschaeffer/2013/03/iv-commandment-on-not-messing-up-your-kids/

dominos dominos Perez Hilton Michelle Obama Oscars Wissam Al Mana anne hathaway seth macfarlane

Cowboys franchise Spencer? |? Too much money

Getty Images

The dust has settled on the franchise-tag designation period.? Unlike last year, when 21 tags flew, only three were applied in 2013.

So what gives?

The easy explanation is that this year?s crop of players eligible for the tag wasn?t as good as last year?s.? But it?s likely more complicated than that.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco would have been this year?s Drew Brees, if the Ravens had been willing or able to carry his exclusive franchise tender, like the Saints did last year with Brees.? These deals get done on a deadline basis, and for the Ravens the real deadline was having to choose between two equally bad evils:? more than $19 million under the exclusive tag or nearly $15 million under the non-exclusive tag, along with an opportunity for the Browns to try to steal the Super Bowl MVP.

The Titans got cold feet regarding the possibility of using the franchise tag on tight end Jared Cook. or he would have been No. 9.? If he?d signed the offer and if he?d then won the inevitable grievance arguing that he?s a receiver, the Titans would have been paying Cook more in 2013 than they?ll be paying Chris Johnson.

The Titans could have instead used the tag on kicker Rob Bironas.? Last year, the tag was applied to six punter/kickers.? But with the market for kickers and punters expected to be soft this year, teams other than the Colts apparently opted not to invest nearly $3 million in a veteran, given that low-cost options like Blair Walsh and Greg Zeuerlein were floating in last year?s draft pool.

The biggest factor for the lack of tags could have been the salary cap.? Even though the franchise tenders are now based on the five-year average cap percentage consumed by the five highest-paid players at each position, it becomes more difficult to give one large chunk of cap space to one player at a time when the total cap grew by only 0.5 percent in 2012 and 1.9 percent in 2013.? For too many teams, the upward pressure of salary increases coupled with a relatively static total spending limit has made eight-figure salaries for non-superstar players a luxury that no longer can be afforded.

It should be no surprise, for example, that the Patriots didn?t use it.? At a time when quarterback Tom Brady?s cap number will be $13.8 million, how could they justify tying up $10.8 million in cornerback Aqib Talib or $9.8 million in tackle Sebastian Vollmer or $11.4 million in receiver Wes Welker?

The next question is whether the one-year franchise tenders will become long-term deals.? Teams have until July 15 to make that transformation.

If not, the players who have received the franchise tenders but who won?t be signing them any time soon need to worry about something that hasn?t happened in eight years:? A team rescinding the tag.

Chiefs left tackle Branden Albert should be specifically concerned about that.? After all, his new head coach, Andy Reid, did it twice in Philly, to defensive tackle Corey Simon in 2005 and to linebacker Jeremiah Trotter three years earlier.? If/when the Chiefs take left tackle Luke Joeckel with the first pick in the 2013 draft, Albert may want to quickly put pen to paper for his $9.828 million salary, or the chance to do so may permanently evaporate.

Then, he would end up on the open market in May, long after the big money has flowed for the year.

Given the new realities of a cap-strapped NFL, that?s a real concern that every franchise player should now have.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/04/spencer-tag-could-spark-unprecedented-battle/related/

chrome for android hatchet leah messer freedom riders 9th circuit court of appeals gisele bundchen tom brady randy travis arrested

White House: unlocking of cellphones should be legal

(Reuters) - Cellphone users should be allowed to switch their devices to any mobile carrier, the White House said on Monday in response to an online petition against the recent banning of the practice.

More than 100,000 people signed the petition protesting the ban on switching imposed by the Library of Congress, which took effect in January. At issue is whether cellphone buyers, who get new devices at a heavily subsidized price in return for committing to long-term contracts, should be able to take their gadgets with them when they change carriers.

Many in the telecoms industry argue that cellphones should be "locked" - or prevented from moving freely across networks - because of the massive subsidies that carriers provide, effectively putting the devices in the hands of more people.

The petition argued that preventing "unlocking" reduces consumer choice and resale value of phones, which can cost hundreds of dollars without subsidies from carriers like AT&T Inc, Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

"The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties," R. David Edelman, a senior advisor for Internet, Innovation, & Privacy to the Obama administration, wrote in the White House's response.

"This is particularly important for secondhand or other mobile devices that you might buy or receive as a gift, and want to activate on the wireless network that meets your needs - even if it isn't the one on which the device was first activated. All consumers deserve that flexibility."

