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The things you eat have a direct effect on your state of mind, and even have the power to drastically alter your behavioral patterns. These are the findings of a new study out of Oxford University in the U.K., which revealed that processed junk food consumption can lead…

The health effects of our friendly bacteria of our gastrointestinal tract are rarely fully understood by most in the medical field, and even less appreciated by the general public. The population’s minority of health conscious consumers do understand the intestinal…

It’s already bad. Very bad. For the past 25 years, the biotech Dr. Frankensteins have been inserting DNA into food crops. The widespread dangers of this technique have been exposed. People all over the world, including many scientists and farmers, are up in arms about…

Have a serious heart rhythm problem and trying alternative and complementary approaches to help? If so, the odds are you might well be told by your mainstream doctor and even family and friends that those therapies are “quackery” and you need to totally rely on Big Pharma…

Doctors and medical professionals at the Veterans Affairs are handing out dangerous tranquilizers such as Xanax and Valium to military service members diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder though they have been repeatedly advised not to do so because of the potential…

In a perfect world, humans would easily get all the nutrition we need from basic foods. But since the world is far from perfect, dietary supplementation is often necessary to overcome the nutritional shortfalls we face as a result of nutrient-depleted soils, environmental…

The greatest obstacle to living freely and intentionally that you face may be a simple lack of good choices. From the moment you gain consciousness each day, you have the potential to make choices in how you think and act. Without a doubt these choices will determine…

According to the World Diabetes Foundation, nearly one-third of all Type II diabetics take daily insulin injections as part of their prescribed treatment protocol. But a new study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reveals that this quintessential…

In an effort to make a better condom, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering up to $1 million (with an initial funding of $100,000), for anyone that can complete the task. Condoms today are widely available, highly recognizable globally, and arguably easy…

March 25, 2013 marked a historical day where thousands of midwifery supporters protested a landmark decision which outlaw independent midwifery by October 2013. Women from across the country marched to Westminster House of Commons as part of the Choose Your Midwife,…

The health benefits of human breast milk are vast, and researchers from Sweden have uncovered the presence of yet another substance in breast milk with incredible cancer-fighting abilities. As reported in a study published in the journal PLoS One, the substance, known…

President Obama’s regulatory and fiscal policies have been blamed for keeping unemployment high, but one industry where there has been dramatic jobs growth is not likely one the president is happy about – firearms. ”Guns and ammo are selling briskly these days, and…

The USDA “census of agriculture” is a government-run farm surveillance program designed to register and inventory detailed private data on farm assets, operations and personnel. A census form is mailed to each farmer in the United States, accompanied by threats of compliance…

Late last night, after sitting stunned before T-Mobile USA’s website, I hauled down to the local corporate store to confirm the new Simple Choice plan would really save so much in monthly fees. I was more surprised the shop wasn’t overrun by people rushing to take advantage of the new rates.

I still can’t believe them. Simple Choice? I am simply stunned. My last phone bill with AT&T, after tax and fees, was about $295 for Mobile Share plan with 10GB data. I tried to reduce to 4GB shared, but an AT&T rep said the bill would be the same ($270 before tax and fees). WTH? At T-Mobile I added three lines with unlimited talk, text and web for $120. I won’t move the other two lines until iPhone 5 comes to T-Mobile on April 12. That will add another $70 to the monthly fee, which should work out to about $90 less than AT&T soaks me for now, perhaps more.

T-Mobile introduced the new rate plans on Sunday but gave them the big kick-off today during the “Un-carrier” event also announcing iPhone’s imminent arrival. Under the new guise, subsidized phones are no more, while calling and data plans are surprisingly simplified and affordable. Under the scheme we’re all used to, AT&T sells you iPhone 5 for $199 but pays Apple $649. To the buyer, the real price is hidden — it’s a fiction. For his or her pretend price, AT&T demands 24-month contractual commitment. When the time period is over, monthly fees stay the same.

Simple Choice is different. There is no contract or subsidy. Consumers pay full price for the phone, which can be spread out, after $99.99 down payment, interest-free for 24 months. For iPhone 5 that’s $20 a month or $18 for BlackBerry Z10. When the subscriber finishes paying off the phone, the monthly fee goes down, simply to the regular service fees. For someone bringing his or her own unlocked devices, T-Mobile really heaps on the savings compared to rivals.

