Sony unveils S1 and S2 tablets

Sony has introduced its first tablet computers, joining Samsung Electronics and Motorola in their pursuit of Apple, a year after the iPad spurred a surge in demand for the devices.

Sony will use Google's Android operating system for the personal computers, Kunimasa Suzuki, Sony's head of personal computers, said in Tokyo today. The S1 model will feature a 9.4- inch liquid-crystal display, as well as front and rear cameras. The S2 laptop-shaped model will have dual 5.5-inch screens and feature cameras, Sony said.

The new tablets will be available globally in "fall 2011", which in the northern hermisphere is September this year, Sony said.

The Japanese electronics maker aims to compete in the crowdedmarket for tablet computers, the fastest-growing segment of the consumer-electronics industry. Tablet PC sales will reach $US49 billion by 2015 as consumers flock to devices that bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops, according to estimates this month by research firm Strategy Analytics.

Apple's iPad 2 debuted in the U.S. on March 11, equipped with cameras and a more powerful processor, starting at $US499. Apple sold a total of 14.8 million iPads through December, generating $US9.6 billion in sales since its introduction in April last year.

Tablet sales surged to more than 10.3 million units last year from 90,000 in 2009, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. That rate of adoption tops those of game consoles and smartphones, according to the Arlington, Virginia-based trade organization.

Apple's Lead

Apple will likely maintain its dominance in the tablet market until 2012 because of advantages in marketing, content and pricing, research firm IHS ISuppli said earlier this month. Shipments of other media tablets will likely reach 111 million units in 2013, overtaking the estimated 81 million iPad sales, according to the researcher.

Samsung, Sony's bigger rival in televisions, unveiled a new tablet running the latest version of Android software in February. The model has a screen matching the iPad's 10-inch display and is 10.9-millimeters thick, compared with 8.8 millimeters for the iPad 2.

In January, Sony said it aims to win second position in the market for tablet devices next year.


Photo of Sony Tablets

via SMH

5 Tips To Protect Your Google Account From Hackers

Quick searches of Twitter and Google reveal a flurry of recent Gmail hackings, and the Guardian reports that they might be rooted in the Gawker database breach last December.

Once hacked, victims' accounts send out spam e-mails that make it appear that the sender has been mugged. If you try to respond to one of these, your message will go to a dummy address. The spam message are tweaked so that the victim won't get your response if you hit reply all.

Sophos's Graham Cluley told the Guardian, "Our suspicion is that this is a Gawker-related incident. We know that people were using the same password for multiple sites and then others were trying to use the passwords against those accounts." You might remember that Twitter was hit hard by an acai berry spam attack following the breach.

Slate's Farhad Manjoo writes, "A password is the only thing separating your e-mail, banking information, and social networks from a bad guy," and unfortunately, a complex password with letters, numbers and symbols just won't cut it anymore. Adding an additional layer of authentication -- like the key fobs required by many companies for security -- cuts down on the potential harm of a stolen password. It might seem like a lot of work, but a thief who has gained access to your Gmail account also has control over your calendars, Google Docs, Gchat, YouTube account and, of course, years of your personal email.

Read on for five essential tips for protecting and backing up your Gmail account.

1. Set Up Two-Step Verification

Head to Google's Accounts page, and click "Using 2-step verification" under the Personal Settings heading. Google rolled out the feature earlier this year, and it works with your smartphone (via Google's authenticator app or SMS) to send an updated verification code every 30 seconds. Yes, you'll need to have your phone with you when you access your email, but it's a much more secure system.

2. Reset Your Password Via Text Message

On your Google (not Gmail) account page, click "Recovering your password," and set up your phone to receive a password-reset code via SMS. In the event your account is hacked, head to Google's recovery page and enter your username to receive an automatic text from Google to start the reset process.

3. Add Additional Recovery E-mail Accounts

While you're on the "Recover Your Password" page, go ahead and add a secondary email address. If you simply forget your password or your account was hacked, Gmail will be able to send reset instructions to this alternate address -- again, head to the password recovery page. James Fallows writes, "If you wait until after you've had a problem to think of this step, it's too late."

4. Keep Gmail Secure With HTTPS

The non-secure networks you'll find at coffee shops and in public places make your computer open and vulnerable, so we recommend looking at Gmail's settings. While it should be set to always use https by default, double check by clicking the gear icon in the top right of Gmail and then "Mail settings." Make sure "always use https" is selected, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to hit save.

5. Backup Your Account

Over 40,000 Gmail users got a scare earlier this year when the email service wiped out their accounts. Fortunately, Google was able to recover the accounts, but the mess clearly showed that Google's not infallible when it comes to data loss and downtime. The healthy shock made many consider secondary backup options, and we recommend checking out Hotmail backup, e-mail forwarding, desktop apps or paid services (or even all three) as ways to achieve email piece of mind.

