Author: Serkadis

It’s not every day we get a nice, humble confession of fault from Apple, but it looks like the marketing department has seen the light on those overly optimistic web browsing mockups depicting Flash in “action” on the new Flash-free tablet device. Now the iPad promo video has been reworked to flaunt what we’re coming to know as the Blue Lego Block of Ambiguity[TM] in sections of sites that would traditionally be populated by highly stimulating Adobe Flash-based content. It’s not pretty, and it solves none of the other issues at hand with Apple’s continued avoidance of Flash on its iPhone OS, but at least it’s true.

Apple excises the false Flash in its iPad promo video originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Dutch version of Official PlayStation Magazine has quite the feature on Final Fantasy XIII. Not a lot of it is new, but there are some interesting tidbits, especially the one about the game’s development. Apparently, Square

Phillips Edison and Company’s Fund IV announced today its acquisition of Prairie Point, a 93,000-square-foot shopping center located in Aurora, Illinois, approximately 30 miles west of Chicago.

The shopping center was acquired through an all-cash transaction.

It is anchored by Dominick’s Finer Foods, a Chicago-based supermarket chain which is part of Safeway Inc.

“The Prairie Point shopping center is a great example of what we are looking to acquire across the country in top markets such as Chicago.

Anchored by recently remodeled, higher-volume Dominick’s and located in a growth submarket of the Chicago MSA, this center will produce a steady return for our investors,” says John Bessey, President.

“The anchor tenancy, the growth of the population in the area, and the center’s location on a high-traffic corner make it a solid investment.”

Prairie Point is Phillips Edison’s first acquisition in the Greater Chicago MSA and the seventh property in the $300 million Phillips Edison Opportunity Fund IV portfolio.

The fund focuses on acquiring value-add and grocery-anchored assets in growth markets.

“This transaction demonstrates Phillips Edison’s position as one of the few national shopping center operating companies that has the debt and equity in place to purchase value-add and opportunistic retail in the current market,” said Hal Scudder, Chief Investment Officer.

Developed in 1998, Prairie Point is located at the southeast corner of Eola Road and E. New York Street and is well positioned to service the grocery needs of Aurora and western Naperville communities.

The city of Aurora is located approximately 30 miles west of downtown Chicago and is the second largest city in the state of Illinois.

Phillips Edison & Company is a fully integrated retail real estate company which owns and manages more than 240 neighborhood and community shopping centers totaling over 26 million square feet in 35 states.

The company has headquarters in Cincinnati and Salt Lake City, as well as regional offices across the country.

For more information, visit phillipsedison.com.

James Webb was convicted Friday of second-degree murder in the August 2008 stabbing death of Cydric Jones, 36, during a drug transaction.

The eight women and four men seated before Circuit Judge John Phillips deliberated about six hours across two days before finding Webb guilty of a lesser crime than the first-degree murder charge prosecutors had filed against him.

Webb, 25, of Round Lake, will face a prison sentence of four to 20 years when he returns to face Phillips for sentencing March 5.

Jones, of Waukegan, was stabbed once in the heart after he punched Webb as the two argued over a drug debt owed to Jones by one of Webb’s co-workers.

Assistant state’s attorneys Steven Derue and James Newman said the evidence showed Webb intended to kill Jones when he carried a steak knife from his house to the meeting with Jones in Round Lake Beach.

Webb also told his cousin he intended to stab Jones, the prosecutors said, and bragged about doing so afterward.

But defense attorneys Kevin Malia and Eric Rinehart told jurors Webb was terrified of Jones, who he had seen threaten his co-worker over the money, and only went to see him because his need for cocaine was so great.

Jones had also shown Webb that he had a 9 mm pistol at a prior meeting, the attorneys said, and Webb could not be sure Jones did not have the gun on the night they met.

The jurors apparently accepted the defense contention that Webb stabbed Jones because he thought it was necessary to protect himself, but that the belief was unreasonable.

Webb will be held without bond in the Lake County jail until the sentencing hearing.

