July?s pick of Samsung Galaxy S4 cases

Fitting a case onto a modern smartphone often comes down to personal choice or some times it?s a necessity to protect the device in certain situations as not everyone wants a more rugged mobile phone. For owners of the Samsung Galaxy S4 we are now looking at July?s pick of cases for the device.

We have seen battery cases for the Galaxy S4 before and today we have another one in the form of the offGrid Backup Battery Case. The product from Incipio will provide up to 3,100 mAh of charging capacity while keeping the device slim and easy to carry around.

The case is promised to provide up to 10.5 hours of additional talk time for Galaxy S4 owners that is easily installed onto the device, and there are LED status indicators. The case can be pre-ordered here with estimated delivery in three weeks for $89.99.

Next up is a case that will bring some Galaxy S4 Active features to the standard device that is called the Krusell Sealabox. The case will offer Galaxy S4 owners a well made and waterproof product that has IPX7 certification. This will allow the handset to be submerged in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes while also protecting the device from drops and scratches.

Users can still enjoy all the features of the handset with the case in place and it even comes with a neck strap for extra portability. The case is also available for owners of the Galaxy S3 and S2 and can be purchased here for only $34.95.

Another clever case from Incipio is the Stowaway that will protect the Samsung Galaxy S4 with some excellent shock absorption, and it also features a secret back compartment that has room for storing up to three credit cards or ID?s. The case even comes with a clever built in stand ideal for watching movies or hands free operation, and the Stowaway can be found here for only $34.99.

Last up we have the snug fitting G7 Breathe for the Galaxy S4 that has been designed to fit the handset perfectly, and is manufactured from a durable hard-shell construction while being light weight and giving access to all of the handsets features. This is priced at only $9.99 and can be purchased here.

Source: http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2013/07/25/julys-pick-of-samsung-galaxy-s4-cases/

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Immigration, student loan top congressional agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republicans and Democrats will put good will to the test when Congress returns this week to potentially incendiary fights over nominations, unresolved disputes over student loans and the farm bill, and the uncertainty of whether lawmakers have the political will to rewrite the nation's immigration laws.

The cooperation evident in the Senate last month with passage of a bipartisan immigration bill could be wiped out immediately if Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., frustrated with GOP delaying tactics on judges and nominations, tries to change the Senate rules by scrapping the current three-fifths majority for a simple majority.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has indicated it's a decision Reid could regret if the GOP seizes Senate control in next year's elections.

"Once the Senate definitively breaks the rules to change the rules, the pressure to respond in kind will be irresistible to future majorities," McConnell said last month, looking ahead to 2014 when Democrats have to defend 21 seats to the GOP's 14.

McConnell envisioned a long list of reversals from the Democratic agenda, from repealing President Barack Obama's health care law to shipping radioactive nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Reid's home state of Nevada.

Recently elected Democrats have clamored for changes in Senate rules as Obama has faced Republican resistance to his nominations.

Two Cabinet-rank choices ? Tom Perez as labor secretary and Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency ? could be approved by the Senate this month after a loud debate over administration policies.

The GOP also has challenged Obama's three judicial nominees to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit as they've tried to eliminate the vacancies.

Reid had served notice in April that the Democratic majority could change the Senate rules on "any given day," and he was willing to do so if necessary.

In the Republican-controlled House, courteous behavior, even within the GOP ranks, has barely been perceptible with the ignominious failure of the farm bill. Some collaboration will be necessary if the House is to move ahead on immigration legislation this month.

Conservatives from safe, gerrymandered House districts have rebuffed appeals from some national Republicans who argue that embracing immigration overhaul will boost the party's political standing with an increasingly diverse electorate, especially in the 2016 presidential election. The conservatives strongly oppose any legislation offering legalization to immigrants living here illegally.

Reflecting the will of the rank and file, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and other Republicans have said the comprehensive Senate immigration bill that couples the promise of citizenship for those living here unlawfully with increased border security is a nonstarter in the House.

Republicans were assessing the views of their constituents during the weeklong July Fourth break and planned to discuss their next steps at a private meeting Wednesday.

