Google bans Siri knockoff from Android Market, but legit competitors persist (Appolicious)

Apple didn?t invent voice control when it rolled out its Siri personal assistant software with the iPhone 4S, but it definitely has garnered a lot of attention for the software. More than one Android developer is trying to get in on that popularity, some less legitimately than others.

Devices running Google?s Android mobile operating system have had voice control capabilities for a while now, but the thing about Siri is that it takes existing technology (voice-to-text and voice command tech have been around for years) and has found a way to make it work better than most people are used to. While I?ve watched my Android-owning friends repeatedly trying to use their voice control apps to find an address or call a loved one, often repeating themselves once or twice just to get the software on the same page, Siri is billed as being a lot more responsive and being able to understand a lot more speech more intuitively.

Siri is so popular that it?s seeing lots of attempts to get the iPhone 4S-exclusive software to other, older iOS devices, and it?s also seeing knock-off attempts in the Android Market. Google just banned an app that billed itself as Siri for Android, as GadgetBox reports. But there are other developers trying to catch Siri?s lightning in a bottle with real apps.

The Siri for Android app garnered at least 1,000 downloads before it was banned, GadgetBox?s story says. But the app didn?t pack the Siri software, instead it just presented a button on the device?s screen that resembled the Siri button on iPhone 4S displays, and that button just activated Android?s built-in voice control features.

Meanwhile, as SlashGear reports, two Android developers have teamed up to create a Siri-like app for Android that really can compete with Apple?s version. The app is called Iris, and is developed by Dextera. That developer is pairing with a competitor, ChaCha, in order to create a giant info database for Iris that will allow it to rival Siri, which draws its information from sources such as Yelp. ChaCha already has a giant database that allows users to type in their questions and get information from the Internet; pairing it with Iris brings in the voice-recognition side of the equation.

It?s likely that Iris and ChaCha will both be helping one another to improve in the future to keep up with Siri and provide an alternative that Android users can get behind. Meanwhile, Siri is going to be improving, too ? Apple released the software as a beta product, which means there?s still development to be done. Expect Siri to be more robust with the release of the iPhone 5, likely later this year. Hopefully Android developers will work hard to keep pace, and keep Android competitive with Apple?s popular new feature.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles10654_google_bans_siri_knockoff_from_android_market_but_legit_competitors_persist/44064846/SIG=13sapffos/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/10654-google-bans-siri-knockoff-from-android-market-but-legit-competitors-persist

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Jewish friend who influenced Pope John Paul dies (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Jerzy Kluger, the Polish Jewish boyhood friend of the late Pope John Paul who had a major influence on the pontiff's revolutionary relations with Jews, has died, friends said on Monday.

Kluger, who was 92, died in a Rome hospital on new year's eve of complications from bronchitis and was buried on Monday in Rome's Jewish cemetery. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease and had been living in a home for the elderly east of the Italian capital.

Kluger and Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, were classmates in the southern Polish city of Wadowice and were friends from first grade through high school.

"The young Karol Wojtyla learned a lot about Judaism from Kluger," said Italian author Gianfranco Svidercoschi, who was an aide to the late pope and wrote a book about the pontiff's friendship with Kluger.

"He had a great influence on the pope's life," Svidercoschi, who wrote about their friendship in the 1993 book "Letter to a Jewish Friend," told Reuters.

"The young Wojtyla visited the Kluger home in Wadowice, helped Jerzy with his studies, particularly Latin, and started a friendship that would influence his relations with Jews for the rest of his life," said Svidercoschi, who was editor of the Vatican newspaper during part of John Paul's pontificate.

They lost track of each other when World War Two broke out with the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and did not see each other again until 1965.

During the war, Kluger was arrested by the Russians and sent to a gulag in Siberia along with his father.

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Kluger was freed and joined Polish forces fighting with the Allies in Africa and Europe under General Wladyslaw Anders and took part in the pivotal battle of Monte Cassino south of Rome.

Towards the end of the war, when he discovered that his mother had been killed in the Auschwitz death camp, he decided to stay in Italy. He studied engineering in Turin and later moved to England.

