Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Is Samsung Overly Reliant On Smartphones?

Source       - http://english.chosun.com/
By             - Press Release
Category   - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

Samsung Electronics achieved record earnings in the third quarter of this year, but experts warn that the smartphone market faces huge risks. The biggest problem is Samsung's dangerously high reliance on smartphones to drive up revenues.

Although the electronics giant did not reveal earnings by individual business division, analysts believe the mobile division, which includes smartphones, accounts for 65 percent of total quarterly operating profit of W10.1 trillion (US$1=W1,070).

In turn, Samsung Electronics accounts for 66 percent of the entire Samsung Group's revenues. That means that slow smartphone sales could rattle the entire group badly. Experts warn that Samsung must come up with new growth engines for a time when the global smartphone market is saturated. Otherwise it could go the way of former rivals Nokia and Blackberry.

Samsung is confident that its strong performance in the smartphone market will continue. Sales of the Galaxy S4 remain strong, and those of the Galaxy Note 3 released recently will be reflected in fourth-quarter earnings, according to the company.

But market conditions are not entirely favorable. Market growth for premium smartphones is slowing, and Chinese rivals are catching up quickly in low- and mid-priced phones, which have the strongest growth potential in the years ahead.

Even Apple, which stuck to high-end phones for years, has started to sell mid-priced phones as well.

It remains to be seen whether Samsung can meet its target of selling 100 million Galaxy 4Ss, said Kim Ji-woong at E*trade Securities. He said analysts lowered their earnings expectations for Samsung Electronics, triggering its share price and market cap to fall. In June, JP Morgan lowered its smartphone output forecast for Samsung, causing the company's market cap to decline by W15 trillion in a single day.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Apple Is Set To Announce Two iPhones

Source      - http://www.nytimes.com/
By            - BRIAN X. CHEN
Category  - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

The handset market is so brutally competitive that Apple, the most successful smartphone maker, is preparing to step up its game this week by offering two new iPhones instead of one.  

At an event on Tuesday at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, the company is set to unveil for customers worldwide a new iPhone with a faster processor, along with another model that will be sold at a lower cost. 

The company’s profit growth has slowed in response to a saturated handset market in America and parts of Europe. Many people already own a smartphone and are not upgrading to new devices as often as before. 

A lower-cost smartphone could allow Apple to expand into overseas markets — especially China, where the iPhone has been highly desired among many consumers but is just out of reach because of its price. 

“A cheaper model will open up the market significantly for Apple,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent telecom analyst who consults for phone carriers. 

Apple declined to comment on the new products. But analysts expect the higher-priced model to be an improvement over the current iPhone, including a faster processor and better camera flash, as well as a fingerprint sensor for security. 

The second iPhone is expected to be a cheaper version of the soon-to-be-outdated iPhone 5, coming in a variety of colors, with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Analysts expect the full price of the lower-cost iPhone to be $300 to $400, positioning it as a midtier product. 

Apple has been enormously successful, with the iPhone driving most of its revenue. In the second quarter, the company took 53 percent of the profit in the global smartphone market, with Samsung Electronics, which uses Google Android software to run its smartphones, taking the rest, according to a survey by Canaccord Genuity, an investment bank. 

But both Apple and Samsung face a common enemy: the tide of manufacturers that produce dirt-cheap Android phones. While they make all the profits, Apple and Samsung have seen their combined share of the worldwide smartphone market drop to 43 percent in the second quarter from 49 percent a year earlier. The makers of cheaper phones — including Huawei, Yulong and ZTE of China, and Micromax and Karbonn of India — are raking in sales in emerging markets where high-end smartphones are not popular. 

“We’ve had several indications from the handset market that vendors are in real trouble,” said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst for Alekstra, a mobile diagnostics firm. “The biggest threat to all the companies seems to be the low-end Androids.” 

In terms of sales, smartphones surpassed traditional flip phones this year. There are a few markets remaining where traditional cellphones are still outselling the smartphone, including India, Brazil and Russia. Data from Qualcomm suggests that Latin America, China and India are adding substantially higher numbers of smartphone subscriptions than North America, Japan, Korea and Europe. 

