Attractions In Santa Clarita - Apple Unveils New IPads Amid Crowded Tablet Market

Source       - http://www.businessweek.com/
By             - Adam Satariano
Category   - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
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Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

Apple Inc. (AAPL:US) introduced new iPads in time for holiday shoppers, as it battles to stay ahead of rivals in the increasingly crowded market for tablet computers. 

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook debuted a new iPad mini with a high-definition screen, as well as a thinner and lighter design for the larger tablet named the iPad Air. The iPad Air goes on sale on Nov. 1, starting at $499. The iPad mini will be available later in November for $399 and up, higher than the previous model’s starting price of $329. 

“This is just the beginning for iPad,” Cook said to a crowd of media and technology-industry insiders at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in downtown San Francisco. “We have been busy working on the next generation of iPad.” 

 

In the year since Apple last updated the iPad, companies including Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), Asustek Computer Inc. (2357), Google Inc. (GOOG:US) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN:US) have unveiled new tablets, often at lower prices. The competition adds pressure to Apple because the iPad is its second-largest source of revenue after its flagship iPhone. Success of the new models will be critical as the Cupertino, California-based company attempts to reignite revenue growth, which has slowed.

New Macs

Apple today also introduced new Mac software, called Mavericks, which is available free of charge. The software may stoke hardware sales, with the company also showing an updated high-end Mac Pro desktop computer starting at $2,999 aimed at professions that need extra computing power, as well as new MacBook Pro laptops. 

“We still believe deeply in this category and we’re not slowing down on our innovations” in Macs, said Cook. The Mac Pro will be assembled in the U.S., he said. 

Apple shares fell less than 1 percent to close at $519.87 in New York, leaving the stock down 2 percent for the year, compared with a 23 percent increase in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. 

Apple is updating its products ahead of the lucrative holiday shopping season. As part of the lineup, the company released new iPhones (AAPL:US) -- the iPhone 5s and 5c -- last month. 

Yet more than three years after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, the growth of the global tablet market is showing signs of decelerating. Tablet shipments are projected to increase 28 percent in 2014 to 301 million units, after doubling in 2012, according to Counterpoint Research. 

Competitors are cutting into Apple’s lead. The company’s tablet market share slid to 32 percent in the second quarter, compared to 60 percent a year earlier, according to IDC. 

Samsung, Asustek, Lenovo Group Ltd. (992), Acer Inc. (2353) and others are offering devices with prices starting at less than half of the iPad mini’s previous starting cost of $329. Amazon.com introduced new Kindle Fires last month with higher-resolution screens at prices starting from $229, while Microsoft Corp. and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) took the wraps off new tablets this week.

Biggest Usage

Cook alluded to the competition today, noting that “everybody seems to be making a tablet.” He said the iPad is still used more than four times more than all other tablets put together. Apple has sold more than 170 million iPads, he said. 

In a move to spur growth, Apple will also roll out the new iPad Air in China at the same time as other markets, said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of product marketing. Apple also dropped the price of last year’s iPad mini model to $299.

No Worries

Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis said the higher starting price of the iPad mini shows Apple isn’t worried about competitors. He said the tablet market has bifurcated into two, with Apple controlling the high-end with its collection of popular iPad-specific apps, and a slew of other lower-end tablets used mainly to watch video or browse the Web. 

“Apple apparently doesn’t fear much tablet competition,” he said. 

Some rivals’ tablet efforts have flopped. Microsoft took an $900 million writedown earlier this year after its Surface failed to catch on with consumers. 

Apple is also going on the offensive by offering its operating system software for free. That threatens companies such as Microsoft, which typically sells its software in pricier packages. Carl Howe, an analyst at Yankee Group, said Apple giving away its software is tantamount to “challenging the Microsoft model.” 

Developers at Apple’s event said the updated iPads will attract consumers, especially the lighter and thinner iPad Air. 

