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
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

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.

Vacations In Santa Clarita - Learning New Skills Keeps Aging Minds Sharp

Source       - http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
By             - Press Release
Category   - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

We are constantly reminded to "use it or lose it," and new research from the University of Texas at Dallas shows the same is true for keeping your brain up to speed.

 

No one likes the idea of slowing down as they age, but a new study suggests that challenging yourself to learn a new skill can bring noticeable benefits to an aging mind. 

The Administration on Aging predicts that there will be 72.1 million Americans aged 65 and over by the year 2030 - 19% of the population. And the new research provides insight into how everyday activities contribute to cognitive vitality as we age. 

Lead researcher, Denise Park, PhD, from the University's School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, says: 

"We need, as a society, to learn how to maintain a healthy mind, just like we know how to maintain vascular health with diet and exercise."

Randomly assigned activities

For the research, published in Psychological Science, Professor Park and her colleagues studied 221 adults aged between 60 and 90 for a period of 3 months. 

The researchers randomly assigned participants an activity and asked them to engage in it for 15 hours each week. 

Some participants were asked to learn a new skill, such as digital photography or quilting. These activities require active engagement and tap into both working and long-term memory, as well as other high-level cognitive processes. 

Others were encouraged to pursue more familiar pastimes in the comfort of their own homes. They were asked to listen to classical music and complete word puzzles, including crosswords. 

And keen not to overlook the importance of social contact, the researchers assigned a third group of participants to engage in activities with social interactions, such as field trips and excursions. 

Interestingly, participants in the study were very open to the idea of new experiences. 

Park explains: 

"Our participants essentially agreed to be assigned randomly to different lifestyles for 3 months so that we could compare how different social and learning environments affected the mind." 

"People built relationships and learned new skills - we hope these are gifts that keep on giving, and continue to be a source of engagement and stimulation even after they finished the study." 

And it seems that fortune really does favor the brave, as those who were the most mentally challenged showed the biggest improvements in recall and memory. 

 

While acknowledging that all three learning groups were pushed to keep mastering more tasks and skills, only the groups "confronted with continuous and prolonged mental challenge improved."

Meeting Space Santa Clarita - Buying Breast Milk Online? It May Be Contaminated

Source       - http://www.usatoday.com/
By             - Michelle Healy
Category   - Meeting Space Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Meeting Space Santa Clarita

Thanks to the Internet, women who produce an abundant supply of breast milk and those in need of it for their babies have more opportunities than ever to connect. But a first-of-its-kind study finds high levels of harmful bacteria and contamination in breast milk purchased via the Web.

Researchers' analysis of 100 samples of breast milk bought on a public milk-sharing website found three in four samples contained either high levels of bacterial growth overall or contained disease-causing bacteria, including fecal contamination.

The findings were likely the result of poor hygiene during milk collection, the use of either unclean containers or unsanitary breast milk pump parts, or compromised shipping practices, says epidemiologist Sarah Keim, lead author of the study in November's Pediatrics, published online today.

Nineteen percent of sellers did not include dry ice or another cooling method when shipping, according to the study.

It is unknown exactly how common purchasing breast milk online is, but a soon-to-be published journal article by Keim found 13,000 postings on U.S. milk sharing websites in 2011.

It is "totally normal" for there to be certain bacteria in human breast milk, says Keim, a principal investigator with the Center for Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Some are "very important and healthy for babies and the development of their immune system and digestive system," she says.

This study focused on bacteria which "are generally pretty harmless as long as they don't grow out of control" but have also been associated with illnesses in infants linked to contaminated milk, including staphylococcus and streptococcus, says Keim. It also focused on bacteria associated with disease even at low levels, such as salmonella and E. coli.

Researchers compared the online-purchased breast milk samples to samples of unpasteurized breast milk donated to a non-profit milk bank.

Twelve such banks throughout the U.S. follow strict guidelines set by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America and provide pasteurized milk from carefully screened donors to fragile and premature infants, primarily in hospitals. Pasteurization kills the harmful bacteria before the milk reaches an infant.

