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Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray today announced that he will be resigning his position in government. Murray has been the state’s lieutenant governor since 2007. Before that, he served as the Mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Murray announced his resignation today in a joint press conference with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Murray stated that he is leaving his position to take on the role of president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“This unique, new opportunity will allow me to continue to work on the economic and community development initiatives and ideas that I have worked on over 15 years in elective office,” said Murray.

Murray had announced in January that he did not intend to run for governor after Patrick’s term ended. Even so, he made it clear today that he had planned to serve out his term as lieutenant governor and that he initially rejected the Worcester offer “because the timing was too immediate.” He then reconsidered, and now believes that he can build “economic growth, job creation, and community development” in Massachusetts through the private sector.

Murray has posted his statement to his Facebook page, where he is receiving mostly well-wishes for his decision:

Tim Murray55 minutes ago

Dear Friends,

This post represents both an ending and a beginning.

I wanted to tell you directly about my decision to accept a new opportunity that will allow me to continue striving for the economic and community development ideals I have worked for over the past 15 years in public service. This unique new opportunity, however, means I must end my service as Lieutenant Governor of this great state.

In January, I wrote about the decision I made with my wife not to run for public office in 2014. I said at that time the next chapter of my life needed to be focused primarily on family. My wife Tammy and I are blessed with two active and beautiful daughters, Helen and Kati, who recently turned 8 and 7 years old. We wanted to take advantage of this moment in our lives, since childhood passes quickly, and this is an important time for our family.

When I made that decision, I expected to finish my term as Lieutenant Governor, working closely with Governor Patrick on the priorities we have established to help Massachusetts. Of course, I did begin to think about what the future would bring when my state service was over, however I was not pursuing any employment opportunities. Then, I was approached by the leadership of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce with an intriguing idea.

The chamber’s long-time capable President, Dick Kennedy, is retiring and the executive committee asked if I would be interested in leading the chamber, growing its mission and economic impact. This was not a post I had sought, and at first I dismissed the idea because the timing was too immediate. Then, as I gave the matter more thought and discussed it in depth with Tammy, I became increasingly interested about the unique opportunity it presents.

So much of what we have accomplished across the Commonwealth in the past six-plus years has been through public-private partnerships. I have always said that government can’t, and shouldn’t do it all, but through strategic public investments, directed by enlightened public and private leadership, we can foster the economic growth, job creation and community development that Massachusetts deserves. In my new role as President and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, I will work for these same goals, on the private sector side of the equation.

The city of Worcester is the economic anchor of one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas of the country, not only Massachusetts. With nearly a million residents, 30,000 college students and a diversified economy, the greater Worcester region contributes enormously to the economic and cultural vitality of the Commonwealth and central New England. I look forward to helping the chamber, its membership, and the entire region build a brighter future.

This has been a very difficult, yet empowering decision. You and I have worked together in so many ways that have improved the quality of life in this Commonwealth. It has been an honor to serve as your Lieutenant Governor. At the same time, however, I know that change is the nature of life. And as I imagine how best to keep working on the issues that I am passionate about, while being close to home and more present in the lives of my wife and children, the chamber post is the perfect fit. So I intend to submit my resignation as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, effective at the end of the day on June 2, and will begin my new role as President and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce on June 3.

As I begin to close this chapter in my career, I especially want to thank my staff, past and present, who have worked alongside me to accomplish so many substantive economic policy and development initiatives across Massachusetts. The Bay State is a special place. I have loved learning about its history, its traditions, and meeting so many great people in every corner of this state while working on their behalf.

Most importantly I want to thank Governor Patrick. He has been a friend, mentor and partner. He has led the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through some of its most tumultuous moments in modern times. Whether it was dealing with the Great Recession, the many challenges thrown at us by Mother Nature or most recently the marathon bombing, the people of Massachusetts have a captain who is steady during the storm and is leading state through to better days.

Finally, to all my friends, I will be forever grateful for the support you have shown me over the years. I know that we will stay in touch and find ways to work together on important issues and initiatives for many years to come.

