Blog

The Droid Incredible by HTC is finally official. After a steady stream of leaks over the last couple of weeks, Verizon finally announced their next Android phone. We already knew the release date (April 29th) and specs, but today we learned about the pre-order.

Starting April 19th the Droid Incredible will go on pre-order online at www.verizonwireless.com. Then on April 29th the phone will be available at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores. Pricing will be $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. The full price was not included in the press release, but it is rumored to be $599.99.

In case you have not been paying attention the key features include:

• Android 2.1 with HTC Sense experience
• 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor for maximum responsiveness
• Friend Stream for unified Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates
• “Leap” view for quick access to all seven home screen panels
• 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash for crisp, detailed images
• Razor-sharp 3.7 inch WVGA (480×800) AMOLED capacitive touch display
• Optical joystick for smooth navigation
• Dedicated, touch-sensitive Home, Menu, Back and Search keys
• Proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass
• Integrated GPS
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• 3.5 mm headset jack

Related Posts

• The next chapter in the Droid saga begins April 29th
• Some Incredible renders of Verizon’s next Android phone
• Verizon HTC Incredible manual leaks out, full specs included
• Good things come to those who wait: Verizon (un)officially confirms the HTC Incredible
• HTC Incredible on order at Verizon warehouse

John McCain’s reelection plans are facing a growing challenge from both the right and the left, and now a "third way" proponent has announce his candidacy for the Senate.

Jerry Joslyn, a small business owner who recently join the Green Party, said that both Democrats and Republicans have created a tax system that is too complicated and unfair to middle-class Americans.

"Today the richest Americans enjoy a lower tax rate than the middle class," he said, and to back up his claim he cited the statement from Warren Buffet, one of the richest people in the world, who said that while he earned $46 million in 2007, he paid only 17.7 percent tax. Meanwhile, Buffet’s secretary, who earned $60,000, paid 30 percent.

Among his proposals to remedy the situation is the elimination of the payroll tax.

"The payroll tax is a direct tax on jobs. Eliminating it would lower the cost of labor and increase the number of jobs," the candidate explained, adding that small businesses provide over two-thirds of Arizona jobs.

According to Rasmussen Reports, the incumbent John McCain now leads conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth for the Republican nomination by just seven points (48 to 41 percent). The Arizona Republican primary is set for Aug. 24.

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Audi, Quick Spin, Racing

There is only one Audi TT RS in the entire United States right now. And here we are, hurling the black coupe down the front straight at Willow Springs Raceway at 132 mph. We’ve been invited out to the sunny California desert on a pristine day to flog the hottest-ever Audi TT back-to-back against its TTS sibling, along with a few stints in the all-new S4 and R8 V10 for good measure.

The TT RS isn’t simply another upgraded model in the automaker’s diversified lineup. The TTS (and the other standard performance models) come from the Audi AG Sport division, while the TT RS was incubated and hatched by Quattro GmbH – the team who brought us the nefarious R8, RS4 and RS6. And while we’ve seen the TT on our shores with four- and six-cylinder powerplants, the new five-cylinder engine marks a significant departure for the front-engine coupe and convertible (even as it pays homage to the original 1980s-era Audi Sport Quattro).

So what makes the TT RS special and how does it fit into the current TT lineup? More importantly, how does the enthusiast-tuned package work under demanding track conditions? We intend to find out while answering a very important question for Audi: Should it bring the TT RS to the States?

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Quick Spin: 2010 Audi TT RS performs, assuming Audi AG decides to deliver

Quick Spin: 2010 Audi TT RS performs, assuming Audi AG decides to deliver originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Google is introducing an interesting, new feature in Gmail that enables users to insert an event with an email they’re sending. They’ll be able to check the schedule of their friends, if they share their calendar, to see if they’re available at a certain point and then send out invitations to all of them. The event is then added to all of their … (read more)

Experts believe the economy moved from negative to positive growth in June 2009. That puts the recovery around 9 months old. But instead of acting like a 9-month old recovery, it’s behaving more like a 9-month old baby: crawling slowly and occasionally falling over things rather than standing up and moving forward on solid footing.

