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Pure launches Contour, One Flow and i-20, also debuts FlowSongs cloud-based music service

It’s a heavy day at CES , and it’s also a big day for the folks at Pure . Not only have they provided an updated release time table for the Sensia (“later in 2011″ for an unknown amount) and Sirocco 550 (March for $499), but it’s also branching out with a few unexpected launches. In order to get even more tunes to the outfit’s blossoming line of WiFi radios, Pure has revealed its FlowSongs cloud-based music service — put simply, it enables consumers to buy music directly from their radio and Pure’s Lounge iPhone app. Users are instructed to ‘Like’ songs on FM or internet radio, and then within the same interface, they’re able to click ‘Buy’ while simultaneously scratching that Instant Gratification itch. Customers can download high-quality versions of the MP3 onto their Mac and PC, and it’ll work on any Flow radio. Currently, the service is expected to launch as a public beta in North America this spring, with individual tracks priced between $0.99 and $1.49 depending on the publisher. Unfortunately, there’s a $5.99 yearly subscription to actually use FlowSongs, which all but guarantees failure in a world where $1.49 tracks feel too pricey on their own. Moving on, the company is also dishing out a few hardware announcements. Up first is the Contour (shown above), an iPod / iPhone-friendly WiFi radio that touts a black crescent shape (not too unlike Meridian’s M80 ), touch-sensitive controls and a trio of video outputs (composite, component and S-Video). The One Flow ($149) is about as basic as it gets, rocking a truly retro motif, a 3.5mm auxiliary input and a pair of alarms. Wrapping things up, there’s the i-20, which is hailed as the only digital iPod dock available that supports component, S-Video and composite outputs. In a nutshell, it’s a video output stand for your iPod or iPhone, which may or may not be worth the $99 asking price. Head on past the break for specifics on availability, and tap that source link once your credit card is ready. Continue reading Pure launches Contour, One Flow and i-20, also debuts FlowSongs cloud-based music service Pure launches Contour, One Flow and i-20, also debuts FlowSongs cloud-based music service originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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January 4, 1989 – The Gulf Of Sidra And Other Adventures.

enlarge Things were looking up – but not the way he imagined. Click here to view this media On this morning in 1989, news broke of a dogfight over the Gulf of Sidra off the Libyan coast overnight. Two Libyan MIG’s were shot down in what was described by the Defense Department as an “act of self-defense”. Libya was becoming a hot-button topic in recent weeks, between fingers being pointed for complicity in the Lockerbee disaster and reports filtering in of a chemical weapons plant being constructed in the Libyan desert. Gaddafi made furious denials and even the German Chemical manufacturer claimed no knowledge what was going on. All elements George Bush Sr. was going to have to look forward to when he took office in a few days. Other pertinent topics regarded outgoing President Reagan and the incoming Congress, meeting first to confirm Bush’s election and then quietly forgetting about the deficit, putting it off until after the Inauguration. Some mummies were just best left in the closet for now. And so went the news of this particular January 4th day in 1989.

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Tucker Carlson eats crow over wishing that Michael Vick had been executed

Click here to view this media It’s always fun to a smug little prick like Tucker Carlson with his mouth full of crow feathers. Which was what he was munching on last night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. Hannity clearly invited Carlson back on, after guest-hosting Hannity last week, so that he could walk back that off-the-wall remark wishing that Michael Vick had been executed for torturing dogs to death. And so he did. Carlson made clear he meant for it all just to be a big joke — he was just exaggerating for comic purposes. Which no doubt is why all the guests were just rolling in the aisles after he said it. HANNITY: All right. Tucker, take one big vacation, a year, just one. CARLSON: I don’t take a lot of vacation like other people. HANNITY: Some take a ton of it. So, I take one, two weeks off, my big vacation. And what do I have to read on the blogs, is that you are destroying the show. You are absolutely, you’re creating controversy. Wanting Michael Vick to get the death penalty. Let’s roll the tape. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CARLSON: I’m a Christian, I’ve made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances. But Michael Vick killed dogs and he did in a heartless and cruel way. And I think personally, he should have been executed for that. He wasn’t. But the idea that the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs, kind of beyond the pale. HANNITY: All right. Do you really want him — do you really think he should — I’m asking. CARLSON: This is what happens when you get too emotional. And look, the bottom line is I’m a dog lover. I’ve had dogs my whole life, we have three of them now, I love them. And I know a lot about what Michael Vick did, what he admitted doing, and I’m not going to get into it Sean, because it’s too upsetting frankly. But if you take some time, anybody who takes some time and looks into how he mistreated these dogs and personally tortured them to death, gets upset. And I, you know, I over spoke. I’m uncomfortable with the death penalty under any circumstances. Of course, I don’t think he should be executed. But I do think what he did is truly appalling. HANNITY: Look, I too — I mean, I am a dog lover’s dog lover. You know, a very few things that made me cry, I lost my dog of 16 years snowball, and it broke my heart, literally. CARLSON: I know the feeling, yes. HANNITY: And, you know, if you read Mark Levin’s book, “Rescuing Sprite,” it really details all the pains and suffering that love and joy that you get from a dog. CARLSON: Exactly. HANNITY: Here’s — I’m a Christian too as you said in your opening comments here. He spent a couple years in jail. He lost a huge contract. He’s been working, I think he’s made 60 appearances with Animal Rights Groups. So, he’s working with Tony Dungy. Shouldn’t we believe in redemption in the sense that he’s showing a level of continued commitment to righting his life? CARLSON: Yes. Maybe, but as a friend of mine pointed out, I mean, a convicted child molester doesn’t get to adopt — look, I’m just saying. (CROSSTALK) Look, I’m not comparing him to a child molester. I’m merely saying that because Michael Vick says, you know, I’m rehabilitated now and hires a bunch of pr guys to make that case on his behalf. That he makes donations to a bunch of humane society type organizations doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t be disgusted by what he did. That’s my only point. HANNITY: I’m disgusted too. I’m torn inasmuch as, only time will tell if he’s really the word repentance from the Latin is to change your heart. If he really is sincere and he stays with these groups and he continues down the path that he’s on. At some point, I think we got to take our foot off his neck and say, OK, you’ve proven that you really are rehabilitated. CARLSON: There’s no question. But there is a line of several million rehabilitated people who I would like to see the president congratulate before he congratulates Michael Vick. Bet Hannity thinks twice before inviting this incompetent boob back to run his show, though.

