Motorola Droid Razr Maxx (Verizon Wireless)

The top Android smartphone you can buy today, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx combines the best materials, a fast processor, a super-speedy 4G LTE network, and a truly gigantic battery. What you get is a smartphone?that's ready to be used to the max. At $299.99 with contract (and $649.99 without), the Razr Maxx is also one of the most expensive smartphones on the market. But you're getting what you pay for here: Top-notch Android performance and no worries about running out of juice by the middle of the day.

Physical Design and Battery Life
The Droid Razr Maxx is thicker than the original Motorola Droid Razr ($199, 4.5 stars), but considering how slim the Razr was, that isn't a hardship. The phone is 5.2 by 2.7 by .35 inches (HWD), as compared to .28 inches depth on the older phone; basically, the whole handset is now as thick as the camera "bump" up top, smoothing the body out.?This is a BIG phone. There's no getting around that. But it's still by and large operable one-handed,? it isn't overly heavy, and it's as handsome as a large phone can be.

More importantly, like the Razr this is an extremely well-built phone?rock solid, with a water-resistant back, a steel core, and a Gorilla Glass display. The back panel has a black and gray pattern and feels slightly grippy; the front resists even greasy fingerprints. A door on the side panel hides the SIM and MicroSD card slots, and the phone comes with a 16GB card as well as an additional 16GB of internal storage.

And the 3300 mAh battery? It's awe-inspiring. You can get extended batteries for other phones, but they often aren't this capacious, and they tend to make the phones chunky. The standard Droid Bionic ($149, 4.5 stars)?extended battery, for instance, holds only 2760mAh and adds noticeable width. I've found even larger batteries, but they add even more bulk. The Droid Razr Maxx's battery is a great combination of relatively unobtrusive and juicier than a cart full of melons.

In tests run over the past few days, the Razr Maxx checked in with 16 hours, 45 minutes of continuous 3G talk time. Playing a locally stored video with the screen at maximum brightness and one email account attached we eked out 14 hours, 15 minutes. And, get this,?6 hours, 57 minutes of continual audio streaming over a 4G LTE connection.

Let's compare that to the original Droid Razr, which tested at 8 hours, 42 minutes of talk time and 3 hours, 40 minutes of 4G LTE streaming, which is par for the course with many of today's LTE phones.

While I'm writing this review, I've had the phone unplugged, using it for gaming and Web surfing, with two Gmail accounts, the Facebook and Plume Twitter clients, and the Pulse news reader running in the background for the past 18 hours and I'm at about 50 percent battery.

The phone's battery life can be further enhanced with Motorola's Smart Actions, which does things like stop syncing email accounts at night if the phone's screen is off and the device is sitting still. That both saves power and helps with another typical Droid problem, the terrifying "DROID!" sound erupting in the middle of the night when you receive email messages.

A little bit of trivia: While the Razr Maxx has the longest talk time of any Verizon Wireless phone, it doesn't have the longest talk time of any phone on the market. That honor belongs to the super-rugged Sonim XP3300 Force ($525, 3.5 stars)?which combines a large battery with the very power-efficient EDGE protocol to get 22 hours, 29 minutes of talk time. But the XP3300 isn't a smartphone.

Other Performance and Conclusions
Other than the battery and physical design, the Droid Maxx is a Droid Razr. It benchmarked almost identically to the Razr in our tests. That's a very good thing. Up until now, the Droid Razr was one of our favorite Android phones overall. It has a good-looking 960-by-540 screen, gets excellent reception with fine call quality, is speedy, and is a "complete multimedia powerhouse." It also has Motorola's kooky but appealing Webtop software, which turns the phone into a desktop or laptop PC with the right accessories. Our only hardware qualm is a mediocre 8-megapixel camera that isn't up to the standards set by the Apple iPhone 4S ($199, 4 stars).?Furthermore, this is the only LTE phone with a battery you won't have to babysit. That matters a lot.?

There's only one thing holding this phone back from a five-star review: the lack of Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich." While Motorola promises an upgrade to ICS at some point in the future, the nation's best Android phone should be running the most current version of the OS. ICS brings a faster browser, better address book and more consistency between tablets and phones, which should improve the Android experience overall.

