The Apple iPhone 4 product rollout is today, and while the innovative latest version of Apple’s flagship product is causing buzz for its new features, it’s getting even more for its problems.
While a weirdly placed casing antenna and a coating on the screen have caused reception and screen image issues, privacy problems not widely reported could give iPhone 4 buyers the most concern.
Apple’s new FaceTime feature on the iPhone 4 allows you to make a video call to someone else who can see your image and vice versa. It’s a real advance in communications, but with it comes a huge privacy problem.
First, teens can use it to send what this space is the first to name as a “sexvid” and lead to practices of “sexviding”, where a person sends a sexual FaceTime video call to someone else. Second, the FaceTime communications are not secure, so anyone can pick up your FaceTime call, video and all, without your knowing it.
Other reported iPhone 4 problems are of the one-off type. They include screens shipping with discoloration, including yellowing in the bottom right corner and fragility. The iPhone has already been scratched by at least one user, and another user says s/he dropped an iPhone from a foot up and the glass back of the phone shattered.
Apple will likely sell 1+ million units today, so the scratched, broken, and yellow phones don’t seem much of a concern (although any other company would be catching hell for them). The reception problem, however, could be a big issue.
Michael Gartenberg, a mobile analyst with The Altimeter Group, said that he believed that the reports were part of an Internet-driven network effect where users blamed poor signal reception on the external antenna. “We have to assume what we’re seeing is anecdotal,” he said.
“You would be seeing far more reports if you were seeing a major design flaw out there,” Gartenberg added.
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Bloomberg — The Justice Department is investigating whether any criminal or civil laws were violated in the BP Plc oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the biggest U.S. spill on record, said Attorney General Eric Holder.
“We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, anyone who has violated the law,” Holder said. “This disaster is nothing less than a tragedy.”
Holder announced the investigation today at a news conference in New Orleans, the same day President Barack Obama called the spill “the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history.” The president said, “My solemn pledge is that we will bring those responsible to justice.”
The spill began after an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, which London-based BP leased from Switzerland-based Transocean Ltd. to drill its Macondo well in the Gulf. Houston-based Halliburton Co. provided oilfield services on the well.
Holder, who said the probe “began some weeks ago,” declined to specify which companies are under investigation. He said he surveyed a portion of the damage, was briefed by Coast Guard officers and met with prosecutors for the areas affected by the spill.
BP’s stock nose-dived on Tuesday, losing nearly 15 percent of its value on the first trading day since the previous best option – the so-called “top kill” – failed and was aborted at the government’s direction. It dipped steeply with Holder’s late-afternoon announcement, which also sent other energy stocks tumbling, ultimately causing the Dow Jones industrial average to tumble 112.
After six weeks of failures to block the well or divert the oil, BP was using robotic machines to carve into the twisted appendages of the crippled well. The latest attempt involved using tools resembling an oversized deli slicer and garden shears to break away the broken riser pipe so engineers can then position a cap over the well’s opening.
Even if it succeeds, it will temporarily increase the flow of an already massive leak by 20 percent – at least 100,000 gallons more a day. And it is far from certain that BP will be able to cap a well that one expert compared to an out-of-control fire hydrant.
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Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen has warned Israel it faced serious consequences if any Irish citizens were injured in a bloody assault on aid ships which left at least 10 activists dead.
Mr Cowen called for one of the last boats in the Gaza mission, the MV Rachel Corrie, to be given safe passage through the military blockade of the territory.
The Taoiseach’s veiled threat came as two deported Irish aid activists – Shane Dillon and a naturalised Libyan – were expected back in Dublin.
The Israeli aim was a preventive measure, not an aggressive one.”
Under international law, Israel had the right to protect its citizens from Hamas attacks, he said.
“Consequently it has taken measures to defend itself, including the imposition of a maritime blockade to curb Hamas rearmament.”
Nevertheless, protests were held against Israel in a number of countries including several Arab nations, Pakistan, Britain and Malaysia.
Labour leader Phil Goff said he wanted to see a strong stance by the Government.
“They have made a start. I don’t think it is yet strong enough.”
Green MP Keith Locke said the raid on the boat and subsequent deaths amounted to a war crime and that the Government should condemn that action as a “murderous assault”.
They see it every day in the teenage soldiers of the occupation chewing gum as they dish out humiliations, in the settlers shooting young Palestinians with impunity, in the soldiers firing gas canisters at the heads of demonstrators.
The world saw that face in January last year when Israel unleashed the might of its air force on Gaza – the only time in modern warfare that a civilian population was sealed in as it was being bombed and shelled.
Now Israel is out on the high seas killing internationals.
So never mind the multi million-dollar public relations campaign – actions speak louder than words, and the murder of these peace activists is Israel’s message to the world.
