According to newspapers, Shenzhen Proview Technology’s lawyer Xie Xianghui claimed over the unacceptable sale of the iPad trademark to an Apple subsidiary by Proview’s Taiwan affiliate. 

“Apple has no right to sell iPads under that name,” said lawyer Xie Xianghui. “The agreement to sell the trademark is not valid under Chinese law.”  

Apple’s lawyer affirmed that stopping iPod sale in China could lead to company big losses. 

“They have no market, no sales, no customers. They have nothing,” Apple lawyer Qu Miao said of Proview. “The iPad is so popular that it is in short supply. We have to consider the public good.” 

Apple has appealed against the decision to stop selling iPod in China under different name and a Shenzhen court located in China will hear the case next week.

According to newspapers, 31-year-old Joseph Kennedy III will leave his post as a prosecutor to run for US Congress as a Democrat. 

“I’m very proud of my family’s record of public service to the Commonwealth and the country,” Kennedy said after spending the morning greeting commuters inNewton. “This campaign – any campaign – is going to be about the issues and about who goes out and earns it.” 

Even though Mr. Kennedy is actually a political beginner, name popularity will not be a problem: his grandfather was a U.S. Senator and Attorney General, his father, Joseph P. Kennedy II, represented the city of Boston in Congress, and his great-uncle Edward M. Kennedy was United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party, and his great-uncle, John F. Kennedy, was President. 

Joseph Kennedy’s challenge will be capitalizing on his family’s name while developing his own political personality.

Mark Augler was diagnosed with colon cancer in April. He had surgery and chemotherapy successfully with no signs of cancer showing up in follow up tests. 

In January, Diane was in her eight months of pregnancy when her husband’s health began rapidly to deteriorate. When Diane asked her doctor how long her husband had, he announced bad news. The couple learned that the condition was fatal. Her husband had just five or six days to live. 

“Mark said, “I’d like to see the baby,” the 31-year-old mother told The Associated Press on Sunday. 

The couple decided to have labor induced. Mark had the chance to hold his daughter for about 45 minutes after her birth. Diane Aulger says “he cried and he just looked very sad”. 

Mark Augler, 52-year-old, died five days later from complications caused by his cancer treatment.

British singer Adele’s fans are eager to see at Sunday night’s Grammys if she will pick up trophies for all six categories she’s nominated in, including best album for 21 and best record and song for Rolling in the Deep. 

While Kanye West is the lead nominee with seven, Adele, who’s up for six, will be the act who dominates. 

Here are the major award nominations: 

Album of the year : “21,” Adele; “Wasting Light,” Foo Fighters; “Born This Way,” Lady Gaga; “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” Bruno Mars; “Loud,” Rihanna. 

Record of the year: “Rolling In the Deep,” Adele; “Holocene,” Bon Iver; “Grenade,” Bruno Mars; “The Cave,” Mumford & Sons; “Firework,” Katy Perry.

Amazon is close to the project to sell the main books from its great collection of Amazon Exclusives and selling its e-readers and tablets. The company also will focus on accessories such as cases, screen protectors, and USB adapters. 

According to newspapers, the company has already contracted the design through a shell company. When Amazon releases new products to the FCC it is always done through anonymous proxy companies to avoid disclosure to their competition on what they are working on. They are doing this for the actual first store layout and design, while modeling them selves after Apple.

There were several reasons for why Temple Run was not available on Android so far – May be there weren’t enough mobiles on the market to be capable of running this Game smoothly. So Hardware could have been a major reason. Or it could have been the complexity to develop such Addictive graphic game play on Android. Whatever be the speculation, finally its Official that Imangi will be making the game available for Android. Its no surprise that, there’s a new team involved in developing the Android version. Will it still be Free? I guess so. Initially, when the game was launched for iPhone, it was priced at 0.99 cents. Then the in-app purchases made the game to be free 

Since then, there have been 20 million downloads, 7 million Daily Active Users and many best app awards for Temple Run. The game play is simple. You are an explorer running through the Temple, collecting coins, power ups and escape from the animals that chase you. This is an addictive cum endless game, which makes it a huge hit among mobile gamers. You try to beat your own score and eventually end up playing hours of Temple Run. The in-app purchases are not compulsory as you can earn them as you play more and more. This makes Temple Run as one of the best free games made ever.

Watch out for Temple Run in Android Marketplace on February 9, 2012.

Source: http://www.techgadgetsweb.com

As per the latest opinion of the real estate consultants, Ghaziabad is an ocean with a huge number of opportunities in store, from the demand as well as supply perspective. The city enjoys an immensely improved connectivity to the metro city of Delhi. Industry experts believe that, the city will have the best infrastructure in the NCR within the next five years.

Ghaziabad as a sub- urban city has helped Delhi in the same way Navi Mumbai has done for Mumbai. The city has gradually developed into an acclaimed educational center and is bound to create really an enviable reputation in the field of education. The coming years are bound to be immensely crucial for the city’s overall growth, with a number of companies breaking through into Ghaziabad, thereby generating huge job opportunities hence escalating the demand for affordable accommodation for all the office goers as well as job- seekers. In the Master Plan for up to year 2021, Ghaziabad Development Authority has promised for providing a total of 2.6 lakh houses for the projected population of 23 lakh for which it is inviting private developers also.