Simply Shocking

The pricing works like this: The first phone is $50 a month for unlimited text, talk and web. The first 500MB data is high-speed, and throttled thereafter. The second line is $30 and $10 for each after, up to five total. Upgrade to 2GB of data is another $10 per line a month and unlimited for 20 bucks.

My wife and I both have the Nexus 4 and mom Galaxy Nexus, which T-Mobile’s network better supports than AT&T. Costs for three phones, unlimited text, talk and web is $90 — $50 + $30 + $10. Mom doesn’t need more than 500MB per month. My wife wouldn’t likely ever exceed 2GB, and I opted for unlimited. That’s $10 + $20 for the initial data, which gets to the $120. Rather than the typical $35 activation fee, T-Mobile charged $10 per line.

When iPhone 5 is available next month, I’ll spend $199.98 ($99.99) for the handsets (one for my 91 year-old father-in-law and the other my college-age daughter). Financing will add $40 ($20 x 2) per month plus $10 service each per line and another $10 so my daughter has 2GB monthly data. Total then before tax and fees: $190. No activation fees and lower upfront cost for iPhone 5 (half other carriers) is icing on the cake.

Mobile Share

In fairness to AT&T, I tried several different plan changes to reduce my fees but couldn’t get anywhere close to T-Mobile and meet the family’s text, talk and data needs. The AT&T 550 family plan starts at $59.99 per month, with each additional line $9.99 but only up to three. I need five. The 700-minute plan is $69.99 per month and $9.99 per additional line. For five that works out to $109.95 before adding data. For 300MB data for two smartphones, monthly cost is $40 more ($20 x 2) and 3GB data $90 ($30 x 3). That’s $239.95 before tax and fees, without unlimited text message, which we would need.

AT&T’s Mobile Share 4GB plan starts at $70 per month and each smartphone is an additional $40. That’s where the rep got $270 — $70 + $200 ($40 x 5). AT&T tiers pricing that makes buying more data more attractive. The 10GB plan also is $270 — $120 base fee and $30 per phone ($150 for five).

No matter how I slice the numbers, AT&T costs considerably more per month. For my family. Your mileage may vary. If I bought five phones, my T-Mobile bill would be higher.

Some of my AT&T lines are still under contract and subject to early-termination fees, which are discounted based on the amount of time left on the 24 months. By selling the iPhones my daughter and father-in-law will surrender and comparing my current monthly fees versus the reduced ones, I should be ahead after two months, despite ETFs. Possibly three. AT&T prorating and paying a month ahead makes exact calculations tricky.

When the iPhones are paid off, assuming we don’t change any phones meanwhile (whom am I kidding), the bill would go down $40 per month, or to just $150.

Photo Credit: koya979/Shutterstock

Amazon Web Services runs on tons and tons of shared hardware. That’s a huge benefit in terms of cost but also spooks customers with strict regulatory requirements that prevent them from running their applications on shared infrastructure.

But now, as Amazon tries to woo these picky customers, it’s trying to replicate some of the perks that come with dedicated, on-premises hardware. That’s what the new CloudHSM service is about. Traditionally, a Hardware Security Module is a dedicated, hardened box for storing keys and running cryptography. Amazon says it can bring that dedicated security to its customers within its infrastructure.

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In a Tuesday night blog post, Amazon said CloudHSM:

“brings the benefits of HSMs to the cloud. You retain full control of the keys and the cryptographic operations performed by the HSM(s) you create, including exclusive, single-tenant access to each one. Your cryptographic keys are protected by a tamper-resistant HSM that is designed to meet a number of international and US Government standards including NIST FIPS 140-2 and Common Criteria EAL4+.”

Each CloudHSM provisioned for the customer incurs an upfront, one-time $5,000 fee and then an hourly rate of $1.88 per hour or $1,373 per month. Pricing is  here.

Bringing on-prem perks to public infrastructure

Amazon has made progress in offering more enterprise-grade cloud capabilities with its GovCloud services and Virtual Private Cloud capabilities. But still, even some of the biggest AWS customers will only put parts of their workloads on the Amazon cloud. The mission-critical goodies stay on premises or on private clouds.

