A committee of experts managed by America’s regulators or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 20-2 to let Vivus Inc to market the next generation of weight-loss capsule called Qnexa. Qnexa is a capsule to be taken once-a-day. The biopharmaceutical company is located in the technology hub of Silicon Valley's Mountain View.
The controlled-release pill for treating obesity is a combination of two types of drugs. First, a drug called stimulant phentermine which is used to help lowering appetite on patient. Second, another drug called topiramate which is used to escalate of feeling full in the patient's tummy.
The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based company, Comcast, the largest cable operator in America announced a new service called Xfinity Streampix. The new service will be available only to its subscribers and will cost extra $4.99 per month, compared to Netflix and Hulu Plus which charge $7.99 for video streaming service. Comcast also has signed a deal with Verizon, the largest wireless provider in America.
Xfinity Streampix service will give its subscribers access to past seasons of TV shows, popular kids TV and box office movies, mostly from NBC TV and Universal Studio as the Comcast is now the largest shareholder of NBCUniversal Company. Popular TV shows include 30 Rock, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost and The Office.
According to the Comcast blog post, the new service of streaming TV shows and movies will soon be integrated into other mobile devices and home entertainment services including Microsoft Xbox 360 and Google Android-powered mobile devices.
One of the setbacks of the latest announcement by a giant cable operator is that the company does not own the domain name Streampix.com. As per WHOIS data, the domain has been registered since 2003 and is currently owned by a Canadian-based company that provides video software service.
Mobile gaming fans around the world cannot wait any longer as the maker of Angry Birds has just announced a new series of the popular mobile game dubbed as “Angry Birds Space.” On the new game, Rovio will partner will two top agencies, NASA and National Geographic. There is no official announcement regarding the partnership and sharing opportunities.
In order catch up with the entertainment industry, the upcoming release will copy some distribution techniques from Hollywood powerhouse such as Disney. Rovio marketing team is planning to launch “Angry Birds Space” thru mobile download, Facebook, and electronic stores.
As Rovio is launching the space-related theme games, Zynga could follow the Angry Birds maker’s foot-step by launching their future games which may be called “CosmoVille” in conjunction with its current popular titles such as “CityVille,” “CastleVille,” and others.
The original Angry Birds game was made popular thru Apple’s iTunes store a couple years ago, as many gamers download the game for their iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Today, there are over 700 million copy of Angry Birds have been downloaded by its fans worldwide.
Click here to watch the trailer video via YouTube.
Microsoft’s MSN launched an all-in-one portal which includes search, news, local and social networking on Thursday morning, Feb 16. The new social media aggregator is known as msnNOW. The new site aggregates breaking news trends and hottest topics from Facebook, Twitter, and variety of sources such as BreakingNews.com. All breaking trends and topics are generated in real-time. In order to compete with the mainstream media, msnNOW’s human editors and team of experts will also provide more juices and pick the top stories and topics.
With 520 million visitors per month worldwide, the concept of all in one portal will be helping Microsoft’s Internet properties such as Bing search engine to grab more users. Data from comScore showed that Bing was the number two search engine in America in January 2012. MSN portal is now accessed in 48 markets and serving 27 languages around the world.
Since June 27, 2003, America’s consumers can submit their phone numbers to “Do Not Call” lists to stop prerecorded calls from telemarketers, especially during dinner times. This week, a stricter rules Do Not Call version 2.0 was approved by America’s communications regulators or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Regulators voted to stop telemarketers from auto-calling consumers without a written consent. In the latest ruling, FCC also warned telemarketers to get consumers’ written to opt-in to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls. Most of those telemarketing calls were from mortgage companies, cars and health insurance companies, cable TV, and wireless phone companies.
Regulators also made several exceptions for utilizing autodialed calls, among those calls made by charities, political campaigns, school updates, and pharmacies prescription refill.
Early Monday European regulators approved Google’s $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola Mobility and then late afternoon America’s regulators also approved the purchase by the world’s largest search engine. The latest acquisition will help the Mountain View-based company to protect its pools of patents.
In recent months, Google Android mobile operating system suffered a series of setbacks due to patent litigation from Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft demanded manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, and others to pay about $5 to $10 per Android phone. Android OS has now captured the largest share of smartphone market in America.