With my best regards,

Tim Powered by socialditto  143 likes ·  39 comments

Google X, Google’s lab where the company hatches big ideas like driverless cars and Google Glasses, is acquiring the high altitude wind startup Makani Power, according to an article in Bloomberg Business Week. This is the first time we’ve heard that Google’s secretive moonshot lab has bought an outside company and is bringing it in house — usually the lab works on crazy ideas in house, and if these ideas become less risky, then Google turns those into actual Google products or pushes the products into other Google divisions.

Makani Power has been building and testing a new type of wind turbine that is attached to a long tether (that could be 600 meters long) and which rotates high off the ground, capturing wind that is stronger and more consistent than typically found on the ground. The idea behind the innovation is that capturing high altitude wind could be cheaper, more efficient, and more suitable for certain environments like offshore than traditional wind turbines.

Makani Power has said its kite-style system could deliver twice as much capacity factor (a measure of energy generation productivity) with 20 percent less mass than conventional wind turbines. A computerized system launches the turbines and monitors and tracks the data on how much energy is generated.

Makani Power’s kite turbine on display at ARPA-E 2012.

Makani Power was founded in 2006 by Saul Griffith and former World Cup windsurfer Don Montague and a lot of the early employees were kite surfers. Griffith has since gone on to run Other Labs, his incubator workshop in San Francisco that is building things like a new natural gas engine and tiny solar thermal devices.

Makani Power previously raised $15 million from Google.org, back when Google.org and Google were more actively funding next-gen energy devices. According to the Business Week article Google X’s captain of moonshots, Astro Teller, proposed the idea of buying Makani Power to Larry Page and Page’s response was that Teller had to make sure to crash at least five of the high-altitude wind devices in the near future (basically put it to a rigorous enough test).

While Makani Power has been working on this innovation for seven years, it’s been slow going commercializing a product. The company has survived on the funding from Google.org, and grants from the Department of Energy’s early stage ARPA-E program. Late last year Makani’s charismatic, kitesurfing CEO, Corwin Hardham, tragically passed away unexpectedly. Earlier this year former energy policy maker and energy exec Cathy Zoi joined Makani’s board of directors.

Google is interested in clean energy generation partly because its data centers suck up a ton of energy and cost it a lot of money. Google has invested over a billion dollars into various clean energy projects, but in recent years moved away from making equity investments into clean energy startups. Perhaps Google X is a better place for this high-risk clean energy ideas.

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Do Xbox 360 owners still play games on an SDTV? Minecraft players proved they do, but it looks like Microsoft will be ignoring them with the Xbox One.

GimmeGimmeGames reports that the Xbox One only sports an HDMI out. That means the console will not be able to connect to displays with component or composite ins. Of course, there are converters that convert digital signals to analog for those still rocking a component connection, but Microsoft won’t be supporting it out of the box.

It’s hard to imagine that gamers still play HD consoles on an SDTV in this day and age, but a number of examples prove they still exist. They also may be interested in the Xbox One. That interest will require them to upgrade to an HDTV before jumping into the next generation of gaming. Thankfully, HDTVs are not quite as expensive as they used to be.

The last generation introduced digital audio and video to game consoles, but they still had support for analog connections. The Xbox One ditching analog signals may be a sign that the PS4 will be doing the same. We haven’t seen Sony’s hardware yet, however, so we don’t know if that will be the case.

Lack of SDTV support isn’t the only issue facing Microsoft’s latest machine. The company has been sending mixed signals regarding its stance on used games with the Xbox One. We’re still waiting on a definitive statement, but signs are pointing to it allowing used games within certain parameters.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft for confirmation on this specific issue, and will update if we hear back.

If you know Java, R or SAS, doing machine learning on Hadoop data just got a lot easier. Concurrent (see disclosure), the company behind the popular Cascading framework for writing big data jobs, has developed a new open source tool called Pattern that lets users export their models from statistical analysis applications and run THEM? at scale on Hadoop data with little to no code change.

The reason for creating Pattern is pretty simple, according to Concurrent Founder and CEO Chris Wensel: “Hadoop is never used alone.” It’s always part of a data environment that also includes databases, visualization tools, analytics software and/or statistical analysis tools that arguably do the really valuable work. Hadoop’s real value is an integration platform that can feed data into these other systems and, ideally, put their outputs to work across much larger datasets.