Had he been convicted of first-degree murder, Webb would have faced a prison sentence of 20 to 60 years.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Even before it has landed in the hands of consumers, Apple’s iPad is already living up to its reputation as a “revolutionary” device. The first battle, in what may become a full out war, has begun in the lucrative book market with Amazon pulling all of Macmillan books from its digital inventory. Rumor has it that the two companies are bickering over pricing with Macmillan (and other publishers) reportedly pushing Amazon for the same $15 price point being offered by Apple. Amazon has refused to negotiate and is staunchly sticking to its $9.99 pricing, a price point to which publishers begrudgingly agreed due to the popularity of the Kindle. Now that there will be soon be a new game in town, the Kindle is losing a bit of its luster, and Amazon loses some of its leverage and the whole e-book market gets turned upside down. Oh, Apple.

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A major winter storm packing a triple punch of snow, ice and even thunderstorms raged across the south Friday night.  Traffic on major interstates crawled to a stop as roadways became snow covered and icy.  Interstates 40 and 26 in North Carolina were closed near Asheville as a deadly combination of rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow made the mountainous highways impassable.  Our crews had to stop 100 miles south of our destination in Knoxville, Tennessee as Interstate 75 became dangerous and slippery north of Atlanta.

Some parts of the south received up to a foot of snow, prompting the governors of Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia and North Carolina to declare States of Emergency.  Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry is requesting a federal disaster declaration where more than 164,000 homes are without power.

Flights from Little Rock to Raleigh were cancelled while hotels filled up with stranded travelers seeking refuge from the ice and snow.  Duke Energy reported more than 14,000 customers without power in North Carolina while Memphis Light and Gas had more than 6,000 customers left in the dark after power lines snapped under the pressure of the ice.

Snowfall amounts were impressive for areas that usually don’t deal with this kind of weather.  The metropolitan Nashville Area received up to 6 inches of snow while suburbs north of Memphis got almost 10 inches.  Interstate 24 in Nashville had to be completely shut down yesterday afternoon after a 15 car pileup brought traffic to a complete stop in both directions.

There is good news and bad news for Southern States after the storm the storm moves up the coast into Virginia and the Washington, DC area.  Many of the same cities that are blanketed in snow, fog and ice today, are expecting clear skies and sunshine tomorrow.  But those clear skies mean temperatures will dip well below freezing tonight, turning wet and slushy roads into literal sheets of ice.  Authorities are hoping that many people stay close to home and off rural roads that are likely to remain slick and dangerous.

WOODSTOCK –- A judge refused to lower a Lake in the Hills man’s bail Friday after hearing allegations that he took partially nude photographs of a 14-year-old girl and created online prostitution advertisements.

Donald R. Jones, 52, of 3593 Sonoma Circle, asked Judge Joseph Condon to lower his bail from $250,000 to $170,000, which would require $17,000 to be released.

Prosecutors argued that Jones presented a flight risk, largely because he could be sentenced to between six and 30 years in prison if he is convicted of involuntary servitude of a minor.

“I agree with the assistant state’s attorney entirely on this matter,” Condon said.

Jones met a girl from Wichita, Kan., on MySpace, drove there to pick her up, and had sex with her in a hotel in Mississippi, prosecutor Phil Hiscock said. Hiscock said he was unsure whether criminal charges had been filed in connection with the incident in Mississippi.

The girl twice had sex with men for money, which ultimately was given to Jones, Hiscock told Condon. Police later found adult escort service advertisements and what appeared to be a prostitution accounting ledger when they searched Jones’ home, Hiscock said.

Defense attorney Dan Taylor denied Jones was a flight risk and suggested electronic home monitoring.

“He has a loving, supportive family that’s going to be behind him as he mounts a defense to these charges,” Taylor said.

Jones will next appear in court Feb. 18.

Also facing charges of involuntary servitude of a minor and juvenile pimping in this case are Antwanette Atkins, 42, and Kari D. Knox, 35, both of Lake in the Hills. Knox’s case is next scheduled to appear in court Feb. 5; Atkins is due in court Feb. 16.

By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI – [email protected]

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The Grayslake-area man accused of shooting a dog outside his home was ordered held on $400,000 bond Saturday.

Elvin Dooley, 57, also must surrender the 21 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition that police confiscated when they arrested him for the crime.

The dog, a black chow mix, was abandoned in the parking lot of the Save-A-Pet No-Kill Adoption Center sometime on Tuesday, Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Marc Bangser said.

But before center employees could coax the dog inside, Bangser said, it ran off, with manager Dana Deutsch in pursuit.

Deutsch told police she was behind the dog in her car as it ran through a field near Townline and Fairfield roads when she heard a gunshot.