That’s why Amazon has to get more acclimated with private cloud capabilities — observers say one reason that AWS might be building a private cloud for the CIA, as has been reported, is to prove its credibility there.  And that’s why we’ll be seeing more services like this CloudHSM service.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media
• Microsoft Azure: What It Is, What It Costs and Who Should Care
• How tomorrow’s mobile-centric data centers will look

Final Book Now Available

The standard incandescent light bulb, which still works mainly as Thomas Edison invented it, converts more than 90% of the consumed electricity into heat. Given the availability of newer lighting technologies that convert a greater percentage of electricity into useful light, there is potential to decrease the amount of energy used for lighting in both commercial and residential applications. Although technologies such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have emerged in the past few decades and will help achieve the goal of increased energy efficiency, solid-state lighting (SSL) stands to play a large role in dramatically decreasing U.S. energy consumption for lighting. This report summarizes the current status of SSL technologies and products—light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic LEDs (OLEDs)—and evaluates barriers to their improved cost and performance.

Assessment of Advanced Solid State Lighting also discusses factors involved in achieving widespread deployment and consumer acceptance of SSL products. These factors include the perceived quality of light emitted by SSL devices, ease of use and the useful lifetime of these devices, issues of initial high cost, and possible benefits of reduced energy consumption.

[Read the full report]

Topics: Energy and Energy Conservation | Engineering and Technology

As we’ve seen multiple times from MobileMe to iOS Maps, online services are Apple’s (AAPL) most glaring weakness. And now it seems that we can add iCloud to the list of Apple’s online service follies, because many third-party developers are hopping mad at what they describe as Apple’s failure to make iCloud seamlessly integrate and sync up with third-party application data. In a lengthy and detailed piece over at The Verge, Ellis Hamburger talks with several disgruntled developers who say, among other things, that “iCloud hasn’t worked out for us,” that “it just doesn’t work,” that it creates “issues that take hours to resolve and… can permanently corrupt your account,” and that it’s “a developer’s worst nightmare… it’s frustrating, maddening, and costs hundreds of support hours.”

Continue reading…

If you were a fan of the original Fieldrunners game, we’ve some great news for you. Fieldrunners 2 is definitely happening, and it’s definitely happening soon. The game is already on iOS, but it’s slated for an Android release in April. It’s currently in beta to get the minor kinks worked out to prepare for a full release.

Like any sequel, Fieldrunners 2 will have more features, levels, weapons, the whole nine yards. The campaign will have 20+ hours of gameplay by itself, so that’s definitely a time waster worth looking forward to. The developer is looking for beta testers with many different Android devices, so if you’re interested in possibly getting your hands on the game a bit early, hit the press release below to see how to get a spot on the testing team.

FIELDRUNNERS 2 COMING TO ANDROID IN APRIL!

Get a taste of the much anticipated tower defense sequel by signing up for the closed beta

CAMBRIDGE, MA – March 26, 2013 – SUBATOMIC STUDIOS is excited to announce that their hit tower defense game, Fieldrunners 2, will be coming to Android in April! Fans have been clamoring for the game since it launched on iOS last July, so Subatomic Studios is pleased to say the development is almost complete. Do you want to help Subatomic Studios launch the tower defense classic ahead of schedule? Sign up for the closed beta below!

Beta Testers Wanted!

Subatomic Studios is looking for a handful of Android owners to help test Fieldrunners 2 on a variety of Android devices. If you are interested in helping out the developers, please click the link below to access the beta sign up form. Beta builds will be emailed out to testers several days after they have filled out the form below.

Sign up for the beta here: https://docs.google.com/a/subatomicstudios.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFROVC1ETG50V1ZIUnRqVVhHV2cxQ3c6MQ

Game Overview

Get ready to DEFEND THE WORLD! The biggest sequel in tower defense history is finally here: Fieldrunners 2 has arrived! From Subatomic Studios, creators of the award winning classic strategy game comes an all new adventure that was years in the making. Build epic mazes out of powerful weapons to defend the world from the invading fieldrunners!

