Tag Archives: Google Play

Save More for Retirement? There is an App for That

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Save More for Retirement? There is an App for That

The Principal enhances mobile retirement savings app

DES MOINES, Iowa–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Participants with retirement plan accounts through the Principal Financial Group® are rapidly adopting mobile technology to keep track of their balances and it appears to be making a difference: they have higher deferral rates and are more likely to increase their contributions.

Participants using Principal® Mobile have an average deferral rate 11 percent higher than the average deferral for all participants covered by plans through The Principal®1. Almost twice as many mobile users (15.36 percent) increased their savings rate vs. the overall pool of participants (8.2 percent)2.

“Those signing up for the mobile app want to be more engaged with their retirement account so it’s no surprise they are also higher contributors. Seeing that account balance and tracking progress on a regular basis may be just the nudge needed to keep savings a priority,” said Joleen Workman, vice president, retirement and investor services at The Principal. “Because mobile is a great way for participants to have retirement account information at their fingertips, we’re enhancing our app so participants can not only view savings information but also increase contributions.”

Save More on the Go

According to a recent Principal Financial Group participant survey, 61 percent of participants with 401(k) plans through The Principal say they use a smartphone. With the latest enhancements to Principal Mobile, participants in select plans can now view their current retirement contribution and change it, all through the app. These changes give participants access to more information and clearer details of their retirement savings whenever and wherever they need it.

“What surprises many participants is that increasing their deferral rate can possibly have a big impact on long-term savings, but a relatively low impact on their paycheck today because they use pre-tax dollars,” notes Workman. “By updating our app, we’re making it easier and more convenient to help workers take steps to meet short-term and long-term savings goals.”

Principal Mobile can be downloaded from the App Store (for Apple products) or Google Play today 3

Namco Bandai Discusses Pac-Man's Free-To-Play Release, Google Play Exclusivity

By Jason Evangelho, Contributor

For the first time in nearly 33 years, the classic Pac-Man experience goes Free-to-Play with the newly released Pac-Man +Tournaments. More interesting than Namco Bandai‘s freemium approach to the venerable series, however, is the game’s Google Play exclusivity. Launched late last week on Google Play, Pac-Man +Tournaments bundles the original arcade game with a persistent tournament mode. Namco Bandai‘s weekly updates will also bring new (i.e. never before released) mazes via in-app purchase. Beyond leaderboard bragging rights, rabid Pac-Man fans will have the opportunity to win real memorabilia such as Pac-Man ghost plushies. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Ingersoll Rand's App Now Available in Windows Store

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Ingersoll Rand’s App Now Available in Windows Store


Interactive game takes players to pit row

DAVIDSON, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Ingersoll Rand‘s (NYSE: IR), mobile app, Thunder Gun Pit Crew Titans, is now available in the Windows Store, giving race fans with a Windows 8 device a taste of pit row.

Named for the Ingersoll Rand Thunder Gun, an impact wrench used by the top NASCAR pit crews to remove and tighten tire lug nuts, the game puts players in control of an eight-person pit crew to change tires, operate the jack, refuel the car and clean the grill. Times are recorded to determine the fastest pit stops.

“Windows 8 users can now experience the thrill of the pits with this app from Ingersoll Rand,” said John Richards, senior director of Windows App Marking for Microsoft Corp. “This is such a fun, interactive way for our Windows 8 community to utilize the new touch technology and to connect with Ingersoll Rand.”

The game features paint schemes from the Ingersoll Rand family of brands – Club Car golf cars, Ingersoll Rand air tools and compressors, Schlage locks, Thermo King transport refrigeration and Trane heating and air conditioning.

“We are excited to be able to offer the app to Windows 8 users now,” said Chad Melton, digital media manager for Ingersoll Rand. “We hope that Windows 8 users enjoy the fast-paced action of NASCAR at their fingertips.”

Thunder Gun Pit Crew Titans is also available through iTunes and Google Play. Join the conversation on the Thunder Gun Pit Crew Titans Facebook and Twitter pages. More information on the game can be found at www.thundergunpitcrewtitans.com.

