California Vacation Packages - Apple Wins Patent Suit Against Samsung in Tokyo On Touch Panels

Source - http://www.businessweek.com/
By - Takashi Amano and Mariko Yasu
Category - California Vacation Packages
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

California Vacation Packages

Apple Inc. (AAPL) won a patent lawsuit in Japan, as a Tokyo judge ruled that Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) smartphones and a tablet computer infringed on its visual effects for touch panels.

Samsung and Apple, the world’s two biggest smartphone makers, have each scored victories in patent disputes fought over four continents since the maker of the iPhone accused Asia’s biggest electronics maker of “slavishly copying” its devices. The companies, are competing for dominance of a global mobile-device market estimated by researcher Yankee Group at $346 billion in 2012.

Samsung infringed Apple’s patent on the way an iPad or iPhone screen seems to bounce when a user scrolls to the end of a file, the Cupertino, California-based company said in the lawsuit.

In August, Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji ruled against Apple in a lawsuit that claimed Samsung smartphones and tablet computers infringe on an invention for synchronizing music and video data with servers.

The Tokyo District Court in February rejected Samsung’s request to suspend sales of iPhones and iPads in the nation.

Shipments of tablet computers in Japan jumped 104 percent to 5.68 million units in the year ended March, according to Tokyo-based MM Research Institute Ltd. Apple controlled 53 percent of the market, while Samsung ranked fifth with a 4.3 percent share, the researcher said last month.

Smartphone shipments rose 4 percent to 6.81 million units in Japan during the first three months of 2013, according to research company IDC. Apple had 40 percent of sales, while Samsung didn’t rank in the top five, the researcher said last week.

Hotels In Northern California - Big Banks Are Violating National Mortgage Settlement, Report Says

Source - http://www.washingtonpost.com/
By - Danielle Douglas
Category - Hotels In Northern California 
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotels In Northern California

A new study supports complaints by state prosecutors that some of the nation’s biggest banks have violated the terms of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, a landmark agreement to clean up shoddy foreclosure practices.

The court-appointed monitor of the settlement said in a report Wednesday that Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have dragged their feet in processing homeowners’ requests for lower monthly loan payments.

It is the same charge being made against the banks by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The two were among the 49 state attorneys general who brokered the settlement with the top five mortgage servicers last year.

The deal was supposed to ensure that struggling homeowners would not have to endure the same miscommunication, delays and botched paperwork that was commonplace after the housing bust. But, according the monitor, some things haven’t changed.

Four out of five banks failed at least one of the 29 metrics the monitor used to measure their compliance with the 304 servicing standards outlined in the settlement.

The report “affirms that the pattern of violations by Wells Fargo that my office documented in New York is harming homeowners nationwide,” said Schneiderman, who threatened to sue Wells Fargo and Bank of America in May over the violations. “These flagrant violations put homeowners in New York and across the nation at greater risk of foreclosure.”

The most common problem found among the servicers, in particular at Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, was failure to notify homeowners of any missing documents in their modification requests within five days of receipt, according to the settlement monitor, Joseph A. Smith Jr. Citigroup and Bank of America were also cited for providing inaccurate information to borrowers before beginning a foreclosure.

“Progress is being made in a number of areas, but other harmful practices endure,” Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said during a call with reporters.

Donovan said other banks are likely to join the settlement agreement in coming weeks.

“It is time for [the banks] to live up to their end of the deal,” he said. “. . . If they don’t, we’ll explore all options to remedy this situation, from fining them to hauling them back into court.”

Servicers cited in the report must put in place a plan approved by the monitor to correct the problem. If the problem reoccurs within six months, the monitor can take legal action and seek fines of up to $5 million.

The report said all of the banks cited are fixing the problems. JPMorgan has given refunds to 2,000 borrowers after improperly charging them for a type of mortgage insurance.

Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said the bank “took immediate action” to resolve the problems found in the report. He said the issues did not result in “inaccurate foreclosures or improper loan modification denials.”

ResCap, formerly known as Ally Financial, passed the monitor’s tests through the end of 2012, but the company’s bankruptcy proceedings this year delayed additional testing. The monitor is now working to continue the process.

The monitor’s office received nearly 60,000 consumer complaints between October and March. A majority of the grievances involved borrowers who said they were bounced around to different bank employees rather than being given a single point of contact. Homeowners also complained that banks were initiating foreclosures while simultaneously negotiating a modification, a practice known as dual tracking.

“A lot of the complaints closely correlate with the failures that we found,” Smith said.

He said his office is developing some new metrics to, among other things, clearly define what documents borrowers have to file when applying for a loan modification.

