Oracle Buys Social Media Marketing Firm Vitrue for $300 Million

Oracle is buying Vitrue, a cloud-based social media marketing firm that helps major advertisers market themselves on Facebook.

Though terms of the deal were not disclosed, TechCrunch is reporting that Oracle is paying $300 million.

?In a blog post explaining the move, Oracle wrote:

The proliferation of social media has changed the way that organizations and consumers interact. Vitrue?s social marketing platform helps organizations enhance their social marketing efforts to the next level of social engagement by giving brands the ability to scale across multiple social networks, target messages from global to local, create unique and consistent brand experiences, and publish content that engages fans and drives leads.

?Together, Oracle and Vitrue plan to enable a unified social experience across customer interactions, resulting in meaningful customer engagements with consistent brand experiences across all channels and media; improved return on investment for social sales and marketing campaigns across paid, owned and social media; and enhanced customer service through real-time responsiveness and high touch engagement.?

Image courtesy of Flickr, Peter Kaminski

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Samsung UN55ES6500F

The Samsung UN46ES6500F ($1,729.99 list) is a smart-looking 46-inch HDTV with 3D capabilities, loads of interactive web services, and built-in Wi-Fi. It delivers very accurate colors and a crisp, clean HD picture, but the LED backlit panel could be brighter. You won't get dark inky blacks with this model either, and it only has three HDMI ports. However, it does offers some neat features, including two sets of active shutter 3D glasses and Samsung's Smart Hub menu system that makes it easy to launch apps, play multimedia files and movies, surf the web, and connect to other devices.

Editors' Note: This review is based on tests performed on the Samsung UN46ES6500F, the 46-inch model in the same series. Besides the screen size difference, the 55-inch $2,519.99 UN55ES6500 is identical in features, and while we didn't perform lab tests on this specific model, we expect similar performance.

Design and Features
Style-wise, the UN46ES6500F is easy on the eyes. The panel, which actually measures 45.9 inches, is framed by an ultra-slim (0.5-inch) matte black bezel and sits in a slender 1.25 inch cabinet (the bottom juts out to 1.9 inches to accommodate the down-firing speakers). The bezels are decorated with beveled clear trim, giving the set a pleasing angular look. A shiny Samsung badge protrudes downward from the center of the bottom bezel. The sturdy four-legged stand is piano black and can swivel smoothly.

Two USB ports and one HDMI port are vertically positioned at the rear of the cabinet and facing right. Two additional HDMI ports and one more USB port are flush mounted along with digital audio in and out connections, an optical audio output, shared component and composite AV jacks, a TV cable/antenna jack, a LAN port, and an EX-Link (serial) port. While most HDTVs this size offer four HDMI ports, the UN46ES6500F only gives you three, which can be a problem if you have a set top box, a Blu-ray player, and more than one gaming console.?

There are no function buttons on the UN46ES6500F. Instead, there's a small joystick control mounted on the lower right side of the back panel that lets you access and navigate the various menu pages. It's easier to use the remote to adjust settings and launch apps. The 9-inch wand is backlit and has all the usual player, volume, and channel controls. The number buttons are a tad small and the backlighting is slightly dim, but the remote is lightweight and fits comfortably in the hand. In the center of the remote is a colorful Smart Hub key.

Samsung's Smart Hub provides a single point of access for launching Web apps, streaming content from the Web and compatible DLNA devices over an Ethernet connection or the UN46ES6500F's built-in Wi-Fi, playing movies, and accessing USB based content. The icon-driven menu is colorful and easy to navigate. It includes the cloud-based Family Story app, which lets families share photos and videos and schedule events, an interactive Fitness app for body sculpting, fat burning, and weight monitoring, and a Kids portal featuring several?Canimals?episodes, WordWorld, and other kid oriented apps.

Samsung's Web app catalog is extensive, offering more than 70 information channels including Save Our Planet, The History Of America, and Home Safety. Streaming movie apps include Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, CinemaNow, and Blockbuster, and there are over 90 free and paid games available. Education services include Today In History, the Periodic Tables, and Guitar Chords, and you get about a dozen sports apps including MLB, NBA, and ESPN. You can also access most social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Picasa) and surf the Web with the built-in browser.

The UN46ES6500F provides plenty of picture settings to help you get the best possible picture for your lighting environment. There are four picture modes (Standard, Dynamic, Movie, and Natural) with optimized settings for their respective function. Movie mode offers the best all-around picture, especially if you're in a dimly lit room. You get all the basic settings, including backlight, brightness, contrast, sharpness, color, and tint controls, as well as a handful of advanced settings such as 10-point white balance, gamma, flesh tone, black tone, and dynamic contrast ratio. Picture options include AutoMotion Plus with judder and blur reduction for eliminating motion artifacts, film mode (for content shot at 24 fps), and LED Motion Plus, which uses backlight strobe to help reduce motion blur.