China, with its huge population, is an attractive target for Apple. But Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said recently in a call with investors that the company was puzzled about why sales of its products were struggling in China. Sales there fell 4 percent in the second quarter compared with the same quarter last year. And Apple’s sales in Hong Kong were down about 20 percent. 

A cheaper iPhone could help it gain traction in China, depending on its cost. 

Analysts said the introduction of the cheaper iPhone would probably coincide with an expected partnership deal with China Mobile, which has about 700 million subscribers — about seven times as many as Verizon Wireless. Capturing even a small percentage of China Mobile customers would translate to tens of millions more iPhone sales. 

Apple already sells its phones in China through China Telecom, a major network operator, but it slipped into sixth place among smartphone makers there in the second quarter, with a share of only 4.8 percent, according to Canalys, a research firm. Over all, China is the largest smartphone market in the world, accounting for one-third of worldwide shipments of smartphones in the second quarter; the United States is in second place, accounting for about 14 percent of shipments in the same period, according to Canalys. 

Despite Apple’s efforts to keep its plans secret, clues about the new iPhones leaked out. China Telecom briefly posted a message last week on a blog platform soliciting early orders for the new devices. It identified the high-end model as the iPhone 5S, and the lower-cost one as the iPhone 5C. The post was later removed. A spokesman for China Telecom declined to comment, citing nondisclosure agreements. 

In Japan, where Apple is much stronger but faces a renewed challenge from domestic smartphone makers like Sony, the company has struck a deal to sell the iPhone with the country’s biggest mobile phone carrier, NTT Docomo, two people briefed on the situation said Friday. Docomo has 60 million customers, but it has been losing market share to Japan’s other two main mobile operators, SoftBank and KDDI, which operates under the brand name au. Both have been marketing Apple’s phones aggressively, giving Apple a 40 percent share of smartphone sales in the first quarter, according to IDC, a research firm. 

Historically, so that it can protect the quality of its products as well as profit margins, Apple has refused to make cheaper products just to get more customers. Therefore, a lower-cost iPhone would most likely be positioned as a midtier product, similar to the approach Apple took with the iPad Mini. At $330, the iPad Mini is cheaper than the bigger, $500 iPad, but not as affordable as the smaller Android tablets offered by Google and Amazon, which cost from $160 to $230. 

Realistically, a lower-cost iPhone will be $300 to $400 at full price, Mr. Kuittinen, the Alekstra analyst, said, significantly less than the current iPhone, which costs $650. Overseas, many phone carriers charge full price because they do not subsidize the upfront cost of a smartphone the way carriers do in the United States. And while a lower-cost iPhone would drive up Apple’s revenue, it would probably not be a blockbuster hit in economically disadvantaged markets, Mr. Kuittinen said. 

“Nobody is saying Apple should have a $130 iPhone,” he said, “but if they price this iPhone 5C at $400 or above, it’s just not going to be effective in countries like India, China or even Brazil.” 

Still, even if the price is fairly high, a cheaper iPhone should appeal to a subset of people in developing countries who flaunt gadgets as status symbols, like jewelry. People who were on the fence about buying an iPhone might pay a little extra just to be able to show off, Mr. Sharma, the telecom analyst, said. “Consumers are willing to shell out money to own a brand,” he said. “I think a $300 price gives them a chance to own it.”

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Cellphone Use While Driving May 'not' Be Hazardous

Source - http://www.dvice.com/
By - Adario Strange
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

The perils of texting while driving have become so obvious to many nations with large driving populations that laws have sprouted up in recent years outlawing such behavior in a number of cities. In fact, the idea that driving while using gadgetry is dangerous is so widely accepted that even Google Glass, a product that isn't even widely available yet, is already facing scrutiny related to road safety in some parts. That said, a new study offers a surprising counter narrative that threatens to upend the notions surrounding safety concerns while using mobile devices in cars.

The study, conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and the London School of Economics, concludes that, contrary to popular belief, talking on a cellphone while driving does "not" increase the risk of automobile crashes. Using calling and crash data from approximately 8 million crashes across nine states from a period between 2002 to 2005, the study found no direct correlation between increased cellphone use after 9 p.m. (a time when a discount-related uptick in phone usage was detected) and actual crash rates.

