Kyocera Torque coming to Sprint's Direct Connect lineup in March, we go hands-on (video)

Going to be in the market for a new Direct Connect device soon, but the current offerings seem so... drab? Enter the Kyocera Torque, the latest Sprint smartphone featuring the network's CDMA-based Push-to-Talk service. The phone, which should be available sometime in early March, brings with it LTE connectivity, (mostly) stock Android 4.0, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, HD Voice, 4-inch WVGA display, 4GB internal storage and a 2,500mAh battery. As you'd come to expect on a Direct Connect device, it's also certified mil-spec 810G and IP67 and is water-resistant (it can be in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes). It's also the first on this side of the Pacific to utilize Kyocera's Smart Sonic Receiver tissue-conduction tech, a system that foregoes the traditional earpiece and transmits audio to your ear via vibration.

The Torque packs a lot of average features that would likely put it somewhere in the mid-range (we haven't been given pricing yet), but it's definitely not going to win any beauty awards -- it's still a Direct Connect device, after all. Its outer layer is dressed with Dura-Grip and the phone is plenty bulky as a result; however, it's also much more durable than your standard piece of electronics. We threw the phone at the wall, slammed it repeatedly on the table, dunked it in water and even let it sit in ice for at least 20 minutes, all without incident.

On the software side, the Torque uses a version of stock Android 4.0 with only a small amount of tweaking. Essentially, the only major change added in by Sprint and Kyocera is Eco Mode, a power management system on the Torque that blocks background data connections for nonessential apps. We've put together a gallery of pics for you below. Follow us past the break for a full spec listing and our hands-on video.

Kyocera Torque specs:

• Military spec 810G and IP67-certified
• IPX5 / IPX7-certified "waterproof" (up to one meter for 30 minutes)
• 5.54 ounces (157g)
• 113 x 60.5 x 14.3mm (4.44 x 2.38 x 0.56 inches)
• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• 1.2GHz dual-core MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 Plus
• 4-inch WVGA IPS display, Gorilla Glass 2
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB internal storage
• MicroSD (up to 32GB)
• 2,500mAh battery
• 5MP rear camera, 1.3MP front-facing
• NFC, WiFi b/g/n 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.0+LE/EDR
• HD Voice

Mat Smith contributed to this post.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sprint

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/28/kyocera-torque/

serrano staten island chuck dr jekyll and mr hyde edwin jackson punksatony phil 2012 groundhog day groundhog phil

US regulator asks Boeing for full battery history

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery, left, and an undamaged auxiliary battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan. Japan's transport safety agency says a lithium ion battery on a Boeing 787 that overheated during an All Nippon Airways flight earlier this month, prompting an emergency landing, was not overcharged. (AP Photo/Japan Transport Safety Board) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery, left, and an undamaged auxiliary battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan. Japan's transport safety agency says a lithium ion battery on a Boeing 787 that overheated during an All Nippon Airways flight earlier this month, prompting an emergency landing, was not overcharged. (AP Photo/Japan Transport Safety Board) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 18, 2013 file photo, an All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 "the Dreamliner" parks on the tarmac as a Japan Airlines' Boeing 767 airplane takes off at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. ANA and JAL said they replaced lithium-ion batteries in their Boeing 787 Dreamliners on multiple occasions before a battery overheating incident led to the worldwide grounding of the jets. ANA said Wednesday, Jan. 30, it replaced batteries on its 787 aircraft some 10 times because they failed to charge properly or showed other problems, and informed Boeing about the swaps. JAL said it had also replaced lithium-ion batteries on its 787 jets but couldn't immediately give details. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)

TOKYO (AP) ? U.S. regulators said Wednesday they asked Boeing Co. to provide a full operating history of lithium-ion batteries used in its grounded 787 Dreamliners after Japan's All Nippon Airways revealed it had repeatedly replaced the batteries even before overheating problems surfaced.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the agency made the request after recently becoming aware of battery problems at ANA that occurred before a Jan. 7 battery fire in a 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport. Boeing has already collected some of the information, he said.

ANA said it had replaced batteries on its 787 aircraft some 10 times because they failed to charge properly or showed other problems, and informed Boeing about the swaps. Japan Airlines also said it had replaced 787 batteries. It described the number involved as a few but couldn't immediately give further details.

All 50 of the Boeing 787s in use around the world remain grounded after an ANA flight on Jan. 16 made an emergency landing in Japan when its main battery overheated.

Lithium-ion batteries are prone to overheating and require additional safeguards to prevent fires. However, ANA spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka said the airline was not required to report the battery replacements to Japan's Transport Ministry because they did not interfere with flights and did not raise safety concerns.