Police said Deutsch looked over at Dooley’s house in the 24000 block of Townline Road and saw a man holding a rifle with a scope mounted on it and aiming at the dog from a window.

Deutsch told police she heard two more shots as she ran to the house and confronted the man she later identified as Dooley.

Dooley retreated into the house, police said, and Deutsch took the dog to the Animal Emergency and Treatment Center in Grayslake with the help of some Round Lake public works employees who happened onto the scene.

Bangser said the dog died of a bullet wound that passed through its neck.

Sheriff’s police went to Dooley’s house and arrested him Friday on a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals.

Bangser said there were several shell casings found inside the house, and police seized 6,000 rounds of rifle ammunition and a large quantity of handgun ammunition from the basement and detached garage.

Dooley also led police to a friend’s house where they found 19 rifles, one of which was loaded, and two handguns that Dooley said were his, Bangser said.

Dooley served a prison term for a 1974 burglary conviction in Alabama, Bangser said, and was also imprisoned in West Virginia for burglary in 1996.

Additional charges of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, unlawful possession of ammunition by a felon and possession of a weapon without a state Firearms Owner’s Identification card were filed against Dooley.

Bangser said Dooley initially denied he had been shooting when questioned by police, then said he had been shooting at some cans and was unaware he had hit a dog.

The 6-foot-5-inch, 260-pound Dooley limped into bond court Saturday from the jail holding area and told Associate Judge Daniel Shanes he suffers from severe diabetic neuropathy.

Dooley told Shanes he works part time at a hardware store but expects to be unemployed soon.

“From what I have heard about the publicity, I doubt they will want me back,” Dooley said.

Shanes appointed the Lake County public defender’s office to represent him and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Feb. 18.

Shanes also set a hearing for a review of Dooley’s bond, which requires him to post $40,000 in cash to be released, for Feb. 4.

Bangser said additional charges could be filed after a review of the case by a grand jury.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Do we even need to summarize what this week’s top Apple news was all about? Aside from iPad mania, Apple also announced a record fiscal quarter and the Ars staff opined on what we want out of iPhone OS 4.0 and more. Read on for the good stuff.

Apple announces the iPad: Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage today in San Francisco to announce the iPad, a cross between an iPhone and a Macbook that aims to change the way we use the Web and consume digital media. Details inside.

Hands-on, first impressions, and Photo gallery of Apple iPad: We blogged the live event and we’ve put our hands all over the new iPad. Photos of the event and the device within.

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SPRINGFIELD — As Illinois gears up to spend $1.2 billion on a so-called “high-speed” rail link, the speed in which three daily departures eventually will roll across the Land of Lincoln pales in comparison to trains in Europe and the Far East.

In short, high-speed trains in Spain make Illinois’ look mainly plain.

The planned top speed of 110 miles per hour in Illinois is far below the 186 mph that trains can run in Spain and more than 100 mph less than what’s being built in China.

But, there’s also a significant difference between those systems and the one being upgraded in Illinois. Here, the trains are going to continue sharing tracks with slower freight trains and will continue rolling through small towns that have traffic crossings.

In Europe and elsewhere, high speed trains run on tracks that are dedicated solely to those trains, with few if any vehicle crossings.

Rick Harnish of the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association acknowledges the shortcomings but said the latest push to improve passenger rail service in the United States is a positive sign.

“It’s a huge first step in the right direction,” Harnish said Friday.

By bringing train speeds up to 110 mph in Illinois, the average speed of the trains will jump from about 53 mph to 62 mph. It will cut travel times between Chicago and St. Louis by up to 90 minutes.

The trip between Chicago and Bloomington-Normal will be shortened by 13 minutes.

In France, trains run at speeds up to 172 mph. Japan has trains that can top 180 mph. The only high-speed link in the United States is the Acela train along the eastern seaboard, linking Boston with Washington, D.C. It can hit speeds of 150 mph but generally averages about 68 mph because of congestion and stops.

Illinois’ version of high-speed rail will even be slower than what’s being planned in California and Florida, both of which also received a share of $8 billion in federal stimulus money this week.

Both of those projects are expected to have trains rolling along at 150 mph or more, which is the speed most experts consider the starting point for high-speed rail.

Harnish is pushing for a separate federal grant that would study a new Chicago-St. Louis link on a dedicated track with no significant crossings and a goal of going 220 mph. One proposed route would take the train south out of Chicago to Champaign-Urbana.