Citing the results from the study, researcher Saurabh Bhargava said, "While our findings may strike many as counterintuitive, our results are precise enough to statistically call into question the effects typically found in the academic literature. Our study differs from most prior work in that it leverages a naturally occurring experiment in a real-world context."

These findings also fly in the face of recent research by AAA that indicated that even minimal distractions from mobile devices while driving can be dangerous. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this new study is only related to talking on a cellphone. It did not study the potential dangers of texting or surfing the Internet on your mobile device while driving.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Justin Bieber Apologizes For Presidential Antics

Source - http://music.yahoo.com/
By - CARYN ROUSSEAU
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

Justin Bieber apologized by phone to Bill Clinton, the former president's office said Thursday, for cursing Clinton and spraying his photo with cleaning fluid in a New York City restaurant kitchen earlier this year. 

The pop star also had repercussions from a tour stop in Chicago earlier this week when city officials said Bieber was listed as an underage guest on a citation that police issued to a nightclub.

Clinton's office said Thursday the pop star called and "he apologized and offered to help the Clinton Foundation." Clinton's office declined to provide any other details.

A video released Wednesday by TMZ.com shows the 19-year-old Bieber urinating in a mop bucket as he and others race through the restaurant kitchen. Before exiting, Bieber sprays the Clinton photo and drops the F-bomb in reference to the former president.

Bieber tweeted to his more than 41 million followers Wednesday night, thanking Clinton "for taking the time to talk." Bieber tweeted: "Your words meant alot. #greatguy."

Separately, Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection spokeswoman Jennifer Lipford confirmed Thursday that the 19-year-old Bieber was listed as an underage guest on a citation of Bodi nightclub. Police cited the club early Wednesday for admitting and knowingly having an underage person in the establishment, she said.

Bieber performed in a concert at Chicago's United Center on Tuesday evening.

The next step is for the citation to go to an administrative hearing. The club faces a fine of up to $1,000. A date hasn't been set.

Bodi issued a statement saying Bieber made a brief appearance to support a friend who is a DJ and was performing at the nightclub. The club said Bieber was not served alcohol.

"Neither Justin nor anyone affiliated with Bodi broke any laws," the statement said. "We believe this matter amounts to a simple misunderstanding with local police officers."

A representative for Bieber did not immediately have comment.

In California, the rapper known as Lil Twist was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence after being stopped while behind the wheel of Bieber's luxury sports car.

Christopher Moore, 20, was pulled over around 3:30 a.m. Thursday on a Calabasas road leading to a gated community where Bieber lives, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Moore was driving a 2012 Fisker registered to the pop star and going between 60 and 70 mph in an area that has a 30 mph speed limit because of construction, authorities said.

Investigators think Moore might have been under the influence of marijuana. Bail was set at $5,000 for the misdemeanor offense. Moore is signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment label imprint. An email seeking comment was sent to his record label.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Prime San Francisco Parking Spot Sells For $82,000

Source - http://www.foxnews.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

A San Francisco real estate agent recently sold a parking spot a block from AT&T Park for $82,000.

Sean Sullivan, the real estate agent, told FoxNews.com that the building’s location is ideal, with tech firms like Instagram popping up in the area. He pointed out that the area is flush with eateries and a marina is nearby for boating enthusiasts.

The 8-by-17-foot space was apparently sold by an apartment owner in the mixed-use building. It is otherwise unusual for owners to be able to turn around and sell the parking space that comes with the apartment, he said.

"The person who bought this spot can use it when he goes to Giants games or he can rent it if he wants," he said. "It could make for steady income."

Sullivan pointed out that there is another parking spot in the building that was sold for $95,000 a few years back.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - China's Bird Flu Outbreak Cost $6.5 Billion

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Stephanie Nebehay
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

Health authorities worldwide must be on the lookout to detect the virus, the experts said, which could still develop the ability to spread easily among humans and cause a deadly influenza pandemic.

The new bird flu virus is known to have infected 130 people in mainland China since emerging in March, including 36 who died, but no cases have been detected since early May, Health Minister Li Bin told a meeting of the World Health Organization. One case was found in Taiwan in April, making a total of 131.

"The immediate outbreak has been controlled, but it is also unlikely that virus has simply disappeared. We believe we need go another autumn/winter/spring season to know," said Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security.

