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(MENAFN – Khaleej Times) The World Future Energy Summit, or WFES, beginning here on Monday (today) will be a platform for intense debates on the opportunities and challenges in exploring and developing new sustainable and cleaner energy sources …

The BlackBerry Presenter device allows you to control a PowerPoint presentation wirelessly using just your BlackBerry phone. At CES 2010 we were able to hang with Ryan Biden, RIM Product Manager for the BlackBerry Presenter device, as he gave us a test drive. Aside from simply wirelessly displaying and controlling a PowerPoint presentation from your BlackBerry, you can also set a presentation to loop on its own once the Presenter has it cached, and walk away. We give you a full demo of the BlackBerry Presenter in this episode.

A big thank you to Bing for sponsoring Gear Live’s CES 2010 coverage.

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“Consensus is pretty strong that last week’s oral argument on the Comcast/BitTorrent argument in front of the DC Circuit was an unmitigated disaster for the FCC,” wrote pro-net neutrality advocate Harold Feld in his blog for Public Knowledge on Wednesday. “So much so that it appears that the D.C. Circuit may actually strip the FCC of any authority to ‘regulate the internet’.”

The remark came as the Federal Communications Commission hears final comments on its proposals to strengthen the FCC’s Internet nondiscrimination rules. Hanging over that proceeding is Comcast’s suit against the agency for its 2008 Order sanctioning the ISP for throttling BitTorrent P2P streamers. The aforementioned consensus is based on observer and newspaper reports about oral arguments in the case, which took place at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday.

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DES MOINES, Iowa — Josh Young scored 18 points and Adam Templeton finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds as Drake defeated Illinois State 69-59.

The Bulldogs (8-11, 3-4 Missouri Valley) took command of the game early then held on in the closing minutes.

Osiris Eldridge scored 26 points, all in the second half, to lead the Redbirds (13-5, 4-3).

Drake, which never trailed, took a 16-6 lead on a 3-pointer by Templeton with 7:31 left in the first half and led by double digits the rest of the way.

The Bulldogs were up 35-15 at halftime and then scored the first five points of the second half for their largest advantage, 40-15.

Illinois State put together runs of 10-1 and 9-3 in the second half but couldn’t get any closer than 12 until the final minute.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

The scramble for a king-size block of Cadbury PLC [CBRY.LSE] by Kraft Foods Inc [KFT.NYSE] fascinates me. I love business and investing but I have to confess also to be somewhat of a chocoholic – doctor it has been 3 minutes since my last bite. In a protracted bid that has been going since a formal offer by Kraft was made in November 2009 after it telegraphed interest in the Dairy Milk maker in September the takeover process has been full of harsh words, threats, finger pointing and egos from all sides of the chocolate vat.

Since then Kraft has been rebuffed twice by Cadbury and those harsh words have been flowing like Cadbury Creme eggs between the CEO’S of Kraft and its sweet milky target Cadbury. Meanwhile Kraft’s biggest shareholder, Warren Buffett, has issued a press release urging Kraft not to pay too much for the company.

In this sickly mix of nuts and fruits comes interest from just about every major chocolate company in the world. Ferrero Rocher, Nestle’, and Hershey have all been on the radar but all seem to have been dismissed as having short pockets or not serious, save for Hershey which seems to be mulling over a formal bid of its own according to some sources.

The problem for Kraft is that Cadbury contend that its shares are worth more than what they are offering and Kraft’s bid significantly undervalues the long-term prospects of the company and they will have to increase their bid before the January 19 deadline if they want to take a chip off the Cadbury block.

I have to agree with Cadbury. The company has a strong presense in most parts of the world and its brand and products – no matter what some might think of its sweet milky almost chocolate free taste – dominate the minds of consumers and their sweet ways when they make a decision to buy a quick convenient snack.

This brand awareness has made Cadbury one of the worlds most successful chocolate makers in the past and that is unlikely to change any time soon.

For these reasons alone Kraft need to raise their offer and any other company considering a move on Cadbury must also take into account the company and its fine pedigree.

Warren Buffett, as a 10% holder of Kraft stock, was against Kraft’s bid principally because of its intention to issue new shares in Kraft to help pay for the purchase. I have just been reading Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha, a collection of Warren Buffett’s letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and he makes it very clear in a number of his letters that he is against the dilutionary effects of such transactions for the predator company if it doesn’t present value for the predator. Of course the price paid for the company is a key factor as well and if the price is right for the takeover then the preferred option of purchase for Buffett is cash and preferably non -borrowed cash at that.