Developers can use the Pattern Java API to create machine learning jobs, but they can also simply export a Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML) file from software like R, SAS and MicroStrategy that Pattern will read and run them as a Cascading workflow. Models are useless unless you can run them in production, Wensel said, and Pattern lets them run across more data, stored in Hadoop, than you can use to build them with those other tools.

However, Wensel noted, “The real takeaway isn’t Pattern itself.”

From his perspective, the real story is Pattern plus Cascading plus Lingual, the open source SQL-to-Hadoop tool that Concurrent recently developed and released. Lingual is the tie that binds everything together, creating a sort of assembly line for data as it works its way from generation to delivering some value. For example, someone might create a Cascading job that adds structure to incoming data, and then pull some of the data into R using Lingual. Once a model is created in R and exported to the Hadoop cluster using Pattern, Lingual can feed the MapReduce output file back to R so a data scientist can test the model’s accuracy.

And actually, Wensel said, Lingual could have a positive effect on companies’ bottom lines. Airbnb recently replaced a departed engineer with Lingual for monthly migrations of data from Hadoop and into SQL environments. Climate Corporation, a massive Hadoop and Cascading user, could use Lingual to let its crop-and-weather insurance customers access their data from the company’s Hadoop store.

Lingual and Pattern should help Concurrent finally make some money, too. Both of them, as well as the Cascading framework that underpins them, will always be open source, Wensel said, but it plans to create “a suite of products that will make your life much better if … you standardize on Cascading.”

For example, the company has the ability to monitor jobs at the application level rather than the cluster level, meaning it can tell you the details of that job that’s locking up all the resources and whether you really want to kill it (it might be an important report for the CFO …). “We can do some really interesting things,” Wensel said.

Disclosure: Concurrent is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, the founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user PENGYOU91.

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Netflix wants to take on HBO and Showtime with the production of original stand-up comedy, the company’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos revealed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter this week.

Sarandos pointed to Bill Burr as one example of a stand-up comedian who has seen huge success on Netflix, to the point where he can now tour in countries where Netflix is operating its streaming service. Producing stand-up comedy is “also a great way to cultivate talent for future scripted projects,” Sarandos added.

Asked about his plans for the next phase of original shows on Netflix, Sarandos said that he wants to target audiences that the company has so far overlooked, including tweens, Sci-fi fans and sitcom viewers. Altogether, Netflix could debut as many as 16 originals in 2013, according to Sarandos.

In 2013, Netflix is going to launch a total of 8 originals, including the much-anticipated return of Arrested Development, which will premier on Netflix this coming Sunday.

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Photos of Marilyn Monroe which were supposed to go on exhibit at Prague Castle have been stolen, along with display cases and mannequins that were also to be included in the event.

The items were collected by Italian museum creators last year in tribute to the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death and included the star’s shoes, clothing, and diaries. Those in charge of the exhibition have not decided whether they will go on with the Prague show; it’s scheduled to move on to Tokyo soon, however.

Monroe was one of the most photographed women in the world at the height of her fame; several pictures of her taken by friend and makeup artist Allan Snyder were auctioned off last year for a pretty penny. The movie star and beauty icon still holds our fascination, even decades after her death, and the PR firm handling the exhibition hopes to catch whoever nabbed the items so that they may be shared with the world.

YouTube user MagicofRahat is becoming YouTube famous for his various pranks – many of them involving drive-thrus.

You see, Rahat likes to drive his car up to various drive-thrus and scare the crap out of poor, innocent, food workers. Various pranks involve scary dolls, fake hands, and headless drivers. This time, he’s combined a zombie drive-thru prank with a headless drive-thru prank. The results are nice:

Earlier this month, Abercrombie & Fitch caught heat for comments its CEO made in the past about the company’s marketing strategy. Mike Jefferies was quoted in a new book, saying that Abercrombie & Fitch markets to “cool and popular kids” and “good-looking people,” which is why its stores do not stock extra-large female clothing.

The comments sparked a backlash online that reached evening news programs and even actress Kirstie Alley. A campaign to counter Abercrombie & Fitch’s message has also begun, with activists urged to clothe the homeless in Abercrimbie & Fitch clothing.

