Leaked pictures show HTC?s cleaned-up Sense interface from the upcoming M7

HTC Sense 4, left, Sense 5, right

HTC (2498) has a big problem: For the past year or so it?s been releasing some top-notch smartphones that few seem to care about. Now, however, the company has decided that one way to improve its sales is to clean up its Sense Android skin that often looks more cluttered compared with the Android skin used by rival Samsung (005930).

[More from BGR: Samsung will reportedly unveil the Galaxy S IV on March 22nd]

A forum member at XDA-Developers has posted some pictures of leaked screenshots of HTC?s Sense 5, which the company will likely unveil alongside its new flagship M7 phone that?s slated for release this spring. The images show a much simpler interface without the giant clock icon that has typically dominated the home screens of HTC Android devices.

[More from BGR: Why the American government has only itself to blame for Kim Dotcom?s celebrity status]

For comparison, Engadget has posted pictures of the leaked Sense 5 interface side-by-side with pictures of the older Sense UI that clearly show the new skin is at the very least much easier on the eyes than earlier versions.

Hopefully, we?ll get to check out the new skin first hand at the Mobile World Congress trade show next month.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/leaked-pictures-show-htc-cleaned-sense-interface-upcoming-125001786.html

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Senate Democrats praise House Republican debt limit bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate will take up a nearly four-month extension of U.S. borrowing authority if the Republican proposal is passed by the House of Representatives, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said on Wednesday.

Senate Democratic leaders, unlike their House counterparts, praised the legislation, saying that it would cut the link Republicans had previously insisted upon between future debt limit increases and new spending cuts.

The House is poised to vote on the legislation on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Kim Dixon and Richard Cowan; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-democrats-praise-house-republican-debt-limit-bill-165156145--business.html

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Win Big With Big Win Basketball ? iPad App Review

Dennis Rodman is back in business with collaboration on a new stats-based trading card game about basketball. In connection with Hothead Games, Rodman lent his gaming expertise for the development of Big Win Basketball.

Players are given a random start pack of virtual cards to use for the game. The deck will have at least five player cards, plus action cards, or ?Big Impact? cards.

Once your deck is built, you can name your team. You can also customize the look of each individual teammate, including name, team number, country of origin, hairstyle, hair color, skin color, facial features, and uniform colors.

After you?ve customized your team, pick the Big Impact cards you want to use in the game. The cards you choose will affect how the game will play out. Each card has certain bonuses that help your players in the game. For example, ?Cashing In Dimes? increases your team?s ability to make passes.

You can watch the entire game and pay attention to where your players need to work on their skills, or you can skip to the end of the game to quickly find out who has won the game.

The end game results shows you all the game stats and box score information you need to improve your team?s skills. You team?s performance determines how many coins you earn as a reward. You can use your coins to purchase new card packs for more games.

You can enter tournaments to win big bucks and raise in the ranks. You will play against other online opponents who have created their own team.

This game is definitely intended to get you to spend money. It is free to download, but there are lots of reasons you might want to spend cash on in-app purchases. For example, you can only play a certain number of games before you run out of energy, which you can buy more of through an in-app purchase. You can only customize your team once without having to pay for new changes. You can get better Big Impact cards by spending ?Bucks,? which are hard to come by in the game. You either have to purchase them or get them free by activating a TapJoy action, like signing up for a gym membership.

Although you will probably end up spending more money than you want to this game is loads of fun. Fans of basketball will enjoy the ability to watch the entire game unfold like a real basketball game. Fans of deck-building card games will enjoy the randomness of the Big Impact cards.

What I liked: This is a fairly comprehensive stats game. Players increase their team?s skills using randomly generated card decks. It feels like real-life basketball trading card gaming.

What I didn?t like: The design is cluttered and difficult to navigate. When you play in a tournament, you don?t get paired up with other teams with the same skill level, yet you can sometimes win against teams that are 20 levels above you. This seems wrong.

To buy or not to buy: Since it is free to download, I?d recommend trying it if you are a basketball fan. You can?t actually play the game like you would in an arcade game, but you can create a team, add bonuses, and watch them compete against online players. Be warned that this game is geared toward getting you to spend more money through in-app purchases.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/padgadget/~3/s7a68pHy_-k/

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Apple iPad 4, iPad Mini Release Date Arrives In China On Friday; Same Price Points, Features Apply

Apple, which will release the LTE-friendly iPad Mini and iPad 4 in China starting this Friday, Jan. 18, announced the news on Tuesday in a press release.