As any parent knows, each 9-month old is very special. But America’s 9-month old is very special for all the wrong reasons. The Economist‘s Ryan Avent puts together this excellent graph to explain just how uniquely sour the recovery has been in the labor market:

Since [June 2009] the American economy has seen a net deterioration in
employment by about 900,000 workers. The performance is by far the
worst nine-month stretch following a recession of any post-war downturn
(see chart). The last time the American unemployment rate rose above
10%, during the recession of 1981-82, the economy added between 1m and
2.5m jobs in the first nine months of recovery.

Journalists often refer to the aftermaths of 1991 and 2001 as jobless
recoveries. That is, the economy grew and jobs didn’t follow. What we’re
seeing now is something different. Its a jobloss recovery. The economy grew, and jobs continued to fall off dramatically. March was the best month for jobs in three years and it didn’t make a dent in the official employment rate.

Avent’s graph is remarkable, but it makes it look like the 2009 post-recovery job turn around has been strikingly different than the 1991 and 2001 recoveries, when in fact we seem to be following the same long U-shaped recovery we experienced after last two recessions. It’s valuable to see the graph above in its broader context of total jobs lost since the recession began, and not just when it ended. We came into the economic recovery with such negative momentum that it was inevitable that jobs continued to shed after June 2009 (Source: Calculated Risk).

Finally, it’s worth remembering the reasons we shouldn’t expect a sharp up-turn in that “U”: historically short work-weeks and high part-time positions suggest employers will respond to demand increases by adding work hours to the week and to contingent workers’ schedules. If that happens, it will have no short-term impact on the officially unemployed.

One of the most interesting new economic indicators says that the U.S. economy is growing faster than expected.

The Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index tracks diesel fuel consumption in the United States. It’s based on the notion that the usage of diesel fuel corresponds to trucking activity and that trucking activity, in turn, matches up closely with the real level of economic growth.

The nice thing about the index is that it provides a nearly instantaneous read on the state of business—and right now the reading shows the U.S. economy grew at a 4% rate in the first quarter, well above the 2.9% consensus of most economists.

This is good news, but Ed Leamer, chief economist for the index, says the growth should be put in context. GDP growth would have to reach at least 5% to drive meaningful change in unemployment. For now, though, the index does at least indicate that business activity is growing at a healthy clip.

Freelance business journalist Ian McGugan blogs for the Financial Post.

Arizona’s recently passed immigration bill, one of the toughest in the nation, has everyone talking. Following news of its approval by the state’s House yesterday, civil rights groups began condemning the law; anti-immigration groups began applauding it; and enforcement officers have mixed opinions — and most of this has to do with the law’s effects on illegal immigrants and non-white communities alike.

The Los Angeles Times reported last night:

For years Arizona’s government has tried to deter unlawful immigration with a consistent approach — make life for illegal immigrants so uncomfortable and uncertain that they will leave, or never come in the first place.

So this week, when the House of Representatives passed what’s viewed as the toughest state law against illegal immigration in the nation, it was the continuation of a pattern that has been widely popular in the state.

“When you make life difficult,” said state Sen. Russell Pearce, author of the current bill and earlier hard-line measures, “most will leave on their own.”

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a non-profit organization that advocates stronger border security and and end to illegal immigration, rejoiced over Arizona’s bill in a press release yesterday, citing “self-deportation” as an effective means of reducing the number of immigrants in the country:

“SB1070 embodies the concept of ‘attrition through enforcement,’” continued Stein, “Making it tough for illegal aliens to live and work in Arizona means that those illegal aliens already living in the state are more likely to self-deport, and it certainly reduces the incentive to come. Arizona will soon have a law that both represents the interests of legal Arizonians and serves as model legislation for other states.”

