Monday, March 24, 2014

Best Buy scores exclusive launch rights for the All New HTC One in gold

If you're into gold phones and want the All New , you'll have to grab it from Deal Today. According to EVleaks, the electronics retailer has apparently managed to score exclusive launch rights for the sexy smartphone and at this point we're not sure how long their exclusivity will last. Chances are we're talking about a month but you never know.

Again, HTC will unveil its latest flagship device on Tuesday, March 25th. The All New One will keep the aluminum unibody design [of the original HTC One], while adding a bigger 5-inch screen with on-screen buttons and second Ultrapixel camera on the back to the mix. This super-phone will also sport faster processor under the hood, along with many other top-end components that will make it one of the best (if not the best) Android devices ever. Who's in?

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run Symbian Watch which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.

Sell Your Old Cell Phone for Cash

Buy a New Cell Phone

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Car Companies Offer Aggressive March Discounts

Car companies continue to have high levels of vehicles in inventory, particularly at their dealer locations. This, as well as worry that the economic recovery may have lost steam, have led to a series of discounts, even on top-selling cars, SUVs and pickups. The price cutting trend has continued into March, and some of the offers are shockingly good, for buyers if not the manufacturers.

Kelley Blue Book (KBB.com) examined the On Sales-new-car-deals?printable">10 most aggressive deals for March and broke them into three categories: leases, cash back and financing deals, most of which involve very low rates on loans. Its editors commented:

The extreme winter weather conditions much of the country has experienced in February resulted in fewer shoppers on dealership lots. Consequently, March is a time for automotive brands to catch up on sales lost last month by offering a variety of new-car deals.

Zero percent financing, particularly over several years, is an enticement because payments are almost exactly the same, in sum, as if the buyer paid cash. Unfortunately for the manufacturer, it takes the risk that interest rates may rise over the next several years. KBB identified the Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) Camry Hybrid LE Sedan at the top of the list with zero percent financing over 60 months - five years.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) had the two best cash back deals, according to KBB. Both the Mustang six-cylinder coupe and Focus SE Sedan are being offered with $3,000 cash back. Notably, each is an inexpensive car. The base price for the Mustang is $23,335. For the Focus, it is $19,440.

The balance of the 10 best deals are on leases. General Motors Co.'s (NYSE: GM) Chevy Volt topped the list, a sign that the struggling electric car has not caught on after years on the market. The Nissan Altima 2.5 S Sedan and Toyota Venza LE Wagon each require less than $2,000 down at signing. The Ram 1500 Quad Cab is the only pickup to make KBB's 10 best deals. So did the four-wheel drive Nissan Pathfinder S and the Ford Flex SEL, both SUVs, as well as the Acura ILX 2.0L Sedan.

Matters could get worse for the car companies as the year drags on. The bad weather may have ended, but the struggling economy may continue to falter.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

CVS best sales and deals with coupons and Extra Care card beginning Sunday

CVS is a not only a place to get your prescriptions filled, purchase your over the counter medications or health and beauty aids. You can also find great sales at CVS on groceries, household needs, diapers, laundry and cleaning products. All you need to do is clip coupons, use the CVS Extra Care card and watch the weekly ad that comes in your Sunday paper.

CVS lets you stack manufacturer's coupons with their store coupons, and according to a post on Coupon-deals-sales.html">March 13 by Spend Less, Shop More, you can save on laundry detergent, Sally Hansen cosmetics, Swiffer products and more. If you are not familiar with how to shop with manufacturer's coupons and the CVS Extra Care card, check out the CVS section on the Spend Less, Shop More website.

Some of the deals you can grab up beginning on Sunday, March 16 at CVS include the 6-pack of Scott Choose-A-Sheet paper towels. The Scott 6-pack is on sale for $5.49 but when you will receive $5 back in Extra Bucks using your CVS Extra Care card with your purchase of $20 or more. You can save money just buying the Scott Choose-A-Size paper towels at CVS this week. If you buy four 6-packs, use four of the 75¢ coupons in the Sunday, March 16 Smartsource coupon insert. If you use the deal with the CVS Extra Care card and the four 75¢ coupons you will pay approximately $3.49 per 6-pack. Check out the Spend Less, Shop More website for more details.

