R&D spending by the big three in smartphones – Nokia, Google, Apple

A fascinating graphic and the article it is pulled from.

 

 

Nokia led the wireless revolution in the 1990s and set its sights on ushering the world into the era of smartphones. Now that the smartphone era has arrived, the company is racing to roll out competitive products as its stock price collapses and thousands of employees lose their jobs.

This year, Nokia ended a 14-year-run as the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, as rival Samsung Electronics Co. took the top spot and makers of cheaper phones ate into Nokia’s sales volumes.

Nokia is losing ground despite spending $40 billion on research and development over the past decade—nearly four times what Apple spent in the same period.

Instead of producing hit devices or software, the binge of spending has left the company with at least two abandoned operating systems and a pile of patents that analysts now say are worth around $6 billion, the bulk of the value of the entire company.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal – Nokia’s Bad Call on Smartphones

Analyzing female VP’s for Mitt Romney…all disqualified because they support abortion?

A fascinating article by Nate Silver about the potential female candidates for Vice President with Mitt Romney.

Is it ironic that most of them are disqualified because they generally support abortions (“mildly pro-choice”).

 

If Mr. Romney wanted to pick a woman this year, whom might he choose?

Actually, Mr. Romney has a bit of a problem. The Republican women with the most traditional qualifications for the vice presidency tend to be moderates, especially on abortion choice, probably making them unacceptable to the Republican base. Another group of up-and-coming female governors and senators may not be adequately seasoned for the rigors of the campaign trail. The few exceptions are probably too old, or too controversial, to be smart choices with swing voters. It has nothing to do with their gender, but any of the women that Mr. Romney might choose would be at least a little risky.

Let’s start by drawing up a “long list” of potential candidates. The qualifications for this are pretty straightforward. You have to be a woman, and a Republican. And you have to have served as governor or U.S. senator in the past five years, or as an alternative, have run for president before.

There are 14 women that meet these criteria…The first five women on this list have generally supported abortion choice — some mostly so, and some more emphatically.

 

Keep reading: N.Y. Times – In Search for Female Running Mate, a Shortlist for Romney

 

 

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YouTube adds face blurring to videos – to protect anonymity of activists in troubled countries

As citizens continue to play a critical role in supplying news and human rights footage from around the world, YouTube is committed to creating even better tools to help them. According to the international human rights organization WITNESS’ Cameras Everywhere report, “No video-sharing site or hardware manufacturer currently offers users the option to blur faces or protect identity.”

YouTube is excited to be among the first.

Today we’re launching face blurring – a new tool that allows you to obscure faces within videos with the click of a button.

Whether you want to share sensitive protest footage without exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in your 8-year-old’s basketball game without broadcasting the children’s faces to the world, our face blurring technology is a first step towards providing visual anonymity for video on YouTube.

 

Keep reading: The Official YouTube Blog – Face blurring: when footage requires anonymity

 

 

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New York City artisan shop begins selling tap water – filtered by $25,000 machine, ultraviolet rays

New York is known for its food niche stores: The Hummus Place. The Doughnut Plant. The Dumpling Man. Even a spot dedicated solely to rice pudding.

But this week, a store in the East Village went a step further: It sells New York City tap water.

Not just any tap water, insist the owners of Molecule. They say the water streams through a $25,000 filtering machine that uses ultraviolet rays, ozone treatments and reverse osmosis in a seven-stage processing treatment to create what they call pure H20.

“I mean it’s subtle, but if you have a sensitive palate you can totally tell” the difference, said co-owner Adam Ruhf.

Water quality has long been a point of pride for New Yorkers, touted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg as one of the city’s signature distinctions.

The owners of Molecule vehemently disagree.

 

Keep reading: Wall Street Journal – What Are They Drinking in New York City?

 

 

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Kayak to IPO under the name KYAK, valued at $1 billion

Kayak is expected to start trading tomorrow, after waiting nearly a year for the turbulent IPO waters to subside.

Later this afternoon, Kayak is planning to sell 3.5 million shares at $22 to $25 each, to raise as much as $100 million, according to its latest document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But based on strong demand, the company could end up pricing its shares even higher, reports CNBC.

At the top of its current range, the company would be valued at nearly $1 billion.

The online travel company will trade under the ticker symbol KYAK on the Nasdaq exchange.

 

Keep reading: All Things D – Kayak Finally Set to Take the Plunge Into Uncertain Market

 

 

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Google adds educational Street Views – Antarctica with exploration outposts, penguins, and more

One of the focuses of this special addition to Google Maps is to teach users about the history of Antarctic exploration and the people who first set up shop in this bleak environment.

Here’s what Google’s technical program manager for Street View Alex Starns wrote in a blog post:

In the winter of 1913, a British newspaper ran an advertisement to promote the latest imperial expedition to Antarctica, apparently placed by polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. It read, “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” While the ad appears apocryphal, the dangerous nature of the journey to the South Pole is certainly not–as explorers like Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and Shackleton himself discovered as they tried to become the first men to reach it.