"I think what members need before we proceed on the actual immigration reform is an ironclad guarantee that the border is going to be secure," Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said just before the recess. He didn't see any urgency to acting quickly.

"I find it very interesting the argument that we can't wait till the border is secure, we can't even do a six-month test to make sure ... we have to get them out of the shadows immediately," Salmon said. "They've been in the shadows for 20 years, and another six months is going to break their backs? I mean come on, that's not even a valid argument."

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Republicans would be hashing out "two key hot spots" in Wednesday's meeting: the pathway to citizenship and health care.

"We need to be the party of solutions and not always obstructing. And, so, I think there's an effort here that we have a broken immigration system. We need to fix this immigration system," McCaul said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," predicting that the full House could take up immigration as early as this month and representatives from both chambers could be working to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions late this year or early next.

The House Judiciary Committee has adopted a piecemeal approach, approving a series of bills, none with a path to citizenship that Obama and Democrats are seeking. Democrats hope the single-issue bills get them to a conference with the Senate, where the prospects for a far-reaching overhaul improve.

"I think what you're finding is that there will be a compromise, a smart compromise," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said Sunday, also on CBS. "You have to be smart. You have to be tough. But you have to be fair. And if you can do that, you'll have a full fix."

A more pressing concern for some lawmakers was the fate of the five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill.

In a surprise last month, the House rejected the bill as 62 Republicans voted no after Boehner had urged support for the measure.

House conservatives wanted cuts deeper than $2 billion annually, or about 3 percent, in the almost $80 billion-a-year food stamp program while Democrats were furious with a last-minute amendment that would have added additional work requirements to food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Reid has made it clear that an extension of the current farm law, passed in 2008, is unlikely as he presses the House to pass the Senate version of the bill. That leaves Boehner to figure out the next step before the current policy expires Sept. 30.

Congress also must figure out what to do about interest rates on college student loans, which doubled from 3.4 percent last Monday because of partisan wrangling in the Senate.

Lawmakers promised to restore lower rates when they return this week, both retroactively and before students start signing loan documents later this summer. For now, the rate stands at 6.8 percent, which is higher than most loans available from private lenders.

Congress faces political and economic fights over the budget, with the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and Congress plodding through spending bills with no sign they will be done on time. The House is set to vote this week on the spending bill for the Energy Department.

In addition to legislation to keep the government running, Congress probably will have to vote on whether to raise the nation's borrowing authority, a politically fraught vote that roiled the markets in August 2009.

Three Senate committees will consider Obama nominees for major national security positions this month, confirmation hearings certain to set off a political dust-up over the president's policies though the criticism is unlikely to scuttle the selections.

Questions about the administration's policy toward Syria and plans to arm the rebels in their civil war with President Bashar Assad's forces will dominate the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the re-nomination of Gen. Martin Dempsey for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The hearing is scheduled for July 18.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to hold a hearing on Samantha Power, the president's pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and a subcommittee meets July 11 to consider the nomination of Victoria Nuland for assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs.

That posting typically wouldn't draw a great deal of attention, but senators are certain to press Nuland about her work on the widely debunked talking points about the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed in the Sept. 11 attack last year.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at that time, used the talking points five days after the attack, blaming the assault on a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic video.

The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a confirmation hearing Tuesday on Obama's choice of James Comey to serve as FBI director. If confirmed by the Senate, Comey, a top Bush administration lawyer best known for defiantly refusing to go along with White House demands on warrantless wiretapping nearly a decade ago, would replace Robert Mueller.

The administration's recently disclosed surveillance programs are likely topics for Comey's hearing.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-07-07-Congress%20Returns/id-8f9f076740764e798b60e231940a865a

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Proposal to Split Farm Bill Divides Congress

How the House Republican leadership tries to salvage the failed farm bill is becoming a test of the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and it will also pit the power of the farmers and antihunger activists against the conservative groups that want to dismantle both the farm and food-stamp programs.

But the real political and policy issue is whether House members have become more responsive to national conservative groups than to farmers and antihunger advocates in their own districts who know the importance of the farm bill to a major industry and to providing food to jobless and low-paid people.