To learn more about Ingersoll Rand tools, including the Thunder Gun, products and services, visit ingersollrandproducts.com.

About Ingersoll Rand

Ingersoll Rand (NYS: IR) advances the quality of life by creating and sustaining safe, comfortable and efficient environments. Our people and our family of brands — including Club Car®, Ingersoll Rand®, Schlage®, Thermo King® and Trane® — work together to enhance the quality and comfort of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

The Streaming Music Dance Floor's Getting Crowded

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool

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Will the last dot-com juggernaut to enter the music subscription niche plug in the amp?

Amazon.com is apparently the latest player angling to cash in on the success that Pandora and Spotify are having in serving up streaming tunes to consumers hungry for ear candy. Multiple sources are telling The Verge that the online retailer is in the early stages of talking to the major record labels, paving the way for an on-demand service that would be similar to Spotify’s platform that has attracted 6 million premium customers worldwide.

“Premium” is the key. Spotify has 24 million active listeners, but the real model here is getting them to pay up. Pandora has struggled badly on that front. It hasn’t had a problem growing its active user base to 67.7 million as of last month, but just 13% of its revenue is coming from subscriptions.

Sirius XM Radio , on the other end, doesn’t offer a free ride on its fledgling streaming platform. Even Sirius and XM subscribers with receiver-based accounts have to shell out $3.50 a month for access to Sirius XM‘s growing online features.

It remains to be seen if Amazon’s model will be a true premium offering. Amazon has other ways to monetize an on-demand platform. As a leading seller of music downloads, the Seattle-based e-tailer can try to make it back on the sale of individual tracks and albums. A streaming smorgasbord can also be packaged into the popular $79-a-year Amazon Prime loyalty shopping program, as the dot-com darling has done with monthly Kindle rentals and unlimited video streams.

Amazon can also make a streaming offering a cornerstone feature of Kindle Fire, giving the tablet a true differentiator in a niche that’s starting to get crowded.

The only thing we know is that Amazon won’t be alone. Reports have surfaced that Google will be rolling out a pair of streaming services through YouTube and Google Play. Apple has been reportedly in negotiations with the major labels since last year, and a recent New York Post update suggests that Apple is trying to secure lower royalty rates than Pandora or Spotify before moving forward with its offering.

The market‘s going to get crowded. A shakeout will come, but the online giants can’t afford to miss out on the trend. Amazon’s tendency to absorb short-term pain for long-term gain — as it has done in marking down its Kindle products so aggressively — will serve it well.

In the meantime, check out The Motley Fool’s new premium report on the company, which will tell you what’s driving its growth and fill you in on reasons to buy and reasons to sell Amazon. The report also has you covered with a full year of free analyst updates to keep you informed as the company’s story changes, so click here now to read more.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

2013: The Year of Evolved Mobile Search Ads

By Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool

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Just last month, Google launched its “enhanced campaigns” to meld desktop search ads with mobile search ads, removing the option for advertisers to opt out of using mobile ads in their campaign. It was a bold move by the company and showed that Google is moving its advertisers quickly into the mobile world, where competition is heating up.

Mobile search, the traditional way
Right now, Google enjoys about 95% of global mobile searches. In the U.S. alone, the market for mobile search advertising is expected to hit $3.36 billion this year, and eMarketer expects Google to snag 92.4% share of that. Google’s new, enhanced campaign strategy will help the company to acquire that market share by moving advertisers away from desktop-only campaigns and essentially forcing them to create ads around content rather than a specific platform .

Source: Google.

Google’s move comes at a strategic time in the mobile advertising space. Desktop search is on the decline while mobile search is skyrocketing. The latter now accounts for 25% of all Internet searches, and search marketing agency Covario estimates that mobile search will reach one in every three searches by the end of this year .

Google’s most vocal contender is Microsoft and its Bing search engine. Bing is the default search engine on the Windows Phone OS, but the operating system currently takes less than 3% of smartphone market share, and in 2011 Bing only took 2% of the mobile search market. Even if Windows Phone sales took off and Bing’s mobile search doubled or tripled its current percentage — both a difficult feat — Google would still own the market.

