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Brazilian company releases the ‘IPHONE’ after trademarking the name back in 2000
Label: TechnologyTitle Post: Brazilian company releases the ‘IPHONE’ after trademarking the name back in 2000
Rating:
100%
based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
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The X Factor: Finalists Sing for Votes One Last Time
Label: Lifestyle
TV Watch
The X Factor
By Aaron Parsley
12/19/2012 at 10:40 PM EST
from left: Fifth Harmony, Tate Stevens and Carly Rose Sonenclar
Ray Mickshaw/FOX
Who's going to get a $5 million recording contract?
The X Factor's season 2 finale got underway Wednesday night with the finalists performing three songs each – including a duet with a music superstar.
Britney Spears's contestant, Carly Rose Sonenclar, has been a favorite, trading the No. 1 spot with her fellow finalist, L.A. Reid's country singer Tate Stevens, through out the competition.
Carly first reprised "Feeling Good," and sang it better than the first time she performed it during her audition, according to judge Simon Cowell. "It's shocking how bright your star is," Spears said. She performed her duet with Leann Rimes, singing the country star's hit, "How Do I Live." Her final performance – of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" – had the judges gushing. "You looked like an angel," Demi Lovato said. "You sang like a ridiculously talented angel."
Tate, the competition's only country singer, first performed "Anything Goes" by Randy Houser. "I'm still obsessed with you," Demi said. Added Simon, "You are made in America. You are authentic." For his duet, he sang Little Big Town's cheeky party anthem, "Pontoon." And for his final performance in the competition, Tate sang Chris Young's "Tomorrow." "In a year's time," Simon said, "We're going to be hearing about your record sales."
"I'm almost crying because I realize it's the last time I'm going to see you perform on that stage," Demi said.
Simon's remaining act, girl group Fifth Harmony, may have had their best night yet in the competition, beginning with "Anything Can Happen." L.A. called it "magical," adding that they're "the one to beat." Britney said the colorful performance was "spectacular, girly and fun." Their duet, with The X Factor's own Demi Lovato, of "Give Your Heart a Break" was a highlight of the night.
"These girls are so easy to work with," the judge said. "They're so down to earth, so sweet and I love you guys. This was so much fun."
Their last song, "Let It Be" by the Beatles, proved how much the five members have "blossomed as a group," Britney said. Admitting his bias, their mentor Simon said, based on their performances on Wednesday, the girls of Fifth Harmony "deserve to win the competition."
Do you agree? Or is Tate or Carly your choice for the big prize? Tell us in the comments below.
The winner will be revealed Thursday in a two-hour show that will include a performance by One Direction.
Wall Street falls as "cliff" talks sour, but hopes remain
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks sold off late in the day to close at session lows on Wednesday as talks to avert a year-end fiscal crisis turned sour, even as investors still expect a deal.
The S&P 500 slipped after a two-day rally that took the benchmark index to its highest close in two months. Defensive-oriented shares led the decliners, including health care and consumer staples.
General Motors
President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are struggling to come up with a deal to avoid early 2013 tax hikes and spending cuts that many economists say could send the U.S. economy into recession.
House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said in a one-minute press conference that his chamber will pass a proposal that Obama had already threatened to veto as it spares many wealthy Americans from tax hikes needed to balance the budget. Obama has already agreed to reductions in benefits for senior citizens.
"My guess is they're close to a deal, and right before, it looks like the deal is about to blow up either on manufactured or legitimate reasons," said Uri Landesman, president of hedge fund Platinum Partners in New York.
He said if the market thought a deal was in real danger, the S&P 500 would slide below 1,400. It stands now near 1,435, not far from a two-month high.
The CBOE Volatility Index <.vix> surged 11.5 percent to 17.36, but has remained relatively stable. Its 14- 50- and 200-day averages are all within 1.1 points.
Landesman said the VIX's stability indicates "the bulls have control of this market still."
Banks and energy shares - groups that outperform during periods of economic expansion - have led recent gains, indicating a shift to focusing on a growing economy as Wall Street looks past the budget talks.
Defensive sectors led Wednesday's downturn, with the S&P health care sector index <.gspa> down 1.1 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 98.99 points, or 0.74 percent, to 13,251.97. The S&P 500 <.spx> lost 10.98 points, or 0.76 percent, to 1,435.81. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> fell 10.17 points, or 0.33 percent, to 3,044.36.
Herbalife Ltd
Oracle
Knight Capital Group Inc
Shares of Chinese display advertising provider Focus Media Holding Ltd
Data showed homebuilding permits touched their highest level in nearly 4-1/2 years in November. The PHLX housing index <.hgx> fell 0.8 percent, but has gained 66.4 percent this year as the housing market has turned the corner.
About 6.9 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, slightly above the daily average so far this year of about 6.45 billion shares.