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Easter Quotes and Bible Verses

Easter Sunday is the culmination of the Christian season of Lent and the end of Holy Week, and marks the central event in Christian theology. To help embrace the spirit of rebirth and renewal that this springtime holiday brings, we've compiled several of the most common Bible passages associated with the Easter story along with some popular quotations on the subject of Easter.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ... 1 Peter 1:3

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. Isaiah 26:19 ESV

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." Matthew 28:1-10

And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. Mark 16:6

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. John 3:16-17

I think of the garden after the rain;
And hope to my heart comes singing,
At morn the cherry-blooms will be white,
And the Easter bells be ringing!
Edna Dean Proctor, "Easter Bells"

The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world. Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice. But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice. Henry Knox Sherrill

Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted not simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals. Charles M. Crowe

Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there. Clarence W. Hall

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!
Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

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Signs of Stress in Women and How to Treat It

Whoever you may be or wherever you live in, stress is something that cannot be avoided. Stress is a common thing for all of humanity. In recent times, women have to simultaneously care for balancing, career, children, and other everyday obligations; stress can build up quickly, and cause burnout. The chaos of our quick lifestyle can affect health at a fast pace. And that’s why it is so important to know what causes stress and how to manage stress.

The Sources of Stress Symptoms

At work and in the household, women play various roles, continuously dealing with
commitments. Everyday signs of stress in women can be due to children, relatives, finance, and career problems. Also, stress can arrive from disturbing experiences, like unexpected road accidents, demise of a family member, etc. When you are in stress, you may feel like your life has gone out of control. Bodily stress effects can bounce back, and gravely affect mental health as well. As women react to stress in a different way, they are particularly susceptible to anxiety and depression.

The Definition of Stress and its Symptoms

Some of the stress symptoms include headaches, moodiness, depression, anger, hypertension, dietary changes, memory loss, fatigue, heart palpitations, digestive problems, skin problems, sleep disturbances, muscle tension, poor judgment.

Stress and its Harmful Effects

Long-drawn-out stress can pave way for bad long term health effects, and deteriorate immune function. Modern research has demonstrated that almost all illnesses can be related to stress in one way or the other. Long term effects of stress include depression, strokes, diabetes, alcoholism, heart attacks, insomnia, ulcers, drug abuse, digestive disorders and fertility issues.

How to Manage Your Stress

Even though stress can never be eliminated from our lives, there are ways that stress can be managed. Get ample rest along with a lot of fitness activities. Get rid of needless things that may cause stress in your life. Changing your approach about things can influence the way that you feel. Think before you react and try not to react excessively to small things. Find a relaxing hobby, such as gardening, painting, or journaling. Be practical.

Above all, don't try to be a perfectionist in everything you do, set reasonable goals for your self. Limit your contact with people who cause you stress, they can just drain you every time. And feel free to get help from others.

Problems with junk food addiction gain weight

It’s an addictive time that we get along with junk foods all instance to keep us engaged at free times and to keep our taste buds active. Junk foods are generally high in total cholesterol, sugar, salt and calories holding very little amount of nutrients. They are much addictive due to the excess of taste that are enhanced with readily available taste makers, preservatives and colors that makes the prepacked and the processed junks more famous among all age group.

Junk foods are more risky as they act as a silent killer increasing body weight and acts as a cause for several obese problems and heart diseases with the clogging of fat substances on the walls of the arteries. Internal organs become more heavy gaining mass losing strength making us feel hefty with quick tiredness and sluggish feel that leads to depression and acquisition of other diseases more easily.

Junk food cravings and harmful effects

Junk foods are more addictive that makes people get addicted sooner leaving back a feeling of cravings to eat more of it. Junk foods are simply light foods as we see but they act as the root cause for many diseases due to the ingredients that are being added to the stuff. Excess of preservatives, colors, taste makers, chemical stuff makes the food yummy and mouth smashing but leads to various serious problems on health issues over time.

More hydrated oils, deep fried foods, dry fried meat with excess of fatty stuff, spicy masala mix chat items and many of those variety leads to serious diseases such as liver diseases, hypertension, depression, type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart diseases and also affects with side effects when stopped all of a sudden. Snacking is a common habit among all generation people who go for time pass junk foods but we don’t see the effects of harmful terms when we just crunch for a short time. But when this short time crunch is continual it adds to an unhealthy eating habit that keeps off natural food stuff from your routine that holds more nutrient value.

Now-a-days people find it difficult to cook and eat healthy stuff at home moving their lifestyle for a level easier adapting to ready-to-eat foods that are present in the packed bags and in the fast food restaurants. The harmful terms uncovered are the ingredients that are being added to the food to make them smell better, taste yummy and look attractive to cover most of the people’s interest. These harmful junk food acts as a silent weight gainer making you look and feel heavy cutting down that charming energetic physical appearance. Protein diet plan is the one recommended by most of the nutritionist and diet consultants to get back into physical fitness and lose weight quicker.

