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PhotoBlog: Soldiers clashed with supporters of striking police in Brazil's third-largest city on Monday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Models launched a rights group on Monday ahead of New York Fashion Week to seek workplace standards including backstage privacy to stop unauthorized nude photos.
Iran has dismissed the new U.S. sanctions on Tehran, with the Foreign Ministry spokesman saying Tuesday they are part of a "psychological war" meant to sow discontent among Iranians and insisting the measures would not halt the country's nuclear program.
Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has resigned following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge.
AP - In 1985, Xi Jinping led a delegation to Muscatine, Iowa, to study advanced hog-raising techniques. He returns next week, preparing to lead the world's most populous nation.
The Syrian regime vowed Tuesday to press on with its deadly assault on the flashpoint city of Homs, saying it would "hunt down terrorist groups" until order was re-established.
AP - Thousands of Syrians waving Russian flags cheered Russia's foreign minister as he arrived in Damascus Tuesday for talks with embattled President Bashar Assad on the country's escalating violence.
Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp raised its full-year profit forecast by more than a third as it cuts costs, trims spending and expects Japanese government schemes to boost sales, though the guidance was still some way below analysts' expectations.
Reuters - The euro was underpinned by hopes a way would be found to push through a second bailout deal for Greece, though poor results from some top European firms on Tuesday rekindled unease about the region's debt crisis, sending shares lower.
Reuters - Syrian forces renewed their bombardment of Homs on Tuesday as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Damascus for talks aimed at pressing President Bashar al-Assad to end a bloody crackdown on a popular revolt and carry out reforms.
AP - The entire staff at a Los Angeles elementary school is being removed while authorities investigate horrific allegations of sexual abuse by two of the school's teachers, one of whom is accused of blindfolding children, taping their mouths and photographing them in a classroom.
Financial writer Philip Coggan traces the current global financial crisis to the 1970s when the U.S. went off the gold standard. In his book Paper Promises, Coggan says governments will have to choose whether to keep their promises to their creditors or to their citizens.
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China's Vice President Xi Jinping is coming to America. Next week, he'll meet with President Obama at the White House. He'll lead a trade delegation to California. And he'll also make a stop in Muscatine, Iowa. Xi visited the town (population 22,886) in the 1980s, as part of an agricultural mission.
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Mexico is facing one of its worst droughts in decades. Government officials say more than half of Mexico's 31 states are affected, and in some areas farmers haven't been able to harvest crops for two years in a row. Mexico's federal government is pledging more than $2 billion to help.
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Amanda Knox's Italian lawyer has filed an appeal of her slander conviction in Italy, a family spokesman said Monday. In October, an Italian appeals court overturned the young Seattle woman's murder conviction in the 2007 death of her British roommate in Perugia.
AP - Josh Powell painted himself as a tortured man, ridiculed without reason in the disappearance of his wife, steadfastly insisting he was innocent until the end.
The entire staff at an elementary school where two teachers were arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct will be removed while the school district investigates, the Los Angeles school superintendent said Monday night.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (EPP - Flickr)
By Alan Posener
DIE WELT/Worldcrunch
BERLIN -- There is more than just a kernel of hostility to consumption and growth in the fiscal radicalism of Angela Merkel, a vicar’s daughter. Her policy takes one back to the early days of green fundamentalists. Who doesn’t have unpleasant memories of their sermons urging repentance, their preaching about polluting the Earth if you used electricity, killing trees if you drove a car, and abetting trash dumps and climate change if you weren’t against industry?
For these doomsday prophets, the Club of Rome’s 1972 “The Limits to Growth” serves as a type of Holy Scripture. The hair-shirt crowd responsible for the text seemed to take a perverse pleasure in painting the end of a world that “we just have on loan from our kids.” The mostly well-heeled wearers of home-knit socks thought asceticism would heal the planet.
But now -- by phasing out nuclear reactors in what has turned out to be a very comfortable here and now, thank you – Angela Merkel has actually managed to outdo the greens. And she’s applying her end-of-growth ideology to budget policy via her European austerity measures. Europe shouldn’t grow out of a crisis that is primarily a crisis of productivity, says Merkel. It should save itself out of it.
And Europe should do so, furthermore, under German supervision.
This all makes about as much sense as trying to heal the planet by renouncing progress. Yet the chancellor has a following of commentators singing the old hymns. Earlier they served to appease the earth goddess Gaia. Now they’re supposed to satisfy the gods of the financial markets.
Gone the unbearable lightness of being of early retirement in Mediterranean countries! Gone the low taxes of those Irish show-offs! The fun and games are over. Even that old chestnut about the kind of world we’re passing on to our children has been pressed back into service, only this time it’s egotistical consumers who shouldn’t be passing down debts to future generations.
A policy without alternatives is not a policy
There is something very German, more exactly Protestant, about this dour rigidity. It’s no accident that Protestantism came out of Germany in the first place, or that Mrs. Merkel is a Protestant minister’s daughter. In Merkel-speak, Luther’s "Here I stand, I can do no other…” reads: “There are no alternatives to my policy.” But anything without alternatives is regrettable – and a policy without alternatives is not a policy. That's what computers are for.
By comparison to the new fiscal radicalism, the old eco-radicalism actually had a rational core. Treeless forests, oceans empty of fish, poisoned coastlines, extinct species, a changed climate: those are pretty irrevocable. Debts on the other hand are basically book-keeping, even if creditors wouldn’t be particularly happy to hear that.
No, you can’t eat money, as the radical ecologists sneer. But you can manipulate it. And of course you can leave some debt for later generations. Germany paid the last reparation payments from World War I on Oct. 3, 2010 – that’s today’s living paying for the craziness of long-dead politicians and military leaders. Compared to that, future generations should be glad to pay debt accumulated by a government that shelled out for unemployment benefits, pensions to mothers, health costs for the poor or college educations – even if it was a little dilatory about tax collection.
That Europe – which remains the biggest economy on the planet – “is living above its means” by promising basic security to its citizens is a myth of the new prophets of doom. Europe is working on avoiding future debt crises in a number of ways, not least the fiscal pact for stricter budget discipline and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
Just as the eco-radicals called for an end to growth because they couldn’t imagine how growth and environmental protection could work in tandem, Merkel and the fiscal radicals are calling for a stop to growth by sticking rigidly to their austerity plans. Future generations will be paying the bill for that. The 40% youth unemployment afflicting Spain amounts to a lost generation. Not everybody owns an apartment in Madrid or Barcelona that they can rent out to help finance a new life in Berlin. The situation hardly looks much better in other southern European countries.