"We also have high concern over the potential, I stress the potential, to gain the ability to sustain transmissibility."

There was no evidence of sustained spread among people and "most cases probably resulted from infected poultry or perhaps contamination related to live poultry markets," Fukuda said.

Li said local Chinese authorities had shut down live poultry markets "temporarily or permanently as needed" to control the source of outbreaks in 10 provinces. It standardized methods of transporting poultry to reduce spread among birds.

China's government had spent 600 million RMB or $97 million to support healthy development of the poultry industry, Li said.

"In view of the present situation, H7N9 is preventable and controllable. There has been no qualitative change in the epidemic. Cases are sporadic and there has been no genetic mutation (of the virus)," she said.

H7N9 is highly pathogenic in humans, causing severe respiratory disease, but is not virulent among birds, making it nearly impossible for farmers to detect, experts said.

"There have been no (human) cases since May 8, that is a good indication and means measures are being taken seriously. Now when the virus is found at market, all birds are killed, that is important too," Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), told reporters.

Out of 60,000 samples taken from birds, 53 were found to carry the virus, Liang Wannian of China's health ministry said.

There is "no red flag" for H7N9 among poultry, unlike H1N1 which kills off flocks, said Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer at the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"Economic impacts of H7N9 have been astounding," he said.

"Over $6.5 billion has been lost in the agriculture sector because of prices, consumer confidence and trade. So poultry industry losses in China have been high," Lubroth said, later making clear it was an estimate by China's agriculture ministry.

Budget Hotel in Santa Clarita | "Samsung Galaxy S 4 is Loaded With Gee Whiz Features"

Source:     http://www.usatoday.com/

By:            Edward C. Baig

Category:  Budget Hotel in Santa Clarita

Posted by: Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotel in Santa Clarita

NEW YORK — You get the impression that Samsung is auditioning for a Las Vegas magic act. When it comes to the brand new Galaxy S 4, the South Korean electronics giant seemingly has an endless bag of parlor tricks. The smartphone is the highly anticipated successor to the Galaxy S III and I like it a lot, even if some of the new features come off as "look what we can do" as opposed to "look how we can make your experience better."

Want to answer a call or skip a song with the wave of your hand? Go right ahead. Want to pause a video by looking away from the screen? You can do that, too. Did someone walk in front of your family just as you were capturing the perfect pose? Poof — the interloper can be made to disappear from the picture. You can also use your phone as a remote control for your television — whether the TV is from Samsung or not — and receive recommendations of what to watch.

Samsung's latest phone is loaded with so many stunts that the company wisely starts folks out with a "learn about key features" wizard. Newbies can also go with a newly enhanced "Easy Mode" home screen, with a simpler layout and bigger icons than the standard screens. An improved notifications panel can also make it a little easier to tame the device.

Some of the features on the S 4 launched on prior Galaxys, and perhaps you even took advantage of them. For example, there's S Beam, in which you can exchange data with a friend by bumping your Galaxy phone against his or hers. 

But the S 4 is teeming with fresh capabilities. Some are fun and innovative, such as a dual-shot photography feature that lets you simultaneously snap a picture using the 13-megapixel front camera and 2-megapixel rear camera. You can see your own face beaming in an image that also shows your kid whacking the ball in Little League. But several other "touch-less" features weren't always functional or easy to figure out. (Samsung has embedded eight sensors on the device.) 

That's not to diminish what taken as a whole is a handset worth coveting. There's good reason Samsung's Galaxy smartphones have climbed to the top of the Android charts and emerged as the leading competitor to Apple's iPhone. Some features may be gimmicky, but this is still a phone you're going to want.

The S 4 hardware is state of the art, even if the plastic-y back, which feels just like the S III, doesn't quite have the premium feel of another recent new Android rival, the HTC One. The speakers aren't as good as HTC's, either.

Samsung certainly has no reason to apologize for the S 4's beautiful 5-inch full HD Super Amoled (1920 x 1080) display, which is fortified by an advanced version of protective Gorilla Glass. At less than a third of an inch thick, the phone is more svelte than the S III and, at 4.6 ounces, a hair lighter. 