Since June 20, when the bill failed to pass the House by a vote of 234 to 195, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. , the Heritage Foundation, and the Club for Growth seem to be using the farm bill as a tool in a campaign to portray Boehner as a weak leader and make the more conservative Cantor the speaker. Like Boehner, Cantor voted for the farm bill, but since its failure, Cantor has promoted the idea of splitting the bill in two, which would allow separate votes on the nutrition and farm programs.

Whether Cantor can assemble the votes to pass the two separate measures is uncertain. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., who wants separate votes, said last week that the momentum was going his way. But Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said he doubts there is support for splitting the bill, and Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, said that the way to get the bill passed may be to bring it up without the amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., to which antihunger advocates and Democrats objected most. That amendment would allow states to impose work and training requirements to food stamps. If the applicants couldn't meet them, the states could deny benefits and keep half the money.

But even if the farm bill is split in two, it looks like Heritage and the Club for Growth would still recommend that members vote against it, because they object to the underlying programs. Heritage said in a memo that its six principles for farm-bill reform are separating food stamps from the farm program, turning food stamps into a "work activation" program, adding no new farm programs, avoiding any increase in the cost of crop insurance, capping premium subsidies, and repealing the sugar and dairy programs on the grounds that they raise food prices. Since there is no way that a single farm bill or two bills will contain all those provisions, there seems no possibility that lawmakers who vote for the farm bill can get relief from a barrage of conservative criticism.

Last week the relentlessness of the conservative campaign became apparent when House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., was back in his district. On July 1, the Tulsa World reported that conservative activists, some of whom do not live in Lucas's 3rd District, had shown up that day at a town-hall meeting in Skiatook, Okla. "If you want the conservative Republican vote, you need to come forward with a conservative Republican bill," said Ronda Vuillemont-Smith, a conservative activist from Broken Arrow, which is in the 1st District, where tea-party groups in 2012 ousted Republican Rep. John Sullivan in favor of now-Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who voted against the farm bill.

Lucas, who has also been the target of Heritage Action radio ads threatening to recruit a "real conservative" to run against him, fought back. "I'm under attack by those people," Lucas said. "They're coming after me. They are all special interest groups that exist to sell subscriptions, to collect seminar fees, and to perpetuate their goals."

Lucas continued, "You've got to understand: They don't necessarily want a Republican president or a Republican Congress," he continued. "?They made more money when [Democrat] Nancy [Pelosi] was speaker.? It's a business."

Vuillemont-Smith replied: "That's a perverted way to look at it."

"I'm sorry. I have to deal in the real world," Lucas said, adding that by opposing the bill, conservatives were turning their back on the bill's $40 billion in savings over 10 years, including a $20 billion cut in food stamps.

When Congress comes back to Washington on Monday, members will find that farm and nutrition groups are much better organized than they were when the House voted on the bill. In retrospect, it appears that farm groups were so focused on amendments on crop insurance, the commodity title, and the sugar and dairy programs that they did not rally votes for final passage, while nutrition groups voiced opposition to all food stamp cuts.

But on July 2, a coalition of 532 farm groups?almost the entire rural establishment from farm groups to conservationists to bankers?sent Boehner a letter urging him to bring up the farm bill again as soon as possible and not to split it into two. "This important legislation supports our nation's farmers, ranchers, forest owners, food security, natural resources and wildlife habitats, rural communities, and the 16 million Americans whose jobs directly depend on the agriculture industry," wrote groups ranging from the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union to the American Bankers Association and the World Wildlife Fund. "We believe that splitting the nutrition title from the rest of the bill could result in neither farm nor nutrition programs passing, and urge you to move a unified farm bill forward," the coalition added.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which represents smaller, environmentally minded farmers, also sent a letter to Boehner and Pelosi urging them "to work together" to bring the bill back to the floor as soon as possible. "This is critical legislation that should not be allowed to continue to drift further into uncertainty," the group wrote. "Nor should it be split up into narrower component parts, a move that dooms its completion."

The Environmental Working Group, which had sided with the conservative and nurition groups in opposing the bill, also said it favors keeping it intact. "Dividing and passing separate bills will not make it any easier for the House and Senate to reconcile competing bills and send a final bill to the president for signature," Scott Faber, an EWG vice president, told National Journal Daily.

