tagged w/ charging
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From Politico:
Talk to Ryan? It'll cost you
By: Reid J. Epstein
August 16, 2011 06:18 AM EDT
It will cost $15 to ask Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) a question in person during the August congressional recess.
The House Budget Committee chairman isn’t holding any face-to-face open-to-the-public town hall meetings during the recess, but like several of his colleagues he will speak only for residents willing to open their wallets.
Ryan, who took substantial criticism from his southeast Wisconsin constituents in April after he introduced the Republicans’ budget proposal, isn’t the only member of congress whose August recess town hall-style meetings are strictly pay-per-view.
Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) is scheduled to appear Aug. 23 at a luncheon gathering of the Arizona Republican Lawyers Association. For $35, attendees can question Quayle and enjoy a catered lunch at the Phoenix office of the Snell & Wilmer law firm.
And Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.) took heat in Duluth this weekend for holding private events in his district’s population and media center — including a $10-per-head meeting to be hosted next week by the local chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which on its invitation notes that the organization “supported Chip in his stunning upset over longtime Congressman Jim Oberstar in the 2010 election.”
It’s no secret why members of Congress would shy away from holding open town hall meetings — it’s no fun getting yelled at by angry constituents or having an uncomfortable question become an unfortunate YouTube moment.
By outsourcing the events to third parties that charge an entry fee to raise money, members of Congress can eliminate most of the riffraff while still — in some cases — allowing reporters and TV cameras for a positive local news story.
The host of Quayle’s event, Lawyers Association President Jonathan Brinson, said his group previously had paid luncheons featuring Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl and most of Arizona’s GOP congressional delegation.
But those events didn’t come in the absence of an open-to-the-public town hall like one McCain held last week, at which he faced angry tea party constituents.
“After Republicans voted to gut Medicare and other vital programs while protecting tax breaks for millionaires and corporations, it’s not surprising that they would not want to face their constituents in an open forum,” said MoveOn.org Executive Director Justin Ruben. “There seems to be no limit to how much our government is for sale.”
Quayle spokesman Richard Cullen said the first-term Republican held a jobs fair and roundtable last week and did an event focusing on “senior issues” for residents of a private retirement community. But Quayle — who is in Israel this week — is not planning an open town hall.
“We made a decision about two months ago that we knew we’d be busy at work in Washington on the debt ceiling,” Cullen said. “We called it a jobs week. We wanted as soon as we got back into the district for his focus to be on jobs.”
And indeed, the Arizona Republic wrote a rather glowing story Saturday about Quayle’s jobs fair, a far cry from its May report about his town hall meeting, in which the paper wrote that he “faced tough questions from voters” about Medicare.
Ryan, who had police remove a man who yelled at him about proposed Medicare cuts during an April town hall meeting in Racine, will host telephone town hall meetings but no free events in person during the recess, spokesman Kevin Seifert said.
Seifert said Ryan is also “holding business tours and office hours throughout the recess.” He said the decision not to hold public town hall events had nothing to do with criticism the House Budget chairman took from constituents in April.
Seifert added that Ryan has nothing to do with the Whitnall Park Rotary Club’s decision to charge $15 for admissiona fee that will pay for the catered lunch of meat and potatoes the group will provide, club president Kent Bieganski told POLITICO.
“It’s not something our office can control,” Seifert said.
Pastor Larry Meyers, the club’s webmaster, said about 50 people have registered online and paid the $15 for the Ryan event. He said the club’s catering hall can serve as many as 250 people and will not admit people who do not pre-register and pay the $15 fee.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski said Ryan is scared to defend his record before his fellow citizens.
“Paul Ryan has had a hard time going before open crowds, and for good reason,” Zielinski said. “I’m sure Ryan doesn’t want to go before the public to explain while his extreme ideology caused Standard & Poor’s to downgrade U.S. long-term treasury bonds. Beside, Ryan likes smaller settings — the kind where you can cozy up to a hedge fund manager and get a good $350 bottle of wine.”
Cravaack ran into a protest last week when he met with local business leaders in lieu of hosting a town hall meeting.
Chad McKenna, a local labor leader with the North East Area Labor Council, dinged Cravaack in the Duluth News Tribune for not holding a town hall meeting in the state’s fourth-largest city.
“Cravaack’s in Duluth meeting with business folk, but the average person on the street doesn’t have access to him,” McKenna said of the first-term Republican.