“When you have a lighter weight device, you’re going to get more usage,” said Mike McCue, co-founder of news-reading application Flipboard Inc. “People are more likely to throw it in a backpack, pick it up or use it.” 

Some carriers and developers immediately began using the new iPads as a marketing opportunity. T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS:US), which is selling the iPad for the first time, is offering users 200-megabits of high-speed data service at no extra cost, to help the fourth-largest carrier stand apart from its rivals. The 200-megabit allotment covers about five Web page downloads a day, according to the company’s data calculator. Users can buy 2.5GB of additional data for $30 or 4.5GB for $40.

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Driverless Car Will Be Street Ready In Three Years

Source       - http://www.itnews.com/

Colin Neagle

By             - Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Category   - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has raised the ante on the rest of the automobile industry, declaring in a recent interview with the Financial Times that his company's self-driving car will be street-ready by 2016.
Google, whose autonomous car has successfully driven more than 500,000 miles and has even accommodated a blind driver, had previously set 2018 as the expected release date for its self-driving car technology. Israeli company Mobileye is the only other to make as bold a claim as Tesla, albeit with a lower-cost system that The New York Times says  "does not offer the autonomy achieved by Google's engineers."
Although Musk has a tendency to talk publicly of far-reaching technological concepts, most notably the Hyperloop, he told the Financial Times that this declaration is "not speculation," but rather an educated guess based on the company's internal development.
There is a catch, however Musk says the car will not be fully autonomous, but will instead offer "a form of auto-pilot' in most situations that would allow the vehicle to take over control," the Financial Times reported.
"My opinion is it's a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars," Musk said in the interview. "It's incredibly hard to get the last few percent."
RELATED:Big data roadblocks will slow driverless cars until 20404, analyst says
20 cars that driver themselves
In that sense, Tesla's plans for driverless cars align more with Mobileye's than Google's. Mobileye can automate driving a vehicle that drives "in a single lane at freeway speeds, as well as identifying traffic lights and automatically slowing, stopping and then returning to highway speeds." Its benefit, compared to Google's driverless car, is that it costs just a few hundred dollars to outfit a car with the cameras that make up the Mobileye system.
The Financial Times also notes that Google has had difficulty finding a manufacturing partner willing to adopt its technology, reportedly out of concern for safety and liability.
"Mr Musk's rejection of the idea of a fully autonomous car, however, was the latest sign that Google has had trouble finding partners among established carmakers to bring its technology to the road," the Financial Times reported.
Despite the increasingly competitive race to put the first driverless car on the road, others are less optimistic. Sheila Brennan, IDC's program manager for product lifecycle strategies, said in March that issues involving handling the implicit data and legal issues involved with autonomous cars will keep them largely off the road until about 2040.
- See more at: http://www.itnews.com/configuration-maintenance/67633/elon-musk-teslas-driverless-car-will-be-street-ready-three-years#sthash.RxesZlW2.dpuf

Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has raised the ante on the rest of the automobile industry, declaring in a recent interview with the Financial Times that his company's self-driving car will be street-ready by 2016.

Google, whose autonomous car has successfully driven more than 500,000 miles and has even accommodated a blind driver, had previously set 2018 as the expected release date for its self-driving car technology. Israeli company Mobileye is the only other to make as bold a claim as Tesla, albeit with a lower-cost system that The New York Times says  "does not offer the autonomy achieved by Google's engineers."

Although Musk has a tendency to talk publicly of far-reaching technological concepts, most notably the Hyperloop, he told the Financial Times that this declaration is "not speculation," but rather an educated guess based on the company's internal development.

There is a catch, however Musk says the car will not be fully autonomous, but will instead offer "a form of auto-pilot' in most situations that would allow the vehicle to take over control," the Financial Times reported.

"My opinion is it's a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars," Musk said in the interview. "It's incredibly hard to get the last few percent."

