IPhone 4s

IPhone owners can hit their home button, and ask about the time and weather, or to make a phone call. A female-sounding voice will respond to your request. Siri also works with reviews website Yelp. Need help, say, in finding Indian restaurants in San Francisco? Ask Siri, and it will sort through a selection of restaurants and pick one for you. Apple purchased Siri nearly a year and a half ago.
Google has long had its Voice Search feature and has been researching voice recognition for years. Android-based phones using its Voice Search have been capable of quickly pulling up street directions from voice commands. But Forrester analyst Frank Gillett says that with Siri: "Apple has really set the bar in voice recognition."

iCloud

Apple executives also touted new features of its iOS 5 software and iCloud, which eliminates the need to sync devices. The software becomes available Oct. 12.

Apple's iCloud will serve up your music with a premium $24.99 yearly service called iTunes Match. It will allow people to upload to Apple's iCloud music from their libraries that was not purchased at iTunes. Music purchased elsewhere can be automatically piped to all devices a user has connected to Apple's iCloud.

The iCloud launch comes as Amazon, Google and Facebook duke it out for media delivery. Last week, Amazon unveiled its low-priced $199 Fire tablet to rival Apple's iPad and its media tie-ins to Amazon's cloud services and stores. Facebook, at its f8 developer conference the week before that, launched an array of music services from Spotify and Rdio to video services including Netflix and Hulu.
ICloud makes all your media available to all your devices and puts Apple in the driver's seat for the consumer cloud. Apple is betting that consumer loyalty to its market-leading iTunes music service will pay off big. For Apple, this is another way to ensure customer lock-in.

"I think iCloud is a huge deal. You don't have to think about which devices any more it just sort of reaches out and connects them," says Gillett. "I absolutely see Apple as leading the way in personal cloud."

Google and Microsoft have elements of helping you organize your content but not in this seamless way across multiple devices, he says.

Other products

Apple, which traditionally has introduced new iPods each fall, this year left the current iPod Nano and Touch models virtually intact, except for price cuts. The iPod Touch, Apple's best-selling iPod, now starts at $199, down from $229, and the Nano starts at $129, down from $149. The Nano adds a new look — digital watch faces, including one with Mickey Mouse. There's a white iPod Touch, as well.

At the session, Apple updated sales statistics on many area of its businesses.

OS X Lion, the operating system update for its Macintosh computers, has more than 6 million downloads so far, 80% more than the previous edition, Snow Leopard.

Cook said Apple has sold more than 300 million iPods in the 10 years that the devices have been for sale. There are now 20 million songs available in the iTunes Music Store, up from 200,000 when it started.

The App Store has 500,000 apps available, and has seen 18 billion downloads to date, Cook said.

Researcher Gartner forecasts 468 million smartphones will be sold worldwide this year, a number that will climb to 1 billion in 2014. Apple's iOS smartphone operating system accounted for 18% of the worldwide market in August compared with Google's Android at 43%, according to Gartner. Google's Android has seen explosive growth in the past year. A year ago, Google had 17% of the market vs. 14% for Apple's iOS.

by:http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-unveils-iphone-4s-iphone/story?id=14669698

PES 2012

Pro Evolution soccer
Eternelle rivale du FIFA d'EA Sports, la simulation phare de Konami sort cette année le même jour, ce jeudi 29 septembre. Pour l'emporter face à son concurrent, Pro Evolution Soccer, communément appelé PES, a musclé ses modes en ligne.

Jusqu'en 2008, la franchise PES a dominé le marché français des simulations de football, avant d'être rattrapée par FIFA, poulain de son très puissant concurrent EA Sports. Depuis, chaque nouvelle édition est une nouvelle remise en jeu, afin de tenter de reprendre son titre et son statut dans le coeur des joueurs.

Si l'on annonce chez Konami quelques nouveautés sur le ludiciel lui-même (intelligence artificielle retravaillée, nouvelles animations et possibilité de contôler un deuxième joueur en cours de partie), il est manifeste que les efforts de l'éditeur japonais ont tout particulièrement porté sur les aspects multijoueurs.