Right now there is only one ICS phone on the market, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus ($299, 4 stars). The Droid Razr is superior for many reasons including better battery life, better physical materials, and better call quality and radio reception, for instance. That all outweighs the OS downgrade, although we wish we didn't have to choose between the best hardware and the most current OS. Still, we?enthusiastically crown the Droid Maxx as our Editors' Choice Verizon Wireless smartphone.

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 16 hours 45 minutes

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/TCYPya4dYTM/0,2817,2399561,00.asp

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RBS CEO turns down bonus amid criticism of payout (AP)

LONDON ? Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester will not be accepting a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) bonus that drew criticism from British public and politicians, the bank said Sunday.

Spokesman David Gaffney said Hester would not receive the bonus of 3.6 million shares he was awarded last week by the board of the largely state-owned bank.

The British government spent 45 billion pounds bailing out RBS three years ago. It still owns an 82 percent stake, and politicians had criticized the reward at a time when Britons face painful spending cuts and tax hikes.

The government ? which has insisted it has no control over the bank's bonuses ? welcomed the announcement.

"This is a sensible and welcome decision that enables Stephen Hester to focus on the very important job he has got to do, namely to get back billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that was put into RBS," Treasury chief George Osborne said.

The decision follows Saturday's announcement that RBS chairman Philip Hampton was waiving his own bonus of 1.4 million pounds in shares.

Hester and Hampton were brought in after Fred Goodwin, who led RBS's ill-fated takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, stepped down in October 2008 as the government was spending billions to prop up the bank.

The board of directors decided last week to award Hester a bonus of 3.6 million shares ? worth just under 1 million pounds at Friday's closing share price of 27.74 pence. That came on top of his annual salary of 1.2 million pounds.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that Hester's bonus was "a matter for him," but pointed out it was much less than last year's.

The government claimed it had no control over bonuses awarded by the bank, and said replacing Hester if he resigned would be more costly than paying the reward.

But many politicians were critical. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative like Cameron, said he found the bonus "absolutely bewildering."

Rachel Reeves, Treasury spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said Sunday the sum was inappropriate "when families are feeling the pinch."

"It's time the government explained why they have allowed these bonuses to go through unchallenged," she said.

Before the bank's announcement, the Labour Party said it would force a vote in the House of Commons next month calling for Hester to be stripped of his bonus.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_rbs

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Unified Communications Provider SimpleSignal Hires Industry ...

SimpleSignal, a California-based comapny specializing in Unified Communications and Collaboration, announces the hiring of former GLOBALINX Vice President of Channel Development Ron Ireland. Ron will join SimpleSignal to guide financial operations and business development.

Dana Point, CA (PRWEB) January 27, 2012

SimpleSignal, Inc., the leading cloud-based Unified Communications and Collaboration provider for business, today announced they have hired Ron Ireland as Senior Vice President, Finance and Business Development. Ireland will have oversight of SimpleSignal?s day-to-day financial operations as well as taking a significant role in business development. He will be responsible for introducing SimpleSignal?s products to a larger indirect channel audience and for helping the company manage their rapid growth. Ireland is a proven leader in the telecom and VoIP industry, having steered a leading nationally certified reseller through several business cycles, achieving growth and profitability in every year of his tenure. This industry experience, coupled with previous positions in banking and consumer finance, add up to knowledge and competency in growth management, finance, strategic planning, and operational efficiencies.

Ireland has been actively involved in the indirect agent channel for the last 14 years. He most recently served as VP, Channel Development for GLOBALINX, a facilities-based provider of IP services to the residential and small business markets, following their acquisition of TMC Communications, a leading reseller of switchless voice and data services for the SMB market, in December of 2010. There he held the dual title of President and CFO, where he coordinated the activities of all sales, accounting, collections, HR, pricing, IT, and revenue assurance staff, and ensured performance goals were met and profit margins grew.

?I?ve admired SimpleSignal from afar for the last several years, and observed their commitment to the indirect channel and to providing a full-featured unified communications solution to both the SMB and enterprise markets as a winning strategy in today?s quickly changing communications environment,? said Ireland when asked about the move. ?SimpleSignal is being recognized as one of the most innovative companies in the industry, and I?m really excited to be a part of bringing their new cloud technologies to companies small and large.?

