Apple Says iMessage and Facetime Services Are Down For Some

The photo above serves as a harsh reminder of the consequences of texting while driving. The unfinished text, never sent, was typed by 22-year-old Alexander Heit as he was driving through a small town in Colorado earlier this month.

Before Heit had a chance to finish typing the text, his car drifted onto the wrong side of the road. Realizing his mistake, he overcorrected, quickly turning the steering wheel in an attempt to move his vehicle back into the right lane. He lost control of the car and it veered off the highway, rolling and flipping until it came to a stop.

Alex didn't survive the accident, dying a short time later in a hospital.

Alex didn't survive the accident, dying a short time later in a hospital.

According to Greeley police, "Witnesses stated he seemed to have his head down ... a westbound vehicle slowed and moved over just before Mr. Heit looked up." It was too late.

Police found Hite's iPhone in the wreckage, with the unfinished text displayed as you see here. "Sounds good my man, seeya soon, ill tw," the text reads.

In a statement to Greeley police, Sharon Hite, Alexander's mother, said, "I can't bear the thought of anyone else having to go through something like this." She continued,

“Please, vow to never, NEVER text and drive. In a split second you could ruin your future, injure or kill others, and tear a hole in the heart of everyone who loves you. And in honor of Alex’s memory, please do something kind for a stranger who needs help, as Alex always wished for a world where people were kinder to each other.”

Alexander Heit's life was cut short, leaving behind his classmates at the University of Northern Colorado where he was studying audiology. He was said to be a good student, liked snowboarding and hiking and had a quick sense of humor.

We can all learn something from this. As a parent whose child was in a serious accident because of her texting and driving, I have first-hand experience with this careless act that makes it more dangerous for everyone on our streets and highways.

It's not just young people who are guilty of texting while driving, either. A recent study showed that adults are getting into the act, texting and driving even more than teens.

Apple Says iMessage and Facetime Services Are Down For Some

For about an hour, we’ve been getting reports of Apple’s iMessage system encountering errors and issues including delays and send failures. A couple of minutes ago, Apple acknowledge the issue and noted on its iCloud status site that ‘some users’ may be seeing issues with both iMessage and Facetime.

Apple’s system status panel indicates that the outage began just under an hour ago, and is ongoing at this point.  A twitter search for iMessage results in a new complaint roughly once every second or more, so whatever ‘some’ means, it’s a lot. Apple’s iCloud servicesgrew 31.5% in the last few months to some 250M users with those users sending 2 billion iMessages a day, so even a small percentage of those is going to be a lot of people.

If you’re wondering why we continue to report on the status of iMessage outages, you can check out this piece from back when Apple was facing the first backlash against its Maps issues. Apple, as a service company, has a responsibility to get this right. If it wants iMessage to be a default communications method, it needs to have near 100% uptime. It’s not too bad overall, but there are still regular outages.

Apple’s iMessage Is Down Again (AAPL)

Not that it should come as a surprise to anyone, but Apple‘s iMessage is down right now. 

Several users have reported problems sending iMessages and Apple’s iCloud status page says the service is experiencing issues. 

FaceTime, the video chat feature on iPhones and iPads, is also down.

If you’re trying to send messages to friends, the best thing to do is send them as a regular text message for now. Just press and hold the speech bubble with your text and select “send as SMS.”

FUSION ROCKET COULD HURTLE ASTRONAUTS TO MARS IN 30 DAYS

Scientists from the University of Washington and a private company are working on a fusion-powered rocket that could slash the estimated four-year round trip from Earth to Mars to a maximum of 90 days.

The technology might also make flights to the red planet affordable -- the launch costs alone of such a manned flight using chemical rocket fuel is about US$12 billion, according to UW.

Cutaway Image of Fusion Rocket Design

The project has received two rounds of funding from NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program. It's led by John Slough, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at UW who is also president and director of research at MSNW, the private company working on the project.

 Project Details

The project uses powerful magnets to implode lithium rings, which collapse a conventional deuterium-tritium mix of fusion plasma into a fusion state about once a minute.

Lithium was used because it is the lightest metal, meaning it has the smallest atomic number, Slough told TechNewsWorld. "For a given fusion energy yield, the lightest atoms result in the highest exhaust velocity -- important if you want to go fast."

One set of three rings weighing about 350 gm will be used for each implosion, Slough said. The pressure inside the rings will reach 600,000 atmospheres for a few microseconds, vaporizing the rings. The resulting superheated ionized metal will be ejected out of a divergent magnetic nozzle at high velocity.

The magnetic field will peak at about 12 tesla, he said. However, it will not affect the spacecraft's onboard computers because "a thin metal sheet is sufficient to screen out a pulsed magnetic field. The field from MRI magnets is of equivalent strength, and it is on steady state in the presence of very sensitive equipment."

Solar energy will be used to charge the capacitors that generate the magnetic power. "Modern capacitors can easily store two kJ (kilojoules) per kilogram," Slough pointed out. "For two MJ (megajoules) of storage, the cap mass is 1 ton. No big deal on a 134-ton spacecraft."