Searching without searching
It may not be Microsoft that Google needs to watch out for, though. Mobile search through apps is on the rise. Many apps utilize smartphone location-based features to integrate search results within apps, which bypass Google or Bing.

On Android devices, the Google Search app is currently the second most frequently used app, behind Google Play. But in Apple‘s iPhone, the Google Search app didn’t even make it in the top 10 for most-used app. It’s not that iPhone users don’t use Google search in their browser, but they don’t use the actual Google Search app like Android users do.


Source: Apple.

Apple’s place in the search market is an odd one. Back in 2010, Steve Jobs said, “On the desktop search is where it’s at; that’s where the money is. But on a mobile device search hasn’t happened. Search is not where it’s at, people are not searching on a mobile device like they do on the desktop.” Fast-forward three years and Apple’s Siri performs many search functions for mobile users. Siri consults Google for some results, but also taps Bing, Yahoo, Wolfram Alpha, Wikipedia, and other sites for queries. Although Siri doesn’t bring in any mobile search revenue for the Cupertino company, Siri could take up more mobile searches over …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

The Biggest Smartphone Winner of 2013

By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool

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Last week marked two important milestones in the ongoing smartphone wars as Samsung released its latest powerhouse, the Galaxy S4, and BlackBerry‘s Z10 finally announced the day it would make its way to U.S. shelves. These events remind us that 2013 is likely to be another critical year for the smartphone business. What follows is a brief discussion of some of the major market participants and their prospects for the year. After looking at these, it should be easier to decide who will be The Biggest Smartphone Winner of 2013.

Samsung. While the Galaxy S4 is a critical step forward, it’s only a part of the story. In the past few years, the company has sold enough low-end phones to overtake Nokia as the largest seller of phones in the world. Furthermore, as Samsung continues to command a larger and larger percentage of the Android market — 40% at the last report — it is setting itself up to push Google in various areas. For example, the South Korean manufacturer has begun to highlight its own Samsung Hub rather than the Google Play app store; if Samsung is getting into the ecosystem, which it is clearly trying to do, it could significantly alter the landscape.

BlackBerry. After a series of delays, March 22 will finally see the BlackBerry Z10 go on sale in the United States. Various wireless carriers have already begun taking preorders for the device, and BlackBerry announced on Wednesday that one of its partners had placed an order for 1 million units. These two announcements drove the stock higher by more than 15%, but the general consensus is that unless BlackBerry can put up significant sales figures in the near term, the company will face extinction.

Apple . Since its historic high last September, Apple shares have fallen by an alarming 40%. The decline has led to a speculation as to what steps the company needs to take to regain its dominance in the smartphone space. While some analysts have pushed for a cheaper iPhone that would allow the company to become competitive in both China and India, others worry that such a move would negatively affect the company’s image as the premium option. Others believe that the way forward for Apple is through the development of new markets, such as through the fruition of the various iWatch rumors.

Regardless of what direction the company chooses, it clearly must evaluate its product cycle; competitors have made the once-a-year model hard to justify, especially when intermediate updates like the 4S and the expected 5S this summer don’t represent significant advances. Forrester’s Charles Golvin explains: “If anything, what Apple needs to respond to is the cadence of their own releases, probably a completely new design every two years and a sort of speed bump every year is not an adequate cadence for Apple to remain at the forefront of smartphone innovation today.” Picking a strategic direction …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

1 Underappreciated Advantage That Apple Has in Smartphones

By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

The smartphone market is one of the most brutal competitive landscapes known to consumer electronics companies. Fortunes rise and fall all the time, with today’s darling being tomorrow’s pariah. Just look at how quickly Taiwanese OEM HTC fell from grace, as Samsung roared from behind to leapfrog its fellow Google Android vendor.

One reason that the rivalry is so intense is that smartphones face relatively short upgrade cycles compared to other form factors. Consumers tend to buy new smartphones every two years as soon as their eligible for a carrier-subsidized upgrade. In comparison, TV upgrade cycles are upwards of seven years, and the average consumer hangs on to a new PC for about four years.