Advancing and declining issues were almost even on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)
For Modernizing Thais, Monastic Life Loses Allure
Label: WorldYoung monks rehearsed an evening candlelight ceremony at the Chedi Luang temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The country’s Buddhist temples are as much a part of the landscape as rice paddies and palm trees. But many temples in rural Thailand have fallen quiet.
Read More..
The Voice Crowns a Winner!
Label: Lifestyle
TV Watch
By Julia Haskins
12/18/2012 at 11:20 PM EST
From left: Terry McDermott, Cassadee Pope, Nicholas David and host Carson Daly
Tyler Golden/NBC
The Voice has a new winner!
After several powerful performances the night before, the top three singers – Nicholas David (of Team Cee Lo) and Terry McDermott and Cassadee Pope (of Blake Shelton's team) – faced the music on Tuesday during the final results show of season 3.
Which one was the winner? Keep reading to find out ...
Cassadee Pope was named the winner of The Voice!
Pope thanked her fans who supported her throughout the competition. She was joined onstage by McDermott, who was the runner-up, and David, who came in third place.
It was a night of music as Rihanna, newly engaged Kelly Clarkson, Bruno Mars and the Killers celebrated with the finalists by displaying their talents.
Season 4 of The Voice premieres March 25, 2013, with Shakira and Usher stepping in to take over for Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green.
Asian shares, euro rise on hopes of U.S. "cliff" deal, BOJ easing
Label: BusinessSINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares and the euro rose to multi-month highs on Wednesday as expectations of more aggressive monetary stimulus from the Bank of Japan and signs of progress in resolving the U.S. "fiscal cliff" budget crisis lifted demand for riskier assets.
European shares were also expected to post gains. However, index futures pointed to a flat opening on Wall Street after the S&P 500 <.spx> had its best two-day run in a month on growing confidence a deal can be reached in Washington to avoid a raft of painful spending cuts and tax rises. <.n/>
"What is important, and what is driving the market higher, is that the two parties are now in constructive discussions over specific tax levels and spending programs, and working towards a common middle ground," said Cameron Peacock, a strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne.
Industrial commodities such as oil and copper consolidated earlier gains, while gold recovered some lost ground but remained not far above its lowest in nearly four months as progress in the U.S. budget talks limited its safe-haven appeal.
Financial spreadbetters called London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> and France's CAC-40 <.fhci> indexes to rise 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent. <.l><.eu/>
Tokyo's Nikkei share average <.n225> closed up 2.4 percent, topping 10,000 points for the first time since April, as the prospect of more monetary stimulus and a cheaper yen boosted financials stocks and shares of exporters. <.t/>
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> gained 0.4 percent, touching its highest level in nearly 17 months, while Australian shares <.axjo> and Hong Kong's Hang Seng <.hsi> also reached 17-month highs. <.ax><.hk/>
S&P 500 index futures were flat.
MORE JAPAN EASING EXPECTED
The Bank of Japan started a two-day meeting on Wednesday, under intense political pressure to expand its asset-buying program aggressively to snap the world's third-biggest economy out of its fourth recession since 2000.
Shinzo Abe, who was elected on Sunday as the country's next prime minister, called for the central bank to embark on "unlimited easing" and set an inflation target of 2 percent to beat deflation.
"The market is already in overbought territory, but investors are increasingly being alarmed that there is a risk of not having Japanese stocks in their portfolios," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.
The euro rose as far as $1.3256 on electronic trading platform EBS, its highest since the beginning of May, and against the yen it reached 111.73, its highest since late August 2011.
"Unless U.S. fiscal cliff talks take an unexpected turn for the worse, we believe that EUR/USD will meet our 1.3300 year-end target," analysts at BNP Paribas wrote in a note.
Oil held steady, with Brent crude rising about 10 cents to just short of $109 a barrel and U.S. crude little changed below $88.
"There has been some progress in talks and it seems commodity markets have been supported by that, as well as a combination of the recent improvement in manufacturing data in China and the United States," said commodity analyst Stefan Graber of Credit Suisse in Singapore.
Copper was also flat just above $8,020 a tonne. Copper rallied almost 8 percent from mid-November to hit a two-month high a week ago, but has since lost some ground.
Gold rose 0.3 percent to around $1,675 an ounce, after falling to $1,661.01 on Tuesday, its lowest since August.
(Additional reporting by Miranda Maxwell in Melbourne, Ian Chua in Sydney and Melanie Burton in Singapore; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
Hard Times in Spain Force Feuding Couples to Delay Divorce
Label: World
SABADELL, SPAIN — Esther Fernández, 45, was desperate for a divorce. A hairdresser, she had fallen in love with another man, who was dying of cancer.