Volume won't be an issue, as the capacitors have roughly the same density as water -- one ton per cubic meter, he added.

"The propulsion aspects aren't necessarily new," Ben Corbin, a Ph.D. candidate in aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told TechNewsWorld.

Getting to Barsoom

The fusion rocket will be activated for roughly 10 percent of the total trip, split between start-up and braking, Slough said. About 200 gm of plasma would be required to fuel a trip to Mars and back.

Roughly 80 metric tons of lithium rings would also be needed, but storage space won't be an issue because "the propellant amounts to less than 50 percent of the spacecraft mass," he said. "Rocket launches from Earth are typically 98 percent propellant."

NASA's Role in Fusion

Slough's team presented its mission analysis for a trip to Mars -- together with detailed computer modeling and initial experiment results -- to NASA in March. All portions of the process have been tested successfully in the lab, and the team now has to combine all the tests into a final experiment that actually produces fusion using its technology.

NASA's two rounds of funding totaled $600,000, Slough said. A NASA spokesperson was not immediately available to comment for this story.

Slough's project isn't NASA's first involvement in fusion. In June 2011, John Chapman, a physicist and electronics engineer at the agency's Langley Research Center in Virginia, presented his idea for a motor that would extract energy from boron fuel instead of the more regularly used deuterium-tritium mix.

Fusion engines are far more efficient than conventional chemical engines. Other approaches to fusion engines include the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMIR) and the Gasdynamic Mirror Thruster.

Physicists at the University of Alabama in Huntsville are using the Decade Module Two, a pulsed power design used by the U.S. Department of Defense for weapons effects testing in the 1990s. They are trying to fuse lithium and hydrogen atoms and turn some of their mass into pure energy to see whether the theory behind the pulse fusion propulsion model is valid. 

TOPEKA: Apple Is Going To Release The iPhone 5S In ‘At Least’ Two Screen Sizes (AAPL)

The early rumors on this year’s iPhone have been pretty dull.

For the most part, all we’ve heard is that Apple is working on an iPhone 5S which will be just like the iPhone 5, except with a bump in performance.

It will be the same pattern we’ve seen from Apple. The iPhone 3G led to the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 was the predecessor to the iPhone 4S. And this year, the iPhone 5S will follow the iPhone 5.

However, today, Brian White at Topeka Capital is injecting some life into the iPhone rumor mill. He says Apple could release a new iPhone with multiple screen sizes this year.

“After our meeting with a tech-supply chain company, we walked away with the view that Apple will release the iPhone 5S in at least two screen sizes this summer and possibly three,” says White. He’s on the seventh day of a tour of technology suppliers in China and Taiwan.

Apple has been criticized for not making the iPhone’s screen bigger. It made it taller last year, expanding the screen to 4-inches, up from 3.5-inches, but it’s not enough. Compared to Samsung and HTC which make phones with 5-inch, and 4.7-inch screens, the iPhone feels pretty tiny.

For some people, that’s great. For other people, it would be nice to have a big iPhone.

“Essentially, we believe Apple is coming around to the fact that one size per iPhone release does not work for everyone and offering consumers an option has the potential to expand the Company’s market share,” writes White.

Apple’s policy of only releasing one iPhone size at a time doesn’t really make sense. It has two iPad sizes. It makes MacBooks in three different sizes. Doing the same with the iPhone wouldn’t go against its DNA.

There is a risk of fragmentation for developers, but we assume Apple is smart enough to figure out how to deal with that.

All that said, we’re skeptical about this report because it’s the first we’ve heard, and it’s fairly light on specific details. We’ll see if anyone else follows this report, or if there are any other leaks from the supply chain.

NOKIA TABLET RESURFACES IN PATENT AND ADIDAS APP PREVIEW

It’s not every day you see two tips from different sources on the same product the manufacturer hasn’t yet confirmed to exist. But that’s what’s happening this week – and though both tips didn’t appear today originally, sadly enough (that’d just be too lucky), it doesn’t seem entirely a coincidence that both items would be showing up so close to one another. What we’ve got on our hands is the two newest appearances of the fabled Nokia tablet – could it finally be time?

 First you’re going to want to see the “leak” that appeared earlier this week. While originally this image (shown above) was something we dismissed as an artist’s rendering, it’s source has now had his or her entire site taken down without a trace. If it were only a mocked-up rendering made only to show how the “Adidas micoach app” it’s showing would look on a tablet, the artist would only have left a note, hoping for as much fame from the image as possible, wouldn’t you think?

Still, these are illustrations, and certainly not a showing of any kind of final product from Nokia. If Nokia made them, they never intended to release them with such rough edges. You can find the original (now 404) source at http://cargocollective.com/heyrey#Nokia-Adidas-App – Cargo Collective is a place where artists and designers create their own webspaces and post their work – this is an invite-only community, which again adds credence to the idea that the artist in question didn’t just jump ship when they were called out on their images.