20 cars that driver themselves

In that sense, Tesla's plans for driverless cars align more with Mobileye's than Google's. Mobileye can automate driving a vehicle that drives "in a single lane at freeway speeds, as well as identifying traffic lights and automatically slowing, stopping and then returning to highway speeds." Its benefit, compared to Google's driverless car, is that it costs just a few hundred dollars to outfit a car with the cameras that make up the Mobileye system.

The Financial Times also notes that Google has had difficulty finding a manufacturing partner willing to adopt its technology, reportedly out of concern for safety and liability.

"Mr Musk's rejection of the idea of a fully autonomous car, however, was the latest sign that Google has had trouble finding partners among established carmakers to bring its technology to the road," the Financial Times reported.

Despite the increasingly competitive race to put the first driverless car on the road, others are less optimistic. Sheila Brennan, IDC's program manager for product lifecycle strategies, said in March that issues involving handling the implicit data and legal issues involved with autonomous cars will keep them largely off the road until about 2040.

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Colin Neagle

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Why Apple Is Eyeing Gold For The New iPhone

Source        - http://www.usatoday.com/
By               - Jefferson Graham
Category    - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

If you've noticed #iphonegold showing up all over Twitter, there's a good reason.

The Internet on Monday lit up over reports that the next iPhone, set for unveiling on Sept. 10, could be available in black, white and gold. If Apple does indeed launch a gold iPhone, it would be the first color added to the iconic device since its debut in 2007.

According to reports from TechCrunch and All Things D, gold will join black and white as options for Apple's next smartphone. Both reports claim the iPhone won't feature a gaudy gold, such as you might see on a gold bar, but more of a champagne color. The phone will have a white face with a golden tone on the backplate and edging.

Apple declined to comment.

The addition of gold would not be a big deal here, but "huge" in China, says Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies.

"The market is driven by colors, and gold means prosperity," says Bajarin.

Apple is expected to introduce both a successor to the iPhone 5 and a lower-price, plastic iPhone for cost-conscious consumers at the September event.

The new iPhone is expected to have staple upgrades including a faster processor, stronger battery and improved camera. It could also include new fingerprint technology.

Apple purchased security firm AuthenTec in 2012, so Bajarin expects Apple to include AuthenTec's fingerprint technology in the new iPhone.

Because so many iPhones are either lost or stolen, and so much of our personal data live inside the phone, "Security is very high in consumers' minds right now," says Bajarin.

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 7, which will be released with the new iPhone, has a "death sentence" feature that lets the owner send a signal to the phone if it's lost, effectively turning it into a useless brick.

"The combo of the two is a killer," says Bajarin. Additionally, "Android doesn't have anything like it — not yet anyway."

Apple is under pressure in the smartphone market, especially from Samsung and other companies that make smartphones running Google's Android operating system. The security features could give Apple bragging rights over features Androids don't currently have.

Not to be outdone, rival Samsung is hosting an event Sept. 4 where it is not only expected to unveil the next Galaxy Note smartphone, but could also unveil a new smartwatch, according to a Bloomberg report.

Yet another new huge phone from Samsung, the "Galaxy Mega," goes on sale Friday at AT&T stores for $150 with a 2-year service contract. The screen is 6.3 inches diagonally, making it almost as big as a small tablet.

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - SIM Cards Have Finally Been Hacked, And The Flaw Could Affect Millions Of Phones

Source - http://www.forbes.com/
By - Parmy Olson
Category - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

Smartphones are susceptible to malware and carriers have enabled NSA snooping, but the prevailing wisdom has it there’s still one part of your mobile phone that remains safe and un-hackable: your SIM card.

Yet after three years of research, German cryptographer Karsten Nohl claims to have finally found encryption and software flaws that could affect millions of SIM cards, and open up another route on mobile phones for surveillance and fraud.