Even at that, Samsung has been able to pack in a more powerful battery, which, as a bragging point against the iPhone, can be replaced by the user. When the back cover is removed, you can also slide in an optional microSD card to bolster the 16 GB or 32 GB of on-board storage by up to 64 GB.

The S 4 has a powerful quad-core processor. It runs Android version 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

Devices start arriving Thursday and will eventually be available in the U.S. from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, as well as from U.S. Cellular, Cricket and C Spire. Major retailers will also carry it.

AT&T is selling the 16 GB version for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Sprint is trying to lure new customers with an incentive that drops the cost to $149.99. That's what T-Mobile will charge upfront on top of monthly payments under its new pricing structure. (I tested the T-Mobile version of the phone but couldn't tap into 4G LTE since that network is not available yet on T-Mobile in and around New York City.) Verizon starts pre-orders on Thursday for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with availability May 30.

Some of the coolest new features come with the camera. I especially liked the dual-camera mode for combining images from the front and rear cameras into one, though it was sometimes a challenge to frame the image just right. Your mug appears in a small resizable rectangle that you can drag about the screen.

"Drama shot" was also pretty nifty. You can take a picture of your kid running the bases or doing a somersault — the idea is you're tracking movement. The camera can take up to 100 images in a burst. Once processed, you can choose which of the frames ought to be combined in the final picture, which shows the

I wasn't able to test every last feature on the phone, including Group Play, which lets you play games or share files with other people nearby who also have the device. Then again, I can't imagine using every last feature anyway. For all the fancy tricks, the real magic comes from sticking to the basics on what is a very appealing phone.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - In Europe, New Protest Over Google

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/
By - JAMES KANTER
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

European antitrust regulators have received a formal complaint about Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices, even as they move to the final stages of their inquiry into the company’s search practices.

 The complaint was filed by Fairsearch Europe, a group of Google’s competitors, including the mobile phone maker Nokia and the software titan Microsoft, and by other companies, like Oracle. It accuses Google of using the Android software “as a deceptive way to build advantages for key Google apps in 70 percent of the smartphones shipped today,” said Thomas Vinje, the lead lawyer for Fairsearch Europe, referring to Android’s share of the smartphone market.

For example, phone makers that agree to use Android — and that also want Google applications like YouTube — face contractual requirements to place those applications and other Google-branded applications in prominent positions on the mobile device’s desktop, Mr. Vinje said.

In an interview on Monday, the European Union’s antitrust chief, Joaquín Almunia, declined to comment on the new complaint but said officials had been examining the Android operating system independently of the two-year inquiry into whether Google had abused its dominance of Internet search.

When a formal complaint like this is made, the commission must at some point decide whether to take up the case or drop it.

Mr. Almunia also said that he was receiving proposals this week from Google to clear up concerns about its search practices, and that he hoped they would make it easier for Internet users to identify when Google was promoting its own services rather than those of competitors who might offer better results.

“This is a new step in the investigation,” he said.

A Google spokesman, Al Verney, would not specifically discuss either the new complaint or the comments by Mr. Almunia about the search case, saying only that the company continued “to work cooperatively” with the commission.

The European Commission opened its antitrust inquiry into Google’s search practices in November 2010. The investigation has since focused on whether Google might have unfairly taken advantage of its market dominance by giving preference to links to its own services, like Google Maps, when answering queries; whether Google disadvantaged competitors by including material in search results that came from other Web sites; and whether Google conducts its advertising business in accord with European antitrust law.

Last May the commission suggested that Google propose changes in how search results are presented as a way to settle the case. Since then, regulators and Google have been negotiating over those changes and other terms.

In Monday’s interview, Mr. Almunia said Google needed to offer the commission a solution where choices between Google-branded search results and those of its competitors were clearly visible within the search engine both on desktop computers and on mobile devices.

“I don’t know if you should call it labeling, or whatever, but they need to distinguish,” Mr. Almunia said.

“In some cases this can be achieved through the information you will receive through the natural search results,” he said. “In other cases, maybe we will ask Google to signal what are the relevant options, alternative options, in the way they present the results.”

The choice “should be a real one,” he said.

Mr. Almunia said regulators were not requiring Google to make changes to its algorithm, the secret formula that the company uses to determine the best responses to search queries.

