Vacations In Santa Clarita - T-Mobile Announces iPhone Trade-In Special, Gives You iPhone 5 For $0 Upfront

Source - http://www.slashgear.com/
By - Brittany Hillen
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

T-Mobile has been making big changes lately, moving to rebrand itself as the “Uncarrier” and to do things in a way that is different from its competitors. It has made good on all that talk, revealing a trade-in deal for current iPhone owners: trade-in an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S and receive the iPhone 5 for $0. The special is in effect until June 16.

The trade-in special will begin at T-Mobile stores April 12, which is this upcoming Friday. Only so-called well-qualified customers will be able to take advantage of the special, and will need to trade in either an iPhone 4 or a 4S. In return, the iPhone 5 will be priced at $0 upfront plus the monthly service fee.

The special is in conjunction with a Simple Choice Plan. If your iPhone 4 or 4S is in good condition, you could receive credit on top of the iPhone 5 up to $120, which T-Mobile says can be used towards monthly payments, towards an existing bill with the carrier, or to buy accessories from the company. The plan starts at $50 per month, and offers unlimited talk/text and 500MB of data. Another $10 will get you 2GB of additional data, while an extra $20 will get you unlimited data.

T-Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert said: “Our message to iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 customers is simple: bring in your device and trade up to iPhone 5 on T-Mobile. We’re making it incredibly attractive to buy an iPhone 5 by pairing an un-beatable upfront price and trade-in offer with Simple Choice, the most hassle-free and affordable rate plan in wireless.”

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.

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita - Oil Rises To Near $93 After Sharp Drop Last Week Driven By US Job And Over Supply Concerns

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

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita

The price of oil rose modestly Monday after sharp losses due to high supplies and weak U.S. employment figures.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 17 cents to $92.87 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 56 cents to close at $92.70 on Friday and was down 5 percent from midweek.

The price of oil fell after a weak jobs report cast doubt on the strength of the U.S. economy. The Labor Department reported Friday the economy added 88,000 jobs in March, the fewest in nine months. The slowdown may signal the economy will weaken this spring.

The U.S. Energy Department last week reported that crude in storage was at its highest level since 1990 even though refiners had begun to ramp up gasoline production to get ready for the summer driving season. Now the economy looks like it might not grow fast enough to churn through the nation's high supplies.

"The latest jobs data provide a useful reminder that this is still an uneven recovery in the US economy," said Caroline Bain, commodities analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

She expects oil prices to average less than $90 a barrel in the second quarter of 2013 "reflecting a comfortable market balance, lower refinery runs and only very modest growth in consumption."

Brent Crude, which sets the price of oil used by many U.S. refineries to make gasoline, rose 57 cents to $104.69.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

— Heating oil rose 1 cent to $2.919 per gallon.

— Wholesale gasoline rose 0.8 cent to $2.871 per gallon.

— Natural gas rose 2.8 cents to $4.153 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Six Flags Magic Mountain - Samsung Unveils Quarterly Profit Boost

Source - http://www.ft.com/
By - Song Jung-a
Category - Six Flags Magic Mountain
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Six Flags Magic Mountain

Samsung Electronics on Friday said that first-quarter operating profit would be stronger than expected, as the world’s largest electronics company by sales stepped up sales of lower-end smartphones in emerging markets despite growing price competition and slowing demand in developed markets.

The South Korean company estimated that it posted about Won8.7tn of operating profit in the first three months of this year, up 53 per cent from a year earlier, while sales increased 15 per cent to about Won52tn ($46bn). Samsung will officially announce first-quarter earnings this month.

Booming sales of its flagship Galaxy smartphones continued to drive Samsung’s earnings growth this year while the company has made further inroads into emerging markets by broadening its mid-end product line-up as the smartphone market in advanced countries show signs of saturation. Samsung offers more than 30 models that cover nearly all segments of the smartphone market while rival Apple relies on a single high-end model.

Analysts quoted by Reuters estimate that Samsung sold up to 70m smartphones in the January-March period, up from 63m in the previous quarter, while Apple’s iPhone shipments likely slid about 30 per cent to about 30m.