In Ghaziabad city apartments and flats can be purchased in 2, 3 or 4 BHK in different sizes. These apartments or flats in Ghaziabad have a number of features, such as Vaastu friendly designs, swimming pool where kids’ pool is different, gymnasium, open and covered parking option, clubs, tennis court and many others. There are ample open spaces, such as jogging track to tune up your body. Proper consideration is given to the availability of basic amenities in these apartments, such as 24-hours power and water supply.

Location of apartments in Ghaziabad is also a plus point for those who are earning their living in Delhi or NCR. A large number of shopping malls and retail stores are coming up which make it a completely indulging and enjoyably rich shopping experience. When it is about grooming kids, the region owns world-class educational facilities in the city.

As far as prices of real estate Ghaziabad are concerned, the city has different parameters to meet the needs of all and offer contemporary and affordable housing options. One can find low cost to expensive premium apartment or flats in the city. If the search is for premium apartments then Vaishali and Kaushambi care the best known regions offering properties that be considered ranging from INR 35 lakh to 65 lakh.

If you are looking out for comparatively low cost affordable apartments in Ghaziabad which come inclusive of the most basic amenities then you can find reasonably priced apartments with cover/ open parking facilities and multi-tier security systems. A number of renowned construction companies are working on numerous flats and apartments projects in Ghaziabad in different locations to cater to the needs of families with different sizes.

From the real estate investment point of view, we have two major roads, one is the National Highway 58 and the other is National Highway 24. These two stretches have been a testimony to the spurt in development and possess a sound investment potential. Moreover, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) is upbeat on infrastructure development of the city. Localities like, Indirapuram are great examples, of how GDA is taking up initiatives for a wholesome development plan for the city to put Ghaziabad on the world map along with the other top real estate destinations.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com

Early this week it was reported that Microsoft attacked Google for its new privacy changes that allow it to merge user data across its services.

“Google’s Privacy Policy changes make it harder for users to control their personal information” said Microsoft in an ad. 

Now, Google has responded to Microsoft’s claims: 

“Our privacy controls have not changed…Our users can: edit and delete their search history; edit and delete their YouTube viewing history; use many of our services signed in or out; use Google Dashboard and our Ads Preferences Manager to see what data we collect and manage the way it is used; and take advantage of our data liberation efforts if they want to remove information from our services.” 

In addition, Microsoft said that all changes made in privacy policy are to support advertisers:  

“Google is changing our Privacy Policy to make the data we collect more valuable to advertisers.” 

Both companies, Microsoft and Google, provide lots of controls to protect online users from advertisers.

“For the first time in 12 years, the development of the free office suite finally takes place within an entity that not only perfectly fits the values and ideals of the worldwide community, but also has this very same community driving it. The future home of the best free office suite is built and shaped by everyone who decides to participate and join. And the best is: Everyone can contribute and is invited to do so, to further strenghten the free office ecosystem,” says Florian Effenberger, Chairman of the Board at TDF.
Charles-H. Schulz, one of the founders and a member of the Board of Directors, adds, “Berlin is the icon of reunification and unity, and as such is the ideal home of our global community, aggregated around the objective of creating the best free office suite ever. We expect to be legally established during the next weeks, as soon as the last details of the formal process have been finished.”

“After many months of work in close cooperation with the authorities, we were able to keep the spirit of the community bylaws, and incorporate them into legally binding statutes, that ensure the promises that TDF has made in its manifesto”, says Michael (Mike) Schinagl, a Berlin-based lawyer and contributor to various free software projects, who has been driving the legal aspects of the foundation set-up from the very beginning.

In addition, TDF currently publically discusses ways for local entities to join and participate, and operative entities are currently being created to carry on special projects.

Founder of the Stiftung will be the German nonprofit association Freies Office Deutschland e.V., formerly OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V., that so far acted as interim legal entity. “We congratulate the community for having achieved this key step, and are proud of having played a key role in setting up The Document Foundation. Our association is looking forward to working closely with the new entity and acting as a gateway between TDF and private as well as enterprise users”, says Thomas Krumbein, Chairman of the Board at Freies Office Deutschland e.V.

Source: http://www.muktware.com

The proposal, announced during an interview on WTOP’s “Ask the Governor” program, had been awaited for months. In November, a government commission tasked with funding transportation passed its recommendations on to O’Malley and the General Assembly. It called for a 15-cent per gallon increase in the gas tax and prohibiting transportation money from being siphoned to other needs.

On Monday’s radio show, O’Malley went a different direction, saying that the best way to add a new tax on gasoline would be to slowly start collecting sales tax on it. Currently, gasoline is taxed at 23.5 cents a gallon, and is exempted from the state’s 6% sales tax.

