Micromax's Superfone A50 Ninja enters India with AISHA voice assistant, forgets its shuriken

Hoping to compete with the Siris of the world, Micromax has announced its new Superfone A50 Ninja alongside a novel feature dubbed AISHA -- which is short for Artificial Intelligence Speech Handset Assistant. Similar to Cupertino's personal secretary, AISHA vows to help folks with every-day elements such as making calls, setting up calendar events and even reporting what the weather looks like. Much to our disappointment, however, the A50 Ninja runs a not-so-new flavor of Android -- Gingerbread to be exact -- and Micromax left out any mention of Android 4.0. On the specs front, the dual-SIM Superfone sports a 3.1-inch display (mum's the word on the resolution), a two-megapixel shooter, Bluetooth 2.0 capabilities and an unspecified 650MHz processor. All in all, thanks to its 4,999 rupees (around $95) budget price, we can't imagine you'd complain too much. Be sure to hit up the Micromax link below if you're interested in grabbing one of these.

Continue reading Micromax's Superfone A50 Ninja enters India with AISHA voice assistant, forgets its shuriken

Micromax's Superfone A50 Ninja enters India with AISHA voice assistant, forgets its shuriken originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 08:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eventbrite Launches First Industry-Specific Ticketing Platform For Races And Walks, Endurance

Online ticketing platform Eventbrite is debuting a new vertical today, called Endurance, which focuses specifically on selling tickets for races and walks, including marathons, triathlons, races, fundraising walks, and more. As you may know, Eventbrite, which has sold 57 million tickets and hosted over 500,000 events in the past year, has been used as a registration and ticketing platform for a broad range of events, from large fundraisers, festivals, tech conferences, and concerts to cooking classes and HTML workshops. But this is the first time the company has launched a dedicated, industry-specific ticketing manager for a vertical. The company says they realized there are a couple of key markets that have more advanced feature requirements, and in order to take advantage of more opportunities in these markets, the company is building an expertise in select verticals.

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Jelly Sea Creatures Disable Entire Nuclear Power Plant [Nuclear Power]

When we last heard from the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, it was under siega by swarms of salp, a gelatinous plankton organism. Last night, the salp won—Diablo Canyon is offline, defeated by the ocean. More »

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to host fundraisers with Walker next week (Star Tribune)

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Usher To Preview Looking For Myself At Off-Broadway Show

Singer tells MTV News 'Fuerza Bruta' matches the 'more artistic' music on his upcoming album.
By Jocelyn Vena

Usher
Photo: Todd Williamson/ WireImage

This Saturday (and this Saturday only), Usher will appear in New York City's "Fuerza Bruta," an off-Broadway show where no one speaks, but the story is told through bright lights, music and dancing. In the lead role of Running Man, Usher will also use the show to preview his June album release, Looking for Myself.

Fans in the audience will likely get closer than they've ever been to the singer, as the audience stands during the performance, becoming another member of the company. With several weeks until his album release, Usher explained to MTV News at a rehearsal why he wanted to use this show to preview tracks.

"I felt like the natural elements as well as the emotion of 'Fuerza Bruta' would definitely speak or be significant to some of the stories and I guess hopefully a connection [was there]," he explained of tying this performance to his album. "When we began to explore different directions [for the performance like] maybe we use some of their music, maybe we use some of mine ... and before you knew it the idea came together. We tried it, I got on Running Man and it worked."

The show will stream his entire album, which drops June 12, and he thinks the mind-bending artistry of "Fuerza Bruta" works with the sound he's created on it. "This is more artistic of an album than I've had in history," he said. "And I felt like yeah, it would be a lot for me, but I was willing to at least try it. There were many times I had seen the show and I only hoped that I would be able to make it happen."

