The aggressively priced Lumia 620 is Nokia’s make or break model






Nokia (NOK) has started pricing the Lumia 620 in Asia nearly 20% below the rival Windows mid-market model, the HTC (2498) 8S. This is remarkably aggressive considering the 620 has a higher pixel density and twice as much internal memory. The 620 is the keystone phone for Nokia. It is launching before RIM (RIMM) gets its new budget BlackBerry phones out and before Samsung (005930) or LG (066570) enter the mid-priced Windows phone market. This is the phone that will make or break Nokia’s summer.


[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]






Nokia has started rolling out the Lumia 620 in several key Asian markets by the third week of January. It now looks like its European debut could happen a few weeks earlier than expected, perhaps by the end of January. In one of the earliest launch markets, Thailand, the launch price of the Lumia 620 is set at 8,250 baht, or $ 275. The only direct Windows mid-range model, HTC’s 8S, is priced at 9,990 baht. The Lumia 620 is priced at 800 RM ($ 266) in Malaysia, one of Asia’s key mobile markets. HTC’s 8S launched in Malaysia at 999 RM.


[More from BGR: Clash of the bantams: The bloody smartphone battle that will take shape in 2013]


Nokia is the stronger brand in South-East Asia and HTC’s budget Windows model was expected to be at rough price parity during the 620 launch, not 20% above. Nokia’s Lumia 620 features display pixel density of 246 pixels per inch, a touch above the 233 pixels per inch that HTC’s 8S offers. The 620 also packs 8 GB of internal memory, twice as much as the 8S. Camera and video quality are roughly similar.


This is the golden opportunity for Nokia. It will probably take at least until June before RIM rolls out new BlackBerries priced under $ 300 in Asia; possibly late summer or autumn. Samsung and LG are a step behind Nokia in rolling out their Windows Phone 8 ranges. HTC’s first mid-range model doesn’t quite measure up to the 620 in value for money comparison. Apple’s (AAPL) rumored cheap iPhone is unlikely to arrive before September.


Nokia now has a shot at recapturing some of the power it used to have in the mid-range smartphone market. Back in 2006 through 2008 Nokia dominated the smartphone markets of Asia and Europe with absolute sovereignty, capturing market shares as high as 70% from India to Germany. Those days won’t return, but if the 620 clicks, Nokia just might have a shot at pumping the Lumia volume to 10 million units per quarter by autumn.


The relative market softness in the sub-$ 300 category due to the current weakness of RIM, LG, Sony (SNE) and HTC has opened the door. This February is going to be an absolutely crucial month for Nokia as it ramps up its most important Lumia phone during the traditionally dead period in Asia and Europe. If consumers don’t connect with this model at this price, the entire Windows Phone camp will face some very tough decisions.


This article was originally published on BGR.com


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Carpet Countdown Oscars Quvenzhane Wallis

This year, Beasts of the Southern Wild's Quvenzhane Wallis, 9, became the youngest actress in the history of the Academy Awards to be nominated for Best Actress. So in today's Carpet Countdown we're taking a look back at the youngest and oldest Oscar nominees.

PICS: Who's in the Hunt for Oscar Gold?

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Firebug who set SoHo blaze indicted








A Manhattan grand jury has indicted the Manhattan man who allegedly set a deadly SoHo fire out of jealousy last week.

Wei Chu Hu, 45, remains jailed on the murderous blaze, and despite what cops described as his initial confession, has now stopped talking, even to his attorney.

"He seems mentally exhausted, that's the only way I can describe it," said Hu's court appointed lawyer, Kenneth Walsh, after an emotionless-looking Hu was brought to Manhattan Criminal Court to be informed of the indictment.

"I can't speak to him, and his wife is one of his alleged intended victims, so she hasn't been speaking with me," the lawyer said.





Kristy Leibowitz



Wei Chu Hu, accused of setting fatal SoHo fire.





"He's been through a lot, and he hasn't been very receptive to conversation," he said.