Next there’s a patent application filed by Nokia for a brand new “apparatus cover with keyboard” that you’ll see here situated below what looks suspiciously similar to the Nokia tablet leaks we’ve seen thus far. Engadget discovered this one on the US Patent and Trademark Office listings website where fun bits and pieces go to be registered – and not always come to fruition on the real consumer market.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on the possibility of a Nokia tablet and let us know what you think about such a device coming with Windows RT!

MORGAN STANLEY: APPLE’S NEXT EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENT COULD PRESENT A GREAT BUYING OPPORTUNITY (AAPL)

Apple announces first-quarter 2013 earnings results on April 23. Earnings are expected to come in at $10.11 per share, down from the $13.53 EPS the company posted in the fourth quarter and slightly below the $10.14 per share the company made in the first quarter of 2012.

The stock has lost nearly 40 percent of its value since topping out at $705.07 in September, and many investors continue to struggle with where it goes next.

According to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, those hoping for an Apple earnings rebound in the second quarter of 2013 are likely to be disappointed, and shares may even head lower after Apple announces its first quarter earnings later this month, as she expects weaker forward guidance from management than the market currently expects.

If that sparks a further sell-off in Apple, though, then Huberty is a buyer.

In a note to clients this morning, she writes:

March quarter gross margin and June quarter EPS guide the most important metrics in C1Q, potentially helping build confidence around Apple’s ability to hold gross margin while introducing lower priced products. iPhone and iPad units are less relevant this quarter, in our view, given likely inventory adjustments and delays ahead of product launches in September.

What to do with the stock and upcoming catalysts: We see potential near-term share price weakness on a lower than expected June quarter EPS guide. But, we are buyers ahead of June into the following catalysts: 1) Preview of iOS 7 at WWDC in June which could highlight a new “killer app” such as mobile wallet, 2) A lighter 9.8-inch iPad and new iPad Mini in September quarter, 3) New iPhone 5S and lower-priced iPhone launch in September.

Whether or not Apple can deliver on product launches later this year that will find favor with investors is an open question, but if Huberty is right, the stock could finally start to see a turnaround in the next few months.

Samsung Series 9 Premium Ultrabook Now Available for $1,399

Samsung's recently unveiled Series 9 Ultrabook is now available for purchase.

The 13.3-inch Ultrabook is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor ticking at 2GHz, 4GB of RAM memory and 128GB of SSD storage. It has a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel screen, an Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics chip and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.

On the software side, the Series 9 is powered by Windows 8, though it doesn't take advantage of all its capabilities since it doesn't have a touchscreen.

Samsung fit all of that into a 12.35 x 8.6 x 0.51-inch case, and the entire package weighs 2.56 pounds.

The new Series 9 ultrabook starts at $1,399.99 — quite a surprise given the originally intended price was $1,899 (though that was the price for the model with a 256GB SSD).

At this price point, it's a much more serious competitor to, say, Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air, which offers double the storage but a slower processor and a lower screen resolution for the same price.

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MERE DAD KI MARUTI LYRICS - Mere Dad Ki Maruti

MERE DAD KI MARUTI LYRICS - Mere Dad Ki Maruti

Mere Dad Ki Maruti Lyrics

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Todh tadh ke border

Maine hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

I went to the market

Teh khatke liyaandi jooti

Uddhe faraate maar

Mere dad ki maruti

Mere dad ki maruti

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Todh tadh ke border

Maine hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Showroom se aayi hai

Gaddi high-figh hai

High speed breaker kinne

Break kitte na laayi hai

Showroom se aayi hai

Gaddi high-figh hai

High speed breaker kinne

Mere Dad Ki Maruti lyrics on LyricsOff.com

Break kitte na laayi hai

But still, I will

Oh jinna bhi laage pura jor ghoomna

Oh mere dad ki maruti

Khendi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Ho todh tadh ke border

Maine hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti mere dad ki

Mere dad ki maruti mere dad ki

Ho daddy ji ka pyar hai maruti car

Jeh pata chala garage se gaddi ho gayi faraar

Toh ruk jaani breath hai

Toh samjho saari death hai

Par kari khraabhi

Oh dil karo chill

Aaj bajjan raat de baraah chahe hor ghoomna

Ho gayi midnight kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Ho todh tadh ke border

Maine hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti mere dad ki

Mere dad ki maruti mere dad ki

Ho red rang di soni

Iska bonnet lashka maare

Ho iske aagey fikki lagdi

Duniya bhar di carein

Ha ha ha

Ho red rang di soni

Iska bonnet lashka maare

Ho iske aagey fikki lagdi

Duniya bhar di carein

Aaja baija, aaja baija

Aaj kadke mittraan ne puri tor ghoomna

Todh tadh ke border

Maine hor ghoomna

Todh tadh ke border

Maine hor ghoomna

Ho gayi midnight

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Ho todh tadh ke border

Maine hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

Mere dad ki maruti

Dad ki maruti, dad ki maruti

Kehndi hor ghoomna

By : Alia Memon