Carriers rule
There’s also another important determining factor when it comes to the smartphone wars though: carrier distribution. Since carriers are a necessary evil and serve as distribution middlemen between consumers and OEMs, their sales efforts are remarkably important with nudging the consumer this way or that way.

Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf recently took note of this fact since smartphone market shares can crater with “brutal speed.” Wolf believes that carriers have “exceptional influence” on what phones customers choose because their retail stores are the primary distribution point for many smartphone OEMs.

The analyst notes that when carriers decide to “punish or simply ignore a brand,” the platform can “rapidly die.” Wolf points to BlackBery and Nokia as two prominent examples. BlackBerry 7 unit sales suffered leading up to its BlackBerry 10 launch, while Nokia’s transition away from Symbian toward Microsoft Windows Phone has similarly been painful.

Palm is another perfect example of how OEMs can live or die by carrier ambivalence. When Verizon suddenly backed out of Pre exclusivity talks in favor of its Droid campaign, relegating Palm to ink a deal with the much smaller Sprint Nextel, it was a death knell for the turnaround candidate.

In the meantime, Google has offered numerous incentives for carriers and their sales reps to push Android. For example, Google has offered to split fees related with Google Wallet with carriers, while it also offers carrier billing for content purchased from Google Play. Walk into any carrier retail store and you’ll inevitably find a slew of Android offerings that overshadow perhaps a single iPhone display.

How does Apple stand apart from nearly all of its rival smartphone makers?

A direct advantage
Apple is one of the only smartphone vendors that operates its own retail stores and sells directly to consumers. Most iPhone sales are conducted directly, either through Apple’s online store or its retail stores. Consumers simply can’t go to a rival’s website to buy a smartphone directly — they’re instead pointed to a carrier or third-party retailer website.

The reason why Apple initially decided to open its own retail stores in the first place a decade ago remains the same: it can control the buying experience. At the time, Steve Jobs was tired of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

How Samsung Is Undermining Android

By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

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Thanks to Google Android, Samsung has climbed to become the largest smartphone vendor in the world by market share. The open-source platform has proved critical to the South Korean company’s success in recent years, which has also greatly benefited the search giant, too.

Surprisingly, this partnership is just waiting to go sour, because ultimately Samsung and Google’s interests aren’t entirely aligned, even though the pair are still on their honeymoon.

Conflict of interests
Samsung’s goal in life is to sell hardware, and to it, Android is merely a means to an end. On the other hand, Google just wants more people on the Internet using its services and seeing its ads.

Over the years, Samsung has had countless software partners, and Google is just its latest flame. Samsung’s rise to power presents a unique threat to Android and Google, one that Google has already taken note of. If the company wrangles even more sway in the Android ecosystem, it could leverage higher ad-sharing agreements or other bargaining chips at Big G’s expense. Now-former Android chief Andy Rubin had internally voiced concerns over this distinct possibility.

In the extreme, Samsung could entirely fork Android for its own benefit, much like Amazon.com has done with the Kindle Fire family or what most Chinese smartphone OEMs are wont to do. To be clear, Samsung would greatly benefit from a forked version of Android, because it would be an important point of differentiation from other Android OEMs — much more potent than the current practice of customized interfaces like TouchWiz.

The main thing stopping Samsung from doing this right now is that it lacks the content and services that Google brings to the table. This is precisely how Amazon was able to fork Android very successfully, because it has plenty of content and services, and even has its own Android Appstore.

During Samsung’s Galaxy S4 unveiling Thursday night, though, it was very apparent that the company is trying to undermine Android.

Slowly cutting Android out
There’s no avoiding the fact that the Galaxy S4 is an Android device. However, what Samsung can and did do last night is highlight all of its new apps, services, and software features, while decidedly not emphasizing Google’s popular services.

Instead of talking about Google Play and all the types of content available from the search giant’s repository, it showed off Samsung Hub, an integrated storefront for digital content like music, videos, books, games, and more. The new S Translator is exactly what it sounds like, and can potentially replace Google Translate. Forget Google Now and spoken turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps, that’s what the new Galaxy S Voice Drive is for.