Antihunger advocates, which had praised the failure of the bill because it would have made cuts to food stamps, initially stayed out of the fray, but led by Robert Greenstein of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, they have begun coming out against splitting the bill. Greenstein said in an interview that all antihunger, religious, and civic groups involved in fighting hunger should tell members of Congress to vote against both bills if the Republican leadership splits them up. Although he has often criticized some parts of the farm bill, Greenstein said the multidecade history of bipartisan, comprehensive farm bills has achieved "sounder policy and more sustainable policy" than taking up the issues separately. Separating out food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, "would take the SNAP bill farther to the right and make bigger cuts," Greenstein said. If the bill gets to conference with the Senate and there is no agreement on SNAP, "I worry that it sets the program up for a ceaseless attack over time because it is unauthorized," he added.

The Food Research Action Center, Feeding America, Share Our Strength, and Bread for the World all said in e-mails they are opposed to splitting the bill. Key consumer leaders Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America and Patty Lovera of Food and Water Watch also said the programs should be kept together.

History shows that it is wise for nutrition advocates to keep nutrition programs within the farm bill. In 1996, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., had proposed turning food stamps over to the states as part of his Contract with America. In order to get enough votes that year to pass a new farm bill, then-House Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., made sure that the farm bill maintained the structure of the program, but the farm bill reauthorized food stamps for only two years and left the major changes to the program in the welfare reform act. Absent the farm bill, Congress made the biggest cuts to food stamps in the history of the program, and it took antihunger advocates years of action on subsequent farm legislation to claw back the benefits.

Whether all this unity convinces Congress to bring up a single bill may depend on whether the farm and nutrition advocates can persuade freshmen and sophomore members of Congress who are not primarily from rural areas to do so. While farm advocates and political analysts have expressed shock that some members of the House Agriculture Committee and some committee chairmen voted against final passage even though they won their amendments, most of the 62 Republicans who voted against final passage were freshman and sophomore members.

When the Waterways Council, which represents ports and inland waterways, held a news conference shortly after the failure of the farm bill to announce that its members expect to convince the House to pass a reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act this year, their lobbyists said they believe they can beat the odds by establishing better relationships with the more recently elected members of Congress than the farm lobbyists did.

Randy Russell, an agriculture lobbyist who served in the Reagan administration and has close ties to Republicans, said that if the Republican leadership "makes a calculation" that splitting the bill is a way to get conference, he would try to rally votes for the bills. But Russell added that he is not a fan of splitting the bill because it would make conference with the Senate so difficult.

It's unclear how Democrats would vote on the bill. House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said he would vote against a single food-stamp bill, but he has not said how he would vote on the farm-program bill.

But the real battle is among the Republicans. An analysis of the most competitive House districts in 2014 by James Carville and Stan Greenberg of Democracy Corps shows the importance for advocates of a single bill of reaching Republicans who are not vulnerable to Democrats. Almost all of the most vulnerable 24 Republicans voted for the farm bill.

Whatever happens, the farm bill has become part of the stratosphere of today's national politics.

Contributing Editor Jerry Hagstrom is the founder and executive director of The Hagstrom Report, which may be found at www.HagstromReport.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/proposal-split-farm-bill-divides-congress-052423872.html

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Stocks end with strong gains after jobs report

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks ended with a surge Friday after traders decided that a healthy job market mattered more than the Federal Reserve scaling back its economic stimulus.

After the government reported strong hiring for June, traders and investors struggled over how to react. At first, they pushed stocks higher because the report was better than expected. Then they pushed stocks lower because improved hiring last month made it more likely the Federal Reserve could ease back on its bond buying.

After waffling early, investors and traders finally settled on an optimistic outlook. The Standard & Poor's 500 had its strongest performance in three weeks.

"In general, I think our economy is standing on its own two feet right now," said David Brown, chief market strategist at Sabrient, a Santa Barbara, Calif., research firm for institutional investors.

U.S. stock indexes shot higher when the market opened, fueled by the Labor Department's report that the U.S. economy added a stronger-than-expected 195,000 jobs last month. But the gains tapered off within the hour, and all the major indexes dipped briefly into the red.