Civil rights groups have already brought up the possibility of challenging the law’s constitutionality, even if it’s passed (The Washington Times reported that the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona has vowed to challenge it in court). What seems to concern groups the most is the portion of the bill that allows officers to ask about a person’s immigration status and authorizes them to act on this if they have “reasonable suspicion” that someone is illegal — many critics say this is racial profiling.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant advocacy organization, released this statement in a press release today:

If the bill survives substantial legal challenges, it will invite the racial profiling of Arizona residents who give police “reasonable suspicion” that they are in the country illegally. Pressure to engage in racial profiling will be even more intense because police will be operating under the threat of law suits from citizens who feel they are not sufficiently enforcing the law.

If it is enacted, it will be bad news for Arizona. Under this law, Police will not be able to count on Arizona’s large Latino and immigrant community to report crimes or serve as witnesses to crimes…

Activist groups aren’t the only ones worried about profiling and alienation of non-white populations. Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said on Wednesday’s Doug Wright Show (via ksl.com) that the legislation allows for racial profiling and has raised concerns over the effect on legal immigrants and foreign-born citizens. “Because in order to get to those people, you have to ask anybody of color who looks like they might not be from this country,” he explained. “This sets law enforcement back 30 to 40 years.”

Vocal immigration opponent Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona probably doesn’t agree. He tweeted yesterday that his office will be ready to enforce new immigration laws, referring to a new program that provides nearly 900 deputies with training in detection and arrest of illegal immigrants. If and when the bill becomes law, no doubt Maricopa County will continue to arrest increasingly high numbers of immigrants.

Percent in the U.S. who believe President Obama has “raised taxes” or “kept taxes the same”: 74

Percent of tea party supporters who believe this: 94

Percent of working people — those with wages or other earned income — who received tax cuts under Obama’s stimulus bill: 98

Average tax cut received by working families and individuals under the stimulus bill in 13 Southern states: $1,049

Total cost of tax cuts under the Bush administration: $2.5 trillion

Percent of those tax cuts that went to the richest 5% in the country: 53

Percent by which companies receiving U.S. military contracts increased their use of offshore subsidiaries to lower their U.S. tax burden between 2003 and 2008: 26

Percent of U.S. corporations that paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005: 66

Total amount of federal, state and local taxes paid in the U.S. in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available: $3.8 trillion

Percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, which measures the total size of the economy, that represents: 27

Average percent of GDP that taxes represent in world’s 30 richest countries: 36

Number of demonstrations organized by groups associated with the tea party movement on Tax Day 2009: 800

Percent by which whites in Southern states are more likely to be sympathetic to the tea party cause than whites in other parts of the country: 12

Percent of those who “strongly support” the tea party who believe African Americans are “intelligent”: 45

Percent of tea party supporters who believe global warming will have “no impact” or “doesn’t exist”: 66

Percent of tea party supporters who believe President Obama is moving the country “towards socialism”: 92

Percent of tea party supporters who agree with the statement “the benefits from programs such as Social Security and Medicare are worth the costs of those programs for taxpayers”: 62

Percent of tea party supporters who rely on Fox News Channel for “information about politics and current events”: 63

(Click on figure to go to the original source.)

Sarah Palin rallied huge crowds against the Barack Obama administration’s policies last week, urging Americans to “vote them out” this November. She was touring with the Tea Party Express which travelled across the country. The events culminated with a Tax Day Tea Party in Washington, D.C., on April 15.

On April 14, as a crowd of several thousand gathered on the Boston Common, Palin urged the audience to fight the Democrats’ policies and take back the government, according to media reports.

"Boston, it’s your turn to stand up and speak out!" she said, before proceeding to criticize President Obama for his healthcare overhaul, his foreign policy which she said was "alienating our allies," and his timid approach to energy independence by allowing only limited oil drilling.

However, in a development that drew attention of many political commentators, Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.)—whose election last January to the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat took most country by surprise—turned down the invitation to attend the event, although his office said he wished the rally success, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, a national poll released on April 14 by CNN/Opinion Research Corp found that some 10 percent of Americans have actively supported the Tea Party movement, and that they are older, better educated and more religious than the general public.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

At the 99% Percent conference in New York City today, HTC officially took the wraps off of its latest Android handset, called the Droid Incredible on Verizon Wireless.