The Library of Congress, which among other things is responsible for setting rules and deciding on exemptions related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, said on Monday the issue would benefit from further debate and that its intention was not to supplant public policy discussion.

The Library of Congress got involved late last year during a rulemaking session conducted by the Register of Copyrights, which advises the organization. Unidentified participants in the rulemaking process, a technical, legal proceeding that allows members of the public to request exemptions to the copyright act, raised the issue then.

The Library of Congress subsequently decided that cellphones should no longer be exempted from the relevant section of copyright law, triggering the January ban on "unlocking."

(Reporting by Edwin Chan in San Francisco; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-unlocking-cellphones-legal-002209756--sector.html

heart shaped box lucid 2012 ncaa tournament bracket matterhorn chris harrison girl scouts printable bracket

How that smartphone makes you less manly

By Rob Walker

In an oversharing moment at the TED conference last week, Google co-founder Sergey Brin confessed to finding his smartphone ?emasculating.? You know about this, because the remark had the whole Internet aflutter, possibly because Brin himself looks so macho these days: fit, tousle-haired, and in evidently possession of Ben Affleck?s recently abandoned beard. Throw in the Terminator-esque Google Glass that Brin says will re-masculate the masses, and he seemed poised to annihilate us all. (By comparison, here?s what Brin looked like pre-Glass.)

Lulz ensued, of course. But if you set aside Brin?s surprising word choice and dubious eyewear, he?s getting at something that?s worth taking seriously. More and more of us are drifting away from PCs and laptops, and toward mobile, touch-screen devices. The benefits for consumers are clear enough, but what about the downsides?

One answer turns very specifically on that word choice: ?consumers.? Sue Gardner, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, observed in a recent interview on the Australian radio show Future Tense that Wikipedia participants who transition to tablet devices seem to contribute less as a result, because those devices ?are better for watching videos and surfing the internet than for typing text.?

Her real point was that this is not just a problem for Wikipedia, it?s also a potentially profound shift in how to think about what the Internet is for. Instead of being a place where all sorts of people create all sorts of things for all sorts of audiences, Gardner continued, ?I think increasingly what's happening is, partly as a result of the kinds of devices that are being manufactured and that people are buying, people are moving toward a more consumption-based Internet experience from a production-based experience.?

Setting aside the cheap jokes about Brin and the art of manliness?mostly because I can?t think of any more?maybe these consumption-friendlier objects do emasculate, or ?make (a person) weaker or less effective? (to quote the top definition of the word that, um, Google kicked in my face). I now travel with an iPad instead of a laptop, and even when I bring a keyboard attachment, I definitely produce less. Beyond answering vital email and poking out a few ?likes? on one or another social network, it?s just much easier to watch something on Netflix, or catch up with whatever I?ve stashed in Instapaper.

Now, to offer an important but unfashionable caveat, I don?t think there?s anything wrong with consuming the Internet, as it were. There?s lots of great stuff out there. If it weren?t for the Internet, it?s unlikely I?d be able to enjoy Australian radio shows, for instance. And you wouldn?t be reading this column right now.

But Gardner?s point is a useful one for me to cite in my first column for Yahoo News. It?s a daunting thing to show up in 2013 and announce: ?I am writing about technology.? I mean, who isn?t? So first I should clarify that I?m interested in the digital world and the objects we use to access it, but also in physical technologies from crowd-funded drones to anti-surveillance hoodies, from weird new materials to tiny iPad-cleaning robots.

That said, what I won?t be doing is joining the race to post images of and quote press releases for the latest gizmo. To me, what?s really interesting about technology isn?t technology?it?s what people choose to do with technology, for better and for worse. Perhaps it?s quaint to say so, but I?m a fan of human agency. And although I think Gardner?s concern should be taken seriously, I?m optimistic that I?ll have plenty to write about.

That brings us back to Google Glass: While I can see how it might impact ?what you?re meant to do with your body,? as Brin put it, it?s less clear to me how it improves what you can do with your mind. Evidently you?re supposed to use it to display information and record ?lifebits.??

OK, but personally I can?t wait until people start figuring out not what they?re supposed to do with this technology, but what they can do. Google Glass, you could say, will be a lot more interesting once clever people emasculate it.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/are-smartphones-and-tablets-turning-us-into-sissies--175359859.html

Safe Haven Robbie Rogers WWE Rita Ora Meteor Russia jay z Oscar Pistorius

Pocket dialing calls police to Oregon drug deal

MOLALLA, Ore. (AP) ? Police in the Oregon town of Molalla say a dispatcher received a cellphone call and overheard a drug deal taking place.