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OverDrive Media Console app for iOS now features free e-book downloads

OverDrive, a digital media company that specializes in digital content distribution, has recently announced an update to its Media Console for iOS. As well as giving you access to audiobooks from something like 13,000 libraries and educational institutions the world o’er, the new app offers — wait for it — free e-book downloads! Free app, free e-books (as long as you have a library card, of course), and access to the world’s great literature: it doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Hit the source link to try it for yourself. We suggest that you start with Under The Volcano — we always thought you looked drank like a young Malcolm Lowry. OverDrive Media Console app for iOS now features free e-book downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Verizon’s Palm Pre 2 gets teased on Walmart’s site… in case someone still cares

With the next big thing out of Sunnyvale just weeks away , it’s hard to believe anyone much cares about about the Pre 2 at this point — but for what it’s worth, Walmart’s now pimping the Verizon-flavored version of the phone on its LetsTalk-powered website for a release at some indeterminate point in the future. Interestingly, the news of a February webOS event hosted by HP ties in nicely with a recent rumor on PhoneArena that suggests Big Red’s Pre 2 will live a very short retail life starting later this month as HP transitions into “its own line of webOS handsets,” which could very well be what these guys want to show off next month. Might we have a Kin -style collectors’ item in the making? Verizon’s Palm Pre 2 gets teased on Walmart’s site… in case someone still cares originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Iomega Personal Cloud devices host your data, not your water vapor

Finally, a new flavor of Iomega that the EMC fanboys can find palatable. The bigger company consumed the smaller back in 2008 and, while we’ve seen plenty of products since then, none have really brought the two together like the new Personal Cloud edition of the Home Media Network Hard Drives. In theory, anyway. The idea here is that this is a smart NAS , creating your own little puff and hosting your data for general availability but avoiding the ” careless computing ” curse by retaining control of your data. It’ll naturally play nice with the new Iomega TV and, if you buy two of the things, you can have one perform an automated remote backup to the other. That’s the sort of feature that should make a tight-budgeted IT manager’s ears perk up. How tight? The first two models of Iomega’s Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition devices launch this month: 1TB for $169.99 and twice that for $229.99. Gallery: Iomega Personal Cloud press shots Continue reading Iomega Personal Cloud devices host your data, not your water vapor Iomega Personal Cloud devices host your data, not your water vapor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 11:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Right-wingers don’t seem to ‘get it’: Bashing Latinos makes Tea Parties happy — and is long-term political suicide