Nohl, who will be presenting his findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on July 31, says his is the first hack of its kind in a decade, and comes after he and his team tested close to 1,000 SIM cards for vulnerabilities, exploited by simply sending a hidden SMS. The two-part flaw, based on an old security standard and badly configured code, could allow hackers to remotely infect a SIM with a virus that sends premium text messages (draining a mobile phone bill), surreptitiously re-direct and record calls, and — with the right combination of bugs — carry out payment system fraud.

Payment fraud could be a particular problem for mobile phone users in Africa, where SIM-card based payments are widespread. The deployment of so-called NFC payment technology, already slow to take off, could also be at risk, Nohl says, as well as the ability for carriers to track charges to each caller’s account.

There’s no obvious pattern to the flaw beyond the premise of an older encryption standard. “Different shipments of SIM cards either have [the bug] or not,” says Nohl, who is chief scientist at risk management firm Security Research Labs. “It’s very random.”

In his study, Nohl says just under a quarter of all the SIM cards he tested could be hacked, but given that encryption standards vary widely between countries, he estimates an eighth of the world’s SIM cards could be vulnerable, or about half a billion mobile devices.

Nohl, who was profiled by Forbes’ Andy Greenberg in 2011 for his work on breaking mobile encryption standards, believes it unlikely that cyber criminals have already found the bug. Now that word of the vulnerability is out, he expects it would take them at least six months to crack it, by which time the wireless industry will have implemented available fixes.

That effort may already be underway. Nohl says at least two large carriers have already tasked their staff with finding a patch for the SIM vulnerability, which they will share with other operators through the wireless trade body GSMA.

“Companies are surprisingly open to the idea of working cooperatively on security topics because the competition is somewhere else,” says Nohl. “The competition is organized crime, not AT&T versus T-Mobile.” (The situation in similarly in finance, where payment services like MasterCard, Visa, and American Express will work together under  industry association EMVco to improve security standards for smart cards.)

The market for SIMs is almost entirely fed by mobile carriers, and supplied by two leading global vendors, Gemalto and Oberthur Technologies. Both have profited heavily from the huge growth in mobile handsets: ten years ago there were 1 billion SIM cards worldwide, and today there are more than 5 billion, says ABI Research analyst John Devlin, though the market is slowly reaching a plateau. SIMs are thought to be one of the most secure parts of a phone, he added, and as the carrier’s property, are “key to their relationship between you and I, the subscriber.”

Vodafone would not answer questions about the level of encryption its SIM cards used, and referred all media questions to GSMA. Both Verizon and AT&T said they knew of Nohl’s research, but said their SIM profiles were not vulnerable to the flaw. AT&T added that it had used SIMs with triple Data Encryption Standards (3DES) for almost a decade; Verizon did not specify why its SIMs were not vulnerable.

The London-based GSMA said it had looked at Nohl’s analysis and concurred that “a minority of SIMs produced against older standards could be vulnerable.” It said it had already provided guidance to network operators and SIM vendors who could be impacted by the flaw. “There is no evidence to suggest that today’s more secure SIMs, which are used to support a range of advanced services, will be affected,” a spokesperson added.

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Big Weight Loss For Diabetics, But No Drop In Heart Risk

Source - http://www.upr.org/
By - Nancy Shute
Category - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

HotelReservationsInSantaClarita

Hundreds of overweight or obese people with diabetes have been able to do something very few Americans have done: lose a big chunk of weight and keep it off for 10 years.

So should it matter if that epic weight loss didn't reduce the risk of heart disease? Maybe not.

That's one response to the results of the Look AHEAD clinical trial, which checked to see if losing weight reduced heart disease risk in people with Type 2 diabetes.

Maintaining a healthful weight is an important way to prevent and manage diabetes. It's also helps reduce heart disease risk. So the researchers were surprised to find that even though the study participants lost weight and kept it off, they didn't reduce their risk of heart attacks, stroke and chest pain.