By the end of the day, the three main U.S. indexes had more than recovered, each ending about 1 percent higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 147.29 points to 15,135.84. The S&P 500 rose 16.48 points to 1,631.89. The Nasdaq composite climbed 35.71 to 3,479.38.

"I think the initial reaction was, 'Yay, all these people are employed, and then, 'whoops,'" Brown said, during late-morning trading.

The whiplash day illustrated the complex and outsized role that the Fed has played in the stock market in recent weeks.

The Federal Reserve, led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, has been propping up the economy by buying bonds and keeping interest rates low. Investors know that the Fed isn't going to continue the stimulus forever, but they worry that developments like Friday's positive jobs report could make the Fed yank away the stimulus too soon.

The jobs picture "gives Bernanke more of a mandate" to rein in Fed stimulus programs, Brown said.

Investors will get other clues about the economy next week, when earnings season starts. Aluminum giant Alcoa reports second-quarter results after the market closes Monday

As investors bought stocks, they sold bonds Friday, another sign that they think the Fed will tamp down its bond buying. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped dramatically to 2.73 percent from late Wednesday's level of 2.51 percent. That was the highest yield for the 10-year note since August 2011.

Relatively few shares changed hands Friday because many traders were still on vacation after the Fourth of July holiday Thursday. Light volume may have contributed to the market's early volatility. The market can be moved by changes in even a relatively small numbers of shares.

Traders also noted that U.S. stock indexes were playing catch-up after missing out on Europe's big gains Thursday.

Stocks in Europe had jumped Thursday, including a 3 percent gain in Britain's main index, after the European Central Bank and the Bank of England sought to soothe markets by saying they'd keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future. Investors there have been scared that their own central banks may follow the Fed's lead and rein in their economic stimulus measures soon.

The calming effect didn't last long. Markets were down throughout Europe on Friday, as investors there fretted over whether the Fed would pull back.

As for U.S. government bond trading, investors have been selling 10-year Treasurys for weeks in anticipation of a Fed pullback. As recently as May 3, the yield on the 10-year note was 1.6 percent. The current yield, while still low by historical standards, has created a sea change in the way investors view bonds.

Jordan Waxman, managing director and partner at HighTower, a wealth management firm in New York, said investors who had fled to bonds because they seemed safe weren't exactly soothed by their recent performance.

"It's like going to your favorite restaurant month in and month out, and then one day you see a rodent running across the restaurant," Waxman said. "It's going to be a while before you go back."

For the past three decades, bond interest rates have tended to move down rather than up, so the recent gains are throwing many investors for a loop, noted Craig Fehr, an investment strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis.

"This is catching a lot of bond investors off guard," said Fehr. He's been telling clients to trim their holdings on long-term bonds.

The effects of potentially higher interest rates were evident throughout financial markets Friday. Stocks for small banks rose because investors believe those companies will benefit from being able to charge higher rates when they make loans

But homebuilder Lennar was the second-biggest decliner on the S&P 500, falling $1.42, or 4 percent, to $33.93. Investors worried that higher interest rates will make mortgages more expensive and tamp down on demand, although rates will still be low by historical standards.

The price of oil rose $1.98, or 2 percent, to $103.22 a barrel in New York. That could signal investors are optimistic about U.S. manufacturing and the broader economy ? or it could mean they're unnerved by political unrest in Egypt. On Wednesday, the Egyptian military ousted President Mohammed Morsi, and his supporters began a series of protests and attacks Friday.

The dollar rose, which likely means that investors were feeling confident about the U.S. economy.

As for the U.S. jobs report, investors said it represented an economy on the mend.

The 195,000 additional jobs in June handily beat expectations for an increase of 165,000. The government also said that the economy added 70,000 more jobs in April and May combined than previously thought.

But there were also reasons for caution. More than half the job additions came from hotels, restaurants, entertainment and retail, which are usually lower paying.

Among stocks making big moves:

?KB Home fell 64 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $18.07. Beazer Homes lost 18 cents, or 1 percent, to $17.22.