He settled in Italy again in the early 1960s, working for an import-export company and re-connected with Archbishop Karol Wojtyla in 1965 when Wojtyla was in Rome for the Second Vatican Council. Until they met for the first time since 1938, each presumed the other had died in the war.

After Wojtyla became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years in 1978 they intensified their friendship and Kluger helped organize reunions between the pope and classmates from Wadowice either in Rome or during the pontiff's trips to Poland.

Kluger was in Rome's synagogue when Pope John Paul made his historic visit there in 1986 and called Jews "our beloved elder brothers".

When the pope made his first trip to Israel as pontiff in 2000, Kluger was in attendance at the Yad Vashem memorial to the Holocaust.

Their friendship continued right up to the pope's death in 2005.

"The passing of Jerzy Kluger is both a moment of individual sorrow for the loss of another courageous survivor of the Holocaust, as well as symbolic remembrance for the link with Pope John Paul under whom a revolution in the advancement of Catholic-Jewish relations was realized," said Elan Steinberg vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.

"Their childhood friendship was seared by their shared experience of coming under the Nazi yolk in Poland. There can be no question that John Paul's warmth and gestures to the Jewish people was shaped by his personal witness of Nazi horrors," Steinberg said.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120102/wl_nm/us_italy_kluger

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Did iPhone 4S's Siri tell a 12 year old to "shut the f*** up"?

The iPhone 4S's Siri voice recognition feature can come up with some odd and funny responses at times to the questions given by users of Apple's smartphone. But if a British tabloid is to be believed (and that's always a big "if") one users got a rather vulgar response to a innocent question.

The Sun reports that a 12 year old in Coventry was using a demo version of the iPhone 4S and used the Siri feature to ask, "How many people are there in the world?". The Sun claims that Siri's response was," Shut the f*** up, you ugly t***." The child's mother claims she couldn't believe that Siri would give such a statement and asked the same question again. She says, "The same four-letter stuff blared out."

The demo version was being used in a Tesco retail store and the report says that the management of the store says that pranksters had somehow gotten a hold of the iPhone 4S and changed its set-up so that the phone's user name was in fact that seven word phrase. That meant that Siri said that phrase when asked a question.

Nevertheless, the manager is quoted as saying, "We have launched an investigation. The handset will be going back to Apple for diagnostic tests."

Lesson for the day: Demo units in stores can be messed with so be careful in assuming the demo version is the same as the actual product.

John Callaham

John began his journalism career writing for print newspapers but 11 years ago moved on to write mostly for online outlets, particularly PC gaming sites. He has worked for a variety of sites including Firing Squad and most recently AOL's Big Download web site.

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/did-iphone-4ss-siri-tell-a-12-year-old-to-shut-the-f-up

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Actionable 2012 Social Business Predictions: #1 Comprehensive ...

Timing is everything in business. Business leaders want to embrace innovations the moment before they become profitable business strategy or execution. That goes for most social media-based business solutions.

Most annual social media predictions are loose stabs at what may happen and often range from the obvious, ?20-whatever is the year of mobile,? to the interesting, ?2012 will/won?t be the year of Google+.? ?

With hard-to-read economic indicators, business leaders don?t need broad meditations on what might happen but rather ways of more precisely anticipating change and what they might do to take advantage of that change. ?For teh next few posts, I aim to deliver practical predictions complete with my suggestions on what brands ought to do. I have also narrowed my focus to quarters to help with understanding timing. ?

The first in the series is a potentially big shift in marketing and communications.?

Comprehensive content marketing finds its value

With more than 30 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook every month and the steady increase in Google searches, people are hungrily sharing content they find relevant. Still most major marketers do not have a big, grand approach to content marketing. Bright spot exceptions include American Express? Small Business site, Open; Intel?s Free Press and General Mill?s Tablespoon. ?

Many marketers predict that ?content strategy? will eclipse or become the driver for advertising strategy. As the pressure continues to build on advertisers to deliver more and more relevant advertising (i.e. content) and marketers look to engage customers and stakeholders directly via social networks (i.e. content sharing platforms), we will see two efforts lead to the same result ? brands adopting more sophisticated content strategies and practices to serve their customers.