It would then turn toward Decatur and head into Springfield, where it would meet up with the current Amtrak line.

“It’s something we need to move aggressively toward,” Harnish said.

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Might We Suggest…

• NTT DOCOMO to Launch SE Xperia X10 in Japanese Market
  NTT DOCOMO, the Japanese telecommunications giant, announced today their launch of the Docomo Smartphone Xperia™, manufactured by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.  This is the handset known as the…

Interesting weekend reading.

quite interesting – Information Overload – By piedmonthudson – This fabulous simple graphic from Jessica Hagy, courtesy of http://flowingdata.com, has initiated some very interesting discussion, both serious and humorous.  First, yours truly attempted some further illustration and logical discussion. This led to what follows.(chart on right) – PiedmontHudson’s Weblog

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Top 20 most common passwords of all time revealed: ‘123456,’ ‘princess,’ ‘qwerty’
By Joe McKendrick – SmartPlanet 

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worth reading – Fed Likely to Extend Quantitative Easing – The Inflection Point – Seeking Alpha

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Investment Outlook – Bill Gross – The Ring of Fire – a must read on debt and deleveraging – PIMCO

Video: Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire 1963

video idea: hattip John Cervarich

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Gene impact beats i-pad in the long run – Nick Gogerty – Shocker folks, the i-pad will grow in popularity, but won’t change cultural institutions, values or belief systems much.  Gene testing and diagnostics will change cultural institutions, values and belief systems.  These are some old gene chips to the left.  I used to help run a project that played around with these. A firm called Counsyl is releasing a new chip that tests for 100 genetic related dis-orders.  This $700-800 chip will allow couples to determine the likelihood of a common or rare dis-order being passed down. – Designing Better Futures

Filed under: Hardware, OS, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Troubleshooting, MacBook

A friend’s MacBook had slowed down to a snail’s pace. Despite looking everywhere for the issue, streamlining everything I could, and yelling at it, it failed to accelerate to usable speed. So I recommended we start from scratch and build it back up with only the things she was using, free of all the other downloads and aborted installs of various software she never used or cared about. It also housed a prior system, and a PC migration from a few years back. All told, the computer was a bloated, duplicated whale of files and applications for what was essentially a light-load writer’s computer.

So I backed up the essential parts of her system using Time Machine: documents (including her novel and decades of prior writing, published and unpublished), ten years of family photographs, a 41GB iTunes library, among other things, and then….backed it up again elsewhere, outside of Time Machine.

And again.

And just for good measure, once more time, to yet another drive. I wasn’t going to be the (ex-)friend who lost her novel.

What I wanted to do was do the ol’ “erase and install” that prior system software discs allowed you to do. But clicking around Snow Leopard left no obvious method for this. But instead of booting Snow Leopard while inside of Mac OS X, if you just directly reboot the computer off the disc itself (holding down the “c” button after the system chime, letting go when you see the Apple logo) you get a few more options. Once you’ve gone into the installer program, you’ll see “Utilities” at the top, and if you select Disc Utility, you can see your hard drive. If you click on “erase” (like I did, with one hand over my eyes) you can wipe the drive clean with various security options, and then you can do a fresh install of Snow Leopard on your computer on a pristine hard drive.

Once you’ve done that, you can either transfer your files back in directly, or use the installer program’s built-in migration utility to restore any or all files from Time Machine.

And now? The world awaits the Next Great American Novel, untragically unlost by yours truly.

TUAWHow to “clean install” Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: SDK

Engadget has just confirmed with “extremely trusted sources” that iPhone OS 3.2 contains rudimentary support for video calling, which could explain that mysterious space at the top of the iPad’s leaked pictures they received.

Engadget’s sources said there are hooks to accept and decline a video conference, flip a video feed (which suggests a front-facing camera) and — most importantly — run the video call in either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen. Video calling in just part of the screen (the other part left open for other apps) would be indicative of some basic type of multitasking.

Engadget also confirms that “iPhone OS 3.2 supports file downloads and local storage in the browser, which means you’ll be able to pull files off the web and use them in other apps, and there’s at least the beginnings of SMS support buried within the code.”

While our sister site is quick to point out that it’s not sure if any of the code will ever be implemented, they’re starting to get the feeling that Apple didn’t tell everything there is to know about their latest creation…

TUAWiPhone OS 3.2 supports video calling, file downloads, SMS and…multitasking? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In typically insane Steam weekend deal fashion, from now until the end of Sunday you can purchase a bundle of both Freedom Force games or a bundle of all X-Com games for an astoundingly low price of $2 even.