Researchers at 16 institutions had organized a long-running clinical trial to measure the effect of weight loss, enrolling more than 5,000 obese or overweight people ages 45 to 75 with Type 2 diabetes. They averaged about 200 pounds.

Half of the group was assigned to an intensive lifestyle intervention that involved eating less — 1,200 to 1,800 calories a day — and putting in at least three hours of moderate exercise a week. They got counseling and attended meetings to help them stick with the program.

Those people lost an average of 8.6 percent of their body weight in the first year, which isn't easy to do. Most weight-loss studies can eke out only a few percentage points of change in that time.

The people in the control group, who didn't get the lifestyle help, lost almost 1 percent of body weight in the first year.

Both groups managed to avoid major backsliding, which typically happens with weight-loss trials. The intervention group gained some weight back in years two through five, but ended up with a 6 percent loss over 10 years. The control group lost weight gradually, and was down about 4 percent at the end. All told, 1,193 people stayed with the trial throughout.

Excess weight is considered a risk factor for both cardiovascular disease and diabetes, so the researchers figured they'd see improvements in both.

Instead, they had to stop the trial early, after almost 10 years, when it was clear that the people in the weight-loss group weren't getting any extra protection from heart attacks, strokes, or angina.

But the trial wasn't a failure, the the researchers say. It shows that people with diabetes "can lose weight and maintain that weight loss," lead author Rena Wing, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University, reported at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Chicago. The results were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The weight-loss group also had better glycemic control and lower systolic blood pressure, spent less money on medications, had less sleep apnea, and was more likely to have a partial remission of diabetes. They were less likely to land in the hospital. And they also felt better.

"This study in no way disproves the important of weight reduction and exercise," says Dr. Douglas Zipes, a distinguished professor emeritus at the Indiana University School of Medicine and past president of the American College of Cardiology. "There were significant benefits achieved."

The control group took more statins and other drugs to reduce cardiovascular risk, Zipes notes, which could have clouded the study's findings.

And he says that years of evidence showing that eating well and exercising reduce heart disease risk still stand. "We've been able to reduce mortality from heart disease by 60 percent over the past three decades," he said.

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Asian Stocks Set for First Drop in Seven Months; Rupee Declines

Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/
By - Glenys Sim & Jonathan Burgos
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Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

Asian stocks headed for the first monthly decline since October as a drop in Japanese brokerages and shipping lines limited a rebound in the nation’s shares. The Indian rupee and equities fell as a report showed the nation’s economy grew at its slowest pace in a decade.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed at 135.64 as of 2:41 p.m. in Tokyo, after climbing as much as 0.8 percent, and is down 4.6 percent in May. Japan’s Topix (TPX) index swang between gains and losses. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures and FTSE 100 Index contracts were steady. The yen fell against all 16 major counterparts. The so-called Aussie slid 0.3 percent to 96.38 U.S. cents.

India’s gross domestic product increased 5 percent in the year ended March 31, compared with 6.2 percent in the previous period, a government report showed. Data due today may show U.S. consumer spending stagnated, reducing bets the Federal Reserve will scale back its purchases of bonds. Japan’s industrial production expanded 1.7 percent in April, an initial sign of success for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic revival campaign.

“Price moves are being exaggerated by thin volume” as investors stay on the sidelines, said Alex Wong, a Hong Kong-based director at Ample Capital Ltd. “You can’t be bullish after the market fell so much, but with foreign markets being so resilient, you can’t be too bearish.”

The Topix slumped yesterday, passing the 10 percent threshold some investors use to define a correction. Even after yesterday’s plunge, the gauge is still up more than 30 percent this year after the Bank of Japan pledged to reach 2 percent inflation within two years with unlimited bond buying and by doubling the monetary base.
Shipping, Brokerages

Shipping companies dropped the most among 33 industry groups on the Topix, with Mitsui O.S.K Lines Ltd. falling 4.9 percent. Nomura Holdings Ltd. declined 2.7 percent to lead a slide among securities firms. Sony Corp. increased 3.3 percent after people familiar with the matter said the electronics maker is consulting banks about a proposal to take part of its entertainment unit public.