Resistance starting to build across Europe
Meanwhile, even the head of the IMF delegation in Greece, Denmark's Poul Thomsen, has warned against "excessive fiscal consolidation." Small wonder, because the social democratic Pasok party charged with implementing the austerity measures has, according to polls, lost support to the Communists and other far left parties.
Resistance to the Protestant in the chancellor’s office is forming all over Europe. And the resistance is unpleasant: anti-German, anti-European, nationalist, socialist. That’s why Polish Minister of Finance Jacek Rostowski is saying that while his country will have fulfilled all the requirements to enter the euro zone by 2015, it will not introduce the currency as long as it poses a threat to countries that use it.
Of course Europe needs reforms. Of course Europe needs fewer debts – not least Germany, whose debts amount to 80% of the gross domestic product as opposed to the 60% allowed by the Maastricht Treaty. But the key is not savings. It’s growth. The green-Protestant, post-democratic austerity regime could end up destroying Europe.
Read the original story in German
Photo - European People's Party
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: After a long delay due to legal snags, a skydiver is once again gearing up for a supersonic free-fall that would break a record set 52 years ago.
At a rally in the gym at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., Monday night, GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney rolled out some new material: The rights given to people by God.
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Tired of tuition increases within the cash-strapped University of California system, a group of students has suggested eliminating tuition entirely. Instead, they propose graduates pay the system a percentage of their income over the subsequent 20 years.
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Opposition leaders have coalesced into a united and focused movement that is preparing to choose one candidate to run against the president, posing the strongest electoral challenge to Hugo Chavez's populist rule. Chavez still leads his nearest rival, but the gap is nothing like in years past.
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There are some 250,000 people of Persian descent living in Israel, and they maintain strong ties with their homeland. These Iranian Jews are conflicted as tensions between the two counties escalate.
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When the Alabama Legislature begins its regular session Tuesday, lawmakers will consider changing the state's immigration law — considered the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigrants. Initially, the law got very little attention from the business community, but some now say the law could cost the state $11 billion.
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President Obama's campaign is asking top fundraisers to support a Democratic-leaning outside group that is backing the president's re-election bid. That reverses Obama's opposition to "super" political action committees, which can spend unlimited amounts of cash to influence elections.
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Oscar-nominated actors including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Rooney Mara and Michelle Williams turned out for Monday’s annual Academy Awards nominees luncheon, but perhaps the liveliest guest was producer Brian Grazer, who entertained the crowd with a tale of his Oscar mishap.
Mr. Grazer, who is producing the Feb. 26 show with Don Mischer, recalled waiting for Sidney Poitier to tear open the envelope to reveal the name of the Best Picture winner in 1996, when Mr. Grazer was nominated for producing “Apollo 13.”
“I’m staring at him, and I can see every single thing. Subatomic particles. I see everything,” Mr. Grazer said from the stage of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
“I’m looking at him and I see ‘B’ rolling off his lip. I’m thinking he’s going to say ‘Brian Grazer.’ I jump up and I walk to the stage, and he says ‘Braveheart!’” Mr. Grazer recalled. “So I think that’s the last thing you want to do.”
The show’s producers used the luncheon to reveal a few details about the ceremony, including a plan to redesign the interior of the Kodak Theater, home of the presentation, to make it look “like a timeless movie theater,” said Mr. Grazer.
Perhaps to the dismay of some nominees hoping to thank everyone from their stylist to their kindergarten teacher, Mr. Mischer announced a new tool to keep acceptance speeches to their allotted 45 seconds.
“From the moment you get to the microphone, the prompter’s going to display this graphic,” he said, standing next to a screen on which an inverted triangle was beginning to form.
“We’re hoping that this graphic will help you pace yourself through the 45 seconds, so that you’re not surprised before the music plays.”
The nominees, who by that point had already collected the bulky hooded sweatshirts the Academy bestows on them for their achievements, howled with laughter, leaving little indicated that they would heed Mr. Mischer’s warnings come late February.
After weeks and weeks of advertising, “Smash” premieres. The show seems to have a lot of promise, and the musical numbers dazzled.
Katharine McPhee (American Idol Season 5 runner-up) is Karen Cartwright, a 24-year-old, Broadway wanna-be star. She exudes innocence and hope. Karen is a waitress, has parents from Iowa who want her to come home and have a better-paying career, and an amazing boyfriend Dev Sundaram, played by Raza Jaffrey.
Karen and Dev live in a very nice apartment. Dev must make a lot working for the mayor’s office because I can’t imagine that Karen’s salary covers the rent. Karen and Dev’s relationship is sweet. He believes in and supports her dream and sticks up for her in front of her parents, (“That’s why it’s so encouraging when someone like Karen follows her heart. She has so much courage, I think she’s a star.”) He takes her to the “Marilyn” audition, reminds her Marilyn Monroe wasn’t about sex, she was about love and helps her prepare for the callback. (I’m glad that Dev isn’t vying for his own Broadway career, or thinks his career is more important than Karen’s.)
Karen’s rival is Ivy Lynn, played by Megan Hilty (a real-life Broadway star, credits include “Wicked” and “9-5”). She’s not a star yet either, just a chorus girl also waiting for her big break. “Do you want a ballad or up tempo first?” she says during a try-out with a wink. Their rivalry is established in the first five minutes of the show.
Debra Messing is Julia Houston, a song writer/lyricist on a break from Broadway because her family–husband Frank (Brian d’Arcy James) and son, Leo–are trying to adopt a baby. Frank seems more involved with the adoption process (visit with social workers, interviews at the agency, criminal checks) and isn’t pleased when Julia and her writing partner Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) decide to plow ahead with “Marilyn, The Musical” (which incidentally, is Tom’s assistant’s idea, Eliss Tanchareon. He gives Marilyn her first breath “I liked ‘Wicked’ and ‘Jersey Boys’ and who would have thought those would have been good musicals). At first Julia doesn’t like the concept because it’s so overdone, but quickly comes around to the idea.
I wondered if Frank’s disapproval had anything to do with Julia’s decision to do the musical. According to Frank, when Julia’s in production “you’re never here, you’re out all night. Leo and I go for days without seeing you.” But Julia doesn’t want anyone else to “do” Marilyn Monroe. Frank relents. From the previews it seems their relationship is going to be explored a lot– I can’t imagine that Frank is truly happy that Julia is breaking her word. These two are polar opposites – buttoned-up proper Frank and the artist Julia. Is this a foreshadowing of what Karen and Dev can become? Was Frank once as supportive as Dev is—and look where Frank is now.