All of Hu's medical and identification records were destroyed in the blaze at 41 Spring Street, the lawyer added.

Hu, who worked in a Chinatown fish market, speaks only Cantonese, and immigrated from China only within the past year, the lawyer said. He declined to comment on whether Hu is in the country legally.

Hu had told authorities he ignited two mattresses -- sparking a fire which killed an innocent, newlywed resident, who died on a third floor fire escape -- because he believed his wife was sleeping with another man, authorities said.

Cops said Hu worsened the situation by attacking a cop and a firefighter outside the building in an attempt to stop them from going inside to help victims.

He is due back in court Feb. 13.










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Prices for Miami Beach luxury condos soar to records




















Ultra-luxury condominiums on South Beach are fetching nosebleed prices.

On Tuesday, a penthouse at the Setai Resort at 2001 Collins Avenue closed for $27 million — the highest price ever for a South Florida condominium, according to real estate agents.

“We’re definitely seeing the market turning upward,” said Jeff Miller, of Zilbert International Realty in Miami, who represented the buyer in the sale of the palatial 7,100-square-foot condominium. “We’re seeing buyers come in from all over the globe.”





Just a few weeks ago, Ohio coal mining businessman Wayne Boich Jr. completed the sale of his Icon South Beach penthouse at 450 Alton Road in the uber-trendy South of Fifth neighborhood for just under $21 million.

The 6-bedroom, 7 1/2-bath Icon condo sparked a bidding war that drove the sale $2 million above the listing price — a level that is three times the $7 million Boich paid in July 2007 in the depths of the bust. It was a record price for a Miami Beach bayside condo.

“The luxury market is on fire in South Beach — especially the South of Fifth neighborhood,” said Dora Puig, principal of PuigWerner Real Estate Services, who was the listing broker for the Icon unit. “It’s moving Miami to totally different pricing points.”

The Setai’s record may not reign for long.

Penthouse 2 in the decade-old Continuum South tower at 100 South Pointe Drive in the South of Fifth neighborhood is on the market for $39 million.

That is a record listing price for a Miami-Dade condominium, according to Puig, who also snagged that listing.

Amid the market sizzle, Puig bumped up the asking price late last summer from $35 million.

The penthouse, which has 11,000 square feet of interior space, belongs to Manhattan real estate developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who built the Continuum project at the tip of South Beach and kept the trophy for himself.

The Continuum penthouse, which has 6,000 square feet of deck and a rooftop heated pool, boasts sweeping 13 1/2-foot ceilings that give the feel of a single-family home. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami and Miami Beach from 40 stories up.

“It looks down on Fisher Island, way down,” Puig said with a smile.

The unit has a private interior elevator, of course, and stretches over two indoor levels and two largely exterior levels.

One big plus: It has a gated entrance and sits on an expansive enclave of rolling lawns and gardens adjacent to a city park at the tip of the island.

The unit comes with an additional 874-square-foot guest quarters that would delight most mortals. “The guest unit is intended for professional quarters: the maid, the nanny, the chef, the pilot,” Puig explained.

Also included is a snazzy cabana on the beach.

Eichner has used it as a vacation home and once rented it to Tom Cruise for a couple of months while he was in Miami to film Rock of Ages.

On Thursday, Puig hosted Miami’s power brokers for a look at the Continuum penthouse over champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Next week, she plans to spend three days in New York touting the property to high-end brokers.

Such palatial properties typically are paid for in cash. But what would a monthly payment be?

With a 20 percent down payment of $7.8 million, the buyer would have to finance $31.2 million.

“I don’t know that I’d be able to find anybody willing to go that high on one unit,” warned Steve Schneider, a mortgage broker who is owner and president of Abacus Lending Group in South Miami.

If a buyer could line up a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.5 percent, the monthly payment for principal and interest would be $223,043.35.

“I’d hate to see the tax bill,” said Schneider.

