eBay-Owned Social Shopping Site Svpply Debuts A New Android App

eBay-owned?Svpply?is debuting an Android version of its Svpply mobile application today, which brings its catalog of over 2.4 million hand-picked items from 110,000 stores to the Android operating system for the first time. The company, which was acquired by eBay just this September, had first launched on mobile in May 2012, offering both iPhone and iPad optimized versions of its service.

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

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Samsung HW-E550

The Samsung HW-E550 ($369.99 direct) is a curious beast. It's a soundbar speaker with a wireless powered subwoofer, which is mainstream enough. But it also converts into three other form factors, including a two-piece horizontal soundbar, a 2.1 stereo system with distinct left and right channels, and a wall-mounted stereo system. It's far from the best-sounding system we've tested, though, and it's a little expensive for what you get; we still prefer the Editors' Choice?Sony HT-CT260 for its overall performance and value.

Design, Controls, and Remote
The Samsung HW-E550 soundbar, with both speaker enclosures attached into a single unit, measures 2.17 by 42.83 by 2.17 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.75 pounds. The box contains a ton of parts, including some that go "clank" when they fall onto the floor. Those would be the silver and black metal wall mount brackets, along with some screws. There's also plenty of speaker cable, an unfortunately large power adapter with a separate AC cable, a stereo RCA Y-cable, the remote control, two speaker stands for separating the two halves of the soundbar, a cradle for holding it when it's in one piece, a bag of plastic screw holders, and the instruction manual.

With the two soundbar pieces connected, the right side houses a giant volume knob, with a Power button and surrounding LED light in the center. Fortunately, in this mode, you don't need the speaker cabling; that's only if you want to separate the two halves for a wider stereo image. The manual is extremely confusing about how to set up each configuration; prepare to spend some time with it. For this review, we did the majority of testing with the soundbar assembled as a single piece and used in wireless mode.

Unfortunately, the audio connections are on the bottom of the subwoofer's rear panel, which makes setup a pain. You get two HDMI inputs, one HDMI output, a digital input, a 3.5mm analog stereo input, and a USB port for playing back unprotected MP3 and WMA music tracks. There are no HDMI or optical cables in the box, though; you'll have to supply your own if you want any kind of digital connection. The HW-E550 also includes Bluetooth 2.1 support for streaming wireless music from your iPhone, Android smartphone, tablet, or portable media player. I tested the HW-E550 with an Oppo BDP-103 Blu-ray player hooked up via HDMI.

The HW-E550's hidden OLED display is pretty cool; it appears from within the speaker grille just to the right of center, and indicates the input mode, various sound settings, the subwoofer level, and more. You can control all of this from the bundled, non-backlit remote, a black plastic lozenge that's contoured and easy to hold. It has a lot of buttons, although that remote subwoofer level control is arguably the most useful, as it makes it very easy to tune the system without having to dive behind the couch to turn a knob on the sub itself.

Performance and Conclusions
In addition to the subwoofer's amp, additional built-in amplifiers deliver 80 watts to each of the two front channels. The system supports Dolby Digital and DTS surround encoding, and delivers impressive volume levels given its size, as I saw when watching the Blu-ray version of Tron: Legacy. Dialog sounded smooth and well separated, if a bit brittle. But as can be expected with such a thin speaker bar, you can hear a bit of a hole in the frequency range between where the subwoofer's response levels off above roughly 120Hz, and where the satellites begin taking over. That can make some vocals, electric guitars, and fuller-bodied stringed acoustic instruments sound a little thinner than they should, especially if you're listening to straight stereo music.

There's also very little sense of air or ambience around the instruments and actors; the overall sound is a little bland and unexciting. Rage Against the Machine's "Fistful of Steel" had plenty of tight bass punch, but the rest of the instruments sounded closed in and recessed. Turning down the sub didn't open up the sound like I had hoped it would.

Samsung's 3D Sound Plus circuitry attempts to mimic the output of a proper 5-piece surround system, but it's not particularly successful. It does widen the image considerably, as well as add some height, but without actual speakers behind you, you're not going to be fooled.

Overall, Samsung's HW-E550 is flexible, thanks to its multiple speaker configuration options, and it sounds decent. It certainly doesn't banish the compromised sonic reputation soundbars have, but as a slim and unobtrusive way to add impact to an HDTV's audio in your living room or den, it's a respectable choice. The Sony HT-CT260 remains our favorite budget soundbar system, as it can get louder and sounds smoother and fuller than the HW-E550, although it lacks Samsung's nifty digital display and ability to separate into left and right satellite speakers. If you'd rather have a single speaker bar, the Yamaha YAS-101 offers crisp, balanced sound for slightly less cash.

More Speaker Reviews:
??? Sony HT-CT260 Home Theater Soundbar
??? Vizio SB4021M-A1 Home Theater Soundbar
??? Samsung HW-E550
??? Harman Kardon SB 30
??? Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 2
?? more

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March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month - Sherman Health ...