?Lululemon, which makes high-end yoga clothing, fell after the company said its founder and chairman plans to sell a large portion of his stock. The stock lost 95 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $63.55.

?Newmont Mining was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500, hurt by a dip in gold prices. The stock lost $1.24, or 4.3 percent, to $27.78.

?Restoration Hardware, which sells high-end home products, fell after disclosing that an unnamed group of stockholders plan to sell some of its shares. The stock lost $1.28, or 1.7 percent, to $74.65.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-end-strong-gains-jobs-report-201540897.html

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For Sale: White Verizon Galaxy Note 2

Galaxy note 2 for sale. Comes with box, charger and booklets.

Only used for 2 months, minimal wear and tear, great condition.

Selling for $380 plus shipping, obo.

PM for further details.

Sent with the HoFo App

Phone History: Samsung GS4, Samsung Note 2, Samsung GS3, Nokia 822, HTC 8x, Moto Razr M, Moto Razr, HTC Incredible 4g, LG Lucid, Samsung Charge, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound, HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Fascinate, Motorola R2-D2, Motorola Droid, Blackberry Curve 8330.

Source: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1803775-White-Verizon-Galaxy-Note-2?goto=newpost

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The Jewish Press ? ? Is It Bullying?

Facts About King.com And 'Candy Crush Saga' - Business Insider

Screenshot

A scene from Candy Crush Saga, the loopy sweet matching game.

King.com, a company most people have never heard of (it makes the mobile game Candy Crush Saga), just overtook Zynga (maker of FarmVille) as the No.1 Facebook game app maker on Facebook, according to AppData.

No wonder investors and analysts are salivating at the idea of a King IPO (even though, financially, game IPOs are fraught with peril).

To give you an idea of just how dominant King has become, here are some facts about the size of the company and its audience:

1. King reached 150.4 million monthly users on Facebook, according to Bloomberg. Poor old Zynga has only 150.2 million. King is now Facebook's top gamemaker.
2. King games can be started on a phone and picked up again on a desktop ? that's why they're so "sticky" with users.
3. King is probably already generating hundreds of millions of dollars every year from advertising, analysts believe.
4. Bloomberg reported than "Zynga has lost more than 100 million players in the past year -- about the same number gained by King."
5. The secret to King's success are its games' time elasticity. Any King game can be played for either 2 minutes or 2 hours. There is no time commitment before starting ? unlike Zynga Poker.
6. We noted yesterday that Candy Crush Saga is played more than 600 million times per day. AppData suggests 45 million people play Candy Crush each month.
7. AppData shows that King has more than double the number of Facebook app users as Microsoft ? even though Microsoft has a formal, longstanding partnership with Facebook.
8. Two of King's lesser known titles, Pet Rescue Saga and Farm Hero Saga, both have more users on Facebook than Bing.
9. Bubble Saga, King's 7th most successful game, has 1 million MAUs. (Put another way, if Bubble Saga was a standalone mobile app, that would make it a hot new startup just on its own.)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-kingcom-and-candy-crush-saga-2013-7

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The Lonesome Independence Day Of Kobayashi, Eater In Exile

On a May evening, in a cramped biergarten behind a German restaurant off the Bowery in Manhattan, Takeru Kobayashi sat down to a plate of Rheinischer Sauerbraten mit Kartoffelkl??en und Rotkraut. First, he produced a small camera and began photographing the sauerbraten for his blog, where he catalogs his personal gustatory experiences. He was dressed in yellow pants, a summer scarf, and a blazer with multicolored markings resembling graffiti. Some nearby diners looked up when the camera flashed, but Kobayashi, the great Kobayashi, went unrecognized, in the city where he became a celebrity.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ijE_f9E3QWk/the-lonesome-independence-day-of-kobayashi-eater-in-ex-5817573

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GOP leaders predict Swallow fallout in future elections

SALT LAKE CITY ? The political fallout from the way a probe of Attorney General John Swallow is conducted will make itself manifest in future elections, several top Republican officials say.

?Is there any member of this room that thinks John Swallow will be the issue in 2014, or the Republican majority will be the issue,? House Majority Leader Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, asked members of the GOP House caucus on Wednesday.