In all the samples analyzed, the Web-purchased milk had higher bacteria counts and were more likely to contain disease-related types of bacteria, even though the donated milk from the milk banks had yet to be pasteurized:

-- 72% had any detectable gram-negative bacteria, which are associated with bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, meningitis and fecal contamination vs. 35% of milk bank samples

-- 63% tested positive for staphylococcus vs. 25% of milk bank samples

-- 36% tested positive for streptococcus vs. 4% of milk bank samples

-- 3% were contaminated with salmonella vs. none of the milk bank samples.

All of the samples tested negative for HIV, says Keim, but the laboratory analysis to determine "the authenticity" of the breast milk is just beginning, she says, adding: "We're a little suspicious of some of the milk."

"This study confirms what people have suspected in terms of online milk purchases," says Anne Eglash, a family medicine physician with University of Wisconsin Health in Mt. Horeb and a co-founder of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. She was not involved in the new study.

"You don't know what you're getting, you don't know the quality, how honest people are about how old the milk is, and so many other issues. It's important to realize that this may not be the safest way to get breast milk when you don't have enough," she says.

But Eglash, co-medical director of the still-in-development Mother's Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes, cautions against "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" when it comes to the sharing of raw, unpasteurized human breast milk between lactating women and those who cannot, for medical or other reasons, provide their own milk for their healthy, full-term babies.

"I don't think the message should be that women should never share milk, but that this behavior of buying it on the Web from someone you don't know should not happen," she says. Eglash emphasizes that "you don't want unpasteurized milk that has various bacteria going to an infant whose immune system is vulnerable," but says there are safe ways to share human breast milk with healthy infants who are not your own, as well as pasteurize it at home.

The Food and Drug Administration warns against feeding babies breast milk acquired directly from individuals or through the Internet, citing safety concerns; the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages feeding preterm infants human breast milk from unscreened donors.

Keim, author of the new study, says her findings "may not apply to situations where milk is shared among friends or relatives or donated rather than sold. The potential risks of those situations are less well understood."

California Vacation Packages - 5 Reasons Why The iPhone 5c Might Be a Flop

Source      - http://www.zdnet.com/
By            - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Category  - California Vacation Packages
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

California Vacation Packages

Rumors are circulating that Apple is cutting orders for the iPhone 5c in the face of weak demand, and this in turn is fueling speculation that the handset might be a misstep by the Cupertino giant.

But if the iPhone 5c ends up being a flop, what's behind the failure?

First off, I think that it is far too early to call the iPhone 5c a flop. Even if Apple is cutting orders, this could be part of the normal scaling back that happens following a launch as Apple re-evaluates the supply chain and balances things out. This sort of thing is normal.

Apple likes there to be as short a gap as possible between stuff coming off the assembly line, and that stuff being sold, and strives to have around 4 to 6 weeks of channel inventory. Given that iPhone 5c handsets (of all colors) are shipping within 24 hours, while the higher-priced flagship iPhone 5s is on 2 to 3 week back order, it makes sense for Apple to concentrate more on the iPhone 5s.

Another point worth bearing in mind is that we are unlikely to ever find out the sales figures of the individual handset models as Apple only reports data on iPhone sales as a whole. So if iPhone 5c sales are poor, but this is offset by strong iPhone 5s sales (and there's data to suggest that the latter is outselling the former by a significant margin) then the overall effect on sales will be hard to notice. Pundits and analysts like to focus on iPhone sales figures, but revenue and margin data are more telling and as a rule are better indicators of the health of the product line.

Finally, it's worth pointing out that a lot of people who buy handsets are locked into contract and upgrade cycles, and this could mean a delayed or extended upgrade cycle that extends well beyond the initial release. This may be doubly so for the non-flagship handset where consumers might be unwilling to pay unlocked prices to get their hands on the phone and instead wait until they are eligible for a subsidized upgrade.

But, if despite all I've said above, the iPhone 5c is judged to be a flop, what could be the reason behind it being a flop? Here are five possible reasons why.

