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Iran has indicated that its threat to cut oil supplies to European states in order to pre-empt a European Union oil embargo that comes into effect in July may be only a symbolic one.
Rostam Ghasemi, Iran’s oil minister, on Saturday said that any cut-off in Iranian oil supplies would target “hostile states” and should not harm European people in winter. “We will certainly cut [oil exports] to some European states,” Mr Ghasemi said, but gave no indication on timing and failed to name any of the “hostile” states to be targeted by punitive Iranian action.
By hostile European states, Iran usually refers to Britain, France and Germany, three countries which buy only token amounts of Iranian oil and which led last month’s move to ban EU member states from buying Iranian crude with the aim of putting pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear programme.
The EU’s July deadline is intended to allow time for Greece, Spain and Italy, Iran’s biggest European customers, to find supplies from other oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq. Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival has already said it can meet any shortage in the oil market.
Last year, AT&T said it would begin throttling customers who are in the top 5 percent of users, and late last year, they began enforcement, as well. It seems, however, that at least for some, being in the top 5 percent means exceeding the 2GB limit that used to exist for its now-dead $25 DataPro plan.
Some AT&T users with grandfathered unlimited data plans are reporting that they are seeing their data throttled after they pass 2GB. Considering that AT&T's original "most commonly selected" data tier had been 2GB, and that it's current "middle tier" is 3GB --- at the same $30 pricing that the unlimited data customers receive, it's hard to understand that.
At the very least, since the two groups (3GB and grandfathered unlimited data) pay the same price, you would expect --- based on common sense --- that throttling might begin at 3GB. What's just as strange is that when AT&T began throttling its "highest 5 percent" of users, those who were seeing throttling said they were using 10GB - 12 GB of data monthly.
With this news, are we to believe that suddenly the top 5 percent has dropped to 2GB? Even if it has, why throttle then, if AT&T is offering not just a 3GB plan, but also a 5GB. That alone points to the 2GB "line" as not being among the "top 5 percent" of users that are "killing the AT&T network."
John Cozen, who first reported being throttled at 2GB, contacted AT&T after receiving a warning on his smartphone. After some exchanges with the company, he was assured it was not an error. The AT&T representatives said that 2.1GB --- where he was throttled --- fell into the "top 5 percent" range and the only option to avoid throttling was to switch to a tiered data plan.
Since then other users have chimed reported the same issue, but it doesn't seem to be universal. Some areas of the country report this sort of "low use" throttling, while others do not.
AT&T eliminated unlimited data plans for new customers in 2010, but allowed those with unlimited data plans to keep them in a process commonly known as "grandfathering." Verizon has done the same thing, and since it also says it will throttle its highest users, we wonder if it will starting throttling those going over lower data usage, as well.
The most obvious reason for lowering the throttling bar is to force users out of the unlimited plan. Once a user makes a change, they can never go back. AT&T has made no secret of the fact that ... their words ... "if users want truly unlimited, unthrottled data they need to select a tiered data plan."
You might say, "but their highest tier is $50." True, but as AT&T likes to point out, if you pay "overage fees," it's unlimited and unthrottled. Also unlimited, because of the fees, is the cost.
It's the same conundrum we've written about before. Content providers (like HBO, say) want us to use less bandwidth. ISPs, both wired and wireless, want us to use less. They can't have it both ways. Or perhaps, we (customers) can't have it both ways.
Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare is exclusive to the Amazon Appstore for 30 days. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.
Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare is described as follows:
Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix faces a serious issue--and it's not just signing her name. She is stuck. She is stuck on a six-sided, 3D cube with nothing but a key, a door, and her wits--which are controlled by you. Did her nightmare just become worse?
This is more than just a puzzle game. It's a 3D, spider-infested, stupefying, wonderfully-horrific puzzle nightmare.
Curiosity Captured Vanessa
Vanessa loves two things: puzzles and exploring, and her meddling curiosity has gotten you both into all kinds of mind-boggling trouble. One day, while exploring her father's antique shop, she discovers a mysterious, mechanical box. After fiddling around with it, the box sucks her and her world inside. Use your considerable puzzle-solving skills to twist and turn her way to freedom.
The Stuff of 3D Nightmares
Across more than three dozen levels, guide Vanessa from the entrance of each level to the exit until she finally makes it home. Standing between her and freedom are a number of gameplay mechanics. Move blocks and turn faces of the cube to navigate Vanessa out of this nightmare.