(I appreciate that Julia raises an important question: “Why doesn’t anyone do new musicals anymore?” after reading about another revival of “My Fair Lady.”) Julia and Tom’s current Broadway show “Heaven on Earth” is a huge success (and reminded me of “A Chorus Line”).
Tom and Ivy are good friends – he gets her to do the demo of Marilyn “as the wise man once wrote, never give all the heart.” But instead of staying secret, the demo ends up going viral because Eliss sends it to his mom, who puts it on YouTube. Tom, but especially Julia, flips out because it’s not ready and they’re going to get slaughtered by Michael Riedel (the NY Post writer who starting writing bad reviews of “Spider-Man” before the musical starting having production issues). Or in Tom’s words, “He’s a Napoleonic little Nazi who works for The Post.” But Riedel loves it, “He thinks the number online is a smash.” (And there’s the name of the show.)
Eliss’s job is saved! Tom even asks for his input on the rough score because “After all, it was your idea.” The most complete number is the baseball number: “all men like to play at the national past time.” (Side note- Tom lives at 204 Riverside Drive, down the street from another NBC sitcom character, Liz Lemon! Who else lives on Riverside Drive?)
Angelica Houston is Eileen Rand, a Broadway producer who’s getting divorced from Jerry (Michael Cristofer). They’re having trouble coming to a settlement as Jerry reminds Eileen that when they got married, she had nothing. “But love,” she spits back. Everything, including the production of “My Fair Lady” is going to go into escrow because of their arguing. Eileen needs something else, so she goes after “Marilyn.” And she wants to Derek Willis (Jack Davenport) to direct. Tom and Julia agree to let Derek direct one number as a tryout, despite Tom’s hatred of Derek. (Tom says Derek needs a complete personality change and a sex change for him to consider it.” Ha).
After cajoling from Eileen, Derek agrees. Hilty knocks the number out of the park. It’s fun and full of energy, with a sexual undertone. Megan as Ivy as Marilyn definitely pulls it off. They cut to an actual stage and we see Ivy in a red dress with her hair done as Marilyn, the guys in sparkly NY Yankee uniforms. (The guys’ dancing doesn’t really impress me that much, there’s a lot of hip thrusting and gyrating, I hope they have more involved routines as the show progresses). Julia loves it; Tom thinks it’s just alright, but that Ivy was awesome. Julia pulls Tom aside and gets him to admit that the number was brilliant, but Tom is worried about putting the project in danger because Derek is “a terrible human being!!!!!!”
At tryouts for Marilyn, all the girls dress up as Marilyn except Karen, and immediately Derek likes her. This is a compliment since he just asked for Scarlett Johansson. Tom doesn’t want tryouts, he thinks the part should be Ivy’s. But she’s in the bathroom getting sick, so Karen tries out first, with a nice version of Christina Aguliera’s “Beautiful.” Derek and Eileen are interested. Katharine as Karen is good- her innocence really shines through. She pretends to sing to Dev, and it gives her confidence and her voice becomes stronger throughout. It gets everyone’s attention.
Not surprisingly she gets a callback. They liked how she didn’t play up the sex, but in the callback, she has to play up the sex. She and Dev watch “Some Like It Hot” to prepare until Karen gets a text to go to Derek’s. I’m glad she doesn’t throw her morals, innocence, and hope to the wind by sleeping with Derek (cuz that’s why he called her). Instead, she sings a version of “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” climbs on top of him, and at the last second she pulls away. “Not gonna happen” she smirks.
Ivy also got a call back. We see her mom isn’t really that supportive (or interested?) in her budding career either. Maybe Karen and Ivy will bond over their struggles for success and acceptance?
The final number of the premiere has Karen and Ivy singing “Let Me Be Your Star” for their tryout. Jack favors Julia and Tom favors Ivy. They both have powerful voices, Ivy is a bit more theatrical. Who will it be?
We know from the previews that the girls basically have to fight it out – Derek wants Karen (she might be green but she’s certainly trained and she brings freshness and innocence), but Tom wants Ivy (besides looking like Marilyn, she can act, she can dance and she has Broadway experience). Does Ivy actually sleep with Derek for the part? I hope Karen doesn’t, I was so glad to see she didn’t in the Pilot. We see several song/dance routines where both girls are dressed up and sexed up, but who wins the role? There’s also divorce drama from Eileen and Jerry, and marital issues with Julia and Frank (who wants to go back to work because he has nothing to do). Karen has money worries but Dev says he can take care of everything…but Karen isn’t ready for that. Then there might be no money for the production. There’s Julia’s ex, who lands a role of Joe DiMaggio. There’s no love lost between Ivy and Karen. And “there’s a broken heart for every light on Broadway.”
So what do you think? Does this show have staying power? Will you continue to watch? Who should get the part and who should be the understudy? Ivy or Karen? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
If Christina’s get-ups monopolized the conversation for the first season of “The Voice,” it appears as though Cee Lo has been passed that torch for the second. The show opens with the four judges collaborating onstage, and Cee Lo is, for some inexplicable reason, wearing a sequined Snuggie. We urge him to patent this (coat? jumpsuit? matching pants and sweater combination?) immediately.
Meh, this judges’ performance is boring. Until Blake Shelton grins charmingly when it’s his turn to sing Prince’s “Kiss.” A not-so-subtle and yet not-unwanted reminder that out of all of them, Shelton is the one who has really broken out here.
The first duet makes its debut, Hailey and Leland of The Line. The most interesting thing here is whether or not they’ll be a couple. Their music? Too soon to tell. We do enjoy Blake’s reaction to their choosing Xtina over him: “I think they were fooled by flash and…boobs.” We can’t dispute that last part.
We are then introduced to the man who will possibly be this season’s most delightful character. Jamar Rogers, who used to be addicted to crystal meth, wins the heart of Cee Lo and just cannot contain his excitement. This guy’s got zest. He and Cee Lo look into each other’s eyes, run toward each other, bask in the glow of both loving Cee Lo and then WHY IS CEE LO HOLDING A CAT. It’s official: Cee Lo is officially Tracy Jordan. Nice crossover promotion, NBC. We are feverishly wondering what kind of rider Cee Lo has to mandate the use of a cat onscreen. A white, fluffy cat. We are consciously choosing not to explore the more Freudian explanations for this decision.