Performance
The UN46ES6500F's performance was a mixed bag. While seated at dead center it provided a realistic 3D picture with very little crosstalk while watching?Sharks 3D. Crosstalk was more prominent when seated at an extreme angle but the 3D effect was still enjoyable. The set comes with two pairs of lightweight active shutter glasses which are fairly comfortable but not very stylish. They also let too much light in from the sides.

Using images from the DisplayMate suite of HDTV diagnostic tests, a Chroma Meter, and SpectraCal's Calman software, the panel produced a peak brightness reading of 101.81 cd/m²?after a basic darkroom calibration. That's not very bright for an LED backlit HDTV, especially when compared to other LED sets like the?Vizio M3D550KD ($1,429.99, 4 stars) (364.75 cd/m²) and LG 55LM6700 ($2,299.99, 4 stars) (256.68 cd/m²). Moreover, the UN46ES6500F's black level (0.06 cd/m²) can't touch that of the Vizio (0.02 cd/m2) or the LG (0.03 cd/m²), and its measured contrast ratio of 1696:1 is mediocre at best.

On the plus side the UN46ES6500F delivers very accurate colors out of the box, as shown in the CIE Chromaticity Chart below (the red, green, and blue boxes represent the CIE standard for each color and the circles represent the panel's actual reading). It also has a wide off-angle viewing range; there was hardly any color shifting when viewed from an extreme side angle and the panel did not lose luminance.

Scenes from?Piranha?on Blu-ray were crisp with natural looking skin tones, but shadow detail suffered a bit as a result of the panel's inability to display dark blacks, and you don't get the kind of punchy picture that you get from a panel with a high contrast ratio. Still, the UN46ES6500F delivers a very sharp, noise-free picture.

The UN46ES6500F is easy on power but not quite as eco-friendly as the larger LG 55LM6700. During my testing it used 93 watts of power with power saving disabled and 53 watts with power saving set to low, while the LG used 67 watts and 48 watts, respectively. You can cut the UN46ES6500F's power consumption even more by setting power saving to medium (41 watts) or high (28 watts), but both settings are much too dim.

Conclusion
The Samsung UN46ES6500F is a capable 46-inch HDTV that is tastefully designed and offers a nice feature set, including two sets of 3D glasses, lots of interactive apps, and a cloud-based family portal. Its color quality is top notch, but its peak brightness and black level performance hold it back. All told, you'll get better performance from our recent budget Editors' Choice, the Vizio M3D550KD, and you'll get more screen and save a few hundred dollars while you're at it.

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Saeima Upholds in 1st Reading Proposals for Tax Reduction ...

By admin at 23 May, 2012, 10:33 am

Saeima upheld in the first reading the legislative amendments providing for reduction of the standard value-added tax (VAT) rate to 21% from July 1 this year and gradual lowering of personal income tax from January 1, 2013, till 2015. The 100-member Latvian parliament upheld the bill about lowering personal income tax with 94 votes for and the bill about VAT reduction with 93 votes for.

The lawmakers also supported the proposal to treat the bill as urgent, which means that there will be only two readings in the parliament instead of three under the regular procedure.

The standard VAT rate in Latvia at the moment is 22% as opposed to 21% in Lithuania and 20% in Estonia. The purpose of the bill is to reduce the VAT rate in Latvia to bring it closer to the tax rates charged in the neighbouring countries in order to boost Latvia?s regional competitiveness and offset the inflationary pressure created by global price hikes. Also, reducing the tax burden might reduce the impact of inflation, encourage consumption and have positive effects on business growth, the Finance Ministry said.

Personal income tax is to be lowered from current 25% to 24% in 2013, to 22% in 2014 and to 20% in 2015.

The Finance Ministry said that the purpose of the labour tax reforms was to ensure for Latvia labour taxes that cost-wise would put in on equal footing with the neighbouring Baltic States in the competition for investments and jobs. ?By reducing the overall labour tax burden, we will also reduce the risks of poverty and structural unemployment, the shadow economy and the motives for tax evasion,? the ministry said.