“The market is trying to find a place to settle,” said Takashi Aoki, a Tokyo-based fund manager at Mizuho Asset Management Co., which oversees about $33 billion. “We don’t know where the bottom is yet.”

The Indian rupee declined 0.3 percent to 56.51 per dollar, while the S&P BSE Sensex retreated 1.2 percent, the most among Asian indexes.

As many stocks rose as fell on the MSCI Asian gauge. South Korea’s Kospi (KOSPI) index added 0.2 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 0.2 percent. Shares in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China fluctuated. Singapore’s Straits Times Index slipped 0.7 percent and Thailand’s SET Index lost 0.6 percent.
Yen, Aussie

The yen weakened 0.3 percent to 101.03 per dollar, while Japan’s 10-year government bond yield slid three basis points to 0.86 percent as signs of deflation suggested the Bank of Japan will need to sustain stimulus. Consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.4 percent in April from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in Tokyo today, matching the median estimate of 29 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.

Australia’s dollar fell today after having risen 0.5 percent in the previous two sessions. It’s headed for its biggest monthly decline in more than two years on speculation a slowdown in China will weigh on the economy, encouraging the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates this year.

Gold for immediate delivery gained as much as 0.6 percent to $1,422.10 an ounce, the highest since May 15, before trading at $1,420.08. Prices are up 2.4 percent this week.

Data yesterday showed that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized 2.4 percent pace in the first quarter, down from a preliminary reading of 2.5 percent, boosting speculation the Fed may maintain its purchases of $85 billion of Treasury and mortgage debt a month.
 

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Japan Gets Calls From U.S. to Europe Not to Drive Down Yen

Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/
By - Kasia Klimasinska & Ian Katz
Category - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

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Japan will be reminded of its pledge not to drive down the yen when Group of 20 finance chiefs meet this week for the first time since the world’s third- largest economy intensified its campaign to defeat deflation.

As G-20 finance ministers and central bankers prepare to convene this week in Washington, the U.S. Treasury is saying it will press Japan to refrain from competitive devaluation and European governments are urging it not to become too reliant on fiscal and monetary stimulus.

The yen has fallen against all 16 of its most-traded peers since April 4 when the Bank of Japan (8301) surprised investors by doubling monthly bond purchases and setting a two-year horizon for achieving its goal of 2 percent inflation. The salvo leaves foreign policy makers coupling praise for the effort to boost stagnant economic growth with concern it may come at the expense of their exporters if the yen keeps sliding.

“Yen moves have been too rapid for the U.S. to applaud Japan’s battle to end deflation,” said Yasuhide Yajima, chief economist at NLI Research Institute Ltd. in Tokyo, an affiliate of Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan’s biggest life insurer. “Japan will have to show fiscal plans and means to strengthen growth to make it clear it’s not depending only on weakening the yen to revive the economy.”
Currency Report

The yen rose against all but one of 16 major counterparts today after a report showed Chinese growth unexpectedly slowed in the first quarter, fueling demand for haven assets. The Japanese currency added 0.2 percent to 98.22 per dollar as of 12 p.m. in Tokyo after earlier touching 97.63, the strongest since April 8.

The U.S. Treasury used its semi-annual currency report to Congress to say April 12 that Japan must “remain oriented towards meeting respective domestic objectives using domestic instruments and to refrain from competitive devaluation and targeting its exchange rate for competitive purposes.”

In a planning document prepared for the G-20 talks, the European Union will note the “lack of credible medium-term fiscal consolidation plans in the U.S. and Japan.” It will push Tokyo to make structural reforms to an economy roiled by repeat recessions over the past two decades, according to the document.