According to Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser records, the 2012 property tax bill on the Continuum penthouse was $264,896.17. That was based on an assessed value of just $9.5 million, less than half what the Property Appraiser listed as the market value of $19.3 million. The tax break came as a result of the state law that caps increases in assessed values on non-homesteaded property at 10 percent a year.

The condo maintenance fee for Eichner’s unit runs $7,624 a month. “I think that’s low for what you get,” said Puig.





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Commissioner raises specter of bid-rigging in Miami Beach convention center project




















In the latest odd twist in the saga of Miami Beach’s oft-delayed convention center redevelopment, a city commissioner on Wednesday alleged that a project bidder may have had improper “contact’’ for possible bid-rigging with the city’s former procurement director, who is facing unrelated public-corruption charges.

Commissioner Deede Weithorn, who raised the allegation in a commission meeting and in a subsequent public statement, did not name the bidder or specify the nature of the alleged contact. She later acknowledged in a brief interview she has “no proof,’’ but said the allegation came from a trusted, unnamed “source.’’

Weithorn made the claim as she asked fellow commissioners to “reconsider’’ a December vote that narrowed down the field of development teams competing for the massive project to the two groups that scored highest in a city evaluation. Though Weithorn voted with the majority, 6-1, she later said the decision was made with insufficient analysis and wanted consideration of adding a third team.





Though she could not get another commissioner to go along with reopening the decision, Weithorn won agreement to require all five bidders to submit affidavits attesting they had no improper contact with former procurement director Gus Lopez or his “agent.’’ A false affidavit could lead to perjury charges, she noted.

Representatives of the two top-ranked teams, Portman-CMC and South Beach ACE, said they were willing to sign. The city attorney’s office will draft the affidavit.

But Weithorn’s latest sally cast a new shadow over the troubled, years-long effort by the city to renovate its aging convention center, add a hotel and redevelop 26 acres of city land around it with a combination of housing and commercial buildings to be financed mostly privately. The 52-acre project in the middle of South Beach, which the city says could cost anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion, is considered to be among the most significant in the country.

The bidding for the project, launched a year ago after an earlier effort ground to a halt, was suspended again while state investigators looked into the allegations against Lopez and a business associate, Pierre Landrin Jr. The bidding process resumed last fall after prosecutors assured the city that their investigation had yielded no evidence that the convention center bids were tainted “at this time.’’

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the state attorney’s office said he had nothing new to add to that previous statement.

Some bidders and observers raised concerns that Weithorn’s allegations could derail the complex project by giving the deep-pocketed investors necessary for its success cold feet.

Anthony Alfieri, director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami’s law school, said Weithorn’s vague allegation and the commission’s demand for affidavits also raise some potential issues related to fairness and the integrity of the city’s bidding process. He said the bidders are put in a difficult position by being asked to “prove a negative’’ in denying an allegation whose details they are not privy to.

“The commission has essentially created a cloud over the bidding process and the bidders. They have to prove they did not engage in unethical or unlawful conduct, but without a clear-cut method of doing so. They are at a significant disadvantage in proving their own innocence when they haven’t been accused of clear-cut misconduct,’’ Alfieri said.





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NVIDIA’s ‘Project SHIELD’ Console Faces Three Challenges






Despite being announced at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD isn’t the first game-console-in-a-controller to be announced this year. That honor goes to the GameStick, an indie project being funded on Kickstarter. As relative newcomers to the gaming scene, GameStick‘s creators face an uphill battle for acceptance, from both potential buyers and game developers.


But despite NVIDIA‘s established position as a gaming hardware company, it may have a struggle ahead of it, too. Here are three problems which may hinder Project SHIELD‘s adoption.






The size


Unlike GameStick, which is sort of like a classic NES gamepad with a detachable memory stick that plugs into the TV, Project SHIELD is a completely self-contained console. It’s thick and bulky, enormous compared to any of today’s controllers, or even Nintendo’s 3DS XL game console. The closest thing it compares to is an original Xbox controller, before the redesign, but with a flip-up multitouch screen that’s five inches across and has 720p resolution.