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HTC One S teardown leaves little to the imagination (video)

Whether you're looking to replace a damaged screen, swap a battery, or just make damn sure that the warranty of your HTC One S is void, DirectFix can help with its latest teardown video. This is the first time that we've seen a detailed inner peek at the smartphone itself, and those who appreciate fine craftsmanship are sure to dig this one. To get deep within the phone, you'll need a nylon spudger, a Torx T5 and precision Phillips screwdriver, along with steady hands and -- if the display's adhesive isn't cooperating -- a hairdryer. Once the handset's back cover is removed, it becomes quite easy to see how the battery pack dominates the inner space, which is complemented up top by a blue plastic shield that includes the lens cover and protects the main board. From there, many fragile connectors must be removed before the display can be separated from the handset, which is attached with adhesive. Naturally, putting the phone back together can be a bit tricky in its own right, which makes it quite a shame that YouTube videos can't play in reverse.

Continue reading HTC One S teardown leaves little to the imagination (video)

HTC One S teardown leaves little to the imagination (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 23:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spending plan is balanced, not 'wasteful' : Finance - The Nation

Home ? politics ? Spending plan is balanced, not 'wasteful' : Finance

Politics

The Nation May 22, 2012 1:00 am

Kittirat

The opposition has also been attacking the government over the rising price of consumer goods.

"The government should not need to increase taxes if it is able to meet its revenue target of Bt1.98 trillion for the current fiscal year and Bt2.1 trillion for 2013 fiscal year," Kittiratt said at yesterday's budget debate in Parliament.

He was responding to opposition and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, who said the government might not be able to meet its planned revenue target of Bt2.1 trillion, leading to an increase in value-added tax.

Kittiratt, however, insisted that the budget would be reasonably balanced and assured of fiscal discipline. He also defended the government's spending plan for flood prevention, as it has to restore confidence and boost exports.

The government plans to set its annual expenditure for the 2013 fiscal year at Bt2.4 trillion with a deficit of Bt300 billion.

Democrat MP Sansern Samalapa echoed Abhisit's concerns about the government's borrowing plan, saying that the budget deficit of Bt300 billion appeared to be a small amount, yet the government's off-budget borrowing seemed to be a lot larger.

"The off-budget borrowing is estimated at Bt1.5 trillion, as the government has to implement many schemes including rice and energy subsidy as well as flood-prevention measures," Sansern said.

It is understandable that the government needs to borrow Bt400 billion to finance its flood-prevention projects, but it also plans to waste the taxpayer's funds on unnecessary rice and energy subsidies, he said.

Sansern also blamed the rising cost of living on flawed policies, particularly its daily wage hike. He argued that the government had given very little in compensation to firms affected by the wage increase, and that this was pushing up the production costs. He also blamed the rising cost of production and logistics on the government's wrong energy policy.

The hike in wages has also increased the cost of agricultural goods by 30 per cent, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung admitted the government was not able to tackle the rising price of goods yet, but said this issue would be looked into promptly.

Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Tanusak Lekuthai said the revenue had exceeded the target at the end of April.

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UN's Ban warns Syria at 'pivotal moment'

UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Monday that the search for peace in Syria was at a "pivotal moment" and expressed strong concerns of an all-out civil war, as a five-week-old truce was broken yet again.

The violence across Syria claimed at least 38 lives on Monday, a watchdog said, as bloodshed related to the Syrian crisis also spread to Beirut, the capital of neighbouring Lebanon, for the first time since the upheaval erupted in March 2011.

As NATO ruled out military action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a spokesman for UN leader Ban said at a Chicago summit of the alliance that he was increasingly worried about the situation in Syria.

"The secretary general said we were at a pivotal moment in the search for a peaceful settlement to the crisis and that he remained extremely troubled about the risk of an all-out civil war," Ban's spokesman said.

On the ground, fierce fighting in an area between Aleppo and neighbouring Idlib province, in northwestern Syria, killed at least 18 soldiers and two army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog said nine army deserters were killed overnight as they retreated under cover of darkness from Jisr al-Ab village near the Damascus suburb of Douma.

Also in the Damascus area, troops fired on people at a funeral, the Observatory said.

Elsewhere five civilians were killed, including two in a bombing and military raid in central Hama province, one by unidentified gunmen in the nearby region of Homs, and two more in fighting between the army and rebels in coastal Banias.

London-based Amnesty International said in its annual report Tuesday the Syrian government may have committed crimes against humanity by using "lethal and other excessive force against peaceful protesters" and "torturing" detainees in its crackdown.

The latest violence comes after a rocket-propelled grenade exploded on Sunday near UN observers in Douma, and at least 48 people were killed elsewhere in the country.