So far the contestants have mostly chosen upbeat songs, which is a wise move on their part. It’s good to get the audience off its feet, especially since the judges seem to be susceptible to especially loud applause.
Christina Milian is the show’s social media correspondent? Don’t they have interns for that?
Kim Yarbrough. Damnnn. Damn. She’s 50 and can belt. Xtina’s itching to press that button but only does so after Adam goes for it. They both tell her she has no limits, which appears to be the case. We’re surprised – usually belters tend to go with Christina, but this time the newly-dubbed Chakha Khan picks Mr. Levine.
Next up is Angie Johnson, who’s got a pretty amazing story, in a 21st-century-the-Internet-changes-lives sort of way. A video of her singing in an Air Force band was uploaded to YouTube, fetched more than a million views and was retweeted by Carson Daly, who now tells her she’s a “hot chick.” Oh Carson, hark back to your TRL days. Did calling teenagers “hot chicks” ever work out for you? No? Then don’t try it on 30-year-old women.
Yale football player Dez Duron took a semester off to be here. He also chose to sing “I Want It That Way.” We’ll leave it at that.
Jermaine Paul, a background vocalist for Alicia Keys, is trying to strike out on his own. We admire his bravery, but shouldn’t working for Alicia mean she’d be able to pull a few strings without his having to audition for a nationalized TV contest?
Either way, we’re a fan of his gravelly rendition of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated.” A little shocking he chooses Blake over Cee Lo, but refreshing! And they both seem to be the same height, which is always aesthetically pleasing.
Angel Taylor is up last. After belting out “Someone Like You” by Adele, she arouses the interest of Adam, Blake and Cee Lo. We love when Adam and Blake bust each other’s chops. Their chemistry is probably the most enjoyable to watch on show because it’s informed by that cocky swagger one presumably only gets after reaching mega levels of stardom. Sigh.
Out of all the contestants so far, who do you think has the potential to win? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Run Blair Run! Run away from your 80s-themed wedding and away from the crazy prince determined to make your life miserable!
We’re back at the Blair wedding. The one where everyone tried to convince her to run away with Chuck. Instead she fled with Dan. Blair, Chuck and Nate play stowaway in the catering van (Nate is trying to hit on the cater waiter who is the “real” Charlie Rhodes). In the meantime, Gossip Girl Georgina is all trying to find out what’s wrong. She cons the crazy Scooby Gang to go to the Empire and says they have to take her with them.
Blair heads to the airport to fly to the Dominican Republic, where she thinks she can get a quickie divorce. She’s very incognito in her full Vera Wang and crown. For some reason, Serena has Blair’s phone and sees the text from Louis asking where the heck (Blair) is. Dan is letting Blair drag him around.
Ohh ohh, Georgina discovers Dorota packing Blair’s suitcases. OK, is it me or is this episode dragging on forever? I’m bored and there are 40 minutes left.
Louis’ mom says if Blair doesn’t show up, her parents will have to pay a big big dowry.
Nate and the real Charlie are hanging out and Charlie’s mom calls and lies are told about studying in the library. Back at the airport, Blair and Dan see Louis on television claiming that Blair is a missing person. They must escape the airport and flee to an airport hotel. Dan wants to know why she treats him like crap. I dunno, because it’s Blair and she’s a jerk and he should get over her.
Serena and Chuck show up at the airport hotel. So does Georgina. She takes pictures of everyone and runs out. Why no one stops her, I have no idea. It turns out Serena sent the Blair video telling Chuck how she feels to Gossip Girl last week. Then Serena says she didn’t send it. And Chuck didn’t do it. Who sent it? Maybe Dan!
The Charlotte/Charlie shows up at Lily/Rufus’s to deliver flowers. Miraculously, she drops the info that she was with Nate before. Oooh sneaky!
Chuck offers to charter a plane to the Dominican Republic when evil mother-in-law shows up and demands that Blair come with Louis to take her place in Stepford. Serena is mad at Dan because she told him he was her one and only schmoochie and he didn’t respond.
Chuck offers to pay the dowry, but Blair says she needs to keep her promise. And she walks out the door to head back to her Monaco prison. But first, she apologizes to Dan. Blair’s mom says she doesn’t appreciate threats and she’ll pay whatever to keep Blair away. She tells Blair not to go with Louis. Blair stands by her stupid decision and she leaves with Louis leave for their year of solitude. This is all so stupid.
Next week: It’s Valentine’s Day on Gossip Girl. And somehow, Blair is back from Monaco.
Big Plot Points to Remember: Loads! It’s Truth-Up Day at school, a kind of encounter sleepover. We learn that Vice Principal Tamborelli takes bribes, so can be blackmailed to get Emily back on the team. Mona’s on Team Emily. Kate took the photograph herself. Ashley resents Isobel, and Isobel’s a raging beyotch. Jason is Spencer’s half-brother! The moms know something is up—want to take bets on how soon we get Pretty Little Liars, plus Moms? Holden has pills but he’s not a drug dealer or addict—and he has mad kickboxing skills (called it!). Ali’s old claim ticket was for a raincoat, which has a phone number in it. A male friend of Vivien’s calls back, and wants to meet up.
No Dr. Sullivan, no Nat, no Maya, no Garrett, no, thankfully, Ezra.
The Doings of A: Several mean texts. Steals Caleb’s laptop.
Best of Lies: Kate lies by silence. Jenna lies by omission when she complains.
Best Lines: “Yeah, it’s a raincoat, Aria, it’s not a mummy.”—Spencer
“Her mother is a divorced woman who works full time because her husband left her for you!” – Ashley.
“Wait, what’s a spigot?” Hanna.
“It’s genius. In her first week she took down Hanna, made every girl pity her and every guy want to pounce on her.”—Ali.
We open in Vice-Principal Tamborelli’s office. Hanna’s in trouble over the nude photo of Kate sent from her phone. Instead of expelling her, Mr. Tamborelli assigns her to work with Kate on Truth-Up Day.
The all-day truth-telling games (suspiciously like acting games, with ballthrowing and step forward if you feel x or y) are to get them to break down barriers, and even though Mr. Tamborelli scolds Emily for complaining about how unfairly she’s treated (silencing people doesn’t encourage them to open up), it actually kind of works.