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EPPICards are a popular tool in most States for paying such things as unemployment insurance and other social welfare checks. They function much like a debit card, each one attached to an individual person, and to an account with a certain amount of money in it. When the State pays the unemployment insurance, it is placed directly in the account and the amount of money available via the EPPICard increases.There are currently 19 U.S. states that use Eppicard to process and distribute state payments. Recently, Eppicard users have been the target of phishing scams. Are Eppicards an effective way for states to distribute benefits?
Bamboozled was contacted by two more EPPICard users who reported trouble with Affiliated Computer Services, or ACS, the company that manages the EPPICard benefit card for New Jersey and 15 other states.
Rosemarie Harris of Brooklyn, N.Y., found her EPPICard balance wiped out in August.
As safety goes, the EPPICard itself is not inherently deficient. Both from a technology and security standpoint, it is in line with the industry standards for credit and debit cards, and has no obvious flaws for scammers to exploit. In fact, the EPPICard is usually a generic debit card, such as a Visa, and its only distinguishing feature is that it is not linked to a normal bank account, but to an EPPI account
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Mike Russow is a big and mean UFC fighter who has a very large bone structure and a very heavy weight. The fighter is basically a wrestler and is known mainly for his wrestling moves and impressive arm and leg locks. Although Russow throws some punches occasionally in some fights but his punches are mainly slow and not very well placed. Thus he doesn’t stand a very good chance with his punches against a young and fast striker. Still he is a very technical fighter and relies more on the technique of takedowns and struggling locks, rather than aggression in punches and kicks.
The latest fight of Russow with Duffee gained an enormous amount of hype and portrayed Duffee as a much stronger fighter than Russow. That’s why many experts and analysts of the UFC had already predicted a sure win for Duffee.I was all set to write about Todd Duffee dominating Mike Russow for three rounds. And then…wow.
Duffee did dominate 99% of the fight. It’s too bad that 1% was killer.
Russow landed a right hand that sent Duffee to the mat. And Duffee was out. Cold. Joe Rogan was very excited.
Result aside, Duffee looked very good up until the end. He nullified Russow anytime Russow looked to get close to clinch or shoot. He landed all jabs, hook, and upper cuts at will. For nearly three rounds, he picked apart a very game heavyweight.
It was all for naught though. Mike Russow gets the “W” on his ledger, and Duffee goes back to the drawing board.
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Actor is held in the slaying of a Costa Mesa man, 26, and his tutorDaniel Wozniak is accused of killing and dismembering Samuel Herr, then luring Juri Kibuishi to the victim’s apartment, murdering her and making it look as if she had been raped.Alarmed that he hadn’t been answering his calls over the weekend, Steve Herr drove to his son’s Costa Mesa apartment last Saturday night and opened the door, calling his name. In the bedroom he found the body of Juri Kibuishi, a 23-year-old Irvine woman he said had been tutoring his son in anthropology.
She had been shot in the head, and the circumstances in which the body was found — partly clothed and hanging off the bed — suggested that she had been raped.Police quickly turned their attention to the son, a 26-year-old Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and was attending Orange Coast College. Not only was Samuel E. Herr’s apartment a crime scene, but he was nowhere to be found, and police uncovered text exchanges between his cellphone and Kibuishi’s that showed she had gone to his apartment in response to one of the messages.
The elder Herr said he knew his son was no killer or rapist. “I said, ‘This is not Sam, this is not my son.’ ”
He was right. On Friday police announced that a community theater actor had killed Herr, dismembered his body and then killed Kibuishi, staging the scene as a sexual assault. They said the actor was the one who had invited Kibuishi to the apartment, using Herr’s cellphone. sorce by latimes.com/
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Sunday Marks 25th NYC AIDS WalkMore than 45,000 people are expected to take part in New York City’s 25th annual AIDS Walk Sunday morning.
Organized by the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the AIDS Walk has raised more than $110 million to fight AIDS in New York since 1986.
GMHC hopes to raise $5.3 million through this year’s event, which kicks off at 10 a.m. in Central Park.
2010 is the 25th year of the Aids Walk NYC. The money raised at the walk benefits GMHC. GMHC is the world’s first and leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy.
Since 1986, the Aids Walk NYC has raised more than $110 million to fight AIDS in New York. There are many people who are walking in the Aids Walk NYC for the 25th time. 45,000 people are expected to walk the 10K walk through NYC’s Central Park tomorrow for the 25th Aids Walk NYC.
This year, organizers are hopeful for an even more successful turnout. The money raised will go toward funding not only for GMHC, but many other AIDS organizations in the tri-state area. In the past 25 years the walkers have contributed $110 million, just for the area alone. Nationwide, the tally tops half a billion dollars!