Her husband, Gaby Cuadrado, 47, had lost his factory job. Selling their house in a depressed market in this sleepy city outside Barcelona was impossible. Neither could afford a second home. They were already struggling to pay their mortgage. An expensive divorce was out of the question.
So for two years she stuck it out, leaving before dawn, hiding from Mr. Cuadrado, who said he became so obsessed with his wife that he would spy on her from his car. She had panic attacks. “I felt trapped,” she said.
It was even worse for him. The situation, Mr. Cuardado said, pushed him to the brink of suicide. “Being forced to live with a woman I loved who had rejected me was psychological torture,” he said. They finally divorced in November, after moving to tiny apartments in bad parts of town.
If marriage is for better or worse, richer or poorer, then these are the worst of times for a poorer Spain. Couples are paying the emotional price, especially when they cannot afford the price of divorce.
Fewer of them can. Accounts from judges, divorce lawyers and therapists — as well as couples themselves — indicate that many Spaniards are staying in troubled relationships longer as a result of an economic crisis that has ground on for nearly five years.
Last year, the number of divorces in Spain dropped 17 percent compared with 2006, according to the Spanish Judicial Council, a national association that represents the country’s judges. The divorce rate jumped in 2006 after changes to the divorce law made it easier to split up in 2005, but it has fallen with the crisis in Spain’s economy, according to the council.
“There is no doubt that the crisis is pushing people to stay together,” said José María Redondo, the council’s spokesman, who attributed the drop in the divorce rate to a burst housing bubble and hard economic times.
The crisis is not only slowing divorces but also transforming the process, according to divorce lawyers. Judges are reducing alimony payments and dueling spouses have moved from fighting over property to sparring over the critical issue of who assumes debts.
Some couples are literally dividing their homes in two, by sticking tape across the floor, said Álvaro Cavia, a leading Barcelona-based divorce lawyer. Unable to afford a divorce, other couples live together even as they engage openly in other romantic relationships.
Squabbles over money — or the lack of it — are the biggest source of contention among couples seeking to mend fraying relationships, according to Myka Pedrero, a family psychologist in a suburb of Barcelona, who counseled Ms. Fernández, her sister.
It is worst for jobless couples, she said, not just because of the money strains, but because they often spend all day together at home, treading on each others’ nerves. When warring couples share the same quarters it is especially confusing for children unable to accept their parents’ break-ups, she said.
“The crisis makes things worse as it adds huge pressures to marriages when you don’t have a job and can’t pay the bills,” she said. “When people who want to split are forced to stay together it pollutes the whole ecosystem that is the family and drives both the man and the woman crazy.”
Until the crisis exploded, legal experts say, divorce was widely accepted as the easiest exit from a bad marriage after decades during which it was prohibited during the Franco dictatorship.
Divorce was first legalized in Spain 1981 but the law required couples to legally separate first, a period of reflection aimed at safeguarding the family in a socially conservative, Catholic country. The change in the law in 2005 has allowed couples to get “express divorces” without any separation. Couples need to have been married for at least three months to qualify.
Even when couples can afford a divorce, the economic crisis has added new complications.
Silvia Taulés contributed reporting from Barcelona.
How to turn an old Kindle Fire into a Nexus 7 with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean [video]
Label: TechnologyTitle Post: How to turn an old Kindle Fire into a Nexus 7 with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean [video]
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The Voice's Top Three Give Final Performances in the Competition
Label: Lifestyle
TV Watch
The Voice
By Julia Haskins
12/17/2012 at 10:25 PM EST
From left: Judges Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton
Trae Patton/NBC
Monday night's episode of The Voice gave the final three contestants three chances to earn fans' votes. Each singer revisited a "breakout" song that set them apart in the competition, sang a new song and performed a duet with his or her coach.
But the night opened with a touching tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Coaches and singers held up the names of each life lost while singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."
Team Cee Lo's Nicholas David then kicked off the competition with Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire." Not able to resist a pun, his coach chimed in on his performance: "Your fire tonight burned this house down," Green said. David later revisited his performance of Bill Withers's "Lean On Me," and joined Green for a duet of Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music."
Team Blake's two contestants also had the crowd cheering. Terry McDermott's sang his best song, Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," and took a stab at Mr. Mister's "Take These Broken Wings." But the crowning moment of the night for McDermott was his duet with Shelton of Aerosmith's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)." Adam Levine played guitar alongside them, decked out in a long rocker wig.
Cassadee Pope sang "Over You," which her coach and his wife, Miranda Lambert, co-wrote. She received huge praise for singing it the first time, but the song about Shelton's late brother had special meaning in the wake of the shootings in Newtown, Conn. "America's heart is heavy, and that's about healing," Shelton said. She also moved the coaches with her take on Faith Hill's "Cry." "I don't care that you weren't on my team," Levine said. "I am so proud of you and so happy that you're here at this moment." Pope finished the night with Shelton for a duet of Sheryl Crow's "Steve McQueen."