Emily sees Mona watching her smackdown, and decides to apologize for letting Ali bully her. Mona pretends it no longer matters, but we see it does. She tells Emily that Mr. Tamborelli, who is keeping her off the swim team, is corrupt—Mona used to work in his office. Later she fake voices having Emily paged (Mona’s frighteningly good at that) after she saw Mr. Tamborelli sneaks out (hypocrite), and cracks his computer. She finds evidence of his taking bribes. “If I had a pom pom, I’d shake it,” she says. She’s not A.
The claim ticket in “Lolita” was for a red raincoat, with a phone number in the pocket. The girls leave a message pretending to be a friend of Vivien Darkbloom’s. Later a girl answers and says not to call again.
Hanna feels sorry for herself, and doesn’t confide in her mom even when Ashley points out it’s not the first time she’s said she’s being framed. Talk to her Hanna! She does talk to Caleb, on the school roof (where plastic sheeting blows around, for some reason), and agrees to let him try to figure out the IP address the nude photo was sent from.
Aria, in silly yellow wedges, notices a bag of pills falling out of Holden’s bag and leaps to conclusions. Later, when she’s climbing a ladder on the roof to look for Caleb (unclear why) Holden kick boxes Noel’s hand from grabbing her. I’m still calling karate. Pills- hemophilia?
Liar moms, except for Pam (back in Texas?), share coffee, tired from supervising. And they realize something is up with the girls! Ashley thinks it’s when they lost Alison—and Mrs. Hastings thinks it’s when they met Alison. Woot! Moms in the house!
Earlier, Spencer saw Jason in the halls. He’s back from Georgia and, urgently wants to talk to Mr. Hastings. He agrees to supervise Truth-Up when he thinks Mr. Hastings will be there. Spencer eavesdrops on him and her mother (first time we’ve seen her all season, I think) and flashes back to Ali joking that a relationship between Melissa and Jason would be “frowned on by the gods.” Later she asks Jason if her dad is his father. She says Ali told her, though she didn’t realize it.
Jenna bellyaches about people punching her in a classroom encounter, and Caleb points out that she started it. Jenna has weird lines on her face, how old is she? Among the secrets people wrote anonymously: “I’ve never been kissed.”“I know who killed Alison De Laurentis.”
Hanna notices a birthmark on Kate’s side and realizes, the nude photo was photoshopped! She confronts Kate in the girls’ room, and Kate yells out the truth (as people do on television). Aria and Emily were in stalls, recording it all. Suck it, Isobel.
As they huddle in their sleeping bags, Emily sees that she’s missed six calls from the mysterious number (phones had to be turned off during Truth-Up Day). She calls back and a boy picks up. He has questions about Vivien too. They agree to meet!
In the tag, A. wanders through the room, looks hard at Caleb—and steals his laptop!
What do you think? What’s Mr. Hastings up to? What is Holden’s secret? Is A. a student too? Will the Moms become Liars, too?
An Iowa woman has been charged with trying to extort Discovery Communications, the parent company of the TLC network, to either cancel the show or give her $10,000.
A Liberian man who helped lead a faction accused of torture killings and recruiting child soldiers during the West African country's civil war has been ordered removed from the United States, where he raised a family and worked as a public school administrator in upstate New York.
Actress Megan Hilty stopped by the Wall Street Journal to discuss her new series “Smash.” The new TV show, executive produced by Steven Spielberg, follows Hilty, who stars as Ivy Lynn, as she auditions for the leading role in a Marilyn Monroe-based musical. A Broadway veteran who starred in “Wicked” and “9 to 5,” Hilty talked with Alexandra Cheney about her varied interactions with Spielberg and the behind the scenes drama of making a musical that’s front and center in “Smash. “
Of all the cars advertised during Super Bowl XLVI, the Acura NSX sports car, which isn’t even in production yet, fetched the most attention, according to data from AutoTrader.com.
The vehicle-information company tracked consumer response to Super Bowl advertising by looking at how consumer search patterns on its site varied as the game progressed and car makers’ commercials aired. AutoTrader’s analysts were looking for “lift,” or how much of a boost in search activity each vehicle got in the hour after its ad appeared.
Searches for the Acura NSX were up 1,800%, compared with 370% for the runner-up Toyota Camry and 360% for the third-place Fiat 500. The Hyundai Veloster at 302% and Chevrolet Sonic with 275% completed the top five.
What makes a winning car spot? It’s pretty simple. Success is generally based on the ads’ creative quality, says AutoTrader chief executive Chip Perry. The ad for the Acura, which featured famous television personalities and car collectors Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno, was fun to watch and “a cliffhanger,” Perry said.
For more visit our sister blog, Driver’s Seat.
by Cora Currier
Last week, ProPublica and NPR raised questions about a risky investment strategy at Freddie Mac that would pay off if homeowners stayed trapped in expensive mortgages. It's just the latest example of how government-owned Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have frustrated many by not putting homeowners first.
Fannie and Freddie are required to help homeowners while earning profits so they can pay back the taxpayers who bailed them out. Here is our guide to the little-known federal regulator, Edward DeMarco, ultimately in charge of the two companies. You may have never heard of him, but as The Washington Post put it, he's "the most powerful man in housing policy."
The basics
In the summer of 2008, as part of a larger economic stimulus bill amid the subprime mortgage crisis, President George W. Bush created the Federal Housing Finance Agency, combining several agencies overseeing housing policy, and increasing regulation of government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie and Freddie. When the government bailed out Fannie and Freddie a few months later, the FHFA took charge of them.
DeMarco, a lifelong regulator, was named the acting head of the FHFA roughly a year after the bailout when his Bush-appointed predecessor stepped down. Obama nominated a consumer-friendly replacement for DeMarco in October 2010, but Republicans blocked him. (Republican opposition to Obama's nominee for DeMarco's successor stemmed in part from concerns that he would push banks and others too far to help homeowners, unfairly rewarding reckless borrowers.)
As head of the FHFA, DeMarco has a three-part mission: to promote the soundness of Fannie and Freddie, and to support affordable housing and a stable and liquid mortgage market (in other words, to expand access to home ownership loans and make it easier to buy and sell mortgages).
The last two goals, though, can clash with the fact that under the bailout, DeMarco is the "conservator" of Freddie and Fannie, meaning he has to protect their finances for the benefit of their shareholders. (And the majority shareholder is now the federal government.) According to The Washington Post's Brad Plumer and Ezra Klein, there is "a conflict tucked deep into DeMarco's job description: The head of the FHFA is stuck between the narrow needs of Fannie and Freddie and the broader needs of the housing market."