There are two barriers in the way: a simple way to understand the business value of content marketing and organizational inertia. We just don?t have an easy formula to evaluate the business impact (sales + preference + brand/reputation + customer value) of great content programs. Yet everyday, we are learning about what content our customers value on Facebook. We post content. They post content. They like/comment/share on piece of content more than another and that tells what is valuable.

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Combine the network effect of the average Facebook user (and their 130 friends) passing along content links with the ?google-juice? of a great content reservoir like Open or the reach partnerships available with media companies like Vice Media (see The Creator's Project, their partnership with Intel here).

2012 will bring major marketers more usable value metrics to understand why they might shift spend from traditional marketing activities (e.g. traditional ad creative vs. new ad-as-content creative).

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Do:The penalty for not aggressively developing a comprehensive content strategy that drives interactions with customers no matter where you meet them won?t be felt immediately. This is an innovators game and those marketers who want to rely on the reliable won?t lose their job over this one.?For the marketing innovators, start by finding those topics that naturally intersect with your customers/stakeholders and the brand.

American Express helps its small business customers with content about running small business (not just how to leverage card services). General Mills goes beyond the benefits of Betty Crocker foods to offer a collection of highly shareable ?quick recipes.? What is that natural intersection between what customers need and the benefits of your brand or the solutions it makes possible??

• Research what terms people use when they search for related topics
• Build content for your website, blog and social media calendar around those topics
• Connect these topics with your communications departments ?message platform? so they are reinforced in their public relations efforts
• Feed the topics to the advertising team to either use in supporting copy or, gasp, to actually drive the creative concept

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Resources:

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Timing: This is a marathon but one to get started in 1stQ 2012. There is a little of a first-mover advantage at stake here. I could easily argue that American Express did not own the attention of small businessmen/women, but their persistence with Open may have changed that.?

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Source: http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2012/01/actionable-2012-social-business-predictions-1-comprehensive-content-strategy.html

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Dec. 31 Pastoral Pondering: The Christmas season mixes together red and blue, energy and peace

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Source: http://newberggraphic.com/news/2011/December/30/Religion/dec.31.pastoral.pondering.the.christmas.season.mixes.together.red.and.blue.energy.and.peace/news.aspx

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North Korea names Kim Jong Un Supreme Commander (AP)

PYONGYANG, North Korea ? North Korea announced Saturday that Kim Jong Un has been officially named supreme commander of the military, further strengthening his authority after the death of his father, longtime North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Officials and state media have bestowed on Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s, a string of titles as North Korea's elite rally around him in the wake of his father's death this month after 17 years in power.

But the title Supreme Commander ? and its formal proclamation by the powerful Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party ? is a clear sign that Kim Jong Un is fast consolidating power over North Korea. It's also the latest step in a burgeoning personality cult around him.

Kim Jong Un's age and inexperience have raised questions outside North Korea about his leadership of a nation engaged in delicate negotiations over its nuclear program and grappling with decades of economic hardship and chronic food shortages.

But the North has moved quickly to show the world a unified face.

Kim Jong Un should be "the only center of unity, cohesion and leadership" of the Workers' Party, North Korea's state media said, and the 1.2 million-strong military should uphold the "songun," or military-first, politics laid down by Kim Jong Il.

The party said the country should unite around Kim Jong Un and strengthen "the monolithic leadership system of the dear respected Comrade Kim Jong Un throughout the party and society."

An unannounced Workers' Party meeting Friday proclaimed that the younger Kim "assumed supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army" according to a will made by Kim Jong Il on Oct. 8, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement early Saturday morning.

The meeting of the North's ruling party came one day after the official mourning period for Kim Jong Il ended and senior military and political officials publicly declared Kim Jong Un leader of the party, military and people at a massive memorial for his father.

Titles are an important part of North Korea's efforts to link Kim Jong Un to the myth-building surrounding the Kim family legacy.

Kim Il Sung, the country's first and only president, retains the title Eternal President even after his death.

Kim Jong Il held three main positions: chairman of the National Defense Commission, general secretary of the Workers' Party and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army. According to the constitution, his position as chairman of the National Defense Commission made him Supreme Leader of North Korea.

