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This Picture Is Worth Twenty Words: Tyra, Kim and Kanye Do Fashion

Mobile Phone Internet Use On Rise

Over half of all cell phone owners use their device to surf the Internet, according to a new survey out by Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The survey found that 17 percent of cell phone owners do most of their online browsing through their phone, rather than a computer.
The rise of Internet use on cell phones has been clear to the public, and Pew said that the rise has jumped in the past three years 24 percentage points.
Eighty-eight percent of U.S. adults own a cell phone as of April 2012, and 55 percent of them say they use their phone as an Internet tool of some sort.
Pew found that 31 percent of the cell Internet users say they mostly use their mobile Internet, rather than a computer.
When considering race as a factor, 51 percent of African-American cell Internet users do most of their online cruising on their mobile device, compared to just 24 percent of the white cell Internet users.
Those who have an annual household income of less than $50,000 per year are more likely to access the Internet primarily through a smartphone, rather than a computer.
As far as why, Pew found that 64 percent of cell Internet users who say they mostly use their mobile device claim it’s because it’s convenient and always available.
Eighteen-percent of cell-mostly Internet users say a cell phone is more compatible with their online habits than a computer.
The reason for some choosing to go mostly mobile when it comes to using the Internet is not due to a lack of computer access. Only 6 percent of the survey respondents that use the Internet to surf on more than any other device said it was because they do not have access to a computer, while just 4 percent admitted they do not have access to any source of Internet beyond their mobile phone.
Pew conducted the survey with over 2,250 adults during March 15 through April 3, 2012.

Profile Pictures On Facebook Influence Perceived Attractiveness

Around the world, more than 850 million people use Facebook regularly to communicate. More and more employers also are using Facebook as a way to examine potential employees before making hires. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that comments left by users on Facebook profile pictures strongly affect the level of perceived attractiveness of the profile owner physically, socially, and professionally.
Facebook profile photos are the first photos visible on a user’s profile. Other Facebook users are able to post comments about each profile photo, which are visible to anyone who views the photo. MU researchers found that Facebook users whose profile photos include social cues, additional information about the user, and many positive comments on their profile photos are viewed much more socially and physically attractive than users who have fewer social cues and negative comments on their profile photos. Seoyeon Hong, a doctoral student, conducted the research along with Kevin Wise, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and other doctoral students.
“People tend to rely more on other-generated information than self-generated information when forming impressions,” Hong said. “In other words, opinions of other people matter more than the target person’s own self-presentation. Thus, for social networking users concerned about forming a desired impression, being aware of other-generated information about oneself is paramount in the goal of achieving a positive self-presentation.”

iCloud Is Out Of Beta And Ready For All

Apple’s new “digital hub” has been working to keep Macs in sync with iOS devices and iOS devices in sync with one another for over a year now.
Introduced during last year’s WWDC in San Francisco, iCloud replaced Apple’s other attempts at cloud-based computing and cloud syncing, such as MobileMe, .Mac and iTools.
This year’s launch of Mac OS 10.8, or Mountain Lion, brought even more iCloud advancements to Apple desktop and laptop computers, keeping an iPad and iPhone users’ calendars, contacts, mail and notes all in sync across all Apple devices.
But what of those iPhone and iPad toting PC users who have yet to be brought in by the halo effect of iOS?
This summer, Apple rolled out a web portal of iCloud which gave these users access to their notes, calendars, contacts, etc. Though freely available to anyone with an Apple ID, this web portal of iCloud had remained in beta until yesterday.
Now, iCloud.com has been fully launched into the world, ready to be accessed and used by any and all.
Users only need to enter their Apple ID credentials to access this information from any browser. Once logged in, users will see those 7 icons (Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Find My iPhone and iWork) hovering above Apple’s now ubiquitous linen backdrop.

Who's behind the anti-Islam video?

