American Idol Judges: The First Promotional Photo!

Forget The Avengers. The new American Idol judging team is now officially assembled.

A day after Fox confirmed Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban as the show's new panelists - joining already-announced Mariah Carey and Randy Jackson - the network has released the first official promotional photo of this quartet and host Ryan Seacrest.

Looks like The Dawg is in his usual seat...

American Idol heads in to Season 12 with a number of questions, following its lowest rated run of episodes in years.

With this new unit change the show's fortunes, appealing to fans of country, pop and rap as the series clearly hopes? Will Carey and Minaj clash on set? And does Fox secretly hopes that's the case?

We'll find out more in January. For now, simply sound off: Are you satisfied with the new set of judges?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/09/american-idol-judges-the-first-promotional-photo/

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iPhone 5 contract prices for UK phone networks revealed

While Apple had its preorders primed since 8am BST, British carriers have only just unveiled their monthly prices for the newest iPhone. Vodafone will offer it on contracts from £25 per month -- with an initial £249 outlay) or free on £47 per month for two years. That free deal will net you a 16GB iPhone 5, with 2GB of data, unlimited texts and voice minutes. On Orange, a 24-month contract at £46 will nab you the same 16GB model for free, with 3GB of data and unlimited calls and texts. If you drop down to the £20 rate, you'll have to pay £320 upfront and pick up a lightweight bundle of 100MB of data, 50 texts and 50 minutes. EE stablemate T-Mobile aren't offering any free iPhones on its carrier plans, but you'll be able to glean unlimited internet (alongside 2000 voice minutes) on a 16GB iPhone 5 for £109 and £36 per month on contract. Confusingly, anyone looking to grab the UK's first LTE network on the iPhone 5 will have to sign up to a "4GEE from EE" plan -- which still hasn't revealed its pricing. We're checking with EE whether customers that decide to grab a new contract with Orange or T-Mobile will still be able to migrate across -- we'd hold off on that pre-order until we here back from the new 4G network. Three UK currently has the 16GB iPhone on its unlimited data One Plan at £79 upfront, on a £36 per month deal. We'll update once we hear more from EE -- as well as O2's plans.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

iPhone 5 contract prices for UK phone networks revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/dxX7MXSW5rg/

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Oppo CEO says quad-core Find 5 will feature a 1080p, 441ppi display, forgets to wink at HTC

Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but recently Oppo Mobile CEO Chen Mingyong teased that his upcoming flagship phone, the Find 5, will again feature a non-removable but "certainly big enough" battery (for the sake of anti-counterfeiting and, consequently, safety) as well as a 1080p, 441ppi display. That's right, 441ppi! We're finally getting something impossibly sharper than the 329ppi on the latest iPhones (up to 4-inch, 1,136 x 640), the 331ppi on the Nokia Lumia 920 (4.5-inch, 1,280 x 768) or even the 342ppi on the Sony Xperia acro S and the Xiaomi Phone 2 (4.3-inch, 1,280 x 720).

Assuming Chen's talking about a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, a quick calculation based on these two numbers would give us a 5-inch screen size. Taking into account that a reliable source of ours got to see HTC's 5-inch 6435LVW phablet recently, this would make the Find 5 unofficially the second device to receive the same full HD panel. Still, there's a significant difference inside these two phones: Chen had previously mentioned that the Find 5 will be joining the quad-core APQ8064 party, while the HTC device appears to sport the dual-core, LTE-enabled MSM8960. Speaking of which, the same source informed us that much like the Flyer, HTC's 6435LVW will also feature N-trig stylus technology. Will Oppo follow in the same footsteps? And will it bring back the slide-out keyboard à la Find X903 (pictured above)? Go on, Mr. Chen, tell us more.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Oppo CEO says quad-core Find 5 will feature a 1080p, 441ppi display, forgets to wink at HTC originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/SgdVTNlrC4A/

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The Problem With Facebook Exchange - Business Insider

Facebook has been working on a big improvement to its display ads?those small "Marketplace" ads displayed on the righthand side of its desktop website.

It's called Facebook Exchange (FBX), and some of its partners are now reporting they've seen improvements in clickthrough rates and cost per acquisition.

That's great!

But FBX leaves out the most important ad products Facebook is working on?its social and mobile ads.

In a nutshell, Facebook Exchange, or FBX, lets advertisers use automated systems to bid for ads and place them in real time, using information about users gathered from their visits to other websites. Google and Yahoo have similar systems.