1) Old model in new clothes

While the iPhone 5c is undeniably a new handset, under the shiny polycarbonate shell it is essentially a rebadged iPhone 5. While it is unquestionably an upgrade for anyone running a non-retina display iPhone, for those already owning an iPhone 4s or iPhone 5, there's not much new beyond the color.

2) No sane color option

The iPhone 5c comes in white, pink, yellow, blue, and green, there's no subdued black/charcoal/space grey option. Given that a black (or a variant on black) has always seemed to be the most popular choice of finish, the fact that it is not on offer might be putting a damper on sales.

On top of that, the lack of a red option is particularly surprising, especially given Apple's desire to gain a foothold in the Chinese market (red is a color traditionally seen as symbolizing good fortune).

3) Stuck with one color

You can dress up the iPhone 5c is different colored silicone skins (at $29 a pop) or you can use third-party cases, but as to the actual color of your handset, you're stuck with it for the duration of ownership.

For the trendy or teens with short attention spans, this is a concept that might not float.

As an aside, the most popular color in the UK according to iPhoneStockChecker is pink, accounting for 46 percent of sales, followed by blue at 32 percent, and green at 12 percent. White is low down the list at 9 percent, and the yellow version seems to be the ugly duckling, only chosen by one out of every 100 buyers.

4) Price shock

Apple lists an unlocked 16GB iPhone 5c at $549, which is only $100 less than a 16GB iPhone 5s. You can pick up unlocked handsets for less than this, but that high official price – which got a lot of press attention at the iPhone unveiling – will have undoubtedly put some people off.

5) Second best

The popular perception is that iPhone buyers are swayed by style, and that owning the attest and greatest handset is a status symbol of sorts.

While there no denying that the iPhone 5c is a new handset, it isn't a flagship handset, and with so much attention focused on the iPhone 5s, does this make the iPhone 5c seems a lesser, inferior, second best purchase?

The bottom line

Apple CEO Tim Cook is on record as saying that the company doesn't fear cannibalization, and that extends as far as its own products cannibalizing one another. At the end of the day, whether consumers are buying the iPhone 5s or the iPhone 5c (or the older iPhone 4s), people are still buying an Apple product as opposed to the competition.

If the iPhone 5c is a viable product, then chances are that we'll see similar models coming down the pipe in the future, if not, then we may see Apple shift away from this approach. This is how businesses do business.

Hotels In Northern California - Facebook Changes Privacy Settings For Teens

Source      - http://edition.cnn.com/
By            - Heather Kelly
Category  - Hotels In Northern California
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Hotels In Northern California

Facebook is relaxing its rules for teenagers. The 13- to 17-year-old set now has the option to share photos, updates and comments with the general public on Facebook. That means strangers, and companies collecting data for advertisers and marketing companies, will be able to see select posts. Strangers will also be able to "follow" teens they don't know and see their public posts in the main news feed.

The changes will take effect immediately, the company announced in a blog post. The new setting might help Facebook compete against other social networks that skew younger, and having public data on teens will also help the company appeal to advertisers.

The social network is trying to balance the less strict settings with two other privacy protections. When new underage users sign up for a Facebook account, their posts will be shown to a more limited audience by default -- only to friends instead of friends of friends. If a teen decides to change the setting to Public, she or he will see a pair of pop-up warnings explaining what "public" means. One warns they could end up "getting friend requests and messages from people they don't know personally." Default settings for existing teens with profiles won't change or affect past posts.

Facebook has been around for more than nine years and stopped being a hip place for kids long ago when it was invaded by parents, grandparents and advertisers. It has 1.2 billion users. Even as it expands to all ages, the company has to work to hang on to the coveted teen demographic.

In a recent Pew study, teens reported "waning enthusiasm" for the social network, citing the presence of adults and drama. The site has become too important to typical teen life to abandon, so 94% of teens on social media have a Facebook account, and the average teen user has 300 friends.