That’s not to say that Google’s services are gone, just that Samsung is clearly pushing its own instead. These are just some of many examples where Samsung is actively replicating Google offerings (sound familiar?), and are the first signs that Samsung isn’t exactly happy with the status …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Video: Trump To CPAC: Build A Great Economy

By Daniel Noe

America’s Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives
New Challenges Timeless Principles
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Donald Trump addressed a group of conservative activists during ACU’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2013) in the Washington, D.C. area.

Donald Trump: 

Build a great economy,” he declared.  “We don’t have a great economy now,” and he continued “We have to make American strong again and make America great again.”

What’s going on in this country is unbelievable. Our country is a total mess. What we need is leadership. By fixing the economy we are able to solve the problems we really do need to solve—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.  They all become affordable when we become a wealthy country again.

Regarding domestic energy production, Trump said “New technology [has shown] we have tremendous wealth right under our feet.” He declared “We can become so easily the energy capital of the world.”

We have to bring money in.  We have to take back our jobs from China.”

Donald J. Trump started his business career in an office he shared with his father, Fred, in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, before expanding his interests nationally and internationally. Mr. Trump has had numerous best sellers including: The Art of the Deal, which is considered a business classic, The Art of the ComebackThe America We DeserveHow To Get RichThink Like a BillionaireTrump 101Why We Want You To Be RichThink BigNever Give Up, and Think Like a Champion.

Trump’s full remarks:

Photos from CPAC 2013 will be available for viewing via ACU’s Flickr account linked here.

Please note that the schedule is updated daily and available on our new CPAC 2013 website under “Program.”

The CPAC 2013 App, produced by The Washington Examiner, can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store and Google Play. To view the HTML5 version, please click here.

Founded in 1964, the American Conservative Union (ACU) is the oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization in the nation. For almost fifty years, ACU has served as an umbrella organization harnessing the collective strength of conservative organizations fighting for Americans who are concerned with liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values, and strong national defense. ACU defines conservatism, grows conservatism, and wins for conservatism.

Contact: Laura Keehner Rigas, (202) 999-9028, <a target=_blank href="mailto:lrigas@conservative.org” target=”_blank”>lrigas@conservative.org

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Video: Santorum Addresses CPAC 2013

By Daniel Noe

America’s Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives
New Challenges Timeless Principles

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum addressed a crowd of conservative activists at CPAC 2013 — the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Santorum was introduced by Guy Benson, Political Editor of Townhall.

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum

We all know America is not like any other culture in the world.”  He continued, “We’re all hyphenated Americans.

America is why…an idea, a set of principles and values. That’s what holds us together that’s what’s given us purpose through the centuries…it comes from our founding documents—the Declaration of Independence.” He continued and quoted “What does it profit a movement to gain the country and lose its own soul?”

Regarding the federal government, Santorum said “Obama’s New Deal: give them more power and more authority and they will take care of you.”

Greatest threat to freedom: time, the erosion of our values over time. That we will lose our revolution fervor our passion for truth

Santorum’s full remarks:

Photos from CPAC 2013 are available for viewing via ACU’s Flickr account linked here.

Please note that the schedule has been announced, is updated daily and available on our new CPAC 2013 website under “Program.”

The CPAC 2013 App, produced by The Washington Examiner, can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store and Google Play. To view the HTML5 version, please click here.

Founded in 1964, the American Conservative Union (ACU) is the oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization in the nation. For almost fifty years, ACU has served as an umbrella organization harnessing the collective strength of conservative organizations fighting for Americans who are concerned with liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values, and strong national defense. ACU defines conservatism, grows conservatism, and wins for conservatism.

Contact: Laura Keehner Rigas, (202) 999-9028, <a target=_blank href="mailto:lrigas@conservative.org” target=”_blank”>lrigas@conservative.org

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Shanda Games' Actoz Shoots to Google Play's Top 10

By Kevin Chen, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Shanda Games’ Korean Subsidiary Actoz shot up to No. 8 on Google Play‘s global publishers for the month of January.  