But it simply brings that common Web-advertising technique known as retargeting to Facebook ads, while leaving out most of the things that make Facebook special.

"There's no social element," says Rob Leathern, CEO of Optimal. He should know: Optimal participates in Facebook's Preferred Marketing Developers program, a group of ad-technology companies that help advertisers and agencies manage campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook has acknowledged that social ads perform better than nonsocial ads. But it's harder to develop a smart social campaign than it is to simply run ads that consist of images, text, and links.

We've talked to a bunch of startup entrepreneurs recently who are bullish on Facebook advertising. They've become avid students of Facebook ads because they need to figure out cheap ways to acquire users.

The secret, they say, is not to run simple links to your website, but to get users to like your Facebook page. Ads that promote likes are generally far more effective than ads which feature links?and ultimately cheaper, since you can keep marketing to your page's Facebook fans.

Some big advertisers are figuring this out, too. Leathern says that 70 percent of the ads his clients run are social in nature.

"If someone only does FBX retargeting ads, they're missing a large part of the story," Leathern says.

Here's what you can't do with FBX:

• Sponsored Stories. These ads, which appear in users' news feeds, are the best way to use Facebook's word-of-mouth dynamics.

• Open Graph Sponsored Stories. A twist on Sponsored Stories, these ads report a specific action, like listening to a song or reading a news article. Optimal says these ads perform three and a half times better than the Marketplace ads one can buy via FBX.

• Mobile Sponsored Stories. This is the primary way to buy ads on Facebook's mobile apps?there's no equivalent to the ads sold on FBX.

• Mobile App Installs. This program, which encourages users to install a specific app, can't be purchased via FBX.

The good thing about FBX: It's easier to run campaigns on both Facebook and other websites at the same time. And real-time bidding allows for the placement of time-sensitive campaigns.

But using FBX?at least for now, until Facebook is able to bring its social advertising products onto the platform somehow?means missing the best ways to advertise on Facebook.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-exchange-early-results-2012-9

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Even Celebrities Need Legal Help with DUI Issues - Lawyersonsunset

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) ? Amanda Bynes came close to disaster Thursday night when she was driving around West Hollywoodon a suspended license and got into a minor accident.?Bynes, 26, was driving out of a parking lot on Sunset Boulevard when she tapped the bumper of a car in front of her, leaving little or no damage.?Bynes? reckless behavior of late has landed her in hot water. Radar Online reports that she?s been ordered to appear in court to explain her actions.?If she fails to show up, then a warrant would be issued for her arrest.

Her latest driving mishap comes after photos emerged showing the actress driving while smoking out of what appeared to be a marijuana pipe.?TMZ says the actress was first spotted at a Baja Fresh in the San Fernando Valley, where she smoked from the pipe in the parking lot and ate tacos.?She then went to a spa and hours later ended up in a Home Depot parking lot where she smoked some more, TMZ says.

Bynes is driving illegally because the DMV suspended her license on August 25th.?DMV officials would not give the specific reason for the suspension, but it could be because she refused to take a sobriety test when she was pulled over for DUI in April.?In California, such refusal results in automatic license suspension.?Bynes was stopped for driving with her lights off on Sunday, Sept. 9, but officers never asked her for her driver?s license.?LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman said the officers weren?t required to do so, but other law enforcement sources told KTLA that officers routinely check license and insurance whenever someone is pulled over.

Bynes is facing a drunk driving charge after hitting a Los Angeles County sheriff?s cruiser April 6 in West Hollywood.?The 26-year-old was arrested around 3 a.m. after authorities said her black BMW hit the rear corner of the sheriff?s vehicle.?She was charged with driving under the influence after she refused a Breathalyzer or blood-alcohol test.

Bynes pleaded not guilty to the charges through her attorney, and took to Twitter to deny the allegations.??I can?t help but laugh at all of you writing fake stories about me,? she tweeted May 27. ?I was not in any hit and runs. I don?t drink so the DUI is false.??Bynes is also facing two hit-and-run charges stemming from separate incidents on April 10 and Aug. 4.In the August incident, a motorist said a vehicle driven by Bynes rear-ended and damaged her Toyota on Ventura Boulevard, LAPD sources said.?The driver said Bynes stopped only briefly, declared there was no damage and drove off.?The woman told investigators that Bynes failed to provide insurance information or allow police to be called before she left.?Bynes told investigators she and the woman mutually agreed there was no significant damage after the low-speed collision, police said.?Investigators determined that the Toyota had about $800 in damage, and that Bynes didn?t notify police or exchange insurance information as required by law.