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Samsung's Q1 2012 profits nearly double year-over-year on higher margins for TVs and phones

The numbers for Samsung's first quarter of 2012 are in and as it expected they are up sharply over the same period from 2011. After predicting profits of 5.8 trillion won it managed to top that, notching an operating profit of 5.85 trillion won ($5.16 billion US) for the quarter, a 98 percent gain over a year ago. Phones accounted for 73 percent of the profit, contributing 4.27 trillion won to the bottom line. As the world awaits the debut of what we assume will be the Samsung Galaxy S III May 3rd powered by its Exynos 4 Quad CPU, there's clearly no shortage of demand for the Galaxy S II and Note. Sales of chips and TVs decreased from last quarter, but like its competitor LG, growing sales of high res tablet panels (we wonder which one that might be), 3DTVs and OLEDs increased profitability. Specifically, the high end 7000/8000 series of HDTVs increased sales by 50 percent from last year, while the company plans to focus on "region-specific" LED models for emerging markets, and high end (and high priced) flat-panels for developed markets.

We're listening in to the earnings call at the moment, and we'll let you know if there's any other details that come out of what is mostly boring numbers talk. So far it's all pretty businessy, although in response to a question executives did confirm that they expect the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note to occupy different segments in terms of size. So there you have it -- the Galaxy S III will (shockingly) not have a 5.3-inch screen. Also, it predictably is trying to continue the trend of global launches, although that hardly puts to rest the issue of how long we may end up waiting for carrier-specific versions here in the US. Check out the rest of Samsung's details in a press release and a few slides from the report embedded after the break.

Continue reading Samsung's Q1 2012 profits nearly double year-over-year on higher margins for TVs and phones

Samsung's Q1 2012 profits nearly double year-over-year on higher margins for TVs and phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'American Idol' Top Six Battle For The Throne On Queen Night

Hollie Cavanagh rises up with 'The Climb' and Joshua Ledet racks up two more standing ovations.
By Adam Graham

Hollie Cavanagh on "American Idol"
Photo: Fox

If "American Idol" was decided by whoever received the most standing ovations from the judges, Joshua Ledet would have this year's competition in the bag.

Ledet racked up two more standing O's from the judges on Wednesday's (April 25) "Idol," which found the contestants singing two songs apiece: one from Queen, and another of their own choosing.

That brought Ledet's unofficial standing ovation season total to 12 — that figure according to Skylar Laine, who ribbed him backstage for receiving a dozen standing O's over the course of the season.

Ledet first got a rise out of the judges with his version of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which caused Jennifer Lopez to ask, "Is it bad for me to say the Joshua part of the show is my favorite part of the show?" He followed it with a version of India.Arie's "Ready for Love" — which was sung by Michael Lynche back in "Idol" season nine — which was called "another unbelievable performance" by Randy Jackson. Added an enthusiastic Steven Tyler, "I hope the label finds you a bunch of good songs, man, and you're off to the moon. I smell the finish line with you."

Hollie Cavanagh received the evening's other standing ovation from the judges with her second song, "The Climb," the Miley Cyrus song that seemingly summed up her journey on the show so far. It came after she received so-so marks for her first song, Queen's "Save Me," which played into theme of "The Climb" even further.

"That's the Hollie Cavanagh that we love, that's the one! Hollie is back! Yo!" said Jackson. Added Lopez, "You said it backstage, 'I gotta step it up,' and you did! It was perfect."

Steven Tyler's favorite of the night was Skylar Laine, who opened with "The Show Must Go On" and followed it with Jason Aldean's "Tattoo's on This Town." On the Queen song, Tyler praised her energy and her passion as over-the-top, saying, "the way you hit your notes, for an 18-year-old? Oh my God. That was fabulous." Lopez said she got "goosies" from Laine, while Jackson dubbed himself a "ginormous" fan of the Mississippi singer.

Jessica Sanchez kicked off the show with "Bohemian Rhapsody," which was shot in black and white while a chorus of Sanchez heads backed her on the oval "Idol" video screen at the back of the stage. For her second song, Sanchez sent a shout-out to her dad, singing a touching version of Luther Vandross' "Dance With My Father."

Lopez told Sanchez she expected more energy from her during "Rhapsody," but said her "Dance With My Father" was "the best I've ever heard that song sang." Meanwhile, Jackson summed up her two performances by saying, "every time you get up and sing, you know what's wrong with it? Absolutely nothing!"