Both bundles highlight classic Irrational Games franchises, with the Freedom Force bundle containing the original game and its sequel, Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich, and the X-Com bundle containing Apocalypse, Enforcer, Interceptor, Terror from the Deep, and UFO Defense. And again, each bundle can be yours for less than the price of the national average for a gallon of gas.

And lastly, if you have ever, ever, ever so slightly deeper pockets, you can also get Tropico 3 for $13.60 this weekend as well. The deals end Monday, so get ‘em while you can.

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CHICAGO (AP) – A partner in a Chicago web radio sports show pleaded guilty Thursday to swindling as many as 250 investors out of more than $6 million in a Ponzi scheme that guaranteed risk-free monthly returns of at least 10 percent.

David Hernandez, 49, who fled downstate and attempted to commit suicide after the scheme was exposed, appeared before U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman and pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. Hernandez could get up to 14 years under federal sentencing guidelines.

Hernandez was one of two men who in early 2009 launched ChicagoSportsWebio.com – a now defunct online radio show with popular host Mike North. North has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and the show does not figure into the allegations against Hernandez.

In his 23-page plea agreement, Hernandez acknowledged that his Next Step Financial Services guaranteed would-be investors who put in $13 million risk-free returns of 10 percent to 16 percent every month.

Actually, he wasn’t even investing their money.

Instead, he admitted operating a Ponzi scheme in which the money flowing in from new would-be investors was paid out to those who already had put in cash.

After his scheme began to collapse last June, Hernandez fled the city and was arrested later in downstate Normal. He was taken from the hotel where he was staying with injuries that included a bandaged wrist and arm.

“I tried to commit suicide last June,” he told Gettleman.

The amount of prison time he gets may depend on how two disputes between the government and the defense are resolved. Prosecutors say he swindled more than 250 people, while defense attorney John Meyer says it was fewer.

The government says the size of the loss was $6.8 million; the defense says it was more like $6.3 million.

Prosecutors said the original estimate of the loss was in the $3.5 million range but that more losses have been found since then.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hayes told Gettleman that the government is not making a recommendation for now on whether Hernandez has accepted responsibility for his crimes – something that could get him a lower sentence.

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Filed under: Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Toyota

Through March 1, 2010 , Chrysler is offering a $1,000 incentive for owners of the Toyota Sienna, Tacoma and Tundra who wish to switch to a Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep-branded truck. Chrysler’s reasoning? Top Ram brand executive Fred Diaz says that Chrysler invented the minivan and “the 2010 Ram Heavy Duty is Motor Trend magazine’s ‘Truck of the Year’ and the Ram 1500 is our most awarded truck ever.”

There’s money on the table for current Toyota lessees, too: $1,000 for drivers with expiring Toyota leases who switch to any Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep vehicle. The new offers took effect as of yesterday. Hit the jump to read over the press release.

[Source: Chrysler]

Continue reading Chrysler jumps on bandwagon, offers incentives to Toyota customers

Chrysler jumps on bandwagon, offers incentives to Toyota customers originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel and Micron have a history of pushing the state-of-the-art in flash storage — their joint venture IMFT was responsible for the first sub-40nm NAND flash and bringing it to production — and it looks they’ve done it again: IMFT is now sampling two-bits-per-cell 25nm NAND, which will eventually push prices down and capacities up when volume production begins in Q2. We’ll have to see how pricing works out — 25nm is something like twice the storage density per dollar, so we’re hopeful — but at the very least Intel’s third-gen X25-M will come in 160GB, 320GB, and 600GB sizes when it launches in Q4 using these new chips. Yeah, we’re going to want one. AnandTech has the full breakdown, hit the read link for more.

Intel and Micron start 25nm flash production; SSDs to get cheap, huge originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Mobile, as we all know it is not very attractive, with its lack of detailed Icons and resizing abilities, well Dinik’s Icons might be able to fix that. This Icon database has been available for sometime now, and featured in some previous Touch Pro2 videos we have published, well it just got an update to include more and more application Icons.

The set already includes over 100 application Icons and with that you can replace your boring old Icons with something a little more sized and attractive. The icon set is free, all you do is download it, install it, follow the directions and have a newish phone look in under an minuets.

Get it:XDA