Following her initial DUI charge, Bynes took her case straight to the top, sending a message to President Obama on Twitter.??Hey @BarackObama ? I don?t drink,? she wrote. ?Please fire the cop who arrested me. I also don?t hit and run. The end.?

Source: http://lawyersonsunset.com/dui-lawyer-la/?p=213

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Obama condemns attack that killed envoy, 3 others

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday the United States would "work with the Libyan government to bring to justice" those who killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi.

"Make no mistake. Justice will be done," he said in a Rose Garden appearance at the White House.

Obama, who ordered an increase in security at U.S. facilities overseas, said he "condemns in the strongest possible terms the outrageous and shocking" attack.

He spoke after Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney condemned the attack, and criticized the administration for its initial response to a separate incident on Tuesday, the breach of the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

The president spoke with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at his side as the deaths in Libya quickly roiled the U.S. political campaign, now in its final seven weeks.

Stevens, 52, and three other Americans were killed when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob armed with guns and rocket propelled grenades.

The incidents in Benghazi and Cairo were reportedly the work of protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

In his remarks, Obama said: "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence, none."

Romney's criticism appeared limited to an initial statement issued the previous day by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. He said it was "akin to an apology," and that said as president, Obama bears responsibility for it. "They clearly sent mixed messages for the world," he said of the administration.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued a warning to all Americans in Cairo early Tuesday morning that it expected there would be demonstrations in the general neighborhood of the embassy. When it became clear later in the day that there would be a demonstration outside the embassy, it issued the statement referenced by Romney.

That statement said that the embassy "condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims ? as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions." The statement was issued before protesters breached the embassy.

Stevens is the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in an attack since 1979, when Ambassador Adolph Dubs was killed in Afghanistan. The State Department identified one of the other Americans killed Tuesday as Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer. The identities of the others were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The White House said Obama was informed Tuesday night that Stevens was not accounted for and was notified Wednesday morning that he had been killed.

In a written statement earlier Wednesday, Obama called Stevens a "courageous and exemplary representative of the United States."

The four Americans, he said, "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe."

U.S. officials said some 50 Marines were being sent to Libya to reinforce security at U.S. diplomatic facilities in the aftermath of the attack.

The Marines are members of an elite group known as a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, whose role is to respond on short notice to terrorism threats and to reinforce security at U.S. embassies. They operate worldwide.

The officials who disclosed the plan to send the Marines spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Following his Rose Garden remarks, Obama went to the State Department to visit employees and offer support. The White House said Obama wanted to express solidarity with U.S. diplomats and thank them for their service.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council has a long-scheduled meeting Wednesday morning to discuss Libya and diplomats said the United States is seeking a council statement on the attack. U.N. Undersecretary-General Jeffrey Feltman, a former American diplomat and close friend of Stevens', is scheduled to brief the council on Libya.

Stevens was a career diplomat who spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year.

His State Department biography, posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy to Libya, says he "considers himself fortunate to participate in this incredible period of change and hope for Libya."

Clinton said Stevens had a "passion for service, for diplomacy and for the Libyan people."

He "risked his own life to lend the Libyan people a helping hand to build the foundation for a new, free nation. He spent every day since helping to finish the work that he started," she said.

Stevens joined the Foreign Service in 1991 and spent his early State Department career at posts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Israel. After working for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff for Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Stevens was posted to Libya as deputy chief of mission.

In that post, Stevens wrote several confidential cables back to Washington, describing Gadhafi's bizarre behavior. During the 2011 revolt against Gadhafi, he was one of the last American diplomats to stay in Tripoli and after the embassy was closed, he was appointed to head the U.S. liaison office to the Transitional National Council.

__

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-condemns-attack-killed-envoy-3-others-135613428--election.html

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iOS 6 coming soon, here's what's new

15 hrs.

Rosa Golijan

We first heard about iOS 6?during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, but on Thursday,?Apple's senior vice president of iOS Software Scott Forstall finally shared more details about the latest version of the company's mobile operating system ??and revealed that?we're getting it on Sept. 19.

The new iPhone 5 will ship on Sept. 21 with iOS 6 preloaded, but folks who own an iPhone 3GS, an?iPhone 4, an iPhone 4S, a?fourth-generation iPod Touch, an?iPad 2 or a?third-generation iPad will be able to download the software update for free on Sept. 19.

