Half Of U.S. Households Own At Least One Apple Product

Apple has taken firm root in America. Just over half of all households in the country own at least one Apple product, a new survey says, showing just how far the reach of the company has come in the last decade. At the turn of the 21st century, Apple was in rough shape. It had narrowly avoided bankruptcy, and Steve Jobs' return as CEO a few years earlier was turning the company around, but the market share of its products -- then almost exclusively Mac computers -- was dismal, at about...

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3 Killed As Human Sacrifices In Mexico

Authorities in the northern Mexican state of Sonora have arrested eight people accused of killing two boys and one woman as human sacrifices for Santa Muerte -- the saint of death -- officials said Friday. The victims, two of whom were age 10, were killed and their blood was offered at an altar to the saint, according to Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for state prosecutors. The accused were asking the saint, who is generally portrayed as a skeleton dressed in a long robe and carrying a scythe,...

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How The 'Crackberry' Makers Lost Their Way

Research in Motion founder Mike Lazaridis two years ago at the launch of the Blackberry Torch, he was convinced the product would revive Blackberry’s fortunes because, “People don’t want to carry around two devices, they just want to carry one.” He was right about that, but wrong about the device people wanted. Thursday RIM announced a 23% drop in sales in the fourth quarter.  A recent Nielsen survey found only 5% of U.S. consumers buying a new smart phone chose a Blackberry. ...

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Three Deadly Explosions Hit Yala In Southern Thailand

At least eight people have been killed in three explosions in the southern Thai province of Yala, officials say. Yala Governor Dejrat Simsiri said the blasts occurred over 10 minutes at around midday (06:00 BST) in the commercial district of Yala city. He said two of the bombs were hidden in motorcycles and the third in a car. Thailand's three southern-most provinces have been plagued by bomb attacks and shootings since 2004, when a separatist campaign reignited. We are not sure which...

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Turkish MPs Fight As Controversial Schools Bill Passed

Turkey's parliament has passed a bill that allows parents to move their children into Islamic schools earlier. The education reform bill extends compulsory education from eight to 12 years and allows children to switch to specialist schools from as young as 10. The ruling AK Party says the bill will mean pupils stay longer in school but secular Turks see it as part of a wider plan to increase religious influence. MPs fought during a debate on the bill, which followed days of protests. On...

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Honduras San Pedro Sula Prison Unrest And Fire Kill 13

At least 13 people have died in unrest at a prison in Honduras, officials say. They said inmates began fighting among themselves at the San Pedro Sula prison, in the north of the country, and that a fire had then broken out. Police commissioner Yair Mesa said the riot had been brought under control, the Associated Press news agency says. Last month, at least 360 inmates died in a fire at Comayagua prison north of the capital. Officials said it may have been caused by a discarded cigarette. During...

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Got Visa or Mastercard? Your Data May Have Leaked

The personal data of thousands of customers — from all major credit card brands — has been leaked from a third-party processing company. The massive leak was first reported by the security news blog Krebs on Security, following reports that MasterCard and Visa were warning banks of a possible breach. According to a follow-up story from The Wall Street Journal, the breach came from the Atlanta-based payment processing firm Global Payments, not from a credit card company. Global Payments works...

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Syria Links Troop Pullback From Cities To Security

Syrian troops will stay in residential areas of cities until "peace and security" prevail, the government says. A foreign ministry spokesman made the announcement after the UN's peace mission to Syria called for troops to be withdrawn as a good faith gesture. President Bashar al-Assad has nominally accepted a peace plan proposed by UN envoy Kofi Annan. However fighting has continued between government and opposition forces, with 40 people reportedly killed on Friday. The UN believes at...

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This Camera Lets You Take Photos With Your Hands

Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences have created a prototype for a new type of camera called Ubi-Camera that lets you snap a photograph by creating a rectangle with your hands. Here’s how it works: Connect the device to your index finger and then form a rectangle with your fingers. Your finger rectangle works as a viewfinder for the camera, and photos are taken by pressing on the device firmly with your thumb. The Ubi-camera has a built-in range sensor that...

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Rebel Assault On Strategic Mali Garrison Town of Gao

Tuareg rebels in Mali have attacked the strategic northern garrison town of Gao with heavy weapons, hours after another town, Kidal, fell to them. Two army helicopters were scrambled in response, a local official told AFP news agency by phone. Gao, with a population of 87,000, more than twice the size of Kidal, hosts one of the biggest garrisons in the north. Separatist rebels seeking to carve out a desert homeland began a rebellion in the west African state in January. A regional group,...

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Hollywood Release: The Deep Blue Sea

Adapting a Terence Rattigan melodrama to the big screen implies, perhaps unfairly, a weighty Englishness; one can almost smell the spilt lager and the picked-over plate of fish and chips that spurred the idea. And though it bears all the trademarks of Rattigan's fiery post-war plays, Terence Davies's superb adaptation of The Deep Blue Sea provides a more rapturous and fluid expression of Rattigan's most smoldering and ruthless themes than the glut of adaptations that precede it.  Anthony...

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Hollywood Release: Goon

Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) from Massachusetts, feels ostracized from his family, his father (Eugene Levy) and brother both being doctors. One day he attends a minor league hockey game with his friend Pat (Jay Baruchel). Pat taunts the visiting team during a fight and one of their players climbs into the stands. Doug, in defense of his friend, quickly knocks him out, which prompts the rest of the crowd to cheer him on. Soon after, Doug gets a phone call from the coach of his hometown...