What's so mind-boggling about that, you ask? The two-dimensional world lies on the surface of a three-dimensional magic cube, and you must rotate each face of the cube to find the multiple solutions to only one exit per level.
Return to the Underworld
And it's not just hard the first time. You'll be tempted to go back and replay levels to earn more coins, achievements, and better solutions to each puzzle--as if your productivity in the real world wasn't disrupted enough the first time around.
Now We're Just Showing Off
Maybe you normally dream in black-and-white, but this game is a nightmare deluxe. Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix and Her Nightmare won Best Design in the Independent Game Developers Competition and was a nominee and finalist for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Awards, Indie Game Challenge, sponsored by GameStop. Additionally, it was the PAX 10 Official Selection by Penny Arcade Expo.
Enjoy award-winning game design from acclaimed designer, David Sushil complemented with music by Telethon.
Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare has a rating of 3.7 stars in the Amazon Appstore.
3.7 stars we'd consider so-so, but the app is also available in the iOS App Store (iPhone, iPad) for $0.99 or $1.99 (HD version for iPad). There the ratings are well above 4-stars.
Replay Games is the team responsible for the upcoming reboot of the Leisure Suit Larry franchise.
Our verdict: even if the Android version is only rated at 3.7 stars, it will improve. "Buy" it now while it's free.
Those who are considering "buying" a Free Amazon Appstore app might want to consider what it means to developers.
Amazon.com opened up the Appstore despite a lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.
Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Flick Kick Field Goal.
Flick Kick Field Goal is priced at $1.99 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $1.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.
Flick Kick Field Goal is described as follows:
Bring the fun and accessibility of flick football to your Android device with this casual sports title from PikPok Games. Try to make kicks from different angles and distances, and even take into account shifting wind speeds and directions. Choose from Sudden Death, Arcade, Time Attack, and Practice modes, then use the intuitive flick controls to begin playing right away. Easy to pick up but hard to put down, this classic time-killer is sure to appeal to casual gamers and die-hard football fans alike.
Gameplay
In Flick Kick Field Goal, players take on the role of a field goal kicker on a football team as they try to make kicks of varying difficulty through the goalposts at the end of the field. Pick one of four different game modes: Practice, Sudden Death, Arcade, or Time Attack, and try out Flick Kick Field Goal's intuitive control system to begin making kicks like a pro.
To make a kick, simply line your finger up with the football and flick the touchscreen in the direction of the goalposts. Not every kick is straightforward though: experiment with curving left or right in your followthrough, or give a longer swipe to kick the ball further. Find the technique that works for you, then adjust each kick to account for changing windspeeds and angles.
Challenging Conditions
To add to the difficulty, factor in winds that can come from any angle or change severity with each kick. Anything from a light breeze to gale force winds must be taken into account if you want to succeed.
Online Scores and Achievements
Flick Kick Field Goal features online leaderboards and achievements with OpenFeint support. Rack up the points and then post your newest scores to Flick Kick's global leaderboards. Think you're good? Show off your skills online as you compete against others for the top spot!
Multiple Game Modes Sudden Death
Challenge your concentration with this classic test of skill. Score as many field goals as possible without missing a kick. With no time limit given, just focus and keep making kicks to add multipliers to your score.
Arcade Mode Make three kicks at eight different positions. Adjust your aim to score as many points as possible, then use the third kick at each position to score additional bonus points. Keep making successful field goals to build up a score multiplier, but watch out for changes in wind strength and direction: you'll need nerves of steel to keep that multiplier going under pressure!
Time Attack
Score as many goals as possible within the given time limit in this quickfire flick kicking challenge. As each successful field goal adds on bonus time, you'll have to keep cool and maintain steady aim to rack up a new highscore.
Practice Mode
Take the pressure of scores and time limits off your shoulders as you perfect your technique and learn how to become the best flick kicker in the world.
Key Features
Simple and intuitive flick controls make it easy to pick up and begin play
Challenging gameplay with shifting windspeeds and target distances
Loading screens with famous football quotes and trivia
Roaring crowds and full 3D graphics bring a new level of realism to flick football
Compete against others through OpenFeint online scoring and achievements
Flick Kick Field Goal has a rating of 4.3 stars in the Android Market and 2.8 stars in the Amazon Appstore.
