Rob Cell Phones

Nearly 400 people crammed into an auditorium at the Chinese 6 Theatres in the Hollywood Highland shopping center to watch “One Day on Earth,” a documentary made by thousands of volunteer filmmakers around the world to promote awareness about climate change and other global issues.

The sold-out screening Sunday afternoon was organized not by the theater or a major studio, but by filmmakers who promoted the movie to their fans through a new service called Tugg Inc. The Austin, Texas, start-up has launched a grass-roots movie distribution business that enables consumers to select the movies they want to see at local theaters.

Since its formal launch last month, Tugg has formed partnerships with several major theater circuits, including AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Rave Cinemas. It has hosted more than 50 “Tugg events” nationwide, filling auditoriums with specialty films — movies like Fox Searchlight’s “The Tree of Life” and the Stanley Kubrick classic “Dr. Strangelove” and documentaries such as “One Day on Earth” and Morgan Spurlock’s “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope.”

“In the past, movie theaters have been forced to be somewhat narrow in their programming,” said Nicolas Gonda, chief executive and co-founder of Tugg. “Now, with Tugg, they can be as diverse as the interests and the imaginations of the people in their communities.”

As more theaters convert from film to digital, there is growing interest in using services like Tugg to program so-called alternative content and attract new customers to the multiplex at a time when long-term attendance in the U.S. has been on the decline, in part because consumers have more entertainment options.

The subject of how theaters can marshal the forces of social media to grow their business will be a hot topic this week at CinemaCon, the annual trade show in Las Vegas hosted by the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. Tugg will be among the participants at a panel discussion Thursday called Social Networking and Marketing in the Digital Age.

“It really seems like they have an innovative platform to reach people through social media in a way that we haven’t done before as exhibitors,” said Spencer Klein, senior vice president for alternative content at Rave and Bow Tie Cinemas.

Klein said was he particularly surprised when a group of architecture students at the University of Pennsylvania organized a sold-out Thursday night screening of “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth,” a new and relatively unknown documentary about the decline of American cities.

“It was pretty eye-opening,” he said.

AMC has hosted Tugg events in cities across the country, including one in Austin for a film called “Crazy Wisdom” about the Buddhist leader Chogyam Trungpa, which was organized by the Austin Shambhala Meditation Center. The tickets were sold out within a few hours and AMC had to move to a larger auditorium for the screening, held at 10 a.m. on a Thursday.

“It showed that there are guests out there who want to see some of this content that is not accessible through normal channels and who will mobilize if given the opportunity,” said Robert Lenihan, president of programming for AMC Theatres.

Each Tugg event is promoted by an “organizer” — which can be anyone, including a director, film blogger, film festival director, schoolteacher, church group leader or environmental activist — who chooses a film he or she would like to see in the local community. The organizers draw from a list of more than 300 titles on Tugg’s website, which includes independent, foreign and specialty films as well as repertory titles.

The organizer selects a local theater, locks in a date and then aggressively promotes the event using Facebook, Twitter or other social media. If people reserve enough tickets — a screening typically requires a minimum of 50 advance ticket purchases —- Tugg then books the film in one of the theaters that have signed up for its service.

Because tickets are purchased in advance, theater owners have a guarantee that they won’t be left holding the bag if no one shows up to see the film.

“It eliminates a huge question mark” for theater owners, said Gonda, whose company receives a fee for each ticket sold.

A film producer, Gonda got the idea for Tugg several years ago while working with filmmakers Steven Soderbergh and Terrence Malick. Gonda grew frustrated that many small communities around the country never had an opportunity to watch Malick’s “The New World” or “The Tree of Life” in their local theaters. Malick is among a group of advisors to Tugg, along with Ben Affleck and writer-director Richard Linklater, who serve on the company’s board.

“The genesis was asking the question: What is keeping films that people want to see in their local theaters from being seen in their local theaters?” Gonda said.

Tugg holds particular appeal in smaller, regional markets where it has become harder to screen independent or special films in theaters in recent years.

Spencer Howard, a 25-year-old college student who writes a movie blog in Columbus, Ga., is organizing a Tugg screening this Thursday of “Comic-Con Episode IV.” He posted a notice on his Facebook page encouraging people to reserve seats and handed out fliers at a local bookstore. Within a few days he had sold 57 tickets. He expects to have a nearly full house for the screening at a Carmike theater in Columbus.

“The feedback I’ve gotten is that people are delighted because they feel like they are part of creating this event,” said Howard, who already is organizing his next Tugg screening — for “Rocky” and a Spanish sci-fi movie. “The attitude is, ‘We don’t get anything cool here.’ By doing an event like this we can prove that wrong.”

richard.verrier@latimes.com

Since 2009, ATT has invested over 50 million dollars in its
South Dakota networks. Now, the mobile internet provider is
pushing a new campaign to prevent texting and driving, as well as
continuing to expand service in the state.

“It all boils down to really two things: coverage and speed,”
said Hardmon Williams, Vice President of the Northern Plains
ATT.

That’s what officials with ATT wanted to increase by
converting Alltel’s old network, and adding 16 new towers across
the state.  In part, to speed up service for customers.

“If you think about a highway for example, as it gets congested,
if you add a lane to the highway it allows cars to access it
faster and to travel faster as it’s on that highway. It’s the
same for our towers,” said Williams.

Plus, customers in several communities now get 4-G service.
According to state lawmakers, that type of technology can even
spur growth.

“We need to be at the forefront of technology. If we get kicked
to the dust bin in technology, we’re going to fall behind on
economic development, healthcare and education. So, it’s an
integral part of what we’re trying to do,” said State
Representative David Lust.

But ATT has another message, one of responsibility, which is
why the company has given a $5,000 grant to the South Dakota
Safety Council. In order to prevent texting and driving in young
people. Part of the “It Can Wait” campaign.

“‘It Can Wait’ basically has an important message of: 
texting, don’t text and drive. It’s a really important message to
get through to young South Dakota drivers,” said Cheryl Riley,
External Affairs Director for South Dakota ATT.

“Teenagers are new drivers to the road. It’s important for them
to be focused on the road when they are doing that driving, and
any distraction whether that be texting, talking on their phone,
punching things into their iPhone, listening to their iPod,
fiddling with their radio, or just messing around with other
teens in their car, other people.  I think it’s important
that we gave them every opportunity to focus on the job they need
to be doing and doing well which is driving safely,” said Colonel
Craig Price, Superintendent of the South Dakota Highway Patrol.

Trying to keep the dangers of texting and driving off of the
roadway, while expanding coverage to the community. The 4G
coverage is being provided in Rapid City and Sioux Falls along
with other western portions of the state.

The iPhone is a hot seller, but that doesn’t mean it’s a growth driver for the industry.

(Credit:
CNET)

ATT remains the king of the
iPhone, but that distinction means less with each passing quarter.

The Dallas telecommunications giant sold 4.3 million iPhones in the first quarter, more than 1 million more than Verizon Wireless, and almost certainly more than Sprint Nextel, which sold 1.8 million in the fourth quarter at the height of the iPhone 4S buzz.

So why did ATT only add a fraction of the contract customers that Verizon nabbed in the same period?

The results highlight an increasingly alarming trend with the wireless carriers: the decreasing benefit that the iPhone brings to customer growth. With the iPhone on virtually every carrier in the country — including small regional ones — it no longer has the cachet of being a hard-to-get exclusive device. Instead, it’s become the minimal offering every carrier needs just to compete, a disturbing turn considering the high cost of its subsidy.

“Most iPhone sales go to existing subscribers, so it isn’t a good proxy for growth,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst for Sanford Bernstein.

In fact, despite selling more iPhones in the period, ATT actually added fewer new customers than Verizon. Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie Securities, estimated that Verizon added 2.5 million new iPhone subscribers in the period, while ATT just added 903,000 (ATT said it’s closer to 1 million).

“We view margins as unsustainable and (expect) share losses to Verizon to accelerate,” Smithen said in a research note today.

In total, ATT added a net 187,000 postpaid subscribers, or customers willing to sign a two-year contract in exchange for a subsidized device. But Apple’s other product may have actually contributed more to growth, with 180,000 net new
tablets sold in the period. Apple’s new
iPad launched on ATT in March.

Apple iPad (March 2012, 16GB, Wi-Fi, black) (photos)

In comparison, Verizon added 501,000 postpaid subscribers in the same period.

That’s despite the fact that ATT has all three models of the iPhone available, including the 99-cent iPhone 3GS.

Much of ATT’s growth may have come from 180,000 net new tablets sold in the period — a vast majority of which likely came from the new iPad.

The minimal growth from the iPhone is why ATT is pushing so hard to diversify its product portfolio. Last year, the company tried to go aggressive with Android, but its customers continued to snap up iPhones. It recently embarked on a massive campaign with Nokia and Microsoft to push the Lumia 900 as its newest flagship product, and early response has been positive.

But in the first quarter, sales largely came from the iPhone. The 4.3 million iPhones represented a bulk of the 5.5 million total smartphones sold, which the company notes is a record for the period.

Verizon has actually been able to diversify its sales a bit more largely due to the work that it previously did to build up its own Droid franchise. Even when ATT had the exclusive lock on the iPhone, Verizon was able to weather the storm by offering up a strong lineup of Android devices.

ATT actually reported decent financial results in the first quarter, showing revenue growth and higher profitability. Much of that profitability came as a result of fewer iPhone upgrades, analysts noted.

ATT executives struck an optimistic tone on the conference call, highlighting a 20 percent jump in mobile data revenue and strong smartphone sales.

“Smartphone sales set a new record despite more iPhone competition,” said Ralph de la Vega, head of the company’s mobile business.

And while the iPhone isn’t bringing in as many new customers anymore, it is helping to retain existing ones. The turnover rate for iPhone customers was at the lowest point in more than a year, De la Vega noted. That’s largely because many of its customers are on family or business plans.

Those financial benefits are the ones that the iPhone have long promised, and ATT is starting to see them. But those benefits are tarnished in part by concerns that the company may not be able to keep the flow of new customers coming in.

While Verizon showed the ability to keep adding new customers, analysts note that it too is starting to feel the effects of slower growth, something the other carriers will likely see as well.

“We think this will be a common theme for the industry this quarter,” said Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst at Credit Suisse.

It’s unclear what the next catalyst for growth will be for the wireless industry, perhaps different data plans, connected devices, or some other new venture. But with the iPhone available nearly everywhere, it probably won’t be it.

Andre’ Majhail Williams, STAR Writer

Digicel Rising Star 2011 finalist Latoya Jackson, more popularly known as ‘Latty J’, along with other members of her family were robbed at gunpoint on the weekend. Reports are that the robbery took place along a section of the Old Stony Hill main road.

Latty J said the robber took $30,000 in cash as well as three cellphones including two BlackBerry phones, an iPod Touch along with shoes and clothing that were in a bag.

It is reported that the thief also took her mother’s purse containing important documents and identification cards.

Latty J said “It was basically four of us standing waiting for a bus, me, my mother and two other members of my family. It wasn’t even 8 o’clock good … it was a little after 7 p.m., and we were standing waiting for a bus and saw this man approaching casually. My mother wanted to make sure we were at the right place so she asked the guy if this was where the 53 bus runs,” she said. “He answered my mother and then brandished the gun and started to rob us.”

Latty J told THE STAR that a report was made to the Stony Hill police and a search of the area was carried out minutes after the incident.

Police sources at the Stony Hill Police Station confirmed the incident, however, no one has been arrested and investigation into the robbery is ongoing.

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Unlocking Blackberry Codes Now Available For Blackberry Torch 9860 At www.blackberryunlocksim.com

Unlocking a Blackberry phone makes it more versatile for both applications and what phone networks it can operate on.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, April 24, 2012 ) New York, NY — “How do you unlock a blackberry??” This is a question asked by many people who have honest and legitimate intent to open up the factory features on the phone, which are often turned off by the company that resells it. There are many benefits to unlocking the Blackberry phones, and now a new website has unlock codes for all Blackberry phones including the Blackberry Torch 9860. Blackberry unlock codes are available at the website and are safe, can be used immediately, and will open up the factory features.

In addition, unlocking a Blackberry Torch 9860 will allow it to be used on all phone networks. Unlock the blackberry at the website www.blackberryunlocksim.com and see how the unlocked blackberry cell phone can reach its full potential.

Cell phones are intended to be used on any cell phone network, and according to Sam Alanis of “Blackberry Unlock Sim” – a company specializing in maximizing the features of Blackberry phones by providing the users the factory unlock code – with an official unlock code from the website, the phone will work with any Sim card or phone network. In most cases it is actually better to unlock a Blackberry Torch 9860 phone, as it opens up the features intended in its original design.

Benefits of the website Unlock Blackberry Torch 9860 include:

* Use the phone on any cell phone network
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To unlock Blackberry Touch 9860 phone, please visit the Blackberry Unlock Sim website at www.blackberryunlocksim.com.

About Blackberry Unlock Sim:

Blackberry Unlock Sim company focuses on providing factory unlock codes for the owners of Blackberry phones. Their online website provides the information to receive the unlock codes.

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PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 26, 2012 –
CDN Mobile Solutions, India based, leading Mobile Application Development Company is glad to share the launch of its blackberry application Personal translator version 2.5.0 with the improved version, in the Blackberry app world. The application translates your written words into another language and also read it aloud.

This language translate application translates words and phrases between various languages including Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Personal Translator assists you with:

•   Text to Speech feature
•   Translate words automatically after typing in.
•   Auto detects selected language from device settings.
•   Save your favorite translations for quick access even when you’re offline
•   See your translation archive even when you’re offline

Within short span of time Personal Translator has done well and has received excellent reviews and five star ratings from users residing in different countries.

This iPhone and Blackberry Application is useful for the travelers to communicate with the people belonging to the country traveling or get their way around in cities without language hassles. The application translates the text by using Google translate paid API.

Personal translator also has in app purchase feature wherein a user can purchase different language kits. The user can buy all the 20 language kits with 25% discounts or even a specific language kit like Chinese, Czech, European Dutch, etc. at the available price of $1.99, by clicking on the buy now button. Consumer can also listen to the translated text in the selected destination language’s accent only if he has purchased that particular language kit.

Adding to the features list of Personal Translator, a user can share the translated text via social networking sites (like Facebook), Email and Text Message by using this application.

Users can download this Utility application free from the blackberry app world as well as from iTunes by following the below given links:

https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/92019/?l…

http://itunes.apple.com/ni/app/personal-translator/id4679…

In essence this enterprise and utility app personal translator is ideal for NRI’s, Entrepreneurs, Professionals and the persons traveling to another region.

CDN Mobile Solutions is the mobile application development division of CDN Solutions Group, a one-stop-shop IT Services Provider Company. CDN Mobile Solutions provide Mobile Application Development Services including iPad application development, iPhone application development, Blackberry application development, Android application development, Nokia Application Development, Windows Mobile application development, Palm webOS application development and J2ME application development with more than 38000 hrs experience. CDN Mobile Solutions is an award winning company ranked as Top Mobile Application Developers, Top iPad Application Developers, Top iPhone Application Developers, Top Blackberry Application Developers by Sourcing Line and also as Best iPhone Application Development Company and Best Windows Mobile Application Development Company. With their passion in mobile application development and zeal to explore new avenues in mobile apps sphere, CDN let your imagination work ensure that their experienced team of Mobile Application developers makes it reality.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11859541/1

ZestCash, an online lending service for lower-income borrowers, has begun using a new big data-driven decision-making method that it claims will allow it to lend to 25 percent more people and improve repayment rates by 20 percent.

Using the new framework, ZestCash obtains data on loan applicants from alternative creditors, such as cell phone carriers and payday lenders. It bundles the bits of information into likely relationships and runs it through a number of different models to ensure more robust results. It then recombines the results to determine how risky a given applicant is, determining whether to lend to that person, how much and at what rate.

Shawn Budde, the company’s chief operating officer and former head of subprime credit cards at U.S. bank Capital One, described the new model as a sea change.

More accurate predictions about who will repay loans will allow ZestCash to be able to lend to more people, the company said, including some who may have been forced to resort to payday loans simply because the conventional model couldn’t obtain enough information about them.

Few have found ways to innovate the FICO credit scoring method by which most major creditors determine who is likely to repay a loan, Budde said. As a result, lenders usually delight in boosting lending and repayment rates by single digits.

“We’ve seen incremental improvements in how underwriting is done, but really the fundamental underpinnings of how credit models work are roughly 40 years old,” Budde said.

Budde and co-founder Douglas Merrill believe their company’s updated decision-making process, called Hollerith (“after a long-dead statistician,” Budde said) will be the wave of the next 40 years.

Budde and Merrill, a former chief information officer at Google, see themselves as bringing big data to the lending industry.

“All that math, which is really cool, hasn’t been applied to the credit space by anybody else up to this point,” Budde said.

But for now, ZestCash hopes to use Hollerith to help keep more lower-income Americans from getting trapped in the vicious cycle of debt payday loans can facilitate.

How does ZestCash stack up to payday lenders? A typical loan through ZestCash, according to its website, comes with an effective annual percentage rate of 330 percent. The average payday loan’s effective APR is 400 percent, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

ZestCash also says that by charging interest rates instead of loan rollover fees like many payday lenders, it encourages its borrowers to get out of debt.

The company is currently licensed to lend in just five states, but the company’s co-founders say they expect to continue to expand as they clear regulatory hurdles.

Cameron Scott covers search, web services and privacy for The IDG News Service. Follow Cameron on Twitter at CScott_IDG.

PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 03, 2012 –
The HTC One S is a new release from the manufacturer’s recently unveiled ‘One’ range. Featuring a number of impressive devices, the One S is the mid range offering, and has several very impressive features. In this article I will compare some of the key features of the HTC One S with those of the iPhone 4S.

Design
The iPhone 4S is well known for its innovative design and impressive build quality. The HTC One S looks similar to many of the manufacturer’s other devices like the HTC Sensation. However, the HTC One S features a unibody design which is given a very unique treatment to alter the way it looks, as well as affecting its durability. The body of the One S is made from a single piece of aircraft grade aluminium, and this is given a treatment of 10,000 volts of electricity. This changes the colour of the unit to an attractive matt black, and provides a ceramic finish. Additionally, the material then becomes six times stronger than aerospace aluminium (according to HTC). This makes the HTC One S one of the most unique devices out there in terms of its built quality and manufacturing process.

Screen
The iPhone 4S has the renowned retina display, which gets its name because of the fact that the pixels on it are so fine that the human eye cannot distinguish between individual pixels. The resolution of the screen on the HTC One S is slightly below that of the retina display, at 540x 960 but in reality you are unlikely to notice the difference between the two when watching a video, photo slideshow, or playing a game for example. Aside from the resolution, the screen technology itself varies greatly between the two phones. The iPhone 4S uses an IPS LED backlit panel, whereas the HTC One S has a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, making it the first HTC phone to do so. The benefits of this technology include better 3D display, brightness, wide viewing angles, and of course it is very responsive to touch.

Camera
When choosing a new smartphone, the camera is often one of the most important features for many people. Both the iPhone 4S and the HTC One S are actually pretty evenly matched in this respect. Both sport 8 megapixels and share features such as 1080p video capture, LED flash, autofocus, image stabilisation and face detection among their camera specifications. The resolution of 8 megapixels produces high quality still images on both phones, and thanks to their varied package of connectivity options, makes it easy to stream photos and videos to other devices like computers and TVs.

There are of course several other features which could be compared, which I will cover in another article. Choosing between the two is likely to come down to personal preference for either HTC or Apple, or Android or iOS (the respective operating systems of each phone). Both are excellent phones though, so you are unlikely to regret your choice, whichever one you choose.

Check out the best iPhone 4S deals:
http://www.phoneslimited.co.uk/Apple/iPhone+4S+16GB.html
and HTC One S deals:
http://www.phoneslimited.co.uk/HTC/One+S.html