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Hollywood Release: Mirror Mirror

One of the most beloved stories of all time is coming to life in the motion picture Snow White legend, Mirror Mirror. A fresh and funny retelling of the Snow White legend, Mirror Mirror features breakout star Lily Collins (The Blind Side) as Snow White, a princess in exile, and Oscar®-winner Julia Roberts as the evil Queen who ruthlessly rules her captured kingdom. Seven courageous rebel dwarfs join forces with Snow White as she fights to reclaim her birthright and win her Prince...

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Hollywood Release: The Wrath Of The Titans

Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson star once again as gods at war in "Wrath of the Titans," under the direction of Jonathan Liebesman. A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, Perseus (Worthington)—the demigod son of Zeus (Neeson)—is attempting to live quietly as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year-old son, Helius. But unbeknownst to Perseus, a struggle for supremacy has been raging between the gods that will come to threaten his idyllic...

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Online Therapy Program to Help Fight Autism

Research shows that nearly half of kids with autism can make big improvements toward recovery by undergoing therapy in the early stages of their development. But one-on-one therapy can be extremely costly and go on for years, and access to good treatment can sometimes to be limited to certain cities and regions. To help kids fight autism, the Tarzana, Calif.-based Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) has put its intensive therapy program online to train parents and educators...

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Amazing NASA Video Shows Star Trails From Space

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to sit in a space station orbiting Earth, just chilling and looking at the stars? Thanks to NASA astronaut Don Pettit who took some beautiful photos from the International Space Station, and photographer Alex Rivest, who assembled the photos into a time-lapse video, now you can come quite close to finding out how it would look like. Don Pettit is currently aboard the ISS on a 30-day long mission, and his idea was to take some long-exposure photos to capture star...

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iPhone 4S Users Can’t Get Enough of Siri or Can They?

A Parks Associates survey set out to find out just how well-liked Siri is. The verdict — more than 70% of iPhone 4S users said they are very satisfied or satisfied with the intelligent assistant. For the most part, iPhone 4S users love Siri. She’s usually helpful, witty and funny even with her quirks and kinks. With this kind of consumer support, it seems iPhone users would be excited to use Siri voice command with other electronics — but the numbers say otherwise. According to the survey,...

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World Leaders: Nuclear Terrorism a 'Grave Threat'

World leaders have called for closer co-operation to tackle the threat of nuclear terrorism at a summit on nuclear security in Seoul.  A communique at the end of the summit reiterated a joint call to secure "vulnerable nuclear material". South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said nuclear terrorism remained a "grave threat", while US President Barack Obama said action was key. The meeting was dominated by North Korea's plan to launch a rocket. North Korea says the long-range rocket will...

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Super Telescope Will Search For secrets Of The Universe

It's been billed as an astronomical equivalent of the Large Hadron Collider, offering new insights into the formation of the universe and so powerful that it might even detect alien life. The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is an international effort to build the world's largest radio telescope, one which will probe the dark heart of space shedding new light on dark matter, black holes, stars and galaxies. "It will have a deep impact on the way we perceive our place in the universe and...

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Chocolate 'May Help Keep People Slim'

People who eat chocolate regularly tend to be thinner, new research suggests. The findings come from a study of nearly 1,000 US people that looked at diet, calorie intake and body mass index (BMI) - a measure of obesity. It found those who ate chocolate a few times a week were, on average, slimmer than those who ate it occasionally. Even though chocolate is loaded with calories, it contains ingredients that may favour weight loss rather than fat synthesis, scientists believe.  Despite...

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Microsoft Demonstrates Mind-Blowing 3D Desktop

Take on look at the world of mobile devices — from multitouch smartphones and tablets to virtual assistants ready listen to your questions and give you answers — and you get the idea that the world of interfaces is changing fast. Desktop interfaces, however, are a different story. “Despite advances in 3D sensing and display technologies, our desktop interfaces have not changed much from 2D interactions,” MIT PhD candidate Jinha Lee says. Lee, along with a Microsoft research lab, has created a transparent...

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What Does the Future Hold for Tablet Devices?

MASHABLE - Technology geeks across the world are happily devouring the new iPad. Even though the newest iteration has some nice features, such as a better camera and a retina display, it isn’t revolutionary. Mashable decided to figure out just what, exactly, will be the next earthshaking development in the tablet sphere. We spoke with Ari Zoldan, CEO of Quantum Networks, to find out what he thinks the future of tablet design and development holds. Quantum Networks specializes in...

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New Ipad Cover Problem

Magnets: How do they work? Differently on the new iPad than on the iPad 2, it has emerged -- and that's bad news for anyone with an old or third-party smart cover. A number of users who bought new iPads over the weekend (this reporter included) were dismayed to discover that the smart covers they'd bought for the iPad 2 didn't work on the new model. Smart covers, which attach to the iPad's built-in magnets, are supposed to turn the tablet on automatically when you flip them open. But...

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African Force Sets Up To Hunt Kony

The African Union plans to deploy 5,000 troops to hunt down Joseph Kony, the notorious leader of the Lord's Resistance Army who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Uganda, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo will supply soldiers for the mission, said Francisco Madeira, the African Union's special envoy on the LRA. He said the mission has support from the United States and 100 combat-ready troops the Pentagon sent...

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Hollywood Release: The Trouble With Bliss

A comedic coming of age story about a guy who should have come of age a long time ago. Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under) stars as the likable yet frustrating Morris Bliss, who's faced with the prospect of growing up in the indie dramatic comedy East Fifth Bliss. The Trouble With is a comedy/drama about 35 year-old Morris Bliss who is clamped in the jaws of New York City inertia: he wants to travel but has no money; he needs a job but has no prospects; he still shares an apartment with...

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