Cadbury would be a great company to own. Good cash flows, strong brands with a competitive moat and profit to boot.

Any suitor will have to pay a premium to take control of the purple one and Buffett has stressed he doesn’t want Kraft to be that suitor but if he wants a piece of it – and I think he does – then Kraft and any other buyers are going to have to sweeten the deal beyond the current valuations put on Cadbury’s assets.

I cant wait for the next move!

Cadbury @ Share Investor

Cadbury could learn a thing or two from 1980’s Coca Cola Experiment

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Cadbury’s Purple Reign: The Story Behind Chocolate’s Best-Loved Brand by John Bradley
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Another batch of new shows this week.  24 gives us four hours of Jack on Sunday and Monday, several returning shows and a few new ones as well.

Don’t miss the Ultimate Guide to the 2010 Winter TV Season Premieres with free downloads by premiere date & by show name!  I’ve updated this guide with some additions and network changes.

                  SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND premieres Friday on Starz

NOTE: All Times are Listed for EST

Sunday, January 17

Human Target (8pm on Fox– Available in HD) – A new series on Fox.  This will be followed up on the 20th with the same episode re-aired.  The series follows the cases of a unique bodyguard/private detective who interferes with murder attempts by impersonating the intended victims to draw the killers fire.  I’m curious about this one and will have it on my favorites list to check out later.

The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards (8pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Ricky Gervais hosts one  the more popular awards shows highlighting TV and Movies

24 (9pm on Fox-Available in HD) – The two-hour premiere of 24.  Will be followed up on the 18th with the two-hour, part 2 of this one.  CTU is back and so is Jack.  Early reports are that this first two hours will continue to confirm that the 24 writers are completely back on track.  It should be good.

Monday, January 18

One Tree Hill (8pm on CW – Available in HD) – Season 7 returns for a few more episodes and then goes back in hiding until 4/19

24 (8pm on Fox-Available in HD) – The next two hours of 24 unfolds (part 2 of the 4-hour premiere).

Life Unexpected (9pm on CW – Available in HD) – A new series on CW

The Buried Life (10pm on MTV) – A new realityTV series on MTV

American Pickers (9pm on History) A new series on the History channel that follows professional trash “pickers” as they dig through junk piles, abandoned barns and other places for hidden treasure.  Hmm.

I’m In The Band (7pm on Disney XD – Available in HD) – A new musical sitcom with Logan Miller starring as a teen who helps a group of aging rockers known as Iron Weasel make one last stab at the big time.

Benjamin Latrobe: America’s First Architect (10pm on PBS – Available in HD) A special that profiles the architect who worked on buildings such as the U.S. Capitol, White House & Baltimore Basilica

Tuesday, January 19

90210 (8pm on CW-Available in HD) – Season 2 returns

Melrose Place (9pm on CW – Available in HD) – Season 1 returns

Millionaire Matchmaker (10pm on Bravo) – Season 3 premieres

White Collar (10pm on USA – Available in HD) – One of the better new shows from the Fall returns for the second half of its first season in a new timeslot

Wednesday, January 20

Meteorite Men (9pm on Science – Available in HD) – A new realityTV show on USA

Thursday, January 21

The Deep End (8pm on ABC – Available in HD) – A new drama/comedy series about young lawyers at a high-powered LA law firm.  This one has been promoted heavily and is on Mrs GeekTonic’s list of shows to check out. 

Supernatural (9pm on CW – Available in HD) – Season 9 continues

Burn Notice (10pm on USA – Available in HD) – Season 3 returns with 7 more episodes.

Friday, January 22

Smallville (8pm on CW – Available in HD) – season 9 returns

Dollhouse (9pm on SyFy – Available in HD) – The two-hour series finale is here at the end of season 2.

Caprica (9pm on SyFy – Available in HD) – The prequel to Battlestar Galactica.

Say Yes to the Dress (9pm on TLC) – season 4 premiere

Spartacus: Blood & Sand (10pm on STARZ – Available in HD) – A new series on Starz – I’d check it out if I had Starz.

State of the Union (10:30pm on Showtime – Available in HD) – Season 3 premiere

La La Land (11pm on Showtime – Available in HD) – a new series on Showtime

Saturday, January 23

The Pregnancy Test (9pm on Lifetime) – A made-for-TV-movie where a cyber-journalist investigates an “outbreak” of teen pregnancies.

Sunday, January 24

No new premieres

If you follow GeekTonic just for the TV Premieres and news, you’ll want to click Here If You Would Like to Get a Regular E-mail for GeekTonic TV Premieres & News

The 3.4-magnitude earthquake struck Sunday afternoon. It was centered in Guizhou province, 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the capital Guiyang, according to a report from the Guizhou Earthquake Bureau.