A key objective of the settlement was to improve the way servicers interact with struggling homeowners. In some respects, the banks have accomplished that goal. There were no reports of servicers losing documents or using forged paperwork to quickly foreclose on borrowers — the sorts of allegations that led to investigations and the eventual agreement in the first place, said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller.

“There is a difference,” he said. “You look at the dysfunctional system that we saw three years ago . . . banks never could have provided the kind of homeowner relief we’re seeing today under their old system.”

The five servicers have provided $50.6 billion worth of loan modifications, short sales, refinancing and forbearance assistance to more than half a million borrowers across the country, according to a report released last month by the settlement monitor.

“We have some more work to do, but we’re better off today than we were a year ago,” Smith said. “A lot of the metrics were passed. The process has gotten better. Servicers are more responsive.”

Vacations In Santa Clarita - Candy Crush Soon To Hit The Stock Market; Developer Hired Analysts To Pursue IPO

Source - http://www.hngn.com/
By - Julie S
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

This may sound really weird but its developer, King, has hired Wall Street firms including J.P Morgan Chase, Credit Cruisse, and Bank of America to pursue this IPO plan. They will be discussing the pricing and timing of the IPO.

So why did King decided to do IPO? “King's success and growth presents numerous opportunities for the business to develop further, and one option would be to take the company public,” King told the Wall Street Journal. “However, while it's an option for the future, we would not comment on when we could consider making such a decision."

This move by King is a brave move for a game developer after Zynga’s performance plummeted to 70 percent of its IPO price. It will be quite difficult for the investors to decide to put their money on another online game.

However, mobile game developers may be successful if they are able to convince the investors since mobile game sales were projected to yield over $9 billion this year which is 13.5 percent higher than last year.

Candy Crush is not alone in this plan as other games are also planning to do IPO such as Kabam Inc.’s Kingdom of Camelot and The Fast and The Furious 6 which may be offered to the public in 2014. Rovio Entertainment Ltd., developer of Angry Birds, also expressed its interest, and then there is Supercell Oy that introduced as Clash of Clans and Hay Day.

Once Candy Crush becomes successful, we should expect more games joining the stock market soon. While others believe that investing on games is not a wise decision, it will still depend on how King can convince the audience to invest to them.

Meeting Space Santa Clarita - Facebook Jealous Of Vine? Instagram Might Be Adding Video

Source - http://www.latinospost.com/
By - Robert Schoon
Category - Meeting Space Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Meeting Space Santa Clarita

After Facebook sent out enigmatic coffee-stained postcard press invites to a June 20 event, saying "A small team has been working on a big idea. Join us for coffee and learn about a new product," rumors are hitting the internet that Facebook's Instagram might be adding video capability.

The anonymously sourced report comes from TechCruch, whose source says that Facebook will reveal on June 20 that Instagram will be adding a feature that will allow people to make short videos and share them on the popular social network. If this is true, Facebook would be following Twitter's lead. The rival social media network added Vine to iOS on Jan. 24 2012, an app and service which allows users to post six-second videos to their tweets. Vine became available for some versions of Android early in June.

While the Instagram video report is not confirmed and could be a red herring, there are indications that Instagram video may be coming. Earlier in May, former deputy social media editor for Reuters, Matthew Keys, reported that Facebook was testing a video feature for Instagram internally, according to an anonymous source. According to Keys' report, the feature would allow users to upload a video between five to 10 seconds long from their mobile devices, and share them on Instagram's network. Keys had no information about a launch date or whether Instagram's hallmark filters would be included as part of the new service.

The move by Facebook could be the most likely rumor attributed to the June 20 event, given how popular Vine — at the moment, a six-second video sharing social media service that is owned by Twitter — has become in the past six months. Twitter bought Vine in the fall of 2012 and debuted it in January 2013, albeit only for iOS devices.

Vacations In Santa Clarita - Apple Adding 'Kill Switch' To iPhones

Source - http://edition.cnn.com/
By - Doug Gross
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

It's called "Apple picking," a growing wave of crime in which thieves target mobile devices, particularly iPhones and iPads.

Now the company that gave the crime its name is taking a step to stop it, with a "kill switch"-style update aimed at making the mobile gadgets less valuable to thieves.

Activation Lock will be part of iOS 7, the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system expected to roll out in the fall. The feature will require an Apple ID and password before the phone's "Find My iPhone" feature can be turned off or any data can be erased.

At a keynote address opening its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the company said the same ID and password will be needed to reactivate a device after it's been remotely erased.

"We think this is going to be a really powerful theft deterrent," said Craig Federighi, a senior vice president at Apple.

As mobile devices become more popular, stealing them has become a unique sort of crime that has law enforcement and government officials taking notice.