Best Cholesterol Lowering Foods to Protect Your Heart

If you are looking for cholesterol lowering foods to uphold the health of your heart even in your old age, you are making a noteworthy lifestyle transformation for enhanced health. Although too many adults suffer from obesity issues, cholesterol reduction through diet change can bring down fat. Let us see how.

Eating LDL Cholesterol Lowering Foods

Though too much cholesterol can limit flow of blood and obstruct arteries, highly
nutritional foods such as fish, fruit, beans and oatmeal have a noteworthy effect on
cholesterol reduction. To avoid the ldl cholesterol from blocking arteries, while boosting HDL cholesterol, you should add to your diet a few of the cholesterol lowering foods. In this way, you need not worry about developing severe heart issues as majority of them could be prevented. One of the most effective ways to bring down heart disease risk is to modify your lifestyle. A good way to begin staying fit is to get the drive to become healthy. With some motivation, you would be more in a position to reap the benefits of Cholesterol lowering.

Lower Cholesterol with Diet Change

Be prepared to change your diet along with your lifestyle. You do not have to make
any big changes; on the other hand, some – those addicted to junk food in particular – might find it tough to give up the habit of eating at fast food eateries. It is good to start with cholesterol reducing food stuffs that have high antioxidant and fiber content. Food that is high in antioxidant content helps to bring down ldl cholesterol by cleaning up your body’s inside. Antioxidants have this wonderful capacity to brush off any toxic substances in your body. Fruits and veggies are outstanding sources of antioxidants.

These are definitely filled with minerals and vitamins besides they are also plentiful in fibers.

Foods that are high in fiber, such as the ones containing oats and wheat might help
reduce your likelihood for building up cholesterol. They assist in dissolving fat and as cholesterol consists of saturated fat, it is good to have unsaturated fat in your diet. Some of the sources of unsaturated oil include seeds, vegetable oils and nuts.

The foods we have mentioned in this article are all great at lowering cholesterol. If you are serious about perking up your health, start adding these foods in your diet at the earliest.

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NDM 1 superbugs found in Delhi drinking water

Beware of NDM 1 superbugs.

A gene that makes bugs highly resistant to almost all known antibiotics has been found in bacteria in water supplies in New Delhi used by local people for drinking, washing and cooking, scientists said on Thursday.

The NDM 1 gene, which creates what some experts describe as "super superbugs," has spread to germs that cause cholera and dysentery, and is circulating freely in other bacteria in the Indian city capital of 14 million people, the researchers said.

"The inhabitants of New Delhi are continually being exposed to multidrug-resistant and NDM 1-positive bacteria," said Mark Toleman of Britain's Cardiff University School of Medicine, who published the findings in a study on Thursday.

A "substantial number" of them are consuming such bacteria on a daily basis, he told a briefing in London. "We believe we have discovered a very significant underlying source of NDM 1 in the capital city of India," he said.

NDM 1, or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1, makes bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class, called carbapenems.

It first emerged in India three years ago and has now spread across the world. It has been found in a wide variety of bugs, including familiar pathogens like Escherichia coli, or E. coli.

No new drugs are on the horizon for at least 5-6 years to tackle it and experts are concerned that only a few major drug companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, still have strong antibiotic development programmes.

Toleman's study, carried out with Cardiff University's Timothy Walsh and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, investigated how common NDM 1-producing bacteria are in community waste seepage -- such as water pools or rivulets in streets -- and tap water in urban New Delhi.

The researchers collected 171 swabs from seepage water and 50 public tap water samples from sites within a 12 kilometer radius of central New Delhi between September and October 2010.

The NDM 1 gene was found in two of the drinking-water samples and 51 of seepage samples, the researchers said, and bacteria positive for NDM 1 were grown from two drinking-water samples and 12 seepage samples.

"We would expect that perhaps as many as half a million people are carrying NDM 1-producing bacteria as normal (gut) flora in New Dehli alone," Toleman said.

Experts say the spread of superbugs threatens whole swathes of modern medicine, which cannot be practiced if doctors have no effective antibiotics to ward off infections during surgery, intensive care or cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

In a commentary about Walsh and Toleman's findings, Mohd Shahid from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India, said global action was needed.

"The potential for wider international spread of ... NDM 1 is real and should not be ignored," he wrote.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated April 7 as World Health Day and under the slogan "No action today, no cure tomorrow" it is campaigning about the risks of life-saving antibiotics losing their healing power.

Wreckage of Air France Flight AF 447 found

Nearly two years after an Air France plane Flight AF 447 mysteriously fell out of the sky, killing 228 people, the bulk of the wreckage has been found with bodies still aboard, French officials said Monday.