Motorola is a very popular handset maker including model RAZR in America during the late 1990s and early 2000s before Apple started selling its iPhone in 2007. Google announced to buy Motorola in August 2011 as the phone maker has about 17,000 patents related to cellphone.
We all should know what homelessness is, but what truly causes it? And if so, how do we end it? But unlike how many of us out there think, the term homelessness doesn’t mean they’re unintelligent or brought their troubles by themselves. All it means is they’re just going through tough times. As we’re all fellow humans, we ought to support them and help them off their feet rather than just being happy it’s not our life by taunting them to make us feel better.
Something so commonplace may make a huge change. Just changing the way you think about the homeless could help them. Instead of thinking and talking about the homeless as if you are better than them, rather, think of them as people who are suffering through some problems. This way, you stop degrading these people as if they don’t matter at all, while unconsciously influencing others you converse with to do the same.
Treat others as if you want to be treated, isn’t that the most widely known saying? Imagine yourself in the shoes of the unhoused, wouldn’t you want someone to help you through your trying time? Even if you can’t do much, donating a small amount or helping out at a local shelter or group could help many homeless people. You could donate food to the LA Food Bank, or donate money to local charities that need the funds. Very few citizens are willing to help strangers, which is why anyone who is able to should do their best to ease the unhoused’s problems. Just listening to them talk about their problems could lighten a little of the burden the homeless have.
Like many other problems in society, just the smallest kindness, a small donation, or even just a helping hand is one of the first cures to solve them. That is exactly what we need to do. Many students at school do not know the full extent of the troubles of the homeless. To solve this difficulty while raising awareness of the plight of the unhoused, every school, whether private or public, should begin a group of volunteers, or a service club, willing to help at local shelters and deliver goods to those in need. Why shouldn’t we compel every student volunteer? For the reason that not everyone has it in them to assist those who need help. Bringing along students that may insult the homeless or don’t really care at all could just jeopardize the work of students who do, and we would all be back to square one. There may not be many people who truly care, but even a few volunteers could impact the situation of the homeless.
It will take a whole lot of work to truly and finally stop homelessness. While it may not happen as fast as some of us would hope, even a small change may end the dilemmas of the homeless, for good.
America’s Top Guns include pilots and navigators will soon dump their 40 pounds of manuals and navigation charts and carry only one tablet PC or a mobile device. According to businessweek.com, America’s Air Force has sent out a request for proposal to purchase about 18,000 iPad2s.
The use of iPad to replace manual books is not so new anymore. Car manufacturer such as Hyundai had replaced its manual book for its high end cars with iPad two years ago. Similarly, major airlines companies around the world have also switched to iPad, for example United Airlines in August 2011.
Apple iPad version 1 was introduced in January 2010 by the late CEO and founder Steve Jobs and started shipping to consumers in early April 2010. Apple sold as many as 15.43 million iPads during the Q4-2011, October to December quarter. In term of quarterly comparison, the demand for iPads in its second year has increased about 111% over the first year of introduction.
Electric car manufacturer, Tesla Motors, showcased its new battery-powered car at its Design Studio in Hawthorne, a city near Los Angeles International Airport, on Thursday, February 9, 2012. The new car dubbed as Model X SUV is a crossover with 3-row and 7-seat and with asking price at $55,000 to $75,000 range. Model X was unveiled by its CEO Elon Musk.
According to the Palo Alto-based car company website, Model X is going into production starting in late 2013 and will be on the road in early 2014.
From the exterior design standpoint Model X resemblances of an Audi Q7 style. The Model X has a unique feature on its rear doors which the company called "falcon wing" doors. Using its electric batteries, the blend of an SUV and a minivan electric car can handle a driving range of about 300 miles which is almost similar range to two Tesla’s early models, Roadster and Model S. The Model S is a sedan platform and will go to car showrooms around the world this summer 2012.
Starting now to mid-year of 2012, Eastman Kodak Co, the digital photography pioneer will close its business units on camera, camcorders, and digital frames. Kodak invented the handheld digital camera in 1975. The company announced that they will license the popular brand to other digital camera manufacturers.