Cravaack, a first-term Republican from Lindstrom, 126 miles south of Duluth, announced last month that he was moving his family to New Hampshire. He has held town hall meetings in Brainerd and Grand Portage, each more than 115 miles from Duluth, according to WDIO-TV.
He told the paper Duluth’s constituents are welcome to meet with a staffer at his district office’s office hours. Cravaack told the paper he will return to Duluth when it suits his schedule, but that wouldn’t be during the August recess.
Cravaack spokesman Michael Bars said Tuesday that he has hosted 12 town hall meetings and seven teleconferences since taking office in January.
“Rep. Cravaack’s primary focus is to create more jobs for the 8th District; he looks forward to continuing this conversation with his constituents,” he said.From Politico:
Talk to Ryan? It'll cost you
By: Reid J. Epstein
August... more
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These days, mobile phones are much more than just a way to have a conversation with someone that's far away. Phones are also cameras, camcorders, personal assistants, calendars, computers, bookstores, and GPS devices.
But all this extra functionality comes with a price: the need for constant charging. If you're tired of being a slave to the power cord, here are some innovative ways that you can stay juiced without an outlet.
Keep Reading: http://t.co/XPrwRIlThese days, mobile phones are much more than just a way to have a conversation with... more
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Back in 2009, we broke word that Google was working on an e-payment solution for publishers that would be based on its Google Checkout platform. Google’s proposal (pdf) to the Newspaper Association of America said that the company’s “vision of a premium content ecosystem includes”:
Google’s got plenty of targeted advertising options (#5), and First Click Free is old hat by now (#4). But Google took a big step toward fulfilling the rest of that vision (#1, #2, and #3) today with the announcement of Google One Pass, “a payment system that enables publishers to charge consumers for articles and other content.” And coming on the heels of Apple’s less-than-publisher-friendly subscription announcement yesterday, Google’s alternative may seem like a breath of fresh air.
First, Google is selling flexibility. No requirement to offer the same deal through a Google One Pass payment system as through other means — which means bundling with print subscriptions is a whole lot simpler than with Apple. Print customers can enter a coupon code to get free access to a website. Want to try a metered model, or experiment with putting more, less, or different content behind a paywall? No problem. It’s device-agnostic — so if you want to sell an all-access, all-platform subscription, no problem there either. (It’s also a micropayment platform, for the few still living who believe in per-article micropayments as a viable model.)
Second, as Lee Shirani writes in the announcing blog post: “With Google One Pass, publishers can maintain direct relationships with their customers and give readers access to digital content across websites and mobile apps.” That sentence isn’t detailed any further in the initial announcement or docs online, but it sure sounds like a nice way of saying, “We’ll let you keep all the customer data Apple isn’t letting you have.”
And, most key of all, Google isn’t demanding the 30 percent cut Apple does. The announcement doesn’t share cost details, but the FT is reporting Google will take 10 percent of any subscription revenue. So selling a $15/month subscription via Apple would net $10.50 versus $13.50 via Google.
The announcement’s a lot to digest, but three quick thoughts:
— With the timing, it’s easy to see One Pass primarily as a competitor to Apple’s subscription plans. But note that the focus is primarily on web access, not app access. (Note that the word “Android” — Google’s mobile platform — is mentioned nowhere.) While mobile apps get a shoutout in the announcement, Google notes that it’ll work only “in instances where the mobile OS terms permit transactions to take place outside of the app market,” which likely means it’ll only work in Android apps, which are still a secondary priority for most news orgs, for better or worse, and where getting users to pay anything for apps has been a challenge. At least for the moment, One Pass is more of a direct competitor to Journalism Online’s Press+ than it is to Apple. It’s an infrastructure play.
— Frankly, I’m a little surprised Google’s even taking 10 percent. The transaction costs themselves shouldn’t be any higher than what Google Checkout regularly charges, which is 2.9 percent plus 30 cents a transaction (plus volume discounts). Sure, building and maintaining the record-keeping system for subscribers and the tools for distinguishing free/paid content will cost something. But Google’s consistent model has been to undercut paid competitors by making good free offerings, and I’d have thought just keeping the Checkout fees would have been the play, to soak up as much of the market as possible.
