Thursday, August 18, 2011

Quit Smoking, Live Longer

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Smoking is a growing problem in England where thousands of people succumbs to death because of it.
Every year, medical authorities spend nearly £60m to provide services to smokers to help them quit smoking.
Recently, figures revealed that for the current year the NHS Information Centre invested an amount of £84.3m, which was more than £500,000 of previous year. However, the number of smokers for the period has remained steady at 22% men and 20% women.
There are many trying to quit smoking. According to a report, about 384,000 smokers were successful in quitting smoke 2001/2002. Since then they have not picked up smoking again. A Spokesperson for the Department of Health said, “A record number of people have stopped smoking, which is a testament to the excellent work of NHS professionals in local stop smoking services”.

Motorola shareholder sues Google, asks for higher price

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Google had recently proposed to buy out Motorola Mobility at the price of $ 12.5 billion, at the cost of $40 a share. While Motorola's stocks closed at $24.47 when the deal was made public, the prices have risen up since then and have traded over $38 most of the time. While most of the industry experts feel that the 63% premium agreed upon by Google a little too steep, John W. Keating, a Motorola Mobility shareholder, doesn't seem to echo the same sentiment. He feels that the Mountain View based firm is buying Motorola Mobility for "pennies on the dollar".
John W. Keating is filing a complaint in the state courthouse in Chicago against both Motorola and its CEO Sanjay Jha. The suit also names Google and the other 9-member Motorola Mobility board as defendants. John feels that the price of $12.5 billion is not good enough keeping in mind the 17,000 patents currently held by Motorola and their importance to Google, along with the current market price of the company.
The lawsuit argued Motorola was just beginning to bear fruit from the restructuring this year that split the company in two. Because they will be cashed out by the board's decision to sell, shareholders are missing out.
"Instead, any economic upside will enrich Google," said the lawsuit.
Keating also condemned the board members, claiming they violated their duty to investors, and accused Google to assist and abet a violation of these duties. Keating said that he would also seek class action, and asked the court to prohibit the completion of the transaction.

Google’s Most Ambitious Photo-Sharing App Photovine Grows Ready For Public Use

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Google’s Slide team has been busy. In the past few months,they’ve unleashed a range of social apps meant to fulfill different needs. But the strange thing is that Google hasn’t done a thing to promote any of them. That has been on purpose. Google is giving the Slide team, which operates on its own within Google, room to maneuver and fly under the radar. But with Photovine, they’re actually communicating a bit. And for good reason — the app is pretty slick.
If you’ve heard of Photovine before, it’s either because you read that Google registered the domain, or that they pushed the app into the App Store. But until now, the app has been in closed beta testing with a very limited number of users. Not anymore. As of now, the app is open for all to sign up.
So what is Photovine? It’s a photo-sharing application for iOS that puts an emphasis on “vines”. That is, photo-centric moments or ideas that connect you with other users. Yes, that sounds a bit pretentious. And the best way to understand it is to watch the video below. But think of it this way: you take a picture of your favorite cologne. This prompts another user to take a picture of their favorite fragrances. And that prompts another user to do the same. Etc. It’s more or less theme-based picture-taking.
This is an interesting concept because it spurs users into action. With an open-ended picture app you can take a picture of anything, and to some users, that’s daunting. What do you take a picture of when you can take a picture of anything? With Photovine, the experience is more guided. Or, if you wish to take a picture of anything, you can simply start your own vine.
In Google’s view, this amounts to storytelling with pictures. Maybe a picture tells the story of your “perfect weekend”. Someone else sees that and takes a picture to tell their own story of the same idea. Fundamentally, the idea stems from the staring up at the stars at night and wondering who else is doing the same thing? Point being, there are thousands, if not millions, of people around the world doing what you’re doing at the same time. Photovine’s goal is to connect those people.
If you’ve heard of the app Piictu, this is similar. But unlike so many Google products, Photovine is very well designed. In fact, it’s one of the more slick-looking iOS photo apps out there right now — again, just to be clear, technically Google-made.
Naturally, none of this ensures that app will find success. But it’s a compelling idea with a good user interface. It reminds me a bit of Treeshouse, a former Y Combinator-backed project — which shouldn’t be surprising at all considering that the founder of that startup, Chrys Bader, now works for Google/Slide on this project.
And yes, Photovine includes ways to share images out to Facebook or Twitter. But the actual social graph is their own.
You can find Photovine in the App Store here.

Team Anna, police close to agreement

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Team Anna and the Delhi police were close to an agreement on the number of days for Anna Hazare's fast to push for a strong Lokpal Bill, police sources said late Wednesday.
According to Delhi police sources, as per a new agreement, Hazare has been given three weeks to stage the protest.
Earlier, the police had given him seven days, which was extendable, while Team Hazare was demanding a month.
"We want one month, but the government (is) giving us less number of days," Kiran Bedi, a key confidante of Hazare, had earlier told reporters outside Tihar Jail where Hazare is. The 74-year-old has refused to leave the jail even after being released till his demand for continuing his fast without conditions is met.
The original fast venue of JP Park had been ruled out due to lack of space and the Delhi Police had agreed to the protest at the Ramlila Ground.
The police have relaxed six of the sticking conditions, including its bar on the number of people and cars.
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