Having to replace batteries on aircraft is not uncommon and was not considered out of the ordinary, she said.

Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, said in Washington that the agency was checking whether the previous battery incidents had been reported by Boeing.

With 17 of the jets, ANA was Boeing's launch customer for the technologically advanced airliner. The airline has had to cancel hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of people, but has sought to minimize disruptions by switching to other aircraft as much as possible.

The battery problems experienced by ANA before the emergency landing were first reported by The New York Times.

Japanese and U.S. investigators looking into the Boeing 787's battery problems shifted their attention this week from the battery-maker, GS Yuasa of Kyoto, Japan, to the manufacturer of a monitoring system. That company, Kanto Aircraft Instrument Co. makes a system that monitors voltage, charging and temperature of the lithium-ion batteries.

On Tuesday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was conducting a chemical analysis of internal short circuiting and thermal damage of the battery that caught fire in Boston.

The probe is also analyzing data from flight data recorders on the aircraft, the NTSB said in a statement on its website.

___

Joan Lowy reported from Washington.

___

Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ekurtenbach

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-30-Japan-Boeing%20787/id-d1e65f3720e241dda6226e462fd4b08e

atlantic city ocean city maryland Nexus 7 KDKA Pumpkin Carving Ideas Hurricane Sandy path opm

3 Things You Need to Know When Buying Flood Insurance | Your ...

Posted by Your Insurance Question on Jan 28, 2013 in Your Insurance Question Blog

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, it was reported that 82% of Americans don?t have flood insurance, despite flooding being the most common natural disaster in the United States. You can purchase a policy through the government?s National Flood Insurance Program butmany people don?t avail of this resource. With the people of New Jersey being told that they will have to reinforce their homes to avoid paying exorbitant premiums in future, now is a good time for us to look at what you need to know when it comes to purchasing flood insurance for your home.

Is It a Disaster?

Many people think they don?t need flood insurance because you can apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the government will cover your expenses. This is not necessarily the case. If a flood or storm does not qualify as a disaster then the government won?t be stepping in. You are better off with insurance that you know will cover you in case of flooding.

Homeowners? Policy Isn?t Enough

One thing people don?t realise is that their homeowners? or renters? policy does not cover them in cases of flood damage. Flood insurance needs to be bought separately from the government?s National Flood Insurance Program. Through this you can purchase coverage for damage to your home and its contents. Contents insurance is for covering things such as furniture or expensive electronics.

What?s a Basement?

This is a strange one but it could make a big difference to your flood coverage. If you?re living room is below ground level, it can be classified as a basement. That?s right, your first floor may actually be your basement and you could find it very difficult to get coverage for it. This means take care with what you store in your basement. Anything of considerable value might be better placed on a higher floor.

The cost of flood insurance can vary based on many different factors, such as whether the area you live in is a flood risk or what floor your apartment is on. Flood insurance also doesn?t cover everything. Make sure you know what is protected by your flood insurance policy and what isn?t. Doing some research now could save you money in the future.

If? you have a question about flood insurance, ask it here and get an answer back for free!

Source: http://www.yourinsurancequestion.com/blog/3-things-you-need-to-know-when-buying-flood-insurance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3-things-you-need-to-know-when-buying-flood-insurance

mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy brooklyn nets may day protests tony nominations 2012

'Quantum smell' idea gains ground

27 January 2013 Last updated at 19:05 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The BBC's Jason Palmer visits a perfume store to find out more

A controversial theory that the way we smell involves a quantum physics effect has received a boost, following experiments with human subjects.

It challenges the notion that our sense of smell depends only on the shapes of molecules we sniff in the air.

Instead, it suggests that the molecules' vibrations are responsible.

A way to test it is with two molecules of the same shape, but with different vibrations. A report in PLOS ONE shows that humans can distinguish the two.

Tantalisingly, the idea hints at quantum effects occurring in biological systems - an idea that is itself driving a new field of science, as the BBC feature article Are birds hijacking quantum physics? points out.

But the theory - first put forward by Luca Turin, now of the Fleming Biomedical Research Sciences Centre in Greece - remains contested and divisive.

The idea that molecules' shapes are the only link to their smell is well entrenched, but Dr Turin said there were holes in the idea.

He gave the example of molecules that include sulphur and hydrogen atoms bonded together - they may take a wide range of shapes, but all of them smell of rotten eggs.

"If you look from the [traditional] standpoint... it's really hard to explain," Dr Turin told BBC News.

"If you look from the standpoint of an alternative theory - that what determines the smell of a molecule is the vibrations - the sulphur-hydrogen mystery becomes absolutely clear."