In addition to its flagship cloud-based PBX and SIP Trunking products, SimpleSignal provides a growing suite of unified communications solutions including mobile integration, integrated voice-powered applications and cloud services like backup and storage, audio and video conferencing, call recording, and desktop collaboration tools to tens of thousands of business users throughout the United States, and was recently named to Inc 5000?s list of fastest growing private companies.

?We?re excited to have Ron join our team as we continue on our path of market leader in unified communications,? said SimpleSignal CEO Dave Gilbert. ?Ron brings a diverse skill set and a lengthy list of industry connections to the table. He knows every angle of the business and he is a very welcome addition to our already talented growing team.?

Since beginning his career in 1988, Ireland held positions of increasing responsibility and leadership in the banking industry as controller and then CFO at California Thrift and Loan and Bank of Ventura before transitioning to the telecom industry, joining TMC in 1998. Ireland graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor?s degree in Economics from Westmont College and received a Masters degree in Business Economics with a focus on Accounting from UC Santa Barbara.

About SimpleSignal

SimpleSignal is a hosted PBX and cloud-based Unified Communications service provider, delivering IP phone applications and cloud-based collaboration services to tens of thousands of satisfied business users throughout the US and Canada, with a growing list of multi-office clients in many International locations. SimpleSignal has created some of the most innovative and advanced voice ?mashups? in the communications industry, leveraging voice technology for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Salesforce.com, among others. SimpleSignal has offices in Denver, CO, and Dana Point, CA. Find us on the web at http://www.simplesignal.com. For sales, call 866-434-4404. Read our blog: http://www.simplesignal.com/blog/.

Media Contact:

Donna Sudderth

donna(at)simplesignal(dot)com

949.777.5150

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/1/prweb9142212.htm

Source: http://pressreleases.bloginteract.com/2012/01/27/unified-communications-provider-simplesignal-hires-industry-veteran-ron-ireland-to-head-finance-and-business-development/

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Internet Criticism Pushes China to Act on Pollution

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Under popular pressure, Chinese officials have begun to track the most pernicious measure of urban air pollution and promise to set new health standards and publish data on air pollution.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=74a2b642cc3875ceb5b12ce07f119cb8

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Robert Hegyes, played Epstein on 'Kotter,' dies

FILE - In this 1978 file photo, Robert Hegyes portrays Juan Epstein from the comedy series "Welcome Back Kotter." The actor best known for playing the Jewish Puerto Rican student on the 1970s TV show has died. He was 60. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this 1978 file photo, Robert Hegyes portrays Juan Epstein from the comedy series "Welcome Back Kotter." The actor best known for playing the Jewish Puerto Rican student on the 1970s TV show has died. He was 60. (AP Photo, file)

METUCHEN, N.J. (AP) ? Robert Hegyes, the actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show "Welcome Back Kotter" has died. He was 60.

The Flynn & Son Funeral Home in Fords, N.J., said it was informed of Hegyes' death Thursday by the actor's family.

A spokesman at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Hegyes, of Metuchen, arrived at the hospital Thursday morning in full cardiac arrest and died.

Hegyes was appearing on Broadway in 1975 when he auditioned for "Kotter," a TV series about a teacher who returns to the inner-city New York school of his youth to teach a group of irreverent remedial students nicknamed the "Sweathogs." They included the character Vinnie Barbarino, played by John Travolta.

The show's theme song, performed by John Sebastian, became a pop hit.

Hegyes also appeared on many other TV series, including "Cagney & Lacey."

He was born in Perth Amboy and grew up in Metuchen, the eldest child of a Hungarian father and Italian mother.

He attended Rowan University, formerly Glassboro State College, in southern New Jersey, before heading to New York City after graduation. He returned to Rowan on several occasions to teach master classes in acting, a university spokesman said Thursday.

"He was a good friend to the university," spokesman Joe Cardona said.

Hegyes continued to act after "Kotter" and was a regular on "Cagney & Lacey." He also guest-starred in shows including "Diagnosis Murder" and "The Drew Carey Show."

