Famous San Francisco Twin Vivian Brown Dies

ABC News -
San Francisco residents are mourning the passing of Vivian Brown, who along with her twin sister, became a local celebrity by walking through the city's streets in ...

Famous S.F. twin Vivian Brown dies at 85
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Vivian Brown, one of the San Francisco twins whose colorful matching outfits and infectious smiles helped make them local celebrities, has died ...



Apophis: Asteroid impact nixed for 2036

Detroit Free Press
Observations made in the latest flyby of the asteroid Apophis, which closed to within 9 million miles away from Earth, added to earlier measures that show the hefty space rock, roughly 350 yards wide, won't collide with us anytime soon.



Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz found dead in suspected suicide

Aaron Swartz: Co-founder of popular message board Reddit is ...
Tragic web pioneer commits suicide at 26: Co-founder of popular message board Reddit is found dead in New York after battling depression

Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz found dead in suspected suicide...
ONE of the early brains behind internet giant Reddit has been found dead in New York in a suspected suicide, according to reports in the US. Representatives of 26 ...

Aaron Swartz found dead
CNN
Aaron Swartz found dead, an online activist and co-founder of the popular social media site Reddit, committed suicide in his apartment in New York City Friday. He was ...



Don't blame the video games for gun crimes

CNN
Vice President Joe Biden was meeting video game representatives yesterday as the Obama administration and the U.S. pubic grapples with the question of gun crime - and why it is so much more prevalent in America than other rich countries.

Opinion:The NRA's game plan Chicago Tribune
In Depth:Eying executive action to prevent gun violence



Oakland police investigating four homicides within hours


San Jose Mercury News
OAKLAND -- Police late Friday were investigating four homicides that occurred hours apart on different ends of the city. The four killings Friday brought the homicide tally for the year to six, police said -- all of them coming this week.



San Francisco 49ers have six on AP All-Pro First Team


San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO - The 49ers had a franchise-record six players make the Associated Press' All-Pro First Team, as announced Saturday morning: safety Dashon Goldson, guard Mike Iupati, punter Andy Lee, outside linebacker Aldon Smith and inside ...



US Department of Homeland Security Calls On Computer Users To Disable Java from Oracle


Forbes
Concerns about the susceptibility of the Java programming language to cyberattacks culminated Thursday night, with a warning posted on the Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-Cert) calling on the public to ...

Highly Cited:Apple Blocks Java 7 on OS X to Address Widespread Security ThreatMac Rumors - by Eric Slivka



Samsung cancels plans for Windows RT tablet in the US


ZDNet
Summary: I like using my Microsoft Surface RT and find the included apps and 3rd party apps meet my needs. It's a bit concerning to me that Samsung doesn't see enough value in the platform to launch a device.



USPS Gives Unfair Advantage to Netflix, DC Circ. Finds

Netflix gets unfair postal advantage, court finds - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that Netflix Inc received an unfair advantage from the U.S. Postal Service's special handling of its ...

USPS Gives Unfair Advantage to Netflix, DC Circ. Finds - Law360
Video game rental service GameFly Inc. scored a win in the D.C. Circuit on Friday when the court found the Postal ...



Falling PC sales clip stock prices of HP, Dell


Businessweek
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Shares of personal computer makers Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. slipped Friday after a research report confirmed fears that sales of laptop and desktop machines continued to fall during the three-month period that included ...

IDC: HP is still top PC vendor worldwide amid soft Q4 sales
ZDNet
Summary: Despite contrary reports about Lenovo, IDC still reports that Hewlett-Packard is the top PC seller in the world.

PC Sales See Holiday Dip For The First Time In 5 Years
Huffington Post
Holiday-season sales of personal computers fell for the first time in more than five years, according to tech industry tracker IDC, as Microsoft Corp's new Windows 8 operating system failed to excite buyers and many instead opted for ...



Eddie DeBartolo, ex-Raider Tim Brown, Pro Football Hall of Fame.Finalists

Former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo, ex-Raider Tim Brown are ...
San Jose Mercury News
SANTA CLARA -- Former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo is three weeks and one final round of voting away from getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.




Would You Pay $100 to Message Mark Zuckerberg?

| News ...
How much would you pay to send a personal note to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg? Facebook is offering some users the option to pay $100 to have their private messages ...

You Can Send a Message to Zuckerberg's Inbox (For $100)
If you have something you feel you desperately need to tell Mark Zuckerberg, now might be a real good time. For the handsome sum of $100, you can send a message to ...



Gov. Jerry Brown believes California's chronic budget deficits are in the past

Jerry Brown's balancing act bucks status quo
San Francisco Chronicle
Gov. Jerry Brown believes the state's chronic budget deficits are in the past, an upbeat appraisal that California hasn't heard in years.