In New York, a special police unit has been created to deal with stolen mobile devices.

The overall crime rate in the city increased 3% last year -- but "if you subtracted just the increase in Apple product thefts, we would have had an overall decrease in crime in New York," Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said.

Advocates have been calling for so-called kill switch tools in all mobile devices for some time.

Apple's announcement came the same week that George Gascon, the district attorney in tech hub San Francisco, plans to meet with the New York state attorney general and representatives of cell phone companies to discuss ways of discouraging mobile-device robberies.

In a letter last year to the Federal Communications Commission chairman, the wireless industry's trade association released details of a voluntary effort to "help law enforcement deter smartphone theft."

A major plank of that effort is the creation of a database for smartphones reported stolen. Phones on the database, which is scheduled to be up and running at the end of November, could not be activated and would not work on an LTE network in the United States.

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.

Santa Clarita Local Colleges - Hands-Free Systems In Cars Are More Distracting Than Handheld Phones, Study Says

Source - http://www.mercurynews.com/
By - Gary Richards
Category - Santa Clarita Local Colleges
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Santa Clarita Local Colleges

Buy a new car today and you'll most likely be able to use your voice to send text messages and emails, check your Facebook page or order takeout food while driving. No need to hold a cellphone in your hand.

But using hands-free devices that translate speech into text is actually more distracting than using a handheld phone, a study released Wednesday by AAA's Foundation for Highway Safety concludes. The finding poses a direct challenge to the direction that many automobile manufacturers, working closely with high-tech firms, are moving.

"We're addicted to our phones, and once we hear the ping of a text or the ping of an incoming call as we drive, it's

hard to ignore," said Chris Murphy, director of the California

Office of Traffic Safety, calling the study's conclusions a five-alarm warning for motorists.

What makes the use of these speech-to-text systems so risky is that they create a significant cognitive distraction, researchers found. The brain is so engrossed in interacting with the system that, even with hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, the driver's reaction time and ability to process what's happening are impaired.

The new research shows that distracted drivers don't move their eyes from the road as often, getting a kind of tunnel vision. It means drivers check their mirrors less frequently and are less likely to notice hazards not directly in front of

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them.

Around 9 million cars are now fitted with voice-recognition systems, and this number is expected to soar to 62 million by 2018.

The new study comes the same week Silicon Valley icon Apple (AAPL) introduced "iOS in the Car" as part of its new operating system. The company says, "iOS in the Car seamlessly integrates your iOS device -- and the iOS experience -- with your in-dash system. If your vehicle is equipped with iOS in the Car, you can connect your iPhone 5 and interact with it using the car's built-in display and controls or Siri Eyes Free." Microsoft already offers its own car system, called SYNC, and other tech companies and carmakers are offering such capabilities.

Although such innovations are meant to reduce distracted driving and increase safety, don't count on it.

"What we really have on our hands is a looming public safety crisis with the proliferation of these vehicles," AAA spokeswoman Yolanda Cade told the Associated Press. She characterized the rush to equip cars with Internet-enabled systems as "an arms race."

studies indicate that half of Americans believe that built-in Web-based systems in cars carry little if any risk.

Gloria Bergquist, vice president for public affairs at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington, told the New York Times that carmakers are trying to keep consumers connected without having to hold phones while driving -- which her group insists is safer.

"We are concerned about any study that suggests that handheld phones are comparably risky to the hands-free systems we are putting in our vehicles," she said. "It is a connected society, and people want to be connected in their car just as they are in their home or wherever."

The AAA study, conducted by researchers at the University of Utah, says speech-to-text systems require greater concentration by drivers than other potentially distracting activities like talking on the phone, talking to a passenger, listening to a book on tape or listening to the radio.

The AAA study compared how drivers performed under various types of distractions, including listening to the radio, talking on a handheld phone and using a hands-free device. It used eye-scanning technology to determine where drivers focused their attention, and also tested reaction time to such visual cues as brake lights.

Wednesday's report comes on the heels of an increasing number of studies about how dangerous texting while driving is, whether holding the phone or not. Last year, the U.S. National Safety Council estimated that 24 percent of all motor vehicle crashes in the United States involve cellphones. And in January, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported that nearly 35 percent of drivers admitted to reading a text or email while driving and over 26 percent admitted to typing one.

"Our devices are now our primary focus, and driving is a distant second," said motorist Marguerite Sinnett of Morgan Hill. "Many times, I see drivers, including 18-wheelers, slow down, speed up and drift because they are talking on the phone.

"They have no clue about their driving; the phone prevails," she continued. "I see probably about 40 percent of drivers talking on a handheld phone or looking in their laps. It's hard to put the genie back in the box once it's out."