In terms of the way Google uses and displays snippets of information from other Web sites in its search results, he said he expected Google to accept that other companies could choose “to allow or not to allow Google to use the content, but this decision cannot have as a consequence the punishment of those who will not allow the use of the content in terms of search results.”

Web sites and some publications have complained in recent years of virtually disappearing from Google’s search engine if they posed a competitive threat or did not comply with Google’s terms.

Mr. Almunia said he would test any changes that Google proposed to make by sending questionnaires to competitors, including the complainants, and to other companies.

Mr. Almunia said in Europe, where Google is especially strong, with more than 90 percent of the search market, compared with about 70 percent in the United States, it is particularly difficult for search engines to establish themselves if they focus on narrow but deep services like online shopping, travel or mapping.

But Mr. Almunia also said his approach in the case was not aimed at “protecting competitors,” as critics of European regulation have long complained.

Mr. Almunia said that he had concerns that Google had abused its dominance to promote its own products but that he would not need to “find a final answer to this question” if Google reached a settlement. “We are concerned by the possibility of an abuse,” he said.

“What is clear in our view is the market dominance of Google,” Mr. Almunia said. “This is obvious.”

He also noted that “it would not be surprising” if Google faced formal charges in a case concerning Motorola Mobility, a mobile phone maker owned by Google. That case follows complaints by Microsoft and Apple that they were victims of unfair licensing conditions and abusive litigation by Motorola Mobility.

The commission has taken a tougher line with Google than has the Federal Trade Commission on the issue of how Google runs its search rankings. The F.T.C. decided in January, after a 19-month inquiry into how the company operated its search engine, that Google had not broken antitrust laws.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Asian Markets Rise As Cyprus Deal Eases Crisis Fears

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/
By - Press Release
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

Cyprus will now get a 10bn euro ($13bn; £8.5bn) cash injection to keep its banking system running and prevent it from crashing out of the eurozone.

Many investors had feared that its exit from the bloc may escalate the region's debt crisis and derail global recovery.

Shares in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia rose on the news.

"The news was what markets were waiting for, some kind of an agreement," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 1.8%, South Korea's Kospi gained 1.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7% and Australia's ASX200 was up 0.7%.

Improving risk appetite

A failure to reach a deal may have seen the European Central Bank cut emergency funding to Cyprus's two biggest banks, leading to an effective bankruptcy of Cyprus's government.

The fears were that such a move may prompt the country's exit from the bloc.

Many analysts had been concerned that Cyprus's exit may cause a loss of confidence across the eurozone and prompt investors to withdraw from other troubled economies of the bloc, such as Greece.

These concerns had seen investors ditch the euro over the past few days in favour of other assets, such as the Japanese yen and US dollar, seen as comparatively safer.

However, news of the Cyprus deal boosted the euro.

The single currency gained 0.8% against the US dollar. It was trading at $1.3044 in early Asian trade.

It rose 1.3% against the Japanese yen to trade at 123.81 yen.

"This will likely limit the euro's downside, with those who shorted the euro covering their positions, and improve general risk sentiment," said Hiroshi Maeba, head of foreign exchange trading for UBS in Tokyo.

Ben le Brun, an analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney, added that the deal was likely to have a positive impact on the oil markets as well.

"We should see some positive sentiment reverberate through energy markets overall for at least the next 24 to 48 hours," he said.

Brent Crude rose 0.3% to $108.34 per barrel in Asian trade, while US Light Crude gained 0.4% to $94.1 per barrel.

Uncertainties remain

Cyprus had agreed a bailout deal with the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week.

However, the EU and IMF had asked Cyprus to raise 5.8bn euros in order to secure the funds.

They had proposed that Cyprus impose a one-off levy on bank deposits in order to raise the cash, a move that triggered protests in Cyprus and resulted in savers rushing to ATM machines to withdraw their money - a move that brought fears of a run on the banks.

The Cyprus parliament rejected the proposal last week, delaying an agreement to secure the bailout funds.

According to the latest deal, all deposits under 100,000 euros will be "fully guaranteed".

However, Laiki (Popular) Bank, the country's second-biggest, will be wound down and holders of deposits of more than 100,000 euros will face big losses.