Actoz came onto the Korean mobile gaming scene back in September 2012. Since then, the company has published four games:  “Million Arthur,” “Monster Empire,” “Battle Arena,” and “Fallin Fallin.” Actoz brought in the eighth highest monthly revenue in January, according to App Annie, an apps analytics company.

In the company’s press release, Shanda Games Chief Executive Officer Mr. Xiangdong Zhang said:

We are extremely pleased to see Actoz continue to shoot up the charts since it began publishing mobile games late last year. Actoz’s phenomenal success so far demonstrates the success of our mobile game strategy as well as our ability to operate products for specific overseas markets.  We are excited by the possibilities this presents and plans are already in place to bring some of its existing mobile games to other markets including China.  We believe these developments will help to increase our mobile game operational and financial performance in the future.

The article Shanda Games’ Actoz Shoots to Google Play’s Top 10 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Kevin Chen has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Paul To CPAC: “For Liberty To Expand, Government Must Shrink”

By Breaking News

 MG 1027 Paul To CPAC: For Liberty To Expand, Government Must Shrink
America’s Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives
New Challenges, Timeless Principles
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) addressed an enthusiastic crowd of conservatives gathered for ACU’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2013) in Washington, D.C. Introduced by Al Cardenas, ACU Chairman, Paul addressed a full room of attendees, many of them standing through the duration of the speech.
Senator Rand Paul
Photo by Eric Draper/www.ericdraperphotography.com
Senator Rand Paul:

No one person can decide the law; no one person can determine your guilt or innocence.”  He continued his remarks and asked “Mr. President, will you or won’t you defend the constitution?”  Regarding the sequester Paul stated “Only in Washington can a $7 trillion dollar rise in spending can be called a cut…A sequester just slows the rate of growth.” Regarding the size of government, Paul declared “For liberty to expand, government must shrink.” He concluded “We are the party of jobs and opportunities. We are the ticket for the middle class.”

Paul’s full remarks are available via YouTube here.

Please note that the schedule is updated daily and available on our new <a target=_blank title="http://cts.vresp.com/c/?TheAmericanConservat/bdfbbd9341/2980739fb0/3062f0c584

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The CPAC 2013 App, produced by The Washington Examiner, can be downloaded from the <a target=_blank title="http://cts.vresp.com/c/?TheAmericanConservat/bdfbbd9341/2980739fb0/45a1679847/ls=1&mt=8

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Founded in 1964, the American Conservative Union (ACU) is the oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization in the nation. For almost fifty years, ACU has served as an umbrella organization harnessing the collective strength of conservative organizations fighting for Americans who are concerned with liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values, and strong national defense. ACU defines conservatism, grows conservatism, and wins for conservatism.

Contact: Laura Keehner Rigas, (202) 999-9028lrigas@conservative.org

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Rubio To CPAC: “The Idea Is America, And It Still Works”

By Breaking News

Marco Rubio Official SC Rubio To CPAC: The Idea Is America, And It Still Works
America’s Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives
New Challenges, Timeless Principles
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Marco Rubio addressed an enthusiastic crowd of conservatives gathered for ACU’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2013) in Washington, D.C. Introduced by Al Cardenas, ACU Chairman, Rubio addressed a full room of attendees on a wide variety of issues facing our country.

Senator Marco Rubio:

There is no tax increase in the world that will solve our debt problem.”  Regarding school choice, he said “Every parent in America should have the opportunity to send their child to the school of their choice.” He went on to say “We do have obligations; obligations to each other through community, not government.”

Regarding predicted criticism from the left, Rubio concluded, “We don’t need a new idea, the idea is America, and it still works.”

Rubio’s full remarks are available via YouTube here.

Please note that the schedule is updated daily and available on our new <a target=_blank title="http://cts.vresp.com/c/?TheAmericanConservat/bdfbbd9341/2980739fb0/3062f0c584

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The CPAC 2013 App, produced by The Washington Examiner, can be downloaded from the <a target=_blank title="http://cts.vresp.com/c/?TheAmericanConservat/bdfbbd9341/2980739fb0/45a1679847/ls=1&mt=8

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Founded in 1964, the American Conservative Union (ACU) is the oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization in the nation. For almost fifty years, ACU has served as an umbrella organization harnessing the collective strength of conservative organizations fighting for Americans who are concerned with liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values, and strong national defense. ACU defines conservatism, grows conservatism, and wins for conservatism.