The device was accidentally leaked by Verizon Wireless, which posted a Web site showing the device and its availability earlier this week, so not much of today’s announcement was a tremendous surprise to fans of HTC’s smartphones.

The Incredible has a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 3.7″ (480 x 800) AMOLED screen, Android 2.1 operating system with the latest HTC sense user interface, 8 megapixel LED flash camera, Wi-Fi, and CDMA radios. The price tag is $199.99 with a two-year contract with Verizon Wireless and mail-in rebate.

Like the HD Mini and the HTC Desire, the Incredible’s chassis beneath the back panel is vibrantly colored. This is something of a trademark of HTC’s wholly-owned design firm One&Co, which made Microsoft’s striking Arc keyboard and mouse peripherals and the original HTC Touch Diamond.

Pre-orders of the Droid Incredible will begin on April 19 on Verizon’s Web site.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

We’re christening Charlie Sheen PopCrunch’s “Dirty Dog of the Day” after the trouble-prone actor reportedly cheated on his wife in the bed they share together. According to RadarOnline, the star took escort Angelina Tracy back to the house he shares with his drug-addicted wife Brooke Mueller and their young twins and had sex with the pro in the couple’s bed.

Radar also reveals that a stressed-out Sheen “pulled a Britney Spears and shaved his head” after photos surfaced of him on this week’s cover of In Touch Weekly allegedly wearing a fake moustache disguise after a tryst with Tracy. The magazine ran the images with the headline: “Caught Cheating!”

For the record, a rep for Sheen denies that the star has been unfaithful to Mueller.

Before you board that plane to Tel Aviv with your snazzy new iPad, you should know that your shiny tablet-y thing will be confiscated by Israeli customs officials because Israel officials have yet to give the device their stamp of approval.

The Communications Ministry in Israel explains its decision to ban iPad imports — and to confiscate iPads from incoming travelers — by saying that the device’s wireless technology is not compatible with Israeli standards:

The iPad device sold exclusively today in the United States operates at broadcast power levels [over its WiFi modem] compatible with American standards… As the Israeli regulations in the area of WiFi are similar to European standards, which are different from American standards, which permit broadcasting at lower power, therefore the broadcast levels of the device prevent approving its use in Israel.

Until the ministry approves the iPad, we suggest you keep yours at home if you’re traveling to Israel.

Beware at Customs: Gov’t has banned iPad imports [Haaretz]

Found under: Sony Ericsson, SE, Walkman, Zypo, Spiro,

Its been a long time since I checked out a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone I remember back in the days when these phones were popular up to this day I still have my old Sony Ericsson Walkman W800i and W300i locked away some where. These set of phones from Sony Ericsson were amongst the best at the time too bad they couldnt keep the momentum going and all I can say right now is this….Sony Ericsson phones suck care to differSony Ericsson announced today two new Walmman handsets the S

Read More

Read more in mobile format

Renault ha abierto el plazo para la solicitud de pedidos de sus modelos eléctricos Fluence ZE y Kangoo ZE y eso se podrá hacer a través de Internet en la página web de Renault ZE, mediante introducir el e-mail del interesado, quien tendrá completa prioridad para probar y comprar tanto el Fluence como el Kangoo eléctricos. Además Renault nos muestra que aparentemente sería posible comprar el Twizy.

Como una de las primeras medidas que se han tomado con motivo de esta iniciativa, la alianza Renault Nissan ha comprometido una inversión de 4.000 millones de euros y ha dispuesto un equipo de 2.000 personas en este programa “cero emisiones”.

Sin embargo, los países que primero se beneficiarán con ambos modelos serán los países socios de Better Place, una alianza entre Nissan-Renault, los gobiernos de Dinamarca e Israel y otras 20 compañías estatales y privadas de estos dos últimos países. Los modelos Fluence y Kangoo estarán primero disponibles en el 2011 en Dinamarca e Israel antes que en el resto de Europa. O sea que si te aventuraste a registrarte en el sitio de Renault, tendrás que esperar bastante en tener alguna novedad.