You can also pick up Progress soup, Cascadian Farm organic cereal and milk to go along with your cereal. Just stop at the check-out before you start your shopping and ask the cashier for a free CVS Extra Care Card. Visit the Spend Less, Shop More website to get more information how to save using the CVS Extra Care card and manufacturer's coupons. You can also find the links to printable coupons you will need to in order to grab the sales and deals at CVS beginning Sunday, March 16.

©Rachael Monaco All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without prior permissions from the author. The first two sentences may be reposted with a link back to the original article.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: What we know and don't know - CNN.com

(cnn weather) -- As the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet entered a sixth day Thursday, investigators remained uncertain about its whereabouts.

Here's a summary of what we know and what we don't know about Flight 370, which was carrying 239 people when it disappeared from radar screens over Southeast Asia.

THE FLIGHT PATH

What we know: The Boeing 777-200ER took off from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, at 12:41 a.m. Saturday (12:41 p.m. Friday ET). It was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. the same day, after a roughly 2,700-mile (4,350-kilometer) journey. But around 1:30 a.m., air traffic controllers in Subang, outside Kuala Lumpur, lost contact with the plane over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Quest: They have 'no idea where plane is' Do stolen passports indicate terrorism? A deeper look at Boeing 777s

What we don't know: What happened next. The pilots did not indicate any problem to the tower, and no distress signal was issued. Malaysian military officials cite radar data as suggesting the plane might have changed course. But the pilots didn't tell air traffic control that they were doing so.

Malaysian officials say they are still trying to determine if a radar blip detected heading west soon after the plane lost contact was in fact the missing jet. If it was, the plane would have been hundreds of miles off its original flight path and headed in the wrong direction. Malaysian officials say they have asked U.S. experts to help them analyze the radar data.

We don't know why the plane would have turned around. While one expert tells CNN the plane's possible deviation could mean someone deliberately turned the plane around, another expert says power failure could have disrupted the main transponder and its backup, and the plane could have flown for more than an hour.

Adding to the puzzle, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the plane may have kept flying for a further four hours after its last reported contact. The newspaper attributed the information to two unidentified people who were citing data automatically transmitted to the ground from the passenger jet's engines. CNN has so far been unable to confirm the report.

'We have to find the aircraft'THE PASSENGERS

What we know: There were 239 people on board: 227 passengers and 12 crew members. Five of the passengers were younger than 5 years old. Those on board included a number of painters and calligraphers, as well as employees of an American semiconductor company.

According to the airline, the passengers' 14 nationalities spanned the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and North America. Passengers from China or Taiwan numbered 154, followed by Malaysians, at 38. There were three U.S. citizens on the plane. Four passengers had valid booking to travel but did not show up for the flight, according to the airline. "As such, the issue of off-loading unaccompanied baggage did not arise," it added Tuesday in a prepared statement.

What we don't know: Whether any of the passengers had anything to do with the plane's disappearance.

Friends tell of fears as hopes dim for passengersTHE PASSPORT MYSTERY

What we know: Two passengers boarded the plane using stolen passports. Authorities have identified them as Pouri Nourmohammadi, 18, and Delavar Seyed Mohammad Reza, 29, both Iranians. Malaysian police believe Nourmohammadi was trying to emigrate to Germany using the stolen Austrian passport. The men entered Malaysia on February 28 using valid Iranian passports, according to Interpol.

The use of the stolen passports had raised concern that the people who used them might be involved in the plane's disappearance. But officials have said they think it is unlikely the Iranian men had links to terrorist groups. Malaysian police said Nourmohammadi's mother contacted them after her son didn't arrive in Frankfurt as expected.

"The more information we get, the more we're inclined to conclude that it was not a terrorist incident," Ronald Noble, the secretary general of the international police organization Interpol, said Tuesday.