The human remains will be brought to the surface and identified, French Ecology and Transportation Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said at a news conference.

Submarines searching for the wreck spotted two engines, the fuselage and landing gear over the weekend, officials said.

But the flight data recorders have not been recovered, leaving investigators as puzzled as ever about why the plane crashed in stormy weather on June 1, 2009.

It is impossible to tell how many bodies remain in the wreck, he added. Fifty bodies were recovered in previous searches, leaving 178 victims still missing.

He would not comment on the condition of the bodies, calling it "inappropriate" to discuss.

The debris is dispersed over "quite a compact area" of about 600 meters by 200 meters (1,960 feet by about 650 feet), he said.

All the wreckage will be brought to the surface and sent to France for study, said Jean-Paul Troadec, head of the French air accident investigation agency, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses, or BEA.

Three companies bidding to raise the wreck have until Thursday afternoon to submit proposals, he said.

The operation should take three weeks to a month, and will be paid for by the French government at an estimated cost of 5 million euros ($7.1 million), he said.

Authorities are not revealing the exact location of the wreck to protect the site, officials said.

The head of Air France said the discovery was "good news indeed since it gives hope that information on the causes of the accident, so far unresolved, will be found."

Air France's Pierre-Henri Gourgeon added his thanks to the French authorities "who employed hitherto unheard of means to pursue searches."

Investigators announced Sunday that they had found pieces of the Airbus A330-200 that disappeared while flying to Paris from Rio de Janeiro.

After three unsuccessful searches, investigators discovered the wreckage by using "a different calculation based on currents of the sea and what might have happened," Troadec, the BEA chief, said Monday.

The BEA said Sunday that a team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution discovered parts during an underwater search operation conducted within the previous 24 hours.

Studies of the debris and bodies found after the crash led the BEA to conclude the plane hit the water belly first, essentially intact. Oxygen masks were not deployed, indicating that the cabin did not depressurize, the agency said in a 2009 report.

Automated messages sent from the plane in the minutes before the crash showed there were problems measuring air speed, investigators have said, though they said that alone was not enough to cause the disaster.

The area where the plane went down is far out in the Atlantic -- two to four days for ships to reach from the nearest ports in Brazil or Senegal in West Africa. The underwater terrain is rough, with underwater mountains and valleys, the BEA has said.

Epsilon hacked - one of the biggest such breaches

The names and e-mails of customers of Citigroup Inc and other large U.S. companies, as well as College Board students, were exposed in a massive and growing data breach after a computer hacker penetrated online marketer Epsilon Data Management.

In what could be one of the biggest such breaches in U.S. history, a diverse swath of companies that did business with Epsilon stepped forward over the weekend to warn customers some of their electronic information could have been exposed.

Drugstore Walgreen, Video recorder TiVo Inc, credit card lender Capital One Financial Corp and teleshopping company HSN Inc all added their names to a list of targets that also includes some of the nation's largest banks.

The names and electronic contacts of some students affiliated with the U.S.-based College Board -- which represents some 5,900 colleges, universities and schools -- were also potentially compromised.

No personal financial information such as credit cards or social security numbers appeared to be exposed, according to the company statements and e-mails to customers.

Epsilon, an online marketing unit of Alliance Data Systems Corp, said on Friday that a person outside the company hacked into some of its clients' customer files. The vendor sends more than 40 billion e-mail ads and offers annually, usually to people who register for a company's website or who give their e-mail addresses while shopping.

"We learned from our e-mail provider, Epsilon, that limited information about you was accessed by an unauthorized individual or individuals," HSN, also an e-commerce operator, said in an e-mail to customers on Sunday.

"This information included your name and e-mail address and did not include any financial or other sensitive information. We felt it was important to notify you of this incident as soon as possible."

Citigroup customer names and some credit card customers' e-mail addresses -- but no account information -- were part of the data breach, the third-largest U.S. bank said on Saturday.

The College Board, which administers the SAT admissions tests, on Saturday warned students about the breach and asked them to be cautious about receiving "links or attachments from unknown third parties," according to two e-mails reviewed by Reuters.

The not-for-profit organization is in contact with more than 7 million students, according to its website. It did not immediately return calls for comment.

PROBING FOR ANSWERS

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the breach, though it was unclear on Sunday how many customers or students had been exposed. Epsilon is also looking into what went wrong.

"While we are cooperating with authorities and doing a thorough investigation, we cannot say anything else," said Epsilon spokeswoman Jessica Simon. "We can't confirm any impacted or non-impacted clients, or provide a list (of companies) at this point in time."

Capital One, which also runs a bank, and Walgreens, the largest U.S. drugstore, said the Epsilon hacker accessed its customer e-mail addresses, but no personally identifiable information.

via Reuters

Related link:
* Epsilon Notifies Clients of Unauthorized Entry into Email System