Strategic-Action-Puzzle-Defense has never been this fun and addicting! Defend your world from the invasion by building winding paths out of imaginative, new weapons. Call in airstrikes and set explosive traps to hit the enemies where it hurts. Over 20 new levels span the grassiest fields, driest deserts, sparkling cities, and even an infernal volcano lair! Challenge your mind with the exciting new gameplay styles in Puzzle, Sudden Death, and Time Trial levels. Are you ready to stop the fieldrunners once and for all? Join the defense, now!

Key Features

• Pint sized invaders seeking revenge!

• A tower that launches bee hives!

• Tons of levels in a 20+ hour campaign!

• Revolutionary AI – each enemy creates a dynamic, realistic path through the battlefield!

• Gorgeous, hand painted, 2D graphics by award winning artists!

• 20 unique, upgradeable weapons!

• Custom load-outs let you pick the perfect weapons for each battle!

• Air strikes, mines and powerful items so you can strike with the precision of a surgeon!

• Time Trial, Sudden Death and Puzzle maps bring all new challenges to tower defense!

• Trenches, bridges and tunnels add new dimensions to gameplay!

• Collect all the Elite enemies to become the ultimate tower defense champion!

• A tower that turns enemies into barnyard animals!

About Subatomic Studios

Subatomic Studios, based in Cambridge, MA, is an award-winning independent developer of video games for handheld and mobile devices. Fieldrunners, the studio’s flagship game, combines gorgeous artwork with fine-tuned tower defense gameplay, allowing Subatomic Studios to captivate mobile gamers everywhere with a truly unique entertainment experience. Fieldrunners was first released for the iPhone and iPod Touch, followed by versions for the iPad, the PSP, the Nintendo DSi, BlackBerry, Android, Chrome Web Store, Roku, Gametree TV, and more! Fieldrunners 2, the studio’s second game, launched on July 19th for iPhone and iPod Touch, bringing revolutionary tower defense gameplay to a new generation! Fieldrunners 2 received an update that included in app purchases in October, followed by a free version in December, and a PC version in January.

Visit our home at www.subatomicstudios.com, join our Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/Fieldrunners), and follow us on Twitter @Fieldrunners (http://twitter.com/#!/fieldrunners).

Come comment on this article: Fieldrunners 2 coming to Android in April

Gameloft has tried their hand at a few movie tie-in games before, including games for The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spiderman. The latest teasing tweet from the big gaming company shows something that may be Iron Man with the message “warming up main core” alongside the date March 27th, 2013. With Iron Man 3 right around the corner in theaters, it’s a pretty safe bet we’re going to see an Iron Man game from Gameloft on the 27th.

Anybody excited to see Tony Stark brought to life on a mobile game? We’ll be sure to keep you updated as soon as we learn more.

source: Gameloft

Come comment on this article: Gameloft teases possible Iron Man game for March 27th

With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!

Accessories

When To Expect Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 Accessories And For How Much

Apps & Games

Digg Outlines Focus on Creating an Improved Google Reader Replacement

New (believable) Google Babble mock-up shows up

The Humble Mobile Bundle Is Back: Choose Your Own Price For 6 Android Games

Samsung’s New S Voice Available To Download

Carriers

T-Mobile formally announces its 4G LTE network

Google

Google+ Now Allows Animated GIF Profile Photos

Google’s LTE-equipped Chromebook Pixel to start shipping April 8th

Phones

HTC Desire P and Desire Q Images and Specs Leak

HTC One to get software update in April to improve camera performance in lighted conditions

HTC Butterfly to get successor, could this be the DLXPLUS for Verizon?

HTC to get help from Qualcomm to market the HTC One

US HTC One hits “several hundred thousand” preorders

Samsung Galaxy S 4 wallpapers now available to download

Samsung Galaxy S 4 ringtones now available for download

Samsung Galaxy S 4 videos show Group Play, camera, motion functions, and video help

T-Mobile announces the launch details for the HTC One and Galaxy S 4 smartphones

Lockscreen security flaws seem to be contagious as Sony Xperia Z becomes next victim

Miscellaneous

Samsung sues LG for tarnishing brand image

Smart connected devices surpassed 1 billion units for 2012 worldwide, smartphones and tablets grew exponentially

 

Come comment on this article: TalkAndroid Daily Dose for March 26, 2013