On his website, Hegyes wrote that he was inspired by Chico Marx, whom he had played in a touring production of a show about the Marx Bros. He also recalled how his mother encouraged him to get involved in theater as a teen.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-26-Obit-Robert%20Hegyes/id-676d7a199ef443bda1c5d6529be91707

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The Simple Wooden Tokyo Home Office [Featured Workspace]

Natural light, beautiful wood, and simple minimalistic design only seems to turn out well for a workspace, and such is the case with Flickr user Fat Jaiii's apartment in Tokyo. There isn't going on, but the simple setup and beautiful wooden floors and furniture make for an attractive and functional home office. The picture above is only one view, and you'll want to see this workspace from other angles. Be sure to hit up Fat Jaiii's flickr stream or visit his web site for more.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

My apartment in Tokyo | Fat Jaiii on Flickr

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/UK6hTQN-wpA/the-simple-wooden-tokyo-home-office

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Iranian paper calls for retaliation against Israel (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? A hard-line Iranian newspaper called Thursday for retaliation against Israel, a day after the mysterious killing of a nuclear scientist in Tehran with a magnetic bomb attached to his car. Iran's top leader blamed Israel and the U.S.

Provocative hints from Israel reinforced the perception that the killing was part of an organized and clandestine campaign to set back Iran's nuclear ambitions, which the U.S. and its allies suspect are aimed at producing weapons. Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes only.

Iran's nuclear confrontation with the West had already been escalating in the weeks before the killing, with the U.S. tightening sanctions against Tehran, and Iranian officials warning that they would shut a waterway vital to global oil shipping in response.

The Wednesday assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan ? at least the fourth targeted hit against a member of Iran's nuclear brain trust in two years ? has heightened tensions even further.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed both Israel and the U.S. In a message read on Iranian state TV, he said the killing was carried out "with design or coordination of the CIA and the Mossad," Israel's spy agency. He pledged that Iran would punish those responsible.

A column in the Kayhan newspaper by chief editor Hossein Shariatmadari asked why Iran did not avenge Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, by striking Israel.

"Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz in his recent remarks spoke about damaging Iran's nuclear program," he wrote. "Assassinations of Israeli military and officials are easily possible."

The day before the attack, Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a "critical year" for Iran ? in part because of "things that happen to it unnaturally."

Tehran quickly blamed Israeli-linked agents backed by the U.S. and Britain. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denied any U.S. role in the slaying, and the Obama administration condemned the attack. "I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," she said.

Israeli officials, in contrast, have hinted at covert campaigns against Iran without directly admitting involvement.

A covert war between Iran and Israel would come on top of an overt confrontation pitting Tehran against the West, involving both legal and political maneuvering and military sabre-rattling.

Washington is currently involved in an international lobbying effort to win support for new sanctions, targeting Iran's oil industry, which would bar financial institutions from the U.S. market if they do business with Iran's central bank.

Iran has threatened to respond to sanctions by shutting the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for about one-sixth of the world's oil. Earlier this month Tehran concluded 10 days of naval exercises in the waters off of the strait, and says it plans to hold another set of sea drills in February.

In domestic politics, Ahmadinejad ousted an ally of one of his main moderate rivals, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, from the chancellorship of the country's largest university, a state-owned newspaper reported on Thursday.

Iran daily said Ahmadinejad associate Farhad Daneshjoo received five of nine votes cast by the board of trustees of the Islamic Azad University, which enrolls more than 1.7 million students in 400 branches nationwide.

Ahmadinejad is currently under attack from both moderates backed by Rafsanjani and by clerical hardliners, and the battle often plays out in determining who controls key governmental institutions.

Supporters of Ahmadinejad had at least for two years pushed to replace current chancellor Abdollah Jasbi because of his affiliation with Rafsanjani, a former pillar of the clerical establishment, whose power base came under attacks after he lent his support to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in 2009 presidential elections.

Earlier in January a court sentenced Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh Hashemi to six months in prison on charges of propagandizing against the ruling system.

In 2011 Rafsanjani lost his position as head of the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body which has the power to appoint the Supreme Leader of the country. He remains as the head of the Expediency Council, which is an advisory body to Khamenei, but his term will end in late February.

Contests such as the Islamic Azad university vote are seen as bellwethers of whether or not the moderates' clerical allies like Rafsanjani will remain in influential positions, or will be slowly squeezed out.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran

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