Now, Abercrombie & Fitch is facing legal trouble over the layout of its stores. According to an Associated Press report, a federal judge in Denver, Colorado has ruled that Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister stores are “unfriendly” to disabled persons. Abercrombie & Fitch is the parent company of Hollister. The judge is now considering an injunction against the company.

The lawsuit was filed by disabled Colorado consumers who claim to have had trouble getting into the stores through side doors and have complained that countertops in the stores are too high. The lawyer representing the disabled in the court case compared the use of side doors, rather than some type of access to the stores’ main entrance, with racial segregation. Lawyers for Abercrombie & Fitch have called this comparison “inflammatory” and have stated that the stores were constructed to standards in place at the time they were built.

Well, this is good news. The state of Vermont has decided to join private companies like Twitter in taking the fight to patent trolls — shell companies that don’t do anything except use old patents to extort businesses into paying licenses for common technology.

In a complaint filed in Vermont’s Supreme Court, the state accuses MPHJ Technology — which operates 40 shell companies through a UPS store in Delaware  – of violating consumer protection law by demanding small businesses buy a license or face a patent lawsuit.

“Hopefully would-be patent trolls will see this and realize that if you want to prey on Vermont businesses large and small they’re going to have a fight on their hands,” Attorney General, William Sorrell, said by phone on Wednesday.

The patents in question date from the year 2001 and involve technology for scanning documents and attaching them to an email. Despite being around for more than a decade, no one tried to enforce the patents until 2012 when an attorney from Texas — a notorious troll forum — named Jay Mac Rust began brandishing them.

The Vermont complaint explains that Mr. Rust and his friends have been sending letters to hundreds of businesses in Vermont, including non-profit groups that help the disabled, and telling them to pay $900-$1200 or face a federal lawsuit.

Patent trials are one of the most expensive forms of litigation and are an ordeal for even big companies — let alone a small shop in the Green Mountains. Worse, the defendants are out of luck even if they win since the shells that sue them don’t have any assets.

According to Sorrell, “patent trolling is a national problem” and the trolls have been harassing Vermont’s tech sector, as well as small business and non-profits, for years.

Vermont’s lawsuit, which demands the troll pay $10,000 for each letter it sent out, is based on consumer protection laws that forbid deceitful communications. The state’s governor this week also signed a new anti-troll law that Sorrell describes as “another arrow in the quiver.”

The site will almost surely raise constitutional issues concerning state power and patents but, for now, businesses will welcome a big new ally in the fight against patent trolls; others include Google and patent scholars like Mark Lemley and Brian Love. It will be interesting to see if states with big tech centers, like California and Massachusetts, ask to intervene or file suits of their own. You can read the complaint yourself here:

Vermont v MPHJ Technologies Complaint

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Windows users never get tired of finding new ways to improve the appearance of the operating system or of tweaking for increased usability.

Among the most popular tuning jobs is changing the log on screen, which is the same with the log off one and the system lock wallpaper. There are dozens of applications fit for the job, most of them fre… (read more)

Google announced some new features for Goals in Google Analytics, including a new set-up flow, new templates, and new verification capabilities.

For setting up Goals, you now find a profile in your account, click the admin tab, and navigate to the account, property, and and profile of choice. From there, click Goals, and Create a Goal. From there, you will be guided further:

New templates have been added to the set-up flow.

“When you use a template, the Goal setup flow is prefilled with suggested values (based on your industry) that you can either keep or change as you walk through the process,” explains product manager Stefan F. Schnabl. “The templates are organized into four business objectives (Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry, Engagement) to help you think about the purpose of each Goal, plus you can still create custom goals. Note that ‘revenue’ goals don’t necessarily imply a direct sale — these goals are user activities which have a strong impact on your desired business outcomes. Depending on your business model, a Revenue Goal could be a purchase, such as a completed checkout; or it could also be a successful lead submission, such as a scheduled appointment. Some Revenue Goals might lend themselves to Ecommerce tracking as well.”

Templates are based on Industry Categories selected in your property settings. There are also twenty new categories.

“In addition to the templates, we’ve added a way for you to check your setup before you save,” says Schnabi. “You’ll find a verify option at the end of the setup flow that lets you see what the conversion rate would have been for the past seven days had this Goal been setup. Using the verify option gives you immediate feedback, so you can decide to save or modify the Goal configuration you’re working on.”