The U.S. stance echoes that adopted by the Group of Seven and G-20 in February when members pledged not to target exchange rates for competitive reasons. That was interpreted as an endorsement of Japan’s recovery push so long as officials didn’t directly target a weaker yen.
Japanese Defense

Japanese policy makers have already launched their defense against criticism that they are driving down the yen. Mitsuhiro Furusawa, the vice-finance minister for international affairs, said in an April 12 interview that Japanese monetary policy is “clearly aimed at getting Japan out of deflation” and that officials will “properly explain” their position in Washington.

In another sign officials want to head off attacks, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda last week indicated limits to easing by saying April 10 that the central bank has taken all “necessary” and “possible” measures.

Such arguments may be enough to offset criticism especially given economies from the U.S. to U.K. have carried out similar quantitative easing programs. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in London on March 25 that low interest rates in advanced nations benefit the world economy without creating a disruptive diversion of trade through weaker currencies.
‘Red Light’

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said at the Bloomberg Australia Economic Summit in Sydney on April 10 that while monetary expansion can push a currency down “that doesn’t mean it’s manipulation.”

While a weaker yen helps Japanese exporters such as Sony Corp., which gets 70 percent of its revenue outside the country, and boosts repatriated earnings, an excessive decline could swell import costs and fuel trade tensions at a time of weak global growth.

South Korea Finance Minister Hyun Oh Seok last month urged the G-20 to revisit the currency issue and said the yen is “flashing a red light” for his country’s exports.

While the yen rose after the release of the Treasury’s report, Steven Englander, a currency strategist at Citigroup Inc. in New York, said it’s unlikely to trigger extended yen buying. The report is not a major policy document and its comments are “not particularly critical” of Japan, he said in an e-mail to clients.

In its report, the Treasury also declined to name China a manipulator while saying that the yuan “remains significantly undervalued.” The U.S. said it will press China for policy changes and greater exchange-rate flexibility.

The G-20 officials meet on April 18 and April 19 in Washington ahead of weekend talks of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Weakness in the world economy, Europe’s ongoing debt crisis and the U.S. budget deficit are other likely topics for debate.

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Google, YouTube, Twitter Get Into April Fools' Action

Source - http://www.usatoday.com/
By - Katharine Lackey
Category - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted  By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

Tired of all those vowels clogging up your tweets?

Twitter announced a solution late Sunday night, saying it will shift to a two-tiered service, dubbing its basic, consonant-only plan "Twttr."

The April Fools' Day joke kicked off with Twitter tweeting out, "Trd th nw Twttr yt? Mr tm fr mr twts!" (Translation: Tried the new Twttr yet? More time for more tweets)

The social media service says for a mere $5 a month, you can keep your vowels by using the premium "Twitter" service.

"We're doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we'll encourage a more efficient and 'dense' form of communication." the company said on its blog. "We also see an opportunity to diversify our revenue stream."

In the announcement — which the company says was partially inspired by Wheel of Fortune — Twitter said that "Y" will remain free and other languages will be unaffected by the change.

The company is also offering a single character extension, allowing the length of a tweet to extend to 141 characters. "The price of the extra character is based on a bidding system reflecting the popularity of the character you would like to add," the company's blog states.

Twitter also announced a site that automatically transforms your tweets into a Twttr friendly format.

Joan Rivers got in on the action early, tweeting "Twyttyr? Why byy vywyls whyn yyy gyt "Y" fyr fryy? Syckyrs! #nvwls" (Translation: Twitter? Why buy vowels when you get "Y" for free? Suckers!)

Feeling like digging for buried treasure? Google also got into the April Fools' Day action, releasing a "Treasure Mode" overlay on its maps site Saturday.

In a YouTube video, Google explains the mysterious paper maps its Street View Team found off the coast of Madagascar in 2012 and later digitized belonged to Captain Kidd, who hid his treasures around the globe. Google calls on watchers to help decipher the maps and find the long-lost treasure.