— What Apple is selling publishers is not just an easy payment system — they’re selling the 160 million user accounts with active credit cards attached. That’s about 70 million more than PayPal. How many of you have a credit card on file with Google Checkout, which has struggled to gain relevance and market share?Back in 2009, we broke word that Google was working on an e-payment solution for... more
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The New Year celebrations continued when the US number two automaker, Ford, introduced its first-ever fully electric car this Friday.Alan Mulally, Chairman and Chief Executive of Ford, unveiled this four-door passenger car at the annual Consumer Electric Show in Las Vegas. The mileage is expected to go around 60 kilometers on a single full charging.
:http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/technology/6174-ford-launches-its-first-ever-electric-car.htmlThe New Year celebrations continued when the US number two automaker, Ford, introduced... more
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suzane
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1 year ago
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Rock Piles lit up during the 2010 Billabong Pipeline Masters In Memory of Andy Irons with a more Northerly direction turned out to be Backdoor Masters until it shut down and Rock Piles turned ON. Mother nature dictates. Rock Piles Got Action !! Sion Milosky Sebastian Zietz Garrett Macnamara and others charging north shore bombs. Shane dorian granger larsen dusty payne john florenceRock Piles lit up during the 2010 Billabong Pipeline Masters In Memory of Andy Irons... more
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If you don’t live in the “demi-paradise”; ruled by a beloved Monarch showered in life affirming reality TV; warmed by the contented medieval upper crust, state called great Britain then count yourself fortunate.
The private schooled, titled gentry, supporters of “working families”, a dictatorship both conservative and liberal that grasped power despite not winning the popular vote is intent on silencing its critics, mainly children who know no better, using force........If you don’t live in the “demi-paradise”; ruled by a beloved Monarch... more
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ezzye
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1 year ago
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So this month we are giving away a Pikachu Charging Stand (will charge any DS, DSi, and/or DSi XL). This guy is currently only available from Play-Asia for $40... then they stick you with another $20 to ship it. Fear not! All you have to do is enter our contest to win!So this month we are giving away a Pikachu Charging Stand (will charge any DS, DSi,... more
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They spend hours watching video on their phones, downloading songs, browsing the Web, sending photos to friends and generally using mobile devices as full-fledged computers. They are the data hogs.
link :http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/technology/03phone.html?ref=technologyThey spend hours watching video on their phones, downloading songs, browsing the Web,... more
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Samsung WEP570 Bluetooth Headset Unboxing
I'd like to share my "Samsung WEP570 Unboxing" video. [...] WEP570 has a stylish metallic frame and comes with two types of earbuds.
Key Feature
-Initial pairing
-Battery Level Check
-Call receiving / Last call dialing
-Mute and reject function
-Volume up and down
-Power On/Off SwitchSamsung WEP570 Bluetooth Headset Unboxing
I'd like to share my "Samsung... more
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Samsung WEP570 Bluetooth Headset Review
Andrew demonstrates the steps to connect your mobile phone with the Samsung WEP570. You can easily connect the Samsung WEP570 with your mobile phone because of the latest Bluetooth version (2.1 + EDR)
Key Feature
-Initial pairing
-Battery Level Check
-Call receiving / Last call dialing
-Mute and reject function
-Volume up and down
-Power On/Off SwitchSamsung WEP570 Bluetooth Headset Review
Andrew demonstrates the steps to connect... more
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Samsung WEP570 Bluetooth Headset Review in the Car
I got my Samsung WEP570. The Samsung WEP570 can be charged in the car, by using the car charging cradle. It also has a stylish design and supports the latest Bluetooth version (2.1 + EDR). Make a phone call in the car with Samsung WEP570.
Key Feature
-Initial pairing
-Battery Level Check
-Call receiving / Last call dialing
-Mute and reject function
-Volume up and down
-Power On/Off SwitchSamsung WEP570 Bluetooth Headset Review in the Car
I got my Samsung WEP570. The... more
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Someone at Dell must have tripped over some wires and after cleaning up the bloody gash came up with the $2,000 anti-cord Latitude Z: It has wireless charging and wirelessly connects to displays too.Someone at Dell must have tripped over some wires and after cleaning up the bloody... more
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These guys can charge any phone or camera that uses a lithium battery to 100% in 20 mins.
makes you wonder how long it will be before wireless charging can charge your phone that quickly.These guys can charge any phone or camera that uses a lithium battery to 100% in 20... more
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