You’re not going to be able to just toss Project SHIELD in your pocket, like a smartphone or iPod or very small tablet. It’ll be portable in roughly the same sense that an iPad or netbook is portable, in that you’ll need a handbag or carrying case to put it in. This puts it in a separate size category from most of its competitors, and makes it less convenient to carry around.


The cost


Project SHIELD’s Tegra 4 processor will let it play Tegra-enhanced HD Android games straight from the Google Play store, as well as stream PC games from gaming PCs running Steam and equipped with certain types of NVIDIA graphics cards. Besides that, it’s a full-fledged Android device running Jelly Bean.


But at what cost? Google’s $ 199 Nexus 7 tablet lacks a built-in game controller, doesn’t have a much bigger screen, and uses a less powerful Tegra 3 processor. Dedicated game consoles like the 3DS XL and PlayStation Vita are priced in the same ballpark as the Nexus 7. NVIDIA has yet to announce how much Project SHIELD will cost, or even when it will be on store shelves.


The Tegra-enhanced HD graphics


For many, this will be a plus. There are a lot of Tegra HD (or “THD”) games on the Google Play store right now which boast improved graphics over the versions that run on other graphics processors.


It complicates things for game developers, though, who have to write a separate version just for Tegra processors. Unlike normal ARM processors and Android itself, Tegra is owned solely by NVIDIA, which means there are a lot of tablets and smartphones out there which can’t run those versions of these games. It also means gamers may have to repurchase certain games for Project SHIELD, in order to get the enhanced versions.


Looking towards the future


Things aren’t all gloomy. So far, NVIDIA’s managed to keep developer interest in the Tegra platform, and has gotten a lot of people excited about Project SHIELD. Its partnership with Valve also puts it in position to take advantage of the excitement surrounding Big Picture mode, and the upcoming gaming PCs (like Piston) designed to work with it and connect to a television.


Finally, a wireless game controller can cost upward of $ 50 by itself, so seen in that light Project SHIELD may not turn out to be so expensive — assuming gamers buy Tegra HD titles and NVIDIA graphics cards to use it with.


Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.


Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Khloe Kardashian Slams Divorce Rumors

Given their immense popularity, The Kardashian family constantly finds themselves at the center of countless rumors -- and while Khloe Kardashian-Odom typically chooses to ignore the lies, this time she can not hold her tongue!

VIDEO - Khloe Shares Childhood Singing Video

In a new blog post, titled Enough is Enough, Kardashian-Odom takes aim at two new tabloid covers: InTouch's, that claims the "devastated" star has learned new information confirming Robert Kardashian was not her biological father and Life & Style's, that asserts she's kicked Lamar Odom out of the house after discovering he's been cheating.

"It is disgusting that Life & Style and InTouch magazines continue to print these false stories about my life," she writes. "The status of my marriage, false reports about a miscarriage, the horrible lie that my dad is not my biological father, jealousy over my sisters’ lives, etc. It is a complete waste of time to address these reports every time they print these ridiculous and absurd tabloid stories, but not only are these stories untrue, they’re also unfair to the people who buy the magazines expecting to read accurate reports."

RELATED - Kris Jenner Slams Divorce Rumors

"Anyone who pays attention to these things can easily see the incredible bond that everyone in my family shares. I'm happily married to a wonderful man and fall in love with him more and more each day, and we’ll have a baby when god wants us to and when the time is right. These blatant lies are distasteful and shameless."

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Gay-bashing B'klyn cops attacked me: lawsuit








A Brooklyn man says a gang of gay-bashing cops savagely beat him and hurled nasty slurs after responding to a noise complaint at a gay pride party at his home early Sunday.

“They were yelling ‘you f---ing fag!’ and ‘homo!’”, Jabbar Cambell, told The Post, recounting how a group of nine NYPD officers allegedly joined in the beatdown. “I couldn’t block the blows. I was fighting to stay conscious [but] I was blacking out because of the hits I was taking.”