No one was hurt in the Douma blast, which came as UN mission head Major General Robert Mood and peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous were leading observers around the trouble spot.

NATO, which undertook a major air war in Libya to back rebels who fought Moamer Kadhafi's forces last year, said it has "no intention" of taking military action against Assad's regime.

"We strongly condemn the behaviour of the Syrian security forces and their crackdowns on the Syrian population," NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a Chicago summit on Sunday.

"But again NATO has no intention to intervene in Syria."

NATO states have come under criticism for backing the air war in Libya but ruling out military intervention in Syria, where opposition demonstrators and badly outgunned rebels have been hammered by heavily-armed regime forces.

Sunday's blast followed several other close calls for the UN monitors since they deployed in Syria, where 266 observers are now on the ground according to Mood.

The regime and its opponents trade accusations after such attacks.

An Islamist group, the Al-Nusra Front, on Monday claimed responsibility for a weekend suicide car bomb attack in Syria's main eastern city of Deir Ezzor that killed at least nine people and wounded 100 others.

The Al-Nusra Front said "a suicide bomber rammed a car bomb against buildings of military security, and aviation information, causing deaths and injuries among members of the regime."

It said it was "determined to continue its operations to clean the land of the Alawites and end the injustice that strikes the Sunnis" in Syria.

Deadly violence linked to the conflict in Syria erupted in Beirut, with overnight street battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups.

"During the night, groups of young men cut off the road in the Tareek el-Jdideh district and street battles followed," a security official said.

"Two people were killed and 18 were wounded," he said, adding machineguns had been fired and that the fighting had raged until about 3:00 am (2400 GMT).

The clashes broke out after reports emerged troops had shot dead an anti-Syria Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Wahid, when his convoy failed to stop at a checkpoint in north Lebanon on Sunday.

The cleric's killing followed a week of intermittent clashes that left 10 people dead in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli between Sunnis hostile to the Syrian regime and Alawites who support Assad.

A Lebanese judicial official said 21 soldiers, including three officers, were being questioned by military police in relation to the cleric's death.

A high-ranking member of Hezbollah, Lebanon's powerful Shiite militia and close ally of Damascus, hit out at the opposition on Monday accusing it of transforming the north of the country into a rear base for Syrian rebels.

"The opposition has intentionally dragged Lebanon into the Syrian crisis and transformed into into a corridor and base for armed Syrians," Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, told a rally in the eastern city of Baalbek.

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Requirements of a wetsuit - Recreation Articles - EzineMark

There are lot of other things which needs consideration when you are out to shop for your diving gear. For e.g. the material used in its making, temperature of the water you are swimming in, accessory to the wetsuit, etc. Lycra or spandex is a type of a stretch fibre and a registered trade mark of Dupont now better known as Invista. It is one of the most popular and well adapted brands all across the world.? Many manufacturers and designers in clothing business use these to make their product for e.g. Undergarment makers, swim wear, wetsuits, jeans, t-shirt, body shaping garments etc. It is commonly used in fabric blends primarily with cotton, silk and synthetic fibres. It consists of polymer chains with rigid and flexible portions, allowing the fibre both to stretch significantly and to retain its shape.

Similarly wetsuit is also made from the fabric or spandex to give it more stretch ability and flexibility.

They are designed to be lightweight, comfortable fitting, and to create a breathable feeling while on. Various ranges are available on-line of different brands to allow the adventure sport enthusiasts to explore in the sea. For different climatic conditions and under water environment there are different types of wetsuits readily available.

Sun block comes in the form of cream, lotion, spray and gel of different brands which helps its users to reflect or absorb sun's ultra violet rays radiation when you are exposed to sun directly. All the brands available in the market hold a SPF rating stating a figure to which it is effective. A user can determine how long their sun block will be effective by multiplying the SPF factor by the length of time it takes for him or her to suffer a burn without sunscreen. For instance, if you normally develop sunburn in 10 minutes without wearing a sunscreen, a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 will protect you for 150 minutes. No sunscreen is completely capable of blocking all wavelengths of UV light. It depends from one person to the other as to how much of a SPF rating is required. Dermatologists recommend broad spectrum sun block with UVA and UVB protection, a SPF rating of at least 30, in a form that is gentle enough for daily use and good for adventure sport people.

It?s that time of the year again when you go on a coast line vacation fully geared to pursue your passion and favourite hobby and always look forward to it and wait eagerly for your leaves to start. Any good swimmer, surfer or snorkelling expert will always ensure to possess an excellent brand, quality and texture wise very efficient wet suit.
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