Click here to view this media This weekend, Fox News’ Julie Banderas featured a segment discussing the way Republicans are gearing up to get nasty and nativist on immigration this coming year — particularly in state legislatures where a batch of anti-14th Amendment “anchor baby” laws are about to come bubbling up . She invited on Bob Dane, spokesman for the nativist hate group FAIR, and Frank Sharry of America’s Voice, who pointed out that Republicans are slitting their own throats politically by taking this route. Banderas: Bob, what do you make of that? Frank just pointed out that the Republican, they have leaned right — very hard to the right, in fact, on the illegal immigration issue — is this going to drive Hispanics into the hands of the Democrats? Dane: No. You know, look, one of the things the Republicans are going to have to keep in mind, now that they’ve got the responsibility of the leadership mantle in the House, is they’ve got to demonstrate to the American public on the immigration issue that they ‘get it’. That Americans have had it with the cost and impact of illegal immigration. And Republicans are going to have to be careful that they do not revert to the soft-on-enforcement and teasing-around-with-amnesty policies of ’06 and ’08 that led to their own demise. Hmmmm. Maybe Dane has different sets of election results than I do. But the numbers don’t lie: In 2008, Latinos provided Barack Obama with the bulk of his electoral muscle. In 2010, they turned back the Tea Party tide in the Senate. And indeed, in the ensuing months since those elections, Republicans continue to do their damnedest to push Latinos into voting Democratic for the foreseeable future . But Dane made it clear — especially in declaring that “amnesty is off the table” — that the right-wing nativist faction now controlling the Republican is only interested in deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants. They have no interest in working out a system under which they can get right with the law. Which means that absolutely NOTHING will get done in terms of addressing immigration reform — including the ongoing reality that the American economy generates hundreds of thousands of unskilled-labor jobs every year and yet only provides 5,000 green cards to cover them . President Obama should take note too: Even though his administration has been objectively tougher about enforcing immigration laws than any preceding, the right-wing nativists will ALWAYS claim that he has been lax on enforcement. Maybe he should just give that particular malfunctioning strategy a break — and put his shoulder to the wheel in getting real reform done. It may never pass this House, but Democrats still control the Senate and can set the stage for an immigration debate there. Obama could and should become a real leader in that debate — because Americans really do want something done. And deportation isn’t it.

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Shocker! Media addicts suffer withdrawal symptoms, just like real addicts

…and we’re all media addicts, aren’t we? A recent study conducted by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) certainly seems to indicate that this is indeed the case. The premise was pretty straightforward: students at twelve universities around the world were instructed to abstain from using all media for twenty-four hours. The results were somewhat predictable: across the board, going without television was somewhat easy to do, while abstaining from text messaging and instant messaging brought on withdrawal symptoms: “When I did not have those two luxuries,” wrote one student, “I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable.” According to Dr. Roman Gerodimos of the University of Portsmouth both psychological and physical symptoms were reported by the young techno-junkies. Shocker! Media addicts suffer withdrawal symptoms, just like real addicts originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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What The World Was Up To – January 3, 1945

enlarge Bastogne – January 3rd 1945 -”pimply grocers and mama’s boys”. Click here to view this media News on this day in 1945 was split between the war and the Congress. On the war front; Allied armies were making progress beating back the German offensive in Belgium and the Battle Of The Bulge was coming to a swift end. In the Pacific, continued air attacks on Japan with continuous bombing runs from B-29′s flying out of Guam. At home, The 79th Congress went back to work and Sam Rayburn was once again Speaker of The House amidst a celebratory “first day” atmosphere. Legislation was about to be argued over drafting farm workers of eligible age and everyone wondered how long the honeymoon with the new Congress was going to last. I guess it’s just always been that way.

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Oooooooh. Will the Michael Steele catfight finally expose the Republicans’ ugly racial underbelly?

Click here to view this media The whole Michael Steele debacle — embodied in the RNC debate that took place earlier today — really underscores, to a large extent, the realities of the 2010 Election. To wit: Why should Republicans be eager to replace their leadership in a year where they made historic gains in the House? Shouldn’t they reward the mastermind of such success? Indeed, that’s a point Steele emphasizes in his defense. Indeed, he explicitly takes credit for the outcome in the House: “My record stands for itself. We won.” The answer, as everyone knows, is that Steele didn’t mastermind this election at all. He was at best an incidental figure in the outcome. The 2010 results were not the product of anything concocted or engendered by Michael Steele. All he really managed to do was blow a lot of fund-raising opportunities. So who WAS the mastermind of the 2010 Election? If anyone, it was Roger Ailes — a reality that hardly anyone seems to want to acknowledge, including Democrats. Indeed, this was the Fox Election in every respect. Nearly every candidate who won got major a push from Fox. The most energy came from a Tea Party “movement” almost wholly engendered by Fox’s relentless and unapologetic propagndization campaign. The GOP owes its House victories not to Michael Steele but to Fox News. That makes Steele utterly dispensable, especially after two years of gaffes and goofiness . So Steele is out there promising to go all-out to defend himself. In RepublicanSpeak, this means he’s going to viciously attack his opponents. Gee, wonder if he’ll bring up Saul Anuzis’ predilection for mentoring young neo-Nazis . Or if he’ll again claim he’s being held to different standard as a black man . Get out your popcorn! Meanwhile, in today’s debate, Steele did bring up a point not very popular with the Tea Party set: Calling the GOP “the party of Lincoln,” Steele stressed that Republicans must continue efforts to reach out to non-traditional constituencies, namely Hispanics and African-Americans. “This country is a lot bigger than we think it is sometimes,” Steele said. “We cannot be a party that sits back with a litmus test and excludes. The national chairman cannot go into a state and say, ‘You’re less Republican than we are, I will not talk to you.’” No wonder they want to get rid of him.

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