Molecules can be viewed as a collection of atoms on springs, so the atoms can move relative to one another. Energy of just the right frequency - a quantum - can cause the "springs" to vibrate, and in a 1996 paper in Chemical Senses Dr Turin said it was these vibrations that explained smell.

The mechanism, he added, was "inelastic electron tunnelling": in the presence of a specific "smelly" molecule, an electron within a smell receptor in your nose can "jump" - or tunnel - across it and dump a quantum of energy into one of the molecule's bonds - setting the "spring" vibrating.

But the established smell science community has from the start argued that there is little proof of this.

Of horses and unicorns

One way to test the idea was to prepare two molecules of identical shape but with different vibrations - done by replacing a molecule's hydrogen atoms with their heavier cousins called deuterium.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

There are many, many problems with the shape theory of smell - many things it doesn't explain that the vibrational theory does?

End Quote Prof Tim Jacob University of Cardiff

Leslie Vosshall of The Rockefeller University set out in 2004 to disprove Dr Turin's idea with a molecule called acetophenone and its "deuterated" twin.

The work in Nature Neuroscience suggested that human participants could not distinguish between the two, and thus that vibrations played no role in what we smell.

But in 2011, Dr Turin and colleagues published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that fruit flies can distinguish between the heavier and lighter versions of the same molecule.

A repeat of the test with humans in the new paper finds that, as in Prof Vosshall's work, the subjects could not tell the two apart. But the team then developed a brand new, far larger pair of molecules - cyclopentadecanone - with more hydrogen or deuterium bonds to amplify the purported effect.

In double-blind tests, in which neither the experimenter nor the participant knew which sample was which, subjects were able to distinguish between the two versions.

Still, Prof Vosshall believes the vibrational theory to be no more than fanciful.

"I like to think of the vibration theory of olfaction and its proponents as unicorns. The rest of us studying olfaction are horses," she told BBC News.

"The problem is that proving that a unicorn exists or does not exist is impossible. This debate on the vibration theory or the existence of unicorns will never end, but the very important underlying question of why things smell the way they do will continue to be answered by the horses among us."

Tim Jacob, a smell researcher at the University of Cardiff, said the work was "supportive but not conclusive".

"But the fact is that nobody has been able to unequivocally contradict [Dr Turin]," he told BBC News.

"There are many, many problems with the shape theory of smell - many things it doesn't explain that the vibrational theory does."

And although many more scientists are taking the vibrational theory seriously than back in 1996, it remains an extraordinarily polarised debate.

"He's had some peripheral support, but... people don't want to line up behind Luca," Prof Jacob said. "It's scientific suicide."

Columbia University's Richard Axel, whose work on mapping the genes and receptors of our sense of smell garnered the 2004 Nobel prize for physiology, said the kinds of experiments revealed this week would not resolve the debate - only a microscopic look at the receptors in the nose would finally show what is at work.

"Until somebody really sits down and seriously addresses the mechanism and not inferences from the mechanism... it doesn't seem a useful endeavour to use behavioural responses as an argument," he told BBC News.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing off this theory, but I need data and it hasn't been presented."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21150046#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

ryan zimmerman oscars red carpet jennifer lopez wardrobe malfunction hugo hugo nfl combine 84th annual academy awards

China May End Decade-Long Ban on Game Consoles - HotHardware

Were you aware that game consoles are banned in China? Due to fears that these devices could harm the physical and mental development of children, seven Chinese ministries decided to ban the manufacture, sale, and import of game consoles a little over a decade ago. Now authorities in Beijing are starting to rethink things.

Citing an anonymous government source, China Daily reports that China is warming to the idea of lifting the ban on game consoles, which would open up a potentially massive market for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo to tap into.

"We are reviewing the policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market," a source from the Ministry of Culture told China Daily. "However, since the ban was issued by seven ministries more than a decade ago, we will need approval from all parties to lift it."

Come console makers already have a presence in China. Sony, for example, has a branch in South China's Guangdong province where it conducts training and research and development, while Microsoft's Kinect motion controller was introduced to the mainland last year. The Kinect isn't used for playing games in China, however, but for medical treatment and educational purposes.

Ironically enough, China is the biggest manufacturing base for Microsoft's Xbox console, even though the market is inaccessible and has a major piracy problem.

Source: http://hothardware.com/News/China-May-End-DecadeLong-Ban-on-Game-Consoles/

andrew luck andrew luck trent richardson robert griffin iii dontari poe space shuttle nyc monkeypox

95% The Central Park Five

All Critics (61) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (3)

Expect your blood pressure to rise during The Central Park Five.

