When ?Find My iPhone? Becomes An Adventure

Screen Shot 2012-01-06 at 5.07.44 PMTechCrunch reader Nikos Kakavoulis sent us the following amazing story earlier this week ... The Daily Secret founder used Find My iPhone to catch an naive iPhone "thief" -- turning on the Play Sound feature in Starbucks in order to locate his lost phone inside the person who had found (and kept) his phone's pockets.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7FzJH8m0iBw/

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After Texas school shooting, many questions loom

(AP)?

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - On a doorstep outside a family home, a father wondered why police had to shoot his son in the hall of the boy's middle school. In an office across town, a police chief insisted that his officers had no choice.

And scores of others in this Texas border city wondered: Could the death of 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez have been prevented?

A day after police fatally shot an eighth-grader who was brandishing a realistic-looking pellet gun, his anguished parents pleaded for answers, demanding to know why police didn't try a Taser or beanbag gun before resorting to deadly force.

In front of the family home, the father lamented his loss and called on authorities to explain their actions.

Texas school 911 call: "Put the gun down!"
Answers sought over cops' shooting of 8th grader
8th-grader killed by Texas police had pellet gun

"Why three shots? Why one in the back of the head?" asked Jaime Gonzalez Sr.

Some standoffs with police last three or four hours, he said. This one "took not even half an hour."

But Brownsville interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriquez said the preliminary autopsy report showed the boy was not shot in the back of the head.

There was broad agreement among law enforcement experts: If a suspect raises a weapon and refuses to put it down, officers are justified in taking his life. The shooting also raised questions about whether pellet guns should be marked in a way that would easily distinguish them from real handguns.

This 2011 photo provided by the Gonzalez family shows Jaime Gonzalez.

(Credit: AP Photo/Courtesy of the Gonzalez Family)

Rodriguez defended his officers, saying the younger Gonzalez pointed the pellet gun at police and repeatedly defied their commands to put it on the floor.

He said the boy was shot twice in the torso. Asked about the parents' suggestion that there had been a shot to the back of the head, Rodriguez said, "It's a laceration as a result of the fall."

The Valley Morning Star newspaper in Harlingen reviewed the report and confirmed the preliminary finding that the boy died of two gunshot wounds, one to the chest and one to the abdomen. The report, signed by pathologist Elizabeth J. Miller, noted Gonzalez had a laceration to the right side of the head consistent with a fall.

Officers spoke with the boy's parents Thursday and exchanged information with them, Rodriguez said.

Authorities also released a 911 recording from Cummings Middle School. The assistant principal on the phone first says a student in the hall has a gun, then reports that he is drawing the weapon and finally that he is running down the hall.

On the recording, police can be heard yelling: "Put the gun down! Put it on the floor!" In the background, someone else yells, "He's saying that he is willing to die."

Before police arrived, school administrators had urged Jaime to give up the gun. When officers got to the school, the boy was waiting for them, Rodriguez said.

Moments before he was killed, Jaime began to run down a hallway, but again faced officers. Police fired down the hallway ? a distance that made a stun gun or other methods impractical, Rodriguez said.

If the situation had involved hostages or a gunman barricaded in a room, police might have tried negotiations. But instead, Rodriguez stressed, this was an armed student roaming the halls of a school.

The two officers who fired have been placed on administrative leave ? standard procedure in police shootings. Rodriguez expected them back at work soon.

Under federal law, pellet or BB guns must be sold with an orange band around the tip of the barrel so they can be distinguished from real weapons. But law enforcement experts say users often remove the bands, and the coloring can sometimes be hard to see.

Gonzalez's gun had no markings, according to Rodriguez.

Cary Young, a program coordinator at Sam Houston State University's Law Enforcement Management Institute, said pellet guns are often painted black so the orange tip no longer shows up. An officer dealing with someone holding such a gun has no choice but to consider it a deadly weapon, he said.

"If a reasonable officer believes it's a deadly weapon, he has the right to protect himself and others," said Young, a police officer in Texas for 20 years.

California considered legislation last year that would have made the state the first to require that BB and pellet guns to be made entirely with bright colors, but lawmakers did not approve the measure.

The bill was proposed after a Los Angeles police officer shot a 13-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun in a park. The boy was paralyzed.

