RIM’s PlayBook tablet is facing an onslaught of competitive products that could marginalize the devices impact in the mobile space. – RIM’s PlayBook tablet is scheduled to hit store shelves early
next year. In that time, it’s possible that the company will offer up several
new features that it hasn’t talked about yet. But for now, critics and
supporters of the device alike need make do with what they know and that means
a devi…
RIMs BlackBerry smartphones will eventually run a version of the open-source QNX operating system that will debut on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, a RIM executive reportedly confirmed. – A version of the QNX operating system,
which will debut on Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet PC,
will eventually also run on RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones, a company
executive reportedly said.
IntoMobile.com reported
Sept. 28 that an unnamed RIM vice president, during a breakfast …
Tennis champ Anna Kournikova will appear on the Oct. 5 episode of the NBC weight loss reality drama The Biggest Loser, now in its 10th season, TV Guide reported on Wednesday.The stunning Russian athlete and model — a favorite pin-up for men’s mag fans — will guide the remaining 15 contestants in a [...]
Hashim Thaci could resign as prime minister of the Kosovo government in Priština, said Albanian language media today.
Daily Koha Ditore writes that Thaci allegedly decided to resign because of the announced way in which the postal service and the telecommunications company in Kosovo will be privatized.
It’s a Skin Flick Double Whammy for unstable reality star Tila Tequila. Tequila has two sex tapes, with two different partners of two different sexes, and two porn companies are bidding for both. Try to keep up. There’ll be a quiz on this later.Vivid Entertainment — which has exposed X-rated footage of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, [...]
Serbian Patriarch Irinej stated on Wednesday that peace is in the interest of the Church and the time we live in. He spoke in favor of negotiations between Belgrade and Priština, but in such a way that would satisfy both Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
Warburg Pincus will invest the money in exchange for 31.71% of a joint venture whose assets are two specialty wholesale malls currently under development.
Two of the three judges had said that the disputed land in Ayodhya would be divided into three parts, one for the Hindus, one for the Muslims and one for the Nirmohi Akhara, one of the parties in the case, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and lawyer Ravi Shankar Prasad said here Thursday after the [...]
CentraLand, one of the leading Zhengzhou-based property developer and property manager focusing mainly on specialty wholesale trading hubs, announced today it has entered into a investment deal with Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity investor.
Warburg Pincus, through its special purpose vehicles – Dewy Cove Investment and Chambray Investment – will invest a total of RMB650 million ($128 million) for a 31.71% equity interest each into two of CentraLand’s project companies, that hold CentraLand’s two specialty wholesale mall projects, Tianrong and J-Expo 2 respectively. Both CentraLand and Warburg Pincus will jointly collaborate in the development, construction, operation and management of Tianrong Project and J-Expo 2 Project.
Supermodel Heidi Klum is hanging up her wings as a Victoria’s Secret Angel, according to new reports.After 13 years, we hear that Klum put bosses at the lingerie brand on notice this month of her intention to step down as “Head Angel” — a post she’s held since 2002. An statement announcing her resignation [...]
Interior Minister and Deputy PM Ivica DaÄić said today in Belgrade that Serbia’s ruling coalition has not yet discussed its Kosovo talks platform. DaÄić said that this will be subject to discussion, and added that the platform will not be “much different compared to Serbia’s previous positions”.
Pakistan has blocked a vital supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, RFE/RL reports. Apparently this came in retaliation for an alleged cross-border NATO helicopter strike that killed three Pakistani troops.
Publication 2600 compiled a Google Blacklist of search queries people won’t find computed via Google Instant. Google said it’s due to an autocomplete system that needs work. – Google chalked up a so-called blacklist of search terms
people found banned when using the new Google Instant predictive search technology
to an autocomplete system the company is continuing to refine.
Publication 2600
compiled the list of words that won’t surface when users search for them usin…
Is CNN’s Silver Fox daytime’s next divo?Cooper, host of the cable news network’s Anderson Cooper 360, is close to inking a deal to front a syndicated daytime talk show that would kick off next fall, The Hollywood Reporter said on Thursday. Here the skinny: Andy — a regular fill-in for 76-year-old Regis Philbin on ABC’s [...]
1846: Dentist William Morton uses ether to anesthetize a patient in Boston. It was not the first such use, but it began a train of events leading to the widespread adoption of ether for surgical anesthesia.
Dr. Crawford Long of Jefferson, Georgia, removed a tumor from the neck of James Venable under ether anesthesia March 30, [...]
Ireland’s property hangover continues
ON SEPTEMBER 30th, the Irish government revealed the full extent of its financial-sector bail-out. Anglo Irish Bank and other lenders that made bad commercial-property bets are to be provided with fresh capital to the tune of 20% of GDP this year. As a result, Ireland’s budget deficit is forecast to rise to 32% of GDP and its gross government debt to 96% of GDP. These huge costs contrast sharply with those in other countries that have had to rescue their banks. Ireland’s financial sector is so large relative to national income that, if it is not propped up, it has the ability to “bring down the sovereign”, according to Brian Lenihan, the finance minister. But Ireland does have some breathing space: it doesn’t need to borrow from the bond markets until early next year as it has enough cash to cover immediate needs. The government will just have to hope that the public finances don’t deliver any more nasty surprises in the intervening period.
More Daily charts …
China is squeezing the supply of vital rare earths. But not for long
RARE by name, though not by nature, 17 elements in the periodic table—the “rare earths”—are among the most sought-after materials in modern manufacturing. In tiny amounts, their unique magnetic and phosphorescent properties make them vital ingredients in a host of gadgets and components, ranging from hard drives to lasers. Though abundant in nature, extracting them is difficult, costly, time-consuming and dirty.
China is the world’s largest (and for some of them the only) producer of rare earths. Fears are growing about the political effects of that clout. In September Japan claimed that China was blocking supplies in response to the arrest of a Chinese fisherman in disputed territorial waters. Japan, with its electronics and car industries, uses a fifth of the global supply, making it the world’s biggest importer of rare earths. …
Awkward questions about how best to help the poor
POOR people—the destitute, disease ridden and malnourished “bottom billion”—live in poor countries. That has been the central operating assumption of the aid business for a decade.
The thesis was true in 1990: then, over 90% of the world’s poor lived in the world’s poorest places. But it looks out of date now. Andy Sumner of Britain’s Institute of Development Studies* reckons that almost three-quarters of the 1.3 billion-odd people existing below the $1.25 a day poverty line now live in middle-income countries. Only a quarter live in the poorest states (mostly in Africa). …
An unusually sophisticated cyber-weapon is mysterious but important
IT SOUNDS like the plot of an airport thriller or a James Bond film. A crack team of experts, assembled by a shadowy government agency, develops a cyber-weapon designed to shut down a rogue country’s nuclear programme. The software uses previously unknown tricks to worm its way into industrial control systems undetected, searching for a particular configuration that matches its target—at which point it wreaks havoc by reprogramming the system, closing valves and shutting down pipelines.
This is not fiction, but fact. A new software “worm” called Stuxnet (its name is derived from keywords buried in the code) seems to have been developed to attack a specific nuclear facility in Iran. Its sophistication suggests that it is the work of a well-financed team working for a government, rather than a group of rogue hackers trying to steal secrets or cause trouble. America and Israel are the obvious suspects. But Stuxnet’s origins and effects are unknown. …