He and other Republican House members suggest the makeup of the special committee to investigate Swallow allegations will have political implications, regardless of the group?s potential findings. House Speaker Rebecca Lockhart will appoint state representatives to the nine-person committee and there has been significant discussion of the political makeup of the panel. House Democrats have asked for equal representation on the group, while some Republicans have argued for weighted representation based on the current political makeup of the Beehive state. That could lead to a 7-2 or 6-3 majority of GOP members on the group.

The group will take the lead in the House?s efforts to investigate allegations raised against Swallow, but will not have authority to act on the information gleaned. Lawmakers have been clear that any potential impeachment action will be undertaken by the House as a whole, not the committee.

Some, including Rep. Jim Bird, R-West Jordan, said the perception of Republicans potentially dictating the future of what occurs with the Swallow allegations will be a big issue with voters in 2014. He said it will be bigger than the political impact of House Bill 477 in 2012, which initiated a state effort to wrest control of federal lands in Utah from the federal government.

?If you had issues with HB 477, if we don?t do this right, there?s going to be big trouble. We?re going to hear it. It?s going to be big in Salt Lake County,? Bird said.

Dee agreed.

?There are five or six or eight people in this caucus that will sink or swim on what happens with this process. It may not be me or someone in Cache, but those people within Salt Lake County, most likely western Salt Lake. If you think it?s John Swallow, you?re missing the vote to see how we are viewed by the masses,? Dee said. The Weber County lawmaker said the makeup of the committee will be the story of the committee, and not the process, if lawmakers are not careful.

Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake, argued the committee should be equal in representation from both parties, so that politics won?t be perceived as the reason for any findings the committee may come up with. He said that is the only way to restore public trust in the attorney general?s office.

?This is not a political exercise. It?s an exercise that rises above political parties,? King said. His amendment was defeated on the floor of the House.

Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield, argued any vote taken by the committee should be forwarded with a two-thirds majority and not a majority. His amendment was also defeated.

Lockhart has not tipped her hand on who will serve on the committee, but said she has been considering the matter carefully. She said picking the right person to head the group is also critical.

?It weighs on me heavily. This is the person who will direct the work of the committee and potentially look at issuing subpoenas. This is not a walk in the park, this isn?t easy. No one delights in this and no one relishes that assignment,? Lockhart said.

She said life experience would be considered in looking at committee candidates, not whether they had experience in law. She also said gender would not be a key factor in choosing potential group members.

Swallow has been hit with allegations of impropriety since he assumed office in January. He is the subject of a federal investigation after indicted Utah businessman Jeremy Johnson accused him of arranging to derail a Federal Trade Commission probe by bribing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Swallow is also the target of complaints filed at the Utah State Bar Association. One complaint alleges Swallow violated attorney-client privilege during conversations with a business owner cited for breaking telemarketing laws. The attorney general has denied any wrongdoing and has suggested he is eager to tell his side of the story. Six separate investigative groups are conducting probes into allegations against Swallow, including the Davis County attorney?s office.

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Waze could lead way to Israeli Internet growth

FILE - In this March 15, 2012 file photo, Ben Gleitzman uses a traffic and navigation app called Waze as he drives to work in Menlo Park, Calif. The record-breaking sale of Israeli navigation company Waze to Google earlier this month told the world what Israel?s tech experts have known for years: The mideast country is now a major player in Internet innovation. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this March 15, 2012 file photo, Ben Gleitzman uses a traffic and navigation app called Waze as he drives to work in Menlo Park, Calif. The record-breaking sale of Israeli navigation company Waze to Google earlier this month told the world what Israel?s tech experts have known for years: The mideast country is now a major player in Internet innovation. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? The billion-dollar sale of navigation company Waze to Google may finally be putting Israel on the map as a major player in consumer Internet innovation.

Israel's high-tech sector has been dominated by firms that made products for other businesses, like computer chips or communications gear. But in recent years Internet and mobile companies have emerged as the majority of Israeli startups, and many have found success in the global market.

The focus might be changing now.