The Voice returns Tuesday, when the season's winner will be named. Who will it be? Tell us in the comments below.
"Fiscal cliff" hopes lift Asian shares, other risk assets
Label: BusinessTOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares and other risk assets rose on Tuesday as signs of compromise sparked new optimism that the U.S. "fiscal cliff" budget tussle could be settled before tax hikes and spending cuts begin to bite early next year.
Differences over how to resolve the fiscal cliff narrowed significantly Monday night as President Barack Obama made a counter-offer to Republicans that included a major change in position on tax hikes for the wealthy, according to a source familiar with the talks.
The move, which the source stressed was not Obama's final offer, was welcomed by a spokesman for Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, potentially advancing negotiations towards a deal by the end-year deadline.
Oil, copper and gold also firmed on the prospect of progress in the U.S. budget talks, which reduced worries about economic damage, but expectations of more monetary easing in Japan kept the yen soft.
"The market will view any advance in talks as positive for confidence, which has been battered by the daily flow of political fighting," Ben Taylor, sales trader at CMC Markets said in a report.
"Regardless of what is decided, the market is looking for a decision and any compromise will help provide a clearer picture for the future."
European shares were expected to keep up the positive momentum, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> will open as much as 0.5 percent higher. A 0.3 percent gain in U.S. stock futures suggested a higher Wall Street opening. <.l><.eu><.n/>
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> was up 0.2 percent, following a rise in global shares on Monday. The index snapped an eight-day winning streak on Monday as investors took profits from last week's rally.
Regional equities also took direction from local factors.
Australian shares <.axjo> gained 0.5 percent to a 17-month high, with resource stocks elevated by a rise in iron ore prices <.io62-cni> to a five-month high.
"Iron ore is a very key commodity in the Chinese industrial machine, steel usage will bounce back and that is good news for our exporters," said Baillieu Holst director Richard Morrow.
Seoul shares <.ks11> rose marginally but underperformed some others in Asia, as investors were reluctant to build positions ahead of South Korea's presidential vote on Wednesday.
London copper was up 0.3 percent to $8,085 a metric ton (1.1023 tons).
"Before the end of the year, I don't really see huge selling pressure, with improving data from China and expectations for a resolution to the fiscal cliff," said analyst Bonnie Liu of Macquarie.
U.S. crude surged 0.8 percent to $87.85 a barrel and Brent rose 0.7 percent to $108.41.
Spot gold added 0.3 percent to $1,702.01 an ounce.
Solid performance in stocks boosted Asian credit markets, narrowing the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index by two basis points.
JAPAN POLITICS MATTER
In Japan, the Nikkei average <.n225> closed up 1.0 percent at an 8-1/2-month high and edged closer to the key 10,000-mark, with sentiment bolstered by a landslide election win for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday. <.t/>
LDP leader Shinzo Abe, due to be confirmed as Japan's premier on December 26, is calling for far more aggressive monetary stimulus and huge public works spending to rescue Japan from decades-long deflation. His pledges are seen as pressuring the yen and supporting Japanese stocks by improving earnings for the country's exporters.
"The Nikkei is up today primarily due to the rise in U.S. stocks overnight, but the 'Abe-effect' is surprisingly longer-lasting as investors seem to be postponing the timing of unwinding their positions until they see the details and specifics in policies," said Ayako Sera, market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.
The dollar inched up 0.1 percent to 83.96 yen, off a 20-month high of 84.48 yen hit on Monday but well above its late New York levels on Friday.
Abe applied fresh pressure on the Bank of Japan on Monday, saying that the election result reflected strong public support for his views, which he hoped the BOJ would take into account at its two-day policy meeting starting on Wednesday.
"The dollar has more upside against the yen ahead of the BOJ's meeting, with expectations for some additional easing steps being strengthened after Abe's comments yesterday," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.
"The corrective fall in the dollar/yen after the election was small and it's crawling up because the yen weakening trend is still intact. But after the BOJ meeting, there will likely be pre-holiday profit-taking, pushing the dollar/yen down by 1 to 2 yen," Saito said, adding that the dollar could temporarily touch 85 yen before profit-taking sets in by year-end.
Concerns that big-scale fiscal stimulus could seriously increase the country's debt burden pushed the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield to a one-month high of 0.750 percent.
U.S. Treasury yields also inched up in Asia, with the 10-year yields briefly reaching 1.796 percent, its highest level since October 26, on hopes for a deal on the U.S. fiscal cliff. [US/T
(Additional reporting by Victoria Thieberger in Melbourne and Manash Goswami and Melanie Burton in Singapore; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
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