What we don't know: More details about the two men, particularly Reza. Malaysian officials and Interpol also gave slightly different information for Nourmohammadi's name and age. It was unclear what caused the discrepancy. Would-be immigrants have used fake passports to try to enter Western countries in the past. And Southeast Asia is known as a booming market for stolen passports.

THE SECURITY SCREENING

What we know: Interpol says the passports were listed as stolen in its database. But they had not been checked from the time they were entered into the database and the time the plane departed. Noble said it was "clearly of great concern" that passengers had been able to board an international flight using passports listed as stolen in the agency's database.

What we don't know: Whether the passports had been used to travel previously. Interpol says it's "unable to determine on how many other occasions these passports were used to board flights or cross borders." Malaysian authorities are investigating the security process at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, but have insisted it meets international standards.

How does a jet go missing?THE CREW

What we know: The crew members are Malaysian. The pilot is Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old veteran with 18,365 flying hours who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981. The first officer, Fariq Ab Hamid, has 2,763 flying hours. Fariq, 27, started at the airline in 2007. He had been flying another jet and was transitioning to the Boeing 777-200 after having completed training in a flight simulator.

What we don't know: What went on in the cockpit around the time the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers. The passenger jet was in what is considered the safest part of a flight, the cruise portion, when it disappeared. The weather conditions were reported to be good. Aviation experts say it's particularly puzzling that the pilots didn't report any kind of problems before contact was lost.

THE SEARCHAuthorities 'puzzled' by missing flight Search area for missing plane widens Are flight recorders 'antiquated?'

What we know: Dozens of ships and planes from various countries have been scouring the South China Sea near where the plane was last detected. Debris spotted in the area has turned out to be unrelated to the plane. Similarly, an oil slick in the search area was determined to be from fuel oil typically used in cargo ships, not from the plane. Vietnamese searchers found no trace Thursday of "suspected floating objects" detected in Chinese satellite imagery near the plane's last confirmed loc ation.

What we don't know: Whether the search is concentrating on the right place. Authorities initially focused their efforts around the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand, near the plane's last known position. But they have expanded efforts westward, off the other coast of the Malay Peninsula, and northward into the Andaman Sea, part of the Indian Ocean.

On Wednesday, authorities announced that they'd widened the search area to nearly 27,000 square nautical miles (35,000 square miles).

Jet was 'at safest point' in flightTHE CAUSE

What we know: Nothing. "For the aircraft to go missing just like that ... as far as we are concerned, we are equally puzzled as well," Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department, said this week. The aircraft model in question, the Boeing 777-200ER, has an excellent safety record.

What we don't know: Until searchers find the plane and its voice and data recorders, it may be difficult to figure out what happened. CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen says the range of possible reasons behind the disappearance can be divided into three categories: mechanical failure, pilot actions and terrorism. But all we have are theories.

THE PRECEDENT

What we know: It's rare, but not unprecedented, for a commercial airliner to disappear in midflight. In June 2009, Air France Flight 447 was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when communications ended suddenly from the Airbus A330, another state-of-the-art aircraft, with 228 people on board. It took five days to locate the first piece of debris from that plane -- and nearly two years to find the bulk of Flight 447's wreckage and most of the bodies in a mountain range deep in the Atlantic Ocean. It took even longer to establish the cause of the disaster.

What we don't know: Whether what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane is similar to what happened to the Air France flight. Investigators attributed the Flight 447 crash to a series of errors by the pilots and their failure to react effectively to technical problems.

How traffic control keeps you safe

CNN's Tom Watkins and Steven Jiang contributed to this report.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Tipbit Raises $4M from Ignition for Personal Search in E-mail

Tipbit is going after a wicked problem that seems to get worse as each new cloud service spreads our digital work farther afield, making key information at once more accessible and harder to find.