You can use the Goals Overview report under Conversions to see how goal completions happen over time. From there, you can also choose relevant metrics with the metric selector.

The updates are now live in Google Analytics.

“In order to get the TV part of Xbox One to work, you’ll essentially end up plugging it into your existing cable box, via another box that lets you perform an ‘HDMI pass-through,’” writes Kafka. “In essence, Xbox One is acting as a sort of custom remote for your cable box, which will let you change the channel; it is also creating its own programming guide so you can see what’s on TV.”

As Kafka also notes, Microsoft has worked with ESPN and HBO to create Xbox apps that only deliver content if you’re already subscribed to a cable service. So while we one day just might be able to get all the programming we want over our broadband connections, it’s highly unlikely that Microsoft will be the company to give it to us.

The competition for your cloud business continues between Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox, Box and other competitors. Today Google takes its next step, with an attempt to make the experience better for Android customers with, what it terms, a “smoother” experience.

The search giant claims that Drive files will now be displayed in a clean, simple card-style. This will allow users to swipe between files to see large previews that will permit them to quickly review and discover the information they are looking for. If a customer wishes to keep some Drive files on his or her Android device, they will now be able to “download a copy” from the actions menu inside settings.

The new version of the app also contains a “Scan” feature that will enable customers to track paper documents like receipts, letters, and billing statements. OCR will take care of the rest, turning the document into a PDF.

Finally Google enhances the editing capabilities in Sheets, with the ability to adjust font types and sizes for a spreadsheet and tweak the cell text colors and cell alignment right from the app.

“The process of creating and accessing your stuff shouldn’t be, well…a process. Today, the Drive app for Android is getting several improvements to make creating and accessing your stuff on-the-go even easier”, says Denis Teplyashin, Software Engineer for Google. The update is available now.

An attack in London has left one man dead, and two others injured, near a military barracks.

The AP is reporting that two men attacked another man in London this morning. Those on the scene said that the attackers employed a number of weapons, but it’s unknown if a gun was involved yet.

Police responded to reports of an assault where they found one man dead. The two other men were shot and taken to nearby hospitals.

The above scenario may seem like a random act of violence, but the authorities aren’t so sure yet. An anonymous government official said that the attack may have been “terrorist-motivated” and that the authorities are investigating the incident as such.

While it may pale in comparison, this isn’t the first time London has suffered a terrorist attack. In 2005, suicide bombers attacked the public transportation system in London leading to the deaths of fifty-two civilians and over 700 were injured.

More details regarding this latest attack will likely emerge in the coming days. We can just be thankful that not more were injured or killed.

Here’s a report with more details on the attack:

Ryan Gosling is a well-known Golden God these days, so it comes as a surprise that his film, “Only God Forgives”, was met not only with mixed reviews at Cannes this week, it was actually booed by the audience.

Gosling couldn’t attend the festival this year because of a commitment to “How To Catch A Monster”, which he’s directing right now in Detroit. Luckily, he wasn’t there to hear the bad reaction, because I’m willing to bet there’s nothing sadder than a sad Ryan Gosling.

“Can’t believe I’m not In Cannes,” Gosling wrote in a note to Cannes director Thierry Fremaux. “I was hoping to come but I’m on week three shooting my film in Detroit. Miss you all. Nicolas, my friend, we really are the same person in different dimensions. I’m sending you good vibrations.”

The movie is

described as a bloody noir, about a boxing club owner whose mother wants him to avenge his brother’s murder. It is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who paired up with Gosling for “Drive”. That film won him the Best Director prize in 2011. This year, he’s not having such luck. Some viewers said they were turned off by the graphic violence in the movie.

“Art is an act of violence,” Refn said. “Art is about penetration. … I approach things very much like a pornographer. It’s about what arouses me. And certain things turn me on more than other stuff, and I can’t supress that. … I have surely a fetish for violent emotion and violent images and I can’t explain where it comes from.”

Continue reading…

Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 smartphone is in the midst of a global assault on its consumers, so it should come as no surprise that wireless carrier Cricket is the latest brand to carry the sweet device. The popular prepaid carrier confirmed it will offer the device from June 7th to customers for a smooth $599.99 outright or $55 down (plus monthly payments) for qualifying customers. Additionally, for customers that take advantage of the Galaxy S 4′s release, Cricket will offer for a limited time, double the monthly full speed data speed allowance for its 4G LTE Android Muve Music Double Data service plans, compared to its standard 3G rate plans. Or of course, customers will be able to take advantage of its other traditional plans that start at $45/month, which is a pretty sweet deal.

