Got an adventurous spirit? A love of video? If either of those apply to you, then you're likely well-familiar with GoPro. Heck, if you nodded "yes" to both, then there's a chance you actually even own one. Every iteration of the camera has promised to bring your chosen activity to life in more ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/iyYpFkFsnYM/We've all undoubtedly been in a situation where we've had to take a call while there was lots of background noise going on around us. This can make it hard for the person on the other end to distinguish what we're saying. Luckily, iOS has some options that can help us improve call quality through noise cancellation as long as you're running iOS 7 or later. Here's how to enable the option:
That's it. While this isn't fool proof, it can help to reduce as much noise as possible when you're in a loud environment. This should help your caller be able to hear you better.
     |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/SI1F7kxaslQ/story01.htmIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. More talks "in a few weeks," he says.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. More talks "in a few weeks," he says.
Iran is planning a fresh round of talks on its nuclear program "in a few weeks" after a generally positive first round of multiparty meetings in Geneva aimed at defusing tensions with the West.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, commenting on his Facebook page, says the next meeting with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany would also be held in Geneva.
Reuters, quoting a Western diplomat, says the talks are set to resume in Geneva for two days beginning Nov. 7.
On Tuesday, Tehran presented a plan to the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to end the confrontation over its nuclear program, which it has always insisted is for peaceful purposes.
No details of that plan were released, but as The Associated Press reports:
"[Comments] from Western officials meeting with Iranian negotiators indicated interest in the proposal, described by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as designed to allow Iran to leave the 'dark' path of international isolation.
"Previous rounds have often been fitful and sporadic, reflecting the deadlock between the two sides. Zarif's Facebook comments that negotiations will resume 'in a few weeks' strengthened expectations that some progress was being made. He said the follow-up will also be held in Geneva, the venue for the ongoing talks."
The election of moderate President Hasan Rouhani four months ago has opened the door to negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, which many Western analysts believe is aimed at acquiring a bomb.
Update At 12:08 p.m. ET. Zarif: 'Fruitful' Discussions
Speaking in Geneva, Zarif says Iran held "fruitful" nuclear discussions and hopes for a "new phase" in relations with the West, Reuters reports. He says he hopes world powers will be prepared to try to solve the impasse.
There's a new version of Google Play Music rolling out today, bringing with it a couple of interesting new features. The first is plain to see at the top of the Listen Now and Radio sections, named "I'm feeling lucky radio," in an homage to Google's famous search button. The new radio channel picks stuff it think you'll like based on your past usage. Once you're in, "I'm feeling lucky" works just line any other radio list in Play Music — you can share it, save it, or save tracks to a playlist.
Secondly, there's been a UI tweak to make it easier to find music you've saved to your device — these items now show a little "pin" icon on the lower right of the card.
The update is rolling out through Google Play right now, though with any staged update everyone might not get the new version right away. If you've picked it up already, hit the comments and let us know how you're getting on with the new "I'm feeling lucky" radio.
Update: Looks like the new radio mode is rolling out to Google Play Music on the web, too.
| |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/s2aeFGZipko/story01.htmAccording to Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (MHFI) the recently concluded government shutdown cost a total of $24 billion. Due to this unanticipated expense, the ratings agency has lowered its fourth-quarter GDP estimate by a minimum of .6%. If there's anything of which the nation can be completely certain, it's this: That number is inaccurate and ultimately unimportant.
If there are lessons to be learned from the ongoing, shambling disaster of a debt ceiling fight/Obamacare showdown, they are philosophical and long term. Economics is a social science. There's no need for higher math, just higher thinking. In the attached clip author, economist, pundit, lawyer and general polymath Ben Stein shares takeaway lessons from the last three weeks.
The country is angry, divided, confused.
"We learned how very angry and divided this country is. And learning that people opposed to the entitlement state are ready to take extremely drastic action to stop it... some kind of process of national reconciliation must be going on," says Stein. We knew we were angry, but the price of the reconciliation between entitlement and taxation factions is growing.
The nature of the debate was disheartening, as neither side had a realistic perspective on the balance between income (taxes) and expenditures. This wasn't a serious debate about budgets, but rather a heated exchange between ideologues. The real conversation wasn't about tightening our national belt, it was about which group got a bigger portion of assumed deficits.