A phone in the woman's pocket inadvertently dialed 911 early Tuesday and dispatchers heard a conversation with a man about drugs.

KGW reports (http://bit.ly/13tEKpX ) police tracked the GPS signal to a car in an alley about a block away. An officer who arrived at the scene could be heard over the phone by dispatchers.

The officer found methamphetamine and arrested a 25-year-old man on multiple drug charges. The 25-year-old woman was cited for possessing marijuana ? and hung up her phone.

___

Information from: KGW-TV, http://www.kgw.com/

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-03-01-Pocket%20Dialing%20Police/id-9e3de95bab344b9daa862a72691c688e

the line us soccer bobby brown arrested the happening black panthers mauritania obama open mic

Pair of Ky. highway crashes kills 6, injures 5

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 65 near the 82 mile marker, Saturday, March 2, 2013 north of Sonora, Ky. Kentucky State Police say six people are dead in two crashes that happened near the same location in central Kentucky on Interstate 65. (AP Photo/The News Enterprise, Neal Cardin)

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 65 near the 82 mile marker, Saturday, March 2, 2013 north of Sonora, Ky. Kentucky State Police say six people are dead in two crashes that happened near the same location in central Kentucky on Interstate 65. (AP Photo/The News Enterprise, Neal Cardin)

A burned vehicle involved in a fatal wreck sits on a rollback ready to be moved from the scene in the northbound lanes of Interstate 65 around the 82-mile marker Saturday, March 2, 2013, near Sonora, Ky. Kentucky State Police say six people are dead in two crashes that happened near the same location in central Kentucky on Interstate 65. (AP Photo/The News Enterprise, Jill Pickett)

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) ? Kentucky State Police were investigating whether distracted driving caused a tractor-trailer to plow into an SUV carrying eight people on Saturday, killing six and possibly triggering a serious crash on the opposite side of the highway.

The truck driver is "telling us that he saw the vehicle that was in front of him and he hit the brakes and he didn't hit them in time," Master Trooper Norman Chaffins said. " ... There was a reason for that and we're trying to figure out what the reason was."

The late-morning crash was followed 15 minutes later by a multi-vehicle crash on the opposite side of Interstate 65 that injured three people. The site was just 15 miles from where 11 people died in 2010 when a tractor-trailer crossed the median and hit a van carrying a Mennonite family. Ten people in the van were killed along with the truck driver and the National Transportation Safety Board determined the truck driver was distracted by his cell phone.

Chaffins said despite snow flurries, weather was not a factor in Saturday's crashes. The driver was identified as 47-year-old Ibrahim Fetic of Troy, Mich. Police were looking at his driving logs and collected a blood sample.

The six killed were identified as members of an extended family from Marion, Wis.

They were identified as driver James Gollnow, 62, and his wife, Barbara Gollnow, 62; Marion Champnoise, 92, a friend; Sarina Gollnow, 18, relationship unknown; and foster children Gabriel Zumig, 10, and Soledad Smith, 8.

The two survivors were also foster children. Police identified them as Hope Hoth, 15, who was transported to a hospital in Lexington with burns and a broken spine; and Aidian Ejnik, 12, who was taken to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville with cuts to the back of his head.

Chaffins described both of the children's injuries as non-life-threatening.

The two crashes shut down the busy stretch of highway for about five hours. The first happened at 11:13 a.m. EST on northbound I-65 south of Elizabethtown. In the second crash, four vehicles collided at the same location on the southbound side.

Chaffins said in the first crash, a 1999 Ford Expedition was hit from behind and then hit the car in front of it, but the driver of that vehicle had only minor injuries. The Expedition was returning to Wisconsin after a trip to Orlando, Fla.

The Expedition was "totally engulfed in flames. It was totally destroyed by the fire," he said, adding, "It's just a charred mess."

He said one eyewitness told police two people emerged from the blaze and one appeared to be on fire.

The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured and was cooperating with police, Chaffins said. "He's obviously pretty torn up about everything."

The southbound crash involved a tractor-trailor and three other vehicles. Police were investigating whether rubbernecking was the cause.

"That's what we're suspecting, that people were looking at the crash that happened on the other side and became distracted and caused a chain-reaction crash," he said.

Those injured in the second crash were taken to hospitals but were not identified.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-03-Kentucky%20Crashes/id-fdb72dc525e4411e8a97974cff879388

Java Gangster Squad school shooting oscar nominations C7 Corvette tom brady denver post