The Bellevue, WA-based startup's solution is in the form of an e-mail application for iPhones, but "the heart of what we do is personal search," says founder and CEO Gord Mangione. Tipbit is designed to present smartphone users with relevant information that's hidden away in their e-mail accounts, social networking feeds, or business applications without them having to jump back and forth between different apps.

The company said Wednesday it has raised $4 million in a Series A round led by Ignition Partners to hire staff and build versions of its app for other mobile operating systems.

Mangione previously worked on the hypervisor server virtualization technology at XenSource and Citrix that is a key part of today's cloud computing infrastructure. Before that, he spent 14 years at Microsoft, working on products including SQL Server and Exchange, which, beginning in the late 1990s, helped put "e-mail on every business desktop," he says.

"In many ways, I started Tipbit to help tame the monster that I helped create in the '90s," says Mangione, who began the company in 2011, financing it with a combination of personal investment and venture capital, including a $1.95 million seed round last year from Ignition and Andreessen Horowitz.

We do more and more of our e-mail on mobile devices, but Mangione argues that we're actually putting off the real, important work that happens over e-mail until we get back to our desks. Things like making an introduction, researching a new business prospect, and scheduling a meeting are harder to do on smartphones, with their smaller screens, inability to display multiple windows simultaneously, cumbersome copy-and-paste procedures, and limited input capabilities.

"The key is we're going to have to be able to do things on our phone in ways that are different than what we do on a more full-fledged form factor," Mangione says.

Tipbit is a mobile e-mail client that indexes information within multiple e-mail accounts-including Gmail, Yahoo, and Exchange (which Magione describes as the "oxygen companies run their business on")-contacts lists, calendars, cloud-storage services and apps, and social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn. It then presents pieces of information relevant to the task at hand: If you're reading an e-mail from a key partner, it might present things like your last meeting with that person, passages from documents in your dropbox help that mention her name or organization, and her latest Tweets.

The result, Mangione says, resembles the background reports Microsoft field personnel would prepare for him when he was a corporate vice president calling on large customers.

"In some ways, we're trying to build that corporate backgrounder for you five minutes before you go into the meeting, on the device you have in your hand," he says.

Tipbit has plenty of potential competitors. Refresh, for example, draws on a user's LinkedIn connections and other cloud data to help prepare for meetings. Several new mobile apps try to integrate e-mail, social networking, and Web browsing, such as CloudMagic, iQtell, and even Mailbox, the slick iOS app that appeared in early 2013 and was quickly acquired by Dropbox.

Mangione says Tipbit separates itself by offering "a complete solution," with support for a wide range of e-mail accounts, including Microsoft Exchange. "There are over 360 million paying Exchange mailbox customers which are being underserved by the market," he says in an e-mail, adding that Tipbit understands this better than others thanks to his past experience with Exchange.

Mangione says Tipbit's credo is "no creepiness," meaning no ads, no selling personal information, no spamming your friends. The business model will look a lot like Evernote's, with a free basic product (everything Tipbit offers presently will remain free) and a set of premium add-ons that users will, in theory, be willing to pay for. He thinks businesses will be the bigger source of revenue, paying for services like integration with line-of-business software tools and features allowing companies to set policies, perform audits, and grant and revoke access to corporate data sources.

"To win in this space you need to be able to deliver great user experiences for consumers but also build solutions for enterprises to manage and protect their confidential information," he says.

The company just released a new version of its iPhone app, including integration with services such as Dropbox, Evernote, and Salesforce. Mangione declines to disclose how many times it has been downloaded. Plans include a dedicated iPad version and an Android app.

Mangione says the company has six full-time employees working remotely in West Seattle, Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Boston, and elsewhere. He hopes to have about 20 people on board by the end of the year.

Not surprisingly given his background, he relies on Amazon Web Services and other cloud services, as well as open-source software for just about everything the startup needs. "I don't want to buy a single server until I order in a quantity of 10,000," he says.