It's a huge difference between the two markets, and Flick Kick Field Goal isn't one of those in the recent trend of Amazon Appstore selections: it's not unknown in the Android Market. It has 1,495 ratings in the Android Market, and it still has that 4.3 star rating.
Now, the Amazon Appstore version is 1.1.0 and and the Android Market version is 1.0.8, so there's a chance some bugs were introduced with the new version, probably created to meet the requirements of the Amazon Appstore Approval process.
The majority of issues in the Amazon Appstore appear to be on the Kindle Fire (go figure). Since you can't install on the Kindle Fire from the Android Market (no Android Market in Amazon.com's customized Android build), it explains the much larger percentage of 1-star ratings in the Appstore.
That, and of course, the Kindle Fire is very new, and thus couldn't possible affect 1,495 reviews that much.
Our take: it's the Amazon Appstore and the developer will fix the Kindle Fire issues. "Buy" it now while it's free. It's certainly timed well, with Super Bowl XLVI nearly here.
There is an iOS version of the game, also for $0.99 (App Store link).
Those who are considering "buying" a Free Amazon Appstore app might want to consider what it means to developers.
Amazon.com opened up the Appstore despite a lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.
Samsung's Galaxy Note Super Bowl ad will be its first Super Bowl commercial ever, and on Wednesday the Korea electronics giant teased its upcoming ad, which the company said would be directed by Bobby Farrelly (yes, the "Something About Mary" Farrelly).
To be honest, the ad is very reminiscent of the first ad in Samsung's "Next Big Thing is Already Here" campaign. It's so similar that while watching it you will think, "Didn't I see that before?"
The ad cuts off right as one Apple fanboy says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ... what is that?" We already know what it is: its the Samsung Galaxy Note, the huge 5.3-inch Android smartphone that is coming to AT&T on Feb. 19 (pre-orders begin on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 5).
As we said, the ad that's been teased so far is very similar to Samsung's earlier ad. Since the announcement that Samsung had hired Bobby Farrelly to direct its first Super Bowl ad, we've been hoping for a "super" ad. Let's hope the rest of the ad surprises us, and is not just more of the same as their prior "The Next Big Thing is Already Here" ads.
Watch what Samsung teased below. The 90-second Galaxy Note Super Bowl commercial will air during the 4th quarter of Super Bowl XLVI.
Apple's secrecy and near paranoia over new products is well known. While you might think that the word "paranoia," is hyperbole, it turns out it's not really: Apple will at times place new employees on "fake products" until it is sure they can trust them.
"For new recruits, the secret keeping begins even before they learn which of these building they'll be working in. Despite surviving multiple rounds of rigorous interviews, many employees are hired into so-called dummy positions, roles that aren't explained in detail until after they join the company.
"The new hires have been welcomed but not yet indoctrinated and aren't necessarily to be trusted with information as sensitive as their own mission. 'They wouldn't tell me what it was,' remembered a former engineer who had been a graduate student before joining Apple. 'I knew it was related to the iPod, but not what the job was.' Others do know but won't say, a realization that hits the newbies on their first day of work at new-employee orientation."
Emphasizing even more caution on the part of Apple, a former company engineer confirmed not just that information, but more. During the Q&A portion of Lashinsky's recent talk at LinkedIn, the engineer said that new hires are even placed on fake products sometimes, during their probationary period.
"A friend of mine who's a senior engineer at Apple, he works on -- or did work on -- fake products I'm sure for the first part of his career, and interviewed for 9 months. It was intense."
The former Apple employee continued on with a question for Lashinsky, but the comment on fake products can be heard fairly close to the beginning of the video clip.
Despite its secrecy and safeguards, the last two years Apple has seen prototypes of the iPhone lost by employees, both times at bars. While the company has not commented, we wouldn't be surprised to see them implement some sort of breathalyzer app and hardware for engineers to carry (we say with tongue planted firmly in cheeek).
T-Mobile is about to announce additional support for iPhones on its network, but read that well: "additional," meaning not support for an official iPhone on the T-Mobile, but rather more support for unlocked iPhones on their network, which are sadly running on EDGE.
T-Mobile announced in June of 2011 that they were aware of about 1 million iPhone users on their network, using unlocked devices (a large percentage of them, of course, are jailbroken). They are all running on 2.5G, or EDGE, since T-Mobile and AT&T 3G frequencies differ.