A variety of techniques can be used to reveal hidden symbols, including applying sunlight to the maps, piecing multiple tablet and mobile devices together or aligning the map perfectly by skydiving over a specific landmark. The heat responsive ink is likely to get the most laughs, as Google shows some symbols can only be revealed by placing your laptop over an open flame (with the disclaimer do not attempt at home!).

STORY: Bosses often aren't amused by April Fools'

To access the feature, visit Google Maps and click on the "Treasure" picture icon in the top right corner. The overlay even contains street-view, applied with a sepia-toned filter to give it that historical feel. The maps contain a number of Easter eggs including a separate URL with a live pirate ship tracking map and symbols hidden around the globe that spell out "April Fool." Treasure Island near San Francisco, Calif., has a mini-map with an X marking the spot, and New York City is marked by a pirate's skull with mysterious numbers in its eyes.

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - South Korea Central Bank Holds Rates

Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
By - Press Release
Category - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

South Korea's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a fifth straight month Thursday, despite concerns over whether growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy is back on track.

The Bank of Korea's (BOK) decision to leave the inter-bank lending rate at 2.75 percent -- after two cuts in July and October last year -- was in line with most analysts' expectations.

South Korea's export-driven economy grew 2.0 percent in 2012 -- the slowest pace in three years -- compared with 3.6 percent growth in the previous year.

The deceleration was largely blamed on sagging demand due to the eurozone debt crisis and a slowdown in China.

The central bank recently slashed its forecast for economic growth for this year to 2.8 percent from 3.2 percent estimated last October.

The economy has shown signs of picking up since the third quarter of last year, but analysts say slowing manufacturing activity in recent months suggests weak underlying conditions.

With inflation running at just 1.4 percent -- well below the BOK's target range of 2.5-3.5 percent -- the bank is expected to consider a rate cut by the end of the second quarter if the economy is still struggling.

Korean exporters complain that business has been hit by the weakness of the yen that has given a market edge to Japanese automobiles and electronics over their own products.

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Facebook Knows Where You Shop, Even Offline

Source - http://www.brw.com.au/

By - Jane Lindhe

Category - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

Facebook will now be able to track where its users shop, how much they spend and what they’re buying, even if they’re not online.

Facebook has inked deals with four data collection firms, Datalogix, Acxiom, BlueKai and Epsilon to use their data about customers’ offline purchases to its controversial marketing tool, Custom Audience.

In layman’s terms, Facebook will now be able to target ads based on a user’s offline shopping habits as well as their online presence.

Custom Audiences, a marketing product that was released in September last year, allows advertisers to identify users through their Facebook ID, email or phone number. The new partnerships will allow advertisers to match that information with the data that is collected by retailers through loyalty programs.

By adapting these third party tools, marketers can improve Facebook advertisements to be more customer-specific in two ways: business can integrate information they’ve already received from third parties to create campaigns on Facebook or they can use Facebook’s third parties to create customer-specific programs.

“Business of all sizes will now be able to target categories like ‘soda drinkers’ or ‘people who browsed for a specific make on my website,’ ” Facebook says in a blog on its website.

“For example, an auto dealer may want to customise an offer to people who are likely to be in the market for a new car. To do this many businesses work with third party companies to better understand who might be in the market for a new car.”

The move has sparked privacy concerns, with bloggers suggesting that Facebook is opening the floodgates by providing personal information to marketers. But Facebook denies that any personal information is exchanged between the site, marketers and third parties.

Instead it says that the third parties use “hashes” of customer information to create audience groups. When advertisers reach these groups of people with ads, they will get back the same anonymous aggregate ad reporting that marketers on Facebook currently receive.

“We think carefully about how we can best honour the commitments we’ve made around privacy by giving people control over their information, being transparent about how we use that information and being accountable to our users and regulators,” Facebook says.

In other news, overnight Facebook agreed to buy campaign management software suit Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft for an undisclosed amount.