Although the gun ? a replica of a Beretta handgun ? had an orange tip, it could not be seen because the incident occurred at night, police said.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said the Brownsville shooting appears to be another in a series of incidents that might have been prevented if pellet and BB guns looked different from other weapons.

"Nobody can give me a legitimate downside to this," said Beck, who testified in support of the failed California legislation. "Does it hurt the sport? No. For me, this is just another way to keep folks safer."

The Brownsville shooting unfolded quickly Wednesday just as students were beginning their first-period classes. The boy walked into one room and randomly punched a classmate in the nose.

School staff saw the gun in his crotch and called police. The building was swiftly locked down, and the shots were heard a short time later.

Gonzalez said his son was not a bad kid, an assessment supported by the district superintendent.

The teen was a drum major whose band instructors had recently praised his achievements to his parents, his stepmother, Noralva Gonzalez, said.

She showed off a photo on her phone of a beaming Jaime in his drum major uniform standing with his band instructors. Then she flipped through three close-up photos she took of bullet wounds in her son's body.

Jaime's father said he didn't know where Jaime got the gun. Police believed it was a gift, and a friend of the boy's, Star Rodriguez, said Jaime told her that. But she didn't know who gave it to him.

His parents said they would never give him a gun.

On Thursday night, about 400 mourners filed past an open casket containing Jaime's body at Holy Family Catholic Church, a block from the boy's home. His stepmother sobbed as she embraced each visitor.

Dozens of young teens wearing white shirts sat in the pews and lined the back wall of the church.

"I want to apologize to the young people for what happened to Jaime. It is our fault as adults that the world is the way it is now," the Rev. Jorge Gomez told mourners.

Delfina Cisneros, who said she was Jaime's fourth-grade teacher, said the neighborhood was a challenging place to grow up but that Jaime was a good, respectful person.

The school was closed Thursday while police finished their crime-scene investigation. Students were bused instead to a new elementary school that was recently completed on the outskirts of Brownsville but had not yet been used.

District spokeswoman Drue Brown said 17 counselors were working with students and staff. Cummings has a student body of about 750, but only 200 students came to classes Thursday.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/87P8BDBmyig/

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Apes, wizards, robots make the cut in Oscar VFX race (omg!)

Guests wear "Transformers Cine-Mask 3D Masks" as they prepare to watch a special preview from the new "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" movie during the Transformers Hall of Fame inductions ceremony at Hasbro's 2011 Transformers "BotCon" Convention in Pasadena, California, June 4, 2011. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine-Hasbro/Handout

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Superheroes will square off against wizards and apes will do battle with pirates in the next round of the Academy Awards' Visual Effects race.

The Academy announced on Wednesday that the field has been narrowed from 15 films to 10 by the Visual Effects Branch's Executive Committee. The remaining films include all of the presumed favorites, including "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," "Hugo," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life," which has a 20-minute effects sequence early in the film, also moved on to the next round, a "bakeoff" in which clips from the 10 semi-finalists will be shown to voters at the Academy on January 19.

After that presentation, branch members will vote and the field of 10 will be cut in half to produce the final five nominees.

The most surprising cut from the list of 15 is probably "Super 8," with its spectacular train-crash sequence. Other films that were eliminated are "Cowboys & Aliens," "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," "Sucker Punch" and "Thor."

The shortlist:

"Captain America: The First Avenger"

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"

"Hugo"

"Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol"

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides"

"Real Steel"

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"

"The Tree of Life"

"X-Men: First Class"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_apes_wizards_robots_cut_oscar_vfx_race224809106/44077797/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/apes-wizards-robots-cut-oscar-vfx-race-224809106.html

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MetroPCS to sell phones with TV tuners

(AP) ? TV stations have been locked out of the screens we carry with us every day ? those of cellphones. On Wednesday, they gained a foothold in the wireless world, though it's not yet clear whether there's real consumer demand.

MetroPCS Communications Inc. became the first cellphone company to announce plans for a phone that can tune in to live, local TV broadcasts. The capability will be part of a Samsung smartphone coming this year.

For years, TV stations have been unsuccessful in getting cellphone companies interested in such phones. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. instead sold access to a broadcast network set up by Qualcomm. That network was shut down last year because of low consumer interest.