Benjamin Romano is editor of Xconomy Seattle. Email him at bromano [at] xconomy.com. Follow @bromano

Sunday, March 9, 2014

It's not always what you think

Editor's note: The following guest column originally appeared on stancrader.com. Stan Crader is the son of the late Don Crader, who died Feb. 23.

By Stan Crader

A couple of weeks ago I bought a black suit -- it was the first suit I'd purchased in maybe two decades. I also bought a new white shirt, tie and dress socks but stopped short of new shoes. I'm funny about shoes, one of those rare people that still get them resoled. The new suit, shirt, tie and socks were for a special event to which Debbie and I had been invited -- or so I thought.

We'd been invited to attend the New York Stock Exchange Congressional Medal of Honor Gala. It would be our first trip to New York. We weren't particularly looking forward to New York City but felt honored to have been invited to a most prestigious event.

Since we were sure this would be our first and last trip to NYC, we arrived a day early and planned to make a weekend of it, taking in all of the famous sites. We awoke our first day to the winter storm that paralyzed the eastern half of the country Valentine's Day week. Having watched the weather forecast days before, we'd taken the right clothes. There's no such thing as bad weather, I always say, just bad gear.

Debbie and I braced ourselves and stepped out of the warm hotel lobby into a cold wintry NYC. "Need a cab?" The bellman asked. "Nope, we're walking." He gave us one of those looks. As it turned out the cabs were of little use -- the snow was already several inches deep. We made our way to the subway and miraculously got on the right train that took us to Grand Central Terminal. I need to mention we asked directions several times during the day and found everyone to be most gracious. In four days, we never encountered a rude person. It wasn't what we expected.

After gawking around Grand Central Terminal we asked, twice, how to get out. We finally found the clearly marked exit and headed toward Times Square. On our way to Times Square we stopped at what looked to be an Irish Pub and in fact it was. Everyone spoke with an accent difficult to decipher. We both had a Rueben.

By the time we finished our sandwiches and listened multiple times to directions from a guy who could have been in the Irish Spring commercial, we got on our way. The idyllic snow had become a wind-driven, skin-piercing sleet. The snow-covered streets had become rivers of slush. We splashed our way to Times Square, did a Chevy Chase 360 and asked directions to 34th Street and macy's shoes, our primary destination, made famous by "Miracle on 34th Street," and "A Christmas Story." The Christmas display was long gone. We rode the rickety wooden escalators all of the way to the top floor -- Macy's is a huge store, even bigger than a Wal-Mart.

From Macy's we jumped a subway train for Central park but ended up in Harlem. Again, the people were friendly and helped us find our way back to Central Park, which due to the weather, we had to ourselves. Central Park is more than 500 acres of serenity in a sea of chaos. We raced around the park for over an hour and then after asking directions, jumped a subway train that took us within two blocks of our hotel.

New York boasts the biggest sub system in the world. And it brags about being the greenest city in the world. I'm not sure of the metric used, but more than 5 million people ride the sub system on an average day, so there's some sort of efficiency thing going on. And since the subways are electric, the smoke-belching power producing plant is miles away, out of sight, and NYC is green, so to speak. Sorry about that, New Jersey.

With only minutes to spare, Debbie and I got ready for the gala. I got my tie tied on the first try -- a harbinger of good things to come. Once through security, we were ushered to the New York Stock Exchange floor where, along with several others, were greeted by 34 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients -- one World War II, three Korea, 25 Vietnam and five Iraq/Afghanistan. This was not what we expected.

The Medal of Honor Society is relatively new. There's not much information available on omniscient Google. So, Debbie and I weren't sure what to expect. We were sure one or two Medal of Honor recipients would be present, but not a room full of heroes in tuxes, adorned with their gallantry and humbly receiving us onto the floor as if we were long-lost friends and deserving of the honor. It was a spine-tingling, surreal evening. Because of our support of veterans through book sales proceeds, Robert Simanek, a Korean War veteran, presented me with his challenge coin. It was a chin-quivering moment.