Contact: Laura Keehner Rigas, (202) 999-9028, <a target=_blank href="mailto:lrigas@conservative.org” target=”_blank”>lrigas@conservative.org

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Why Would Mel Karmazin Go to Pandora?

By Rick Munarriz, Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Pandora may have stunned investors with last week’s announcement that CEO Joe Kennedy would be stepping down after helping the company’s board find a replacement, but it didn’t take long for speculation to begin stirring about Mel Karmazin taking his place.

Billboard opined a day later that Pandora may be looking for a seasoned radio veteran to take Kennedy’s place. A former radio exec argues that Karmazin would be a good fit.

“He is the smartest media executive I have ever known,” he argues.

Several financial outlets and bloggers have been throwing their weight behind the former CBS and Sirius XM Radio chief to take the reins at Pandora.

It doesn’t seem feasible.

Karmazin doesn’t come cheap, and you have to remember that Pandora lost money in its latest fiscal year on the way to ringing up $427.1 million in revenue. Sirius XM was profitable on $3.4 billion in revenue.

Pandora won’t have a problem finding a proven terrestrial vet to hop on the growing Pandora platform, but Karmazin is probably out of its price range.

Then again, does Pandora even need a radio veteran?

Pandora loves to compare its usage to the country’s overall radio listenership — it’s not up 8% of total U.S. radio listening — but it’s not a radio company. It’s a streaming music service with comedy as filler.

This isn’t Sirius XM with $300 million a year to invest in programming and content. This isn’t CBS with countless local AM and FM stations to nurture.

Sure, one can argue that at the end of the day Pandora is simply out to sell audio ads just like conventional radio. That’s fair. Pandora’s push to match Sirius XM and Spotify in premium subscription revenue isn’t terrestrial fodder, though that’s more ammo for Karmazin as the ideal CEO as the master of both.

However, Pandora is ultimately a technology company. It’s no surprise that Pandora’s biggest threats on the horizon are tech giants. Google is gearing up to launch a pair of branded digital music services through YouTube and Google Play. Reports continue to surface about Apple negotiating with its record label partners for attractive streaming royalty rates.

Pandora doesn’t need someone to pit Pandora against CBS Radio and other terrestrial offerings. Pandora’s already winning that bout. Sirius XM has been a Wall Street winner over the past four years, but Pandora is also growing a lot faster — in revenue and users — than Sirius XM.

Pandora needs a tech visionary at the helm. The real battle will be about technology as companies jockey for the best apps and auto dashboard integration. Karmazin would turn heads, but he’s not necessarily the leader that Pandora needs right now.

P is for Pandora
Pandora has won millions of devotees among music fans but few supporters on Wall Street. The online jukebox seems to be redefining the way we consume music, a transformation that’s only likely to grow. But …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Google Launches Hindi Input App

By Kevin Chen, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Google‘s Internationalization Team has launched an Android app that makes it easier to communicate in Devanagari script on mobile devices. 

Available through Google Play, the Hindi Input app enables users to communicate in two ways. In transliteration mode, users can type any Hindi word in English, and the app will automatically convert the word to Devanagari script. However, if users hit the globe button, the keyboard changes to a full Devanagari script keyboard; the keyboard organizes the Hindi consonants alphabetically across two pages. 

Google said it began working on this app after recognizing the difficulty mobile users typing in Hindi had with the traditional QWERTY keyboard. Google has also released other Hindi language and Indic input tools available on Chrome extensions, Windows applications, and Google Cloud products.

 

Transliteration. Source: Google India Blog. 

link

The article Google Launches Hindi Input App originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Kevin Chen has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Barnes & Noble adds Nook apps to its weekly giveaways

Looking to increase the value of its Android-based Nook tablets, Barnes & Noble on Friday said it will offer a different paid app free of charge every Friday for Nook HD, Nook HD+, Nook Tablet, and Nook Color owners.