Aaron Rodgers back in Bay Area with Packers for playoffs

San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO—The anxiety-filled green room and draft day seem so long ago now to Aaron Rodgers. Still, on this weekend, any lingering feelings of frustration about how far he dropped will be directed right at the team that passed him up with the No.



Apple U.S. Smartphone Sales Surpasses 50% For First Time


Android sales share dropped by 10.9 percent to 41.9 percent. Apple's U.S. smartphone sales has surpassed 50 percent for the first time in its history predominately ...

Did Nokia’s Newest Lumia Boost Smartphone Sales? Wall Street Journal



Alligator Guards Marijuana At Castro Valley Home

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. — Authorities in Northern California made a snappy discovery during a routine probation check: An alligator named "Mr. Teeth" who was ...

Alligator Guards Marijuana | Wal-Mart
Alligator Guards Marijuana, San Francisco man used alligator to guard $100,000 pot stash, cops say



Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China Mobile's chairman, Wang Jianzhou

Report: Apple in Talks to Partner with China Mobile, Expected to Launch Cellular ...
PC Magazine
Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China Mobile's chairman, Wang Jianzhou, on Thursday to discuss a future together, raising the possibility that the carrier could soon begin offering the iPhone.



Sausalito police seize 167 pounds of marijuana in bust


San Jose Mercury News
Investigators seized nearly 168 pounds of marijuana valued at $419,000 from a storage container in Sausalito, police said Wednesday.



San Jose Sharks to open Jan. 20 in Calgary


San Jose Mercury News
Nobody is saying anything officially, but it looks as if the Sharks will open the abbreviated 2013 NHL season in Calgary on Jan. 20, one day after virtually everybody else gets rolling.



Why Is Google's Eric Schmidt Going to North Korea?

Details of Eric Schmidt's North Korea trip revealed
SlashGear
We've reported over the week about the North Korea trip currently under way by Google's Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.


Pebble rocks CES 2013 with launch of its wireless watch

Pebble, which became a Kickstarter sensation by promising to design possibly the world's coolest watch, on Wednesday unveiled the device to instant, though possibly premature acclaim.

The watch, which connects wirelessly to smartphones to display information like text messages, will start shipping to customers on 23 January, working its way through a backlog of 85,000 orders before taking new orders.

Weighing 38g, the watch looks basic but connects with iOS and Android devices, has Bluetooth 4.0, an accelerometer and an e-paper display and is waterproof. This means that you can use it to control music from the shower. It will sell for $150.



Jack Lew's loopy signature shows his softer side


Washington Post
Go ahead and mock White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew for his odd, loopy signature - the one that will likely grace dollar bills if, as expected, he becomes treasury secretary.



Verizon activated nearly 10M smartphones in the last 3 months


VentureBeat
Verizon has just filed some federal paperwork claiming a whopping 9.8 million phone activations in the final three months of 2012.



Low-cost iPhone seen generating $6.5B in 2013 revenue for Apple in emerging markets

Cheaper iPhone could cost as little as $99, says Bloomberg
CNET
Piling onto the latest rumors of a cheaper iPhone on the horizon, a source tells Bloomberg the device could sell for between $99 and $149.

Low-cost iPhone seen generating $6.5B in 2013 revenue for Apple
Apple Insider
A rumored contract-free, low-cost iPhone geared toward emerging markets could net Apple $6.5 billion in revenue this year, one analyst believes.

In Depth:Why Apple doesn't need a cheaper iPhoneZDNet



Nguyen Thanh Vy, Vietnam schoolgirl, suspended for Facebook post about Ho Chi Minh

Suspended for Facebook post about Ho Chi Minh
The Christian Science Monitor
Suspended for Facebook post: An eighth-grade Vietnamese girl was suspended from school over a Facebook post parodying a speech by Ho Chi Minh

Vietnam schoolgirl suspended for one year over ...
FOX 8 WGHP
HANOI, Vietnam — An eighth-grade student in Vietnam was suspended for one year after reportedly posting a parody of a...



Nintendo announced Pokémon X and Pokémon Y , the newest generation of games in the long-running Pokémon franchise, for Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo Will Release New Pokémon Games for 3DS in October Wired
Today Nintendo announced Pokémon X and Pokémon Y , the newest generation of games in the long-running Pokémon franchise, for Nintendo 3DS. The games are set for an October 2013 worldwide release. The announcement came via a broadcast ...

Pokemon is Finally Evolving with Versions X and Y Forbes
A Nintendo handheld without a Pokemon title is like Ash without Pikachu, as the two have been inseparable for years, resulting in millions upon millions of sales. Pokemon titles are the lifeblood of Nintendo's portable systems, and it was obviously ...