Stephen Jemente, product manager for digital media at MetroPCS, emphasized that its phone will be different in that it will get local stations, with weather and traffic reports. Its customers are also usually young and consume a lot of digital media, he said.

Dallas-based MetroPCS is the fifth-largest cellphone company in the U.S. with 9.1 million subscribers. It concentrates on big cities and low-income households.

"Consumers will be able to enjoy the local nightly news on the bus, their favorite daytime talk show on their lunch break or live sporting events while running errands," the company said.

MetroPCS didn't say what the TV-capable phones would cost or if it would charge a monthly fee to access TV broadcasts. The phones will have an extendable antenna for the TV signals.

It's difficult technically to get phones to tune in to regular broadcasts destined for TV sets. Instead, the Samsung phones will receive special "Mobile DTV" signals broadcast by 72 stations in 32 cities. They're usually retransmissions of their main channels, but at a lower resolution.

A few portable TV sets can already receive those signals for free. However, NBC and Fox will be encrypting their signals so they can only be received by the phone app that will be on the Samsung phone, according to Salil Dalvi, co-head of the Mobile Content Venture, which organizes the TV stations using Mobile DTV technology.

Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission is trying to shrink the amount of airwaves allocated to local TV broadcasts. It wants to let cellphone companies pay stations to vacate some of their frequencies so they can be used for mobile broadband instead. Congress has yet to give the FCC the authority to set up auctions for such deals.

It's possible to watch live TV on cellphones in several other countries, but it's only become a mainstream phenomenon in South Korea and Japan. Even there, smartphones without TV capabilities, including the iPhone, are crowding out domestic TV-capable phones.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-04-MetroPCS-Mobile%20TV/id-0df19174421a45daa1cbbda132df9287

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Motorola RAZR coming to Fido on Jan. 10

Motorola RAZR

When the Motorola RAZR was released in Canada it was only available from Rogers but Fido customers will soon be able to grab the device as well. In the past, we had a look at the CDMA cousin being the Droid RAZR and were pleasantly surprised with the total package, plus -- the Motorola RAZR came up in our 2011 editors picks for smartphone of the year. If you're looking to get a Motorola RAZR for yourself on Fido, you'll be able to pick one up come January 10th for $100 on a new three-year contract.

Source: Motorola

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/PI9OmhS7jMs/story01.htm

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The nations weather (AP)

Weather Underground Forecast for Tuesday, January 03, 2012.

Lake-effect snow showers will continue in the northeastern quadrant of the nation on Tuesday. Blustery northwest winds will continue to sweep across the Great Lakes, causing heavy lake effect snow showers to persist downwind of the Great Lakes through the morning hours. This precipitation will lighten up through the afternoon and become more scattered. Storm totals for areas of the northern peninsula of Michigan, western Michigan, northeastern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, and western New York will be quite high as total snow accumulations from this event range from 8 to 18 inches. Winter Weather Advisories, Winter Storm Warnings, and Lake-Effect Snow Watches and Warnings will remain in effect for areas downwind of Lakes Erie and Ontario through Tuesday evening. In addition to snow, strong northwest winds of 15 to 25 mph will increase travel difficulty in these areas with periods of blowing and drifting snow and reduced visibilities.

In the West, rain and high elevation snow will continue behind a cold front moving through the Northwest. As this front move to the east, a warm front in the eastern Pacific will trigger another batch of rain showers in near the Washington coast. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Monday have ranged from a morning low of -9 degrees at Cando, N.D. to a high of 84 degrees at Ramona, Calif.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120103/ap_on_re_us/us_weatherpage_weather

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PBT: Kirilenko to play season in Moscow, not NBA

Teams looking for a little boost along the front line will not be getting an AK47.

Andrei Kirilenko came back to the USA as a free agent has decided to return to CSKA Moscow and play in NBA this season, TalkBasket.net confirmed.

Kirilenko will join up with his CSKA Moscow teammates on January 3rd, after failing to agree terms with the NBA teams that he and his party have spoken to.

This news will certainly make other Euroleague teams stand-up and take notice even more. CSKA are currently the only unbeaten side in the competition and head into the Top 16 as favourites to win Europe?s biggest club competition prize.

The former Jazz forward reportedly had been close to a deal with the Nets ? who certainly could use the front line help with Brook Lopez out ? but that has fallen apart.