Cambell recounted the alleged attack in his lawyer’s office today, shortly after filing legal papers indicating he intends to sue the city and nine NYPD officers.




The alleged beating occured after cops responded to a call about excessive noise at Cambell’s apartment on Sterling Place in Crown Heights.

Cambell saw the police arrive through the surveillance camera at the building.

A short time later, police disabled the camera, according to Cambell, who provided a timestamped videotape that appears to show three officers looking at the camera for about two minutes before one of them reaches up and tampers with it.

“I noticed them turning the security camera and I got scared,” Cambell, a soft-spoken six-footer, said.

When he went to answer the door, he says, two or three officers were banging with batons and flashlights and trying to force their way into the building. Campbell’s 8-room apartment takes up the entire second floor of the two-story building; there is no tenant on the ground floor.

“I opened the door and one officer used his foot and arm to hold the door open,” Cambell said. “There was a sergeant, he yelled ‘get him!’ and that’s when I got attacked.”

“They kept saying, ‘stop resisting’ but I wasn’t resisting. I didn’t have any time to respond,” the soft-spoke, 6-foot-tall Campbell said.

According to a criminal complaint, police claim Campbell ignored their demands to “discontinue a party” and then pushed Sgt. Juan Morero, attempted to flee and flailed his arms at cops and behaved “belligerently’ as he tried to fight with them.

Campbell was charged with resisting arrest, attempted assault, and pot possession.

He said two officers held back his arms while another pushed Campbell’s head forward, and a fourth cop delivered a steady stream of upward blows to Campbell’s face.

“One particular officer had a gloved fist and was hitting me in the face,” he said.

Campbell said he got a black eye, split lip and bloodied mouth in the attack, and was still bleeding when he was taken to the precinct.

Cops later took him to Kings County Hospital for treatment, he said, before holding him in custody for 24 hours.

Campbell, who works as a computer forensics investigator, said he had been paid $300 by a party planner to host the gay pride bash at his house.

About 80 people, mostly gay men and transsexuals, showed up, paying $5 apiece to get in.

Campbell’s lawyer, Herb Subin, said the cops “were screaming anti-gay epithets” and are guilty of a “hate crime.”

“I was an innocent person in my home that night,” Cambell insisted. “What scares me most is that the NYPD are the people you call on to help you. I’m scared now. “










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Miami Dolphins bill would bring state money to aging stadiums




















A bill drafted by the Miami Dolphins would give Florida sports teams $3 million a year in state money to improve older stadiums, provided the owner pays for at least half the cost of a major renovation.

Under the law, the stadium would need to be 20 years old and the team willing to put in at least $125 million for a $250 million renovation. That’s less than the $400 million redo of Sun Life Stadium that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross proposed this week, which he hopes will win state approval thanks to his offer to fund at least $200 million of the effort to modernize the 1987 facility.

Miami-Dade and Florida would fund the rest through a mix of county hotel taxes and state general funds set aside for stadiums. Sun Life currently receives $2 million a year through the program, and the Dolphins want to create a new category that would give them an additional $3 million.





While the Miami Marlins and Miami Heat both play in stadiums subsidized by county hotel taxes, the Dolphins receive no local dollars. The bill would change that by allowing Miami-Dade to increase the tax charged at mainland hotels to 7 percent from 6 percent, and eliminate the current rule that limits the money to publicly owned stadiums. Sun Life Stadium, in Miami Gardens, is privately owned but sits on county land.

The bill pits enthusiasm for one of Florida’s most popular sports teams against a lean budget climate and lingering backlash against the 2009 deal that had Miami and Miami-Dade borrow about $485 million to build a new ballpark for the Marlins. Ross also must navigate a Republican-led Legislature that has twice rebuffed his requests for public dollars.

“I would be surprised if that bill even got a hearing in committee,” said Mike Fasano, a Republican representative from the Tampa area and a critic of tax-funded sports deals. “I’m a big Dolphin fan, and have been for years. But with all due respect, we’ve got people who are struggling throughout this state right now . .. The last thing we should be doing is giving a professional sports team or facility additional tax dollars.”