In recent earnings, digital technology contributed to about 75% of the company revenue. To maintain its position in the digital world, Kodak will continue to run online printing business, expand kiosks printing, and grow personal computer printers. The Rochester, New York-based company will retain and expand its 100,000 kiosks and printing stations globally. Aside targeting consumers in general, Kodak is also famous for its enterprise services, digital graphics, and movie material units.
The world's largest software company has picked a special leap year day to release Windows 8 "Consumer Preview" at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The release date is set on February 29, 2012, which occurs only every four years. Tech bloggers believe that Barcelona is a perfect venue for the announcement as Windows 8 operating system can be run on multiple platforms including on desktops, mobile phones, and tablets. Very soon Windows 8 OS is a one big family of operating systems for running laptops, smartphones and other mobile devices.
The Windows 8 OS was initially announced by Windows and Windows Live Engineering President Steven Sinofsky during the first week of June 2011 at the D9 Conference at a high-end golf resort near Los Angeles International Airport, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. During the Build conference near Disneyland in mid-September 2011, worldwide developers were able to demo the new OS in Anaheim, California. In order to get more fans before the end of last year, Microsoft engineers showed Windows Store to a group of developers in San Francisco on December 6, 2011. Microsoft asked developers to start thinking about making money by developing Metro style apps as the software giant company will give them 80% rev share.
The well-known Golden State is now also known as the "App State." The largest state in America is taking one of every four app economy jobs in America in 2011. This assessment was based on the latest study with a title “Where the Jobs Are: The App Economy” authored by economist Dr. Michael Mandel. Click here to download the full report in .pdf format.
The study analyzed the implication of mobile applications or “apps” on America’s economy. The study took into consideration the latest booming of smartphones, tablets, mobile devices and gadgets. It concluded that 466,000 jobs have been created by the new era of “App Economy” since the first release of Apple iPhone in 2007. Those jobs include computer & mobile phone programmers, marketers, user-interface designers, sales managers and customer care staff providing support on apps and infrastructure. The study analyzed all operating systems related to mobile apps including Google Android, Apple iOS, RIM BlackBerry, and Microsoft Windows Phone.
California is taking 23.8% of all app economy jobs in 2011. In term of metropolitan areas, high concentration of app jobs in the state of California was in San Francisco with 8.5%, Silicon Valley with 6.3%, and Los Angeles with 5.1%. New York metro has the largest pie of jobs and taking 9.2% of all app jobs in 2011.
(Table: “Where the Jobs Are: The App Economy” page 13)
One of the most cited articles by tech watchers, bloggers, and top news outlets on Monday morning February 6, 2012 was a report written by Michael Kozlowski of Good e-Reader. In the article, Kozlowski originally found its info from “Amazon sources close to the situation.” In the first paragraph, Kozlowski wrote that the world’s largest ecommerce company is "planning on rolling out a retail store in Seattle within the next few months.” Later Kozlowski added “[Amazon are] going the boutique route and stocking the shelves with only high margin and high-end items.”
In recent months several tech watchers have been speculating that Amazon will be opening stores similar to Apple’s stores to showcase its hot products such as Kindle Fire and others. But, those tech gadgets have been on display in Target stores and BestBuy stores around America. Moreover, some rumors have soared during the past holiday seasons as Amazon is also planning to open some kind of superstores similar to Wal-Mart or Costco stores in areas with high density of shoppers.
Facebook, the world’s largest social networking, is planning to go public and the company’s shares will soon be listed in the Wall Street stock exchanges. On Wednesday, February 1, 2012, Facebook sent all the paperwork to America’s Securities and Exchange Commission. On the Form S-1 registration statement, the Silicon Valley-based company reported a big chunk of its revenues were from its partners.
About 12% of Facebook’s revenues in 2011 which totaled $3.71 billion came from its partnership with Zynga. Zynga went public in 2011 and the company is well-known for its online games include CityVille, FarmVille, CastleVille, etc. Facebook stated in its filing with the America’s Securities and Exchange Commission “We currently generate significant revenue as a result of our relationship with Zynga, and, if we are unable to successfully maintain this relationship, our financial results could be harmed.”