During the banquet each table was honored with a hero. Don Ballard, a Vietnam-era recipient and a user of Stihl products, was seated at ours. Don shared with us the events that resulted in him being awarded the Medal of Honor. During dinner, I asked the others seated whether they had ever been in a room with a more distinguished group of people. None could say they had. I was sure I hadn't and furthermore would never again be in the presence of such a moving group of people. I would be proven wrong again, and too soon.

One week after Debbie and I returned to Missouri, my father passed away unexpectedly. On the day of his Victory, he and Saundra, his wife of 17 years, had attended church, where he played the piano to everyone's worshipful delight. After worship service they'd gone to lunch at Jer's, famous for fried chicken, with friends. That afternoon, he worked in his yard, sat down on a bench that sits between two towering trees, and fell asleep for the last time. He passed peacefully from this world into that of our Heavenly Father. Jesus promised he was going to prepare a place for us. And now Dad is there. But I'm stuck here with the rest of my family. Ever wish you were in two places at the same time?

An endless stream of well-wishers and mourners waited hours in line to share their personal Don Crader story at his visitation and funeral. My knees never hurt so good while I stood with my family for more than six hours shaking more hands than a politician on Election Day. Against my will, I spoke a few words at the funeral. While standing at the podium and looking out at a sea of friends and family, I realized two things. The reason I'd purchased a new black suit wasn't for the previous week's gala event; it had been for Dad's funeral, but God hadn't taken him yet. And the most important group of people I'd ever have the privilege to be in the presence of weren't those assembled at the Medal of Honor banquet -- they were in that sanctuary.

It's not always what you think.

Stan Crader is a Jackson resident, lecturer and author of "The Bridge" (2007), "Paperboy" (2010) and "The Longest Year" (2012).

Sunday Insert Round Up

There are also coupons and offers available from these retailers:

* Extra 15% off clothing and accessories or an extra 10% off lingerie, mattresses, recliners, Shaw Rug Gallery, and upholstered furniture

* Extra 15% off apparel, shoes, accessories, fine jewelry and home, or an extra 10% off watches, furniture, mattresses, and custom blinds/shades

* 40% off any regular priced item

* 40% off entire regular priced purchase of artist acrylics, watercolors, oil paints, brushes, pencils, pastels and markers

* 50% off entire regular priced purchase of Martha Stewart Crafts paper crafting

* 20% off total regular and sale priced purchase

* 60% off + 10% off custom framing

* 40% off any regular priced item

Rack Room Shoes

* $10 off a purchase of $60 or more

CVS is having a beauty sale this week and many brands are buy one, get one half off, including Revlon, Covergirl, Neutrogena and Aveeno.

Easter candy is on sale once again this week, and there are candy coupons in the kiosk as well.

You can earn $10 in ExtraBucks this week with a purchase of $30 or more of select baby products, like Huggies, Avent accessories, Enfamil and more.

Walgreens has a new coupon offering 5,000 Balance Rewards Points (a $5 reward) with the purchase of $25 or more.

Like CVS, Walgreens also has candy deals. There are in-store coupons and Balance Rewards Points up for grab on Easter deals. Almay, Neutrogena and L'Oreal products are also buy one, get one half off.

Kohl's is offering shoppers Kohl's Cash once again this week with every $50 purchase. Kohl's Charge holders can also save an extra 15%, 20% or 30% off purchases. Stop in today for doorbuster deals, or Friday through Tuesday for bonus buys.

Target has a new coupon offering $15 off up & up purchase of $40 or more.

And there's a second coupon offering a free $10 Target gift card with a home decor purchase of $50 or more.

Loads of freebies with purchase up for grabs, like a 12-pack of Diet Coke when you buy any three Coke 12-packs, free Tresemme hairspray with the purchase of any two Tresemme haircare products, free Pop Secret popcorn with the purchase of "Catching Fire," and more.

Remember, all of these ads may not appear in your paper. However, many retailers post their ads and coupons online, so always check there if you're interested in finding out more details. You can also get Super Sale at these websites: SmartSource , , Coupon Network , and Coupons.com.