DeMarco has focused almost solely on that first goal, telling Congress many times that "as conservator, FHFA has a statutory responsibility to preserve and conserve the enterprises' assets." In plainer terms, he told NPR last week that his role is to "make sure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac undertake activities that don't cause further losses for the American taxpayers."
DeMarco has strongly asserted his independence, insisting that he is promoting needed fiscal discipline. (He did not respond to our latest requests for comment on his role with the FHFA).
Clashes with Congress and Obama
Democrats and Obama administration officials have been frustrated with DeMarco, saying the FHFA's narrow focus on Fannie and Freddie's health has hurt the housing market.
The Obama administration has repeatedly tried to push principal reduction — reducing the size of a borrower's mortgage — as a way to help homeowners, especially those with homes worth less than their mortgages. But as ProPublica and others have reported, time and again, Fannie and Freddie wouldn't participate: a crippling problem, since the two companies own or guarantee about half of the country's mortgages.
Last month, the administration unveiled yet another plan to encourage principal reduction, but a former administration adviser called DeMarco "the boulder" in the way of making it happen.
DeMarco says principal reduction could cost taxpayers $100 billion. Some economists counter that while principal reductions might lead to a short-term hit for Fannie and Freddie, it would ultimately result in fewer underwater mortgages, fewer foreclosures and a healthier housing market — all good for Fannie and Freddie's bottom line.
On another administration plan, to allow more borrowers to refinance at lower rates, DeMarco shifted somewhat toward the White House's position. He agreed to lift some fees on refinancing and make it easier to qualify. Freddie Mac told ProPublica in a statement that it has helped more than 830,000 families refinance, but as we noted, critics say that the refinancing effort could be helping millions more.
As DeMarco told Politico, he's been no "particular friend" of banks. He brought a massive lawsuit against 17 banks, alleging fraud over $200 billion in toxic mortgages sold to Fannie and Freddie. The case is ongoing.
DeMarco is also charged with helping Fannie and Freddie go gently into the night. As part of their bailout, the two companies are supposed to wind down their operations. And just as DeMarco has resisted Democratic calls for more aggressive help for homeowners, he's also pushed back against Republican calls to spin off the companies more quickly. He's also rejected GOP plans to cap executive pay at Fannie and Freddie.
Why he's still there
Last week, DeMarco described his job as a "balancing act." It's certainly thankless. While Democrats have called for DeMarco's head, the FHFA is an independent agency, meaning the Obama administration can't just get rid of him over policy disputes such as his stance on refinancing or principal reduction. He could also be replaced if Obama decides to offer another nominee and the Senate confirms the choice. Barring that, DeMarco will likely remain where he is for some time, walking his own line on Fannie and Freddie's contradictory mission.
Disney is putting its weight behind the coming animated film, “The Secret World of Arrietty,” a Studio Ghibli feature that is based on Mary Norton’s beloved children’s book, “The Borrowers.”
“Arrietty” became a box-office hit when it was released in Japan in 2010, and Disney hopes audiences in North America will be receptive to this film because of its familiar storyline and strong cast. Disney teams with Studio Ghibli on its theatrical releases in North America, and has home-video rights to Studio Ghibli films.
John Lasseter, chief creative officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studio, is one of Studio Ghibli’s biggest fans. “I think there’s this beauty to ‘Arrietty,’” he said in an interview. “It’s an incredible adventure and the little kid in me comes out when I watch it in the sense that it’s this world of small miniature human beings living below a regular house.”
Lasseter is close friends with Studio Ghibli co-founder and legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Back in 1987, on Lasseter’s first trip to Japan, he visited the film studio and Miyazaki showed him the project he was working on at the time: “My Neighbor Totoro,” a film about two girls who befriend a large forest spirit.
“It was mind-blowing to me looking at this like wait, a bus that’s a cat?” Lasseter said. “Miyazaki had this twinkle in his eye and this smile. I was just like, this is going to be amazing, and it turned out it’s one of my favorite films of all time.”
“Arrietty” was co-written by Miyazaki, but not directed by him (“It still has his imprint on it,” Lasseter said). Instead, the film was helmed by a young director named Hiromasa Yonebayashi. “They are sort of grooming new talent at Studio Ghibli and he was a young animator and they groomed him to direct,” Lasseter said. “It’s different in the sense that it’s a new voice within the studio.”
“Arrietty” is the latest Studio Ghibli film to come to the U.S., and interest in the studio’s films has grown recently, according to Eric Beckman, president and CEO of GKIDS. GKIDS, a distributor of animated films, is currently hosting Studio Ghibli film retrospectives around the country, playing the studio’s films from 1984 to 2002 on new 35mm prints.
“They’re to me among the most wonderful films that have ever been created,” Beckman said. “People often compare side-by-side Pixar and Ghibli as the two most creative and successful animation studios.”
Beckman said GKIDS is working in tandem with Disney on the retrospectives and has seen sold-out screenings. “There’s just a lot of pent-up demand for the films,” he said, adding that as retrospectives help build awareness, people are likely to seek DVDs of the films, which are distributed by Disney.
He also commended Disney on its support of the films. “If you look at the box-office grosses on the films and compare them to what they make on their first weekend of a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film or a new Pixar film, I think Disney’s in the Studio Ghibli thing for the love of the films, not because it’s central to its bottom line,” Beckman said.
“Arrietty” is co-executive produced by the husband-and-wife team of Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, who also executive produced the previous Studio Ghibli film for Disney, “Ponyo.” Marshall said they are already planning the next one: in about two weeks, Mr. Marshall will attend a meeting in Los Angeles to discuss Studio Ghibli’s next film, “From Up on Poppy Hill.”
An Al Qaeda front group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the two deadliest attacks on Shiites since the U.S. military completed its withdrawal last month, underlining an escalating sectarian security and political crisis that threatens to drive the country toward civil war.
The president of the U.N. General Assembly is urging the Security Council to try to reach agreement on a Syria resolution, saying its deep division is leading to more Syrian deaths.
We got yet another portion of leaked HTC Ville live photos, garnished with a nice specs sheet. The Android smartphone is expected to be unveiled by HTC at their press conference on February 26 and slide beneath the Edge in the company's chain of command. The HTC Ville will reportedly be the slimmest HTC smartphone to this day, having a profile of just 8.9mm. Previously we heard that the Ville...
The Clint Eastwood ad during the Super Bowl is causing a stir in political circles.