Intrepid reporters and federal investigators seem to have found the man behind Innocence of Muslims — and he's almost as mysterious as his bigoted film

 

 

 

The hunt for Sam Bacile, the driving force behind the Islam-defaming movie sparking violent anti-U.S. protests in the Middle East, appears to be over. And he is not the Israeli real estate developer he claimed to be, or even named Sam Bacile. Instead, he's an Egyptian Coptic Christian ex-convict named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Who is Nakoula, what's his connection to the troublesome film, and what does he want? Here's a look:
What do we know about Nakoula B. Nakoula?He's a 55-year-old gas station owner in the Los Angeles suburbs with a rap sheet dating back to the 1990s and an impressive list of aliases. The Daily Beast, citing a source close to the Los Angeles D.A.'s office, says Nakoula pleaded guilty in 1997 to cooking methamphetamine and was sentenced to a year in county jail; he reportedly served another year after violating his parole in 2002. In 2000, he declared bankruptcy for his gas station. In 2010, he was convicted in federal court of a year-long scheme in which he created fake bank accounts with stolen Social Security numbers, then withdrew money on fraudulent checks before they bounced. He was ordered to pay $794,700 in restitution and stay off computers and the internet without explicit permission for five years, and served about a year of a 21-month sentence.

Are the Iran sanctions actually working?

Tehran says pressure from the international community is starting to hurt — raising fragile hopes that Iran will finally curb its nuclear program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad conceded this week that new American and European sanctions over his country's nuclear program are devastating the Islamic Republic's economy. Ahmadinejad said Tehran would weather the sanctions, which target the oil sales that keep his government afloat, but that they amount to an act of "all-out, hidden, heavy war" against his nation. Iran's oil exports to major consumers are down significantly since the beginning of the year and the Iranian government is facing public fury as food prices soar. Is a compromised Iran ready to dismantle its nuclear program, or are the sanctions just delaying an inevitable nuclear showdown with Iran?

5 reasons Netanyahu is challenging Obama over Iran

The Israeli premier slams the White House for being weak on Iran, thrusting himself into one of the most controversial foreign policy debates of the 2012 race

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the Obama administration to task for refusing to set "red lines" on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, arguing that the U.S. had forsaken its "moral right to place a red light before Israel" if it chooses to attack Iran. Netanyahu's tough words came after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. was "not setting deadlines" for a possible military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, angering an Israeli government that has grown impatient with Obama's strategy of allowing tough sanctions and international isolation to take their toll on the Iranian regime. While Netanyahu has long advocated a tougher approach to Iran, his attacks on the U.S.'s government's supposed moral laxity were seen as unusually vicious. Here, five reasons Netanyahu is challenging Obama:

7 things you need to know about Apple's iPhone 5 announcement

At last! After months of waiting (and waiting), the new version of the best-selling handset is here — with a slimmer profile and a larger 4-inch screen

 

On Thursday in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook and a rotating cast of Apple executives raised the curtains on the latest addition to the i-family, the long-awaited iPhone 5. The phone boasts a number of the incremental hardware bumps the tech press had forecast during months of rumors and leaks. Does the new iPhone live up to the hype? Here, seven things you need to know:
1. Almost everything shrank
Smaller seemed to be the theme of the day. The iPhone 5 is 20 percent lighter than its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, and also 18 percent thinner. The body, available in either black or white, is made entirely of aluminum and glass. Also smaller: The iPhone's 30-pin dock connector is now just 8 pins (and known as "Lightning"), designed to work with next-generation Thunderbolt connections. Apple is including an adapter to make the new iPhone backwards-compatible with older accessories, like iHomes or car chargers.

The slaying of the U.S. ambassador in Libya: 5 talking points

The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed late Tuesday when an armed Islamist mob stormed the American Consulate in Benghazi, blaming America for an amateurish film, promoted online by Koran-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones, that insults the Prophet Mohammad. Stevens was the first American ambassador to be murdered on duty in more than two decades, and three other American diplomatic staff members were also killed in Tuesday's violence. President Obama strongly condemned the "outrageous attack," and ordered beefed-up security for U.S. diplomats around the world. Leaders of Libya's government, who rose to power after the U.S. helped depose Moammar Gadhafi, promised to hunt down the killers. Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy in Egypt was also over-run by protesters angered by the anti-Islam film, and the Cairo embassy condemned both the attack and the video that provoked it. The White House later disavowed the Cairo embassy's statement, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was "no justification" for such "senseless violence," saying it was hard to comprehend how this could happen "in a country we helped liberate." What will the explosion of anti-U.S. violence mean for Libya, Egypt, Washington, and the world? Here, five talking points:
1. A mob killed Stevens — but the filmmaker is hardly innocent