Kirilenko had been battling a shoulder injury but apparently has recovered. He had been voted the EuroLeague player of the month in October as he looked sharp for CSKA averaging 13.8 points per game.

Source: http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/31/andrei-kirilenko-to-play-full-season-in-moscow-not-nba/related/

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Biotech Firms Caught In Regulatory No Man's Land

 AquaBounty's genetically modified salmon is seen swimming behind a much smaller wild Atlantic salmon of the same age. AquaBounty has been trying to get government approval to sell its salmon for more than a decade. Courtesy of AquaBounty Technologies

AquaBounty's genetically modified salmon is seen swimming behind a much smaller wild Atlantic salmon of the same age. AquaBounty has been trying to get government approval to sell its salmon for more than a decade.

Companies making genetically modified animals face a regulatory morass in this country. It's not always clear which federal agency has responsibility for regulating a particular animal, and even when one agency does take the lead, the approval process can drag on for years.

The companies say this uncertainty means their technologies may die without ever being given a chance.

Take the case of the British company Oxitec. It has developed a genetically modified mosquito that the company says can be used to combat a disease called dengue.

Dengue is potentially fatal, and there is no treatment or vaccine. Dengue is not common in the United States, but it could be, because we have plenty of the species of mosquito that transmits it. There have been sporadic cases in Texas and Florida, so controlling this mosquito is crucial for keeping dengue out of the United States.

It's sending a very strong message to the investment community and to people trying to develop innovative new products that there really is not a functional regulatory paradigm.

Luke Alphey, chief scientific officer of Oxitec, says the basic idea is very simple. The company has made genetically modified male mosquitoes that are sterile. When these modified males mate with normal females, there are no offspring.

"Over time, with periodic releases or successive releases of these sterile males, the target population will collapse," says Alphey.

No mosquitoes, no dengue.

Florida officials agreed to let Oxitec test its mosquitoes in Key West. So in 2009, Oxitec started asking which federal agency it needed to get approval from. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said, 'We're it,' so in March 2010, Oxitec submitted an application to import its mosquitoes from the U.K., and waited to hear back. And waited.

Finally, 18 months later, Oxitec heard back from the USDA. Bad news. The agency said, "We're not the right agency. Try the Food and Drug Administration."

How is it possible that it takes a federal agency 18 months to decide it's not the right one to regulate something?

"Well, the basic issue goes back to the problem of how the government first established oversight over genetically modified organisms," says Eric Hallerman, a professor of fisheries and wildlife at Virginia Tech. "There is no particular act that establishes government authority to do it."

Instead, in 1986 the Reagan White House decided to use existing laws, such as the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, as the basis of regulating genetically modified organisms. This has led to some strange circumstances. For example, for the purpose of regulation, the FDA considers a genetically modified mosquito to be a new animal drug.

But if Oxitec is frustrated, consider the plight of a Massachusetts company called AquaBounty. It has created a genetically modified salmon, a fish that is also a drug as far as the FDA is concerned. The salmon grows faster than wild salmon, something that could appeal to fish farmers.

AquaBounty has been trying to get FDA approval to market its salmon for more than a decade.

Hallerman was on a panel of scientists the FDA asked to evaluate whether the AquaBounty salmon were safe. In September 2010, the panel met and told the FDA yes, it would be OK to approve the salmon for sale.

"I was thinking at that time that they were going to come out with some sort of a decision sometime that winter," says Hallerman. "Well, here we are at the next winter."

The point here isn't whether AquaBounty's salmon or Oxitec's mosquitoes really are safe ? there are some legitimate scientific questions about that. The point is that the companies are in a regulatory never-never land.

"It's sending a very strong message to the investment community and to people trying to develop innovative new products that there really is not a functional regulatory paradigm," says Ron Stotish, president of AquaBounty. Stotish says any answer would be better than none at all.

But even if the FDA does approve the salmon, there's yet another hurdle. Mark Begich, the Democratic senator from Alaska, isn't convinced the salmon is safe, and he says that approving it would threaten his state's wild salmon fisheries.

"We don't need to go down this path, and I believe that's a position we need to take," says Begich.

He has introduced legislation that would make it unlawful to ship, transport, offer for sale, sell or purchase genetically altered salmon or other marine fish.