Our colleague Steve Goldstein at MarketWatch writes at the Political Watch blog:
It could be viewed as a simple celebration of the recovery of bankrupt Chrysler. But the political overtones were easy to see as well: “Halftime in America” could be interpreted as a rallying call for a second term for President Barack Obama, who pushed ahead with a bailout of Chrysler and General Motors (read more on GM’s financial results on WSJ.com) despite objections from Republicans, including his likely presidential opponent, Mitt Romney.
“Saving the America Auto Industry: Something Eminem and Clint Eastwood can agree on,” tweeted Dan Pfeiffer, the White House spokesman. Added David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist: “Powerful spot.” Filmmaker Michael Moore was a bit more direct (and apologies for the Twitterese): “Your sermon seemed 2 b a call 2 give O his ‘second half.’”
For more go to our fellow blog, WashWire.
Romania's president has nominated foreign espionage chief Mihai Razvan Ungureanu as the country's new prime minister.
The city of Kidal in the far north of Mali is on high alert after Tuareg rebels said Monday they have taken up strategic positions around the locality, setting the stage for the first aggression against a major city.
An Italian appeals court has overturned the terrorism conviction of a Tunisian man who had spent nine years in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba.
One French minister says some civilizations -- notably France's -- are worth more than others. Interior Minister Claude Gueant's weekend remarks at a private gathering have ignited a firestorm of protests, since they were taken as a putdown of Muslims. But he refused to retreat, instead confirming the comments Monday, calling his viewpoint "good sense."
It seems that thinness is the new race to the moon for smartphone makers, and Samsung, not to be outdone by Motorola's RAZR XT910 7.1mm waistline, is reportedly aiming at the 7mm milestone with the new Galaxy S III. Surprisingly, Huawei is also in the race with the upcoming Ascend P1 S, which comes in at 6.7mm, and should see a global release in Q2 of this year. Rumors continue that the S...
Last week, K-pop supergroup Girls’ Generation got an unprecedented U.S. television showcase on “Live! With Kelly,” the Reegeless morning show currently featuring Kelly Ripa and a revolving-door series of daily guest hosts. For those who caught it, the segment offered up one of television’s rare magic moments — not during the musical performance itself, but in the brief interview immediately afterwards.
The Girls had just pulled off a crowd-pumping rendition of their first U.S. single, “The Boys,” complete with their signature precision choreography, and stood posed and slightly breathless onstage to receive Ripa and her cohost du jour, Howie Mandel. Ripa and Mandel congratulated the girls on their Stateside appearance in full-on talking-to-foreigners mode, speaking loud and slow, and making big, evocative gestures with their hands.
Then Mandel decided to pay the girls a compliment. “Your English is very good!” he said to one member — bubbly, effusive Tiffany. Without missing a beat, Tiffany responded in a perfect NorCal accent, “Well — I was born in America.” “I was too!” chimed Jessica, the brown-haired pixie next to her. Startled, Mandel could only repeat, “And…your English is very good!” The other girls burst into laughter as Tiffany defused the awkward situation: “I know, I know, thank you so much, I studied so hard!”
You can’t really fault Mandel. After all, Girls’ Generation is the face of young Korea — the nation’s hottest and biggest-selling female music group. To him, Tiffany and her bandmate Jessica speaking fluent Americanese must have been like hearing Katy Perry suddenly bust out in Khmer.
But Tiffany and Jessica — and the growing ranks of other Korean American performers recruited by management companies like SM Entertainment and JYPE in U.S.-based talent searches — aren’t just a random act of globalization. They’re the secret weapon in Korea’s next push for worldwide youth-culture domination.
Tiffany, who still breaks out in giggles at the Mandel Moment — “His expression was totally funny” — was born in San Francisco and raised in L.A. “I went to an SM audition when I was 15, and ended up getting invited to move to Korea for training. My parents were completely against it, but I convinced them to let me do it. I didn’t know what I was in for, but I knew I wanted to do music for the rest of my life. And it was really tough: Three years of hard work, learning what it’s like to be an idol.”
Korea’s pop training programs are rigorous and all-encompassing: Would-be idols live together in dormitories, going to school during the day and then learning singing, dancing and acting late into the evening. For some, like Tiffany’s fellow transplant Jessica, the process begins as early as age 10.
The management firms pay for everything; leading talent house SM Entertainment has pegged the cost of rearing a single idol at around $3 million, which for Girls’ Generation would be multiplied by nine. Most candidates end up quitting or failing to catch on, but the potential payoff for those who make it is enormous: The Girls are multimedia superstars and blockbuster branding engines with deals to endorse everything from LG phones to Intel processors to Goobne Chicken (a leading South Korean oven-roasted chicken chain). Collectively, they generate a revenue stream well north of $50 million a year — which makes them a pretty fantastic investment for parent company SM.
“Girls’ Generation are easily the biggest girl group in all of Asia,” says Susan Kang, founder and CEO of Soompi.com, the largest English-language K-pop site. “That’s been the case ever since they had their breakout hit “Gee“ in 2009. The video for that song alone has over 64 million views on YouTube, and has been viewed in every country in the world except for a few nations in Africa. Take the Spice Girls in their prime plus Britney in her prime and combine them, and you might get close to how big they are today.”
In Asia, that is: The Girls have topped the charts in Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan and especially Japan, the world’s second largest music market. And in Europe, where the “SM Town” concert they headlined in Paris sold out within 15 minutes of it being announced.
But Asia and Europe have a long history of embracing media in non-native languages. English is a mandatory part of elementary school education in many Asian countries, including Japan, China and Korea; over half of Europeans can hold conversations in languages other than their native tongue. Here in the States, meanwhile, fewer than one in five Americans are conversationally fluent in a language other than English, and while the occasional non-Anglophone song has cracked the pop charts — six non-English songs have even taken Billboard’s number one slot, the most recent being Los del Rio’s Spanglish hit “Macarena“ — the reality is that those are the exceptions that prove out the rule: If you want to rock in America, you have to roll in English.
That’s why Tiffany and Jessica play such a critical role in Girls’ Generation’s quest to crack the U.S. market. According to Soompi’s Kang, “In my opinion, if anyone is going to make it here, it’s going to be Girls’ Generation or 2NE1” — a high-energy quartet currently being mentored by Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am, three of whom speak fluent English.
“Having native English speakers is a huge difference maker in reaching the American audience,” says Kang. “It makes it feel less ‘foreign’ to them. And the upside is that big-name producers like Teddy Riley are writing their songs, they’re backed by Korea’s number-one agency, and frankly, the Girls are nine hot ladies. With nine girls, there’s at least one of them you want to date if you’re a guy, or want to be, if you’re a girl.”