The earthquake triggered two landslides in separate locations, burying and killing at least seven people instantly with large boulders that tumbled down the mountain, said Tian Xiang, a bureau spokesman.

One person remains missing and nine others are in a local hospital, two with serious injures, Tian said.

Dozens of police officers were sent to the disaster zone, according to the report.

Guizhou, like other provinces in southern China, is a quake-prone region and borders Sichuan province, where a magnitude-7.9 quake in May 2008 left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.

The earthquake was not registered on the US Geological Survey Web site as of Monday morning.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Haiti’s musician Wyclef Jean, left, arrives at the airport in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, the day after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit his country. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

I read “The Smoking Gun” report “Wyclef Jean Charity’s Funny Money” in full, and although the tax issues need to be dealt with, I strongly stand by Wyclef Jean. CNN Money stated, “Experts say that lackadaisical accounting is common among non-profits and is not necessarily a red flag for suspicious behavior.” The worst thing the Yele Foundation did was turn tax papers in late, but these accusations that Wyclef was trying to get over on the money end are preposterous to me.

I had a discussion on Facebook earlier today with an FB friend about the costs that go into concerts, travel, management, administrative work, etc. That money just doesn’t fly out of thin air, and if someone is donating to the cause, they’re donating to all of that. And just being realistic here, how much did you hear about donations to Haiti from any other artist or even news programs before last week outside of Wyclef? When selfish people like Bill Maher could’ve cared as much about Haiti before the earthquake as he does now, Wyclef Jean was still spending time improving the economic situation in Haiti. Even the music artists who are donating now weren’t thinking about Haiti before it became the “in” event to donate to while Wyclef was. 

For as long as I’ve been a fan of his work, before the Fugees and after, he has always asked people to support Haiti and talked about their economic issues. He’s been performing and raising money way before it was the “in” thing to do and has been far more focused on Haiti than other charitable organizations. And he was definitely covering Haitian issues before earthquake last Tuesday.

So when Wyclef finally responded to the accusations that he was using the business as a way to profit, all I kept thinking was “Finally!” Play the video below.

So what do you think? Is Wyclef Jean being honest?

By Duane D. Stanford, Andrew Cleary and Zachary R. Mider

January 17, 2010, 08:40 PM EST

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Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — Kraft Foods Inc., facing a deadline to make a revised bid for Cadbury Plc tomorrow, would have to use cash, rather than stock, for a higher offer to keep its own shareholders satisfied.

Billionaire investor William Ackman last week joined Warren Buffett, Kraft’s biggest shareholder, in saying Kraft risks diminishing the merits of a Cadbury takeover by issuing too much stock to pay for it. Kraft’s 11 billion-pound ($17.9 billion) cash-and-stock bid values the U.K. chocolate maker at 771 pence a share, below Cadbury’s closing price of 794 pence on Jan. 15.

The deficit has left Kraft Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld trying to win over Cadbury investors without alienating her own shareholders. Earlier this month, Kraft said it would sell pizza brands including DiGiorno and Tombstone to Nestle SA and use proceeds from the $3.7 billion deal to boost the 300 pence cash component of its bid by another 60 pence.

“Any wiggle room you have has almost got to come from the cash side, not the stock side,” Donald Yacktman, founder of Yacktman Asset Management Co., which holds Kraft shares, said in a telephone interview Jan. 15. “The issue has always been price. It’s not a matter of them being a terrible fit because I think they do fit.”

A takeover of Uxbridge, England-based Cadbury would give Kraft, the maker of Toblerone chocolate and Tang powdered drinks, a faster-growing business and access to emerging markets, such as India. The combined company would have about $50 billion in annual sales.

‘Extremely Undervalued’

Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP bought at least 32 million shares in Northfield, Illinois-based Kraft, or 2 percent of the company, and plans to purchase more. The stock is “extremely undervalued,” Ackman said in a Jan. 15 interview. Pershing’s stake in Kraft is now the firm’s biggest holding.

“The more Kraft stock they issue, the less interesting this deal is,” Ackman said. “Fortunately, the seller also prefers cash.” The deal makes “tremendous sense,” Ackman added.

Rosenfeld announced the additional cash component on Jan. 5, the same day Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it voted against a plan to issue millions of shares to finance a Cadbury takeover. The proposal, which shareholders will vote on next month, amounts to a “blank check” to modify the bid, Berkshire said.

Berkshire said it may support a Cadbury takeover if it concludes that the final offer “does not destroy value for Kraft shareholders.”