The doc is rife with smart or wrenching or shameful moments. The fresh interviews with the accused, now men, are invaluable.

As grim a portrait of the criminal justice system as can be imagined.

How could this second crime have occurred? The film asks that question but only partly answers it, and in the process it raises an even more troubling one.

"The Central Park Five" is worth seeing, both for the ways it's timeless and for the ways it encapsulates an era.

What's amazing about listening to them speak now, often through tears, is the absence of bitterness.

Like the "Paradise Lost" films, it's a shocking but clear-eyed portrait of injustice.

The Central Park Five is such a moving piece of work, it is difficult to watch at times.

It shows what happens when police and prosecutors abuse their power.

Puts the crime and the times in sharp perspective.

Burns and company conduct a thorough, riveting investigation that does a far better job of assessing the tragedy than the justice system did two decades before. Of course, hindsight is an advantage we all take for granted.

It's a gripping story that comes in a well-crafted package.

A heartbreaking expose' about a rush to judgment which ruined five, innocent young lives.

Exclusive interviews with former heads of Israel's counter terrorism agency reveal insiders' analysis about the country's policies. Fascinating. Frightening.

"The Central Park Five" is a sobering indictment of racism and vigilante justice, yet it is constrained by a PBS-style deference to the very system it critiques.

You can't help but wonder why this film wasn't made 20 years ago, when it could have saved these men some time behind bars.

What keeps the film from being an impossible downer is the guts and spirit and smart words of the Central Park Five, four of whom, now freed, are interviewed at length.

A miscarriage of justice on this scale would have been tragic had it resulted from an honest mistake - but, as this meticulously researched movie makes clear, honesty had little to do with it.

The [documentary] team builds a solid story from the time of the crime through the release from prison those wrongly accused and railroaded into confessing to a crime they did not commit.

No quotes approved yet for The Central Park Five. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_central_park_five_2012/

snl lindsay lohan valley fever project x the lorax lorax fisker karma super tuesday states

UK: Specific threat to Westerners in Somaliland

LONDON (AP) ? British citizens should immediately leave the breakaway Somaliland region of Somalia because of a specific threat to Westerners, British diplomats said Sunday. It was the second such warning issued for an African region in just days and comes amid growing turbulence across the continent's north.

In a statement emailed to reporters, Britain's Foreign Office did not go into any further detail about the nature of the threat but noted that "kidnapping for financial or political gain, motivated by criminality or terrorism" is an issue throughout Somalia.

Somalia has endured years of civil war, and Britain ? along with the United States and a host of other countries ? has long advised against all travel to the Horn of Africa nation. Sunday's travel warning applies specifically to the northwest territory of Somaliland, which declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 and has since been a haven of relative peace amid the chaos and bloodshed of the country's south.

Somaliland Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdulahi Omar told a news conference that his government has full confidence in its security. "We don't believe in that warning," he said. "We are informing the public and foreigners in our country that there's no security scares at all. But in general, terrorism is a worldwide menace."

The new warning was issued only days after Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada urged their citizens in the Libyan city of Benghazi to evacuate in response to what was then described as an imminent threat to Westerners. European officials told The Associated Press at the time that schools were thought to be among the potential targets.

The exact reason for the warnings remains unclear, but they come at a time of heightened tension across north Africa. French and African land forces are battling al-Qaida-linked Islamists in northern Mali, while a renewed bout of unrest has gripped Egypt following the two-year anniversary of the revolution that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak.

In addition, a Jan. 16 attack on the Ain Amenas natural gas plant in the Sahara ignited a four-day siege by Algerian forces in which at least 37 hostages and 29 militants died. An al-Qaida-affiliated group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Libya also remains unstable following the overthrow of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

It was unclear if any of those factors played a role in Britain's latest warning. The Foreign Office declined to comment beyond its brief statement.

Somaliland, a former British colony, is a key ally for neighboring Ethiopia, which has an embassy in the enclave, and collaborates with the United States and its allies on anti-terrorism missions. Somaliland employs its own security forces, justice system, and currency but is not recognized as a separate country by the international community.

Somaliland was most recently hit by terror attacks in 2008, when suicide car bombers struck inside the enclave and its neighboring Puntland territory, killing more than 29 people.

___

Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.

___

Online:

British government travel advice on Somalia: http://bit.ly/cbSix4

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-27-Somalia%20Warning/id-c131d80f8ba84302af6884f8ce66bfdf

ufc 144 results acura nsx all star weekend 2012 giada de laurentiis howard hughes nationwide race wanderlust