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Source: http://www.shermanhealth.com/blog/health-observance/march-is-colorectal-cancer-awareness-month

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Harris' 36 lead Virginia past No. 3 Duke, 73-68

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) ? Joe Harris had just scored a career-high 36 points, essentially half of his team's total in a 73-68 victory against No. 3 Duke, and the junior guard was talking about "a team effort" and how the Cavaliers played "sound defense."

Joe, was that the best performance of your basketball career?

"I guess you could say that," he finally allowed.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski wasn't quite as reluctant to heap on the praise.

"Harris was fantastic, which we knew he would be. He's just one of the best players in the country," Krzyzewski said. "When you have a guy playing at that level ... it brings everybody up. You know you're playing with a stud."

Harris and Akil Mitchell, who had 19 points and 12 rebounds, combined for 55 of the Cavaliers' points as they celebrated the 11-year anniversary of their last victory over a top 5 team by doing it again on Thursday night.

When Virginia's 16th consecutive home victory was finished, fans stormed the court.

"It's just great," senior point guard Jontel Evans said. "They're the reason we go so hard when we're here. We feed off their energy. They've been great. They've just been unbelievable this year. I've never seen support like this."

Virginia (20-8, 10-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) beat No. 3 Duke 87-84 11 years ago, their last top 5 victory.

This time, Duke never led.

"That's unbelievable right there, that they never led in the game," Evans said.

Curry led Duke with 28 points, all but five coming after halftime, and Quinn Cook had 22, but the Blue Devils (24-4, 11-4) failed to slow down either Harris or Mitchell, whose dominating play kept a sellout crowd giddy all night.

Plumlee finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three turnovers and several times looked up to see Mitchell dunking over him.

Virginia outrebounded Duke 36-26, and held the Blue Devils to 39.6 percent shooting (21 of 53).

"It was a very, very physical game and we're not equipped to that type of game. We got knocked back," Krzyzewski said.

In the second half, Harris and Mitchell scored Virginia's first 16 points as the Cavaliers built a 64-50 lead with 3:23 left before closing the victory at the free throw line.

Virginia led 28-23 at halftime. Curry hit a 3-pointer to start the second half but Mitchell respondetidzu snt hid HSD TI FIGd with a 15-footer, Harris missed a 3-pointer over Plumlee, but went around him for the rebound and laid it in. As the Blue Devils were missing six consecutive shots, Mitchell hit two free throws, and when Rasheed Sulaimon fouled Harris in the act of shooting, he drew a technical foul for arguing. Harris made all four shots, finishing off a 10-0 burst that made it 38-26.

When Virginia added a 7-2 burst a short time later, the lead was 49-35 with 8:15 left Jnd John Paul Jones Arena was roaring.

The Blue Devils, who may have been looking ahead to a matchup with No. 5 Miami on Saturday, never got closer than nine points until the final minute, when Virginia made 3 of 4 free throws to hold on.

The victory was huge for the Cavaliers, who were in need of a marquee victory to enhance their NCAA tournament credentials. They got it with a fast start and a stifling defensive effort. And the Cavaliers did it despite making only three 3-pointers, more than four below their average, by pounding the ball inside. Virginia scored 34 points inside, Duke just 22.

With its first sellout since North Carolina visited last season, the Cavaliers quickly brought the crowd into the game by scoring the first nine points on their way to a 15-4 lead after 6 1/2 minutes.

The lead got to 18-6 on a three-point play by Harris before Duke settled down offensively.

Curry hit two free throws for his first points midway through the half, sparking a 15-4 burst for the Blue Devils that got them within 22-21 with 4:26 to play. Curry finished it with a 3-pointer, hit only field goal of the half. Duke's only points the rest of the half came on Plumlee's lone field goal of the half.

Jontel Evans steal and layup gave Virginia a 24-21 lead, and was Virginia's first field goal scored by anyone but Harris in more than 11 minutes. Baskets by Harris and Mitchell made it 28-23 at the half.

---

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/harris-36-lead-virginia-past-no-3-duke-041858368--spt.html

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Losttime Illustration and Design: Puzzle Communications Logo

This is a logo I have just completed for a new marketing and communications agency ?in Buckinghamshire (www.puzzle-communications.com)

The client came to me with the name 'Puzzle', maybe use puzzle?pieces?and to use purple as the lead brand colour but apart from that it was a pretty open brief.

First stage designs in mono

Chosen routes developed further and colour added

The final Puzzle Communications logo

Source: http://losttimedesign.blogspot.com/2013/02/puzzle-communications-logo.html

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Romania believes rival nation behind "MiniDuke" cyber attack

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania believes another state was behind the "MiniDuke" cyber attack that hit its national security institutions as well as NATO and other European countries, its SRI secret service said on Friday.

It did not say which foreign power it suspected.

Earlier this week, Russia's Kaspersky Lab and Hungary's Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security, or CrySyS, said the targets of the campaign included government computers in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal and Romania.

They also said a think tank, research institute and healthcare provider in the United States were among those targeted by the malicious software, which they have dubbed "MiniDuke".

NATO also confirmed it had been targeted, although the alliance said its computer systems had been unaffected.

"It is a cyber attack ... pursued by an entity that has the characteristics of a state actor," SRI spokesman Sorin Sava told Reuters in a phone interview on Friday.