"Le Online est un élément clé de PES 2012 et nous avons travaillé dur pour offrir des options qui améliorent à la fois l'avantage concurrentiel du jeu, et qui renforcent les modes solo de la Master Ligue Online", assure Jon Murphy, European PES Team Leader de Konami.

Jusqu'à huit personnes pourront désormais prendre part aux matches en ligne, que ce soit sur Playstation 3, Xbox 360 ou PC (Windows). Si le principe des "groupes communautaires" (où se fédèrent les joueurs, en fonction de leurs affinités) est connu, il sera à présent possible de relier ces groupes entre eux, et de disputer des matches intercommunautaires, afin d'en exacerber la rivalité.

Le "match-making", mode semi-automatique permettant d'apparier les joueurs souhaitant en découdre en ligne, évitant de longues et fastidieuses recherches d'adversaire idoine, a également été revu. Les belligérants ont désormais plus de chances d'être placés face à des adversaires qui leur ressemblent. Ainsi, les tricheurs, adeptes de la déconnexion lorsque le match est mal engagé, ne trouveront bientôt plus de joueurs fair-play à affronter.

Enfin, la Master Ligue Online, grand championnat en ligne mettant l'accent sur la gestion de son équipe, a bénéficié elle aussi d'améliorations. Il est possible d'adapter le style de son équipe au sien, en affinant des paramètres tels que le physique, l'équilibre de jeu, rapidité, technique, etc. Les joueurs ont désormais des contrats limités dans le temps, et peuvent être revendus si leurs exigences deviennent trop importantes. Enfin, le cycle blessure/soin/rééducation a été retravaillé pour un plus grand réalisme.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 est disponible le 29 septembre sur Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (69,99?) et PC (49,99?), et sortira le 27 octobre sur Playstation 2 et PSP (19,99?).

by:www.aufaitmaroc.com

TV tonight: Terra Nova

Monday, September 26, 2011

By Alex Strachan, Postmedia News

Visually ambitious -- and emotionally ambitious, as well -- time travel with Terra Nova Monday night.

Photographed by:

Handout, Fox

The three laws of time travel into the past, as codified by the great science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, are:

1. Don't change anything in the past.

2. Don't leave anything behind.

3. Don't bring anything back.

If recent TV history teaches us anything, it's that mainstream network TV tackles time-travel tales at its own peril.

Viewers can be forgiven, then, for approaching Terra Nova -- the ballyhooed, heavily promoted time-travel thriller from movie producers Peter Chernin and Steven Spielberg and 24 writer-producers Brannon Braga and Rene Echevarria -- with a wait-and-see attitude. Over-hyped, big-budget failures like The Event and FlashForward are still fresh in the memory of viewers hoodwinked early on, only to be let down later.

That said, Terra Nova's two-hour opener features surprisingly affecting performances by Jason O'Mara and Shelley Conn as a couple desperate to escape a dystopian future world of overcrowded cities and a restrictive two-child policy. The knock on most TV sci-fi tales is that they get lost in all that spiffy technology, and lose sight of the human story.

The other knock is that they become so wrapped up in their cleverness and overweening sense of self-worth that they turn off the mainstream audience that watches down-to-earth dramas like The Good Wife, House and Grey's Anatomy.

Terra Nova hits all the right notes in its opening 17 minutes: It's tense, brooding, realistically written, well-acted and moves along at a brisk, urgent pace. The opening sequences, set in an Orwellian cityscape where it's always raining and always night, have a real sense of dread and urban desperation.

When Terra Nova jumps back in time, 85 million years, to be exact, back to the era of dinosaurs and a brave new world in the making, the tone shifts. (The actual visual image, of O'Mara's character jumping through a time portal and waking up in a primordial jungle, is breathtaking.)

The story becomes more of a relationship drama between parents and their teenage children -- Swiss Family Robinson meets Ray Bradbury. It suddenly feels hokey and cornpone, despite evidence of an ever-present threat lurking outside the guarded walls of the colony compound. It's these family scenes that hint at the series to come: Terra Nova has aspirations of being a serialized TV drama, similar in tone and feel to Spielberg's Jurassic Park films.