"We cannot both be a high-entitlement state and a low-tax state," Stein states plainly. "Arithmetic is the boss."
Unfortunately for the extreme right, the sword cuts both ways. We don't simply have a spending problem, we're not paying our share.
Supply-side economics does not work. It's a disaster we have over the long period, and it's just going to get worse.
While sympathetic to the views of those willing to take extreme stances against the "entitlement state," Stein also thinks our taxes are simply too low for the services we have now. Forget Obamacare for a moment and remember that, for decades, America has run balanced budgets for only brief periods of time. Balanced budgets are flukes stemming from high taxes produced by economic bubbles and a one-time Cold War dividend.
"We got to this crisis because we lowered taxes too much," Stein explains. "We have to raise taxes or else drastically lower entitlements — which we're not going to do."
Taxes have become the new third rail.
A long-time Republican who wrote speeches for both Nixon and Ford, Stein wonders at the way Republicans have somehow taken serious conversations about taxes off the agenda. Railing against entitlements incites the pitchfork- and torch-wielding masses, but only in the abstract.
We rail against excess, but "raise the retirement age to 75" is hardly a Republican battle cry. America is an aging nation with an insufficient tax base. No politician on earth — of either side — is willing to address the fact that paying for the Boomers through their dotage is going to require more tax revenue or a willingness to eliminate entitlements that even the staunchest conservative takes for granted.
The end isn't near.
Pointing to Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio, Stein notes that it's entirely possible, even probable, that the U.S.'s day of reckoning can be held off for a long time — but not forever. Forget the threat of China buying our debt. The real creditor of the U.S. is the Federal Reserve.
Paraphrasing his father, Stein notes that if something can't go on forever it won't. The current fiscal pattern is dysfunctional in a bipartisan way. As Stein sees it, taxes are going to have to come up under any circumstance and entitlements are going to have to be discussed in a grown-up way.
What we ultimately learned from the last three weeks is valuable but painful: The country is divided, entrenched and uniformly delusional. We haven't seen the last of this ridiculous showdown.
More from Breakout:
Time to Dump the Debt Ceiling Once and for All?
T-Mobile Knocking Down Everything You Hate About Wireless: Pogue
J.C. Penney & Sears: Why They're Not Dead Yet!
MILAN (AP) — Rome's military tribunal on Friday convicted a 90-year-old ex-Nazi in absentia for his role in the 1943 execution of 120 Italian officers on the Greek island of Kefalonia and sentenced him to life in prison.
Alfred Stork's conviction was the first in Italy for the Kefalonia massacres in which thousands of Italian soldiers were killed in September 1943. Previous attempts at prosecution were closed because the defendants had died or those responsible could not be properly identified, said military prosecutor Marco De Paolis.
Stork, who now lives in Germany, was tried as a member of an execution squad that killed the 120 Italian officers, including division commander Gen. Antonio Gardin, on Sept 23, 1943, De Paolis said.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 Italian soldiers were killed in the weeklong massacre in September 1943. Italian troops occupying Greece with their German allies suddenly found themselves in enemy territory when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies following the fall of fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
"There were numerous massacres in those five or seven days, all over the island. Some were killed fighting, others were shot down, some were arrested and killed after being held for a day," De Paolis said.
Two German officers were convicted at the Nuremberg trials of the Kefalonia massacres, along with other war crimes, and sentenced from 12 to 20 years. Other prosecution attempts in Germany and Italy in the 1950s and 1960s failed.
De Paolis said he launched this investigation in 2009 at the request of two victims' children, identifying Stork after receiving files from another failed attempt at prosecuting 80 suspects in the early 2000s.
De Paolis said he felt it was "useless' to petition for Stork's extradition for trial since Germany has refused in the past to turn over its citizens even when convicted of Nazi-era crimes.
Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi-hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, noted that Italian military courts have in recent years convicted many Germans for wartime massacres but always in absentia due to Germany's refusal to extradite its citizens. Italy as a result has requested in previous cases for those convicted and sentenced to life to serve their time in Germany.
"The Italians have made a very admirable effort in the past decade to find and bring to court, not in a literal sense, individuals responsible for some terrible atrocities," he said in a phone call from Jerusalem. "It's unfortunate that only one of them has been convicted in Germany."
___
Dave Rising in Berlin contributed.