Vía | Regulación Eólica con Vehículos Eléctricos

Más información | Better Place

If you’re visiting Israel any time soon, you’re going to want to leave your iPad behind: the country has banned all iPad imports, even from tourists. If they find yours, they’ll confiscate it and charge you a storage fee. What? More »

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck China’s southern Qinghai Province this week. The death toll now stand at more than 600, and rescuers pulled more than 1,000 people from the rubble alive. But, geologists say, this quake doesn’t seem linked to the massive one that shook the nearby province of Sichuan two years ago.

“It’s not the same fault, it’s a consequence of the same bit of global tectonics, which is the collision of India with Asia. That’s the only link I’d make,” said Dr David Rothery [BBC News]. The May 2008 Sichuan earthquake resulted from a thrust fault, which happens frequently in the region near the Himalayas where India and Asia collided long ago. But although this week’s quake happened not far from there, Rothery says it was a strike-slip event, which happens when there is sideways movement along a fault line. That’s the type of event that caused the January earthquake in Haiti.

The results have been devastating in the rural region of Qinghai. As many as 70 Buddhist monks were reported dead in the collapse of one monastery, Thrangu, about six miles outside of Jiegu. Some of the worst casualties occurred at local schools, where Xinhua reported at least 66 students and 10 teachers dead, including 32 at an elementary school and 22, 20 of them girls, at Yushu Vocational School [The New York Times]. As in Haiti, poorly built structures worsened the death toll. And rescuers continue to be hampered by a number of difficulties: Qinghai is difficult to reach, cold, and at an altitude of approximately 13,000 feet.

With so much shaking going on in 2010—including major earthquakes already in Haiti, Chile, Japan, and elsewhere—the question on many minds is whether the planet is becoming more prone to earthquakes. For geologists, a few months are less than the blink of an eye compared to the timescales with which they work. But, they say, there is natural variation in seismic activity. “Relative to the 20-year period from the mid-1970’s to the mid 1990’s, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years,” said Stephen S. Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science & Technology. “We still do not know the reason for this yet” [LiveScience].

2010’s quakes aren’t “unusual” activity, the U.S. Geological Survey says. But, they have been so clustered and so deadly that they’ve created the unshakable impression of an increasingly-shaky planet. “What happens is when a lot of people get killed there’s a lot of reporting of it, and if an equally big event occurs somewhere out in the middle of nowhere it doesn’t attract the attention,” said G. Randy Keller, professor of geophysics at the University of Oklahoma [LiveScience].

Related Content:
Discoblog: Chile Quake Shifted Earth’s Axis, Shortened the Length of a Day
80beats: The Earth *Really* Moved: Chilean Quake Shifted a City 10 Feet to the West
80beats: Where in the World Will the Next Big Earthquake Strike?
80beats: Haiti Earthquake May Have Released 250 Years of Seismic Stress
80beats: Science Via Twitter: Post-Earthquake Tweets Can Provide Seismic Data
80beats: China Earthquake Increased Stress on Other Faults

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Bang & Olufsen has a farm of robotic ostriches in Denmark’s platitudes, between Copenhagen and Billund. They feed them metal scrap and components, which they poop out in the form of these sleek bass units, the BeoLab 11. True story. More »

Specs? Leaked. Carrier? The VZW. Release date? It’s the 29th. The only remaining unknown for Verizon’s Droid Incredible, a Snapdragon-powered Android 2.1 handset from HTC, was the price, which was today pegged at $200. Oh, and pre-orders start Monday. More »

Might We Suggest…

• Have Keyboard, Will Travel: Android Phones Capable of Using USB Keyboard.
  

  In an article over at jkontherun.com, it seems that some enterprising Android enthusiasts have foun…

Holy nice abs! By the looks of his well-sculpted physique on the cover of Men’s Health’s May issue, the newly-single Ryan Phillippe won’t be looking for love much longer. Nonetheless Ryan says he still feels uneasy about his split from ex-wife of seven years Reese Witherspoon. Phillippe called it quits with the Oscar winner in late 2006 and the pair have since become friends.

“I still have sadness and complicated feelings about my divorce,” he says of the mother of his two children. “But how beneficial is it to keep hanging onto those feelings?”