Fortunately, there are things to recommend it, even when the story bogs down and drags between periods of weepy sentimentality and contrived conflict.

The jungle is palpable and real, not some Hollywood back lot. Terra Nova was filmed in Queensland, Australia, and it shows. The gorgeous setting is a character in its own right, as the Hawaiian jungle was in Lost. Terra Nova is not just visually ambitious; it's emotionally ambitious, as well. It wants us, the audience, to invest real emotion in its core family of characters, and in its opening two hours, it largely succeeds. It's about starting over, not just as a society, but as a family.

Terra Nova is not exploring new ground, exactly, but TV is a better place with it.

(Citytv, FOX, Monday 8 p.m. ET/PT)

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Kindle Fire

Last Friday, Amazon sent out invites to a press conference being held this coming Wednesday. They didn’t give away any details in the invite, but given our scoop earlier this month, everyone assumed it was to unveil the new Kindle tablet. We can now confirm this is correct. And we know a bit more.

On Wednesday morning in New York City, Amazon will unveil the Kindle Fire. Yes, this is the name Amazon has settled on, to help differentiate the product from the e-ink Kindles, which will still be very much alive and for sale. And while Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will show off the Fire on stage, it won’t be ready to ship until the second week of November, we’ve learned.

Everything we’ve previously reported on the hardware remains the same. It will be a 7-inch backlit display tablet that looks similar to the BlackBerry PlayBook. Gdgt’s Ryan Block was able to dig up a bit more about the connection. Apparently, the Kindle Fire looks like a PlayBook because it was designed and built by the same original design manufacturer (ODM), Quanta. Even though Amazon has their own team dedicated to Kindle design and development, Lab 126, they wanted to get the Fire out there in time for this holiday season so they outsourced most of it as a shortcut.

Block’s sources seem very wary of this shortcut move. But having played with a DVT model myself, I can assure you that it’s better than the PlayBook because the software is better and, more importantly, the content available is much better. Amazon has built their own custom version of Android (that looks nothing like Android) and it utilizes their own Android Appstore. While that store doesn’t offer all the apps found in Google’s Android Market, Amazon has been rounding up the big app makers to get them on board for the Fire launch, I’m told.

Amazon has also been inking last-minute deals with the likes of Fox for movies and TV shows through their streaming video service which will be a key part of the Fire. And they have several publishers on board for magazine offerings, as Peter Kafka reports today. The Fire will rely heavily on Amazon’s MP3 service and, of course, the Kindle bookstore.

One thing I wasn’t sure about when I saw the device was if there would be an email client. I didn’t see one, but I thought maybe I missed it. Turns out there won’t be one included by default. Instead, you’ll be able to get one through the Appstore, or you can use the browser.

Another thing I wasn’t sure about was the chip inside of the device. I’ve now learned it’s a TI dual-core OMAP chip. This is the same chip used inside many newer Android devices. The PlayBook also uses it. I’m not sure what the clock-speed of the CPU will be, but I’d guess 1.2 GHz. This will make it significantly faster than the rival Nook Color, which uses a single core 800 MHz OMAP.

But…

Sources also suggest that Barnes & Noble is on the verge of launching the Nook Color 2 next month. In fact, that may play into Amazon’s timing here. They’re announcing the device well over a month before it will be available. Sources suggest that the Nook Color 2 will feature a 1.2 GHz OMAP chip, with a focus on displaying multimedia content better. There will also be a focus on streaming content and a big increase in the number of apps available, we’re told.

The Nook Color 2 will also be built on top of Gingerbread, Android 2.3, we hear. That would put it ahead of the Kindle Fire, which is believed to be based on Android 2.1. Again, neither of them look anything like Android, but the APIs available are key when it comes to the Android version.

And then there’s the issue of the price. While the Nook Color 2 is expected to retail for the same $250 that the current Nook Color does (and the original one may drop to $200), the pricing of the Kindle Fire is a bit of a mystery right now. Originally, we were told it would be the same $250. But there have also been whispers floating around that it could be $300.