While the bill would open up the $3 million subsidy to other the teams, the Dolphins see it as unlikely that another owner would be willing to put up as much money for renovations as Ross, a billionaire real estate developer.

If the bill were enacted today, any stadium opened before 1993 would be eligible for the money, provided it could show the proposed renovation would generate an additional $3 million in sales taxes.

Ross and his backers are pitching the renovation as a boon to tourism, with Sun Life a magnet for the Super Bowl, national college football games and other major events. The National Football League is considering South Florida and San Francisco for the 2016 Super Bowl, and the Dolphins say approval of renovation funding is crucial to winning the bid.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the funding makes sense because when Sun Life hosts a Super Bowl, the entire state benefits from both tourism dollars and publicity.

“It’s a small price to pay for economic development, and for all the shine we get from major sporting events,” said Braynon, whose district includes Sun Life. Rep. Eduardo “Eddy” Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, is the sponsor on the House side.





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Senator vows revive ALF reform efforts




















The head of the Senate committee in charge of elder affairs vowed Tuesday to revive efforts to toughen the rules for assisted living facilities — and close the most dangerous ALFs.

As the state Legislature met Tuesday for the first time in 2013, Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, chair of the Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs, said she plans to bring back legislation that sank at the end of last year’s session.

At the hearing, resident advocates and ALF operators tried to sway lawmakers through passionate testimony. Elder advocates called for more oversight and tougher punishment for rogue facilities while industry leaders warned that more regulations could put the homes out of business.





Many people in the packed committee room held copies of The Miami Herald’s 2011 Neglected to Death series, distributed by Senate staff before the meeting. The Herald’s two-year series revealed that at least one ALF resident is killed per month from starvation, beatings or neglect at little-regulated homes in Florida.

“There’s so much information out there and so much that needs to be done, and we can’t drop the ball on this,” Sobel said. “This is a very very important issue, and this committee is going to get it done.”

The Agency for Healthcare Administration, which oversees ALFs, recommended proposals similar to those scrapped by the Legislature last year, from increased education requirements for administrators to a state website that would allow potential residents to shop facilities and rate them.

Several witnesses asked for more unannounced visits to facilities. Under current law, inspectors visit the state’s 6,000 facilities only once every two years, said Jim Crochet, Florida’s long-term care ombudsman.

“The more active we are in the facilities monitoring them up front, the less they will fester,” he said. “We’re hoping we can improve with time to meet that goal of four visits per year.”

Although Sobel says “now is the time” to address ALF reform, she could face a daunting task in 2013, with momentum waning.

Change seemed inevitable at this time in 2012, with Gov. Rick Scott promising to clean up the industry and his ALF task force rolling out some of the most forceful reform proposals in decades.

Former Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, a vocal elder-advocate, got behind the issue. And a Miami-Dade County grand jury called for reforms. But Storms couldn’t convince the House to take up the bill as the clock ticked down the final day of session.

This year, Storms has left the Legislature and Scott’s task force has unveiled a second, more business-friendly round of proposals.

Meanwhile, industry leaders and their lobbyists seem to have made headway with lawmakers, some of whom expressed concern during the meeting that ALFs have a hard enough time staying afloat under existing regulations.

“Many of these facilities are already strapped; they’re trying to balance quality care with their staffing needs and that sort of thing,” said Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla. “I don’t want to do anything to take away from their ability to care for their residents.”

Brian Lee, director of Families for Better Care, said industry leaders want lawmakers to believe that problems are being adequately addressed by relatively modest adjustments to existing rules. A panel of ALF operators, policy makers, agency heads and resident advocates are in the final stages of hammering out those changes, which can be made within existing law.

“This is simply rearranging deck chairs, this piecemeal approach won’t work,” Lee told senators. “Residents need comprehensive, resident-focused new laws.”





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