Other social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr and Last.fm don't prevent teens from posting publicly. However, if someone under 18 wanted to bypass the setting on Facebook before today, they could easily lie about their age when signing up for an account. Children under 13 are not officially allowed to sign up for a Facebook account, though they can skirt the rules in the same way. When someone underage does sign up for an account, Facebook assumes they have the permission of at least one guardian but does not verify it in any way.

Santa Clarita Local Colleges - Samsung Touching Up ROUNDED, CURVY Plastic Enhanced MODEL

Source       - http://www.theregister.co.uk/
By             - Bill Ray
Category   - Santa Clarita Local Colleges
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Santa Clarita Local Colleges

Samsung has launched what it describes as the "world's first curved display smartphone", the Galaxy Round.

This is despite the fact that Samsung built the last phone with a curved screen only three years ago.

You can't get your hands on one yet, though – the new handset, which has a flexible 5.7-inch high-def display, is only available in South Korea.

The first curved phone, of course, was the Nexus S, and was described as "contoured" with a glass screen bowing lengthways to wrap towards the user's mouth like an EU-Approved banana*, while the Galaxy Round wraps sideways to provide no discernible utility at all.

Samsung's press release says very little about the hardware, beyond the fact that the Galaxy Round seems to be a variant in the Galaxy Note with a couple of new functions added to take advantage of the curved back. Most importantly, it doesn't say from what material the new screen is constructed.

The Nexus S used a glass screen, curved, but the Round's camber is much sharper and would seem to indicate the use of plastic which might justify the "world's first" tag.

Just yesterday, LG announced that it had started manufacturing screens based on plastic, which can be flexible but more usefully are fixed to curved surfaces, and Samsung has been playing with the technology recently too, making plastic the probable basis for the Galaxy Round.

That makes the product a proof-of-concept, unlikely to sell outside Korea and unlikely to sell in any significant quantities within it, but it will serve to prove that Samsung can make plastic screens, in large quantities and with a yield rate high enough to make the technology viable, which is what the Galaxy Round is really all about.

Hotel In Santa Clarita - Samsung Debuts World's First Curved Display Smartphone

Source       - http://news.cnet.com
By             - Dara Kerr
Category   - Hotel In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel In Santa Clarita

Samsung has won the race to be the first phone manufacturer to launch a flexible smartphone. The company announced late Tuesday evening that the Galaxy Round incorporates the latest in flexible screen technology, along with other unique features.

The device resembles the Galaxy S3 and S4, but it has slight dip in the middle that causes the phone to curve along a vertical axis. The phone's body itself is rigid, so it doesn't exactly flex or bend -- but rather has a stationary curve that is said to fit the contours of a person's face. The company says that this curvature lets users controls their apps, music, and photos more easily.

"As a result of its unique curved design, users can take advantage of round integration experiences like the Roll Effect that enables user to check information such as date, time, missed call and battery easily when home screen is off, and the Gravity Effect for creating visual interaction with the screen by tilting the device," Samsung wrote in a statement. "When the Galaxy Round's display is off while the music player is running, a short press to the left of the device will play the previous track while a short press to the right will play the next track. For pictures and videos, the Side Mirror feature enables users to gain access to list of the album content with a left and right tilt."

The Galaxy Round has a 5.7-inch 1080p screen that has an HD Super AMOLED display. The device is 7.9mm thick, weighs 154g, and has a 2800mAh battery. It runs Android 4.3, has 3GB of RAM, and a 2.3GHz quad-core processor. The smartphone also has a 13-megapixel camera

Rumors have been floating the last few weeks that Samsung was working on a flexible display smartphone; and photos of the device even leaked on the Web earlier today. 

The product release comes as Samsung faces a slowdown in its core smartphone market. This means the company must find other ways to wow buyers and get them to pay for new devices. A curved display could be one factor that attracts those consumers.

Curved displays, however, are not entirely new to the market. Nokia and Apple have reportedly been working on curved displays for years, and LG recently announced that it plans to launch its first bendable smartphone dubbed the G Flex within a few weeks.

The Galaxy Round will first launch in South Korea in "Luxury Brown" and more colors are forthcoming. It's not yet clear when the company plans to launch the smartphone internationally.