The report indicates that T-Mobile will, on Jan. 30, “begin offering additional support to customers using an Apple iPhone on our network.” In addition, T-Mobile's new iPhone support will include “common procedures, information about feature and specifications and other basic device questions.”
What T-Mobile really wants is the iPhone on its network, natively. It's said before that it's waiting for Apple to pull the trigger. Of the Big Four U.S. wireless carriers, T-Mobile is the only one without an iPhone. Even a small regional carrier, C-Spire, has access to the iPhone 4S.
Whether or not the Kindle Fire has seriously affected iPad sales, the device has at least severely impacted Android tablet sales. According to Strategy Analytics, which released the earlier report indicating Android tablets are now approaching 40 percent market share, of that number, the Kindle Fire and B&N's Nook have about 40 percent, themselves.
This is just a guesstimate, by S.A.'s report author Peter King. Strategy Analytics hasn’t released its Q4 tablet sales estimates with a breakdown for region and vendor but is expected to do so in about a week.
So if the Kindle Fire and Nook have about 40 percent of the report's 39.1 percent that Android tablets hold, that would be about 15.6 percent. Not bad for devices that launched late last year.
Also not bad for devices that don't use "official" versions of Android. They are forked versions, highly customized, and the tablets don't even have access to the Android Market because of that (though it's doubtful either vendor really cares).
So how is the Kindle Fire, for one, doing this? Flurry Analytics has a great analysis that echoes what we've said before: just watch an Android commercial and you'll see it focus on the power of the device and specs.
Watch an iPad commercial and you'll see the company focus instead on the "experience" and content.
That's what Amazon.com is doing: what can you do with the device, not what IS the device. Flurry notes that Amazon.com's Kindle Fire gets 2.5x as many paid downloads as does the first Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
It's as we said earlier, and why Amazon.com is content with losing money on the hardware of the K8indle Fire. It's taken the approach that printer manufacturers take: the money is made on the consumables (paper, ink / toner), not the printer itself.
It's true, though, that a company like Samsung doesn't have a giant Internet retail store to use, like Amazon.com does.
New details are emerging about Microsoft's next-generation video games console, which will be called the XBox 720. Don't let the number fool you: the 720's processor will be six times, not twice, as fast as the one in the Xbox 360.
Sources told IGN that production of the Xbox 360's GPU will begin by the end of this year. Delivery of the system itself is scheduled for the fall of 2013. No pricing has been projected yet.
Microsoft released the Xbox 360 in late 2005, so for many, a refresh of its aging console is long overdue. It has been a massive success: as of January 9, 2012, 66 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide. The Xbox 360 gave Microsoft some headaches, however, with reliability issues such as "The Red Ring of Death."
The Xbox 720 processor will be based on AMD's 6000 series GPU, rather than its 7000 series GPU, as had been rumored earlier. The 6000 series was introduced last year.
It will be similar to AMD's Radeon HD 6670, with multidisplay output as well as DirectX 11, 3D, and 1080p HD support. The HD 6670 runs at a market price of $79.99 and up, currently.
That much power will give the Xbox 720 six times the current graphics processing power of the Xbox 360, as well as an estimated 20 percent higher performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U. The Wii U is currently expected to arrive in 2H 2012, which should mean close to a year in terms of a Nintendo on-shelf advantage.
It is really, really hard to play "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" when you are in jail. Thus, we have the tale of Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom, the recently arrested chief of MegaUpload.com.
Schmitz was, up until a few days ago, the top ranked player in "Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 3;" that's right, globally, at least among Xbox 360 players. As Megaracer, he has accumulated more than 185,000 in-game kills.
In a video posted on the Internet (embedded below) he plays for over seven hours straight, at the end of which he held the top spot on the Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) leaderboard.
Ah, but sadly, he was not allowed to take his Xbox 360 with him to jail. Thus, he has been surpassed by one Arazos, who currently has 9.09 million points on the MW3 leader boards, compared to Megaracer's 9.05 million.
Even without that, it seems that Arazos has been "more efficient" than Megaracer. Arazos has 181,000 kills and 63,418 deaths, for a kill/death ratio of 2.87, which is much better than Megaracer's 180,980 kills and 86,241 deaths, which is a kill/death ratio of 2.10.
We don't expect Megaracer to be playing anytime soon, so Arazos should be able to put more distance between himself and Dotcom.
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