One of the top digital camera brands in the world just announced a series of new products on Tuesday (January 31). One of those new products was a Nikon Coolpix P510 which has a gigantic 42x optical zoom. The new camera's lens could handle from 24mm to super-zoom of 1000mm. The camera is also equipped with 16-megapixel. It has a sensor that can take a five frames-per-second high-speed shooting photos. For video recording, the camera has 1080p HD video capability. The Nikon P510 will be available in camera stores in America in March for $429.95. It will also available in two colors black and red.
Using samples of 259 women ages between 18 to 44-year old, for a period from 2005 and 2007, Schliep et.al found caffeinated beverage changes women's estrogen levels. Each tester must consume at least 90 milligrams of caffeine per day. Researchers found there are side effects which may differ by race and age group. The study is being published in February by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition via online.
For the testing purposes, testers were given 200 milligrams or more of caffeine per day which equal to two cups of coffee, researchers found Asian women caffeine drinkers had their estrogen levels increased significantly compared to other races. On the contrast, white women who consumed 200 milligrams of caffeine had decreased their estrogen levels. While for Black women who consumed 200 milligrams of caffeine had just increased a little bit of their estrogen levels.
Many governments in the world do not welcome all expression by their citizens in general public such as in China, the Middle Eastern nations, Cuba, North Korea, and others. In an attempt to be a good business partner in certain countries, Twitter, the world’s largest social communication website will soon censor users’ tweets. But, the company will leave other parts of the world to see the censored tweets.
According to Twitter blog post, the Silicon Valley-based company will now withhold offending content by a specific country if a local government objects to those tweets. To distinguish those censored posts, the company will post a censorship notice to warn its users. The label text is shown as the following “Tweet withheld. This Tweet from @Username has been withheld in: Country. Learn more.” The “learn more” link will explain Twitter company policy.
Using sample of 95 men and women with normal to high-normal blood pressure who consumed at least 3 cups of black tea per day for 6 months, a team of researchers in Australia led by Jonathan M. Hodgson, PhD, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, Perth, found that tea drinkers could lower their blood pressure levels by about 2 to 3 points. The study is being published by Archives of Internal Medicine.
Health experts believe that by lowering blood pressure may also preventing hypertension and lowering risk of heart disease and death.
Researchers believe drinking black tea can improve the function of human body cells including maintaining good blood vessels. Researchers also found that black tea also contains flavonoids which also help to improve blood vessel’s tone and cut human body weight and reducing body fat.
Aside with its popular Hollywood sign depicting the capital of blockbuster movies makers in the world, Los Angeles is also famous as the capital of porn films makers. Producers of adult movies usually require getting a city film permit before filming in Los Angeles. Several cities in the porn industry district are under the management of city of Los Angeles such as San Fernando Valley.
In order to protect porn performers from health issues such as AIDS with HIV disease, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a new law early this week. The new law requires porn stars to wear condoms during pornography film sets in the second largest city in America. The new law also received a fully support from Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
According to latimes.com, many porn films makers disapproved with the new rule. Porn movie makers believe that it would be difficult to market their films that featuring condoms. Later, latimes.com added that many porn movie makers are planning to move the pornography film sets outside the city of Los Angeles boundaries.
With the passing of its former CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs during fiscal 2012 first quarter, Apple’s financial results hit the highest level in term of revenue and sales from October to December 2011. As per the latest financial results ended December 31, 2011, the world’s largest mobile gadgets company announced all-time high quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion. The Company has a record setting of net profit of $13.06 billion. Compared to one year ago, the revenue for fiscal 2011 first quarter was $26.74 billion (or, an increase of $19.6 billion in term of revenue). While in term of net quarterly profit, one year ago was $6 billion (or, an increase of $7 billion).
The hottest selling item was iPhone as Apple sold 37.04 million multi-touch phones during the October to December quarter. The Company stated that iPhones demand increased about 128% over one year ago.
The next hottest item was iPad as Apple sold 15.43 million iPads. Apple noted that the demand for iPads increased about 111% over one year ago.
Apple didn’t sell many iPods during the quarter compared to one year ago. The Silicon Valley-based company sold only 15.4 million iPods or a drop of 21% from one year ago.