Although the earnings guidance beat estimates, the first quarter ended Samsung’s five consecutive quarters of record profits. However, analysts expect the company’s earnings to hit a fresh high in the second quarter as its new smartphone, Galaxy S4, goes on sale this month.

Analysts say Samsung may gain the upper hand in its battle with Apple for market share in smartphones, as the company expands marketing for the new phone with a raft of fresh software and hardware features.

With the Galaxy S4, Samsung aims to retake the top spot in US mobile phone sales from Apple, after it was overtaken by the US company in the fourth quarter of last year.

Analysts expect Samsung’s operating profit to probably exceed Won10tn in the second quarter on the back of Galaxy S4 sales. Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at IBK Securities, estimates that shipments of Samsung’s flagship models including the Galaxy S4 could reach 37.8m units in the second quarter, boosting the company’s average selling price by 17 per cent.

Samsung shares inched up 0.13 per cent to about Won1.5m on Friday. The shares have fallen 3 per cent over the past three months on concerns about the slowing smartphone market while Apple stock has dropped nearly 20 per cent in the same period.

Attractions In Santa Clarita - Eat Fish And Live Longer

Source - http://abclocal.go.com/
By - Jennifer Matarese
Category - Attractions In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Attractions In Santa Clarita

Most of us know eating fish is good for our health.

But exciting new research has found, for the first time, evidence that shows exactly how heart healthy it can be and the key to reaping the benefits is to start eating fish when you are young.

The evidence is in the blood.

Eating fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids may help you to live longer.

Lillian Irani says she eats a lot of salmon.

"I feel great and I have more energy when I eat it," Irani said.

Until now, scientific studies showing omega 3's are heart healthy have primarily been based on what people say they eat.

Now scientists can point to something better.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health looked at the blood stream.

They studied data on more than 2,600 people, finding fish eaters who had the highest levels of omega 3 fatty acids in their blood reaped significant benefits.

"There was about a 23 percent reduction in total death and about a 35% reduction in cardiovascular incidence. This is really significant," said Christopher Ochner, St. Luke's Roosevelt Medical Center.

They also lived, on average, a little over two years longer.

But the research was done on older folks, ages 65 and up.

Nutrition expert Christopher Ochner says its people in their 20's 30's and 40's that need to get the message. "The idea is to start early. That's where the main benefit is going to be in terms of long term longevity improving health, appearance, energy levels sleep and everything in our everyday lives starting now," Ochner said.

The American Heart Association recommends eating 3.5 oz fatty fish at least two times a week.

That includes fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, lake trout, sardines and albacore tuna.

But even if you don't eat that much fish, its ok, what's most important is to start and the younger the better .

"If people are eating no fish, that's where the largest opportunity for benefit is because those are the people who are really going to see the most improvement from no fish to a little bit of fish you are really going to get that protective effect," Ochner said.

Make small changes, not drastic ones at first .

Ochner says people won't stick to very drastic changes even if they can do them for a couple of months.

Instead, make small, incremental changes that you can follow for a lifetime.

If you don't like fish, the study's author says supplements might work for some people but the benefits are uncertain.

Hotel In California - Almost 20% Of Teen Births Are Not a First Child

Source - http://www.usatoday.com/
By - Sharon Jayson
Category - Hotel In California
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel In California

Nearly one in five births to U.S. teens ages 15-19 is not a first child, says a federal report out today.

Of the 365,000 teens who gave birth in 2010, almost 67,000 (18.3%) have had at least one child before, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's down from 19.5% in 2007. Most were the teen mom's second child (86%).

But more teen moms are using birth control, the report says -- almost 91% used some form of contraception after having had a baby. But just 22% of those used contraceptive methods considered to be "most effective" -- tubal ligation, vasectomy, hormonal implant or intrauterine device (IUD). With those, the report says, the risk of becoming pregnant is less than one pregnancy in 100 users a year. The pill, injectables, the patch and the ring are considered "moderately effective."

"The trend is definitely up both on birth control generally and using the most effective forms of birth control, which we call LARC (long-acting reversible contraception)," says CDC Director Tom Frieden. "What that's telling us is nearly all teen moms want to avoid pregnancy and are taking steps to avoid a repeat pregnancy. But the challenge is only one in five are using the most effective means of doing that."