Already this year, corporate support reached a record-breaking level. Duane Reade, the AIDS Walk presenting sponsor, has already raised more than $234,000 just in red ribbon sales. This surpasses any single fundraising effort yet.
GMHC is a nonprofit organization which, “fights to end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected.” With a long list of supporters, including Whoopi Goldberg, Hilary Duff, Alec Baldwin, Cyndi Lauper, Harvey Fierstein, Patti LaBelle, Nathan Lane, Jon Stewart and numerous other celebrities,with thousands of citizens, organizations and political officials, GMHC proudly strides its way into a quarter century of giving back, lifting up and taking in those who need it.
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Dozens were hurt aboard the Andrew J. Barberi ferry in New York City this morning (Saturday, May 08, 2010) while approaching the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island. According to the city’s transportation commissioner, the ferry hit the cement pier because the throttle failed to engage preventing the crew from using the engines to slow down for landing. The Andrew J. Barberi was involved in a crash at the same pier that killed 11 people back in 2003.
Mechanical failure might be cause of Staten Island ferry crashing into dock
A mechanical failure may have caused a ferry to slam into a pier at the Staten Island St. George Terminal and leave 54 onboard passengers with minor injuries, authorities said.
“It was strictly a mechanical failure of the ship not being able to reverse its engine,” said Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro. “The engine did not respond.”
The 9 a.m. ferry, called Andrew J. Barberi, had 257 passengers and 15 crew members on board. Of those, 37 people were checked for injuries as a precaution, and 17 were hospitalized with minor injuries ranging from bruises to chest pains, authoritie said.
The ferry was traveling at about five to seven miles per hour when crew members realized it was about to hit Pier 5 at the terminal, which it did around 9:25 a.m.
Alicia Eason, 26, boarded a ferry for the first time with her husband, Jason, 30, to snap pictures of the Statue of Liberty.
“A second before it hit, a ferry worker came and yelled at us, ‘Brace yourself!’” said Eason, of Knoxville, Tenn. “I grabbed my husband at the same time the worker yelled the ferry hit.”
The ferry, which can carry 5,000 people, had two large gashes, one on each side, officials at the scene said.
| Witness video shows hurt passengers from Staten Island ferry crash being brought in |
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In his first game back since he broke his toe in Game 4 of the Philadelphia Flyers’ opening round series, the left-winger came through with an overtime winner on Friday night at the Wachovia Center to give his team a 5-4 win and force Game 5 in the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Bruins.
Gagne’s goal came at 14:40 in the first overtime period and lifted the fans dressed mostly in orange off their seats.
“It’s a good ending,” said Gagne, who wasn’t expected to return in this series. “I can’t ask for more [than] to be able to come back early a little bit in the series.”
Matt Carle, who had four assists, fed Gagne for a redirect from the top of the crease for the winner.
“I tried to challenge him,” Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask said. “I was expecting that kind of pass, but it’s tough to recover with your pads. I tried to get my glove under it.”
Ville Leino, Chris Pronger, Danny Briere and Claude Giroux had the other goals in the winning effort, and Brian Boucher made 37 saves.
Game 5 is set for Monday night in Boston.
It was 42-year-old Mark Recchi, a former Flyers star, who made it a little more difficult for seventh-seeded Philadelphia to earn that Game 5 appearance.
The Flyers were leading 4-3 late in the third after Leino scored his first career playoff goal — a tip-in off a Pronger point shot that sailed over the glove of Rask — but Recchi lit the lamp for his second of the game with 31.5 seconds to go in regulation to force overtime.
Recchi did quite a job of deflating the energy of the Flyers fans, first getting Boston on the board in the opening period when he jumped on a rebound from a Patrice Bergeron shot to make it 1-0.
Rask, who’s been the story of these playoffs for the Bruins, looked ordinary on Philadelphia’s opening goal in the final minute of the first period, a Briere snapper from the top of the circle that went through his legs.
Otherwise, Rask was his usual steady self, stopping 34 shots. He had little chance when the Flyers made it 2-1 after Carle floated a pass across the blue-line to Pronger, whose slapshot went in off a skate.
Minutes later, Giroux knocked one in after Scott
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2 dead after shooting inside Old Navy store in the LoopChicago police confirm two people are dead in a shooting inside the Old Navy store in Chicago’s Loop at 35 North State.
Early reports are that it was a murder-suicide .A police source says a man walked into the store with a gun shot and killed his girlfriend and then killed himself.
People were quickly evacuated from the store and no one else was hurt. The street and sidewalks near the State and Washington store were closed to all vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
Polcie say more information will be available soon. ]]>