We also originally heard that Amazon Prime would be included, as a big enticement for would-be buyers. That may be off the table for now as well — but it’s not yet clear. It’s possible Amazon will release one version with Prime included for $300 and a version without it for $250. Getting Amazon Prime for $50 would still be a deal, since it’s normally $79 for the year.

That’s all for now. All will be revealed on Wednesday. Below, the excellent mockup my colleague Greg made based on what I saw.

by:http://techcrunch.com/

Facebook changes

San Francisco - Facebook on Thursday unveiled revamped profile pages into interactive digital scrap books that that let members of the world's leading online social network tell the stories of their lives.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the annual f8 developers conference in San Francisco by introducing "Timeline" pages that let people digitally map everything they've ever done.

"The heart of your Facebook experience, completely rethought from the ground up," Zuckerberg said. "Timeline is the story of your life."

He demonstrated by showing how his new profile page chronicled his experiences from meeting US President Barack Obama to baby photos.

"The biggest challenge was to tell the story of your life in a single page," Zuckerberg said.

"What Timeline does is show all the recent activity and then as you go back in time it starts summarizing the things you've done in your life."

'Open graph'

The latest changes at Facebook include a new class of "open graph" applications that will let people discover and share music, movies, books and other news as well as seemingly lightweight experiences like bicycle rides.

"I am excited about what the latest wave of music companies is doing with the open graph," Zuckerberg said.

Software apps made by more than a dozen developers, including Spotify, will let Facebook members share, discover and listen to music, he added.

"It's a big day for everyone who loves music," Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said after joining Zuckerberg on stage.

Zuckerberg heralded the arrival of Facebook applications that let people automatically allow chosen friends see what they do or experience without needing to click "Like" or "Share" buttons.

The changes come just days after Google opened up its own social network, Google+, to a wider audience instead of just those with an invitation. The new service could pose a major challenge to market leader Facebook.

The significant overhaul to Facebook profile pages promised to transform them into interactive digital scrapbooks that memorialise people's lives online in real time.

Privacy

"We didn't want to just design a place for you to put all of your stories and apps," Zuckerberg said. "We wanted to make Timeline a place that you are proud to call your home."

People will need to install third party applications to share snippets in Timeline profile pages, which will feature privacy controls. Applications will also require people to set data sharing "permissions" before they are used.

Partners ready with "open graph" applications included online streaming video services Netflix and Hulu. Applications were also available to deliver and share news stories from sources including Yahoo and "The Daily".

Movie, music, and news applications enable Facebook users to see what their friends are reading, viewing, or listening to at any given moment and then, with a single click, tap into the same digital content.

Zuckerberg said open graph at Facebook will transform the way people discover news, films and more through their friends.

"Now, you don't just have to 'Like' a book, you can read it," he explained. "You can connect to anything you want; it's simple but it is really powerful."

Facebook launched a test version of Timeline, which will be rolled to all of the social network's more than 750 million members in coming weeks.

Backlash

"Facebook is positioning itself as not just your social graph online, but your life online," said Forrester analyst Sean Corcoran.

"These changes not only help trump rival Google, but will open up new opportunities for marketers with new kinds of customer experiences, long term engagement, advertising, and customer intelligence," he continued.

Facebook's transformation is likely to trigger backlash from ranks of notoriously change-averse users and to resurrect concerns over how effectively the social network protects people's privacy.

Facebook said it has worked with privacy groups while developing Timeline during the past year and that it has made it simple and clear to control what information gets shared with whom.

Facebook also planned to put out videos and other material explaining Timeline to users before switching profile pages to the dramatically different format.

"The world is moving quickly and we want to be innovative and keep rolling out new things," Zuckerberg said of balancing Facebook's evolution with the wishes of those that want the social network to stay the same.

Facebook users this week had taken to complaining about the barrage of recently released updates intended to make it easier to manage the torrents of updates from friends at the social network.

Facebook users are known for complaining fiercely about changes to the service but then adapting and sticking with the online community.