More than three quarters of sexually active teen mothers used one of the "most" or "moderately effective" contraceptive methods after having a baby; they were more likely than other sexually active teens to use a long-acting method (21.5% vs. 4.5%), the report finds.

"Just having one teen birth is a challenge but having a second can just compound things," says Jennifer Manlove, a senior research scientist who has studied repeat births for the nonprofit Child Trends, based in Bethesda, Md. She was not involved in the CDC's report.

The highest percentages of repeat teen births were among American Indian/Alaska natives (21.6%), Hispanics (20.9%), and blacks (20.4%). The lowest percentage was among whites (14.8%). Texas had the highest percentage of any state (22%) and New Hampshire had the lowest (10%).

In eight states -- Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas -- 20% of all teen births were repeats. In seven states -- Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Wyoming -- less than 15% were repeats.

Manlove says as recently as 1990, 25% of teen births were repeat births. "We have seen a steady gradual decline," she says. "Maybe these long-acting methods are the way to go to reduce repeat teen births in the future."

The CDC report notes that "teens are at a high risk for inconsistent use of methods that are user-dependent (e.g., condoms and oral contraceptive pills)," and that "LARC methods might be a suitable option" since they don't require daily monitoring.

But the report says teens "face a number of barriers to LARC use, including cost, limited availability, lack of provider acceptance for this practice in teens, and teen lack of awareness of these methods."

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Apple Apologizes In China After Service Criticism

Source - http://abcnews.go.com/
By - CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Posted By - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Category - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Apple apologized to Chinese consumers after government media attacked its repair policies for two weeks in a campaign that reeked of economic nationalism.

A statement Apple posted in Chinese on its website Monday said the complaints had prompted "deep reflection" and persuaded the company of the need to revamp its repair policies, boost communication with Chinese consumers and strengthen oversight of authorized resellers.

State broadcaster CCTV and the ruling Communist Party's flagship newspaper, People's Daily, had led the charge against the American company. They accused Apple Inc. of arrogance, greed and "throwing its weight around" and portrayed it as just the latest Western company to exploit the Chinese consumer.

The attacks quickly backfired, though, and were mocked by the increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers who revere Apple and its products. State-run media also inadvertently revived complaints over shoddy service by Chinese companies.

Nonetheless, Apple responded with an apology from CEO Tim Cook.

"We've come to understand through this process that because of our poor communication, some have come to feel that Apple's attitude is arrogant and that we don't care about or value feedback from the consumer," Cook's Chinese statement said, as translated by The Associated Press. "For the concerns and misunderstandings passed on to the consumer, we express our sincere apologies."

 Although Apple enjoys strong support from Chinese consumers, the vehemence of the attacks and the importance of the Chinese market appeared to have persuaded the company to appear contrite.

The People's Daily newspaper ran an editorial last Wednesday headlined "Strike down Apple's incomparable arrogance."

"Here we have the Western person's sense of superiority making mischief," the newspaper wrote. "If there's no risk in offending the Chinese consumer, and it also makes for lower overheads, then why not?"

Chinese observers accused People's Daily of gross hypocrisy and pointed out that the newspaper had maintained a stony silence when Chinese companies were implicated over food safety, pollution and other scandals. Meanwhile, CCTV was shamed when it emerged that celebrities had been recruited to blast Apple on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, in what had been billed as a grassroots campaign.

"The public responded in two ways to this incident," popular commentator Shi Shusi wrote on his Weibo account. "One group supports this criticism but quite a number of people felt that there are state monopolies which have severely violated customer's rights, but which are not being exposed."

Popular business magazine Caijing said its readers identified a long list of abusers, including state banks that lend to those with political connections while stiffing ordinary savers with low rates on deposits; a government oil company that sets gas prices and other rates as it sees fit; and state telecom providers notorious for their lack of customer service.

"If media is going to go after Apple, let's hope they spare some thought for those big Chinese communications companies and other monopolies, the ones that enrich special interests in the name of being publicly owned," Cai Tongqi, a lawyer from the eastern province of Jiangsu, wrote on Weibo.

Consumers seem unfazed by the state media's attacks on Apple.