‘Compelling’ Offer

Kraft advanced 46 cents to $29.58 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Jan. 15. Based on that price, the hostile offer of 300 pence in cash and 0.2589 Kraft share is more than 60 percent stock. Cadbury shareholders have the option to substitute as much as 60 pence of shares with cash.

Cadbury spokesman Trevor Datson declined to comment as did Kraft spokesman Michael Mitchell.

Kraft must raise its bid by at least 10 percent to 850 pence to stand a chance of capturing the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate bars, a survey of nine Cadbury shareholders shows. Together they account for about 11 percent of the shares. Responses ranged from 800 pence to 900 pence.

Jeffrey Scharf, president of Scharf Investments in Santa Cruz, California, said 900 pence a share would be “compelling,” while an offer in the “low 800s” may struggle. Scharf Investments has about 760,000 Cadbury shares.

Higher Multiple

“It’s more than a little ironic that Kraft sold its pizza business to Nestle for a higher multiple than they are willing to pay for Cadbury’s candy business,” Scharf said. “It’s not really a plausible, attractive offer.” Nestle said it paid 12.5 times earnings for the unit.

Cadbury Chairman Roger Carr has repeatedly called Kraft’s offer “derisory.” He said on Jan. 14 that Hershey Co. recently reaffirmed its interest in the company and would transform itself into a global business by trumping Kraft’s bid.

Hershey, the Pennsylvania-based chocolate maker that’s controlled by a charitable trust, was stepping up efforts last week to prepare a competing bid, people with knowledge of the matter said at the time. The company will make a decision on what to do after Kraft submits its final offer, the people said. The deadline for a Kraft bid is Jan. 19.

Kraft may be able to increase the cash portion of its offer without further negotiations with its lenders. In addition to a 5.5 billion-pound bridge loan it’s getting from Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, and seven other banks, it has an agreement to borrow $3 billion, according to a Dec. 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yacktman, the Kraft investor, said that he’s not opposed to a higher cash offer and thinks CEO Rosenfeld has left room to negotiate.

“As long as the economics are satisfied rather than the egos, then it’s a good deal,” Yacktman said.

–With assistance from Christine Richard in New York. Editors: Jennifer Sondag, Celeste Perri

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Aliph knows how to do good design. Its hot-selling Jawbone Bluetooth headset has won awards and seen great sales. Now the company is launching a new model of Bluetooth headset, dubbed Jawbone Icon, with an emphasis on intelligent audio processing.

This fourth-generation model will feature jewelry-like styles for women and cool gear for men. It also has more intelligence built into it, such as whispering into your ear when you have four hours of battery life or just 10 minutes left. It will sell for $99, a smaller price than its previous versions.

Aliph is also launching a beta test of its first software platform, MyTALK, which lets users personalize the Jawbone Icon to their own tastes. You can, for instance change the voice of the automated attendant that tells you who is calling. The caller ID voice — which lets you hear the name of a caller without diverting your eyes from the road while driving — can be a sultry female voice or that of a male acting like a rogue spy. The whole idea is that this just isn’t a cheap Bluetooth headset. It’s supposed to be evolving toward “wearable computing,” said Travis Bogard, an executive director at Aliph, in an interview.

Aliph was founded in 1999 by Alexander Asseily and Hosain Rahman to work on advanced noise cancellation technology. Touting “military grade” voice clarity, Aliph launched its first Jawbone Bluetooth headset in 2006, selling it at the hefty price of $120 when everything else sold for $40.

The company billed its headset as sounding even better than listening directly to a phone. The better sound comes from having three microphones built into the device. It also has a sensor that feels the movement of your jawbone and correlates that with your speech. Digital signal processing takes the data, strips out the noise, and then reproduces the sound. The noise is stripped out even when the user is silent. Aliph says the speech that comes through is more intelligible, letting you hear the difference between a “p” sound and a “b” sound.

Aliph followed up with a smaller version in 2008. The third-generation headset, the Jawbone Prime, arrived in April, 2009. The models all relied on a noise-cancellation technology dubbed Noise Assassin, which lets you hear in noisy areas such as airports. And the Jawbone models became the best-selling Bluetooth headsets at retailers such as Verizon Wireless and Best Buy. The company’s surveys showed four out of five people preferred using Jawbone with a phone over using only a cellphone itself.