If such a piece of legislation became law, it would, if nothing else, lighten FDA's workload.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144330629/biotech-firms-caught-in-regulatory-no-mans-land?ft=1&f=1007

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Where did Fido come from? Most pets gifts or strays - TwinCities.com

LOS ANGELES - Where do people get their pets? An AP-Petside.com poll found that the most common way is as a gift, followed by taking in a stray.

About four in 10 owners say at least one of their pets was given to them by friends or family, while a third say they have a pet that showed up on their doorstep.

Shelters and breeders are next on the list as sources for pets. Thirty percent of those polled say they adopted through a shelter, 31 percent got a pet from a breeder and 14 percent bought an animal at a pet store.

Karen Hulsey, 63, adopted a cat from a Texas shelter. Greyson is about a year old now and "he's cuddly and clean," she says.

She calls her shelter experience very upbeat because the cat "has turned into a wonderful pet."

Another quarter obtained a pet in some other way, including 3 percent who say they went to an animal rescue group and 2 percent who purchased them using an online or print classified ad.

More than half of owners said they've taken in a shelter animal at some point, and two-thirds of them say their experiences have been extremely positive.

Jackie Schulze, 77, of Williamsport, Pa., got Sassafras, a white cat with periwinkle eyes, from Lycoming Animal Protection Society, a no-kill cat rescue that operates a local shelter. The cat - rescued from a meth lab - is very attached to Schulze, following her around. "Sassy chose me," Schulze said.

Among those who had the most positive shelter experiences, 44 percent cite

positive interactions with shelter staff. Just 3 percent say they'd had a moderately or very negative experience.

Edward Acosta, 46, of Thomasville, N.C., said if he were getting a new pet today, he would probably go to a pet store or breeder, not because he doesn't like shelters but "because I like thoroughbreds." He and his wife, Vicki, bred Pomeranians for years and still have three descended from their original pair. They also own five chickens - Rhode Island Reds bought at a feed store - whom they call pets.

Cat owners are more likely than dog owners to have adopted a stray or shelter animal. Forty-three percent of cat owners said one of their pets came from a shelter, compared with 29 percent of dog owners. More than half of cat owners (52 percent) said one of their current pets was a stray, compared with 30 percent of dog owners.

Fifty-eight percent of shelter adopters say being socially responsible was extremely or very important in their decision to use a shelter. It is usually less expensive to adopt than to buy from a breeder, but 60 percent of those with shelter pets say the cost made no difference.

Thirty-six percent of shelter users say they had more confidence in the staff at pet shelters than they did in the staff at pet stores or breeders. Thirty-six percent of those who obtained animals from shelters also say they believe shelter animals were more likely to have had recent veterinary care.

More than two-thirds of those who adopted from a shelter - 68 percent - say they would do so again.

Not all pet owners see shelter adoptions as a positive. Thirty-six percent of those polled say that if they were to adopt an animal from a shelter, they would be extremely or very concerned that the pet might have medical problems; 29 percent express concern about psychological problems and 33 percent say they would worry the animal wouldn't fit in with their families.

Ojala Reino, 31, of Fairmount, Ga., who got his boxer bulldog, Bruster, from a friend, said he was one of those who would worry about the physical and mental health of a shelter dog.

"I watch of lot of those shows on TV where the animals come in and have been abused," he said.

Fifty-two percent of pet owners say they have gotten a pet from a shelter or rescue at some time, but only 23 percent have taken an animal to a shelter. Of those who turned in animals, 59 percent say the animal belonged to someone else.

If shelters started charging a $25 fee to accept unwanted or stray animals, about a third of those polled (34 percent) say they would be dissuaded from leaving animals.

Adopting a stray is most common in the West, where 39 percent got a pet that way compared with 34 percent in the South, 30 percent in the Northeast and 29 percent in the Midwest. Forty-one percent of rural-dwelling pet owners say their pet was a stray, compared with 28 percent of suburbanites and 34 percent of urbanites. And suburbanites were most likely to have adopted from a shelter: 36 percent compared with 30 percent in urban areas and 22 percent in rural parts of the country.

The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted Oct. 13-17, 2011, by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved land line and cellphone interviews with 1,118 pet owners. Results among pet owners have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_19648022?source=rss

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