"Our estimations show the attack is certainly relevant to Romania's national security taking into account the profile of the compromised entities," Sava said, adding that private organizations had also been targeted.

One of the researchers involved in identifying the attack told Reuters earlier this week he also suspected a foreign government was involved, but did not say which. Romania is the first government to make such a suggestion.

The MiniDuke hackers attacked their victims by exploiting recently-discovered security bugs in Adobe's Reader and Acrobat software. They sent their targets PDF documents tainted with malware, an approach that hackers commonly use to infect PCs.

Adobe said it had released a software patch to cover the flaw, and any users who had downloaded it would be protected against "MiniDuke".

Computer security experts and Western officials say state-backed cyber attacks aimed at stealing information have soared in recent years. While they rarely attribute blame publicly, in private many blame China - although Beijing angrily denies the charge.

In this case, however, computer experts say an attacker from the former Soviet Union could be more likely. "MiniDuke" in some ways resembles a banking fraud Trojan dubbed "TinBa" believed to have been created by Russian criminal hackers.

SRI would not give the names of the affected institutions. Sava said specialized secret service "reaction teams" were investigating the size of the attack to "limit its consequences and stop it".

"This attack has a bigger impact because of its superior technological level that allows it to better conceal itself and take over control over a compromised network in order to extract information," Sava said.

(Additional reporting by Peter Apps; Writing by Radu Marinas; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romania-believes-rival-nation-behind-miniduke-cyber-attack-154714963.html

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Journalist Woodward tangles with White House over spending cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent Washington journalist said in interviews on Wednesday a senior White House official warned him he would "regret" publishing a story challenging the White House's account of how the idea for automatic spending cuts originated.

Bob Woodward said in interviews with Politico and CNN that when he informed the White House he was writing a story critical of the White House's handling of a debate over the origin of the cuts, known as sequestration, the official reacted angrily.

The aide "yelled at me for about a half hour," Woodward told Politico, and then followed up the tirade with an email.

"I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today," the official wrote Woodward. "You're focusing on a few specific trees that give a very wrong impression of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here. ... I think you will regret staking out that claim."

Politico reported that Woodward saw the statement as a veiled threat.

"I've tangled with lots of these people," said the journalist, who established his reputation by breaking the story of the Watergate break-in under President Richard Nixon and has written a series of best selling books about Washington politics.

"But suppose there's a young reporter who's only had a couple of years ? or 10 years' ? experience and the White House is sending him an email saying, ?You're going to regret this,'" Woodward said. "You know, tremble, tremble. I don't think it's the way to operate."

Some $85 billion in spending cuts are due to go into effect Friday unless Congress acts, and with the deadline approaching there is practically no movement toward preventing them. President Barack Obama has scheduled a meeting with congressional leaders on Friday, but little is expected of the encounter.

The president has crisscrossed the country in recent weeks to draw attention to the inconveniences and problems from the cuts, which economists say could shave 0.6 percentage points off of already anemic U.S. growth.

While the president has been conducting that campaign, the spat over what Woodward calls the "paternity" of the sequester has proven a distracting sideshow to the fiscal battle.

The administration has sought to counter charges by Republicans that the sequestration cuts were proposed by Obama administration officials.

Woodward's book "The Price of Politics" is a fly-on-the-wall account of the negotiations in 2011 that ended with a deal to raise the nation's debt limit. As part of the deal, both sides agreed to make additional efforts to reduce the national budget deficit, and proposed the sequester as an alternative so unappealing that it would force the administration and congressional Republicans to find common ground.

That deal proved elusive and both sides are currently trading blame for the sequestration cuts.

TWITTER FUN

Woodward said in an article in the Washington Post on Friday that the president and his chief of staff at the time, current Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, were wrong in initially claiming last year that the sequester was the Republicans' idea.

"Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and (Rob)Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid," Woodward said. "They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved." Nabors was then the White House's chief liaison to Congress and is now deputy chief of staff.

The administration has argued that both sides agreed to the terms of the sequester and has pointed to comments at the time from House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, that he was for the most part satisfied with the deal that spawned the arrangement.

Woodward's account of his recent testy exchange with the White House points to continued sensitivity over the issue of whose idea the sequester was.

A White House official said in an emailed response to Reuters that no threat was intended by the comment.

"The email from the aide was sent to apologize for voices being raised in their previous conversation," the aide said. "The note suggested that Mr. Woodward would regret the observation he made regarding the sequester because that observation was inaccurate, nothing more."

The BuzzFeed news website identified the official who tangled with Woodward as Gene Sperling, head of the National Economic Council. The White House did not respond to a request to confirm the identity of the official.

News of the exchange drew instant reaction from Washington insiders on Twitter, much of poking fun at the war of words.

"My amateur advice: stop cooperating with Woodward in the first place," wrote Neera Tanden, the president of the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress think tank and a former Obama campaign advisor.

"Hey, guess what? All of you will talk to Woodward for his next book, too," wrote Tony Fratto of Hamilton Place Strategies and a former White House official under President George W. Bush.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/journalist-woodward-tangles-white-house-over-spending-cuts-143314241--business.html

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