O’Malley said that a “hybrid tax” – with both the flat per-gallon gas tax and the 6% sales tax – would prove a “better path forward.” Under the governor’s proposal, which has not yet been detailed in writing, the new sales tax would be phased in over three years. Each year, sales tax would increase 2%. Using current figures, the administration has worked out that this would increase the price of gas by about 18 cents a gallon. AAA has estimated it would be a 20-cent increase.

Commission chair surprised

Attorney Gus Bauman, the chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Maryland Transportation Funding, said he was surprised by the governor’s announcement.

The commission spent two years studying different options to raise more money to repair and maintain the state’s infrastructure, and put together a wealth of options to get that money. While a sales tax on gas was one of the ones listed, it was not included in the commission’s recommendations to O’Malley and the General Assembly.

“In the end, we decided to go with the taxes and fees that people are used to paying rather than embark on a new tax that people are not used to paying,” Bauman said.

Business groups react

According to the commission’s report, adding a 6% sales tax onto gasoline sales would net an extra $613 million a year. The 15-cent gas tax increase would increase revenues by $458 a year.

Commission member and Greater Baltimore Committee President Donald Fry said that he is pleased that O’Malley is making transportation funding an important part of his legislative agenda for the current session.

While the sales tax isn’t exactly what the commission had recommended, Fry thought that maybe O’Malley was searching for a “middle ground.” Polls showed the public opposed to the gasoline tax hike. Sales tax is another way to solve the problem.

“This is not a novel approach,” Fry said.

In an e-mail, Maryland Chamber of Commerce President Kathleen Snyder said: “We applaud the governor’s leadership as Maryland needs to invest in our transportation infrastructure. We need to review the details of a bill before taking a position. We have supported an increase in the state gas tax for eight years, [but] have not looked at the sales tax.”

AAA spokesman John Townsend spent Monday afternoon figuring the numbers, and proclaimed that O’Malley’s plan “doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in East Hades” of meeting the public’s approval. Marylanders already spend about $3,000 a year on gasoline, and adding 20 cents to each gallon of gasoline would give the state a dubious distinction.

“Maryland would go from the middle of the pack to having the fourth highest gas prices in the nation,” Townsend said. Right now, it ranks 30th.

Maryland Motor Truck Association President Louis Campion had been following the issue closely and had heard that O’Malley might have been thinking about a sales tax on gas. However, that was just something Campion heard might be a possibility; he had no reason to expect what O’Malley talked about on the radio Monday morning.

Campion said he hadn’t been hearing much from his members on Monday, but it was too early for him to weigh in on O’Malley’s idea. He said he could not comment on the proposal until he sees it in writing and has a chance to see exactly what it entails.

Bauman agreed that the way the governor announced his sales tax proposal left a lot of questions unanswered, meaning it was difficult on Monday to weigh in on it.

Lockbox needed for money

For Bauman, the way that O’Malley proposed to collect the taxes wasn’t nearly as important as assuring that the money would be used appropriately.

The top recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Commission was to create a legal prohibition requiring that money directed to the Transportation Trust Fund be spent on transportation. In past years, when the General Fund budget has run low, the Transportation Trust Fund has been used as a supplemental revenue source.

Bauman reiterated the commission’s top finding: If the people believe that higher taxes and fees will actually be spent on transportation needs, they are much more likely to support them.

“Without that protection, I would be somewhat surprised if there’s much public acceptance,” Bauman said.

O’Malley spent most of this time on the radio talking about the methodology of the tax increase. But at the end of the segment where he talked about the gas tax, listeners asked whether O’Malley would be willing to have a legislative guarantee that the money raised would go toward transportation.

“Yes,” he responded plainly.

Fry said that adding a lockbox to protect the money would be ideal. On Monday, however, the Greater Baltimore Committee was mostly enthusiastic that one of their top legislative priorities from the last six years – more transportation funding – is getting realized.

Kim Burns, president of the more conservative Maryland Business for Responsive Government, said that without a lockbox, “this tax is designed to keep taking from the wallets of hard-working Maryland families and small businesses with no accountability.”

“This tax proposal increases the cost of doing business here and fuels our reputation as a business-unfriendly state,” Burns said.

Legislators react

Any tax changes would have to go through the General Assembly. Several legislators applauded the proposal, saying that the state’s transportation needs have gone unmet for too long.

“We clearly have an unmet need for transportation infrastructure,” said Del. Sandy Rosenberg, D-Baltimore City, vice-chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which would handle the legislation. “It’s important to me that there be a serious emphasis on mass transit.”

Rosenberg added that much like the sales tax increase in 2007, some of the money from the transportation fund would help working families, “who can least afford this kind of tax.” However, he was concerned how high the state’s tax rate would be if the proposal is implemented.

Fellow Ways and Means Democrat Del. Aruna Miller, Montgomery, also said she would support the tax. Transportation is the state’s economic backbone, and better transportation will improve the economy, property values, and quality of life for Marylanders.

Republican committee member Del. Ron George, Anne Arundel, also foresees the bill passing Ways and Means.

“There’s no Democrat on that committee that doesn’t like taxes,” he said.

House Speaker Michael Busch said he hadn’t seen the proposal and wouldn’t comment.

Source: http://marylandreporter.com