Genre: Bob Dylan Title: Must Be Santa It’s the season of bad sweaters, lame office Christmas parties, and drunk uncles in Santa caps. This Bob Dylan song will get you in the mood. Christmas In the Heart Artist: Bob Dylan Price: $7.40 (As of 12/07/10 05:03 am details )
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By Steven Borowiec The South Korean government has been criticized sharply for its response to the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. The future for those residents who have returned to this transformed little place is uncertain. Related Entries December 6, 2010 Global Stature December 6, 2010 Happy as a Hangman
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You may not be able to get Android 2.3 loaded in any official capacity on your Nexus One yet — or any other phone, for that matter — but Google’s 2.3 SDK is now available, which means there’s an emulator attached, too. As with most development emulators, this one’s a stripped-down subset of the apps and settings you’d see on an actual retail device; basically, all that’s left is the bare minimum Google figures its developers are going to need to code apps. Be that as it may, we noticed a few things that stuck out: Overall, the UI changes are extremely subtle, and generally for the better. We prefer the new looks for the status bar, keyboard, and menus over their Froyo equivalents. We couldn’t get a sense of the performance improvements — the emulators is slow as molasses for us and really has zero bearing on how it’ll perform on devices. When you reach the end of a scrolled list, the side of the list that has reached the end glows orange briefly, presumably to make it even more obvious that you’re at the end. Even the browser does this — it’s an interesting effect that we kind of liked. The miserable default camera UI is exactly the same. Expect manufacturers to continue to replace this with wild abandon. The Gmail app isn’t included in the emulator, so fear not when you’re looking at the screen shot of the unthreaded messages — that’s the “standard” email app. The fingertip-sized markers for highlighting text work quite well, including in the browser. They seem to consistently disappear after a few seconds and automatically highlight and / or copy the text in between the markers; we’re not sold on whether we like that behavior. Clearly, the jury’s out until we’ve got a Nexus S firmly planted in our hands — but in the meanwhile, check out a bunch of shots of Gingerbread doing its thing in the gallery below. Gallery: Android 2.3 Gingerbread in pictures Android 2.3 Gingerbread in pictures originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 23:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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GENEVA (AFP) – World powers and Iran are due Tuesday to carry on talks over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme for a second day, after what both sides described as a “constructive” meeting. After a 14-month break, the first day of discussions in the Swiss city of Geneva was “constructive” and “forward moving”, an Iranian official said. “They should resume tomorrow at 9:00 am to fix the framework for future discussions during which we could talk about nuclear disarmament and about cooperation in the civil nuclear domain,” he said. “The (nuclear) right of Iran will not be discussed. If we agree on a framework, we could have several…
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When asked what would happen if he was “taken out,” either physically or technically, WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange said in an online chat that over 100,000 people have encrypted copies of leaked material and “If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically.” Assange also maintained that not “a single person has come to harm as a result of our activities,” and that he wished to go home, but can not because his government was working to hand him over to the Americans “merely so that Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US embassy cocktail parties.”
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enlarge Judson Phillips at the Tea Party Nation has decided Sarah Palin should run for head of the Republican National Committee. Here’s the text of the letter they sent asking her to run: Dear Governor Palin, John Kennedy once said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Right now, your country needs you as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. We are in a fight for the survival of our country. The Democrats have walked off the socialist cliff and are driving the country headlong into the abyss. Unfortunately, there are many on the Republican side who do not seem to get it. They are the embodiment of the old political joke that says, with the Democrats you get more of the same and with Republicans you get less of the same. We need you as Chairman of the RNC. You have shown in the past no hesitation to take on the establishment. You did it in Alaska. If we end up with establishment control of the GOP and their support for an establishment candidate in 2012, Obama and the socialists will have won. An establishment candidate will not work to repeal Obamacare and the other programs Obama, Pelosi and Reid have put in place. We need someone who will put conservatives in control of the party apparatus, not RINOs. Michael Steele has spent Republican money with the gusto of a liberal. You showed in Alaska, you know how to put the brakes on unnecessary spending. Finally, you are a superstar. You have an unbelievable ability to light up a crowd and to raise money. Both of which the Republican Party needs. Something is really wrong with the GOP when the RNC cannot fund a get out the vote campaign for mid-term elections. The GOP needs a conservative who can raise money and energize the troops. You are the only one out there with these unique talents. We, the undersigned, are asking you to ask yourself what you can do for your country and to step up and become a candidate for Chairman of the RNC. Thank you for your consideration and for what you continue to do for this great country. Judson Phillips, Founder – Tea Party Nation There’s just so much wrong with this, I’m not sure where to start, but it may all be moot anyway. I cannot imagine Sarah Palin giving up her celebrity status as a reality TV star and snark queen to do something as mundane as run the RNC. And how would that all work out in terms of her deal with Fox News? On the other hand, can you imagine the ridiculousness of the Sunday shows with Palin making the rounds? She’d make Michael Steele look like a genius.
Continue reading …Google Maps for Mobile 5 unveiled, adds dynamic map drawing and offline mode
December 7, 2010 No Comment
Why look at static images when you can get a more 3D view of the urban scene? Google’s Maps for Mobile 5 just got previewed on stage by Andy Rubin at D: Dive Into Mobile — with a prototype Motorola Honeycomb tablet , no less! The biggest visual change is dynamic map drawing: vectors instead of flat images that scale without render hiccups and will show the buildings fleshed out for over 100 cities — we gotta say, it looks great. Even more fun is that you can now use two fingers to tilt and rotate around the map (in addition to moving and pinch-to-zoom, of course). We’ve been told the storage for these vectors is much smaller than the current images, which brings us to… offline caching. Maps will keep on file the locations that you go to (and search) most often, and it’ll be able to reroute while offline in Navigation. You’ll still need a connection for altering the route altogether — sorry, subway-hoppers — but once you go, even if you stray, you’ll still be rerouted back on track. Most modern Android phones from the original Droid onward should be able to enjoy most if not all the new features, depending on hardware capabilities (3D rendering) and “distinct multitouch” hardware support — the Nexus One, interestingly enough, supports vector maps but not the rotate functionality because it lacks the latter multitouch requirements. Google sent us a list of devices that support 100 percent of 5.0′s features, which you can find after the break. The update is due out in the “coming days,” according to Rubin. Great way to kick off Nexus S’ launch, then. Gallery: Google Maps for Mobile 5.0 Continue reading Google Maps for Mobile 5 unveiled, adds dynamic map drawing and offline mode Google Maps for Mobile 5 unveiled, adds dynamic map drawing and offline mode originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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By Mr. Fish Related Entries December 5, 2010 WikiLeaks: Not for Government Eyes November 30, 2010 WikiLeaks and the End of U.S. ‘Diplomacy’
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By Mike Luckovich Related Entries December 5, 2010 WikiLeaks: Not for Government Eyes November 30, 2010 WikiLeaks and the End of U.S. ‘Diplomacy’
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Sure, Google might have just dropped Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the Nexus S just today, but that’s old news — Andy Rubin just took the stage at D: Dive Into Mobile and announced that Honeycomb is due “next year” with support for tablets. Andy demoed the new version of the OS on a Motorola prototype tablet , and it was very different, and highly customized — although there were still grids of icons, the apps were more “desktop” in flavor, and the traditional Android buttons weren’t present. We’re waiting for more details, we’ll let you know what’s up. Developing… Android Honeycomb coming ‘next year,’ adds tablet support originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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