California-based Facebook hit a new milestone this month with a half-billion people using the social network in a single day, according to Zuckerberg.
by:http://www.news24.com/

Cough

Coughs Overview

A cough is an action your body takes to get rid of substances that are irritating to your air passages, which carry the air you breathe in from the nose and mouth to the lungs. A cough occurs when special cells along the air passages get irritated and trigger a chain of events. The result? Air in your lungs is forced out under high pressure. You can choose to cough (a voluntary process), or your body may cough on its own (an involuntary process).

Causes of Coughs

The list of possible causes of cough is long and highly varied. Doctors classify coughs into 2 categories, acute and chronic. Many doctors define an acute cough as one that been present for less than 3 weeks. Chronic coughs are those present for more than 3 weeks.

* Acute coughs can be divided into infectious (caused by an infection) and noninfectious causes.

* Infectious causes of acute cough include viral upper respiratory infections (the common cold), sinus infections, pneumonia, and whooping cough.

* Noninfectious causes of cough include flare-ups of the following chronic conditions: chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, and environmental allergies.

* The easiest way to simplify the causes of chronic cough is to divide them into their locations with respect to the lungs. The categories are environmental irritants, conditions within the lungs, conditions along the passages that transmit air from the lungs to the environment, conditions within the chest cavity but outside of the lungs, and digestive causes.

* Any environmental substance that irritates the air passages or the lungs is capable of producing a chronic cough with continued exposure. Cigarette smoke is the most common cause of chronic cough. Other cough-producing irritants include dusts, pollens, pet dander, particulate matter, industrial chemicals and pollution, cigar and pipe smoke, and low environmental humidity.

* Within the lungs both common and uncommon conditions cause chronic cough. Common causes include asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. Less common causes of lung-induced chronic cough include cancer, sarcoidosis, diseases of the lung tissue, and congestive heart failure with chronic fluid build-up in the lungs.

* The passages that connect the lungs to the external environment are known as the upper respiratory tract. Chronic sinus infections, chronic postnasal drip, diseases of the external ear, infections of the throat, and use of ACE inhibitors for high blood pressure have all been implicated in chronic cough.

* In addition to disease processes within the lung and air passages, diseases elsewhere within the chest cavity may also be responsible for chronic cough. Conditions within the chest known to cause chronic cough include cancer, unusual growth of a lymph node, and an abnormal enlargement of the aorta, which is the main blood vessel leaving the heart.

* An often-overlooked cause of the chronic cough is gastroesophageal reflux (GERD). GERD occurs when acid from the stomach travels up the esophagus. This abnormal condition can cause irritation of the esophagus and larynx resulting in the reflex production of a cough.

Cough Symptoms

Although the signs of a cough are self-explanatory, what differentiates the cause of a cough are the associated signs and symptoms. Another important factor in determining the cause of the cough is whether it is acute or chronic.

* Acute coughs have been divided into infectious and noninfectious causes.

o Signs and symptoms that point to an infection include fever, chills, body aches, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, headache, sinus pressure, runny nose, night sweats, and postnasal drip. Sputum, or phlegm, sometimes indicates an infection is present, but it is also seen in noninfectious causes.

o Signs and symptoms that point to a noninfectious cause include coughs that occur when you are exposed to certain chemicals or irritants in the environment, coughs with wheezing, coughs that routinely worsen when you go to certain locations or do certain activities, or coughs that improve with inhalers or allergy medications.

* The signs and symptoms of the chronic cough can be hard for doctors to assess, because many causes of the chronic cough have overlapping signs and symptoms.

o If your cough is related to environmental irritants, it will worsen when exposed to the offending agent. If you have an environmental allergy, your cough may improve when using allergy medications. If you have a smoker's cough, it may improve if you stop smoking and worsen with increased smoking.

o If you have a chronic lung disease such as asthma, emphysema, or chronic bronchitis, you may have a persistent cough or a cough that worsens with certain locations or activities. You may or may not have sputum with your cough and often have improvement in your cough with the use of inhaled or oral steroids, or other inhaled medications.