So now that it’s all said and done, you know the drill gang— hit the break to check out the full press release from Cricket.

Cricket Announces Launch of the 4G Samsung Galaxy S®4

– Next Generation of the World’s Best-Selling Smartphone Available On Cricket’s Value-Packed Unlimited No-Contract Plans
– Rate Plans Start as low as $50 per Month including Unlimited Muve Music

SAN DIEGO – May 22, 2013 – Cricket Communications, Inc. today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Galaxy S4. The Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone builds on the success and innovation of its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S3, and provides a suite of new innovations that will change how customers interact with a smartphone. The Galaxy S4 uniquely makes advanced technologies and features easy to use by integrating them into the way individuals use their phones every day. The Galaxy S4 will be available at Cricket company-owned stores, dealers and at www.mycricket.com starting June 7, 2013 for $599.99 (MSRP). Qualifying customers can put $54.99 down at purchase plus monthly payments.

“The Galaxy S4 redefines the smartphone and we are very proud to offer our customers the highest level of wireless technology on the market,” said Matt Stoiber, senior vice president of devices for Cricket. “Cricket’s three smartphone rate plans start as low as $45 per month1 and give customers value-packed choices for the plan that’s right for them with unlimited music included.”

The Galaxy S4 is the first device to enable consumers to control the device with touch-less features including scrolling or turning a page and viewing documents within a file folder or a link on a web page. It enhances memorable moments with innovative camera features that captures progressive action and easily removes unwanted people from the photo. The Galaxy S4 also enhances the TV watching experience with the new Samsung WatchON™ service that simplifies searching and recommends TV, movies and sports according to personal tastes. With WatchOn and the built in IR blaster, the Galaxy S4 also functions as a remote control for home theater equipment.

The Galaxy S4 combines the simple and visual interface introduced with the Galaxy Series Camera with a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera to take professional looking photographs with a smartphone. The front-facing 2-megapixel camera on the Galaxy S4 allows consumers to capture special moments in unique and new ways with Dual Camera shooting mode. Dual Camera mode takes pictures with both the rear and front cameras simultaneously to enable the photographer to be in the photo as well.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is available on Cricket’s 4G LTE Android Muve Music Double Data service plans that offer, for a limited time, double the monthly full speed data allowance offered in 3G rate plans. The $50 4G LTE Android Muve Music Double Data Rate Plan allows 2GB of full-speed data; the $60 plan allows 5GB of full-speed data and the $70 plan offers 10GB of full-speed data.

The Galaxy S4 is also available on Cricket’s 3G all-inclusive smartphone rate plans start at $50 for unlimited talk and text plus up to 1GB of full-speed data per month. The $60 smartphone plan contains up to 2.5GB of full-speed data per month and the $70 smartphone plan offers up to 5GB of full-speed data per month. With the $60 and $70 plans, customers can use their device as a hot spot to power additional wireless devices.

Cricket 4G LTE service is now available in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Laredo, Corpus Christi and the Brownsville-McAllen-Harlingen market, Texas in addition to existing 4G LTE service in Las Vegas and Tucson. The company’s LTE service now covers approximately 21 million potential customers.

Come comment on this article: Samsung Galaxy S 4 smartphone headed to Cricket on June 7th

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is one of the premium smartphones on the market today. However, if it’s just not quite premium enough for you, GoldGenie is offering gold plated versions of the S4 at a very premium price. There are three 24ct. options to choose from – gold, platinum, and rose gold.

The phones obviously aren’t cheap. The gold plated comes at around $2564, the platinum at $2654, and the rose gold at $2609. GoldGenie ships the phones in cherry oak finished boxes along with a limited edition certificate to show off. GoldGenie assures that their phones are  ”sim free and unlocked to work on any network in the world.” So, who wants one?

Source: GoldGenie
Via: Sam Mobile

Come comment on this article: GoldGenie offers Samsung Galaxy S4 plated in gold, platinum, or rose gold