Kim Jong Un was made a four-star general last year and appointed a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party. Since his father's death, he has picked up major titles from officials and state media: Great Successor, Supreme Leader and Great Leader. And now he has officially been named Supreme Commander.

Analysts said the moves show the power transition has been smooth and faster than anticipated.

"The proclamation is something that has been expected, but it is notable that it happened so quickly," said Kim Yeon-su, a North Korea expert at Korea National Defense University. He said North Korea was showing the world that its system was stable and "the elite remain united."

He said that next for Kim Jong Un in 2012 would be for him to be nominated as chairman of the National Defense Commission and to rise to the post of general secretary of the Workers' Party.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the succession was accelerating and stabilizing.

"It also shows the military-first rule will continue. The North was pressing ahead with steps for power transition regardless of the mourning period. That shows the country is united."

Choe Yong Nam, 48-year-old army officer, told The Associated Press in Pyongyang that he was confident with Kim Jong Un as supreme commander of the military. "As we were led by illustrious commanders of Mount Paektu, we have won only victories. I am sure that we will always emerge victorious as we have another great leader Kim Jong Un."

Paektu is the highest peak on the Korean peninsula that the North cites in propaganda to signify the Kim dynasty. It is also Kim Jong Il's official birthplace.

An engineer with the 326 Electric Wire Factory, Kim Song Un, 54, said he did not expect any changes in the country's policies. "We will keep to our path of the socialist cause of juche (self reliance) true to the leadership of Kim Jong Un in the future, as we did under the leadership of Kim Jong Il."

___

Associated Press writers Foster Klug, Scott McDonald and Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. Follow AP's North Korea coverage at twitter.com/APklug and twitter.com/samkim_ap.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111231/ap_on_re_as/as_kim_jong_il

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U.S. Blacks More Likely to Die of Colon Cancer Than Whites: Study (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Although colorectal cancer death rates in the United States have fallen across the board over the last 20 years, the dip has been smaller among blacks than whites, a new study indicates.

Specifically, the racial spread in death rate trends appears to be most notable among patients diagnosed with the most advanced stage of the disease, according to the results of an investigation by the American Cancer Society (ACS).

"The widening racial disparity for [advanced]-stage has a disproportionate impact on overall colorectal cancer mortality disparities because [advanced]-stage accounts for approximately 60 percent of the overall black-white mortality disparity," the study authors explained in an ACS news release.

The study team, led by Dr. Anthony Robbins, pointed out that up until 1980, black Americans were actually less likely to die from colorectal cancer overall than whites. Since then, however, the availability of ever-better screening and treatment options has turned that dynamic on its head. The result: by 2007, the rate of death among blacks was 44 percent greater than that among whites.

The reason, the authors suggested, may be that black patients do not seem to be getting screened or treated as often and as aggressively as white patients.

The aim of the current ACS study was to find out how exactly racial differences in plummeting death rates have been playing out with respect to disease progression: namely, early-stage (in which cancer is localized); mid-stage (in which cancer has spread to regional lymph nodes); and late-stage (in which the cancer is made its way throughout the patient's body).

To explore that question, the team analyzed two decades of information that had already been gathered by the U.S. National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database.

The review, released online Dec. 19 in advance of print publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, revealed that while racial differences in death rate declines were apparent at every stage of disease, the divide was most stark among late-stage patients.

For example, while early-stage white patients experienced a roughly 30 percent drop in death rates over the last 20 years, their black peers experienced about a 13 percent decline. Among mid-stage patients, the drop was almost 49 percent among whites versus 34 percent among blacks.

But for those with the most advanced stage of disease, the gap was even greater: death rates had dropped by nearly 33 percent among whites compared with just under 5 percent among blacks, the investigators found.

The authors noted that black Americans tend to be screened less often, are less likely to have timely follow-ups when they are screened, and are generally less well informed when it comes to the latest and best treatment options. The researchers suggested that to rectify the problem, an effort should be made to bump up early-stage detection of colorectal cancer among black patients.

More information

For more on colorectal cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111230/hl_hsn/usblacksmorelikelytodieofcoloncancerthanwhitesstudy

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