Phillip Phillips, who has battled Dave Matthews comparisons from fans all season, seemingly got away from the Matthews talk with his first song, a fun, spirited take on "Fat Bottomed Girls." "People say that you remind them of Dave Matthews, that didn't remind me of Dave Matthews at all. That was something totally different," Lopez said, invoking Matthews name out loud for the first time this season. "That's the mark of a great singer for me."

And how did Phillip Squared follow it up? With a performance of Dave Matthews' "The Stone," on which he sounded like a direct clone of Matthews. Lopez was not pleased, dismissing the song "obscure" and "artsy," and worrying it would get him voted off the show. Jackson, for his part, admired Phillips' sticking to his guns. "Die, sink or swim, Phil Phillips will always be Phil Phillips," he said. "I love that."

Elise Testone took on Queen's "I Want It All" early and followed it with Jimi Hendrix's "Bold as Love." The first song got high marks, though the latter "wasn't the right song for this time in the competition," Jackson told her, criticizing her for "boxing" with the song, and saying Hendrix sang "about 1/25 of what you sang" in his original. J. Lo had the opposite reaction. Although she said she wasn't familiar with the original, "you slayed that song so hard, it didn't even matter," she said.

Wednesday's show opened with the Top Six performing a medley of Queen songs, backed by Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor.

Thursday's show will feature performances by Katy Perry and 10th season "Idol" contestant Stefano Langone, and one of the six remaining contestants will be sent home.

What did you think of "Idol" on Wednesday? Let us know in the comments!

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

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• 'American Idol' Season 11 Performances

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Clearwire's TDD-LTE rolling out in 'early 2013,' coming to NYC, SF, LA, Chicago, Seattle and more

Clearwire's hardly throwing in the towel after that whole "WiMAX" thing; instead, the outfit has its sights firmly set on bringing TDD-LTE to the masses here in America, starting with an initial rollout in early 2013. A release put out today confirms that New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle will be among the 31 cities where the company will launch the aforesaid network, though there's no breakdown on which of those metro markets will be forced to wait until "mid-2013" to get served. Speaking of, Clearwire's making no bones about the fact that "high demand hot zones" will be the ones targeted initially, and in a bid to outshine those LTE networks already live, President and CEO Erik Prusch is suggesting that his firm's 4G network "will show that not all LTE networks are created equal." Bold words, sir.

Continue reading Clearwire's TDD-LTE rolling out in 'early 2013,' coming to NYC, SF, LA, Chicago, Seattle and more

Clearwire's TDD-LTE rolling out in 'early 2013,' coming to NYC, SF, LA, Chicago, Seattle and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behind the Right's Phony War on the Nonexistent Religion of Secularism (Rolling Stone)

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Matchmaker, matchmaker: ?Big Nog?s? next bout, moving around title bouts, and Hector Lombard?s new home

Here's the latest in fights made and fighters signed by the UFC's yentes.

-- Somehow, not every heavyweight bout isn't on UFC 146. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will fight Cheick Kongo at UFC 149 in Calgary. This is Big Nog's first fight back since Frank Mir snapped his arm.

-- The moving around of title fights isn't over with Chael Sonnen's bout with Anderson Silva. Jose Aldo's title fight may move to UFC 147 in Brazil, which doesn't have a venue, and Dan Henderson may face Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight belt at UFC 149 in Calgary. With summer looming, few pay-per-view cards outside of UFC 148 in Las Vegas are set.

-- Though there isn't a fight yet scheduled for him, former Bellator champion Hector Lombard will make the move to the UFC. MMA Fighting found out from Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, and then Lombard confirmed the news on Twitter. His last loss was in 2006, and Rebney said he is confident Lombard will be the UFC middleweight champ.

-- Marcus LeVesseur will make his UFC debut against Cody McKenzie at UFC on Fuel 3 on May 15 in Virginia, taking the place of Aaron Riley. Wrestling fans will recognize LeVesseur as four-time D-III national champion. He's been fighting since 2003 and has a record of 21-5. TUF alum McKenzie is on a three-fight losing streak.

UPDATE: One more bout for your enjoyment. Mark Munoz will take on Chris Weidman at UFC on Fuel 4 on July 11. The just-announced event does not yet have a location, but is important in deciding who will fight for the middleweight belt next.

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