The promotion kicks off March 8 with a free download of OfficeSuite Professional 7 from MobiSystems. Office Pro 7 usually costs $15 at the Nook app store as well as on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore for Android.

Nook users are accustomed to getting freebies from the bookseller through Barnes & Noble’s Free Fridays promotion. Until now, however, Barnes & Noble focused on offering free e-books. Now the company will offer one e-book and one app each week.

Other freebies

App giveaways are becoming a trend from major tablet makers. Barnes & Noble’s freebies follow Amazon’s daily paid app promotion, which began in 2011 when the online retailer introduced its Appstore for Android.  Apple’s App Store in 2012 also began offering a free app of the week every Thursday for iPhone and iPad users.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Google Play Celebrates First Anniversary with Free Games, Music, More

Believe it or not, a whole year has passed since Google launched the Play Store. And to commemorate the affair, Google has placed a decent selection of apps, movies, music, and other media for free on the Play storefront.

“Since the best parties are the ones that send you home with a present, today we celebrate our birthday with a festive goodie bag full of gifts,” reads a post on the Google Play store. “It’s been an incredible first year and we look forward to sharing the gift of digital diversions for many more to come.”

Continue reading…

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Movies

It is Very Tough for a New App Publisher to Gain Traction

By Chuck Jones, Contributor

Distimo tracks over 2.6 billion downloads per quarter for major developers worldwide.  It measures downloads and revenue of apps and developers.  In its most recent report covering the October 2012 to January 2013 timeframe some of the key findings were: Of the top 250 publishers only 2% were new to the Apple App Store in the US Only 3% were new to Google Play in the US The top new US Apple App Store publisher issued 2 free apps The top new US Google Play publisher issued 6 free apps 17% of the top 300 apps in the US Apple App Store were new 12% of the top 300 apps in US Google Play were new The new apps that generate the greatest number of downloads and revenue are spinoffs from current apps (think new versions of Angry Birds) Google Play is growing revenue faster (107% when looking over a six month timeframe) than the Apple App Store (52% growth) but Apple’s App Store is still significantly bigger than Google PlayGoogle Play did grow 17% month over month vs. Apple’s at 3% so it will be interesting to see if Apple’s growth rate has leveled off going forward. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Google Prepares Streaming Music Launch — Fortune

By 24/7 Wall St.

Music Key

Filed under:

We noted last week in our report on the first music industry profit in more than a decade that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was believed to be negotiating with music industry players to license rights to a streaming music service. The negotiations must be going well.

Fortune magazine reports exclusively today that it has been briefed on Google’s streaming music service by “sources in the record industry and at Google.” The streaming service, which would follow the subscription model used by privately held Spotify, would come under Google’s YouTube division and supplement the company’s digital music locker service currently available on Google Play. The subscription service is expected to launch later this year.

It was probably only a matter of time until this happened. YouTube now streams ad-supported music videos under agreements with the music industry and shares the revenue with the record companies. Privately held Warner Music Group now generates about 25% of its digital revenues from streaming according to Fortune.

Last year, digital revenues accounted for $5.6 billion of the music industry’s total revenue of $16.5 billion. Licensed subscription services such as Spotify and Rhapsody accounted for about 10% of digital revenues.

YouTube’s clout could have a major impact on subscriber streaming services and may have an impact on the so-called freemium radio services of Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P), which recently capped its free, ad-supported listening hours at 40 a month. Spotify offers subscribers the capability to listen to any of the millions of songs on thousands of albums and CDs in its catalog by adding it to a playlist. The company also offers a streaming radio service similar to Pandora’s.

Spotify’s problem, one it shares with Pandora, is the high licensing fees which can eat up 80% or more of revenues. Google has much deeper pockets than either of these competitors, plus it already has proven that its YouTube service can make money for record companies. Figuring out new ways to monetize listeners’ appetite for music and how to pay for it is Google’s biggest advantage here. Remember, the music industry’s first concern is money. Music ranks no higher than second.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Product, Entertainment, Technology Companies Tagged: GOOG, P

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance