Apple Upgrades iPhone Hardware

3G network support, GPS and improved battery life come to the next-gen iPhone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs today introduced the second-generation iPhone with new pricing and with 3G and GPS capabilities. An 8GB iPhone 3G will sell for $199 -- one-third of what the 8GB iPhone sold for at launch. A 16GB model will sell for $299, and will come in white and black versions. Sales of the new handsets will begin on July 11. Jobs made the announcements in his keynote speech kicking off this year's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Conspicuously missing from today's announcement was any mention of how much the corresponding 3G wireless services will cost. AT&T Wireless currently is the iPhone's exclusive provider in the United States, but 3G services are not part of the existing iPhone plan since the original phone doesn't support that. The iPhone 3G will be introduced in 22 countries at launch. The iPhone 3G, as its name implies, will feature support for 3G cellular networks. The original iPhone's lack of 3G support was widely criticized when that model launched last summer. GPS capability In his announcement of the new device, Jobs provided precious few details about the phone. And much of what he did announce was already expected. The biggest revelation about the new phone is its inclusion of GPS location tracking, a feature that many iPhone users insisted on for the next-gen device. Jobs was relatively quiet on the phone's physical dimensions. He made a point of calling out the iPhone 3G's thinner edges and plastic back, but he did not mention anything about its thickness (rumors pin the 3G model as being thicker than its predecessor, in order to accommodate the 3G radio and other components). The headphone jack is now flush with the upper edge of the phone -- a huge improvement over the design of the previous version, which required a kludgy plug to connect a headphone. Another enhancement over the first-generation iPhone is a boost to the device's battery life. In spite of its faster broadband data speeds, the device will offer up to 300 hours of standby time, up to 10 hours of 2G talk time (compared with eight hours on the previous model), and up to five hours of 3G talk time. "That's actually a very large amount of 3G talk time. We're very proud of this," said Jobs. The phone will run for five to six hours of high-speed Web browsing and seven hours of video viewing. Music playback is good for up to 24 hours of battery life (which puts the new iPhone right alongside stand-alone iPod audio players). Software improvements Many of the iPhone 3G's improvements will be found in its software tweaks, dubbed iPhone 2.0. For example, the phone will now support a slew of core features for enterprise security (including VPN and WPA wireless encryption). In addition, you can search through contacts, display iWork documents and Microsoft Office files, and save images received in e-mail to your photo library. It also offers batch delete and move support while in the e-mail app, and multilingual support. iPhone sales and prognosis According to Jobs, in its first year the iPhone has sold 6 million units. A whopping 98 percent of iPhone users browse the Web, 94 percent use e-mail, 90 percent do text messaging and 80 percent use 10 or more features. "You can't even begin to figure out how to use 10 features" on other phones, Jobs said. With its inclusion of a 3G radio and GPS, enterprise security and broader international support, the iPhone 3G looks well-positioned to build on Apple's market share, which climbed to 27 percent by the end of 2007, according to research firm IDC. Even with many details, such as the service costs, still unknown, Apple is clearly prepared to take on Research in Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry smart phones. RIM currently has a 35 percent share of the smart-phone market.

The Rose

The Rose The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being. She said, 'Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?' I laughed and enthusiastically responded, 'Of course you may!' and she gave me a giant squeeze. 'Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?' I asked. She jokingly replied, 'I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids...' 'No seriously,' I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age. 'I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!' she told me. After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this 'time machine' as she shared her wisdom and experience with me. Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up... At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, 'I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.' As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, 'We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it! There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.' She concluded her speech by courageously singing 'The Rose.' She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. (Lyrics are below) One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be. When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they'll really enjoy it! These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE. REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. We make a Living by what we get; we make a Life by what we give. 'Good friends are like stars.........You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.' The Rose Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed Some say love, it is a razor, that leaves your soul to bleed Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need I say love, it is a flower, and you, its only seed Its the heart afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance Its the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance Its the one who wont be taken, the one who cant seem to give And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong Just remember that in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow Lies the seed, that with the suns love in the spring becomes the rose. Celebration means A winter evening Four friends One Rain Four glasses of Tea. Celebration means Hundred bucks of petrol A rusty old bike And an open road Celebration means Maggi noodles A hostel room 4.25 a.m. Celebration means 3 old friends 3 separate cities 3 coffee mugs 1 internet messenger Celebration means Rain on a hot tin roof Pakoras deep-frying Neighbours dropping in A party celebration means 2 friends 1 SOUL

Too much, too little sleep tied to ill health in CDC study

People who sleep fewer than six hours a night — or more than nine — are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies. The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use. The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don't get proper shuteye, said Dr. Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "The data is all coming together that short sleepers and long sleepers don't do so well," Kramer said. The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 U.S. adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such surveys can't prove cause-effect relationships, so — for example — it's not clear if smoking causes sleeplessness or if sleeplessness prompts smoking, said Charlotte Schoenborn, the study's lead author. It also did not account for the influence of other factors, such as depression, which can contribute to heavy eating, smoking, sleeplessness and other problems. Smoking was highest for people who got under six hours of sleep, with 31 percent saying they were current smokers. Those who got nine or more hours also were big puffers, with 26 percent smoking. The overall U.S. smoking rate is about 21 percent. For those in the study who sleep seven to eight hours, the rate was lower, at 18 percent. Results were similar, though a bit less dramatic, for obesity: About 33 percent of those who slept less than six hours were obese, and 26 percent for those who got nine or more. Normal sleepers were the thinnest group, with obesity at 22 percent. For alcohol use, those who slept the least were the biggest drinkers. However, alcohol use for those who slept seven to eight hours and those who slept nine hours or more was similar. In another measure, nearly half of those who slept nine hours or more each night were physically inactive in their leisure time, which was worse even than the lightest sleepers and the proper sleepers. Many of those who sleep nine hours or more may have serious health problems that make exercise difficult. Many elderly people are in the group who get the least sleep, which would help explain why physical activity rates are low. Those skimpy sleepers who are younger may still feel too tired to exercise, experts said. Stress or psychological problems may explain what's going on with some of the lighter sleepers, experts said. Other studies have found inadequate sleep is tied to appetite-influencing hormone imbalances and a higher incidence of diabetes and high blood pressure, noted James Gangwisch, a respected Columbia University sleep researcher. "We're getting to the point that they may start recommending getting enough sleep as a standard approach to weight loss and the prevention of obesity," said Gangwisch, who was not involved in the study.