Pilot, Guy Kleess, who struck Bay Bridge had 3 prior mishaps


San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO—The pilot of the empty oil tanker that grazed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge had three minor shipping mishaps previously. California Board of Pilot Commissioners records show that pilot Guy Kleess was at fault for two of the ...



Smartphone sales to hit 1bn a year for first time in 2013

Smartphone sales to hit 1bn a year for first time in 2013.
Accountant Deloitte predicts the smartphone will become a mass market phenomenon and an everyday object ...

AT&T Announces Record Smartphone Sales in Fourth Quarter ...
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) announced today that it sold more than 10 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012, topping its previous record quarter of 9.4 million ...



Golden State Warriors rookie Harrison Barnes settles in

San Jose Mercury News
OAKLAND -- Harrison Barnes still has eight games before he reaches the halfway point of his first season with the Warriors, but as far as he's concerned, his rookie phase is long over.



Tanker strikes San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge


San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO—Coast Guard investigators on Tuesday plan to interview the pilot of an empty tanker that struck a tower in the middle of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge while navigating beneath the hulking span.



Apple-controlled robots, ultra-HDTVs open CES show


Newsday
Lego robots you can control using your iPhone as a remote, and "ultrahigh-definition" TV sets that allow families to sit close to huge screens took center stage as the International CES gadget show opened in Las Vegas Monday.

In Depth:Mega-TVs, robots and table-sized tablets at CES



Apple Hits 40 Billion App Milestone


InformationWeek
Apple customers have downloaded more than 40 billion apps since July 2008, the company said on Monday, and that doesn't include re-downloads or updates.



Got $12000 to spare? Snag a 55-inch OLED TV

USA TODAY
South Korean tech titan LG kicked off International CES Press Day Monday with a host of new Ultra-HDTVs and a 55-inch OLED TV that will only set you back $12,000.
Related Consumer Electronics Show »



BofA in $10bn mortgage settlement


Financial Times
US banks agreed to pay out more than $20bn on Monday to settle claims arising from the mortgage crisis, with compensation for bad loans wiping out most of Bank of America's earnings for a second successive quarter.

Highly Cited:Banks Reach Settlements on Mortgages New York Times
In Depth:BofA reaches $11.6 billion settlement with Fannie Mae



Facebook dead: Rusty Foster ‘killed’ in Facebook ...

'Facebook dead prank': Facebook user declared 'dead' in ...
Maine's Rusty Foster, 36, found out the hard way that it isn't that hard to fake a person's death on Facebook. As a prank, Foster's friends falsely reported him dead ...

'Facebook dead' prank: Facebook users could face permanent ...
On Sunday the latest murder weapon was revealed and it appears to be Facebook. The victims of the "Facebook dead" prank crime may die without shedding any blood, but ...



The Pirate Bay Is Down Across the Globe

Gizmodo
If you sketchily poked on over to the Pirate Bay to do a little downloading of a legal, quasi-legal, or outright illegal nature recently, you may have noticed you can't get through. No, your ISP hasn't ...

The Pirate Bay is Down, Proxies Too TorrentFreak
The Pirate Bay is down at the moment, which causes concern to many BitTorrent users. Those who wonder whether their ISP has started to block access to the site can be assured though. The site appears to be down globally. Still, every time the site goes ...


Here's a look at the past. Art Agnos inaugurated as SF mayor, 1988

San Francisco Chronicle
Here's a look at the past. Items have been culled from The Chronicle's archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago. 1988. Jan. 9: Vowing to make San Francisco an affordable city for families, immigrants and workers, Art Agnos was inaugurated yesterday as ...



San Jose Earthquakes: Three players invited to World Cup training camp

San Jose Mercury News
U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann invited three members of the Earthquakes to a training camp that opens Monday as the Americans begin preparation to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.



Windows 8 notebooks aren't selling partly due to price

PCWorld
Christina is a contributor to media outlets such as Forbes.com, Inc.com, PCWorld.com, Auto Trader and The Minneapolis Star Tribune.



Toyota Set To Unveil Car That Drives Itself


Wall Street Journal
Toyota Motor Corp. and Audi AG are throwing their hats into the ring of potential suppliers of self-driving vehicles. Both auto makers confirmed on Thursday that they will be demonstrating autonomous-driving features at the Consumer Electronics Show in the ...



Why do SF Bay Area communities have high rates of breast cancer?

Breast cancer: Studies under way to determine why Bay Area communities have high rates Contra Costa Times
Why do Bay Area communities have high rates of breast cancer? Oakland Tribune
Mom's pregnancy drug caused breast cancer in four daughters, lawsuit alleges CBS News



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