The new design has buttons that let you do everything while the headset is on your ear. You don’t have to be looking at it to turn it on or off, and you can tell if it is on or off via the LED light or a blue color indicator that shows when it is in the on position. You can reprogram it to talk to you in French, German or Spanish. The MyTALK software also lets you customize a button to link directly to a service of your choice, such as free directory assistance, voice-to-text-message, and voice dial. If you use the headset with an iPhone, the iPhone will display a meter that shows how much battery is left in your headset.

Altogether, there are six designs ranging from the Hero (right) for men to the Bombshell (pictured at top) for women (though they all look fairly gender neutral). The device is smaller and lighter (eight grams) than its predecessors. And the sound quality is better too. The new Noise Assassin technology can effectively cancel wind noise by 2.5 times. Talk time is about 4.5 hours and standby time is around 10 days. It can charge 80 percent of its battery in 35 minutes.

Today, it is available at Verizon stores and Aliph’s web site. It will soon be available at Apple, AT&T, Best Buy Mobile and other cell phone stores nationwide. It will be available overseas starting in March. The mytalk.jawbone.com site is invitation-only at the moment.

The company’s competitors include chip maker Audience, whose high-quality noise cancellation chips are used in phones such as the Google Nexus One.

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Turns out that leak we saw of the Jawbone Icon was for real after all, but it was only one of the six designs straight out of Aliph’s oven: (clockwise from top left) The Thinker, The Rogue, The Hero, The Ace, The Catch and — our favorite — The Bombshell. While these are the smallest and lightest Jawbones ever, Aliph has managed to cram in an allegedly improved NoiseAssassin and simultaneous dual-phone linkage, along with an onboard ‘AudioApp’ which vocally broadcasts battery level and caller ID. If you prefer a visual indication, the Icon also does a battery gauge on the iPhone — a first on a non-Apple Bluetooth headset — and apparently “Apple’s aware of this” so a firmware update shouldn’t kill this Palm Pre-style. We’re digging the MyTALK website — currently in beta — where you can pick and install other AudioApps and DialApps (for the multifunction button; e.g. voice dialing, free directory assistance and voice-to-SMS) onto the Icon, and both will be free except for some DialApps which require subscription. Oh, and there are seven earbud sizes plus an earloop to keep everyone happy too. When you’re done with picking, hit the Verizon stores for the initial launch today and pony up $99.99. Press release and video walkthrough of the MyTALK website after the break.

Continue reading Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset launched in six lush flavors (Update: video!)

Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset launched in six lush flavors (Update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I discovered, when caring for my mom with Alzheimer’s and afterwards visiting her in the nursing home, that she enjoyed being read to. 

Reading to Grandmother image: sxc.hu

 She eventually didn’t understand most of the words, but apparently the comfort of someone’s voice, the movement of turning pages, and just having a person near her calmed and pleased her.

She also enjoyed having my grandchildren (her great grands), toddler and kindergarten age at that time, visit her.  Mother didn’t know who they were, but they pleased her with their presence.  Then when my granddaughter, who was beginning to read, sat beside her and sounded words, Mother smiled and tried to say some words, too. 

Part of the enjoyment may have been the attention and the sounds.  Also, Mother had been a school teacher in earlier days and found pleasure all her life in encouraging youngsters to read and learn.  She even did some tutoring after her children were grown.

Reading to Alzheimer’s grandparents, or others in a nursing home, could be a project for your children and grandchildren.  Instead of being a scary place for youngsters (as some people feared), the nursing home was somewhere my grandchildren looked forward to visiting.  They interacted with their great grandmother, as well as joined activities with other residents.

I discovered an interaction between the young and old that I hadn’t imagined I’d find.  Also, this created a sense of family and memories for the children.

Post from: Blisstree

Reading to Alzheimer’s Grandparents

I love this timeline, showing the evolution of Crayola’s crayons from 1903—eight colors, including poop—to 120 colors today. Now, imagine PC graphics running on Crayola’s Law, which states that the number of hues doubles every 28 years:

Let’s take the Color/Graphics Adapter as a starting point. Introduced in 1981, the IBM CGA was capable of displaying four colors in 320 x 240 pixels. Back then, it was all black, cyan, magenta, and white, or black, red, brown, and green. The world looked really bad.

The EGA era—16 colors!—would have arrived in 2037. Fast forward to 2149, and witness the arrival of humans to Jupiter, and Video Graphics Array cards, bringing 256 glorious colors in 320 x 240 pixels. 16-bit color mode and its palette of 65,536 shades would have been enjoyed in 2373.

What about our current 16,777,216-tone palette, the 24-bit RGB color system? Not until the year 2597, people. Terrifying. But then, this slow evolution would have been a small price to pay if our computers always smelled like a fresh box of crayons. [Crayola color timeline by Weathersealed]