The iPad 4 and iPad Mini will be sold at the same US price points, or the equivalent in yuan. In the US, Apple starts selling the basic iPad mini with Wi-Fi and cellular at $459, while the most basic iPad 4 with Wi-Fi and cellular starts at $629.

Apple did not list any official carriers for LTE-capable iPhones or iPads, but China Telecom and China Unicom are both?expected?to sell the new iPads, just as it did with the iPhone 5 last month. We are still waiting for official word from those companies.

Following a recent tradition in the country, Apple will again take reservation requests for the iPad 4 and iPad Mini a day before the official launch this Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time, for easy pick-up the next day.

China, which is Apple?s second largest market, accounted for roughly $5.7 billion in revenue last quarter alone ? roughly 16 percent of the pie. The release of these two iOS devices in the country will help boost Apple?s retail presence in the country, but recent reports have said Apple wants to make an even larger investment in China. Last Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook met and discussed ?matters of cooperation? with Xi Guohua, the chairman of China Mobile, the largest telecommunications carrier in the world with 703 million active subscribers.

If Apple can strike a deal with China Mobile ? perhaps ensuring all next-gen iPhones and iPads are built to accommodate the carrier?s high-speed TD-LTE network ? Cupertino will be able to reach significantly more customers ? and more importantly, their wallets ? than ever before.

The release of the iPad Mini and iPad 4 may help sway China Mobile in its decision to work with Apple. The Wi-Fi-only iPad Mini was reportedly met with tepid demand, but the tablet has reportedly been a decent seller since its launch; with the newer devices releasing this week powered by cellular networks, China Mobile may see what it?s missing out on by not working with Apple.

About The iPad 4

The fourth-generation iPad is the fastest tablet Apple has built to-date.

While similar to the?third-generation iPad?with Retina Display released in March, the iPad 4 is faster than its predecessor in every single way.

With the all-new custom-built A6X chip, the iPad 4 has double the chip speed and graphics performance of the iPad 3's?A5X chip, which was pretty impressive in its own right with a quad-core graphics processor. The A6X chip packs a lot of punch, which helps the iPad power its enhanced features in a quick and seamless way, including picture stabilization and face detection for both photo and video recording. The A6X, with all its power, is efficient enough to give owners 10 hours of solid "all-day" battery life.

If double the chip speed or graphics performance wasn't enough, the iPad 4 is makes significantly faster and stronger connections to Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior VP of marketing, said iPad 4 owners will experience "ultrafast" Wi-Fi that? doubles the connection speed of the older model, the iPad 3 -- and furthermore, for LTE customers, Apple has expanded the number of LTE frequencies supported by the iPad to include more carriers in Europe, Australia, and even here in the US, such as Sprint-Nextel.

iPad fans will only notice a few noticeable differences in the outer appearance of the iPad 4 versus previous iPads, including the smaller 8-pin Lightning connector on the bottom of the tablet.

Apple starts selling the new iPad 4 at $499 for Wi-Fi only and $629 for LTE-capable models. Check out?this article?if you want to see what critics had to say about the iPad 4 (spoiler: it's mostly positive).

About The iPad Mini

The iPad Mini,?launched Nov. 2, features the same non-Retina resolution as the iPad 2 (1024 x 768), weighs just 0.68 pounds -- as light as a notepad -- and measures just 7.2 mm thick -- roughly the thinness of a pencil.

The iPad Mini is powered by Apple?s dual-core A5 chip, which was ?fast? in 2011 but sluggish now compared to the A5X chip, A6 chip and all-new A6X chip introduced over the past year. The iPad Mini doesn?t need a lot of power to function -- the iPad 2 manages just fine with the A5 chip -- but the specs of the iPad 2 simply don?t compare to where technology is currently.

Besides the difference in size, the iPad Mini can do everything a full-sized iPad can do. It still runs on iOS 6, Apple's latest mobile operating system, and is compatible with the new Lightning dock connector. However, even though Apple sells "cellular" models of the iPad Mini, this new smaller tablet does not support the high-speed LTE network.