o If your cough is caused by chronic sinus infections, chronic runny nose, or chronic postnasal drip, you will often have the signs and symptoms associated with these conditions. You may also notice that your cough worsens when your problem worsens, and often your cough will improve when the underlying problem is treated.

o If your cough is associated with medications, such as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, the cough will begin after starting the medication in question. The cough is often dry and improves when the medication is stopped.

o A cough associated with GERD is often associated with a sensation of heartburn. This type of cough worsens during the day or when you lie flat on your back. Furthermore, a sizable minority of people with a cough caused by GERD will note no symptoms of reflux, but most people will report improvement in their cough when GERD is treated properly.

o If your cough is a warning sign of an underlying cancer, you may have a group of symptoms. If lung cancer or a cancer of the air passages is present, you may cough up blood. Other signs and symptoms that may warn of a cancer include worsening fatigue, loss of appetite, unexplained loss of weight, or decreased ability to swallow solid or liquid foods.
by:http://www.emedicinehealth.com/

stoma

A stoma is a surgical bypass of a natural conduit, a kind of "short circuit". It is practiced when the natural channel can no longer fulfill its role, as a result of trauma, disease or an ablation. Most common, feces or urine are collected in a pocket or bag. The stomas may be digestive, urinary ...

Stoma types

• Colostomy refers to the process of connecting the colon to the abdomen so that the fecal matter is diverted through the incision usually performed on the stomach. Colostomy can be performed on any segment of the colon. On this hole called artificial stoma, the patient hangs a bag for single use to receive fecal matter.
• Ileostomy - similar to the colostomy but the ileum is connected to the abdomen. The feces collected are much more liquid and coros for colostomy.
• Tracheostomy - an opening in the trachea (front of the neck)
• Urostomy - means connecting ureters with a segment of ileum to the abdominal wall, urine is collected in a pocket instead of the bladder.
• Vasovasostomy - the reverse of vasectomy

Stoma care

How to take care of your stoma? ... read more here: Stoma care

• Try to choose an outfit that will not affect the collection bag, or the stoma.
• You do not need a special diet, just be careful at some foods.
• Follow the basic rules of hygiene.
• Life with stoma is not hard if you are well informed and know how to take care of the stoma.
• If you encounter difficulties, do not be afraid to seek advice from people more informed than you, nurse, doctor...
• Nothing should prevent you from finding a normal family life.
• Recreation with stoma must be as normal as possible.
• Once you feel better, we can only encourage you to resume a social life comparable to what it was before surgery.
• You can travel as much as you want , just pack some stoma care tools that must be always in close reach.
• Whether by car, plane or other means of transport, you can move without any restriction on destination, your stoma will not affect this ...
• You can swim in the sea or the pool after a few months after the stoma surgery.
• You can make the toilet of your stoma when you change outfit.
• Sometimes the stoma may bleed easily so a learning period is necessary to acquire the skills to care for your stoma.
• Baths and showers are no problem, the devices are waterproof.
• Stoma or not, you must keep your style. You can adjust the bag to suit your daily activities (sports, travel, work...).
• Eating at regular hours, calmly and slowly is recommended.
• Drink a lot and regularly during the day (at least 1.5 to 2 liters per day).
• Eat a balanced diet. Learn to recognize foods that give you gas, accelerate or slow down your transit.
• In case of constipation or diarrhea, drink plenty of fluids.
• Sport is compatible with a stoma and very recommended.
• Avoid combat sports like boxing, karate, wrestling because this can easily damage the stoma.

Stoma picures

Stoma care - I heard the following help :

1. Ispaghula husk - help in constipation.
2. Magnesium hydroxide - also helps in constipation.
3. Loperamide - helps in diarrhea.
4. Kaolin and morphine - help in diarrhea.
5. Codeine phosphate - increases the amount of water absorbed resulting in more solid feces.

Many people live now a healthy worry-free life after recovering from this disease and you can too. You can fully recover from this!!! Just learn a few about your problem and be an optimistic and courageous spirit. I wish you success!

by:http://stomastomata.com/