"There's definitely a shift that Waze has done a great deal of emphasizing," said Nir Zohar, the president and chief operating officer of Wix. "I would assume that we will find more foreign investors coming to Israel to invest in Israeli entrepreneurs." Wix, a personal website company, filed last month for a $75 million initial public offering the United States, just as Google was wrapping up its $1.03 billion purchase of Waze.

Foreign investors are beginning to take notice.

Israeli consumer firms myheritage.com, a genealogy site, and Fiverr.com, an online marketplace for creative services, received major backing last year from Accel Partners and Bessemer, two leading American venture firms.

Veterans of the Israeli Internet startup scene say that Israeli companies are known for their creativity and international outlook, so the move into the fast-growing world of smartphone apps and consumer websites has been relatively easy.

"Because we don't have a local market, we go on the international market from day one," said Uri Adoni of Jerusalem Venture Partners, one of the leading tech investment firms in Israel.

Unlike in larger countries, he said, Israel's small size means that its startups naturally target places like the United States instead of the domestic market. With products ready-made for international use, they are attractive to overseas venture capitalists.

Experts say Israeli companies are accustomed to taking unconventional risks in building their products.

"There's always a special Israeli take, and the take is 'Let's go crazy, let's bring something that's completely off the charts,'" said Michal Adam of the IVC Research Center, which tracks statistics on Israeli venture capital.

In the case of Waze, that meant relying on the app's user base in order to help build its maps because it lacked the vast amounts of data and satellite imagery of a company like Google. Thanks to its crowdsourcing feature, Waze's mapping service provides its user community with real-time information on traffic conditions, accidents and speed traps that standard GPS services have struggled to gather. The service has also generated a loyal user base.

The Israeli way, Adam said, is "doing things simple when you need a complicated result because you don't have the money and the resources."

Roughly three-quarters of Israeli startups provide mobile or Internet services, according to IVC. Just five years ago, the number was below 50 percent.

After bottoming out in 2009 during the global financial crisis, American venture capitalists have steadily ramped up investments in Israel. Last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association in Arlington, Va., they pumped almost $85 million of equity into Israeli Internet companies, the highest amount since the global financial crisis five years ago.

Overall, Israel is the world's largest destination for high tech venture capital after Silicon Valley.

Yossi Vardi, a leading figure in the Israeli tech scene, said the Internet boom is also a result of natural growth. "Every major (acquisition) creates a wave of angels and new investors," he said. "Angels" are the individuals who make early investments in high-risk companies.

Vardi helped pave the way for the current crop of Internet firms as an original investor in ICQ, the forerunner to modern instant messaging services. When ICQ was sold to AOL for $400 million in 1998, Vardi took his profits from the deal and invested in more than 100 other tech companies, about half of them consumer oriented like ICQ. Many of those companies, like answers.com and media software maker FoxyTunes, added success stories to the Israeli consumer market.

Vardi expects that the Waze sale will spark a similar round of growth.

Along with attracting new investors, each successful new company creates a new supply of experienced employees who may go on to form startups of their own.

"In three years, there are going to be a lot of people who are employees of these companies who are going to go out into the market," said Micha Kaufman, the CEO of Fiverr.com. Alexa, an Amazon-owned web analytics service, ranks Fiverr among the 200 most visited websites in the world.

Some experts warn of overconfidence. The low costs of launching a consumer-oriented startup, which do not require factories and large machinery used by traditional companies, has made it easy for anyone with an idea to start a business. Those low costs make the companies attractive to investors, who can afford small bets on promising startups.

"I do expect more entrepreneurs to throw their hats in the ring," said Adam Fisher, the head of the Israel office of Bessemer Venture Partners, a U.S. firm. He cautioned that with few barriers to entry, the Internet market could be flooded with companies that have little chance of success.

"We welcome them, but we hope they don't misread the success of Waze," Fisher said. He pointed out that a company that develops an app or program must also figure out how to make it profitable, a problem that traditional tech companies like chip manufacturers don't have.

Still, the success of Waze generates optimism among Israeli Internet companies. "All the press that all these exits are getting ... creates confidence for future buyers," said Yaron Carni, a veteran investor and head of the Tel Aviv Angels Group.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-07-04-ML-Israel-Internet-Boom/id-80e2726a85744ea58b28f74509385d97

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