As we've learned during WWDC, iOS 6 will bring over 200 new features to customers. "We think you?re going to love it," Forstall says.

Siri
Siri's gotten a lot?smarter in iOS 6. She's learned a lot of new languages (Italian, Mandarin,?Cantonese, and more) and become friends with a lot of new services (such as OpenTable, Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, and others).

The personal assistant can now offer significantly more information when asked about sports, restaurants, movies and more. You can?make restaurant reservations or get movie reviews. Thanks to better support for Twitter,?you can also ask Siri to tweet for you.

It is now also finally possible to launch apps using Siri. Just tell her you want to "play Angry Birds" and see what happens.?

Facebook
The folks at?Apple integrated Facebook into iOS 6 in the same way they integrated Twitter into the last major version of iOS.?There's now a neat "tap to post" option in the Notification Center ?(and there's a "tap to tweet" button as well, of course).

Facebook is deeply integrated into the Calendar app?as well, meaning that Facebook events (and birthdays listed on Facebook) will appear on your device's calendar.

Reply with message or remind me later
If you find yourself in a situation where you're unable to take a call, you can now instruct your iPhone to send a pre-set message to the caller or to remind you to call the person back. This is incredibly handy if you're in a rush and not in the mood to pick up a call just to say "I'm busy. I'll call you back."

Do not disturb
A "do not disturb" feature was added in iOS 6. It means that you can tell your phone that it should silence alerts or incoming calls for a while, so that you can sleep in peace or enjoy a quiet, interruption-free evening with someone special.

This do not disturb feature allows for a lot of fine-tuning, meaning that you can make sure that people in your "favorites" list or contacts will always ring through or that your phone should ring if someone calls twice within three minutes.

FaceTime
FaceTime now works over 3G, not just over Wi-Fi. And you don't have to worry about whether you're selecting someone's phone number or Apple ID when placing a FaceTime call?? because the two are?now united.

Photo?Stream
You can now easily share your Photo Streams with friends or family. All you have to do is choose a photo and an album to share ? your pals will receive a notification and the photos will appear in an album where they can comment.

Mail
The Mail app got some nice new tweaks. The VIPs feature will allow you to mark individuals as important, so that their emails will be starred and appear in a "flagged" mailbox. You can adjust alert settings for VIPs separately as well.

Oh, and it's now even simpler to add photos or videos into emails and?the inbox can be refreshed with a pull. Not bad!

Passbook
A?new app called Passbook allows you to collect and store boarding passes, discount cards, movie tickets, and all the things you'd normally have to print out and scan once you arrive at a business.?

Thanks to location support, the app will even pull up the relevant card once you are near the place where you'd use it. (This means that if you're near a Starbucks, Passbook would pull up your Starbucks card automatically, if you're at an airport, Passbook would pull up your boarding pass automatically, and so on.)?

As a bonus, the?cards in Passbook are live-updating, meaning that your boarding pass will always have the latest boarding information.

Guided access
Apple's adding something called guided access to iOS 6. This tool?will allow you to disable certain controls in order to make your device a bit more kid-friendly.

Maps
As confirmed in June, Apple's ditching Google Maps in iOS 6. It will use its own mapping solution now. There's Yelp integration, traffic information (with real-time crowd-sourced data), automatically re-adjusting routes, and the ability for Siri to answer the age-old "are we there yet?"

Apple's also adding something called "Flyover" to Maps. This feature makes the whole world look a bit like a Sim City game by showing 3-D models of geographical features and buildings.

The best part though, is the fact that there are now turn-by-turn directions in Maps. Siri is?now able to guide you to and from places. Downside is that there appear to be no public transportation directions in iOS 6, based on rumors.

Lost mode
The Find My iPhone feature now includes something called "lost mode." This mode will allow you to send a phone number to a missing device in order to allow whoever found it to call you. (This is, of course, assuming that someone is interested in tracking you down and returning your beloved iDevice.)

Safari
Safari now has iCloud tabs?? which allow for browsing sessions to be synced across your devices?? as well as an offline reading list. You'll now also be able to upload photos right from Safari to your favorite websites. Talk about time saving!

What else?
It's tough to cover all 200 of the new features found in iOS 6, but let's just say that there are plenty more little tweaks and gems to be found in the new mobile operating system. We'll give you a more thorough rundown soon.

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/ios-6-coming-soon-heres-whats-new-986728

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