For the Wi-Fi-only iPad Mini, Apple sells 16GB models for $329, 32GB for $429 and 64GB for $529. For iPad Minis that work on both Wi-Fi and cellular frequencies, Apple sells those models separately at $459 for 16GB, $559 for 32GB and $659 for 64GB.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-ipad-4-ipad-mini-release-date-arrives-china-friday-same-price-points-features-apply-1017640

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Counting the twists in a helical light beam

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

At a time when communication networks are scrambling for ways to transmit more data over limited bandwidth, a type of twisted light wave is gaining new attention. Called an optical vortex or vortex beam, this complex beam resembles a corkscrew, with waves that rotate as they travel.

Now, applied physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a new device that enables a conventional optical detector (which would normally only measure the light's intensity) to pick up on that rotation.

The device, described in the journal Nature Communications, has the potential to add capacity to future optical communications networks.

"Sophisticated optical detectors for vortex beams have been developed before, but they have always been complex, expensive, and bulky," says principal investigator Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering.

In contrast, the new device simply adds a metallic pattern to the window of a commercially available, low-cost photodetector. Each pattern is designed to couple with a particular type of incoming vortex beam by matching its orbital angular momentum?the number of twists per wavelength in an optical vortex.

Sensitive to the beam's "twistiness," this new detector can effectively distinguish between different types of vortex beams. Existing communications systems maximize bandwidth by sending many messages simultaneously, each a fraction of a wavelength apart; this is known as wavelength division multiplexing. Vortex beams can add an additional level of multiplexing and therefore should expand the capacity of these systems.

"In recent years, researchers have come to realize that there is a limit to the information transfer rate of about 100 terabits per second per fiber for communication systems that use wavelength division multiplexing to increase the capacity of single-mode optical fibers," explains Capasso. "In the future, this capacity could be greatly increased by using vortex beams transmitted on special multicore or multimode fibers. For a transmission system based on this 'spatial division multiplexing' to provide the extra capacity, special detectors capable of sorting out the type of vortex transmitted will be essential."

The new detector is able to tell one type of vortex beam from another due to its precise nanoscale patterning. When a vortex beam with the correct number of coils per wavelength strikes the gold plating on the detector's surface, it encounters a holographic interference pattern that has been etched into the gold. This nanoscale patterning allows the light to excite the metal's electrons in exactly the right way to produce a focused electromagnetic wave, known as a surface plasmon. The light component of this wave then shines through a series of perforations in the gold, and lands on the photodetector below.

If the incoming light doesn't match the interference pattern, the plasmon beam fails to focus or converge and is blocked from reaching the detector.

Capasso's research team has demonstrated this process using vortex beams with orbital angular momentum of ?1, 0, and 1.

"In principle, an array of many different couplers and detectors could be set up to read data transmitted on a very large number of channels," says lead author Patrice Genevet, a research associate in applied physics at SEAS. "With this approach, we transform detectors that were originally only sensitive to the intensity of light, so that they monitor the twist of the wavefronts. More than just detecting a specific twisted beam, our detectors gather additional information on the phase of the light beam."

The device's ability to detect and distinguish vortex beams is important for optical communications, but its capabilities may extend beyond what has been demonstrated.

"Using the same holographic approach, the same device patterned in different ways should be able to couple any type of free-space light beam into any type of surface wave," says Genevet.

###

Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu

Thanks to Harvard University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 21 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126198/Counting_the_twists_in_a_helical_light_beam

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Film District presents an IM Global and WWE Studios film, 'Dead Man Down'

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/overtheropes/wwestudios/dead-man-down-preview

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Find Another Pair of Your Favorite Pants Years After They've Worn Out

We all have that one pair of pants that fits perfectly, feels comfortable, and we never want to let go?often times after they've started to tear and look more like shredded cloth than a garment. Years later it can be hard to find another pair, but redditor drleephd has a solution:

Usually there is text embroidered or printed on a small tag on the inside of most mens pants. It will have either a UPC or a style number on it. Google this number and often you can find someone who is still selling your favorite pair of jeans. Stock up on them.

Drleephd only mentions this works for men's pants, so I thought I'd check a few pairs of my own and of my (female) roommate's to see if this tip worked for everyone. I was able to find numbers on several pairs of male- and female-intended pants and locate them online. In some cases the pants were on eBay because they were old, but nonetheless available and in good condition. If your favorite pants are worn out, this tip is no guarantee but certainly a way to help you locate another pair.

Wore out your favorite pair of jeans? how to find the same pair again | Reddit

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/NCWu2HoyXnE/find-another-pair-of-your-favorite-pants-years-after-theyve-worn-out

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