Partnering with the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, Google has added 360-degree images of many historic spots, including the South Pole Telescope, Shackleton’s and Scott’s small wooden huts, Cape Royds Adelie Penguin Rookery, and the Ceremonial South Pole.

“They were built to withstand the drastic weather conditions only for the few short years that the explorers inhabited them,” Starns wrote, “but remarkably, after more than a century, the structures are still intact, along with well-preserved examples of the food, medicine, survival gear and equipment used during the expeditions.”

 

Learn more: c|net – Google Maps visits Antarctica’s snowy landscape

 

 

Inside the houses of the first explorers:

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Tiffany & Co. celebrates 175 year anniversary with a new jeweler’s metal – Rubedo

A robin’s-egg-blue box never fails to elicit delight – the kind of unparalleled magic Tiffany & Co. has carefully created during the last 175 years. While the company has become synonymous with covetable jewels and memorable moments (who could forget Audrey Hepburn’s morning gnosh in front of the Fifth Avenue flagship in Breakfast at Tiffany’s?), its commitment to constant innovation is equally remarkable.

From Tiffany’s 1880s revamp of the Great Seal of the United States that’s printed on every dollar bill today, to tapping some of the world’s most renowned designers, to creating a new metal (the blue-hued Rubedo unveiled this year), Tiffany’s brand of elegance always seems perfectly suited to the times – with a little extra sparkle, of course.

So what’s next for the legendary jeweler? First, a celebration in the form of a magnificent new setting for the Tiffany Diamond, one of the largest and finest fancy yellow diamonds in the world. And in August, the design house will grace us with Enchant, the latest jewelry collection, inspired by the natural world. Here’s to another 175 years and many, many more blue boxes.

 

Source: Riviera Magazine – Rock On! Tiffany & Co. celebrates 175 years of legendary design

 

 

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10 reasons to drink lemon water

I’m not sure how many of these are scientifically accurate, but if just a few are true…

Drop a slice of lemon into your hot/cold water to:

 

1. Boost your immune system: Lemons are high in vitamin C, which is great for fighting colds.  They’re high in potassium, which stimulates brain and nerve function. Potassium also helps control blood pressure.

3. Help with weight loss:   Lemons are high in pectin fiber, which helps fight hunger cravings. It also has been shown that people who maintain a more alkaline diet lose weight faster.

6. Clear skin:  The vitamin C component helps decrease wrinkles and blemishes. Lemon water purges toxins from the blood which helps keep skin clear as well. It can actually be applied directly to scars to help reduce their appearance.

8. Relieve respiratory problems: Warm lemon water helps get rid of chest infections and halt those pesky coughs. It’s thought to be helpful to people with asthma and allergies too.

 

Source: La Jolla Mom – 10 Reasons Why You Should Drink Lemon Water in the Morning

 

 

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Coursera adds 12 more prestigious universities – free online education grows

As we wrote back in April, there’s no doubt that the Internet is revolutionizing education, as more and more companies continue to emerge and alter the way we learn. We’ve kept a close eye on edX, Khan Academy, Academic Earth, P2PU, Skillshare and Codecademy, and rounding out that list is Coursera, one of the youngest of the bunch, which recently raised $16 million to launch with 37 undergraduate and graduate-level courses.

Now, since starting off with the likes of Princeton and Stanford, Coursera is announcing 12 new university partnerships, $3.7M in equity investments from Caltech, Penn and existing investors, and a total of 1.5M student users from 190 different countries.

More specifically, here’s a list of the company’s 12 new partnering universities, following Coursera’s original four launch partners (Stanford, Princeton, University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania):

  • Georgia Tech
  • Duke University
  • University of Washington
  • Caltech
  • Rice University
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Toronto
  • EPFL – Lausanne (Switzerland)
  • Johns Hopkins University (School of Public Health)
  • UCSF
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Virginia

 

If you’re interested, these courses are free and here’s a list of all the new classes available:

The Next Web – Education startup Coursera partners with 12 new universities, raises $3.7M and hits 1.6M enrollments

 

 

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Foxconn to build a $1 billion factory in Indonesia – create 1 million jobs

The chinese are offshoring their work to find cheaper labor…

 

The market leading computer manufacturer Foxconn is planning a new $1 billion facility in Indonesia.

The new manufacturing plant will create around 1 million jobs in the region. Foxconn is currently discussing its plans with the Indonesian Ministry of Industry.

Foxconn already operates several manufacturing plants in China and Brazil, where it assembles electronic goods for many of the world’s biggest technology companies.

In a statement released yesterday, the company says it was attracted to Indonesia over Malaysia and Vietnam due to its high rate of economic growth – around 6 per cent a year. It also noted that the region is “sorely in need” of formal jobs, giving it a large workforce used to wages of around $100 a month.

 

Source: Games Industry – Foxconn planning $1 billion facility in Indonesia

 

 

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