So will the nine-lady army of Girls’ Generation succeed in winning American hearts and minds? Absolutely, says Adam Ware, chief of Mnet America — the new U.S.-based sister channel launched by powerhouse Korean music network Mnet.
“There’s a tipping point going on right now, and the Girls are poised to take advantage of it,” he says. “From an industry point of view, you have the brightest minds in the music biz looking around and saying, what is it that Will.i.am and Jimmy Iovane” — the head of Interscope, the Girls’ U.S. label — “know about K-Pop that I don’t? And the answer is, these are talented performers who are attractive in a way that’s sexy but wholesome, who know how to make use of social media. You have young people graduating out of the Disney Channel and looking for something to listen to that’s catchy, positive, fun, and they go to YouTube and they see the Girls. They watch the videos. They learn the dances. It’s amazing: I’ve never seen anything like this, where you have huge crowds of people knowing exactly the hand gestures to do to songs that aren’t even in English.”
That’s the vibe Mnet America is counting on. They’ve expanded from four million to 12 million households in the past year, and can now be seen in nine of the nation’s top ten markets. They, and their parent company, are spending heavily behind the notion that K-Pop isn’t just a fad or niche, but the next breakout pop subgenre.
“Our parent company has really been pushing the concert biz — they’ve packaged some of the top K-Pop groups together in a global tour they call M-Live,” says Ware. “And they’ve really been investing in Mnet America, looking to put us into the role that MTV used to play — the champion of a new and exciting musical genre. MTV was where hiphop really went mainstream, and they’re the ones who made it possible for a lot of the big European artists to cross over. They don’t do that anymore. But when it comes to Asian pop artists, and K-Pop in particular, we will.”
Ware has a good point. It was MTV that made the Scandi-Pop wave of the late-’80s / early ’90s happen: A-ha, Ace of Base, Roxette, The Cardigans, Aqua, and, on the avant-garde side of the musical spectrum, Bjork. Those acts were visually appealing and vocally talented, but frequently language-challenged. If they could make it in America, why not the Girls — who, with two native-born speakers and several other members fluent in English as a second language, are well ahead of their Scandinavian forerunners, many of whom depended on phonetic transliterations for their American releases?
“I don’t think language is a barrier at all,” says GG’s Tiffany. “We have fans from all over the world, who love our music even if they can’t understand it. If there’s one thing that our experience has taught us, it’s that music is really a universal language. It’s something you don’t just hear — it’s something you feel.”
***
The Tao Jones Index Must-click quick-hits from across Asia and Asian America
The K-Pop boom in one handy infographic: Soompi.com breaks the surging proliferation of Korean idolgroups down — concluding that 26% of the 232 K-Pop groups launched in the past 15 years were founded in 2011 alone, 21 of them developed by Girls’ Generation parent company SM Entertainment. Average size of a K-band? 4.47 members for boys, 4.21 for girls, though the ratio is skewed toward males due to the ridiculously large size of several popular boy bands (top guy group Super Junior has 13 members).
David Choe is filthy rich: Korean American urban artist David Choe is already astoundingly successful, having gone from graffitist to gallery darling, with fans and patrons like Jay-Z and Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. But the most lucrative thing he’s ever done was to paint a set of murals on the walls of an obscure web company called Facebook — back when it was an obscure web company — taking stock instead of cash as compensation….$200 million in stock, as it turns out.
Janet Liang needs you: In 2009, recent UCLA grad and would-be teacher Janet Liang was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and beat back the disease with aggressive chemo. Several months ago, the cancer came back. Her best survival option is now a bone-marrow transplant, for which she needs a matching donor — something that’s most likely to be identified among fellow Asian Americans. If you haven’t registered as a potential donor to save the lives of Liang and thousands of others facing similar diseases…do it. A single swab is all it takes.
Jeremy Lin blows up: It’s all about the Super Bowl today (woo! Giants!), but one day earlier, the Knicks saw a season-saving career performance out of their ultra-scrappy backup point guard Jeremy Lin, who also happens to be the only Asian American in the NBA (and the only Harvard grad). Lin, who has bumped from team to team seeking a permanent position in the Show, may have finally proved he has what it takes to stick with the Knicks, dropping a heartstopping 25 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and a pair of steals to lead his team over the neighboring Nets, in a game that kept them in the post-season running and, many suggest, saved his coach from getting fired. Here’s a reel of Lin’s many, many game highlights.
“Tao Jones” is Jeff Yang’s weekly column for Speakeasy on Asian culture. Tune in Friday for the next installment. Follow him on Twitter at @originalspin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mwZW6avY5s
As we expected, the new Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus comes in at a reasonable £249.99 in the UK according to mobile retailer, Expansys. As such we're anticipating a free device on contracts around the £15-per-month mark and upwards once carriers release their plans for the Plus. Vodafone UK currently appear to be the only carrier to have confirmed that they will offer the Galaxy Ace Plus, but we...
Nokia has just announced it is going to launch the white model of the Lumia 800 smartphone later this month in addition to its already available black, cyan and magenta editions. The "beautiful, dazzling, glossy, snow-white" Lumia 800 will start selling later this month in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and Switzerland. More countries will...
Microsoft entered Apple's domain with the introduction of their self-branded stores cropping up across the US last year. The problem being that there still just aren't that many of them. With plans to create a network of 75 stores nationwide before setting their sights further a field; despite their good intentions, they currently lack the reach to customers that their main rivals...
Remember the 12 MP Nokia Lumia 910 that surfaced several days ago in the Netherlands? It sure sounded awesome, but as it turns out it isn't happening. The official confirmation was brought by the Nokia camera guru Damian Dinning. The head of Imaging Experience of the Nokia Smart Devices division was asked by a fan to comment on the rumors and he responded that a 12 MP Lumia 900 smartphone...
The white version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus popped up on the website of a UK retailer last month after which we got to see an official photo and some live images of the device. As it turns out, though, the rumored February 6 launch date was actually the date Samsung madе the phone official. So the press release came in today and confirmed that a white Galaxy Nexus is on its way to...
HTC's financial results for the last quarter of 2011 are out and they are not so good. Furthermore, the company expects Q1 2012 to follow the same path. Despite profitable Q2 2011 and Q3 2011 results the Taiwanese company has taken a hit in its sales in the last three months of 2011. As a result, the revenue plummeted 25.33 percent QoQ, and just 2.49 percent year-over-year to $3.44 billion...
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