The levy on accounts in Laiki Bank could be as high as 40%, correspondents say.

Large deposits in the Bank of Cyprus, the country's biggest bank, will also face a levy.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, told a press conference in Brussels that the percentage to be levied on large deposits in the Bank of Cyprus will be decided in the coming weeks.

Analysts said that while the draft deal had helped ease market jitters, uncertainties surrounding its implementation were likely to hurt sentiment in the coming days.

"We might get a small relief rally if we do get one, but markets will then very quickly turn to the risk of a bank run and whether conditions for the aid will be implemented smoothly," said Greg Gibbs, senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Sam Raimi Re-Builds Oz For a 3D Audience

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/

By - Georgie Rogers

Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

As well as the Oscar-winning 1939 film, starring Judy Garland, there has been The Wiz - the Motown-produced version starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson - unofficial Disney sequel Return to Oz and even a Muppet version.

On stage the tale has also undergone many incarnations, including the recent Andrew Lloyd Webber West End production and the Tony award-winning musical Wicked - told from the perspective of the witches - which continues to be a hit in London and on Broadway.

For his new take on the tale, director Sam Raimi's plan from the outset was to make a film that serves as a prequel to Baum's book.

His 3D version, Oz The Great And Powerful, tells the untold story of how charming con-man Oscar Diggs became the wizard of Oz.

"Thank God we weren't trying to remake the sacred classic that everybody loves," says Zach Braff, who plays both Diggs' underappreciated circus assistant and provides the voice of a computer generated flying monkey.

"Audiences really like that world, so with all this amazing technology today... it made sense to tell an origin story of 'how did this guy end up behind the curtain?'" he says.

The film stars 127 Hours actor James Franco as Diggs, who finds himself in Oz after being caught up in a Baum-esque freak tornado.

He is greeted in turn by warring witch sisters Theodora, Evanora and Glinda, played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams respectively, who show him the good and the bad in the mystical land.

Academy Award-winner Weisz, says the chance to play a "good old-fashioned villainess" drew her to Evanora, in what marks her first fantasy film role.

"I thought it would be really fun to play someone really bad and evil... the more evil they are, the more fun they have." she says.

The actress recalls the 1939 MGM film as one of her first trips to the cinema.

"What makes that film very charming, is the sweetness," she says. "You can see the make-up and the special effects are at the beginning of what special effects can do."

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Milky Way Shines Over Volcanoes in Amazing Time-Lapse

Source - http://news.yahoo.com/
By - Miriam Kramer
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

An amazing new video shot over 12 days by an amateur astronomer has captured the stunning beauty of an active volcanoes on Earth with the Milky Way galaxy as its backdrop.

Photographer Justin Ng combined images of the moon, sun, Milky Way other celestial objects as they appeared over three volcanoes in Indonesia to create his first time-lapse video.

"My goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy, star trails and sun rise along with the 3 volcanoes namely Mount Bromo, Mount Semeru and Mount Batok," Ng told SPACE.com in an email.Justin Ng is a photographer based in Singapore. He captured the images between May 26 and June 6 of 2012.

Although Ng's video of volcanoes and the night sky is stunningly beautiful, it wasn't easy to capture.

Trying to capture these shots in a tourist-heavy area like Mount Bromo also created a unique set of issues for the amateur astronomer, Ng said. A wind storm at around the 2-minute, 10-second mark in the nearly four-minute video collapsed some of photography equipment, but the cameras still managed to shoot about  seconds worth of photos before falling over, he added.

"As Mount Bromo is a famous tourist attraction spot, hundreds of jeeps can be seen during wee hours ferrying the tourists to the peak and back," Ng said. "Many of my clips were ruined due to light pollution caused by these jeeps. Also, I have to check the camera LCD screen frequently to prevent condensation issues from ruining my hours of effort and I have to battle against the strong wind from toppling my cameras."

Ng cites luck as a major factor in the success of his trip to Mount Bromo.

"Luck really played an important role to ensure the success of this film. I had to make important decisions everyday because I wouldn't have been able to capture some of the rare scenes if I did not visit the location when it happened," Ng wrote. "Post processing tens of thousands of shots to deflicker my clips was also a nightmare but the beautiful scenes I managed to capture made my efforts all worthwhile."